Blog Betty (Thomas Friedman is a Great Man was an online novel): 7/28/24

Thursday, August 01, 2024

The Crooked Court and the MAGA creeps

That's Carly Simon's "Safe And Sound" from her album HOTCAKES. "The world's just inside out and upside down." Pretty much says it all, doesn't it?

Edward Carver (COMMON DREAMS) reports:

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday introduced legislation that would establish that the president and vice president don't have immunity from prosecution—an effort to overturn the Supreme Court's recent ruling in Trump v. United States that grants presidents broad immunity when they break the law.

The No Kings Act, which has 34 co-sponsors from the Senate's Democratic caucus, would stipulate that Congress, and not the Supreme Court, determines whom federal law applies to. It comes as the latest Democratic response to the July 1 ruling, decided 6-3 along ideological lines, that gave former president and current Republican nominee Donald Trump "absolute immunity" for "core" presidential duties and "presumptive immunity" for other official acts.

"Given the dangerous and consequential implications of the court's ruling, legislation would be the fastest and most efficient method to correcting the grave precedent the Trump ruling presented," Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a statement.

"With this glaring and partisan overreach, Congress has an obligation—and a constitutional authority—to act as a check and balance to the judicial branch," he added.

Progressive advocacy group Public Citizen praised Schumer for introducing the bill.

"The framers of the Constitution never intended the executive branch to be immune from legal recourse, and they would have seen this decision as an invitation for presidents to become tyrants," Lisa Gilbert, the group's co-president, said in a statement. "Congress has an obligation to act as a check and ensure that the president does not become a king."

Our corrupt Supreme Court is destroying democracy. The six need to be put in prison. They're corrupt and they set out to harm the country. They are a conspiracy against democracy. And they didn't just happen. This is a plot to destroy our country.

Austin Sarat (SALON) reports:

On Monday, President Joe Biden unveiled a package of reforms targeting the United States Supreme Court. That package included a proposal to amend the Constitution to reverse the Supreme Court’s recent decision granting the president of the United States immunity from criminal prosecution for acts undertaken in their official capacity.

Biden dubbed that proposal “The No One Is Above the Law Amendment.” He said, “It would make clear that there is no immunity for crimes a former president committed while in office.”

A White House statement explained that the amendment Biden wants adopted “will state that the Constitution does not confer any immunity from federal criminal indictment, trial, conviction, or sentencing by virtue of previously serving as President.”

An article in The Hill rightly notes, “When the nation’s high court hands down a ruling on a constitutional issue, the judgment is virtually final, and decisions can only be altered with a constitutional amendment and a new ruling.”

Yet prospects for passage of Biden’s proposed amendment are bleak, with House Speaker Mike Johnson saying that it would be “dead on arrival” in the House of Representatives. Johnson's response could hardly have come as a surprise to the president or anyone who regards the Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v. United States as a constitutional abomination.

MAGA is a ton of crooks and creeps. Republicans have lost control of their party and the great unwashed and uneducated is trying to hijack it.

"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Thursday, August 1, 2024. Kamala Harris calls out Donald Trump's "same old show" -- his empty attacks and empty policy, Donald looked crazier than ever at a journalist event, Skidmarks Vance's attack on nuns has been little noted, as has his time in Iraq as a "military journalist," two more journalist are killed in Gaza, and much more.

Yesterday, convicted felon Donald Trump attended the National Association of Black Journalists annual convention. It did not go well.

At 78, Donald is the oldest person to run for US president and he is also the most childish.

Zachary Basu (AXIOS) reports:

Donald Trump's audacious lie about Vice President Kamala Harris' race confirmed what many had long suspected: running against a Black woman could summon the former president's worst impulses.
Why it matters: Amid outrage from Democrats and discomfort from Republicans, Trump is doubling down on his incendiary claim that Harris recently "became a Black person" for political convenience.

In one fell swoop, Trump hijacked a news cycle dominated by the enthusiasm surrounding Harris' campaign — and redirected attention to his long and controversial record on race.
It's a nightmare for Republicans already reeling from the tightening race: They know Trump has a strong chance of beating Harris on the issues, but fear he could alienate swing voters with attacks on her identity.

Catch up quick: In a chaotic and combative interview at the National Association of Black Journalists convention, Trump falsely claimed that Harris "happened to turn Black" after years of promoting her Indian heritage.

"So I don't know, is she Indian or is she Black?" the former president asked, drawing pushback from ABC News moderator Rachel Scott.
"I respect either one, but she obviously doesn't, because she was Indian all the way, and then all of a sudden she made a turn and she went — she became a Black person."
Trump concluded, as he often does, with a conspiratorial flourish: "I think somebody should look into that too."

The big picture: Trump's political rise began with a yearslong crusade to delegitimize the nation's first Black president, Barack Obama.

Much has changed since 2011, but Trump has never strayed far from the conspiratorial and racist roots of the birther movement.
In 2020, Trump said he had "heard" that Harris was not born in the U.S. and thus "doesn't meet the requirements" to be vice president. Harris was born in California.
Even during the GOP primary earlier this year, Trump falsely claimed that rival Nikki Haley was ineligible to be president because her parents weren't U.S. citizens when she was born.

Reality check: Harris is the first Black, South Asian and woman vice president.

She's the daughter of an Indian mother and a Jamaican father, and was a member of a historically Black sorority at a historically Black college.
Like millions of mixed-race Americans, who represent one of the fastest-growing demographics in the country, the vice president identifies with both of her cultures.

Helen Sullivan (GUARDIAN) notes Kamala's response:

“This afternoon,” she said, pausing for boos from the crowd. “Donald Trump spoke at the annual meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists.”

“And it was the same old show: the divisiveness and the disrespect. And let me just say, the American people deserve better. The American people deserve a leader who tells the truth. A leader who does not respond with hostility and anger when confronted with the facts. We deserve a leader who understands that our differences do not divide us – they are an essential source of our strength.”

The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee was speaking at the Sigma Gamma Rho’s 60th International Biennial Boulé, the Black sorority’s gathering of its entire membership in Houston, Texas. Harris said she was there “as a proud member of the Divine Nine” – a group of the most historically powerful Black fraternities and sororities in the US. Harris is an alumna of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.

The Harris campaign said in a statement: “The Donald Trump America saw at NABJ is the one Black voters have known for years.”

Tubby little Skidmarks Vance wanted to get on it by calling Kamala "phoney."

This would be the same Skidmarks who tries to silence his critics by bringing up his [cough cough] military record. As Elaine noted on Monday:

Let me get this right, Skidmarks Vance who tries to play combat veteran to the public, was actually in Iraq for six months as "a military journalist." From WIKIPEDIA:

After graduating from Middletown High School in 2003,^[19] Vance enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps and served in Iraq as a combat correspondent for six months in late 2005.^[20] He was part of the Public Affairs section of the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing^[21]^[22] and said that his service "taught me how to live like an adult" and that he was "lucky to escape any real fighting".^[23] His decorations included the Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal and Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal.^[20]

He's not a combat veteran. He's a joke. He 'served' in Iraq . . . as a journalist. What? The USO was full?

Yeah. He's the phony. Maybe he should just focus his stupidity on comments about "cat ladies"?

Matt Gertz (MEDIA MATTERS) notes Skidmarks' long record of attacks on childless people including:

On Fox’s The Next Revolution that Sunday, Vance told host Steve Hilton that he supported giving parents extra votes to represent their children. He explained that this would counterbalance “the left,” which he said “has effectively been taken over by a lot of childless people, by the AOCs of the world, the Kamala Harrises of the world. Those people now run the agenda of the Democratic Party, and we’ve got to push back against that.”

Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "JD Vance Doesn't Understand The Church" went up last night.

This goes to the hate and stupidity that Skidmarks Vance wallows in. He's attacking nuns, grasp that. And he doesn't grasp it because he wasn't a Catholic until 2019. Doesn't look like he learned enough to be welcomed into that religion. It's amazing how this attack from Vance on Catholic nuns has not been presented as the attack on religion that it actually is.

For centuries, nuns have contributed to society. Centuries.

In other news of crazy, a small group (six) of Democrats in Congress came out yesterday willing to be used to trash Kamala Harris. The leader of the six tells you the story of the six and of their nonsense attack. US House Rep Henry Cuellar. Now Shady Menendez -- as Ann calls Senator Bob Menendez -- has taken up a lot of press with his crimes -- he was convicted last month on all counts. But we shouldn't forget Henry. The Justice Department hasn't as noted by this press release from May:

Congressman Allegedly Accepted Approximately $600,000 from Azerbaijan’s State-Owned Oil Company and a Mexican Bank in Exchange for Official Acts as a Member of Congress

An indictment was unsealed today in the Southern District of Texas charging U.S. Congressman Enrique Roberto “Henry” Cuellar, 68, and his wife, Imelda Cuellar, 67, both of Laredo, Texas, with participating in two schemes involving bribery, unlawful foreign influence, and money laundering. Congressman Cuellar and Imelda Cuellar made their initial court appearance today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Dena Palermo in Houston.

According to court documents, beginning in at least December 2014 and continuing through at least November 2021, Congressman Cuellar and Imelda Cuellar allegedly accepted approximately $600,000 in bribes from two foreign entities: an oil and gas company wholly owned and controlled by the Government of Azerbaijan, and a bank headquartered in Mexico City. The bribe payments were allegedly laundered, pursuant to sham consulting contracts, through a series of front companies and middlemen into shell companies owned by Imelda Cuellar, who performed little to no legitimate work under the contracts. In exchange for the bribes paid by the Azerbaijani oil and gas company, Congressman Cuellar allegedly agreed to use his office to influence U.S. foreign policy in favor of Azerbaijan. In exchange for the bribes paid by the Mexican bank, Congressman Cuellar allegedly agreed to influence legislative activity and to advise and pressure high-ranking U.S. Executive Branch officials regarding measures beneficial to the bank.

Congressman Cuellar and Imelda Cuellar are each charged with the following offenses, and if convicted, face maximum penalties as indicated: two counts of conspiracy to commit bribery of a federal official and to have a public official act as an agent of a foreign principal required to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), five years imprisonment on each count; two counts of bribery of a federal official, 15 years imprisonment on each count; two counts of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud, 20 years imprisonment on each count; two counts of violating the ban on public officials acting as agents of a foreign principal required to register under FARA, two years imprisonment on each count; one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, 20 years imprisonment; and five counts of money laundering, 20 years imprisonment on each count.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen, head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division; Assistant Director Michael D. Nordwall of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division; and Deputy Assistant Inspector General Jason Loeffler and Special Agent in Charge Chris Hileman of the Department of State Office of Inspector General (DOS-OIG) made the announcement.

The FBI and DOS-OIG investigated the case.

Acting Deputy Chief Marco A. Palmieri, Acting Deputy Chief Rosaleen O’Gara, and Trial Attorney Celia Choy of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section and Trial Attorney Garrett Coyle of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section are prosecuting the case.

An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

This is the trash that's condemning Kamala Harris. And when you're accused of taking approximately $600,000 in bribes from a Mexican bank, maybe you're not the one to speak to immigration issues? And when you're such disgusting trash, you should have been run out of Congress long ago. WIKIPEDIA notes, "During the runoff, Cuellar faced renewed scrutiny over an incident in 2018 where he fired a pregnant staffer who had requested parental leave and subsequently suffered a miscarriage, and according to court documents, subsequently urged other staffers to help him discredit her.^[33]^[34]^[35]"

Garbage. Hopefully, garbage that will soon be behind bars. And like others in the community, I am coming around to Ann's notion of death penalty as a sentence for public officials who abuse their positions and the public trust. I'm not for the death penalty but if we're going to have it in this country, public officials like Henry should be the first ones put to death for their crimes. The scope is so much larger.

Yesterday on DEMOCRACY NOW!, they explored the attacks on Kamala Harris.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

This week, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump continued his racist attacks on the Democratic presidential candidate, Kamala Harris. Here’s Trump on Fox News Monday night, interviewed by Laura Ingraham.

DONALD TRUMP: Number one, they had an incompetent man as president, OK? Now they have somebody who’s worse. She’s sort of incompetent. She’s not very smart, but she’s very radical. Very radical. She will try and defund the police.

LAURA INGRAHAM: How would they consider a Harris presidency, just in — geopolitically?

DONALD TRUMP: I think they’ll walk all over her. I think —

LAURA INGRAHAM: How so?

DONALD TRUMP: — they’ll look at her. I think they’ll walk all over her. She’ll be so easy for them. She’ll be like a play toy. They look at her, and they say, “We can’t believe we got so lucky.” They’re going to walk all over her. And I don’t want to say as to why, but a lot of people understand it.

AMY GOODMAN: During a campaign event in Atlanta Tuesday evening, Vice President Kamala Harris challenged Trump to meet her on the debate stage so she could address his criticisms directly.

VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: Well, Donald, I do hope you’ll reconsider to meet me on the debate stage, because as the saying goes, if you got something to say, say it to my face.

AMY GOODMAN: President Trump has called Kamala Harris “dumb,” “dumb as a rock,” a “bum,” and has called her “evil.”

To discuss Harris’s historic campaign and more, we’re joined by professor Kimberlé Crenshaw, professor of law at UCLA and Columbia University, executive director of the African American Policy Forum, which is hosting their annual Critical Race Theory Summer School in Nashville this week, where she is joining us from now. Speakers include Ben Crump, talking about the police killing of Sonya Massey. Their opening plenary was called “Tip of the Spear: Tennessee on the Frontlines of the War on Woke.”

Professor Crenshaw, thanks so much for being with us. Can you respond to what Kamala Harris said last night, her first big campaign rally? Thousands were there. And talk about what the Republicans are saying. Out of so many congressmembers’ mouths, ”DEI hire,” “mediocre,” “This is all about DEI,” they say.

KIMBERLÉ CRENSHAW: Well, first of all, one has to respond with just applause. I think it was such a perfectly delivered challenge to Donald Trump.

But, look, here’s the reality. As much as Kamala Harris’s likely nomination is galvanizing people around the country, she’s also serving as an avatar for all the fears of people who fear the browning of America, those who fear the browning of America more than they fear the rise of fascism in the United States. So, the challenge is quite clearly that those who support Kamala Harris and those who support our democracy have to take back the ground that they have conceded to the war against woke. This attack on her as the DEI candidacy is a direct consequence of the fact that the attack on the entire infrastructure of racial justice the entire last half of the 20th century and the first half of the 21st century has largely been conceded by progressives, by liberals and by moderates, those who don’t want to talk about the attack on racial justice, those who think that we can just ignore the racism on the right and ignore the racism that is being played out in Project 2025.

So, this is a moment where there’s interest convergence between those of us who understand the relationship between racial justice and democracy and those who are deeply concerned about the descent of our country and what will happen under another Trump administration. We cannot defend democracy, we cannot defend Kamala Harris, without taking on directly the intersection of racism and sexism that we are seeing playing out across this campaign. And so, the summer school that we’ve been having and that we’re having is designed to provide precisely those tools, the literacy that’s necessary and the courage, frankly, to meet this battle where it actually is.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Kimberlé Crenshaw, also we’re witnessing the hypersexualization of Kamala Harris, including the circulation of derogatory slogans and rumors about her personal life, media figure Megyn Kelly even saying that Kamala Harris slept her way to the top. Can you talk about the significance of this targeting of Harris with these kinds of claims?

KIMBERLÉ CRENSHAW: Well, look, one of the insights of intersectionality is that racism and sexism are not simply additive. It’s almost like an algebra equation. She’s going to suffer both the misogyny that we saw play out with Hillary Clinton’s campaign, the racism that we saw playing out with Barack Obama, but also without a deep understanding about how misogynoir comes together to shape how African American women in particular are viewed, how they’ve been stereotyped over the course of history.

So, this is a moment where all those who support democracy and all those who support this candidacy have to quickly come together and learn how to read this attack on her, know how to respond to this attack on her and, quite frankly, connect it to the attacks on other Black women. We talked about Sonya Massey yesterday when Ben Crump was here, and he talked about how the autopsy reports actually support the video, that she was in a crouched position. She was shot from top to — from above her. This kind of degradation, dehumanization is deeply part of our history, and there’s a particular way that it plays out against women who are of African descent.

So, we are going to have to up our game. We’re going to have to not pivot away from these attacks. We’re going to have to meet them where they are. And we’re going to have to make it clear that Kamala Harris’s campaign offers much more to the white working class. And everybody wonders: Will she appeal to them? They’re not wondering why the white working class is not turned off by Donald Trump’s billionaire-focused agenda. We’ve got to talk about these things. And we’ve got to disarm the war on woke. It’s like a gun that’s been loaded, and it’s on the table, and it’s available to be targeted at things that people clearly care about, which is our democracy.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And do you have any concern on substantive issues, for instance, that the Harris campaign’s website, even after her endorsement by President Joe Biden and former President Obama, does not have a platform or policies on it that explain what her particular policies will be if elected in office?

KIMBERLÉ CRENSHAW: Well, you know, it is early in the campaign. So, one of the things that we know for certain is that this is a campaign that is about rescuing our democracy from the cliff that we are on. And, look, we got lucky that we were able to save the democracy when we did. But, look, we’re not talking about the real threat. The real threat to our democracy that marched through that Capitol was the threat that was symbolized by that Confederate flag. There are those who fear sharing this country with all of us who are in it. If you look at the basic argument about the stolen election, who stole it? It was voters in Philadelphia, in Detroit, in Milwaukee, in Phoenix. They are saying what the quiet part is out loud. So, we know, at minimum, that the Harris campaign is about addressing the threat to our democracy.

Now, of course, we’re going to have to push the Democrats. We’re going to have to push Kamala Harris to actually make good on the right to democracy, the freedom to learn, all the reproductive freedom. We know that the election is just the first part. The second part is maintaining the mobilization that put her there. That’s the mistake that we made earlier on, and we can’t make that mistake again. So, as we come together to save our democracy, we also have to come together to be a governing majority in that democracy. That’s what we’re here to celebrate. That’s what we’re here to commemorate. Freedom Summer 1964 is the precursor to Freedom Summer 2024. This is the tip of the spear. This is why we are here.

AMY GOODMAN: Kimberlé Crenshaw, we want to thank you for being with us, professor of law at UCLA and Columbia University and executive director of the African American Policy Forum, hosting the annual Critical Race Theory Summer School in Nashville. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

Meanwhile, at COMMON DREAMS, Phyllis Bennis writes:

A new assassination campaign aimed at Israel’s opponents has erupted across the Middle East, imperiling already shaky Gaza ceasefire talks and threatening an even greater regional expansion of war. While Israel continues its genocidal attack on desperate Gazans, killing scores, perhaps hundreds just in the last several days, the latest moves were clearly designed to escalate Israel’s war in Gaza and expand the military tensions already simmering on its border with Lebanon, in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and elsewhere into a full-scale war, potentially drawing in both Iran and the United States even more directly.

The lethal attacks on top military and political officials of Hezbollah and Hamas, in Beirut and Tehran respectively within 24 hours, demonstrates the centrality of assassination—and the irrelevance of diplomacy—in Tel Aviv’s strategic calculus.

Tuesday evening in the Lebanese capital, an Israeli airstrike hit the neighborhood of Dahiyeh, destroying a residential building very close to a major hospital, killing and injuring still-unconfirmed numbers of people. Israel claimed it killed Fuad Shukr, a top military official of Hezbollah, and a close adviser to Hassan Nasrallah, head of the political-military resistance organization in Lebanon. While Hezbollah has not confirmed Shukr’s death, it is clear that his assassination was the Israeli intent.

All the talk about Washington and Tel Aviv supporting a ceasefire or wanting the hostages returned means little when a top negotiator on the other side can be assassinated with impunity.

Just hours before that Israeli strike, U.S. State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said that U.S. officials “do not believe that all-out war is inevitable and we still believe that it can be avoided.” That followed his statement that “our commitment to Israel's security is ironclad and unwavering against all Iran-backed threats, including Hezbollah, and we are working on a diplomatic solution.”

But the U.S. has made clear by its actions—regardless of some politicians’ rhetorical support for ending the war—that it is not prepared to do the one thing that would result in a permanent ceasefire: stop sending Israel the weapons that enable the war in Gaza.

To the contrary, the possibility of a diplomatic solution was grievously undermined again just hours after the Beirut attack when another airstrike, widely assumed to be Israeli, assassinated the political leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, in a guest house in Tehran. He was visiting the Iranian capital for the inauguration of just-elected Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. Haniyeh, who had briefly served as prime minister of the Palestinian Authority after Hamas won the 2006 Palestinian elections that were initially welcomed by the United States, lived in exile in Qatar. In recent months he played a key role in the Qatar-sponsored and U.S.-backed Israeli-Hamas negotiations aimed at ending Israel’s assault on Gaza, ensuring access to humanitarian aid, and releasing illegally held Palestinian prisoners and Israeli hostages.

All the talk about Washington and Tel Aviv supporting a ceasefire or wanting the hostages returned means little when a top negotiator on the other side can be assassinated with impunity. Haniyeh was widely recognized as pragmatic and supportive of negotiations; in 2006, just three months after Hamas won the Palestinian election in both Gaza and the West Bank, Haniyeh wrote to then-President George W. Bush urging negotiations between the U.S. and Hamas, and offering acceptance of a two-state solution and a long-term truce with Israel. The current situation, he wrote, “will encourage violence and chaos in the whole region.” Bush never responded.

The negotiations the Hamas leader was participating in will almost certainly be stalled, if not derailed entirely, as a result of Haniyeh’s killing. The resulting continuation of Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza matches the goal of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has resisted ceasefire efforts and pledged to keep fighting until Hamas is destroyed.

In other news, the Israeli government has killed two more journalists. ALJAZEERA explains:

Al Jazeera Arabic journalist Ismail al-Ghoul and his cameraman Rami al-Rifi have been killed in an Israeli air attack on the Gaza Strip.

The reporters were killed when their car was hit on Wednesday in the Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City, according to initial information.

They were in the area to report from near the Gaza house of Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas who was assassinated in the early hours of Wednesday in Iran’s capital, Tehran, in an attack the group has blamed on Israel.

Al Jazeera’s Anas al-Sharif, reporting from Gaza, was at the hospital where the bodies of his two colleagues were brought.

“Ismail was conveying the suffering of the displaced Palestinians and the suffering of the wounded and the massacres committed by the [Israeli] occupation against the innocent people in Gaza,” he said.

“The feeling – no words can describe what happened.”

Gaza remains under assault. Day 300 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 death toll rises to 39,480 with 91,128 wounded." 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:

April 11th, Sharon Zhang (TRUTHOUT) reported, "In addition to the over 34,000 Palestinians who have been counted as killed in Israel’s genocidal assault so far, there are 13,000 Palestinians in Gaza who are missing, a humanitarian aid group has estimated, either buried in rubble or mass graves or disappeared into Israeli prisons. In a report released Thursday, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said that the estimate is based on initial reports and that the actual number of people missing is likely even higher."

As for the area itself? Isabele Debre (AP) reveals, "Israel’s military offensive has turned much of northern Gaza into an uninhabitable moonscape. Whole neighborhoods have been erased. Homes, schools and hospitals have been blasted by airstrikes and scorched by tank fire. Some buildings are still standing, but most are battered shells." Kieron Monks (I NEWS) reports, "More than 40 per cent of the buildings in northern Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, according to a new study of satellite imagery by US researchers Jamon Van Den Hoek from Oregon State University and Corey Scher at the City University of New York. The UN gave a figure of 45 per cent of housing destroyed or damaged across the strip in less than six weeks. The rate of destruction is among the highest of any conflict since the Second World War."

The following sites updated:

Wednesday, July 31, 2024

Fly Me To The Moon -- science post

Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "JD Vance Doesn't Understand The Church" went up tonight.

Seems like forever since I did a science post. I blink, open my eyes and it's news about the Moon. Jess Thomson (NEWSWEEK) reports:

Scientists have suggested saving life on Earth by keeping it on the moon in a modern space-age Noah's Ark.

This "lunar biorepository" could store cryopreserved samples from the most endangered species on Earth to protect its biodiversity, according to a new paper in the journal BioScience.

The samples would be protected from Earth-based issues, ranging from natural disasters and climate change to geopolitical conflicts, by virtue of being far away, on the moon.

This out-of-this-world solution was proposed by researchers at the Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, suggesting that Earth's most at-risk species could be preserved long into the future.

So the Earth would be gone but there would be some form of a backup that could be activated on the Moon?

James Woodford (NEW SCIENTIST) writes:

The plan has three main goals: to safeguard the diversity of life on Earth, to protect species that might be useful for space exploration, such as those that could provide biomaterials for food or filtration, and to preserve microorganisms that may one day be needed for terraforming other planets.

Hagedorn says the team wanted to identify a location where no people or energy would be required to keep cryogenically frozen, living cells colder than -196°C – the temperature at which nitrogen is a liquid and all biological processes are suspended.

“There is no place on Earth cold enough to have a passive repository that must be held at -196°C, so we thought about space or the moon,” says Hagedorn.

She says the team settled on the lunar south pole due to its deep craters with permanently shadowed and cold regions. Burying samples about 2 metres below the surface would also keep them safe from radiation, she says.

So we're assuming that either humankind or life from other planets would get to the Moon and be able to activate these back ups. Did I understand that right? If so, I guess it could also be like a time capsule. Years from now, if the Earth is wiped out of population or just completely wiped out, if the Moon were still there (in which case, its rotation and path would likely change), someone or something could stumble upon the Moon and open up the time capsule to learn of what came before.

Still on the Moon, Richard Speed (THE REGISTER) reports:

It has been 60 years since a spacecraft snapped the USA's first close-up images of the lunar surface, a mere five years before astronauts set foot on the Moon. Ranger 7 finally achieved the feat in July 1964.…

The Ranger program began in 1960 and was managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California. The Soviet Luna 3 spacecraft had already captured the first images of the Moon's far side in 1959, but the US sought to show off its technical prowess with something more high-resolution before a landing expected by the end of the decade.

It was a stepwise program. The first Block I mission would check out the Atlas-Agena launch vehicle by placing the Ranger spacecraft in a highly elliptical Earth orbit to check out the hardware. The second set of missions, Block II, would impact the Moon and capture images and science data on the way down. They also carried a payload intended to survive the landing and operate for 30 days, transmitting the seismic data to Earth.

The final Block III phase would have the spacecraft carry a high-resolution imaging system comprising six television cameras with wide and narrow-angle capabilities.

"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Wednesday, July 31, 2024. Though the US press has ignored last Friday's Green Zone shooting the US Embassy in Baghdad has confirmed the shooter was in the embassy, the Israeli government has apparently carried out an assassination in Iran, the United Nations reveals the Israeli government has abused prisoners and committed War Crimes, and much more.

Starting with Iraq, Sunday and Monday we covered a shooting in Iraq. A woman was praying in her apartment when she was shot. She had to go to the hospital. A shooting in the heavily fortified Green Zone is news. But this was especially newsworthy because the bullet was said to have come from the US Embassy in Baghdad. As we noted:

Though it remains uncovered by the US press, it's not made up. The incident happened last week. Abdul Amir Al-Ghazali spoke with ALSUMARIA and explained to them that the shooting took place on Friday while his wife was praying. The Badr Organization accuses the US government of converting the US Embassy in Baghdad into a "military base," condemns the action citing the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations 1961, and, citing the Iraqi Constitution (Articles 1, 15, 50 and 109) calls for Iraq's legislative and executive branches to expel the US military from Iraq.

Yesterday, MEMO became the first US outlet to cover the story.

Is there a reason the US press is unable to do its job? This is an international incident. Someone, at the US Embassy, shot a woman. The shooting now has parliamentarians ushing even harder to evict US troops from the country. Where's the coverage?

Sunday, when I saw the Tweets, I thought it had to be a Twitter hoax because there's no way that this could happen and get zero coverage -- not a word -- from the US press. But it wasn't a hoax and, in fact, the US Embassy has admitted to the shooting as SHAFAW NEWS notes:

The embassy's spokesperson told Shafaq News Agency, “We received a report from Iraqi authorities about an Iraqi citizen injured by gunfire near our Baghdad building on the evening of July 26.”

"The investigation found that the shooting inside the embassy was accidental. The embassy is treating the unfortunate incident seriously and is continuing its investigation," he added.

Furthermore, the US Embassy, through its spokesman, expressed deep concern over the Iraqi citizen’s injury and wished her a speedy recovery, confirming that Iraqi authorities have been informed and coordination with them continues.

Somehow not one US news outlet could report on this. They could serve up a lot of fluff -- and did -- but they couldn't cover this story. This woman is injured because of the US war on Iraq. The embassy would not be there otherwise. But instead of feeling an obligation to show what still takes place from the illegal war that they sold -- that they gleefully sold -- in 2003, they just look the other way and hope no one calls them out.

In other news out of the region, CBS and AP report:

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Iran's capital after attending the inauguration of the country's new president, Iranian officials and the militant group said early Wednesday. Hamas said it was an Israeli airstrike that killed the group's top political leader.

It was the second Israeli assassination of a senior Iran-allied militant commander in the space of just 12 hours, casting a growing shadow over U.S.-backed efforts to broker a cease-fire in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war and sharply increasing concern that the Gaza war could spread into a wider regional conflict in the Middle East, where the U.S. has thousands of troops based.

THE NATIONAL notes that the US government has denied participation in the assassination, "US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has denied American involvement in the suspected Israeli air strike that killed Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran." THE NATIONAL also notes:

Egypt has strongly condemned the "recent Israeli escalation in the region", warning of the dangers of a "policy of assassinations" after Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh was killed in an air strike in Tehran.

The Foreign Ministry expressed its ”deep concern” over Israel's actions, which it said could lead to a wider conflict in the region and called on the UN Security Council and other international powers to take responsibility and prevent the situation from “spiralling out of control”.

Israeli actions indicated a lack of political will to calm the situation amid a lack of progress in ceasefire negotiations, it said.

Continued escalation will only serve to undermine efforts to stop the war in Gaza and alleviate the humanitarian suffering of the Palestinian people, it added.

John Lyons (Australia's ABC NEWS) offers, "In 2006, Israel had a war with Hezbollah. It did not go well. An official Israeli report — the Winograd commission report — later made clear that Israel did not win that war. It brought home to Israel several key factors: firstly, the terrain in southern Lebanon is far tougher to fight a war in than the flat and tiny enclave that is Gaza." Jake Johnson (COMMON DREAMS) adds, "The killing of Ismail Haniyeh, who became the head of Hamas' political arm in 2017, sparked warnings that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is doing all he can to undermine cease-fire talks with the Palestinian group after they showed signs of progress in recent weeks." ALJAZEERA speaks with the Center for Middle East Strategic Studies' Abbas Aslani who states, "We see that Prime Minister Netanyahu is doing everything he can to prolong the war and expand the conflict. Over the past nine months, Israel has been making efforts to extend and escalate the war to a broader regional scale. They also aim to involve the US in this conflict."

In other news, yesterday on DEMOCRACY NOW!, Amy Goodman noted:

In Israel, a group of far-right protesters, including at least one member of the Knesset, broke into two Israeli military bases on Monday in an effort to prevent Israeli military police from detaining nine soldiers suspected of torturing Palestinian prisoners. The nine soldiers are reportedly being investigated for gang raping a Palestinian prisoner at Sde Teiman, a facility where prisoners from Gaza say they have been routinely beaten and tortured. Some prisoners held at the site had limbs amputated due to injuries sustained from constant handcuffing.

The protesters who stormed the military bases on Monday included far-right Knesset member Zvi Sukkot, who is a member of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s party.

In response to the storming mob, Abed Abou Shhadeh (MIDDLE EAST EYE) offers this take:

This development illustrated the deep changes occurring in Israeli society and its relationship with the army, which until a few years ago was perceived as a body enjoying broad legitimacy and at the heart of the Israeli consensus, both from the right and left.

However, since the beginning of the genocidal war in Gaza and the military and intelligence failures of the army to protect villages and towns surrounding Gaza, the army has lost its consensus, with sectoral and political splits rife within the military.

However, this trend did not start with the war and encompasses deep institutional problems within Israeli institutions such as the army and the Supreme Court.

Today, the office of the High Commissioner of the United Nations Human Rights issued the following:

The UN Human Rights Office today published a report on arbitrary, prolonged and incommunicado detention by Israeli authorities, affecting thousands of Palestinians since last October. The report also covers allegations of torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, including sexual abuse of women and men.

Since 7 October, thousands of Palestinians - including medical staff, patients and residents fleeing the conflict, as well as captured fighters - have been taken from Gaza to Israel, usually shackled and blindfolded. Thousands more have been detained in the West Bank and Israel. They have generally been held in secret, without being given a reason for their detention, access to a lawyer or effective judicial review, the report states.

At least 53 Palestinian detainees are known to have died in Israeli military facilities and prisons since the horrific attacks by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups against Israeli civilians on 7 October.

The staggering number of men, women, children, doctors, journalists and human rights defenders detained since 7 October, most of them without charge or trial and held in deplorable conditions, along with reports of ill-treatment and torture and violation of due process guarantees, raises serious concerns regarding the arbitrariness and the fundamentally punitive nature of such arrests and detention, said UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk.

“The testimonies gathered by my Office and other entities indicate a range of appalling acts, such as waterboarding and the release of dogs on detainees, amongst other acts, in flagrant violation of international human rights law and international humanitarian law,” he said.

On Monday, the Israeli authorities said they were investigating a number of soldiers for allegedly abusing a Palestinian prisoner earlier this month at the Sde Teiman detention centre in the Negev desert.

In Gaza, mostly men and adolescent boys have been detained. Many have been taken into custody while sheltering in schools, hospitals and residential buildings, or at checkpoints during their displacement from north to south, the report finds.

The Israeli military does not usually explain publicly the basis for taking Palestinians into custody in Gaza, although it has in some cases alleged affiliation with Palestinian armed groups or their political wings.

Israel has also not provided information regarding the fate or whereabouts of many of those detained, and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been denied access to facilities where they are held.

Conditions in military-run detention facilities appear worse, the report states, adding children were among those held, in some cases jointly with adults.

Detainees said they were held in cage-like facilities, stripped naked for prolonged periods, wearing only diapers. Their testimonies told of prolonged blindfolding, deprivation of food, sleep and water, and being subjected to electric shocks and being burnt with cigarettes. Some detainees said dogs were released on them, and others said they were subjected to waterboarding, or that their hands were tied and they were suspended from the ceiling. Some women and men also spoke of sexual and gender-based violence.

Accounts of hostages taken by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups last October also described appalling conditions of captivity, including lack of food, water and poor sanitary conditions, and lack of fresh air and sunlight. Some described being beaten while being taken into Gaza, or seeing other hostages being beaten while in captivity; receiving surgery or stitches without anaesthetic. There were also reports of sexual and gender-based violence in captivity. In addition, the report criticises the Palestinian Authority for continuing to carry out arbitrary detention and torture or other ill-treatment in the West Bank, reportedly principally to suppress criticism and political opposition.

“International humanitarian law protects all those being held, requiring their humane treatment and protection against all acts of violence or threats thereof,” said Türk.

“International law requires that all those deprived of their liberty be treated with humanity and dignity, and it strictly prohibits torture or other ill-treatment, including rape and other forms of sexual violence. Secret, prolonged incommunicado detention may also amount to a form of torture.”

The High Commissioner reiterated his call for the immediate release of all hostages still held in Gaza. All Palestinians arbitrarily detained by Israel must be released. He also called for prompt, thorough, independent, impartial and transparent investigations into all incidents that have led to serious violations of international law; ensure that perpetrators are held accountable and that all victims and their families are provided with their right to remedy and reparations.

Gaza remains under assault. Day 299 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 death toll rises to 39,445 killed and 91,073 wounded." 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:

THE NATIONAL's Nada AlTaher reports:

A polio epidemic has broken out in the Gaza Strip 25 years after Palestine was declared free from the highly infectious disease.

Inoculation campaigns in the enclave came to halt after the start of the war with Israel, which has destroyed sewage infrastructure and disrupted waste-collection services.

Thousands of tonnes of rubbish have accumulated since then, creating conditions suitable for the spread of diseases.

Compounding the crisis has been the displacement of the majority of Gaza's population, a situation that has deprived them of clean water and sanitation services, Gaza's Health Ministry said as it declared the endemic.

“This poses a health threat to the residents of the Gaza Strip and neighbouring countries, and a setback to the global polio eradication programme,” the ministry said.

Dr Medhat Abbas, director general of Al Shifa Medical Complex, told The National that the streets were full of sewage.

“Personal hygiene is absent. You can't wash your hands, even after you've used the bathroom,” he said. “So, there's pollution and this disease is spread through faeces.”

Before the detection of the poliovirus, foreign medics had to burn their clothes before returning to their countries after hepatitis A and other communicable diseases were detected, another doctor told The National.

Meanwhile, Kanishka Singh (REUTERS) reports, "Discrimination and attacks against Muslims and Palestinians rose by about 70% in the U.S. in the first half of 2024 amid heightened Islamophobia due to Israel's war in Gaza, the Council on American-Islamic Relations advocacy group said on Tuesday."

Staying with the US, in less than 100 days, a presidential election will take place. US Vice President Kamala Harris is the Democratic Party's presidential nominee. She has yet to announce her running mate. At TRUTHOUT, Mike Ludwig ,reports on the mounting opposition to Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro:

A national coalition of education justice groups are urging Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, not to choose Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro as a running mate due to his support for taxpayer-funded school vouchers.

Advocates for public education say voucher programs funnel much needed funding away from public schools and into private religious schools as well as for-profit startups that often don’t perform well and tend to close after just a few years.

On the other side of the debate over vouchers is the school privatization movement. Largely funded by billionaires, the movement has worked with the Republican Party to establish and expand universal school voucher programs in at least 10 states, as well as Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico. Betsy DeVos, former President Trump’s education secretary, is famously one of those billionaire backers of voucher programs. In Shapiro’s home state of Pennsylvania, Republican megadonor Jeffrey Yass faced protests after spending millions of dollars promoting school vouchers and GOP candidates such as Lou Barletta, who lost to MAGA extremist Doug Mastriano in the 2020 Republican primary for governor. Mastriano, a controversial doomsday Christian, lost to Shapiro.

[. . .]

In an open letter sent to Harris last week, more than two dozen education and racial justice groups said Shapiro has supported education privatization policies “mirroring” Project 2025, the far right blueprint for a Trump administration that proposes dismantling the Department of Education along with bedrock civil rights protections for public school students.

For other election news, let's drop back to yesterday's DEMOCRACY NOW!

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, “War, Peace and the Presidency.” I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump made headlines this week after suggesting that this year’s election could be the last U.S. election if he wins in November. Trump made the comment Friday in Florida at Turning Point Action’s Believers’ Summit.

DONALD TRUMP: Christians, get out and vote! Just this time. You won’t have to do it anymore. Four more years, you know what? It’ll be fixed. It’ll be fine. You won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians. I love you, Christians. I’m a Christian. I love you. Get out. You got to get out and vote. In four years you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good, you’re not going to have to vote.

AMY GOODMAN: For more on who’s backing Trump’s efforts, we look at a secret organization of wealthy Christians who are working to purge more than a million voters from the rolls in battleground states and mobilize Republican voters to back Trump. It’s called Ziklag. The news outlets ProPublica and Documented obtained thousands of Ziklag’s internal files and found the group has divided its 2024 activities into three different operations: Steeplechase, which uses churches to get out the vote; and Watchtower, which aims to rally voters around opposition to transgender rights; the third operation called Checkmate, focused on funding so-called election integrity groups, as laid out in this Ziklag member strategy video.

ZIKLAG VIDEO: Voter irregularities are rampant across all 50 states, but especially pronounced in the battleground states. Public polling confirms Americans have lost confidence in electoral integrity. With the federal election already in full swing, more must be done to ensure fair elections in the most important republic in the world. That’s the purpose behind Operation Checkmate and its practical approaches to both get out the vote and clean electoral rolls through our coalition partners. Through these efforts, we have the opportunity to play a significant role in the upcoming election.

AMY GOODMAN: ProPublica reports Ziklag’s mission is to take dominion over seven spheres of public life, which it calls “mountains”: business, science and technology, family, arts and media, church, education and government.

For more, we continue with Andy Kroll, investigative reporter for ProPublica, his recent piece, “Inside Ziklag, the Secret Organization of Wealthy Christians Trying to Sway the Election and Change the Country.”

Andy, lay it out for us.

ANDY KROLL: Ziklag is a secretive network of ultrawealthy Christians, conservative Christians, who have this two-part goal, two-part vision for this country. One is to get heavily involved in the 2024 elections, in the ways that you just described, mobilizing pastors, knocking people off the voting rolls, demonizing trans people to motivate conservative voters. But then, looking toward the 20- and 30-year horizon, Ziklag’s goal is nothing less than moving the country toward a state of Christian nationalism, having biblical worldviews, quote-unquote, “biblical truth,” shaping, influencing every part of American culture, the seven mountains that you described. So, this really is, as one expert we quoted in the story told us, a vision for Christian supremacy.

AMY GOODMAN: “Ziklag” mean?

ANDY KROLL: Ziklag, the name, refers to a biblical reference about David taking refuge during his struggle with King Saul. The analogy here, of course, is that the Christians in this group apparently feel that they are under siege and that this group is their refuge, but then the place from which they plan their campaign, their assault to take back American culture.

AMY GOODMAN: In a Ziklag member briefing video that you obtained at ProPublica, one of Ziklag’s spiritual advisers, Lance Wallnau, a Christian evangelist and influencer, laid out a plan to deliver swing states by using an anti-transgender message to motivate conservative voters who are exhausted with Trump.

LANCE WALLNAU: If we can get the left to own their position on LGBTQ — the country has already drifted on the homosexual issue, but on transgenderism, there is a problem, and they know it. They’re going to want to talk about Trump, Trump, Trump, he’s indicted, the guy’s a criminal, this and that. They’re going to have riots on the street and all the kabuki theater. Meanwhile, if we talk about it’s not about Trump; it’s about the parents and their children, and the state is a threat. When you get Governor Newsom or Governor Whitmer or Polis, your top three potential candidates for the future presidency of the United States, other than Kamala, you got these — when they’re going to have to stand with their LGBTQ donors, and so, when they solidify that position, that’s where they’ve gone too far.

AMY GOODMAN: So, that’s Lance Wallnau, a Christian evangelist and influencer. Andy Kroll, if you can talk about him, what he’s saying, and who the other leaders of this are?

ANDY KROLL: Lance Wallnau is maybe one of the most important Christian evangelist figures that maybe your audience hasn’t heard of. He was one of the earliest Christian right leaders to endorse Donald Trump. We’re talking way back in 2015 here. He popularized this notion that Donald Trump was a modern-day Cyrus, a sort of flawed but virtuous leader who would deliver a victory for Christians. And that Cyrus idea really caught on, was a big reason that evangelicals turned out to such a big degree for Trump in ’16, again in ’20. Wallnau remains this bridge between the Christian right, Christian nationalism and Trump world.

Wallnau is one of a number of really influential and well-known people that are part of Ziklag. Some members that your audience might have heard of, the Green family, they’re the family behind Hobby Lobby. Obviously, they’ve had a pretty big impact in trying to strike down parts of the Obamacare law back in the Obama presidency. The Uihlein family have donated to this effort. They are, of course, the billionaire office supply family out of the Midwest, major, major political donors to Republicans and to Donald Trump. And then, another family is the Waller family, influential in Ziklag. They are the owners of the Jockey apparel company, which probably a lot of people have heard of even if they haven’t heard of this family. So you have a number of really wealthy, really influential conservative Christian families in this group. They have the means to invest not just in political work, but also in this larger cultural transformation plan that Ziklag has really put its — really organized itself around.

AMY GOODMAN: Andy, talk about more in depth these three programs, Checkmate, Steeplechase and Watchtower.

ANDY KROLL: Yeah. You see an almost sort of wraparound, 360-degree approach to influencing the 2024 election in these three groups. So, with Steeplechase, you have mobilizing conservative pastors out in America, out in the field, to mobilize their congregations to get them out to vote. And, you know, there’s some concern that maybe there’s fatigue about Donald Trump in 2024, that maybe conservative Christians won’t turn out in the numbers they did in 2016. That’s what this program is there for, getting the church as involved as possible.

You have this anti-trans operation. As Lance Wallnau says in that video that you just played, they believe that going after trans people, demonizing transgender Americans, transgender healthcare, can, quote-unquote, “deliver” swing states. That’s what Lance Wallnau himself said.

But then, this final one, I think, is, honestly, perhaps the most interesting, this Operation Checkmate, putting money into mobilizing conservative voters in key counties — not just states, but the counties — so Maricopa County in Arizona, Fulton County in Georgia, the other battleground counties in the country, and then trying to put money into knocking more than a million voters off the voting rolls in these states. And you see this in a couple of ways. But what’s so interesting is how the Christian right, Christian nationalism is fusing here with the election integrity or, really, the election denial movement that grew out of the 2020 election. We didn’t have a lot of evidence of that before this reporting on Ziklag. But you see this bridge, again, between the Christian right and the election deniers in a really big way going into this election.

AMY GOODMAN: And how effective can they be in knocking voters off the rolls?

ANDY KROLL: A little bit of money goes a long way when you are trying to get people knocked off the eligibility list for voters. That’s what the experts, the political consultants, the folks that know these worlds, told us in the reporting for this story. You know, Ziklag is putting, say, $800,000 or $1 million into something called EagleAI, an artificial intelligence software that makes it easier to challenge the eligibility of voters en masse. So, you’re not doing it one by one; you’re doing it by the hundreds, by the thousands. You don’t need tens of millions of dollars, the experts told us, to be able to make those challenges and to sort of turbocharge the effort to make voters ineligible. You only need a few hundred thousand dollars, maybe a million dollars. That’s what this group, Ziklag, appears to be doing. So, it could have an effect. And we’re talking about margins again in Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin, margins that are a few thousand, a few tens of thousands of voters.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Andy, how does the election officials in every state, especially in the battleground states, their cooperation with these efforts, how might that turn out in the coming election?

ANDY KROLL: Well, you have two different camps here. You have the election officials in these states and in these counties who are just trying to run a free and fair election. What we’ve heard from those officials is that these efforts, like EagleAI or the work of the group True the Vote, another, quote-unquote, “election integrity” group — these mass challenges to the voter rolls make an already difficult job, an already stressful job, a time-consuming job, even more difficult. It’s putting just more stress on the work of these local election officials, the ones who are trying to do a good job.

And then you have the officials who have sort of bought into the election integrity claims, who have bought into Donald Trump’s election denial for 2020 or 2022 even. And for them, they are, in some places, encouraging these mass challenges. And so you might see confusion. You might see chaos. You might see voters unaware that they’ve been removed from the rolls in these kinds of places. So, it’s just creating either more stress on good officials, or it’s creating more chaos with officials who buy into these baseless claims about election fraud.

The following sites updated: