Trump, 1 — flying monkeys, 0

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(Here’s the backstory)

Harris campaign, Whitmer and the media tar the small Michigan town Trump’s visiting Tuesday as racist

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — The Harris campaign — along with media allies — has made an extraordinary claim, implying Donald Trump’s Tuesday visit to discuss crime and safety in Howell, Mich., is motivated by racism.

And Howell residents are mystified.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer also denounced the former president’s coming speech — and suggested the city in the state she represents is racist — Monday at the Democratic National Convention, telling ABC, “Anyone who’s doing a little bit of research might have said, ‘That’s really a bad idea, look at the optics.’ You’re showing up where the KKK was just at the same time you’re in Michigan.”

“The racists and white supremacists who marched in Trump’s name last month in Howell have all watched him praise Hitler, defend neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, and tell far-right extremists to ‘stand back and stand by,” said Kamala Harris’ Michigan spokeswoman Alyssa Bradley.

“Trump’s actions have encouraged them, and Michiganders can expect more of the same when he comes to town.”

A Washington Post article boosted this narrative: “Howell has long been associated with the Ku Klux Klanbecause of the rallies Michigan-based Grand Dragon Robert Miles held on a nearby farm in the 1970s and 1980s.”

And Reuters headlined a piece “Trump to campaign in Michigan town with historic links to white extremism.”

By the way, as a former young rabble rouser and Abby Hoffman fan from way back, I know my street theater, and this is exactly what I’d have done were I trying to punk a politician I opposed; and, the media being as gullible back then as it is now, it would have worked:

Around a dozen pallid young men dressed in black held a racist protest July 21 in front of the Livingston County Courthouse. The motley crew held signs that read “White Lives Matter” and shouted through megaphones, “We love Hitler, we love Trump.”

Uh huh.

Oh, Joy! Steven Hayward's updated that classic (sic) Sunday School hymn just in time for the DNC's exit parade

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"I have not seen so many Democrats laugh, smile, sing. I mean, there is a song in the air. I don't know if you can hear me behind me, but there's like a little bit of music playing. People are literally dancing to the tunes in their own head," Reid said.

Powerline:

Feel the Joy

I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy from Kamala’s heart
Where?
Kamala’s heart!
Where?
Kamala’s heart!
I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy from Kamala’s heart
Down in my heart to pay

Chorus:

And I’m so happy, so very happy
With price controls in Kamala’ heart
In Kamala’s heart.
And I’m so happy, so very happy
With price controls in Kamala’s heart.

Verse 2:

And if Biden don’t like it he can sit on a tack!
Ouch!
Sit on a tack!
Ouch!
Sit on a tack!
And if MAGA don’t like it they can sit on a tack!
Ouch!
Sit on a tack and pay!

Sixteen acres too much for your landscaper to keep tidy now that gas leaf blowers have been banned?

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Well, now you can go for a more modest lot: after 410 days on the market, five of the sixteen acres at 38,48, and 58 Quaker Lane can now be purchased separately: No. 58, with house, can be yours for just $20 million, instead of $35 million for the whole package (which is still available as either an 11-acre horsey parcel or the full 16).

To my eye, it’s a pretty hideous house, with a pseudo-Jackson’s Hole feel, and since Jackson’s Hole itself is a pseudo-western ranch retreat for the connected, why duplicate it here? But that’s just me.

Of limited interest, probably, except to modern Greenwich history buffs, according to the tax card, the fraudster and failed real estate developer Andrew Kissell, who would go on to be murdered in his house at 8 Dairy Road (now 10 — the street number was changed for resale purposes) built this house back in 2004 and then, apparently, lost it to foreclosure in 2007.

the zebra's here

no comment

Cat's still got my tongue

the zebra has foaled

and, finally, the orange makes an appearance

"Swedish gangs" — now, that's a nice euphemism

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Norway increasingly concerned by Swedish gangs

Norway is becoming increasingly concerned about Swedish criminal gangs, already known for their crimes in Denmark, where they operate throughout the country and are linked to a number of serious violent crimes.

“It is serious. We are afraid that the development we have seen in Sweden will infect us”, said Kjetil Tunold, head of the organised crime division at the Norwegian National Bureau of Investigation, told Swedish national broadcaster SVT on Sunday

One of the cases in which Swedish gang criminals are suspected of involvement is the explosion at a house in a housing estate in Dröbak, south of Oslo, last autumn. Three Swedes with gang connections were charged with attempted murder after the incident.

According to Tomas Staerk, head of investigations for Norway’s Eastern Police District, several Swedish criminal networks have established themselves in the area.

“We are worried about the gross use of violence and that the Swedish gangs will recruit vulnerable young people to join them”, he said, adding that he was particularly concerned about the crimes connected to drug trafficking.

“It is money laundering, economic crime, violence and threats”, Staerk said.

Swedish gangs can now be found in all twelve police districts in Norway and can be linked to the import and distribution of drugs in Norway, according to the Norwegian police’s national threat report on criminal networks.

….

A broader issue

This is not the first time Swedish criminal gangs have caused trouble in neighbouring Nordic countries.

On Friday, Denmark announced that it would introduce border controls with Sweden, following a resurgence of Swedish gang violence that has spilt over into Denmark in recent weeks and after Swedes were arrested on suspicion of several violent crimes in Denmark. 

“The reality right now is that not only Denmark but large parts of the Nordic countries are feeling the consequences of Sweden’s long-standing failed immigration and legal policies, and we take that extremely seriously,” said Danish Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard (Social Democrats, S&D) at a press conference on 14 August.

Swedish Justice Minister Gunnar Strommer (Moderates, EPP) said in a response to Reuters that Denmark also bore some responsibility for its own gangs but agreed with much of the criticism of Sweden’s gang problem.

…

Sweden, with a population of just 10 million, has the highest per capita rate of gun violence in the EU, with 55 fatal shootings in 363 incidents last year – far more than the combined total of six fatal shootings in the other three Nordic countries.

Dixie Chick: Wealthy Westchester suburbanite goes south

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Who does she think she is, Hillary?

AOC and Bernie Sanders, by the way, are not the only Democrats who support the goals and aims of the Democratic Socialists of America. If you review the DSA’s platform, some highlights of which I post below, you’ll note that much of it is already incorporated into Kampallawalla’s own platform, and almost all of it is supported by rank-and-file Democrats.

DSA Platform:

Defund the police by rejecting any expansion to police budgets or scope of enforcement while cutting budgets annually towards zero

  • Fire officers with excessive force complaints and freeze new hires

  • End investment in police training or facility renovations

  • Remove police from all hospitals and care facilities and prohibit law enforcement access to private patient information

  • End all police contracts with social services, care services, and government agencies providing care

  • Decertify police unions and associations

  • End the criminalization of working-class survival

    • End all misdemeanor offenses, accounting for 80% of total court dockets, reduce jail churn by reducing arrests, and cut funding to prosecutor’s offices

    • End all fines and fees associated with the criminal legal process, including ticketing, cash bail, court costs, and parole and probation fees

    • Abolish all asset forfeiture programs and laws

    • End mandatory arrest and failure to protect laws that lead to the criminalization of survivors of gendered violence; grant clemency to criminalized survivors

  • Freedom for all incarcerated people

    • Free all people from involuntary confinement

    • Stop all funding of prison expansion, stop funding of new buildings, and close local jails

    • End pre-trial detention, civil commitment, and imprisonment for parole violations

    • Reject “alternatives to incarceration” that are carceral in nature, including problem-solving courts and electronic monitoring and coercive restorative justice programs

  • Demilitarize the police and end colonial policing of our cities and neighborhoods

    • Disarm law enforcement officers, including the police and private security

    • Decarcerate our schools by repealing truancy laws, ending all zero tolerance disciplinary policies, suspensions and expulsions, surveillance of students, and removing police — both public and private — from all schools, colleges, and universities

    • Decarcerate our hospitals and care facilities, removing police and prohibiting law enforcement access to private patient information prohibit law en

    • End all data and resource sharing with ICE, end immigration detention, end family separation, and let our undocumented community members come home

Abolition of White Supremacy

Our demands:

  • Pass reparations legislation like the “Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act.” Coming out of the commission, we would want budget lines for reparations at municipal, state, and federal levels.

  • Decarceration and eventual abolition of the carceral state, which disproportionately targets and impacts Black, Latino, Indigenous, and other people of color.

    • Enact “Ban the Box” nationwide, making it illegal to ask about past criminal history on a job application, and pass legislation that puts an end to the use of past criminal history as a criterion for eligibility for education, employment, housing, loans, and voting.

A Powerful Labor Movement

The socialist movement and the labor movement will rise or fall together. Our demands:

  • Social ownership of all major industry and infrastructure

  • Work for all who want it: full employment through a federal jobs guarantee

  • A just transition for fossil fuel workers, as well as all other workers whose current jobs do not serve the common good, including fully funded retraining and transition to union public sector jobs or dignified retirement with robust pensions.

  • A four-day, 32-hour work week with no reduction in wages or benefits

  • End “at will” employment

  • End “right to work” laws

Economic Justice

We propose a program of transformative regulation, nationalization, social ownership, and internationalism that builds the solidarity and democratic power necessary for us to succeed. We call for the nationalization of businesses like utilities and critical manufacturing and technology companies,

We fight for the abolition of capitalism and the creation of a democratically run economy that provides for people’s needs. Our demands:

  • Social ownership and democratic control of utilities and key industries including water, gas, electric, telecommunications, media, and internet service providers and other critical sectors of the economy through direct government support, public banks, and pension funds at every level of government

    • Nationalize and socialize (through worker and community ownership and control) institutions of monetary policy, insurance, real estate, and finance

    • Ensure that employees have the right to purchase businesses and are able to secure funding to facilitate their cooperative ownership in the event of a sale or closure

  • Ensure public control of communications technology and expand infrastructure

    • Implement public or commonly owned WiFi networks with high-speed broadband, internet management, technology services, internet service providers, and data storage to curtail the unprecedented power of technology companies over media, communications, and political life

    • Extend individuals’ rights to data privacy, control, and portability with respect to all applications, providers, and devices

    • Expand physical, green infrastructure such as transportation, technology and data centers, and building retrofitting

  • Protect and expand social insurance and pensions:

    • Fully fund public and private pension funds and allow them to consider interests beyond maximum profits in choosing where to invest

    • Fully fund Social Security and disability benefits and introduce new and comprehensive public pension benefits that are under worker control

    • Immediate increase to disability funds for individuals and families

    • End means testing for disability-based Social Security Insurance, including an end to using spouse income to means test for SSI

    • End the current state-based unemployment insurance and adopt a generous, universal dignified national unemployment insurance system that supports and is supported by organized labor.

  • Ensure free and democratic public college and, where viable, free private college for all students and democratize and fund instruction inclusive of all students while minimizing testing at all levels of education

  • Cancel all student loan and medical debt, reform bankruptcy laws to make it easier to file for individual bankruptcy, provide a right to counsel for all debtors facing litigation

  • Disconnect property taxes from school funding and fully fund public education

  • Create a unified, democratic, and public banking system that will socialize the fuel of the capitalist system; finance.

  • Regulation of the economy:

    • Patent and copyright: end or limit counterproductive protections, particularly in medicine and agriculture, create a technology commons, and facilitate the transfer of technology through the non-industrialized world

    • Food and farming: regulate food prices and safety and protect small farmers through limitations on food commodity trading, pricing, and supply management

    • Corporations: end corporate personhood, punish corporate bad actors by dechartering corporations, limit the size and power of businesses not susceptible to nationalization or social control, and limit maximum wages

    • Taxation: [I]ncrease tax rates on upper income earners, institute wealth taxes, increase estate taxes, and tax financial transactions, capital gains, luxury purchases, and domestic and global corporations

Green New Deal

Our demands:

  • Decarbonize the economy within a decade.

    • Nationalize fossil fuel producers to phase them out as quickly as necessary—no new fossil fuel projects can be authorized or built.

All patients, regardless of race, gender, medical history, income, or immigration status, must receive high-quality, equitable care. Our demands:

  • Public ownership and funding of our healthcare system, including hospitals and other healthcare providers, pharmaceutical research and production, and other medical research and production facilities

  • Medicare for All, which is:

    1. A Single Health Program: Everyone will be covered by one health insurance program, administered by the federal government, providing equitable medical services and treatments

    2. Comprehensive Coverage: All medically necessary services will be fully covered. Everyone goes to the provider of their choice. Dental, vision, mental health, reproductive health, long-term care, and pharmaceuticals are all included.

    3. Free at the point of service: All healthcare costs will be financed through taxes, predominantly on the wealthy and corporations; no copays, no fees, no deductibles and no premiums. Ever.

    4. Universal Coverage: Coverage for all United States residents — non-citizens included.

    5. Free medical school, nursing school, and other training for healthcare workers

Housing for All

  • Public housing for all

    • Pass a universal tenants’ bill of rights that includes right to renew your lease, universal rent control, right to organize a tenants’ union in your home, and a universal right to free counsel in housing court

    • Ensure universal housing voucher acceptance to prevent discrimination based on income source.

    • Mandate increase accessibility requirements of new constructions and make funds available to remodel private housing stock for low or fixed income households to accommodate individuals with disabilities

  • Abolish homelessness

    • End homelessness in the United State by implementing housing-first relief programs

    • End discrimination on the basis of gender, sexuality, race, and religion at all shelters nationwide

Res ipsa loquitur

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she supplies her own evidence — no need for more

Trump defends calling Harris ‘stupid’ without offering evidence

04:58 , Namita Singh

Former president Donald Trump has doubled down on calling Kamala Harris “stupid” without offering any evidence as to why.

“I think that the message is what a bad job they’ve done,” he told CBS News, on being asked if the use of personal insults like this was the way to win over moderate voters.

“I mean, if you look at this economy, if you look at inflation, and you know, I love this country,” said Trump. “I have to do what it takes to win. I have to get this country going, because we’re going to lose our country.”

On being probed about the evidence to support his characterisation of Ms Harris as stupid, he said: “Our country needs a very smart person, and I don’t think she’s a very smart person.