September 7, 2024

The Stuttering Lede, Sept. 7th 2024

59 days until we know if we can stop fascism

“What threatens us today is fear. .. Our danger is the forces in the world today which are trying to use man’s fear to rob him of his individuality, his soul, trying to reduce him to an unthinking mass." William Faulkner

Today in History

• Napoleon suffers first major setback when he can’t defeat Kutuzov at Borodino. The infamous, I am 20,000 leagues from Paris and I am not going to spend my last reserves (The Old Guard) which likely would’ve led to a complete route of the Russian army.

• Giuseppe Garibaldi entered Naples, Italy, and proclaimed himself “Dictator of the Two Sicilies.”

• The Younger Brothers of the Jesse James fame were captured following an unsuccessful bank robbery.

• ESPN debuted on American television.

• 2Pac was shot by an unknown assailant and died six days later.

Mark Robinson

• Who on Earth would steal $3,000 in Girl Scout cookies from the Girl Scouts? None other GOP Governor candidate Mark Robinson and his wife. Worst still, when confronted, the cookie monsters refused to pay back the money, got sued, and lost.

• Should the Pulitzer board establish a category for Best Tweet Of 2024, the contest could be called already. “Mark Robinson, the Republican candidate for governor in North Carolina, reportedly watched porn in private booths up to five days a week in the ’90s. He strenuously denies that as well as the Holocaust.”

• An employee at two 24-hour porn stores in North Carolina has shared Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson frequented them every day after he finished his shift.

• Mark Robinson and his wife are given 15 days to repay over $130k of taxpayers money.

Gun Violence

• Last year, the student responsible for Apalachee HS tragedy threatened to kill people at school. Because there wasn’t “probable cause,” the FBI made no arrests. Georgia doesn’t have a red flag law, so police also didn’t remove guns from the 13 year old’s home.

• A 15-year-old boy has died after being shot by a 16-year-old student during an "altercation" in the boys' bathroom at Joppatowne High School in Joppa, Maryland.

• “We’re watching a dramatic shift toward criminal consequences for parents of school shooters.” I am not sure if it’s enough but better than thoughts and prayers.

• The father of the Apalachee High School mass shooting suspect told investigators this week he purchased the gun used in the killings as a holiday present for his son in December 2023.

• After the Apalachee HS tragedy, the Gun Owners of America are still trying to convince us that gun control does not work. Right, because Georgia has what gun control laws??

• Governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp, recently signed a law mandating age verification on pornography sites, requiring users to upload an ID before being allowed to view adult content. There is no minimum age requirement to possess rifles or shotguns in Georgia. Kemp refuses to answer a question about how to make Georgia schools safer from gun violence: “This is not the day to talk about safety or policy. We need thoughts and prayers for the victims, law enforcement and educators.”

2024 Elections

• I don’t want to keep being right, but… among the five major publications, nearly as ten times as many articles focused on Joe Biden’s age as on Donald Trump’s.

• Democrats are flying a banner at the Michigan football game today telling fans that JD Vance loves Ohio State. Now let’s do the same in Athens, Georgia (Trump loves Alabama); College Station, PA (they despise Ohio State almost as much as Michigan)…

• According to Reuters, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump told Jewish donors that US universities would lose accreditation and federal support over what he described as ‘antisemitic propaganda’ if he is elected to the White House.

• Michael Harriot writes: “The discourse over Kamala Harris’ “accent” raises questions: 1. What is code-switching? (Spoiler alert: You’re probably wrong) 2. What’s the difference between pandering w/ a “blaccent” vs a dogwhistle?”

• JD Vance wrote a series of blog posts under the name "JD Hammel" in which he argued for a radically conservative set of policy ideas including massive cuts to social security.

• The wonderful Trump headline machine.

• JD Vance declines to criticize Tucker Carlson interview with a nazi. Shocker!

• More US indictments against Russia's effort to put Trump in the White House. An adversary has never worked this hard for a US prez: DOJ charges Russia-backed TV network contributor with violating U.S. sanctions and money laundering.

Subscribe now

• The recent indictments that clearly demonstrated the degree to which the far-right media has become a loudspeaker for the Russian ethnofascist propaganda are just the tip of the iceberg. Wired reports that “An FBI affidavit unsealed this week says the Russians are maintaining an active list of 2,800 influencers, 600 of whom are in the US. The FBI has not released the list.”

• In case anyone forgot, a Senate investigation found that the National Rifle Association was a "foreign asset" for Russia in the runup to the 2016 election that sent Donald Trump to the White House.

• From Anne Applebaum: “Background reading to the Russian-purchase-of-'conservative'-influencers story. On the Russian, Chinese and other authoritarian regimes who are trying to build an authoritarian narrative and undermine democracy.”

• Michael Hiltzik writes: “I know what Trump was really talking about in his child care rant, and it's more troubling than you thought.” Here’s what he actually said:

• This one could go under women rights section but here’s Washington Post normalizing acute misogyny.

• Eighty-eight corporate leaders endorsed Kamala Harris for president, including the CEOs of Costco, Ford, American Express, Merck, PayPal, Autodesk, Lyft, Yahoo, Docusign, Yelp, DuPont, Sony, Pepsi, Zillow, Twilio, and LinkedIn.

• Can we have Lina Khan as a president please??? I mean, seriously, can we?

• “A sad, deranged, elderly man running for President yet again utters incomprehensible nonsense.” by Wajahat Ali.

• Agree with Celine, why that song??

• Trump announces plan for Elon to led Government Efficiency Commission.

• A sister of Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz says she doesn’t recognize the people wearing “Nebraska Walz’s for Trump” T-shirts in a photo that is making the rounds on social media. It turns out they are distant cousins.

• Biden blocking of US Steel sale will help Democrats big time in Western PA, where the race is tied up.

Politics

• Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) claims, without evidence, that the Great Depression was an inside job. "The Great Depression was pretty well planned ... I know it really sounds like conspiracy theory. I don't completely understand it, but I just feel it in my bones..." It is a well known antisemitic conspiracy theory.

• French President Emmanuel Macron has appointed Michel Barnier as the country's new Prime Minister. In other words Macron is essentially allowing LePen dictate French policy. A journalist for Le Figaro, a conservative newspaper, writes: “Macron is going down a path that relies on the kindness of Le Pen. We're seeing a new republican front — this time against the left.”

• The entire world continues to slide further and further into the fascist oblivion. Starmer proposing essentially Tory austerity is not helping any: “Jenrick, favourite to win the leadership, supports Trump. Badenoch, second favourite, is a fan of Douglas Murray. The Tory Party has ditched Conservatism and become a far-right movement. This is a disaster for British democracy.”

• Meanwhile Starmer is too focused on “Blame the Tories” strategy.

• Brexiters promised national renewal. Instead, they brought bankruptcy. Why is anyone surprised???

• US Treasury recovers $1.3 billion in unpaid taxes from high-wealth tax dodgers.

• Anyone surprised that Trump’s sentencing in the 2016 election interference trial where he was found guilty of 34 felonies by a jury is being postponed for after the elections?

• The end of democracy has begun.

• US Senator Jeanne Shaheen on Georgia’s slide into fascism.

• “As the Georgian parliamentary elections approach, we’re witnessing Georgian Dream (GD) becoming more and more and more unhinged and aggressive in its rhetoric against the opposition.”

• The Georgian Dream party is seeking to gain constitutional majority to ban gay rights, opposition and more.

• Nothing to see here, just two VA Guardsmen running a rural anti-government militia.

• From The Guardian: “Special Counsel will have the final word on why the conduct in the superseding indictment is not covered by immunity in a filing that is due on Oct. 29, one week before Election Day.”

• Trump's Arlington scandal invokes Hitler's playbook.

• How do you deal with real, actual Nazis? asks Noah Smith. I have a few ideas…

• Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump’s $1 billion plan to build luxury resorts in Albania is under scrutiny after a report published in The New York Times revealed corruption allegations from both rival property developers and locals.

Women Rights

• Another woman in Texas (with an ectopic pregnancy) had to suffer and lose part of her body because of these new abortion laws.

• For the people on the proverbial right, e.g. fascists, there are no women rights. Here’s an example. A Missouri judge ruled Friday evening that a reproductive-rights amendment did not comply with state initiative petition requirements, leaving the door open to potentially withhold it from the November ballot.

• Elon Musk claims that he is intrigued by the idea that women can’t think freely.

• JFC!! Women just broke a job-market record. That may be a warning sign.

• New Mexico starts building an abortion clinic to serve neighboring states, train medical students.

• Two years, 2,000 miles, nearly 8,000 dollars — an intimate look into one doctor's odyssey to obtain abortion training in 2024, and why it matters that such training has evaporated in much of the country.

Subscribe now

• Sam Brown, the GOP Senate candidate in Nevada & longtime abortion foe, just can't stop shifting his position on abortion, as he tries to deflect attacks on his record.

• In a recent essay, Prof. Ruth Ben-Ghiat discusses the phenomenon of splitting the demagogue's words from the spectacle he creates with his bodily performances. Isolating the speech and putting it into another body can mock the demagogue with humorous outcomes or provide searing and sober commentary on his hatred.

Climate Change

• “Were there no other issue in this election, the climate crisis alone should be enough to make sure we leave Trumpism behind forever. He is not just wrong, he's dangerous.”

Tech

• This is a good time to talk about Elon Musk and Russia.

• After Pavel Durov’s arrest and Brazil’s ban of Twitter, many people jumped to talking about free speech. We need to stop framing everything as a speech issue to respond properly.

  

• The president of the Heritage Foundation came to the city that launched Kamala Harris’s political career and announced plans for Project 2028 — the sequel to Project 2025 — if she wins. At a Peter Thiel/Garry Tan/Heritage tech conference in San Francisco.

• The fallout of Hachette vs Internet Archive: Orwell warned us about it, but you can't read him now. 1984 has been removed from the IA library.

• “Nick Pickles, X's VP of global affairs and much their most senior British employee has left (immediately). He would have been the person who had to account for the platform's (hard to defend) practices - which directly contributed to misinfo & disorder.”

• “AI bot scraping is becoming an unbelievably common occurrence. Not only are these companies stealing our work, which costs us, but they're driving up everyone's server bills as well. We're literally paying for them to take our work. This needs to be illegal.”

• Prof. Lewis writes: “Incredibly revealing that he [Brian Chesky] compares being a startup founder to being a biological parent, especially when you think about it in the context of Silicon Valley’s gender dynamics.”

• On the campaign trail, San Francisco Board of Supervisors candidate Michael Lai touts his experience as the CEO of an education start-up. His former teachers, however, recall low wages, disorder and a collapsed business.

• Putin says he met Pavel Durov, the Telegram founder detained in Paris last month, on only one occasion, adding that he was confused by France's "selective" decision to detail the social media billionaire.

• Frankly, the advertisers have done all the can. The only way to thwart Elon's ambitions with Twitter even more now is to get the biggest names, especially candidates, on this site to start posting elsewhere and moving away from Twitter.

Ukraine/Russia

• Video footage appears to show Russians killing Ukrainian soldiers who were surrendering. Between this and the head of a Ukrainian soldier on a spike, I find it difficult to humanize Russians, especially after they leave Ukrainian cities like looking like this:

  

• Russia is waging a "reckless campaign of sabotage" across Europe, the heads of MI6 and the CIA have warned in their first-ever joint remarks.

• CNN reports that “US has detected increased Russian military activity around key undersea cables and believes Russia may now be more likely to carry out potential sabotage aimed at disabling a critical communications infrastructure.”

• Ukraine's parliament approved a new wartime cabinet, as President Volodymyr Zelensky seeks the biggest overhaul of his government since Russia's full-scale invasion almost 31 months ago.

• Miriam Naiem writes: “Why are some in the West fixated on Russian views? The entire historical journey and the sacrifice of the Ukrainian people, marked by a repeated struggle for self-determination, sovereignty, and democracy, remains obscured in the shadow of the complex Russian anti-war heroism. Being anti-war is not a sufficient stance to earn a platform; actively anti-imperialist stance and actions are.”

• This is what happens when you give Russian fascists visa and let them live in a civilized country: Russian London school teaches students how to assemble and handle AKs and despise the West (while living in London!!).

• Defence Secretary John Healey is in Germany where he will announce an extension to the UK's training programme for Ukrainian forces.

• Fascinating text messages between a Russian operative & his FSB handlers on stoking US political discord have surfaced in a US criminal case.The chats were entered into court record in case of 4 US political activists in Florida charged with helping Russia sow US political strife. The chats are between operative Aleksandr Ionov, who funded Maria Butina's legal fees, & his FSB handlers.

• “A heavily publicised anti-UAV system adopted by the Russian National Guard turns out to have been smuggled in from China and apparently falsely represented as Russian by its supplier. At least one person has been charged in Russia for weapons smuggling.”

• “Companies involved in schemes to export sanctioned coal and metals from Russian-occupied Ukrainian regions reportedly invested about 10 million euros in Telegram, despite its CEO Pavel Durov's process of supposedly carefully personally scrutinising and selecting investors.”

• “RIA Novosti war correspondent Alexander Kharchenko issues a "cry for help" for Russian forces in the use of FPV drones against Ukrainian forces. He says that while improvements have been made, they rely solely on local initiative and not on the military command.”

• Iran has sent short-range ballistic missiles to Russia, a move that will give Moscow another potent military tool to use in the war against Ukraine and follows stern Western warnings not to provide those arms to Moscow, according to U.S. and European officials.

Middle East

• Exclusive from Diana Buttu:"Israel Forced Him to Become a 'Human Shield': I speak to a Palestinian man whose body was used ‘as cover’ by Israeli troops in Gaza City."

• Israelis are simply incapable of dealing psychologically with the consequences of the IDF operation in Gaza. According to Pew Research, 57% of Israelis think that sympathy for Palestinian civilians should be banned from social media. 50% want to ban criticizing the government.

  

• Israeli AF official: “Without US aid, Israel could not fight in Gaza beyond a few months.”

• In Jenin, the Israeli army is destroying civilian infrastructure, blocking medical access, and conducting mass arrests in its largest West Bank operation in years.

• Greta Thunberg arrested at Gaza war protest in Copenhagen.

Misc.

• COVID shots no longer free for uninsured, could cost up to $200.

• “Essential for me’: readers on the importance of libraries.

• Anarchist collective teach people how to make pirated versions of expensive pharma drugs using precursor ingredients. "A course of Solvadi, the drug by Gilead that cures Hepatitis C, costs $83,000. We made it for $70."

• Vaccines account for 40% of the decline in infant mortality over the last 50 years. Infant mortality rates have plummeted over the last 50 years. Globally, they’ve fallen by over two-thirds, from around 10% in 1974 to less than 3% today.

  

• A recent study — published in The Lancet by Andrew Shattock and an international team of researchers — estimates that 40% of this decline has been driven by increased access to crucial vaccines.

• A reminder that science is shaped by politics and all too human relationships as well as vast and cool intellects.

Humor

• Shots fired: Connecticut seemingly declares war on MA, NY, NJ, RI and IL.