The Conversation -- October 22, 2024
Marie: The other day I tried to call up an Atlantic story that I anticipated might be of interest to readers. I don't have an Atlantic subscription, but I thought maybe I could get a freebie, as I had tried to read only one other Atlantic story this month, supposedly a gift link, via a Realty Chex reader. Nothing doing. However, when I tried to call up the story below, the Atlantic let me past its firewall. I hope it works for you. Update: If my link below doesn't work, try this one, which comes courtesy of laura h., an Atlantic subscriber: ~~~
~~~ Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic in an article titled "Trump: I Need the Kind of Generals that Hitler Had": (Of course Hitler's generals tried to assassinate him. When former Marine General John Kelly, Trump's chief of staff, told Trump about the generals' attacks on Hitler, Trump denied that was true. When Kelly told Trump that Gen. Rommel had committed suicide after his plot against Hitler failed, Trump didn't know who Rommel was.) "Former generals who have worked for Trump say that the sole military virtue he prizes is obedience. As his presidency drew to a close, and in the years since, he has become more and more interested in the advantages of dictatorship, and the absolute control over the military that he believes it would deliver.... Former officials have also cited other recurring themes: his denigration of military service, his ignorance of the provisions of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, his admiration for brutality and anti-democratic norms of behavior, and his contempt for wounded veterans and for soldiers who fell in battle." Read on, if you can.
⭐ Charlie Savage, et al., of the New York Times: "Donald Trump and his closest allies are preparing a radical reshaping of American government if he regains the White House. Here are some of his plans for cracking down on immigration, directing the Justice Department to prosecute his adversaries, increasing presidential power, upending America's economic policies, retreating militarily from Europe and unilaterally deploying troops to Democratic-run cities."
Rebecca Elliott of the New York Times: "Gasoline is approaching or has fallen below $3 a gallon in most states, returning to a national average not seen since February in one of the clearest examples of prices declining after a period of rapid inflation.... Gas prices have the added distinction of being prominently displayed almost everywhere, reminding drivers whether it's more or less expensive to get to work or the grocery store. Americans are currently spending around 2 percent of their disposable income on gasoline, less than they did in the run-up to all recent presidential elections besides the 2020 contest, according to ClearView Energy Partners.... The Biden administration's decisions to sell fuel from a national reserve and relax certain gasoline-making rules have helped to lower prices, the White House has said."
Rob Copeland of the New York Times: Jamie Dimon, "the usually outspoken chief executive of JPMorgan, the nation's largest bank, has been uncharacteristically vague about his political leanings of late. In an interview last week, he even left open the door to endorsing Mr. Trump -- whose behavior in the aftermath of the last election Mr. Dimon once described as 'treason.' In private, however, Mr. Dimon has made clear that he supports Vice President Kamala Harris and would consider a role, perhaps Treasury secretary, in her administration. He has also told his associates that the former president's 2020 election denialism remains close to a disqualifying factor.... Mr. Dimon isn't making his stance known publicly because he's fearful that if Mr. Trump is victorious, he could retaliate against the people and companies who publicly opposed his run, his associates said. That's a concern shared by other powerful corporate executives, and not without reason: Mr. Trump has begun to increase threats of political retribution in recent weeks.... Mr. Trump once -- falsely -- declared that he had [Mr. Dimon's support]." ~~~
~~~ Marie: I don't know how many votes Dimon would move, though he might be able to knock down, in the minds of the slightly rational, the false notion that Donald Trump would be "good for business." The fact that this extremely wealthy man has not got the guts to stand up to Trump is genuinely shocking.
Scriptwriters, Here's Your Film Treatment: Powerful New Yorkers Donald Trump, the POTUS*, and Rudy Giuliani, the former NYC mayor, defame two temporary Georgia election workers -- a Black mother and daughter. The women, though of very modest means, sue Donald & Rudy. They win the suit, and the judge urges them to sue Donald for $2MM, and he gives them control of Giuliani's property, including his snazzy NYC apartment and his vintage Mercedes. The ladies -- Ruby & Shaye -- drive off in the luxury vehicle once owned by Lauren Bacall. Based on a true story. ~~~
~~~ Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "A federal judge on Tuesday ordered Rudolph W. Giuliani to turn over most of his possessions and available cash to a receivership controlled by the two Georgia election workers he defamed after the last presidential election. Mr. Giuliani, 80, has seven days to make the transfer, which includes his New York condominium and his vintage Mercedes-Benz, once owned by the actress Lauren Bacall. The judge also ordered him to turn over certain pieces of furniture, his television, sports memorabilia, jewelry and 26 watches, including one that Mr. Giuliani said his grandfather gave him. 'The watch may be distinctive to defendant as an item of sentimental value, but it is not distinctive to the law,' Judge Lewis J. Liman of Federal District Court in Manhattan wrote in the order issued on Tuesday. For now, Mr. Giuliani's son, Andrew, can hold on to his father's Yankee World Series rings while lawyers look into whether they were indeed a gift from father to son, as Andrew Giuliani has told the court. Once the transfers are made, the two election workers, Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Shaye Moss, can begin selling the assets and putting the proceeds toward the more than $148 million a federal jury determined he owes them. Judge Liman also said Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss could sue ... Donald J. Trump for the $2 million he owes Mr. Giuliani in unpaid legal bills."
Marie: RAS linked the X post below earlier today. I thought it was funny enough that I listened to it twice in order to make sure I'd caught all the references. This young woman has figured out just the right way to talk to a bratty man-baby: ~~~
— Jack E. Smith ⚖️ (@7Veritas4) October 21, 2024
~~~ Marie: Oh, heck, let's see what Kamala thought: ~~~
Presidential Race
Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "With two weeks until Election Day, more than 15 million people have already cast their ballots, the clearest sign yet that voting habits were forever changed by the coronavirus pandemic and that early voting has become a permanent feature of the American democratic process.... Many states have set records for the first day of early voting." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Very nice. But I haven't voted early because New Hampshire, the Backward State, doesn't offer early voting.
It's a Secret Ballot. Erica Green & Reid Epstein of the New York Times: "Vice President Kamala Harris made a concerted effort on Monday to appeal to Republican women in the nation's suburbs, using former Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming as her ambassador to conservatives during events in well-to-do suburbs of the biggest cities in three important battleground states. Stumping together in town-hall-style settings before intimate crowds at small theaters in the Detroit, Milwaukee and Philadelphia suburbs, Ms. Harris and Ms. Cheney presented a united front against ... Donald J. Trump.... On abortion rights, national security and foreign policy, Ms. Cheney painted Mr. Trump as irresponsibly dangerous while describing Ms. Harris as the safer, reasonable choice to maintain the stability of the country and protect women's health.... In effect, Ms. Cheney told Republican women that they could back Ms. Harris with a clean conscience.... 'I certainly have many Republicans who will say to me, "I can't be public." They do worry about a whole range of things, including violence, but they'll do the right thing. And I would just remind people, if you're at all concerned, you can vote your conscience and not ever have to say a word to anybody.'"
Marcy Wheeler: "As Vice President, [Kamala Harris] should not discuss pending Federal cases against a criminal defendant, including the January 6 case charged against Trump. But Liz Cheney can [and she does].... But I also realized, as I watched the Michigan version of these events today, that Harris and Cheney are also modeling democracy. They are giving people -- women who are my age and Cheney's age and moderator Maria Shriver's age are the primary but by no means the only target -- what they want: a democracy where people talk to one another." At a Harris-Cheney event Wheeler watched, Harris warned against despair: "Let's not let the overwhelming nature of this strip us of our strength." she said.
Saint Donald of Queens. Michael Gold of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump on Monday used the language of persecution to make a sweeping claim that only he could protect Christian voters, darkly warning religious communities that they would come under legal, cultural, political and global assault if he lost in November. Mr. Trump, a former tabloid fixture who was once caught on tape boasting of grabbing women by their genitals, spoke of himself at the 11th Hour Faith Leaders Meeting in Concord, N.C., as not just a champion of Christian causes and values but as a member of the faithful. Two days after he made a crude remark at a rally about a famous golfer's penis size and used profanity to insult Vice President Kamala Harris, Mr. Trump spoke on Monday of the importance of religion in his life, recalling going to church as a child and framing his survival of an assassination attempt in Butler, Pa., as an act of divine intervention....
"He began the day with a news conference in storm-battered western North Carolina, where he criticized the Biden administration's response to Hurricane Helene and made false claims about the federal response. Later, he traveled to Greenville, N.C., for a rally where he continued to hammer the federal response to the hurricane, lobbed repeated personal insults at Ms. Harris and stoked fear around illegal immigration. He also revived his calls to use the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport criminal gang members without due process. 'Think of that, 1798,' Mr. Trump told the crowd. 'That's when we had real politicians that said we're not going to play games. We have to go back to 1798.'" ~~~
~~~ Daniel Dale of CNN: "... Donald Trump used a Monday visit to North Carolina to repeat debunked lies about the federal response to Hurricane Helene. Speaking to reporters in a hard-hit community near Asheville, Trump kept repeating a false claim that was widely debunked when he made it earlier in October -- his assertion that the Federal Emergency Management Agency took money that was supposed to go to disaster relief and instead spent it on migrants who entered the country illegally, leaving the agency with no funds to help Americans." ~~~
~~~ Marie: As Dale points out, one person who thoroughly debunked Trump's lies about misspent FEMA funds was Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-NC), who even put out a fact-sheet he called "Debunking Helene Response Myths." So what is Rep. Chuck Edwards doing now? Do read on. ~~~
~~~ Trump Receives McDonald's Medal of Fried'em. Isaac Schorr of Mediaite: "After making some remarks, Trump ceded a podium set up in Swannanoa, North Carolina to Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-NC), who thanked Trump 'for taking the time to come to western North Carolina. We've seen other folks do a fly over. It is so heartening to see you here with some dust on your shoes, actually seeing what's taken place.... For those of you who who did not get to see it, I offered, because you know, I also own McDonald's restaurants, I know that you perfected your skills behind the counter a day or so ago. And it was my honor to present ... Trump with the French Fries Certification Pin,' announced Edwards as Trump held up his pin for the cameras to see." Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. See also his commentary (x 3) in yesterday's thread.
Steve Benen of MSNBC notes that several news outlets reported that Trump "worked" at McDonald's for half-an-hour. Not so. "There's an important difference between work and theatrics, and this was definitely the latter. Just as notably, this was a trolling exercise, rooted in the idea that Trump caught Harris in a lie, despite the fact that neither the former president nor any of his allies have presented a shred of evidence discrediting [her] ... claim." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Benen doesn't bother to point out what that difference is, but anyone who has worked a menial job like McDonald's fry cook does know. Besides being potentially dangerous, it gets more dangerous as you get tired toward the end of your shift. It's boring. It's standing on your feet for several hours straight, so it's physically exhausting. Your boss or other employees might yell at you. Customers might complain about the fries. You could lose the job if you are absent even if you have good reason to be. It's low status, so you might not get much respect. All of that can be emotionally stressful. If you're seeking a better job, it doesn't much bolster your résumé (which explains why Kamala Harris didn't put it on her résumé when she was looking for a job as a lawyer). It doesn't pay enough to allow you to make ends meet, but you probably can't get overtime (time-and-a-half, you know), so you might have to work a second job.
Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "On his social media platform, Trump claimed that his campaign had obtained proof that [Vice President] Harris's assertions [that she had briefly worked at McDonald's in 1983] were false. 'We have checked with McDonald's, and they say, definitively, that there is no record of Lyin' Kamala Harris ever having worked there,' he wrote Sunday afternoon. 'In other words, she never worked there, and has lied about this "job" for years.'... The restaurant chain -- obviously not unhappy at the attention -- sent a message to its employees that ... indicates that no records of Harris's employment exist, but makes clear that this is not an aberration and not a reason to think that she didn't." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Is it chutzpah to tell a lie that your opponent is lying? Or should we give Trump the benefit of the doubt and assume his mental capacity is so diminished that he doesn't know the difference between "no record" and "proof"? If so, OMG, don't give him the nuclear codes, please. Don't give him control of the DOJ, for Pete's sake.
McDonald's does not endorse candidates for elected office and that remains true in this race for the next President. We are not red or blue -- we are golden. -- McDonald's Corporation ~~~
~~~ Francisco Velasquez of Quartz: "McDonald;s is distancing itself from ... Donald Trump after his headline-grabbing stop at a Pennsylvania location, where he pretended to work during a closed event attended by pre-screened supporters. The fast food giant clarified that it did not facilitate Trump's visit.... The [corporation] said it has invited [Vice President] Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, to visit one of its restaurants to showcase how McDonald's creates opportunities and supports local communities." ~~~
~~~ Let's Clarify That. Dee-Ann Durbin of the AP: "McDonald's Corp. agreed to host ... Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania store over the weekend but said it isn't endorsing a candidate in the U.S. presidential race. In a message to employees obtained Monday by The Associated Press, McDonald's said the owner-operator of the location, Derek Giacomantonio, reached out after he learned of Trump's desire to visit a Pennsylvania restaurant. McDonald's agreed to the event. 'Upon learning of the former president's request, we approached it through the lens of one of our core values: we open our doors to everyone,' the company said.... The Chicago burger giant said franchisees have also invited Vice President Kamala Harris ... and her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz, to their restaurants." ~~~
~~~ Marie: This is a good example of why we have to take reports from even fairly reliable sites with a grain of salt. I'm not 100% certain that the AP reporter is right and the Quartz reporter is wrong, but it appears that Quartz did not properly distinguish between the corporation & the franchisee. Quartz attributed the "open to everyone" remark to the franchisee; the AP said it came from the corporation. And Quartz claimed the corporation "did not facilitate" Trump's stunt. But the AP said the corporation "approved" it; that sounds pretty close to "facilitating" to me. None of this is going to matter a whit in your life, but we are reminded that well-meaning journalists don't always get it right. Unless I've read or heard something in several reliable media outlets or maybe heard it myself, I tend to preface many of my "statements of fact" with something like, "I read in the Times that...."~~~
~~~ Ha Ha. Matthew Chapman of the Raw Story: "The McDonald's restaurant in Feasterville-Trevose, Pennsylvania, where ... Donald Trump posed for a photo op over the weekend has gotten slammed with negative reviews on Yelp, Newsweek reported Monday. Many of the reviews appeared to be tongue-in-cheek, referencing the former president's various legal problems and his recent rants about celebrities' genitals. 'Customer service was a joke. Senile old man got bronzer on my fries, didn't wear gloves,' one reviewer, 'Karen S', stated. 'Repeated himself several times, something about Ronald McDonald in the showers at the golf club? ... 0 stars. Do not recommend.'... 'Christopher F' complained his fries had 'a long strand of disgusting yellow hair among them' and a 'creepy old man' working the drive-through window 'offered to pay me some hush money to keep this story quiet.' 'Usually I hold high praise for a company that employs the mentally impaired but this one seemed more off then usual, stated 'Chuck P.'" ~~~
~~~ Maybe Christopher F. wasn't kidding about the hair in his fries: ~~~
~~~ Kelly Rissman of the Independent: "Donald Trump's obsession with questioning Kamala Harris' work experience at McDonald's peaked over the weekend when he worked the fry cooker at a Pennsylvania branch -- without a hairnet or gloves.... A health inspection in March at the Feasterville-Trevose location resulted in four violations, including citing employees not having their 'hands clean & properly washed'.... The report also noted a lack of hairnets." Emphasis added.
On the Edge of the City of Brotherly Love. Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times: "On Sunday afternoon..., Donald J. Trump dropped by a McDonald’s in Bucks County, Pa.... A few hundred Trump supporters were lining the shoulder of the road and holding a tailgate party in the parking lot of a strip mall right where Philadelphia ends and the suburbs begin. Another group of locals -- maybe 50 people -- had turned up to protest Mr. Trump's visit. People on the two sides spent the sunny autumn afternoon screaming into one another's faces while filming the skirmishes on their iPhones. The parking lot throbbed with hatred, fear and neighbor's suspicion of neighbor. It became a microcosm of this year's election, vicious and absurd.... 'They're the party of hate,' said one Trump supporter, Stephanie Inselberg, 49.... She seemed to genuinely feel that way. A moment later, she began fighting with a Harris supporter....
"The parking lot continued to whip itself into a partisan frenzy while Mr. Trump hammed it up inside the McDonald's. His aides filmed him as he toddled around the establishment, working the fryer. At one point, he stuck his head out of the drive-through window and chirped: 'I'm having a lot of fun here, everybody!'"
Ashley Parker of the Washington Post: "Since [Vice President] Harris emerged on the top of the Democratic ticket in July, Trump has repeatedly attacked her intelligence -- deriding her as 'dumb,' 'mentally unfit,' 'slow,' 'stupid' and an 'extremely low IQ person,' among other similar pejoratives.... Trump's attacks on her intelligence happen on an almost daily basis -- and sometimes more than once a day.... For many voters, as well as experts Trump's sneering dismissiveness of Harris's intellect reeks of racism and sexism.... The attacks are particularly striking given Harris's deeply accomplished résumé.... The Trump campaign rejected the notion that Trump's questioning of Harris's intelligence is in any way racist or sexist. 'Only dumb and low IQ individuals would be offended by that, expressing faux outrage because they need every excuse to explain away their insecure, miserable, and pathetic existence,' Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement." ~~~
~~~ Marie: One cannot be intellectually honest and deny that the basis for Trump's attacks must be either racist or sexist -- and likely both. What else can it be when he asserts that she "was born ... mentally impaired"? That is to say, there is something about Harris that has made her innately impaired. Trump says he is "a very stable genius" because he has "good genes." Why isn't Harris a very stable genius, too? If it's not because of her race or her sex -- if it's the city where she was born or her astrological sign, say, -- then Trump should explain that.
Paul Krugman of the New York Times: "Something is clearly happening with Donald Trump. Even a year ago I don't think he would have begun a rally with 12 minutes of rambling remarks about the late golfer Arnold Palmer, concluding with a discussion of the size of Mr. Palmer's penis.... But ... Trump's most disturbing remark over the past few days may have been his unprompted comment about Abraham Lincoln ...: 'Lincoln was probably a great president. Although I've always said, why wasn't that settled, you know? I'm a guy that -- it doesn't make sense we had a civil war.'... As Abraham Lincoln explained in his landmark 1860 Cooper Union address, which set him on the path to the Republican nomination and eventually the presidency, the reason that the Union was facing an existential crisis was a demand by the South -- namely, that the North not only let slavery continue unimpeded but also protect the practice from criticism....
"To a large extent, Trump's campaign is being kept afloat financially by a handful of aggrieved billionaires, Elon Musk in particular.... Trump and many of those around him are hypersensitive to criticism, and if he wins, you can expect them to punish critics, whoever they are, and demand affirmations of loyalty across the board."
Perry Stein of the Washington Post: "Former Republican lawmakers, advisers and Justice Department officials have called on Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate tech billionaire Elon Musk for awarding cash prizes to voters in swing states if they sign his political organization's petition, according to a letter obtained by The Washington Post and sent to Garland on Monday. The letter argues that the large prizes set up by Musk, a vocal supporter of Republican nominee Donald Trump, violate federal voting laws that prohibit paying people to register to vote.... The former officials who signed the letter to Garland and Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry argue that Musk's petition is a disguised voter drive in which he is essentially bribing people to register.... Among the people who signed the letter: Donald Ayer, deputy attorney general under President George H.W. Bush; Trevor Potter, former chairman of the Federal Election Commission; Christine Todd Whitman, former governor of New Jersey; and Olivia Troye, who was special adviser to Vice President Mike Pence."
Julia Ingram & Madeleine May of CBS News: "Elon Musk has used the social media platform he owns to amass nearly 3.3 billion views on X by fueling doubts about election security issues since January this year -- making the tech mogul one of the most viral voices on elections during the 2024 campaign, a CBS News investigation has found.... The CBS News Confirmed team fact-checked Musk's posts on election security and found that 55% contain misleading or false statements, or amplify posts that do. Further analysis of these posts showed that 40 of the accounts Musk replied to or reposted were accounts researchers have identified as promoters of voter fraud claims.... Each one [of Musk's election security posts] had an average of 9.3 million views as Musk continues to be the most followed profile on X. [MB: That's because Musk has had X programmers skew X algorithms toward his page.] Experts are concerned that such high audience engagement on posts amplifying election fraud conspiracies could set the stage for possible post-election chaos."
Sarah Ellison of the Washington Post: "... Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D) accused billionaire Elon Musk of spreading 'dangerous disinformation' about voting in her state after Musk ... shared a post suggesting falsely that the state's voter rolls, swelled by large numbers of inactive voters, were likely to result in widespread fraud. Benson and Musk exchanged heated messages after he used his powerful platform to spread a popular Republican talking point Saturday night that the state ... had more registered voters than eligible citizens and therefore was opening itself up for election-altering fraud. Musk ... has spent months promoting false and misleading claims about voting, which election officials previously told The Washington Post led to increased requests to purge voter rolls...." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Yo, Jocelyn. Quit squabbling with an arrogant, "dangerous" liar. It's like trying to reason with a bratty toddler. You're the secretary of state. Enlist the state's attorney general (also a Democrat) to issue Musk a cease-and-desist letter. And if he doesn't obey, she can arrest his golden butt.
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Marie: Just when I think maybe the New York Times is getting a little better, somebody like Steve M. comes along and snaps me back to reality. Steve got the goods on the Times' reporting Donald Trump's Arnold Palmer-has-a-big-dick story. After a reader called out Michael Gold for "reporting" the dick story as "telling Arnold Palmer golf stories," Gold wrote back that he did report the dick story in one of his posts but his editors removed the post (or that part of it). Gold suggested the reader complain to senioreditor@nytimes.com . May that happened, because the Times then published the full story, which led with the dick remark. Steve wonders, "Did reader complaints pressure the Times to run this story? Or was it the fact that most other media organizations, including The Washington Post, AP, CNN, USA Today, and even Fox, recognized the news value of the joke?" Thanks to RAS for the link. (See also Akhilleus's commentary below on the Times "equality of outcomes" standard.) ~~~
~~~ The Times is quite all right with reporting dick jokes if Democrats tell them. Here's Peter Baker, reporting on President Obama's 2024 Democratic convention speech:
"Mr. Obama scorned his successor's fixation with 'childish nicknames' and his 'crazy conspiracy theories' and 'this weird obsession with crowd sizes.' At that point, Mr. Obama held his hands together in a way that implied a certain concern over masculine proportions. When the crowd roared with laughter, he made an I-don't-know-what-you're-talking-about face of faux innocence."
~~~ Both Barack Obama and Donald Trump are former presidents, even if one of them was a president*. Why is it okay to report on Obama's joke but not on Trump's vulgar remark?
Katie Robertson of the New York Times: "The star political writer Olivia Nuzzi of New York magazine, who has been embroiled in scandal since she disclosed a personal relationship with the former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has left the magazine. New York Magazine said in a note to readers on Monday that an investigation by the law firm Davis Wright Tremaine had found 'no inaccuracies nor evidence of bias' in Ms. Nuzzi's coverage of the 2024 campaign. 'Nevertheless, the magazine and Nuzzi agreed that the best course forward is to part ways,' the statement read. 'Nuzzi is a uniquely talented writer and we have been proud to publish her work over her nearly eight years as our Washington correspondent. We wish her the best.'&"
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Arizona. Yvonne Sanchez of the Washington Post: "An Arizona Republican who helped inspire national concerns over county-level certification of the 2024 presidential election pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge Monday related to a 'failure or refusal' to perform her duty. Peggy Judd, who helps lead Cochise County, southeast of Phoenix, was indicted by a state grand jury a year ago, accused of flouting the state's deadlines to formally accept the results of the 2022 midterm general election. Judd and another Republican supervisor, Thomas Crosby, were charged with conspiracy and interfering with an election officer after an investigation by Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes (D). Both supervisors initially pleaded not guilty. In a plea agreement signed by Judd, she acknowledged that she 'knowingly' refused to perform her duty to certify the election results by Nov. 28, 2022.... [Crosby's] case is ongoing."
To keep it simple for the State of Florida: it's the First Amendment, stupid. -- U.S. District Judge Mark Walker, in a temporary injunction prohibiting the state from sending threatening letters to broadcasters ~~~
~~~ Florida. Lori Rozsa of the Washington Post: "Letters that threatened Florida TV stations with criminal penalties if they aired a political ad backing a referendum that would repeal the state's six-week abortion ban came directly from Gov. Ron DeSantis's office, according to the attorney who signed and sent them. Attorney John Wilson said that he resigned as general counsel for the Florida Department of Health rather than 'complying with the directives' of DeSantis's executive staff to send more cease-and-desist letters to TV stations running the ad. 'I did not draft the letters or participate in any discussions about the letters prior to Oct. 3,' Wilson wrote in an affidavit filed in federal court Monday. Instead, he said, three attorneys on the governor's staff gave him the letters to send. In an earlier letter, Wilson condemned the actions of the administration.'A man is nothing without his conscience,' Wilson wrote in a resignation letter on Oct. 10 obtained by the Miami Herald." ~~~
~~~ Brendan Farrington of the AP: "After a month of updating Floridians on hurricanes, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is now focusing his official office on fighting an abortion rights amendment, holding a campaign-like rally at state expense two weeks before the election. DeSantis' event Monday, which was capped with a prayer from the archbishop of Miami and the lieutenant governor asking people to not vote like atheists, came after the Department of Health's top lawyer resigned over a letter he said the governor's office forced him to send to television stations in an effort to stop a pro-Amendment 4 ad.... 'DeSantis continued his weaponization of state government against his own constituents by coordinating a taxpayer-funded press conference with the political campaign opposing Amendment 4 in his quest to silence the voices of doctors and patients suffering under Florida's extreme abortion ban,' said DeSantis Watch spokesman Anders Croy."
Texas Senate Race. Alex Henderson of AlterNet, republished by the Raw Story: "In a front-page editorial published on Sunday, [Rep. Colin] Allred [(D-Texas), who is challenging Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas)] picked up an endorsement from the Dallas Morning News -- Texas' largest daily newspaper. The editorial criticized Cruz for promoting 'the politics of division,' noting that he 'could have supported the peaceful transfer of power in the 2020 presidential election' but didn't.... 'He instead was the first senator to rise in objection to certifying the electoral vote and one of just six to do so. His actions were a catalyst for what became one of the worst days in our nation's history.'... The editorial praised Allred's willingness to work with Republicans, arguing that [he] ... has 'demonstrated over time that both the words and action of bipartisanship matter to him.'"
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Israel/Palestine, et al. The New York Times' live updates of developments Tuesday in Israel's wars are here: "The Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah on Tuesday said it had launched a missile attack at an Israeli military base near Tel Aviv, sending residents fleeing into shelters hours before Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken was due to arrive in the city for meetings with Israeli officials."
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