The Conversation -- October 28, 2024

Marie: According to a Politico report I linked earlier today (as well as other reports I read) about Donald Trump's Madison Square Garden rally, "A Trump adviser said the speakers' remarks weren't vetted by the campaign." But that can't be entirely true, can it, because somebody loaded the speeches into the teleprompter. Well, it turns out the distancing is not true AT ALL. ~~~

~~~ Marc Caputo of the Bulwark: "Tony Hinchcliffe 'had a joke calling [Vice President Kamala] Harris a "cunt,"' a campaign insider involved in the discussions about the even told The Bulwark.... Campaign staffers had asked all speakers to submit drafts of their speeches ahead of time -- before they were loaded into the teleprompter -- according to ... sources. Once the objectionable 'cunt' joke was spotted, the sources said, a staffer asked Hinchcliffe to strike it. He complied. Those sources insisted that they did not spot the other objectionable lines in Hinchcliffe's speech prior to him delivering it because they were ad-libbed. Hinchcliffe couldn't be reached for comment.... 'It's a joke. People need to grow up,' one Trump adviser in the no-apology camp told The Bulwark. 'This is what we're campaigning against: PC culture run amok.'"

Robert Tait & Rachel Leingang of the Guardian: "Hundreds of early ballots cast for the US presidential election have been burned in two suspected attacks in Washington and Oregon, exacerbating tensions ahead of next Tuesday's knife-edge contest. Police said Monday that the fires in the two states were believed to be connected and that a vehicle involved had been identified, according to the Associated Press. Firefighters went to the scene after smoke was reported coming from a ballot drop box in the city of Vancouver in Washington state at 6.30am on Monday, according to local media.... The fire was reported after a similar incident in nearby Portland in Oregon, where police say an incendiary device was set off inside a ballot drop box close to a building hosting the Multnomah county elections division."

Heather Cox Richardson on Substack: "... the 2024 October surprise was the Trump campaign's fascist rally at Madison Square Garden, a rally so extreme that Republicans running for office have been denouncing it all over social media tonight.... Like [the Nazi rally of 1939], Trump's rally was supposed to demonstrate power and inspire his base to violence.... Trump advisor Stephen Miller's claim that 'America is for Americans and Americans only' directly echoed the statement of Adolf Hitler that 'Germany is for Germans and Germans only.'... But Trump perhaps gave away the game with his inflammatory language and with an aside, seemingly aimed at House speaker Johnson. 'I think with our little secret we are gonna do really well with the House, right? Our little secret is having a big impact, he and I have a secret, we will tell you what it is when the race is over,' Trump said. It seems possible -- probable, even -- that Trump was alluding to putting in play the plan his people tried in 2020."

Oh, She Wrote the Art of the Deal. Rachel Siegel & Maeve Reston of the Washington Post: "... in interviews, two dozen former aides, attorneys general, banking experts and Obama administration officials underscored that [Kamala] Harris's role as a tough negotiator [when she was a new state attorney general] set her apart. Her allies look back on the episode as an example of her ability to make gutsy decisions -- withstanding pressure from colleagues trying to get her to fall in line and going toe to toe with banking executives who said her demands were unfair." The article reports on a confrontation between Harris & JPMorgan Chase CEO cowardly blowhard Jamie Dimon.

Marie: I'm not sure why the Gray Lady was too delicate to mention this in the report, linked below, on Walz & Ocasio-Cortez's video-game session: ~~~

     ~~~ Kipp Jones of Mediaite: "Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz reacted live on Twitch to comic Tony Hinchcliffe speaking at the Trump rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday and were not amused.... The two aired the clip of Hinchliffe's Puerto Rico joke and reacted live: Walz: 'Who is that? Jackwad? Who is that guy?' AOC: 'Actually, I think that's Tommy Hinchcliffe. Which is super disappointing.... Yeah, I mean, it's like super upsetting. Obviously, it's super upsetting to me. My family's from Puerto Rico. The thing that is so messed up that I wish more people understood is that the things that they do in Puerto Rico are a testing ground for the policies and the horrors that they wish to and that they do unveil in working-class communities across the United States. And I need people to understand that ... when you have some A-hole calling Puerto Rico floating garbage. I know that that's what they think about you. That is like that's just what they think about you. It's what they think about anyone who makes less money than them. It's what they think about the people who serve them food in a restaurant. It's what they think about the people who.'"

Anita Hill, in a New York Times op-ed: "It's not easy to remain calm and collected in the glare of intense public scrutiny, especially when the opposition is set on denying your integrity, competence and accomplishments. But call it grace, poise or dignity, Kamala Harris has managed to make a positive case for her candidacy every day since President Biden endorsed her to take his place on the Democratic ticket. Think about it: No presidential nominees in modern history have faced such a direct challenge to the authenticity of their identity and by extension their qualifications to be the president."

Spokesperson Tries to Defend Trump. Colby Hall of Mediaite: "Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt woke up very early Monday morning so that she could appear on Fox & Friends in the 6 AM hour.... [Speaking of Trump's rally Sunday, she said,] 'It was amazing... And it was such a diverse group of people in that stadium packed to the house.... You had black Americans, Latino Americans, Jewish Americans, men, women of all ages coming in support of President Trump and unafraid to show it.' Steve Doocy then asked..., 'You know, this morning, mainstream media has picked up on the comic's comments, which were offensive, have been denounced by the campaign and everybody else. What went on with that?' 'Look, it was a comedian who made a joke in poor taste,' she replied. 'Obviously, that joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or our campaign. And I think it is sad that the media will pick up on one joke that was made by a comedian rather than the truths that were shared by the phenomenal list of speakers that we had.'... 'The crowd, they didn't mind,' she said of the racist jokes." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: For context, I should say that Leavitt is as blonde & White as the driven snow. Second, I suspect that by "such a diverse group at the rally" she meant "all the way from Bavaria to Prussia." The Blacks, Latinos & Jews who may have been there showed up as props for all the racist slurs. As you can tell from a few of the links below (which don't cover the breadth of the slurs), the racist attacks made at the rally were by no means limited to one speaker or against one group of "floating islanders." It's true, though, that "the crowd didn't mind." Apparently they roared their approval of some of the racist remarks.

Here's the part of Michelle Obama's speech -- delivered Friday in support of Kamala Harris -- where she lays out the effects and potential effects of Donald Trump's attacks on "the entirety of women's health." Thanks to RAS for the lead:

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Presidential Race

Marie: Sunday was Puerto Rico Day in the presidential campaigns. Kamala Harris visited a Puerto Rican restaurant in Philadelphia where she spoke of plans to build new economic opportunities for Puerto Rico, Tim Walz played video games with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who is of Puerto Rican heritage. And in Madison Square Garden, a speaker kicked off a rally for Donald Trump by calling Puerto Rico a "floating island of garbage."

"Sí, Se Puede." Erica Green of the New York Times: "Vice President Kamala Harris's campaign moved quickly on Sunday to elevate and denounce racist and inflammatory remarks made by speakers at a rally for ... Donald J. Trump at Madison Square Garden in New York.... Ms. Harris wrapped up a day in Philadelphia, where she spent time courting Pennsylvania's significant Puerto Rican population by visiting a local Puerto Rican restaurant. While there, she talked about a new plan she announced on Sunday to bring economic opportunities to Puerto Rico, discussed her visit there after Hurricane Maria, and said that even as a senator she had 'felt a need and an obligation' to 'make sure Puerto Rico's needs were met.... This is not a new area of focus for me,' she said. She received a warm reception from the crowd, with chants of 'Sí, se puede.'... In neighborhoods across the city, Ms. Harris delivered tailored messages to different groups of voters as she continued her effort to secure the crucial 'blue wall' states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. It was Ms. Harris's 14th visit to Pennsylvania since she became the Democratic presidential nominee, and her seventh to the Philadelphia area."

Benjamin Oreskes of the New York Times: "Wearing a camouflage Vikings hat, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota joined Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York, on Sunday to play Madden NFL 25 and talk about the election. 'Are we going to play some ball? Are we ready to do it?' Mr. Walz said to the audience watching via the streaming platform Twitch, cautioning that he was prepared to lose. Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, who represents parts of the Bronx and Queens, played as the Buffalo Bills, while Mr. Walz, a former high school football coach, went with the Vikings. He and Ms. Ocasio-Cortez talked about the politics of Congress, where Mr. Walz served before he became governor and the Democrats' vice-presidential nominee. They compared the House to 'public school,' with the Senate being more like 'private school.'" MB: AOC, who was born in the Bronx, is of Puerto Rican heritage.

Sabrina Rodriguez of the Washington Post: "Bad Bunny, the Puerto Rican recording artist and one of the biggest superstars in the world, on Sunday offered his support for Kamala Harris's candidacy for president, sharing a video of her plans for Puerto Rico on his Instagram -- a move that came just moments after a speaker at Donald Trump's rally in New York City referred to the U.S. territory as a 'floating island of garbage.' Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, known as Bad Bunny, shared on his story to his 45.6 million Instagram followers a video from Harris's official account in which the vice president outlines her vision for Puerto Rico. A source close to Bad Bunny confirmed the post was the artist announcing his support for Harris. 'I will never forget what Donald Trump did and what he did not do when Puerto Rico needed a caring and a competent leader,' Harris said in the video, which he shared four times, focusing on this portion of her remarks in three of the shares. 'He abandoned the island, tried to block aid after back-to-back devastating hurricanes and offered nothing more than paper towels and insults.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: No, no, it cannot be possible that a person can be "one of the biggest superstars in the world" if I, Marie Burns, never heard of him until Sunday. What, you say I'm a remarkable know-nothing? Maybe so.

Libby Cathey of CBS News: "The Democratic National Committee is projecting digital messages on Madison Square Garden's exterior during ... Donald Trump's campaign rally on Sunday about recent reports that he once praised Adolf Hitler and his generals and that cast him as unhinged.... Some Democrats [have made] comparisons [between Trump's MSG rally and] a 1939 rally [there] supporting Hitler and the Nazi party.... 'Donald Trump's got this big rally going at Madison Square Garden, [Gov. Tim] Walz said, speaking to voters in Nevada [on Sunday]. 'There's a direct parallel to a big rally that happened in the mid 1930s at Madison Square Garden. And don't think that he doesn't know for one second exactly what they're doing there.'"

Shane Goldmacher, et al., of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump's closing rally at Madison Square Garden on the second to last Sunday before the election was a release of rage at a political and legal system that impeached, indicted and convicted him, a vivid and at times racist display of the dark energy animating the MAGA movement. A comic kicked off the rally by dismissing Puerto Rico as a 'floating island of garbage,' then mocked Hispanics as failing to use birth control, Jews as cheap and Palestinians as rock-throwers, and called out a Black man in the audience with a reference to watermelon. Another speaker likened Vice President Kamala Harris to a prostitute with 'pimp handlers.' A third called her 'the Antichrist.' And the former Fox News host Tucker Carlson mocked Ms. Harris -- the daughter of an Indian mother and a Jamaican father -- with a made-up ethnicity, saying she was vying to become 'the first Samoan-Malaysian, low IQ former California prosecutor ever to be elected president." ~~~

     ~~~ Meredith McGraw of Politico: "Donald Trump's opening acts here at Madison Square Garden have been loud, vulgar and at times bigoted. And the thousands of Trump supporters who packed into the Midtown Manhattan arena -- some of whom slept on city sidewalks overnight -- loved it, and cheered, clapped and laughed, as the speakers dropped F-bombs, insulted Democrats and minorities and implored people to get out and vote for Trump.... Radio host Sid Rosenberg called Hillary Clinton a 'sick bastard.' 'Hillary Clinton. What a sick son of a bitch. The whole fucking party. A bunch of degenerates. Lowlives, Jew-haters and lowlives.... Every one of 'em,' said Rosenberg. Painter Scott LoBaido -- who painted an American flag live on a canvas set up on stage -- said to cheers, 'I'm opening up for the greatest fucking president in the world.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Meredith McGraw & Lisa Kashinsky of Politico: "Donald Trump's rally at Madison Square Garden, billed as a triumphant homecoming, turned into a political fiasco on Sunday night as a pro-Trump comedian's racist diatribe drew furious condemnation, including from prominent Republicans. The rally, held just more than a week before Election Day, was intended to serve as a platform for Trump to make his closing argument. But the racist slurs and vulgarity of the former president's opening acts were so striking -- and sparked such backlash -- that his campaign was left on the defensive and issued a disavowal.... In his own speech, Trump reprised some of his harshest remarks about immigration, with his calls to weed out 'the enemy from within.'Trump, who has demonized migrants, called for the death penalty for 'any migrant who kills an American citizen or a law enforcement officer,' and at one point stopped to show a video about Venezuelan migrants and gang activity in New York. The crowd responded by chanting: 'Send them back.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Allan Smith of NBC News: "Grant Cardone, a conservative influencer and investor, said [Vice President] Harris and 'her pimp handlers will destroy our country' and raised his middle finger to the camera to show what message a Trump victory would send to 'the elites.' 'It needs to be a landslide," he said. "We need to slaughter these other people..... David Rem, who announced his candidacy for mayor of New York on stage, echoed a rallygoer who called Harris 'the devil' and added that she is 'the Antichrist.'...

"But no comments generated more attention than an opening routine from ... Tony Hinchcliffe, who spoke early in the afternoon. His jokes included saying Latinos 'love making babies' because 'there's no pulling out. They don't do that. They come inside, just like they did to our country.' Then he targeted Puerto Rico, describing it as 'a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now.' Then he told a joke about how he and a Black friend 'carved watermelons' together. There was an uncomfortable reception to his punch lines in the arena. Within hours of his remarks, multiple pro-Trump GOP members of Congress condemned him." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: There are three main words in "floating island of garbage," and two of them are wrong. Obviously, the use of the term "garbage" to describe millions of people, their homes and their homeland is reprehensible. It makes me sick to hear it and read it. But let me just add that Puerto Rico is not "floating." I don't know if Hinchcliffe uses "floating" as a slur to suggest Puerto Ricans are aimless or if I should give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he's so stupid he thinks islands float around the ocean and, what the hell, might bump up against the rest of the U.S. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Every MSM story I read about Trump's rally focused on the racist & xenophobic remarks that dominated the speeches. Except this Fox "News" report, which said nothing about racism. At all. heir report about "race" at the rally went like this: "Trump added that under his leadership, the Republican Party has become the 'party of inclusion.' 'Jews and Muslims and Catholics and evangelicals and Mormons, and they're all joining our cause in large numbers, larger than anyone has ever seen in this country before, larger than they've ever seen in any country,' he said. 'And we're a big, powerful party, and they're losing it. They're really losing it. Together we will lift America to glory beyond your wildest dreams. It's going to happen fast, too.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: If the most shameful 21st-century moment in American history was January 6, 2021, then yesterday was the second-most. It happened nearly in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty. There is a photo accompanying the Times piece about Trump's racist rally that includes Speaker Mike Johnson smiling and clapping at the hate-fest. Bear in mind that Mike and the Turtle have urged Vice President Harris to turn down the rhetoric because it's so dangerous: ~~~

This is probably my favorite segment EVER by @jaketapper. 👏 👏pic.twitter.com/zVB1TyY3mh

— Jon Cooper 🇺🇸 (@joncoopertweets) October 25, 2024

     ~~~ Thanks to RAS for the link.

Trump Ad Shows U.S. Went "to Hell" During His Presidency*. Adam Wren of Politico: "Donald Trump's two-minute ad that aired during Sunday's Philadelphia Eagles game and said the country had 'gone to hell' during the Biden and Harris administration featured an image from a protest during Trump's presidency, not Biden's. The 'Never Quit' spot featured an image from a photo gallery published by KPIC, a CBS affiliate, from a story headlined 'After day of fiery protests, uneasy calm in Seattle' -- in 2020. The protests erupted in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd." The ad is here on Instagram.

Yay! Top-Secret Docs for One & All! No Vetting Required! Shady Characters Welcome! Maggie Haberman, et al., of the New York Times: "A memo circulating among at least half a dozen advisers to former President Donald J. Trump recommends that if he is elected, he bypass traditional background checks by law enforcement officials and immediately grant security clearances to a large number of his appointees after being sworn in.... The proposal is being promoted by a small group including Boris Epshteyn, a top legal adviser to Mr. Trump who was influential in its development.... It is not clear whether Mr. Trump has seen the proposal or whether he is inclined to adopt it if he takes office. But it would allow him to quickly install loyalists in major positions without subjecting them to the risk of long-running and intrusive F.B.I. background checks, potentially increasing the risks of people with problematic histories or ties to other nations being given influential White House roles. Such checks hung up clearances for a number of aides during Mr. Trump's presidency, including Mr. Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and Mr. Epshteyn himself." (Also linked yesterday.)

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "... in the nine years that he has been running for or serving as president, Mr. Trump has regularly evoked the language, history and motifs of fascism without hesitation or evident concern about how it would make him look.... No American commander in chief ... has so aggressively sought to discredit the institutions of democracy at home while so openly embracing and envying dictators abroad.... He goes out of his way to portray himself as an American strongman, vowing if re-elected to use the military to crack down on dissent, to use the Justice Department to prosecute and imprison his foes, to shut down news media outlets that displease him, to claim authority that his predecessors did not have and to round up millions of people living in the country illegally and put them in camps or deport them en masse. He has already sought to overturn a free and fair election..., something no other sitting president ever tried to do. When that did not work, he spread demonstrable lies about the 2020 vote so pervasively that he convinced most of his supporters that Mr. Biden's victory was illegitimate..., eroding faith in the democratic system.... He then called for the 'termination' of the Constitution so that President Biden could be instantly removed from power and himself reinstalled without a new election." (Also linked yesterday.)~~~

     ~~~ The online New York Times is rerunning its anti-Trump "Believe Him" editorial. (Also linked yesterday.)

Charles Homans & Alexandra Berzon of the New York Times: "In recent interviews and speeches, [retired Gen. Michael T. Flynn] and an associate are warning that this year's election will be stolen from Mr. Trump, advising supporters to take action to prevent a theft and vowing retribution once Mr. Trump is back in power.... Mr. Flynn's close associate [Ivan Raiklin] has discussed plans to overturn the election if Mr. Trump loses.... Mr. Flynn and Mr. Raiklin ... have been prominent exponents of false claims and conspiracy theories about the 2020 election for years. But they have recently focused on specific tactics to avoid what they predict will be the theft of the 2024 election.... On Oct. 11, Mr. Raiklin told a small group of livestreamers that he was planning for a range of scenarios in the days after the election. 'I have a plan and strategy for every single component of it,' he said. 'And then Jan. 6 is going to be pretty fun.'"

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Gene Weingarten, a former humor columnist for the Washington Post and a two-time Pulitzer-winner, contrasts former Post publisher Kate Graham and current owner Jeff Bezos. MB: Weingarten's depiction of Graham's courage is moving.

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Japan. Motoko Rich, et al., of the New York Times: "Japan's governing party lost its majority in parliamentary elections on Sunday, as voters delivered an emphatic rejection of the status quo, throwing Japanese politics into its most uncertain period in years. The Liberal Democratic Party, which has governed Japan for all but four years since 1955, lost more than 50 seats in an election for the House of Representatives, the influential lower chamber of Parliament, according to the public broadcaster, NHK. For more than a decade, elections in Japan had taken on a rubber-stamp quality for the conservative Liberal Democrats. This time, a wearied public angered by a long-simmering political finance scandal, rising inflation and the burdens of raising families inflicted a humiliating blow to the party just one month after it anointed Shigeru Ishiba as the new prime minister."

Israel/Palestine, et al.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Sunday in Israel's wars are here: "Iran's leaders stressed on Sunday that they had a right to respond to Israel's attack but appeared to take a measured tone, which could help ease concerns that the region's two largest militaries were gearing up for all-out war. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said that the retaliatory attack on Iran had achieved all of its objectives, as analysts questioned how his government might leverage its recent military gains on the diplomatic front. On Sunday, U.S. and Israeli officials were scheduled to travel to Qatar for meetings aimed at reviving negotiations for a cease-fire in Gaza and the release of hostages held there." (Also linked yesterday.)

The Conversation -- October 27, 2024

Yay! Top-Secret Docs for One & All! No Vetting Required! Shady Characters Welcome! Maggie Haberman, et al., of the New York Times: "A memo circulating among at least half a dozen advisers to former President Donald J. Trump recommends that if he is elected, he bypass traditional background checks by law enforcement officials and immediately grant security clearances to a large number of his appointees after being sworn in.... The proposal is being promoted by a small group including Boris Epshteyn, a top legal adviser to Mr. Trump who was influential in its development.... It is not clear whether Mr. Trump has seen the proposal or whether he is inclined to adopt it if he takes office. But it would allow him to quickly install loyalists in major positions without subjecting them to the risk of long-running and intrusive F.B.I. background checks, potentially increasing the risks of people with problematic histories or ties to other nations being given influential White House roles. Such checks hung up clearances for a number of aides during Mr. Trump's presidency, including Mr. Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and Mr. Epshteyn himself."

Marie: Have you noticed that when billionaires & other super-rich people donate to Democrats, it's because they "support candidates who demonstrate a clear commitment to improving healthcare, reducing poverty and fighting climate change" or something like that? And when billionaires contribute to Republicans it's often because they want government contracts or other favors to enrich themselves (though, in fairness, some are ideologues)?

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "... in the nine years that he has been running for or serving as president, Mr. Trump has regularly evoked the language, history and motifs of fascism without hesitation or evident concern about how it would make him look.... No American commander in chief over the past couple of centuries has so aggressively sought to discredit the institutions of democracy at home while so openly embracing and envying dictators abroad.... He goes out of his way to portray himself as an American strongman, vowing if re-elected to use the military to crack down on dissent, to use the Justice Department to prosecute and imprison his foes, to shut down news media outlets that displease him, to claim authority that his predecessors did not have and to round up millions of people living in the country illegally and put them in camps or deport them en masse. He has already sought to overturn a free and fair election..., something no other sitting president ever tried to do. When that did not work, he spread demonstrable lies about the 2020 vote so pervasively that he convinced most of his supporters that Mr. Biden's victory was illegitimate..., eroding faith in the democratic system.... He then called for the 'termination' of the Constitution so that President Biden could be instantly removed from power and himself reinstalled without a new election." ~~~

     ~~~ The online New York Times is rerunning its anti-Trump "Believe Him" editorial.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Sunday in Israel's wars are here: "Iran's leaders stressed on Sunday that they had a right to respond to Israel's attack but appeared to take a measured tone, which could help ease concerns that the region's two largest militaries were gearing up for all-out war. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said that the retaliatory attack on Iran had achieved all of its objectives, as analysts questioned how his government might leverage its recent military gains on the diplomatic front. On Sunday, U.S. and Israeli officials were scheduled to travel to Qatar for meetings aimed at reviving negotiations for a cease-fire in Gaza and the release of hostages held there."

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Presidential Race

Michelle Obama Campaigns in "Kamalazoo." Rebecca O'Brien & Nicholas Nehamas of the New York Times: "Michelle Obama issued an impassioned plea to American voters on Saturday -- and, in particular, American men -- anchored in a searing and intimate depiction of women's bodies and reproductive health, and what she described as the life-or-death stakes of returning ... Donald J. Trump to power. In her first appearance on the campaign trail during this election, Mrs. Obama, long reluctant to engage in the political arena, described the far-reaching consequences of the 2022 Supreme Court decision overturning the constitutional right to abortion, in the concrete terms of personal tragedy.... She discussed menstrual cramps and hot flashes, describing the shame and uncertainty girls and women feel about their bodies. She told women they should demand to be treated as more than 'baby-making vessels.' And she castigated the media and many voters for holding [Vice President] Harris to a higher standard than her opponent, for 'choosing to ignore Donald Trump's gross incompetence, while asking Kamala to dazzle us at every turn.'" ~~~

     ~~~ The AP's report is here. You can watch Obama's full speech here. Here's a clip: ~~~

Robert Draper of the New York Times profiles Kamala Harris.

Alexandra Petri of the Washington Post Goes There: "The Washington Post is not bothering to endorse a candidate in the 2024 presidential election. (Jeff Bezos, the founder of Blue Origin and the founder and executive chairman of Amazon and Amazon Web Services, also owns The Post.) We as a newspaper suddenly remembered, less than two weeks before the election, that we had a robust tradition 50 years ago of not telling anyone what to do with their vote for president. It is time we got back to those 'roots,' I'm told! Roots are important, of course. As recently as the 1970s, The Post did not endorse a candidate for president. As recently as centuries ago, there was no Post and the country had a king!... But if I were the paper, I would be a little embarrassed that it has fallen to me, the humor columnist, to make our presidential endorsement. I will spare you the suspense: I am endorsing Kamala Harris for president, because I like elections and want to keep having them." ~~~

~~~ Anna Young of the New York Post, republished by AOL: "A high ranking former editor at the Washington Post is claiming that the paper's billionaire owner, Jeff Bezos, entered into a quid-pro-quo agreement with ... Donald Trump to kill the newspaper's planned endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris. Longtime Post editor-at-large Robert Kagan, who quit after the non-endorsement on Friday, told The Daily Beast that Trump met with executives at Blue Origin -- the space company owned and operated by Bezos -- after the Post's announcement, suggesting Bezos entered a deal with the possible next president. 'Trump waited to make sure that Bezos did what he said he was going to do, and then met with the Blue Origin people,' he reportedly said. 'Which tells us that there was an actual deal made, meaning that Bezos communicated, or through his people, communicated directly with Trump, and they set up this quid pro quo.'" ~~~

~~~ Benjamin Mullin & Katie Robertson of the New York Times: "The decision by Mr. Bezos had been in the making for weeks. It is not clear what motivated his final determination or its timing.... The businesses Mr. Bezos founded, including Amazon and Blue Origin, his aerospace company, still compete regularly for lucrative government contracts. Blue Origin executives met with Mr. Trump on Friday, and the company has a $3.4 billion contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to build a lunar lander." ~~~

~~~ The Word from Woodstein: ~~~

Statement on Washington Post’s refusal to endorse presidential candidate. pic.twitter.com/r8jrMPW5GR

— Carl Bernstein (@carlbernstein) October 26, 2024

Michael Gold of the New York Times: "When he ran for president eight years ago, Donald J. Trump floated the idea of creating a national registry of Muslims and proposed banning immigration from Muslim countries. So it was striking to see him on Saturday at a rally in suburban Detroit celebrating endorsements from a handful of Muslim and Arab American leaders. It was a political turnaround that would have seemed unthinkable during Mr. Trump's first campaign, when he frequently spouted anti-Muslim rhetoric. As president, Mr. Trump blocked travel from several predominantly Muslim countries, creating travel chaos. And at moments during this campaign, he has drawn on the anti-Muslim sentiments from earlier in his political career. But in a tight election, Mr. Trump and his campaign have been trying to win the support of Arab American and Muslim voters who may be disaffected with Democrats over President Biden's handling of the war in Gaza and the party's positions on social issues. Their support is seen as especially important in Michigan, a key battleground state with many Arab American and Muslim voters. At Saturday's rally in Novi, Mich., a suburb of Detroit, Mr. Trump invited a group of people that his campaign said included a number of Muslim and Arab American leaders to the stage, where they endorsed him. (Mr. Trump claimed they were 'highly respected leaders,' but his campaign has not provided any details about who most of them were, making it difficult to assess their prominence.)" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: What Trump almost always means when he describes a person as "highly respected" is "someone who supports me."

Fuad Shalhout of Michigan Live: Donald "Trump spoke for an hour and a half [Saturday at a rally in Novi, Michigan,] and spent a portion of his time saying that Arab and Muslim voters have his support.... At the Suburban Collection Showplace ... [in Novi, Michigan,] a group of Muslim imams from the Michigan Chapter of the Arab American Bar Association took the stage to endorse Trump, expressing their support for his stance on ending the wars in the Middle East.... Joining them was the mayor of Dearborn Heights, Bill Bazzi, who also took the stage to endorse Trump." Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: At the end of yesterday's thread, Akhilleus marveled that Muslims would support "the guy who wanted to ban all Muslims, called them all terrorist scum, and will happily do it again after he steals the election." As for me, I would speculate their support has little to do with world peace (as they claimed) and a lot to do with misogyny. In my experience, there are some Muslim men who take it as an article of faith -- literally -- that women must wholly submit to men, and that of course precludes their holding any positions of power. ~~~

~~~ Meryl Kornfield, et al., of the Washington Post: Donald "Trump slams early voting at [a] Michigan rally marking [the] start of early voting.... Trump went on to disparage Michigan's procedures and restate his position that all voting should occur on Election Day with paper ballots. Most states allow early and absentee voting." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Sorry, sometimes I am going to have to link stories in the Bezos Gazette -- like this time, when I couldn't find another story that emphasized (or maybe way down the page somewhere mentioned) Trump's continued antipathy to early voting, which he emphasized in a speech that should have centered on GOTV & encouraged early voting.

Lisa Lerer & Jess Bidgood of the New York Times: "A campaign marked by Donald J. Trump's apocalyptic extremes has turned even darker in its final days.... The former president on Friday escalated his threats to prosecute and imprison a wide range of people involved in elections and politics. Hours later, on the hugely popular 'The Joe Rogan Experience' podcast, he said that the 'enemy within,' a phrase he has used to describe political opponents, poses a bigger threat to the nation than North Korea.... In a post on his social media site on Friday, Mr. Trump wrote that those who 'cheated' in the election would face 'long-term prison sentences' and would 'be sought out, caught, and prosecuted at levels, unfortunately, never seen before in our Country.'... During his presidency, he called for investigations of his perceived foes, and he frequently got them....

"He often singles people out by name on social media and at his rallies.... In Austin, Texas, on Friday, Mr. Trump slammed The Atlantic, which first reported the claim about his desire for generals like Hitler had, and went out of his way to note that the magazine was 'run by a guy named Goldberg' -- a direct attack on the magazine's editor, Jeffrey Goldberg, that appeared to be an antisemitic dog whistle. 'These are evil people, they're a threat to democracy,' he said later, after referring again to Mr. Goldberg. There are signs that Mr. Trump's statements may be having a chilling effect beyond the campaign trail on business leaders and media outlets owned by them. Both The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times announced they would not make an endorsement in the presidential contest, breaking with years of practice."

Sebastian Murdock of the Huffington Post: "... Donald Trump heaped praise on authoritarian Chinese President Xi Jinping during a lengthy interview Friday with the podcaster Joe Rogan. 'We're dealing with the smartest people,' Trump said, referring to the leaders of U.S. adversaries, about an hour and a half into their conversation. 'They hate when I say, you know, when the press -- when I called President Xi, [the press] said, "Well, he called President Xi brilliant." Well, he's a brilliant guy. He controls 1.4 billion people with an iron fist. I mean, he's a brilliant guy, whether you like it or not. And they go crazy.' 'Right, it doesn't mean he's not evil, or it doesn't mean he's not dangerous,' Rogan responded.... 'Yeah, of course not,' Trump said. 'But, actually, we have evil people in our country.'"

Sure, Trump Cares About You. Jill Colvin, et al., of the AP: "Many of Donald Trump's supporters left a Michigan rally before he arrived after the former president kept them waiting for three hours to tape a popular podcast interview. Those who remained at the outdoor rally on an airport tarmac huddled in the cold Friday night as they waited for the former president to touch down in the battleground state. Trump apologized to the crowd for the delay, which he blamed on an interview with Joe Rogan, the nation's most listened-to podcaster and an influential voice with younger male voters Trump is aggressively courting.... [Even when his plane was more than two hours away,] Trump recorded a video from his plane urging his supporters to stay, noting it was Friday night and promising, 'We're going to have a good time tonight.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "Other countries overcame this stereotypical thinking about women leaders, but there is still a thick strain of it in America.... Trump is running a hypermasculine campaign -- with Chief Bro Elon Musk bizarrely bouncing up and down -- that is breathtakingly offensive to women. Trump is exploiting the crisis among Gen Z men, a crisis driven by loneliness, Covid isolation, economic insecurity, a lack of purpose and a feeling that the modern world seems more accommodating to young women.... At a Trump rally in Georgia on Wednesday, Tucker Carlson gave a rant that became an instant classic of perversion.... Somehow, Carlson was even more creepy and retrogressive than JD Vance, with his denunciations of 'childless cat ladies' and his dissing of postmenopausal women. Trump is phallocentric -- always a sign of insecurity. At a rally in Latrobe, Pa., he rhapsodized about Arnold Palmer's anatomy." (Also linked yesterday.)

Eva Dou of the Washington Post: "Elon Musk's fast-growing satellite business Starlink could be poised to gain billions of dollars more in federal contracts and subsidies under a Donald Trump presidency, industry experts say, in a reflection of the world's richest individual's deepening financial stake in Washington politics.... Musk has struggled to reassure parts of the defense community that he is a trustworthy partner, even as industry experts say Starlink is rapidly building out an advanced satellite surveillance system on track to be the most powerful one in history.... Musk's shift to supporting Trump appears to be driven largely by conviction on social issues.... But the tech executive's business empire also stands to benefit if Trump wins the election -- potentially by a far larger amount than the billionaire has splashed out to support Trump's campaign." About those social issues: ~~~

~~~ Elon Musk, Illegal Immigrant. Edward Helmore of the Guardian: "Elon Musk briefly worked illegally in the US after abandoning a graduate studies program in California, according to a Washington Post report that contrasted the episode with the South African multibillionaire's anti-immigration views.... [Musk] has previously maintained that his transition from student to entrepreneur was a 'legal grey area'. But the Washington Post reported Saturday that the world's wealthiest individual was almost certainly working in the US without correct authorization for a period in 1995 after he dropped out of Stanford University to work on his debut company, Zip2, which sold for about $300m four years later. Legal experts said foreign students cannot drop out of school to build a company even if they are not getting paid. The Post also noted that -- prior to the September 11 terrorist attacks ... -- regulation for student visas was more lax. 'If you do anything that helps to facilitate revenue creation, such as design code or try to make sales in furtherance of revenue creation, then you're in trouble,' Leon Fresco, a former US justice department immigration litigator, told the outlet." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Reading the WashPo story, it appears Elon worked in the U.S. illegally at least into 1997. He seems to have broken the law in other ways, too, by lying to authorities about his immigration status a few times & by persuading his brother Kimbal -- who also was an undocumented immigrant -- to run his company. BTW, according to the WashPo story, Elon never was a student here; he was accepted into a grad program at Stanford but never enrolled in classes. Frankly, I'm not a bit troubled by workers who don't have legal status, but I am offended by hypocrites who got here as undocumented workers, yet now campaign against and even vilify today's undocumented workers.~~~

     ~~~ Lora Kolodny of CNBC: "President Joe Biden called out Elon Musk ... for hypocrisy on immigration on Saturday, saying Musk launched his long career in the U.S. as an 'illegal worker' before becoming the world's wealthiest man. The president made these remarks at a campaign event to support Democrats that took place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Saturday.... 'He was supposed to be in school when he came on a student visa. He wasn't in school. He was violating the law. He's talking about all these "illegals" coming our way,' Biden [said]. He then criticized Trump and Republicans for failing to sign legislation that would fix the problem with the border. He added, 'We have fewer people crossing the border illegally now -- or crossing the border period -- than at any time since his third year as President of the United States.'"

Glenn Thrush, et al., of the New York Times: "... law enforcement officials are confronting a rising wave of threats to election workers and political activists.... On Monday, the Justice Department unsealed a complaint against a man in Philadelphia who had vowed to skin alive and kill a party official recruiting volunteer poll watchers. On Tuesday, the police in Tempe, Ariz., arrested a man in connection with shootings at a Democratic campaign office, which resulted in no injuries, and other acts of political vandalism. On Wednesday, prosecutors charged a 61-year-old man from Tampa, Fla., with threatening an election official -- on top of pending charges over menacing messages sent in the past five years. And on Thursday, police officers in Phoenix arrested a person in connection with a mailbox fire, damaging some 20 ballots in a Democratic stronghold.... [A Brennan Center survey of election workers] found that almost 40 percent had been the target of threats or harassment." (Also linked yesterday.)

~~~~~~~~~~

Israel/Palestine, et al., Amy Bentov, et al., of the AP: "Israeli strikes on northern Gaza have killed at least 22 people, mostly women and children, Palestinian officials said Sunday, as the Israeli offensive in the hard-hit and isolated north entered a third week and aid groups described a humanitarian catastrophe. Israel said it targeted militants. In a separate development, a truck rammed into a bus stop near the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, wounding 35 people, according to Israel's Magen David Adom rescue service. The circumstances were not immediately clear, but Palestinians have carried out dozens of vehicle-ramming attacks over the years. The attack occurred near the headquarters of Israel's Mossad spy agency."

The Conversation -- October 26, 2024

Robert Draper of the New York Times profiles Kamala Harris.

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "Other countries overcame this stereotypical thinking about women leaders, but there is still a thick strain of it in America.... Trump is running a hypermasculine campaign -- with Chief Bro Elon Musk bizarrely bouncing up and down -- that is breathtakingly offensive to women. Trump is exploiting the crisis among Gen Z men, a crisis driven by loneliness, Covid isolation, economic insecurity, a lack of purpose and a feeling that the modern world seems more accommodating to young women.... At a Trump rally in Georgia on Wednesday, Tucker Carlson gave a rant that became an instant classic of perversion.... Somehow, Carlson was even more creepy and retrogressive than JD Vance, with his denunciations of 'childless cat ladies' and his dissing of postmenopausal women. Trump is phallocentric -- always a sign of insecurity. At a rally in Latrobe, Pa., he rhapsodized about Arnold Palmer's anatomy." ~~~

~~~ Marie: Oh, you might as well watch this, as I wouldn't be surprised if it's the SNL cold open tonight (Update: SNL ran a rerun tonight, so no Tucker): ~~~

Elon Musk, Illegal Immigrant. Edward Helmore of the Guardian: "Elon Musk briefly worked illegally in the US after abandoning a graduate studies program in California, according to a Washington Post report that contrasted the episode with the South African multibillionaire's anti-immigration views.... [Musk] has previously maintained that his transition from student to entrepreneur was a 'legal grey area'. But the Washington Post reported Saturday that the world's wealthiest individual was almost certainly working in the US without correct authorization for a period in 1995 after he dropped out of Stanford University to work on his debut company, Zip2, which sold for about $300m four years later. Legal experts said foreign students cannot drop out of school to build a company even if they are not getting paid. The Post also noted that -- prior to the September 11 terrorist attacks against the US in 2001 -- regulation for student visas was more lax. 'If you do anything that helps to facilitate revenue creation, such as design code or try to make sales in furtherance of revenue creation, then you're in trouble,' Leon Fresco, a former US justice department immigration litigator, told the outlet." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Reading the WashPo story, it appears Elon worked in the U.S. illegally at least into 1997. He seems to have broken the law in other ways, too, by lying to authorities about his immigration status a few times & by persuading his brother Kimbal -- who also was an undocumented immigrant -- to run his company. BTW, according to the WashPo story, Elon never was a student here; he was accepted into a grad program at Stanford but never enrolled in classes. Frankly, I'm not a bit troubled by workers who don't have legal status, but I am offended by hypocrites who got here as undocumented workers, yet now campaign against and even vilify today's undocumented workers.

Sure, Trump Cares About You. Jill Colvin, et al., of the AP: "Many of Donald Trump's supporters left a Michigan rally before he arrived after the former president kept them waiting for three hours to tape a popular podcast interview. Those who remained at the outdoor rally on an airport tarmac huddled in the cold Friday night as they waited for the former president to touch down in the battleground state. Trump apologized to the crowd for the delay, which he blamed on an interview with Joe Rogan, the nation's most listened-to podcaster and an influential voice with younger male voters Trump is aggressively courting.... [Even when his plane was more than two hours away,] Trump recorded a video from his plane urging his supporters to stay, noting it was Friday night and promising, 'We're going to have a good time tonight.'"

Glenn Thrush, et al., of the New York Times: "... law enforcement officials are confronting a rising wave of threats to election workers and political activists.... On Monday, the Justice Department unsealed a complaint against a man in Philadelphia who had vowed to skin alive and kill a party official recruiting volunteer poll watchers. On Tuesday, the police in Tempe, Ariz., arrested a man in connection with shootings at a Democratic campaign office, which resulted in no injuries, and other acts of political vandalism. On Wednesday, prosecutors charged a 61-year-old man from Tampa, Fla., with threatening an election official -- on top of pending charges over menacing messages sent in the past five years. And on Thursday, police officers in Phoenix arrested a person in connection with a mailbox fire, damaging some 20 ballots in a Democratic stronghold.... [A Brennan Center survey of election workers] found that almost 40 percent had been the target of threats or harassment."

~~~~~~~~~~

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.

Kay Graham Is Rolling in Her Grave. Hadas Gold & Brian Stelter of CNN: "For the first time in decades, The Washington Post will not endorse a candidate in this year's presidential election, the newspaper's publisher announced Friday, a decision that sparked widespread outrage among the paper's staffers.... The Post reported the decision not to endorse was made by the newspaper's billionaire owner, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, citing two sources briefed on the matter. The Post's editorial page staffers had drafted an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris and it was ready to be approved by its board, but the draft was never presented, a person with knowledge of the matter told CNN.... Robert Kagan, an editor-at-large at the Post, told CNN he had resigned from the newspaper over Bezos's decision to block the endorsement. The move was also quickly denounced by Marty Baron, the Post's former executive editor who led the newspaper through its coverage of the January 6, 2021, attack. 'This is cowardice, with democracy as its casualty. Donald Trump will see this as an invitation to further intimidate owner Bezos (and others),' Baron wrote in a social media post. 'Disturbing spinelessness at an institution famed for courage.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ David Folkenflik of NPR broke the story earlier. Thanks to RAS for the link. (Also linked yesterday.)

Sewell Chan of the Columbia School of Journalism reports on the tick-tock of how Washington Post "leadership" quashed the Harris endorsement.

Washington Post Opinion Columnists in the Washington Post: "The Washington Post's decision not to make an endorsement in the presidential campaign is a terrible mistake. It represents an abandonment of the fundamental editorial convictions of the newspaper that we love.... An independent newspaper might someday choose to back away from making presidential endorsements. But this isn't the right moment, when one candidate is advocating positions that directly threaten freedom of the press and the values of the Constitution." -- Karen Attiah, Perry Bacon Jr., Matt Bai, Max Boot, E.J. Dionne Jr., Lee Hockstader, David Ignatius, Heather Long, Ruth Marcus, Dana Milbank, Alexandra Petri, Catherine Rampell, Eugene Robinson, Jennifer Rubin, Karen Tumulty & Erik Wemple

Anna Betts of the Guardian: "There was uproar and outrage among the Washington Post's current and former staffers and other notable figures in the world of American media after the newspaper's leaders on Friday chose to not endorse any candidate in the US presidential election.... In a statement, the union representing editorial staff and reporters at the Washington Post expressed that they were 'deeply concerned' by the decision 'especially a mere 11 days ahead of an immensely consequential election'.... Semafor reported that in the 24 hours ending on Friday afternoon, about 2,000 subscribers had already canceled their subscriptions.... 'So much for "Democracy Dies in Darkness",'[former ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice] said.... 'This is the most hypocritical, chicken-shit move from a publication that is supposed to hold people in power to account.'"

Marie: WashPo publisher William Lewis claimed in his CYA "explanation" for the Post's decision not to endorse was that it was "returning to its roots." But as Ben Wittes points out (essay linked below), those so-called roots were remarkably shallow: "The Post before Nixon was a bit of a backwater. It was small, privately held. It had not yet become a national voice. It had not yet benefited from the collapse of the other major Washington newspaper. The traditions of the Washington Post are the traditions of the Washington Post of the Pentagon Papers and Watergate era and the subsequent decades. "That is to say, if it walks like a chicken, pecks like a chicken & squawks like a chicken, then it probably is a chicken. Susan Rice is on the mark.

Michael Schaffer of Politico Magazine: "There is nothing quite so frustrating as an act of cowardice presented as an act of principle. That's the essence of the short statement today authored by Will Lewis, the publisher of The Washington Post. According to Lewis, the paper is not making an endorsement in the 2024 presidential race in order to make a brave declaration about its independence. 'We see it as consistent with the values The Post has always stood for...,' Lewis wrote. 'We also see it as a statement in support of our readers' ability to make up their own minds,' he added. Lewis, a former Rupert Murdoch associate hired less than a year ago by Post owner Jeff Bezos, picked an awfully convenient moment to embrace readers' decision-making.... The timing of this stinks -- a self-inflicted wound at best, and something a lot more sinister at worst."

"The Guardrails Are Already Crumpling." Jonathan Last of the Bulwark: "It's a situation analogous to what we saw in Russia in the early 2000s: We are witnessing the surrender of the American business community to Donald Trump.... This story is ... about the most consequential American entrepreneur of his generation signaling his submission to Trump -- and the message that sends to every other corporation and business leader in the country. In the world. Killing this editorial says, If Jeff Bezos has to be nice to Trump, then so do you. Keep your nose clean, bub."

Bemjamin Wittes in the Bulwark: "... Trump spent a lot of time attacking Bezos and Amazon during his first term over Washington Post content and that he has more recently become cozy with Elon Musk, with whom Amazon competes in a number of areas.... If you're not prepared to defer to the editorial board you have hired to think things through for you, you have no business owning the Washington Post.... Democracy, and journalism, cannot rest on the shoulders of oligarchs.... Bezos did a lot of good for the Post when he first took it over, but the consent of the billionaire is not a stable structure for newspapers or magazines in an authoritarian era. Eventually, they can be counted upon to protect themselves, and that may sometimes mean not speaking the truth -- either by lying or, as here, just by not speaking at all."

Dan Froomkin in Salon: The Washington Post's decision to kill its endorsement of Kamala Harris "says: We are so terrified of a Trump presidency that we are bending the knee in advance. Most importantly, it makes clear that owner Jeff Bezos doesn't want to lose government business in a second Trump administration.... [This, along with the Los Angeles Times' similar move days earlier] makes it more clear than ever: You cannot be a truly independent news organization if you are owned by an oligarch.... Just as these oligarchs are a plague on society, they are a plague on the news business. They have now ruined -- possibly for good -- two of our most treasured news organizations.... An overarching theme here is that the moves by the Post and the LA Times reflect what Timothy Snyder, the author of 'On Tyranny,' calls 'anticipatory obedience.'... These institutions are not just succumbing to authoritarianism, they are advancing it."

Margaret Sullivan of the Guardian: "There's no other way to see this other than as an appalling display of cowardice and a dereliction of their public duty."

Parker Molloy of the Present Age cites a number of participants, authorities & observers of this performative capitulation to an anticipated authoritarian regime. They point to a few other examples of media conglomerates compromising their news outlets to accommodate their other business interests. MB: There's a reason I call network execs "the suits" long after that term seems to have been discarded.

Cheryl Rofer of LG&$ Headline: "I didn't know that "Democracy Dies in Darkness" was an instruction to the editorial staff."

Ross Lincoln of the Wrap: "Alongside its endorsement of Kamala Harris, the Los Angeles Times editorial board had also planned a multi-part series against Donald Trump before the whole thing was quashed by owner Patrick Soon-Shiong, TheWrap has learned. According to internal memos viewed by TheWrap, the series, tentatively called 'The Case Against Trump,' would have ran throughout this week. The endorsement of Kamala Harris would then have been published on Sunday. However, Soon-Shiong ordered the cancellation of the series and the endorsement without explanation, current and now former staffers have confirmed.... The South African-American billionaire's interference in his paper's editorial independence has sparked a rise in canceled subscriptions and several high profile resignations....

"In a dissembling statement of his own posted Wednesday on ... [X], Soon-Shiong blamed the editorial team itself for the lack of an endorsement, yet also essentially confirmed he had in fact shut it down.... So far, the Los Angeles Times Guild is the only institution within the paper that has commented publicly on the matter. 'We are deeply concerned about our owner's decision to block a planned endorsement in the presidential race,' the union said in a statement Wednesday. 'We are even more concerned that he is now unfairly assigning blame to Editorial Board members for his decision not to endorse." ~~~

~~~ AP: "Two more members of the Los Angeles Times editorial board have resigned after the newspaper's owner blocked the board's plan to endorse Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris for president. Veteran journalists Robert Greene and Karin Klein announced their resignations Thursday, a day after the editorial page editor Mariel Garza left in protest over LA Times owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong's decision not to endorse a candidate. Greene, a Pulitzer Prize winner for editorial writing, said in a statement shared with the Columbia Journalism Review that he was 'deeply disappointed' in the decision not to endorse Harris.... Editorial writer Tony Barboza, who remains on the editorial board, said in a post Friday on an internal Los Angeles Times message board that the board had planned a series of editorials that would have culminated on Sunday with a Harris endorsement."

Marie: It's dusk & you glimpse a burglar lurking in the bushes. Do you lock the doors? Do you call 911? Do you arm yourself? No, you do not. You open all the doors and lay out the sterling & Grandma's diamond brooch so he can't miss them. If democracy dies in darkness, the darkness has come this time as a result of voluntary capitulation -- or "anticipatory obedience." This is a siren warning to every voter, a confirmation that those of us who for years have been pointing at the Trumpian threat to democracy were right all along. Sadly, far more than half of Americans still cannot hear us. The billionaires are closing ranks against us: Musk, Dimon, Soon-Shiong, Bezos. Along with this Forbes list of Trump's top billionaire donors. (To be fair, at this point, also according to Forbes, more billionaires [81] are supporting Harris than are supporting Trump.)

Presidential Race

Reid Epstein, et al., of the New York Times: "Vice President Kamala Harris diverted from the presidential battlegrounds on Friday to receive the endorsement of the global superstar Beyoncé in Texas, in an event almost entirely focused on abortion rights. With the presidential race deadlocked, the Harris campaign sought to use Beyoncé's status -- particularly in her hometown, Houston -- to focus attention on the state's near-total abortion ban as a cautionary tale for what could happen throughout the country should ... Donald J. Trump win another term in the White House. The rally in Houston was not only her campaign's largest but also its most emotionally charged event since she became the Democratic nominee. Beyoncé offered a speech focused on a more optimistic future, and the wrenching stories of Texas women who suffered life-threatening health complications as a result of being denied proper care for pregnancy complications were center stage. Ms. Harris and many of the speakers laid the blame solely on Mr. Trump, who frequently boasts of appointing three of the Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022."

Ashleigh Fields of the Hill: "The Houston Chronicle's editorial board officially endorsed Vice President Harris in a Friday write-up hours after The Washington Post revealed it would cease presidential endorsements for years to come. Journalists drew stark contrasts between Harris and former President Trump early on in the piece, highlighting the candidates' different responses to the devastation caused by hurricanes Helene, Milton and Harvey."

Today, the New York Times online edition republished its September 30 presidential endorsement: "Kamala Harris is the only choice." MB: This may be a case of the Times highlighting its superiority to the Washington Post, but that's okay with me.

Arizona. Carl Gibson of AlterNet: "A coalition of Islamic leaders in a must-win battleground state is now urging their respective communities to get behind Vice President Kamala Harris in November. The New Republic reported that more than 100 progressive Democratic Palestinian, Arab and Muslim leaders in Arizona have now co-signed a letter in support of Harris' candidacy. The letter, which was posted to X ... by Arizona-based progressive activist Kai Newkirk, acknowledges that while many Muslim voters are understandably upset about how President Joe Biden's administration has handled Israel's ongoing assault on Gaza, affected communities cannot afford to have ... Donald Trump return to power. 'In our view, it is crystal clear that allowing the fascist Donald Trump to become President again would be the worst possible outcome for the Palestinian people,' the letter read. 'A Trump win would be an extreme danger to Muslims in our country, all immigrants, and the American pro-Palestine movement.'"

Maya King of the New York Times: "Former President Barack Obama offered a stark warning on Friday night of dangers posed by a second Donald Trump presidency, pleading with North Carolina voters to cast their ballots over the final days of early voting in the state. Speaking for nearly 50 minutes to a crowd of hundreds of supporters in the Charlotte Convention Center on Friday, Mr. Obama highlighted Gen. John Kelly's claims that Mr. Trump had spoken admiringly of Hitler. He laid out the concerns raised by former Trump administration officials and senior Republican White House staff members about what they saw as abuses of power and authoritarian tendencies that made Mr. Trump a threat to America's democratic principles. Alluding to recent erratic behavior..., Mr. Obama posited that his successor in the White House was unfit in more ways than one. 'If a family member acted like that, you might still love them, but you wouldn't put them in charge of anything,' Mr. Obama said. 'And yet, when Donald Trump lies or cheats or shows utter disregard for our Constitution, when he calls our service members who died in battle "losers," when he calls our fellow citizens "vermin," people make excuses."

Neil Vigdor & Simon Levien of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump gave a fiery rebuttal on Friday to two damning quotations attributed to him by [editor Jeffrey Goldberg of] The Atlantic magazine, which accused him of disparaging fallen veterans and of making a racist remark about a murdered Mexican-American soldier. During a campaign stop in Texas, Mr. Trump vehemently denied being opposed to paying for the funeral of Specialist Vanessa Guillén, a Fort Hood soldier who was murdered in 2020, when Mr. Trump was president, because of the cost. He was joined at the event in Austin, Texas, by some of Specialist Guillén's relatives.... While hosting her family at the White House in April 2020, Mr. Trump had offered to help cover any expenses not picked up by the military. 'It doesn't cost 60,000 bucks to bury a fucking Mexican!' the article quoted Mr. Trump saying [after an aide told him the bill's total]. On Friday, the former president said Specialist Guillén's family had stepped forward to help vindicate him.... A lawyer for the family of Specialist Guillén told The Atlantic that she had sent the bill to the White House but that no money was ever received by the family from Mr. Trump.... In a statement, Mr. Goldberg defended his reporting.... [Noting that the family did not attend the meeting where Trump disparaged Mexicans, Goldberg wrote,] 'I stand by my reporting, including the undisputed detail that Trump never provided the family with any financial assistance.'"

Michael Gold, et al., of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump taped a nearly three-hour episode of 'The Joe Rogan Experience' on Friday. He courted the show's young male audience by floating the idea of eliminating the income tax, talking about mixed martial arts fighters, praising the military skills of Gen. Robert E. Lee and speculating that there was 'no reason not to think' there could be life on Mars and other planets.... That Mr. Trump opted to ... spend hours in Mr. Rogan's studio in Austin[, Texas] -- a detour that delayed the start of his remarks at a rally on Friday evening in Michigan by several hours -- was a mark of Mr. Rogan's reach and the importance of the audience he draws.... Mr. Rogan ... offer[ed] Mr. Trump a platform to repeat his debunked claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election and the lie that he won that year.... Mr. Rogan seemed to back Mr. Trump's questioning of election processes.... Mr. Rogan was a friendly interviewer, often praising Mr. Trump."

Former President Trump has a "For Sale" sign around his neck and appears to be willing to sell basically any policy in exchange for campaign contributions. -- Dennis Kelleher, president of Better Markets, a nonprofit that seeks stronger regulations ~~~

~~~ Riding on the Shake-Down Express. Shane Goldmacher, et al., of the New York Times: Donald Trump "has come a long way from his 2016 campaign pitch that he was so rich he was incorruptible. Back then, he mocked the G.O.P.'s donor-lobbyist class and boasted in his announcement speech, 'I don't need anybody's money.' Today, Mr. Trump is looking everywhere for cash: asking small donors online, pressing fellow billionaires over private meals in Trump Tower and lobbying for donations from industries regulated by the government. As he does so, he is sometimes making overt promises about what he will do once he's in office, a level of explicitness toward individual industries and a handful of billionaires that has rarely been seen in modern presidential politics. In some cases, Mr. Trump has sought to shake loose cash from industries like oil and energy that have long aligned with his deregulation agenda. In others, Mr. Trump has flipped his positions, such as on crypto."

Paul McLeary of Politico: "The Army on Friday released the report from a controversial August incident between the Trump campaign team and an Army staff member working at Arlington National Cemetery, in which the campaign staffer made contact with the Army official 'with both hands,' according to the heavily redacted document. The release, which identifies the incident as 'simple assault,' comes amid fresh scrutiny over Trump's treatment of veterans, including comments by former chief of staff John Kelly, who said the former president disparaged wounded and fallen troops.... A judge ordered the Army to release the document by Friday following a lawsuit by American Oversight, a government watchdog group." ~~~

This Is Rich. Anthony Adragna of Politico: "Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell asked Vice President Kamala Harris in a rare joint statement to tone down her rhetoric in the lead-up to Election Day, days after Harris said she considered Donald Trump a fascist.... 'She must abandon the base and irresponsible rhetoric that endangers both American lives and institutions,' Johnson and McConnell said in their statement. 'We call on the Vice President to take these threats seriously, stop escalating the threat environment, and help ensure President Trump has the necessary resources to be protected from those threats.' Their statement does not mention Trump's recent rhetoric, in which he's referred to Harris as a 'fascist,' 'marxist,' 'communist' and 'comrade.' The former president has also railed against 'enemies within' and called for using government resources to prosecute domestic political opponents -- such as California Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Johnson downplayed Trump's comments on Sunday shows." MB: Both MSNBC & CNN played video montages of Trump calling Harris a fascist on about 10 different occasions.

Mississippi, Plus. Voter Suppression, Fifth-Circuit Style. Emily Pettus & Kevin McGill of the AP: "A conservative federal court said Mississippi cannot count mail-in ballots that arrive shortly after Election Day, however Friday's decision was not expected to affect the Nov. 5 election. Although the appellate judges firmly asserted that counting late ballots violates federal law, even if those ballots are postmarked by Election Day, the judges stopped short of an order immediately blocking Mississippi from continuing the practice. Their ruling noted federal court precedents have discouraged court actions that change established procedures shortly before an election. The outcome may be negligible in most elections in heavily Republican Mississippi, but the case could affect voting in swing states if the Supreme Court ultimately issues a ruling.The three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a July decision by U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola Jr., who had dismissed challenges to Mississippi's election law by the Republican National Committee, the Libertarian Party of Mississippi and others. The appeals court order sent the case back to Guirola for further action. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said he was so proud of the USPS in 2020 when, he claimed, almost 99 percent of mail-in ballots were delivered within seven (7) days of posting. Mind you, most of these ballots were just going across town, not across the country. But the vote in swing states very well could be closer than one percent (and I don't know what almost 99 percent means). In the 2020 election in Georgia, for instance, President Biden beat the other guy by less than one quarter of one percent (and that means 0.23 percent) Similarly, in Arizona in 2020, Biden won by 0.30 percent. IOW, DeJoy himself tacitly admits that -- all by itself -- the USPS could swing the election in close states simply by failing to deliver a small percentage of postmarked ballots.

North Carolina. Congressman: Forget the Vote, Choose Trump Electors. Kyle Cheney of Politico: "The chair of the conservative House Freedom Caucus says the North Carolina Legislature should consider allocating the state's presidential electors to Donald Trump even before votes are counted in the swing state. Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) said Thursday that such a step by North Carolina's Republican-controlled Legislature 'makes a lot of sense' given the devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene in the western part of the state. Counties in that region are expected to vote heavily for Trump. Potential difficulties with voting in the hurricane-damaged area would be a basis for the state Legislature to declare in advance that Trump should win the state's 16 electoral votes, Harris said at a Republican Party dinner in Maryland's Talbot County." The New York Times story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'm just gonna assume that Andy Harris is no relation to Kamala Harris. You have to admit it's quite impressive all the excuses people can invent to undermine democracy. Here are the brilliant minds at the country's major newspapers saying let the people decide (when they mean we're afraid of the big, bad dictator), while Rep. Dipshit is saying the people are too distressed to decide (so let the GOP legislature decide).

Boris & Natasha Meddle in Pennsylvania Election. Melissa Goldin, et al., of the AP: "Russian actors were behind a widely circulated video falsely depicting mail-in ballots for Donald Trump being destroyed in Pennsylvania, U.S. officials confirmed on Friday. The video had taken off on social media Thursday but was debunked within three hours by local election officials and law enforcement after members of the public reported it. U.S. officials said in a statement sent by the FBI that they believe the video was 'manufactured and amplified' by Russian actors. The officials said it's part of 'Moscow's broader effort to raise unfounded questions about the integrity of the U.S. election and stoke divisions among Americans.'" The New York Times story is here.

Uh, Who You Callin' "Comrade?" Eric De La Garza of the Raw Story: "Calling reports of ongoing conversations between tech billionaire Elon Musk and Russian President Vladimir Putin 'concerning,' the head of NASA [Administrator Bill Nelson] on Thursday called for an investigation into the bombshell accounts 'if the story is true.' The comments came a day after the Wall Street Journal reported that Musk, a vocal Trump supporter, and Putin had been in regular communication for at least two years.... The [WSJ] notes that Musk's security clearance gives him access to certain classified information and that he has 'deep business ties with U.S. military and intelligence agencies. SpaceX, which operates the Starlink service, works on classified government programs and is also the primary rocket launcher for the Pentagon and NASA.'" ~~~

~~~ Lora Kolodny of CNBC: "Russia's KGB, and its successor agency the FSB have, for decades, been interested in controlling media narratives and reaching as many people as possible with anti-Western or pro-Kremlin messages. The conversations between Musk and Putin, who once ran the KGB, reportedly occurred as Musk was in the midst of a leveraged buyout and takeover of Twitter.... In 2022, Eurasia Group founder and political analyst Ian Bremmer wrote that Musk had spoken to Putin before the X owner posted social media messages in early October about Russia's war on Ukraine. Musk had proposed that Ukraine should hand over Crimea to Russia and that Kyiv should remain 'neutral' rather than attempting to join NATO. He continued to promote the idea, via X (formerly Twitter) that some Ukraine citizens would prefer to join Russia. Kremlin officials praised Musk for his opinion then...."

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South Carolina Judge: The State Screwed Up So You Can't Vote, Kids. Jeffrey Collins of the AP: "A judge in South Carolina ruled Friday that it is too late to reopen voter registration for nearly 1,900 teens after the state Department of Motor Vehicles failed to notify election officials that they checked the box to register as they got their driver's licenses. The teens were 17 at the time they went to the DMV, but would be 18 by Election Day. A glitch in the DMV's computers did not identify the teens as qualified and did not present them with an additional electronic form certifying they were citizens, not felons and otherwise qualified to vote. The American Civil Liberties Union sued to reopen registration on Tuesday, a day after early voting started in South Carolina. They provided several possible ways the teens could register and be allowed to cast ballots. But Judge Daniel Coble said it is just too close to Election Day to do something so drastic as to alter the voting rolls." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I can't figure out why the AP puts the number of disenfranchised South Carolina teens at only 1,900. According to this Democracy Docket report, "approximately 17,000 young voters were not registered to vote despite indicating a desire to do so. These voters were also not notified that their registrations had been rejected. The DMV has been working to identify the impacted voters. So far, 6,000 were able to register through other means and the names of the remaining 11,000 were sent to the SEC for processing. The SEC has thus far refused to register those 11,000 voters." South Carolina's population is more than 5 million, so 17,000 17-year-olds seeking driver's licenses sounds more likely, but I'm no actuary so don't trust me.

Texas. Natalia Contreras of the Texas Tribune: "An election clerk in San Antonio was allegedly assaulted late Thursday and the suspect, a voter..., was arrested on suspicion of injury to an elderly person, a felony. The incident is first instance of reported violence against an election worker this fall.... According to a sheriff's report, the suspect, 63-year-old Jesse Lutzenberger, walked into the polling location ... wearing a Make America Great Again hat..., which is considered electioneering and against the law in Texas. The poll worker, 69, asked Lutzenberger to remove the hat, which he did, officials said. Lutzenberger went on to cast his ballot. While still inside the polling location, Lutzenberger put the hat back on.... The poll worker approached the man to tell him that was unacceptable and then began to escort the man out as they were approaching the doors of the location. Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said a surveillance video showed Lutzenberger 'throw an arm back toward the victim.... The victim seemed to push off of the suspect. At that point, the suspect then turned and threw several punches right at the face of the victim,' Salazar said."

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Israel/Palestine, et al. The New York Times' live updates of developments Saturday in Israel's wars are here.: "The Israeli military said Saturday that it had struck Iran in response to several Iranian attacks on Israel, raising fears that a long-brewing confrontation between two of the most powerful militaries in the Middle East could escalate into an all-out war. The military said in a statement at 2:30 a.m. that it was 'conducting precise strikes on military targets in Iran' in response to more than a year of attacks on Israel by Iran and its allies across the Middle East. Just after 6 a.m., the military said the strikes had concluded."