“I’m sorry, but Leon Musk deserves Mr Trump’s Purple Heart after taking one for the team instead of all this ridicule.” John Buss, @repeat1968

Good Day, Sky Dancers!

Could the next big October Surprise be the media deciding to report how unfit DonOld is for office? Rumors are that his new brofriends are about to get him elected only to turn around and do a 25th Amendment so that we get J Dank Vance as POTUS sooner than we expected. Who would put Elon Musk in charge of a national ground game?  Why would anyone want to hear or see Mister Pasty?  Let’s get right to it.  This is from Politico. “Musk the surrogate: The tech titan will hit the campaign trail for Trump. Those close to Musk say his primary focus is on Pennsylvania.” This report is by Alex Isenstadt.  So, DonOld can’t do the rally thing very well, so they’re sending Elon? What kind of Hail Mary pass is this?

Tech billionaire Elon Musk will ramp up his personal efforts to elect Donald Trump in the remaining weeks of the election — including making visits to Pennsylvania to campaign for the former president.

Musk intends to appear in the swing state in the four weeks leading up to Nov. 5, according to a person who has spoken with his team and was granted anonymity to speak freely because they weren’t authorized to do so. He is expected to make the stops with the backing of America PAC, a pro-Trump super PAC he formed. He may make other appearances in the state independent of his super PAC — as he did on Sunday evening, when he showed up to the Pittsburgh Steelers game wearing a MAGA hat and was greeted by Steelers owner Art Rooney II, among others.

Musk, the world’s richest person, took his most aggressive steps yet over the weekend to personally show his support for Trump. Musk appeared at Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, where during a brief speech he lavished praise on the former president and urged attendees to “vote, vote, vote.” After the rally, he joined Trump backstage where he participated in a tele-town hall event.

Also over the weekend, Musk changed his profile icon on his account on X to an image of him wearing a black MAGA hat and added to his bio a link to the America PAC account. He also repeatedly promoted posts from the PAC, which is running a pro-Trump voter turnout effort with financial backing from Musk and his associates.

And on Sunday afternoon, Musk unveiled a new program in which he promised to pay $47 to people who register voters in seven swing states — Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Musk has a history of using reward initiatives: He recently unveiled a referral program for Tesla, the electric car company he owns. In the program, buyers and their referrers are awarded $500 or $1,000 in credits which can be used toward Tesla products.

“Ya gotta love Dork MAGA.” John Buss, @repeat1968

Talk about your Dark Money and what is this all about? Dark MAGA? Does this reek of desperation or what?  Let’s get back to why he’s sending in the clowns. This is from The New Republic by the great Michael Tomasky. “The Media Is Finally Waking Up to the Story of Trump’s Mental Fitness. On Sunday, The New York Times finally ran a brutal piece on the topic. Let’s hope others follow—and this kick-starts the conversation the country desperately needs to have.”

If things go the way I hope they go in November, it may well turn out that Sunday’s terrific New York Times piece by Peter Baker and Dylan Freedman on Donald Trump’s age and fitness for office could stand as the single most important piece of journalism in this election. If you’ve been reading me and Greg Sargent and Parker Molloy and our Breaking News desk, then you know that The New Republic has been pretty obsessive about the topic of Trump’s mental fitness—and more importantly about the media’s general refusal to discuss it.

This is what has come to be known as the “sanewashing” of Trump: the practice by media outlets of covering him like a normal candidate and not telling their audiences in detail about all the monstrous, false, disjointed, and plain old nonsensical fountains of gibberish he serially spouts at every public appearance he makes.

We (and others) have been critical of the press in general and the Times in particular, mainly because the Times is still the most important news outlet in the country. So let’s give credit where it’s due. The Baker-Freedman piece was a deeply reported analysis that wasn’t afraid to say things most mainstream outlets won’t say. I’d also note that in recent days, Michael Gold, the paper’s Trump correspondent, has written a couple pieces that are more blunt and direct in calling out Trump’s lies and quoting some of his more outrageous comments.

The Sunday Times article puts it on the line: “He rambles, he repeats himself, he roams from thought to thought—some of them hard to understand, some of them unfinished, some of them factually fantastical. He voices outlandish claims that seem to be made up out of whole cloth. He digresses into bizarre tangents about golf, about sharks, about his own ‘beautiful’ body. He relishes ‘a great day in Louisiana’ after spending the day in Georgia. He expresses fear that North Korea is ‘trying to kill me’ when he presumably means Iran. As late as last month, Mr. Trump was still speaking as if he were running against President Biden, five weeks after his withdrawal from the race.”

That’s just for starters. The gist of the piece argues—with statistical analyses of Trump’s tropes and speech patterns—that his rhetoric is very different from what it was in 2015 and 2016. Which is to say, it’s worse in every way: more long-winded, more disconnected, more rambling; also coarser, far more prone to swearing. In sum, the article is devastating about whether Trump, who is now the old one in the race and who would be 82 at the end of a second term, is simply capable on a mental level of doing the job of president.

This is the offering today from the Lincoln Project.  They always find a way to amp DonOld’s paranoia volume knob up to 11.

Trump did an interview with Hugh Hewitt, and he’s amped the Hitler rhetoric up to 11. This is written by Sydney Blumenthal at The Guardian. “Donald Trump’s Hitlerian logic is no mistake. The former president claims to have never read Mein Kampf. But his use of blood and soil rhetoric is deliberate.”

If genealogy is destiny, as Donald Trump believes, then “poison in the blood” – a phrase Trump repeatedly uses – determines the fate of nations. By Trump’s logic, “blood” is the true and final measure. Trump, like Hitler, appears to classify people and countries by “blood” on a scale of their innate racial characteristics. Those features define the essence of nations, which are themselves delineated on a racial pyramid, with the purest and whitest, the most Aryan, at the pinnacle. True to his doctrine, the Nazis on his family tree must explain his penchant for Hitlerian rhetoric.

“Poison in the blood” was the core of Hitler’s race doctrine as well. Hitler, too, believed it explained the rise and fall of civilizations. “All great cultures of the past perished only because the originally creative race died out from blood poisoning,” stated Hitler. It is also Trump’s fundamental trope. “We’re poisoning the blood of our country, and you have people coming in, think of it, mental institutions all over the world are being emptied out into the United States,” he said on Fox News in March. “Jails and prisons are being emptied out into the United States. This is poisoning our country.”

Just recently, on 31 August, addressing Moms For Liberty, a rightwing group devoted to book-banning, he raised again the menace of “poison in the blood”: “But what’s happening to our country, our country is being poisoned, poisoned!”

At a rally on 18 September, Trump elaborated: “They’re coming from the Congo, they’re coming from Africa, they’re coming from the Middle East, they’re coming from all over the world – Asia! A lot of it coming from Asia … And what’s happening to our country is we’re just destroying the fabric of life in our country, and we’re not going to take it any longer, and you got to get rid of these people.”

“Blut und Boden” – blood and soil – was adopted as an official slogan of the Nazi regime to express its ideal of the nation rooted in the authentic unity of Aryan blood. The community of its people – Volksgemeinschaft – comprised only those of shared ethnic blood. Aliens corrupting the blood, principally Jews, but also Slavs, Poles and Roma, were described as disease carriers and “vermin” – Volksshadlinge – and posed an existential threat. Only those people of the blood belonged to the Heimat, a concept the Nazis cast as the racially pure home, intrinsic to Blut und Boden.

Jews were Heimatlos – a people separate from the Heimat, without a true home, wanderers, cosmopolitans and globalists, a menace to the sanctity of the culture and the identity of the nation. They were not simply outsiders, or the Other. They were a different species – subhumans, Untermenschen – and must be eradicated to preserve the blood of the race. “Although it has features similar to a human, the subhuman is lower on the spiritual and psychological scale than any animal,” instructed a pamphlet entitled Der Untermenschen, illustrated with distorted photographs of these lower beings to depict the “bestial” nature of the subhuman Jews and Slavs. Four million copies were published in 1942 under the direction of Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS.

“In some cases, they’re not people, in my opinion,” Trump said this March. “But I’m not allowed to say that because the radical left says that’s a terrible thing to say. These are animals, OK, and we have to stop it.” When they are removed, it will be, says Trump, “a bloody story”.

Here’s the report from HuffPo on the Hitler Language by Matt Shuman. “Trump: Immigrants Have Brought ‘Bad Genes’ Into The Country. The Republican presidential candidate has long been obsessed with the racist talking point that immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of America.”

During an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Monday, Donald Trump said immigrants were filling the country with “bad genes” and used lies about decades-old crime statistics to make his point.

Trump has long been obsessed with the idea that immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of America — echoing Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler’s rhetoric. For years, he has lied that other countries are purposefully sending criminals to the United States.

As part of his recent weekslong racist smear campaign, Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), falsely said Haitian immigrants had raised the infectious disease rate in Springfield, Ohio. And Trump has been touting his mass deportation agenda, which he says he’ll enact as soon as he’s in office.

“How about allowing people to come through an open border, 13,000 of which were murderers?” Trump told Hewitt, referring to the Biden administration. “Many of them murdered far more than one person, and they’re now happily living in the United States. You know, now, a murderer, I believe this, it’s in their genes. And we’ve got a lot of bad genes in our country right now. They left, they had 425,000 people come into our country that shouldn’t be here that are criminals.”

The xenophobic claim that immigrants are genetically predisposed to committing violent crimes is shocking and false — but xenophobia is also a cornerstone of Trump’s presidential campaign.

Trump’s numbers are based on heavily manipulated statistics about the criminal conviction records of people with cases in immigration court — cases that span several decades, some long before President Joe Biden was in office, and which include people currently serving prison time.

You may read, hear and see more on the latest Hugh Hewitt interview today at this link. “Former President Trump On The Anniversary Of The 10/7 Massacre In Israel.”  Yes, that is an interesting headline, isn’t it?

HH: If Israel hits Iran and goes after the nuclear sites, will you applaud Israel and back them up?

DT: Well, you want to do what they want to do. Now they may be making a deal with Iran right now. You know, to be honest with you, because Iran’s not looking so good. You know, Iran is not looking like they looked two months ago, if you want to know the truth. They could be making a deal. They could be doing some very smart things right now. There are a lot of things they can do. But the nice thing is they’re entitled to an attack, and nobody will be upset if they attack, because they’re entitled. Because Iran hit them with 187 missiles. And by the way, how good is the shield? And the United States should have a shield.

Here’s the hot take from Morning Joe from Raw Story for what it’s worth. “‘Increasingly deranged’ Trump is inciting ‘civil war’ as election loss looms: Morning Joe.”

MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough warned Monday that an “increasingly desperate” Donald Trump is inciting civil war in anticipation of another election loss.

The former president returned to the scene of his first apparent assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, where he baselessly accused Democrats of trying to kill him and his family members presented the November election as a choice between “good versus evil.

The rhetoric left the “Morning Joe” host disgusted and disturbed.

“The level of un-American activity that you just saw is stunning,” Scarborough said. “That is un-American. They know they’re lying, Donald Trump knows that’s a lie. He will tell you that the Secret Service, he thought, did the best job they could do. The fact that J.D. Vance and Trump’s family would come out and out and say what they said, takes the threat of violence, takes the threat beyond where it was even leading up to Jan. 6.

“This is an increasingly desperate person, an increasingly desperate family, who is preparing for civil war. They just are. Talking about they’re trying to kill him, Democrats are trying to kill him, and the lies. Think about this.”

“I saw part of Donald Trump’s speech this weekend,” Scarborough continued. “It was remarkable, the lies. Not just on these things, but on policy. He’d make up things and throw it out there. I was shocked that the audience was really that stupid, to believe the crazy lies that he was throwing out there.

This was a shock to me.  It also comes from Raw Story, as reported by David McAfee. ‘Is that a threat?’ Trump stuns observers with a comment about Harris voter ‘getting hurt.'”

Donald Trump shocked observers on Sunday with a comment he made about a potential supporter of Vice President Kamala Harris at one of the former president’s swing-state rallies.

Trump, who has been accused of fostering violence that occurred on Jan. 6, 2021, gave a speech in Wisconsin over the weekend. At that rally, the ex-president battled a fly on stage and called his own campaign members “so stupid.”

At that same rally, Trump made an off-hand comment that had some political onlookers sounding the alarm.

“Is there anybody here who’s going to vote for lyin’ Kamala?” Trump asked his rally attendees. “Actually, I should say don’t raise your hand, it would be very dangerous. We don’t want to see anybody get hurt. Please don’t raise your hand.”

Harris’ campaign shared the video on social media, writing, “Trump says it’s ‘very dangerous’ for Kamala Harris voters to identify themselves because they’ll ‘get hurt.'”

Retired research engineer David Rommel voluntarily identified his voting preferences:

“I’m voting for Kamala! I’m a republican that is not opposed to taking on that challenge,” he wrote. “The only thing that scares me is Trump winning another term. When Trump is in prison and they are all arrested for rioting we can all take a breath of fresh air.”

A popular account called CALL TO ACTIVISM, founded by attorney Joe Gallina, replied, “What the hell does this mean? Donald Trump says it’s ‘very dangerous’ for Kamala Harris voters to identify themselves because they’ll ‘get hurt.’ Is that a threat??”

DonOld’s economic policy platform has gotten the attention of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. It’s like he’s purposefully going to tank the US economy.  These folks are always deficit hawks.  Here’s their bias/leaning report from Media Bias/Fact Check.

Overall, we rate The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) as slightly right-center Biased based on advocacy for a reduction in entitlement spending. We also rate them High in factual reporting based on regularly being used as a resource for IFCN fact-checkers.

And here’s their numbers and analysis.

Under our central estimate, Vice President Harris’s plan would increase the debt by $3.50 trillion through 2035, while President Trump’s plan would increase the debt by $7.50 trillion.

These estimates come with a wide range of uncertainty, reflecting both different interpretations and estimates of the policies. Under our low- and high-cost estimates, we estimate Vice President Harris’s plan could have no significant fiscal impact or increase debt by $8.10 trillion through 2035, while President Trump’s plan could increase debt by between $1.45 and $15.15 trillion. Our analysis will be updated if additional policies are introduced.

So, you can see that even deficit hawks recognize Trump’s plan as a run on the Treasury for billionaires.  Things are not going very well for Trump, which is why he’s acting out so many ways, but this may not mean we’re rid of him.  Don’t forget that behind the scenes in many states are crazy Maga Supporters like Tina Peters.  We still have to consider the threats of violence.  We also need to realize there’s a lot of damage to the country and our democracy done already.  This headline from the AP is a frightening reminder. “Supreme Court declines Biden administration appeal in Texas emergency abortion case.”

The Supreme Court on Monday let stand a decision barring emergency abortions that violate the law in Texas, which has one of the country’s strictest abortion bans.

The justices did not detail their reasoning for keeping in place a lower court order that said hospitals cannot be required to provide pregnancy terminations if they would break Texas law. There were no publicly noted dissents.

The decision comes weeks before a presidential election where abortion has been a key issue after the high court’s 2022 decision overturning the nationwide right to abortion.

The justices rebuffed a Biden administration push to throw out the lower court order. The administration argues that under federal law hospitals must perform abortions if needed in cases where a pregnant patient’s health or life is at serious risk, even in states where it’s banned.

Complaints of pregnant women in medical distress being turned away from emergency rooms in Texas and elsewhere have spiked as hospitals grapple with whether standard care could violate strict state laws against abortion.

The administration pointed to the Supreme Court’s action in a similar case from Idaho earlier this year in which the justices narrowly allowed emergency abortions to resume while a lawsuit continues.s

Finally, decades of ignoring climate change have led to the fast development of Hurricane Milton into a Category 4 aimed at Tampa.  This is from the Washington Post. Hurricane Milton reaches Category 5 strength on approach to Florida. The storm is expected to produce a devasting surge along Florida’s west coast, which could include the Tampa Bay area. Some decrease in strength is forecast ahead of landfall.

Milton, a top-tier Category 5 hurricane over the Gulf of Mexico, is intensifying at near-record speed as it churns toward the west coast of Florida. The storm is expected to make landfall Wednesday or early Thursday as a “large and powerful hurricane,” according to the National Hurricane Center. It is predicted to produce a potentially devastating ocean surge over 10 feet in some areas, including perhaps in flood-prone Tampa Bay.

Since Sunday night, the storm’s rate of strengthening has reached extreme levels — its intensity leaping from a Category 1 to 5. The storm’s peak winds Monday afternoon were up to 175 mph, an 85 mph increase in 12 hours.

The Hurricane Center described the storm’s rate of intensification as “remarkable.” The explosive development has occurred over record-warm waters in the Gulf, with the extreme warmth linked to human-caused climate change.

Fuck the entire “Drill baby Drill” krewe of death.  Every time I hear the name, I can only think of my drunk great-grandfather, who was murdered while coming home from a bar in KCMO.  His death led to my mother’s parents having to take care of my grandmother’s sisters.  That story has stayed with me for decades.  So, anyone in the path of this thing should really get out of there. That advice comes from me, who fled Katrina with dogs and cat in tow at the very last minute. If you’re on the Gulf side of this thing there will be surreal surge levels that nothing can survive.  I also can’t imagine how stretched FEMA, the country’s National Guard, and every disaster response NGO will be.  Prepare like you’ll be on your own for a while because you may be.  I am forever thankful that I had incredible primitive camping chops via the Girl Scouts. You’ll need all those skills to survive this.

What’s on your reading and blogging list today?

https://skydancingblog.com/2024/10/07/mostly-monday-reads-poor-poor-pitiful-trump/