Blog Betty (Thomas Friedman is a Great Man was an online novel): 9/8/24

Saturday, September 14, 2024

Closet cases are the biggest homophobes

When you see a homophobe grasp that you're probably dealing with a closet case. The two guys who picked on my brother the most in high school, the two big bad jocks? Gay and out. Took them both over a decade -- fumbling with one another while hiding in the closet -- but they finally managed to knock down the closet door.

So I wasn't surprised when it turned out that the creator of Moms For Bigotry was snagging women to hop in bed with on the down low. Yes, sometimes with her husband but the story that exposed it made it clear, if you read the texts, that the woman invited in really wasn't into the husband but was knocking boots with Bridget whatever her name was without hubby.

So I'm not surprised by some other news. Daniel Villarreal (LGBTQ NATION) reports:

Jeffrey Smith, a 67-year-old pastor with the anti-LGBTQ+ Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC), has been charged for allegedly groping another man at a Walmart in Melbane, North Carolina. The EPC disapproves of homosexuality, same-sex marriages and transgender identities.

Smith allegedly approached the man in the retail store on Monday morning and touched him through his clothes. The pastor then reportedly fled, according to WXII, and was apprehended by police in the woods behind a Sheetz gas station.

So he's married and part of EPC which preaches against reality. And now he has to be publicly shamed because he's spent all this time hiding who and what he was.

He's lived in a religion that's shamed him. If he's smart, he won't offer any lame lies and will just cop to being gay or bi.

In other news, Christopher Wiggins (ADVOCATE) reports:

On Wednesday, the Little Gay Pub, a beloved LGBTQ+ venue inWashington, D.C., was vandalized when a man spray-painted the initials “HMS” on several images of Vice PresidentKamala Harris. The photos were part of the pub’s “Coconut Christmas” decor in honor of Harris’s August 22 acceptance of the Democratic nomination for president at the United Center in Chicago.

The LGBTQ-owned and operated business in the vibrant Logan Circle neighborhood had adorned its exterior with striking photos of Harris. Two images at the entrance depicted Harris standing powerfully before an American flag, exuding confidence, with one displayed at the corner of the property. Another photo above gazed down onto the street below, symbolizing the pub’s unwavering support for Harris, a candidate they believe embodies pride and progress for the LGBTQ+ community.

The man responsible for the vandalism was caught in the act by the pub’s general manager, Paul Guarino, according to a police report. Guarino chased after him and snapped photos of the culprit. The man, who was carrying a Whole Foods bag, seemed upset by the pub’s political stance and defaced four of the images, including two at the entrance and two on the corner, which were photos from the convention’s first night. According to one of the pub’s co-owners, Dito Sevilla, Guarino confronted the man, asking what “HMS” stood for, even suggesting it could be related to Hamas. The man’s only reply was, “You figure it out,” Sevilla told The Advocate.

"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Friday, September 13, 2024. The week winds down with enthusiasm continuing to build for Kamala Harris.

52 days until the US presidential election and let's start off today with a good laugh.

Jill Stein is an idiot. That doesn't surprise me. That she is Dan Quayle level stupid? Okay, that surprised me.

Asked how many people are in the House of Representatives, she responds, "What is it? 600?"

No, it's 435. It's been that way every year of Jill's74-year-old life. (It goes back further than her but her whole life it's been 435.) She's ran for president three times now and she doesn't know 435?

What an idiot. Let's get her to try to spell potato next.

I especially enjoyed when Angela Rye pointing out how Jill is forever robbing women of color of their own agency. Angela put the ultimate Karen in check.

We can come back to Jill but we all needed a laugh to start the morning.

Let's move on over to another con artist, the shrinking Junior who wanted to be on the ballots and then he didn't. Mark Joseph Stern (SLATE) reports:

The North Carolina Supreme Court tossed a grenade into the state’s election on Monday, violating both state and federal law to grant Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s cynical, last-minute removal from the ballot. Its 4–3 decision will compel election administrators to destroy nearly 3 million already-printed ballots that featured Kennedy’s name and redesign 2,348 different ballot styles across the state to accommodate the eleventh-hour change. This complex process will significantly delay the distribution of new ballots—which will, in turn, unlawfully abridge early voting for everyone while jeopardizing the voting rights of service members overseas in clear contradiction of federal statute. It’s a nightmare for local election officials, who must now disregard the laws they’re sworn to uphold. And it’s an affront to North Carolinians at large, whose right to a fair, orderly election has been sabotaged by a lawless court and the candidate it so obviously favors.

Some people are surprised by how brief Junior's presidential campaign was, how quickly it ended. Those people apparently never spoke to any woman Junior slept with -- he's long been known as "One Thrust Bobby" for a reason.

He had a hissy fit to get on the ballot and then, after Donald Trump agreed to give him a post in a future administration, Junior has a hissy fit to get off the ballot.

With either contradictory position, please note, he insisted he was about the rule of law.

He was never about anything but himself. He's a lying hypocrite.

Now he's out there campaigning for Convicted Felon Donald Trump. And joining him on the road, Trashy Garbage aka Tulsi Gabbard.

Now we've made rude remarks about Tulsi and we've called her out but we do need to give her some praise. Trina explained why we needed to thank Tulsi in "Siri Daly's Garbage Cookies in the Kitchen:"

How about that debate?

Kamala was amazing. And Donald Trump was an overweight, elderly embarrassment:

After the debate, Tim Miller of The Bulwark caught up with Graham, who offered his assessment.

“Just spoke with Lindsey Graham in the spin room,” Miller reported. “[H]e said the debate team should be fired and Trump was unprepared. ‘[D]isaster'”

Thank you, Trashy Garbage.

We all remember, right, Tulsi Gabbard rushing around bragging to the media that she was Donald's debate coach and bragging about herself and pretending that she had defeated Kamala in one of the few debates that Trashy Tulsi Garbage Gabbard participated in.

So, thank you, Trashy.

Your 'expertise' and 'advice' ensured that Trump lost the debate. Poor Trashy, she killed her own Congressional career, she never got out of the gate trying to be a presidential candidate, she's more and more of a joke each day. Grifting doesn't always pay and it certainly hasn't for Tulsi. Maybe Guru Chris can get the cult to kiss her boo-boo and make it better?

Remember garbage cookies -- good. Trashy Garbage -- evil grifter.

Tulsi Gabbard, the thing we all scrape off the bottom of our shoes. Tulsi Gabbard, the liar who claimed to have ended Kamala's career back in August of 2020. Since then? Tulsi's no longer in Congress. Kamala's Vice President. Since then? Tulsi can't even get a right-wing outlet to give her a program of her own. Kamala's running for president. Karma ran over Tulsi then threw it in reverse and backed over her as well.

She better watch out Saturday in Glendale campaigning with Junior. Remember, kids, he likes to toss roadkill in his car and dump it in Central Park.

Let's take a moment at week's end to celebrate the big news -- "Kamala destroys Donald (Ava and C.I.)" -- because Kamala didn't just win that debate, she overwhelmingly won that debate. She destroyed him. This was a debate that will be talked about for years.

And in case you're not getting how big her victory was, Robert Tait (GUARDIAN) reports:

Kamala Harris embarked on a drive to exploit her strong debate performance on Thursday, as the Democratic presidential nominee’s campaign pledged to intensify efforts to persuade voters in battleground states deemed essential to winning the White House.

Meanwhile, her opponent, Donald Trump – whose debate performance has been criticized even by some of his supporters – said that he would refuse to debate Harris again. “There will be no third debate,” he said in an angrily worded post on his Truth Social social media platform.

Let's note Bernd Debusmann Jr (BBC NEWS) to make sure that point soaks in, "Donald Trump has ruled out another presidential debate against his rival Kamala Harris before November's election."

And he's lying and saying he won.

You know what's worse though?

If he's not lying.

If he truly believes he won when he so clearly lost. If he really isn't lying and thinks he won, how could you vote for someone that deluded and out of touch with reality?

As reported last week, Donald's having to cut back and close campaigning in some states; however, Ed O'Keefe (CBS NEWS) reports:

Vice President Kamala Harris continues to build out a national presidential campaign, but is also staffing up at the White House amid a crush of press inquiries in the wake of her unexpected presidential bid.

Her office is bringing on Nate Evans, a veteran of her short-lived 2020 presidential campaign, as a senior communications adviser. He is on detail from his most recent post as principal senior adviser for strategy and communications for Linda Thomas-Greenfield, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Before his time with the U.S. mission at the U.N., he was a deputy chief of staff for Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and served on Harris' 2020 campaign as head of rapid response and as New Hampshire communications director.

Kirsten Allen, Harris' communications director, and Ernie Apreza, her press secretary, will remain in their roles at the White House.

A growing press and communications team continues to build out at campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, led by communications director Michael Tyler and Brian Fallon, a senior communications adviser to Harris who is most notably responsible for crafting her daily message and negotiating with television networks about presidential debates and interview requests.

And Natasha Korecki (NBC NEWS) reports:

Riding high on momentum two days after the presidential debate, Vice President Kamala Harris was greeted by a deafening crowd here Thursday, eager to see the Democratic nominee push to the next phase of her campaign.

Harris told supporters it was time to turn the page from Donald Trump while again challenging the former president to a second debate, which she did earlier in the day at her rally in Charlotte.

“We owe it to the voters. Because here’s the thing: In this election, what’s at stake could not be more important,” she said.

Kamala at the debate was incredible. Marcia notes:

Video.

My grandmother asked me to note that video. She is so excited about Kamala Harris becoming president, she makes me look like a sour puss.

And that just started this week. After the debate. She was supporting Kamala but didn't feel like she could breathe, as she told me tonight on the phone, until after the debate. Not even when it was obvious Kamala was winning. She had to wait until after the debate was over.

She's breathing now and allowing herself to hope and imagine Kamala as president.

She's fixed income but she signed up for weekly campaign donations on Wednesday.

I know the media is so disappointing -- especially our so-called 'left' media like Common Dreams -- but people are excited by Kamala. And our number is growing. And will continue to grow.

And I'm seeing that in the groups we're speaking to as well. People are excited by this campaign, they're excited by Kamala as US president. But somehow 'left' media struggles to convey reality. As Betty noted last night:

This is garbage. Their actions are going to re-elect Trump.

And isn't it interesting how a Black woman is targeted with all this crap from the left to begin with.

As a Black woman, I'm fully aware that my group is the group of voters that repeatedly save the Democratic Party's ass. And this is the thank you we get back?

I'm not asking them to kiss her ass, I'm just asking them to be fair. Trump's a threat to our very democracy and demonstrated that on January 6, 2021.

And yet, according to COMMON DREAMS, Kamala must jump through this hoop and that hoop before she can have our support.

That is so much bulls**t.

And Stan observed:

You have an election in 53 days and 'left' media online is attacking Kamala Harris. As though she was a Republican, they are attacking her.

The Black community has been a huge and dependable block of voters for the Democratic Party and that's even more true of Black women. So the Black community is getting very ticked off that we're seeing Democratic Party sites and left sites knocking Kamala.

Is she not good enough for you?

This is the party, remember, that put Joe Lieberman on the ticket in 2000.

So I'm not understanding why Kamala is a problem.

Except for the fact that the White left sites and writers and podcasters think they can s**t on a Black woman.

Is that your intent?

I have no idea. I only know that in my entire adult life, I've never seen anything like this.

The enthusiasm is there even if our 'left' sites can't be bothered to cover it. Need further proof? Rebecca Falconer (AXIOS) notes:

Vice President Kamala Harris raised $47 million in the 24 hours following her debate against former President Trump, her campaign announced on Thursday.

Why it matters: It's Harris' biggest 24-hour fundraising haul since she raised $81 million after she replaced President Biden as Democrats' presidential candidate in July, per the New York Times, which first reported the news.

The haul that included donations from 600,000 individuals is the latest boost for Harris, who's locked in a virtual dead heat with Trump in most swing states, according to multiple national polls.
The fundraising haul comes after her campaign raked in $361 million in August compared Trump's $130 million raised for that month.

What they're saying: "While our fundraising program continues to show historic strength, this momentum cannot be taken for granted," said Harris campaign chair Jen O'Malley Dillon in a statement to media.

"We cannot underestimate the strength of Team Trump and their strong fundraising and organizing efforts intentionally designed to divide and sow doubt among Americans. We cannot let up until we defeat Trump once and for all this November."

It was an incredible debate. Ariel Edwards-Levy (CNN) explains:

Registered voters who watched Tuesday’s presidential debate broadly agree that Kamala Harris outperformed Donald Trump, according to a CNN poll of debate watchers conducted by SSRS. The vice president also outpaced both debate watchers’ expectations for her and Joe Biden’s onstage performance against the former president earlier this year, the poll found.

Debate watchers said, 63% to 37%, that Harris turned in a better performance onstage in Philadelphia. Prior to the debate, the same voters were evenly split on which candidate would perform more strongly, with 50% saying Harris would do so and 50% that Trump would. And afterward, 96% of Harris supporters who tuned in said that their chosen candidate had done a better job, while a smaller 69% majority of Trump’s supporters credited him with having a better night.

There is a schism between what's happening before our own eyes and what's getting 'covered' at COMMON DREAMS, etc. Trina went historical last night to explain how sad but not surprising this is:

If you missed it, Trump is yet again insisting that he will go after political rivals if he gets back into the White House. Aysha Bagchi (USA Today) reports:

For instance, according to the Mueller report, Trump's first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, told federal prosecutors Trump asked him to reverse his decision to recuse himself from presidential campaign-related investigations and direct the Justice Department to investigate and prosecute Hillary Clinton around the summer of 2017.

In the spring of 2018, Trump also told White House counsel Donald F. McGahn II he wanted to order the Justice Department to prosecute both Hillary Clinton and James Comey, the former FBI director whom Trump had already fired during an investigation into Russian interference to help Trump in the 2016 US presidential election, according to the New York Times. McGahn had White House lawyers write a memo warning Trump that if he ordered law enforcement to investigate his rivals, he could be impeached.

After the March, 2019 release of the Mueller report, which looked at Russian interference in the 2016 election, Trump also called for federal officials to "investigate the investigators." Bill Barr, Trump's chosen attorney general after Sessions, later appointed special counsel John Durham to do just that.

"He made clear his position that as head of the executive branch, he has both the power and right to direct federal criminal justice enforcement at any targets he chooses; and does not respect the 'independence' of the Attorney General and of US Attorneys," Gordon told USA TODAY in an email.

Trump is a serious threat to democracy. That cannot be disputed.

Kamala Harris is who I will be voting for.

I'm an Irish-American (Catholic). A number of people in THE COMMON ILLS community are upset over the way COMMON DREAMS, ZNET and others are 'covering' Kamala -- with nothing but attacks. I want to speak to that with what I can offer. As noted many times before, I was a supporter of Rev. Jesse Jackson both times he ran for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. I believed in him (still do) and I believed in the Rainbow PUSH Coalition.

But?

But I saw the Coalition ridiculed and I saw Rev. Jackson ridiculed. They would not let him be the nominee. They were fine with backing an embarrassment like Gary Hart. They were fine with anyone but the reverend. And despite this he had support. But they just ignored it.

From that perspective, I don't see any real difference from our 'left' media. I see the same pot shots from the 'left' aimed at her. I see the same belittling. I see the same attacks.

Once again, I am not talking about from the right.

There is a segment of the 'left' that is demented and just will not get on board. I had hoped that Barack Obama's 2008 and 2012 winning campaigns had changed that. It appears, however, that the only change was for one specific person.

Do I think Kamala can win? I think she can and I pray she will. The thing that has changed is young people. They are not the idiots that previous generations were. They're not going to play at racism and pretend it's cute or 'post-ironic' or whatever nonsense some people use to justify it.

I think that's a huge percent of the under 25 voters -- they're too smart for racism. And I think they'll band with smaller groupings in other generations and that it will be enough to elect Kamala.

She deserves it. We deserve it.

Why some very sick people claiming to be left are doing their part to elect Donald Trump goes to their racism and I don't have time for them.

The world can't afford a second term of Donald Trump. In the debate, he lied over and over. And he lies all the time so it may be hard to be shocked or surprised. But we should not grow immune to recognizing the damage his lies do. David Badash reports:

Just days after the Republican nominees for president and vice president promoted and doubled-down on false, debunked and racist claims about immigrants in Springfield, Ohio stealing pet cats and dogs and eating them, that town’s city hall and elementary school were forced to evacuate after a bomb threat targeting multiple locations was received Thursday.

“Due to a bomb threat that was issued to multiple facilities throughout Springfield today, City Hall is closed today,” the City of Springfield wrote in a Facebook post, saying it had “received a bomb threat that has prompted an immediate response from local and regional law enforcement. As a precautionary measure, the building has been evacuated, and authorities are currently conducting a thorough investigation. Our primary concern is the safety and well-being of our employees and residents. We are working to address this situation as swiftly as possible.”

The statement adds the bomb threat came via an email at 8:24 AM that was “sent to multiple agencies and media outlets.”

Just one day ago, City Manager Bryan Heck in a video denounced the rhetoric used in the presidential race, while promoting the city’s growth, which has been improved local businesses say, by the influx of immigrants.

Here's Bryan Heck.

His lies aren't just words. His lies lead to violence. He is a threat to democracy and we can defeat him at the ballot box.

The following sites updated:

Thursday, September 12, 2024

I'm standing with Kamala

Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Trump's Prison Yard Rap"

Thank you to C.I.!!!! Today's snapshot (I will post in full below) is the whole reason I became a member of THE COMMON ILLS community to begin with. When there's a mountain of bulls**t and everyone else looks the other way, C.I. speaks out. And Keesha texted me -- we are original gangsta members from back in the day -- saying, "20 years later and she's still knocking it out of the park."

As a Black woman, I look at (for example) COMMON DREAMS and shake my head over the daily garbage they are inflicting on Kamala Harris.

And why aren't people calling this out?

C.I. And, as usual, she brought in big guns. Julie Hollar's piece at FAIR is so important and, as C.I. notes, the same criticism -- the corporate press not covering Trump as the threat he is -- should be applied back to COMMON DREAMS and IN THESE TIMES and all the other supposedly left outlets.

This is garbage. Their actions are going to re-elect Trump.

And isn't it interesting how a Black woman is targeted with all this crap from the left to begin with.

As a Black woman, I'm fully aware that my group is the group of voters that repeatedly save the Democratic Party's ass. And this is the thank you we get back?

I'm not asking them to kiss her ass, I'm just asking them to be fair. Trump's a threat to our very democracy and demonstrated that on January 6, 2021.

And yet, according to COMMON DREAMS, Kamala must jump through this hoop and that hoop before she can have our support.

That is so much bulls**t.

My demographic is repeatedly attacked and/or ignored by the Democratic Party. That's why I am a COMMON ILLS community member. I was on DAILY KOS and the other sites and it was 'oh we're all equal' up until you pointed out a need in the Black community and tried to get some accountability from politicians. Then we were attacked as divisive, etc. etc.

There's a reason so many Black women are members of THE COMMON ILLS community.

C.I. has been a strong voice and we're lucky to have her.

I cannot believe that Democratic Party identified sites -- that have pimped every generic White male candidate over the years -- are suddenly attacking the Democratic Party's presidential candidate.

This is nonsense. And I'm not in the mood to hear about Gaza anymore.

Don't live there. I don't believe it's a one or the other but if that's how it's going to roll, then I'm standing with Kamala who can protect democracy and our country.

Don't care right now because this crowd is using Gaza to attack Kamala. If my choice is between supporting Kamala Harris for president or tying Gaza around her neck, the Gaza crowd can do their own work for themselves.

We saw that before in 2008. When Iraq was used to attack Hillary. Not to attack Barack Obama. His lies were ignored and swept aside. And he left office, after two terms, with US troops still in Iraq.

But let's all dump on Kamala for Gaza even though she's not the president. She's the vice president. But let's dump on her.

All you're doing is turning us off with your attacks on her.

And I feel sorry for the Palestinians. But I'm getting really ticked off seeing a Black woman attacked daily by the supposed left.

Really ticked off.

Trump is a very real danger to democracy. If you can't see that, I don't want to stand with you on anything.

"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Thursday, September 12, 2024. The question for this morning? Who are they trying to get elected?

There are fifty three days until the US presidential election. If you're planning to vote and you're not registered yet, you need to register.

The big news this week remains the debate between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party's presidential nominees. Of the debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and Convicted Felon Donald Trump, Jeet Heer (THE NATION) notes:

With Tuesday’s debate between Trump and Kamala Harris, Trump no longer had the protective cover of a hapless and flailing rival. Quite the reverse: Harris dominated the debate, relying in particular on a masterful strategy of hitting topics that Trump is especially touchy about. This deliberate baiting of Trump threw him off message. Instead of pounding away on what he sees as his best topic (opposition to undocumented immigrants), Trump was goaded into defensive and aggrieved answers about crowd size, the January 6 attempted coup, and his response to the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville in 2017. At one point, Trump became so unhinged that he started shouting about immigrants eating cats and dogs in Springfield, Ohio—a racist canard that has much popularity on the online right but, as debate moderator David Muir of ABC News pointed out, has no basis in fact. All of this made Trump sound unhinged.

As David Weigel of Semafor acutely noted, Harris had a strategy that she deftly executed: “She invoked a fact from the Trump years that Democrats felt had been forgotten by voters since 2020, she said something that would set her opponent off, and then she used his familiar eruptions in response to urge voters to take the offramp on the Trump era.”

This strategy of baiting Trump was based on a sound understanding of the psychology of the former president. Trump is a touchy narcissist who holds grudges and likes to repeat favorite talking points. Harris keyed her comments to hit Trump’s hot buttons. She teased Trump into getting angrier and more incoherent.

In a sense, Harris was replicating Muhammed Ali’s famous rope-a-dope technique that was used to such great affect in his 1974 match with George Foreman. Ali made himself into a punching bag, which tired Foreman out and allowed Ali to deliver the winning punches. In Harris’s case, rope-a-dope meant allowing Trump to meander on into incoherence, a strategy of selective silence. It’s noticeable that Trump spoke for considerably longer than Harris: 43.03 minutes for Trump, 37.41 minutes for Harris, a difference of 15 percent. But Harris wasn’t letting Trump walk over her. Rather, she was giving the dope enough rope to hang himself.

Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling (THE NEW REPUBLIC) explains:

Remarkably negative reactions to Donald Trump’s performance during his first formal matchup against Vice President Kamala Harris have left conservatives reeling—and Trump panicking.

On Wednesday, the former president attempted to wiggle out of any further debates against Harris, claiming that he had actually beaten Harris and deserved to be acknowledged for the “K.O.”

“In the World of Boxing or UFC, when a Fighter gets beaten or knocked out, they get up and scream, ‘I DEMAND A REMATCH, I DEMAND A REMATCH!’” Trump posted on Truth Social. “Well, it’s no different with a Debate. She was beaten badly last night. Every Poll has us WINNING, in one case, 92-8, so why would I do a Rematch?”

Later, in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, Trump insisted that he didn’t believe he “had to do it a second time,” only to suggest that he could be open to following through on the two other debates slated to be hosted on NBC and Fox in the coming weeks.

(No polls have indicated that Trump would win by such a large margin. A CNN flash poll after the debate indicated that 63 percent of Americans felt that Harris outperformed Trump.)

Oh, that garbage MAGA right. Lying about the debate. How can --

Oh wait.

It's not just MAGA.

No.

There's a worthless piece of crap with a radio show that no one listens to and he writes bad columns on those oh-so rare moments when he's sober who an idiot left outlet elected to post to their site. That his 'journalism' is incoherent and his coverage of the debate reads as though he's read some coverage on it but didn't actually watch what he's covering, what's more significant is the lies and conspiracy that he promotes in his column. He finds David Muir, for example, correcting the record regarding Donald's lie about immigrants killing and eating dogs in Springfield suspect. JD Vance and Donald have both been repeating that lie and doing so for days before the debate. Miss Sassy even got asked about it by the press well before the debate.

It is a slur and a lie and it was intended to scapegoat others and panic people over immigrants.

That the drunkard wants to question it isn't that surprising -- I think we all understand the concept of 'wet brain' -- but that a left outlet would publish thar garbage?

Yeah, I question that. I question a lot of the garbage going up these days.

At FAIR, Julie Hollar rightly notes:

New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger has issued a lengthy warning in the Washington Post (9/5/24) on the dangers another Donald Trump presidency would pose to a “free and independent press.”

Sulzberger details Trump’s many efforts to suppress and undermine critical media outlets during his previous presidential tenure, as well as the more recent open declarations by Trump and his allies of their plans to continue to “come after” the press, “whether it’s criminally or civilly.” He documents the ways independent media have been eroded in illiberal democracies around the world, and draws direct links to Trump’s playbook.

You might expect this to be a prelude to an announcement that the New York Times would work tirelessly to defend democracy. Instead, Sulzberger heartily defends his own miserably inadequate strategy of “neutrality”—which, in practice, is both-sidesing—making plain his greater concern for the survival of his own newspaper than the survival of US democracy.

“As someone who strongly believes in the foundational importance of journalistic independence,” Sulzberger writes, “I have no interest in wading into politics.”

It’s a bizarre statement. Newspapers, including the Times, regularly endorse candidates. Presumably, then, he’s referring to the “news” side of the paper, rather than the opinion side.

But, even so, you can’t report on politics without wading directly into them. Which political figures and issues do you cover, and how much? (See, for example: media’s outsize coverage of Trump since 2015; media’s heavy coverage of inflation but not wage growth.) Which popular political ideas do you take seriously, and which do you dismiss as marginal? (See, for example, the Times‘ persistent dismissal of Bernie Sanders’ highly popular critiques.) These decisions shape political possibilities and set political agendas, as much as the Times would like to pretend they don’t (FAIR.org, 5/15/24).

Sulzberger goes on (emphasis added):

I disagree with those who have suggested that the risk Trump poses to the free press is so high that news organizations such as mine should cast aside neutrality and directly oppose his reelection.

Sulzberger is always raging against critics who, he claims, want him to skew and censor his paper’s reporting (FAIR.org, 5/19/23). The Times must instead be steadfastly “neutral,” he claims. But those very political coverage decisions that media outlets make on a daily basis make it impossible for the outlets to be neutral in the way Sulzberger imagines.

Neutrality could mean, as he suggests, independent or free from the influence of the powerful in our society. This is possible—if difficult—for media outlets to achieve. Yet the Times, like all corporate media, doesn’t even try to do this.

Instead, the Times seems to take neutrality as not appearing to take sides, which in practice means finding similar faults among both parties, or not appearing overly critical of one party or the other (FAIR.org, 1/26/24). This strategy didn’t work particularly well when Republicans and Democrats played by the same set of rules, as both parties took the same anti-equality, pro-oligarchy positions on many issues.

But it’s particularly ill-suited to the current moment, when Republicans have discarded any notion that facts, truth or democracy have any meaning. If one team ceases to play by any rules, should the ref continue to try to call roughly similar numbers of violations on each side in order to appear unbiased? It would obviously be absurd and unfair. But that’s Sulzberger’s notion of “neutrality.”

It's a powerful piece, as we've come to expect from her, but while you're reading it, take the points being made -- strong ones -- and apply them to our own left sites.

What we're seeing at COMMON DREAMS and elsewhere is appalling and disgusting.

Are they trying to elect Donald Trump because that's what they're doing with their garbage crap that fails to realize there's a very real threat to our democracy.

This site started in 2004, after the election. It started because a number of us were doing a post-election analysis. What did we do, what should we have done, how can we address this?

I knew nothing about blogs. I used the internet to e-mail and that was probably it. But blogging kept coming up in the conversation. There had been a great game that someone had made during the election -- a SURVIVOR spoof -- that had been popular (and should have been, it was clever) online but it was felt that more should have been done in terms of blogs.

I don't do powerless. After the analysis, I looked online for about 30 minutes to figure out blogging (never have to this day, I'm sure) and started this site and my hands shook as I typed that first meaningless entry here.

The community built up around this site and made it anything that it is or was.

I'm not a big believer in electoral politics -- a point I've made here many times. I think the elections are the least important things we can do. I think we have to hold politicians' feet to the fire. I think we have to mobilize and make demands.

I didn't think, for example, Mitt Romney winning in 2012 would have been the end of the US. I lived under Reagan in the White House, for example, and the American people survived. We would have survived Mitt, no problem.

Donald Trump is not Mitt Romney. He has demonstrated who he is and he is someone very dangerous. He is a threat to America.

I've watched what passes for the 'left' waste everyone's time in the last years on garbage, garbage, garbage.

Too many have acted as though what happens to LGBTQ+ people isn't important or isn't as important as whatever pet overseas issue that's caught their fancy.

LGBTQ+ replaced all women as the most vulnerable to right-wing attacks.

When women's rights were attacked, we would see the squishy 'left' hide behind 'identity politics' and refuse to stand up with us. Our rights weren't important, we were a 'special interest.'

And I've watched the same piece of garbage 'left' now do the same to the LGBTQ+ community. If we're not all going to stand together on the left, we're going to be divided and conquered.

Yet I can still go to Twitter and find men -- under their own name -- with videos posted of them threatening to do violence in Target stores. Not only are the videos not taken down, but where is law enforcement. You're making a threat on Twitter to shoot up a Target and no one reported you?

This is how the squishy part of the left or 'left' has allowed the climate we're in to thrive.

You've refused to stand with the LGBTQ+ community the same way you refused to stand with women as late as the '00s. The same way you didn't stand with Black people until The Civil Rights Movement.

Now there are lefties in this country who stand with everyone and we're so lucky for that.

But a father got sentenced for beating and bloodying his son because he thought his son was gay and there's nothing on the left about it other than Greg Owen's report for LGBTQ NATION. The child is two-years-old. This is outrageous and its a direct product of the hate that hate that MAGA right has repeatedly promoted.

We did a joint-post this week and it should have gone up sooner on Sunday but did we link or not? The bigger point of the piece for me and Wally and Betty was to show what was going on online with the hatred towards Black people and LGBTQ+ people that's all over Twitter. And then it became a conversation about if we linked to it, actually linked to it, are we promoting it?

I don't know and I couldn't answer that question. I debate so much that I do online. I'm noting the David Muir nonsense attack from the drunk -- but not linking to it -- but I'm not noting some other crazed conspiracies about the debate because I don't want to promote them and is that right or is that wrong, I have no idea.

But there is so much on Twitter that people are completely unaware of, that promotes hate, that promotes violence. And you can just go to Twitter and type in "MAGA" and you should get a sample of it. You should see their manipulated photos of African-Americans in chains with the calls to bring back slavery, for example. This is what we're up against and the squishy pseudo left has no idea and wants to waste all of our time.

The attacks on Kamala Harris seems to be all that COMMON DREAMS can offer.

I'd love to know how they think this helps. Because the attacks are nonsense, bad enough, but when they use their platform -- as a left site -- to magnify attacks on Kamala, they aren't just hurting her, they're helping to destroy democracy.

These are our choices: Kamala Harris or Donald Trump.

And Donald is deranged and a real threat.

So I don't get your nonsense attacks on Kamala.

I've seen far more moderate male politicians promoted by COMMON DREAMS and others.

I have no idea.

I don't even read Norman Solomon's garbage because he's a cheap whore. In 2008, he was all over KPFA and KPFK and anywhere that would have him acting as a neutral party analyzing the Democratic presidential contenders. He never once informed the listeners that he was supporting Barack Obama and was, in fact, a pledged delegate for Barack. Now his readers? Different story. He knew his bad columns would be dropped by the real press (which actually pays him for them) if he didn't do the minimum required self-disclosure.

So I'm not really interested in what a whore has to say about Kamala. I do find it interesting that outlets presenting as media are okay with printing someone who lied repeatedly.

There is joy and excitement over Kamala's campaign and I know that because I see it as a go in front of various groups to speak about the importance of this election.

I just don't see it online.

I see a lot of people with a lot of wish lists.

Now COMMON DREAMS would argue that they did a ton of coverage of Kamala right before the **debate**. They did. They had one piece after another on what she needed and say and do.

I'm really not remembering that happening with Barack Obama.

But I guess when a woman runs, every asshole has an opinion and thinks they're smarter than the candidate.

You are harming yourselves and that's fine with me, slit your own wrists.

I hear over and over, every time I speak, from people telling me they've had to stop going to COMMON DREAMS, IN THESE TIMES and elsewhere because of this nonsense.

So if your site shut down, that's on you and I honestly don't care.

But before that happens, please note what you're doing -- and that does matter to me.

You are acting as though this election is not important and as though the two candidates are the same -- although a 21-year-old male said to a group yesterday that COMMON DREAMS is actually acting as though Kamala is worse than Donald.

Your coverage is disappointing and it could harm voter turnout.

That I do care about.

If, in July, the ghost of John McCain had become the Democratic Party nominee, I would be voting for him in November. I said long ago that I would be voting for the Democratic Party's nominee no matter who it was.

I didn't realize, until BROS (yes, the film), how much hatred was on the right. I didn't realize what MAGA was up to. Donald has encouraged them and has invited them to unleash their hate and rage. He is a threat for that reason alone. But he's a threat to democracy because he doesn't accept election results, because he talks of military tribunals for his political opponents, because he's corrupt and crooked -- Go down the list.

I would be voting for John McCain if he were the nominee.

He's not.

Kamala is.

And I'm thrilled to death that she is.

Go to the July snapshot where we first addressed the possible candidates. These are dictated, I'm thinking out loud. You can see me go from Kamala not being the right choice to stating maybe she would be.

I know Kamala Harris and have for years. We're not friends.

But as I was dictating that snapshot, everything that she's done over the years I've known her starts coming together in my mind and she is the perfect choice.

She can be a president of change.

I am thrilled that she's on the ballot. I'm thrilled to campaign for her and I'm thrilled to be able to vote for her.

She can do this.

But she's got to get votes to do that.

B-b-b-bbut Gaza!

STFU. I'm seriously so sick of this faction of Americans that I don't even want to cover Gaza right now. Your stupidity is harming us all.

1) Donald Trump is not going to help Palestinians.

2) Oh, look at me, I told Kamala I'm not voting for her -- Uh! What? She's not catering her campaign to me now! Even after I told her I wasn't voting for her!

Grow the hell up.

We're on top of an election and votes are needed. If you're announcing you're not voting for her, fine. Don't expect the campaign to waste valuable time trying to woo you after you've said you're not voting for her. That's a waste of time and resources.

She's running a campaign to reach out to Americans who want to ensure that we have basic rights and that we have a democracy.

That really is the most important thing right now.

For Americans, it is. Will we have a democracy or not?

So I'm just not in the mood for all the garbage that we're seeing at left and 'left' outlets.

Now maybe that's because we have US troops in Iraq.

Still.

And maybe because I remember these same left and 'left' outlets insisting that they wouldn't stop until all US troops were out of Iraq. And then Barack got elected and they stopped.

We didn't stop here.

So if Kamala's elected (and I pray she is), we'll be holding her accountable every damn day. That is what we do here. There? Over there? The so-called left sites?

They didn't continue to call for US troops out of Iraq. Their non-stop coverage of Gaza right now? Back then they picked it up every few months and that was it. There were no calls for Barack to get a peace deal together for the region or to recognize the rights of Palestinians.

They can't even be honest today.

Oh! Corruption in politics! Oh that Supreme Court case! Oh!!

Excuse me.

Barack did not use public financing in 2008.

Now in 2004, John Kerry flirted with not doing it.

But the push back was so hard that he dropped the idea within hours of an NYT report.

But Barack does it and to this day people don't want to talk about that. That was a reform put in place in the post-Watergate era.

I'm not really in the mood to watch you attack Kamala who is not president considering your long history of silence on various Democrats who came before. Silence that has continued, please note, even after the man is no longer president.

There is a standard that's being created for Kamala that is unfair and unreasonable.

Let's wind down with something of value. Dahlia Lithwick (SLATE) writes:

During Tuesday night’s debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, critics almost immediately became obsessed with Harris’ face-management choices: “If she wants to win, Harris needs to train her face not to respond,” tweeted GOP pollster and aspiring face-trainer Frank Luntz. “It feeds into a female stereotype and, more importantly, risks offending undecided voters.”

Other “female stereotype” haters were quick to agree. Christian conservative Carmine Sabia opined, “Kamala Harris has been way over coached on doing facial expressions because of the muted mics.” New York Post columnist Miranda Devine posted: “Kamala Harris is doing obviously rehearsed routines instead of answering questions. Then she does rehearsed and exaggerated facial expressions when Trump talks. She comes across as fake and weak.”

Harris fans of course begged to differ. The slow blink, the chin stroke, the quirked brow, the squinting, laughing eyes? This was the stuff of legend. It was a brilliant tactical attack on Trump’s ego. It was a self-meming performance of the face of every woman who has ever been forced to listen to a bunch of unreconstructed insanity spewing from someone who has unidirectionally failed upward.

Put aside for a moment Luntz’s implication that female political faces need to be trained, like small dogs or cucumber plants. There is no better proof that we still can’t quite define what we require of women in public life than that we demand that their faces be either vibrant and expressive or cold and dead. I’m old enough to remember that we have, in previous iterations of this battle, mandated that women train their voices, their wardrobes, their hair, and their partners into waxy submission so as not, to quote Luntz, “risk offending undecided voters.” But what does it signify that Kamala Harris, who has—against all political odds—managed to produce a voice, a wardrobe, a head of hair, and a spouse that all elicit very little horror when displayed publicly, is nevertheless excoriated for the sin of having Too Much Face?

On the one hand, it’s more of the same simple misogyny that will forever move the goalposts on how women can behave in public office so as to soothe doubters who think they should stay out of the ring. But when the candidate was pitted against Donald J. Trump—whose only discernible remaining power lies in his ability to threaten and discomfit women—the critique that Harris somehow owed the public and the former president a kind of button-down blank receptivity and amiability is simply ridiculous. The assumption seems to be that Trump gets to lie about you, insult you, threaten and mischaracterize, and that—with microphones turned off by design—your political obligation is to smoothly accept it. Almost all the memes that emerged after Harris’ face began to garner attention Tuesday night were variations on “When your graduate school adviser/law review editor/senior partner tells you that he’d make the changes in his draft himself but he has guests coming over for dinner and it’s his job to man the sous vide.” They’re all about what your face reflexively does when it’s not socially acceptable to speak your grievances out loud.

Actually, we have one more thing from the public e-mail account. The Center for Reproductive Rights issued the following:

Key agencies within the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) took significant strides this summer to improve family planning services, remove unnecessary barriers to care, and offer more accessible forms of birth control.

Here are three recent moves by HHS agencies:

1. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Approves First Dissolvable Birth Control Pill

On July 22, 2024, the FDA approved Femlyv, a new type of birth control. Combining two active ingredients that have been used in oral birth control pills since the 1960s, Femlyv is unique because of its delivery mechanism: it is the first orally disintegrating contraceptive.

This new treatment option will help make the birth control pill more accessible, especially for individuals who have trouble swallowing pills.

2. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Releases Guidance on Medicaid Family Planning Requirements and Best Practices

On August 8, 2024, CMS released new guidance on family planning services. The guidance:

Reiterates the standards that state Medicaid agencies must adhere to, including ensuring enrollees have access to free, comprehensive family planning services from their choice of providers.
Highlights strategies to enhance access, such as an extended supply of contraceptives given at one time, access to over the counter (OTC) contraceptives like Opill, and payment reforms that improve intrauterine device (IUD) access immediately postpartum.
Clarifies confidentiality requirements, both specific to Medicaid and generally under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and provides recommendations to integrate contraceptive quality measures.

3. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Updates Practice Recommendations for Contraception