Tuesday, October 1, 2024

Mark The Perv refuses to take one for the team

allaboutmisssassy

 

 Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "All About Miss Sassy" went up earlier tonight.  Look at pock marked Tulsi Gabbard.  She is frightening.  

 

Time to talk about Mark The Perv Robinson.  Alia Shoaib (Newsweek) reports:


Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson has hemorrhaged support from Republicans in North Carolina amid a scandal involving the emergence of alleged controversial past comments, a new poll shows.

The poll by East Carolina University shows that the embattled gubernatorial candidate's support among North Carolina Republicans has dropped 20 percentage points.

The latest poll shows Robinson has the support of 63 percent of Republican respondents, compared to the last poll which showed he had 83 percent support.

Robinson is now trailing behind his opponent, Democrat Josh Stein, 50 percent to 33 percent, according to the poll.


Ha ha! The Perv knew the story about his online behaviors was coming out.  He got a heads up.  Instead of resigning, as he could have done, he lied and called it lies and now he's doomed his party.  Not really at all surprising when you grasp that he's a selfish liar.  You shouldn't ever expect someone like that to put anyone else's needs ahead of their own.

 

This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

 

Tuesday, October 1, 2024.  Robert Kennedy Junior has soaked the American taxpayers for a minimum of one million dollars, Donald Trump's desired 'purge' would impact Black Americans the hardest -- but don't tell DEMOCRACY NOW!, a 'climate activist' gets a platform to play both-sides, and so much other nonsense in the hours before Tim Walz debates the little weirdo JD Vance.


This is a US presidential election years and voting has already started in some areas (early voting) and voting will conclude in 34 days on November 5, 2024.  That doesn't leave a lot of time for play but somebody tell that to Amy Goodman and DEMOCRACY NOW!  In headlines, they include:


“An unprecedented tragedy.” Those were the words of North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper after Hurricane Helene devastated a swath of the country from Florida to Tennessee. The storm’s death toll is nearing 100 and expected to rise as search and rescue teams reach areas cut off by catastrophic flooding and landslides. Millions have lost power in what is expected to become one of the costliest hurricanes in U.S. history.

At least 30 deaths occurred in Buncombe County, North Carolina, where the city of Asheville has been largely cut off after the Swannanoa River crested six feet above previous records, flooding entire neighborhoods. City officials in Asheville said residents may not have access to clean water for weeks after the storm severely damaged the city’s water treatment plant and piping system. Food and water are now being airlifted into Asheville since many roads leading into the area have been destroyed.

Hurricane Helene made landfall on Friday in Florida’s Big Bend as a 140 mile-per-hour Category 4 hurricane that had been fueled by abnormally warm water in the Gulf Of Mexico. On Saturday, Greenpeace posted a message on social media reading, “Hurricane Helene Must Be a Wake-up call for Climate Justice.”


Oh, it's a shame! It's a tragedy!  But there's nothing we can do!  That's what Amy DN! promoted there and especially in their segment where we were told that "The Republican Party is still deeply in denial. The Democratic Party is still deeply in denial."


As a general rule, fifty-year-old freaks sporting a 70s David Cassidy haircuts aren't people I listen to -- we could go further into the weeds on this person but we'll leave it at that.


The fact is that the simplest thing we can do to stop climate change is to pressure our leaders.  And we need leaders who are open to persuasion.  Activist Bill McKibbes gasps that:



All of this is a way of saying something I’ve said too many times before: we’re out of margin.We’re now watching the climate crisis play out in real time, week by week, day by day. (117 Fahrenheit in Phoenix yesterday, the hottest September temperature ever recorded there, smashing the old daily mark by…eight degrees).

This means that our political leaders are finally going to have to make hard choices (or not, which is its own way of choosing). Brazil, for instance, is hoping to drill for oil at the mouth of the Amazon—which at least, given Brazil’s relative poverty, is somewhat understandable, if still insane. America’s politicians, under much less economic pressure, are facing similar choices, some of them as soon as the lame duck session after the November elections. Expect, for instance, a renewed push to open up new permits for LNG export terminals along the Gulf Coast. Pausing those permits was the most important step the Biden administration took to rein in Big Oil, and Houston’s been outraged ever since; it’s why they’re pouring money into the Trump campaign. And it’s why they have their errand boys in the Congress—outgoing Senator Joe Manchin, Wyoming’s John Barrasso—proposing a trade: permitting reform that would make it easier to build renewable energy in America, in exchange for ramping up LNG exports that would undercut renewable energy in Asia.

The numbers on whether this trade “makes sense” are complicated and contentious. Here’s a report from Third Way arguing yes, here’s a set of charts from the veteran energy analyst Jeremy Symons arguing that it will dramatically raise gas prices for those American consumers still tied to propane. New peer-reviewed numbers from the gold-standard methane scientist Bob Howarth at Cornell make it clear that these LNG exports are worse than coal; that prompted 125 climate scientists to write to the administration asking them to “follow the science.”

In the end, this decision will likely come down to politics. It’s not just Big Oil that’s willing to make such a trade—New Mexico’s Martin Heinrich, in line to be Democratic leader on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee when Manchin yachts back to West Virginia, has come out for the trade, assuredly because New Mexico gets a large share of its government revenues from taxing the natural gas under its part of the Permian basin. Northeastern Democrats will vote against, fearing not just climate destruction but the rise in gas prices as we send the commodity abroad. Meanwhile, the good people of the Gulf suffer from the grievous local environmental impacts of these giant plants, and the amount of methane in the atmosphere keeps rocketing up.

If Trump wins, there’s no need for a deal—the LNG projects will be approved, and permitting reform for renewables will be dead. If Harris wins and the Dems hold the Senate, at least there’s a chance that environmentalists can make it easier to build solar and wind without yielding on the massive carbon bomb and EJ disaster that is LNG export. That’s why I’m in Montana today, trying in my small way to help Jon Tester in his uphill fight to retain a Senate seat. And it’s why I’m in the swing states most of the time between now and November 5. Thousands of Third Act volunteers are deploying themselves far and wide to win this contest—you can join us on the Silver Wave tour in Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Nevada. (Please join us, even if you haven’t reached sixty yet—we don’t check IDs and we love working with young people).

The bottom line is, we’re in a terrible corner now. That’s what all those pictures of floating cars really means. We don’t have room left to make tradeoffs and deals; physics isn’t in a bargaining mood. Every battle is dishearteningly existential now. 


There isn't time to play and there isn't time to dither about choosing sides.  

And it's not just the climate issue.  Over the weekend -- DEMOCRACY NOW! missed this -- Donald Trump talked about allowing a brutal police response with no ramifications and how that would restore order.   You can see just how privileged and narrow minded some on the left were as they ignored this topic.  People of color -- and White people who can leave their own privilege -- got how serious this moment is.








A psychopath who wants back into the White House is preaching a purge and that's not news to Amy and the DN!ers.  I don't think they have any Black staff -- certainly no Black staff on air.  Is that why they didn't find this a news issue?  Because such a purge would be largely against Black people.  That's who already suffers from police violence the most.  


But, hey, let's focus on everything else in the world and then we can play shocked after we've screwed over on own country by refusing to cover the stories that matter and presenting liars on air who play both-sides-are-bad when one side is truly evil and the other can be pressured.


There is no message to their segment from yesterday that we're not linking to other than: You are powerless.  


What a way to rob the agency from people, what a proud moment for DEMOCRACY NOW!


In other news too many outlets are missing, Donald's ravings about immigrants just keeps getting worse. Mark Follman (MOTHER JONES) notes:

For much of 2024, Donald Trump has used demagoguery against migrants to campaign for the White House. In numerous recent speeches and media appearances, he has continued to inveigh about an alleged “invasion” coming across America’s southern border. He has falsely claimed that hordes of violent and “insane” foreigners have been taking over “hundreds” of cities and raping and killing “thousands of Americans.” His repeated vows to deport millions of undocumented immigrants draw roars of approval at his rallies.

Inflaming Americans’ fears about immigration and border security was a hallmark of Trump’s presidency and previous campaigns—and his extreme rhetoric, as I’ve previously reported, has marked spasms of violence, including a horrific mass shooting in 2019 in El Paso, Texas. Earlier this month, he and his running mate, JD Vance, magnified racist lies about Haitian immigrants supposedly stealing and eating pets in Springfield, Ohio—provoking a wave of fear, bomb threats, and major disruption in that community.

Now, in the final weeks of the presidential campaign, Trump’s rhetoric about migrants has grown even darker and more foreboding. In three campaign speeches since Friday, he conjured disturbing images of mayhem and death and spoke of the nation as if it’s on the brink of destruction. With no basis in reality, he blamed this cartoonishly grim portrait of American carnage on his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.

“She let our American sons and daughters be raped and murdered at the hands of vicious monsters. She let American communities be conquered,” Trump said at a rally in Michigan on Friday, emphasizing, “They’re conquering your communities.”

“These migrants,” Trump said the following day in Wisconsin, “they make our criminals look like babies. These are stone-cold killers. They’ll walk into your kitchen, they’ll cut your throat.”

In a lengthy diatribe that followed, he falsely claimed that Harris had “let in 425,431 people convicted of the worst crimes.” (This was one of several ways in which Trump wildly distorted data recently released by US Homeland Security that covers a 40-year period.) He declared that these were legions of criminals who “Kamala set loose to rape, pillage, thieve, plunder and kill the people of the United States of America.”

“Lock her up!” shouted someone in the crowd.

Trump further railed against Harris as being “mentally disabled” and supposedly responsible for tens of thousands of murderers pouring into the country. “I’ve been saying this for three years,” he went on, soon adding: “She’s letting in people who are going to walk into your house, break into your door, and they’ll do anything they want. These people are animals.”

Later in the speech, he again highlighted alleged violence by “illegal aliens” and declared: “I will liberate Wisconsin from this mass migrant invasion of murderers, rapists, hoodlums, drug dealers, thugs, and vicious gang members. I will liberate our nation.”


I'm not in the mood for the idiot Jill Stein but if someone wants to call out NEWSWEEK for media malpractice, their article yesterday not only cited the heavily flawed CAIR study, it also mentioned other polling but didn't note Jill in those polls.  Why?  Because she's at 1 and 2 percent and because no poll reflects the flawed CAIR poll.  Though Hill did boast that she was taking out the Democratic Party.  Remember that if we get stuck with Donald Trump.


We got stuck with Robert Kennedy Jr, didn't we?

Creepy, crazy Robert Kennedy Junior was back in the news over the weekend.  No, it doesn't involve him and another dead animal.  No, another of his many affairs hasn't been exposed.  Melissa Quinn and Caitlin Yilek (CBS NEWS) report:


The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a bid by independent presidential Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to restore his name to New York's general election ballot.

The unsigned order from the court leaves intact a lower court decision declining to place his name back on New York's ballot ahead of the Nov. 5 contest. Kennedy mounted an unsuccessful independent bid for the White House and, after suspending his campaign last month, is working to have his name removed from ballots in more than a dozen states.


Which is good news.  But we need to remember this for the future.  Junior was always running a fake campaign.  He never should have been on the ballots to begin with.  He's no longer pretending he's running for the presidency.  Instead of crawling back under his rock and disappearing, he has spent weeks now trying to get on or stay on the ballots of states that he believes Kamala might win in and trying to get off the ballots of states that he feels Donald might be close to carrying if his voters vote for Donald instead.

It's all garbage.  Maureen Groppe (USA TODAY) notes:


New York Attorney General Letitia James responded that Kennedy's request is "extraordinary and disruptive."

Tens of thousands of ballots already in voters' hands would have to be invalidated, James told the court, even though "Kennedy is no longer seeking the office for which he insists on the right to appear on the ballot and is imploring his supporters to vote for someone else."

Kennedy's lawyers said he was only asking to put his name on ballots yet to be printed.


Yes, he was just insisting that he be on the ones yet to be printed.  Because the legal ploy there is to then challenge New York's election results by insisting it was unfair to voters that he was on some ballots and not others. Donald is expected to lose New York state.  Junior saw this as a loophole that could throw the results into question.  


He's garbage and he's a nutcase.  Emma Specter (VOGUE) observes:


Bizarrely enough, the Olivia Nuzzi scandal is actually perhaps the most normal bit of gossip to emerge about Kennedy since he began his campaign in 2023. This past May, Kennedy attributed the memory loss and brain fog he experienced in 2010 to “a worm that got into my brain and ate a portion of it and then died” (yes, really), and three months later, he confessed to dumping a dead bear cub in Central Park after picking it up from the side of the road upstate with the intent to consume its meat. The same month, a 2012 article resurfaced in which Kennedy’s daughter Kick recounted a story about her father beheading a dead whale and strapping it to the top of his minivan for a five-hour drive. (And then, of course, there are the even more unseemly parts of his story, from sexual-assault allegations to the fact that Kennedy pledged to not “take sides on 9/11.”)

 

He's a nut case and a greedy grifter that stuck us, the US taxpayer, with his Secret Service bill.  He never should have gotten Secret Service protection.  He didn't need it -- all the nuts were already supporting him.  But he ran his fake campaign and stuck the American people with the bill for the Secret Service.  The lowest estimate for that month's worth of coverage is $1,000,000.  He soaked the American taxpayers for one million dollars.  Someone needs to do a cost analysis of Junior's campaign and just how much it has cost the American taxpayer with his protection, with his frivolous lawsuits -- we're paying for the courts to entertain his lawsuits -- and so much more.  In the end, I wouldn't be at all surprised if Junior's vanity run cost the US taxpayer five million dollars.


Tonight?  


Tonight the debate will be between Tim Walz and Miss Sassy JD Vance.  CBS has given up the pretense of journalism and will not be fact checking any response.  They say that they will fact check online.  So maybe the best we can all do is stream online?  And not at the CBS feed.  Stream or watch PBS, AP, CNN, MSNBC, ABC -- anyone but CBS since CBS made it clear that lies are okay with them, CBS made it clear that they don't want to do their actual job.  Let's not reward them for their sloppy behavior.   Good for Lawrence O'Donnell for calling out CBS' nonsense last night.



Of course, the big question is will Miss Sassy show up for the debate tonight.  After all, Donald Trump is too chicken to get back on the debate stage with Kamala Harris.  And JD's not known for showing up when he's supposed to.  As Chris Walker (TRUTHOUT) notes:


United States Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) has skipped every Senate vote since he was selected to be Donald Trump’s vice presidential running mate back in mid-July.

The total number of votes Vance has missed over the past 10 weeks stands at 38, with more votes likely to come up between now and Election Day.


We'll wind down with Kamala's speech in Las Vegas on Sunday.

 



 

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Hey, Las Vegas.  (Applause.)

Good evening, Nevada.  (Applause.)  Good evening.  Good evening.  Good evening.  (Applause.)  (Inaudible.)

Thank you.  Thank you.  Thank you.  (Applause.)

Thank you all.  Thank you, thank you.  (Applause.)  Thank you, everyone.  Thank you.  Thank you.  (Applause.)

And can we please hear it for Captain Quintero?  (Applause.)

Oh, thank you all.  Thank you, everyone.  Oh, it is so wonderful to be back in Nevada.  Thank you all.  Thank you.  (Applause.)

And happy Hispanic Heritage Month to everyone.  (Applause.)

Thank you.  Thank you all.  It’s good to be back, and I want to thank everyone for all that you do. 

I know we have some extraordinary elected leaders here, and I want to thank them for their incredible work and friendship.  It is good to be with all the leaders who are here, including Representative Susie Lee, who is here — (applause); Steven Horsford — (applause); Dina Titus — (applause); the great General Ford — (applause); Senator Catherine Cortez Masto — (applause); Senator Jacky Rosen, who we’re going to send back to the United States Senate.  (Applause.)

Thank you, everyone, and all the local leaders here.  There are so many leaders here.  It is good to be back with you.  (Applause.)

Thank you, thank you, thank you. 

And wait a minute.  We also tonight have here some of the Vegas Raiders, who won their game tonight. (Applause.)  Thank you.  Congratulations.  Oh, congratulations.  You came right from the game.  Congratulations.

Give them an applause, right?  (Applause.)  Well done.  Well done.  Well done.

So, in all seriousness, everyone, before I begin, I want to say a few words about Hurricane Helene.  And please have a seat if you’re able. 

I want to talk about Hurricane Helene for a moment, and I know that everyone here sends their thoughts and prayers for the folks who have been so devastated by that hurricane and the ensuing events in Florida, in Georgia, the Carolinas, and other impacted states.  And we know that so many have been impacted; some have died.

But I want to thank everyone for doing everything you can to think about them.  Send them your thoughts.  Send them your prayers. 

I want to thank the first responders who have done so much.  (Applause.) 

And we will stand with these communities for as long as it takes to make sure that they are able to recover and rebuild. 

Earlier today, I received an operational briefing from FEMA Director Criswell.  More than 3,300 federal personnel have been mobilized.  We are deploying food, water, and generators and working to restore water and power.  (Applause.)

And the president and I have told state and local leaders we will provide whatever help they need in the days and weeks ahead. 

And so, I thank you all for sending your best wishes to everyone there.  Thank you.  (Applause.)

So, Las Vegas, we have 37 days until the election.  (Applause.)  Thirty-seven days.  And we know this will be a tight race until the very end. 

And let’s level set.  We are the underdog.  We are the underdog, and we have some hard work ahead. 

But here’s the thing.  We like hard work.  Hard work is good work.  Hard work is good work.  (Applause.)

And with your help, we will win in November.  (Applause.)  Yes, we will.  Yes, we will.  Yes, we will. 

AUDIENCE:  We will win!  We will win!  We will win!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  We will win.

AUDIENCE:  We will win!  We will win!  We will win!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  We will win.

AUDIENCE:  We will win!  We will win!  We will win!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  We will win.

And here’s why — and here’s why — and here’s why: Because we here know that this election is about two very different visions for our nation.  And the contrast, I think, was quite clear in our debate.

Did you all see the debate?  (Applause.)  You saw — you saw the debate.  You saw the debate.  Yeah, yeah.

And in two days, I know we will cheer on Coach Walz when he debates J.D. Vance.  (Applause.)  Yeah. 

But listen, also, their debate should not be the last word.  I’m trying to debate Donald Trump again and — (applause) — I think he should debate again.  The American people have a right to hear us discuss the issues.  And as you say here in Las Vegas, I’m all in.  I’m all in — (applause) — even if my opponent is ready to fold, so there you go.

But you will remember, in our first debate, I talked about issues like bringing down the cost of living, investing in small businesses, protecting reproductive freedom — (applause) — and keeping our nation secure.  (Applause.)

But from Donald Trump, well, it was the same old, tired playbook — same old, tired playbook — with no plan on how he would address the needs of the American people. 

Well, folks, it’s time to turn the page.  (Applause.)  It’s time to turn the page. 

America is ready to chart a new way forward — (applause) — ready for a new and optimistic generation of leadership — (applause) — which is why Democrats, Republicans, and independents are supporting our campaign, because we know we need a president who works for all the American people.  (Applause.)

Enough of the division.  Enough of the hate.  We are all in this together.  (Applause.) 

And you all know, for my entire career, I’ve only had one client: the people.  The people.  (Applause.) 

From being a young courtroom prosecutor in Oakland, I stood up for women and children against predators.  (Applause.)  As attorney general of California, I took on the big banks — (applause) — and delivered $20 billion for middle-class families who faced foreclosure.  (Applause.)  I stood up for veterans and students being scammed by for-profit colleges — (applause) — for workers who were being cheated out of their wages.  (Applause.)

And I pledge to you, as president, I will fight for all Americans.  And together, we will build a brighter future for our nation.  (Applause.)

We will build a future that includes thinking about our economy in a way that it is about lifting everyone up.  We will build what I call an “opportunity economy” so that every American has an opportunity to own a home, to build wealth, to start a business.  (Applause.)

And let me tell you, I love our small businesses, of which I’ve met so many right here in Vegas.  (Applause.)

You know, growing up, our mother worked very long hours, and so, my sister Maya and I would go over two doors down to Ms. Shelton’s house.  She — we called her our second mother.  And Ms. Shelton was a small-business owner.  So, I know, since I was a young child, who our small businesses are, who our small-business owners are. 

Small businesses are the backbone of America’s economy.  (Applause.)  I know that.  I know that.  And Latina small-business owners are the fastest growing segment of our economy.  (Applause.)

 So, my plan is about tapping into that ambition, those aspirations, those dreams, those incredible ideas, that strong work ethic that people have, also understanding not everybody gets handed $4 million on a silver platter and files for bankruptcy six times. 

AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  So, my plan is about saying we’ve got to help entrepreneurs, startups out, and I will give a $50,000 tax deduction to help entrepreneurs start their small businesses.  (Applause.)  Because right now, that tax deduction is $5,000.  Can’t nobody start a small business in 2024.  So, we’re going — we are going to make it something what — where it is doable to lift folks up. 

We also need to build more housing in America.  (Applause.)  My mother saved up for years, until I was a teenager, when she was able to buy our first home.  And right now, a serious housing shortage is part of what is driving up cost.  So, we will cut the red tape and work with the private sector to build 3 million new homes — (applause) — and provide first-time home buyers with $25,000 down-payment assistance — (applause) — so you can just get your foot in the door.  You’ll do the rest.


 And we must lower the cost of living, because while our economy is doing well by many measures, prices for everyday things like groceries are still too high.  You know it, and I know it. 

So, I have a plan that includes lowering costs on everything from health care to groceries, including I will take on the corporate price gouging that we know — (applause) — has resulted in jacking prices up, often around tragedies and emergencies. 

 We will give a tax cut to 100 million more Americans, including $6,000 during the first year of a child’s life — (applause) — knowing that the vast majority of our young parents have a natural desire to parent their children well but not always the resources to do it.  And that $6,000 in extending and expanding the Child Tax Credit will help buying a crib, buying a car seat, doing the things that are so critical in that first phase of life.

 I will also make sure good-paying jobs are available to all Americans, not only those with college degrees.  (Applause.)  Because we need to recognize the value of additional paths, such as apprenticeships and technical programs.  (Applause.)  And so, as president, part of how I’m going to push this forward is I will get rid of unnecessary degree requirements for federal jobs — (applause) — understanding that having a college degree is not the only measure of the skills and experience of a worker.  (Applause.)  And when we do that with the federal workforce, I’m coming to ask the private sector — challenge you to do the same.  (Applause.)

So, all of this is to say I will always put the middle class and working families first.  I come from the middle class, and I will never forget where I come from.  (Applause.)  Never.
    
Now, Donald Trump has a different plan.

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Yeah.  Just google “Project 2025.”

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Which, I have to say, I still can’t believe they put that thing in writing.  (Laughter.)  They printed it up.  They bound it.  They handed it out.  Just google it.  It is a detailed and dangerous blueprint for what he would do if he were elected again as president. 

Donald Trump will give billionaires and corporations massive tax cuts again —

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — cut Social Security and Medicare —

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — and impose what I call a “Trump sales tax,” which would be a 20 percent tax on everyday basic necessities —

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — which economists have measured would cost the average family nearly 4,000 more dollars a year in everyday expenses. 

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And on top of all this, Donald Trump intends to end the Affordable Care Act.

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And he has no plan to replace it.

He has, quote, “concepts of a plan.”  (Applause.)  “Concepts.”

So, here’s the thing, though.  We can laugh about many things, but the consequences of this are quite serious — quite serious.  Because think about it: He’s going to threaten health coverage and health insurance for 45 million people in our country based on a concept and take us back to when insurance companies could deny people with preexisting conditions.  You remember what that was like?

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Well, we are not going back.  (Applause.)  We are not going back.

AUDIENCE:  We’re not going back!  We’re not going back!  We’re not going back!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  We’re not going back.  We — we will move forward and — (applause) — and we will take on the biggest issues facing our nation. 

We have talked about the economy.  We have talked about what we can do in terms of investing in the ambition, the aspirations of our country.  We will take on the issue of immigration.  We will take on a number of issues.

On the subject of immigration, we must have comprehensive immigration reform — (applause) — with strong border security and an earned pathway to citizenship — (applause) — including for hardworking immigrants who have been here for years, including our DREAMers — (applause) — including our DREAMers. 

And I was attorney general of a border state.  I prosecuted transnational criminal organizations who traffic in guns, drugs, and human beings.  And as president, I will double the resources for the Department of Justice to go after those transnational cartels — (applause) — and take action to stop the flow of fentanyl coming into our country, which is destroying entire communities.  (Applause.)

These are serious problems, and we know Donald Trump won’t solve them. 

When he was president, he did nothing to fix our immigration system.  (Applause.)  And earlier this year, we had a chance to pass the toughest bipartisan border security bill in decades, and Donald Trump tanked the bill because he thought that that bill, if passed, would have hurt him, and he’d prefer to run on a problem instead of fixing a problem.  That’s not the kind of president we want.

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  As president, he cruelly separated families and plans to do it again. 

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And he continues to fan the flames of fear and division. 

Look, we need a president who cares more about solving problems than playing political games and demeaning people full

time.  (Applause.)  We’re tired of that.  We’re — we’re done with that.

 So, Nevada, ours is a fight for the future and it is a fight for freedom — (applause) — like the fundamental freedom of a woman to be able to make decisions about her own body and not have her government tell her what to do.  (Applause.)

And we remember how we got here.  Donald Trump hand-selected three members of the United States Supreme Court — the court of Thurgood and RBG —

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — so that they would do as they did and overturn the protections of Roe v. Wade.  And now one in three women in America lives in a state with a Trump abortion ban —

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — many with no exceptions, even for rape and incest.  It is immoral.  Immoral. 

And let us agree, one does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree the government shouldn’t be telling her what to do.  (Applause.)  If she chooses, she will talk with her priest, her pastor, her rabbi, her imam, but not the government telling her what to do with her body.  (Applause.)  Come on.

 And with Jacky Rosen back in the United States Senate — (applause) — when Congress passes a bill to restore reproductive freedom, as president of the United States, I will proudly sign it into law.  (Applause.)  Proudly sign it into law.

 And, Nevada, you know I’m traveling all over our country.  Across our nation, we are witnessing a full-on assault on other hard-fought, hard-won freedoms and rights, like the freedom to vote, the freedom to join a union, the freedom to breathe clean air and drink clean water, the freedom to love who you love openly and with pride — (applause) — and the freedom to be safe from gun violence — (applause) — which after 1 October  Nevada proved that smart gun safety laws are just common sense.  (Applause.)

So, look, generations before us, generations of America led the fight for freedom, and the baton — well, it’s now in our hands.  It’s now in our hands.  (Applause.) 

 And it all comes down to this.  We are here together.  You came out on a Sunday evening.  We are here together because we know what is at stake, and we are here together because we love our country.  We love our country.  We love our country.  (Applause.)

     AUDIENCE:  USA!  USA!  USA!

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  That’s right.  That’s right.

     AUDIENCE:  USA!  USA!  USA!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And I do believe — I do believe that one of the highest forms of patriotism that we could show is to then fight for the ideals of our country.  That’s what this is about.  It is a fight to realize the promise of America.  (Applause.)

 And I know the people of Nevada; you are Battle Born.  You are Battle Born.  (Applause.)  Yes, you are.  And we are all ready for the work ahead.  Thirty-seven days.  (Applause.)  Thirty-seven days.

And here in Nevada, every voter will receive a ballot in the mail, and in-person early voting starts October 19th.  (Applause.) 

So, now is the time to make your plan for how you are going to vote.  Okay?  And I’d ask you to start making your plan now for how you are going to vote.  And if you choose to vote by mail, do not wait.  Fill out your battl- — ballot, sign it, and send it back right away.  (Applause.)  Okay?  And tell your neighbors.

Because, folks, the election is here — (applause) — and we need to energize and organize and mobilize.  And remember, your vote is your voice.  Your voice is your power.  Don’t ever let anybody take your power from you.  Never.  (Applause.)  Never.  Don’t let anybody silence you ever. 

 So, Las Vegas, today, I ask you, are you ready to make your voices heard?  (Applause.)

     Do we believe in freedom?  (Applause.)

     Do we believe in opportunity?  (Applause.)

     Do we believe in the promise of America?  (Applause.)

     And are we ready to fight for it?  (Applause.)

     And when we fight —

     AUDIENCE:  We win!

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — we win.

 God bless you.  And God bless the United States of America.  God bless you.  (Applause.)


The following sites updated:





Monday, September 30, 2024

Mark The Perv Robinson

 

That's Paul Rudnick Tweeting about Mark The Perv Robinson.  D'Anne Witkowski (Philadelphia Gay News) picked him as "creep of the week:"

 

For the past few years, I’ve heard people say Republicans have a “candidate quality” problem. In other words, that Republicans are losing races or are having to fight much harder than they have in the past to protect safe Republican seats because they just happen to be choosing bad candidates. And by bad, I mean extremist candidates who are loud and proud about being extreme.

But the problem for Republicans isn’t that they’re picking bad candidates. It’s that the candidates rising to the top are much more open about the backwards policies and hateful intent of the party’s platform. This is due, in part, to Trump, who has normalized being on the lunatic fringe. But it’s also due to gerrymandering. For example, when a district with a safe Republican seat has a primary election, it’s the base that typically comes out to vote. And the Republican base is not tethered to this earthly plane. They are far out there when it comes to what most people in this country support.

Republicans are out there running on a platform to ban abortion nationwide, ban birth control, get rid of the Affordable Care Act without any plan to replace it, ban public schools (or at least divert funding from public schools to private Christian schools), overturn the Supreme Court’s marriage equality ruling, do away with any laws that protect LGBTQ+ people from discrimination, gut Medicaid and Medicare, gut Social Security, make guns easier to get and harder to regulate in any way, ban porn, cut taxes for the richest people in the country and raise taxes on everyone else. And those are just the greatest hits. Plenty of proposed Republican cuts are just as bad if not worse.

And here’s the thing — this is not some kind of new Republican Party that all of a sudden is extreme on just about every issue Americans care about. This is who the Republican Party has been my entire lifetime. A major turning point for the GOP was President Ronald Regan’s embrace of the Christian right back in the ’80s. The party has been moving further and further right ever since.

So, yeah, it’s a feature, not a bug, that causes the Republican campaign machine to spit out candidates who are disconnected from the majority of the country. They were just able to hide their extremism better in the past.

Which leads me to North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson, a self-described “perv.”


That's the opening,  Keep reading by using the link even though you know no one worked harder to earn creep of the week. 



 

This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"

 

Monday, September 30, 2024.  Kamala delivers a major speech in Las Vegas, we review journalism and reporting and releasing information which are not all the same thing, COMMON DREAMS and THE PROGRESSIVE don't like Black women, and much more.


Democratic Party presidential candidate Kamala Harris continued campaigning over the weekend culminating in her Las Vegas stop that found her addressing a huge crowd in person starting around 10:45 pm EST.  



In addition the huge crowd that turned out to hear her speak, online where over 521,000 streamers turned out during the live speech which, again, started at 10:45 pm EST last night.  Now there was probably way more than that that.  We only checked the following during the speech: Kamala's campaign site (which had two streams), LAS VEGAS REVIEW JOURNAL, Roland S. Martin's YOUTUBE channel, NEWS 3 LAS VEGAS,  FOX "NEWS" and DEMOCRATS.ORG.  Usually, PBS and AP -- among others -- are also streaming the speech.  Ava and I were writing "The death of corporate media has been widely misreported" so that's all we had time to check during the speech. 

Pay attention to this next part.


Democratic Party presidential candidate Kamala Harris:  And right now a serious housing shortage is part of what's driving up costs.  So we will cut the red tape and work with the private sector to build three million new homes.  And provide first time home buyers with $25,000 down payment assistance so you can get your foot in the door. You'll do the rest.  And we must lower the cost of living because, while our economy is doing well by many measures, prices for every day things like groceries are still too high.  You know it and I know it.  So I have a plan that includes lowering costs on everything from healthcare to groceries -- including, I will take on the corporate price gouging that we know has resulted in jacking prices up -- often around tragedies and emergencies.  We will give a tax cut to a hundred million more Americans including $6,000 during the first year of a child's life knowing that the vast majority of our young parents have a natural desire to parent their child well but not always the resources to do it.  And that six thousand dollars in extending and expanding the child tax will help buying a crib,, buying a car seat, doing the thins that are so critical in that first phase of life.

That's my transcription.  Pretend it's not though.  Pretend I just copied and pasted the transcript the campaign sent out (I was told that transcript will be sent out later today).  If all I did was copy and paste and stopped right there?

That's really not journalism.  I'm trying to walk a few through what Ava and I covered last night.  

So the Association of Home Builders estimates building a new house to require 22 subcontractors.  Are you grasping the number of jobs that are being created with Kamala's proposal?  Do you know that home construction has fallen in the US and we are not matching population growth currently when it comes to building homes?  Or that there's been a national decrease in the number of homes built -- 44% decrease -- since 2006.  

That information provided?  That falls under the category of reporting. 

Last week, journalist Ken Klippenstein published at his SUBSTACK the   research that the Trump campaign did as part of the vetting of JD Vance to be on the ticket with Donald Trump.

It's not all the vetting that was done or that was written as anyone who's worked higher on a campaign knows.  This is the most basic vetting that can be done, a review of public sources.

Publishing it is not reporting.   Here's what Ava and I wrote:

Like Matt Taibbi's TWITTER FILES 'reports,' there's no reporting being done here.   We called Matt's work "The Twitter Dumps" and that's what Ken has done.

 

Reporting is not releasing documents.  Releasing documents is releasing documents.


We applaud the releasing of documents -- The Pentagon Papers, WIKILEAKS' work, etc.


But we don't confuse that with journalism.


That Ken does makes him appear more than a little out of touch.  


271.  That's the amount of pages -- that's how long the leaked report is.  In what world do most Americans have time to wade through 271 pages.  We did.  It meant losing sleep time.


Reporting could have been done on the 271-pages.


We'd argue that what emerges is that JD Vance is an angry, little boy who's never grown up and feels he'll never become a man because of Daddy issues related to his father abandoning him.  He goes around looking for a Daddy and he has no scope or prism by which to examine any issue beyond his own limited personal view.  He can't relate to others or understand them unless they share his grievances and immaturity.  He clearly needs help.

 

We say that as two who trudged through every page -- including the page where his September 1, 2006 speeding ticket is reproduced.  The ticket, of course, wasn't issued to "JD Vance."  It wasn't issued under his birth name  James Donald Bowman.  It was issued under his first legal name change name James D. Hall.  He would have another name change in 2013 -- around the age of 29  -- when he became JD Vance.


Who changes their legal name twice?  Once, okay, but going to court to get a third name?  That really goes to his inability to be consistent.  His name, like his political positions, are all over the map.


As debate prep for Tim Walz, publishing the 271 pages might have some value.  They demonstrate how hollow Vance is and how he'll do or say anything  America doesn't know JD Vance. 


That is the take way from the 271 pages -- and JD Vance doesn't know JD Vance.  He's forever changing and remaking himself, forever looking for a daddy figure to guide him.


He's forty-years-old and, if Donald's elected, he could be president because Donald's so old and so very fat that he could easily die in the next two years from a massive heart attack.  


Tim might wonder in Tuesday's debate whether, for example, he was standing onstage with the JD that supported the Supreme Court's ruling legalizing same-se marriage or he was standing on stage with the 2020 JD that had a hissy fit over basic workplace protections that prevented someone from being fired for being gay?


Corporate media refused to release the report or cover it because, some claim, it might have been hacked and it might have been from Iran (the hack might have been done by an Iranian citizen acting alone or by the Iranian government).  

 

While that may indeed be a reason given, we'd argue the larger issue is that they take the position that they've already covered it.

 

Vetting Vance, for any who don't know, is research that the campaign did on JD.  They vetted others as well.  Marco Rubio, for example, was vetted as well.  (His file has not leaked at present.)  But, at that Mother Tucker Carlson's urging, Donald went with JD.  Whack job Tucker insisted that the 'deep state' would assassinate Trump if he picked Rubio because they'd want Marco to be president.  


Remember, kids, when you need the polling on the deep-state go to Mother Tucker, he's the inside man.


We'll come back to Tucker.


How can the media claim that they've already reported on the 271 pages?  Because it's largely their reporting.  It's statements that Vance made to the media, it's statements from pieces that Vance wrote for the media.  It's also his traffic record (public information), his basic school records (public information), etc 

 

If Ken were to do journalism on the 271 pages, he could pick any issue and report on the changing positions that Vance has held in his 20 or so adult years.  He could do that on any issue.  He could do that on many issues.  He hasn't done that though he has published that TWITTER deactivated his account and then he shared a communication informing him that this was permanent -- he was permanently banned from TWITTER.  He's shared that FACEBOOK and GOOGLE have also banned links to the 271 page report but they have not banned Ken himself.


We repeatedly castigated Matt Taibbi for claiming Tweets were reporting.  They are not.  Nor is publishing a 271-page report.  There's an argument that can be made insisting it was journalism and we wouldn't quibble with that.  But publishing a 271-page report is, in and of itself, not reporting.


Should the 271-page now published report be banned?  No.  There's no reason to ban it or to ban Ken.  The bulk of it is a collection of quotes from publications like THE WASHINGTON POST.  

 
A number of e-mails are already coming into the public account -- and honestly feels like we just finished writing the piece for THIRD ten minutes ago -- horrified that we said it's not reporting.  Sorry, but it's not.  A journalist is not supposed to be a stenographer.  CBS has already announced they won't be fact checking.

So why the hell are they pretending to be journalists.  On Tuesday night's debate, they'll ask questions.

Who gives a f**k about their pompous and out of touch questions?

They're not needed for that.  You can get questions from voters online.  Or when Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda read questions like in the video below.


Stop pretending that you're doing reporting when you are not.  And don't pretend that asking a question and then nodding along to whatever response is offered (no matter how big of a lie it is) passes for journalism.


Elisabeth Bumiller has her pros and cons -- many more pros -- but in the '00s many saw her as a stenographer for the Bully Boy Bush administration and not a reporter.  That's in part due to journalistic ignorance.  Every piece with her name signed to it in THE NEW YORK TIMES was not reporting "Memo From The White House," for example, was intended to be mini-commentary.  She was a reporter (she's now an editor) and that was the paper's fault for not explaining what was going on and putting the "memo' in the news section.   We called her out for her reporting many times and we called her out for her opinions in the "memo" pieces.  She also wrote the most important Iraq War piece for the paper which was also the most underread.  

I think Ken did the right thing and I think he shouldn't be banned.  But what he did wasn't reporting.  Reporting would have required him writing about what was in the 271 pages.  We live in a climate where talk show hosts are mistaken for reporters.  

The position we take on Ken is consistent with the positions we've taken repeatedly on these issues.  Unlike Glenneth Greenwald and Matt Taibbi.  Taibbi wanted to lie last week that this and the censoring of THE NEW YORK POST report on Hunter Biden's laptop were different because of what he calls government involvement.  (As Mehdi Hassan noted in his interview with Matt over the Twitter Dump, Joe Biden was not in office.  We could go more into that but I'm honestly bored with this topic already.)  No, that's not accurate.  Matt called out the censorship in real time.  We did too.  We did it more strongly and we addressed the legal issues that Glenneth couldn't with both of his hands.  

But what did Matt do in 2023?  Went around bragging about the importance of The Twitter Dump and how he revealed in it that the government was censoring.

So when Matt says, as he did last week, that he doesn't have to respond -- that was his attitude when people called him out on his silence -- because this isn't government censorship?  He didn't call that out -- the laptop -- as government censorship in real time.  That's why he preened and strutted in 2023 thinking he had proved something, remember?

Again, this is not a topic that I care to spend much time on.  Ava and I had to read all of that 271 pages -- as well as a lot of pieces of yea Ken and boo Ken nature.  

This is not an issue that voters are desperate to learn of.  There are real issues out there.  

Summary: Ken was right to publish it and shouldn't be banned for it.

Now we can get back to real issues that have to do with the election?  Because voting's already started and will continue through election day which means there are 35 days left to vote.

I'm not going to be drinking today other than a few sips of water.  Why?  I'm non-stop throwing up.  (Drinking any significant amount of water will mean throwing up throughout the day which won't happen on a dry and empty stomach.) As I dictate this, I have to keep stopping and go off to the side to throw up. (Dona note: C.I. didn't dictate the snapshot to me but to clarify, she works out while she dictates the snapshot.  If she's not at home, like this morning, then she's outside running while she dictates so that what she means about having to go off to the side.  To step off the track or park sidewalk or where ever it is that she's running this morning, step to the side to throw up and then go back to running and dictating.  Saw that question in the e-mails and added this to answer it.)   I could be at home now in my bed.  Instead I'm out on the road and I'm getting damn tired of it as I watch these so-called left outlets that do nothing, not one damn thing.

When I speak about Kamala's home ownership plan, I do what I did above.  I talk about the jobs it's going to create.  I talk about the sinks and tubs and toilets it's going to sell.  I talk about the impact this will have the economy  -- it's going to boost the economy.  And people are always say that they hadn't realized all that.  

And they hadn't because most outlets aren't doing their damn job.  Let's repost what I wrote last night in full.

THE WEATHER CHANNEL notes, "Millions of people across the Southeast remained without power Sunday in the aftermath of Helene. For many in the western Carolinas, rescues were still happening, as crews tried to reach communities isolated by flooding and landslides." At least sixty people lost their lives.  At COMMON DREAMS, Jessica Corbett notes:


The youth-led Sunrise Movementsaid Sunday that "any reporting about Hurricane Helene needs to be clear—this is not normal. This is not just a tragedy. This is a crime. Fossil fuel companies have known this would happen for the last 50 years. They lied to the public and bought out our government just to make a profit. Make them pay."

Greenpeace USA similarly declared on social media Saturday that "#HURRICANEHELENE MUST BE A WAKE-UP CALL FOR CLIMATE JUSTICE!"

"We are heartbroken," the group said, noting the dozens of people killed. "Communities have been devastated. The corporations heating the climate must be held accountable." 


Corbett goes on to misreport by next including a Tweet from the increasingly deranged Nina Turner who tries to paint a picture of this being a non-political issue.


Wrong.  This is absolutely a political issue.  Maybe Nina needs to find one topic -- at least one -- she can be an expert on.  Maybe that would put an end to her non-stop tumbles and fumbles of recent years.


Her comments are pure stupidity.  And its journalist malpractice for Jessica to even include them.  It amounts to climate change denialism.  That's what it is.  Donald Trump does not give a damn about climate change.  He didn't address it when he was previously in the White House and his plans for another four years include dismantling oversight.  His supporters -- such as Elon Musk -- are fine with trashing the earth because they believe that they can colonize Mars.  This is not minor.


Jessica and COMMON DREAMS are guilty of not just misreporting but of endangering the planet.  There was no reason for Nina Turner's b.s. Tweet to be included.  There was every reason to note that Donald is not going to protect the planet.  There was every reason to note Joe Biden's efforts over the last four years which have not been enough but have been something.  And there's every reason to note Kamala's plans and how a Kamala presidency would be more open to pressure. 

It's interesting that Jessica includes Nina Turner's Tweet but not this Tweet from Antonia Juhasz:



Let me note some from Antonia.  She reTweeted this:



And she Tweeted this:



And she Tweeted this:


Guess which one of the three above Tweets and one reTweet that Jessica notes in her article?  That's right, the one that doesn't mention Kamala Harris. 


It's amazing just how far COMMON DREAMS went to ignore Kamala.  They are supposed to be a left outlet yet they repeatedly expose themselves as something other than that.


Our planet is at risk.  Your choices are Donald Trump or Kamala Harris.  For COMMON DREAMS, they're not really in the fight to save the earth.  They make that clear with their selective coverage where even when they're quoting someone (their Tweet) about the topic, they ignore the support for Kamala.

Jessica ends her article with this:


Highlighting the connection between climate change and more intense hurricanes, Congressman Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) said Thursday that "the climate crisis is here. We must act to save lives."


And how are we going to do that Jessica?  One way would be voting Kamala and then holding her feet to the fire on the climate issue.  But apparently, even a little over a month away from the election, COMMON DREAMS refuses to entertain that idea.  Even though that's the easiest action that anyone can take for climate justice.


Days before Jessica's dangerous typing went up, Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling (THE NEW REPUBLIC) explained:

Hurricane Helene has derailed the Republican presidential ticket’s campaign across the South, forcing Trump’s vice presidential pick, J.D. Vance, to cancel several stops in Georgia. But the 20-foot storm surge–inducing, tornado-spawning weather event hasn’t yet changed Trump’s stance on his plan to tear down the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, root and branch.

The climate agency, whose responsibilities include providing free weather forecasts as well as tracking and predicting hurricanes, would be completely gutted under Project 2025, the 920-page Christian nationalist manifesto that purports to be Trump’s second-term agenda. (Trump has haltingly and not particularly convincingly attempted to disavow Project 2025; a recently unearthed video features one of the project’s authors bragging that there will be “one-to-one mirroring” of the policies laid out in the document and Trump’s proposals.) 


Are you getting it?  Because it's sailing right over the heads of the people working for COMMON DREAMS.

You know what else is sailing over their heads?  How Black women are especially noting their lack of support for Kamala Harris.  Black women who turn out every election.  The same Black women that learned in the '00s they'd be ripped apart at DAILY KOS and all the other Democratic Party sites.  Because Black women weren't appreciated.  And that's still true today as COMMON DREAMS makes clear.  COMMON DREAMS went all in for John Kerry or have we forgotten?  They went all in for Hillary.  So forgive those of us who are noticing that the only different standard comes into play when it's a Black woman.


Then COMMON DREAMS wants to be reluctant about supporting the Democratic Party presidential candidate.  And only then.  Don't think we aren't noticing it. 


JD Vance is completely unqualified to be president.   In 2008, Sarah Palin was ripped apart by the press and that was done, we were told, because John McCain was so old he might die in office after being sworn in -- that would have been 2009.   John McCain was 71-years-old.  That's seven years younger than Donald Trump is now.  For the record, McCain died ten years after the 2008 run at the age of 81.  No one's a prophet (unless they're a crazy on stage with JD this past weekend).  But contrast the way Sarah was examined with the way that JD is.  Most people have no idea who he is.  But the GOP put out the lie that people didn't know who Kamala was and the media ran with it.  


No one knows that little weirdo JD Vance.


We -- Ava and I -- read the 271-page report.  He has flipped on any issue and every issue.  He has flipped on Trump.  There is nothing there, no there there.  He is hollow and has no core.  In a better media environment, the corporate media would have run with that on their own. 


Instead, they ran with the GOP line that Kamala was unknown.  No, America knew their vice president before she became the presidential candidate.  They do not know JD Vance.  They do not know how he lies about everything.  His personal life should back up the life that he is trying to now enforce on others but that's not the life he lives.  He's a little henpecked male who never grew up and who has very serious issues that require therapy.  


But we're less than forty days to the election and not only has the press failed to address the realities of JD Vance -- the mainstream press -- so has the so-called left media.  Let's look at THE PROGRESSIVE.  No one buys the print copy anymore -- they have more subscribers to the print copy than they sell at bookstores and on magazine racks.  So all they've really got is online.  They have a Ted Glick article about Harris is better for Palestinians -- they published that Friday.  And Wednesday was a miracle day for THE PROGRESSIVE when they discovered JD Vance was lying about Haitian immigrants.  You know, the topic most people were talking about by September 10th when Donald Trump repeated those lies in the debate with Kamala.  

They certainly have a laid back attitude to the election, don't they?


I'm not Robert Redford so don't expect me to whore for that trash magazine the way he does.  


What I will do is note their staff:

  • Publisher - Norman Stockwell
  • Web Editor - Delaney Nelson
  • Acting Managing Editor - David Boddiger
  • Associate Editor - Michaela Brant
  • Art Director - Susan Webb
  • Director of Advancement & Engagement - Daniel K. Libby
  • Digital Engagement Coordinator - Sheriffer Chisanga
  • Office Manager - Elizabeth Miller

  • Not very progressive, is it?  See men all the important positions.  I don't consider "office manager" an important position.  And having seen the images THE PROGRESSIVE runs with, I don't consider an art director at THE PROGRESSIVE to be an important position either.  


    If you missed it, THE PROGRESSIVE is so unimportant now that it's had to drop to a bi-monthly magazine published only six times a year.  If you want to be even more depressed, pick up the August-September issue and notice the bylines -- how few women, how few people of color.  Yet they call themselves THE PROGRESSIVE?  And do they really think Ruth Conniff's piece explaining "Despite what Donald Trump and his cult following claim, the former President is not an almighty, irresistible man of the people" is the hardest that they can hit?  


    I see they can't promote Kamala at all.  


    Maybe there's some hidden diversity there, in those bylines?  Bite your tongue, I tell myself, don't out someone no matter how pathetic their closet case living is.


    The following sites updated: