The Conversation -- August 5, 2024
Abha Bhattarai, et al., of the Washington Post: "A sudden global panic is upending financial markets and cratering the value of stocks, currencies, even bitcoin -- but economists say it's not a surefire sign that the country is headed for a downturn. The current sell-off, they say, is the result of investors having to untangle complicated, heavily leveraged trades that have artificially boosted stock values. A weak snapshot of the U.S. job market Friday added fuel to the fire, raising questions about whether the American economy is on rockier footing than previously thought and prompting bets that the Federal Reserve might have to cut interest rates sooner and more aggressively.... All three major stock indexes fell, the Nasdaq Composite by more than 3 percent, the S&P 500 by nearly that much and the Dow Jones Industrial Average by more than 2.5 percent. While they recovered slightly from even sharper morning declines, the day still marked one of the worst in nearly two years, as investors moved money out of equities and into bonds." An AP story is here. ~~~
~~~ Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: "It didn't take long for ... Donald J. Trump to make a political weapon out of Monday's market sell-off. 'Stock markets are crashing, jobs numbers are terrible, we are heading to World War III, and we have two of the most incompetent "leaders" in history,' Mr. Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. 'This is not good.' The post underscored Mr. Trump's longstanding fixation on stock indexes as a barometer of economic health.... Mr. Trump wants voters to believe the economy is on the brink of catastrophe, and that [Vice President] Harris and President Biden are to blame.... (Mr. Trump's presidency included a rapid descent into a pandemic recession in 2020, including a steep drop in the stock market that was followed by a rebound that summer.)... Ms. Harris has stressed economic optimism in speeches. 'We believe in a future that keeps America's economy the strongest in the world,' she said in Houston this month. 'Where every person has the opportunity to build a business, to own a home, to build intergenerational wealth.'... But many Democrats worry that the Fed, by holding rates steady last month, may have hurt Ms. Harris -- by opening the door for the market sell-off...." ~~~
~~~ Let's Ask Krugman! Paul Krugman of the New York Times: "The United States probably (probably) hasn't entered a recession yet. But the economy is definitely looking pre-recessionary. And policymakers -- which right now basically means the Federal Reserve -- need to move quickly to head off the risks of serious economic deterioration. It's already clear that the Fed made a mistake by not cutting rates last week; indeed, it probably should have begun cutting months ago."
Yvonne Sanchez of the Washington Post: "Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes (D) reached a cooperation agreement Monday with Jenna Ellis, who was a legal adviser to Donald Trump's 2020 campaign and was one of 18 defendants indicted in April on felony charges related to alleged efforts to try to subvert President Biden's victory in the state four years ago, according to prosecutors. The attorney general has agreed to drop nine felony charges against Ellis in exchange for her full cooperation with the investigation into the GOP plan to try to deliver Arizona's 11 electoral votes to Trump instead of the rightful winner, Biden. The deal allows Ellis to avoid potential jail time in exchange for providing prosecutors with evidence that could implicate other defendants." The Hill's story is here.
David McCabe of the New York Times: "Google acted illegally to maintain a monopoly in online search, a federal judge ruled on Monday, a landmark decision that strikes at the power of tech giants in the modern internet era and that may fundamentally alter the way they do business. Judge Amit P. Mehta of U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said in a 277-page ruling that Google had abused a monopoly over the search business. The Justice Department and states had sued Google, accusing it of illegally cementing its dominance, in part, by paying other companies, like Apple and Samsung, billions of dollars a year to have Google automatically handle search queries on their smartphones and web browsers. 'Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly,' Judge Mehta said in his ruling.... Kent Walker, Google's president of global affairs, said the company would appeal the ruling."
Eugene Daniels of Politico: "Vice President Kamala Harris is bringing her crash search for a running mate to a close, with a final decision expected over the next 24 hours with a video announcement likely to follow sometime Tuesday, according to people familiar with the selection process."
Book Report. Carl Hulse of the New York Times: A "book, titled 'The Art of Power,' is [former Speaker Nancy] Pelosi's retelling of major moments of critical decision-making during the Iraq War, a catastrophic financial meltdown, the passage of the Affordable Care Act and multiple clashes with ... Donald J. Trump, among other events. But it may be her most recent deft exercise of political finesse and muscle -- one that took place well after the book was written -- that will stand as a final testament to Ms. Pelosi's stature as the Democratic Party's premiere powerhouse of recent decades. In a formidable display of her enduring clout, she helped persuade the incumbent president to abandon his re-election bid to give her party a better chance of holding the White House in November.... If Democrats triumph this fall after staring down the prospect of a resounding defeat, the maneuvering by Ms. Pelosi ... may turn out to be among her most significant acts. The words Pelosi and power have been inextricably linked in Washington for more than 20 years, and her book sets out to document how she did it." ~~~
~~~ Here's a Washington Post review.
Say, here's Bobby Junior pretending the (dead) bear is biting the hand that picked him up off the pavement. Very presidential:
digby links to a New Republic article featuring a Silicon Valley guy named Curtis Garvin who has some extraordinarily creepy ideas about how to manage "unproductive" people and how to govern the unwashed masses. Curtis there would just be a random disturbed person but for the fact that Peter Thiel, J.D. Vance & Elon Musk think his ideas are top-notch. digby republishes chunks of the article. Thanks to RAS for the link. MB: Most of "us" (myself included) don't appreciate how insane "they" are.
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Presidential Race
Sadly, it has been more than two long weeks since we've had a "Democrats in disarray" story. So thank goodness for the New York Times and this top-o'the-front-page entry! ~~~
~~~ Reid Epstein, et al., of the New York Times: "The competitive, divisive primary that many Democrats long wanted to avoid has arrived anyway -- playing out largely behind closed doors in a fight over the bottom of the ticket. The final stage of the campaign to be Vice President Kamala Harris's running mate reached something of an ugly phase in recent days as donors, interest groups and political rivals from the party's moderate and progressive wings lobbied for their preferred candidates and passed around memos debating the contenders' political weaknesses with key demographics. They turned most sharply on one of the favorites to join the ticket, Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, who has drawn opposition from progressives and even a senator in his home state." Read on for details, if you must.
Marianne Levine of the Washington Post: "... in the two weeks since [President] Biden dropped out and [Vice President] Harris became the presumptive Democratic nominee, Democrats' poll numbers -- and their chances of holding the White House -- have rebounded. The path to victory for Harris once again runs through seven key swing states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.... [Harris] plans to visit all seven battleground states this week to introduce her vice-presidential pick to the country.... As of Sunday, Trump still led in five of the seven battlegrounds, according to The Post's polling average." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Eric Bradner, et al., of CNN: "A 17-day stretch with few parallels in American history has upended what looked to Donald Trump's campaign like a clear path to victory when the former president stepped on the Republican convention stage in Milwaukee." (Also linked yesterday.)
Rebecca Picciotto of CNBC: "Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign on Sunday flaunted over two dozen presidential endorsements from Republican party members, including some who served in ... Donald Trump's administration. Nearly 30 GOP members were cited as part of the new 'Republicans for Harris' initiative launched Sunday. These include Stephanie Grisham, former White House press secretary under Trump, and national security official Olivia Troye -- who worked as Vice President Mike Pence's national security advisor. Chuck Hagel and Ray LaHood, Republican cabinet members under President Barack Obama, were also listed."
Sarah Ellison & Amy Gardner of the Washington Post: "Five secretaries of state plan to send an open letter to billionaire Elon Musk on Monday, urging him to 'immediately implement changes' to X's AI chatbot Grok, after it shared with millions of users false information suggesting that Kamala Harris was not eligible to appear on the 2024 presidential ballot. Within hours of President Biden's announcement that he was suspending his presidential campaign on July 21..., Grok that circulated ... [a message that] 'The ballot deadline has passed for several states for the 2024 election,' ... naming nine states: Alabama, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington.... The secretaries of state, who are the chief elections officers in their states, are objecting ... to Grok's ... factual inaccuracies and the sluggishness of the company's move to correct bad information."
Explaining Black to White People. Nikole Hannah-Jones of the New York Times: "By suggesting that there was something nefarious or politically contrived about a mixed-race person claiming Blackness as her identity, [Donald Trump] was acting as if that choice hadn't been made for [Kamala] Harris when she was born to a Black father. We saw this same orchestrated amnesia when Barack Obama set out to become the first Black president. It seems that when a mixed-race Black American appears to be ascending to the pinnacles of American power, some white Americans suddenly forget the race rules that white society created.... The reality is, the belief that Blackness is an immutable, genetic racial category that transcends all other identities is in fact the American way -- an idea that has been forced upon and enforced upon people with African ancestry by those who have racialized themselves as white since the 1600s.... European colonists were inventing race rules that were about more than ancestry. They were a means of divvying up power, resources and social status.... When Harris's parents immigrated here in the early 1960s, they entered a pre-existing racial caste system and the classifications that undergirded it.... In her 2019 autobiography, Harris wrote: 'My mother [who was of Indian heritage] understood very well that she was raising two black daughters. She knew that her adopted homeland would see Maya and me as black girls, and she was determined to make sure we would grow into confident, proud black women.'"
Still Weird. Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times: Trump is still obsessed with crowd size at his rallies and was especially upset Saturday that Harris' crowd four days earlier at the same Georgia State Convocation Center in Atlanta was as large as hers. "Ms. Harris's rally in Philadelphia on Tuesday, when she is expected to unveil her running mate, is likely to be a blowout. After that, she's going on tour, holding rallies in western Wisconsin; Detroit; Raleigh, N.C.; Savannah, Ga.; Phoenix; and Las Vegas. It's all starting to screw with Mr. Trump's psyche." He claimed Harris only drew a large crowd in Atlanta because she brought entertainment stars to her rally. He also claimed, falsely, that his Atlanta crowd was larger and that the "liberals" at Georgia State limited the number of Trump fans who could enter the area because "they don't want to show that we're successful." (Also linked yesterday.)
BUT, to those of you who figured RFK Jr. would be responsible for the weirdest presidential election story, crazy Bobby put you at an unfair advantage. Nevertheless, you win! ~~~
~~~ About That Time He Dropped a Dead Bear in Central Park. Emma Fitzsimmons of the New York Times: "Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ... confessed on Sunday that he had left a dead bear cub in Central Park in Manhattan in 2014 because he thought it would be 'amusing.' Mr. Kennedy posted a video detailing the bizarre story on social media apparently ahead of an article in The New Yorker.... In the video, Mr. Kennedy appears to be seated in a kitchen as he casually tells the actress Roseanne Barr about the ordeal. He says that he was driving through the Hudson Valley when he saw a woman in a van hit and kill a young bear. 'I pulled over and I picked up the bear and put him in the back of my van because I was going to skin the bear,' he says. 'It was very good condition and I was going to put the meat in my refrigerator.' Mr. Kennedy then details how he had to attend a dinner at Peter Luger Steak House in New York City and then head to the airport, which meant he had to get rid of the bear. He decided to leave the bear in Central Park with an old bicycle to make it look like it had been hit by the bike....
"Indeed, the bear cub caused quite a stir when it was found in the park in 2014, as reported in The New York Times in an article coincidentally written by Tatiana Schlossberg, a reporter for The Times at that time, and the daughter of Mr. Kennedy’s first cousin Caroline Kennedy." The ABC News story is here. ~~~
Looking forward to seeing how you spin this one, @NewYorker… pic.twitter.com/G13taEGzba
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) August 4, 2024
Carol Rosenberg & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "In the space of three days last week, the Sept. 11 case was rocked by two decisions that stunned victims' families and jolted a political debate. First, a Pentagon official authorized a plea agreement meant to resolve the case with lifetime sentences. Then, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III abruptly canceled the deal, reviving the possibility that the man accused of planning the attacks, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, and two accused accomplices could someday face a death penalty trial.... This account of those fateful three days is based on interviews and conversations with Pentagon officials, Sept. 11 family members and parties to the case." Read on for an explanation of how events unfolded.
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Bangladesh. The New York Times is live-updating developments Monday in the country's crisis. Pinned item: "Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh has resigned, and the army will oversee the formation of an interim government, the country's army chief said in a statement to the nation. Ms. Hasina had ruled Bangladesh, a country of around 170 million people, since 2009, but she was forced out by weeks of violent protests. The army chief, Gen. Waker-uz-Zaman, said he had consulted with representatives of the country's political parties and civil society before making his announcement."
Venezuela. Samantha Schmidt, et al., of the Washington Post: "Venezuela's opposition candidate likely received more than twice as many votes as President Nicolás Maduro in the country's election last week, according to a Washington Post review of more than 23,000 precinct-level tally sheets collected by the opposition, a sample that represents nearly 80 percent of voting machines nationwide. That conclusion, which echoes the results of independent exit polling and similar independent analyses, offers further evidence against the authoritarian socialist's claim that he defeated challenger Edmundo González in the July 28 vote.... 'Given the overwhelming evidence,' Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement Thursday, 'it is clear to the United States and, most importantly, to the Venezuelan people that Edmundo González Urrutia won the most votes' in the election."
News Lede
New York Times: "Debby rapidly strengthened into a hurricane on Sunday night, hours before it was expected to make landfall over Florida's Big Bend coast early Monday. It will bring potentially 'catastrophic flooding' and heavy rainfall to the Southeast region this week, forecasters said. Officials in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina activated emergency resources, opened temporary shelters and urged residents of low-lying coastal areas in the storm's path to evacuate, as Debby was expected to bring a life-threatening storm surge." ~~~
~~~ The New York Times is live-updating developments here.
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Reader Comments (18)
Okay, okay…I’ll admit the dumping the bear carcass in Central Park thing is a bad look for Kennedy, but here’s the question:
Was this before or after the worm ate his brain? Cuz if it was after, well, ya know, no harm, no foul. Oh, except to the bear.
So, I’ve done a fair amount of backpacking in my day, and I’ve seen bears, moose, deer, all sorts of animals out in the wild. Never ran across a dead bear before however, but if I had, I’m pretty sure my first thought—my very first fucking thought!— wouldn’t be “Hmm..I’ve got plenty of room in the car. Why don’t I drag this dead bear over to the car, pop him in the trunk, take him home, skin him and eat him?”
But even if I was that stupid/weird, I wouldn’t then go to dinner somewhere and forget about, ya know, the dead bear in the trunk long enough for it to start stinking, THEN, instead of calling some official department like animal control to properly dispose of it, find a bike, drag the dead bear into CENTRAL FUCKING PARK, and concoct some cockamamie bear hit by bike accident and leave the thing there because how cool would that be.
Anyway, make me President and give me the nuclear codes.
Just when you think things can't be more nuts, comes the bear story I just woke up to...
I'm sure we all praise Vlad-baby for being in the news for the hostage swap...(Is the Orange Viper as crazy as RFK with the worm in his brain? I can't decide if he is simply acting out his derangement or it is all a clever ruse to hold an audience as damaged as he is--)
Aye-yi-yi.
Time to leave the teevee even if it is just 8:30am eastern time.
I can't bear it. Sounds like something a bunch of sixteen year olds
would do.
Except, I wouldn't have had time for BS like that. Some of us had to
work after school and all summer besides studying late at night.
I just could not stop thinking of Davy Crockett when I learned about Bobby Junior's wrangling a dead bear into the back of his SUV. Out of that was born Roadkill Rhapsody, the Ballad of Bobby Junior. Sure to be a hit on the country AND western stations (H/T Blues Brothers).
Born'd in a hospital in Georgetown, D.C.
Raised all his life in the lap of luxur-ee,
A worm ate his brain when he was 53,
And he found him a b'ar in the Hudson Val-lee --
Bobby, Bobby Junior, king of the wild road kill.
Trump's election
"In Atlanta, Trump confirms that Georgia's state election board is in his pocket
The comments came at Trump's rally Saturday night and confirm much of what democracy advocates have long suspected of the board's Republican members.
On Saturday night at Donald Trump’s rally in Atlanta, the former president did something that probably won’t be mentioned much in the write-ups on what was a typical, rambling and lie-filled speech. But for those in the know about election integrity in Georgia and the broader issue of certification, Trump’s comments about the Georgia State Election Board were a blaring tornado siren
“I don’t know if you’ve heard but the Georgia State Election Board is in a very positive way… They’re on fire, they’re doing a great job,” Trump said, before naming three Republican members of the SEB — Rick Jeffares, Dr. Janice Johnston and Janelle King.
“Three pitbulls fighting for honesty, transparency, and victory,” Trump called them.
Fighting for victory. That’s not the job of the Georgia State Election Board (SEB) — to fight for victory on behalf of a political candidate. But that’s exactly what the three members Trump name-checked Saturday night — and possibly the board’s fourth Republican — are doing: They are working on behalf of the Trump campaign. Or, as an advocate put it to me the other day: “They have become a MAGA government body.”"
Marie,
Nice job. Luckily, being of a certain age, I remember the Davy Crockett theme song very well and was able to sing along.
I was also wondering…since Bobby Roadkill decided to stop for dinner, instead of ordering surf and turf or Steak au Poivre, why didn’t he say to the waitress “Hey, I’ve got this dead bear out in the trunk. Could the chef do something with that? Bear au Poivre? Bear Tartare? Oh, and I have dibs on the skin. Boo-Boo would make a nice rug for my office. I’m running for President one day, did I mention that?”
Also…if I have the story straight, after dinner he realized he had to get out to the airport on time, but first….
And, as Forrest points out, this might be something you’d expect a 16 year old to cook up (a 16 year old with a crack addiction). Bobby was about 60 when he pulled this stunt.
Jesus.
Even better…don’t miss the line “Let’s see how the New Yorker spins THAT story!” Like it was the most logical thing in the world. Yeah, let’s put this guy in charge.
Likely the Pretender is complaining that Harris won't say she's all Black because he wishes she were...so he could play the race card more directly.
And, Marie, trying to remember if there was a coonskin cap back there in my youth. There might have been. I know Fess Parker (?) was a large presence there for a time.
Been trying to think of a good reason for the Fat Fascist’s conundrum concerning Kamala Harris’ bi-racial heritage. I realize spending too much time wondering about anything that slithers out of the fetid orange dome is a most questionable use of one’s time, so I’m going to chalk this one up to three things: he’s a racist, always has been, he’s clearly in mental decline, and he’s an idiot.
So the racism thing. Yeah, he and his KKK daddy have always hated blacks, but now he’s confronted by not just one, but two, count ‘em, two! non-white heritages. He somehow thinks it can (or should) be one or the other. Challenging Harris on not being really black gets us to the idiocy part.
But loads of Americans have multiple heritages. Fatty himself is a Germany-Scotland mix. Of course neither of those count as non-white, so it’s okay. Fatty obviously thinks “Black? Yuck! Indian? Yuck! Black AND Indian?? Double yuck!
But what about Shady Vance? His kids are bi-racial and only partly white. One of his kids is named Vivek.
Does that not compute in the Trump lizard brain? I guess lizard brains don’t compute, they just feeeel. And react.
This odd attack on Harris, demanding that her bi-racial status be “looked into”, could end up being one of those turning points in a campaign. If Democrats keep hammering on this insulting stupidity, it could do what corporate media has not done: presented the unvarnished Trump, not the normalized, smoothed over, edited Trump that the public usually gets.
He’s a deranged pig. Voters need to see what kind of monster they’d be getting if he returned—with a get out of everything card from the Supreme Court—to create a racist, fascist authoritarian state.
Fixing the Court
Joe Biden’s plan for addressing the increasingly authoritarian, lawless Supine Court came under instant attack from the experts in the corporate media world.
“Stupid!”
“Never work!”
“Dangerous!”
“Quixotic!”
Right. Clearly, something has to be done about this out of control court, but not as far as these experts are concerned. This is another case of “Waaah! We’ve never done it that way!”
But there was never a Supreme Court either, until we invented it.
Other things they once said could never happen:
An end to slavery.
Blacks getting the vote.
Women getting the vote.
A black man elected President.
A third rate, racist TV celebrity and con man elected President.
A President* trying to overthrow the government.
A Supreme Court trying to overthrow the government.
And now we are on the verge of other things happening the experts deemed impossible:
A woman—a woman of color—being elected President.
Why not fixing the Supreme Court?
The first step is talking about it. The second is a fair number of people thinking it might be possible. The third is knowing it is possible. Then…
Doing it.
Another thing we can thank Joe Biden for. Thanks, Joe!
Scary tech weirdos
Akhilleus,
Trump is the only one who doesn't like dealing with different racial minorities.
"Appeals Court Further Narrows Voting Rights Act’s Scope
Reversing decades of precedent, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled in a Texas case that different minority groups cannot jointly claim that their votes have been diluted."
Looks like the vice-president pick will be Josh Shapiro.
He's Jewish.
Republican head will explode for sure. Hopefully the explosions
will start with Trump and Vance.
Make that 'Republican heads.' Not just one but many.
Guaranteed the corporate media will hang any economic downturn around Harris’ neck. They will parrot whatever bullshit Trump trots out.
Apostate Alert
Former Fatty treason mouthpiece Jenna Ellis has agreed to testify against his attempts to steal the last election.
I’m guessing the Supreme Traitors are doing their Weird Sisters “Double, double, toil and trouble” best to figure out how to come to his aid. Maybe they can put Ellis on a plane to Honduras as an illegal something, something.
@Akhilleus: Ellis is a white, blonde-haired lady. Deporting her as an "illegal" could be problematic.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/05/us/politics/kellyanne-conway-ukraine-lobbying.html
How to explain Kellyanne's politics?
Could it be $$$$$$?
VP Harris should challenge her "vigorous" opponent to a debate at a golf course. Both candidates would walk the course (no carts allowed) and would respond to a question at each hole.