September 17, 2024

The Stuttering Lede, Sept. 17th 2024

49 days until we know if we can stop fascism

“Politics have become a refuge for individuals who might not be tolerated in ordinary life.” Thomas McGuane

Today in History

On this day in 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Poland. They held a parade in Brest. The following year, they massacred 22K Polish officers in Katyn. Now, their direct descendants, Russian Z-nazis are are waging a genocidal war in Ukraine, while fascists are continuing to attack democracy around the world: Democracy declined for 8th straight year.

Election 2024

• The only way they know how to win is through propaganda, voter suppression and voter intimidation:

  • Virginia adds Cornel West to presidential ballot.

  • Ohio sheriff encourages residents to ‘write down the addresses’ of Kamala Harris supporters.

  • “Election integrity” is nothing more than voter intimidation.

• Donald Trump is a threat to democracy, and saying so is not incitement.

• Trump and Vance and the rest of the GOP are fully responsible for stocking hatred and violence via racist, nazi-level propaganda tactics:

  • Trump’s and Vance’s depictions of Haitians come from Hitler’s playbook.

    • Compare to these:

      

      • First poster, printed by Nazis occupying Poland in 1941, reads "Jews are lice; they cause typhus."

      • Second, from occupied France: "Tuberculosis, syphilis, cancer, are curable. We must end the biggest of the plagues: the Jew!"

      • Third, from Poland: "Be aware of typhus - avoid Jews"

    • One of the first things Hitler did was to create the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda.

    • Hitler’s own “Project 2025.”

  • Before Trump and Vance, neo-Nazis pushed false claims about Haitians as part of hate campaign.

  • A neo-Nazi group is taking credit for creating and spreading the racist conspiracy that Haitian immigrants are killing and eating pets in Springfield, Ohio.

  

  • How many Haitian immigrants really live in Springfield? Maybe 2,000?

  • Elie Mystal writes: “JD Vance’s attacks on Haitians, and the white wing glee at piling on, continues a long white American tradition of hating Haitians because we are free.”

  • JD Vance: “If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do.”

  • Springfield cancels CultureFest, citing safety concerns due to threats.

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  • Context around the widely shared photo.

  • Wittenberg University cancels all events.

  • Untethered hatred toward Black people has happened before in Springfield. From 1904:

  

  • A long story about a thing that didn't happen, truth about Springfield, Ohio.

  • Christopher Rufo put out a $5,000 bounty for evidence of Haitians stealing cats and eating them in Springfield. Instead he got a video of people from DR Congo in Dayton. Most importantly, there is no evidence offered that cats were stolen or even cooked as it looks to be a chicken on the grill.

  

  • Republican mayor of Springfield confirmed that the emailed bomb threat did contain hateful language about immigrants.

  • In a very misogynic and racist rant JD Vance has called for a federal response to stop women from traveling from red states to blue states to receive reproductive healthcare.

  • Ryan Routh, the guy behind the concept of an assassination attempt is not a liberal, here’s a summary from his now deleted Twitter account:

    • Voted for Trump in 2016

    • Became a huge Tulsi fan in 2019

    • Wanted Biden to beat Trump in 2020

    • Wanted a Vivek-Nikki ticket in 2024

    

  • The so-called Libertarian party:

  

  • What Trump said with his ‘very fine people’ comments vs. what he meant.

  • Neo-Nazis and white supremacists are using Tik Tok to spread explicit Hitler propaganda to young people.

  • Trump goes all in on Nazi rhetoric, and the media gives him another free pass.

  • The neo-Nazi march in Harrisburg.

  • Don't let the Republicans gaslight you into thinking that the Democrats calling out Trump's (demonstrable) threat to democracy is incitement to violence.

  • Suspicious packages sent to election officials in at least 6 states.

  • Trump posted an unhinged article from pro-Trump host Wayne Allyn Root attacking Jewish people who are supporting Kamala Harris — the majority of Jewish people in America — as “blind, deaf or very dumb.”

• Crypto industry super PAC is spending $800,000 a day on TV ads — $32M by the end of September — to take out Sherrod Brown.

• Lauren Boebert of the Beetlejuice fame blames Ryan Reynolds (!!).

• The "ABC whistleblower" hoax.

• Republican war on women:

  • Blistering warning about Trump's absurd, cruel, and dangerous "post-birth abortion" lie.

  • Project 2025 spokesman John McEntee made a video asking for a single example of a woman bleeding out in a parking lot because of the loss of Roe v. Wade. He got over 10K responses from women who did.

  • Roughly 35% of U.S. counties -- home to more than 2.3 million women of reproductive age -- are classified as maternity care deserts with no birthing facilities or OB-GYNs.

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  • At least two women in Georgia died after they couldn't access legal abortions and timely medical care in their state, ProPublica has found. This is one of their stories.

  • VP Kamala Harris with a strong response: “This young mother should be alive, raising her son, and pursuing her dream of attending nursing school.”

  • Mark Robinson says women shouldn’t have access to birth control and says they just need to “get this under control” while pointing to his groin.

  • As Ted Cruz's race against Rep. Colin Allred (D) gets competitive, the GOP Senator has gotten quiet on abortion.

• Is the press doing an adequate job of analyzing Trump’s deteriorating mental state? The answer is “no.”

• Why are ‘fact checks’ vouching for Trump's lies?

• On the “objectivity” of the press.

• A plan for elite rule started to emerge.

• 14 presidential electors linked to efforts to reverse Donald Trump’s 2020 defeat are currently back on their states’ Republican slates of representatives to the Electoral College.

Politics

• Dozens of campuses quietly implemented new “expressive activity” policies over the summer—effectively banning many forms of protest.

• The University of California just announced a list of military weaponry it wants in order to escalate its warfare on its students: 3000 rounds of pepper munitions 500 rounds of 40mm impact munitions 12 drones 9 grenade launchers.

• Europe is in thrall to the far right – that’s the result of appeasement by so-called moderates.

• Labour government is pressing ahead with plans for more flexible working laws.

• Germany seeks to increase its defense engagement in the Asia-Pacific region.

• GOP majorities in Michigan for the past 40 years created a den of corruption.

• A thought for people complaining that inflation may be down, but prices are still high: over the past century, only one president has presided over a significant fall in consumer prices. His name was Herbert Hoover.

• How Nazis and fascists trap their followers.

• Farage traveling with Russian assets.

• Reflections on Right-Wing Cancel Culture.

• Lina Khan has won 90.3% of merger challenges that went to court.

• Much of what keeps our judges independent are norms, habits, customs. What if those start to change? Bad news, it already has.

• Brexit deal impact in UK is worsening.

• Cop who handcuffed Tyreek Hill has faced disciplinary actions.

• Azerbaijan is now treading the dark path towards absolute dictatorship.

• How Lauren Chen went from alt-right to Russian asset.

• Ohio Will Use Taxpayer Money to Construct Private Religious Schools.

• SiriusXM Hires Nikki Haley to Host 'Nikki Haley Live' Politics Show.

Ukraine/Russia

• Russians executed an unarmed Ukrainian prisoner of war with a sword. Нis hands were bound with tape.

• Interesting observation: The frontline of the area Ukraine currently controls in Kursk is roughly where the border was between the short-lived Ukrainian People’s Republic (which was only independent for a few months) and the Bolsheviks in 1918:

  

• Putin orders Russian army to become second largest after China's at 1.5 million-strong.

• Russian state media outlet RT running covert military supply operations for Russian forces.

• Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has announced a global ban on several Russian state media networks. Better late than never?

• Leaked docs from a Kremlin-controlled propaganda machine reveal a campaign backing far-right parties in EU elections and spreading disinformation to undermine Ukraine.

• The French Riviera still loves oligarchs.

• German politician’s proposed peace plan is straight up from Putin’s playbook.

• Russia begins efforts to expel Ukraine from Kursk but counter-attack is yet to gain momentum.

• On Putin’s “red lines:

• Five years in prison for talking to a reporter on camera in the street.

• Despite relentless Russian attacks, life in Kharkiv endures.

• In Joensuu, Finland fiber optic cables and comms cut with bolt cutters at 6 different outdoor junction cabinets between 13-16th September.

• Yet another reason for why Russia must be decolonized.

Gun Violence

• Dozens of violent social media threats against several North Texas school districts this week prompted some districts to cancel classes, and others were forced to change their football schedules.

• Four wounded — including a bystander who was shot in the head — after NYPD opens fire in Brooklyn subway station on a man “accused of skipping the station turnstile.”

Climate Change

• Louisiana town the canary in the coalmine as climate effects worsen.

• Geothermal energy could outperform nuclear power.

• Google and Microsoft recently admitted their emissions are soaring as they build data centers to power AI. But analysis from The Guardian suggests the data center emissions of Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Apple are 662% higher than they’re reporting.

• South Sudan may be the first case of permanent mass displacement due to climate change.

• Scientists warn 70% of the world’s population to see rapid increase in ‘unprecedented’ weather.

• An unusual shift in the weather has turned the Sahara green.

Tech

• Remote work is good for productivity. Yup, that checks out.

• Amazon tells staff to get back to office five days a week.

• Elon Musk apparently got a visit from the Secret Service: “The Secret Service is aware of the social media post made by Elon Musk and as a matter of practice, we do not comment on matters involving protective intelligence. We can say, however, that the Secret Service investigates all threats related to our protectees."

• Elon Musk is a national security threat: Elon’s now-deleted tweet about Biden/Harris may have lasting ramifications both for him and the US given its potential to inspire further acts of political violence.

• A day in Elon Musk’s mind: 145 tweets with election conspiracies and emojis.

• Lawmakers dig into federal government's CrowdStrike use.

• What could possibly go wrong??

Misc.

• Mother Nature is fighting back against the invasive spotted lanternfly.

• Woman says God gave her permission to steal from Walmart. I always knew that Jesus was a communist.

Middle East

• Jewish Chronicle has deleted 9 articles after author exposed as fabricating claims about Israeli intelligence & his own past. Seemed to be a pro-Netanyahu operation.

• Israel is recruiting African asylum seekers for life-threatening Gaza war operations, promising permanent legal status.

Humour