September 29, 2024

The Stuttering Lede, Sept. 29th 2024

37 days until we know if we can stop fascism

"The less talent they have, the more pride, vanity and arrognace they have. All these fools, however, find other fools who applaud them." Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus

Today in History

On this day in 1941, the Babi Yar massacre began, with 33,000+ Jews brutally murdered in Kyiv.

Historian Waitman W Beorn dismantles the ‘Clean Wehrmacht’ myth, revealing their role in atrocities like this.

Election 2024

• Trump’s rhetoric becoming more unhinged and with more Nazi undertones:

  • “Oh, there's a fly. Oh, I wonder where the fly came from. See, two years ago, I wouldn't have had a fly up here. You’re changing rapidly. We can’t take it any longer.”

  • “The majority of the school cannot speak English in Ohio, Springfield. They can't speak English. They're taking over the schools. There's nobody that can speak English.”

  • “But outside, we have thousands and thousands of people. 40 to 50,000 people at least out there.. It looked like when Lindbergh landed in New York., Do you remember that? Thousands of people.. they’re probably leaving and walking home.” Lindbergh landed in Paris and was also a Nazi.

  • “Joe Biden became mentally impaired. Kamala was born that way. She was born that way. And if you think about it, only a mentally disabled person could have allowed this to happen to our country.”

• In her economics speech, Harris went farther than any Democrat in my lifetime, including Joe Biden, to revive Franklin Roosevelt’s spirit of the fighting liberal..

• CBS News says it will be up to Vance and Walz to fact check each other. Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite are spinning in their graves…

• A noncitizen serving a prison sentence in state or federal criminal custody would in fact be included on ICE's non-detained docket—since they are not in ICE detention. That means many of the 13,000 with a homicide conviction are in prison now!

• The address for the LLC behind Trump's new $100K watch grift traces back to the location of a business called Royal Honey Shop, which sells honey products for sexual performance enhancement. And that's not even the weirdest thing we discovered...

• The 21st Century: Trumpism.

• Maybe you are pro union in general. But this is transparently going to increase supply chain fragility. We have had a ton of talk about how this is a national policy priority, and yet here we are.

• Reminder, RFK flew to Samoa and lied about vaccines, provoking a measles outbreak that killed 80 people, mostly kids.

• It can't happen here, right? Well, we have a guy who attempted a coup, has called for the termination of the Constitution and is today calling for 21 million in this country to be rounded up into camps and then deported with decent odds of winning.

• Willie Nelson endorses Colin Allred in Texas Senate race against Ted Cruz.

• Trump threatened on Friday to direct the Justice Dept to pursue criminal charges against Google if he is elected president, because the company was unfairly displaying negative news articles about him but not Kamala Harris.

• “Trump has just so thoroughly failed to deliver on his economic populism.” JD Vance admitting in 2020 that Trump let down working-class Americans.

• Vance to talk at tour hosted by ‘prophet’ who thinks Harris practices witchcraft.

• Christian nationalist MAGA cultist Lance Wallnau who is campaigning with JD Vance, says Kamala Harris is under an occult spirit and blames her success on the seduction of witchcraft: "What you’re seeing now is a real Jezebel."

• The attack on Haitians, Roseanne Barr’s unhinged rant about “vampires,” claims of occult influence … all come from the Pizzagate guy.

• Trump's campaign is not about policy. Never was.

• Mark Robinson was treated for second-degree burns after touching exhaust pipe at campaign event.

Politics

• Young men and women are moving in opposite directions -Very good short read on how young women are becoming more Feminist & educated while young men are becoming more conservative.

• The Project 2025 director did not resign as previously reported. He was fired and then demanded $3.1 million from the Heritage Foundation.

• NYPD is still stopping and frisking Black people.

• On continued failure of the 4th Estate: “When Trump says immigrants are “animals” who will invade your kitchen and slit your throat, Bloomberg sane-washes him by saying he “sharpened his criticism.” This is a stain on journalism. It’s utter malpractice that endangers our country.”

• 'I'M NOT CRAZY!'They' Are Drinking Blood and Eating Human Flesh Roseanne Barr on Tucker Carlson:

  • Roseanne Barr: They eat babies. It’s true.

  • Tucker Carlson: so it's not just the dogs and cats?

  • Barr: Everybody thinks I’m crazy. I’m not crazy. They love the taste of human flesh & they drink human blood

  • Tucker: I think you have some authority on this

• “The Republican Party today isn't incidentally grotesque. Like the man who leads it, Donald Trump, it is grotesque at its core. It is the Island of Misfit Toys."

• Boris Johnson: we considered ‘aquatic raid’ on Netherlands to seize Covid vaccine.

• “Haitians Have No Home Here" a banner held by a small group of protesters covered in black block in Springfield Ohio, as locals confront them shouting "Fuck you!" and a woman shouting "HATE HAS NO HOME HERE!"

• Alex Jones suggested Lindsay Graham leaked information about Trump’s golf outing that helped the shooter.

• President Jimmy Carter will turn 100 next week. He’s lived through 40 percent of U.S. history since the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and more than a third of all U.S. administrations since George Washington took office in 1789.

• If members of the Hungarian regime now believe "We shouldn't have fought the Russians in 1956" and "Ukraine should not defend itself" then why are they still in NATO at all?

• Mark Robinson helps Harris in NC; on why Trump is better off just winning than couping, and more!

• Viral videos of illegal car meetups in Philadelphia gets political spin by some Republicans.

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• On Olivia Nuzzi and being open-minded about war crimes.

• Argentina’s poverty rate soars above 50% under Javier Milei.

• Politicos can travel back in time and contemplate the life and legacy of the country’s 16th president: Abraham Lincoln.

• Nate Silver: “We'll continue to include Rasmussen polls in our averages. They're real polls. But this sort of explicit coordination with a campaign, coupled with ambiguity about funding sources, means that we're going to label Rasmussen as an intrinsically partisan (R) pollster going forward.”

• If anyone had any illusions about Rasmussen Poll:

• If you've never heard of "Gun Owners of America" before, buddy, grab a stiff drink and sit for a spell.

• AG Ken Paxton asks the Supreme Court to allow Texas to continue to refuse emergency medical care to pregnant women.

Russia/Ukraine

• Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland want EU funds to beef up border with Russia.

• To all those complaining about President Zelensky and PA Governor Shapiro signing artillery ammo:

  

• Deep dive on Russia’s draft budget for 2025-27.

• The only way ahead is for fast liberal reforms, building public support for that path but also using totalitarian force to achieve that. Russia has no other choice," said Petr Aven in 2000, shortly after Putin came to power. That worked out well.

• Russia’s tired Hydraulic Keynesianism.

• Ukrainian attack drones reportedly struck the Russian GRAU arsenal at Kotluban overnight.

• "The analytic failure in Ukraine makes a strong case for something so often lacking in military analysis and the academic world more generally: intellectual humility."

• A grim but insightful article in the FT discusses acute manpower shortages on the frontlines and inadequate training.

• Russians who promote 'child-free movement' could soon face hefty fine.

Middle East

• There is now "a chance for Lebanese to reclaim their country after nearly 40 years of ruinous Hezbollah leadership."

• NBC, quoting an Israeli official: "We have decided to kill Nasrallah after concluding that he will not agree to any solution that isn't tied to ending the war in Gaza.” Hezbollah had agreed to the longstanding Israeli demand to pull back to the Litani River, but on the condition of Israel accepting a ceasefire in Gaza. That was too much for Israel, and it opted instead for war because it knew Biden would once again line up behind Netanyahu.

• The Israeli military is effectively imposing a blockade of Lebanon, striking its land crossings with Syria and machinery used to repair them, as well as controlling which flights land at Beirut's airport.

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• Israeli PM Netanyahu stated that strikes in Lebanon will continue "with full force," contradicting reports of his involvement in a US- and France-backed ceasefire proposal.

• Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant said killing Nasrallah was ‘one of the most important assassinations in the history of the State of Israel’- a reminder of how assassinations runs through Israel’s history, from Bernadotte in 1948 onwards.

• Israeli Rabbi calls for Israel to conquer Lebanon and settle it.

• Jerusalem Post article “Is Lebanon part of Israel's promised territory?” has been removed but…

  

• As Netanyahu appears poised to expand his war into Lebanon (& maybe Iran), I keep coming back to this damning indictment about the utter failure of war. "Hamas has retaken towns within '15 minutes' of Israeli withdrawals." War only has losers.

• Zionist expansionism, a state that seeks border walls without borders (Security without limits/consequences), and what Peace looks like from Israel’s point view.

Tech

• AI is born out of surveillance.

• "Misinformation superspreaders": Elon Musk is personally boosting conspiracy theorists on X. Four of the top five accounts Musk interacts with regularly amplify or create baseless conspiracy theories.

• Mark Zuckerberg: creators and publishers ‘overestimate the value’ of their work for training AI. Just a reminder that we gave historic wealth and power to a bunch of replacement-level oligarchs who are now attacking democracy, art, history, and society itself while having outsized, increasingly pathetic midlife crises.

• Kamala Harris isn’t just talking about a friendlier approach to cryptocurrency than Joe Biden. She’s already dispatching aides to court well-heeled crypto investors and their Democratic allies in Congress. "The people in D.C. are completely backward. They don't understand any of the technology. And even to the extent they can, it can't be stopped." Peter Thiel in 1999, predicting the rise of crypto politics.

• Only 7% of Americans held crypto in 2023. Yet crypto corps have become a major player in American politics, pointing a $200 million gun at this election. It's bad enough when companies with popular products (like oil) do this. With crypto, we're being held hostage by a cult.

• Bluesky is better than Twitter. Move there now, and thank me later.

• Andy Litinsky, co-founder of Trump’s media company, dumped $100 million worth of his stock.

Climate Change

• RIP Nature

  

• The Heritage Foundation President said fighting climate change "is ending the American dream," but maybe Project 2025, which will dereg. oil and gas production, privatize emergency weather alerts, and end all federally funded climate research might end all life itself?

• In the bag: six ways to reduce your environmental impact at the grocery store.

• Why corn ethanol is worse for the climate than petrol.

Education

• Arguing for UMD's students and teachers and against the culture of fear administrators have imposed not just on protestors, but on everyone.

• Alan Levinovitz about disability accommodations in higher ed.

• Really good piece from the essential higher-ed reform advocate.

Misc.

• Maggie Smith: the magisterial star of Harry Potter and Downton had the courage and talent to do absolutely everything.

• A new generation of cancer-preventing vaccines could wipe out tumors before they form.

• Scotland has detected no cases of cervical cancer in women born between 1988-1996 who were fully vaccinated against HPV between the ages of 12 and 13.

• Super Commuting is on the rise in the US.

• These archaeological wonders are threatened by the wheels of off-road vehicles, whose tracks are erasing pieces of history faster than they can be protected.

• This week in key Covid publications:

  • Young, healthy individuals with mild cases had objective cognitive deficits at 1-year that they did not perceive

  • Older, hospitalized adults with severe Covid had an equivalent of 20 years of decline in cognitive performance at 1-year follow-up

  • A nasal vaccine (2 doses) blocked infections for at least 3 months and was effective across 10 different variants

  • Reinfections increase the risk of #LongCovid

  • mRNA shots don't induce long-lived plasma cells, but we don't know if this is true with other vaccine platforms Reviewed in the new, updated edition of Ground Truths.

• What is XEC, the new COVID variant spreading.

• Within the deposits of extinct volcanoes around the world, a mysterious magma may be Earth’s new source for rare metals.

• Koalas are biologic curiosities due to their languid lifestyle and assortment of strange traits, including multiple opposable thumbs on each hand, human-like fingerprints, upside down pouches and sticky scent glands.

Humor