As the election gets closer, Trump and his supporters grow more desperate and deranged. Take the joke that is Elon Musk. Nicholas Liu (SALON) reports:
Residents in battleground states are submitting personal information to a pro-Trump PAC whose website invites them to "register to vote" — but instead of actually registering any voters, the PAC is just storing their precious voter data. Now Michigan's top elections official is opening an investigation in the so-called "America PAC," which was founded and partially funded by billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk, for potential violations of state election law.
“Every citizen should know exactly how their personal information is being used by PACs, especially if an entity is claiming it will help people register to vote in Michigan or any other state,” a spokeswoman for Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, said in a statement to CNBC.
When visitors to the PAC's website access the page from safe Democratic or Republican states, they are typically directed to an actual voter registration page. However, those who enter zip codes in a battleground state like Pennsylvania or Georgia are given a highly detailed form in which they are prompted to submit their address, cellphone number and age. Even after the user submits that information, the website does not help them register to vote, despite promising to do so, instead steering them towards a "thank you" page.
Elon Musk is disgusting. I bet most of his children hate him. For good reason. But you have to be disgusting to support Trump at this point.
A celebration of the opening of Donald Trump's campaign office in Valdosta, Georgia, was marred by a physical fight between two conservatives.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution gathered information from police and witnesses following the July 29 event. A police report said that Brandon Phillips, the top aide to U.S. Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA), intervened in an argument related to election security.
Activist Sam Carnline told police that Phillips spit in his face, prompting physical retaliation.
Trump on Trump violence. Skidmarks isn't doing any better. Not even after he sent his wife Usha to the press so he could try to hide behind her skirt. Kylie Cheung (JEZEBEL) explains:
In a Fox News interview that aired on Monday, Vance’s wife, attorney Usha Vance, attempted to do damage control and insisted that the “childless cat ladies” remark was some sort of bit. Ma’am, you do realize that bits are supposed to be funny, right…?
“He made a quip in service of making a point that he wanted to make that was substantive,” Usha told Fox News host Ainsley Earhardt. “And I just wish sometimes that people would talk about those things and that we would spend a lot less time just sort of going through this three-word phrase or that three-word phrase, because what he was really saying is that it can be really hard to be a parent in this country.”
Sure, except just one small thing: That’s not what Vance said at all! He didn’t propose anything akin to universal child care or paid family leave or anything of the sort. Let’s review his original comments in full, shall we?
“We’re effectively run in this country, via the Democrats… by a bunch of childless cat ladies, who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made, and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too,” Vance rambled to Tucker Carlson in 2021. “If you look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY)], the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children—and how does it make any sense that we’ve turned our country over to people who don’t really have a direct stake in it?”
In more resurfaced comments, also from 2021, Vance says people who don’t have children are “sociopathic,” “psychotic,” and “deranged” and can’t be trusted with political leadership. And in another speech, also from that year, Vance argued that people who don’t have children should “face the consequences and the reality” and not be accorded “nearly the same voice” in democracy. He even suggested they shouldn’t be able to vote, while parents should be able to vote twice: “Let’s give votes to all children in this country, but let’s give control over those votes to the parents of those children.”
While Vance is clearly attacking childless adults broadly, his comments are also distinctly gendered. The right’s decades-long policy war on abortion rights is meant to compel childbirth, all while the right has simultaneously waged a cultural war on women who aren’t mothers for supposedly failing at their one, existential purpose.
Stupid Usha. She can't get anything right. But is that really a surprise? Every week she's asking herself, "Why do I keep running out of mascara?" After the first three years of marriage, she should have realized it was because Skidmarks was using it. Eric Garcia (INDEPENDENT) reports:
Few candidates have had a worse rollout than the Ohio freshman senator. Larry Hogan, the Republican former governor of Maryland who is now running for Senate, told The Independent that there is “no question” that Vance has a problem with women. Vance’s comments about “childless cat ladies,” attacks on Jennifer Aniston and other remarks have significantly weakened him. The campaign has had to dispatch his wife Usha to defend his remarks. His previous calling pregnancies from rape and incest “inconvenient” haven’t gone unnoticed, either.
All of this has warranted some political pundits comparing Trump’s nomination of Vance to John McCain’s selection of former Alaska governor Sarah Palin.
That comparison makes sense to some. Palin’s numerous gaffes — including an interview with Katie Couric that led to Tina Fey doing a dead-on impersonation on Saturday Night Live — turned her into the ultimate example of how an improperly vetted running mate can drag down an entire ticket. Joe Biden’s decisive defeat of Palin in their one vice-presidential debate solidified her image.
Indeed, former San Antonio mayor Julián Castro posted on X/Twitter this week that “memories of the Sarah Palin embarrassment loomed large” when he was vetted by Hillary Clinton in 2016.
But these comparisons might be unfair — because as much of a liability as Palin was, Vance might actually be worse. The effect of running mates on the final result tends to cloud judgment. But the key difference between Vance and Palin is that Palin was an unknown quantity, whereas everyone knew Vance’s liabilities at the time he was chosen.
Everyone knew Vance's liabilities at the time he was chosen? You could say the same about Josh Shapiro if Kamala Harris picks him tomorrow. Go read Ava and C.I.'s "Media: If voters can question your loyalities, you don't belong on a political ticket."
Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
As the Biden administration and its allies try to secure an elusive cease-fire in Gaza, Israel appears to have gone rogue.
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, came to Washington last week to give a defiant speech. Despite international condemnation, he vowed to continue the war against Hamas in Gaza and the West Bank, where Israel is killing and imprisoning scores of Palestinians each week, without any clear idea of its endgame.
The assassinations of senior Hezbollah and Hamas figures abroad have now sharply raised the risks of a larger regional war as Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah prepare retaliation, analysts say.
On Sunday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivered a strong warning to Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, according to Iraqi sources. The message addressed concerns over potential escalations by Iran-aligned armed factions targeting US forces in Iraq and the broader region.
The source, in a condition of anonymity, told Shafaq News Agency that during a phone call, Blinken informed the Iraqi Prime Minister that "the US administration is prepared to take any measures necessary to protect its forces and interests and that any escalation by these factions would result in a more severe response than in previous instances."
The source also noted that al-Sudani assured Blinken of his efforts to "prevent any new escalation between the factions and US forces in the coming period. In exchange, al-Sudani requested US assurances against launching new attacks on members of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) and affiliated factions, aiming to maintain control over de-escalation between the two sides."
Amid mounting fears of a regional war in the Middle East, a pair of Democratic congressmen joined the growing chorus warning against the U.S. engaging in an armed conflict with Iran.
In response to U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) introducing a
resolution to authorize the use of U.S. armed forces against Iran,
Congressman Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) said on social media Saturday that "the U.S. must not be dragged into a war with Iran."
"The Iraq War was the biggest American blunder of the 21st century," Khanna added. "Every candidate running this cycle must be clear on where they stand on this."
U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) said early Sunday: "I agree with Ro Khanna. No war with Iran! Let's all get on record with this."
Hassan El-Tayyab, legislative director for Middle East policy at the Friends Committee on National Legislation, urged Khanna to introduce a related war powers resolution, arguing that "we really could use a clear vehicle like this to increase the pressure for no U.S. military intervention in a disastrous war with Iran."
Since Hamas, the Palestinian political and militant group that has controlled the Gaza Strip for nearly two decades, led the October 7 attack on Israel, Israeli forces—backed by diplomatic and weapons support from U.S. President Joe Biden and Congress—have killed at least 39,583 people in the coastal enclave and injured another 91,398, according to local officials.
The government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—which faces
a genocide case at the International Court of Justice over Gaza—has
elevated fears of a regional war this week with an airstrike targeting Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut, Lebanon and the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh at his residence in the Iranian capital of Tehran.
By killing Haniyeh, "Netanyahu has systematically sabotaged cease-fire talks because ending the war will likely end his political career," Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said Wednesday.
"Here we go again. Scrambling to prevent total war by pressing Iran not to retaliate," Parsi said Sunday, pointing to the final paragraph of a New York Times opinion piece he wrote in April about a conflict
that began with an attack on Iran's diplomatic compound in Syria. "Had
Biden forced a Gaza cease-fire, we wouldn't perpetually be on the
precipice of war."
Parsi had argued earlier this year that "Mr. Biden has pursued policies that have pushed the Middle East to the precipice of war. His tactical successes in avoiding the worst outcomes of his policies should not be belittled. But they can never make up for his government's broader failure to pursue a strategy that brings real security to America and real peace to the Middle East."
In just the last 10 months of its genocide, Israel has damaged or destroyed nearly 9 out of 10 schools in Gaza, the UN has reported.
According to assessments by the UN-backed Global Education Cluster, almost 85 percent of school buildings in Gaza have been directly hit or damaged, as the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) highlighted on Friday.
“Some of these schools will need full reconstruction. The war is destroying the present and the future of Palestinian children,” the agency wrote, calling for a ceasefire.
This is an astonishing proportion of school buildings in Gaza, and is emblematic of Israel’s campaign to destroy all sense of structure and community for Palestinian children — in addition to blowing off their limbs, orphaning them, and killing them through bombs, bullets, disease and starvation.
School has been suspended throughout the genocide, meaning that Gaza’s 1.1 million children haven’t gone to school in nearly a year, severely hampering their development amid a time of extreme trauma. The UNRWA announced this week that it is launching a “back to learning” program this week in Gaza that will raise awareness of unexploded ordnance, among other things; but children’s development has been so violently disrupted in the region that this will likely only be a bandaid on the crisis.
Saturday, the assault on schools continued. Nidal Al-Mughrabi and Ali Sawafta (REUTERS) note, "An Israeli airstrike on a school sheltering displaced persons in Gaza City killed at least 15 Palestinians on Saturday, hours after two strikes in the occupied West Bank killed nine militants including a local Hamas commander, Hamas said." CNN's , , and Footage obtained by CNN revealed a grim aftermath, showing the bodies of residents and injured children at the site." THE NATIONAL adds, "Earlier on Saturday, Israeli bombing killed six people in a house in the southern area of Rafah and two others in Gaza city, Gaza health officials said."
Sunday saw more schools attacked. ALJAZEERA notes, "Israeli forces bombed two more schools in Gaza City, killing at least 30 displaced Palestinians. Paramedics said 80 percent of those killed and wounded at the Hassan Salama and Nassr schools were children." REUTERS adds, "Footage circulated on Palestinian media showed bodies scattered inside the yard of one of two blast-wrecked schools as residents rushed to carry casualties, including children, and loaded them into ambulance vehicles that took them to at least two nearby hospitals." Kareem Khadder, Ibrahim Dahman, Eyad Kourdi, and Three floors of the northern wing of Al-Nasr School were destroyed, as was the ground floor of the adjacent Hassan Salama School, a local journalist told CNN. The two school buildings housed hundreds of displaced people, primarily women and children, according to the local journalist. Both schools were in a densely populated residential area." BBC NEWS observes, "The strikes were the third time in a week schools in Gaza have been hit by Israeli strikes."
Reporting from Deir el-Balah, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said that the schools, which have been used as shelters by displaced Palestinians, have been severely damaged.
“This is the same exact scenario that we’ve seen in the past few days. What we know for a fact right now is that there is [a] concentration of attacks on evacuation centres. What’s really concerning about that is … that the Israeli military is not giving any prior warning to people inside these evacuation centres,” Mahmoud said.
The correspondent noted that most of the buildings used as shelters for the displaced in Gaza are schools, as they are the only large spaces available now to house a significant number of people.
Dropping back to last week, Thursday's snapshot noted that the Israeli government murdered journalists Ismail al-Ghoul and Rami al-Rifi. On Friday's DEMOCRACY NOW!, Amy Goodman noted:
In Doha, Al Jazeera journalists gathered at the media network’s headquarters to condemn Israel’s targeted killing of their colleagues Ismail al-Ghoul and Rami al-Rifi while they were reporting in Gaza Wednesday. Al Jazeera refuted Israeli claims that it targeted al-Ghoul because he was a Hamas operative. Al Jazeera said the claim “highlights Israel’s long history of fabrications and false evidence used to cover up its heinous crimes.”
Saturday, Reporters Without Borders issued the following statement on the murders:
An Israeli strike killed Al Jazeera journalist Ismail al-Ghoul and photographer Rami al-Rifi on 31 July while they were on assignment in the north of Gaza. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) expresses outrage over this latest attack and calls for increased international pressure on the Israeli government to immediately halt its forces’ massacre of journalists.
Al Jazeera journalists Ismail al-Ghoul and Rami al-Rifi were reporting live from the al-Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza city, shortly before an Israeli strike hit their car, killing them both. Footage published by their colleague Anas al-Sharif shortly after the strike at around 4PM on 31 July shows both reporters killed inside an isolated white car in the middle of an empty street, visibly damaged by a direct strike. Al-Sharif said both reporters were found decapitated. They were wearing their press vests, according to RSF’s information.
A statement by the Al Jazeera Media Network called the killings a “targeted assassination” by Israeli forces and pledged to “pursue all legal actions to prosecute the perpetrators of these crimes.” According to the media outlet, the two reporters had contacted their news desk 15 minutes before the deadly strike. During the call, they reported on another nearby attack and were advised to leave the area. Ismail al-Ghoul, one of Gaza’s most recognisable reporters, had already been arrested by Israeli forces in al-Shifa hospital on 18 March and released 12 hours later.
Al-Ghoul and al-Rifi were on assignment along with other reporters in the al-Shatti refugee camp, near the house of Hamas political leader Ismail Haneya. They were covering the aftermath of Haneya’s assassination in Iran the night before. The Israeli army did not comment on the strike that killed the two reporters, but constantly denies targeting journalists in Gaza. According to RSF’s information, however, more than 120 journalists have been killed by Israeli forces in the strip since 7 October 2023. At least 29 of them have been killed in circumstances that point to intentional targeting, in violation of international law. RSF has filed three complaints with the International Criminal Court (ICC) since then, calling on the court to investigate these war crimes against journalists as a matter of urgent priority.
“We are appalled by this violent attack on two prominent Al Jazeera journalists – the latest incident in nearly 10 months of crimes against journalists in Gaza, where more than 120 journalists have now lost their lives. RSF urges the Israeli government to immediately commit to ending the violence against journalists that continues to be mercilessly committed by Israeli Defence Forces, constituting flagrant examples of war crimes. We also call for increased international pressure to ensure journalists still working in Gaza are able to safely do their jobs, and to secure justice for the far too many already killed. This massacre must stop now.
With the killing of al-Ghoul and al-Rifi, the number of Al Jazeera journalists killed in Gaza rises to five, all targeted by direct strikes according to RSF’s information. Journalist Hamza al-Dahdouh – the son of Wael al-Dahdouh, Al Jazeera’s bureau chief in Gaza – and his colleague Moustafa Thuraya – were killed by a targeted Israeli strike at the start of January. A month later, Wael al-Dahdouh was himself injured by another targeted drone strike that killed Al Jazeera cameraman Samer Abu Daqqa.
These deadly attacks against Al Jazeera personnel coincided with a steady defamation campaign by Israeli authorities, which accused Al Jazeera of being a “spokesperson for Hamas” that “threatens the Israeli military,” and which resulted in a temporary ban of the broadcaster enforced in Israel and Palestine. The ban was renewed for 45 days on 5 May, then for another 45 days on 9 June. RSF has repeatedly warned that the campaign against Al Jazeera, as well as the relentless conflation of journalism with “terrorism,” endangers reporters and threatens the right to information everywhere.
Gaza remains under assault. Day 304 of the assault in the wave that began in October. Binoy Kampmark (DISSIDENT VOICE) points out, "Bloodletting as form; murder as fashion. The ongoing campaign in Gaza by Israel’s Defence Forces continues without stalling and restriction. But the burgeoning number of corpses is starting to become a challenge for the propaganda outlets: How to justify it? Fortunately for Israel, the United States, its unqualified defender, is happy to provide cover for murder covered in the sheath of self-defence." CNN has explained, "The Gaza Strip is 'the most dangerous place' in the world to be a child, according to the executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund." ABC NEWS quotes UNICEF's December 9th statement, ""The Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child. Scores of children are reportedly being killed and injured on a daily basis. Entire neighborhoods, where children used to play and go to school have been turned into stacks of rubble, with no life in them." NBC NEWS notes, "Strong majorities of all voters in the U.S. disapprove of President Joe Biden’s handling of foreign policy and the Israel-Hamas war, according to the latest national NBC News poll. The erosion is most pronounced among Democrats, a majority of whom believe Israel has gone too far in its military action in Gaza." The slaughter continues. It has displaced over 1 million people per the US Congressional Research Service. Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) points out, "Academics and legal experts around the world, including Holocaust scholars, have condemned the six-week Israeli assault of Gaza as genocide." The death toll of Palestinians in Gaza is grows higher and higher. United Nations Women noted, "More than 1.9 million people -- 85 per cent of the total population of Gaza -- have been displaced, including what UN Women estimates to be nearly 1 million women and girls. The entire population of Gaza -- roughly 2.2 million people -- are in crisis levels of acute food insecurity or worse." THE NATIONAL notes, "Gaza Health Ministry on Monday said that at least 39,623 Palestinians have been killed and 91,469 injured since Israel started its military offensive on the Gaza Strip in October. At least 40 people have been killed and 71 others injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry said." Months ago, AP noted, "About 4,000 people are reported missing." February 7th, Jeremy Scahill explained on DEMOCRACY NOW! that "there’s an estimated 7,000 or 8,000 Palestinians missing, many of them in graves that are the rubble of their former home." February 5th, the United Nations' Phillipe Lazzarini Tweeted:
AMY GOODMAN: So, you mentioned pro-Palestinian protests. Kamala Harris is expected to announce her choice for running mate any day now, by Tuesday, it’s said. Potential candidates include Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro is reportedly at the top of her list. Many progressives are raising alarm about Shapiro’s record on, oh, promoting corporate tax breaks and school vouchers, raising issues about accelerating climate change, and demonizing pro-Palestinian protests. Earlier this year, Governor Shapiro called on the University of Pennsylvania to disband a Gaza solidarity encampment. He also supported the dismissal of the University of Pennsylvania’s president, Elizabeth Magill, amidst that firestorm fueled by right-wing politicians and media over free speech and support for Palestinian rights on campus. This is Governor Shapiro speaking in May.
GOV. JOSH SHAPIRO: By their own admission, the leaders at the University of Pennsylvania have made clear that those protesters, those who are living in these so-called encampments, are violating the rules of the university and, in some cases, the laws of the city of Philadelphia. It has — the university has tried to negotiate and discuss the matter with those protesters. That has proven to not be effective. Over the last 24 hours at the University of Pennsylvania, the situation has gotten even more unstable and out of control. More rules have been violated. More laws have been broken. That is absolutely unacceptable.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro speaking in the rain in May. Marc Lamont Hill, you’re joining us from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. You’re co-author of Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics. You’ve covered these protests extensively, as well as the Middle East, as a host on Al Jazeera. Your response?
MARC LAMONT HILL: There are so many things here. There’s a really good chance that Kamala Harris is going to choose Josh Shapiro to be her running mate. In some ways — in the most obvious way, I oppose that. Josh Shapiro challenges democratic practices. He doesn’t believe in free speech. He has warned, you know, state employees here in Pennsylvania about how they respond to the genocide in Gaza, questioning their behavior, policing their behavior. He very clearly supports Zionism. He very — political Zionism. He very clearly supports the genocidal war in Gaza. He’s been actively and vocally supportive of Israel’s war on Gaza since October 7th and prior. We can also get into school vouchers. We can get into climate justice. In every conceivable way, Josh Shapiro is not a progressive candidate. And it would be very frustrating to see her make that choice.
But in some ways, it would make our political reality much more clear. People right now are trying to project a green screen onto Kamala Harris, the same way they did to Barack Obama, meaning they want to project their radical ideologies and their progressive ideologies and imagination onto her. That’s not who she is. She very clearly supports AIPAC. She very clearly is a liberal, but certainly not a progressive or a radical. So, what Josh Shapiro as a choice would do is it will remind us of what we’re dealing with. If you’re voting for Kamala Harris, it’s not because you’re getting a radical or even a progressive. You’re voting for her because you want to keep Trump out of the White House. You can make your own political decisions about what that means, but we need to be very clear about what we’re getting and about what we’re not getting. But if you were somebody who was not voting for Biden because of him underwriting this vicious war in Gaza, then there’s absolutely no way you could justify voting for Kamala Harris if she chooses Josh Shapiro. And the two of them — it’s not just Shapiro — the two of them are just as supportive of this war machine as every other mainstream corporate Democrat.
AMY GOODMAN: And to those who say to your response that you can vote for Kamala Harris if you want to keep Trump out of the White House, that Governor Shapiro, you know, presides over a state that is a key battleground state that she would need to win?
MARC LAMONT HILL: Well, that’s the argument — right? — is that it’s — but it’s also — it’s Trump’s argument for choosing JD Vance, which he probably regrets at this point. If you want to keep Trump out of the White House, Josh Shapiro does help. I mean, that’s a great point.
But the question is: When you win the White House, what do you get? Right? There has to be a way to keep Trump away, to keep Trump out of D.C., which I support, but still not compromise all possibility of actually meeting our collective needs. Again, I’m not talking about pie in the sky. I’m not talking about an imagined future a hundred years from now. I’m saying right now we have to challenge Kamala Harris to be better. We have to challenge Kamala Harris to meet our needs. And if we don’t even hold her accountable for the vice-presidential choices she makes right now — and there are clearly more progressive options on the table — then we’ve forfeited our own kind of agency here. Let’s do both. Let’s keep Trump out of the White House, but let’s also apply some pressure. That’s all I’ve got to say.
AMY GOODMAN: Marc Lamont Hill, I want to thank you very much for being with us, member of the National Association of Black Journalists, host of UpFront on Al Jazeera English and a nightly YouTube show called Night School, also professor of anthropology and urban education at the City University of New York Graduate Center, speaking to us from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
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