Wednesday, October 09, 2024

Lindsey Graham the feckless coward

 

 

Feckless.  I bet if you looked it up, you'd find Lindsey Graham's face next to the term.  He's a US senator from Georgia that is a 'confirmed bachelor.'  He was against Donald Trump early on and then Donald started Tweeting about how many Lindsey was one of those boys who liked boys.  That's all it took to whip the closet case into line.

So by the time Trump got to the White House, Lindsey was Donald's beck-and-call-boy.  He's remained it ever since.  He used to be strange but consistent -- that's when he was friends with Senator John McCain.  Without McCain to guide him, he's just a mess.

And I bring all that up because of Rhian Lubin's article at THE INDEPENDENT which notes Bob Woodward's book (released this coming Tuesday):


Senator Lindsey Graham has urged an “erratic” Donald Trump to move on from his false claims about the 2020 election so that January 6 won’t be his “obituary,” according to Bob Woodward’s new book.

The veteran journalist relays a series of alleged conversations between the former president and Graham, a top Trump ally, in his upcoming book War due out on October 15 and seen in advance by CNN.

According to Woodward, the South Carolina Republican advised Trump over his 2024 campaign, telling him that if he moves on from falsely claiming the 2020 election was stolen, “then January 6 won’t be your obituary.”

Unlike many Republicans, Graham has told Trump that Biden “won fair and square” in the 2020 race but Trump “doesn’t like to hear” it.

A few days after that particular conversation, Woodward writes that Trump told Graham: “I gave a speech today and I only mentioned the 2020 election twice!”

According to Woodward, this was said “as if it had shown maximum restrain.”

 

[. . .]

“Going to Mar-a-Lago is a little bit like going to North Korea,” Graham said. “Everybody stands up and claps every time Trump comes in.”



What a feckless coward.  Friday's national coming out day (Oct 11th).  Maybe Graham can stop being such a coward?

 

 Closing with C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

 

Wednesday, October 9, 2024.  Donald Trump's dowry to Vladimir Putin, his damaging lies and so much more.


Some days you just aren't in the mood for the nonsense lies.  That's me this morning after seeing way too many e-mails to the public account from idiots and liars who insist that Donald Trump is the answer to free speech.  It's as though Glynneth Greenwald, Matt Taibbi and Elon Musk had their sock puppets astroturf the public e-mail account.

But since the liars have bothered me, let's be really clear on something.

Elon Musk, Greenwal, Taibbi and Robert Kennedy Jr are not for free speech.  They say they are, but they're not.  


If you're for free speech, you don't, as Elon did, donate to Ron DeSantis who's currently going after TV stations that air commercials about Florida's proposed amendment on abortion. And most importantly, you don't believe in book banning.  Moms For Bigotry backed Ron, was supported by Ron, was appointed to offices by Ron.

That's not free speech.

But Matt and Glennie and Junior have been allowed to define free speech as they see it without any real pushback -- and that basically boils down to, I don't believe in vaccines!!!!!

Now you can go sell that lie on FOX "NEWS."  But in the real world, when you're calling for book bans you're not for free speech and stop pretending that you are.   When others are calling for book bans and you can't say a word about it, then you aren't for free speech.

As for Donald?  His threats against the press, his threats against comedians -- His threats against the world.  

I don't have time to waste on stupidity.  

But looking at some of those e-mails from deeply deluded and disturbed people, I thought it at least called for a clarification that book banning is not free speech and that none of your self-appointed fright-wing Free Speech 'defenders' has pushed back on book bans.

Donald's 'free speech' beliefs are that he can lie repeatedly and try to pass those lies off as free speech.




             Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday said she thinks former President Donald Trump has no empathy for others as he continues to spread misinformation about the federal response in the wake of Hurricane Helene.

“It’s profound, and it is the height of irresponsibility and frankly callousness. … Lives are literally at stake right now,” Harris said during an interview on ABC’s “The View.” “I mean we’re talking about real human beings and their lives and they’re losing everything, everything.”

She added, “The idea that somebody would be playing political games for the sake of himself – but this is so consistent about Donald Trump.”

             “He puts himself before the needs of others. I fear that he really lacks empathy on a very basic level to care about the suffering of other people and then understand the role of a leader is not to beat people down, it’s to lift people up especially in a time of crisis,” she added.

Following Hurricane Helene, and with Hurricane Milton barreling toward Florida, Trump has repeatedly falsely claimed, without evidence, that the White House is diverting disaster relief aid to unrelated migrant programs. While FEMA does manage grants for housing and helping migrants, that is a separate account and unrelated to the disaster relief funds.

Trump has also repeatedly criticized the Biden administration’s response to Helene, including falsely saying that the president wasn’t picking up the calls and that there is an anti-Republican bias in how President Joe Biden and Harris are responding to the crisis.     


Democratic Party presidential candidate Kamala Harris was on THE VIEW yesterday addressing a number of topics.  Here's the clip of her discussing the government's response to Hurricane Helene.




Harris described personal stories she heard from those affected by Hurricane Helene and its aftermath after traveling to Georgia and North Carolina.

"People are losing their home with no hope of ever being able to reconstruct or return, and the idea that somebody would be playing political games for the sake of himself -- but this is so consistent about Donald Trump," she said. "He puts himself before the needs of others. I fear that he really lacks empathy on a very basic level to care about suffering of other people and understand the role of a leader is not to beat people down, it's to lift people up."

Harris' sit-down on "The View" marked her first live interview since becoming the Democratic nominee. She is ramping up her media appearances this week with now just one month until Election Day.



Kamala has one of the hardest jobs in the world right now.  She's got to put forward ideas -- as any presidential candidate would be expected to do -- but she also has to spend a significant amount of her campaign time each day refuting some of Donald Trump's lies.  Some.  Not all.  The media -- even when they're trying to -- is unable to refute all of Donald Trump's lies because the lies never end.




Former President Donald Trump’s deadly lies about the federal response to Hurricane Helene — and soon, inevitably, Hurricane Milton — depend on the impermeability of the right-wing information bubble.

President Joe Biden has directed an ongoing federal and state response to the swath of death and destruction Hurricane Helene left on the southeastern United States, an effort which includes tens of thousands of personnel helping victims across several states. 

Trump’s Helene response has been characterized by conspiracy theories and grievance-mongering for political gain.

The Biden administration won plaudits from GOP elected officials across the region, but Trump falsely claimed the federal government abandoned the public. Americans affected by the storm can access a robust program of federal assistance, but he falsely claims they could only get $750 in aid. The White House stressed there’s plenty of FEMA funds to respond to both Helene and Milton — and Republicans are reportedly the ones blocking additional funding — but Trump falsely claims Vice President Kamala Harris blew “all her FEMA money” housing immigrants. 

The former president, through these deranged fabrications, is trying to win votes in the coming election. He is summoning an alternate reality in which Biden and Harris are blithely unconcerned with the fates of millions of victims because many of those victims are Republicans and they instead prioritize immigrants. And he is doing so despite his own record  as president of allegedly withholding disaster aid for political reasons.

The only reason this strategy is remotely plausible is that the right-wing media ecosystem is willing to play along with it. The news sources Republicans rely on, from MAGA influencers to Fox stars, have bolstered Trump’s lies at every turn. The result is that right-wing audiences are bombarded with falsehoods from within an echo chamber.

The MAGA media ecosystem responds in this same fashion to every news event because its function isn’t to report on what is happening. Instead, right-wing pundits offer a scapegoat — immigrants, Jews, journalists, teachers, trans people, Democrats, anti-Trump Republicans — in order to hold their audience’s attention, make money, and support the GOP’s core agenda of tax cuts for rich people and abortion bans.

This incentive structure is universally toxic. But when it collides with issues like disaster relief, the consequences can turn deadly. Before, during, and after a hurricane, people on the ground need credible information about what to do, what help is available, and how to get it. Right now, the sources many victims depend on for news are lying to them.

Hurricane misinformation is plaguing the response to Helene. Local media outlets, federal and state officials, and emergency responders all are desperately trying to swat down rumors and falsehoods — some promoted by the former president. Republican officials in affected areas are begging the people pushing “conspiracy theory junk” to stop lying and pitch in instead.



On THE VIEW, she spoke of other things, such as Medicare, as well.





Labor unions and consumer advocates were among those applauding Tuesday after U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris announced her proposal for home healthcare coverage under Medicare—a broadly popular idea, according to polls, that supporters said would be a "game-changer" for millions of families.

On the ABC talk show "The View," Harris spoke about the "sandwich generation"—middle-aged Americans who find themselves caring for aging parents while they're also raising their own children.

"There are so many people in our country who are right in the middle," said the Democratic presidential nominee. "And it's just, almost, impossible to do it all, especially if they work. We're finding that so many are then having to leave their job, which means losing a source of income, not to mention the emotional stress. And so what I am proposing is that basically what we will do is allow Medicare to cover in-home healthcare."

Medicare currently only covers in-home healthcare for short periods of time, such as in cases of a patient recovering from surgery. But the number of aging Americans who need need prolonged healthcare at home is expected to explode in the coming years as members of the baby boomer generation reach their 80s.

Medicaid covers home care for low-income people who are elderly or have disabilities, but waiting lists are long and beneficiaries are required to max out their savings before qualifying.

Covering at-home healthcare for Medicare's 67 million beneficiaries would "provide much-needed relief and financial support" to about 37 million people who currently provide unpaid eldercare to their family members, said former Labor Secretary Robert Reich.

Lisa Gilbert, co-president of consumer advocacy watchdog Public Citizen, said that "home health expansion through Medicare is a smart and desperately needed place to start" on the road to expanding and improving Medicare.

"This important expansion would finally allow Medicare to cover crucial services where many beneficiaries would prefer to receive them—in the safety and comfort of their homes," said Gilbert. "Such an expansion would lay the groundwork for even further improvements and expansions to Medicare including hearing, dental, and vision services. A low out-of-pocket cap on medical expenses would ensure seniors can afford to get the care they need, and by reining in Medicare Advantage overpayments, we could fund many of these priorities."

Service Employees International Union (SEIU) president April Verrett said the plan offers the latest contrast between Harris and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who aims to repeal the Affordable Care Act and has said he has "concepts of a plan" to replace the law.

"Along with her proposals to invest in childcare, in paid leave, and to make Medicaid investments in home care, as well as lower costs for working families and raising wages for care workers, Kamala Harris is showing that she's been listening to working families," said Verrett. "In this presidential election, we have the choice between a candidate who has a plan for working families and one who has only offered 'concepts of a plan,' including gutting the Affordable Care Act and the nonsensical idea of paying for childcare through tariffs, which would actually raise prices."

"Care workers rallied to elect President [Joe] Biden and Vice President Harris, and this administration has demonstrated again and again that they stand with us," added Verrett. "Now we need to finish the job with Kamala Harris as president, making home care accessible to all and delivering the historic investment in care that our nation desperately needs."

The vice president said Medicare negotiations over drug prices, which were begun under the Biden administration over the objections of Republicans and which she supports expanding, would pay for the new Medicare benefit.

"Part of what I also intend to do is allow Medicare to continue to negotiate drug prices against these big pharmaceutical companies, which means we are going to save Medicare the money, because we're not going to be paying these high prices, and that those resources are best then put in a way that helps a family," said Harris.

Gilbert expressed hope that the new benefit, which would need to be approved by Congress, would be just one step toward expanding Medicare coverage to all Americans.

"We must continue to expand the availability of Medicare by lowering the qualifying age," she said, "so we can finally build a healthcare system that ensures that every American can get the care they need when they need it without going bankrupt."

 
Convicted Felon Donald Trump is in the news cycle for healthcare as well.  At the height of the pandemic, when Americans needed test kits to determine if they had COVID and these test kits were in short supply, Donald sent them to Russia for his buddy Vladimir Putin, as Mike put it, "Donald gives it away to Vlad."





Vice President Harris is criticizing Donald Trump following new reporting by the journalist Bob Woodward that the former president secretly shared COVID-19 test machines with Russia’s Vladimir Putin at a moment in 2020 when tests were out of reach for most Americans.

The revelation, first reported by CNN and The Washington Post on Tuesday, is detailed in a forthcoming book called War by the famed Watergate journalist, about Trump’s record on the international stage, as well as President Biden’s.

According to the book, Trump sent the secret shipment of testing equipment to the Russian leader at the height of the pandemic in 2020, even as the U.S. and other nations were facing crippling shortages of testing kits.









Imagine, for just a moment, if Kamala Harris’s supporters were prone to the sort of political idolatry that characterizes Donald Trump’s devotees. It’s a thought experiment suited to an election for which the word historic feels inadequate to capture either Harris’s political ascent or the sheer number of unprecedented events that led to it. There is the aberration of Trump, the twice-impeached, feloniously convicted, rape-adjudicated former president—a bitter old racist returned for a third time to usher in the white supremacist autocracy that his attempted coup failed to. In any election, President Joe Biden’s age and enfeeblement since taking office would have been an issue of concern, but under the threat of Trumpism, Biden’s disastrous debate performance jettisoned the false narrative that he alone was a bulwark for democracy. Harris—elected in 2020 as the first woman, first Black, and first South Asian vice president because her résumé of legislative and prosecutorial public service made her uniquely suited for the job—should have been recognized as a better candidate than both of those men from the start. And yet, as Biden’s post-debate numbers waned and Trump’s bandaged ear crystallized his MAGA martyrdom, but her unpopularity became a tired echo of 2016’s but her emails. The commentariat, which began sowing doubts about Harris’s viability nearly as soon as she assumed the vice presidency, even floated other names for consideration as Biden’s exit became increasingly probable. Minyon Moore, chair of the Democratic National Convention, said she watched with “fascination” as the media spun a tale she always knew was divorced from reality.
“The rules dictated a lot. What they did not understand was the rules,’’ Moore told me. “First of all, she campaigned for two years with Joe Biden. She raised money for Joe Biden. She took no shortcuts. What they were trying to do was put in place a process that did not exist…. Those 4,000 delegates literally voted for Joe Biden—but they also voted for his ticket. And she was a part of that ticket.”

When Biden, a record-breaking 107 days before the election, finally left the race and endorsed Harris, the act unexpectedly unleashed an outpouring of enthusiasm and joy, emotions rarely associated with politics in recent years. The mood shift not only proved Harris’s naysayers wrong but also revealed how Biden’s frailty and Trump’s darkness had drained the party to sepia tones. Harris’s run, quite unexpectedly, infused it with color and light again. If the left had the same sanctification tendencies as the Trumpian right, the improbable events leading to Harris’s nomination might have been cast as divine intervention—Jesus taking the wheel, only to hand the keys to Harris, so she might steer America away from Trumpism and back onto a righteous road.

But the Democratic Party is not a cult of personality, a fact proved by Biden’s withdrawal. Harris’s run produced a jubilance incomparable to anything seen since at least Barack Obama’s first run, and it may even have eclipsed that. Within hours of becoming the presumptive nominee, Harris was buoyed by organizers who had begun laying the groundwork for her run years before. A Zoom organized by Win With Black Women drew 44,000 participants, an unprecedented number that required the site’s engineers to increase capacity. The call ultimately raised $1.5 million in just three hours. At least a dozen other calls followed—South Asian Women for Harris, Win With Black Men, White Women: Answer the Call—each enlisting volunteers and strategizing for a Harris win. In mid-September, Voto Latino reported a 200 percent surge in its voter registrations since the day Harris replaced Biden. A senior analyst at TargetSmart, a data research firm, reported that registrations are up more than 85 percent among Black voters overall and a staggering 98 percent among Black women. Potential youth voters increased most impressively. In 13 states, registrations have gone up nearly 176 percent and 150 percent among 18- to 29-year-old Black and Hispanic women, respectively. Taylor Swift’s much-anticipated endorsement of Harris, which came moments after Harris thrashed Trump in the debate, drove “a 400 or 500 percent increase” in people going to vote.gov to register, according to a TargetSmart analyst. What’s more, young Democrats are 14 percent more enthusiastic about voting than their Republican counterparts. While party killjoys such as David Axelrod suggested Democrats were feeling “irrational exuberance,” and James Carville chastised their “giddy elation,” organizers were getting down to work and galvanizing people to get Harris elected. Those on the ground, doing the real heavy lifting, helped consolidate support for Harris, building a campaign powered not from the top down, but from the grassroots up.







The following sites updated plus Rebecca's "vance and trump and their lies" which isn't showing up






 

 

 

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