Tuesday, September 10, 2024

Beyonce's too damn good for the CMAs!

WTF?

Mary Cunningham (CBS NEWS) reports on Beyonce's COWBOY CARTER.:

The 2024 Country Music Awards nominations are out — and Beyoncé's name is nowhere to be found on the list of nominees.

The pop icon made her foray into country music in March of this year with the release of "Cowboy Carter." The 27-track album, featuring fan favorites "Texas Hold 'Em" and "16 Carriages," broke streaming records upon its release, becoming Spotify's most-streamed album in a single day in 2024 and earning the title of most first-day streams of a country album by a female artist on Amazon Music.

According to the CMA website, the nominees and winners of the annual award show are determined by the Country Music Association, which consists of 6,000 industry professional members.

Shaboozey, who is featured in two tracks on "Cowboy Carter," posted on his X account after the nominations were announced, writing: "That goes without saying. Thank you @Beyonce for opening a door for us, starting a conversation, and giving us one of the most innovative country albums of all time!"

I can't believe it. I'm not of the Beehive. But COWBOY CARTER is one of the best albums -- in fact, if I were doing my year-in-review piece right now, it would be number one for 2024. How do you ignore that album? It is a masterpiece. You know what? Good. Good that CMA showed their real nature. We know them, we see them. And this means the Grammys can rectify the blatant racism by ensuring Beyonce's album receives multiple nominations -- and wins album of the year -- long overdue.

The debate's going to be starting shortly. Go read Ava and C.I.'s "Media: A great sitcom, a lousy debate."

Closing with C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

Tuesday, September 10, 2024. Kamala Harris debates Donald Trump tonight.

We are 55 days away from the US presidential election. Tonight, the only two people who stand a chance at becoming president will be on the stage in a debate: Kamala Harris (Democratic Party presidential nominee) and Donald Trump (Republican Party presidential nominee).

Caitlin Yilek (CBS NEWS) offers:

A coin flip determined where Trump and Harris will stand on stage and the order of closing statements. Trump won the coin toss and chose to give the last closing statement. Harris selected the lectern on the left of the stage, meaning viewers will see her on the right side of their screens.

Candidates will have two minutes each for their closing statements. There are no opening statements. They will have two minutes to answer moderators' questions, two minutes for rebuttals and an extra minute for follow-ups or clarifications.

Harris and Trump will not be allowed to bring prewritten notes on stage, but will have a pen, notepad and bottle of water at their lecterns.

Campaign staff cannot interact with candidates during the commercial breaks, and there will be no live audience.

The debate will be carried on cable channels such as CNN, MSNBC and FOX "NEWS." Broadcast channels will include ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS. You can stream it live on PBS' website as well as on PBS' YOUTUBE channel, on CBS NEWS online, PARAMOUNT+, HULU, DISNEY+ etc. In "Media: A great sitcom, a lousy debate," Ava and I addressed the problems with the debate and the pretense that journalism is taking place (in June, no journalism took place):

So what's the answer? MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell has rightly noted that, the way TV works, a running fact check could be done onscreen during the actual debate. We have no problem with that.

In addition, however, we're aware that there will be two breaks in the debate. Instead of wasting those on commercials, they should be used for fact checks. Three or four journalists should immediately begin letting viewers know what just happened. They should do that during both breaks and as well as right after the debate ends when a third fact check should take place -- no lingering over the candidates on stage, go into the third fact check immediately.

Tomorrow night, ABC will most likely fail at any kind of accountability or fact check during the debate itself. If that is what happens, we all need to grasp that journalism was not practiced. Asking questions is not enough. Your job also includes informing the audience when someone lies and holding them accountable.

There are a lot of question marks about tonight's debate but one thing is known: Donald will lie. Donald will lie a lot.

Matt Lavietes (NBC NEWS) reports:

Former President Donald Trump repeated his false claim that children are undergoing transition-related surgery during their school day, worsening fears among some conservatives that educators are pushing children to become transgender and aiding transitions without parental awareness.

“Can you imagine you’re a parent and your son leaves the house and you say, ‘Jimmy, I love you so much, go have a good day in school,’ and your son comes back with a brutal operation? Can you even imagine this? What the hell is wrong with our country?” Trump said Saturday at a campaign rally in Wisconsin, a vital swing state.

Trump made similar remarks — saying children were returning home from school after having had surgical procedures — the previous weekend at an event hosted by Moms for Liberty, a parent activist group that has gained outsized influence in conservative politics in recent years.

Asked by one of the group’s co-founders how he would address the “explosion in the number of children who identify as transgender,” Trump said: “Your kid goes to school and comes home a few days later with an operation. The school decides what’s going to happen with your child.”

There is no evidence that a student has ever undergone gender-affirming surgery at a school in the U.S., nor is there evidence that a U.S. school has sent a student to receive such a procedure elsewhere.

The deeply stupid MAGA and the con artists who represents them are the best example of the need for fact-based education. When Donald lied in the June debate, the media spent over a week talking about . . . Joe Biden's energy levels. Donald Trump said on that debate stage that women were giving birth to babies and then, right after birth, aborting them. That is a lie. That is such a lie that it should have been a SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE sketch (were SNL not on summer hiatus). But the media largely let it pass. It should have been hammered home what a liar this piece of crap is. And it would have made clear that his fondlers like Glenneth Greenwald and Jonathan Turley and all the rest of the creeps are lie-based personalities. They don't deal in truth, they just run a con on you.

There is too much at stake for a liar to get a pass.

And apparently we'll have to count on corporate media since what bills itself as 'independent' media has too much to do and can't be bothered with calling out Donald Trump as a result. We do see you, we do see what you're doing. And we hope you understand that we won't be helping you in the future. Our democracy is at stake and yet you won't write articles and do videos about everything except that. We see it. We get how useless you are. How unneeded you are. And how much money and time we've wasted building you up only to learn that when the call came to save the country, you'd have other things to do.

That's fine. We have other things to put our money into.

In Texas, Governor Greg Asshole is purging voter rolls -- claiming to still be purging despite laws forbidding this 90 days before an election. In Texas, Attorney General Ken Paxton has been bullying Latino Americans to try to lower their turnout at the polls and now he's again requesting the medical records of Teas women. In Wisconsin, the MAGA crowd is trying to bully and intimidate the challenged and disabled communities. Alex Woodward (INDEPENDENT) notes:

A widely derided election crimes dragnet from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis appears to be targeting voters who signed a petition to get an abortion rights amendment on state ballots this fall, a measure that the Republican governor and his anti-abortion allies strongly oppose.

DeSantis’s administration has previously deployed law enforcement officers to the homes of formerly incarcerated people who were accused of illegally voting. Most of those charges were eventually dropped.

Now, officers appear to be visiting the homes of citizens who signed a petition that successfully put Amendment 4 on November’s ballots, which would enshrine the right to abortion care in the state’s constitution — and overturn state law signed by DeSantis that bans abortion at six weeks of pregnancy, before most people know they are pregnant.

MAGA and Trump want to destroy democracy and they won't let anything stop them.

Meanwhile, the likes of COMMON DREAMS want everyone to pretend that they're not doing their part to get Donald Trump elected.

Your garbage bulls**t is not working. It's burying you and its why you're getting less traffic. It's why you're going to get less donations.

This is a time for people to come together and stop this threat to our democracy. That's why Adam Kinzinger, Liz Cheney and so many other Republicans have stepped forward to say they are voting for Kamala Harris.

But the garbage online 'left' wants to insist that Jill Stein is the answer. That would be same Jill Stein who keeps posting videos at her YOUTUBE channel and she's lucky to get 2,000 views. But, hey, you insist she's the candidate.

Just like you lie that AOC attacked her.

AOC didn't attack that grifter. Jill Stein has been attacking Kamala Harris for weeks.

Not Donald Trump, mind you, but Kamala Harris.

Because that's how stupid these people are.

Jill is a con artist. She's an anti-vax con artist. I've noted that here and even reposted an editorial we did at THIRD on it. And some of the Jill Freaks e-mailed the public account to whine this was a lie -- it wasn't -- that THE DAILY BEAST started in late 2016. It wasn't a lie. But check the THIRD editorial reposted here that had you so bent out of shape: The date's 2015.

All THE DAILY BEAST (and others) did was compile her long, long list of anti-vax statements and positions.

In 2012, we realized what a liar and con artist Jill Stein was. From "Let the fun begin (Ava and C.I.):"

Jill Stein.

As feminists, we wondered six weeks ago, what do we do?

Roseanne had already imploded. (Cindy Sheehan has a story to tell and then some.) She couldn't and wouldn't campaign, she apparently wouldn't pay workers she hired for her campaign, she was an embarrassment.

And so was Jill Stein.

As feminists, do we call it as it is?

We debated that for three days. Jill wasn't going to win the presidency. In fact, it was obvious she was running off the limited votes she did have a shot at.

But did we tell the truth on that? Did we call her out?

We crossed the line on gender with the decision -- a feminist one (not "the" feminist one) -- that she was running for public office and therefore had to be treated the same as anyone else would even if, in the closing weeks, we were going to tear her apart.

But . . .

Having dealt with the feminist issue, we still had the issue of third parties.

Was it really fair to beat up on a third party candidate?

Adding to the problems, one of us (Ava) is involved with a lifelong Green (Jess), has a child by him, has made a home with him.

And Jess was very clear that Jill Stein was "a f**king idiot but the Greens need to be on ballots." And they were. Texas, for example. We heard from Billie who early voted for Jill Stein. She was so excited because Jill Stein was on the ballot. She didn't have to write her in. Right there on the Texas ballot was the Green Party.

What do we do?

In the end, we decided, "We don't promote her. We don't mention her. That's true here, that's true at Third."

So we bit our tongues.

As she ran a stupid campaign. As she made a fool of herself and the Green Party. (Granted, it's a party that loves to make a fool of itself.)

She -- and others -- did a debate with Larry King. A debate that did not include all. A new hurdle was invented.

Green Party members, you know what a hurdle is, right? It's what keeps your candidate out of the so-called presidential debates every four years. Why the hell would you take part in a debate that did not invite everyone who made it onto a state's ballot as a presidential candidate?

Because hypocrisy is a charge you live to embrace?

Maybe so.

Supposedly the Green Party is opposed to war.

So when Tim Arango reported the White House was negotiating with Nouri to send more troops back into Iraq, Jill Stein should have led on that.

But she's a politician which is just a whore without the desire to please a customer.

So Jill ignored it.

She ignored a lot.

Six weeks ago, in fact, after Barack cratered in the first debate, she and her campaign began going after Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan.

Huh?

You're a Green. You're on the left. The high profile left vote getter just imploded on national TV. It's the perfect time for you to pick up some of his voters.

But you refuse to try. You rush to go after Romney and Ryan instead.

Why is that?

Because you are not a real party.

Because you will forever be the little sister of the Democratic Party.

Because every four years, you start off with promise and end up revealing just how craven and disgusting you are.

If we are offering commentary four years from now, please note, being a Green will not save you. Being third party will not save you.

We will call you out in real time.

And we've called her out ever since. She is a fake ass, she is a liar. And she will not win the 2024 election.

But already the grifter and her tiny base are working daily to knock enthusiasm out of those supporting Kamala Harris. They're trying to make people ashamed of supporting Kamala. Black women especially are not supporting this crap but no one on the left should be.

The ultimate Karen is running for president for a third time and that's outrageous.

That doesn't build a party. It says instead that the party is dead and that for a third time they couldn't come up with a real candidate and that instead of reaching out to one of their younger members and using a presidential campaign to build his or her stature, they're going with the 74-year-old for a third time.

Democracy's on the line, but, hey, go grift with Jill. See how that helps the country.

The Green Party -- the 'left' side where the anti-vax crowd goes, where the crowd that insists the two planes that brought down the Twin Towers were actually holograms, where every and any nutty conspiracy can fly. And they wonder why they can't build a national party?

There are serious issues at stake in this election and Jill Stein and her cult can't focus on them.

Everything about her is a lie. Every promise she makes is a lie.

Now I've been kind and fair. I defended Susan Sarandon, for example. I'm not defending her now as she does her quiet attacks on Kamala on Twitter. I don't care what happens to Susan now. She's on her own. I don't think she cost Hillary the election and I've long defended her on that. However, she does live in the US and she should know how awful it was when Donald was president. She should grasp how awful it will be -- even more so -- should he get back into the White House. But instead of working to prevent that, she uses her Twitter feed to attack Kamala Harris.

The Supreme Court overturned ROE as a result of Donald -- his three Supreme Court appointees. Women are suffering, do you not care? Look at college admissions and see how diversity is suffering. Do you not care? They want to outlaw marriage equality. Do you not care? At what point do you start caring about the American people, Susan?

I'm not blaming you for 2016. I am blaming you for doing your damnedest to destroy Kamala's campaign. I am blaming you gambling with the rights of women, people of color, LGBTQ+ people, etc. Project 2025 is not an unknown at this point nor is Donald Trump.

From the Harris-Walz campaign site:

Trump’s plan to take your power, your control, and your money.

What is the Project 2025 Agenda?

Donald Trump’s plans for total control over our daily lives have been exposed. Scroll down to see what’s in it for yourself — and tell your friends.

His Project 2025 agenda would strip away our freedoms – by forcing states to report on women’s miscarriages and abortions, cutting Social Security and Medicare, and eliminating the Department of Education.

It includes a plan hatched by people who used to work for Donald Trump that focuses on the first 180 days.

(Project 2025 Website)

The plan begins with a sweeping takeover of the federal government to consolidate power under Donald Trump. Inside pages of dense policy proposals, their intentions become clear.

“Mr. Trump and his associates have a broader goal: to alter the balance of power by increasing the president’s authority over every part of the federal government that now operates, by either law or tradition, with any measure of independence from political interference by the White House, according to a review of his campaign policy proposals and interviews with people close to him.”

(New York Times, July 17, 2023)

Project 2025 is a plan to seize power within the federal government.

First: They’d make it easier to fire non-partisan government employees, like they attempted to do at the end of Trump’s administration.

Reissue Trump’s schedule F executive order to permit discharge of nonperforming employees. (Project 2025, a Mandate for Leadership, p. 535)

Then, they’d replace them with politically appointed Trump Loyalists.

“The modern conservative President’s task is to limit, control, and direct the executive branch….The great challenge confronting a conservative President is the existential need for aggressive use of the vast powers of the executive branch.… Success in meeting that challenge will require a rare combination of boldness and self-denial: boldness to bend or break the bureaucracy to the presidential will”. (p. 43-44)

They’d end the independence of the Department of Justice and FBI…

“Conservatives have long believed in either ending law enforcement activities of independent agencies or ending their independent status. (p. 873)

…and turn them into enforcement arms of the White House.

The next conservative Administration must make every effort to obtain the resources to support a vast expansion of the number of appointees in every office and component across the department—especially in the Civil Rights Division, the FBI, and the EOIR.” (p. 569)

“[This] would also place the FBI under a politically accountable leader.” (p. 549)

Some of Donald Trump’s allies are assembling proposals to curtail the Justice Department’s independence and turn the nation’s top law enforcement body into an attack dog for conservative causes, nine people involved in the effort told Reuters.

(Reuters, May 17, 2024)

All while Trump has immunity from crimes committed in office thanks to a ruling from his Supreme Court picks.

Project 2025 is a plan to give MAGA extremists control over your life.

Trump and his Project 2025 allies overturned Roe v. Wade and unleashed extreme abortion bans across the country. Now, they’ll go even further.

They’ll implement a 50-state “backdoor ban” on abortion — without Congress — and jail health care providers.

“Announcing a Campaign to Enforce the Criminal Prohibitions in 18 U.S. Code §§ 1461 and 1462.” (p. 562)

Project 2025 would resurrect a law from the 1800s called the Comstock Act to ban abortion nationwide and jail health care providers. (p. 459)

Don’t take our word for it. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation: A literal interpretation of the [Comstock] Act could potentially also apply to materials used to produce all abortions, not just medication abortions; would not have exceptions; and could affect other medical care, such as miscarriage management.

(Kaiser Family Foundation, 4/15/24)

And they’ll ban abortion medication, which is also used in a range of ways to protect women’s health.

“Abortion pills pose the single greatest threat to unborn children in a post-Roe world…. The FDA should reverse its approval of chemical abortion drugs.” (p. 457)

They’ll force states to report women’s miscarriages and abortions to Trump’s Federal Government.

Project 2025 would “use every available tool, including the cutting of funds” to force states to report miscarriages and “exactly how many abortions take place within its borders,” including the “reason” for every abortion. (p. 455)

They’ll put limits on contraception access.

The President should “[e]liminate the week-after-pill from the contraceptive mandate as a potential abortifacient.” (p. 485)

Allows employers to deny workers access to birth control coverage. (p. 483-85)

It also calls for defunding Planned Parenthood, which provides access to contraception for over 2 million women each year. (p. 471)

And then rip away President Biden’s protections for a woman’s right to life-saving medical care.

The President should “reverse distorted pro-abortion ‘interpretations’ added to the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act. (p. 473)

They’ll enable discrimination against LGBTQ+ Americans.

Rescind regulations prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, transgender status, and sex characteristics. The President should direct agencies to rescind regulations interpreting sex discrimination provisions as prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, transgender status, sex characteristics, etc. (p. 584)

Project 2025 is a plan to make Trump and his rich friends even richer.

It will cut taxes for Trump and his rich friends and pad their profits.

“The corporate income tax should be reduced to 18 percent.” (p. 696)

And cut taxes for wealthy families — offset by tax hikes on middle class families.

Project 2025 would restructure the tax code to benefit wealthy families. (p. 696)

Millions of low- and middle-class households would likely face significantly higher taxes under the Project 2025’s proposals. [Center for American Progress senior director for economic policy Brendan Duke] estimated that a middle-class family with two children and an annual income of $100,000 would pay $2,600 in additional federal income tax if they faced a 15% flat tax on their income due to the loss of the 10% and 12% tax brackets. If the Child Tax Credit were also eliminated, they would pay an additional $6,600 compared with today’s tax system, Duke said. By comparison, a married couple with two children and earnings of $5 million a year would enjoy a $325,000 tax cut, he estimated.

(CBS News, 7/12/24)

They’d line Big Pharma’s pockets by ending prescription drug price caps for seniors, and banning Medicare from negotiating for lower drug prices.

“Repeal harmful health policies enacted under the Obama and Biden Administrations such as… the Inflation Reduction Act.” (p. 465)

“This ‘negotiation’ program should be repealed.” (p. 465)

All while Trump’s administration guts Medicare and Social Security.

When asked about cuts to entitlements like Medicare and Social Security, Trump said: “Oh we’ll be cutting,” and later doubled down, saying, “There’s a lot you can do…in terms of cutting.”

Trump has also called Social Security a “Ponzi Scheme,” supported raising the age for eligibility, and has been open to privatizing it.

They’d let employers drastically cut overtime — or eliminate it outright.

Return to Trump’s overtime rule, meaning 4 million middle class workers will lose overtime protections because of the salary they make.
Make remote employees work 10, instead of 8, hours in a day before they can earn overtime.
Prevent benefits from counting as part of workers’ overtime calculations
Allow employers to calculate overtime over four weeks instead of one. (pp. 587, 589, 592)

And they’d reinstate crippling student debt payments.

“The new Administration must end abuses in the loan forgiveness programs. Borrowers should be expected to repay their loans” (p. 322).

“The Secretary should phase out all existing [income-driven repayment] plans by making new loans (including consolidation loans) ineligible…. If new legislation is possible, there should be no loan forgiveness, but if not, existing law would require forgiving any remaining balance after 25 years.” (pp. 337-38).

Read the whole plan yourself.

AND IF YOU WANT TO STOP PROJECT 2025?

Join the Harris for President campaign to defeat Trump.

PAID FOR BY HARRIS FOR PRESIDENT

I have no use for Susan at this point.

We need to save this country. Anything you want to happen after that, I'll probably sign up for and get on board with. But whatever is on your letter to Santa Claus? It's not happening if Trump gets back into the White House. And that includes ending the suffering in Gaza. You want that to stop? Jill Stein can't -- and won't be able to -- make that stop. Donald Trump will make it worse. Kamala's your only real hope.

New content at THIRD:

The following sites updated:

Monday, September 09, 2024

New Linkin Park singer's story does not add up

Linkin Park looked like they were going to have a resurgence. It no longer looks as likely. Maybe it will happen, maybe it won't. WIKIPEDIA:

On September 5, 2024, it was revealed that Armstrong had joined Linkin Park as the band's new co-lead vocalist, debuting with the band at a live-streamed event on the same day. The live stream included a performance of "The Emptiness Machine", the lead single of the group's forthcoming album From Zero, which will be released on November 15, 2024.^[2]^[3] Linkin Park will embark on a six-date arena tour across four continents, beginning on September 11 at the Kia Forum in Inglewood and concluding at the Coliseo Medplus in Bogotá on November 11.^[13]

New singer Emily Armstrong excited a lot of people and then she didn't.

She's a Scientologist and probably that wouldn't be such an issue were it not for the fact that she was a friend of Danny Masterson's and even went to court to offer support for him on the rape charges (he was later convicted of the rape charges). As it became an issue over the weekend, she unfollowed him.

She now says people misunderstood:

“Hi, I’m Emily. I’m new to so many of you, and I wanted to clear the air about something that happened a while back,” she wrote in her Instagram Story posted on Friday, September 6.

“Several years ago, I was asked to support someone I considered a friend at a court appearance, and went to one early hearing as an observer,” she went on to say. “Soon after, I realized I shouldn’t have. I always try to see the good in people, and I misjudged him. I have never spoken with him since. Unimaginable details emerged and he was later found guilty.”

“To say it as clearly as possible: I do not condone abuse or violence against women, and I empathize with the victims of these crimes,” she added.

And here's my problem: I don't like liars. Per her statement? If that's what she honestly feels, why didn't she stop following Danny (and Bijou) on INSTAGRAM after the verdict?

WIKIPEDIA again:

Shortly after Armstrong joined Linkin Park on September 5, 2024, she was the subject of media reports about her ties to the controversial Church and her purported attendance in support of former actor and convicted rapist Danny Masterson, a longtime Scientologist, at a 2020 criminal hearing.^[21]^[22]^[23] Some of the band's fans were also critical of her affiliation with the Church.^[24]

Reports noted that one of Masterson's alleged victims, Chrissie Carnell Bixler, and her spouse, Mars Volta singer and former Scientologist Cedric Bixler-Zavala, were publicly critical of Armstrong's decision to attend a hearing during Masterson's trial.^[25]

Following the reports, Armstrong clarified on September 6 that, while she attended one court appearance where she was asked to support Masterson, she later realized she should not have done so. "Several years ago, I was asked to support someone I considered a friend at a court appearance, and went to one early hearing as an observer," she wrote in an Instagram story.^[26] "Soon after, I realized I shouldn’t have. I always try to see the good in people, and I misjudged him. I have never spoken with him since. Unimaginable details emerged, and he was later found guilty. To say it as clearly as possible: I do not condone abuse or violence against women, and I empathize with the victims of these crimes."

Masterson was convicted in May of 2023. If she truly did support the victimized, why did she wait until September 2024 to break her social media ties to Masterson?

Closing with C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

Monday, September 9, 2024. All the crazies running around aren't just named Trump -- some are named Glenneth, Edward and Ajamu -- among other names.

Starting in the US where we are 56 days away from the election. And yet Republicans in Congress continue to be unable to do the job that they were voted into office for. Lolita C Baldor (AP) reports:

Passage of a six-month temporary spending bill would have widespread and devastating effects on the Defense Department, Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin said in a letter to key members of Congress on Sunday.

Austin said that passing a continuing resolution that caps spending at 2024 levels, rather than taking action on the proposed 2025 budget will hurt thousands of defense programs, and damage military recruiting just as it is beginning to recover after the COVID-19 pandemic.

So they took their unneeded August vacation and now they're back and they can't do their job. And they're showing this to the nation weeks ahead of an election.

Where is the plan for the country? Or is it just let Donald Trump make unhinged rants and threats and pretend that's going to put food on people's table?

At COMMON DREAMS, Amy Hamauer explains:

As U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump get ready to debate for the first time this week, what can we expect from their campaigns in terms of taxes?

Harris endorses multiple proposals to generate revenue from the richest people and the biggest corporations and deliver a middle-class tax cut—with the former paying for the latter. Trump would cut some middle-class taxes but promotes a new tariff tax on imports that would hike the price of nearly everything Americans purchase and, doubling down on past practice, he’d slash taxes for millionaires and corporations. He hasn’t identified a single business or billionaire that should pay more.

When Trump and congressional Republicans passed the 2017 tax law, they made massive tax cuts for corporations permanent but set the individual cuts, which were heavily skewed to the extremely wealthy, to expire at the end of 2025. This means taxes are on next year’s policy agenda in a way that rarely comes along. The approaches articulated by the campaigns would pull the nation in profoundly different directions.

Trump says he would again slash corporate tax rates, keep all corporate cuts from the 2017 tax law, extend 2017’s expiring cuts for everyone including the uber-wealthy, and impose large tariffs that fall on everyone who spends money on anything.

Trump’s tariff tax proposals—60% tariff taxes on imports from China and 20% on all other imports—would cost the typical American household over $2,600 a year according to economist Kim Clausing. Earlier analysis of a previously-discussed 10 percent worldwide tariff tax shows an increase in inflation resulting from the plan, which would also generate $2.8 trillion in revenue over the next decade, raised from consumers.

Much of that revenue would go to corporations. When lawmakers cut the corporate rate from 35% to 21% in 2017, corporate tax payments plummeted, and huge, profitable corporations continued to pay far below the statutory rate. We’d see this on steroids if Trump slashed the corporate rate to 15%. Such cuts increase income and racial inequality and send a massive windfall—40 cents of every dollar—to foreign investors.

The law that the Trump administration passed in 2017 delivered enormous tax cuts to those in the top 1%, a narrow sliver of well-off people with income over $800,000 a year. These individual cuts for the rich expire in 2025, but the Trump campaign wants to make them permanent, sending almost two-thirds of that money to the richest fifth of Americans. This would cost more than $280 billion in 2026 alone, slashing revenue that could otherwise provide tax cuts for middle-income Americans, reduce the national debt, or fund childcare, healthcare, or infrastructure.

Republican Vice Presidential candidate J.D. Vance has mentioned more than doubling the Child Tax Credit but has provided few details and Trump has not signed on.

Harris backs most of the revenue raisers and middle class tax cuts laid out in President Joe Biden’s 2025 budget. The revenue components raise nearly $5 trillion over a decade, entirely from wealthy people and corporations, reducing inequality, both economic and racial, and generating funds for things the American people need.

Harris plans to boost revenue from corporations by raising the corporate rate, increasing the corporate minimum tax, increasing the stock buyback tax, and reining in corporate offshore tax avoidance. She’d better tax the wealthy by allowing expiration of the parts of the 2017 tax law that exclusively help those making more than $400,000. For those who make over $1 million a year, Harris would eliminate tax breaks on capital gains and dividends. For incomes exceeding $100 million a year, she’d tax currently exempt investment income that many billionaire CEOs receive. These provisions would do much to reform a tax code that most Americans say raises too little from corporations and the wealthy.

Harris would fully extend temporary tax cuts from the 2017 tax law for people earning less than $400,000 and try a new down-payment assistance program for some first-time homebuyers. She’d also expand the Child Tax Credit to $6,000 for newborns, $3,600 for children up to age five, and $3,000 for older children. This is one of the best and most well-proven ways to cut poverty, reduce inequality, and help middle-class families.

There's some reality. But everyone wants to weigh in on the race and that means a lot of crackpots are piping up, not just Donald Trump.

I'm sorry. What brought down the Twin Towers, Ajamu Baraka? You're a conspiracy theorist. Remember? You've denied 9/11 for decades now. Why should anyone listen to you? Because in 2016 you were on the ticket with anti-vaxer Jill Stein? Because you were the token in her claim for fame? Or maybe because you and Jill lied to Cornel West and told him he'd be the Green Party nominee when the nomination wasn't yours to give? There's also Ajamu's Holocaust denial.

In fact, before anyone listens to Ajamu, they might need to read Gideon Resnik's "The Wild Beliefs of Ajamu Baraka, Jill Stein’s Green Party Running Mate" (THE DAILY BEAST) from 2016:

Ajamu Baraka, professorial with kind eyes, was an accomplished human-rights activist before joining the Green Party ticket as Jill Stein’s running mate.

But the two leftist candidates—due for a mainstream close-up in a CNN town hall on Wednesday—also have engaged with some fringe thinkers and conspiracy theories. Baraka, especially, has an accomplished résumé in this field.

Earlier this year, the former executive director of the U.S. Human Rights Network had his work featured in a book edited by accused Holocaust denier (“the Holocaust controversy was a legitimate topic of historical debate”) and self-described 9/11 truther Kevin Barrett. The book, Another French False Flag? Bloody Tracks from Paris to San Bernardino, featured the likes of Jewishness-loathing Gilad Atzmon and Ken O’Keefe, who once made a YouTube video explaining how “Hitler was right.”

Baraka, though, says that he was not aware of Barrett’s views prior to having his work appear in the book.

“When Kevin Barrett, someone who has interviewed me in the past, contacted me to ask if he could include my piece in a compilation on the Paris Attacks, I didn’t see any problem with it,” Baraka said in a statement to Gawker in which he stridently disavowed Holocaust denial. “I didn’t inquire as to the other authors and don’t know much about some of them or their positions on various issues. I stand by everything I wrote in that article and would be happy to discuss the details.”

Neither he nor the ticket’s spokesman responded to requests for further comment from The Daily Beast.

That's the land of crazy and they benefit from the fact that most of us don't want to visit it. That's why, for example, Renee Johnston could rip apart her 2013 work on the Green Party and its money problems caused by Jill Stein in order to serve up her garbage last Saturday.

They have no fixed point, they have nothing they will stick with.

Dick Cheney and Liz Cheney have now both endorsed Kamala Harris for president. My thoughts on Dick Cheney are established and up here and have been for 20 years now. I don't applaud him. I also don't see the need to attack him when he does realize the very real threat to democracy that Donald Trump represents -- a threat that too many want to ignore like the disgusting Glenneth Greenwald still posing as Girl Reporter when, in fact, he was never a reporter. Russian defector Edward Snowden dumped documents on him and we were all supposed to pretend that the idiot columnist (who did cheerlead the Iraq War) Glenneth is suddenly a reporter.

But a reporter covers a story.

Glenneth covered it up. The trove handed over by Snowden made Glenneth rich but it didn't get to the American people, did it? When THE GUARDIAN was under attack and balked at releasing more, Glenneth dressed up as a reporter and announced he was done with them -- done, done, done! And he went to what became THE INTERCEPT and? No more documents. THE INTERCEPT now has buried them for good and no apologies from the grifter Glenneth.

Meanwhile: Shut up, Ed Snowden.

The idiot -- and, yes, he always was an idiot, that's how he ended up trapped in Russia where he remains to this day -- wants to weigh in. Apparently, Ed sees Alaska from his front porch and thinks we need to hear from him.

He's having a fit about Dick Cheney's endorsement as well.

Will Ed be voting in the election?

No.

He's in Russia -- with Tara Reade -- and his life in the US is over. Now if he wanted to do something of value, he'd be talking about what THE INTERCEPT sits on. But, no, he's really not brave.

He could never have held up to what Chelsea Manning did. He would have buckled in a week.

So he ran like an idiot. You run? When do you think running stops?

It doesn't, you idiot.

And no one sees you as a hero anymore because everything didn't get released. No one is impressed with you because you are a coward who ran.

Now you could impress us by explaining what THE INTERCEPT continues to sit on.

Or you could even impress us by creating a life for yourself in Russia. The place you chose to go. The reason people laugh at you and Tara Reade? You chose to go Russia and all you do is obsess over the United States. You're pathetic lives are no more fulfilled in Russia than they were in the US? How many countries will you have to stay in before you grasp that your problems are not external -- they are inside you and you carry them with you where ever you go.

I don't like Dick Cheney. Do I appreciate that he doesn't want to see our country destroyed? Yes, I do.

Over the weekend, news about Iraq floated around. Not that the Ajamus wanted to address it. They're fake little bastards who only hop what they hope is popular that they can use to ride to significance.

Supposedly, US troops will be withdrawing from Iraq. Again! Of course the withdrawal under Barack Obama was not a withdrawal. It was a drawdown as thousands remained in Iraq. In the fall of 2012, Barack began sending more US troops -- special forces. The press ran with "withdrawal" while the US military (rightly) termed it a "drawdown." Yes, there is a difference.

So applause to WION for its use of terms in the video below entitled "Will some US troops remain in Iraq after drawdown?"

IRAQI NEWS reports:

Different sources revealed that Baghdad and Washington agreed on a strategy for the departure of coalition forces led by the United States from Iraq.

Reuters mentioned that hundreds of troops are expected to leave Iraq by September 2025 and the remaining forces by the end of 2026, according to the agreement, which still needs confirmation from top authorities in both countries and an announcement date.

Last week, the Iraqi Prime Minister, Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani, confirmed that the remnants of the terrorist group ISIS are no longer a danger to the country.

Will it be a withdrawal? No. No, it will be a drawdown, "Reuters also reported that the two governments aim to establish a new advisory relationship that could see some US troops remain in Iraq after the drawdown." NEWSWEEK wrongly sells it as a withdrawal. A withdrawal means all leave (except Marines guarding the US Embassy). A drawdown means a number leave but not all. It's amazing that NEWSWEEK can't get it right even as they quote anonymous US military officials. SHAFAQ NEWS notes, "However, the report highlighted that a US force will remain stationed in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region, serving as a key link to US operations in Syria."

For any who have forgotten, US troops invaded Iraq in March of 2003. Barack Obama carried out a drawdown -- but not a withdrawal -- and US troops remain in Iraq. 21 years later and US troops remain in Iraq.

If you're not getting it, Thomas Watkins (THE NATIONAL) explains:

The US is likely to maintain significant military capabilities to fight extremists in Iraq after the anti-ISIS coalition wraps up in the coming years, an American official said on Friday.

Speaking after it was reported that US-led coalition forces would leave Iraq by the end of 2026, the official said their departure “doesn't necessarily change” the military's ability to go after ISIS.

“I would be extremely surprised if they pulled all US presence out,” the official told The National. Baghdad and Washington agreed in late July on a two-year plan to end the coalition's mission in Iraq, which was brought in to fight ISIS a decade ago.

Turning to Gaza . . .

This morning, Alda Massoud (THE NATIONAL) reports:

The Palestinian mission to the UN has circulated a General Assembly draft resolution calling for an end to Israel's “unlawful presence” in Gaza and the West Bank within six months.

The resolution urges countries not to legally recognise Israel's presence in the territories, to impose sanctions on Israeli officials, and to stop the transfer of arms that could be used in the occupied areas. It also calls on nations to refrain from establishing diplomatic missions in Jerusalem.

The text calls for a conference to address sanctions, grave breaches, and the urgent need to enforce the Geneva Convention in the Palestinian territories.

A vote on the draft resolution is expected next week at the UN General Assembly.

A lot of news over the weekend, from Saturday's WEEKEND EDITION (NPR):

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

We have one picture of the war in Gaza. While it's hard for foreign journalists to make it into Gaza, many images have made their way out. We've seen destruction from the air and from the ground. We've seen children in peril, people alive and dead. And now we have the story behind a single image from this week, which some people will find disturbing. This report is just a little over two minutes. NPR's Aya Batrawy has the story of the girl in the pink roller skates.

AYA BATRAWY, BYLINE: Tala Abu Ajwa was heading out to play with her brother when a bomb hit their building in Gaza City. Shrapnel went flying through the air, piercing her neck. The 10-year-old died within minutes. The photo of her in her pink roller skates quickly spread online.

HUSSAM ABU AJWA: (Non-English language spoken).

BATRAWY: I reached Tala's father, Hussam Abu Ajwa, by phone in Gaza City. He says his daughter was bubbly and ambitious.

ABU AJWA: (Non-English language spoken).

BATRAWY: He tells me the day before she was killed, she told him, Baba, I want to become a dentist and go back to school. She told her dad she wanted to celebrate her brother's birthday and forget about the war.

ABU AJWA: (Non-English language spoken).

BATRAWY: He promised to try. Abu Ajwa, a high school chemistry teacher before the war, sends me photos of how the family once lived. Tala's arms are wrapped around his neck in a pool. In other photos, she's hugging her siblings, dolled up in dresses, headbands, a Daisy Duck sweater. She loved taking selfies. This last photo of her in the morgue, still wearing her skates, has gone viral on social media.

ABU AJWA: (Non-English language spoken).

BATRAWY: Abu Ajwa says he tried his best to keep the family safe. The Israeli military says it takes precautions to limit civilian deaths in its targeting of Hamas. It did not respond to NPR's request on why this residential building was hit. Tala's father says the booms of Israeli airstrikes would scare her. She'd curl up in his arms.

Meanwhile, REUTERS noted, "Israeli military strikes across the Palestinian Gaza Strip killed at least 61 people in the space of 24 hours, local medics said on Saturday, as Israeli forces battled Hamas-led militants in the territory." Among the targets bombed by the Israeli government? Halima al-Sa’diyya school. They keep bombing schools. ALJAZEERA added, "Israel has continued attacks in Gaza. At least four people, including the deputy director of Palestinian Civil Defence in the North Gaza governorate, Abu al-Abd Morsi, have been killed in an attack on a house in the Jabalia refugee camp."

And still there was no cease-fire. FRANCE 24 notes, "The war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza entered its 12 month Saturday with little sign of respite for the Palestinian territory or hope for Israeli hostages still held captive." There were protests Sunday. THE NATIONAL reported:

Thousands of anti-government protesters gathered in Tel Aviv again on Saturday demanding a deal to free the remaining Israeli hostages in Gaza.

Organisers said 400,000 people blocked Derech Menachem Begin, one of the city's main thoroughfares.

Protests were also held in other cities, including Haifa, Jerusalem and Caesarea, near Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's private residence.

Demonstrators, including the family of the hostages, held banners that read "we are all kidnapped" and "get them out of hell".

THE TIMES OF ISRAEL adds, "Speakers at the Saturday night Tel Aviv rally were to include: Andrey Kozlov, a former hostage rescued from Gaza in an IDF operation; former hostage Danielle Aloni who was released along with her young daughter Emilia during the November ceasefire; Shay Dickmann, cousin of Carmel Gat, whose murder was announced by the IDF earlier this week along with five other hostages; Nissan Calderon, brother of hostage Ofer Calderon; ⁠Varda Ben Baruch, the grandmother of US-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander; ⁠and Einav Moses, the daughter-in-law of 80-year-old hostage Gadi Moses." London also witnessed a large protest. THE SOCIALIST WORKER reports:

Anger at the Labour government’s complicity in Israel’s genocide filled the streets of central London on Saturday.

Around 125,000 people joined the 17th national demonstration for Palestine since Israel began its genocide last October.

The immense vitality of the Palestine movement was on show with many first-time marchers. Kamar told Socialist Worker, “This is my first demonstration in London—and it won’t be my last.”

The march was infused with outrage at Labour only suspending 30—out of 350—British arms export licences to Israel last week.

Kamar said Western governments have made some concessions because they “want to be seen to be on the right side of history” while still backing Israel. “The British government has suspended some arms sales to Israel, but it’s very small,” she said.

Imad, a lorry driver from West Bromwich in the Midlands, told Socialist Worker, Labour is failing to do enough. It suspended 30 arms licences—but why not all? It’s just trying to shut people down with gestures to show they are doing something. If it was serious, Labour would have suspended all licences.”

But, Imad added, “Anyone who wants to be in Downing Street has to support Zionism.”

Protestor Ian, who had travelled to London, agreed, 30 out of 350 arms contracts is nothing but lip service.

“Labour is still providing arms for the F35 fighter jets, so there’s no real difference between Labour and the last Tory government.”

In other news, Benedict Garman (BBC NEWS) reports:

Israeli forces have been laying tarmac on a key road in Gaza along its southern border - in what some commentators see as a signal that they're not prepared to fully withdraw from the territory any time soon.

The road has become a major sticking point in the negotiations for a new ceasefire and hostage release deal.

BBC Verify has analysed satellite imagery, photos and video that show the surfacing of a road along the narrow but strategically important strip of land running the length of Gaza's border with Egypt, long known by its Israeli military codename: the Philadelphi Corridor.

Between 26 August and 5 September, satellite imagery captured at regular intervals shows fresh paving along a section of road extending 6.4km inland from the coast along the border fence.

Gaza remains under assault. Day 338 of the assault in the wave that began in October. Binoy Kampmark (DISSIDENT VOICE) points out, "Bloodletting as form; murder as fashion. The ongoing campaign in Gaza by Israel’s Defence Forces continues without stalling and restriction. But the burgeoning number of corpses is starting to become a challenge for the propaganda outlets: How to justify it? Fortunately for Israel, the United States, its unqualified defender, is happy to provide cover for murder covered in the sheath of self-defence." CNN has explained, "The Gaza Strip is 'the most dangerous place' in the world to be a child, according to the executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund." ABC NEWS quotes UNICEF's December 9th statement, ""The Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child. Scores of children are reportedly being killed and injured on a daily basis. Entire neighborhoods, where children used to play and go to school have been turned into stacks of rubble, with no life in them." NBC NEWS notes, "Strong majorities of all voters in the U.S. disapprove of President Joe Biden’s handling of foreign policy and the Israel-Hamas war, according to the latest national NBC News poll. The erosion is most pronounced among Democrats, a majority of whom believe Israel has gone too far in its military action in Gaza." The slaughter continues. It has displaced over 1 million people per the US Congressional Research Service. THE NATIONAL notes, "Gaza death toll rises to 40,972, with 94,761 injured." Early on, Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) pointed out, "Academics and legal experts around the world, including Holocaust scholars, have condemned the six-week Israeli assault of Gaza as genocide." Months ago, United Nations Women noted, "More than 1.9 million people -- 85 per cent of the total population of Gaza -- have been displaced, including what UN Women estimates to be nearly 1 million women and girls. The entire population of Gaza -- roughly 2.2 million people -- are in crisis levels of of acute food insecurity or worse." Months ago, AP noted, "About 4,000 people are reported missing." February 7th, Jeremy Scahill explained on DEMOCRACY NOW! that "there’s an estimated 7,000 or 8,000 Palestinians missing, many of them in graves that are the rubble of their former home." February 5th, the United Nations' Phillipe Lazzarini Tweeted:

April 11th, Sharon Zhang (TRUTHOUT) reported, "In addition to the over 34,000 Palestinians who have been counted as killed in Israel’s genocidal assault so far, there are 13,000 Palestinians in Gaza who are missing, a humanitarian aid group has estimated, either buried in rubble or mass graves or disappeared into Israeli prisons. In a report released Thursday, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said that the estimate is based on initial reports and that the actual number of people missing is likely even higher."

Winding down, Susie Beever (THE MIRROR) reports:

An American woman was shot and killed in the West Bank on Friday, doctors have said.

The woman, aged 26, was shot in the head in the northern region of the Palestinian territory and died after being rushed to hospital, medical official Dr Ward Basalat said. Dr. Fouad Naffa, the head of the hospital, also confirmed the death of an American woman, who has not yet been named.

AP notes, "Witnesses, activists and Palestinian media said she was shot by Israeli troops while attending a pro-Palestinian demonstration against settlement expansion in the Nablus area of the northern West Bank, near the town of Beita. Israel's military said it was still looking into the incident, but it confirmed that troops had opened fire in the area."

The following sites updated: