Archives for the month of: September, 2024
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Trump ❤️ Laura Loomer

By dianeravitch
September 14, 2024 //
19

Trump’s weird attachment to far-right provocateur Laura Loomer is causing rifts among Republicans. Trump brought her to the 9/11 memorial event, even though she has posted conspiracy theories about what happened that day. Loomer likes to be shocking. She boasts on her website about how many social media sites have banned her. After Lindsey Graham criticized her, Loomer posted a tweet calling him out as disloyal to Trump and chiding him for not acknowledging that he is gay. Her Twitter feed is awash in racist comments by her.

One publication posted photographs of Trump and Loomer together that showed an unusual degree of familiarity. Actually, those photos and videos of Trump with his arm around her waist, and Loomer pressing her breast into his, are all over the Internet. The question arises: What would Melania say?

Joe Perticone and Marc Caputo wrote that Loomer has split MAGAworld, with some defending Trump’s attachment to Loomer and others telling Trump to ditch her. She seems to have a reserved seat on Trump’s campaign jet, right next to him.

Their post appeared on The Bulwark. They wrote:

TWO OF DONALD TRUMP’S top congressional surrogates are pleading with the former president to ostracize right-wing provocateur Laura Loomer from his ranks over incendiary comments she’s made on social media.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) fired off criticisms of Loomer after she was spotted twice with Trump in as many days, warning that her presence could trip up the ex-president’s election chances. Greene said she went so far as to bring up the matter with Trump on a phone call.

“I’ve spoken with President Trump, but I’m not going to go into the details of our personal conversation,” Greene said on Thursday.

In response, Loomer went nuclear, accusing both Greene and Graham of being insufficiently MAGA, questioning the senator’s sexuality, criticizing the congresswoman for having affairs that led to her divorce, and comparing her to a “hooker.”

The quarreling, visceral even by Trump world standards, was viewed with intense schadenfreude in Democratic circles. It brought to the surface some of the internal tensions that Trump’s team had successfully buried for much of the election season. And it left the ex-president’s campaign ducking for cover.

“We’re staying out of this,” said a Trump campaign adviser who spoke on condition of anonymity.

A failed congressional candidate with a penchant for conspiracies and pot-stirring, Loomer has long been viewed by a faction of Trump land as a Rasputin-like figure. Last year, Trump offered her a job on the campaign, but her internal critics ultimately persuaded him to withdraw the offer. At issue was the controversy that surrounds her. Loomer has called Kamala Harris “a drug using prostitute.” As for why Harris doesn’t have biological children, she once said: “I’m willing to bet she’s had so many abortions that she damaged her uterus.” 

A more recent Loomer tweet said that the White House would smell of curry if Harris, who is of Indian-American descent, won the election. This week’s 9/11 commemorations led to the resurfacing of past posts made by Loomer in which she questioned whether the U.S. government had a role in, or forewarning of, the attacks on that day.

Loomer insists that she wasn’t questioning whether the 9/11 attacks were an “inside job,” noting that she never actually used that phrase (she shared a video in a lengthy post on X that did use the phrase). A self-identified Islamophobe (she was kicked off Twitter for it years ago before Elon Musk reinstated her), she re-stated her belief that al Qaeda was to blame for the attack.

But the rap sheet of Loomer’s controversial posts extends well beyond the aforementioned topics. And in comments on Wednesday and Thursday, Greene said that Trump was better off ditching Loomer, whose congressional campaign she had supported.

“I don’t think that [Loomer] has the experience or the right mentality to advise a very important president,” Greene said. “To me, many of the comments that she makes and how she attacks Republicans like me, many other Republicans that are strong supporters of President Trump, I think they’re a huge problem.”

Shortly thereafter, Graham weighed in too, telling HuffPost on Thursday that he believed Loomer was “just really toxic.” 

“I mean, she actually called for Kellyanne Conway’s daughter to hang herself,” Graham noted. “Marjorie Taylor Greene is right. I don’t say that a lot. I think what [Loomer] said about Kamala Harris and the White House is abhorrent, but it’s deeper than that. I mean, you know, some of the things she’s said about Republicans and others is disturbing.” 

Modern politics may be “really toxic.” But that’s worth covering. Support our reporting by becoming a free or paid subscriber.Join

LOOMER’S ASCENDANCE IN TRUMP WORLD comes at a particularly delicate point for the campaign, with a number of staffers being added to the ranks, and the president trying to recover from a poor debate performance. It has raised questions about who has Trump’s ear and what type of people and politics he and his team are willing to indulge. Vice presidential nominee JD Vance’s wife is also of Indian-American descent. A spokesman for the VP candidate did not respond to messages seeking comment on his reaction to the curry tweet.

Campaign insiders say that Loomer has no role, official or unofficial, and that Trump had merely invited her to travel with him, something he has repeatedly done in the past. They cautioned against overstating her influence on the ex-president. Despite social media chatter that she bore responsibility for the ex-president’s debate meltdown about Haitian immigrants eating pets in the Ohio town of Springfield, the issue was brought to the fore by Vance and other right-wing commentators and political figures. Loomer had no role in debate prep and didn’t spend much time speaking with Trump en route to the debate, said a source familiar with their relationship.

“Laura is one of his fiercest defenders. She’s ride-or-die, and Trump rewards that loyalty. She’s someone he trusts,” said the source. “She’s part of the entourage, and Trump loves an entourage.”

But Loomer’s role in Republican politics is clearly growing. The National Republican Senatorial Committee—the GOP’s official campaign arm for the upper chamber—has increasingly relied on the video content Loomer produces. Since July, the NRSC has promoted eight of Loomer’s videos featuring her “reporters” who shout loaded questions from the street at Democratic senators up for re-election in battleground races.

“Yesterday NRSC shared a video of a reporter asking Jon Tester why he voted to allow men to play in women’s sports, which is a major issue in Montana and across the country. We share content from left, right, and center reporters asking Democrats tough questions,” said NRSC spokesman Mike Bergh, adding that the organization will use any videos of anyone asking Tester tough questions.

Greene, on Thursday, continued to argue that Trump was not benefiting from his association with Loomer. And as she made that point, she also hinted that she believed the ex-president wasn’t being well served by others, either, including Vance and the almost never-ending litany of comments he’s made about childless women.

“We’re not a party of identity politics. We’re a party for all Americans, and I think that’s so important, and I think that that we need to be focused on our policies, the inflation, the economy and the border, and not attacking people for their race, not attacking them because they may not have children and they love their pets, and I don’t want to have anything to do with that, and neither do the people,” Greene said.

Categories Education Reform

Best Song of the Day!

By dianeravitch
September 13, 2024 //
36

Here is the true story of the dogs and cats!

Categories Elections, Humor, Trump

John Legend: Let Haitian Immigrants Pursue the American Dream

By dianeravitch
September 13, 2024 //
19

Springfield, Ohio, has been in the news lately, and not in a good way. At the debate between Trump and Harris, Trump claimed that Haitian immigrants were stealing pets and eating them. The ABC moderator corrected him and told him it wasn’t true. Trump refused to believe him, insisting that he saw it on television.

The next day, Springfield’s City Hall and other facilities were closed due to bomb threats. Municipal authorities released a statement denying Trump’s claim and expressing appreciation for the Haitians’ contributions to the town’s economy. They are legal immigrants.

A father in Springfield whose 11-year-old son was killed in a collision between a school bus and a minivan driven by a Haitian pleaded with Trump, Vance, and other Republican politicians to stop using his son’s name in their campaigns. He was not murdered, he said; he died in a traffic accident. “Please stop the hate,” he said. “In order to live like Aiden, you need to accept everyone, choose to shine, make the difference, lead the way and be the inspiration…Live like Aiden.”

John Legend stepped in to post an article about Springfield on Facebook that was then published by The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch. He was born in Springfield.

Editor’s note: Springfield native John Legend, an internationally acclaimed performer, took to social media Sept. 12 to address backlash against Haitian immigrants promoted by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his running mate, U.S. Sen. JD Vance of Middletown. His statement is below.

My name is John Legend, and I was born as John. R Stevens from a place called Springfield, Ohio. Springfield, Ohio — you may have heard of Springfield, Ohio, this week.

In fact, if you watch the debate, we were discussed by our presidential candidates, including a very special, interesting man named Donald J. Trump.

Now, Springfield has had a large influx of Haitian immigrants who come to our city.

Now, our city had been shrinking for decades. We didn’t have enough jobs. We didn’t have enough opportunity so people left and went somewhere else.

So, when I was there, we had upwards of 75,000 people and in the last five years we were down to like 60,000 people. 

But of late, during the Biden administration, there have been more jobs that opened up. More manufacturing jobs, more plants, factories that needed employees and were ready to hire people.

So, we had a lot of job opportunities, and we didn’t have enough people in our town of 60,000 people to fill those jobs.

And during the same time, there has been upheaval and turmoil in Haiti. The federal government granted visas and immigration status to a certain number of Haitian immigrants so they could come to our country legally.

Our demand in Springfield for additional labor met up with the supply of additional Haitian immigrants and here we are.

We had about 15,000 or so immigrants move to my town of 60,000.You might say, wow, that’s a lot of people for a town that only had 60,000 before. That’s a 25% increase.

That is correct.

So you might imagine there are some challenges with integrating a new population.

New language, new culture, new dietary preferences. All kinds of reasons why there might be growing pains.

Making sure there are enough services to accommodate the new, larger population that might need bilingual service providers, etc. etc.

So, there are plenty of reasons why this might be a challenge for my hometown.

But the bottom line is these people came to Springfield because there were jobs for them and they were willing to work. 

They wanted to live the American dream, just like your German ancestors, your Irish ancestors, your Italian ancestors, your Jewish ancestors. Your Jamaican ancestors, your  Polish ancestors –  all these ancestors who moved to this country.

Maybe not speaking the language that everyone else spoke.

Maybe not eating the same foods.

Maybe having to adjust.

Maybe having to integrate.

But all coming because they saw opportunity for themselves and their families in the American dream.

And they came here to do that.

Categories Accountability, Economy, Elections, Ethics, Extremism, Fake News, Freedom, Hoax, Ohio

Linda Ronstadt Endorses Kamala Harris and Tim Walz

By dianeravitch
September 13, 2024 //
17

Linda Ronstadt, one of the greatest singers of our time, posted her endorsement in the 2024 Presidential campaign.

“Donald Trump is holding a rally on Thursday in a rented hall in my hometown, Tucson. I would prefer to ignore that sad fact. But since the building has my name on it, I need to say something.

It saddens me to see the former President bring his hate show to Tucson, a town with deep Mexican-American roots and a joyful, tolerant spirit.

I don’t just deplore his toxic politics, his hatred of women, immigrants and people of color, his criminality, dishonesty and ignorance — although there’s that.

For me it comes down to this: In Nogales and across the southern border, the Trump Administration systematically ripped apart migrant families seeking asylum. Family separation made orphans of thousands of little children and babies, and brutalized their desperate mothers and fathers. It remains a humanitarian catastrophe that Physicians for Human Rights said met the criteria for torture.

There is no forgiving or forgetting the heartbreak he caused.

Trump first ran for President warning about rapists coming in from Mexico. I’m worried about keeping the rapist out of the White House.

Linda Ronstadt

P.S. to J.D. Vance:

I raised two adopted children in Tucson as a single mom. They are both grown and living in their own houses. I live with a cat. Am I half a childless cat lady because I’m unmarried and didn’t give birth to my kids? Call me what you want, but this cat lady will be voting proudly in November for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz .”

Categories Arizona, Elections, Extremism, Harris, Kamala, Racism, Trump, Vance, J.D., Walz, Tim

Russia Closes Down Access to YouTube

By dianeravitch
September 13, 2024 //
7

Putin wants to control all access to information that citizens of Russia can see so he cut off YouTube. The channel was popular in Russia, as it is here in the U.S. He previously closed all independent Russian media.

The Washington Post reported:

Russians are losing access to YouTube, the last major Western social platform freely available in the country, cutting them off from information independent from the Kremlin and alarming internet freedom advocates, journalists and opposition activists.


The throttling of YouTube, widely used for everything including watching cartoons and exposés on government corruption, comes amid fears that Russia will also shut down the Telegram messenger app after its founder, Pavel Durov, was detained by France.


The move comes as Russia is increasingly cracking down on any alternative sources of information, especially online, and has been pushing its citizens away from foreign-based social media apps to locally developed ones over which it has tighter control, such as its video-streaming alternative RuTube.


In early August, Russian users who had grown used to playing cartoons on YouTube to distract their children or having meals with shows playing in the background began reporting that the videos were not loading. By Aug. 3, state media reported that the service stopped playing high-resolution videos in almost all browsers running the desktop version in Russia.

Categories Censorship, Evil, Fascism

Florida: School District Restores 36 Banned Books, to Settle Lawsuit

By dianeravitch
September 13, 2024 //
1

A school district in Florida agreed to settle a federal lawsuit by restoring 36 banned books to school libraries. The censorship of books that contain references to LGBT+ people or to race/racism was launched by Governor DeSantis, who wanted to “protect” students from topics he personally finds objectionable. DeSantis considers such topics to be “woke,” which he has vowed to expel from the state. Other lawsuits are pending in the state.

TALLAHASSEE — Authors of the children’s book “And Tango Makes Three” and parents of students have reached a settlement with the Nassau County school district that will lead to 36 books returning to school libraries after being removed last year, according to court documents filed this week.

The settlement came in a federal lawsuit filed in May amid widespread controversy about removing books from school libraries in Florida and other states. Two federal lawsuits are pending, for example, about the Escambia County School Board’s removal of books.

“And Tango Makes Three,” which tells the story of two male penguins who raised a penguin chick at New York’s Central Park Zoo, has become a prominent part of the debate in Florida. Lawsuits allege it has been targeted for depicting same-sex parents raising a child.

Nassau County officials said they removed “And Tango Makes Three” and two other books last year because of a lack of circulation, according to the settlement. District officials said they removed 33 other books because of alleged “obscene” material that would violate state law.

But the lawsuit contended “And Tango Makes Three” was removed because of anti-LGBTQ bias, and the settlement includes a statement that district officials “agree that And Tango Makes Three contains no ‘obscene’ material in violation of the obscenity statute, is appropriate for students of all ages, and has pedagogical value.”

The settlement lists 22 other books that are slated to be returned to libraries by Friday. Examples include “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison and “The Clan of the Cave Bear” by Jean Auel…

The law firm Selendy Gay PLLC, which represents “And Tango Makes Three” authors Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson and the parents, issued a news release Thursday that described the settlement as “major.”

“This settlement — a watershed moment in the ongoing battle against book censorship in the United States — significantly restores access to important works that were unlawfully removed from the shelves of Nassau County, Florida’s public school libraries,” Lauren Zimmerman, one of the firm’s attorneys, said in a prepared statement. “Students will once again have access to books from well-known and highly-lauded authors representing a broad range of viewpoints and ideas.”

Categories Censorship, Democracy, DeSantis, Florida, Freedom to Read

“All-Charter No More!”: New Orleans Opens Its First Traditional Public School in 20 Years

By dianeravitch
September 13, 2024 //
10

You remember, I hope, the saga of the New Orleans Public Schools District: Abandoned by white families, underfunded by a overwhelmingly white Legislature and Dtate School Board, the public schools were segregated and held in low regard. Then came Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which severely damaged most of the schools; the students scattered. The state stepped in and created the Recovery School District, whose job was to get the schools rebuilt and reopened under new management. To get rid of the union, the entire teaching staff (mostly Black) was fired, and teachers were allowed to reapply for their jobs.

When school opened again, most of them were privately managed charter schools, many of the newly hired teachers came from Teach for America, and the district for a time enjoyed a large infusion of funds from the federal government and large foundations, all committed to the success of the charter model.

The Hechinger Report tells the story of a new school that opened this fall. For the first time in two decades, it is a district-run public school instead of a charter school.

Be skeptical of claims about dramatic improvements in student outcomes when comparing pre-Katrina to the present. The enrollment in 2004 was nearly 70,000, and is now about 40,000.

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reform, Education Industry, Louisiana, New Orleans, Parents, Privatization

North Dakota: Judge Overturns State’s Near-Total Ban on Abortion

By dianeravitch
September 12, 2024 //
4

Courage and independent thinking show up at unexpected times and unexpected places. That was the case today in North Dakota, where a judge overturned the state’s near-total ban on abortion. It was the second time he had thrown out the ban. After the first time, the legislature revised the ban and passed it again.

Kate Zernike of The New York Times wrote the story:

A North Dakota judge overturned the state’s near-total abortion ban on Thursday, saying that the State Constitution protected a woman’s right to abortion until the fetus was viable.

“The North Dakota Constitution guarantees each individual, including women, the fundamental right to make medical judgments affecting his or her bodily integrity, health and autonomy, in consultation with a chosen health care provider free from government interference,” wrote Judge Bruce Romanick of the district court in Burleigh County. 

The judge, who was elected to his position, also ruled that the law violated the State Constitution’s due process protections because it was too vague in how it defined exceptions to the ban.

The decision is almost certain to be appealed. And while the judge’s order means that abortion will become legal soon, the procedure will remain unavailable because the only clinic in the state has closed, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights, which brought the suit in 2022 on behalf of that clinic.

The Red River Women’s Clinic, the state’s last remaining provider of abortion services, closed in August 2022 and relocated to Moorhead, Minnesota.

Categories Freedom, Gender, Health

Michael A. Cohen: This Debate Might Make a Difference

By dianeravitch
September 12, 2024 //
12

Michael A. Cohen (NOT the ex-Trump lawyer) writes that this debate might change the views of independent, uncommitted voters. Trump’s behavior and Harris’s cool were a stark contrast. Republicans are complaining that the moderators fact-checked Trump but not Harris, and were biased. But a few of Trump’s many lies were so egregious that the moderators were compelled to correct him, such as his debunked claim that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were stealing and eating pets, and his claim that Democrats support “post-birth” abortion. The moderators pointed out that the pet story was a hoax and that no state allows murdering a baby after birth.

Cohen writes:

Presidential debates usually don’t matter. A trove of political science literature suggests that most debate watchers have already decided whom they are supporting. While a winning candidate might get a temporary boost from a strong performance, the polling bump often fades. 

However, last night’s showdown between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump could be the exception to the rule. Why? Because never before in American presidential politics has there been a debate as one-sided as what we saw Tuesday night in Philadelphia. 

If this had been a heavyweight fight, a towel would have flown across the ring and the referee would have stopped the bout. This was such a rout that even conservative pundits bemoaned Trump’s disastrous performance. Over and over, Harris threw fresh chum into the water. In practically every one of her answers, she included at least one line that she knew would firmly lodge itself under Trump’s infamously thin skin. 

She needled Trump about his boring political rallies and pointed out that his alma mater, the Wharton School of Business, had thrown cold water on his economic plans. She listed his litany of criminal indictments and prosecutions. She repeatedly called him a disgrace and an easy mark for foreign leaders.

And each and every time, without fail, Trump took the bait. The result was a series of angry, disjointed and incoherent rants at ever-increasing decibel levels. He claimed without evidence that “many of those [Wharton] professors … think my plan is a brilliant plan.” He defended his political grievance fests by claiming they are the “most incredible rallies in the history of politics.” And in the debate’s most bizarre moment, he falsely claimed that immigrants in Ohio are stealing and killing pet animals. The contrast between sullen, angry Trump and polished, even-keeled Harris couldn’t have been starker. While much of the analysis from last night will focus on Trump’s lunacy, Harris’ performance may have been more decisive.

By and large, voters know what they think about Trump. Nine years in the political spotlight will have that effect. But Harris has been a 2024 presidential candidate for just seven weeks. If recent polling is to be believed, going into last night many voters saidthey want to know more about her. In a New York Times poll released Sunday, 28 percent of voters “said they felt they needed to know more about Ms. Harris, while only 9 percent said they needed to know more about Mr. Trump.” The number is close to half among the small segment of undecided voters. Along with last month’s Democratic convention, Tuesday’s debate was one of Harris’ best opportunities to introduce herself to the public. Did last night seal the deal? CNN’s instant poll taken immediately after the debate showed Harris trouncing Trump 63-37. That’s almost a mirror image of its poll after the Biden-Trump debate earlier this year. It’s similar to the margins for Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney in the first debates of the last three presidential elections — each of which led to a bump in the polls.

But a strong debate performance is no guarantee of victory. In 2004, John Kerry trounced George W. Bush in all three presidential debates. The same was true for Clinton against Trump in 2016. In 2012, Romney wiped the floor in his first debate with a listless Barack Obama. None of those three ended up in the Oval Office. 

Still, the differences between Harris and Trump were so significant — and considering the potential boost to a candidate not as well known as her opponent — it’s hard to imagine last night’s debate will not have at least some effect on voter opinion. At the very least, she might have given the sliver of the electorate still unsure about Harris enough information to win their vote in November.In the near term, the debate should generate days of coverage about the former president’s mental state. Perhaps it will also move the news media away from continuing to claim that Harris has not explained herself and her plans to the American people.

But ultimately, the question for Democrats is: Did Harris swing enough voters in her direction to ensure she wins the White House? Even if her poll numbers improve in the next week, will those gains remain in place until Election Day?

Time will tell. But if Trump remains a high-floor, low-ceiling candidate, with a strong base of support and a limited ability to bring in new voters, even a small move of undecided voters to Harris could be decisive. And it’s hard to imagine any presidential candidate having a better night than Harris did on Tuesday. Democrats can’t ask for much more than that from their new standard bearer.

Michael A. Cohen

Michael A. Cohen is a columnist for MSNBC and a Senior Fellow and co-director of the Afghanistan Assumptions Project at the Center for Strategic Studies at the Fletcher School, Tufts University. He writes the political newsletter Truth and Consequences. He has been a columnist at The Boston Globe, The Guardian and Foreign Policy, and he is the author of three books, the most recent being “Clear and Present Safety: The World Has Never Been Better and Why That Matters to Americans.”

Categories Elections, Fake, Harris, Kamala, Trump

Chris Tomlinson: Will the Debate Matter?

By dianeravitch
September 12, 2024 //
54

Chris Tomlinson of the Houston Chronicle believes that the debate will not matter to the partisans on either side. Not so clear is the impact of the debate on those not aligned with either party.

He writes:

The Sept. 10 presidential debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris was must-see TV for people who closely follow politics. For those who love the genre, the candidates delivered an instant classic.

Trump brought his stump speech to national television, while Harris proved up to the task and avoided any major gaffes. But will it make a difference?

The June debate between Trump and Joe Bidendrew 51.3 million viewers, well below the 73 million people who watched their 2016 debate. Overnight numbers, which tend to underestimate viewership, estimated 65 million people tuned in Tuesday night.

Folks who watched the debate live more than likely tuned in to watch their champion do battle with their opponent. While nearly two-thirds of uncommitted focus groups said Harris dominated, Trump’s and Harris’ partisans declared their candidate the winner. No surprise there.

This week, I wrote about Colin Allred’s campaign to unseat Ted Cruz in the U.S. Senate. I said Allred was naive to believe he could attract Republican voters. Reader emails confirmed that party affiliation is far more critical than any politician or their policies.

“Many of us would otherwise vote for Allred if control of the Senate was not at risk.  As is, we cannot take the chance of losing a Republican Senate seat,” Clay Spires wrote.

“I can’t bring myself to send Chuck Schumer another rubber-stamp vote in that highly polarized environment,” Greg Groh wrote about his ballot. “Only when both parties run moderates will voters have to start thinking again.”

By this reasoning, many Republicans will hold their nose and vote for Trump, no matter what he says. He really could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose any votes.

If the debate has any impact on independents, it will likely take place on social media, where people who didn’t watch it live will see snippets. The highly partisan editing, though, risks turning off voters disgusted by politics.

The real wildcard came after the debate when Taylor Swift felt compelled to make her position clear to 283 million Instagram followers that AI-generated images of her endorsing Trump were false. The world’s most famous childless cat lady has spoken.

Voter enthusiasm will decide this election, and women will likely make the difference, not the debate.

Categories Elections, Harris, Kamala, Politics, Trump
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