We can’t even bury fascism Yesterday’s first post explains why I’m not up to speed on what’s happening in Israel and Gaza and likely won’t catch up for a day or two. Compounding the problem is the inherent complexity of what’s happening there on the ground and what’s now happening with the internet. Digby tweeted (to hell with Musk) yesterday, “I used to turn to twitter at times like these but now I have no clue what’s real and what isn’t…” A couple of observations about that. Washington Post: Amid concerns the rise of artificial intelligence will supercharge the spread of misinformation comes a wild fabrication from a more prosaic source: Amazon’s Alexa, which declared that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. Asked about fraud in the race — in which President Biden defeated former president Donald Trump with 306 electoral college votes — the popular voice assistant said it was “stolen by a massive amount of election fraud,” citing Rumble, a video-streaming service favored by conservatives.
Uncategorized
A teeth-grinding interview What if the next presidential election is a rematch between President Biden and Donald Trump. Kristen Welker of Meet The Press sat down with four Pennsylvania “swing voters” how they feel about that. First off, how were they chosen for this conclave? What makes theses four representative stand-ins for swing voters in general? What makes their opinions somehow illuminating? “If it’s a Biden and Trump race, I would vote for Biden even if he was dead. And I’m a Republican.” -A Pennsylvania voter to Meet the Press host Kristen Welker. pic.twitter.com/DJy6dgZdfb — Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) October 8, 2023 At least this Republican voter (above) will take a stand even if he believes (somehow) that Biden is on the edge of senility. Welker didn’t ask in this edit what people thought of Kamala Harris as president in the event…. That might have been revealing. Samantha Cieslinski voted Republican in the past but now feels her “moral compass” won’t let her choose either Biden or Trump.
Today’s news on Trump’s national security crimes: Trump Leaked Nuclear Sub Secrets To Australian Businessman Susie Madrak, Oct 6, 2023 Crooks and Liars I dropped my Photoshopped illustration in the comments section of Suzie’s article at Crooks and Liars. I then popped over to Salon to read their article titled, “Tip of the iceberg”: Experts sound the alarm after Trump blabbed nuclear secrets at Mar-a-Lago by Igor Derysh where I read the various excuses given by Trump’s spokespeople: A Trump spokesperson told ABC News that the report lacks “proper context and relevant information.” “President Trump did nothing wrong, has always insisted on truth and transparency, and acted in a proper manner, according to the law,” the spokesperson said.
It’s not too late to vote in Fat Bear Week! There are now just two competitions left: Get ready for a jaw-dropping generational joust between the tough tectonic tank 806 Jr and the bomb of a boar, 32 Chunk the hunk. In the game of percentages, cubs can outcompete adult bears in weight gain to body size. The tank grew 7000%. While the hunk…well, just blew up, he’s practically a Chunkasaurus.Will 32 flatten the floof? Or will the tenacious tank dunk on the Chunk? And: This match is a battle of the survivors!Massive mama 901 survived a series of firsts: The 2022 #FatBearWeek competition as runner-up and her first year as “a single mom who works two jobs, who loves her kids and never stops.” 9480 Otis the GOATis has survived more #FatBearWeek competitions than any other bear with 4 wins under his belt. Despite his late arrival and scrawny size, he lost no time going from gaunt to gargantuan!Select your survivor. Click the following link to vote! https://explore.org/fat-bear-week
What the left is missing Ok, my neurons fire funny. Stick with me. Something about bonding is coming. The last several days, people of all ages from the community here have been building a playground not far from where I sit. Rather, rebuilding a playground: After two years of fundraising and advocating for a park rebuild, ground was broken Sept. 28 for Candace Pickens Memorial Park, formerly Jones Park Playground, in North Asheville. One of the people holding a shovel was Keesha Martinez, whose daughter, Pickens, was the 22-year-old murdered at the park in May 2016. […] Pickens was killed in 2016 on her then 3-year-old’s son birthday. She had taken him to the park to celebrate, according to previous Citizen Times reporting. Her son, Zachaeus, was also shot, losing his left eye and surviving. The company that designed and furnished material relies on community volunteers to build out the site under direction from its superintendent and foremen. They supply most tools. Neighbors bring theirs too. While we were hauling materials around the site last night, Martinez introduced herself as Candace’s mother. An idiot, I didn’t know what to say.
Trump’s endorsement may not be enough If John Fetterman can wear a hoodie, Jim Jordan should be able to go jacketless as speaker. But he’s not there yet. “GOP lawmakers are casting doubt on whether former President Trump’s endorsement of House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) will move the needle in the speaker race, Axios has learned.” One side: On the other hand: As Digby said, this is their problem. Ours is how long are Americans going to hand a book of matches to Republican arsonists and expect Democrats to put out the fires an clean up the mess?
Prior to WW II, many U.S. Nazi sympathizers secretly gathered, pushing antisemitic & far-right agendas, with aspirations of creating a Hitler-style dictatorship in the US. In her new book “Prequel,” MSNBC’s Rachel @maddow explores our nation’s ongoing struggle against fascism. pic.twitter.com/z1rBJKLa9P — CBS Sunday Morning 🌞 (@CBSSunday) October 7, 2023 Inspired by her research for the hit podcast Ultra, in PREQUEL: An American Fight Against Fascism, #1 New York Times bestselling author Rachel Maddow traces the fight to preserve American democracy back to World War II, when a handful of committed public servants and brave private citizens thwarted far-right plotters trying to steer our nation toward an alliance with the Nazis. I don’t think I would have ever thought I’d see the necessity for understanding this history in 2023 but here we are.
This could be a syntax problem but that doesn’t make any sense either. Is he saying that “many reports are that American taxpayer dollars helped fund the attacks?” What does that mean? All the “reports” said that the money released recently to Iran was from a frozen account in South Korea that was sent to Qatar and hasn’t been released yet. In any case, this garbled nonsense is typical for the putative GOP nominee for president. I’m not going to be commenting too much on the Israel situation today because it’s very hard right now to get real information from social media and the mainstream media is also difficult to sort out. This was obviously a massive intelligence failure which is a condemnation of the current Israeli government as well as those supposed new Middle Eastern allies that Trump is so proud of creating. This is going to turn out to be more complicated than usual and that’s saying something.
50 years ago, Kissinger said that Nixon was too drunk to talk to the British Prime Minister when the Yom Kipper War broke out. During Yom Kippur War fifty years ago this week, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger tells aide Brent Scowcroft that President Nixon is “loaded” and thus cannot speak to British Prime Minister: pic.twitter.com/RgbWnD9Evl — Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) October 7, 2023 Right wingers are attacking Joe Biden all over the internet for waiting a couple of hours to issue a statement about the Israeli crisis, suggesting that he’s “in his basement” (which would be correct since that’s where the Situation Room is. ) Anyway, I think they need to shut their pieholes.
If you’re in earshot of Donald Trump, chances are you’ll hear him blurt out some classified information Our best satirist Alexandra Petri makes a good point here: The more that comes out about Donald Trump’s post-presidency conduct, the clearer it becomes that the real challenge was not prying confidential information out of Trump but avoiding receiving confidential information. I think I see the problem. Donald Trump has two modes of conversation. He is either ranting about all the things he intends to do when he becomes dictator of the country — so many rights to strip away! so much vengeance to extract against his enemies! so many guardrails to dismantle! — or he is volunteering classified information. Those are really it. If you don’t want one, you have to buckle in for the other. Which brings us to the news from special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation that Donald Trump apparently shared sensitive information about U.S. nuclear submarines with an Australian billionaire. You might be wondering: Is this a private party, or can anyone play? Yes!