The Conversation -- November 3, 2024
Thanks to RAS for the link.
Not Funny: Trump Says He's Okay with Assassins Shooting the Press. Michael Gold & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump told supporters on Sunday [at a rally in Lititz, Pa.,] that he 'shouldn't have left' the White House at the end of his term during an end-of-campaign rally where he vented angrily about a spate of new public polls showing him losing ground to Vice President Kamala Harris and joked about reporters being shot at.... Mr. Trump's voice was audibly hoarse and his speech sluggish as he made unfounded claims about election interference.... The remark [that he shouldn't have left the white House in 2021] echoed what Mr. Trump told some aides within days of his 2020 election loss: that he wasn't going to leave the White House.... He spent nearly 20 minutes trying to instill doubts about the election, reviving a host of baseless claims of widespread fraud that he made in 2020.... Mr. Trump, while riffing, also pointed to the protective glass encasing him now at outdoor rallies since he survived the assassination attempt in Butler. 'To get to me, somebody would have to shoot through fake news, and I don't mind that much, 'cause, I don't mind. I don't mind,' he said, as some in the crowd laughed and howled."
Peter Baker of the New York Times: "Public appearances by Mr. Trump throughout this year's campaign have been an Alice-in-Wonderland trip through the political looking glass, a journey into an alternate reality.... At its most fundamental, it boils down to this: America was paradise on earth when he was in charge, and now it's a dystopian hellscape.... And it is a version that has found traction with tens of millions of supporters.... Mr. Trump's four years in power were a nonstop treadmill for fact-checkers trying to catch up with the latest. His four years since leaving arguably have posed an even bigger challenge as he descended further into conspiracy theories.... But dishonesty is not necessarily punished politically in the way it once was." Baker runs through a brief history of Trump's biggest lies.
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Patrick Marley, et al., of the Washington Post: "More than 74 million people had already cast their ballots as of Saturday, which is about 46 percent the total number cast in the 2020 presidential election. That includes 4 million voters in Georgia -- or 80 percent of the total that voted there in 2020.... This surge of early voting suggests that a long-term trend that was accelerated by the pandemic during the 2020 election has led to a lasting change in voting habits, with Election Day increasingly subsumed by Election Season....While nationwide rates of early voting aren't quite as high as they were at this time in 2020, they're significantly higher than in 2016 or any previous election year.... [Aside from the conveniences of voting early,] the booming interest in voting early may also reflect the nature of the presidential race, where the polls have barely budged for weeks and many voters don't need to hear more from the candidates to make up their minds."
Presidential Race
Marie: I don't do polls, but this one is such a shocker, I thought I'd share: ~~~
~~~ Brianne Pfannenstiel of the Des Moines Register: "Kamala Harris now leads Donald Trump in Iowa -- a startling reversal for Democrats and Republicans who have all but written off the state's presidential contest as a certain Trump victory. A new Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll shows Vice President Harris leading former President Trump 47% to 44% among likely voters.... The results follow a September Iowa Poll that showed Trump with a 4-point lead over Harris and a June Iowa Poll showing him with an 18-point lead over Democratic President Joe Biden, who was the presumed Democratic nominee at the time.... A victory for Harris would be a surprising development after Iowa has swung aggressively to the right in recent elections, delivering Trump solid victories in 2016 and 2020. The poll shows that women -- particularly those who are older or who are politically independent -- are driving the late shift toward Harris." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: The Des Moines Register poll is considered to be a highly-reliable, "gold-standard" poll. To me, the result doesn't necessarily mean Harris will win Iowa, but it may bode well for Harris's position in battleground states.
Kamala Harris's Closing Ad: ~~~
Nate Cohn of the New York Times tries to explain why it's so hard to beat even a deplorable GOP presidential* candidate like Donald Trump: "... the national political environment just isn't as conducive to a Democratic victory as many might imagine.... No party has retained control of the White House when so many Americans were dissatisfied with the country or the president.... For the first time in decades, Republicans have pulled even or ahead in nationwide party identification. Polls also find Republicans with the an edge on most key issues -- with democracy and abortion standing as significant exceptions.... Across the developed world..., voters appear eager for change.... Nearly everywhere, high prices and the fallout from the pandemic left voters angry and resentful.... Over just the last few years, all of [the] liberal energy [that surged beginning in 2008] suddenly seemed to vanish.... Democrats might keep their winning streak going on Tuesday, but when historians look back they might conclude that the liberal ascendancy had already come to an end."
Scranton Joe. Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: "In the final weeks of the presidential campaign, [President] Biden has been cast in the shadow of Vice President Kamala Harris amid concerns that his unpopularity could be a liability in her race against ... Donald J. Trump. But as he rallied union members in his hometown [of Scranton, Pennsylvania,] on Saturday during one of his last campaign events in office, Mr. Biden was in one of the few places Democrats feel he can still help Ms. Harris on the campaign trail.... Mr. Biden rattled Democrats this week when he appeared to call supporters of Mr. Trump 'garbage,' [and] ... Ms. Harris had to spend time on the campaign trail distancing herself from the comment. Ms. Harris's rallies are far more enthusiastic and energetic than Mr. Biden's, with crowds of thousands dwarfing those at his events. But Harris campaign officials believe that the incumbent president can still provide a key benefit to Ms. Harris by rallying working-class white voters and union members in battleground states.... Mr. Biden used the speech [Saturday] to argue that Mr. Trump would repeal much of his domestic agenda if he beat Ms. Harris, including efforts to invest in unions.... 'I'm not just asking for me,' Mr. Biden said. 'I'm going to be gone. I'm asking you to do something for yourself and your families.'"
Emily Davies of the Washington Post: "In swing states and Republican strongholds, on college campuses and in sports arenas, sticky notes have appeared reminding women that their votes are confidential -- kept private even and especially from the men in their lives. The origins of the trend are unclear, but the co-founder of Women for Harris-Walz, a grassroots group supporting the vice president's campaign, says her members have been sticking notes in bathrooms and similar spaces for months, encouraging women to vote their own minds and reminding them that their ballot is secret.... And in the closing weeks of the campaign, Democrats and their allies have made explicit appeals to women who are in relationships with Trump-supporting men."
The appeal have generated conservative fury, and the leaders of one conservative women's organization argued that "the real reason for the gender gap between the candidates ... is pressure that media and celebrities put on women to vote for Democrats." MB: Right. J.Lo & Beyoncé made me vote for Harris and that was very mean of them.
Marie: I made a big ole mistake yesterday and didn't learn about it till many hours after the fact, so if you read yesterday's Commentariat, please check out the correction. Thanks.
Not Parody. Jon Levine of the New York Post: "One of the United States' foremost white supremacists is urging his followers to support Vice President Harris in the presidential election next week. Richard Spencer, an avowed racist, antisemite and admirer of Nazism who coined the term 'alt-right' and was a featured speaker when he took part in the deadly 2017 rally in Charlottesville, Va., called Harris the 'best manager of the American empire.' Spencer -- who also gained international recognition after yelling 'Hail Trump! Hail our people!' and being greeted with Nazi salutes during a white nationalist event in November 2016 -- also condemned former President Trump's strong support of Israel.... The Harris campaign did not respond to request for comment from The Post." MB: Even if this is not a ploy to help Trump, I'm thinking Spencer's endorsement is not what Harris has in mind when she talks about unity. But thanks to Rupert's New York Post for doing its very best to point out Harris' wide appeal.
This PSA is an Election Day guide for Trump voters.
— Greg Olear (@gregolear) November 2, 2024
c: @chunkled @LincolnsBible pic.twitter.com/KU9Cl3Bhn0
~~~ Thanks to RAS for the link.
Hannah Knowles, et al., of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump spent his last Saturday of the presidential race making a trio of meandering, profane speeches in which he spoke repeatedly about women -- saying they have to be protected 'at home in suburbia,' complaining that he is not allowed to call women beautiful and calling himself the 'father of fertilization' -- a disjointed appeal to female voters as he faces a gender gap against Vice President Kamala Harris in public polls.... He hit on his top policy issues, immigration and the economy -- but he also made many extended detours and aired false or exaggerated claims. He characterized the country as 'invaded' by immigrants and made dark, baseless predictions about what a Harris presidency would look like, notably claiming that Americans 'won't own your house anymore.'... Harris spoke in Charlotte, [North Carolina,] reprising her closing argument that Trump is not someone 'who is thinking about how to make your life better,' as she cast a spotlight on his threats and inflammatory rhetoric. She called him a candidate 'who is increasingly unstable, obsessed with revenge, consumed with grievance,' and warned he would walk into the Oval Office 'stewing over an enemies list.'" Politico has an item here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Millions of non-white Americans live in suburbs, but be assured that fact hasn't occurred to Donald Trump. So when he says that he means to "protect women at home in suburbia," he is talking about White women. And that is to say that Trump has put the White ladies on notice: they are in as much danger as women of color.
Gary Robertson & Jill Colvin of the AP: "Donald Trump will rally supporters in North Carolina every day until Tuesday's election, a flurry of late activity in the only swing state that he won in both his 2016 and 2020 campaigns. Even as Trump looks to expand the electoral map and project strength with trips to New Mexico and Virginia, two Democratic states not widely viewed as competitive, he is putting considerable time into North Carolina, which last backed a Democrat for president in 2008.... [Trump's] path to the 270 electoral votes needed to capture the presidency gets significantly more complicated if he loses North Carolina.... Trump campaigned in Gastonia ... and Greensboro on Saturday, with a stop in Salem, Virginia, in between. He will be in the eastern city of Kinston on Sunday and in Raleigh on Monday. Those four rallies will bring his total events in North Carolina since Oct. 1 to nine. His running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, has been in the state six times during the same period, most recently on Friday."
Marie: As usual, when Trump behaves badly, the Gray Lady doesn't tell us the whole, sordid story. In an updated story I linked yesterday, Times reporters write,
"... [Mr. Trump's] closing pitch was derailed by problems with the microphone that seemed to frustrate him during a particularly busy stretch of the campaign.... After members of the crowd began chanting that they could not hear him properly, Mr. Trump yanked the microphone out of its holder. At one point, he pantomimed adjusting the microphone setup and bobbing down toward it, to the laughter of the crowd. But Mr. Trump, standing in front of people waving signs that said 'Trump will fix it,' was visibly irritated by the technical issue. 'Do you want to see me knock the hell out of people backstage?' he asked the crowd, on a day when his violent language had already drawn attention." ~~~
~~~ But Then. Other stories provided a different characterization: ~~~
~~~ Ryan Bort of Rolling Stone, republished by Yahoo! News: "The former president was rallying in Milwaukee on Friday night, and amid his usual fear-mongering over crime and immigration, he went on a weird, prolonged rant about the venue's microphone -- which apparently wasn't functioning properly. 'You gotta be kidding,' Trump said. 'Do you want to see me knock the hell out of people backstage?... I get so angry, I'm up here seething, seething,' he continued. 'I'm working my ass off with this stupid mic.' Trump complained about the mic for nearly four full minutes, bashing the 'stupid people' responsible, griping about how worn out his throat is, and complaining that it was set up too low. He also threatened to stiff the contractors, something he has a history of doing.... At one point, Trump bizarrely moved his head up and down from the empty mic stand on his podium, presumably to demonstrate how low he needed to bend over to get the mic to pick up his voice. The act resembled something else, though. 'BLOWING IT: TRUMP SIMULATES ORAL SEX ON STAGE!' read a front-page headline from Drudge." AND (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Ben Blanchet of Huffington Post, via Yahoo News: "Trump also complained about the low height of microphone stands at his events and showed how he would work around such issues, bobbing his head up and down in what many observers suggested was an imitation of oral sex." AND (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Kevin Manahan of NJ.com: "Trump, in one of his final rallies on Friday night, simulated sexually stroking and then performing oral sex on his malfunctioning microphone in Milwaukee." (Includes video; the supposed sex simulation part begins at about 2:55 minutes into the video embedded in a tweet.) (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ ⭐UPDATE. In a surprising move, the Times has published a new (12:21 pm ET), stand-alone story by Michael Gold in which Gold describes the whole mic meltdown, including this: "But observers on social media shared a 5-second clip of the moment, suggesting the former president was pantomiming oral sex. Those short clips quickly received millions of views." Marie: This is remarkably similar to what happened two weeks ago: Michael Gold wrote a campaign update item mentioning Trump's Arnold Palmer big-dick remark, but -- according to Gold -- his editor removed the item. When a reader complained to Gold that he had sane-washed Trump's remarks about Palmer, Gold wrote back saying, "I filed something that included the thing you mention as omitted, but I am not given the power to publish what I say." Gold suggesting the reader direct his complaint to a senior editor, and a short while later, the Times published a full story that led with Trump's reflections on Arnold Palmer's big dick. (See Steve M. on this.) (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: The Gray Lady's sensibilities notwithstanding, the point of all this is not that the New York Times failed again to tell the whole story but that an old man who could again wield the power of the U.S. presidency finds it appropriate to perform Lenny Bruce routines at large public gatherings. One need not be a prude to find Trump's behavior alarming. ~~~
~~~ Tom Nichols of the Atlantic sounds the alarm: "A former president of the United States held a rally, during which he used a microphone holder on his podium to pantomime the act of giving fellatio. I could have put it differently. I might have said that 'a cognitively impaired man, who has long been showing signs of serious emotional instability and has a history of sexism and racism, engaged in crude behavior in front of a large audience.' But that wouldn't capture an important reality: This deeply impaired man is tied in the race to become the next president and could be holding the codes to the U.S. nuclear arsenal in less than three months.... Trump, by most reports, has always been a vulgar and ignorant man. This creepy moment in Milwaukee will add to our national and international humiliation if he is returned to office. But more important, manifesting this kind of disinhibited behavior in public more and more often is a warning sign that he is simply not stable enough to sit in the Oval Office.... The rally crowd ... laughed as Trump pretended to pleasure a piece of equipment. But for the rest of us, the laughter has to stop, and the horror of what might happen in a few days must take its place." Thanks to laura h. for the link, which is a gift. (If the link here doesn't work, see laura's contribution to yesterday's Comments.)
Right on the main page of the New York Times online, under the headline, "Vote to End the Trump Era," the Editors write, "You already know Donald Trump. He is unfit to lead. Watch him. Listen to those who know him best. He tried to subvert an election and remains a threat to democracy. He helped overturn Roe, with terrible consequences. Mr. Trump's corruption and lawlessness go beyond elections: It's his whole ethos. He lies without limit. If he's re-elected, the G.O.P. won't restrain him. Mr. Trump will use the government to go after opponents. He will pursue a cruel policy of mass deportations. He will wreak havoc on the poor, the middle class and employers. Another Trump term will damage the climate, shatter alliances and strengthen autocrats. Americans should demand better. Vote."
Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "When I asked a scholar what Shakespearean figure Trump most resembles, he replied that Trump is not complex enough to be one. You have to have a character to have a tragic flaw that mars your character.... I was surprised when some commentators reacted with shock at some of the insults slung [at his Madison Square Garden rally]. For me, it seemed like a pretty typical Trump rally: ugly, dark, crude, denigrating, racist, misogynistic.... Speakers included Elon Musk, R.F.K. Jr. and Tucker Carlson, who thinks a demon clawed him while he was in bed last year. It is frightening to contemplate how much power this gruesome threesome will have if Trump wins a second term."
México Primero! Trump Media Outsources to Mexican Techs. Robert Faturechi, et al., of ProPublica: "... Donald Trump's social media company outsourced jobs to workers in Mexico even as Trump publicly railed against outsourcing on the campaign trail and threatened heavy tariffs on companies that send jobs south of the border. The firm's use of workers in Mexico was confirmed by a spokesperson for Trump Media, which operates the Truth Social platform. The workers were hired through another entity to code and perform other technical duties, according to a person with knowledge of Trump Media. The reliance on foreign labor was met with outrage among the company's own staff, who accused its leadership of betraying their 'America First' ideals, the person said."
Move Over, Project 2025. There's a New Nut on the Block. If you don't yet find Trump alarming enough, look at what one of his most prominent surrogates promises. ~~~
~~~ Rebecca O'Brien & Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Saturday that among the first acts of a second Trump administration would be to 'advise all U.S. water systems to remove fluoride from public water,' a stunning potential reversal of what is widely considered one of the most important public health interventions of the past century. The statement, posted on social media, is among the more concrete pledges made by Mr. Kennedy ... in his capacity as a top adviser on Mr. Trump's transition team. It also raises the specter of an all-out assault on public-health expertise should Mr. Trump win next week's election, a prospect that has already caused significant alarm among experts across the medical and environmental fields.... [Such] a presidential pronouncement [would not have the force of law in local and state jurisdictions, but it] would inject the White House into a debate that stretches back to the 1950s, when conspiracy theories swirled around fluoridation, with critics claiming it was a Communist plot to poison Americans' brains -- a view that was memorably parodied in Stanley Kubrick's film 'Dr. Strangelove.'" Read on for a summary of the current science on fluoridated drinking water. ~~~
~~~ The AP story, by Jonathan Cooper, is here: "Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent proponent of debunked public health claims whom Donald Trump has promised to put in charge of health initiatives<, said Saturday that Trump would push to remove fluoride from drinking water on his first day in office."
~~~ Alas, the Old Nut Jobs Are Still Around. And a True Witch Hunt is Underway. Jonathan O'Connell, et al., of the Washington Post: "An organization funded by the conservative Heritage Foundation has compiled an online watch list' of federal employees it claims cannot be trusted to secure the U.S. border and should be fired, a sign that supporters of Donald Trump's immigration policies are preparing to help him neutralize the administrative state they believe tried to thwart his first presidency. The 'DHS Bureaucrat Watch List' -- a website unveiled in the final weeks of a presidential campaign in which immigration is a key issue -- names 51 federal policy experts and high-ranking leaders, the majority of whom are career civil servants at the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies.... Among the employees' actions cited by the group are posts celebrating the legalization of same-sex marriage or lauding the contributions and successes of undocumented immigrants, as well as donations as little as $10 to Democratic candidates. One employee union likened the effort ... to Sen. Joseph McCarthy's 1950s-era campaign to purge federal workers he accused of being communists."
"Obeying Fascisim in Advance." Jessica Corbett of Common Dreams: "Historians and other critics are responding with fierce condemnation to this week's Wall Street Journal reporting that 'U.S. Archivist Colleen Shogan and her top advisers at the National Archives and Records Administration, which operates a popular museum on the National Mall, have sought to de-emphasize negative parts of U.S. history.'... The Biden appointee is now responsible for a $40 million overhaul of the National Archives Museum ... and the adjacent Discovery Center. Current and former employees expressed concerns about various changes to both spaces in interviews with the Journal, which also reviewed internal documents and notes.... As the Journal reported:
"'Shogan's senior aides ordered that a proposed image of Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. be cut from a planned 'Step Into History' photo booth in the Discovery Center. The booth will give visitors a chance to take photos of themselves superimposed alongside historic figures. The aides also ordered the removal of labor union pioneer Dolores Huerta and Minnie Spotted-Wolf, the first Native American woman to join the Marine Corps, from the photo booth, according to current and former employees and agency documents. The aides proposed using instead images of former President Richard Nixon greeting Elvis Presley and former President Ronald Reagan with baseball player Cal Ripken Jr." Read on. It gets worse. Thanks to pat for the lead. MB: I'm having a bit of trouble seeing how MLK Jr. would be viewed as "a negative part of U.S. history," but Dick Nixon would be a reminder of happy days.
Alex Williams of the New York Times: "Patricia Johanson, an environmental artist who made nature her medium, transforming highway underpasses, sewage treatment plants and other grimly functional public spaces into sweeping artworks, died on Oct. 16 at her home in Buskirk, N.Y., northeast of Albany. She was 84." Includes photographs of some of Johanson's installations.
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Tennessee. Rachel Nostrant of the New York Times: "The remains of a sixth factory worker in eastern Tennessee who was swept away in the flooding brought on by Hurricane Helene have been found, ending a search for what is believed to be the last missing employee more than a month after the storm tore through the Southeast. Officials on Friday disclosed the identity of the body as Rosa Andrade, 29, one of a half-dozen victims of the flood who worked at Impact Plastics, a factory in the close-knit town of Erwin, about 120 miles east of Knoxville.... It remains unclear what exactly happened at the plant on Sept. 27, and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations and the state's occupational safety board are still looking into the deaths.... Some workers said that as the downpour began, they were told not to leave the plant, despite their concerns about safety. Organizers with the Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition..., said that the workers told them they 'didn't have evacuation instructions at all.'"
Virginia, Where a Poll Worker Might Harass You if You "Look" Latina. Michael Laris of the Washington Post: The Post's 2023 Principal of the Year Liza Burrell-Aldana, went to vote Thursday in Fairfax County, Virginia, where "a poll worker ... looked at her driver's license and asked her, twice: 'Are you a citizen?'... Burrell-Aldana ... immigrated from Colombia in 2002 and became a U.S. citizen in 2011.... The incident played out as Donald Trump and many Republicans have falsely claimed that waves of noncitizens are voting, stoking fears. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) has embraced the issue, pushing for a daily scrub of voter rolls.... It is a violation of Virginia law for a poll worker 'to require or even to ask a voter to provide anything more than' a form of identification when they check in to vote, said Ryan Snow, a voting rights attorney at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.... Burrell-Aldana, in considering why her citizenship was questioned this year and not in past years, noted an environment where demeaning jokes about Latinos and others seem to be thrown around easily -- as they were at a recent Trump rally at Madison Square Garden."
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Israel/Palestine, et al. The Washington Post's live updates of developments Sunday in Israel's wars are here: "At least 50 children in northern Gaza's Jabalya were reportedly killed in the past 48 hours, according to UNICEF. The agency warned that the entire population of the region, especially children, is at imminent risk of dying from disease, famine and ongoing bombardment. The deaths in Jabalya were the result of strikes on two residential buildings where hundreds of people had sought shelter, UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell said in a statement Saturday."
U.K. Mark Landler & Stephen Castle of the New York Times: "Britain's Conservative Party announced on Saturday that it had selected Kemi Badenoch as its leader, putting a charismatic, often combative, right-wing firebrand at the helm of a party that suffered a crushing election defeat in July. Ms. Badenoch, 44, whose parents were immigrants from Nigeria, becomes the first Black woman to head a party that has had three other female leaders -- Margaret Thatcher, Theresa May and Liz Truss. She succeeds Rishi Sunak, who became the first nonwhite British prime minister after taking over the Tories, Britain's oldest party, in 2022."
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