The Conversation -- November 4, 2024

David Frum of the Atlantic on the horrors Donald Trump has promised us. MB: I have not been a fan of Frum's, formerly a speechwriter for Bush the Younger. But this essay, to which laura h. pointed us and gave us the gift of a link, is a fine piece of writing, IMO. If my link here doesn't work, laura's link in Monday's comments does.

~~~ Bro Horror Story No. 1. Paul Mozur, et al., of the New York Times: "Right-wing groups, which use Telegram to organize real-world actions, are urging followers to watch the polls and stand up for their rights, in a harbinger of potential chaos. Groups backing ... Donald J. Trump recently sent messages to organize poll watchers to be ready to dispute votes in Democratic areas. Some posted images of armed men standing up for their rights to recruit for their cause. Others spread conspiracy theories that anything less than a Trump victory on Tuesday would be a miscarriage of justice worthy of revolt.... Telegram is a prime organizing tool for extremists, who have a tendency to turn digital coordination into real-world action.' Read on. ~~~

~~~ Bro Horror Story No. 2. Drew Harwell, et al., of the em> Washington Post: An "organized network of conservative activists and conspiracy theorists ... have spent years building online followings by promoting their belief in corrupt elections. On platforms controlled by [Elon] Musk -- and Trump, the majority owner of the online platform Truth Social -- they have worked to stand up a preemptive infrastructure stronger than the 'Stop the Steal' movement that grew after Trump's 2020 loss. The online movement ... four years ago was driven by a small, disordered and slapdash group of right-wing fringe accounts echoing Trump's claims of election fraud. Today, it is an army -- organized, widely promoted and shored up by an ideology that has permeated the Republican base.... [Besides using Xitter and Trump's failing social media platform,] election deniers also have gathered in Discord servers, Facebook pages, Telegram channels and video conference calls to share strategies to combat what they say is a secret 'deep state' vote-stealing scheme."

Andrew Sorkin, et al., of the New York Times: "Investors on Monday appear to be unwinding bets on the so-called Trump trade. In a major reversal, bonds have rallied and the dollar and crypto currencies have dipped in the race's final hours. One explanation is a surprising new poll that showed Vice President Kamala Harris, powered in part by support from women and older voters, edging ahead in deep-red Iowa -- a finding that's also led to a tightening of Donald Trump's lead in political prediction markets."

Australia's "6:57 News" anchor Mark Humphries reports on the U.S. presidential race. Take it just as seriously as Humphries does. Thanks to RAS for the lead: ~~~

Robert Reich explains why Elon Musk & his ilk will be f***ed if Trump loses the election. Interesting that Musk himself acknowledges he'll be f***ed if Trump loses. And wouldn't that be a shame? Thanks to RAS for the links.

Presidential Race

Katie Glueck & Nicholas Nehamas of the New York Times: "Vice President Kamala Harris made her final appeal to Michigan voters at an energetic rally on a college campus on Sunday, sounding notes of unity while drawing implicit contrasts with her opponent. The event at Michigan State University was her first rally since becoming a candidate in which she did not say ... Donald J. Trump's name. Instead, in the final hours of the race, she argued that her candidacy was focused on the future."

Normal v. Tired Old Liar. Adam Nagourney, et al., of the New York Times: On "the final Sunday of the campaign..., Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald J. Trump ... could not have been more different ... in message and demeanor.... Ms. Harris began her day at a Black church in Detroit where she told congregants that the nation was 'ready to bend the arc of history toward justice,' invoking the words of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Mr. Trump began his at an outdoor rally at an airport in Pennsylvania where, his shoulders slumped and his voice subdued, he threw out his prepared remarks to tell supporters that he 'shouldn't have left' the White House after his loss to President Biden in 2020.... Mr. Trump was relatively subdued at his second stop of the day, in Kingston, N.C.... At his third rally, in Macon, Ga., he used harsh anti-immigrant rhetoric.... Ms. Harris was markedly more upbeat [than Mr. Trump] at a rally Sunday evening in East Lansing, Mich.... She opened her remarks in East Lansing, in a state with a significant population of Arab Americans, by acknowledging the devastation of the Gaza war."

Rebecca O'Brien of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump said on Sunday that he expected Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to have a 'big role' in a second administration, and acknowledged the possibility that he could take action against two major public health successes -- vaccines and the fluoridation of water -- if he won the presidency. The remarks, in an interview with NBC News, suggest that Mr. Kennedy, a former independent candidate, has assumed an elevated role in Mr. Trump's orbit.... Mr. Trump has voiced misgivings about vaccines in the past, including in a 2015 Republican primary debate and in a leaked phone call between him and Mr. Kennedy in July, as the former president tried to coax Mr. Kennedy to back his campaign.... Vice President Kamala Harris, in a podcast interview on 'The Checkup with Doctor Mike' that was released on Sunday, warned against Mr. Kennedy having a prominent role in public health if Mr. Trump wins. 'That's why I'm working so hard, because I know the stakes,' Harris said, in an exchange that the Harris campaign later amplified on social media." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I think if you read through the story, you'll conclude that Trump is shining on Bobby Junior and his fan base just to keep them on the reservation until after the election. For instance, this hardly sounds like a solid promise to ban vaccines: "Well, I'm going to talk to him and talk to other people, and I'll make a decision, but he's a very talented guy and has strong views." See Dan Diamond's WashPo story, linked below, for more on the Impending Trump Healthcare Disaster.

Kathleen Culliton of the Raw Story: "... Donald Trump praised a violent dead gangster and the wrong Republican at a campaign rally this weekend, spurring concerns of cognitive decline. Trump told North Carolina voters Sunday evening, just two days before the upcoming presidential election that could return him to the White House, that he thought Al Capone was 'lovely' and their senatorial candidate was a superior choice. 'You have one of the best of all right here, David McCormick,' Trump said. 'Great guy.'" But great guy McCormick is running for Senate in Pennsylvania, not North Carolina, and -- not surprisingly -- he was not at Trump's North Carolina rally. Moreover, there is no North Carolina Senate race this year.

Not Funny: Trump Says He's Okay with Assassins Shooting the Press. Michael Gold & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump told supporters on Sunday [at a rally in Lititz, Pa.,] that he 'shouldn't have left' the White House at the end of his term during an end-of-campaign rally where he vented angrily about a spate of new public polls showing him losing ground to Vice President Kamala Harris and joked about reporters being shot at.... Mr. Trump's voice was audibly hoarse and his speech sluggish as he made unfounded claims about election interference.... The remark [that he shouldn't have left the white House in 2021] echoed what Mr. Trump told some aides within days of his 2020 election loss: that he wasn't going to leave the White House.... He spent nearly 20 minutes trying to instill doubts about the election, reviving a host of baseless claims of widespread fraud that he made in 2020.... Mr. Trump, while riffing, also pointed to the protective glass encasing him now at outdoor rallies since he survived the assassination attempt in Butler. 'To get to me, somebody would have to shoot through fake news, and I don't mind that much, 'cause, I don't mind. I don't mind,' he said, as some in the crowd laughed and howled." (Also linked yesterday.) The AP's report is here.

Alex Weprin of the Hollywood Reporter: "NBC is giving ... Donald Trump's campaign free commercial time in response to Vice President Kamala Harris' appearance on Saturday Night Live, including an unusual ad during Sunday's NASCAR coverage, a source familiar with the matter says. Harris appeared on Saturday's SNL for one minute and 30 seconds, meaning that if another presidential campaign requests it, NBC would need to give it about 90 seconds of time. On Sunday, NBC broadcast a NASCAR playoff race, but some viewers noticed toward the end of the broadcast (technically right after the race ended but while coverage was still ongoing) that Trump appeared in an unusual ad, speaking directly to camera ... and claiming that electing Harris would cause a 'depression' and that viewers should 'go and vote.'... Trump was given 60 additional seconds of campaign time during NBC's Sunday Night Football coverage. While the game was already over, the spot -- which was the same one that aired during the NASCAR coverage -- aired during the post-game coverage (and shortly after a paid campaign ad)."

S.V. Date of the Huffington Post: "In the final sprint toward Election Day, Donald Trump has mused about former congresswoman Liz Cheney as well as journalists covering his rallies getting gunned down, confirmed that he will put an anti-vax conspiracy theorist in charge of the government's health care apparatus and explained that talking about a fictional serial killer proves his genius. And that was all before he declared at a rally Sunday that he should have just stayed in office despite his 2020 election loss and failed coup attempt on Jan. 6, 2021."

Meryl Kornfield of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump headlined a rally a week ago featuring a comedian's remark that Puerto Rico is an 'island of garbage.' On Thursday, Trump insisted he had previously won New Mexico, a state he lost twice by big margins. On Friday, he suggested a Republican adversary should have 'guns trained on her face.' And the following day, he unleashed a profane speech saying women have to be protected 'at home in suburbia.'... Trump's near-daily pattern of making provocative or inflammatory remarks threatens to undermine his campaign's message that a Trump presidency would restore an orderly, controlled leadership to the nation." MB: The notion that an elderly, confused person who has been a scatterbrained wild man his entire life "would restore an orderly, controlled leadership" is ludicrous, and it didn't take this week of his vicious, deranged remarks for normal people to suddenly arrive at that realization.

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "Public appearances by Mr. Trump throughout this year's campaign have been an Alice-in-Wonderland trip through the political looking glass, a journey into an alternate reality.... At its most fundamental, it boils down to this: America was paradise on earth when he was in charge, and now it's a dystopian hellscape.... And it is a version that has found traction with tens of millions of supporters.... Mr. Trump's four years in power were a nonstop treadmill for fact-checkers trying to catch up with the latest. His four years since leaving arguably have posed an even bigger challenge as he descended further into conspiracy theories.... But dishonesty is not necessarily punished politically in the way it once was." Baker runs through a brief history of Trump's biggest lies. (Also linked yesterday.)

Marie: I continue to worry that no one is paying attention to New Hampshire. I saw a poll (don't know if it was a reliable one) about a week ago showing Trump up by four points in New Hampshire. And now hear this: ~~~

~~~ Margie Cullen of the Portsmouth Herald: "... JD Vance bashed Vice President Kamala Harris and touted ... Donald Trump in a last-minute attempt to shore up support in New Hampshire just two days before the 2024 presidential election. Vance held the rally at the New England Sports Center in Derry on Sunday night.... Recent polls show Harris leading Trump in the Granite State, but by a shrinking margin. A University of New Hampshire Survey Center poll released Sunday found Harris ahead by 5 points, down from 9 points in the previous poll. A poll released Oct. 30 by Saint Anselm found the same results: up by five, a smaller margin than previous polls. Political analyst Scott Spradling told WMUR [Manchester] the Trump campaign might think that they can take the state, and Vance's rhetoric suggested the same."

Marie: I wonder if pervasive GOP misogyny has turned Republican women into masochists. Donald Trump has treated Nikki Haley with contempt not only when she ran against him but also in the past several months when she has prostrated herself before him. Now Haley has doubled down on abused-partner syndrome by writing a Wall Street Journal op-ed endorsing Trump's candidacy. (I can't access the op-ed, and I don't care, but it's here.)

Dan Diamond of the Washington Post: "First came GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson's pledge last Monday to overhaul the Affordable Care Act if Donald Trump wins the presidential election. Then Howard Lutnick, the co-chair of Trump's transition team, on Wednesday endorsed Robert F. Kennedy Jr's vaccine skepticism and suggested that a future Trump administration would empower Kennedy to help oversee vaccine data. Three days later, Kennedy announced that Trump would seek to remove fluoride from Americans' drinking water as a Day 1 priority. The statements add up to a surreal final week of campaigning for Republicans in which several of Trump's top surrogates are introducing unconventional -- and generally unpopular -- ideas that pit them against the health-policy establishment.... The assorted proposals also add up to an agenda that would probably damage public health."

Andrew Van Dam of the Washington Post explains how polls are conducted in an era when "nobody answers the phone": "We stopped answering unknown numbers as phone spammers proliferated, everybody got caller ID and 'huge swaths of the population' switched to text messaging as their preferred means of communication.... The most common public, national polls use online panels that recruit willing participants, often through ads, and then try to massage their demographics until they match the U.S. population.... Many top pollsters adopt a 'whatever works' approach. They pick thousands of American households, often by selecting random mailing addresses, then pull out all the stops to wring an answer from each via phone, mail, internet or -- in some cases -- in-person visits."

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Florida Boy. Meet Your Trump Backer. Wicker Perlis of Treasure Coast Palm: "... a teenager and apparent supporter of ... Donald Trump was arrested [in Stuart, Florida,] Saturday at a rally in support of Vice President Kamala Harris and charged with punching a 70-year-old woman in the stomach. A 17-year-old boy -- wearing a T-shirt featuring an image of Trump raising his middle finger in front of an American flag background -- punched the Harris supporter, knocking her off her feet, according to police and the woman, Stuart resident Kathleen Tomasko.... According to witnesses, Bossio said, the 17-year-old was walking away from a separate altercation with a male Harris supporter when he struck Tomasko and knocked her to the ground. Tomasko said she did nothing to provoke the 17-year-old and she did not hear him say anything to her. In fact, she didn't even see him coming, she said." MB: Okay, so not old enough to vote, but old enough to flatten a little old lady. You've done your part, Kid. You've got a great future.

Montana Senate Race. Liz Goodwin of the Washington Post: "Tim Sheehy, the Montana Republican nominee for Senate, said in an interview with former Fox News host Megyn Kelly that there are no medical records that would prove he did not accidentally shoot himself in the arm in Glacier National Park in 2015. Sheehy is facing a fresh round of scrutiny about a bullet wound in his arm, which he has told voters he sustained while serving as a Navy SEAL in Afghanistan in 2012. But in 2015, he told a park ranger he accidentally inflicted the wound upon himself when he dropped his weapon in a parking lot in Glacier National Park and it fired into his arm. Democrats have poured millions of dollars into negative ads that raise questions about the incident, which was first reported by The Washington Post, in the closing days of the crucial Senate race.... Sheehy now says he lied to the park ranger in 2015 after seeking emergency medical treatment for a fall in Glacier National Park that he thought dislodged the bullet."~~~

     ~~~ MB: If you read through the story, you'll see that Sheehy not only changed his story about his bullet wound, he also has changed the story about the availability of his medical records: "Sheehy's contention that records from his hospital visit do not exist is new." It's pretty obvious Sheehy is lying. Again. Of course the hospital made a record of his visit. Not only that, most states require hospitals to report bullet wounds to law enforcement, so there should be a second, separate law enforcement record of his treatment. Knowing that they will be voting for an unrepentant serial liar, Montanans are set to elect him to unseat Jon Tester (D).

Nevada Early Voting. Mark Robison of the Reno Gazette Journal: "After the final day of early voting, registered Republicans have cast almost 50,000 more votes than Democrats statewide, according to Secretary of State data released at 9 p.m. Friday.... In 2020, Joe Biden won Nevada over Donald Trump by fewer than 34,000 votes. The state has not given its electoral votes to a Republican candidate since George W. Bush in 2004."

New York City Council Race. Maia Coleman of the New York Times: "When Harvey Epstein went to sleep on Saturday night, he was a low-profile New York State assemblyman. When he woke up on Sunday morning, he was something of an internet celebrity. Mr. Epstein was the subject of a 'Saturday Night Live' sketch this weekend that spoofed his name -- a somewhat unfortunate mash-up of the names of two notorious sexual predators, Harvey Weinstein and Jeffrey Epstein. The show's host, the comedian John Mulaney, starred as Harvey Epstein in a campaign ad featuring the candidate struggling to explain to voters that he is neither of the disgraced men. Harvey Epstein is running for the New York City Council in District 2, which includes Greenwich Village, the Lower East Side and parts of southeastern Manhattan.... The real Harvey Epstein ... said in an interview on Sunday that he had no idea the sketch was planned.... In the wake of the publicity over the sketch, Harvey Epstein encouraged people to support survivors of sexual assault." ~~~

~~~~~~~~~~

Moldova. Andrew Higgins of the New York Times: "The pro-Western president of Moldova, Maia Sandu, won re-election on Sunday in a high-stakes runoff vote in the former Soviet republic against a rival candidate she had denounced as 'Moscow's man.'... With more than 98 percent of ballots counted, official results gave Ms. Sandu 54.9 percent of the vote, an unassailable lead on her Moscow-friendly rival, who had 45.3 percent. In a televised address early Monday, she thanked Moldovans living abroad, whose vote tipped the result in her favor, but said the election was a victory for the whole country. 'Today you saved Moldova,' she said. 'In our choice for a dignified future, no one lost.'"

News Lede

New York Times: "Quincy Jones, one of the most powerful forces in American popular music for more than half a century, died on Sunday in California. He was 91."

The Conversation -- November 3, 2024

Thanks to RAS for the link.

Not Funny: Trump Says He's Okay with Assassins Shooting the Press. Michael Gold & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump told supporters on Sunday [at a rally in Lititz, Pa.,] that he 'shouldn't have left' the White House at the end of his term during an end-of-campaign rally where he vented angrily about a spate of new public polls showing him losing ground to Vice President Kamala Harris and joked about reporters being shot at.... Mr. Trump's voice was audibly hoarse and his speech sluggish as he made unfounded claims about election interference.... The remark [that he shouldn't have left the white House in 2021] echoed what Mr. Trump told some aides within days of his 2020 election loss: that he wasn't going to leave the White House.... He spent nearly 20 minutes trying to instill doubts about the election, reviving a host of baseless claims of widespread fraud that he made in 2020.... Mr. Trump, while riffing, also pointed to the protective glass encasing him now at outdoor rallies since he survived the assassination attempt in Butler. 'To get to me, somebody would have to shoot through fake news, and I don't mind that much, 'cause, I don't mind. I don't mind,' he said, as some in the crowd laughed and howled."

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "Public appearances by Mr. Trump throughout this year's campaign have been an Alice-in-Wonderland trip through the political looking glass, a journey into an alternate reality.... At its most fundamental, it boils down to this: America was paradise on earth when he was in charge, and now it's a dystopian hellscape.... And it is a version that has found traction with tens of millions of supporters.... Mr. Trump's four years in power were a nonstop treadmill for fact-checkers trying to catch up with the latest. His four years since leaving arguably have posed an even bigger challenge as he descended further into conspiracy theories.... But dishonesty is not necessarily punished politically in the way it once was." Baker runs through a brief history of Trump's biggest lies.

~~~~~~~~~~

Patrick Marley, et al., of the Washington Post: "More than 74 million people had already cast their ballots as of Saturday, which is about 46 percent the total number cast in the 2020 presidential election. That includes 4 million voters in Georgia -- or 80 percent of the total that voted there in 2020.... This surge of early voting suggests that a long-term trend that was accelerated by the pandemic during the 2020 election has led to a lasting change in voting habits, with Election Day increasingly subsumed by Election Season....While nationwide rates of early voting aren't quite as high as they were at this time in 2020, they're significantly higher than in 2016 or any previous election year.... [Aside from the conveniences of voting early,] the booming interest in voting early may also reflect the nature of the presidential race, where the polls have barely budged for weeks and many voters don't need to hear more from the candidates to make up their minds."

Presidential Race

Marie: I don't do polls, but this one is such a shocker, I thought I'd share: ~~~

~~~ Brianne Pfannenstiel of the Des Moines Register: "Kamala Harris now leads Donald Trump in Iowa -- a startling reversal for Democrats and Republicans who have all but written off the state's presidential contest as a certain Trump victory. A new Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll shows Vice President Harris leading former President Trump 47% to 44% among likely voters.... The results follow a September Iowa Poll that showed Trump with a 4-point lead over Harris and a June Iowa Poll showing him with an 18-point lead over Democratic President Joe Biden, who was the presumed Democratic nominee at the time.... A victory for Harris would be a surprising development after Iowa has swung aggressively to the right in recent elections, delivering Trump solid victories in 2016 and 2020. The poll shows that women -- particularly those who are older or who are politically independent -- are driving the late shift toward Harris." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The Des Moines Register poll is considered to be a highly-reliable, "gold-standard" poll. To me, the result doesn't necessarily mean Harris will win Iowa, but it may bode well for Harris's position in battleground states.

Kamala Harris's Closing Ad: ~~~

Nate Cohn of the New York Times tries to explain why it's so hard to beat even a deplorable GOP presidential* candidate like Donald Trump: "... the national political environment just isn't as conducive to a Democratic victory as many might imagine.... No party has retained control of the White House when so many Americans were dissatisfied with the country or the president.... For the first time in decades, Republicans have pulled even or ahead in nationwide party identification. Polls also find Republicans with the an edge on most key issues -- with democracy and abortion standing as significant exceptions.... Across the developed world..., voters appear eager for change.... Nearly everywhere, high prices and the fallout from the pandemic left voters angry and resentful.... Over just the last few years, all of [the] liberal energy [that surged beginning in 2008] suddenly seemed to vanish.... Democrats might keep their winning streak going on Tuesday, but when historians look back they might conclude that the liberal ascendancy had already come to an end."

Scranton Joe. Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: "In the final weeks of the presidential campaign, [President] Biden has been cast in the shadow of Vice President Kamala Harris amid concerns that his unpopularity could be a liability in her race against ... Donald J. Trump. But as he rallied union members in his hometown [of Scranton, Pennsylvania,] on Saturday during one of his last campaign events in office, Mr. Biden was in one of the few places Democrats feel he can still help Ms. Harris on the campaign trail.... Mr. Biden rattled Democrats this week when he appeared to call supporters of Mr. Trump 'garbage,' [and] ... Ms. Harris had to spend time on the campaign trail distancing herself from the comment. Ms. Harris's rallies are far more enthusiastic and energetic than Mr. Biden's, with crowds of thousands dwarfing those at his events. But Harris campaign officials believe that the incumbent president can still provide a key benefit to Ms. Harris by rallying working-class white voters and union members in battleground states.... Mr. Biden used the speech [Saturday] to argue that Mr. Trump would repeal much of his domestic agenda if he beat Ms. Harris, including efforts to invest in unions.... 'I'm not just asking for me,' Mr. Biden said. 'I'm going to be gone. I'm asking you to do something for yourself and your families.'"

Emily Davies of the Washington Post: "In swing states and Republican strongholds, on college campuses and in sports arenas, sticky notes have appeared reminding women that their votes are confidential -- kept private even and especially from the men in their lives. The origins of the trend are unclear, but the co-founder of Women for Harris-Walz, a grassroots group supporting the vice president's campaign, says her members have been sticking notes in bathrooms and similar spaces for months, encouraging women to vote their own minds and reminding them that their ballot is secret.... And in the closing weeks of the campaign, Democrats and their allies have made explicit appeals to women who are in relationships with Trump-supporting men."

The appeal have generated conservative fury, and the leaders of one conservative women's organization argued that "the real reason for the gender gap between the candidates ... is pressure that media and celebrities put on women to vote for Democrats." MB: Right. J.Lo & Beyoncé made me vote for Harris and that was very mean of them.

Marie: I made a big ole mistake yesterday and didn't learn about it till many hours after the fact, so if you read yesterday's Commentariat, please check out the correction. Thanks.

Not Parody. Jon Levine of the New York Post: "One of the United States' foremost white supremacists is urging his followers to support Vice President Harris in the presidential election next week. Richard Spencer, an avowed racist, antisemite and admirer of Nazism who coined the term 'alt-right' and was a featured speaker when he took part in the deadly 2017 rally in Charlottesville, Va., called Harris the 'best manager of the American empire.' Spencer -- who also gained international recognition after yelling 'Hail Trump! Hail our people!' and being greeted with Nazi salutes during a white nationalist event in November 2016 -- also condemned former President Trump's strong support of Israel.... The Harris campaign did not respond to request for comment from The Post." MB: Even if this is not a ploy to help Trump, I'm thinking Spencer's endorsement is not what Harris has in mind when she talks about unity. But thanks to Rupert's New York Post for doing its very best to point out Harris' wide appeal.

This PSA is an Election Day guide for Trump voters.

c: @chunkled @LincolnsBible pic.twitter.com/KU9Cl3Bhn0

— Greg Olear (@gregolear) November 2, 2024

      ~~~ Thanks to RAS for the link.

Hannah Knowles, et al., of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump spent his last Saturday of the presidential race making a trio of meandering, profane speeches in which he spoke repeatedly about women -- saying they have to be protected 'at home in suburbia,' complaining that he is not allowed to call women beautiful and calling himself the 'father of fertilization' -- a disjointed appeal to female voters as he faces a gender gap against Vice President Kamala Harris in public polls.... He hit on his top policy issues, immigration and the economy -- but he also made many extended detours and aired false or exaggerated claims. He characterized the country as 'invaded' by immigrants and made dark, baseless predictions about what a Harris presidency would look like, notably claiming that Americans 'won't own your house anymore.'... Harris spoke in Charlotte, [North Carolina,] reprising her closing argument that Trump is not someone 'who is thinking about how to make your life better,' as she cast a spotlight on his threats and inflammatory rhetoric. She called him a candidate 'who is increasingly unstable, obsessed with revenge, consumed with grievance,' and warned he would walk into the Oval Office 'stewing over an enemies list.'" Politico has an item here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Millions of non-white Americans live in suburbs, but be assured that fact hasn't occurred to Donald Trump. So when he says that he means to "protect women at home in suburbia," he is talking about White women. And that is to say that Trump has put the White ladies on notice: they are in as much danger as women of color.

Gary Robertson & Jill Colvin of the AP: "Donald Trump will rally supporters in North Carolina every day until Tuesday's election, a flurry of late activity in the only swing state that he won in both his 2016 and 2020 campaigns. Even as Trump looks to expand the electoral map and project strength with trips to New Mexico and Virginia, two Democratic states not widely viewed as competitive, he is putting considerable time into North Carolina, which last backed a Democrat for president in 2008.... [Trump's] path to the 270 electoral votes needed to capture the presidency gets significantly more complicated if he loses North Carolina.... Trump campaigned in Gastonia ... and Greensboro on Saturday, with a stop in Salem, Virginia, in between. He will be in the eastern city of Kinston on Sunday and in Raleigh on Monday. Those four rallies will bring his total events in North Carolina since Oct. 1 to nine. His running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, has been in the state six times during the same period, most recently on Friday."

Marie: As usual, when Trump behaves badly, the Gray Lady doesn't tell us the whole, sordid story. In an updated story I linked yesterday, Times reporters write,

"... [Mr. Trump's] closing pitch was derailed by problems with the microphone that seemed to frustrate him during a particularly busy stretch of the campaign.... After members of the crowd began chanting that they could not hear him properly, Mr. Trump yanked the microphone out of its holder. At one point, he pantomimed adjusting the microphone setup and bobbing down toward it, to the laughter of the crowd. But Mr. Trump, standing in front of people waving signs that said 'Trump will fix it,' was visibly irritated by the technical issue. 'Do you want to see me knock the hell out of people backstage?' he asked the crowd, on a day when his violent language had already drawn attention." ~~~

~~~ But Then. Other stories provided a different characterization: ~~~

~~~ Ryan Bort of Rolling Stone, republished by Yahoo! News: "The former president was rallying in Milwaukee on Friday night, and amid his usual fear-mongering over crime and immigration, he went on a weird, prolonged rant about the venue's microphone -- which apparently wasn't functioning properly. 'You gotta be kidding,' Trump said. 'Do you want to see me knock the hell out of people backstage?... I get so angry, I'm up here seething, seething,' he continued. 'I'm working my ass off with this stupid mic.' Trump complained about the mic for nearly four full minutes, bashing the 'stupid people' responsible, griping about how worn out his throat is, and complaining that it was set up too low. He also threatened to stiff the contractors, something he has a history of doing.... At one point, Trump bizarrely moved his head up and down from the empty mic stand on his podium, presumably to demonstrate how low he needed to bend over to get the mic to pick up his voice. The act resembled something else, though. 'BLOWING IT: TRUMP SIMULATES ORAL SEX ON STAGE!' read a front-page headline from Drudge." AND (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Ben Blanchet of Huffington Post, via Yahoo News: "Trump also complained about the low height of microphone stands at his events and showed how he would work around such issues, bobbing his head up and down in what many observers suggested was an imitation of oral sex." AND (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Kevin Manahan of NJ.com: "Trump, in one of his final rallies on Friday night, simulated sexually stroking and then performing oral sex on his malfunctioning microphone in Milwaukee." (Includes video; the supposed sex simulation part begins at about 2:55 minutes into the video embedded in a tweet.) (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ ⭐UPDATE. In a surprising move, the Times has published a new (12:21 pm ET), stand-alone story by Michael Gold in which Gold describes the whole mic meltdown, including this: "But observers on social media shared a 5-second clip of the moment, suggesting the former president was pantomiming oral sex. Those short clips quickly received millions of views." Marie: This is remarkably similar to what happened two weeks ago: Michael Gold wrote a campaign update item mentioning Trump's Arnold Palmer big-dick remark, but -- according to Gold -- his editor removed the item. When a reader complained to Gold that he had sane-washed Trump's remarks about Palmer, Gold wrote back saying, "I filed something that included the thing you mention as omitted, but I am not given the power to publish what I say." Gold suggesting the reader direct his complaint to a senior editor, and a short while later, the Times published a full story that led with Trump's reflections on Arnold Palmer's big dick. (See Steve M. on this.) (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The Gray Lady's sensibilities notwithstanding, the point of all this is not that the New York Times failed again to tell the whole story but that an old man who could again wield the power of the U.S. presidency finds it appropriate to perform Lenny Bruce routines at large public gatherings. One need not be a prude to find Trump's behavior alarming. ~~~

     ~~~ Tom Nichols of the Atlantic sounds the alarm: "A former president of the United States held a rally, during which he used a microphone holder on his podium to pantomime the act of giving fellatio. I could have put it differently. I might have said that 'a cognitively impaired man, who has long been showing signs of serious emotional instability and has a history of sexism and racism, engaged in crude behavior in front of a large audience.' But that wouldn't capture an important reality: This deeply impaired man is tied in the race to become the next president and could be holding the codes to the U.S. nuclear arsenal in less than three months.... Trump, by most reports, has always been a vulgar and ignorant man. This creepy moment in Milwaukee will add to our national and international humiliation if he is returned to office. But more important, manifesting this kind of disinhibited behavior in public more and more often is a warning sign that he is simply not stable enough to sit in the Oval Office.... The rally crowd ... laughed as Trump pretended to pleasure a piece of equipment. But for the rest of us, the laughter has to stop, and the horror of what might happen in a few days must take its place." Thanks to laura h. for the link, which is a gift. (If the link here doesn't work, see laura's contribution to yesterday's Comments.)

Right on the main page of the New York Times online, under the headline, "Vote to End the Trump Era," the Editors write, "You already know Donald Trump. He is unfit to lead. Watch him. Listen to those who know him best. He tried to subvert an election and remains a threat to democracy. He helped overturn Roe, with terrible consequences. Mr. Trump's corruption and lawlessness go beyond elections: It's his whole ethos. He lies without limit. If he's re-elected, the G.O.P. won't restrain him. Mr. Trump will use the government to go after opponents. He will pursue a cruel policy of mass deportations. He will wreak havoc on the poor, the middle class and employers. Another Trump term will damage the climate, shatter alliances and strengthen autocrats. Americans should demand better. Vote."

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "When I asked a scholar what Shakespearean figure Trump most resembles, he replied that Trump is not complex enough to be one. You have to have a character to have a tragic flaw that mars your character.... I was surprised when some commentators reacted with shock at some of the insults slung [at his Madison Square Garden rally]. For me, it seemed like a pretty typical Trump rally: ugly, dark, crude, denigrating, racist, misogynistic.... Speakers included Elon Musk, R.F.K. Jr. and Tucker Carlson, who thinks a demon clawed him while he was in bed last year. It is frightening to contemplate how much power this gruesome threesome will have if Trump wins a second term."

México Primero! Trump Media Outsources to Mexican Techs. Robert Faturechi, et al., of ProPublica: "... Donald Trump's social media company outsourced jobs to workers in Mexico even as Trump publicly railed against outsourcing on the campaign trail and threatened heavy tariffs on companies that send jobs south of the border. The firm's use of workers in Mexico was confirmed by a spokesperson for Trump Media, which operates the Truth Social platform. The workers were hired through another entity to code and perform other technical duties, according to a person with knowledge of Trump Media. The reliance on foreign labor was met with outrage among the company's own staff, who accused its leadership of betraying their 'America First' ideals, the person said."

Move Over, Project 2025. There's a New Nut on the Block. If you don't yet find Trump alarming enough, look at what one of his most prominent surrogates promises. ~~~

~~~ Rebecca O'Brien & Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Saturday that among the first acts of a second Trump administration would be to 'advise all U.S. water systems to remove fluoride from public water,' a stunning potential reversal of what is widely considered one of the most important public health interventions of the past century. The statement, posted on social media, is among the more concrete pledges made by Mr. Kennedy ... in his capacity as a top adviser on Mr. Trump's transition team. It also raises the specter of an all-out assault on public-health expertise should Mr. Trump win next week's election, a prospect that has already caused significant alarm among experts across the medical and environmental fields.... [Such] a presidential pronouncement [would not have the force of law in local and state jurisdictions, but it] would inject the White House into a debate that stretches back to the 1950s, when conspiracy theories swirled around fluoridation, with critics claiming it was a Communist plot to poison Americans' brains -- a view that was memorably parodied in Stanley Kubrick's film 'Dr. Strangelove.'" Read on for a summary of the current science on fluoridated drinking water. ~~~

     ~~~ The AP story, by Jonathan Cooper, is here: "Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent proponent of debunked public health claims whom Donald Trump has promised to put in charge of health initiatives<, said Saturday that Trump would push to remove fluoride from drinking water on his first day in office."

~~~ Alas, the Old Nut Jobs Are Still Around. And a True Witch Hunt is Underway. Jonathan O'Connell, et al., of the Washington Post: "An organization funded by the conservative Heritage Foundation has compiled an online watch list' of federal employees it claims cannot be trusted to secure the U.S. border and should be fired, a sign that supporters of Donald Trump's immigration policies are preparing to help him neutralize the administrative state they believe tried to thwart his first presidency. The 'DHS Bureaucrat Watch List' -- a website unveiled in the final weeks of a presidential campaign in which immigration is a key issue -- names 51 federal policy experts and high-ranking leaders, the majority of whom are career civil servants at the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies.... Among the employees' actions cited by the group are posts celebrating the legalization of same-sex marriage or lauding the contributions and successes of undocumented immigrants, as well as donations as little as $10 to Democratic candidates. One employee union likened the effort ... to Sen. Joseph McCarthy's 1950s-era campaign to purge federal workers he accused of being communists."

"Obeying Fascisim in Advance." Jessica Corbett of Common Dreams: "Historians and other critics are responding with fierce condemnation to this week's Wall Street Journal reporting that 'U.S. Archivist Colleen Shogan and her top advisers at the National Archives and Records Administration, which operates a popular museum on the National Mall, have sought to de-emphasize negative parts of U.S. history.'... The Biden appointee is now responsible for a $40 million overhaul of the National Archives Museum ... and the adjacent Discovery Center. Current and former employees expressed concerns about various changes to both spaces in interviews with the Journal, which also reviewed internal documents and notes.... As the Journal reported:

"'Shogan's senior aides ordered that a proposed image of Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. be cut from a planned 'Step Into History' photo booth in the Discovery Center. The booth will give visitors a chance to take photos of themselves superimposed alongside historic figures. The aides also ordered the removal of labor union pioneer Dolores Huerta and Minnie Spotted-Wolf, the first Native American woman to join the Marine Corps, from the photo booth, according to current and former employees and agency documents. The aides proposed using instead images of former President Richard Nixon greeting Elvis Presley and former President Ronald Reagan with baseball player Cal Ripken Jr." Read on. It gets worse. Thanks to pat for the lead. MB: I'm having a bit of trouble seeing how MLK Jr. would be viewed as "a negative part of U.S. history," but Dick Nixon would be a reminder of happy days.

Alex Williams of the New York Times: "Patricia Johanson, an environmental artist who made nature her medium, transforming highway underpasses, sewage treatment plants and other grimly functional public spaces into sweeping artworks, died on Oct. 16 at her home in Buskirk, N.Y., northeast of Albany. She was 84." Includes photographs of some of Johanson's installations.

~~~~~~~~~~

Tennessee. Rachel Nostrant of the New York Times: "The remains of a sixth factory worker in eastern Tennessee who was swept away in the flooding brought on by Hurricane Helene have been found, ending a search for what is believed to be the last missing employee more than a month after the storm tore through the Southeast. Officials on Friday disclosed the identity of the body as Rosa Andrade, 29, one of a half-dozen victims of the flood who worked at Impact Plastics, a factory in the close-knit town of Erwin, about 120 miles east of Knoxville.... It remains unclear what exactly happened at the plant on Sept. 27, and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations and the state's occupational safety board are still looking into the deaths.... Some workers said that as the downpour began, they were told not to leave the plant, despite their concerns about safety. Organizers with the Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition..., said that the workers told them they 'didn't have evacuation instructions at all.'"

Virginia, Where a Poll Worker Might Harass You if You "Look" Latina. Michael Laris of the Washington Post: The Post's 2023 Principal of the Year Liza Burrell-Aldana, went to vote Thursday in Fairfax County, Virginia, where "a poll worker ... looked at her driver's license and asked her, twice: 'Are you a citizen?'... Burrell-Aldana ... immigrated from Colombia in 2002 and became a U.S. citizen in 2011.... The incident played out as Donald Trump and many Republicans have falsely claimed that waves of noncitizens are voting, stoking fears. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) has embraced the issue, pushing for a daily scrub of voter rolls.... It is a violation of Virginia law for a poll worker 'to require or even to ask a voter to provide anything more than' a form of identification when they check in to vote, said Ryan Snow, a voting rights attorney at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.... Burrell-Aldana, in considering why her citizenship was questioned this year and not in past years, noted an environment where demeaning jokes about Latinos and others seem to be thrown around easily -- as they were at a recent Trump rally at Madison Square Garden."

~~~~~~~~~~

Israel/Palestine, et al. The Washington Post's live updates of developments Sunday in Israel's wars are here: "At least 50 children in northern Gaza's Jabalya were reportedly killed in the past 48 hours, according to UNICEF. The agency warned that the entire population of the region, especially children, is at imminent risk of dying from disease, famine and ongoing bombardment. The deaths in Jabalya were the result of strikes on two residential buildings where hundreds of people had sought shelter, UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell said in a statement Saturday."

U.K. Mark Landler & Stephen Castle of the New York Times: "Britain's Conservative Party announced on Saturday that it had selected Kemi Badenoch as its leader, putting a charismatic, often combative, right-wing firebrand at the helm of a party that suffered a crushing election defeat in July. Ms. Badenoch, 44, whose parents were immigrants from Nigeria, becomes the first Black woman to head a party that has had three other female leaders -- Margaret Thatcher, Theresa May and Liz Truss. She succeeds Rishi Sunak, who became the first nonwhite British prime minister after taking over the Tories, Britain's oldest party, in 2022."

The Conversation -- November 2, 2024

Marie: I don't do polls, but this one is such a shocker, I'll share it: ~~~

~~~ Brianne Pfannenstiel of the Des Moines Register: "Kamala Harris now leads Donald Trump in Iowa -- a startling reversal for Democrats and Republicans who have all but written off the state's presidential contest as a certain Trump victory. A new Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll shows Vice President Harris leading former President Trump 47% to 44% among likely voters.... The results follow a September Iowa Poll that showed Trump with a 4-point lead over Harris and a June Iowa Poll showing him with an 18-point lead over Democratic President Joe Biden, who was the presumed Democratic nominee at the time.... A victory for Harris would be a surprising development after Iowa has swung aggressively to the right in recent elections, delivering Trump solid victories in 2016 and 2020. The poll shows that women -- particularly those who are older or who are politically independent -- are driving the late shift toward Harris." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The Des Moines Register poll is considered to be a highly-reliable, "gold-standard" poll. To me, the result doesn't necessarily mean Harris will win Iowa, but it may bode well for Harris's position in battleground states.

PLEASE SEE THE CORRECTION BELOW ON THE OBAMA VIDEO. THANKS.

Marie: As usual, the Gray Lady doesn't tell us the whole, sordid story. In an updated story I linked earlier today, Times reporters write,

"... [Mr. Trump's] closing pitch was derailed by problems with the microphone that seemed to frustrate him during a particularly busy stretch of the campaign.... After members of the crowd began chanting that they could not hear him properly, Mr. Trump yanked the microphone out of its holder. At one point, he pantomimed adjusting the microphone setup and bobbing down toward it, to the laughter of the crowd. But Mr. Trump, standing in front of people waving signs that said 'Trump will fix it,' was visibly irritated by the technical issue. 'Do you want to see me knock the hell out of people backstage?' he asked the crowd, on a day when his violent language had already drawn attention." ~~~

~~~ But Then. There are other stories that provide a different characterization: ~~~

~~~ Ryan Bort of Rolling Stone, republished by Yahoo! News: "The former president was rallying in Milwaukee on Friday night, and amid his usual fear-mongering over crime and immigration, he went on a weird, prolonged rant about the venue's microphone -- which apparently wasn't functioning properly. 'You gotta be kidding,' Trump said. 'Do you want to see me knock the hell out of people backstage?... I get so angry, I'm up here seething, seething,' he continued. 'I'm working my ass off with this stupid mic.' Trump complained about the mic for nearly four full minutes, bashing the 'stupid people' responsible, griping about how worn out his throat is, and complaining that it was set up too low. He also threatened to stiff the contractors, something he has a history of doing.... At one point, Trump bizarrely moved his head up and down from the empty mic stand on his podium, presumably to demonstrate how low he needed to bend over to get the mic to pick up his voice. The act resembled something else, though. 'BLOWING IT: TRUMP SIMULATES ORAL SEX ON STAGE!' read a front-page headline from Drudge." AND ~~~

     ~~~ Ben Blanchet of Huffington Post, via Yahoo News: "Trump also complained about the low height of microphone stands at his events and showed how he would work around such issues, bobbing his head up and down in what many observers suggested was an imitation of oral sex." AND ~~~

     ~~~ Kevin Manahan of NJ.com: "Trump, in one of his final rallies on Friday night, simulated sexually stroking and then performing oral sex on his malfunctioning microphone in Milwaukee." (Includes video; the supposed sex simulation part begins at about 2:55 minutes into the video embedded in a tweet.) ~~~

     ~~~ ⭐ UPDATE. In a surprising move, the Times has published a new (12:21 pm ET), stand-alone story by Michael Gold in which Gold describes the whole mic meltdown, including this: "But observers on social media shared a 5-second clip of the moment, suggesting the former president was pantomiming oral sex. Those short clips quickly received millions of views." Marie: This is remarkably similar to what happened two weeks ago: Michael Gold wrote a campaign update item mentioning Trump's Arnold Palmer big-dick remark, but -- according to Gold -- his editor removed the item. When a reader complained to Gold that he had sane-washed Trump's remarks about Palmer, Gold wrote back saying, "I filed something that included the thing you mention as omitted, but I am not given the power to publish what I say." Gold suggesting the reader direct his complaint to a senior editor, and a short while later, the Times published a full story that led with Trump's reflections on Arnold Palmer's big dick. (See Steve M. on this.)

Marie: This is what I was saying was needed. George Clooney, who does the voiceover, apparently agreed: ~~~

Marie: By accident (or diabolical design), my teevee switched itself to Fox "News" this morning. I wasn't watching at the time, but I heard someone -- sounded like Neil Cavuto -- say that everyone agreed Trump would win the election. He might be right. So I switched off the teevee. I've abandoned Twitter since Elon has done what he could to wreck it, but Bill Madden's account is full of TikTok videos that may hearten you. And who knows? These hopeful young people might be the ones who are right. Thanks to RAS for the lead.

~~~~~~~~~~

Presidential Race

Reid Epstein, et al., of the New York Times: "Vice President Kamala Harris and ... Donald J. Trump converged on Milwaukee on Friday night during their final scheduled visits to Wisconsin, a battleground state where neither of them has a lead and which is considered particularly essential to a Harris victory. With the election just three days away, Ms. Harris adopted an upbeat tone during an evening of musical performances and urged her supporters in Milwaukee, where early voting lags the balloting in other parts of the state, to 'please get to it when you can.' The rally for Mr. Trump, who was returning to the site of his Republican coronation in July, had an entirely different tone. He employed fear-mongering language about immigration, repeated his 2020 election lies and lobbed insults at his political foes. He also suggested that Milwaukee's Greek-born basketball star Giannis Antetokounmpo, who is Black, seemed less Greek than Mr. Trump did, and spent several minutes erupting in frustration over a faulty microphone." This is an update of this report, linked yesterday: ~~~

     ~~~ Michael Gold & Adam Nagourney of the New York Times: "Vice President Kamala Harris and ... Donald J. Trump clashed on Friday over violent comments he made suggesting that Liz Cheney, one of his fiercest Republican critics, should be put somewhere 'with nine barrels shooting at her.' Ms. Harris suggested that the remarks should disqualify Mr. Trump from serving as the nation's chief executive, while he tried to clean up his comments by repeating them in marginally softer terms. He also attacked the vice president for campaigning with Ms. Cheney.... Ms. Harris, speaking to reporters in front of Air Force Two after landing in Madison, Wis., said that Mr. Trump had 'increased his violent rhetoric.'... This must be disqualifying.... Anyone who wants to be president of the United States who uses that kind of violent rhetoric is clearly disqualified, and unqualified, to be president.'..."

Dave Jamieson of the Huffington Post: "President Joe Biden reminded Pennsylvanians on Friday that he, Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democrats safeguarded more than 1 million people's pensions without any help from the GOP. Visiting a union hall in Philadelphia, Biden and local union leaders highlighted the American Rescue Plan of 2021 and how it funded union pension plans that were facing insolvency. The pensions of an estimated 1.2 million workers and retirees have been protected from cuts due to the legislation.... Biden made sure anyone listening knew that the pension rescue got no Republican backing when Democrats muscled it through Congress over three years ago as part of a larger, pandemic-era stimulus package. It passed on a party-line vote in the Senate, with Harris casting a tie-breaker at a critical juncture for the bill.... [Biden said,] '... Not a single, solitary Republican in the House or the Senate, not one, voted to help with the pensions. Not one single one.'"

Here's what can happen when a former President goes to exercise his franchise at his local polling place. In today's Comments, NiskyGuy pointed to this video to illustrate a matter unrelated to the gist of the conversation herein, but I think we can all appreciate it on the level CBS News intended: SEE CORRECTION BELOW. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oops! My bad. This video is ten years old. That was President Obama, voting in the November 2014 midterm elections. I apologize.

Ellie Silverman of the Washington Post: "Thousands of people are expected to rally Saturday in Washington and in cities across the country to bring an enthusiastic boost of support to Vice President Kamala Harris just days before Election Day. The Women's March event ... comes at a time when Harris could become the first female president in the nation's history. The Women's March movement launched the day after Donald Trump's inauguration, when hundreds of thousands of women poured into the District and across the country in what is widely considered the largest single-day protest in American history."

Trump's So White. Michael Luciano of Mediaite: "... Donald Trump stumped in Michigan on Friday, where he told rally-goers he has 'beautiful white skin' after criticizing Vice President Kamala Harris.... [Trump] griped that the presidential race has prevented him from getting a proper tan: 'I could've been at the great Turnberry in Scotland. I could've been anywhere I wanted to be. I could've had those waves smacking me in the face. That white, beautiful white skin that I have would be nice and tan. I got the whitest skin 'cause I never have time to go out in the sun. But I have that beautiful white, and you know what? It could've been beautiful, tanned, beautiful.'" In another Mediaite post, Luciano quite properly ties Trump's remarks about his beautiful white skin to his questioning of the nationality of Greek-born basketball star Giannis Antetokounmpo, who is Black. Trump asked a Milwaukee crowd who was more Greek -- the Greek-speaking Greek citizen Antetokounmpo, or Trump himself (who most likely does not know Greek and who is of German & Scottish heritage). ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Well, sure. This is a legitimate grievance. It's very unfa-a-a-air that campaigning forces Trump to slather on Cheeto-brand orange-face while Harris naturally looks fine wearing far less makeup than Trump does.

Hannah Knowles, et al., of the Washington Post: "Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes (D) said her office is investigating whether Trump's comments [about having a 9-person firing squad shoot Liz Cheney] could have violated state laws involving intimidation of public officials, spokesperson Richie Taylor said.... Trump did not mention Cheney later in the evening at a rally in Milwaukee. He did, however, become preoccupied with his microphone, which he pulled from its stand. Trump told the crowd, 'This mic stinks,' later adding, 'Do you want to see me knock the hell out of people backstage?'" An NBC News story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Only an insane megalomaniac would immediately think the way to react to possibly faulty equipment was to "beat the hell out of" the people who provided it. This is madness. (It's also a Class B felony in Wisconsin. I'm right sorry Milwaukee cops didn't arrest Trump then and there.)

Jess Bidgood of the New York Times: "Trump still can't stop talking about women.... In the past two days, he has vowed to be a protector of women 'whether they like it or not.' He said that if he won the presidential election, he would want Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a man who is a vaccine skeptic, to work on 'health and women's health.' And, speaking with Tucker Carlson [Thursday] night in Glendale, Ariz., Trump imagined a supremely violent fate for Liz Cheney, the Republican former congresswoman who has become a prominent surrogate for [Vice President] Harris.... The remark was graphic even by the standards of Trump.... And it fed right into Democrats' efforts to frame the election ... as a reckoning over bigger questions of freedom, control and women's fundamental place in society.... Harris has responded to Trump's freewheeling provocations with discipline." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Yes, indeed. Here's Harris responding to Trump's vile attack on Liz Cheney in which he suggested Cheney should suffer death by firing squad: ~~~

     ~~~ It strikes me that to some extent, Harris's discipline is performative. That is, she wants voters to know that (a) she is outraged, but (b) she can hold it together no matter how outrageous the conduct she encounters. Notice how she keeps looking at her notes, as if to hold herself back, in her response to remarks that would leave many of us sputtering. With provocative cool, she faces down a madman.

Ha Ha! Via digby: ~~~

I think Trump has seen the "your vote is your secret" ads targeting women living with Trumper men... pic.twitter.com/cGCIuv7vb2

— Clara Jeffery (@ClaraJeffery) November 1, 2024

     ~~~ Marie: Another caption I saw for this photo: "Breaking News: Trump accidentally votes for Harris after copying answers." Thanks to Bill near San Jose for that link. What this photo really does show is that Trump cheats at everything; he doesn't even respect the secret ballot. Then he has the gall to repeatedly accuse Democrats of cheating in elections.

No Sychophantic Deed Goes Unpunished. Manuel Roig-Franzia of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump's campaign released a copy of a Federal Election Commission complaint against The Washington Post on Friday, alleging that the newspaper made illegal in-kind contributions to the campaign of his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, through the advertising of its journalism. The six-page complaint, dated Thursday, cites an Oct. 30 article in Semafor that suggests, without citing a source, that The Post purchased advertising to boost readership of negative articles about Trump. Those ads, according to Semafor, were bought following the Oct. 25 announcement by The Post's publisher, William Lewis, that the newspaper would cease issuing presidential endorsements, a decision that prevented publication of a drafted editorial endorsing Harris, the Democratic nominee. Following the announcement, at least 250,000 readers canceled their subscriptions and three members of the 10-person editorial board stepped down from the board in protest. The Semafor article posits that the ad purchases were made in reaction to the cancellations....

"FEC complaints against newspapers are exceedingly rare, according to Mark Tushnet, a Harvard University emeritus law professor. After reviewing the Trump campaign's complaint, Tushnet called it 'ridiculous' and said the First Amendment 'would almost certainly' protect The Post."

Tim Balk of the New York Times: "Nicolle Wallace, who was a White House communications director in George W. Bush's administration, called on Friday for Mr. Bush to have a late-hour 'change of heart' and speak out against ... Donald J. Trump. Speaking on her 'Deadline: White House' program on MSNBC, Ms. Wallace said Mr. Trump's violent language about former Representative Liz Cheney had pushed her to publicly raise the question she gets 'asked more than any other' off the set: 'Where is George W. Bush?'... Ms. Wallace said she had appealed directly to Mr. Bush's office, and had been told that the former president would continue his silence. But she said that it felt 'important' to make her appeal...." (Also linked yesterday.) The Raw Story report is here.

Edward Hellmore of the Guardian: "A New York author and journalist has released audio tapes that appear to detail how Donald Trump had a close social relationship with the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein that he has long denied. The tapes, released as part of the Fire and Fury podcast series by Michael Wolff, author of three books about Trump's first term and 2020 bid for a second, and James Truman, former NME journalist and Condé Nast editorial director, include Epstein's thoughts about the inner workings of the former US president's inner circle.... Wolff claims the excerpt tape is a mere fraction of some '100 hours of Epstein talking about the inner workings of the Trump White House and about his longstanding, deep relationship with Donald Trump'.... Wolff claims on the podcast that he became an 'outlet' for Epstein 'to express his incredulity about someone whose sins he knew so well.... Epstein was utterly preoccupied with Trump, and I think, frankly, afraid of him.'... Wolff said: 'Here are these two guys both driven by a need to do anything they wanted with women: dominance and submission and entertainment. And one of them ends up in the darkest prison in the country and the other in the White House.'"

Marie: Woe is me. I am having a sad! ~~~

~~~ Irie Sentner of Politico: "Conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt resigned Friday from his columnist position at The Washington Post, he confirmed to Fox News, after walking out on a live interview on the paper's video platform -- the latest blow to the Post after facing widespread blowback over halting presidential endorsements. Hewitt stormed out during a live broadcast of the Post's show 'First Look' during a discussion Friday morning about ... Donald Trump is laying the groundwork to potentially contest the election, leaving host Jonathan Capehart and fellow guest Ruth Marcus stunned." (Also linked yesterday.)

     ~~~ Marie: It sounds to me as if Hewitt was criticizing Capehart for a failure of journalistic integrity, which is kinda funny because "journalist" Hewitt frequently hosts Trump on his radio broadcast and allows Trump to spout whatever hoohah he wants, no fact-checking involved.

Akhilleus wrote yesterday in an essay discussing the right wing's various sex obsessions, "The invented scary fairy tales [about] ...a tidal wave of sex change operations ... are reminiscent of medieval fables of secret witch covens casting evil spells on decent god-fearing folk in the villages and hordes of scabrous, vengeful demons abroad in the land seeking out virgins to defile and babies to eat." ~~~

     ~~~ But Wait! There ARE vengeful demons, and the demons'll get ya if ya don't watch out. ~~~

     ~~~ Edward Hellmore of the Guardian: "Tucker Carlson ... has said he was 'physically mauled' by a demon a year and a half ago, in an assault that he says left him bleeding and with scars from 'claw marks'. Carlson made the claim while speaking in an upcoming documentary, Christianities? In a preview clip on YouTube, Carlson is asked by John Heers of the non-profit First Things Foundation if he believed that 'the presence of evil is kickstarting people to wonder about the good'. 'That's what happened to me. I had a direct experience with it,' said Carlson. Asked if he was referring to journalism, Carlson responded: 'No, in my bed at night. I got attacked while I was asleep with my wife and four dogs and mauled, physically mauled.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "Army criminal investigators are reviewing an 'incident' involving the top U.S. general overseeing military affairs in the Middle East ... Gen. Michael 'Erik' Kurilla, head of U.S. Central Command..., defense officials said Friday, a potential complication for the Biden administration as it continues to grapple with a region-wide crisis spawned by the war in Gaza.... The news site Military.com reported Thursday night that Kurilla was under investigation for pushing a U.S. airman during a September trip to Israel. Citing an unidentified defense official with direct knowledge of the incident, the report said that Kurilla had become frustrated with his communications access and got into an argument with a member of the flight crew on a C-17, an Air Force transport plane. Army CID's statement stopped short of saying that a criminal investigation has been opened against the general."

~~~~~~~~~~

Georgia. Alex Griffing of Mediaite: "Two of Georgia's top election officials, both Republicans, called out a video circulating social media this week as 'fake' and an 'obvious lie.'... Georgia election official Gabriel Sterling ... shared a post from RNC national committeewoman Amy Kremer that spread the video which purported to show Haitian migrants claiming they voted illegally for Vice President Kamala Harris.... Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) also released a statement about the clip on Thursday. 'Earlier today, our office became aware of a video purporting to show a Haitian immigrant with multiple Georgia IDs claiming to have voted multiple times. This is false and is an example of targeted disinformation we've seen in this and other elections.... In the meantime, we ask Elon Musk and the leadership of other social media platforms to take this down...." (Also linked yesterday.)

Kentucky. Orlando Mayorquin of the New York Times: "The former police detective who fired 10 shots through Breonna Taylor's apartment in a deadly raid in Louisville, Ky., in 2020 was found guilty on Friday night of violating her civil rights by using excessive force. But the federal jury earlier in the evening cleared the former officer, Brett Hankison, of violating the rights of Ms. Taylor's neighbors, according to ... the U.S. attorney's office. Mr. Hankison, who is white, was the only officer to be charged for his actions during the botched operation that set off a wave of protests across the country. But his shots did not kill Ms. Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman who worked as an emergency room technician. Two other officers, also white, fired the fatal shots, but neither was charged."

Maryland Senate Race. Ally Mutnick of Politico: "A new robocall targeting Maryland voters attacks Larry Hogan for acknowledging Joe Biden won the 2020 election. The recording knocks Hogan, the GOP nominee for Senate, for not being MAGA enough and urges support for Libertarian Party candidate Mike Scott, who is 'pro-pardoning President Trump' and 'the only true conservative on the ballot.... A disclaimer on the robocall says it was sent by a mysterious new super PAC called Save Western Culture, which has been spending against GOP House and Senate candidates in several races.... The group filed with the Federal Election Commission in mid-October and will not have to disclose its donors until after Election Day. Hogan, a popular former governor, is battling Democrat Angela Alsobrooks for Maryland's open Senate seat."

Pennsylvania. Nick Corasanti & Rebecca O'Brien of the New York Times: "A state judge in Pennsylvania has found that a mail-ballot vendor contracted by the Erie County Board of Elections failed to meet demand and that 13,000 to 17,000 Erie County voters may not have received their ballots in time for the election on Tuesday. The judge, David Ridge, ordered the Board of Elections to keep its offices open on Friday and Saturday, for voters to be able to request and fill out ballots, and to add a printer. Citing a shortfall of extra ballots and provisional ballots, the judge instructed the board to 'ensure that an adequate number' of ballots was available at all polling locations in the county. In addition to the thousands of voters who might not have received ballots, the judge also found that about 1,200 out-of-state voters who are registered to vote in Erie County might not have received mail ballots. And given what the judge described as an 'unknown number' of people who might not have been accounted for, he raised the likelihood that upward of 20,000 ballots could have failed to reach voters.... Erie County is one of the swingiest counties in Pennsylvania and is often considered a bellwether in a critical battleground state."

Pennsylvania. Abbie VanSickle of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Friday evening cleared the way for some voters in Pennsylvania whose mail-in ballots had been deemed invalid to cast provisional ballots in person, rejecting an appeal by Republicans not to count such votes. The decision was unsigned and gave no reasoning, which is common in such emergency petitions. The decision could affect thousands of mail-in ballots in a state that is crucial to each party's path to victory in the presidential contest and could be consequential in determining control of the Senate. The latest polls show Vice President Kamala Harris and ... Donald J. Trump virtually tied there.... The ruling, which thrust the justices into a hotly contested legal fight in a critical battleground state, was among a flurry of decisions by the court this week related to the presidential election." (Also linked yesterday.) The NBC News story is here.

Pennsylvania. They're Getting Worse. Tommy Christopher of Mediaite: "A parade float [in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania,] depicting Vice President Kamala Harris chained behind a truck with ... Donald Trump on it drew outrage from residents and officials who compared it to an infamous lynching." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Jonathan Edwards of the Washington Post: "... officials in Mount Pleasant[, Pennsylvania,] apologized for a Halloween parade float in which a slow-moving Kawasaki farm truck, carrying what appeared to be a sniper rifle and [a] person in a Trump mask, slowly moved through the annual parade in Mount Pleasant, a community of about 4,200 about 25 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. People wearing Secret Service agent costumes walked with the vehicle while someone dressed as [Vice President] Harris walked with their hands bound by rope or a chain to the back of the truck.... 'The depiction of Kamala Harris tied to the back of the vehicle and being marched down Main Street seemed very symbolic of the violence and racism against people of color in our country's history,' said [Ashley] Frailey, who lives in Mount Pleasant and ... [recorded the parade entry].... Borough officials, in a statement released Friday, called it an understatement to say that the float was 'appalling.'... On Thursday, the Mount Pleasant Volunteer Fire Department, which sponsored the parade, said it sincerely apologized for the display...."

Texas. Trump, Abbott & the Six Dwarfs kill another young woman: ~~~

     ~~~ Diagnosis: Strep Throat. Lizzie Presser & Kavitha Surana of ProPublica: "It took three ER visits and 20 hours before a hospital admitted Nevaeh Crain, 18, as her condition worsened. Doctors insisted on two ultrasounds to confirm 'fetal demise.' She's one of at least two Texas women who died under the state's abortion ban.... The first hospital diagnosed her with strep throat without investigating her sharp abdominal cramps. At the second, she screened positive for sepsis, a life-threatening and fast-moving reaction to an infection, medical records show. But doctors said her six-month fetus had a heartbeat and that Crain was fine to leave. Now on Crain's third hospital visit, an obstetrician insisted on two ultrasounds to 'confirm fetal demise,' a nurse wrote, before moving her to intensive care. By then, more than two hours after her arrival, Crain's blood pressure had plummeted and a nurse had noted that her lips were 'blue and dusky.' Her organs began failing. Hours later, she was dead." (Also linked yesterday.)

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Israel/Palestine, et al. The Washington Post's live updates of developments Saturday in Israel's wars are here: "U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered additional resources to the Middle East, including ballistic missile defense destroyers, fighter squadron and tanker aircraft, and several B-52 long-range strike bombers, the Pentagon announced Friday.... A person close to Israeli leaders who was briefed on the situation told The Washington Post that intelligence suggests 'Iran is preparing an attack on Israel in coming days.'... Leaders from 15 aid organizations and U.N. agencies described the situation in northern Gaza as 'apocalyptic' after an almost month-long siege and called for U.N. member states to withhold arms transfers 'where there is a clear risk that such arms will be used in violation of international law.' Signatories to the joint statement included Cindy McCain, executive director of the World Food Program, and Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization."

Russia. A $20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 Fine -- And Growing. Frances Vinall of the Washington Post: "U.S. tech giant Google has closed up shop in Russia, but ... a court there [has] levied] a fine [against it] greater than all the wealth in the world -- a figure that is growing every day. The fine, imposed after certain channels were blocked on YouTube, which Google owns, has reached more than 2 undecillion rubles, Russian business newspaper RBC reported this week. That's about $20 decillion -- a two followed by 34 zeros.... Google's parent company, Alphabet -- one of the five most valuable companies in the world -- is valued at about $2 trillion. The fine is about 10 billion trillion times the company's value. In a case of verbal symmetry, the penalty could soon reach a googol, a 1 followed by 100 zeros, the mathematical term that inspired the name of the search engine. Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary for ... Vladimir Putin, told reporters Thursday that the figure was symbolic and should be a reason for Google to pay attention to the Moscow Arbitration Court's order to restore access to the YouTube channels."

News Lede

New York Times: "As the death toll passed 200 from floods this week that triggered the deadliest natural disaster in Spain's recent history, southern regions were battered by more heavy downpours on Friday, complicating an already strained rescue effort. Valencia, the region that suffered the worst of the deluge, recorded 202 deaths, regional president Carlos Mazón said at a news conference at the disaster coordination center. Three more people have died in neighboring regions, bringing the total of confirmed deaths to 205, according to the authorities. That toll was expected to rise as rescue workers continued to dig through sodden towns, clogged with mud and debris, making access extremely challenging. Late Thursday and Friday, rains spread to other southern regions."