Dear Everybody:
There were two big stories today, and they’re related. The first was Trump’s banning of the press and the second was the things he said at the UN General Assembly today.
Trump’s banning of the press continued to backfire on him:
–The attitude of the press is “a ban on one is a ban on all,” and the ban prompted shows of solidarity from almost every corner of the White House press corps and beyond,with local news outlets, social media influencers, and free-speech advocates all joining in. The Pentagon Press Association, the Society of Professional Journalists, the New York Times, the Atlantic, the Financial Times, and the Wall street Journal all joined in.
–CNN: “The result on Monday was not a boycott–news about the president was still covered–but something close to a blackout, with a noticeable absence of Trump photos and videos on TV and news websites.”
–The AP chose not to publish photos of Trump’s presidential appearances. NPR announced it is not airing audio of Trump’s events for the time being.
–A sign posted in the press workspace at the White House read, “We stand with AP, CNN, MS NOW, Politico.”
–The committee to Protect Journalists: “Enough is enough. The role of the free press is to hold power to account and governments should never dictate who gets to report on them. It’s vital that all of us who support a free and vibrant US press stand together in its defense.”
–When the banned outlets showed up to cover Mamdani’s meeting with Trump, he assumed they were there for him rather than because Mamdani had invited them. He said smugly, “I knew the press would show up.”
–Trump is trying to claim that he isn’t assaulting the free press, “something which I cherish. It is instituting an assault on the FAKE NEWS, something that has grown like Cancer…it is a threat to our National Security and must be stopped NOW!”
–Steven Beschloss: “The response to Trump’s attacks on these outlets should be for every news outlet to boycott the Trump White House. They don’t need to stand there to do their reporting. See how Trump likes it when no legitimate news outlet shows up for his tantrums and lies.”
–Brian Tyler Cohen: “Eventually, though, he landed at a place where legacy media finally learned the value of organizing to protect press freedom, understanding that banning one or two or three outlets effectively gives Trump tacit permission to ban anyone who doesn’t curry favor with him.”
–The New York Times’ Peter Baker: “The decision by the major TV outlets not to participate in the White House pool today in response to Trump’s self-declared ban on the free press will leave the most TV-addicted President in our history without network cameras recording his every utterance and movement.”
–Public Notice said Trump’s ban will “go down in flames” in court. “This one isn’t hard AT ALL. The government disfavoring or restricting speech simply because it is critical of the government is pretty much the sort of example they use in 9th grade civics class as a textbook First Amendment violation.
–In 1977, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals ruled: “Although the White House is not required to open its doors to the news media, once it establishes press facilities for credentialed journalists, it cannot deny access based on the content of a journalist’s coverage.”
–When Trump got to the UN, he found Caitlin Collins of CNN there (since she is credentialed by the UN) and he was furious. He shouted, “I’m surprised that CNN is here. You’re not supposed to be here! You should not be here covering me! You said you weren’t going to cover me. You shouldn’t be covering me!”
In response, Trump has decided to go with state TV:
–He announced a new taxpayer-funded official White House channel called Trump TV.
–So far it’s a spectacular flop. All it shows are old Trump speeches and events, and the viewership went down from a beginning audience of around 4000 people to 3000 and then this morning 1000.
–People are referring to it as Pravda and RTR (the name of Russian state TV.)
JD Vance announced his approval of Trump’s ban in the most loathsome ways possible:
–Vance: “If you’re gonna be a propaganda arm of the left, why would Donald Trump give you special access to his White House?” (IT’S. NOT. HIS. HOUSE.)
–At an event flanked by White House flunkies, JD Vance smirkingly said, “I have it in my notes that I’m supposed to take questions from CNN and Politico. Anyone from CNN or Politico here? No? Okay,” as the bozos behind him yukked it up. JD Vance thought he was SO funny.
Trump then gave his formal speech to the General Assembly, and it was even worse than last time:
–Trump told the UN he was officially changing the name of Artificial Intelligence to Super Intelligence and says all government documents will now be changed to refer to SI.
–Larry Glickman: “Trump thinks he can unilaterally dictate the names of things, which parallels his view that he can take unilateral action to build memorials in his honor, or tear down the East Wing or the Kennedy Center–in the latter case after his efforts to rename it the Trump-Kennedy Center were not respected.”
–Trump said, “We will only encourage Super Intelligence. We’re going to encourage it, not rein it in.”
–He said, “The very same people who said we’ll all be dead in 12 years because of global warming–a name since reborn to climate change because the planet was cooling, not warming–these are the same people that are now saying AI is going to kill us all, that robots are going to attack us.”
–hollyknj: “Oh, dear God, did he deliberately set out to make the stupidest speech ever uttered at the UN?”
–Trump said that Melania secured the return of Russian children from Ukraine. (This is a flat-out lie. It is Ukrainian children who were stolen and taken to Russia.)
–Trump bragged about committing war crimes in Venezuela: “At my direction, the US military conducted a massive military operation penetrating deep into the Venezuelan capital…it was a war. To the victor belong the spoils.”
–Brian Finucane: “Boasting of an illegal war and the war crime of pillage.”
–Trump called on all nations to resign from the ICC, calling the World Court “an evil group of people” and accusing them of holding “show trials.” (He clearly fears being hauled up on charges before them for the war crimes he had just bragged about.)
–Trump threatened Iran: “Do I annihilate the Islamic Republic and do it quickly? Do I drive them into hell?” (Just think about this for a minute. He threatened to destroy a country in front of the entire UN.)
–Trump announced that he has permanent control over security in Greenland. “We will immediately begin the process of developing a large military presence.”
–Trump threatened Mexico and Cuba, saying, “It’s unacceptable for the US to share a 2000 mile border with a territory controlled by enemy cartels.” he also said he is “seeking a fundamental change in the situation in Cuba. it will fall.” At one point, Trump said he was going to fly Marco Rubio over Cuba and drop him in the middle of it. (????)
–When Trump talked about taking over Cuba, the entire Cuban delegation stood up and walked out.
–He accused Democrats of being Communists and called them Dumocrats. In front of the United Nations.
–Trump had trouble reading the teleprompter and slurred several words badly. He called Khazikstan ” “Ka-zach-a-stan,” and pronounced tourism as “tourismisaseee.”
–The audience sat there in complete silence while he was speaking.
–Gill Turner: “Please, someone, make it stop!”
–Purple Haze: “What a disastrous UN General Assembly speech that was. Good Lord.
–David Lurie: “I stood before the UN as a would-be strongman painfully embarrassed by his rapidly diminishing political standing…and advanced his determination to take revenge by doing far more damage over the next two years.”
–Paul Waldman: “Jesus Fucking christ, listen to this whole thing, the most powerful person in the world is such a spectacular nincompoop!”
And in a related story, Natalie Harp was at the UN, too:
–While Melania formally accompanied Trump to the UN, Natalie Harp was also there, sitting behind him in the meetings he attended, even though she may not have the security clearance to do so.
In The Grift Goes On news:
–Don, Jr.’s wedding is even upsetting Republicans. GOP Senator John Curtis: “Believe this: A Russian oligarch paid for a lavish wedding after party for Don Jr. It just stinks. It’s corruption, I don’t like it…this is a big deal.”
–The New York Times: “Trump’s children are frantically stuffing their pockets with cash as if this bonanza could end tomorrow.”
–Trump made 28,710 stock trades in the last 17 months, more trades than every member of Congress combined.
–Democratic strategist Ameshia Orison: “With Trump everything is for sale…damn, this administration continues to prove its corruption in plain sight.”
–Tim Coffee; “Trump’s decision-making process for any issue is refreshingly simple: is there anything in it for him. if so, he’ll do it, and screw everyone else.”
–All of Trump’s top White House officials are now sporting custom-made “White House Rolex” watches with blue faces and a gold presidential seal on the dial. At the 45- and 47-minute marks sits a blue star. On the back is an engraving of the White House. Officials such as Steve Witkoff, Susie Wiles, Will Scharf, and members of JD Vance’s team are shelling out thousands and thousands of dollars to own a Trumpian timepiece. (Can you say “Let them eat cake?”)
They’re All Perverts news:
–Remember how I told you “looksmaxxing” was one of the new words that Merriam-Webster added to their dictionary for this year? Well, they may be rethinking that right now.
–The word was invented by livestreamer Clavicular (his real name is Braden Peters), who advocates for doing whatever it takes to become handsome, no matter how extreme the action. He advocates taking anabolic steroids, injecting fat-reducing drugs into one’s cheeks, having oral and plastic surgeries, having lip enhancement, taking crystal meth as a weight-loss drug, and even smashing yourself in the face with a hammer so that you have to have surgery to get a more chiseled jawline.
–He has been arrested and charged with the rape of a minor, procuring liquor for someone under 21 years of age, and drugging a minor for the purpose of having sex with them.
–He has also been sued by a female influencer for battery, fraud, and intentional infliction of emotional distress when she was a minor.
In promising news:
–GOP candidate Byron Donalds, who has been Trump’s most cultishly devoted supporter, has stripped all references to Trump from his campaign website.
–The Tennessee Holler posted video of a number of MAGA truckers who were NOT happy with Trump. Quotes from it: “There’s no reason for this”… “my truck’s gonna sit there and rot until this idiot is out of office”… “I never thought I’d say this, but I miss Biden”… “We’re dying out here and they don’t give a shit.”
–gwyn: “We traveled around 4 rural counties here in central North Carolina this week and not a Trump sign to be seen.”
–A GOP canvasser in Miami-Dade: “People are mad as hell at us over mass deportations.”
–So what’s the Republican National Committee’s solution to the terrible numbers the candidates are facing and Trump’s growing unpopularity on all issues? RNC Chair Joe Gruters says, “We’re going to put the President front and center, and we expect that to resonate with the American people.”
–Lee: “Wonderful. American has never before seen an American political party commit electoral suicide.”
And to make things worse, the Republican Party now has another scandal to deal with:
–They’re calling this one a “September Surprise” and it involves–wait for it–Senator Susan Collins.
–It’s just been revealed that back before Trump was reelected, she was being investigated for taking bribes from a Hawaiian defense contractor who made $8 million dollars in donations in exchange for guarantees that he would receive tens of millions of dollars in additional funding for his company, Navatek. (Note: Contractors are forbidden from making donations. It’s illegal.)
–It gets worse. Not only did Collins’ staff know all about the deal, but Cleta Mitchell, one of the big election deniers who plotted the plan to have fake electors and a close personal friend of Justice Thomas’s wife Ginny, was also involved in the coverup of the illegal campaign donations, providing the shell company the donations were given through.
–The whole thing was being investigated by the FBI and the donor had already confessed to the crimes, but when Trump was elected, the investigation was shut down and the donor was released and never charged.
–Collins is already stuck in a tight race and has been polling behind her Democratic opponent. This CANNOT help her.
In other news:
–The guy who was shot in the back in Austin yesterday was taken into custody by ICE instead of being allowed to stay in the hospital, even though he was badly injured. The bullet has not been removed. it’s still in his back.
–MAGA was supposed to hold the Kentucky Freedom Fest, a big event for Republican candidates starring Kid Rock, but it had to be canceled because none of the people who buy VIP tickets for $1000 apiece were willing to pay to come and neither was anybody else.
–There’s another scandal at the Pentagon. A plane full of F-35 fighter jet parts was mistakenly shipped to Hong Kong and then disappeared, and it’s thought that they’re now in Chinese hands, which means China is in possession of some of our most sensitive military technology.
In good news:
–The First Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Trump’s third-country deportation policy, finding blanket reassurances from countries who say they won’t torture detainees is not good enough.
–The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has been successfully activated in space. It will allow scientists to explore wide swaths of the cosmos very quickly without sacrificing exquisite detail.
–Scientists have developed a way to restore aging EV batteries without breaking them down into raw materials.
For all lovers of THE LORD OF THE RINGS (including me), today is the birthday of both Bilbo Baggins and his nephew Frodo, and the day on which Bilbo held his famous 111th birthday party: –“Bilbo Baggins called it a party, but it was really a variety of entertainments rolled into one. Practically everybody living near was invited. A very few were overlooked by accident, but as they turned up all the same, that did not matter…Bilbo met the guests (and additions) at the new white gate in person. He gave away presents to all and sundry–the latter were those who went out again by a back way and came in again by the gate…There were songs, dances, music, games, and of course, food and drink. There were three official meals: lunch, tea, and dinner (or supper.) But lunch and tea were marked chiefly by the fact that at those times all the guests were sitting down and eating together. At other times there were merely lots of people eating and drinking–continuously from elevenses until six-thirty, when the fireworks started.”
–Sounds to me like a great day to have a party!
Best example of accidentally telling the truth without realizing it, from JD Vance: “The message is don’t give power to the crazy people who started these problems in the first place.” (Democrats, take note: This would make a great campaign slogan.)
Best comment of the day, from President Theodore Roosevelt in 1918: “It is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or anyone else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about anyone else.”
Keep calm and carry on,
Connie Willis
