If the threat was real they wouldn't need to make up stories

Morgan Stephens of Daily Kos reported Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon introduced a bill for some Supreme Court reforms. It’s got some good things and some things I think would make no difference. Some of the things in the bill: + Add six justices to the court for a total of 15. They would be added one at a time in the first and third years of a presidential term. + Laws passed by Congress would need a two-thirds majority, rather than a simply majority, to be overturned. + A method to keep senators from blocking a nominee by refusing to vote, which is what happened in 2016 when Obama nominated Merrick Garland and Moscow Mitch blocked it. + As Stephens wrote, “requiring justices to consider recusing themselves and make their written opinions public.” Asking justices to consider recusing themselves doesn’t seem to be strong enough to curb the conflicts of interest. What if a justice refuses to consider it? Other than that last one the proposals look good, though I would add a retirement age or a tenure limit, which Americans “overwhelmingly support” according to a 2023 Pew Research survey. Much of the article explains the various scandals that show why these reforms are necessary. Of course, as long as the House is in Republican hands and the Senate has a 60 vote filibuster this bill isn’t going anywhere. It will need to be reintroduced in January. An Associated Press article posted on Kos discussed the damage from Hurricane Helene. I can’t summarize it, so will quote a few things that caught my attention.

Helene’s devastation comes as climate change exacerbates conditions that allow such storms to thrive, rapidly intensifying in warming waters and turning into powerful hurricanes and typhoons, sometimes in a matter of hours. ... More than 4 million homes and businesses were without power Friday morning in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks utility reports. The hurricane came ashore near the mouth of the Aucilla River on Florida’s Gulf Coast. That location was only about 20 miles (32 kilometers) northwest of where Idalia hit last year at nearly the same ferocity, causing widespread damage. Cities as far inland as Atlanta were drenched, with just car roofs poking out of the water in some neighborhoods. ... “Please write your name, birthday, and important information on your arm or leg in a PERMANENT MARKER so that you can be identified and family notified,” the sheriff’s office in mostly rural Taylor County, Florida, warned those who chose not to evacuate in a Facebook post. The dire advice was similar to what other officials have dolled out during past hurricanes.

I’ve been refreshing the weather map all day, watching the rain patterns swirl (including rain over the Detroit area) as it appears the eye has been stalled over the Kentucky-Tennessee border northwest of Nashville. The storm prompted a meme in the comments of a pundit roundup for Kos. I don’t know who created the meme. exlrrp posted it. Above a photo of chairs, a fridge, and litter in a yard with Florida Gov. Ron DeathSantis on the phone. The caption says, “Hello, President Biden, it’s Ron! May I please have some socialism?” Yes, FEMA is prepared and in action. Up in the body of the roundup Greg Dworkin quoted Jonathan Weiler of Jonathan’s Quality Kvetching Newsletter. I added emphasis.

At a recent Trump rally, a friendly reporter asked an attendee how illegal immigration is affecting his life. The attendee said it wasn't, but that such people were getting something handed to them for free and that was wrong, so they should go back to where they came from. At least he was honest. If the problem of unauthorized immigrants were such a scourge in the United States, in terms of crime, adverse economic impact and so on, Trump, Vance and their ilk wouldn't need to make up stories to prove their point. But Vance, like Trump, isn't lying about Springfield to expose a larger truth about immigration. He's exposing a larger truth about himself, that he's willing to fabricate and falsify in service of the most sinister motives. Namely, to foment the kind of hatred necessary to make people comfortable with their government committing terrible acts against groups Vance is doing everything in his power to dehumanize, including children.

Walter Einenkel of Kos reported that Pete Buttigieg has been helping VP candidate Tim Walz prepare for his debate with JD Vance set for Tuesday evening. An excerpt of Einenkel’s post:

Buttigieg said Walz is “a very ‘what you see is what you get’ kind of person." And while that is a big part of his appeal, it’s Walz’s career choices and what they say about his values that impressed Buttigieg the most. "He's a teacher, an NCO in the military, a football coach, right?” Buttigieg said. “A coach is measured by how well your players do. A sergeant is measured by how well your soldiers do. A teacher is measured by how well your students do,” he continued. “So what all of that has in common is, it's not about you.” That is a “spirit” and “ethos” that isn’t common in elected officials, Buttigieg explained.

All that makes Buttigieg an even bigger fan of Walz. Stephens reported that Biden signed an executive order related to guns. Some of the things in it: + Assess threats from machine-gun conversion devices and of 3D-printed guns that don’t have serial numbers. + Come up with a plan to lessen the trauma of active shooter drills.

“Many parents, students, and educators have expressed concerns about the trauma caused by some approaches to these drills,” a White House statement said. “Federal agencies need to help schools improve drills so they can more effectively prepare for an active shooter situation while also preventing or minimizing any trauma.” ... Active shooter drills, which have become ingrained as a part of life for school-aged children in America, have lasting negative effects on their mental health. According to research by the Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, a study found “insufficient conclusive research affirming the value of active shooter drills.” In fact, the opposite occurred. Instead of feeling calmer and more prepared, students, parents and teachers became increasingly depressed and anxious, with some exhibiting physiological health issues after the drills.

A week ago Stephens reported that at a livestream event hosted by Oprah Winfrey Harris talked about guns.

“I think for far too long on the issue of gun violence, some people have been pushing a really false choice,” said the Democratic presidential nominee. “To suggest you’re either in favor of the Second Amendment or you want to take everyone’s guns away.” Throughout her campaign, Harris has pushed back on the cynical GOP stance that if lawmakers aren’t in favor of any and all guns circulating without regulations, that means they want to “take away all our guns.” This black-and-white framing leaves no room for common-sense gun reform at the national level. But reform is a winning policy stance: Research shows that six in 10 Americans favor stricter gun laws.

Those stricter gun laws include a ban on assault weapons, universal background check which includes at guns shows, and red flag laws. Oliver Willis of Kos reported:

A new study published in the Harvard Kennedy School’s Misinformation Review found that fact-checks of lies from Donald Trump are more likely to make his diehard supporters believe in his falsehoods.

Candidates and pundits watch for an October Surprise in an election year. It’s a bit of bad news that a candidate won’t have time to recover from. In 2016 James Comey reopening the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails released eleven days before the election damaged her campaign and some people thought that doomed her chances. So how is this for a surprise (though maybe a bit early), discussed by jellis of the Kos community quoting an article from The Guardian:

A private equity firm owned by Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, has been paid $157m in fees since 2021 without returning any profit to investors, according to a US Senate inquiry… The paper reported that Kushner was using contacts cultivated while working as a White House adviser during Trump’s presidency… “Affinity’s investors may not be motivated by commercial considerations, but rather the opportunity to funnel foreign government money to members of President Trump’s family, namely Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump.” Wyden said the foreign investors’ fees included $87m from the government of Saudi Arabia…

It’s also not much of a surprise. Rep. Jamie Raskin started making noise last year about where the Pandemic Prince gets his money. It didn’t get far because Raskin was up against Rep. James Comer who is willing to indulge any thread of evidence that might be used to impeach Biden but mighty slow to investigate any Republican. But see the article just before this one on whether these revelations will make any difference in the nasty guy’s support.

Hurricane over Kentucky

Last evening I went to downtown Detroit for the Ruth Ellis Center 25th anniversary gala. The first part of the adventure was parking. The freeway exit I wanted to take – near the Fox Theater and entertainment district, baseball stadium (the Tigers are doing quite well now, but I don’t know if there was a game), hockey arena (has the Red Wings season started?), and football stadium (Lions are also doing well, but I’m sure they weren’t playing on a Thursday night) – was way backed up. I figured the nearby parking lots would be full. So I went around downtown and ended up at Grand Circus Park, not too far from my venue, and with a parking garage underneath. So I parked. Many of the pillars have signs on how to pay by phone, saying how easy it was – do something on their app and then just drive out. The exit stairwell had a sign about the penalties of not paying. But there was nothing about how to pay if one doesn’t have a phone – and I hadn’t brought mine. I wasn’t so sure I wanted to put their app on it even if I had brought it. There was no sign of payment machines in the stairwell, entranceways, or on the parking floor. At the end of the evening I got in my car and drove to the exit. There was no payment machine there, either. The exit opened and I drove out. Was parking free for the evening? Will I get a bill with a penalty? For that I’ll simply wait. And if there is a penalty I will strongly object. And my reasoning will be simple – they do not provide a way to pay for those without a smartphone. On to the fun part of the evening. In walking to the venue from Grand Circus and past the Fox Theater I could see downtown Detroit is a happening place now. That’s good to see. Though I hadn’t been to the Center since the start of the pandemic, four and a half years now, one of the women checking guests in recognized me. I had served supper on Wednesdays for 11 years and the youth had gotten to know me. This woman had been a youth at the time. Also, pretty cool, a staff person I knew well and the executive director also recognized and welcomed me. The cocktail hour was followed by a sitdown dinner. There were over 200 people in the hall, which was quite resonant and thus loud. I had the butternut squash ravioli with a butter herb sauce (a little too sweet) plus a salad, rolls, and dessert. The emcee for the evening was comedian Sandra Bernhard, a lesbian. She gave a passionate condemnation of the nasty guy and spirited support of Harris. Beyond that she stuck to her emcee role and did little comedy. Executive Director Mark Erwin spoke about the history of the Ruth Ellis Center. Memorial Day weekend in 1999 several elders in the Detroit LGBT community got together. By elder I don’t mean old, I mean they were well into adulthood. Some are still around. They had heard a youth had been thrown out of his home because he had told his family he was gay. The elders said this is not good, what are we going to do about it? They laid out immediate plans to get the boy a place to stay, some intermediate plans to create a safe space for LGBT teens, and long term plans for their most elaborate wishes for safe medical care and safe housing. They named the project for Ruth Ellis, caretaker and mentor for many of these elders and for many other LGBT people in Detroit through the 20th century. By the following year they had a place. And Ruth Ellis, at age 101, cut the ribbon. She died two months later. By 2007 a new drop in space was purchased, renovated, and opened. This is where I had done my volunteer work. A couple years before the pandemic a small medical clinic opened in the building. In 2022 the Clairmount Center for safe housing and support services opened. They’ve gone on to success in many areas of helping LGBT youth thrive and stay connected to families and they are a model for similar organizations around the country. Bernhard talked about the nonsense of requiring women to give birth and then throwing the child out because they are queer. If you’re so pro family to insist on one how can you do the other? A youth leadership award was given to a young woman who had needed the Center’s services and was now giving back. The name wasn’t familiar to me (though I knew few of their names). There was a Ruth Ellis Legacy Award given to a person who most exemplified the spirit and grace of Ruth Ellis. I was delighted with the winner – Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer! She has done a lot for the LGBTQ citizens of the state, as was documented. Whitmer wasn’t there to receive the award in person, though did appear on video. I’m pretty sure a drawing of her lesbian daughter was on the table behind her. The award was accepted by the chairperson of the LGBTQ commission, which Whitmer created to guide the state government in how to better treat LGBTQ people. The evening ended with a few songs by Wyn Stark. I hadn’t heard of him before (as I don’t pay attention to popular singers). He is good. One of the songs was about coming to terms with being gay. This was their first gala in five years. In previous years I went as a volunteer of some sort, such as checking in the guests. This time I actually paid to attend. It was a great evening and I’m glad I went. Hurricane Helene has swamped the big bend of Florida, soaked Georgia, and as I write this is over Kentucky. Kentucky?! My niece, living north of the eye said they expected worse wind and the power to go out. Schools had closed. Now they’re waiting for the rain to end. My forecast for the next four days is rain. I don’t know if this will be Helene remnants reaching north or another storm system. In a pundit roundup for Daily Kos Greg Dworkin quoted a tweet by Craig Pittman who included a photo of a marina in which all the boats were on the beach and road. He included a quote from and a link to an article in the Florida Phoenix.

"Project 2025 calls for tying the hands of the National Weather Service, eliminating its role as a forecaster. It would relegate the agency to only collecting data. Then private companies could use that taxpayer-funded info."

Dworkin also quoted Alan Elrod of The UnPopulist

During a White Dudes for Harris fundraising Zoom call, Walz said, “one person’s socialism is another person’s neighborliness.” The point wasn’t to argue for the implementation of doctrinaire socialism, as his conservative critics alleged, but to emphasize that actions and policies that take our pluralism seriously often get unfairly dismissed as radical leftism. His aim was to redefine progressive politics not as a slow-moving statist takeover, as Republican portrayals suggested, but as a form of affirmative concern for your community and the people around you. Neighborliness is one of the main victims of this era of intense polarization and digitized communication. In recent decades social trust has eroded, and other social capital indicators reinforce the same conclusion. There is an anger and cynicism about one another that runs from small town squares to urban high-rises. However, neighborliness is not just about interpersonal decency. In Walz’s usage, it’s about social policy, which is far broader than most uses of the word; this is a neighborliness of scale. Walz is not dismissive of everyday neighborliness—on the contrary, for him it’s a microcosm of good governance. But his conception does go beyond mere interpersonal neighborliness and informs a full social vision predicated on the idea that what it means to be a good neighbor is the same as what it means to take seriously the demands of a multicultural democracy.

The nasty guy told women, “I’ll be your protector.” In the comments are several cartoons showing how creepy that comes across.

Giving voice to those whose voices were suppressed

My Sunday movie was The Holdovers. It was a big deal when it was released last Christmas season. Yes, it is nominally a Christmas movie, in that the action does take place over the last couple weeks of December and there is a Christmas dinner. But it really isn’t about Christmas. The time is 1970. Mr. Hunham teaches Ancient Civilizations at a residential boys school in New England. Yeah, a place where rich people send their young sons. These are boys who expect to go to an Ivy League school. If their grades are high enough. Curmudgeonly describes Hunham quite well. He is told he must supervise the boys who can’t go home during the two week Christmas break. The only other people on campus will be Mary, the chief cook and Danny, the janitor. Yeah, white people are addressed by their last names, black people by their first names. This adventure begins with five boys, three who are high school juniors or seniors and two who are freshmen. After a few days one of the fathers relents, taking his son and three other boys away in a helicopter for a ski trip. That leave the professor in charge of senior Angus Tully, one of the more irritating students. But if Tully is kicked out his next stop is a military school and from there service in Vietnam. The movie is essentially Hunham and Tully learning to see and appreciate each other as real people. Mary, who lost a son in Vietnam the year before, offers a tempering voice to Hunham’s worst instincts, saying he shouldn’t treat the boy that way. There is time spent on campus and a “field trip” to Boston where there is a discussion about the school’s honor code and when it is appropriate to not quite tell the truth. The movie got four Oscar nominations, including for Paul Giamatti, who played Hunham. It also got an Oscar win for best supporting actress for Da’Vine Joy Randolph, who played Mary. There were also many other wins and nominations at various other award events and film festivals. I enjoyed this one quite a bit. I much appreciated the ending. I finished the book Symphony of Secrets by Brendan Slocumb. A mystery novel about music? I’m there! The book begins, “Sixteen hours before his death, Frederic Delaney...” The mystery of why composer Frederic Delaney died lasts only a couple chapters. He latest work was savaged by the critics and he committed suicide. In the 1920s Delaney wrote five operas (so a symphony of secrets doesn’t fit) based on the five rings of the Olympic flag that was introduced in 1920. These five Ring operas rivaled the four Ring operas of Wagner, telling one large story covering the lands represented by each ring. Yellow, Green, Blue, and Black were produced to wide acclaim. Red was produced a dozen years later and its dismal reception led Delaney to kill himself. In the modern era the Delaney Foundation, run by the composer’s grandniece and -nephew, do a lot to bring music to disadvantaged children. One of them was Bern Hendricks, a black man. After getting a doctorate Bern was involved in research into those operas and into Delaney’s many songs. Bern loves Delaney’s music. So when a version of the Red opera is found, much better than the one staged and savaged in 1936, Bern is asked to create the definitive performance edition of this found score. The handwritten score, similar to the original handwritten scores to the songs, has many Delaney Doodles on the pages. Bern enlists the help of old friend Eboni, a black woman, who is a computer security expert. She has a strong distrust of white people, especially white people in power positions, such as the board of the Delaney Foundation. Her distrust is justified when the Foundation stonewalls requests to see the original score, not just scans of the pages. When they do see the originals they see “JoR” in the corner. They figure out this stands for Josephine Reed, a black woman. Who is she? What does she have to do with Delaney’s music? Where did she go and did she have any descendants? Eboni suggests Josephine had carried Fred’s child. What happened to the original score of Red? Why was the shoddy version created in 1936? Why is the good version appearing only now? All that by itself would be a pretty good mystery. The book then alternates between Delaney’s time and the present as we see the growing working relationship between Frederic and Josephine alternating with Bern and Eboni working to figure out the clues. Spoiler alert: That basic mystery is explained about a third of the way through the story – Fred worked as a song plugger for Tin Pan Alley and was a terrible composer. Josephine was what today we would call neurodivergent with synesthesia. She would soak up music at various clubs and created songs she wanted to hear – songs that Fred would write down and sell under his own name, though he did give her good food, clothing, housing, and generous spending money. He justified his theft by saying songs by a black woman would not sell. All those doodles were her way of notating the sounds and music around her to avoid being overwhelmed by them. The rest of the novel is how Bern and Eboni make sure a black woman gets the credit when faced with a white power structure that will put up a nasty fight to maintain the reputation of a white man on which their power depends. I enjoyed this one very much. The author says the story is about giving voice to those whose voices were suppressed, always a good thing. Don’t be put off by the musical underpinnings. Knowing music is not necessary to understand and enjoy the story. This is Banned Books Week, a time to talk about the books that were banned in the previous year and why they are being banned. The week is sponsored by the American Library Association and the Office for Intellectual Freedom. As has been the case for many years, all of the ten most banned books in 2023 are “claimed to be sexually explicit” and six of the ten are about LGBTQIA+ characters. Should we rejoice that only one book in the ten appears to be about race? Mark Kreidler, in an article for Capital & Main posted on Daily Kos wrote about a program that takes basic income payments to a new level. The program is LIFT. Their headquarters are in Washington DC and has programs in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. A basic income program gives poor people money every month for a set time, perhaps two years. The money has no constraints. It is enough to that the recipients can stop focusing on just money and can think about the next steps to get themselves out of poverty. LIFT is a bit different. It has had to narrow its clients to parents with young children. The money isn’t as much. It offers extensive counseling and mentoring. What are your goals? How do you intend to achieve them? For many people in poverty these aren’t things they haven’t been able to think much about, so answering them can take time. One big item of news this week is that Tupperware, the iconic plastic container company, filed for bankruptcy. I remember using Tupperware when I was a child and probably have a few Tupperware products in my cupboards. Their distribution network was Tupperware parties, in which the sales person described the various products in a relaxed setting. Scott Detrow of NPR talked to one of the top sellers of the 2010s, Oscar Quintero. He did his selling while in drag, as Kay Sedia. That allowed him to turn his demonstrations into a comedy routine with a few off-color jokes. And he made pretty good money, quite good for growing up in poverty. But it was hard to do a Tupperware party during the pandemic. Business hasn’t recovered. In the comments of a pundit roundup on Kos is a cartoon by Bramhall appropriate to this story. A mother comes home from work and her daughter asks, “What were Tupperware parties?” Mom replies, “Before they went bankrupt, Tupperware used housewives as a distribution system.” The daughter asks, “What were housewives?” A bit below that is a cartoon posted by Michael Thomas. The creator is not mentioned. A man sits at his desk with an open laptop and says:

Honey, come look! I’ve found some information all the world’s top scientists and doctors missed.

Politically beyond stupid

Mark Sumner of Daily Kos reported Christian nationalists tolerate the nasty guy, knowing he will do things for them. The one they love is JD Vance. They want him as VP so he’s ready to go when the nasty guy dies or we get to 2028. They love him so much he’s being called the “Christian Prince” of white nationalists in America. Everyone else thinks Vance is a jerk, the least liked of the major candidates. They – the TheoBros (theological brothers) – like Vance because he is speaking their language. They hang on his every word. Never mind he’s Catholic (and married to a Hindu) and they’re Protestant. They’re younger than the white haired evangelicals in charge of many conservative churches. Sumner also describes them as meaner. Some of the things they want: Repeal women’s right to vote (no rights of women’s bodily autonomy is already assumed), get rid of any hint of diversity (this is supposed to be a white man’s country!), and replace incarceration with public flogging or execution. They “view ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ as a handbook.”

The influence of this group is already being felt in the way Republicans have ramped up attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts and rolled “DEI” into their collection of condemned terms. It’s there in how many Republicans have been willing to defend the misogyny spewed against “childless cat ladies.” It’s there in the widespread embrace of the vile racism being spread about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio. It’s there in all the things that are making Trump less a leader of his party than a figurehead being swept along by the flood. Vance’s biggest supporters are men who see him as a potential prince. But there’s nothing charming about this story.

Sumner also reported that the nasty guy has said that if he loses he’s going to blame the Jews for his loss. He said this at Jewish events. They had better vote for him, he says, because he’s protecting Israel and without him in the Oval Office Israel will cease to exist in a couple years. Strange that the nasty guy is telling Christian audiences that soon they won’t have to vote anymore, but telling Jewish audiences they had better vote, and for him.

There has been a rising tide of antisemitism in the United States. But warning Jewish voters that they will be held responsible if Trump doesn’t win isn’t fighting antisemitism. It’s just spreading it.

In a pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin quoted a couple articles describing Mark Robinson, Republican candidate for governor of North Carolina, and how despicable he is. He’s a black man and calls himself a “black Nazi.” I mention him because a lot of news outlets are talking about him. And because he features in a meme in the comments of another roundup. The meme was posted by exlrrp and says:

The problem isn’t that Mark Robinson wasn’t vetted. The problem is that he was vetted and his bad, horrible stuff didn’t matter to Republican voters. Pretty much just like Trump. – Joe Walsh, former Republican

Cartoons also in the comments. One posted by Fiona Webster and created by Drew Sheneman shows a variety of animals.

A public service announcement from the nation’s pets: “If you believe immigrants are eating us, you’re in a cult. Get offline, seek therapy and apologize to all the family you’ve alienated.”

Another meme posted by exlrrp:

Trying to claim that America does not have a gun problem while standing behind a sheet of bullet proof glass is peak Republican.

And a cartoon by Nick Anderson showing a plane marked “GOP” dropping a series of large bombs at an anthill marked “Voter fraud.” Someone inside the nearby house says, “Honey, I think the exterminators are here.” I haven’t heard anything for several days about the House passing a bill to fund the federal government by the end of the month – nine days from now. Since Chuck Schumer of the Senate says he needs a week to get it through his chamber, Mike Johnson in the House has just a couple days to avoid a shutdown. And... no news. Sumner did report last Tuesday that Moscow Mitch said that forcing the government into shutdown just over a month before a high-stakes election is “politically beyond stupid.” Even worse, Johnson is blaming Schumer. Yeah, anyone who knows how Congress works – and anyone who will lose services in a shutdown – is unlikely to blame Schumer for Johnson’s failings. Wrote Sumner:

At the moment, Republicans seem to be trapped. Johnson doesn’t want to drop the [racist] SAVE Act because it would anger Trump. He can’t get Democratic votes because the bill is tied to a racist conspiracy theory. He can’t get all the members of his own party in part because some of them think this bill doesn’t go far enough as far as voter suppression. And because his own members voted the bill down, Johnson has exactly zero leverage over Democrats.

Reportedly, there is a Plan B. But no one has reported on its appearance in the House. Is Johnson one of those who want a shutdown? There’s a social media game of How it started. How it’s going. GeorgiaPeach posted one back in August. The first panel is from 2020 and I can’t make out the artist’s name. It shows the Oval Office in a mess – curtains torn, flags strewn about, dirt and golf clubs on the floor, a red tie and a red hat, and in the middle is Biden with a pail and mop. The second panel is a cartoon by Mike Luckovich showing Joe and a stack of results on a horse and riding off into the sunset.

They feel like they should control the world

Kos of Daily Kos reported the nasty guy was asked how he would lower food prices. He replied he would not allow so much food to be imported from other countries. First of all, supply and demand. I learned about this in high school. Restrict the supply and the price goes up, not down. Second, a lot of our fruits and vegetables would become seasonal rather than year-round – such as blueberries, avocados, and grapes. Over half of our fruits and vegetables are imported. Also, very little coffee is grown in the US. Same with chocolate. Say goodbye to bananas and a lot of ethnic foods. The nasty guy has also talked about mass deportations of immigrants. We can ask Florida what that’s like since DeathSantis has passed a strict anti-immigrant law. Farm workers fled. Crops don’t get picked so they rot in the fields.

If Trump wants to run on “you won’t be able to find bananas,” then all the power to him. If he wants to cancel Halloween, as very little chocolate is grown in the U.S., that’s weird, but okay. At the very least, the media should cover it, not ignore it.

I mentioned yesterday that there was a second assassination attempt on the nasty guy. If you’re still interested, a pair of Associated Press articles posted on Kos (here and here) have a lot of the details. James Tees posted a cartoon by Marlette showing to boys walking home from school.

White boy: Dude, my parents are outraged that gunmen have been able to keep targeting Trump! It’s all they’ve been talking about! Black boy: Interesting... Do they get that passionate about gunmen who keep targeting us in schools?”

Daria Solovieva, in an article for Capital & Main posted on Kos discussed Silicon Valley tech leaders, cryptocurrency entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists and who they support for president. Many support Harris and many refuse to support the nasty guy. However, there are a few who do support him. Those who do support him the reasons tend to want to continue his tax cuts for the wealthy and his promise of less regulation. As billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban said the tech elite have, “gotten to the point now where they feel like they should control the world.” This week Kos put out a series of articles on how Harris could win big, though polls currently show a tight race. I won’t bother with the first article, which was about the numbers – poll numbers and energized voter numbers. I’ll also skip the second article, which was about how Harris has a significant get out the vote effort and the nasty guy barely has one at all. The third article (which has links to the other two) is about the nasty guy’s deficiencies. He has a lack of focus – the first debate showed how old Biden is, the second showed how old the nasty guy is. He is lying to his supporters – he keeps flipping his position on Project 2025 and abortion and IVF. His supporters can no longer trust him to do what they want done. He is falling further into conspiracies. One bit of evidence is how much he has been hanging out with conspiracy spreader Laura Loomer, which is turning off other Republicans. These are a part of the signals that could turn into a strong win for Harris as well as downballot Democrats. But it will take work. Bill in Portland, Maine, in a Cheers and Jeers column for Kos quoted late night commentary. One of them:

“For 11 years, I had the tremendous privilege of playing the lead in a comedy series called Murphy Brown. I was surrounded by brilliant and funny actors, had the best scripts to work with and, in one classic moment, my character was attacked by Vice President Dan Quayle when Murphy became pregnant and decided to raise the baby as a single mother. Oh, how far we’ve come. Today a Republican candidate for vice president would never attack a woman for having kids. So as they say, my work here is done. Meow.” —Candice Bergen, at the Emmy Awards

In the comments of a pundit roundup from Tuesday Captain Frogbert riffed on the famous poem by Martin Niemöller. He says something I concluded a few years ago.

First they came for the poll workers Then they came for the opposing candidates Then they came for the civil service workers Then they came for the judges They WILL come for the journalists They WILL come for the Democrats The stupid reality is, they WILL ALSO come for the “insufficiently loyal” Trump voters They will also come for the tech bros (just as Putin did for the oligarchs and their money) They will also come for EVERYONE, eventually Because that’s what fascists ALWAYS DO. Fascists cannot exist without an existential enemy and, as they winnow down the initially most obvious enemies, they will always, ALWAYS, eventually, COME FOR YOU.

Real people in a real city become props in a lie

An Associated Press article from last Saturday posted on Daily Kos discussed the situation in Springfield, Ohio after the nasty guy claimed Haitian immigrants there were eating pets. A lot of cities have been reshaped by immigrants without attracting notice. But Springfield is now in the spotlight. In a city of about 60,000, the roughly 15,000 Haitian immigrants now make up a quarter of the town. Yes, there have been tensions about newcomers taking jobs (which weren’t being filled), driving up housing costs (though they filled many vacant houses), making traffic worse, and straining city services. Also, the presence of the new residents has led to the downtown being revitalized. Many Haitian residents are now living in fear. Some now consider leaving, which could lower the town’s newfound prosperity. Local officials continue to try to tamp down misinformation. Even Republican Gov. Mike DeWine is helping by offering more law enforcement. A second AP article on Tuesday featured a photo of DeWine in Springfield at a news conference to do his part to denounce the rumors of pet eating. He was also there because the Springfield City Hall, several schools, and the state motor vehicle offices in town were forced to evacuate after receiving bomb threats. So state police will sweep every school building every morning before staff and students arrive. The town canceled its CultureFest that was supposed to start next week. The reason was safety. This past Sunday, Sept. 15, Mitch Albom of the Detroit Free Press discussed the situation. Alas, the article is for subscribers only. He wrote about how fast a lie can travel. As part of his story he talked about the woman who started the rumor. Seeing how far her rumor spread, how it is being used, and how much pain it is causing, she now deeply regrets starting it. Vance is unrepentant and vowing to continue his lies. Mark Sumner of Kos reported that Vance appeared on CNN’s State of the Union with host Dana Bash. As part of that he said,

If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that's what I'm going to do.

I ask: Suffering of which American people? Right now the Haitian residents and the town of Springfield as a whole – his constituents because he is one of Ohio’s senators – are suffering. He appears to have no interest in them. Also, this is Vance admitting he’s lying, making stuff up to suit his political narrative, regardless of the pain he’s causing and how well his narrative matches reality (as in not at all). In Sumner’s words Vance said, “he wasn’t going to stop repeating his false narrative just because his words were putting people in danger.” To make the whole situation worse, the nasty guy is planning to visit Springfield “soon.” Mayor Rob Rue said it “could be difficult, a very difficult visit.” Don’t expect honesty. Sumner concluded:

Meanwhile, threats of violence in Springfield continue. That’s what happens when real people in a real city become props in a lie created specifically to stir up hate.

Oliver Willis of Kos wrote:

Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance knew that stories about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, stealing and eating domestic pets were untrue before he and his running mate Donald Trump repeatedly amplified the claims, new reporting from The Wall Street Journal has revealed. Springfield City Manager Bryan Heck told the Journal that a staffer for the Ohio senator reached out to him on Sept. 9 and asked if there was any truth to the stories. “I told him no,” Heck said. “There was no verifiable evidence or reports to show this was true. I told them these claims were baseless.” Despite this, Vance did not delete or correct a social media post from that same day...

Kaili Joy Gray of Kos wrote:

Ohio Sen. JD Vance doesn’t care that his racist lies about Haitian immigrants are endangering his own constituents—he’s going to keep telling them anyway. That was his message to supporters at a rally in North Carolina on Wednesday when he complained about the media describing the Haitian immigrants in Springfield as legal—which they are.

Part of his logic of branding the Haitians as illegal is that Harris waved a wand to make them legal and that wand is illegal. But Harris isn’t president and could not have waved any wand. Also, that “wand” is legal. It is a part of immigration law known as temporary protected status in which a person won’t be sent home because their home country is in turmoil and thus dangerous. Yesterday Juana Summers of NPR spoke to Garry Pierre-Pierre, founder of the Haitian Times about what Haitians are dealing with in Springfield. Yes, there were tensions in town before the lies began. Some of that was because the most recent immigrants did not understand how to function in America. He and his crew were to hold a town hall meeting with residents and had to cancel because security could not be guaranteed because the town is so tense. There were death threats and bomb threats. Pierre-Pierre described the Haitians:

Well, life for the Haitians in Springfield is that of a newly arrived immigrant. They are building their community. They have stores, you have restaurants, sending their kids to school. They're struggling economically, but they're doing much better if they were in Haiti. And so that's essentially Springfield. That is also Indianapolis, where I now live. That's Columbus, Ohio, with a large community, parts of Alabama - just all across the Midwest and the Deep South, that's what Springfield, Ohio, is.

On Tuesday Sumner posted, in response to a second assassination attempt on the nasty guy, but also about Springfield:

In a social media post on Monday, Trump made it clear that while he wants everyone else to shut up, he intends to only ramp up his own vitriol. In that statement, Trump blamed “the Rhetoric, Lies, as exemplified by the false statements made by Comrade Kamala Harris during the rigged and highly partisan ABC Debate,” along with the court cases he is facing, for taking the country to “a whole new level of Hatred, Abuse, and Distrust.” “Because of this Communist Left Rhetoric, the bullets are flying, and it will only get worse!” he added. If this seems like the ultimate exercise in hypocrisy, it is. If it seems like an effort to muffle his opponents while he ramps up attacks … yes.

Morgan Stephens of Kos listed seven times the nasty guy’s rhetoric supported or led to political violence. The most recent one is his repeated lying about Springfield. He also mocked the attack on Paul Pelosi. He encouraged the Capitol attack. He villainizes Mexicans. He declared there were “very fine people, on both sides” of the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville. He has called for violence against counterprotesters at his rallies. Back in 1989 he called for the death penalty for the Central Park Five. Not surprisingly political violence is on the rise. In a pundit roundup for Kos Chitown Kev quoted a couple good articles. The first quote is by Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo, discussing the opinion that since the Springfield story is about immigration it will help the nasty guy. Marshall disagrees this story is helping.

More specifically, is this really about the border and immigration? Sort of. But the story we’re seeing is more one of a small community being terrorized by a campaign that looks desperate and in which the Republican town and county leaders have been begging the Trump campaign to stop and now saying that they’re not even sure they’re going to vote for Trump because they’re so mad about the situation. I think there’s at least as much argument that the story people are seeing is about the chaos and destructiveness of Trump, which most people don’t like.

The second quote is from Adam Serwer of The Atlantic:

The reward that the Haitian community in Springfield has received for doing exactly what Republicans demand of legal immigrants—work, provide for themselves, contribute to their community—is a campaign of slander and intimidation. Contrary to Vance’s insistence that he is creating “stories” about a community to alleviate the suffering of Ohioans, what the Trump campaign is actually doing is invoking that suffering as license to justify violence and harm. This is the most employed rhetorical device of the Trump campaign: point to someone’s suffering and then offer as a solution the application of state violence against a disfavored group, using Americans’ problems as a pretext to harm people they have chosen to hate.

Down in the comments Denise Oliver Velez posted a four minute video by Jason Kravits with many helpers that uses animation and song to explain Project 2025. And does a pretty good job of it. Further down in the comments Hugh Jim Bissell posted something he found (author not named) related to the second assassination attempt.

I don’t think the Secret Service is up for the task at hand. It’s time to switch over to thoughts and prayers. And just in case, I think we should also post a copy of the Ten Commandments at all the golf courses and rally events.

It’s simple. They love each other.

My Sunday movie was Join or Die. To see it I had to go to a theater and watch with other people. Cinema Detroit is one of two remaining art-house movie organizations in Metro Detroit. The other is Detroit Film Theater, which is quite healthy and celebrating 50 years. It is also attached to the Detroit Institute of Arts. The area has lost two art-house theaters, the Main in Royal Oak (now demolished) and the Maple in West Bloomfield. Even Cinema Detroit has given up its permanent home. It now sponsors movies about twice a month at Planet Ant in Hamtramck. Planet Ant has a variety of other types of programs, including improv theater and standup comedy. I hadn’t been there before and I’ve rarely visited Hamtramck, so this was a bit of an adventure. The hall had seats for perhaps 100 people. I think about 30 people watched the movie. Join or Die is a documentary about the need for citizens to join clubs. It is based on ideas that Robert Putnam has developed over the last fifty years. In the 1970s Italy decentralized its government, less power in Rome and more in the states. This became an ideal time for Putnam and other researchers to study why some state governments did well and others did not. They studied a lot of parameters, including wealth and education. They found the parameter that correlated best was civic engagement. This wasn’t just civic engagement in government, just civic engagement in general. The idea is much older and others have called it social capital. One of those others is Jane Jacobs, a name my friend and debate partner knows – he lent me her book The Death and Life of Great American Cities (I wrote about the book here and a documentary about her here). She studied the street scene in American cities and showed the best neighborhoods were the ones that fostered interconnectedness between people. The social capital was what was lost when a neighborhood was destroyed for “urban renewal.” Social capital essentially means we do better when we join a club. Of any kind. Even religious clubs are good – churches provided about half of our civic engagement. Though all are good try to join a club with membership that has a wide variety of people. Unions are good. So are Parent Teacher Associations. We do better personally – those who join a club are about 50% more likely to live longer (I don’t remember the exact nature of this statistic). Being in a club is also a great benefit to the community and the nation, even for the quality of democracy. Back in the US Putnam turned his analysis skills to his homeland. In 1995 he wrote an article he titled Bowling Alone. People were bowling just as much, maybe more, than they were in the 1950s and 60s. But there was a lot less bowling in leagues. That caught the attention of President Bill Clinton, who invited Putnam to do a few presentations. Other people dismissed his conclusion, saying he didn’t look in the right places. So over the next five years he looked in every place he could. All of the studies he found showed the same decline in civic participation. He put all of that into this book Bowling Alone that came out in 2000. An important question Putnam needed to answer in the book is: Why? Why has there been such a dropoff in all aspects of public participation? He uncovered three broad areas that contribute to less public life. The first is television and its successor social media. The second, related to the first, is how hard people have to work to get by and how they don’t want to go to some club in the evening. They would much rather plop in front of the screen. The hard work is related to growing inequality. Which leads us to the third part. There are forces in America that don’t want us in clubs whose existence supports democracy. They promote rugged individuality so that we say we are not joiners. Putnam has been speaking out to get people to join clubs for nearly thirty years. He’s been helped by Pete Buttigieg and Hillary Clinton (both appear in the film). Yet the trend remains downward and the pandemic made things worse by closing a lot of clubs. It’s enough to make a guy lose hope. Putnam went digging again through a lot of different archives. The charts in his book all showed descending lines from 1960. What about before then? Ah. From the late 1800s – America’s Gilded Age when corporate barons reigned supreme – to about 1960, participation in clubs climbed by quite a bit. We’ve done it before. We can do it again. And there are signs that we are doing it again. The movie highlighted several. That does not mean the 1950s were an ideal time, that we should go back to what our society was like then, that we should be sending women back to the kitchen. But to keep our fragile democracy and to move forward people need to form and join clubs. Some of the ideas for clubs may not last. And some will. I read a couple reviews of this movie (IMDb has links). They point to a question not covered in the movie. All groups are beneficial? Even hate groups? Or groups with discriminatory membership rules? I finished the book The Reason You Walk by Wab Kinew. The author is Anishinaabe and grew up in northwest Ontario, north of Minnesota. I bought the book while at the Stratford Festival in Stratford, Ontario. The Indigenous shop featured this book and a few more in addition to the Indigenous tourist art and fine art. If the other books I bought there are any good I’ll discuss them eventually. The story centers around Kinew’s father, Tobasonakwut, frequently referred to in the book as Ndede, which is Ojibwe for daddy. The story begins with the birth of Tobasonakwut in the 1940s, then his time in the residential schools that have been in the Canadian news quite a bit over the last decade due to the graves of children found on many school sites. The purpose of these schools was to “kill the Indian in the child” and replace it with white culture. The one Tobasonakwut was taken to was run by the Catholic Church, as were many of the schools. That means Tobasonakwut was raised by people who did not love him, who frequently abused him. He grew up to be a strong and angry young man. That anger affected the family – Tobasonakwut didn’t know how to love and treated people the way he had been treated. For a while he wrecked relationships and lives. Because of that Kinew also grew up angry and also damaged relationships. Tobasonakwut and Kinew immersed themselves in Anishinaabe culture, the sundances and powwows. And they began to heal. Also during this time various Indigenous movements developed and Tobasonakwut and Kinew were a part of them. The Canadian government officially apologized for the residential schools. The government set up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Tobasonakwut gave his testimony in Ojibwe. Kinew was offered a job with the Canadian Broadcast Corporation and was instrumental in creating documentaries about the schools and Indigenous life. He became known across the country. Tobasonakwut also worked to reconcile with the Catholic Church. He was met halfway (the church didn’t quite give up its superior attitude), enough that Tobasonakwut and a willing Archbishop of Winnepeg conducted an Anishinaabe ceremony declaring they were brothers. They achieved much in advancing acceptance of Indigenous people. There is still a long way to go. The Ndede got cancer. Kinew took a leave of absence from the CBC to learn as much about Anishinaabe culture from his father as he could in the time remaining. Through that he learned what a remarkable man his father was. Ndede had learned how to forgive. As for the title:

Ndede had explained that there are four layers of meaning to these words. They are from the perspective of the creator, as though God himself were singing to you. The first meaning of “I am the reason you walk” is “I have created you and therefore you walk.” The second meaning is “I am your motivation.” The third meaning is “I am the spark inside you called love, which animates you and allows you to live by the Anishinaabe values of kiizhewaatiziwin.” The fourth and final meaning is “I am the destination at the end of your life that you are walking toward.”

It’s a beautiful and amazing story. I highly recommend it. A few years ago this book was a part of Canada Reads, a program that tries to get the whole nation to read and discuss the same book. From that height we descend to the depths. Yesterday, Mark Sumner of Daily Kos reported that Speaker Johnson has two weeks to fund the government to avoid a shutdown. Chuck Schumer in the Senate says he needs a week to get any bill through his chamber. So Johnson really has only a week. Last week Johnson pulled a funding bill because he couldn’t get enough Republicans to vote for it. This week he brought the same bill back. It includes a racist provision that demands proof of citizenship before being allowed to register to vote. Democrats in the House won’t vote for it. Democrats in the Senate will remove it, which will require time to reconcile with the House. But Johnson can’t get enough Republicans to approve the bill with the racist language and can’t get approval without it. Of course, the nasty guy is in the background demanding the racist language be included. Johnson could take it out and let Democrats bail him out. Again. And again weaken his standing in his caucus. And on Monday Sumner reported that the nasty guy can’t admit he lost his debate with Harris. So Republicans, eager to please him, are calling for an investigation into the debate. They even say they have a whistleblower, though can’t decide whether he is dead or alive (though likely never existed). They want to investigate important issues – at least as important as those around the Biden impeachment scandals that never produced evidence. They claim ABC, who ran the event, had given Harris the questions ahead of time (no, she simply prepared well). They claim Harris wore a wire in her earrings. They claim ABC was biased towards Harris because they didn’t fact-check her while they did him. Thus ABC should lose its license.

Trump’s real problem is that he’s a loser who never wants to admit he lost. That was true in 2020, and it’s still true today. To cover up his losing, Trump employs a three-part plan: insist in advance that his opponents will cheat, claim to have won no matter how badly he lost, and then spread conspiracy theories about why he lost.

And out of the depths. In a pundit roundup for Kos Chitown Kev had a couple good quotes. The first is from Christopher Kane of the Washington Blade who did the “first-ever interview by a LGBTQ newspaper with a sitting President of the United States.”

Through to today, Biden said, “most of the openly gay people that have worked with me, that I’ve worked with, the one advantage they have is they tend to have more courage than most people have.” “No, I’m serious,” he added, “I think you guys underestimate that.” The president has spoken publicly about his deep respect and admiration for LGBTQ people, including the trans community, and trans youth, whom he has repeatedly said are some of the bravest people he knows. A record-breaking number of LGBTQ officials are serving in appointed positions throughout the Biden-Harris administration. Among them are Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, the first openly gay Senate-confirmed Cabinet member; Rachel Levine, the highest-ranking transgender appointee in history, who serves as assistant secretary for health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; the first out White House communications director and press secretary, Ben LaBolt and Karine Jean-Pierre; and 11 federal judges (the same number of LGBTQ judicial nominees who were confirmed during the Obama-Biden administration’s two terms).

I had to go read the whole Washington Blade article. It’s a great one. Mostly, it is about Biden discussing the importance of the many LGBTQ initiatives he accomplished during his term, and a few that didn’t get done. This is a good quote:

“My dad used to say that everyone’s entitled to be treated with dignity,” the president said, recalling a story he has shared before about a time when, as a teenager, he was surprised by the sight of two men kissing in downtown Wilmington, Del., and his father responded, “Joey, it’s simple. They love each other.”

Back to the roundup. Kev quoted Paul Krugman of the New York Times writing about small cities, like Springfield, Ohio.

I’ve written before about the problem of regions left behind by the 21st-century economy, a problem that is common to many wealthy nations. Decline in parts of the former East Germany has fed right-wing extremism in ways that resemble the rise of Trumpism in some depressed parts of our country. There are, however, some small cities that have managed to buck the trend; and in quite a few cases immigrants have been central to their revival. Springfield, with its community of (legal!) Haitian migrants is one example. Other examples include my hometown, Utica, N.Y., buoyed by refugees from Bosnia and Myanmar; Springdale, Ark., which has attracted people from various places including the Marshall Islands; and many others. [...] Why do immigrants move to some small cities? Partly in response to housing costs that were, at least until recently, relatively low (as they tend to be in declining cities). In some instances, they also move to take advantage of jobs that some native-born Americans, for whatever reasons, are reluctant to do. In Springdale, the home of Tyson Foods, these are often jobs in poultry plants. In Springfield, which, The Times reported, has seen “a boom in manufacturing and warehouse jobs,” employers suggest that some young native-born adults shun “entry-level, rote work.”

In the comments are several good cartoons. One is about the woman who started the rumor of Haitians in Springfield eating pets and now admits it is false and regrets the story that grew up around it and the trouble it created. Garthtoons show a man and woman talking:

Man: Wait. So you’re saying I don’t need to proclaim my stance on breaking news within moments of it happening and can wait to get all the facts before proselytizing on social media? Woman: I know, it’s a radical idea.

ayiti libre! Posted a cartoon by Mackay showing a Haitian family dressed in Ukrainian outfits trying to file an asylum claim. Attached to that tweet is one by nawè who wants us to notice who gets labeled “immigrants” and who gets labeled “refugees.” Deborah Kleinhomer posted a cartoon by Joel Pett with the caption, “Diabolical undocumented-immigrant voting schemes.” A man says to his wife, who is holding an infant, “Let’s abandon our families, blow all our money, risk our lives, sneak into the U.S., then commit a crime that will get us sent back!” A cartoon posted by Trumpton contrasts statements by the nasty guy:

"I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK?" Trump 2016 "(Biden and Harris’s) rhetoric is causing me to be shot at, when I am the one who is going to save the country" Trump 2024

And a cartoon by Peter Steiner of a boy talking to his teacher. “The dog ate my book report, and an immigrant ate the dog. But I have a concept for a book report.” Way down in the comments exlrrp posted a photo showing two pickup trucks, one sleek, the other quite beefy. The caption says, “The same make, model, and color. Thirty years apart.”

What if a foreign adversary baits him?

In a pundit roundup on Daily Kos Greg Dworkin included a quote from Greg Sargent of The New Republic:

In a shocking new development—OK, it was entirely predictable—the mayor of Springfield, Ohio has now confirmed that the widely reported threat by email to bomb Springfield’s City Hall included hateful language toward immigrants. This suggests at least the possibility that MAGA’s Two-Minute Hate of the Week about Haitians eating people’s house pets helped incite a threat of mass violence.

Dworkin also included a video of Pete Buttigieg speaking on CNN (his host wasn’t named in this clip). He said the nasty guy wanting us talking about people eating pets is a strategic move. Better we talk about something outrageous that sucks up all the oxygen and sends reporters scurrying to debunk it than to talk about his record: Tax cuts for the rich, jobs lost, limiting abortion. Or about his agenda, Project 2025. Also from Sargent is a discussion of the nasty guy’s many authoritarian statements.

Yet as horrifying as all that is, another, less-garish scenario also potentially looms—and in some respects it might be a more plausible one. A second Trump presidency could unleash a kind of lower-profile, slow-burn authoritarianism, something that unfolds much more quietly and largely behind the scenes. In its targeting of internal enemies and its efforts to carry out revolutionary changes via far-right governance, it could end up being much less dramatic, visible, or splashy—but at the same time, extremely insidious, difficult to track, and very challenging to mobilize against.

In a second pundit roundup Dworkin quoted Philip Bump of the Washington Post:

This is a central reason that Vance and others on the right are susceptible to being described as “weird.” There’s an online world in which things get taken to the nth-degree because its economy rewards that sort of hyperbole. But then these obsessions and claims are taken out of that bubble and presented to everyone else and they don’t hold up. What else can you do but marvel at how strange it all is?

Ruben Bolling posted a Tom the Dancing Bug cartoon on Kos. It tells the story of an Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile hitting a school. The story features a nine year old perpetrator, solemn facial expressions from Republicans, a resident with his own collection of ICBMs, an ICBM enthusiast who insists the weapons are protected from children, and Justice Clarence Thomas using an Ouija Board to contact Thomas Jefferson to pronounce ICBMs are covered by the Second Amendment. Mike Luckovich posted a cartoon on Kos with this caption:

There was an old woman who lived in a shoe. She had so many children, because JD Vance told her what to do.

Louis DeStroy is still in charge of the United States Postal Service (why is he still there?) and there is again concern that ballots sent through the mail won’t arrive in time to be counted. From an Associated Press article posted on Kos about a letter listing concerns about continuing problems at USPS.

The two groups, the National Association of Secretaries of State and the National Association of State Election Directors, said local election officials “in nearly every state” are receiving timely postmarked ballots after Election Day and outside the three to five business days USPS claims as the standard for first-class mail. The letter comes less than two weeks after DeJoy said in an interview that the Postal Service was ready to handle a flood of mail ballots expected as part of this November's presidential election and as former President Donald Trump continues to sow doubts about U.S. elections by falsely claiming he won in 2020.

So use drop boxes for your ballot. Mark Sumner of Kos reported that the nasty guy and his surrogates have been linking the attempt to assassinate him to Democrats, that it was an “inside job.” That claim is based on Biden’s campaign emphasis that the nasty guy is authoritarian who must be stopped and that rhetoric lead to the shooting. Missing from that claim is the decades in which Republicans have been promoting gun culture and doing nothing about mass shootings in schools and elsewhere. This logic can easily “be seen as justification for taking similar measures in response.” It is a part of laying the groundwork for Big Lie 2.0.

But if the polls run away from Trump following his miserable debate performance, he may not wait until Jan. 6. Trump has already been insisting that the election system is corrupt. It would not be hard for him to move to insisting to his supporters that they need to take action before ballots are cast. ... Trump’s lies are likely to grow along with his desperation. And so will the threat those lies represent.

Sumner also reported that the Secret Service and allied organizations are gearing up for heightened security around the Capitol on January 6, 2025 when the Electoral College votes are counted. This is partly in response to the nasty guy planning how to get his supporters angry enough to coup again. But funds for proper protection of the Capitol are still caught up in a government funding bill that is supposed to be passed by the end of the month but House Republicans are making sure is going nowhere. People are working through plans for a wide array of horrible post-election scenarios. Other people are preparing to defeat those pans and create those horrible scenarios. Yet Republicans may simply leave the doors unlocked. Kos of Kos discussed the nasty guy’s debate performance and why it should disqualify him to be back in the Oval Office (one more big reason to add to all the other big reasons). His debate prep advisors knew Harris would bait him. Yet, he fell for the bait every time. He could not help himself. What if a foreign adversary baits him?

Does America really need a president with zero impulse control? When his advisers actually offer sage (and obvious) advice, and he knows it’s good advice, he still can’t help doing the wrong thing. ... [Axios’ Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen] then speculate as to why Trump couldn’t manage the relatively simple task of just staying on message: He’s “haunted” by his 2020 loss and being labeled a loser; he falls for fake news like the racist lie that Haitian immigrants are eating pets in Ohio; he’s old and won’t change his habits; and he surrounds himself with conspiracy theorists like Laura Loomer who are happy to lie to him. That sums up the case against Trump’s reelection very neatly. Age alone is not disqualifying. The other three factors are, and it’s a blight on our country that he still has a chance to win this thing.

Rain in the Sahara

A week ago FishOutofWater of the Daily Kos community and of Climate Change SOS wrote that quite a bit of rain has been falling in the Sahara Desert. Yes, it is one of the driest places on earth. It has been a desert for about five millennia. Some places there get rain perhaps once a decade.

In normal years the subtropical high pressure area, a heat dome, sits relentlessly over the Sahara. The sands are so reflective, the air so dry and the ground is so hot that heat is actually lost to space over the Sahara under normal conditions. ... But this summer something is different. The waters of the north Atlantic are relatively hot while the waters of the south Atlantic are relatively cool. And the waters of the Indian ocean on the east coast of Africa are very warm. And the Mediterranean sea is hot. The high heat content of the north Atlantic and the Mediterranean sea has affected the atmospheric circulation patterns bringing exceptional heat to far northern Europe and allowing the heat dome over western north Africa to break down, bringing monsoon moisture north into the Sahara desert.

The good news is this has disrupted the formation of hurricanes. There have been a lot fewer this year. The bad news is a more humid Sahara means more water vapor in the atmosphere and that is a strong greenhouse gas. On Sunday Mark Sumner of Kos discussed the nasty guy’s claim that schools are performing gender reassignment surgeries on students without parental permission. Instead of simply ignoring such a bizarre claim, CNN decided to fact-check it. First, there is no evidence of this happening. No one has reported an instance of it. Second, school nurses are barely willing to hand out an aspirin without parental permission.

And when CNN asked Trump’s campaign for examples of the “transgender thing” their candidate was pushing, the outlet didn’t receive any. Instead, a Trump spokesperson insisted that she had personally talked to parents who were upset after learning that their children were “being called entirely different names” at school. Somehow, that doesn’t seem like the same thing.

We’re not surprised to learn the nasty guy lied. Alas, some conservative groups are delighted with the lie, such as Tiffany Justice, co-founder of Moms for Liberty. She doesn’t care if it is true. She cares whether audiences will be outraged by it. Which is why the nasty guy will keep repeating it. JP tweeted:

As a conservative voting for Harris, someone asked what policies of hers I actually liked. I like the one where she didn’t call to terminate the constitution to overturn an election her own legal team repeatedly told her she’d lost. Mainly that one. When choosing between someone I disagree with on policy and someone that tried to overturn an election to unlawfully stay in power like some 3rd world dictator, it’s an easy choice.

A week ago Sumner pondered if everyone hates JD Vance why is the nasty guy campaign thrilled with him? His weird comment are frequent and repeated and he will be out campaigning to say them a lot more. The Bulwark said Vance is still there because he’s an asset in turning out the base, not win over liberals or even persuade moderates. But there are problems with that. This election isn’t so much about turning out the base, but in reaching out to the middle. And the nasty guy is terrible at reaching out to the middle – see his many flip-flops on abortion rights. At the start of this week Sumner reported the nasty guy claimed that 20% of mail-in votes in Pennsylvania are fraudulent. But how can he claim they are fraudulent if they haven’t been sent out yet?

Trump’s claim about Pennsylvania doesn’t represent concern over votes in the state. Just as in 2016 and 2020, Trump is lying about voter fraud or a “rigged election” far in advance of Election Day. He’s preparing to lose and prepping his followers to repeat the kind of actions seen in 2020 to perpetuate the Big Lie.

In a pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin included a couple good quotes. First, from Peter Hamby of Puck talking about how hard it is to reach a large number of voters:

That much-hyped Harris interview on CNN with Dana Bash? More than a third of swing state voters (34 percent) didn’t know it happened. More than half of voters (53 percent) haven’t seen or heard any of Trump’s many podcast interviews this year. Almost half of battleground state voters (43 percent) said they’ve never seen or heard a Harris meme on social media. As I wrote a few weeks back, TikTok gets a lot of press coverage. But TikTok, like Twitter, Is Not Real Life.

Second, a tweet from Tim Alberta discussing the debate:

One way to look at it: ABC moderators fact-checked Trump 2-3 times and Harris zero times Another way to look at it: ABC moderators fact-checked Trump 2-3 times instead of 500 times

In the comments exlrrp posted two memes with the same image of Putin and Kim of North Korea with a bottle of alcohol as seen through a hotel room door peep hole. One says, “Open up it’s your homies... heard you had a bad night.” The other says, “Hey asshole... why you let a girl beat you up?” That debate was split-screen. Both candidates were visible the whole time. And Harris did a fine job of using facial expressions to respond to the absurdities spouted by the nasty guy. She didn’t need to say a thing. WTFGOP posted a chart to decode her expressions. And a ways down in the comments is a cartoon from The New Yorker Humor. It shows a man in a highly decorated uniform saying to a psychiatrist, “It’s like Trump is deliberately praising every brutal dictator except me.” Bill in Portland, Maine, in his Cheers and Jeers column for Kos, quoted late night commentary. Here’s one of them.

"Kamala Harris came in needing to rattle Trump's cage, and now that it's over they're still looking for pieces of his cage in low orbit. Harris got under his skin like she was stuffing in butter and rosemary. It was beautiful—by the end of the debate the meat was falling off the bone. … Trump was so nonsensical that she looked at him the way a parent looks at a kid giving a presentation of why they should be allowed to get a pet tiger." —Stephen Colbert

She pressed every one of his oh-so-sensitive buttons

I said I would write about Tuesday’s debate between Harris and the nasty guy only if I read something interesting about it. And I did. First some tidbits from the debate. Walter Einenkel of Daily Kos posted the segment in which Harris talks about how much the nasty guy admires dictators. They can manipulate him with flattery. So military leaders say he’s a disgrace. We need a president good at national security and understands respecting the military. Einenkel posted about the nasty guy willing to let Putin take over Ukraine with his eyes on Poland. Harris said:

And why don't you tell the 800,000 Polish Americans right here in Pennsylvania how quickly you would give up for the sake of favor, and what you think is a friendship, with what is known to be a dictator who would eat you for lunch?

Kos of Kos gave his (definitely progressive) opinion on how the debate went.

Vice President Kamala Harris began the debate Tuesday night with a power move—walking right up to a befuddled Donald Trump and shaking his hand. It signaled who was the boss, and she took command of the debate from the start. For 90 minutes, Trump was forced to respond to Harris’ attacks while she ignored his. In question after question, Harris took hard, focused, and effective swipes at an increasingly agitated Trump. Increasingly rattled, Trump’s voice sped up, louder and louder until he was yelling into his microphone, sounding hysterical, repeating lies like “after birth abortions”—provoking a rare fact-check from the moderators. In fact, more than one.

Harris came out ahead even after the ABC moderators fudged on the time and allowed the nasty guy speak for an extra nine minutes. All that did was allow him to hang himself with his rambles. Kos also discussed that afterward the nasty guy reveled in polls showing he won. These are polls from far right organizations that have zero scientific validity, which progressives will ignore. Kos discussed the nasty guy’s obvious lack of debate prep. He didn’t take it seriously, because “he has benefitted from a lifetime of success without having to really work for any of it.” And “The world has consistently rewarded his laziness and lack of preparation.” Mark Sumner of Kos wrote that the nasty guy had memorable lines (see below), but there was another part of what he said that is more important. During the debate he was asked about his desire to repeal and replace Obamacare. He admitted he has no plan and never did. What he has are “concepts of a plan.” This is important because back when running for president in 2015 the nasty guy made repeal and replace the core of his campaign. He wanted repeal because he hated Obama, who got the thing passed. Republicans also wanted repeal (thanks to Sen. John McCain for thwarting them). But he only and perpetually promised the replace part. Which meant he was and still is, “willing to rip away the health care of 50 million Americans with no replacement to offer—a level of vindictive recklessness that's hard to imagine.” Sumner discussed the shift in mood among progressives after the debate. As part of that he explained:

In Tuesday night’s debate, Harris might as well have been holding a technical diagram showing the precise location of every one of Trump’s oh-so-sensitive buttons. And she pressed them all. Gleefully. Or, as The New Yorker put it, “Kamala Harris, veteran prosecutor, proved beyond a reasonable doubt on Tuesday night that her opponent will always take the bait.” ... How Harris was baiting Trump into one unforced error after another became obvious early on. No matter what the topic, Harris made sure to insert one shiny little nugget certain to ramp up Trump’s ire: Crowd sizes. People leaving his rallies because his speeches were boring. His felony convictions. And every single time, Trump jumped on the bait, losing his chance to respond to Harris’ policy statements, and becoming angrier and angrier as he realized that his golden opportunity was slipping away.

The lines that got repeated the most by the media were the ones about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio eating pets. For the record it is disgusting, false, and easily debunked. Springfield is “ecstatic” immigrants are coming to their town that was shrinking. They’re filling jobs and living in houses that had been empty. Sumner reported that lie came from JD Vance. The nasty guy was just repeating it. So after the debate Vance was asked about it. And he didn’t back down. Which means this is now Republican dogma.

The embrace of this overtly, deliberately racist, and utterly disgusting claim is the ultimate outcome of where Republicans have been going for years. Decades, even. It’s a mishmash of Trump’s xenophobic racism against Mexicans, the white supremacy at the heart of the Republican Party, and the vilest Nazi-inspired blood libel. Now they own it. And have to defend it. No dogs may actually have been harmed in Springfield, but Republicans have definitely thrown away their dog whistles. And taken off their sheets.

The nasty guy’s claim, of course, spawned dozens of memes and cartoons. Several were collected in the comments of a pundit roundup for Kos. “Out of an abundance of caution, the national touring company of CATS has canceled upcoming Springfield dates.” An image of Harris looking at the nasty guy has the caption, “The face you make when you realize it’s time to take away grandpa’s car keys.” The Wieners Circle restaurant in Chicago has been putting snarky messages on its sign. The current one says, “Immigrants eat our dogs.” A cartoon by Matt Davies shows Vance and the nasty guy behind a cauldron of something green and bubbling. The nasty guy offers Uncle Sam a ladle, asking, “Haitian dog-whistle stew?” A yellow flag showing a kitten and the words, “Don’t snack on me.”

Sanewashing

I had a movie picked out for my Sunday viewing. But Fandango/Vudu didn’t like my password. I reset the password and it rejected what I had just successfully reset it to. And then I learned again resolving something through chat can take a really long time. Though in this case it wasn’t resolved. So to Netflix. I watched Hanna Gadsby’s Gender Agenda. This is a filmed stage show at a location in London. Gadsby was both comedian and host for the show with seven other gender queer standup comics. I hadn’t heard of any of them. Gadsby doesn’t like the term “nonbinary” and would rather be known as a gender surprise. Many men are uptight about protecting women’s sports. They’re afraid that a man would dress as a woman to have access to the perks of women’s sports. What are those perks? Jes Tom transitioned from female to male and also from lesbian to gay. That provided for lots of jokes about gay men contrasting with lesbian women. Chloe Petts is a masculine lesbian, which frequently gives her access to male privilege. She was very good. Asha Ward, is a lesbian. She focused more on drug use than on being lesbian. The audience loved her. I didn’t. Deanne Smith had top surgery and went no further. But they aren’t really nonbinary. Also good. Dahlia Belle is a transgender woman. She was very funny though her jokes were quite blue. Krishna Istha is a transgender man and nonbinary. And good. Alok, is transgender. They talked about how airline baggage weight limits are so unfair to transgender people needing to look fabulous. Overall, seven out of eight is pretty good odds. And with those seven I laughed a lot. This is a good one. I finished the book You Sexy Thing by Cat Rambo. This is a science fiction story and the title is the name of a bioship, a spaceship that is grown, not built, and has a brain. How it got that name is not provided, though perhaps it is a whim of the rich person who owned it. Niko used to be a captain in the Holy Hive Mind in which an implanted chip allows her to communicate with her mixed species team telepathically. She got them all out of the Mind and the chip was turned off. They’re still her loyal crew and are very much a family. At the start of the story they’re running a high quality restaurant in a big space station. They need to evacuate and end up on the bioship with a few others, though the destination is not under their control. While in transit Dabry, the head chef teaches the ship how to cook, not just use the replicator. For the most part the story is fun and enjoyable. The part that isn’t is because of the cruelty of the leader of their forced destination. Early on I got the sense that, like many American stories, the ending will be pleasant one. The protagonists will thrive after the major conflict. The better the thriving the better we like the story. We Americans are annoyed when a story does not turn out that way and Hollywood has taken note. I’ve heard many times, and have said myself, that a story was great, but I hated the ending. Niece even says it about Romeo and Juliet. One example of a hated ending is The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason, which I read shortly after it came out in 2003. Another Bel Canto by Ann Patchett. Both had such a beautiful story I didn’t want them to end the way they did. Especially with Patchett’s book I wanted her to to come up with a different solution to the problem that was the core of the story. I was a bit surprised with the book Cloudstreet by Tim Winton. I had picked it up during one of my trips to Australia. It didn’t have the expected happy ending. And that got me wondering whether that expectation is an American thing. I also finished the book Our Colors, a graphic novel, by Gengoroh Tagame. I had read and enjoyed both volumes of Tagame’s My Brother’s Husband, so I wanted to read this one too. As was the previous books this one is set on Japan. It focuses on Sora, a sixteen year old boy who knows he is gay and knows he can’t ever tell anyone. Homophobia is stronger in Japan. There is also Nao, a girl his same age who has been his friend since elementary school. Sora is friends with another boy and secretly in love with him, but is afraid that proclaiming his love will disgust the other boy and he’ll lose a friend. Sora also watches the other boys talk of pursuing girls and watches couples hold hands and wishes he could do the same. A bit before summer break Sora encounters Mr. Amamiya and his cafe. The cafe is strange in that it seems to have very few customers, sometimes just Sora and Nao. Mr. Amamiya is gay and has regrets. He vows he will no longer live a closeted life. Through long discussions with the older man Sora begins to understand that being gay does not have to lead to a lonely life in the closet. I enjoyed this one, as I did Tagame’s other books. The story and the artwork are well done. Alas, because it is a graphic novel, it takes only a few days to read and seems over too soon. Last Friday Kos of Daily Kos discussed a term I hadn’t heard before and now I’m hearing a lot. The term is sanewashing, taking someone’s word salad and extracting bits to make the speaker sound more sane. Kos gave an example. The day before the nasty guy gave an economic address. In response to a question the nasty guy gave a long rambling answer that didn’t answer the question, which Kos included in full. It is too long for me to repeat. Then Kos included the sanewashed version given by Michael Gold of the New York Times.

After his speech, Donald Trump was asked how he might address rising child care costs. In a jumbled answer, he said he would prioritize legislation on the issue but offered no specifics and insisted that his other economic policies, including tariffs, would “take care” of child care. “As much as child care is talked about as being expensive, it’s, relatively speaking, not very expensive compared to the kind of numbers we’ll be taking in.”

Saying the nasty guy gave “a jumbled answer” and not explaining what that means or what that says about his mental state? Sheesh. Also, the nasty guy said, in all that jumble, nothing about “prioritize legislation.” Said Kos:

Gold went out of his way to make Trump’s aside about tariffs sound semi-coherent, as opposed to the nonsensical pivot it really was. Or, to put it another way, Gold made it sound as if Trump gives a damn about child care when it’s clear from his answer here—as well as his current policy platform and his priorities during his administration—that he doesn’t give a rat’s ass about it.

Alas, the NYT is not the only media company doing this. On Monday Meteor Blades of Kos quoted some recent articles. Jon Alsop at the Columbia Journalism Review discussed sanewashing.

As applied to Trump, the idea is that major mainstream news outlets are routinely taking his incoherent, highly abnormal rants—be they on social media or at in-person events—and selectively quoting from them to emphasize lines that, in isolation, might sound coherent or normal, thus giving a misleading impression of the whole for people who didn’t read or watch the entire thing. ... If the word “sanewashing” is not new, neither is the idea that the media is masking Trump’s incoherence.

Blades quoted Jake Lahut, also of CJR who said that the decline of local news is a problem for campaigns. Elissa Slotkin, Michigan candidate for the US Senate, campaigned through northern Michigan. The crowd was decent, but there were no newspeople from the local television stations or the major paper of the area, the Traverse City Record-Eagle. There was a person from a public radio affiliate, the nonprofit startup Michigan Advance, and a New York journalist. And Blades quoted Jay Rosen, author of the 1999 book What Are Journalists For?, wrote in the Economist back in 2010:

My own view is that journalists should describe the world in a way that helps us participate in political life. That is what they are "for". But too often they position us as savvy analysts of a scene we are encouraged to view from a certain distance, as if we were spectators to our own democracy, or clever manipulators of our fellow citizens.

Rosen advocates for the “Citizen’s Agenda” in which the citizens, and not the politicians, party, or media, determine what topics the candidates should be talking about. In a pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin quoted John Stoehr of The Editorial Board discussing sanewashing:

I would say most of my students understood this. Others, however, were not prepared. They were not even willing to accept as theirs the responsibility of communicating. Some would even grow visibly upset at realizing I would not do the work for them. It was, after all, a shock. I was sometimes the first adult to hold them accountable not only for what they said, but for what they didn’t say. If they wanted to reach the highest standard, they had to take responsibility for themselves.

Then Stoehr quoted Parker Malloy of The New Republic:

This “sanewashing” of Trump’s statements isn’t just poor journalism; it’s a form of misinformation that poses a threat to democracy. By continually reframing Trump’s incoherent and often dangerous rhetoric as conventional political discourse, major news outlets are failing in their duty to inform the public and are instead providing cover for increasingly erratic behavior from a former — and potentially future — president.

In the comments is a tweet from Ian Sams quoting an article in Huffpost.

“Here, presented for the first time, is an exhaustive list of the previous GOP presidents, vice presidents and nominees to these posts who have publicly said they will be voting for Trump in November: 1. Sarah Palin. That’s it. That’s the whole list.”

Way down in the comments is a tweet by Odee showing a cartoon by Mark Parisi. It shows a teacher getting a banned books list and using it as the year’s reading list. In an article published in the Texas Tribune and posted on Kos Nic Garcia wrote about something that has appeared in several news sources and alluded to in the comment about Republicans not voting for the nasty guy. Yes, one is Dick Cheney, VP under Bush II, frequently seen an instigator of the Iraq war, and sometimes called Darth Cheney, has said he will vote for Harris. His daughter Liz Cheney, co-chair of the Jan 6 Investigation Committee and whose presence there was a big reason why Wyoming did not return her to the House soon after, has also endorsed Harris. Clay Bennett tweeted a cartoon of the front page of a newspaper that has a big headline, “Dick Cheney to vote for Kamala Harris.” Headlines on related articles are, “Hell freezes over,” and “Pig flies.” Yeah, there was a debate last night. I heard a little bit of the nasty guy saying something about his daddy left him no inheritance and he earned billions through his own wonderful talent before I was able to switch to some music. I haven’t yet read the commentary on Kos about the debate. If I find anything of interest (beyond “Harris won”) I’ll include it in a future post.