Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills): 10/6/24

Saturday, October 12, 2024

The really awful

Let's start with sexual misconduct in the music industry:

The music mogul who sent Usher to live with P. Diddy admitted he feared he was 'irresponsible' to 'turn him over to the wildest party guy in the country'.

Music mogul and former X Factor judge L.A Reid signed Usher to his label LaFace Records in 1993 when the star was 14 years old, and quickly released his first single Call Me a Mack.

In his 2016 memoir, Reid recalled how he couldn't find another song 'compelling enough to release' after Usher's debut, and wanted him to be 'edgy', so he turned to his friend P. Diddy, who he refers to as Puffy, for help.

He recalled asking the hip hop star: 'Will you take this kid and teach him your swagger?' Can you just give him some of your flavor?'

Reid - who is himself being sued for sexual assault and harassment by a former colleague, which he denies - sent the teenage Usher off to New York for what he refers to as 'Puffy Flavor Camp'.

Usher has since admitted that he was exposed to 'pretty wild' stuff that he 'didn't necessarily understand', while living with Diddy, and said that he would not allow the same thing to happen to his own children.

Diddy has now been charged with a host of sex trafficking and racketeering offenses with upwards of 120 victims already coming forward, with the rapper's relationships with Usher coming under renewed scrutiny in the wake of the allegations.

Now for the nightmare that is Donald Trump. Maegan Vazquez (WASHINGTON POST) reports:

Former president Donald Trump asserted in Detroit on Thursday that he had new proof that he was awarded Michigan’s “man of the year” years ago, dredging up a debunked claim he’s repeatedly made over the past decade.

In an address to the Detroit Economic Club aimed at pitching policies to rescue the American auto industry, the Republican presidential nominee said he had asked his team to find proof that he received the honor.

“And guess what? They found it,” Trump claimed, before pulling a printout of an article from the Oakland Press from his suit pocket. “It says, ‘Oakland County GOP to honor Donald Trump, former president, to speak at upcoming Lincoln Day fundraising dinner.’ And it says down here, ‘The county party gave Trump the man of the year award at the dinner, too.’”

The only problem? The story has since been corrected to clarify that Trump was not honored as Michigan’s man of the year in 2013.

Trump claimed he won the Michigan award at least 20 times while he was in office, according to The Washington Post’s Fact Checker database, and he’s repeated the claim on the campaign trail this cycle. But there’s been no evidence that Trump’s assertion is true.

The Post previously noted that factcheck.org investigated the claim and it appeared that Trump was referring to a 2013 dinner hosted by a county Republican Party organization, which presented him with token gifts — including a statuette of Abraham Lincoln. But a former Republican congressman who organized the dinner said Trump did not receive an award, and the group has never given out “man of the year” awards.

Everything about Donald Trump is fake. Daniel Hampton (RAW STORY) reports:

Firefighters in Scranton who held up "Scranton Firefighters for Trump" signs at the former president's campaign rally this week may not have been firefighters from Scranton.

The Times-Tribune snapped photos of Donald Trump's Scranton rally event Wednesday in which several people held up the signs, including two men who wore firefighter formal dress-blue uniforms.

But the men were not firefighters from Scranton, the Scranton Fire Department firefighters' union said in a Facebook post.

"Local 60 would like to address the rally held earlier today in Scranton for former President Trump and the Office of President of the United States," the union said Wednesday, noting that "This is not a political post, rather a clarification post for anyone who sees or may see the event."

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

Friday, October 11, 2024. Barack Obama returns to the public square to serve up the hard truths.

Voting is under way in many places in the United States -- there is early voting, voting by mail and voting in person. The final day to vote in the presidential election is November 5th and that is 24 days away.

Former US President Barack Obama: [T]here is absolutely no evidence that this man thinks about anything but himself. I said it before. Donald Trump is a 78-year-old billionaire who has not stopped whining about his problems since he rode down his golden escalator nine years ago. You get the Tweets in all caps, the ramblings and the ravings about crazy conspiracy theories. You got the two hour speeches. Word salad. Just -- it's like Fidel Castro -- just on and on. Constant attempts to sell you stuff. Who does that? Selling you gold sneakers and $100,000 watch and, most recently, a Trump BIBLE. He wants you to buy the word of God Donald Trump edition -- got his name right there next to Matthew and Luke. I mean, you could not make this stuff up. If you saw it on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, you'd say, "Well nah, I mean that's going too far." No, he's doing that.

[Calls of "He's weird!"]

Barack Obama: It's crazy. And the reason he does it is because all he cares about is his ego and his money and his status. He's not thinking about you. Donald Trump sees power as nothing more than means to an end. He wants the middle class to pay the price for another huge tax cut that would mostly help him and his country club buddies. Doesn't care if costs more women their reproductive freedom because it won't make a difference in his life

[Boos]

Barack Obama: Do not boo. Vote. They can't hear your boos but they can hear your votes.

Last night, in Pittsburgh, Barack took the stage in a front of a huge crowd -- the kind of crowd Donald Trump couldn't get in his best days back in 2016 and so much bigger than the smatterings that he attracts today. Barack laid it on the line about what mattered.

And what mattered is you.

And me.

And all of us working for a better future and a better country.

He spoke truth to power.

ABC NEWS reports on a Pittsburgh meet up Barack has with Black males. Barack explained, "When you have a choice that's this clear, when you have somebody who grew up like you, knows you, went to college with you, understands the struggles and pain and joy that comes from those experiences -- who's had to work harder and do more and overcome -- and achieves the second highest office in the land and is putting forward concrete proposals to correctly address the things are vital in our neighborhoods and in our communities from housing to making sure our mothers and our fathers and our grandparents are going to be able to afford medicine and making sure that we are dealing with prices that are too high and rents that are too high and is committed to making sure that we maintain The Affordable Care Act so that everybody's got health insurance, that cares about education and entrepreneurship in our neighborhoods -- and that's on one side. And on the other side, you have someone who has consistently shown disregard not just for the communities but for you as a person. And you're thinking about sitting out? "

Some polling indicates that some Black males are thinking of sitting out this election. I'd argue that the remarks Barack made should also be directed at THE PROGRESSIVE, THE NATION, DEMOCRACY NOW!, IN THESE TIMES and other outlets. In fact, let's note the both-sides nonsense THE NATION just did.

"Democrat or Republican, the next presidency will still mean death for others in faraway places"

That garbage is from Ahmed Moor. He's a Palestinian American and -- as his Tweet on the article makes even more clear, he's only referring to and concerned about Gaza.

I knew there was a reason I wasn't familiar with his name.

See, I've called out the destruction of Iraq, the decimation of its population which turned the country into a land of widows and orphans. I've spoken out, I've written, I've marched. And I'm generally familiar with at least the name of other Americans addressing it.

Not familiar with his name.

Is he so young that he wasn't old enough to protest? No. He was in college in 2002. Before the Iraq War began. I see he had time to work on Wall Street after college.

I don't see any writing about Iraq.

So when Iraqi people died, it didn't matter to him.

But when it's people in Gaza, suddenly, it's important.

He is all that is wrong with the left at present. Not all of the left, but a small sliver -- a sliver with far too much say about what 'independent' media covers and what it doesn't.

Palestinians matter, the people of Iraq matter, the people of Lebanon matter, the people of Syria matter, go down the list.

But when you can reduce the entire world's suffering to just one group of people? Your purity test has left you not just a virgin but an idiot virgin.

Are we in this together or not?

Because together we can win. But together means we work for all of us. And that's not happening currently. Again, Barack's remarks could be directed to 'independent' media. Last night, Marcia noted:

Well thank God we can rely on Mother Jones, The Nation, The Progressive, In These times, et al to build excitement, right?

Nope. As C.I. notes, they're actually depressing turnout if you go to Common Dreams and read the comments left on their articles. People saying they're not voting, that there's no point in voting.

Isn't it strange and funny how when it's a Black woman running for president, these same outlets that honestly whored for Al Gore and Joe Lieberman in 2000, can't even note Kamala's good qualities and good programs? And we're talking about the threat of Donald Trump getting back into the White House.

But that doesn't matter to them.

So I don't matter. Thanks for clearing that up. Thank you, Nation, Mother Jones, The Progressive, In These Times, ZNet, etc, ect. As a Black lesbian, I'm under threat three ways -- a woman, an LGBTQ+ member and an African-American.

But The Nation and Common Dreams and Democracy Now! and all of them don't care about me at all.

I am so sick of it. As a Black woman, I'm also damn tired of doing the Democratic Party's heavy lifting for them.

The refusal to stand by a Black woman after all the years that we have ensured the Democratic Party's election victories?

What a slap in the face.

8 days ago Democracy Now! did coverage -- not a headline -- on the vice presidential debate. That was their last segment on the presidential race. Before that? Four weeks ago, they did segments (with Kamala haters) on the presidential debate.

Grasp that. Grasp that there has been nothing on Kamala's housing plan. There has been nothing on what she's proposing regarding home healthcare.

Grasp that.

They're doing everything that they can to elect Donald Trump. Grasp that.

Black women do. You can see it online, you can see it in YouTube videos, I heard when I was registering voters and I hear it now as I'm going to nursing homes to talk about Kamala. And Mike is right, C.I. was not mistaken about the importance of doing this. I wouldn't have gotten how important this is. I asked C.I. how she knew. That was the first place she ever spoke to in high school about a presidential election. And she's right, it does make a difference.

Jill Stein is not going to be president. She is, however, doing her best to ensure that Donald Trump will become president. Radio host, podcaster, author and activist Thom Hartmann writes:

Jill Stein doesn’t give, as the old saying goes, a flying f*ck about democracy. Instead, she’s all about how famous she can become and how much money she can grift off her repeated presidential campaigns. It’s a damn dangerous game.

Fresh off her 2016 political quacksalvery, in which she handed that year’s election to Donald Trump, this professional grifter — who’s been doing real damage to the Green Party for over a decade — is trying to get Trump back into the White House.

As her Wisconsin campaign manager, Pete Karas, told Politico:

“We need to teach Democrats a lesson.”

Arguably, Democrats have already learned that lesson.

In 2016, Hillary Clinton lost Wisconsin to Trump by 22,748 votes; Stein carried 31,072 votes. In Michigan the story was similar: Clinton lost to Trump by 10,704 votes while Stein carried 51,463. Ditto for Pennsylvania, where Trump won by 44,292 votes and Stein pulled in 49,941 votes.

Had Clinton carried those three states she would have become president.

The Green Party — that I safely voted for in 2000 when I lived in non-swing-state Vermont — deserves a candidate who’ll work to produce real change rather than simply run repeated vanity campaigns that cripple our admittedly flawed electoral system.

Those slim margins may be a distant memory, however, given how hard Stein is pounding on Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania Democrats against President Biden’s unfortunate support of Israel’s brutal bombing campaign in Gaza. As Newsweek reported last week:

“In Michigan, a battleground state where the Greens are campaigning hard, and which has a large Arab American community, 40 percent of Muslim voters backed Stein versus just 12 percent for Harris and 18 percent for Trump, according to a late August poll by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

“Michigan has more than 200,000 Muslim voters and 300,000 with Middle Eastern or North African ancestry. Biden won there in 2020 by 154,000 votes, while Trump carried the state with a victory margin of just 10,700—or 0.23 percent—in 2016.

“In Wisconsin, the CAIR poll showed Stein on 44 percent and Harris on 29 percent, while she also leads the Democrat candidate among Muslims voters in Arizona.”

I moderated the 2012 presidential debate between Stein and Libertarian Gary Johnson; she and Johnson both had the smell of cheap political hustlers to me then, a feeling that’s only been reinforced in the years since.

Stein certainly hasn’t done much to advance the stated goals of the Green Party. Back in the day, it was the Greens leading the charge against climate change and in favor of instant runoff voting, having considerable success with the latter.

David Cobb, a Texas environmental attorney, ran on the Green ticket in 2004 and was a regular on my radio program that year. He explicitly told people listening to my show in swing states to vote for John Kerry instead of him, calling it his “safe states” strategy.

He refused to campaign or even appear in battleground states, a statement of both high integrity and real patriotism.

Stein has neither. This is her third run for president (Howie Hawkins was the Green candidate in 2020 and was not on the ballot in most swing states.)

Instead, she’s bragging about how she’s going to hand the 2024 election to Donald Trump. Presumably she’ll be spared the imprisonment that Trump says he’s preparing for the rest of us in politics and the media. As Stein boasted to Newsweek:

“Third Way found that, based on polling averages in battleground states, the 2020 margin of victory for Democrats would be lost in four states — Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina and Wisconsin — because of third party support.

“So they can’t win. There’s a fair amount of data now that suggests the Democrats have lost. Unless they give up their genocide.

“We’re doing outreach all the time to a lot of different groups, but it’s really been the Muslim Americans and Arab Americans who have really taken this campaign on like it’s theirs — like they have enormous ownership over this.”

Running for president and keeping an iron grip on the once-noble Green Party has become Stein’s singular mission. And she’s killing the Party — and its once-sterling reputation — in the process. As Alexandria Ocasio Cortez said:

“If you run for years in a row, and your party has not grown, has not added city council seats, down ballot seats and state electives, that’s bad leadership. And that to me is what’s upsetting.”

As Peter Rothpletz wrote for The New Republic in an article titled Jill Stein Is Killing the Green Party:

“As of July 2024, a mere 143 officeholders in the United States are affiliated with the Green Party. None of them are in statewide or federal offices. In fact, no Green Party candidate has ever won federal office. And Stein’s reign has been a period of indisputable decline, during which time the party’s membership—which peaked in 2004 at 319,000 registered members—has fallen to 234,000 today.”

Stein brought along a Fox “News” film crew when she crashed the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, cementing her reputation as a hustler who’ll hook up with anybody who’ll provide her with fame or fortune.

There are, apparently, no Democrats in America clean or pure or virginal enough for Stein; as Rothpletz reports, she even attacked Bernie Sanders for being a “DC insider” and “corrupted” by corporate money.

Meanwhile, her campaign, theoretically opposed to giant monopolies and defense contractors, has taken money from Google, Lockheed Martin, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, and McKinsey.

Jill Stein has never delivered anything to the American people but empty words. She shows up every four years to deliver empty words and then vanishes. Spending that money she raised for recounts in 2016 apparently -- she never did, as she said she would, donate it to charity.

It's a good little grift. And she goes around attacking Kamala Harris. While defending and apologizing for Putin. At ZETEO, Mehdi has posted his full interview with Jill Stein. Previously, clips had gone viral but the full interview was only available to ZETEO subscribers.

In the past, some have argued that the point of voting for a Jill Stein is so that the Greens can hit a certain percent and have ballot access.

Why?

I've made the argument before for that. And I do understand the argument and I could endorse it before.

I cannot now.

Why?

The 2016 vote gave them access in 20 states. That's on the ballot, that's not needing petitions or write-ins or anything.

20 states.

And yet, per their own website, this year, they have four candidates for Congress. Four people running for the House and the Senate. The House has 435 members, the Senate has 100.

And with their automatic ballot access, they can only offer four candidates?

No, I don't buy the nonsense that a vote for Jill helps the Green Party.

Nor do I buy the argument that we burn the playhouse down and rebuild something better.

That's a theoretical in good times. We're not in good times. The notion of sinking this election and something better will emerge from the disgust?

Who believes that?

Oh, I know!

People who take pictures of their children's genitals and are stupid enough to then try to have them developed at a drug store and they are called -- because they're a big name that everyone reading this would know -- and told to come pick them up and told that, by law, the drug store is actually supposed to call the cops but since this person is a big, big, big star, they'll do a favor for them this time and just pretend they never saw the kiddie porn that the parent took of their own child.

I've teased this one before. Certain people better get their act together real damn quick because when I burn the playhouse down, I burn it down. And I have no problem naming this one person we've been teasing out for some time.

But while I'll burn the fake asses' playhouse down, I'm not stupid enough to think we destroy our way of life -- and the way of life for so many Americans -- by voting for Trump or sitting it out because wah-wah Kamala doesn't say everything on Gaza that we want. Wah! Wah! Wah!

Aurora DeStefano (2 PARAGRAPHS) reports:

GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump has a habit of referring to the grand dame of traditional news media (or mainstream or legacy media), The New York Times, as the “failing New York Times.”

It’s the same phrase he uses to describe the country he hopes to lead, frequently saying “we are a failing nation.”

But both entities — The New York Times and U.S. citizens — are helping Trump more than he deserves, according to critics. In the case of the Times and other so-called liberal media outlets, they say, Trump is extended the benefit of a pernicious both-sides-ism that consistently creates false equivalencies between Trump and his Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris.

Media critics have long criticized the Times for its Trump coverage, but two adjacent headlines this week serve to encapsulate the kind of coverage each candidate receives and, critics says, shows the media bending over backwards to make Trump’s latent racism palatable while questioning Harris’s veracity.

The journalistic malpractice is so stark that the headlines “should be studied in journalism classes for decades,” according to anti-Trump pundit and author Stuart Stevens, a Republican in exile during the MAGA insurgency.

Stevens writes, incredulous, that the “Trump headline could apply to an article about a Nobel prize winner in genetic studies.”

This alleged false equivalence in coverage is occurring against the backdrop of a Trump-launched storm of disinformation about FEMA and the federal government’s response to Hurricane Helene.

These Trump hurricane lies are so patently untrue that four Republican governors in Southern states refuted them, meaning even a cadre of Trump loyalists publicly rejected the former President’s fabrications.

On active X user called ScaryLawyerGuy, an unrelenting critic of the differing levels of accountability demanded from the two candidates, wrote:

“The New York Times thinks Trump is better for its business model, the (literal) fortunes of multiple people on their politics desk depend on him winning and they will sane wash his Hitlerian views on eugenics if it helps him win.”

Back in May, after Times editor Joe Kahn defended his paper’s coverage of what was then the Trump-Biden race, an article in The New Republic asked:

“When one of the candidates is running on an express vow to wreck the political and legal systems themselves, do typical conventions of political reporting-ones geared around presenting both sides as equivalently conventional political actors fighting on an even civic playing field-really get the job done in communicating what that means?”
Greg Sargent, TNR

TNR also credits the Times for producing “indispensable journalism about Donald Trump's authoritarian designs for a second term” exposing “Trump's schemes to unleash the Justice Department on political enemies, to gut the bureaucracy and stock it with loyalists, to functionally wreck our intelligence agencies.”

But it's not just THE NEW YORK TIMES -- it's 'independent' media as well. They are depressing and suppressing turnout and there's no excuse for that.

This is nonsense. People will be harmed and, look at the areas effected by climate change right now, people are being harmed. And they're harmed further by liars who tell them hurricanes are from cloud seeding and other b.s. No, the weather is the effect of climate change. And when the future looks so potentially stark, I don't know how you waste your vote or your voice or your platform by acting as though Donald and Kamala are the same. They are not.

One person can lead us forward over the next four years. It might mean work on our part, getting off our lazy asses and marching and making demands of our elected officials. But we already know Donald Trump won't respond to pressure. We already know he'll just come up with a new lie to tell the world and himself while most likely either trying to imprison us or sick the national guard on us. The choices are not vague or in doubt. Donald is not an unknown. We have seen the damage he can do and he tells us every day the damage that he wants to do.

Charlotte Alter (TIME) writes:

On a sunny Wednesday in late September, Vice President Kamala Harris took the stage at Carnegie Mellon University for the first comprehensive economic-policy speech of her short presidential campaign.

Addressing a sedate audience in suits and ties, the Vice President outlined plans to strengthen small businesses, cut taxes on the middle class, and build more affordable housing. "I am a capitalist," she told the Pittsburgh crowd, detailing how she would invest in startups and increase public-private partnerships, and describing an approach to economic growth that stressed stability.

It was a business-friendly speech tailored to business-friendly voters. But in a neck-and-neck presidential race, wonky pitches like these could make the difference. In a September New York Times/Siena poll, nearly 30% of likely voters said they felt they needed to learn more about the Vice President before making their choice. The fight to define Kamala Harris—who she is, what she stands for, and what kind of President she would be—will be one of the central battles of the campaign’s final weeks.

To examine these questions, TIME spoke with 20 current and former Harris campaign advisers, former aides in her vice presidential and Senate offices, senior officials from each of the past five presidential administrations, and a range of policy experts. The portrait that emerged was of a politician who is more practical than ideological—a cautious candidate running in a change election, juggling the liabilities and benefits of her ties to her boss, President Joe Biden, as well as her own past positions, all while trying to keep the focus on her opponent. For Harris, policy specifics are in service to the larger goal of her campaign, which is to present a credible alternative to a second Donald Trump presidency.

At Carnegie Mellon, Harris offered the most detailed look at her economic plans since taking over as the Democratic nominee. She’s proposing a $50,000 tax deduction to help Americans start more small businesses, and a $6,000 Child Tax Credit for families in the first year of a baby’s life. She plans to extend $35 insulin to all Americans and eliminate degree requirements for 500,000 federal jobs. She wants to invest in research and development in new manufacturing industries, and trim red tape to further the Biden Administration’s overhaul of America’s infrastructure. Perhaps more than any other presidential candidate in recent memory, Harris has focused on solving America’s housing crisis. She plans to offer $25,000 in down-payment assistance to first-time home buyers, a tax credit to incentivize builders, and pledges to build 3 million affordable housing units in her first term.

The following sites updated:

Thursday, October 10, 2024

Donald's 'bibles' were made in China!!!!!!

Ruth's doing an obituary tonight so I told her I would covered Donald Trump and his endless lies. Ed Mazza (HUFFINGTON POST) reports:

Donald Trump’s latest boast about his crowd size fell apart in a hurry as he was fact-checked in real-time while he was still speaking.

“We do a lot of these beautiful rallies, and it’s so great,” the former president said in Reading, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday. “We never have an empty seat, never have, look at it.”

Just one problem: While the sections closest to the stage were packed with MAGA faithful, there were plenty of empty seats toward the back of the venue ― and observers began sharing images of them on social media almost immediately.

An Associated Press photo also shows some of the empty seats:

He does not have crowds. He cannot deliver anything. If he could in earlier years, age has knocked that all out. What he can deliver is frightening as hell. Kathleen Culliton (RAW STORY) reports:

Former President Donald Trump's latest campaign pledge is spurring calls of alarm from critics who say the Republican presidential nominee would send the nation back to the economic dark ages.

Trump told rally-goers Wednesday in Pennsylvania that he would implement tariffs that he claimed would bring the U.S. back to prosperity seen at the turn of the 20th Century.

"That was when our country was the richest it ever was," said Trump. "It was never rich like that...we had so much money we didn't know what to do with it."

Trump promised "pretty stiff tariffs" that he said would flush hundreds of billions of dollars into the economy.

The former president drew a direct correlation to the Gilded Age when affluent businesses earned the name "robber barons" by monopolizing industries and receiving enormous profits.

While proponents argue this was a golden age of capitalism, critics say captains of industry were the pioneers of organized crime, according to Stephen Schneider, Britannica author and criminology professor at Saint Mary's University.

Trump's comments re-ignited an age-old debate Wednesday.

"I've been telling you this--Trump thought our nation was 'great' during the Gilded Age, the Robber Baron years--that's what he wants to bring back," rhetorician Jennifer Mercieca wrote on X.

"Massive wage slavery, factory towns, filthy water & air, no regulations on food or business. His policies only help the ultra rich."

"Tariffs are a tax on all of us," replied Andy Roddick, the former tennis player and major champion.

"Tariffs are a tax on Americans," added political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen. "Everyone in the country would pay more, all because this imbecile doesn’t know basic economics."

He is such a loser. But really cool that Andy Roddick called him out. Remember Maggie, my friend that I mention here and in music reviews from time to time. She used to say she was going to get online and do a blog. She's a bigger procrastinator than I am. She never did. But she did write erotic fan fiction about Andy Roddick. She thinks he's the hottest tennis player there ever was. I'm going to have to tell her about his comment because she'll love it.

Now yesterday, Ruth covered the BIBLES Ttump was hawking:

That is appalling. First off, it is tacky. I do wonder about the mind-set of any person who would have bought that book to begin with. Lee Greenwood is not a Biblical prophet and his inclusion is both tacky and crass. But more to the point, he pretends to value America and Americans -- but he is using China to make the Bibles and he is inflating the cost of a $3 Bible by 56 dollars -- a penny shy of 57 dollars, actually -- to fleece people, to steal from them. Do not overprice a $3 dollar Bible by over fifty-bucks and then pretend you are anything but a thief.

Imagine that. We knew Mr. Trump was a liar, we knew he was a rapist, we knew he was a Convicted Felon but he is now exposed as a thief who tries to hide behind the Lord while ripping off Christians.

Just to update that, Jessica Kwong (METRO) reports:

Earlier this year, ex-President Donald Trump flogged his ‘God Bless the USA’ Bibles, calling them ‘my favorite book’. It turns out thousands of copies were printed in the same country that Trump frequently accuses of stealing American jobs – China. A printing company in the eastern city of Hangzhou shipped out nearly 120,000 of Trump’s Bibles to the US in three increments from early February to late March, according to global trade records

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

Thursday, October 10, 2024. Oh look, MOTHER JONES has found a new pet rock or mood ring, COMMON DREAMS might need to read the comments on their articles, and much more.

It's amazing to watch this election cycle. Robert Kennedy Jr. thinking he can deny attempted rape accusations -- as though William Kennedy Smith never happened? Thinking he can be accused of assaulting the baby sitter and still go around to the press and get away with insisting he never said he was a choirboy? Maybe even more amazing would be that media outlets would speak to him after that or his denial of the known affair with the reporter -- the one that got her fired but he can go on TV and just insists he never speaks about his personal life.

It's really something to see.

There's freak show Jill Stein. Let's zoom in on the Green Party v.p. slot. No, not Butch Ware, but the v.p. she wanted to start with: Abdullah Hammoud. She had to move back from that choice and she finally selected Butch Ware.

But for awhile she wanted Abdullah Hammoud. And he was a rising star for some unknown reason. The right-wing doesn't really like him. Some elements of the left have promoted him. And, golly gosh, MOTHER JONES is now.

And the real reason is why?

He's anti-genocide?

So am I. So are most people. There's not really a big pro genocide group in the US. That's why so many refuse to apply the term genocide to what's taking place in Gaza. But that is genocide. And the genocide has flared and increased as it does every now and then -- but even in what passes for 'peace' has been a genocide against the Palestinian people.

The problem with Abdullah for Jill was first off that he was too young to be her running mate -- had she won (I know, I know, stop laughing, we're just making a point) and been sworn in January 20th then died in her sleep the night of, Abdullah would have been too young to be president. He's the Mayor of Dearborn but he's too young to be the president of the United States.

So that was the main problem but what finally had Jill relinquish her fantasy were two Green Party big wigs who pointed out to her that Abdullah was the Mayor of Dearborn.

And if you've read the fawning coverage over him, you might just be nodding blankly like Jill did.

But what Green Party thinkers understood -- and finally got through Jill's thick head -- was that the Green Party could not build a future with Abdullah because he is Mayor of Dearborn.

Dearborn is where many Muslims joined the hate brigade with the fright wing. It is very anti-LGBTQ+ at this time. That coincides with Abdullah's term as Mayor. Like all Democrats representing that area in any form, he was called out by a number of Muslims who felt he was pro-gay because he was a Democrat.

Is he?

As Mayor he hasn't helped the LGBTQ+ population.

Common sense would dictate that when you do a lengthy interview with him, you get him on the record.

But no one does and MOTHER JONES didn't.

I'm not promoting homophobes. I'm not promoting politicians who betray Americans.

MOTHER JONES seems to be okay with it.

They and others create this myth of Abdullah. And I'm not a myth maker.

Tim Walz did awful in the debate and I said so.

The open prejudice and hatred that LGBTQ+ people face now since Abdullah became mayor is not something that you overlook.

And it's amazing how much attention he's gotten from left media for his attacks on Joe Biden and now on Kamala Harris with no one wanting to put him on the record about the hate in Dearborn that has only increased in the last two years, at the efforts to ban books, to strip away rights.

Shame on MOTHER JONES.

Abdullah's the new Rocky Anderson and if you're asking "Who?" -- exactly. THE NATION and others spent forever trying to make Rocky happen. He never did. He became famous for being a mayor in leftist circles and then he never delivered on anything.

Kamala Harris has done an amazing job. Unlike others in the 2024 election cycle, she hasn't had a year or more to build a campaign. She had to hit the ground running She'd done and is doing an incredible job.

And that bears stating since this is a left site and I am a leftist.

I thought THE NATION was left and THE PROGRESSIVE and MOTHER JONES and go down the list. But I see all these attacks on her. And we're 25 days away from the end of the election -- voting's already taking place, November 5th will be the final day of voting -- and they're running garbage articles? They're attacking her.

She's not doing this and she's not doing that!

I've never in my life seen the left media pile on a Democratic Party presidential candidate like this. It's appalling.

But fortunately, she doesn't have to depend upon them.

COMMON DREAMS has been a problem. They're now noting her healthcare proposals -- Brett Wilkins reports:

Independent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont—a longtime universal healthcare advocate—on Wednesday hailed aw proposal by Democratic presidential nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris to expand Medicare to cover in-home care for seniors as well as dental and vision for the first time ever.

As Common Dreamsreported Tuesday, labor unions and consumer advocates applauded Harris' plan—unveiled on the ABC talk show "The View"—to expand Medicare coverage in order to better serve what the Democratic nominee called the "sandwich generation" of middle-aged Americans who are simultaneously providing for their children and aging parents.

Responding to the proposal, Sanders said, "Congratulations to Vice President Harris for announcing a bold vision to expand Medicare to cover not only home healthcare, but also vision and hearing."

The senator continued:

It is no secret that we have a major crisis in home healthcare. Millions of seniors would prefer, when possible, to receive care in their homes rather than be forced into nursing homes. Kamala's plan is a major step forward not only in improving the quality of life for seniors and their families, but also in saving the healthcare system large sums of money.

Further, her plan to expand Medicare to cover the cost of vision and hearing is enormously important. In the wealthiest country on Earth, millions of lower-income seniors today are unable to afford the hearing aids and eyeglasses they desperately need. That is not acceptable. Every senior in America should be able to access these basic healthcare needs.

"Thank you, Kamala," added Sanders, who has been campaigning for Harris across the country and plans to visit the Midwest this week.

Sanders' remarks echoed those of progressive healthcare advocates, with Social Security Works executive director Alex Lawson on Tuesday calling Harris' plan "life-changing for seniors, people with disabilities, and those who love them."

"Currently, seniors and people with disabilities who need care that family can't provide are too often warehoused in dehumanizing nursing homes," Lawson continued. "Often, these nursing homes are owned by private equity corporations who are exploiting patients for profit. Under the Harris plan, seniors and disabled people would have the freedom to stay in their own homes."

"This is a universal benefit," Lawson added. "Everyone on Medicare would qualify. This is a win for everyone in America—except the billionaires."

Harris' campaign and supporters contrasted the Democratic nominee's plan with the White House record of the Republican presidential candidate, former President Donald Trump, and sounded the alarm on the dangers he poses to Medicare and Social Security.

"Trump tried to cut Medicare and will cut the program as president," the Harris campaign said Tuesday.

Some critics also warned how Project 2025—the far-right initiative to expand U.S. presidential power and purge the federal civil service—poses a dire threat to seniors' public health by making private, for-profit Medicare Advantage plans the default option for all Medicare enrollees.

Harris' campaign added: "Trump spent a long career exploiting seniors, mocking disabled Americans, trying to take away seniors' hard-earned benefits, and supporting others who harm them. As president, Trump tried to destroy the Affordable Care Act and to cut Medicare and plans to do it again."

Julia Conley reported on it for COMMON DREAMS as well -- see yesterday's snapshot where we noted that.

Donald Trump is not an unknown.

We know he's a threat. This isn't, "I suspect" or "I predict" or "I feel" -- no. We saw what he did in the White House and we saw what he did when it was time to leave the White House. We know exactly what he is. We hear his racists statements day after day. We hear his threats against the press, his threats against immigrants, his threats against political rivals. It never ends -- just like the drama in the four years he was in the White House.

We know he's harmful. We know we can't afford him appointing another corrupt Supreme Court justice.

He's a known quantity. Stealing from Ruth's "Even Russia corrects Trump's lie:"

This is from the editors of THE ATLANTIC:

This election is the moment of truth. In The Atlantic’s final cover story ahead of the election, staff writer Tom Nichols lays out why “the votes cast in November will be more consequential than those in any other American election in more than a century”—because every essential norm and duty that George Washington established for the U.S. presidency could come to an end if Donald Trump is reelected. Trump is “Washington’s Nightmare”—the tyrant the first president feared, and one more capable now of finishing the authoritarian project he began in his first term.

Among Washington’s countless accomplishments and heroic actions, Nichols also focuses on what Washington would not do: “As a military officer, Washington refused to take part in a plot to overthrow Congress. As a victorious general, he refused to remain in command after the war had ended. As president, he refused to hold on to an office that he did not believe belonged to him. His insistence on the rule of law and his willingness to return power to its rightful owners—the people of the United States—are among his most enduring gifts to the nation and to democratic civilization.” The 44 men who succeeded him in office adhered to Washington’s example and those norms—all except Trump.

Nichols writes: “Trump and his authoritarian political movement represent an existential threat to every ideal that Washington cherished and encouraged in his new nation. They are the incarnation of Washington’s misgivings about populism, partisanship, and the ‘spirit of revenge’ that Washington lamented as the animating force of party politics. Washington feared that, amid constant political warfare, some citizens would come to ‘seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual,’ and that eventually a demagogue would exploit that sentiment.”

Nichols writes that America stands at such a moment with this election: “Trump has left no doubt about his intentions; he practically shouts them every chance he gets.” He continues, “As we judge the candidates, we should give thought to Washington’s example, and to three of Washington’s most important qualities and the traditions they represent: his refusal to use great power for his own ends, his extraordinary self-command, and, most of all, his understanding that national leaders in a democracy are only temporary stewards of a cause far greater than themselves.”

I don't understand how these periodicals -- which please remember, depend on your money to survive -- can't get on board the Kamala train. That's the only means of transportation to a proud future for this country.

There's no one else.

And at this late date, with voting already going on, the so-called left press is publishing one article after another attacking her.

Are they even reading comments their readers leave? The thing that saddens me the most about COMMON DREAMS' articles? The number of people commenting who say that they will not be voting.

Your vote is your vote, vote or don't. I've always said that. But I really don't think COMMON DREAMS started online with the notion that when democracy was at stake, they would be producing content that discouraged their readers from voting.

That's what they've done and they're not the only ones. Again, last few days, they've done some coverage and hopefully they'll pick that up. But we're voting over the next few days and so many periodicals and online sites are actually suppressing the vote, not encouraging it.

Okay, James Carville.

James Carville is a bean counter and that's all he's ever been and ever will be.

He's not a fighter. He wants the easiest path and that's why he's not a player when it comes to campaigns anymore.

He's insisting, if you missed it, that Kamala needs to not talk about January 6th.

He gave a lot of that bad advice to Bill Clinton as well. Betsy Wright was the unsung hero of that campaign and Bill trusted her more than Carville and rejected some of Carville's nonsense when Betsy would nix it.

January 6th is not the distant past.

There's Jack Straw's filing last week, for example, more importantly though, the person who created that insurrection is on the ticket and America can't afford not addressing this right now.

James is an idiot who becomes ever more stupid with each passing year.

And he's amplified by the corporate press.

And they are not perfect -- that's an answer to an outlet on the left who e-mailed to say I'm not slamming them. They make huge mistakes.

The liars are all around us. Politicians who regularly lie and deceive because that's what they do. And it's not just the MAGA clowns, It's also the nonsense Greens. The Green Party wrote out their political suicide note this summer when they made Jill Stein their presidential nominee for the third term despite the fact that no one likes her and that she left the party in debt and that White Karen that she is, she lied to Cornel West and when he realized what she truly was and called her out, she started lying about him. That's all Jill has to offer, endless losing campaigns and racist trashing of Cornel West. In the latest round of How Stupid Does That Hag Think We ARE?, NEWSWEEK reports, "Jill Stein, the Green Party's presidential candidate, said that her party 'would be very interested in allowing majority rule to take place.' Stein said that we need a change in the Filibuster rules." And, Jill FrankenStein, how does that happen?

When your party -- per its own website -- is only running four people for Congress, how does that happen?

There are one hundred members of the US Senate and 435 of the House Of Representatives. If the Green Party saw all four nominees elected to office, that still wouldn't been enough to take on this issue. She's a liar and a loon who deliberately misleads people. The next time she makes a claim about what she's doing as president, it's imperative that the press note the Green Party is only running four candidates for the US Congress per their own website. It should also probably be noted that based on the polling, not one of the four stands a chance in hell of winning office.

She's a liar who has made clear she's only running to elect Donald Trump.

Hagatha needs to go away now.

And the media needs to find a way to report accurately if they're going to report on her.

The following sites updated: