The Conversation -- September 11, 2024

Caitlin Emma & Olivia Beavers of Politico: "House GOP leaders pulled their six-month stopgap funding plan on Wednesday, hours before a scheduled floor vote. Facing a number of Republican holdouts, Speaker Mike Johnson said they'll delay the vote until next week as they work to quell Republican opposition and 'build consensus.'"

Jennifer Peltz & Karen Matthews of the AP: "With presidential candidates looking on, some 9/11 victims' relatives appealed to them Wednesday for accountability as the U.S. marked an anniversary laced with election-season politics. In a remarkable tableau, President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris stood together at ground zero just hours after Trump and Harris faced off in their first-ever debate. Trump and Biden -- the successor whose inauguration Trump skipped -- shook hands, and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg appeared to facilitate a handshake between Harris and Trump. Then the campaign rivals stood only a few feet (meters) apart, Biden and Bloomberg between them, as the hourslong reading of victims' names began. At Trump's side was his running mate, Sen. JD Vance."

Nahal Toosi of Politico in Politico Magazine: "By the time the debate was over, several foreign officials from both U.S. allies and more neutral countries told me they felt more confident that [Kamala] Harris could handle the tricky personalities she'd encounter while in the world's most powerful job. 'Composed, authoritative, and presidential,' one European diplomat raved.... Her ability to manage Trump offered assurance that she could navigate tough personal relationships. Given that international relations often come down to the nature of personal relations, this matters."

CNN anchors & others analyze the Harris-Trump debate:

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Presidential Race

Okay, so Kamala Harris pulled off the best debate performance in history. But let's get to the big news! ~~~

     ~~~ Daniel Arkin of NBC News: "Pop superstar Taylor Swift endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris' presidential candidacy Tuesday night after the high-stakes debate. 'I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election,' Swift said in a post on Instagram. 'I;m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them. I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos. I was so heartened and impressed by her selection of running mate @timwalz, who has been standing up for LGBTQ+ rights, IVF, and a woman's right to her own body for decades." ~~~

     ~~~ Nicholas Nehamas, et al., of the New York Times: "The endorsement by [Taylor] Swift, delivered minutes after [Vice President] Harris and Mr. Trump had stepped off the debate stage in Philadelphia, offers Ms. Harris an unrivaled celebrity backer and a tremendous shot of adrenaline to her campaign, especially with the younger voters she has been trying to attract.... She signed her post as 'Childless Cat Lady,' a reference to comments made by Mr. Trump's running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, about women without children. The photo that accompanied her post showed her holding a furry feline, Benjamin Button, her pet Ragdoll." ~~~

~~~ Maybe you thought the Creep of the Night Prize should go to Trump. Nope: ~~~

     ~~~ Charlie Nash of Mediaite: "... Elon Musk offered to impregnate Taylor Swift on Tuesday after she endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris. Less than two hours after Swift endorsed Harris for president and signed her endorsement with, 'Taylor Swift, Childless Cat Lady' -- a dig at ... Donald Trump"'s running mate JD Vance -- Musk penned a bizarre proposal to the pop star on ... X. 'Fine Taylor ... you win,' wrote Musk, who has fathered twelve children. 'I will give you a child and guard your cats with my life.'"

Lisa Lerer & Reid Epstein of the New York Times: "From the opening moments of her first debate against Donald J. Trump, Kamala Harris craftily exploited her opponent's biggest weakness ...: his ego.... Ms. Harris questioned the size and loyalty of the crowds at his rallies. She said world leaders call him a 'disgrace.' And she claimed his fortune was built by his father, recasting a business mogul who proudly boasts of being a self-made man as just another nepotism baby. Then she stood by and watched, as Mr. Trump did himself a whole lot of damage. In answer after answer, the former president reminded Americans of his role in so much of what many would rather forget: the deadly and devastating pandemic, his refusal to accept the results of the 2020 election, a bloody siege on the U.S. Capitol and the fall of Roe v. Wade. He lingered on his criminal charges and praised Viktor Orban, the strongman leader of Hungary. He defended a false claim that migrants in Ohio are eating their neighbors' dogs and cats and recycled years-old anti-abortion attack lines that Democrats supported 'execution after birth.'... He's the former reality television star, but she clearly understood the power of the medium. Her expression was her rebuttal." Here's an ABC News highlights video:

     ~~~ If you want to watch the full debate (which is not painful!), YouTube video is here. ABC News has a transcript of the debate here.

Matt Flegenheimer of the New York Times: "... in an evening rife with missed opportunities and curious rabbit holes for Mr. Trump, [there] was the exchange where he seemed to lose his way -- the temptation he could not resist, no matter how many allies might have hoped he could hear their pleas to double back.... 'I'm going to actually do something really unusual,' she said, addressing the audience at home. 'I'm going to invite you to attend one of Donald Trump's rallies. Because it's a really interesting thing to watch.' Smirking, provoking, Ms. Harris ticked through some common Trump digressions, like windmills and the fictional killer Hannibal Lecter. Mr. Trump's eyes narrowed, and his head cocked to the left. 'And what you will also notice,' she said, as Mr. Trump bobbed a bit, pendulum-like, 'is that people start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom.... The one thing you will not hear him talk about is you.'...

"As ... David Muir strained to redirect the conversation..., he was not interested. 'First, let me respond as to the rallies ....'... When Mr. Trump was done litigating his rally crowds ('We have the biggest rallies, the most incredible rallies in the history of politics') and conspiracy-casting about hers ('People don't go to her rallies -- there's no reason to go -- and the people that do go, she's busing them in and paying them to be there'), he turned to a widely debunked yarn about Haitian immigrants in Ohio abducting and feasting on their neighbors' pets. 'They're eating the dogs!' he said. 'The people that came in -- they're eating the cats!'"

Oh, Dear. When You've Lost Lindsey.... Igor Bobic of the Huffington Post: "Conservative pundits acknowledged on Tuesday that Vice President Kamala Harris got the better of former President Donald Trump in Tuesday's presidential debate in Philadelphia, citing her success in getting under his skin. 'Let's make no mistake. Trump had a bad night,' Fox News host Brit Hume said.... 'She was exquisitely well-prepared, she laid traps, and he chased every rabbit down every hole,' added former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), who often appears as a commentator on ABC News. 'Whoever prepared Donald Trump should be fired. He was not good tonight at all,' Christie said.... 'Trump lost the debate, and whining about the moderators doesn't change it,' conservative radio host Erick Erickson wrote on X.... Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) ... said afterward that the former president's debate team should be fired and that Trump was unprepared, calling the debate a 'disaster,' according to The Bulwark's Tim Miller."

John Harris of Politico in Politico Magazine: Vice President Harris "plainly used her long days of debate prep in a Pittsburgh hotel to compile a rich anthology of taunts, putdowns and derisive one-liners against ... Donald Trump.... He responded to her jabs in detail, and thereby let her drive the agenda for the evening. He raised his voice and scowled.... While Harris was coached up to her eyeballs, Trump was improvisational to the point of incontinence.... By any conventional measure of debates, she won the debate by getting him to do most of her work."

David Firestone of the New York Times: After the first 10 minutes of the debate, during which Donald Trump managed to contain himself, "he descended from a discussion of tariffs into a description of immigrants -- one he returned to over and over again during the evening -- that could only be described as a form of nativist hysteria.... The debate was an unqualified success for Harris not just because she was able to define herself and her plans but also because she was able to push a few buttons and let Trump show off his truest self."

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post has some takeaways from the debate: "1. Harris successfully made it all about Trump -- and he struggled.... 2. Trump's fire hose of falsehoods.... 3. Harris delivered an impassioned case on abortion.... 4. Trump was all about undocumented immigrants and migrant crime[.]"

Nathaniel Weixel of the Hill: "Former President Trump said during Tuesday night's debate he was interested in trying to repeal ObamaCare again, but indicated he doesn't have a plan to replace it. 'We are working on things. We're going to do it. We're going to replace it,' Trump said.... 'I have concepts of a plan. I'm not president right now,' Trump said." MB: The MSNBC panel thought "concepts of a plan" was a mighty hilarious copout.

Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times: In the context of 105 minutes of fierce debate in Philadelphia, exchanges "in which ABC News moderators David Muir & Linsey Davis fact-checked Donald Trump] were fleeting. But they signaled a shift -- for an evening, at least -- in the balance of power between Mr. Trump and the many journalists who have struggled, or stopped trying, to construct factual guardrails around the bombardment of baseless claims that he regularly unleashes on live TV. Using calm and authoritative tones, Mr. Muir and Ms. Davis offered a model for real-time fact-checking that has been absent from many recent presidential debates. Mr. Trump's apocalyptic portrait of an America besieged by migrant crime was met by Mr. Muir&'s polite reply: 'As you know, the F.B.I. says overall violent crime is coming down in this country.' 'They didn't include the cities with the worst crime! It was a fraud!' Mr. Trump retorted. 'President Trump, thank you,' said Mr. Muir, before moving on.... Donald J. Trump Jr., in a social media post, referred to the moderators as 'hacks.' On Fox News, the partisan host Laura Ingraham declared that 'ABC's goal tonight was to help Kamala Harris' and Sean Hannity called ABC News 'the biggest loser in the debate.'" ~~~

     ~~~ David Bauder of the AP: "In an illustration of how difficult it is to conduct a presidential debate in a polarized country, ABC News moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis fact-checked and corrected Trump four times Tuesday and were attacked angrily by the former president and his supporters. Trump, shortly after he left the stage in Philadelphia, sent out a message on his social media platform: 'I thought that was my best debate, EVER, especially since it was THREE ON ONE!'" MB: News for Donnie & Junior & Laura & Sean: "Trump logged 43 minutes and 3 seconds of time talking, while Harris had 37 minutes and 41 seconds, according to a count by The New York Times." So the idea that the moderators favored Harris over Trump is nonsense. She just didn't lie like the rug on Trump's head. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: It appears to me that Trump truly thinks it's unfa-a-a-air when someone calls out his lies. He believes he should be allowed to win a debate or dominate a conversation by simply telling effective lies -- like Haitian immigrants are eating your dog. And if someone says that's not true (as Muir did), then Trump follows up with, "They're eating your cat!" And when even that, for some odd reason, doesn't work, he provides a "source": "I saw it on TV!" Many people complained about Jake Tapper and Dana Bash who "moderated" the CNN debate between Biden and Trump but refused to do even a teensy bit of fact-checking. You really see what a difference it makes to have, you know, a couple of journalists weigh in with facts from time to time. (And of course it makes a tremendous difference to have an opponent who cleans your clock and laughs at your lies.) ~~~

~~~ Judy Berman of Time: "Whereas the moderators of the earlier debate, CNN's Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, faced widespread criticism for letting such flagrant falsehoods go uncorrected, [Linsey] Davis and ... David Muir repeatedly fact-checked responses in real time and asked follow-up questions when necessary.... Davis and Muir's fact-checks were sporadic but effective, tamping down Trump's most egregious inventions.... Fact-checking, following up, and holding candidates accountable for past statements are the bare minimum that news organizations hosting televised presidential debates must do to ensure that such spectacles are useful to --rather than just mildly entertaining meme fodder for -- the American public."

Charlie Nash of Mediaite: "A whopping 63% of those who watched the ABC News presidential debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris told CNN on Tuesday that Harris won the debate.... CNN political director David Chalian said 37% said Trump had won.

New York Times reporters live-updated the presidential debate. Here are some excerpts:

Jess Bidgood: "Harris made a point of introducing herself by name. It's a reminder to viewers that this is the first time she and Trump are meeting." [MB: Because Trump didn't attend President Biden's & Vice President Harris's inauguration.]

Maggie Haberman: "So far, Harris appears to have irritated Trump and he sounds defensive, responding to what she's said or moderators have said instead of delivering his own message."

Alan Rappeport: "It is worth noting that Trump was incorrect when he said that his tariffs took billions of dollars away from China. The burden of the tariffs was largely borne by U.S. consumers." [MB: Thanks, Alan. Explain that to Peter Baker.]

Bidgood: "In his rambling answer on abortion, Trump mixed up the states of Virginia and West Virginia and said falsely that a baby could be executed at nine months."

Haberman: "Trump repeated the falsehood that Democrats wanted Roe v. Wade to end. It's basically handing Harris a line on an issue she's been a forceful voice on."

Michael Grynbaum: "The moderator Linsey Davis just now refuted Trump's false claim that some states allow for the killing of a baby after birth."

Haberman: "Trump is stumbling on a question about whether he would veto a national abortion ban, saying only that it won't pass Congress. He is clearly angry. And that is not what his advisers wanted to see."

Katie Rogers: "This lengthy exchange on abortion, with Trump getting visibly angry, is an advantage for Harris."

Bidgood: "Harris looks straight at the camera as she urges viewers to go to a Trump rally. There, she says, they'll hear him talk about nonsensical things, and they'll see people leaving early. This is something that clearly annoys him."

Rappeport: "It appears that Harris successfully goaded Trump on crowd size. He responds angrily and accuses Harris of busing people into her rallies."

Rogers: "Trump just started talking about an online conspiracy theory about Haitian immigrants eating dogs in Springfield, Ohio, which gets a laugh out of the vice president. Her mic is off, but she laughed and shook her head and appeared to mouth, 'What?'"

Jonathan Weisman: "... we have now had the first moment where Harris intentionally tried to get under Trump's skin -- and it worked. Going after the former president's ego, Harris said people leave his rallies exhausted and bored. He had to respond, saying no one goes to her rallies. Then he angrily fell back to his immigration issues, bringing up baseless rumors of Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, eating pet dogs and cats. Again, a moderator, David Muir, interjected, saying the town's city manager had told ABC News there was no credible allegation that any pets had been killed."

Jonathan Swan: "Trump is visibly infuriated at the ABC fact-checking."

Rogers: "One of the interesting themes of this debate so far is how Harris has been on the offensive for most of it, and how Trump's angry rebuttals are laced with misinformation, mixed-up facts and kernels of conspiracy theories."

Haberman: "Trump essentially repeated his false claim that Harris suddenly started calling herself Black."

Grynbaum: "There was much ado about muted microphones before this debate. But ABC News has taken a pragmatic approach: On several occasions, the network has turned the microphone on when a candidate requests time to respond to a particularly sharp attack. In some cases, it has allowed the candidates to engage directly with each other. But a few of those exchanges have descended into crosstalk, and were hard for viewers to follow."

Weisman: "The first, and probably the only, presidential debate of this fall neared its end on friendly turf for Harris, race and division in the United States. She used it to bring up Trump's racist past, his early legal troubles for refusing to rent to Black tenants and his push for the death penalty for the later-exonerated 'Central Park Five.'"

Rappeport: "Trump, declining to end on an optimistic note, concludes by calling Harris 'the worst vice president in the history of our country.'"

Weisman: "The closing arguments framed the election -- and the campaign of the next two months. Harris used her last time with the microphone to strike a tone of moderation and project politics into the future. Trump used his to attack his opponent, bringing back a line of attack he used effectively against Hillary Clinton eight years ago: If you have so many great ideas to solve the nation's problems, why haven't you done them? To Harris's optimism, Trump ended with this: 'We're a failing nation. We're a nation in serious decline.'"

CNN reporters are providing what they call "instant analysis" on CNN's main page. So far (20 minutes in), they're doing a pretty good job.

Moderator David Muir has been doing some serious fact-checking of Trump. He lets Trump get away with dozens of ancillary lies (and Harris attacks many of those lies), but Muir shut down the Big Lie and others. He's also raising some good questions of the candidates.

"A Little, Tiny, Teeny, Itty, Bitty Weeny." Maggie Astor of the New York Times: "Vice President Kamala Harris's campaign is running a trolling ad ahead of the debate Tuesday directed at exactly one person: ... Donald J. Trump. The ad highlights former President Barack Obama's mocking comment in his speech last month at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, referring to Mr. Trump's 'weird obsession with crowd sizes,' and an accompanying hand gesture.... If Mr. Obama's words and gesture retained some marginal degree of subtlety, the ad turned them into a sledgehammer, zooming in on his hands and his glance downward. Later, it showed empty seats against the sound of crickets and zoomed in on Mr. Trump's hand -- recalling Senator Marco Rubio's jabs from the 2016 Republican primary in which he said Mr. Trump had small hands.... The Harris campaign seemed to dispel any doubt that the ad was intended more for Mr. Trump's eyes than for voters, by noting that it was airing on Fox News in Mr. Trump's home media market, West Palm Beach, Fla., and in Philadelphia, where he will be on Tuesday for the debate." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ The ad fits in quite well with our discussion in yesterday's thread. Akhilleus wrote, in response to a comment that Harris might want to knee Trump for stalking her on-stage: "Kneeing Fatty in the groin (to have the desired effect), would require surgical strike capability. That tiny mushroom head and microscopic balls would not be easy targets. It'd be like hitting a penny with a rock from a mile away. Maybe there's a strain of pigs who can root out teensy mushroom dick truffles. Hey, it's worth a try. Oink, oink, Donnie."

Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times: "Melania Trump has a memoir coming out on Oct. 8.... She has been releasing short-form videos of herself talking into the camera, which her husband ... Donald J. Trump has been reposting to his own social media feeds. True to Mrs. Trump's sphinx-like style, her videos are somewhat cryptic. In one posted on Tuesday, she appears before a shadowy backdrop, dressed all in black, to muse conspiratorially about the attempt on her husband's life.... In another video, posted on Sunday, Mrs. Trump narrates while white text crawls across a black background: 'It has become increasingly apparent that there are significant challenges to free speech, as demonstrated by the efforts to silence my husband.' The mysterious videos about mysterious forces are the most the public has heard from the mysterious former first lady in a long while."

Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "A quarter of Republicans think Trump should seize power even if he loses.... That's the determination of new national polling from PRRI."

Alex Henderson of AlterNet: "On Sunday, September 8, polling expert and FiveThirtyEight founder Nate Silver updated his presidential election forecast and gave GOP nominee Donald Trump a 63.8 percent chance of winning the Electoral College in November and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris only a 36 percent chance. But veteran conservative consultant Stuart Stevens -- a Never Trumper conservative who is supporting Harris -- is critical of Silver's forecast, arguing that there is a connection between Silver's FiveThirtyEight and billionaire Trump supporter Peter Thiel. In a September 10 post on X..., Stevens wrote, 'Polymarket is Peter Thiel's creation. @NateSilver538 is being paid by Peter Thiel.'... According to Axios' Sara Fischer, the predictions market platform Polymarket hired Silver as an adviser in July."

Johnson's Spending Bill DOA. Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "Speaker Mike Johnson's initial plan to avert a government shutdown has run into a wall of Republican opposition, as lawmakers from an array of factions in his party balk at a six-month stopgap funding measure that Democrats have already rejected. Mr. Johnson has said he plans to bring up a spending bill this week that would extend federal funding through March 28, which includes a measure that would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote. The addition of the voting restriction bill was a nod to the right flank of his conference and an effort to force politically vulnerable Democrats to take a fraught vote. But his $1.6 trillion proposal was almost immediately met with an outpouring of skepticism by House Republicans on Monday evening as they returned to Washington after a lengthy summer recess. Hard-line conservatives, including Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky, said they would oppose the legislation because it would extend current spending levels they believe are too high." (Also linked yesterday.)

Joe DePaolo of Mediaite: "Melania Trump suggested there is a conspiracy behind the assassination attempt on her husband ... Donald Trump -- saying, 'there is definitely more to this story.'... Melania Trump is not the only member of the Trump family who seems to believe there was a larger plot surrounding the shooting. Both of Donald Trump's sons -- Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump -- floated the idea that Democrats were behind the attack." (Also linked yesterday.)

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Delaware, Rhode Island Primary Elections. Amy Wang & Staff of the Washington Post: "Delaware state senator Sarah McBride is projected to win the Democratic primary for the state's at-large congressional seat, according to the Associated Press, defeating two other candidates and setting her on a course to become the first openly transgender member of Congress in U.S. history.... Former police officer John Whalen III is projected to win the Republican primary.... New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer is projected to win the Democratic primary for Delaware governor, according to the Associated Press, upsetting Delaware Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long, who had been dogged by a recent investigation into inconsistencies in her past campaign finance reports.

Incumbent Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) is projected to win the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in Rhode Island, according to the Associated Press, defeating little-known challenger Michael Costa....

Missouri. Molly Hennessy-Fiske of the Washington Post: "Just several hours before ballots were to be finalized, the Missouri Suprem Court ruled Tuesday afternoon that a measure to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution is specific enough to present to voters in November. The decision came after a short but politically fraught morning hearing before all seven judges -- four of them women, five of them appointees of Republican governors. Only days earlier, a lower-court judge had ruled the ballot measure invalid because it does not identify which laws it would repeal.... The outcome means that Missouri will remain among more than half a dozen states with measures to protect abortion rights on their ballots this fall, including in presidential battleground states such as Arizona and Florida."

New Hampshire Primary Election. Jenna Russell of the New York Times: "Maggie Goodlander, a former Justice Department official and political newcomer, won the Democratic primary for New Hampshire's Second Congressional District on Tuesday after a close race against Colin Van Ostern, according to The Associated Press. Ms. Goodlander, who grew up in Nashua, N.H., but spent most of her adult life elsewhere, is married to Jake Sullivan, President Biden's national security adviser.... More than a dozen candidates vied for the Republican nomination; Lily Tang Wiliams came out on top, according to The Associated Press, and will face Ms. Goodlander in November."

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Ukraine, et al. Michael Birnbaum of the Washington Post: Antony Blinken "made a rare wartime visit to Kyiv on Wednesday, offering a sympathetic ear to its leaders as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky mounted a push to win permission to use long-range U.S. missile systems to strike deep into Russia, despite being rejected last week by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. Kyiv's attempt to sway the Biden administration came as Ukraine has faced heavy bombardment from Russia in recent days -- especially on its power sector -- a situation that Blinken warned ahead of the visit could soon get worse after the United States accused Iran of shipping short-range ballistic missiles to Russia earlier this month. The Ukrainian effort is a continuation of a dynamic that has marked relations between Kyiv and Washington since the full-scale Russian invasion two and a half years ago. Ukraine has pushed for more and better weaponry, while Washington has resisted, fearing escalation with Russia, only to relent later.

News Lede

Washington Post: "The peak of Atlantic hurricane season has arrived, and right on schedule, a hurricane is bearing down on the Gulf Coast. Francine, upgraded from a tropical storm to a hurricane Tuesday night, is forecast to make landfall in Louisiana on Wednesday." ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: "Hurricane Francine struck Louisiana on Wednesday evening as a Category 2 storm that forecasters warned could bring deadly storm surge, widespread flooding and destructive winds on the northern U.S. Gulf Coast. Francine made landfall in Terrebonne Parish, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) southwest of Morgan City, the National Hurricane Center announced at 4 p.m. CDT. Packing maximum sustained winds near 100 mph (155 kph), the hurricane crashed into a fragile coastal region that hasn't fully recovered from a series of devastating hurricanes in 2020 and 2021." ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post has live updates here.

The Conversation -- September 10, 2024

"A Little, Tiny, Teeny, Itty, Bitty Weeny." Maggie Astor of the New York Times: "Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign is running a trolling ad ahead of the debate Tuesday directed at exactly one person: ... Donald J. Trump. The ad highlights former President Barack Obamas mocking comment in his speech last month at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, referring to Mr. Trump's 'weird obsession with crowd sizes,' and an accompanying hand gesture. Mr. Obama brought his palms apart and then close together and glanced down at them meaningfully. If Mr. Obama's words and gesture retained some marginal degree of subtlety, the ad turned them into a sledgehammer, zooming in on his hands and his glance downward. Later, it showed empty seats against the sound of crickets and zoomed in on Mr. Trump's hand -- recalling Senator Marco Rubio's jabs from the 2016 Republican primary in which he said Mr. Trump had small hands.... The Harris campaign seemed to dispel any doubt that the ad was intended more for Mr. Trump's eyes than for voters, by noting that it was airing on Fox News in Mr. Trump's home media market, West Palm Beach, Fla., and in Philadelphia, where he will be on Tuesday for the debate." ~~~

     ~~~ The ad fits in quite well with our discussion ... in yesterday's thread. Akhilleus wrote, in response to a comment that Harris might want to knee Trump for stalking her on-stage: "Kneeing Fatty in the groin (to have the desired effect), would require surgical strike capability. That tiny mushroom head and microscopic balls would not be easy targets. It'd be like hitting a penny with a rock from a mile away. Maybe there's a strain of pigs who can root out teensy mushroom dick truffles. Hey, it's worth a try. Oink, oink, Donnie."

Johnson's Spending Bill DOA. Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "Speaker Mike Johnson's initial plan to avert a government shutdown has run into a wall of Republican opposition, as lawmakers from an array of factions in his party balk at a six-month stopgap funding measure that Democrats have already rejected. Mr. Johnson has said he plans to bring up a spending bill this week that would extend federal funding through March 28, which includes a measure that would require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote. The addition of the voting restriction bill was a nod to the right flank of his conference and an effort to force politically vulnerable Democrats to take a fraught vote. But his $1.6 trillion proposal was almost immediately met with an outpouring of skepticism by House Republicans on Monday evening as they returned to Washington after a lengthy summer recess. Hard-line conservatives ... said they would oppose the legislation because it would extend current spending levels they believe are too high."

Joe DePaolo of Mediaite: "Melania Trump suggested there is a conspiracy behind the assassination attempt on her husband ... Donald Trump -- saying, 'there is definitely more to this story.'... Melania Trump is not the only member of the Trump family who seems to believe there was a larger plot surrounding the shooting. Both of Donald Trump's sons -- Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump -- floated the idea that Democrats were behind the attack."

Marie: I will be out most of the day today. There is definitely more to this story. Maybe Don Junior has kidnapped me. Maybe I'm in the (nonexistent) basement of Comet Ping Pong pizzeria eating Republican babies. Whatever. This has nothing to do with my having a doctor's appointment and some errands to run as well as it's being primary voting day for state and local elections in New Hampshire.

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Presidential Race

Sophia Cai of Axios: "Ten generals and admirals are mobilizing to defend Vice President Kamala Harris from Republican attempts to tie her to the chaotic 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.... 'Without involving the Afghan government, [Trump] and his Administration negotiated a deal with the Taliban that freed 5,000 Taliban fighters,' the retired military officials wrote in a National Security Leaders for America letter.... The group accused Trump of leaving Biden and Harris with no plans to execute a withdrawal and little time to do so." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The report is 354 pages. According to one of the generals who signed the letter and later appeared on MSNBC to discuss it, the report mentions Harris only three times. So it sounds to me as if what Rep. McCaul did when Harris replaced Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket was call up the draft report in his word-processing program, hit find-and-replace and change "Biden administration" to "Biden-Harris administration." Excellent work!

⭐ Jess Bidgood of the New York Times: "... the only man to have run against two female nominees in two presidential elections is one with a long and explicit record of denigrating women. From the earliest days of his presidential candidacy in 2015 to a Trump Tower news conference on Friday, Donald J. Trump has repeatedly attempted to attack, embarrass and threaten the women standing in his way -- especially on the debate stage.... A review of his onstage clashes with women shows how, over nine years in politics, he has honed a playbook of explicitly gendered attacks against both female candidates and journalists that he is likely to draw from on Tuesday when he debates Vice President Kamala Harris. Mr. Trump has used his physical presence and body language to intimidate women, made veiled threats, complained that they were uniquely mean and belittled their qualifications...." (Also linked yesterday.)

Unconscionable Fear-Mongering Hate Speech. Chris Cameron of the New York Times: "The Trump campaign promoted an outlandish false claim on Monday that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, have abducted and eaten their neighbors' pets, again demonizing migrants as the campaign seeks to attack Vice President Kamala Harris on immigration. A news release from the campaign on Monday recounted the falsehoods, which were amplified earlier in the day by ... Donald J. Trump's running mate, JD Vance, and sought to stoke fear, saying 'it's coming to your city next.' Mr. Vance, as Ohio's junior senator, has in recent months attacked the growing Haitian population in Springfield, a group whose members are living and working in the United States legally.... Mr. Vance has latched onto the complaints of community members and has denounced the Haitians as being in the United States illegally, 'draining social services' and 'generally causing chaos.'" An NBC News story is here. ~~~

~~~ Jeff Cercone of PolitiFact: “A Sept. 6 Facebook post said, 'Springfield is a small town in Ohio. 4 years ago they had 60K residents. Under (Kamala) Harris and (Joe) Biden, 20,000 Haitian immigrants were shipped to the town. Now ducks and pets are disappearing.'... The Facebook post was flagged as part of Meta's efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed.... The claim that Haitian immigrants are eating wildlife and pets in Springfield was also widely shared by conservative influencers such as Charlie Kirk and X owner Elon Musk, and political entities and figures including the House Judiciary Committee and vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio.... 'Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn't be in this country. Where is our border czar?' he wrote, in an apparent reference to Vice President Kamala Harris." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Vance's assertion bald-faced lie is particularly egregious. (1) The underlying premise is false: Haitians aren't eating Fluffy or Fido. (2) It's racist. (3) The Haitians in Springfield came to the U.S. legally according to the NYT. (4) They did not row to Mexico in a leaky boat, then swim the Rio Grande to cross the U.S. border where Vice President Harris was waiting to greet them and wrap them in thick terry hotel towels.

Isabella Volmert & Gary Robertson of the AP: "The highest courts in two states ruled differently Monday on efforts by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be removed from their presidential ballots, with a divided North Carolina Supreme Court affirming he should be omitted and the Michigan Supreme Court reversing a lower court decision and keeping him on."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd., New York Times Edition

Really Bad. Peter Baker of the New York Times was not the guy the New York Times should have picked to clean up their failure to raise the issue of Donald Trump's age & mental acuity after devoting untold column inches to wringing their hands over President Biden's age and mental fitness. As Lawrence O'Donnell emphasized at the top of his show Monday night, Baker tried to do this by publishing part of Trump's affordable-child-care "proposal"/word-slaw, which we posted in a video September 6 and Akhilleus spelled out in full at the end of the Comments on September 5. BUT THEN. Immediately after Baker posts part of the Trumplebabble, he just can't help translate, expand upon and explain it to us: "What he seemed to be saying was that he would raise so much money by imposing tariffs on imported goods that the country could use the proceeds to pay for child care. In itself, that would be a disputable policy assumption." Actually, no, Peter, Trump doesn't come out and say that. More important, his tariff plan is not "disputable"; it is a direct tax on American consumers, including (and especially) people who have problems paying for child care. (If you are a person rearing children, you will need to buy more stuff than I need to buy.) Understanding how tariffs work is not difficult, people. ~~~

~~~ Even Worse. Ana Swanson who "covers international trade" for the New York Times: allows "economists," some cited and some not, to obliquely hint that consumers pay tariffs, though it requires some intuition to glean that till you get deep into the article. Furthermore, she lets on in Graf 4 that "Economists have been skeptical of many of [Trump's] assertions [above the dollar-strengthening and revenue-raising bonanza his tariffs would be]." But it is not until Graf 25 that she writes, "In a report on Monday, the World Trade Organization said that tariffs tended to place the largest burden on low-income households, which spend a greater proportion of their income on traded goods, as well as women and smaller companies, which may be less able to pay the higher costs." MB: Peter Baker at least has the excuse of being outside his usual wheelhouse when he ventures into a discussion of tariffs; international trade is Swanson's beat, for Pete's sake.~~~

     ~~~ Say, here's something the Times could have done: Leave the Trumpy tariff-'splaining to another fellow on staff: the Nobel-Prize-winning economist and columnist Paul Krugman: "On Saturday, at a rally in Wisconsin, Donald Trump said some bizarre and potentially damaging stuff about economic policy.... To be honest, the most vile thing he said at that event wasn't about economics; it was his declaration that his vision or plan for 'getting them out' -- deporting undocumented immigrants -- 'will be a bloody story.' Still, his remarks about how he would use tariffs to preserve the dollar's status as a reserve currency should worry anyone.... Summaries of Trump's statements often make them sound more coherent than they are -- a process some have decried as sanewashing. So let me hand over the mic to Trump himself and reproduce his remarks verbatim. First, he proclaimed his own infallibility: 'Trump is always right. I hate to be right. I hate to be right. I'm always right.'"

The Worst. Jamison Foser in Finding Gravity: "When former Vice President Dick Cheney endorsed Kamala Harris last week, the New York Times didn't even bother to print an article about the endorsement in the newspaper.... 'In our nation's 248-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump,' Cheney said in a statement.... That's as stark a demonstration of Trump's extremism as you could ask for, and a cross-party endorsement pretty much unprecedented in modern American history, but the New York Times couldn't be bothered to print its article about the endorsement in the newspaper, running it online only. Contrast that with the front-page above-the-fold treatment the New York Times gave RFK Jr.'s endorsement of Trump two weeks earlier -- and as you do so, keep in mind that RFK Jr. has never held any meaningful position in government; he's just a crackpot anti-vaccine activist trading on a famous name[.]" Thanks to RAS for the link.

Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "Sen. Tommy Tuberville has blocked the promotion of an Army general who is a senior aide to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, people familiar with the matter said, threatening a confrontation between the Republican firebrand and the Pentagon just weeks before the presidential election while reviving a months-old furor over the military chief's medical secrecy. Tuberville (Ala.) has frozen the nomination of Lt. Gen. Ronald P. Clark to become the four-star commander of all U.S. Army forces in the Pacific, according to the senator's spokeswoman, Mallory Jaspers, and two other officials familiar with the emerging standoff. The maneuver, which has not been previously reported, restricts Clark's nomination from coming up for a vote in the Senate and could mark the beginning of the end of his 36-year military career.... Jaspers, in a statement, linked the hold on Clark's promotion directly to the political imbroglio over Austin's health crisis."

Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) on Monday announced that his panel will hold a hearing on the Supreme Court's controversial 6-3 ruling giving former President Trump broad immunity from prosecution for crimes related to his official acts as president.... 'Congress can't turn a blind eye to the dangers of the Donald Trump immunity decision by the Supreme Court. We're going to highlight the blaring dangers of this far-right ruling for the American people,' he said in statement posted on the social media site X. Liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson has warned the court's conservatives placed the president of the United States above other Americans in applying criminal laws and created in essence a two-tier justice system." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Devin Dwyer of ABC News: "An alleged private message from Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' wife Ginni to the leader of First Liberty Institute, which describes itself as the nation's largest religious liberty organization, has triggered a wave of criticism from top Democrats, including a new call for the justice to recuse himself from future cases involving that organization.... 'YOU GUYS HAVE FILLED THE SAILS OF MANY JUDGES,' Ginni Thomas apparently wrote to First Liberty head Kelly Shackelford, according to ProPublica. 'CAN I JUST TELL YOU, THANK YOU SO, SO, SO MUCH.'... 'The reported comments by Ginni Thomas are deeply problematic,' said Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., in a statement Monday."

Sam and the Princess, Ctd. Abbie VanSickle & Philip Kaleta of the New York Times: "An eccentric German princess who evolved from a 1980s punk style icon to a conservative Catholic known for hobnobbing with far-right figures said on Monday that she hosted Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. and his wife at her castle during a July 2023 music festival.... The 64-year-old princess [Gloria von Thurn und Taxis] said that Justice Alito and his wife, Martha-Ann, are her 'friends' and that after her castle festivities, the three attended the opening of the Bayreuth Festival, the world's premier venue for the performance of Wagner's operas." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I absolutely, fucking knew Wagner had to be in the picture. And you will not be surprised to learn that Adolf Hitler was a strong supporter of the Bayreuth Festival. During WWII, the Nazi party ran the show. According to the Times story, while in Regensburg enjoying his stay in the 500-room castle, Alito told a local journalist, "I will enjoy [the Bayreuth Festival]. A friend of mine has waited his whole life to get tickets to go, and so it's quite a privilege to be able to go."

Ann Marimow of the Washington Post: "Justice Elena Kagan on Monday brushed aside concerns about whether lower-court judges could effectively enforce the Supreme Court's new ethics rules, saying those on the federal bench are more than capable of holding justices to account. 'I just think judges are not so afraid of us,' Kagan said. 'I think there are plenty of judges around this country who could do a task like that in a very fair-minded and serious way.' Kagan was expanding on her recent suggestion that Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. appoint an outside panel of highly experienced judges to review allegations of wrongdoing or questions about recusal decisions by the justices, some of whom have faced questions in recent years over unreported gifts of luxury travel and potential conflicts of interest in key cases."

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Florida. Patricia Mazzei of the New York Times: "A traffic stop that led to Tyreek Hill, a wide receiver for the Miami Dolphins, being handcuffed outside the team's stadium on Sunday escalated quickly after a police officer knocked on the player's car window and he objected, body camera footage of the incident shows. The Miami-Dade Police Department released the video on Monday evening after initially delaying its release pending an internal affairs investigation into the officer's actions. The investigation is ongoing. Mr. Hill's brief detention -- he was later released and went on to score a touchdown in the Dolphins' season opener on Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars -- prompted concerns about police use of force. The president of a local police union countered those accusations by saying that the officers had followed policy after Mr. Hill was being 'uncooperative.'" MB: Hill is Black; Ana Navarro said on CNN that the arresting officers were Hispanic (races not specified).

Idaho. Kim Bellware of the Washington Post: "An Idaho judge has moved the location for the murder trial of Bryan Kohberger, the man accused in the stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students in 2022 while they were asleep in their home near the campus. In an order issued Monday, Latah County Judge John C. Judge agreed with the defense's overarching argument that, despite the best efforts of the court, the international media sensation over the killings had probably tainted the pool of local jurors, making it impossible for Kohberger to receive a fair trial in Latah County."

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Israel/Palestine, et al.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Tuesday in the Israel/Hamas war are here.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Monday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "The Israeli Air Force conducted strikes in a humanitarian area in the southern Gaza Strip, targeting what it said was a militant command center, the Israeli military said Tuesday.... A spokesman for the Civil Defense in Gaza said on social media that entire families had disappeared in the strike, along with about 20 tents and that the attack had left three deep craters, suggesting that more than one missile had hit the area, Al-Mawasi. They said that there had been no warning and that there was a severe shortage of equipment needed for search and rescue efforts." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I do get that Hamas is a barbaric organization. But so is the Israeli government.

News Lede

New York Times: "On Tuesday morning, Jared Isaacman, a billionaire entrepreneur, launched to space for a second time. The mission, known as Polaris Dawn, is a collaboration between Mr. Isaacman and SpaceX, the rocket company led by Elon Musk.... At 5:23 a.m. Eastern time, a Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Less than 15 minutes later, the crew of four astronauts inside the Crew Dragon capsule -- that will be their home for the next five days -- were in orbit.... The Polaris Dawn mission will mark some milestones for private spaceflight -- the first spacewalk conducted by nonprofessional astronauts, and the farthest journey from Earth by anyone since NASA's moon landings more than 50 years ago."

The Conversation -- September 9, 2024

⭐ Jess Bidgood of the New York Times: "... the only man to have run against two female nominees in two presidential elections is one with a long and explicit record of denigrating women. From the earliest days of his presidential candidacy in 2015 to a Trump Tower news conference on Friday, Donald J. Trump has repeatedly attempted to attack, embarrass and threaten the women standing in his way -- especially on the debate stage.... A review of his onstage clashes with women shows how, over nine years in politics, he has honed a playbook of explicitly gendered attacks against both female candidates and journalists that he is likely to draw from on Tuesday when he debates Vice President Kamala Harris. Mr. Trump has used his physical presence and body language to intimidate women, made veiled threats, complained that they were uniquely mean and belittled their qualifications...."

Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) on Monday announced that his panel will hold a hearing on the Supreme Court's controversial 6-3 ruling giving former President Trump broad immunity from prosecution for crimes related to his official acts as president.... 'Congress can't turn a blind eye to the dangers of the Donald Trump immunity decision by the Supreme Court. We're going to highlight the blaring dangers of this far-right ruling for the American people,' he said in statement posted on the social media site X. Liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson has warned the court's conservatives placed the president of the United States above other Americans in applying criminal laws and created in essence a two-tier justice system."

Sophia Cai of Axios: "Ten generals and admirals are mobilizing to defend Vice President Kamala Harris from Republican attempts to tie her to the chaotic 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.... 'Without involving the Afghan government, [Trump] and his Administration negotiated a deal with the Taliban that freed 5,000 Taliban fighters,' the retired military officials wrote in a National Security Leaders for America letter.... The group accused Trump of leaving Biden and Harris with no plans to execute a withdrawal and little time to do so." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The report is 354 pages. According to one of the generals who signed the letter and later appeared on MSNBC to discuss it, the report mentions Harris only three times. So it sounds to me as if what Rep. McCaul did when Harris replaced Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket was call up the draft report in his word-processing program, hit find-and-replace and change "Biden administration" to "Biden-Harris administration." Excellent work!

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Jennifer Hansler & Kylie Atwood of CNN: "Republicans and Democrats released dueling documents on the deadly August 2021 US withdrawal from Afghanistan on Monday, as ... Donald Trump's campaign seeks to make the decisions surrounding the exit a key issue in the final weeks before the presidential election. The release -- after years of investigation by the Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee -- of the report by GOP Chairman Rep Michael McCaul and a minority memorandum by Democratic Ranking Member Rep. Gregory Meeks underscore how partisan the debate over the frenzied US exit from Afghanistan has become.... The Republican report is highly critical of the Biden administration and pins the blame for the chaotic exit exclusively on its decisions. It also aims to implicate Harris, now the Democratic nominee for president, in its accusations by referring to the current government as 'the Biden-Harris administration.'... 'Everything we have seen and heard of Chairman McCaul's latest partisan report shows that it is based on cherry-picked facts, inaccurate characterizations, and pre-existing biases that have plagued this investigation from the start,' said Sharon Yang, a White House spokesperson for oversight and investigations."

Presidential Race

Tal Axelrod of ABC News: "Former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo..., slammed [Donald Trump] ... in her call for other Republicans to vote against him this year. 'We see it on a daily basis, somebody who was willing to use violence in order to attempt to seize power, to stay in power, someone who represents unrecoverable catastrophe, frankly, in my view, and we have to do everything possible to ensure that he's not reelected,' Cheney told 'This Week' co-anchor Jonathan Karl. 'You have many Republicans out there who are saying, "Well, you know, we're not going to vote for him, but we will write someone else in." And I think that this time around, that's not enough, that it's important to actually cast a vote for Vice President Harris,' Cheney added."

Grifter-in-Chief. Josh Dawsey & Ashley Parker of the Washington Post: "No presidential candidate has ever so closely linked his election with personal for-profit enterprises, selling a staggering array of merchandise that includes signed Bibles where he receives a royalty for hawking them, pricey sneakers, gold necklaces, cryptocurrency cards, pens, books, licensing fees on overseas properties and more. His company's website also sells a variety of political merchandise at higher prices than his campaign charges for the same items." (Also linked yesterday).

digby: "Trump excited the crowd [Saturday] with promises of bloodshed with his mass deportation policy.... And his followers are thrilled at the prospect."

The Company He Keeps. Abbie VanSickle of the New York Times: "On his most recent financial disclosure form, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. reported a single gift: $900 concert tickets from a German princess known for her links to conservative activists. The disclosure does not list the event's details, including the concert's name, location or how many tickets the princess provided. But in an interview with a German news organization, the gift provider, Princess Gloria von Thurn und Taxis, described Justice Alito and his wife as 'private friends' and said the tickets were for the Regensburg Castle Festival, an annual summer celebration she hosts at her 500-room Bavarian castle. The princess, known in earlier decades as a party-loving, art-collecting aristocrat and who was once christened Princess TNT for her explosive personality, has become known in recent years for her close relationships with several high-profile people who oppose the current pope, as well as with Stephen K. Bannon...." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: If you read through the article, I think you'll conclude that VanSickle has given new depth to the meaning of "conservative." I expect there's a lot of Wagner on the Regensburg Castle Festival program, and perhaps some serious group goose-stepping about the castle's courtyard preceding private dinners. If you'd like to know what the old pile looks like, here are a couple of pages of snapshots. Not only does it appear that Princess von Thurn has not given up her party days after all, someone in a crowd outside the castle displays a homemade sign which reads, in German, "Nazis dine secretly in the [Thurn und Taxis] castle."

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Florida. DeSantis Thugs at the Door. Charles Davis of Salon: "Florida voters who signed a petition to place a pro-choice abortion referendum on the ballot this November say they have been visited by police who are investigating claims of fraud at the behest of Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration, the Tampa Bay Times reported Saturday. Last year, DeSantis, a Republican, signed into a law a ban on abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. In response, pro-choice campaigners gathered and submitted nearly one million signatures to place on the ballot Amendment 4, a referendum that would overturn the ban and restore reproductive rights in the state. Now Florida's Department of State is claiming it suspects fraud in the signature-gathering process. In an email to county election officials, the department's Brad McVay requested that they hand over their already-verified petitions so that the signatures can be reexamined, claiming without evidence that those who circulated the petitions 'represent known or suspected fraudsters,' Tampa Bay television station WTVT reported." MB: This really is quite scary.

Tennessee. Emily Holzknecht & Taige Jensen of the New York Times post a video describing how the state keeps half a million people from voting. "While nearly all states suspend or withdraw people's right to vote when they are convicted of felonies, most allow restoring that right after they have served their sentences. Many states have made that process easier in recent years -- one of them being New York, to the advantage of felon-of-the-moment Donald Trump, who retains his right to vote as long as he's not incarcerated. But Tennessee has moved in the opposite direction, making the process significantly more difficult. (Think: bureaucratic maze from hell.)"

Texas. David Goodman of the New York Times: "Days before the 2020 election, supporters of ... Donald J. Trump driving in vehicles festooned with flags as part of a so-called 'Trump Train' surrounded a Biden-Harris campaign bus as it sped along a Texas interstate highway. Images of the impromptu convoy of antagonists were memorable.... Now those same images from Interstate 35 will be used as evidence in a federal civil trial that seeks to hold the Trump supporters responsible for assault and political intimidation tactics. Opening arguments begin on Monday.... Lawyers for the plaintiffs have argued that in organizing to harass and intimidate the campaign bus, the defendants violated state law and the federal Enforcement Act of 1871, also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act."

News Lede

New York Times: "James Earl Jones, a stuttering farm child who became a voice of rolling thunder as one of America's most versatile actors in a stage, film and television career that plumbed race relations, Shakespeare's rhapsodic tragedies and the faceless menace of Darth Vader, died on Monday at his home in Dutchess County, N.Y. He was 93." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I was walking down Fifth Avenue one spring day in the 1990s when I thought I was hearing the voice of god. (Okay, slight exaggeration.) But no. NYU was holding its commencement exercises in Washington Square Park (which sits at the bottom of Fifth Avenue), and James Earl Jones was accepting (with a boost from amplifiers) an honorary degree.