The Conversation -- September 2, 2024
Patrick Kingsley, et al., of the New York Times: "Brushing aside pleas from allies and the demands of Israeli protesters for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza in exchange for the release of hostages, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Monday vowed to maintain Israeli control along the border between Egypt and Gaza, a contentious plan that appeared to dim, if not dash, prospects for a truce. In his first news conference since the bodies of six slain hostages were recovered over the weekend, Mr. Netanyahu told reporters on Monday night that, to ensure its security, Israel needed to assert control over the Gazan side of the border with Egypt, known as the Philadelphi Corridor, calling it the lifeline of Hamas."
Robert Tait of the Guardian: "Donald Trump has drawn ridicule and accusations of hypocrisy after accusing Kamala Harris of mistreating Mike Pence.... 'In a stunning senile moment, Donald Trump just suggested it was Kamala Harris who treated Mike Pence poorly,' the campaign posted on X, linking to video footage of Trump's comments. 'Donald Trump clearly cannot remember anything...'." Related story linked below. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Tait covers a few other recent, related news items. One of them is this: "Speaking to CNN last week..., Harris ... confirmed to interviewer Dana Bash that she and and the former president have never met." There's a reason for that: Donald Trump didn't show up at the Biden-Harris inauguration because "peaceful transfer of power," as we know, was the furthest thing from his twisted mind on January 20, 2021. (For one thing, he was busy stuffing his shorts with classified documents.)
Sara Powers of CBS News Detroit: "Vice President Kamala Harris is visiting Detroit on Labor Day to speak with labor union leaders and workers, her campaign announced. During the event, Harris touted her record of putting workers first and showed her support for union members throughout her speech." MB: Labor Day is traditionally the day general elections kick off. So Powers notes that Tim Walz would appear in Milwaukee for Labor Day, and Doug Emhoff would attend an event in Newport News, Virginia. Donald Trump? Too tired. Taking the day off at Mar-a-Lardo.
Natasha Korecki & Monica Alba of NBC News: "President Joe Biden on Monday said he did not think Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had done enough to secure a hostage deal between Israel and Hamas, a comment that comes amid massive protests in Israel.... Reporters asked Biden if he thought Netanyahu had done enough to secure an agreement, and the president answered: 'No.' The Biden administration has repeatedly accused Hamas of holding up a deal, but recently U.S. and foreign officials have said conditions introduced by Netanyahu also disrupted efforts."
Jack Nicas of the New York Times: "A panel of Brazilian Supreme Court justices voted on Monday to uphold a decision by one justice last week to block the social network X across the country because its owner, Elon Musk, refused to comply with court orders to suspend certain accounts. The five-justice panel voted unanimously to back the order, issuing strongly worded opinions saying that the blackout of X complied with Brazilian law and that it was necessary to enforce the nation's rules against a foreign company that was flouting them."
Eleanor Tarrett of Fox Business: "'The "Justice For All Gala" event [-- a fundraiser for January 6 insurrectionists --] scheduled at Trump National Bedminster for September 5th has been postponed due to scheduling conflicts of invited guest speakers,' event organizer L.J. Fino said in a statement to Fox Business." The event will take place at an unspecified day after the November election. MB: Donald Trump was expected to attend the event, according to the report, so its likely he is one of those "invited guest speakers" who had "scheduling conflicts." Perhaps his campaign staff convinced him that shilling for criminals was not a good look for a general election candidate for president*.
Marcy Wheeler highlights "the soft bigotry of no expectations" for Trump that is evident in a Washington Post editorial Patrick noticed yesterday. MB: Wheeler focuses on the same thing that bugged me. She writes, "... even though WaPo can identify more policy proposals from Kamala than Trump, it nevertheless holds her accountable for providing more.... Trump has been running for 21 months; his campaign is more than 90% over. The Vice President has been running 43 days; her campaign still has almost 60% to go. And yet they're putting demands on the woman in the race, making no such demand on the white male former President. The press has gone 21 months without throwing this kind of tantrum with Donald Trump. Given that, this column says more about the failures of journalists to hold Trump accountable than it does any shortcoming on Kamala's part."
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Labor Day Strike. Lauren Gurley & Julian Mark of the Washington Post: "Thousands of hotel workers in major cities across the country walked off the job Sunday morning in a strike wave expected to quickly reach other U.S. cities. The initial strikes, which involve mostly Hilton, Marriott and Hyatt properties, will last three days. More than 10,000 workers walked out at hotels in San Francisco, San Jose, San Diego, Honolulu, Kauai, Boston, Seattle and Greenwich, Conn., early in the day.... The union, [United Here,] which suffered major losses in membership during the height of the pandemic, says its workers are striking for higher pay, increased staffing and reduced workloads." The AP's story is here.
Presidential Race
Kellen Browning & Talya Minsberg of the New York Times: "On Sunday, [Minneosta Gov. Tim] Walz was back ... [at] the Minnesota State Fair. He chomped on a pork chop on a stick. He admired the dairy princess butter carvings. He handed out ice cream at the Dairy Goodness Bar counter and waved at the crowd, which was eager for a glimpse -- or a selfie -- with the governor, who, for once, got to eschew the formal suit and tie for his more comfortable T-shirt and Carhartt pants. It could have been just another one of Mr. Walz's many state fair appearances over the years, where he has burnished his profile as an approachable Midwestern dad by wearing socks with a corn-dog pattern and riding the Slingshot, a nausea-inducing ride, with his daughter, Hope Walz. Except for the presence of the Secret Service. And the motorcade that whisked him to and from the fair. And the officers stationed on the roof of the dairy building for an aerial view of the crowd, which was clamoring to see the man who has a chance this November to complete a meteoric rise from little-known Midwestern governor to vice president." ~~~
David Gilmour of Mediaite: "... Donald Trump blasted Vice President Kamala Harris as 'nasty' and accused her of treating his former vice president, Mike Pence, 'horribly.' Trump made the remarks to host Mark Levin during a Sunday Fox News interview ... and took aim at Harris's conduct during the 2020 vice presidential debate. He specifically pointed to the moment when Harris firmly told Pence, 'Mr. Vice President, I'm speaking. I'm speaking,' after he interrupted her -- a line that resonated widely at the time." ~~~
~~~ Marie: I'm trying to put myself in mike pence's shoes and decide what I would rate as more "horrible": (a) someone calling me out for interrupting her, or (b) my boss targeting me for assassination by hanging. Ah, it's a close call. ~~~
~~~ Phillip Nieto of Mediaite: "Donald Trump claimed God believes he will 'straighten out' the United States following the assassination attempt against him. During an interview..., host Mark Levin asked Trump if he has become more committed to God after the failed assassination attempt against his life.... Trump responded to Levin by saying he believes God wants him back in the White House, adding that the 'country is just broken.'" MB: It does kinda sound as if Trump figures God needs Trump more than Trump needs God.
Gabe Guitierrez of NBC News: "President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were not invited to Arlington National Cemetery by Gold Star families last week to commemorate the third anniversary of the attack at Abbey Gate, a White House official and a Harris aide told NBC News, refuting separate claims made Sunday by GOP Sen. Tom Cotton and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard.... [Cotton and Gabbard criticized Biden and Harris. Trump] said he didn't initiate the [thumbs-up] photo, adding: 'While I was there, I didn't ask for a picture. While I was there, they said, "Sir, could we have a picture at the grave?"'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: This is no excuse. The families do not have the authority to direct or invite anyone to violate the law or impinge upon the privacy and dignity of other fallen service members and their loved ones. ~~~
~~~ They're Only Pawns in His Game. Chris Cameron of the New York Times: "The partisan dispute over Arlington National Cemetery escalated on Sunday when the campaign of former President Donald J. Trump published statements from family members of slain U.S. troops attacking Vice President Kamala Harris after she criticized Mr. Trump for politicizing the cemetery.... Family members of 7 of the 13 U.S. troops killed by a suicide bombing at Abbey Gate [signed the statement].... It made no reference to the altercation with the cemetery official, nor the insults directed against her afterward. It also made no mention of concerns by the family of a Green Beret -- as well as the Green Beret Foundation, a veterans' charity -- about the Trump campaign filming his gravesite....
“[This] was the latest effort by the Trump campaign to defend itself after a physical altercation between a Trump aide and a cemetery official that was triggered by the campaign defying a ban on political campaigning at the Arlington cemetery in Virginia during Mr. Trump's visit last week.... Mr. Trump and his campaign also posted videos from the family members on social media that similarly attacked Ms. Harris and praised Mr. Trump, and on Sunday evening published a campaign ad that included those remarks." ~~~
~~~ Cleve Wootson, et al., of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump's campaign aimed to turn the controversy over his actions last week at Arlington National Cemetery into an attack on Vice President Kamala Harris this weekend, after she said the former president 'disrespected sacred ground, all for the sake of a political stunt.'... House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) announced that Congress will honor the 13 American service members killed in the attack by presenting their families with the Congressional Gold Medal on Sept. 10.... The ceremony, and remarks by a bevy of Republican lawmakers, will take place at the U.S. Capitol Rotunda the same day as the presidential debate between Harris and Trump." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Say what? Congress voted to award these service members the Congressional Gold Medal in November 2021 and President Biden signed the bill in December 2021. Why has it taken Congress almost three years to present the medal? And maybe this would be an appropriate place to mention that the suicide bomber who killed these service members, 170 Afghan civilians and wounded many others was one of the 5,000 imprisoned Taliban (and ISIS-K) soldiers Donald Trump had ordered released, according to Ayman Mohyeldin of MSNBC.
The Hermeneutics of The Weave. Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times reports on what Donald Trump is now calling "the weave," "... it is difficult to find the hermeneutic methods with which to parse the linguistic flights that take him from electrocuted sharks to Hannibal Lecter's cannibalism, windmills and Rosie O'Donnell." McCreesh tried to find out which English professor friends of Trump told him that his meandering, disjointed, erratic speech patterns were "the most brilliant thing they'd ever seen." No luck. "'I highly doubt that Donald Trump has any English professor friends,' said Timothy O'Brien, a Trump biographer. 'What this really reflects is that he is aware of the criticism that he is publicly saying nonlinear, nonsensical word salad, and he is trying to pretend there is a strategy or logic behind it when there isn't.'... James Shapiro..., a renowned [Columbia U.] Shakespeare scholar, ruminated about Mr. Trump's use of the word: 'I read Trump's comment bragging that "I do the weave." I take him at his word, as one of the Oxford English Dictionary definitions of "weave" is 'to pursue a devious course.'" ~~~
~~~ Yesterday, Akhilleus wrote, "'The Weave' sounds like the weft is missing the warp. Or maybe it's just warp by itself." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Maybe you think writing about "The Hermeneutics of the Weave" is beyond ridiculous. Hard to argue with. But if you've ever attended an MLA (Modern Language Association) convention, you will know that "The Hermeneutics of the Weave" will not only be the title of at least one new Ph.D. dissertation, it will be the subject of a session at the convention.
Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "It looks like Rich Lowry is getting the same tingly feeling that he did the last time a Republican candidate made a disastrous vice presidential pick. [The Daily Beast reports]: 'Rich Lowry, editor-in-chief of the conservative National Review, told a bemused Chris Wallace in a Saturday appearance on CNN that Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance has essentially run a perfect campaign.... Lowry first granted Vance 'obviously did have a rocky introduction to national life.'... Lowry continued to note that Vance is, 'not necessarily the most warm and fuzzy campaigner, but he a is proven tireless, fearless, really effective spokesman for this ticket.' In a moment of truly-limber talking head contortion, he then asserted that Vance 'as far as I can tell, has not had one misstep.'... My theory remains that Vance wasn't so much a failure to do extensive vetting as Republican elites having no idea what they sound like to normal people."
Praveena Somasundaram of the Washington Post: "Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ... is suing the North Carolina State Board of Elections to get his name taken off the state's November ballot. Kennedy, who fought legal battles to remain on the North Carolina ballot, said last month that he would remove his name from battleground state ballots so as not to swing the election in Vice President Kamala Harris's favor. But last week, the North Carolina State Board of Elections rejected Kennedy's request to be taken off the ballot, saying it would 'not be practical' to reprint ballots in time for the start of absentee voting on Sept. 6.... Kennedy still remains on three battleground ballots: Michigan, Wisconsin and North Carolina. In Michigan and Wisconsin, a nominated and qualified candidate cannot be removed from the ballot unless they die." ~~~
~~~ Marie: I definitely think Kennedy should place the head of some dead animal in the beds of a few Elections Board members so's they get the message. If he doesn't feel like doing it himself, I'm sure his new BFF Donald has some made men who would do the job.
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Margaret Sullivan, after speaking with former New York Times reporter James Risen, deplores the Times' both-sider report in which the authors liken Harris's plans to ease the housing crisis to Trump's "plan" to ensure more available housing stock: deport tens of millions of people. Risen at first thought the report was meant to be parody. Sullivan: Stories like this run rampant in the Times, and far beyond.... [The Times'] politics coverage often seems broken and clueless -- or even blatantly pro-Trump.... Nearly 10 years after Trump declared his candidacy in 2015, the media has not figured out how to cover him.... And what's more -- what's worse -- they don't seem to want to change. Editors and reporters, with a few exceptions, really don't see the problem as they normalize Trump." (Also linked yesterday.)
Faiz Siddiqui of the Washington Post: "Though the billionaire [Elon Musk] tapped his vast wealth to cover the lion's share of the $44 billion purchase price [of Twitter] in 2022, he also relied on bank loans and a long list of investors.... Based on a Washington Post analysis using Fidelity's estimates, the eight largest initial investments that were reported to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission or otherwise publicly disclosed are worth about $5 billion less than when Musk bought X. His and his partners' overall stake has shed $24 billion in value -- a vaporization of wealth that has little parallel outside the realm of economic or industry-specific crashes, or devastating corporate scandals.... Among those shouldering the burden: Saudi and Qatari business leaders and royalty; Silicon Valley venture capital and tech investors; and Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey. Musk took out loans to cover the rest of the deal, borrowing more than $12 billion that banks have not been able to offload, news outlets have reported." ~~~
~~~ Marie: My heart is just breaking for these unlucky duckies.
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New Hampshire. Amanda Holpuch of the New York Times: "A New Hampshire man was sentenced to more than two years in prison for his role in the harassment and intimidation of New Hampshire Public Radio journalists whose homes were vandalized after the radio station published a story that was critical of a local businessman. The man, Tucker Cockerline, 33, of Salem, N.H., was sentenced on Aug. 27 in federal court in Boston to 27 months in prison and three years of supervised release, the U.S. attorney's office for Massachusetts said on Thursday. Mr. Cockerline was part of a group of men who spray-painted vulgar and threatening language on the homes of a reporter, her parents and her editor, prosecutors said. The men also threw rocks and bricks through the windows of some of the homes. Three other men -- Eric Labarge, Michael Waselchuck and Keenan Saniatan -- have been indicted in connection to the harassment.... The harassment began after New Hampshire Public Radio published a story in March 2022 that detailed allegations of sexual misconduct against Eric Spofford, who had owned the state's largest network of drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers.... Mr. Spofford filed a defamation lawsuit against New Hampshire Public Radio but a judge dismissed the case in December 2023."
Texas. Arelis Hernández & Molly Hennessy-Fiske of the Washington Post: "... a pattern ... has emerged in Texas under [state attorney general Ken] Paxton [R]: Aggressive prosecutions for alleged election fraud crimes that upend lives but result in few cases that go to trial and end in a conviction.... Civil rights groups say the charges tend to target Black or Latino voters and volunteers, many of whom are Democrats. The result has been a chilling effect on volunteers and community groups that for decades have worked to increase turnout in a state with one of the nation's lowest voter participation rates.... 'The goal isn't to get a conviction,' said Chad Dunn, legal director of the UCLA Voting Rights Project, who has defended Texan clients against election-fraud claims and won a 2021 case that curbed the attorney general's prosecutorial power. 'It's to set up a climate of fear around voting. He uses these witch hunts to gain attention and money.'"
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Israel/Palestine, et al.
Yasmeen Abutaleb & John Hudson of the Washington Post: "U.S. officials said President Joe Biden's months-long push for a cease-fire and hostage-release deal faced renewed urgency on Sunday after Israeli forces recovered the bodies of six hostages, including Israeli American Hersh Goldberg-Polin. The United States has been talking to Egypt and Qatar about the contours of a final "take it or leave it" deal that it plans to present to the parties in the coming weeks -- one that, if the two sides fail to accept it, could mark the end of the American-led negotiations, according to a senior administration official...."
Tia Goldenberg of the AP: "A rare call for a general strike in Israel to protest the failure to return hostages held in Gaza led to closures and other disruptions around the country on Monday, including at its main international airport.... Hundreds of thousands of Israelis poured into the streets late Sunday in grief and anger after six hostages were found dead in Gaza. The families and much of the public blamed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying they could have been returned alive in a deal with Hamas to end the nearly 11-month-old war. But others support Netanyahu's strategy of maintaining military pressure on Hamas, whose Oct. 7 attack into Israel triggered the war. They say it will force the militants to give in to Israeli demands, potentially facilitate rescue operations and ultimately annihilate the group."
Germany. Kate Brady & Anthony Faiola of the Washington Post: "Projections in Germany's closely watched elections Sunday showed the anti-migrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party leading in one state and running a close second in another, a result that, if confirmed by official tallies, would see a far-right party win a state for the first time in the country's postwar history."
Hungary. Heidi Przybyla & Nicholas Vinocur of Politico highlight the growing influence of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in Europe and the U.S. "Of any foreign leader, [Donald] Trump is arguably closest to Orbán. He calls Orbán his 'friend' and a 'great man.' In accepting the GOP nomination in Milwaukee, Trump singled out Orbán as a 'very tough man' and noted that Orbán credits him for keeping world peace because everybody 'was afraid' of Trump.... While many of the overtures [by organizations allied with Orbán] to U.S. conservatives are ostensibly about policies like global migration and promoting religious values, the message often quickly turns to pro-Russian foreign policy goals. They include curbing Western support for Ukraine and, implicitly, weakening support for NATO.... Last month, Orbán publicly claimed to be helping the Trump campaign to draft policy.... The Heritage Foundation, whose president, Kevin Roberts, calls Orbán's leadership a 'model for conservative governance,' has openly lobbied for influence in a future Trump administration through its Project 2025 and played a lead role in lobbying Congress to end congressional funding to Ukraine."
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