The Conversation -- October 5, 2024

Colorado. Who Could Have Predicted This? Amy Hanson of the AP: "A rural Colorado county courthouse beefed up security Friday after threats were made against staff and a judge who sentenced former county clerk Tina Peters to nearly nine years behind bars and admonished her for her role in a data breach scheme catalyzed by the lie that the 2020 election was stolen from ... Donald Trump. Courthouse staff in Grand Junction, Colorado, received multiple threats that were being vetted by law enforcement while extra security was provided, said spokesperson Wendy Likes with the Mesa County Sheriff's Office."

Idaho. AP: "Tensions rose during a bipartisan forum this week after an audience question about discrimination reportedly led an Idaho state senator to angrily tell a Native American candidate to 'go back where you came from.' Republican Sen. Dan Foreman left the event early after the outburst and later denied making any racist comments in a Facebook post.... In his Facebook post, Foreman called the incident a 'quintessential display of race-baiting' and said the Democratic attendees made personal attacks and 'proclaimed Idaho to be a racist state.'... He did not respond to a voice message from The Associated Press seeking comment." ~~~

     ~~~ Which is worst? (a) A state senator is a blatant racist. (b) A state senator is incredibly stupid. (c) People voted for this guy.

Marie: Here's one of a number of fake photos of Trump's "rescue efforts" in hurricane-devasted zones. People really think Former President* Narcissist P. Sociapath is risking his own life struggling through knee-deep floodwaters to save his fellow citizens in distress:

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "Vance's performance was chilling. Once I thought Trump would be an aberration for Republicans. But on Tuesday night, I saw the future of the party and it was lies piled on lies, and darkness swallowing darkness."

Marie: RAS links to an interesting post by Steve M. on JD Vance & his promoters at the NYT. The post is particularly interesting to me because Steve saw what was going on in real time, and -- even though I was paying attention to politics then -- JayDee was completely off my radar.

Katie Rogers of the New York Times tells you everything you might want to know -- and more -- about Melania's "memoir."

Annie Karni of the New York Times: "Representative Eli Crane, a first-term Republican from Arizona, has been everywhere that will have him, promoting conspiracy theories about the assassination attempts against Mr. Trump, despite all evidence that such theories are false. And far from sidelining or attempting to silence him, Republican leaders have given him a prominent platform to air his outlandish claims at the highest levels.... Mr. Crane, a tattooed former member of the Navy SEALs and a onetime contender on 'Shark Tank,' now is part of a different type of reality show.... He has ... established a reputation for extreme language and tactics.... Mr. Crane's efforts have received a major boost from the right-wing media echo chamber, making him all but impossible for the Republicans on the official task force to ignore. So instead of trying to quiet him, House Republicans have accommodated him." MB: Nice try at crazy, Eli, but still more plausible than "'they' control the weather."

~~~~~~~~~~

Presidential Race

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Biden said Friday he was not sure next month's election would be peaceful if ... Donald J. Trump lost his bid for another term in the White House. In a surprise appearance in the White House briefing room -- his first since taking office -- Mr. Biden was asked if he had confidence the election would be free, fair and peaceful. 'I'm confident it will be free and fair,' Mr. Biden told reporters. 'I don&'t know whether it will be peaceful.... Things that Trump has said and the things that he said last time when he didn't like the outcome of the election were very dangerous,' Mr. Biden added, noting that during the vice-presidential debate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio 'did not say he'd accept the outcome' of the coming election. 'So, I'm concerned about what they're going to do,' he added.... The president declined to comment about any preparations that the administration is making to try to counter that kind of violence, saying only that he is briefed about threats to domestic security all the time."

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Biden, who reluctantly surrendered his bid for a second term over the summer, had just finished his first-ever appearance in the White House briefing room on Friday when a reporter yelled out a question many people have been wondering about for months. 'Do you want to reconsider dropping out of the race?' the reporter asked.... The president paused, then turned around and declared 'I'm back in!' before cracking a smile and offering a wave of his hand...."

Cleve Wootson & Yasmeen Abutaleb of the Washington Post: "Vice President Kamala Harris met with Arab American and Muslim leaders in Michigan on Friday, part of an ongoing effort to stem defections from a pivotal group of voters who have fiercely criticized President Joe Biden for his staunch support of Israel's wars in Gaza and now Lebanon.... Arab Americans make up an unusually large proportion of the Democratic electorate in Michigan, a state critical to Harris's campaign strategy.... Harris's campaign released a statement about the meeting, saying she 'expressed her concern over the scale of suffering in Gaza and ... discussed her efforts to end the war in Gaza.' Harris also expressed concern about civilian casualties and displacement in Lebanon, and talked about efforts to prevent a larger regional war, according to the statement."

Marie: Akhilleus & I are not the only conspiracy theorists who have turned our suspicious eyes on Bibi. And we're in very good company: ~~~

     ~~~ Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) says he's worried Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may be trying to influence the U.S. presidential election by showing little interest in striking a peace deal with Hamas and instead escalating the threat of a broader war in the Middle East by aggressively confronting Hezbollah in Lebanon. Murphy acknowledged that the prospect of peace in Gaza before Election Day does not seem likely and that Netanyahu appears to have an eye on domestic U.S. politics as he wages a bombing campaign deep into Lebanon targeting Hezbollah. 'I certainly worry that Prime Minister Netanyahu is watching the American election as he makes decisions about his military campaigns in the north and in Gaza,' Murphy told CNN's Erin Burnett." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update: Last night Middle East expert Ben Rhodes said the same.

Kevin Dolak of the Hollywood Reporter, republished by Yahoo! News: "In an Instagram post uploaded on Thursday, Bruce Springsteen announced to his fans ... his pick this election cycle ... in [a] small-town diner setting. 'Friends, fans and the press have asked me who I'm supporting in this most important of elections,' Springsteen said.... 'And with full knowledge that my opinions are no more or less important than those of any of my fellow citizens. Here's my answer: I'm supporting Kamala Harris for president and Tim Walz for vice president, and opposing Donald Trump and J.D. Vance.... Donald Trump is the most dangerous candidate for president in my lifetime.... His disdain for the sanctity of our Constitution, the sanctity of democracy, the sanctity of the rule of law and the sanctity of the peaceful transfer of power should disqualify him from the office of president ever again. He doesn't understand the meaning of this country, its history, or what it means to be deeply American,' he added." See video in yesterday's Conversation. (Also linked yesterday.)

Sam Levine of the Guardian: "The US homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, has warned that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) does not have enough funding to make it through the rest of this hurricane season.... The warning on Thursday underscored how the federal government is being stretched thin as top Republicans have signaled they won't give it more funding.... Donald Trump and other Republicans have seized on the shortfall to criticize [President] Biden and Kamala Harris for spending money assisting migrants.... 'They stole the Fema money just like they stole it from a bank so they could give it to their illegal immigrants that they want to have vote for them this season,' Trump said in a speech in Michigan on Thursday.... Also, on the campaign trail in Michigan on Thursday, Trump said of Helene victims: 'They're dying, and they're getting no help from our federal government because their money has been spent on people that should not be in our country.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Justine McDaniel of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump doubled down on misinformation [link fixed] about Hurricane Helene in an appearance in this storm-ravaged state Friday, repeating the falsehood that the White House used disaster funds for migrants. Speaking at a news conference after a state disaster briefing, Trump again falsely said the U.S. government is unable to fund the storm response because it used the money on people 'who came into the country illegally' -- claims that the White House slammed in a memo Friday as 'poison.' Trump's comments that the White House is 'missing $1 billion' that was used for migrants, as he said Friday, have created a swirl of misinformation around the Helene response. The White House warned Friday that the falsehoods could keep hurricane victims from seeking the assistance they critically need, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency launched an anti-rumor tool that counters Trump's claims." (This ls an update of a story linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Should reporters call Trump's press availabilities "news conferences" when everything he says is a lie? It's true some of the lies make because they're lies, but he himself is not disseminating much news.

The Harris-Biden administration says they don’t have any money [for hurricane relief].... They spent it all on illegal migrants.... They stole the FEMA money just like they stole it from a bank, so they could give it to their illegal immigrants that they want to have vote for them. -- Donald Trump, in Saganaw, Michigan, October 3

... Trump is completely wrong.... There is no evidence the Biden administration spent FEMA disaster money on migrants.... Even though Trump was once president, he still appears to have little clue about the appropriations process. What's even richer is that when he was president, he did exactly what he claims Biden did -- take money from FEMA's disaster fund to fund migrant programs at the southern border.... In 2019, the Trump administration, in the middle of hurricane season, told Congress that it was taking $271 million from DHS programs, including $155 million from the disaster fund, to pay for immigration detention space and temporary hearing locations for asylum seekers.... The monthly reports issued by the FEMA disaster fund show $38 million was plucked and given to Immigration and Customs Enforcement in August that year -- just before the prime storm period of September and October. -- Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post

Marie: Still, I don't think even the Great Master of Lies and Conspiracy Theories has MTG beat ~~~

     ~~~ Charlie Nash of Mediaite: "After the Hurricane Helene death toll rose to over 200, Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene wrote in a social media post, 'Yes they can control the weather. It's ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can't be done.' Greene also posted a map of the areas most affected by the hurricane overlaid with an electoral map by political party. 'This is a map of hurricane affected areas with an overlay of electoral map by political party shows how hurricane devastation could affect the election,' she warned." MB: Not clear who "they" are, but I have a feeling one of them is the Wicked Witch of the West, Kamala Harris. And yes, the good folks of Georgia will almost certainly be sending the loony Miss Margie back to Congress to be making the laws what govern us all. (Also linked yesterday.)

Die Große Lüge. Jonathan Swan, et al., of the New York Times: "At 1:56 p.m., [Donald] Trump published, alongside a siren emoji, a claim that he'd been endorsed by America's most influential banker, the chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, Jamie Dimon.... It wasn't true. A spokeswoman for JPMorgan Chase confirmed to The New York Times that Mr. Dimon has made no endorsements in the presidential race. Nor has Mr. Dimon given money to either Mr. Trump or ... Vice President Kamala Harris, the spokeswoman added.... After landing at the Augusta, Ga., airport, Mr. Trump was asked by a reporter if Mr. Dimon had told him he was going to endorse him. 'I don't know anything about it,' Mr. Trump responded. When a reporter noted that the former president had a post on his social media feed saying Mr. Dimon had endorsed him, Mr. Trump said, 'Somebody put it up -- no, I don't know.'... And when a reporter said a Dimon spokesman said it was false, Mr. Trump depicted himself as a mere bystander, saying, 'Well, then, somebody is using his name.' Despite being told it was false, Mr. Trump left the Truth Social post online, and it remained up through late afternoon." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: You might wonder, as I have, why Trump thinks he can get away with a lie that is so easy to debunk. He does it all the time, several times a day. For instance, he told the endorsement lie while on his way to Georgia to lie about FEMA funds, lies that are not only easily checkable but in fact had already been debunked by the White House & numerous news media. But then George Conway was on Chris Hayes' show last night, and he let on the source of the big lie was Adolf Hitler. According to Wikipedia, "The German expression [große Lüge] was first used by Adolf Hitler in his book Mein Kampf (1925) to describe how people could be induced to believe so colossal a lie because they would not believe that someone 'could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously.'... According to historian Jeffrey Herf, the Nazis used the idea of the original big lie to turn sentiment against Jews and justify the Holocaust." That's right; Donald Trump learned his propaganda techniques from Hitler and the Nazis. Not surprising, but shocking nonetheless. ~~~

     ~~~ Something else you might have noticed was Trump's response when a reporter called out his lie about the Dimon endorsement: "I don't know anything about it." That's one of his go-to responses when confronted with obvious lies. Jill Colvin of the AP wrote last December, "Facing criticism for repeatedly harnessing rhetoric once used by Adolf Hitler to argue that immigrants entering the U.S. illegally are 'poisoning the blood of our country,' Trump insisted he had no idea that one of the world's most reviled and infamous figures once used similar words. The Nazi dictator spoke of impure Jewish blood 'poisoning' Aryan German blood to dehumanize Jews and justify the systemic murder of millions during the Holocaust. 'I never knew that Hitler said it,' Trump told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Friday, volunteering once again that he never read Hitler's biographical manifesto, 'Mein Kampf.'" Here we are reminded that Trump gets not only his propaganda technique from Hitler but also the substance of his most monstrous propaganda.

Marie: Tommy Christopher of Mediaite has a take different from Steve M.'s & mine on Melania's stance on abortion rights. Let's hope Christopher's theory is right: "Former First Lady Melania Trump delivered a humiliating repudiation of former President Donald Trump's stated anti-abortion stance in a stunning new video that's a political gift to Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump has been trying to walk a line between bragging about overturning Roe v. Wade and trying to reassure voters he won't sign a national abortion ban -- while refusing to actually say he would veto one....* In an excerpt [of Melania's memoir] obtained by The Guardian, she ... [wrote,] 'It is imperative to guarantee that women have autonomy in deciding their preference of having children, based on their own convictions, free from any intervention or pressure from the government. Why should anyone other than the woman herself have the power to determine what she does with her own body? A woman's fundamental right of individual liberty, to her own life, grants her the authority to terminate her pregnancy if she wishes.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

     * Trump did finally say he would veto an federal abortion ban. MB: And you know how good his word is. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update: Jessica Valenti, who wrote the book on the politics of abortion, appeared on Chris Hayes' show last night, and she agrees with Steve M. & me: Melanie's sudden support for abortion rights a month before the election is a ploy to soften one of the GOP's biggest problems. Moreover, Valenti explained that what Trump means when he says he would veto an abortion ban is that he would veto a bill that banned all abortions, including ones that saved the lives of the mothers. So his "pledge" is a trick; he would not veto an "ordinary" abortion ban, which would have a humane exception or two.

Jazmine Ulloa & Hamed Aliaziz of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump, who is seeking re-election on the same hard line against undocumented immigrants that helped carry him to power in 2016, has said he is not opposed to legal immigration into the United States. But remarks this week by the former president and his running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, signal that a second Trump administration would again aim to curb the legal channels that allow people to enter the country or obtain protection from deportation once inside its borders.In an interview with NewsNation on Wednesday night, Mr. Trump said he would revoke a program that allows tens of thousands of Haitian immigrants to live in the country legally."

Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: "If Trump is a classic American confidence man, then mass deportation is his miracle tonic.... Like any traveling salesman, Trump is careful not to mention the side effects of this potent treatment.... It is obvious that mass deportation would be a humanitarian disaster -- if past precedent is any indication of future results, the forced migration and detention of millions of people is very likely to kill thousands, maybe tens of thousands, of those caught in the dragnet of involuntary removal.... The plan would destroy communities and tear families apart. And given Trump's hostility to birthright citizenship, there is every reason to think that his deportation regime would fall on American citizens as well....

"A little less obvious is the extent to which mass deportation would plunge the United States into economic darkness. According to a new report from the nonpartisan American Immigration Council, a mass deportation plan designed to expel 13.3 million undocumented immigrants over about 10 years would crash the economy, immiserate millions of Americans and siphon nearly $1 trillion from the federal government."

Deepfake Jake. Watch at least the first minute or so of this segment. It's quite amazing: ~~~

Hamed Aliaziz of the New York Times: The Biden administration said Friday it would allow the temporary legal permission for migrants from Cuba, Venezuela, Haiti, and Nicaragua to lapse, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to find other methods to stay in the country or face deportation. The decision comes nearly two years after the Biden administration began a program allowing migrants from those four countries to apply to stay in the United States for two years, as long as they had a financial sponsor and passed background checks.... New applicants from the four countries will continue be accepted. Similar programs for Afghan and Ukrainian migrants allowed them to extend their stays." Read on for details about how people from the four countries will be affected. MB: Perhaps I'm wrong, but this feels very much like an overreaction/capitulation to "They're eat the dogs! They're eating the cats!"

Maegan Vazquez & Lauren Gurley of the Washington Post: "President Joe Biden on Friday rejected Republican Sen. Marco Rubio's claim that the robust jobs report was 'fake.'... In a surprise appearance in the White House Briefing Room, Biden welcomed the jobs report and the deal to end the dockworkers strike before taking several questions from reporters. He was asked about Rubio's comments. 'I'm going to be very careful here. If you notice, anything that MAGA Republicans don't like, they call fake,' Biden said. 'The jobs numbers are ... real.' Earlier Friday, Rubio (Fla.) suggested that the latest data was not to be trusted, writing on X, 'Another fake jobs report out from Biden-Harris government today.'... Multiple economists discredited Rubio's claims to The Washington Post."

Jeff Stein, et al., of the Washington Post: on how White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zeints gave shipping company executives an ultimatum to make a new & improved offer to longshoremen: "'I need the offer today -- not tomorrow. Today,' Zients said on the call [at 5:30 am ET Thursday]. 'I'm going to brief the president in an hour that you believe you can get this done today.' Less than 12 hours later, White House officials were celebrating a deal to reopen the ports until January -- postponing the issue until after this November's election. The agreement provides collective if temporary relief to skittish Democrats from the White House to Capitol Hill, while buoying Vice President Kamala Harris, along with Friday's strong jobs report."

Justin Juvenal of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Friday refused to block new Biden administration rules requiring fossil-fuel-fired power plants to slash emissions of mercury and other toxic substances and oil and gas firms to curb methane, a potent greenhouse gas, from their operations.... The court has yet to act on an emergency request to block a plan to curb greenhouse gas emissions from coal and gas-fired power plants. Nearly two dozen Republican-led states and a handful of power generators asked to pause the mercury rules, which were finalized in May, while litigation over them continues in lower courts. The challengers argue that the regulations impose heavy costs while providing negligible direct health benefits to the public; power plants must comply with them by July 2027. Two dozen Republican-led states also asked to halt the methane plan...."

~~~~~~~~~~

Illinois. Rachel Nostrant of the New York Times: "All of Chicago's board of education members announced their resignations on Friday amid tense disagreements between Mayor Brandon Johnson and the chief executive of Chicago Public Schools over the school district's budget next year. The move by the seven board members, including Jianan Shi, the board president, comes in the midst of contract negotiations between the school district and the Chicago Teachers Union. Mr. Johnson, who is aligned with the union, and Pedro Martinez, the chief executive of Chicago's school district, have clashed over the mayor's plan to fill a $1 billion gap in the district's budget."

Minnesota Senate Race. Brad Reed of the Raw Story: "Royce White, the Trump-loving Republican candidate for the United States Senate in Minnesota, said just two years ago that America was 'the bad guy' in World War II.... He then further said that 'if you look closely, you see the link between liberalism and communism in the allied forces,' despite the fact that the United States and the Soviet Union after the war engaged in the decades-long Cold War.... White also suggested in his post that Gen. George Patton was murdered because he supposedly believed that the United States and Russia were the 'bad guys' in the war...." White is running to unseat Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D).

New York. Jeff Colton & Madina Touré of Politico: "Mayor Eric Adams' first deputy mayor is leaving City Hall while under federal investigation -- the latest high-profile departure as the mayor cleans house under pressure from his growing legal woes. Sheena Wright is expected to resign soon, according to six people familiar with the situation."

Oklahoma. Kleptocracy Lesson Plans. Chapter 1. Stephanie Saul of the New York Times: "When the education superintendent of Oklahoma, Ryan Walters, ordered this year that every public school classroom in the state must have a Bible in the classroom, he didn't mention any special requirements. But bid specifications for the Bibles, released this week, contain several narrowly drawn and unusual details. They must, for example, include text of the Pledge of Allegiance, the U.S. Constitution and other historical documents not normally included in the Bible.... [They must be] King James Version Bibles that are bound by leather or leather-like material. What Bible fits the bill? The country music star Lee Greenwood's God Bless the U.S.A. Bible, which is endorsed by ... Donald J. Trump and costs $60, far above the average price for Bibles.... Some printed versions are available for under $5.... Mr. Trump receives royalties from their sales; financial disclosure reports filed in August show he has made $300,000 from the Bible since endorsing it.... Oklahoma is looking for 55,000 Bibles...." ~~~

     ~~~ Lexi Cochran of the Hill: "The Oklahoman found a salesperson at Mardel Christian & Education who said none of the 2,900 Bibles they sell fit the criteria Oklahoma has proposed. The two Bibles that Trump has endorsed, We The People Bible and God Bless the U.S.A. Bible, both meet the criteria and are sold for $90 and $60, respectively." MB: Sorry, but this is so blatantly corrupt, it's comical. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: BTW, have you ever seen a U.S. school textbook that was "bound by leather or leather-like material"? Neither have I. And the idea that a King James Bible edition would splice in some U.S. political documents is preposterous. The King James Bible was published in 1611, in England, when there were no Christians living in what later became the first American states, and that was after people living in those American colonies declared their independence from & revolted against England. (The Roanoke Colony was settled in 1585, but by 1590, it had disappeared.) The Pledge of Allegiance was not developed until the late 19th century, and was not adopted by Congress until 1942. These American documents & the pledge are foreign to and to some extent at odds with the King James Bible.

~~~~~~~~~~

Israel/Palestine, et al. The Washington Post's live updates of developments Saturday in Israel's wars are here: "The Israel Defense Forces again issued evacuation warnings for buildings in the southern suburbs of Beirut early Saturday. Press photos from the area showed smoke pouring into the night sky from Dahieh, a frequent target of strikes over the past week, as Israel continues its campaign against Hezbollah." ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times' updates for Saturday are here.

The Conversation -- October 4, 2024

Sam Levine of the Guardian: "The US homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, has warned that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) does not have enough funding to make it through the rest of this hurricane season.... The warning on Thursday underscored how the federal government is being stretched thin as top Republicans have signaled they won't give it more funding.... Donald Trump and other Republicans have seized on the shortfall to criticize [President] Biden and Kamala Harris for spending money assisting migrants.... 'They stole the Fema money just like they stole it from a bank so they could give it to their illegal immigrants that they want to have vote for them this season,' Trump said in a speech in Michigan on Thursday.... Also, on the campaign trail in Michigan on Thursday, Trump said of Helene victims: 'They're dying, and they're getting no help from our federal government because their money has been spent on people that should not be in our country.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Justine McDaniel of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump will appear Friday in Georgia, one of the states hardest-hit by Hurricane Helene, after spending the week falsely telling voters that the U.S. government is unable to fund the disaster response -- claims the White House slammed in a memo as 'poison.' Without naming Trump, the Biden administration on Friday said Republicans are spreading 'bald-faced lies' about the hurricane response and are 'using Hurricane Helene to lie and divide us.'"

Kevin Dolak of the Hollywood Reporter, republished by Yahoo! News: "In an Instagram post uploaded on Thursday, Bruce Springsteen announced to his fans ... his pick this election cycle.... 'Friends, fans and the press have asked me who I'm supporting in this most important of elections,' Springsteen said.... 'And with full knowledge that my opinions are no more or less important than those of any of my fellow citizens. Here's my answer: I'm supporting Kamala Harris for president and Tim Walz for vice president, and opposing Donald Trump and J.D. Vance.... Donald Trump is the most dangerous candidate for president in my lifetime.... His disdain for the sanctity of our Constitution, the sanctity of democracy, the sanctity of the rule of law and the sanctity of the peaceful transfer of power should disqualify him from the office of president ever again. He doesn't understand the meaning of this country, its history, or what it means to be deeply American,' he added." ~~~

Marie: Tommy Christopher of Mediaite has a take different from Steve M.'s & mine on Melania's stance on abortion rights. Let's hope Christopher's theory is right: "Former First Lady Melania Trump delivered a humiliating repudiation of ... Donald Trump's stated anti-abortion stance in a stunning new video that's a political gift to Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump has been trying to walk a line between bragging about overturning Roe v. Wade and trying to reassure voters he won't sign a national abortion ban -- while refusing to actually say he would veto one....* In an excerpt [of Melania's memoir] obtained by The Guardian, she ... [wrote,] 'It is imperative to guarantee that women have autonomy in deciding their preference of having children, based on their own convictions, free from any intervention or pressure from the government. Why should anyone other than the woman herself have the power to determine what she does with her own body? A woman's fundamental right of individual liberty, to her own life, grants her the authority to terminate her pregnancy if she wishes.'"

     * Trump did finally say he would veto an federal abortion ban. MB: And you know how good his word is.

Marie: Akhilleus & I are not the only conspiracy theories who have turned our suspicious eyes on Bibi. And we're in very good company: ~~~

     ~~~ Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) says he's worried Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may be trying to influence the U.S. presidential election by showing little interest in striking a peace deal with Hamas and instead escalating the threat of a broader war in the Middle East by aggressively confronting Hezbollah in Lebanon. Murphy acknowledged that the prospect of peace in Gaza before Election Day does not seem likely and that Netanyahu appears to have an eye on domestic U.S. politics as he wages a bombing campaign deep into Lebanon targeting Hezbollah. 'I certainly worry that Prime Minister Netanyahu is watching the American election as he makes decisions about his military campaigns in the north and in Gaza,' Murphy told CNN's Erin Burnett."

There are conspiracy theories and then there are conspiracy theories: ~~~

     ~~~ Charlie Nash of Mediaite: "After the Hurricane Helene death toll rose to over 200, Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene wrote in a social media post, 'Yes they can control the weather. It's ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can't be done.' Greene also posted a map of the areas most affected by the hurricane overlaid with an electoral map by political party. 'This is a map of hurricane affected areas with an overlay of electoral map by political party shows how hurricane devastation could affect the election,' she warned." MB: Not clear who "they" are, but I have a feeling one of them is the Wicked Witch of the West, Kamala Harris. And yes, the good folks of Georgia will almost certainly be sending the loony Miss Margie back to Congress to be making the laws what govern us all.

Presidential Race

~~~ Erica Green & Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "On Thursday, Vice President Kamala Harris and former Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming [a Wisconsin native], the most prominent Republican to endorse her campaign, traveled to Ripon in central Wisconsin where meetings in 1854 helped form the Republican Party. Just a mile away from a one-room schoolhouse where those gatherings were held, the pair tore into ... Donald J. Trump for his role in igniting a riot at the Capitol, and they warned of the threat he poses to democracy should he return to power. Ms. Cheney said that, in November, putting patriotism ahead of partisanship should not merely be an aspiration -- 'it is our duty.' Her remarks ... were as much a public indictment of Mr. Trump as they were an endorsement of Ms. Harris." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The reporters are young women. I don't think they quite get what a remarkable moment this was. ~~~

~~~ AND the story that follows tells us why this extraordinary moment in U.S. presidential campaign history happened: ~~~

~~~ Jess Bidgood of the New York Times: "... [Jack Smith's motion in the election interference case] ... offered new details that paint a chilling picture of the way [Donald Trump] and current candidate seems to think about elections: as an exercise in which the vote total is entirely beside the point. In his world, adverse election results were an obstacle, not an outcome.... The filing sheds new light on the way Trump and his advisers viewed the number of votes he had won as little more than a trifling detail.... Coming at a time when his allies, including his running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, have tried to downplay Trump's efforts to hold onto power four years ago, the filing offers a glimpse of Trump's thinking that makes it difficult to imagine him accepting a loss in November.... Reading Smith's court filing now, there are striking parallels between Trump and his allies' actions in 2020 and certain steps they are taking today -- and it's something Democrats and allies of Vice President Kamala Harris are warning about as they make the case that Trump is a danger to democracy." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Say, New York Times, it's refreshing to read a straight-news story where the author does not don Both SidesTM rose-tinted glasses the minute she sits down at her computer. ~~~

     ~~~ Amy Gardner & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump's effort to overturn his loss four years ago and his role inciting the violent attack on the Capitol roared onto the 2024 campaign stage this week even as he continues to suggest he won't accept a defeat if it happens a second time. On Tuesday, running mate JD Vance declined to say during the vice-presidential debate that Trump lost in 2020. On Wednesday, special counsel Jack Smith filed an explosive new pleading in federal court surfacing new details about Trump's lack of concern about the Capitol riot and his push to reverse his loss even as advisers repeatedly told him Joe Biden had legitimately won. And on Thursday, Vice President Kamala Harris made a campaign appearance in the battleground state of Wisconsin with Liz Cheney, the former Republican congresswoman who lost her seat largely because of her condemnation of Trump's actions inciting the riot on Jan. 6, 2021."

Maggie Astor of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump said on Wednesday that, if elected again, he would revoke the legal status of tens of thousands of Haitian immigrants who have been the target of false accusations by the former president and his running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, over the past month. Mr. Trump's administration tried to do that during his first term, too, but courts temporarily blocked it, and President Biden's administration renewed the immigrants' status after he took office in 2021. The immigrants in question are living and working in the United States legally through the Temporary Protected Status program, which Congress created in 1990 for people from countries experiencing war, natura disasters or other crises. The Department of Homeland Security designates countries for up to 18 months at a time based on the current conditions, and the designation can be renewed indefinitely. Haiti was initially added in 2010, under President Barack Obama, after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake devastated the country. It has since experienced a major hurricane and a cholera epidemic." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Let us hope Trump's cruel announcement helps those dithering "undecideds" understand that nobody is safe when the Nastiest Turdblossom in the USA is president*, so they'd better vote for Harris.

If you scroll way down the page in this NBC News election updates liveblog, you'll find this item by Rebecca Shabad: "Trump said toward the top of his remarks at a rally in Saginaw, Michigan, that if he thought he lost the 2020 presidential election, he wouldn't be running again. 'It was a rigged election. You have to tell Kamala Harris that's why I'm doing it again. If I thought I lost, I wouldn't be doing this again. You know where I'd be? Right down on the beaches of Monte Carlo, baby, or some place having a nice life.'..." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: So, among other things, what I take that to mean is that when Trump says he won't run again if he loses next month, what he really means is that he'll keep on running till he's dead because he can never admit he lost an election.

"Sieg Heil." David Edwards of the Raw Story: "Donald Trump's campaign distributed signs with a phrase often used by white supremacists. Before Trump spoke in Saginaw, Michigan, Thursday, campaign staff could be seen handing out pre-printed signs with the words 'Reclaim America.' As CNN noted, white supremacist members of the Patriot Front recently carried a banner with the same slogan while shouting "Sieg Heil" and "Deportation saves the nation" at a rally in Nashville."

You can't only help those in need if they voted for you. It's the most basic part of being president, and this guy [Trump] knows nothing about it. -- President Biden, in a tweet Thursday ~~~

~~~ Scott Waldman & Thomas Frank of Politico's E&E News: "In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene..., Donald Trump has ... accuse[d] Democratic leaders of ignoring the needs of Republican storm victims. But a review of Trump's record by Politico's E&E News and interviews with two former Trump White House officials show that the former president was flagrantly partisan at times in response to disasters and on at least three occasions hesitated to give disaster aid to areas he considered politically hostile or ordered special treatment for pro-Trump states. Mark Harvey, who was Trump's senior director for resilience policy..., told E&E News on Wednesday that Trump initially refused to approve disaster aid for California after deadly wildfires in 2018 because of the state's Democratic leanings. But Harvey said Trump changed his mind after Harvey pulled voting results to show him that heavily damaged Orange County, California, had more Trump supporters than the entire state of Iowa." Read on. See also Akhilleus' commentary at the top of today's thread. ~~~

~~~ Paul Krugman of the New York Times: "... Trump has been trying to exploit the natural disaster [Hurricane Helene] for political gain, claiming he heard that the federal government -- Biden -- and North Carolina's Democratic governor are 'going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas.' This claim has no basis.... Trump's vision of America-as-hellscape seems to be losing its political mojo.... So it must be time to conjure a new fake source of fear and outrage. Where does the insinuation that Biden is denying aid to politically unfriendly disaster areas come from? In part it's projection: Trump was found to have done something akin to that when he was in the White House.... The key to Trump's tall tales is to tell his supporters that terrible things are happening somewhere out there...."

Emily Bazelon & Mattathias Schwartz of the New York Times: "Donald Trump says Kamala Harris should be prosecuted for the Biden administration's border policies. He wants President Biden to be prosecuted for corruption, Nancy Pelosi for her husband's stock trades and Google for its search results about Trump and Harris. His list of targets for investigation also includes state prosecutors, judges and former officials from the F.B.I. and other parts of the Justice Department. If Trump wins, he can use the Justice Department, including the F.B.I., to seek revenge against his political enemies -- even if, as in the cases above, there is little or no evidence of a crime.... We posed that question to 50 former top officials from the Justice Department and the White House Counsel's Office, along with a few retired judges and nonpartisan career D.O.J. lawyers. The former officials, evenly split between Republicans and Democrats, have served seven presidents.Most of them are freaked out about Trump's potential impact on the Justice Department...." ~~~

There is every reason to believe that Donald Trump would seek to use criminal enforcement and the F.B.I. as leverage for his personal and political ends in a second term. We don't know what will happen, but the risk is more concrete, with a higher probability, than in any election in my lifetime. -- Peter Keisler, a Federalist Society founder & Acting AG for Dubya ~~~

⭐ ~~~ Emily Bazelon & Mattathias Schwartz in the New York Times Magazine: "As a candidate for president once again, Donald Trump could not be clearer about his plans to use the Justice Department to seek revenge against his enemies.... Now Trump talks about ordering prosecutions against so many people that his threats have become commonplace.... [The] safeguards [the protect the Justice Department from political interference] are all dependent on voluntary compliance.... During his presidency..., Trump tried to interfere directly [with the DOJ]...." Read on.

Sickly Old Man Running for Prez* Again. Emily Baumgaertner & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "As a presidential candidate in 2015, Donald J. Trump declined to release his medical records, instead offering a four-paragraph letter from his personal doctor proclaiming that he would be 'the healthiest person ever elected to the presidency.' In 2020, when he was hospitalized with Covid and running for re-election, Mr. Trump's doctors gave minimal information about his condition, which, it emerged later, was far more dire than their public descriptions let on. In 2024, days before becoming the official Republican presidential nominee for the third time, he was grazed by a would-be assassin's bullet, yet his campaign did not hold a briefing on his condition, release hospital records or make the emergency physicians who treated him available for interview. Now, just over a month from an election that could make Mr. Trump, 78, the oldest person ever to serve as president (82 years, 7 months and 6 days when his term would end in January 2029), he is refusing to release even the most basic information about his health." (Also linked yesterday.)

Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "Melania Trump ... said in a video on Thursday that there was 'no room for compromise' on a woman's right to 'individual freedom,' a day after a reported excerpt from her coming memoir said she supported abortion rights. Mrs. Trump's comments landed as ... Donald J. Trump and his party are trying to soften their opposition to abortion, a key issue threatening his support with female voters and his attempt to return to the White House. They were released in a promotional video for a new memoir scheduled for release on Tuesday. Her husband, who opposes federal abortion rights and has taken credit for helping overturn Roe v. Wade, did not immediately comment." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, super-duper. The first lady has no role in government, Trump & elected Republican men think of women as child-producing chattel & Melanie is hardly ever home except maybe when designing blood-red decor for the Christmas party. So I hope all you young women are feeling safe and protected now that the future First Lady in Absentia might have said she supports abortion rights. Think she's gonna rush in to the Oval & tear up the national abortion ban bill while Donald is still upstairs fixing his hair? ~~~

     ~~~ Steve M.: "Some people might think Melania Trump is going rogue, but this looks like strategy to me[.]... I don't think it's a coincidence that this was timed for just after the vice presidential debate -- J.D. Vance has been much more of an anti-abortion zealot than Donald Trump...." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

    ~~~ Oh, Look, More Strategery. Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "Melania Trump describes in her new memoir how she made her husband ... Donald Trump drop a signature hardline immigration policy under which migrant children were separated from their parents, stoking domestic and international uproar. 'This has to stop,' the former first lady says she told her husband, 'emphasizing the trauma it was causing these families' and seeing him swiftly comply, ending the policy on 20 June 2018." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Hadas Gold & Pamela Brown of CNN: "Nearly two months ago, CNN reached out to Melania Trump's book publisher to request an interview with the former first lady ahead of her upcoming memoir. After several exchanges about a possible interview..., Skyhouse Publishing laid out strict terms for an interview and use of material from the book.... On top of that, the agreement stipulated that 'CNN shall pay a licensing fee of two hundred fifty thousand dollars ($250,000).' CNN did not sign the agreement. Days later, after a separate CNN journalist asked Skyhorse Publishing about the exorbitant interview fee, the publisher said it had sent the payment demand by mistake.... Paying a public figure for an interview, especially the spouse of a political candidate, is highly frowned upon in most newsrooms...." (Also linked yesterday.)

Smooth Operator. Michael Bender of the New York Times: "In his 90-plus minutes on the vice-presidential debate stage, [JD] Vance, 40, delivered a performance that gave Donald J. Trump's words and plans an intellectual and emotional dimension and revealed himself to be a more complicated figure than the caricature portrayed by his critics. Mr. Vance ... fleshed out his ticket's populism in a way Mr. Trump has never been willing or able to do.... But the question remains whether Mr. Vance has laid the cornerstone for a new foundation of Trumpism, or his vision is merely a mirage. In some ways, Mr. Vance has simply rolled a smooth veneer over the harshness of his party's unpopular positions without addressing the underlying policies that Americans find problematic.... Politics is indeed an art, but so is deception. And for his opponents, Mr. Vance is simply whoever his audience wants him to be." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Bender, who seems to admire JayDee's rhetorical skills, does admit that, "On Wednesday, as the campaign moved from the debate stage and back into battleground states, Mr. Vance dropped the air of respect he had shown the night before. During a pair of events in Michigan, he mocked the 'dumbest' comments he heard from ... Tim Walz.... He referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as 'an absolute disgrace,' described her as 'very insecure' and blamed her for 'division and hatred' in American politics." !!!

~~~ Austin Sarat in a Hill op-ed: "JD Vance's performance in this week's vice presidential debate was real slick.... The man who made millions as a corporate lawyer and ruthless venture capitalist used the debate to reinvent himself as a dedicated servant of the downtrodden and dispossessed.... Vance's debate performance was an elaborate ruse, whether he was talking about himself or his running mate. As the Wall Street Journal noted, 'JD Vance's Version of Trump Is Better Than the Real Thing.'... Like his fellow travelers in the con-man trade, Vance pretended to be a person he is not, selling views he does not hold, trying to persuade voters to believe something that is not true -- anything to fuel his own political ambitions. He hoped to capitalize on the well-known penchant of Americans to 'get conned again and again.'"

MEANWHILE, JayDee's not-so-smooth Democratic counterpart poses a problem: ~~~

~~~ Meredith Hill & Mia McCarthy of Politico: "Since being tapped as Kamala Harris' running mate, the folksy, plain-speaking Minnesota governor [Tim Walz] has had to explain a growing number of inaccurate statements -- and at times embellishments -- about his past. They range from comments about his military service to his visit to Hong Kong more than three decades ago to clarifying that his family didn't specifically use in vitro fertilization.... The need to continually clean up those claims could politically hurt Walz and Harris.... Walz's misstatements could contradict the image that the campaign has painted of him as an upstanding, everyday Midwest guy." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: To me the crux of the problem is that Harris is trying to present the Democratic ticket as the authentic, all-American antithesis of the perpetually-lying phonies on the GOP ticket, and her partner in this endeavor turns out to be Walter Mitty. (Except Walter had the sense not to share his fantastic heroics with the world.)

Marcy Wheeler: “John Roberts not only rewrote the Constitution to protect Donald Trump. He forced prosecutors to spend 14 pages arguing that it is not among the job duties of the President of the United States to attack Republicans who've crossed him on Twitter.... This is the all-powerful President John Roberts wants to have. Someone who can sit in his dining room siccing mobs on fellow Republicans.... The 14 pages analyzing mean Tweets follows the analysis of two rally speeches, in which prosecutors first show the January 4 Georgia speech was a campaign event, and then (among other things) lay out the similarity between that speech and Trump's January 6 one. Among the things Trump included in both speeches was an attack on the Supreme Court: '... [Georgia...]: 'I'm not happy with the Supreme Court. They are not stepping up to the plate. They're not stepping up.' Ellipse...: 'I'm not happy with the Supreme Court. They love to rule against me.'... The inclusion of Trump's attacks on them also might get these partisan hacks to think more seriously about the nearly identical exhortations Trump made on Truth Social before they decided to rewrite the Constitution in his favor." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I am convinced that John Roberts' Immunity Ruling for the Ages was his attempt to regain his "relevance." Clarence, Sam & the Three Trump Stooges were going to rule for Trump anyway, so Roberts just wanted to get back in the majority club. He did it with a splash, didn't he? (Maybe a splash of Eau de Roger Taney, oh well.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update: I see by yesterday's Comments that I was wrong to describe Trump's appointees as the Three Stooges. I should have been more respectful & referred to t hem by proper nicknames: Sleazy, Boozy & Phony, friends of Dopey & Grumpy. Thanks, Akhilleus, for setting me straight.

Everything Is Going Very Smoothly. Robert Faturechi, et al., of ProPublica: "... Donald Trump's media company has forced out executives in recent days after internal allegations that its CEO, former Rep. Devin Nunes, is mismanaging the company, according to interviews and records of communications among former employees. Several people involved with Trump Media believe the ousters are retaliation following what they describe as an anonymous 'whistleblower' complaint regarding Nunes that went to the company's board of directors. The chief operating officer and chief product officer have left the company, along with at least two lower-level staffers, according to interviews, social media posts and communications between former staffers...." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The company's response to an inquiry from ProPublica is classic Trump & completely consistent with Devin Nunes' MO. I suspect the company keeps a standard "Response to Media" at the ready. Trump's company didn't answer ProPublica's questions but it did complain that ProPublica had "utterly fabricates implications of improper and even illegal conduct that have no basis in reality. This story is the fifth consecutive piece in an increasingly absurd campaign by ProPublica, likely at the behest of political interest groups, to damage TMTG based on false and defamatory allegations and vague innuendo.... TMTG strictly adheres to all laws and applicable regulations." The original form letter looks like this: "_____________ utterly fabricates implications of improper and even illegal conduct that have no basis in reality. This story is the _____ piece in an increasingly absurd campaign by __________, likely at the behest of political interest groups, to damage TMTG based on false and defamatory allegations and vague innuendo.... TMTG strictly adheres to all laws and applicable regulations."

Danielle Douglas-Gabriel of the Washington Post: "A federal judge will allow a temporary restraining order that prevented President Joe Biden from discharging student loan debt for more than 25 million Americans to expire Thursday, clearing the way for the administration to move forward with the plan. The decision delivers a small victory in the Biden administration's ongoing fight to alleviate federal student loan debt..." MB: The reasoning behind the order is complicated, as is what may happen next. Here's the NBC News story, which may be a tad clearer than the WashPo report, but the underlying facts are still complicated. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Oh, Wait, Kids. The Trump Team Screwed You Again. Annie Nova of CNBC: "The Biden administration's sweeping student loan forgiveness plan was temporarily blocked again Thursday by a Missouri judge, just one day after a federal judge in Georgia said he would let a restraining order against the relief expire. St-Louis-based U.S. District Judge Matthew Schelp, an appointee of ... Donald Trump, issued the latest preliminary injunction against Biden's relief plan. As a result of the order, the U.S. Department of Education is again barred from forgiving people's student loans until Schelp has a chance to rule on the case."

⭐ On the Waterfront. Peter Eavis of the New York Times: "The International Longshoremen's Association agreed on Thursday to suspend a strike that closed down major ports on the East and Gulf Coasts. The move followed an improved wage offer from port employers. The strike, which the dockworkers' union began on Tuesday, threatened to weigh on the economy five weeks before national elections. Employers, represented by the United States Maritime Alliance, have offered to increase wages by 62 percent over the course of a new six-year contract, according to a person familiar with negotiations who did not want to be identified because the talks were continuing. That increase is lower than what the union had initially asked for, but much higher than the alliance's earlier offer.... The agreement came after the White House pressed both sides to reach a deal to end the strike, the union's first full-scale walkout since 1977. The wage increase is a clear victory for the I.L.A. and its combative president, Harold J. Daggett, a 78-year-old, third-generation dockworker who has led the union since 2011. President Biden, when asked about the tentative deal on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews on Thursday evening, said: 'We've been working hard on it. With the grace of God, it's going to hold.'" CNN's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'm surprised to learn President Biden was working on a resolution. I thought the arbitrator would have been Donald Trump, who tells us he can solve any disagreement, no matter how contentious or bellicose, in a day. I would have expected Trump to go in into a room filled with burly longshoremen, say "No overtime or you're fired," and that would be the end of it. ~~~

     ~~~ Alex Gangitano of the Hill: "President Biden on Thursday hailed the agreement made between the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) union and the U.S. Maritime Alliance (USMX) to end the port strike, arguing that collective bargaining works and is essential to the economy. 'Today's tentative agreement on a record wage and an extension of the collective bargaining process represents critical progress towards a strong contract,' Biden, who has stood behind the striking workers, said in a statement."

~~~~~~~~~~

Colorado. Mead Gruver of the AP: "A judge ripped into a Colorado county clerk for her crimes and lies before sentencing her Thursday to nine years behind bars for a data-breach scheme spawned from the rampant false claims about voting machine fraud in the 2020 presidential race. District Judge Matthew Barrett told former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters -- after earlier sparring with her for continuing to press discredited claims about rigged voting machines -- that she never took her job seriously. 'I am convinced you would do it all over again if you could. You're as defiant as any defendant this court has ever seen,' Barrett told her in handing down the sentence. 'You are no hero. You abused your position and you're a charlatan.' Jurors found Peters guilty in August for allowing a man to misuse a security card to access to the Mesa County election system and for being deceptive about that person's identity. The man was affiliated with My Pillow chief executive Mike Lindell, a prominent promoter of false claims that voting machines were manipulated to steal the election from ... Donald Trump. The discredited claims trace back to Trump himself...." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ You can hear the judge condemning Peters at the top of this video.

Tennessee. Emily Cochrane & Ben Stanley of the New York Times: "Three former Memphis police officers were found guilty on Thursday of federal witness tampering charges in the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man. But all three defendants were acquitted of the more serious charge of violating his civil rights by causing his death. One officer, Demetrius Haley, was convicted on a lesser charge of violating Mr. Nichols's civil rights by causing bodily injury. The three defendants -- Mr. Haley, Tadarrius Bean and Justin Smith -- and two other former officers who pleaded guilty to their role in the violence, still face additional state charges, including second-degree murder."

~~~~~~~~~~

Israel/Palestine, et al. The Washington Post's live updates of developments Friday in Israel's wars is here: "The Israel Defense Forces escalated its offensive in Lebanon, with strikes on Thursday hitting soldiers and medics and pummeling Beirut's southern suburbs. The Israeli military also said it had carried out a separate airstrike in the West Bank targeting the regional head of Hamas in Tulkarm. That assault killed at least 18 people, according to Palestinian officials."

U.K./Mauritius. Noah Keate of Politico: "The U.K. agreed to pass sovereignty of the disputed Chagos Islands to Mauritius after decades of campaigning -- with one big caveat. U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his Mauritian counterpart Pravind Jugnauth hailed a 'seminal moment' Thursday as a political agreement was struck on the future of the islands, which have been called Britain's last African colony and are home to a crucial U.S. and U.K. military base in the Indian Ocean.... The chain of islands in the Indian Ocean includes Diego Garcia -- used by the U.S. government as a base for its navy ships and long-range bomber aircraft. Under the agreement struck Thursday, Diego Garcia itself will remain under U.K. and U.S. jurisdiction for at least the next 99 years to allow the base to keep running."

News Lede

CNBC: "The U.S. economy added far more jobs than expected in September, pointing to a vital employment picture as the unemployment rate edged lower, the Labor Department reported Friday. Nonfarm payrolls surged by 254,000 for the month, up from a revised 159,000 in August and better than the 150,000 Dow Jones consensus forecast. The unemployment rate fell to 4.1%, down 0.1 percentage point."

The Conversation -- October 3, 2024

Mead Gruver of the AP: ?A judge ripped into a Colorado county clerk for her crimes and lies before sentencing her Thursday to nine years behind bars for a data-breach scheme spawned from the rampant false claims about voting machine fraud in the 2020 presidential race. District Judge Matthew Barrett told former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters -- after earlier sparring with her for continuing to press discredited claims about rigged voting machines -- that she never took her job seriously. 'I am convinced you would do it all over again if you could. You're as defiant as any defendant this court has ever seen,' Barrett told her in handing down the sentence. 'You are no hero. You abused your position and you're a charlatan.' Jurors found Peters guilty in August for allowing a man to misuse a security card to access to the Mesa County election system and for being deceptive about that person's identity. The man was affiliated with My Pillow chief executive Mike Lindell, a prominent promoter of false claims that voting machines were manipulated to steal the election from ... Donald Trump. The discredited claims trace back to Trump himself...."

Sickly Old Man Running for Prez* Again. Emily Baumgaertner & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "As a presidential candidate in 2015, Donald J. Trump declined to release his medical records, instead offering a four-paragraph letter from his personal doctor proclaiming that he would be 'the healthiest person ever elected to the presidency.' In 2020, when he was hospitalized with Covid and running for re-election, Mr. Trump's doctors gave minimal information about his condition, which, it emerged later, was far more dire than their public descriptions let on. In 2024, days before becoming the official Republican presidential nominee for the third time, he was grazed by a would-be assassin's bullet, yet his campaign did not hold a briefing on his condition, release hospital records or make the emergency physicians who treated him available for interview. Now, just over a month from an election that could make Mr. Trump, 78, the oldest person ever to serve as president (82 years, 7 months and 6 days when his term would end in January 2029), he is refusing to release even the most basic information about his health."

Maggie Astor of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump said on Wednesday that, if elected again, he would revoke the legal status of tens of thousands of Haitian immigrants who have been the target of false accusations by the former president and his running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, over the past month. Mr. Trump's administration tried to do that during his first term, too, but courts temporarily blocked it, and President Biden's administration renewed the immigrants' status after he took office in 2021. The immigrants in question are living and working in the United States legally through the Temporary Protected Status program, which Congress created in 1990 for people from countries experiencing war, natural disasters or other crises. The Department of Homeland Security designates countries for up to 18 months at a time based on the current conditions, and the designation can be renewed indefinitely. Haiti was initially added in 2010, under President Barack Obama, after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake devastated the country. It has since experienced a major hurricane and a cholera epidemic." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Let us hope Trump's cruel announcement helps those dithering "undecideds" understand that nobody is safe when the Nastiest Turdblossom in the USA is president*, so they'd better vote for Harris.

Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "Melania Trump, the former first lady, said in a video on Thursday that there was 'no room for compromise' on a woman's right to 'individual freedom,' a day after a reported excerpt from her coming memoir said she supported abortion rights. Mrs. Trump's comments landed as ... Donald J. Trump and his party are trying to soften their opposition to abortion, a key issue threatening his support with female voters and his attempt to return to the White House. They were released in a promotional video for a new memoir scheduled for release on Tuesday. Her husband, who opposes federal abortion rights and has taken credit for helping overturn Roe v. Wade, did not immediately comment." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, super-duper. The first lady has no role in government, Trump & elected Republican men think of women as child-producing chattel & Melanie is hardly ever home except maybe when designing blood-red decor for the Christmas party. So I hope all you young women are feeling safe and protected now that the future First Lady in Absentia might have said she supports abortion rights. Think she's gonna rush in to the Oval & tear up the national abortion ban bill while Donald is still in the residence fixing his hair? I don't. ~~~

     ~~~ Steve M.: "Some people might think Melania Trump is going rogue, but this looks like strategy to me[.]... I don't think it's a coincidence that this was timed for just after the vice presidential debate -- J.D. Vance has been much more of an anti-abortion zealot than Donald Trump...." ~~~

     ~~~ Oh, Look, More Strategery. Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "Melania Trump describes in her new memoir how she made her husband ... Donald Trump drop a signature hardline immigration policy under which migrant children were separated from their parents, stoking domestic and international uproar. 'This has to stop,' the former first lady says she told her husband, 'emphasizing the trauma it was causing these families' and seeing him swiftly comply, ending the policy on 20 June 2018." ~~~

~~~ Hadas Gold & Pamela Brown of CNN: "Nearly two months ago, CNN reached out to Melania Trump's book publisher to request an interview with the former first lady ahead of her upcoming memoir. After several exchanges about a possible interview..., Skyhouse Publishing laid out strict terms for an interview and use of material from the book.... On top of that, the agreement stipulated that 'CNN shall pay a licensing fee of two hundred fifty thousand dollars ($250,000).' CNN did not sign the agreement. Days later, after a separate CNN journalist asked Skyhorse Publishing about the exorbitant interview fee, the publisher said it had sent the payment demand by mistake.... Paying a public figure for an interview, especially the spouse of a political candidate, is highly frowned upon in most newsrooms...."

Marcy Wheeler: "John Roberts not only rewrote the Constitution to protect Donald Trump. He forced prosecutors to spend 14 pages arguing that it is not among the job duties of the President of the United States to attack Republicans who've crossed him on Twitter.... This is the all-powerful President John Roberts wants to have. Someone who can sit in his dining room siccing mobs on fellow Republicans.... The 14 pages analyzing mean Tweets follows the analysis of two rally speeches, in which prosecutors first show the January 4 Georgia speech was a campaign event, and then (among other things) lay out the similarity between that speech and Trump's January 6 one. Among the things Trump included in both speeches was an attack on the Supreme Court: '... [Georgia...]: 'I'm not happy with the Supreme Court. They are not stepping up to the plate. They're not stepping up.' Ellipse...: 'I'm not happy with the Supreme Court. They love to rule against me.'... The inclusion of Trump's attacks on them also might get these partisan hacks to think more seriously about the nearly identical exhortations Trump made on Truth Social before they decided to rewrite the Constitution in his favor." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I am convinced that John Roberts' Immunity Ruling for the Ages was his attempt to regain his "relevance." Clarence, Sam & the Three Trump Stooges were going to rule for Trump anyway, so Roberts just wanted to get back in the majority club. He did it with a splash, didn't he? (Maybe a splash of Eau de Roger Taney, but oh well.)

Danielle Douglas-Gabriel of the Washington Post: "A federal judge will allow a temporary restraining order that prevented President Joe Biden from discharging student loan debt for more than 25 million Americans to expire Thursday, clearing the way for the administration to move forward with the plan. The decision delivers a small victory in the Biden administration's ongoing fight to alleviate federal student loan debt..." MB: The reasoning behind the order is complicated, as is what may happen next; you'll just have to read these article. Here's the NBC News story, which may be a tad clearer than the WashPo report, but the underlying facts are still complicated.

~~~~~~~~~~

Presidential Race

We are here for the long haul. -- Kamala Harris, in Augusta, Georgia, Wednesday ~~~

Erica Green of the New York Times: "Vice President Kamala Harris surveyed damage from Hurricane Helene on Wednesday in Georgia, promising residents that the federal government was rushing to help with the recovery.... Standing in front of a house covered in fallen trees in the Meadowbrook neighborhood of Augusta, Ga., Ms. Harris announced that the federal government would cover 100 percent of the costs of debris removal and other emergency protective measures for three months to help the state recover. She described how much of the community did not have power, with many lacking access to water, and how she had met one woman who lost her husband. She called the damage 'extraordinary' and the loss of life 'particularly devastating.' Ms. Harris also met with local officials and received a briefing on recovery efforts, during which she praised emergency responders who were working even amid their own personal struggles...." ~~~

~~~ Chris Megerian, et al., of the AP: "Vice President Kamala Harris handed out meals, embraced a shaken family and surveyed Hurricane Helene's 'extraordinary' path of destruction through Georgia on Wednesday as she left the campaign trail to pledge federal help and personally take in scenes of toppled trees, damaged homes and lives upended. She visited Augusta, where power lines stretched along the sidewalk and utility poles lay cracked and broken.... Harris and President Joe Biden, who visited the Carolinas on Wednesday, were seeking to demonstrate commitment and competence in helping devastated communities after Republican ... Donald Trump's false claims about their administration's response.... Harris also toured a Red Cross relief center and received a briefing from local officials, praising those working to 'meet the needs of people who must be seen and must be heard.'"

Shane Goldmacher & Reid Epstein of the New York Times: "Vice President Kamala Harris has cast herself as a candidate of the future, but she has been yanked back by the problems of the present as the Middle East lurches toward a wider war, a longshoremen's strike threatens to undermine the country's economy and Americans across the Southeast struggle to recover from a deadly hurricane.... The rare moment of turbulence for Ms. Harris interrupts what has been mostly smooth sailing in her two months as the Democratic presidential nominee. It also captures a conundrum of the vice presidency, a prestigious if mostly ceremonial posting.... The overlapping developments just as the calendar turned to October were a reminder that while Ms. Harris has framed her candidacy as a fresh start for the nation, she very much is part of the administration still in charge."

Marin Scotten of Salon ties Trump's cancelling a traditional "60 Minutes" interview to "an especially scattered and hard to follow" press conference Trump gave in Milwaukee Tuesday. "Several of his remarks were unintelligible, including a claim that Democrats want to 'keep Black and Hispanic children trapped in family government.'"

Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "Half an hour into Tuesday night's vice-presidential debate, JD Vance lodged a whiny protest. 'Margaret,' he said to moderator Margaret Brennan of CBS News, 'the rules were that you guys weren't going to fact-check!' It was a lie on top of another lie, supplemented by a pair of other lies, in support of an even bigger lie. There was no 'rule' against fact-checking. And Vance had just told a whopper. He had alleged that, in Springfield, Ohio, 'you've got schools that are overwhelmed, you've got hospitals that are overwhelmed, you have got housing that is totally unaffordable because we brought in millions of illegal immigrants.'... The senator said Harris 'became the appointed border czar.' She received no such appointment.... There is no 'open border.'..., and the thousands of Haitian migrants ... have legal status.... He said 'over $100 billion' of Iranian assets were unfrozen 'thanks to the Kamala Harris administration.'... Kamala Harris isn't the president.... On health care, he served up the howler of the night when he said that Trump 'saved' the 'collapsing' Affordable Care Act.... In reality, of course, Trump tried his best to kill Obamacare.... Vance capped the night by saying that Trump 'peacefully' surrendered power four years ago." (Also linked yesterday.)

JayDee, Junior Scapegoater. Rachel Siegel of the Washington Post: "Throughout Tuesday's vice-presidential debate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) blamed soaring housing costs on a spike in immigration over the past few years -- promising that a crackdown on illegal immigration and 'kicking out illegal immigrants who are competing for those homes' would help affordability.... That claim has been debunked by economists and housing experts, who say that other forces have played a much bigger role in driving up prices and that illegal immigration is not a top reason prices are high. Immigration may be helping to keep rents elevated in some areas, though. Foreign-born workers also make up roughly a third of the construction workforce, a crucial part of the push to build millions of new homes and fix years-long shortages. That means the strict immigration crackdown Vance and ... Donald Trump are proposing could send prices even higher." ~~~

     ~~~ Junior Scapegoater, Ctd. Jasmine Garsd of NPR highlights some more ills that during the debate JayDee blamed on immigrants, such as claiming they lowered U.S. citizens' wages. "Most labor economists disagree with the claim that immigrants depress native-born worker wages.... He falsely claimed guns are smuggled into the U.S. over the border with Mexico (in fact, it's the other way around).... Both candidates spoke about fentanyl as related to immigration, which remains a pervasive myth: Fentanyl is overwhelmingly brought into the U.S. by people crossing legally, through ports of entry. The street supply of fentanyl is also drying up."

Philip Bump of the Washington Post elaborates on a point both Zack Beauchamp of Vox & Will Saletan of the Bulwark made in posts linked here yesterday: that Trump & "his allies are making it clear, repeatedly, that the only outcome they will accept without hesitation is one where he is the victor." Marie: And I am here to remind you that none of this would be an issue if we had direct election of presidents because the difference between the number of votes cast for Harris & for Trump is likely to be in the millions.

⭐ Alan Feuer & Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "In a sprawling legal brief partly unseale on Wednesday, the special counsel, Jack Smith, laid out his case for why ... Donald J. Trump is not immune from prosecution on federal charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 election. The redacted brief, made public by Judge Tanya S. Chutkan of the Federal District Court in Washington, adds new details to the already extensive public record of how Mr. Trump lost the race but attempted nonetheless to cling to power." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ "So What?" Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "The much-anticipated 165-page filing from special counsel Jack Smith offers a searing portrayal of Trump just a month before the 2024 election. It describes in more extensive detail than before how many people -- including Vice President Mike Pence, party and state leaders, his own campaign officials, his own campaign lawyers, and others -- told Trump there was no proof the election was stolen, and how Trump nonetheless waged a campaign to overturn the result. Prosecutors reconstructed behind-the-scenes interactions, including one in which an aide rushed to the dining room to share with Trump, who had been watching the events on TV and tweeting, that action was being taken to ensure the safety of Pence, who was in the Capitol building. 'The defendant looked at him and said only, the filing alleges." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Katelyn Polantz, et al., of CNN: "The 165-page document comes from Smith"s office and is the fullest accounting yet of evidence in the election subversion case against Trump. Throughout the document, Smith argues that the actions Trump took to overturn the election were in his private capacity -- as a candidate -- rather than in his official capacity, as a president.... The filing weaves together what prominent witnesses told a federal grand jury and the FBI about Trump, along with other never-before-disclosed evidence investigators gathered about the former president's actions leading up to and on January 6, 2021." (Also linked yesterday.)

When the defendant lost the 2020 presidential election, he resorted to crimes to try to stay in office. -- Motion for Immunity Determinations, p. 3

Under the Constitution, the Executive Branch has no constitutionally assigned role in the state-electoral process. To the contrary, the constitutional framework excludes the President from that process to protect against electoral abuses. -- Motion, p. 111 ~~~

     ⭐ ~~~ The motion is here. (Via CNN.) (Also linked yesterday.) MB: I found this CBS News copy of the motion to be more easily searchable. ~~~

     ~~~ Melissa Quinn & Robert Legare of CBS News have a "key takeaways" report here. It summarizes a good deal of detail that appears in the motion. ~~~

     ~~~ "So What," "Make Them Riot," "It Doesn't Matter if You Won or Lost the Election." Aaron Blake of the Washington Post analyzes the impact of some of the evidence which the motion newly makes public. Dan Friedman of Mother Jones also has a good summary of the new evidence in the motion and its significance. ~~~

     ~~~ Rachel Maddow said on-air that even though she knew much of the detail laid out in the motion, Smith's narrative put it together for her in a way that others had not. (Without citing chapter & verse), she gave as an example of this passage on p. 81: "The defendant issued the incendiary Tweet about Pence despite knowing -- as he would later admit in an interview in 2023 -- that his supporters 'listen to [him] like no one else.' One minute later, at 2:25 p.m., the Secret Service was forced to evacuate Pence to a secure location." You don't need to be a genius to suspect cause-and-effect here. ~~~

     ~~~ "Accessories After the Fact." Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "It's infuriating to be reminded in such detail about the behavior that the Republicans on the Supreme Court sought to immunize, particularly since any 'opinion for the ages' horseshit notwithstanding the opinion was clearly tailored to provide the broadest possible immunity for specifically for Trump's attempt to violently steal the election. John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Sam Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett are all full in knowing accessories after the fact to the Plot Against America." Lemieux republishes a portion of Rick Hasen's firewalled Slate essay, noting that "Hasen observes that Jack Smith's brief is as much an indictment of John Roberts and the Dred Scott of the 21st century as it is of Trump."

Marie: Speaking of "searing portraits" of Trump, RAS shares this one. It is not a portrait that will come as a surprise to you, but it is a second-hand account that puts meat on the bones of many an article we've linked about Trump's stiffing contractors.

Marie: Two days ago, I linked to a New York Times story that reported, "In his remarks, the former president repeatedly said that he had come bearing gifts to help the disaster response: semitrailer trucks filled with relief supplies and a tanker of gas, distributed by the evangelical Christian humanitarian aid group Samaritan's Purse. Still, as he underlined his contributions to the storm response...." So just maybe that left you with the impression that Trump had at least dug into his campaign coffers, if not his personal piggy bank, to bring along rolls of paper towels to lob at desperate residents. In fact, Trump, his campaign and some right-wing media outfits also left that impression, if they didn't say so unequivocally. BUT NO. According to J.D. Wolf of MeidasTouch Network (a partisan liberal site), it appears that Franklin Graham's outfit Samaritan's Purse was wholly responsible for buying, packing, delivering & distributing the truckloads of relief supplies.

digby -- with help from Chris Hayes (I got a virus-warning message on the link to Hayes' article); Rick Perlstein, writing in the American Prospect, & psychologist Julie Hotard, writing on X -- examines the mindset of the "undecided voter." They are not, as journalists repeatedly tell us, dithering over whether they like Trump's healthcare plan (oops! he doesn't have one quite yet) or Harris's reproductive rights policies. Nope, the "undecided voter" is trying to decide between falling into the fascist fantasy that Trump will protect them and ... reality. ~~~

     ~~~ And Paul Campos, in LG&$, highlights this coda to Perlstein's essay: "I certainly don't disagree that Trump is becoming more cognitively impaired and out of touch with reality. But might not these impairments render him a better fascist seducer, as his invitations to infantile regression become ever more primal, ever more basic, ever more pure?" Campos: "This is disturbingly plausible. In other words, Trump's decompensation is allowing him, either consciously or semi-consciously or even unconsciously, to deliver the uncut version of the ideological meth he;s been selling for nine and a half years now." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I disagree with the original premise though I go along with the idea that Trump's own infantalism may be exceptionally appealing to the infantile undecided voters. Still, I think every voter -- including the vast majority of us "decided voters" -- is looking for a protector. Most of us are realistic, many to the point of cynacism, about just how much protection we'll actually get. But what divvies us into right and left camps is the question of just what the dangers are -- that is, what we need protection from. As JayDee amply demonstrated, people on the right seem to think they need protection from immigrants, for instance. Or from overreaching government that would take away their guns and make them wear protective gear in certain situations. Or from taxes. Those of us on the left want protection from overreaching government, too, but the difference is where the government is doing its overreach: into the doctor's office? Into our bedrooms? Onto the streets where we're peacefully protesting? Into our libraries? We also want protection from the natural & periodic vicissitudes: hunger, unaffordable shelter, illness, old age. We want protection from bad actors -- like gunslingers and crooks -- as well as from physical dangers -- and inhospitable surroundings -- like crappy bridges & roads, not to mention climate-change-induced catastrophic weather events.

Zach Montague & Jacey Fortin of the New York Times: "President Biden on Wednesday took an aerial tour of the devastation from Hurricane Helene and ordered the Pentagon to deploy up to 1,000 active-duty troops to assist with aid efforts as rescue workers continued dangerous rescue missions in remote mountain communities. Mr. Biden's visit to the Carolinas came as the death toll from the storm rose to more than 17 people on Wednesday, making Helene the deadliest hurricane to strike the mainland United States since Katrina, which caused nearly 1,400 deaths in 2005, according to statistics from the National Hurricane Center." (Also linked yesterday.)

~~~~~~~~~~

Israel/Palestine, et al.

The Washington Post's live updates of developments Thursday in Israel's wars are here: "An Israeli airstrike in Beirut's Bachoura neighborhood killed six people and injured seven others, Lebanon's Health Ministry said. It was the second and deadliest airstrike inside the capital since Israel's conflict with Hezbollah began. The late-night strike hit the office of the Islamic Health Authority, a health services institution run by Hezbollah, and paramedics were among the casualties, an IHA spokesperson said. The Israel Defense Forces said it conducted a 'precise strike' in Beirut. In southern Lebanon, Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants engaged in what appeared to be their first direct ground confrontations." ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times' live updates for Thursday are here.

Yasmeen Abutaleb, et al., of the Washington Post: "The White House is working to limit the Israeli response to the barrage of ballistic missiles that Iran fired into the country Tuesday, as some U.S. officials worry the Middle East could be edging closer to the all-out war that President Joe Biden has sought to prevent for nearly a year.