And another day of crossing legal lines, promises, ‘staying on message,’ women, Trump hating people with disabilities, more abortion on state ballots, keeping sick kids home from school, corporal punishment, and empathy on the rise in young people comes to a close:
“America, hope is making a comeback.” -- Michelle Obama
Trump’s Latest Scheme to Beat Harris May Have Crossed Legal Lines. Donald Trump is reportedly advising Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which would be a violation of the Logan Act. He may not be in office, but Donald Trump has been speaking with the powers that be about Israel’s war on Gaza—but it’s not in an effort to end the genocide. Instead, Trump has allegedly been talking with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to avert a cease-fire deal, fearing that doing so could help Vice President Kamala Harris win in November, according to PBS. -- Isn’t this treason? Lock this fucker up. He is a traitor to this country.
Promises Donald Trump has made so far in his campaign for a second term. But an urge for vengeance is also coursing through Trump's bid to return to Washington, and he is plotting retribution against the systems, institutions and people he believes have wronged him. He and his allies have suggested Trump in a second term could unleash the Justice Department on his political enemies, purge the federal government of disloyal bureaucrats and consolidate power in the executive branch. -- He has destroyed almost everything he has touched in his life, and he will also destroy America if he gets back in the White House.
Trump is “staying on message” and that message is racism and sexism. Donald Trump knows his base better than anyone. He understands what makes them line up hours before a rally to hear a bloated, nearly 80-year-old man meander for 90 minutes as he showers them with a firehose of lies. And Trump knows what will get them to buy his autographed Bibles, sneakers, mug shot T-shirts, head to the polls—and even attack the Capitol as they did Jan. 6 on his behalf. Do you think the MAGA base does that because Trump is going to bring down the price of milk by 30 cents a gallon?! Or that Trump has a plan to reduce the trade deficit?! Of course not. And no one knows that more than Trump...Despite what the corporate media claimed at the time, Trump’s base was not motivated in 2016 by “economic anxiety.” Rather, as numerous studies after the 2016 election found, it was racism and sexism...Trump doesn’t need studies to tell him that. He instinctively understands this. He knows the biggest applause lines at his rallies are when he is trafficking in racism –be it versus immigrants or about Harris. And he hears the crowd laugh and cheer with his sexist remarks—be they about his past accusers, Hillary Clinton or now VP Harris...That is why we can expect Trump to double, triple and quadrupole down on racism and sexism over the final two months of the campaign. That was his message in 2016--and he won. Trump believes that message is how he will win in 2024. America may have dramatically changed since 2016, but Trump and his base have not changed a bit. In fact, they want to take us back to a time when this type of vileness was acceptable. But as Vice President Harris tell us in every speech, “We're Not Going Back!”
DNC Delegates Want Their Woman to Win—for All Women’s Sake. One party hopes to elect the first woman president. The other is coalescing around the idea that women should step away from public life in order to bear and raise children. The hope for a first female president is tempered by the knowledge that losing wouldn’t just be a setback for women in politics, but for women in every corner of the country.
Why does Trump hate people with disabilities so much? It’s easy to see that Trump’s main grievance stems from the rift that began in that era. As with most of his existence, his concerns are brutally cosmetic and his gripe seems to be that government no longer hunts down and removes the vulnerable the way it used to. In that stunted worldview, the presence of disabled people in public is an affront that he cannot abide. The important question is why Trump has escaped any sustained blowback for the underlying belief connecting so many of his comments that garner media attention as standalone incidents.The clearest answer is that his hatred of disabled people is acceptable to the widest swath of his supporters while the least number of his opponents find it objectionable. Trump is hardly alone among political figures in espousing beliefs that are cruel and demeaning to disabled people. Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, New York Mayor Eric Adams, and Governor Gavin Newsom of California are just a few who seem to see disabilities as an easy foil for their vain attempts at finding relevance through ignorance.
Montana becomes 8th state with ballot measure seeking to protect abortion rights. Voters will get to decide in November whether they want to protect the right to an abortion in the constitution of Montana, which on Tuesday became the eighth state to put the issue before the electorate this fall.
Arizona Supreme Court clears way for voters to decide on constitutional right to abortion. The Arizona Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that a 200-word summary that abortion advocates used to collect signatures for a ballot measure is valid, clearing the way for voters to decide on the constitutional right to an abortion. Under the measure, abortions would be allowed until an embryo or fetus could survive outside the womb, typically around 24 weeks. There are some exceptions for later-term abortions to save the mother’s life or to protect her physical or mental health. The decision comes on the heels of a Thursday ballot printing deadline in Arizona.
House Republicans release their impeachment report on Biden but the next steps are uncertain. House Republicans have released their initial impeachment inquiry report on President Joe Biden, alleging an abuse of power and obstruction of justice in the financial dealings of his son Hunter Biden and family associates. The nearly yearlong investigation by Republicans stops short of alleging any criminal wrongdoing by the president. -- Read that last sentence again.
Trump shares AI-generated images of Taylor Swift and her fans supporting him. Trump reshared posts from his supporters that have pushed the idea of a “Swifties for Trump” movement that has little grounding in reality. On Sunday night, Donald Trump shared a series of images on Truth Social appearing to show Taylor Swift fans wearing T-shirts that read “Swifties for Trump.” Among the images was a mock “Uncle Sam” poster with Swift’s face that said, “Taylor wants you to vote for Donald Trump.” Trump wrote: “I accept!” While two of the images Trump shared feature a real woman who supports Trump, most of the women depicted there aren’t real. At least 15 of them are representations of people created using artificial intelligence.
Got cold symptoms? Here’s when kids should take a sick day from school. Now, the CDC suggests people treat COVID-19 like other respiratory illnesses, such as the flu and RSV. If a child has a fever, they should stay home, no matter the illness. A child can return to school when their fever has been gone for 24 hours without fever-reducing medication. Other symptoms should be improving.
‘Hitting kids should never be allowed’: Illinois bans corporal punishment in all schools. This school year, Illinois will become just the fifth state in the nation to prohibit corporal punishment in all schools...When the ban takes effect in January, Illinois will join New Jersey, Iowa, Maryland and New York in prohibiting paddling, spanking or hitting in every school. -- Only five states? WTF? Many in our society seem fine with abusing children.
Disney backpedals on saying man can't sue over wife's death because he signed up for Disney+. Disney has backpedaled on its stance in a wrongful death suit filed by a widower whose wife died after eating at a restaurant in Disney World, now saying it'll waive arbitration that it argued the man agreed to when signing up for Disney+...Disney said in a statement shared with NBC News on Tuesday that, given the sensitivity of the case, “we’ve decided to waive our right to arbitration and have the matter proceed in court.”...Denney also criticized Disney’s reliance on arbitration clauses. “The right to a jury trial as set forth in the seventh amendment is a bedrock of our judicial system and should be protected and preserved. Attempts by corporations like Disney to avoid jury trials should be looked at with skepticism,” Denney said. Arbitration agreements are quite common in company terms of use agreements across multiple industries...Arbitration agreements “almost always favor large corporations, to the detriment of injured plaintiffs who are trying to sue them. That’s why they are so popular with companies.” -- Yet the general population is left with only the choice to not subscribe to services such as Disney+ in order to avoid agreeing to the arbitration clause, and that’s only if they read the full terms of service. Sneaking things like this in a TOS sure seems like the company is doing their best to take advantage of their own customers. Sure it may be legal. But it doesn’t treat their customers with any respect. And doesn’t it actually allow the Company to abuse their customers knowing that their customers cannot take them to court because they clicked through a TOS somewhere? “Go ahead, sue me. Oh wait. You can’t. You signed a TOS?” Fucking greedy bastards. This is corporate America taking advantage of the people.
Empathy is on the rise in young people. Here’s how to build yours. Empathy is the compassionate capacity to detect and feel others’ emotions coupled with an ability to understand another person’s perspective. This awareness is not a fixed trait...The research team found that young American college students (average age of 20 years old) and American high school seniors are engaging in perspective-taking and empathic concern at higher rates compared with previous years of study. Perspective-taking (a form of cognitive empathy) measures people’s ability to imagine others’ viewpoints, while empathic concern (a form of emotional empathy) measures compassion and concern for others. The study included data collected from 1979 until 2018. The team’s analysis spanned that entire period...We are hardwired to need person-to-person, live contact with others...Despite the benefits of digital communications, it’s in these in-person conversations where you can begin to grasp others’ perspectives and feel their emotions, according to Brodkin. “Social media and the internet can distort the way we connect with each other, and then the companies that are using it for profit (can) tilt it towards disconnection, polarization, hostility and so on,” he said.
RIP Phil Donahue. He was 88.
Take a break from all the above chaos and tune in to 99.9 Waiting for the Comet. The songs you love. The songs you forgot you love. And the songs you don’t yet know you love.
Life’s short. Live, love, create, and help others.
Until next time, my friends. Stay safe and stay sane. Good night.
No comments:
Post a Comment