Those of you who have to deal with Hurricane Helene today, please stay safe.
I don’t pay much attention to New York City politics, but I suppose I should note that Mayor Eric Adams has been indicted by the feds for something or other. I am not shocked. I was surprised he was elected in the first place, because he seemed hinky to me. IMO he’s been a poor mayor, and even if he somehow beats the rap I doubt he’ll be re-elected. If the city’s Democratic progressives can all get behind one candidate instead of canceling each other out on the ballot, maybe NYC can get a decent mayor some day. Axios is reporting that Andy Cuomo is thinking about running for the job, so a united front front from the progressives might be the only thing keeping that waste of space out of Gracie Mansion. See also Josh Marshall, Adams Indicted; Gotham Yawns.
Jack Smith’s really long brief will be submitted to Judge Tanya Chutkan today. Politico:
The filing — a legal brief accompanied by supporting exhibits — is expected to contain never-before-seen evidence about Trump’s efforts to subvert the last election. It could include snippets of interviews prosecutors conducted with some of Trump’s top advisers, documents Smith procured from the National Archives and a log of Trump’s Twitter activity as violence raged on Jan. 6, 2021.
But prosecutors are not going to file these documents publicly. They must first submit them “under seal” to Chutkan, who will then decide how much of the evidence is fit for public release.
So it’s up to Judge Chutkan now. See also Paul Campos at Lawyers, Guns and Money, Remember that time Donald Trump tried to overthrow the government?
Dem Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon has just introduced a sweeping Supreme Court reform bill that includes adding six new justices, which sounds about right. I don’t expect it to pass in this Congress, but let’s get the proposal out there for the next one. And this might give the Chief Justice something to think about.
Some good news I missed: On Tuesday a judge ordered that all of Alex Jones’s media empire must be liquidated to pay the Sandy Hook families. CNN:
Everything from the Infowars.com domain, to its social media accounts, subscriber list, and even production equipment and studio set will be auctioned off piece by piece to the highest bidder on November 13, according to the auction house handling the bidding.
The proceeds of the sale, which could fetch millions of dollars, will be used to chip away at the nearly $1.5 billion Jones owes the families of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre. Jones went into personal bankruptcy after he was ordered to pay the massive sum for pushing false conspiracy theories about the 2012 massacre that left 26 people dead.
Bye, Alex Jones.
Yesterday J.D. Vance got in front of some cameras and said Kamala Harris lacks “character” because she “is so afraid of the American media ? the friendly media ? that she won’t even do an interview.” Kamala Harris was being interviewed by MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle at the time.
And Ruhle wasn’t throwing softballs; it was an intelligent and occasionally challenging interview. Yes it was MSNBC, but note that no one ever complains that all of Trump’s interviews are with Fox or some other clown from the Right Wing Circus. Trump wouldn’t last five minutes with Rachel Maddow.
The Hill noted that “Harris’s interview with Ruhle went deeper into her proposed economic policies than any of the other media appearances and interviews she’s done as the Democratic nominee.” That’s because Ruhle wasn’t asking stupid Dana Bash gotcha questions about why Harris changed her mind about fracking and instead asked questions about Harris’s actual economic policies. It was very informative, I thought. Here’s the video:
The economic policy speech she gave earlier in the day has been well received, as near as I can tell, by mainstream news sources. Right-wing media are tearing it apart, of course.
I watched the Sam Elliot ad (previous post). Fantastic.
I'm very biased, but I think Kamala's selectivity about who she talks to (on the surface, no different than Trump) is genius, not because of trying to find a friendly interview setting, but because she and Walz refuse to play the right-wing game, alluded to by Paul Waldman.
Never answer malicious stupidity (trolling) on its own level. It took years for the Democrats to figure this out, as finally embodied in Harris-Walz. They're playing on such a high level, it's hard to believe "these are Democrats???" Simon Rosenberg talks about this, about how brilliantly their campaign is executing. Someone else described them like characters in an action movie, running ahead of all the explosions going on in their wake, not bothering to address the right-wing crap being hurled at them – "the same, tired old playbook" as she says.
Kudos to Stephanie Ruhle.
There's some great parody music out there:
The Last Dog in Springfield
Mr Tangerine Man
Paint it Orange
What about Rudy? Americas mayor? He’s looking for work. To you know, keep him out of bankruptcy.
(crickets and blank stares, with some waiting for a punch line)
If conservatives are good at anything, it’s walkie-talking in lockstep. Progressives are better at debating, sometimes a bit too much, to the point where it might look to outsiders like squabbling. Not saying we should start walking in lockstep, but maybe demanding certain core principles? Like mandating that declaring oneself to “have a really good brain” shall not be considered a passed intelligence test.
I’ve heard talk about JD Vance. They’re thinking that in private, such as in 4chan chatroom scenarios, Vance might actually come across as semi-wonky smart. But in public he must of course repeat pet-eater gibberish, to respect his base. I’m still at a loss to explain how polls suggest that more still trust Trump/Vance with the economy than they do Harris/Walz, as if blue collar workers are really that dumb.