Dear Everybody:
Three big news stories today, one good, one bad, one ugly:
The first is that Bolsonaro has fled from Brazil. The bad news is that Trump gave him and his families US visas:
–Bolsonaro and his family arrived in Miami, Florida today and declared himself the legitimate president-elect of Brazil. He said he will lead Brazil’s opposition in exile.
–A senior US official said Bolsonaro and his family will be granted US visas after his weekend loss to President Lula.
–Patrick S. Tomlinson: “Just so we’re all clear on this, the Trump administration is harboring a fugitive illegal immigrant after they tried to steal an election with help from his billionaire donors.”
–Jonathan V. Last: “Bolsonaro stands accused of money laundering of more than a billion dollars. Police in his home country were ordered to seize his passport. Some of the country’s officials have also asked that Interpol put out a Red Notice to prevent him from crossing borders in the civilized world…(yet) Marco Rubio arranged it. The Secretary of State worked clandestinely to bend/ignore American laws to give this one particular suspected criminal safe haven. Then Rubio gave him a visa, after the fact. And then just like that–poof!–the Trump administration’s cavils about illegal immigrants, criminals, gang members, Tren de Aragua, the whole absurd megillah, vanished…Make America Great Again was NEVER about illegal immigration.”
The second news story (the good one) is that the DOJ failed to get a true bill to charge Cassidy Hutchinson:
–Some background: Cassidy Hutchinson was the young Trump aide who was with Trump most of the day on January 6th and was an invaluable observer of everything Trump did that day. She testified to the Congressional January 6th Committee and gave some of the most damning testimony of the hearings, telling them about Trump angrily throwing his plate (and the ketchup) against the wall, about his demanding to go to the Capitol to lead the coup himself, of his sitting in the Oval Office watching the riot and refusing to do anything about it, etc. Trump and his thugs have had it in for her ever since.
–The DOJ attempted to charge her with perjury for some of her testimony to the committee, even though in that instance she was simply reporting what people told her, and they not only opened an investigation, but took their “case” to the grand jury. And yesterday that grand jury said, “No way.” They returned a “no true bill,” meaning there wasn’t anything there to charge her with.
–Lawrence O’Donnell: “Trump tried to crush Cassidy Hutchinson. He failed. Trump’s Revenge Department suffered its biggest defeat when a federal grand jury refused to indict former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson’s courage testifying against Trump.”
–Tom Nob: “She was charged with speaking the truth in Congress and the DOJ was shocked to discover that isn’t a crime and is merely a statistical rarity.”
–ryan150: “God bless her.”
–Sundae Gurl: “Courage 1. Retribution 0.”
–Go-Figure: “It’s sort of like what fascist dictators do. Sorry, I mean this is exactly what fascist dictators do.”
In the ugly story, the Israeli election is a complete mess:
–St Adams wrote about an American friend who moved to Israel years ago. “She says that overall the election is good news, that Bibi cannot form a ruling party the way things turned out and that she expects the other factions to join together…to weaken him even more. This thing can go many directions and a call for another election is not out of the question at all. Of course Bibi will fight this to the death, but apparently he did lose meaningful power yesterday.”
–In the vote for the Knesset, 45% of the vote was pro Netanyahu (54) and 55% was anti-Netanyahu (66.) Usually the party with the biggest number of votes combines with another party to get a majority, but the second largest party which is anti-Netanyahu is the Arabian-jewish coalition, and other parties on the opposite side refuse to allow Arabs to join their coalition.
–Greg Dworkin: “Bibi doesn’t have 61, so it’s a mess.”
In Iran war news:
–We’re now in the ninth month of the war that Trump said would take 4 or 5 days.
In Trump dementia/madness news:
–Trump on solar panels: “They kill all the animals. The animals jump on them and they fry.” (No, they don’t.)
–Bill Kuchman: “It appears the president has confused solar panels with the large electric fence in JURASSIC PARK.”
–Trump claimed there was a “military invasion” of Texas during the Biden administration.
–Trump on that $5000 he claims he’s giving everybody: “You could even come to Mar-a-lago. You’ll be my guest. The problem is that for $5000 the most you’ll be able to buy is a hamburger and maybe a small dessert. I’m not even sure you could buy that! No, don’t go there. It’s not a good place if you’re price conscious.” (Aside from everything else in that ridiculous statement, you said I would be your guest at Mar-a-lago. If I’m your guest, wouldn’t you pay?)
–Trump: “I just take the E out. But a U. Dumb. Most people don’t know it has a B. It doesn’t matter.”
–Trump: “I said, ‘Melania, how great was I, baby? Was I great? Can anybody do it like I do? How great was it?” (I don’t even want to KNOW what he’s talking about here.)
–Trump on nominating Ted Cruz to the Supreme Court: “The Republicans would 100% vote for it because they can’t stand him. They’d like to get rid of him.” (Anybody else think that’s a really odd endorsement?)
–Trump is glitching more and more at his rallies, slurring words, not being able to think of the word, and now making these strange noises–slurping and making odd guttural grunting sounds.
–Trump: “Not only did he state that God is transgenderdjayyammm…”
–And “I just wantasinkk…”
–And “second amend-berp breakage…”
–And “Name me one country that has lots of windmills that is solv-ee-ant. There are none.”
–Aaron Rupar: “His dentures seemed to be falling out.”
–He repeatedly moved his right arm and shoulder in a sort of uncontrollable twitch.
–Dean Blundell: “He glitched. He slurred. He made noises. He lost words mid-sentence and never found them again. Corpus Christi and Lubbock weren’t rallies. They were a wellness check that nobody in mainstream media has the balls to call…he’s not winning the room anymore. He’s not even winning the sentence.”
–And he’s continuing to talk about men’s asses–“They were three massive, beautiful, handsome generals,” and “I started off by studying his ass,” and “I made the mistake of studying his anatomy. Maybe I should do that with Ken Paxton, but I’m not sure your body is gonna qualify.”
–A Trump ally said, “The closing here has been ass, both literally and figuratively.”
–Daily Kos: “Trump is supposedly making his closing pitch to Texas voters, with control of Congress at stake, and instead spends 4 MINUTES talking about another man’s anatomy. Then he complains that the media covered him talking about another man’s anatomy.”
–Flickry: “Obama wore a tan suit and Republicans were having fainting spells about the supposed lack of decorum. But an adjudicated rapist, likely draft dodger, certain philanderer, likely tax cheat, talks about a fellow grifter’s backside and Republicans slurp it up. Sick pigs.”
–Trump: “I love the meat!”
In Reason # 12,314 to despise JD Vance:
–Campaigning in North Carolina, JD Vance just told a story about how he was playing with fireworks with his kids a few days ago and let one explode in his hand, burning his fingers. (Okay, first of all, he either made this story up or he doesn’t know when the Fourth of July is–it’s on the Fourth of July– and in nearly all places in the US, including the ones where he’s most likely to be–Washington, DC, Maryland, and Virginia–exploding fireworks are illegal, so…)
–Vance: “There were like 35 Secret Service agents and 25 staffers who knew what a dipshit I was.” (Actually, we all knew what a dipshit you are.)
–Dook of Uri: “Graduate of Yale Law.”
–Sunshine Dream: “These ‘stories’ don’t make him relatable or human. They make him dumb. With a B.”
–Get up, stand up: “I am having trouble processing that he was ‘playing with fireworks with his kids.’ Does he teach them how to ‘play with matches,’ too?”
In What We’re Up Against news:
–Speaker of the House Mike Johnson was asked, “So if Trump says, ‘Don’t seat Democrats,’ you’ll resist him?” Johnson: “I’ll do my job as Speaker. The president has vowed of course that he wants to follow the law as well.”
–Some commentators have speculated that Republicans could seek to intervene by pressuring the clerk to refuse to recognize Democratic winners–as Trump leaned on Vice President Mike Pence to do in 2021–or seek to replace him with someone who would.
–Josh Marshall: “Reminder: This is LITERALLY not how it works. A Speaker is elected AFTER everyone is seated. Johnson won’t be Speaker when seating happens. There literally will not be a speaker.”
–B: “The moment the Clerk gavels in the new House on January 3, Johnson’s power terminates. At that point, certified members-elect get to vote for the new Speaker even if their election is contested. Only the New Speaker can take up the issue of a contested election. That won’t be Johnson.”
In Cracks in the Dam news:
–Random Neuron, writing from Florida: “A good friend, life-long conservative Republican, retired to Florida, voted a straight Democratic ticket yesterday with one exception (state Attorney General). Said it was the first time in his life and that Trump and the Republican Party have GOT to get the message.”
In promising news:
–In Colorado, early voting is Democrats 32%, Republicans 25%.
–The Des Moines Register endorsed Democratic senatorial candidate Josh Turek over GOP candidate Ashley Hinson.
–In Alaska, GOP Senator Lisa Murkowski endorsed the Democratic candidate for governor.
–In Texas, more people have voted in early voting this year than voted in the total 2022 early vote.
–IMNOEINSTEIN: “I live in the heart of MAGAland in an upper-middle-class suburb of Long Island, and I’ve never seen so much early voting.”
–GCNY: “I’m up here in Syracuse, New York. A friend waited 45 minutes on the first day of early voting last Saturday. I don’t ever remember that happening in any election.”
–Climate Hawk: “Yes, early voting caveats still apply. You cannot tell who people are voting for, early voting is still ongoing, and a red wave Election Day is still possible. But as a counterpoint to that, allow me to say the following. All the data we have points to this being a better year for Democrats–special election performance, Trump approval ratings, grass roots spending, polling, where the candidates’ money is being spent, and early voting data are all considered better for Democrats than 2022 or 2024…I am increasingly confident about the voting results.”
In historical news:
–Today’s the day in 1904 that St. Louis became the first US police force to establish an official fingerprint bureau to try to solve crimes.
–Fingerprinting was already being used in London, and when Sgt. John Kenneth Ferrier, an officer from Scotland Yard, was sent to the World’s Fair in St. Louis in 1904 to protect the Crown Jewels that were going to be displayed there, he briefed the local police on how to do fingerprint analysis and how to create a file of them for future reference.
–The practice was immediately picked up by other police departments, and then the Army, Marines, and Navy, who began keeping fingerprints on file at the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation and then in 1924 at the FBI.
In other news:
–28-year-old Jeremy Lewin was one of the young DOGE punks who oversaw the destruction of USAID and other agencies, and he was the one who signed all the documents authorizing that destruction. Now it turns out he was not ever legally hired to do that, so his signatures are totally invalid. He had no authority to sign any of those documents, and none of the orders in them should have been enacted.
–Donald Trump, Jr. was caught hunting in Mongolia with the same Russian oligarch who paid for his wedding, even though he tried to keep the trip secret. Don, Jr. also killed an endangered wild sheep, the Altai argali. American taxpayers paid for the Secret Service agents who accompanied him on the trip.
In good news:
–The NAACP has recruited more than 12,000 local volunteers to get North Carolina’s black community politically motivated.
–Miles Taylor has just released his new documentary, “Corruptionland,” which analyzes Trump’s and his thugs’ incredible government corruption–and just in time for the election.
On a personal note, the trees around here had been looking really pathetic because of the summer with no rain, followed by it not getting cold enough at night to trigger the color changes, but we finally got a freeze a few days ago, and now the trees are absolutely gorgeous. vivid reds and rusts and burgundies everywhere. The cottonwoods have turned a particularly stunning yellow-gold, and it’s finally looking like autumn. Across the street from us there are two trees–I don’t know what they are; they have small pointy yellow leaves–but what’s amazing about them is that they apparently say, “It is a good day to die,” and all the leaves fall off in a single day even without a breeze. This is apparently that day because I’m watching the leaves float down in a steady stream right now, and the trees will be nearly bare by tonight.
Best cartoon of the day: A man at the end of a long winding line: “I’m old enough to remember voter apathy.”
Campaign reality check:
–Russia started the war in Ukraine.
–The Iran war caused high gas prices.
–We do not control the Strait of Hormuz.
–Schools don’t do transgender surgery.
–Reading about gay people won’t make you gay.
–There is no healthcare plan coming in two weeks.
–There is no such thing as after-birth abortion.
–Men don’t pretend to be transgender to assault women in public restrooms.
–The 2020 election was not rigged.
–Winning the popular vote by a mere 1.5% is not a landslide.
–There is no $5000 DOGE check.
–There is no $2000 tariff check.
–Tariffs are not paid by the exporter.
–Climate change is not a hoax.
Best comment of the day, from Rogue POTUS Staff: “You ever have a favorite TV show that turned to crap, but you didn’t realize it till two seasons later, and you suddenly realize that it’s going to be worse for another two more before finally coming to an end? That’s MAGA right now.”
Keep calm and carry on,
Connie Willis
