Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

Trump’s cabinet: like a magic 8 ball that only gives wrong answers.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

With all due respect and assumptions of good faith, please fuck off into the sun.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Every decision we make has lots of baggage with it, known or unknown.

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

Fear and negativity are contagious, but so is courage!

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

“woke” is the new caravan.

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

75% of people clapping liked the show!

“Alexa, change the president.”

American history and black history cannot be separated.

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Giving up is unforgivable.

Rupert, come get your orange boy, you petrified old dinosaur turd.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

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War for Ukraine Day 899: Belgorod

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A quick housekeeping note. Rosie is still doing excellently. She has this week off before her next treatment. Thank you all for the good thoughts, well wishes, prayers, and donations.

As I begin tonight’s update at 7:35 PM EDT/2:35 AM local in Ukraine, almost all of Ukraine is under air raid alert. And drone attacks are being reported.

Here’s the butcher’s bill from yesterday’s attack in Kostiantinivka, as well as from Russia’s attacks on Kharkiv and Kramartosk.

A russian war crime that will likely go unnoticed by Western media, yet demands as much attention as any massive missile strike. Last night, russian forces targeted the village of Pershotravneve in the Izium district of Kharkiv Oblast. The attack claimed the lives of a 24-year-old man and an 80-year-old woman, who perished beneath the rubble of their home. A 58-year-old man later died from his injuries in the hospital.
#RussiaIsATerroristState

Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.

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Open Thread: Harris-Walz Nevada Rally

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The rally is set for 8:20 EDT.

I know these are pretty standard stump speeches, but I think seeing the crowds and enthusiasm is always positive.

This is Bryan Tyler Cohen’s feed, he usually has some good commentary.

This is an open thread.

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Opinion for Discussion: Republicans Will Refuse to Certify a Harris Win

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From the Bulwark.  Yeah, I know.  Still worth reading.

h/t Jackie for the article.

1. Trump’s Not Taking the L. . .

The last two weeks—the unveiling of the Harris-Walz ticket, and Kamala Harris’s surge in the polls—feels like some surreal dream state. Everything has changed. Have you noticed Harris has pushed Donald Trump right out of the comfy lead he’s held for an entire year? He’s noticed. From FiveThirtyEight to RealClearPolitics—pick your polling average—they all now show Harris out in front after only two and a half weeks.

Trump is no longer on track to win the election—which he has been for more than six straight months. Instead, the momentum, money, voter registration, volunteering, grassroots organizing, polling, and online engagement all favor the Democrats and it looks now like Trump could easily lose.

But that won’t happen, because Trump doesn’t lose. He beat Joe Biden in 2020—remember? So if he’s not the rightful victor on November 5, an entire army of Republicans is ready to block certification of the election at the local level.

No need to worry about mayhem on January 6, 2025 when Congress meets in joint session; the election deniers plan to stop a result right away if it looks like Harris is winning. Their goal: Refuse to certify anywhere—even a county that Trump won—and prevent certification in that state, which prevents certification of the presidential election.

A Harris victory could become a nightmare.

An investigation by Rolling Stone identified “in the swing states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania . . . at least 70 pro-Trump election conspiracists currently working as county election officials who have questioned the validity of elections or delayed or refused to certify results.” Of those 70, 22 of them already have “refused or delayed certification” in recent past elections. Nationwide, Republicans have refused to certify results at least 25 times since 2020, in eight states—the most in Georgia.

The article describes social media posts from the zealots who have infiltrated election administration as showing “unapologetic belief in Trump’s election lies, support for political violence, themes of Christian nationalism, and controversial race-based views.”

There are more than enough such individuals in these key posts to bring us to a constitutional crisis.

“I think we are going to see mass refusals to certify the election” in November, Democratic election lawyer Marc Elias told Rolling Stone. “Everything we are seeing about this election is that the other side is more organized, more ruthless, and more prepared.”

Sit with that.

Then there is this. Trump’s self-destructive attacks on Georgia’s popular governor made the headlines from his Atlanta rally last Saturday, but he also singled out for praise three little-known Georgians—Janice Johnston, Rick Jeffares, and Janelle King—calling them “pitbulls fighting for honesty, transparency, and victory.”

Who are Johnston, Jeffares, and King? They are three of the five members of Georgia’s State Election Board. Three days after Trump’s speech, this past Tuesday, those three Republicans approved a new rule requiring a “reasonable inquiry” prior to election certification that—while vague and undefined—could be exploited to delay certification and threaten the statewide election certification deadline of November 22.

2. How Is This Happening All Over Again?  (read at the link)

3. Who Can Stop It?  (read at the link)

Final Note

As Elias told an interviewer, there are things we can do, as citizens willing to invest some time, to take action.

This isn’t a threat from abroad. This year—and likely for years to come—we will all have to continue to fight against what our fellow Americans are doing to subvert elections. Because without free elections—and facts and truth—we cannot be a free country.

We are forewarned.

Read the whole thing here: Get Ready Now: Republicans Will Refuse to Certify a Harris Win

At first blush, President Biden’s remarks in his interview, stating lack of confidence that there will be a peaceful transfer of power, seems kind of in line with the premise here  I will be interesting in hearing what everyone thinks.

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Pelosi

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Pelosi

She was clearly at the center of the effort to convince Biden to quit.  Her appearance on Morning Joe shortly after Biden issued his letter stating that he’s staying in the race, where she said it was “his decision”, was a turning point.  She claims that she didn’t call people (specifically not Schumer), but like the relationship where someone is the person who kisses and someone is the person kissed, people called her.

And it was all because we must win – Trump cannot be in the White House again.  She was laser focused on that, and events so far have shown that she was right.

Pelosi has a book, and she’s giving interviews.  Here’s a good one with Ezra Klein (video podcast).  Here’s David Remnick’s interview in the New Yorker.  The podcast especially is worth a listen, because when she’s not scripted, she’s a great combination of Catholic Baltimore mom (uses “poopy” and the bill was “a stinker”) and just cutthroat politician.

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Another Saturday, Another Piece of Journalism from Chris Quinn at Cleveland’s The Plain Dealer

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Journalism, again!

I hope you will all read this and share it with anyone you know in Ohio.  It’s about the person who is running to un-seat Sherrod Brown.

I don’t publish this incautiously. I know some will say this column is petty, or partisan. It’s not about that. It’s about me being a journalist with exclusive access to information about a candidate for statewide office. I’d publish it no matter which party he represented. I can say that I’ve been at this work for many years, and I’ve never received anything remotely similar from Sherrod Brown. Or Mike DeWine. Or Rob Portman, John Glenn or George Voinovich.

No, this is about Moreno the person, not Moreno the Republican. When he found himself facing the national crisis of an attempted assassination of a former president, his immediate response wasn’t to remain calm and wait for the facts. He didn’t become pensive or unifying. He jumped to a preposterous conclusion and went on the attack.

Letter from the Editor (the whole thing)

Former Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson liked to say that the true measure of a leader comes when they face a crisis, and he would know, having handled more than a few.

Leading was easy when times were good, he’d say. A crisis tests a leader’s steel and ability to make sound decisions under stress.

Former car dealer Bernie Moreno wants to be your leader in Ohio. The Republican is asking for your vote in his battle to supplant Democrat Sherrod Brown in the U.S. Senate.

With Moreno’s effort and Jackson’s adage in mind, I offer the following for your consideration.

I went on vacation at Walt Disney World last month with my wife, our children and grandchildren. We had planned it for a year, and one of my goals was to completely break free of my job for a week to immerse myself in the joy of being together. I disconnected my work email from my phone and turned off my notifications. I left texting intact, though, for family communication on days we went our separate ways.

The first day of the vacation was July 13, which also was the day someone tried to assassinate former President Donald Trump. That’s a national crisis if ever there was one. No one wants our country to be a place where elected officials – former or current – are assassinated. Such attempts undermine our sense of national security and, with many, cause us to re-examine our national discord. Many politicians responded with messages of unity.

Even though I was disconnected, I knew about the assassination attempt soon after it happened. I am a news guy after all. But I was in the Magic Kingdom with grandkids. My focus was their joy and wonder. Some time later, I checked my phone and saw a message had arrived at 8:18 p.m., exactly two hours and seven minutes after the assassination attempt. It was from Moreno.

When “journalists” like you labeled Trump another Hitler and claim there will never be another election or that America ends if he’s re-elected, what did you think was going to happen?

Again, this is barely a couple of hours after the attempt. No one had a clue yet about the would-be assassin’s motive or, or even, his identity. The nation was in shock that such violence had occurred once again and wanted details about Trump’s condition. But Moreno picked that moment to send the above text.

Before I go further, I should mention a previous exchange I had with him. A couple of years earlier, on our Today in Ohio podcast, I was talking about Moreno as a candidate for Senate in the race that ultimately sent JD Vance to Washington. This was in the early days of the campaign, before Moreno had abandoned many of the principles for which Northeast Ohio knew him, before we realized how desperate he was for Trump’s approval. I marveled on the podcast that Moreno, who once urged Republicans to accept the 2020 election results, completely reversed himself and called the 2020 election stolen. I likened his reversal to the behavior of 1930s Nazis, who knew the truth about Hitler but kept standing by him for their political gain. Moreno found the comparison offensive, which might explain why he sent me a text mentioning Hitler.

Regardless, here I was, vacationing in Walt Disney World with news of the assassination attempt fresh in my head, reading a text from Moreno saying it was my fault.

I responded at 9:13:

Yeah, Bernie. Stick with the fascist playbook. Try to blame the journalists.

And I put my phone away.

The next day, I saw that Moreno had followed up with a barrage of messages deep into Saturday night. At 9:21 p.m. came:

You own this. Thanks to you I now have to take extra care to protect my family. I hope you get lots of money for your click bait crap.

At 9:49:

YOU OWN THIS!!! Apologize to your readers for your rhetoric. Anything short of that shows how shallow and hollow you are as a man.

He sent two more messages that, for some reason, he unsent before I could read them. Too offensive? Too mild? Only he knows, but Apple’s messaging app recorded their arrival and deletion.

At 10:08 p.m. he was still at it, texting me a social media link of someone criticizing the media for accusing Trump of inciting violence.

He finished up at 12:39 p.m. the next day with a link to a column I wrote about Trump – one that was popular across the globe – and this message:

Resign. You’re a disgrace to your profession.

I never responded again. One, I was on vacation, and two, I have found the best response to unhinged messaging is to ignore it. I regularly receive unhinged messages, which seem to get sloppier the later they arrive in the night.

Normally, I would have let Moreno’s messages fade into the background without thinking about them again, as I do with most offensive messages I receive. In this case, I keep returning to the fact Moreno seeks your vote. Part of my job is to inform the electorate about candidates. For three weeks, I’ve been nagged by a feeling that my duty here is to share his texts?

I don’t publish this incautiously. I know some will say this column is petty, or partisan. It’s not about that. It’s about me being a journalist with exclusive access to information about a candidate for statewide office. I’d publish it no matter which party he represented. I can say that I’ve been at this work for many years, and I’ve never received anything remotely similar from Sherrod Brown. Or Mike DeWine. Or Rob Portman, John Glenn or George Voinovich.

No, this is about Moreno the person, not Moreno the Republican. When he found himself facing the national crisis of an attempted assassination of a former president, his immediate response wasn’t to remain calm and wait for the facts. He didn’t become pensive or unifying. He jumped to a preposterous conclusion and went on the attack.

Which brings me full circle, back to Frank Jackson’s adage about how leaders show their mettle in a crisis.

Read Moreno’s messages again.

Is this how a leader should respond to a crisis?

I’m at [email protected]

Any other journalism this week that you would like to report?

Otherwise, open thread!

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As A Father, Elon Musk Is “Daddy Dearest”

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Every family has a designated weirdo and that was me.

But no matter how much of a knucklehead I was during my difficult teenage years, my family always supported me even though I knew they didn’t always understand where I was coming from. They always had my back, and I loved them for that.

I was blessed. However, some people aren’t so lucky. If the appropriate boxes aren’t checked off, they won’t get a helping hand but a slap in the face, and it hurts more when it’s coming from someone who says they love you.

To contrast and compare, let’s look at Elon Musk, the techbro zillionaire who can’t buy a clue.

Elon Musk contains multitudes. Unfortunately, they’re all bad.

Musk is a monstrous human being. As a dysfunctional parental unit, he’s a monster. Musk sees his children either as disposable props or punching bags.

In a recent interview with fellow nutjob Jordan Peterson, Musk babbled (again) about the infamous “mind woke virus” and how it “stole my son from me”.

Vivian Jenna Wilson pushed back against Musk’s nonsense. Hard.

“I think he was under the assumption that I wasn’t going to say anything and I would just let this go unchallenged,” she told NBC News in an interview published July 25. “Which I’m not going to do, because if you’re going to lie about me, like, blatantly to an audience of millions, I’m not just gonna let that slide.” 

Wilson—whom Musk shares with ex-wife Justine Wilson—clapped back by saying she is entitled to make her own decisions when it comes to her identity and health. 

“I would like to emphasize one thing: I am an adult. I am 20 years old. I am not a child,” she said. “My life should be defined by my own choices.” 

Wilson—who filed to change her name when she was 18—also detailed her estranged relationship with Musk, which she said began long before she came out as trans at age 16.

Calling Musk “cold” and “quick to anger” during her childhood, Wilson alleged he was only present about 10 percent of the time. 

“He is uncaring and narcissistic,” she said, recalling one “cruel” incident in fourth grade during which he allegedly berated her vocal tone. “He was constantly yelling at me viciously because my voice was too high.”


It’s difficult, awkward, and confusing to transition from being a child to a young adult, and the arguments that erupted at home usually resulted from me trying to figure things out and my parents trying to figure me out. But despite all of the generational drama, I knew that they loved me, and the invaluable support of my family throughout the years was the solid bedrock that helped me navigate the turbulent waters of my teenage years.

And no matter how bad it got at times, my mother and father never acted like they were ashamed of me. My mother and father never did to me what Musk did to his daughter.

There’s a line from a Law and Order episode that spills the tea about men like Musk:

“He wasn’t a father,” Jack McCoy said. “He just happened to be in the room when the child was conceived.”

I bet Ms. Wilson wishes Tim Walz was her Dad.

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Helicopters in the Sky Try to Lift Me Up

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Helicopters in the Sky Try to Lift Me Up

I guess I should be amused by the amount of attention that Trump is getting for his confabulated story about the helicopter crash that wasn’t with the black guy that wasn’t Willie Brown (Nate Holden) when they spoke of not Kamala Harris (it was 1990 and she was getting started as a deputy DA in San Francisco, not LA, where Holden was from).  But I’m not, because it’s a symptom of the sickness that infects the press corpse — they get spun up by trivia rather than substance, and they’ll drill in forever on shit like this.   (Though, to be clear, I’m glad Willie Brown is enjoying his moment in the spotlight at age 90.)

Compared to the other shit Trump said at his press conference, this helicopter nonsense is trivia.  He fabricated a story about immigrants from the Congo being sent to the US, couldn’t give a straight answer on banning mifepristone, and doubled down on the racist “is she really black” attacks on Harris.  Plus, he doesn’t seem to know Tim Walz’ name.

That all said, I think the outrage at the press is having some effect.  Here’s the initial headline on the Walz education story at the Post:

Helicopters in the Sky Try to Lift Me Up 1

Here’s the headline now:

Helicopters in the Sky Try to Lift Me Up 2

The story (gift link) isn’t bad — it’s the absolute inability of the headline writers (and the political press in general) to put the facts before the analysis, or skip the analysis entirely, that’s really killing political journalism.   The second headline is just a much better piece of journalism than the first, no matter what your political leaning.

One of my high school writing teachers always said that the hardest thing for a writer to do is to crank out a simple declarative sentence.  That’s evident in spades in today’s political coverage.  Every editor at the big rags should send out a one-sentence memo to their political correspondents:  “Five W’s and an H, motherfuckers!”

Trumpers aren’t going to pay for subscriptions to the Post, Times or any other “librul” rag.  We are their customers.  We’re paying for information, not half-baked, uninformative analysis.

(Atrios made a similar point in a different way and it’s worth reading.)

 

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