Media isn't reporting Helene hit Tennessee too

My Sunday movie was Heartstopper season 3, episodes 4-6. I’ll write about the plot, which could be a spoiler. Then I’ll write about my thoughts on what I saw. At the end of episode 3 Charlie admitted he needed help with an eating disorder. So episode 4 is about the start of treatment. But there are delays and his mood gets worse. Charlie does get into a residential program for two months. We see that time first through Nick’s eyes. He’s lonely without his boyfriend, especially at Halloween. Then we see the two months through Charlie’s eyes, working with a therapist, getting a care package from friends, and a visit from family and Nick. In episode 5 Charlie is home in time for Christmas. And it is his first big test. His extended family is there – including the people that are invited out of obligation. And some of them pull out the mental illness stereotypes. After a while Charlie escapes to Nick’s house because Nick doesn’t treat him as mentally ill. Nick is doing a good job incorporating all that his aunt taught him about how to be supportive. In episode 6 it is now spring. Charlie’s therapy is progressing well and his relationship with Nick deepens. Part of that is Charlie has more mental space to devote to his love. Ellie is doing well in art school and her art is getting noticed. She is offered a radio interview. The host wants to draw her into the controversies of being trans. Then the story shifts to Charlie’s 16th birthday party. Now my thoughts: This circle of friends is quite supportive in all the right ways. When I was a teen I didn’t know how to be supportive like that. Perhaps the author used the stories as a guide to teens in how to be supportive. Through the first two seasons most of the emotions were pretty happy. The actors had it rather easy. In season three we see much more difficult situations. And I can see the actors are quite good. The characters are supposed to be 15 and 16 but act more like they’re older than 18, and I’m sure the actors are well into their 20s. There is way too much alcohol for kids who are 16 (probably too much for kids who are 18). And it wasn’t just Charlie’s birthday party – there was too much alcohol at the Halloween party, which Nick attended alone, and at the New Year’s Eve party when Charlie was 15. For characters and intended audience this young I wish the book author and show writers had come up with a different way for them to party. Observers have noticed that over the last few months people have been leaving the nasty guy’s rallies before they were over. Kos of Daily Kos reported his campaign has found a way to make them stay. And, of course, it didn’t turn out well. The nasty guy held a rally in the desert in Coachella, California. This is the town of the famous music festival that draws a quarter million fans. But the nasty guy didn’t use that venue. He held it at a private ranch. A question I won’t bother answering: With California absolutely going for Harris why is the nasty guy wasting campaign time there? But onward. For this rally attendees parked in three designated locations and shuttled to the venue by bus. Some started showing up at 6am. The rally ended at 7pm, meaning the crowd, limited to 15K, had spent the day in the hot sun. Well after 10pm thousands of people were still waiting for buses to take them back to their cars. At the venue there is no longer food or water or restroom facilities. A walk to the parking lot would take two hours and many elderly can’t walk that far. Some said the busses ran out of fuel. Even if they did Kos showed several gas stations just a couple miles from the site. Kos said the crowd response got weird. Some posting about the situation blamed the mayor, who had nothing to do with the event. Others posted and felt they had to delete the posts because they were “causing drama” – they were making the nasty guy look bad and devotees objected. Kos wrote:

Having stranded thousands in the hot desert, Trump and his campaign can’t even be bothered to issue an apology to their own people. They were used, abused, and tossed aside.

But they didn’t leave the rally early. Oliver Willis of Kos reported:

On Saturday, federal agencies were forced to move employees assisting with hurricane recovery efforts in North Carolina following reports of a militia threat against the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The incident follows days of Donald Trump and his allies in conservative media promoting lies about Hurricane Helene and the federal response. ... “FEMA has advised all federal responders Rutherford County, NC, to stand down and evacuate the county immediately,” the Post quoted from the email, adding that recipients were advised that the National Guard “had come across x2 trucks of armed militia saying there were out hunting FEMA” and that the agency was “coordinating the evacuation of all assigned personnel in that county.”

Willis also reported Jake Tapper, host of The Lead on CNN, did a segment on the definition of fascism and that the nasty guy fit that description. Tapper quoted Merriam-Webster:

a populist political philosophy, movement, or regime that exalts nation and often race above the individual, that is associated with a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, and that is characterized by severe economic and social regimentation and by forcible suppression of opposition

Tapper’s evidence included: + Declaring there is “the enemy from within” and that he said he would consider using the US military or National Guard to go after opponents. + Gen. Mark Milley, who had been chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for the nasty guy, was quoted in Bob Woodward’s interview of saying the nasty guy was “fascist to the core.” + The Capitol attack. + His verbal attacks on FEMA leading to threats of physical attacks. In the comments of a pundit roundup is a meme posted by Ridin’ With Kamala: “All I want for Christmas is to never hear his voice again.” In a pundit roundup for Kos Chitown Kev quoted David Faris of Slate, who would like to get rid of the Electoral College. The EC is bad in more than distorting democracy, but also the distribution of federal aid and even distorting news.

While it appears the Biden administration is treating the impact of this season’s hurricanes as it should, the media’s focus on the almost unfathomable catastrophe in the western mountains of swing state North Carolina is a stark contrast to the near-total absence of attention to what’s going on just over the state line in deep-red Tennessee—complete with the obligatory analyses of how the hurricane’s aftermath might impact the outcome in the Tar Heel State. As for the electoral impact of Helene in Tennessee, no one is asking and no one cares. That kind of coverage disparity is an almost inevitable consequence of swing-state mania, and we shouldn’t be surprised when it seeps into policy decisions.

Down in the comments are several cartoons noting Columbus Day. In the comments of another pundit roundup are several cartoons making the repurposing of Columbus Day as Indigenous Peoples Day. Mark Fiore posted one of his cartoons from two years ago. It shows a girl writing a poem for class:

In 1492 Columbus Sailed the ocean blue. He tortured & killed the people he found, Brought slavery & genocide all the world around. An inept explorer who left thousands dead, it’s why we celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day instead.

A meme posted by Hugh Jim Bissell shows a native chief saying, “Let me get this straight. You’re afraid of refugees coming to America, killing you, and taking your property?” Bissel also posted a meme showing the Capitol attack and saying, “Catching people sneaking across the border won’t make us safer when these people are already here.” Sharon Lerner and Andy Kroll, in an article for ProPublica posted on Kos, reported:

Three investigators for the Heritage Foundation have deluged federal agencies with thousands of Freedom of Information Act requests over the past year, requesting a wide range of information on government employees, including communications that could be seen as a political liability by conservatives. Among the documents they’ve sought are lists of agency personnel and messages sent by individual government workers that mention, among other things, “climate equity,” “voting” or “SOGIE,” an acronym for sexual orientation, gender identity and expression. The Heritage team filed these requests even as the think tank’s Project 2025 was promoting a controversial plan to remove job protections for tens of thousands of career civil servants so they could be identified and fired if Donald Trump wins the presidential election.

There may be as many as 50,000 requests submitted over the past two years. They are asking for calendar dumps, team messages that include the designated phrases, and communications with civil rights and voting rights groups. The requests, which sometimes “come in at a rate of one a second,” do indeed interfere with the ability to do the regular job. Gumming up government functions may be a secondary goal. The primary goal is to identify the government employees that should be purged if the nasty guy gets back in the Oval Office and begins to implement Project 2025, giving him space to install loyalists throughout the government. Michael Harriot, in a thread now in Threadreader, wrote about the importance of black barbershops. They’re a combination of church, political headquarters, secret hideout, and gathering spot. They are one of “the most important, most revolutionary institutions in Black history.” Their history is as old as America. When a slave was about to be sold they needed cleaning up. A white barber wouldn’t do it, so they hired a black “barber boy.” They could earn enough to buy their freedom and open their own business. The barbershop was one of the few places where black people could talk freely without white people around. Black barbers were held in high esteem, which meant they could fund and be a part of the Underground Railroad. Having a barber in the effort meant a slave’s appearance could be altered before they were passed along the route. Black barbers also taught black people how to read. They could also become quite rich and important to a community. In the early 1880s Philadelphia was at the center of the Abolition movement. Black people built schools and the first HBCUs. The AME church was founded there. There was also an abolitionist newspaper. When a delegate was chosen fot the first National Negro Convention they didn’t send a leader of any of those institutions, they sent a black barber, Joseph Cassey, who was also the second richest man in the city. He had funded some of those institutions. Also during that time a black man was the barber to the president (which one is not named). He is reported to have influence over his customer. A network of barbers organized a National Slave Revolt. By 1860 they had 42,000 people trained and ready. The revolt didn’t happen because the Civil War happened instead. Barbers were instrumental during the Civil Rights era. If you are trying to influence the black community or want to get elected you need to visit a black barbershop.

We are not in this together

I didn’t post over the previous two days because my computer did not have internet access. The reason is also a customer service rant. If you have no interest in my travails, jump to the next section of this post. My friend and debate partner describe sessions like this as “customer disservice.” When I bought this new computer I also bought a new modem and router, so I didn’t have to keep making rental payments on the one from Comcast/Xfinity. I think I calculated the replacements will hit break even in less than a year. Two days ago I decided was a good day to actually install the new hardware. Yeah, it’s been about seven weeks, but switching to and learning the new music program was a higher priority. The first problem was that the modem and router had transformers in their power plugs. They had to go at the ends of the surge protector. The house is sixty years old, of course there aren’t enough electrical outlets. Also, the cases around the transformers are bulky enough they don’t allow enough room for the neighboring plug. I found an extender and a narrow plug and managed. I connected all the wires and turned them all on. The modem booted. The lights on the router came on. But the computer said I had no internet. I called the modem company. The answer bot said I needed to call the internet provider to have the modem “provisioned.” So I called Comcast. The answer bot gave me a half minute message saying Comcast needed my updated contact info. They occasionally ask that when I’m on their website and they want an email address not through them (which I don’t have) and they already had my phone number. The answer bot required I specify the problem. My answer prompted the bot assume their modem was the problem and demanded I do a modem test. They could send a link to my phone or I could do it online. For an internet company Comcast seems pretty ignorant of how the internet works. I can’t do it online because the modem doesn’t work. The bot had hung up. I called again, waiting through the half-minute message again. The same scenario played out. I thought of calling the nearby Xfinity store. But I didn’t have a number and no internet to look it up. I called a third time. This time I accepted the text message on my phone. The bot hung up. I tapped the link. My phone said “No internet.” I called a fourth time. Yeah, that half-minute message a fourth time. This time I tried saying I wanted to change my internet service rather than saying I had an internet problem. A few questions later I was connected to a real person. I told him what I wanted to do. He asked for the MAC number of the modem. Then he complained the number didn’t match the Xfinity modem I had. Well, of course not! He finally understood what I wanted and he entered the new number. He said that since returning the modem meant a change in my billing I had to confirm it. He sent me another text with another link. Still no internet on the phone. He switched to verbal confirmation with the voice coming from the computer and reply to go to it, not him. The computer said if I agreed I was to enter “1” – but it didn’t recognize it. We went round on this several times and it did not recognize the “1” from my phone keypad. I asked him to enter the 1 for me – he had heard I confirmed. He wasn’t allowed to do that. I asked for a supervisor. The agent said a supervisor had no more capability than he had. Besides, a supervisor would not be available for two hours. In the meantime he could schedule an appointment with a technician. I had him confirm whether a tech guy would charge because it wasn’t their modem. He scheduled it just in case. I asked if the Xfinity store could resolve this problem. I had to return their modem anyway. He said they could. So I went to the store. I think the person waiting on me was transgender or nonbinary, though it would have been rude to ask. I’ll use nonbinary pronouns. They received my modem, used its ID to pull up my account, and gave me a receipt for the return. Then they said they could do no more because having a technician appointment locked the store people out of the system. After I expressed my astonishment they said they could delete the appointment. I quickly agreed. Soon they said all was in order, the new modem registered and ready, though one more confirmation step needed to be done and they at the store could not do it. I could reschedule a technician or call the 800 number again. I said a bit about how bad online service was and they agreed – as company agents they have to go through the same nonsense every time. This sounds like really bad use of agent time (as it is bad use of customer time). They said there is a way around it. They gave me a phrase to text to a different number and a tech person would call me. That different number turned out to be the number that was used to text me before. Alas, by the time I was able to use it the time was after 5:00. I thought perhaps their staff didn’t work or didn’t respond to these texts in the evening. During the evening I texted Niece, who is much better with phones than I am, about why my phone didn’t have internet service. She had me try various things and finally gave up. A bit later I thought to reboot my phone. That worked. I had internet again. I knew it was separate from the modem that wasn’t working Yeah, my phone can go wonky at the worst times. The next morning I called Comcast and their answer bot didn’t answer. I tried several times. I spent a lovely afternoon with Niece. She and I enjoyed the Detroit Institute of Arts. Back at it during the evening. Called Comcast. Other than repeating the half-minute message again it was rather quick to connect me to a human. He said he could see the modem. He had no idea what second thing the store person said was necessary. Shortly after that we were disconnected. So another call and another chance to ignore the message. This human had me unplug and replug the modem so that it would reboot. From his end things looked “100%” but I still didn’t have internet access. I should call the modem company. I did. This guy had me reset the modem. Then he had me connect the computer straight to the modem without the router. After another reboot a tab opened on my browser saying “Welcome to Xfinity! Download the Xfinity app on your mobile phone to activate your internet in minutes.” Nope, not letting them on my phone. This customer agent actually gave me decent service. He confirmed the router is only necessary when I need WiFi and most of the time I don’t. So I’ll leave it out for now. Called Xfinity again (and listened to the message again) and was connected to a human promptly. Yes, there was indeed one more step Xfinity needed to do. They needed to send a provisioning file to the modem. The modem answer bot was right. The store person was right and the two earlier people this evening were not. Sending the file rebooted the modem. When it was done I had internet! Web pages loaded. Two dozen emails downloaded! Things are better. Before this call ended the agent said she could tell when I started talking I was extremely frustrated. She was accurate. She was glad things were all straightened out and I felt better. One might think after so much hassle (and this not the first time) I would drop Comcast for another company. There are two reasons why I haven’t yet. First, my email address is through Comcast. With standard practice being to make one’s email addy one’s account identifier I would have go to a great many websites to change it. Second, various comparisons of the companies in my area rate them all equally bad at customer service. One wonders why they are all so bad. If you skipped the rant please resume reading here. How does one tell the difference between a prophet and someone just making stuff up? I’ve heard the distinction is that some of the prophet’s predictions have come true, so there is a decent chance the rest of them will too. Keep that thought in mind. Of course, some people say foretelling the future is not possible, so there is no such thing as a prophet. Reinvented Daddy of the Daily Kos community discussed what he thought was the reason why the MAGA people, meaning also the Republican Party and conservative evangelicals, are so cruel. He believes the answer, and I think he’s on to something, is the central position of the Bible’s book of Revelations in their beliefs.

Jesus of revelations is a horribly mean and spiteful creature requiring constant praise and supplication. Most of what is understood of Revelations is misinformed myth since few, even among the religiously educated, can understand it’s ridiculously bad writing. It was penned 60 years after the death of Jesus purely from the imagination of a hermit who lived in a cave on a desert island off Turkey. He despised the churches of St Paul. A raving lunatic, he wrote like one but the book survived because people liked apocalypse porn as much in the first century as they do in the 21st century.

For those who don’t know (which includes most Christians) Revelations is about the End Times, in which Jesus comes back to earth, heads an army that defeats all the forces of evil (interpreted to be all those who don’t believe in Jesus), and brings about a new heaven and new earth where there is no longer a reason for crying. The last couple of chapters portray a world that sounds lovely. The readers at the time, under the domination of Rome, would have appreciated this vision. But one must go through some twenty chapters of mayhem to get there. Then again, causing mayhem against Rome sounded pretty good too. After the Roman era Revelations was mostly ignored until after the American Civil War when the South, stinging from defeat, decided it spoke to them. Yeah, a just defeated society that considers itself highly Christian, is going to latch on to a story that says Jesus will come back and defeat their enemy. Richard Nixon, in his Southern Strategy, understood that Democrat presidents Kennedy and Johnson were seen as betrayers for their racial and economic reforms of the Civil Rights Act. Since then (according to Reinvented Daddy) Republicans have been making promises to the evangelicals they had no intention of keeping. And now we have a majority on the Supreme Court that believes the righteous ass-kicking portrayed in Revelations supersedes the Constitution. They are now keeping those promises. So is that hermit who wrote those words nearly two thousand years ago a prophet or did he make stuff up? In those two thousand years none of it has come to pass. You decide. John Stoehr, through his Editorial Board, wrote about a related ideology. During a national emergency, such as two destructive hurricanes just a couple weeks apart, many people reach out to those in distress, saying we’re all in this together. Yet, the words of politicians on the far right imply no, we’re not in this together. We see that as a betrayal of core beliefs and call them hypocrites. That’s easier that believing their core beliefs are vastly different from our own.

Rightwingers are not hypocrites, though. They believe American society is divided into ingroups and outgroups. The former is good, right and deserving. The latter is bad, wrong and undeserving. When there’s a national emergency, the federal government should help the ingroup, because it’s the only group that constitutes a “real nation.” Meanwhile, the outgroup can take care of itself. Or die trying. Not only do they believe American society is divided into ingroups and outgroups, they believe it ought to be. The orders of power should be vertical and hierarchical. That is the ideal, because that is “natural.” For this reason, liberal efforts to flatten the orders of power, so that the outgroup has as many rights and privileges as the ingroup, are seen by rightwingers as a perversion of the natural order of things. To them, we are not all in this together, because we can’t be. If we were, that would be in defiance of God. And that’s why they lie.

That is why they say America needs to become great again. That is why they claim Biden and Harris are destroying America. We ask them to put nation above politics. In their eyes they already are. We don’t recognize their definition of nation is different. They believe when the federal government hands out money after a disaster it should go to the ingroup and not to the outgroup. So vetoing FEMA funding (because much of its money goes to the outgroup), then demanding FEMA funding (for the ingroup) is not a contradiction in their thinking. They spread so many lies about the nature of these hurricanes because they oppose the idea of all people being in it together and want to discredit it. They support Russia because they see the same top-down society they want for themselves. With that understanding Speaker Johnson’s refusal to reconvene the House to pass more FEMA funding makes sense. I have long recognized correspondingly there are two definitions of freedom. Some want freedom from oppression. The others want freedom to oppress. They want that freedom so that they can maintain the social hierarchy with themselves on top. And the social hierarchy is maintained through oppression. An aspect of that national view is on display in this article by Morgan Stephens of Kos that begins:

So it’s come to this. On Wednesday, President Joe Biden was forced to address the bonkers right-wing conspiracy that the government is controlling the weather, steering catastrophic hurricanes into conservative communities in an effort to influence the 2024 election. "Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene … is now saying the federal government is literally controlling the weather,” he said during a briefing on the federal response to Hurricane Helene and preparations for Hurricane Milton. “We're controlling the weather? It's beyond ridiculous. It’s got to stop.”

He had Vladimir Putin on speed dial

My Sunday movie was Heartstopper, season 3, episodes 1-3. I’ll be viewing the rest of the eight episodes over the next couple weeks. I’ve seen seasons 1 and 2. So if you haven’t there will be spoilers here. The story is about a circle of high school friends in England. Before this season Charlie and Nick have become boyfriends, Tara and Darcy are girlfriends, and Tao and transgender Ellie are dating. Their friend circle includes a few other people, including Isaac, who has come to realize he is asexual and aromantic. As others in the group form pairs he feels left out. Also in the previous season two of the male teachers began to feel an attraction and start dating. One of them is the art teacher that provided a refuge for Charlie back at the start of season 1. They must be careful to not show affection while at school. And here are spoilers about this season. Tao is feeling insecure because Ellie is switching to an art school and he’s afraid she’ll leave him. Darcy has moved out of her mother’s home because Mom refuses to allow her to be a lesbian. Darcy discovers Grandma is quite accepting. The major theme of this season was introduced at the end of season 2. Charlie has an eating disorder and in general his mental health is poor. So a good part of these three episodes are getting Charlie to see he has a problem and to ask for help. This season starts with summer break. As part of it Nick spends three weeks with his aunt and uncle in Mallorca. It is during this time away from Charlie that Charlie’s sister begins to suspect the problem and texts Nick, a problem Nick has already noticed. Nick has an important discussion with his aunt, a psychiatrist. She tells Nick he can’t fix Charlie, as much as he might want to and think he is supposed to. Several people will be needed to help Charlie. The aunt has specific guidance for Nick on how to support his lover in a way that helps Charlie get the help he needs. I’ve been watching the weather map showing what Hurricane Milton is doing. For much of the day, well before Milton came ashore (meaning Milton’s eye came ashore) rain, some of it severe, has covered most of the state. Tallahassee and Miami have stayed dry and that’s about it. As I’m getting ready to post this Milton’s eye has come ashore between Tampa and Cape Coral and the most intense rain is between St. Pete and Orlando. Since Milton is just two weeks after Helene (and the names suggest that between them there were three storms strong enough to get names) there is still a lot of discussion of Helene and the great deal of disinformation from the nasty guy and other Republicans. Brynn Tannehill wrote in ThreadReader:

I suspect many of the blue-check comments dumping on the National Guard are either Russian disinformation, or getting their information from their outlets.

She then wrote about all the difficult and heroic things the North Carolina National Guard has been doing for Helene recovery while working with old equipment because they don’t have enough money. An Associated Press article posted on Daily Kos discusses what Federal Emergency Management Agency does, and doesn’t. FEMA has a disaster relief fund, replenished by Congress every year. This year the fund is getting low and Congress, due to budgetary theatrics, has not yet acted to fill it again. Most of the money goes to immediate relief. The rest goes for rebuilding from past disasters and helping communities protect from future calamities. When the fund gets low rebuilding and the protection work gets put on hold. But the nasty guy’s claim the fund is being used elsewhere is false. FEMA coordinates disaster response, though it is not the boss. It sends money to state and local governments to pay for their work to help people and to start cleanup. It also gives money to individuals for emergency needs, such as paying for a trailer when a home is lost. While FEMA will help an individual get through the crisis they will not make the person whole. For that, rely on insurance. If there is no insurance FEMA can give up to $42.5K, which is not enough to rebuild a house. I mentioned that the nasty guy is complaining about how bad Biden is handling the crises. Walter Einenkel of Kos reminds us how bad the nasty guy was at handling disasters, which means his criticism of Biden is projection. Here is Einenkel’s list: + He was slow in staffing FEMA and NOAA, the parent agency of the National Weather Service. + He initially refused to send wildfire aid to California because it is a blue state. + He obstructed aid to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. + He tried to use flooding in Michigan to stop absentee voting. + And COVID. On Monday Morgan Stephens of Kos posted:

It’s textbook hypocrisy: House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Sunday that he won’t commit to reconvening his chamber to pass additional disaster-relief funding, yet he criticizes the federal government’s response as lacking.

Now that I’m on the topic of the nasty guy and Republicans... Stephens reported the Oklahoma State Board of Education has put out a request for bid to supply the Board and schools across the state with Bibles. The bid asks for 55,000 of them. But they can’t be just any Bible. It must be the King James Version, have both the Old and New Testaments, and must include copies of the Pledge of Allegiance, Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Since those US documents normally don’t appear in a religious book one might be getting a bit suspicious. And with good reason. The only edition of the Bible that fits all those requirements is the one endorsed by the nasty guy and of which he gets a cut. The whole purchase is $3.3 million. I don’t know how much that cut is. The Attorney General says the bid might violate state law. Not because putting Bibles in public school classrooms is a violation of the separation of Church and State. But because the specs of the bid unnecessarily exclude most bidders. Besides, paperback versions of the KJV can be had for $2.99, not $60. Lisa Needham of Kos adds that this is part of a larger push by conservatives to cause the collapse of public education.

First, conservatives very much want that public education money to go to their favorite private interests, such as lining the pockets of Trump. Next, they also very much want to force a very narrow version of Christianity on everyone, a move that just so happens to require public school money to go to private religious schools.

Needham concluded with what’s going on in Arizona, an effort praised by the guy who was the author of the education section of Project 2025. Arizona gave tax credits to donors of School Tuition Organizations that give scholarships to private schools. That cost the state $700 million. That starved public schools of funding and blew a hole in the state budget. In a post at the end of September Needham discussed some of the nasty guy grifts. Truth Social going public and losing money and value. Trump Hotel in Washington DC to which Republicans flocked – until it was sold. And membership at Mar-a-Lago at $1 million. And now he’s getting into the crypto market. That’s perfect for him because it is unregulated. In contrast to some of his other scams – Trump steaks, for example – this one is geared to a particular group of people, the crypto bros who are looking for as little regulation as possible. It would also line his pockets with unregulated crypto cash while in the White House.

Ordinary people can see the obvious problems here. Trump shouldn’t have private business interests while in the White House, period, but all of that went out the window in his first administration. Trump certainly shouldn’t have a private business in a regulated industry like securities when he would have the power to weaken regulations over his own business. But Trump fans love giving Trump’s businesses money and increasing his personal bottom line. They understand very well that Trump looks favorably at their efforts to funnel him cash. If he wins in November and his nonsense crypto project stays afloat until he takes office in 2025, conservatives—and hucksters and grifters—will have a very easy way to buy off the president with no fear of oversight.

At the start of October Stephens wrote about the various trinkets the nasty guy family is selling to the faithful. There are several of them. Even Melania is getting in on it through selling necklaces and a new memoir. The details come from financial disclosures mandated by the Office of Government Ethics and filed in August. Most of his money (not as much as he says he has) comes from this golf clubs and resorts, including foreign business ventures.

As a businessman who has filed for bankruptcy six times, Trump found a way to use his political brand to make money off the backs of his MAGA faithful. And what good is a brand for if you don’t use it to make a sale?

In a pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin included a tweet from Jonathan Martin that quoted a tweet from Acyn with a video of the nasty guy at a rally claiming Biden and Harris stole FEMA money to give to illegal immigrants so they could vote.

One of two political parties fine w a nominee telling flat lies, demagoguing immigrants in the worst tradition of American politics and hustling every possible buck he can. Total acquiescence from most every elected Republican.

In the comments is a cartoon by Ann Telnaes with the nasty guy saying these things and a few more:

So what if I use the office of the presidency to enrich myself and my family? So what if I break my oath of office? So what if I incite my followers to attack the U.S. Capitol? So what if I undermine democracy?

A tweet by An Ignorant Troll asks “How did a nation of idiots get to be the world leader?” It shows a guy up to his thighs in water during a rainstorm with a tornado coming. He says, “I’ll believe in climate change when I see it.” That is followed by a tweet by the New York Times Pitchbot which goes for the sarcasm. This one is based on a recent claim by Marjorie Taylor Greene that Helene happened because Democrats can control the weather. The Pitchbot has:

There is no way that something like climate change can be caused by humans. But it's clear that the government can control the weather.

In a second pundit roundup Dworkin quoted David Rothkopf of the Daily Beast.

So, let me get this straight, according to Bob Woodward’s new book War, Donald Trump was sitting in Mar-a-Lago on a trove of stolen U.S. national secrets and while there, had Vladimir Putin on speed dial for regular private chats? After he tried to overthrow our government? And Putin is helping his campaign now by flooding our electorate with toxic disinformation? And there are people who would actually vote for this guy?

And Dworkin quoted JV Last of The Bulwark talking about the unchanging poll numbers.

But what I want you to focus on is the extent to which this race has been locked in place for a month and a half. Because as good a campaign as Harris has run—and I think she’s run an excellent campaign—she’s only gained 3 total points since she entered the race in late July. She went from 46 percent to 49 percent. Which leads us to the second story: During the same period, all of the other numbers for Harris specifically and Democrats generally have been fantastic. ... But what I want to hammer home is that something is going on in the numbers and it is hard to understand how both trends—Dems and Harris showing across the board gains with Harris-Trump stuck at near parity—can be right.

Down in the comments, and after a few cartoons about hurricanes and their cause, are a couple memes posted by exlrrp. The first says, “You know, removing the words ‘climate change’ from Florida textbooks doesn’t seem to be working.” The second one is by M. Padellan and says, “100% proof that Democrats do not control the weather: Mar-a-Lago is still standing!”