Dear Everybody:
There are lots of big stories today, but I’ll start with some good news first: Trump did NOT win the Nobel Peace Prize, and that Navi Pillay, a human rights judge with the International Criminal Court, did:
–Pillay is an 85-year-old South African who has been a judge on several international courts, including the ICC.
–She oversaw the UN report that found Israel committed genocide in Gaza and on the international criminal tribunal for Rwanda.
–She enlarged the scope and impact of international law, and is one of the most respected international jurists of our time.
–In her acceptance speech, she said the system of international law is under pressure. She dedicated her award to “all the survivors of international crimes as well as to practitioners and defenders of international justice whose compassion and courage continue to ensure that impunity will not be allowed to reign.”
–She told world leaders: “You are under legal obligation…to protect human rights and refrain from war.”
–And she made a joke about Trump when she entered the room after the award was announced and her co-workers began to applaud. She said, “If you clap a little bit more, I may share this prize with Trump,” a reference Venezuela’s Maria Corina Machada sharing her Peace Prize with Trump.
–Israel condemned the award and called Pillay antisemitic.
–Trump reposted a post from Trump supporter David Schoen: “Today the Nobel Committee shamed itself beyond repair and demeaned the once great Nobel Peace Prize by giving it to the UN’s Navi Pillay.”
Meanwhile Trump was holding a “scientific” event, giving medals to his donors and enablers:
–He gave the National Medal of Honor to Elon Musk, who he called this generation’s Thomas Edison.
–He gave the National Medal of Science to several tech executives who have donated heavily to Trump, his administration, or the Republican Party.
–And Trump’s people arranged it so he got an award, too, although even they couldn’t think of a way to give him one directly this time. Instead, Trump was given his uncle’s National Medal of Science award in a wooden frame.
–At the awards ceremony, Trump said, “We have an extremely high IQ audience for a change. For a change. It’s very nice.” (Thus managing to praise his buddies and insult his MAGA rally audiences at the same time.)
In Trump dementia/madness news:
–Trump announced that everyone is forbidden from using the term “artificial intelligence.”
–In an announcement, Trump said, “The White House considers anyone that uses the term ‘artificial intelligence’ as opposed to the highly accepted new and more accurate term, “super intelligence,” THE ENEMY. President Donald J. Trump.”
–Ron Filipkowski: “He’s labeled everyone who ever uses the ordinary word for a technology an enemy of the White house, four weeks before an election.”
–Matt Walsh: “Wow good thing we’re focused on the most retarded things imaginable in the run up to the election.”
–IntelligentStyle401: “Intimidation by a wannabe evil dictator?”
–EveryOnesFool: “AI, AI, AI, I gladly join the ranks of the enemy of the White House!”
–Canuckinfuts: “AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI AI.”
–BarnabyWoods: “I’m surprised he hasn’t named it American intelligence. That way we could all still call it AI without running afoul of Dear Leader.”
–Even MAGAs weren’t on board with this. Trump supporter Patriot Dave: “Come on now–there’s bigger fish to fry than calling people the enemy, using the correct term for AI. I surely hope this was said in jest and was not actually said by our POTUS. This is a very strange comment to make to the citizens of the United States of America where we have rights to free speech. Please tell me this is a joke!”
–(Note: It’s important to remember that Trump and his sons have bought up all the “si” domain names and stand to profit from “si” being used instead of “ai.” Oh, and si is the domain name of Slovenia, of which Melania and Barron are still citizens.
–Now Trump is changing people’s names, too: “This guy, I call him Mohammed El-Fayad. Some people call him Abdul. I call him Mohammed. Somebody said, ‘why?’ I said, ‘I don’t know. I feel like it.”
–And he just posted a meme of himself with a giant Qanon “Q” in shimmering lights behind his head. The meme was captioned, “The Great Quantum Awakening,” which is a big Qanon thing. He is now openly identifying himself with Qanon.
ICE shot another person–on a crowded street–with a five-year-old in the car:
–This time it happened in New York City, in the Bronx. A large group of men wearing masks and construction vests and no identification as ICE officers surrounded a car with Oscar Belgal and his five-year-old son in it and opened fire.
–Belgal was shot in the neck and has been hospitalized.
–One of the ICE agents there at the shooting was Brendan Cuni, who has a history of allegedly lying, using excessive force, and making unlawful arrests.
–Mayor Mamdani: “I am angry tonight because ICE shot a New Yorker. They shot a New Yorker while his 5-year-old was in the car. ICE makes this city less safe. We want them out. Now.”
–There were big protests in New York City last night over this.
More information is emerging about the proposed public execution of Nidal Malik Hasan:
–The Pentagon says the firing squad execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan will be livestreamed in December. Hegseth came up with the idea. Under US military law, the President must approve such a thing, and Trump approved it. Acting Army Secretary Adam Telle was the one who set the date of the execution for December 3rd.
–When Trump was asked by reporters, “Did you personally authorize or approve the livestreamed execution?” Trump responded, “Did I approve? Absolutely I did.”
Hegseth said, “I liked the mentality we had in World War II, which was ‘win.’” (Note: That wasn’t the mentality we had. It was “Keep the world safe for democracy.” And stop the Nazis, who do barbaric things like lining people up and shooting them.
–Nidal Hasan is paralyzed. He was struck by a bullet during his attack and has been in a wheelchair ever since, which causes the question to be asked, are they going to shoot a man in a wheelchair (a really bad image) or prop him up against a wall somehow (even worse.)
–You’ll notice that this is scheduled for before the next Congress would be seated and could put a stop to it. The good news is that this disgusting plan can (and will) be delayed by appeals.
–The Guardian: “The US is facing worldwide condemnation over a ‘barbaric’ plan to execute a disabled man by firing squad and livestream it to the public…’
–The UN’s office of the high commissioner for human rights warned on Friday that broadcasting the killing would amount to a public execution, and “breach the absolute prohibition of torture.”
–Amnesty International said “Livestreaming the taking of a life by firing squad would only compound the cruelty of the death penalty and perpetuate the cycle of violence that the authorities purportedly seek to end.”
–The head of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, condemned the Pentagon’s plans in a statement: “Our God is the God of life,” Coakley wrote. In no way can Hasan’s actions be condoned, but this decision is a barbaric promotion of a culture of death and must be reconsidered.”
–Dem Rep Jason Crow said, “Pete Hegseth has taken our military’s tradition of selfless service and flipped it on its head. With this public execution, he is degrading the culture of our military and turning a culture of service into one of vengeance and spectacle, performed for cameras and attention on social media…A public execution only gives our adversaries fodder for anti-American propaganda that makes us less safe. Pete Hegseth’s self-absorbed hunger for power, attention, and violence, is disgusting and beneath the office he holds. He is not fit to lead.”
–Dem Rep Yassamin Ansari: “In Trump’s America, we’re doing public executions now. WTF. This is what happens under brutal dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan. It’s all part of Trump’s authoritarian takeover of the United States.”
–Republican senator Thom Tillis said the public execution was “beyond disgusting.”
–Dem Senator Chris Murphy called it “medieval.”
–Vice-President JD Vance washed his hands of it (just like Pilate) and said he wouldn’t watch it. (But he wouldn’t try to stop it or speak out against it either.)
–Former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance: “Disgusting.”
–Shalonabena: “It is a damning assessment of how evil and corrupt this regime is.”
–Adam Parkhomenko and Sam Youngman: “The Secretary of Defense is a bloodthirsty nut job.”
–redsprite: “This is sick, sick, sick, and seems counterproductive, to put it mildly. Don’t mass shooters want to go out in a blaze of glory and attention?”
–Driver9: “I’ve been saying it since 2016…there is no significant, substantive difference between MAGA and the Iranian or any other Islamic fundamentalists.”
–Wajahat Ali: “It’s meant to terrify and control the public. It’s a spectacle for domination.”
–Death Penalty Action: “There is nothing Donald Trump loves more than the power to kill.”
–llessu: “Nothing says Merry Christmas to the world like a firing squad execution of a Muslim in December.”
–Dobber: “You want to create a martyr? This is how you do it.”
–Cecefrom BC: “And what next? Public hangings? These people, ALL of them, need to go. Let’s force them all out, as soon as we can. Then…I want accountability and justice. The Country, and the People, deserve it.”
–ThatAuntZelda: “No. This must be stopped. We cannot allow this to be normalized.”
–Ms Hart: “Whoever dares to stream it will be boycotted forever.”
–Glenn of the Hill People: “Oh, great! Republicans have turned us into North Korea.”
–Kim: “I am sick to my stomach at what the Republicans have done to the country. Sick bastards.”
In Kimberly Guilfoyle grifting news:
–Eric Deters, the guy who Kimberly Guilfoyle tried to bribe into giving her $100,000, appeared on MS NOW and had a heck of a lot to say.
–Deters: “She ambushed me out of the blue with this $100,000 American Express offer. And she offered me to be her ‘ride and die forever’ if I did this. And to be very candid, I did not do it. But the reason why I did not do it is I didn’t have that money at the time. It was the worst time that you could ever have asked me for another $100,000.”
–Deters: “I can sum up my feelings about Trump in this easy. One: I like most of his policies. Two: I cannot stand his megalomania, his egomania, his, you know, Mount Rushmore talk and arch talk. I support the ballroom. Donald Trump loves billionaires and any MAGA politician, he doesn’t care about average rank and file people unless they’re for his votes. I cannot stand President Trump personally, okay? I cannot stand Kimberly Guilfoyle. Kimberly Guilfoyle is a wicked, evil person. She thought I was going to be a sucker and I’m not a sucker.”
–He was asked about his history of paying Eric and Don, Jr. “Hundreds of thousands of dollars. No, I had no issues. The only thing that bothers me about Don Jr. and Eric Trump is how they, along with their father, are getting rich out in the open with crypto and everything else. President Trump said he hated crypto–his son’s getting crypto now. He loves crypto in my opinion. Hunter Biden and Joe Biden were shadow grifters. The Trumps are all in the open. I mean, I mean they’re all–it’s the same thing being done in a different way. Jared Kushner, $3 billion dollar fund from Saudi Arabia after he negotiates the Abraham Accords. I’m a Midwest farm boy. I’m a good dude. I don’t like their yuck yuck world. You couldn’t pay me to go back to Mar-a-lago.”
–Shadow37: Kimberly…meet bus.”
–But Bill Kristol and Andrew Egger say, “Not so fast”: “In theory, Trump could get ahead of some headaches by cutting Guilfoyle loose now. But there’s a reason they gave her that ambassadorship in the first place–she was too close to the family for too long to put out on the streets safely. She knows where too many of the bodies are buried.”
In Cracks in the Dam news:
–The New York Times interviewed a bunch of people in deep red rural Michigan who had voted for Trump in the last election, and said they found exhaustion and a lack of enthusiasm.
–Jim Pasek, a retired pharmaceutical maintenance worker, said, “He’s not making sense. It confuses me, and then I just get disgusted and tune out.”
–Brandon Tremaine, a graduate student from Texas who voted for Trump: “Trump has been saying, ‘Vote as if I was on the ballot,’ and that’s exactly what I’m going to do–not vote. You do not campaign on being the ticket of peace and start a war of choice that is directly hurting Americans here at home and gotten Americans killed overseas.”
–Al Pscholaka, a former GOP Michigan State Representative: “The whole divider-in-chief thing, it’s gotten to the point where it’s just exhausting.”
–Lindsay Kronemeyer, a conservative Christian mother of two who works in the construction industry: “People are just more focused on everyday life. I don’t hear the chatter on the Republican side of ‘Trump this, Trump that.’ He’s just not there in my head anymore.” (I found this comment the most encouraging of the three because it indicates the hold the cult has on these people is diminishing.)
In promising news:
–President Obama is now out on the campaign trail for Democratic candidates, including James Talarico, who has unfortunately been sidelined during a critical period with the flu. Obama plans to continue campaigning right up to the election. Republicans are openly expressing worries about his influence.
–In Virginia, early voting turnout among Latinos is 50% higher than in 2024. In Hennepin County, Minnesota, where Renee Good was murdered, Hispanic turnout is 5 times what it was at this point in 2022 and over 50% above 2024 at the same time.
–Minnesota Republicans were forced to cancel a weekend doorknock for this upcoming weekend due to lack of volunteers.
–Trump was interrupted by seven different hecklers at his rally in Texas.
–According to a Pew poll, one of the most highly accurate polls there is, Trump’s approval rating is at 30%, which was what Nixon’s was the week before he resigned.
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In other news:
–Hurricane Isaias is forecast to make landfall tonight near the Alabama-Florida state line tonight. It is currently a Category 3 storm with maximum sustained winds of 120 mph, which makes it a major hurricane. At this point, Trump is still planning to attend the Alabama vs. Georgia football game in Tuscaloosa in spite of the hurricane.
–Update: “Trump just announced on Truth Social that he’s NOT going to the game and will instead be going to Tennessee “where we have quickly called a Big Rally.”
–Trump is still trying to fire Lisa Cook from the Fed board. This time he signed an executive order ordering the DOJ to form a committee to investigate her.
–The White House announced on their official social media account: “America will establish a permanent presence on the Moon.”
–Dylan Williams: “You guys fucked up painting the bottom of a pool.”
In good news:
–A federal judge denied The DOJ’s appeal in the criminal case against Kseniia Petrova, the Russian researcher at Harvard Medical School and upheld the order to turn over records tied to the claim that she was singled out and charged as punishment by the administration. The judge called it “vindictive prosecution.”
–A new scientific development in solar panels which uses several layers stacked one on top of each other, called “tandem solar” will allow panels to convert more of the suns radiance into electricity.
–Michael J. Fox was invested with the Order of Canada, the highest civilian honor awarded to Canadians, for his work with Parkinson’s Disease.
And something beautiful to end the week with–Supernumerary Rainbows:
APOD: 2026 October 4 – Supernumerary Rainbows over New Jersey
Best comment of the day, from historian Steven Beschloss: “We are facing a psychiatric emergency. We are facing a constitutional emergency. Anyone with eyes and ears who’s paying attention can see it. Our republic is teetering. The good news: We the people have the collective power to stop this accelerating descent before it’s too late.”
Keep calm and carry on,
and have a nice weekend,
Connie Willis
