President Biden's comments about Trump supporters -- or his Madison Square Garden comedian -- has taken a bit of the air out of Kamala Harris' "closing argument" Tuesday evening at the Ellipse, site of Donald J. Trump's January 6, 2021, speech to a mob that attacked the Capitol. Scroll down for Harris speech analysis.

THURSDAY 10/31/24

Sanitation in Green Bay – Donald J. Trump was driven to his rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Wednesday in a garbage truck with his name emblazoned on the side, NPR’s Morning Edition reports, as he parried the brouhaha over his Madison Square Garden comedian, Tony Hinchcliffe’s “joke” about Puerto Rico and an island of garbage. This won the campaign day for Trump, Politicosays, as Kamala Harris had to deal with President Biden’s counter-remark about MAGA supporters and garbage. 

Biden’s comments stepped on Harris’ own “closing arguments” speech at the Ellipse with the White House in the background, Tuesday evening.

“You know the thing is, they treated our whole country like garbage, intended or not,” Trump told the Wisconsin crowd. 

•••

Democratic Angst – Meanwhile, finger-pointing has begun among Democrats over “a string of factors” that have hobbled Kamala Harris’ campaign “from the outset,” The Hill reports. Whether Harris wins or loses the election next Tuesday, Democrats are disappointed with her messaging, especially on the economy, and with President Biden’s late withdrawal from the race. 

“People are nervous and they’re trying to cover their ass and get a little ahead of election day,” an unnamed Democratic strategist told The Hill. “It’s based on anxiety, stakes, and the unique nature of the cycle.”

•••

Anti-Vaxxer for HHS? – Former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., now a key player in the Trump campaign, has told his supporters Donald J. Trump has promised him “control” over the Departments of Health and Human Services and of Agriculture, CQ Roll Call reports.

“I’m going to let him go wild on health,” Trump said. “I’m going to let him go wild on food. I’m going to let him go wild on the medicines.”

--TL

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Harris at the Ellipse – For voters still undecided or, at least, unmotivated to go to the polls in the next six days, Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris tried once again to define herself largely by defining Republican candidate Donald J. Trump. She is a conventional politician; one who seeks to work both sides of the aisle and for all voters. Trump, she reiterated, is in it only for himself.

“Look, we all know who Donald Trump is,” she said from the Ellipse, with the White House in the background. “He is the person who stood at this very spot nearly four years ago and sent an armed mob to the United States Capitol to overturn the will of the people in a free and fair election he knew he lost.”

“He was told by the staff that the mob wanted to kill his vice president, and he responded with two words: ‘So what?’ And that’s who Donald Trump is.”

The one thing Harris’ “closing argument” had in common with Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally Sunday is that they each got out to the other’s voters in some measure. Fox News regulars who watched Harris’ speech live may have learned, or maybe re-learned, some facts from Trump’s January 6^th speech at the Ellipse in 2021 that have been lost in the pro-MAGA rhetoric about “tourists” holding a love-in that day, while Trump’s rally, especially his guest speakers have certainly got out to anyone who follows mainstream media in the last few days.

“He has an Enemies List of people he intends to prosecute,” Harris continued. “He says one of his highest priorities is to set free the violent extremists who assaulted those law enforcement officers on January 6^th.”

The vice president elaborated on some of her policy proposals, including a federal ban on price gouging in groceries, affordable housing for first-time home buyers, and of course legislation making abortions legal nationwide. Harris said she will “work with Democrats and Republicans to sign into law the border security bill that Donald Trump killed.”

On foreign policy, Harris said she will “Not surrender America’s global leadership. And I will stand with our friends,” she said, without specifically naming Ukraine or Israel. “Because I know that our alliances keep the American people safe and make America stronger and more secure. World leaders think that Donald Trump is an easy mark. Easy to manipulate with flattery and favor. And you can believe that autocrats like Putin or Kim Jong Un are rooting for him in this election.”

The Harris campaign estimates about 75,000 people attended her closing argument at the Ellipse, according to The Wall Street Journal. Prior to the speech, the National Park Service doubled its estimate of attendees expected to 40,000. 

Madison Square Garden has a concert capacity of 20,000, and some news reports say Trump’s crowd there started to thin out as the event stretched to about five hours Sunday. The Trump campaign says a large overflow of supporters who were not able to get in were on the streets outside the Garden that night.

•••

‘Deplorables’ Redux – President Biden sucked some of the air out of Vice President Kamala Harris’ “closing argument” at the Ellipse in Washington, Tuesday, when he addressed Latino supporters by video: “Just the other day, a speaker at his rally called Puerto Rico a ‘floating island of garbage,’” Biden said, referring to comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s stand-up routine at Donald J. Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally Sunday evening.

Puerto Ricans are “good, decent, honorable people,” Biden continued. “The only garbage I see out there is his supporters and his, his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American.”

The White House later released a transcript to show that Biden was referring to Hinchcliffe as the “garbage” Trump supporter, The New York Times reports. It’s unclear whether the president’s video to Latino supporters was recorded or released “live.” But if the former – even the latter – it shows Biden’s communication staff had slipped on the job to draw criticism from the Trump/Vance camp that detracted from Harris’ important speech at the Ellipse.

“This is disgusting,” Trump running mate JD Vance said. “Kamala Harris and her boss Joe Biden are attacking half the country.”

(Earlier in the week, Vance defended the Garden rally language Biden was attacking, saying; “We have to stop getting so offended at every little thing in the United States of America.”)

•••

Trump Responds – Donald J. Trump’s own response to the backlash over comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s “joke” about Puerto Rico at the Sunday evening rally came at a Tuesday campaign rally in heavily Hispanic-Latino Allentown, Pennsylvania. 

“I’m so proud that we’re getting support from Latinos like never before. We’re setting every record,” Trump said (per the Pennsylvania Capital Star). “Hispanics, Latinos, nobody loves our Latino community and our Puerto Rican community more than I do. Nobody.”

Trump claimed “no one” has done more for Puerto Rico than him – eliciting memories of his paper towel-roll toss to victims of Hurricane Maria in 2018 – and he promised to deliver “the best future for Puerto Ricans and for Hispanic Americans.”

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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WEDNESDAY 10/30/24

Yes, comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s ‘joke’ about Puerto Rico at Madison Square Garden turns out to be the big story from Sunday’s Trump rally. Will it make a difference at the polls next week?

This is Supposed to Help? – After the Trump/Vance campaign’s self-imposed October Surprise at Madison Square Garden Sunday, the ex-president on Monday followed up with these comments, according to The Hill, on former First Lady Michelle Obama, who has been campaigning for the Harris/Walz Democratic ticket:

“You know who’s nasty to me? Michelle Obama. I always tried to be nice and respectful,” Donald J. Trump said at an Atlanta rally Monday. “Oh, she opened up a little bit of – a little bit of a box. She opened up a little bit of something. She was nasty, ooh, ooh. She shouldn’t be nasty. That was a mistake she made.”

•••

Warning from Ukraine – Donald J. Trump must “face reality” that any attempt to freeze Russia’s invasion of Ukraine if he becomes president is “unrealistic,” says Oleksandr Merezhko, chair of the Ukraine parliament’s foreign affairs policy. 

“This plan doesn’t look realistic because it implies the agreement of Vladimir Putin, who is absolutely unreliable and not trustworthy when it comes to observing any agreement,” Merezhko said of Trump’s plan to end the war within 24 hours of taking office. “At the same time, Putin, as of now, is not interested in negotiations and agreements. He still believes that he can win.”

It is unknown from this report in The Kyiv Independent whether Merezhko was being wry and perhaps a bit ironic about the Trump/Vance campaign’s motives and its relationship with Russian dictator Putin. 

In September, Republican veep candidate JD Vance floated the idea of freezing the war and creating autonomous zones on both sides of the demilitarized zone while – wait for it; this is one of Putin’s main goals – keeping Ukraine out of NATO, according to the Financial Times. 

Merezhko asserts that the only real plan is Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s “Victory Plan” to “strengthen Ukraine and thereby force Putin to sit at the table of negotiations.”

Meanwhile, North Korea … This comes after NATO confirmed that Russia has brought in North Korean troops into its Kursk Oblast, which Ukrainian troops attacked in August. 

“The deepening military cooperation between Russia and North Korea is a threat to both Indo-Pacific and Euro-Atlantic security,” said NATO Secretary-Gen. Mark Rutte, Reuters reports. 

Not only do the North Korean troops give Putin more leverage in any future negotiations, they reinforce his long-anticipated plan to move into Lithuania and Poland if he has better success in Ukraine.

--TL

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MONDAY 10/28/24

Carnival at the Garden – Much news media coverage of Donald J. Trump’s four-hour rally at Madison Square Garden Sunday night has concentrated on comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s “joke” that Puerto Rico is a “floating island of garbage,” and so as it turns out, we are leading with it too. The comedian also called out a Black man in the audience with a reference to watermelon, according to The New York Times, which headlines its story on the rally as “A Closing Carnival of Grievances, Misogyny and Racism.” 

(In a statement reported by CNN, Trump spokesperson Danielle Alvarez said that Hinchcliffe’s jokes do not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign.)

While Trump himself, two hours late to the event, avoided overtly racist attacks, the more disturbing comments from his opening acts may have been those against Vice President Kamala Harris that appeal most to the former president’s unwavering supporters from the New Apostolic Reformation movement -- Christian Nationalists.

From the stage, sanitation worker David Rem, 60, called Harris “the devil” and held a crucifix while “while delivering a particularly manic address,” according to The Independent, saying “the cross that I’m holding is the cross that my mother … used to hold in the air when she prayed at night, every night, for Donald Trump and his family, because we knew three years ago that he was going to be, his life was going to be attempted to kill (sic), because they don’t want Donald Trump at the ballot box.”

Real estate investor/equity fund manager Grant Cardone repeated vile lies about the vice president having “pimp handlers.”

Sid Rosenberg, 77WABC radio host and sports reporter, told the crowd that “fucking illegals” get “whatever they want” and ranted about Trump’s 2016 presidential election opponent, according to Mediaite.

“She has some sick posture, that Hilary Clinton. What a sick son of a bitch. That whole fucking party a bunch of degenerates, lowlifes, Jew haters and low lives.”

Tucker Carlson repeated Trump’s lies about Harris’ “changing” ethnicity, saying she wants to become “the first Samoan-Malaysian, low-IQ former California prosecutor ever to be elected president.”

The Garden’s scoreboard read “Trump Will Fix It” and the ex-president took advantage yet again of the opportunity to paraphrase his own catchphrase from his TV show, The Apprentice; “Kamala, you’re fired!”

“When I say ‘the enemy within’ the other side goes crazy,” Trump said, repeating his disturbingly authoritarian description of anyone associated with the Democratic Party, the press and pretty much anyone not on his side. He described the date of his potential election as the 47^th president as “liberation day.”

Trump repeated his promise of mass-deportation of undocumented aliens and his senior advisor and anti-immigrant crackdown whisperer, Stephen Miller, said only his boss is bold enough to say “America is for Americans and Americans only.” (Per NYT).

Tulsi Gabbard, Vivek Ramaswamy, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Elon Musk, Donald Trump Jr. (who asserted “the king of New York is back to reclaim the city that he built”) and Melania Trump were there. 

So was Rudy Giuliani, who said, “This is where a Republican is not supposed to come. Which is why Donald Trump came here.”

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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MONDAY 10/28/24

Musk Stumped for Trump in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Saturday

FRIDAY 10/25/24

Israel Strikes Back – The Israeli Defense Force struck missile production facilities and surface-to-air missile facilities in Iran overnight Saturday in retaliatory counterattacks, with Haaretz reporting “strong” explosions heard in Tehran and other provinces. Iranian officials said it “thwarted” the Israeli attack, but “limited damage” was caused. Both the US and the IDF have warned against escalation by Iran, with Israel saying it “will be obligated” to respond, while the US is pushing for ceasefire deals in Gaza and Lebanon after the Israeli strikes.

•••

Fake Video Sparks Conspiracy – A fake video that purports to show someone’s hands destroying ballots in Bucks County, Pennsylvania for Donald J. Trump was manufactured and spread by Russia, US officials said Friday, NPR’s All Things Considered reports. The video, spread by Elon Musk’s X/Twitter and other social media sites, was officially debunked by local election officials who say the envelops and ballots in the video do not match what the county uses for early voting by mail.

Goes without saying?... Though it’s not being said out loud, yet, the fake video in its attempt to spark outrage among Trump supporters is evidence that Russia is working to tip the election scales toward the former president, just as it did for his presidential election win in 2016. Election officials’ debunking of this vide is unlikely to allay their concerns.

•••

Voter Registration Fraud – Meanwhile, in Lancaster County, in south-central Pennsylvania east of Harrisburg, election officials are reviewing thousands of voter registration applications because some of them may be fraudulent, LNP/LancasterOnline reports. Problematic applications were detected by elections staff in two batches of about 2,500 applications dropped at the Lancaster Board of Commissioners’ office before next Monday’s registration deadline. 

“At this point, it is believed that the fraudulent voter registrations are connected to a large-scale canvassing operation for voter registrations,” said District Attorney Heather Adams.

Some of the 2,500 applications are legitimate.

Your reaction to this report probably depends on whether you believe the lie that the 2020 election was “stolen” from Trump; It’s either an indication that illegal aliens will get some registrations past officials by November 5, or that officials are able to prevent such fraudulent registration.

•••

No Endorsement – The Washington Post is “returning to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates,” Publisher/CEO Will Lewis said Friday, in explaining why it will refrain from endorsing Kamala Harris for president, media correspondent David Folkenflik reports in a scoop for NPR. Those roots go all the way back to 1988, the last time the WaPo did not endorse. 

This follows the Los Angeles Times’ decision not to endorse, which led to resignations of its editorials’ editor and two editorial board members. 

Retaliation… The two big-city newspapers’ owners are worried about retaliation if Donald J. Trump wins the November 5 election and follows his former chief of staff John F. Kelly’s description in The New York Times of the ex-president as being a fascist. 

As founder of Amazon, WaPo owner Jeff Bezos, often described as a libertarian, has several contracts with the federal government including the US Postal Service. Fellow billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong is the businessman and medical device inventor who owns the LA Times.

--TL

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FRIDAY 10/25/24

UPDATE -- NASA Administrator Bill Nelson told Semafor that a Wall Street Journal report of SpaceX CEO Elon Musk speaking with Russian President Vladmir Putin should be investigated.

Musk Talks to Putin – Russian President/dictator Vladmir Putin and SpaceX/Starlink/Tesla/X-Twitter chief Elon Musk have been “in regular contact” since 2022, The Wall Street Journal reports in a scoop “confirmed by several current and former US, European and Russian officials.” They told the newspaper that Musk and Putin have spoken about personal topics, business and geopolitical tensions. 

For example, Putin at one point asked Musk to “avoid” activating his Starlink satellite internet service over Taiwan as a favor to Chinese leader Xi Jingping, a close ally of Putin’s Russia.

Connections … Musk negotiated a unique arrangement with China in order to build a Tesla factory there the beginning of this decade. While every other automaker from outside China – US, European, Japanese and South Korean – must have a 50% partner, usually a local government in China in order to build and sell cars there and for export, Tesla owns its factory outright. More recently, Musk has led the America PAC that has contributed $72 million to the Trump/Vance campaign as of early October, according to NPR. And, of course, Musk has been holding his own rallies for Trump/Vance in 19-delegate swing state Pennsylvania and he will join the ex-president and his campaign in a rally Sunday at Madison Square Garden. 

Deregulation … There is also Trump’s interest in appointing Musk, the world’s richest man, as deregulation czar – euphemistically, secretary for a department of government efficiency -- if he wins the presidency. In Tesla’s third-quarter earnings call with Wall Street analysts Wednesday evening, Musk lamented the need to seek approval state-by-state for Tesla’s fully autonomous Cybercab project. “There should be a federal approval process for autonomous vehicles,” Musk said. “If there’s a department of government efficiency, I’ll try to make that happen.”

•••

Apology to Natives – President Biden finally is fulfilling his promise to visit a Native American community, in order to apologize for a 150-year-plus federal program of separating American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian children from their parents in order to simulate them into American society (per NPR’s Morning Edition). The program, which ended in 1969, exposed many of the children to abuse and even death. 

Biden visits the Gila River Indian community outside Phoenix, not so coincidentally in the swing state of Arizona, Friday. 

“This is part of the president’s legacy. This apology is historic, it’s impactful,” said press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.

--TL

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THURSDAY 10/24/24

No Clarity Here – The latest Marist polls, taken October 17-22, do not add any clarity to the presidential race. Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald J. Trump are “deadlocked” in Arizona, North Carolina and Georgia, Politico reports, with the slight differences explained away as being within the margins of error. Marist polled 1,193 likely voters each, in Arizona and Georgia and 1,226 likely voters in North Carolina.

Arizona: Trump leads Harris, 50% to 49%, but with a plus/minus 3.7-point margin of error.

North Carolina: Same as Arizona, at 50% for Trump and 49% for Harris, but with a 3.6-point margin of error.

Georgia: Trump and Harris are tied at 49%, with a 3.9-point margin of error.

While late polls in 2016 and 2020 gave some clues to the final outcome when compared with earlier polls in those years, we’re not getting any clues this year. 

One thing… in the Harris/Walz camp’s favor is that we’re still talking about Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina here, in addition to the more traditional battlegrounds of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.

--TL

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WEDNESDAY 10/23/24

DPRK Troops in Russia -- Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, speaking from Rome has confirmed that North Korea has lent troops to Russia, but told reporters the purpose for their deployment was not clear. Earlier this week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the North Korean troops are to help Russia in its two-year-old-plus war with his country.

"There is evidence that there are DPKR (North Korean) troops in Russia," Austin said, per The Kyiv Independent. "What exactly are they doing? Left to be seen. Those are things we need to sort out."

Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine's military intelligence (HUR), said the first North Korean units were expected to arrive Wednesday in the Kursk Oblast region of Russia, where Ukrainian troops began their defensive incursion last August.

•••

Kelly’s October ‘Surprise’ – When he was president, Donald J. Trump was pretty open about his affection for authoritarians and dictators like China’s Xi Jingping and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. Similar feelings for Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and Russia’s Vladimir Putin have lasted all the way up to, and likely beyond, the November 5^th presidential election.

On a certain level, Trump’s longest-serving chief of staff, John F. Kelly’s warnings about Trump in a recorded interview with The New York Times might seem anti-climactic. If you haven’t paid attention to the warnings before, you are not terribly likely to suddenly care within two weeks of the election. 

Even though Kelly said this: “In many cases I would agree with some of his policies. But again, it’s a very dangerous thing to have the wrong person elected to high office.”

And this: “Certainly the former president is in the far-right area, he’s certainly an authoritarian, admires people who are dictators – he has said that. So he certainly falls into the general definition of fascist, for sure. … He certainly prefers the dictator approach to government.”

And Kelly, the retired US Marine Corp general who was Trump’s homeland security secretary before he moved to the White House to be his chief of staff, said this, too: “I think he’d love to be just like he was in business – he could tell people to do things and they would do it, and not really bother too much about whether what the legalities were and whatnot.”

--TL

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TUESDAY 10/22/24

Two Weeks from Today – Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris beats Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump in poll averages for four of 10 battleground states, according to The Washington Post. Vice President Harris leads by one point in Nevada and two points each in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. 

Trump leads by one point in North Carolina and two points each in Georgia and Arizona, according to the polling averages. 

Of course, that’s all margin-of-error territory, indicating that polling hasn’t gotten much more definitive, or even helpful, over the last eight years.

•••

Blinken Tries Again – Secretary of State Antony Blinken has returned to Israel to meet again with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in hopes of building some peace momentum after the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, last week. Perhaps a bit more realistically, Blinken hopes to de-escalate tensions in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, The Washington Post reports. But as he arrived, an Israeli airstrike near a Beirut hospital killed 13 after Hezbollah said it launched rockets at Israel.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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TUESDAY 10/22/24

MONDAY 10/21/24

Dead Heat – Latest Washington Post/Schar School poll of more than 5,000 registered voters, conducted in the first half of October shows Kamala Harris and Donald J. Trump tied at 47% among registered voters who “definitely/probably” will support the respective candidate. Harris has a one-point lead among likely voters, at 49% to 48%.

•••

Four! – Arnold Palmer was a gentlemanly professional golfer who dominated his sport from the mid-1950s through the ‘60s. Those of us who do not follow golf closely perhaps know him best as the inspiration for an eponymous non-alcoholic cocktail. 

To former president and amateur golfer known for – guess what? – cheating, Donald J. Trump, Palmer meant more than golf and Arnold Palmers. Much more.

“This is a guy that was all man,” Trump said at his campaign rally Saturday in Palmer’s hometown of Latrobe, Pennsylvania, held at the local airport that, like the lemonade/sweet tea cocktail, is named for the golfer. “He took showers with the other pros, they came out of there, they said, ‘Oh my God, that’s unbelievable.’ I had to say it.”

And so, Trump spent the first 12 minutes of his rally at the Arnold Palmer Regional Airport speaking about, er, Arnold Palmer’s size. Apparently, the golfer did not have small hands.

At least one of Palmer’s survivors, daughter Peggy Palmer, was not amused.

“I thought it was an unfortunate way to remember my dad,” Peggy Palmer told The Independent.

•••

Not the End – War in Gaza is “not over” following the killing by the Israeli Defense Force of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said (per Al Jazeera) but the beginning of the end. 

“Today, evil has suffered a heavy blow, but the task before us is not complete,” the Israeli PM said last week. 

Meanwhile, a senior member of the Israeli hostage negotiation team has told Haaretz the killing of Sinwar has not led to any changes in either side’s position in negotiations.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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MONDAY 10/21/24

They Report -- Fox News' Bret Baier interviewed Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris Wednesday evening in the vice president's first live appearance on the conservative news network. Scroll down center column trackbar for details.

FRIDAY 10/18/24

After Sinwar – Speaking from Berlin Friday President Biden expressed hope for a ceasefire in Gaza after Israel’s killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, saying there now is “a better future for Israelis and Palestinians alike.” He, and Vice President Kamala Harris, are pretty much alone in such optimism.

Biden said in a White House statement that Hamas “is no longer capable of carrying out another October 7,” (per Newsweek). Sinwar’s death is an opportunity “for a political settlement that provides a better future for Israelis and Palestinians alike.”

At a campaign appearance at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Harris said; “This moment gives us an opportunity to finally end the war in Gaza, and it must end such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom, and self-determination. And it is time for the day after to begin without Hamas in power.”

“Sinwar was an extremely important man in the movement,” Fuad Khuffash, a Palestinian analyst “close to Hamas” told The New York Times. “His assassination is not easy matter. But it won’t make Hamas retreat and surrender.”

Even if Sinwar’s death reopens negotiations for a Gaza ceasefire, there’s still Iran and Lebanon. Haaretz reports that “once the death settles on the killing of Sinwar, international attention will switch to the Iranian front” where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to deal with Iran’s nuclear arms program, “raising US concerns.”

•••

Musk Rallies for Trump – After raising $75 million for the Trump/Vance campaign through September, via his America PAC, Elon Musk has taken to the hustings to rally in Pennsylvania for the former president’s presidential campaign. 

“Pennsylvania is, I think, the linchpin in this election, and this election, I think, is going to decide the fate of America and, along with the fate of America, the fate of Western civilization,” The World’s Richest Man told an adoring crowd in the Ridley High School auditorium in suburban Philadelphia, The Wall Street Journal reports. The auditorium was near its 800-person capacity, according to the report. 

Musk, owner of X-Twitter and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX plans similar events in Pennsylvania in the next three days.

“The next three days are essential. I think we’ll see this election decided in Pennsylvania by…10,000 votes. It could be 1,000 votes. It could be 100 votes — it’s some very tiny number,” Musk told the Ridley High crowd.

Michigan v. Pennsylvania ... Musk's PAC is running ads in Michigan painting Kamala Harris as "pro-Israel" and ads in Pennsylvania painting her as "pro-Palestinian," according to Washington NPR radio station WAMU's The 1A.

•••

Will Haley Rally for Trump? – The Trump/Vance camp is in talks with Nikki Haley to have ex-President Trump’s former UN ambassador and GOP primary rival to appear together at a rally at the end of the month and possibly with Fox News personality Sean Hannity, “sources familiar with the discussions” told The Bulwark. Perhaps there’s something in a next Trump administration for Haley after all?

--TL

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THURSDAY 10/17/24

Hamas Leader Killed -- Israeli authorities have positively identified the body of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, killed in an Israeli Defense Force attack on Gaza Wednesday, The New York Times reports. Sinwar, said to be in his 60s, was considered the lead architect of the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. Big question now is what effect Sinwar's death might have on cease fire talks led by the US.

•••

...You Decide – Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ first-ever interview on Fox News Wednesday certainly did nothing to snag the votes of Republicans or conservatives who have not already committed to voting for her instead of former President Trump. But did her 30-minute appearance, on Special Report with Bret Baier, help her with center-right independents and/or myriad other undecideds? Harris interrupted Baier’s interruptions several times in order to finish questions, which may have helped her with moderate female voters, NPR’s Morning Edition posits. 

The interview did give the vice president a chance to retry a question she skirted past the much-friendlier The View on ABC-TV and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on CBS; how would her presidency differ from Joe Biden’s? 

“My presidency will not be a continuation of the Biden presidency,” Harris responded. “I represent a new generation of leadership.”

But Baier raised the question of who has been running the White House given President Biden’s cognitive issues. 

“You told many interviewers that Joe Biden was on his game, then ran around circles on his staff. When did you first notice that President Biden’s mental faculties appeared diminished?” Baier asked.

“Joe Biden, I have watched from the Oval Office to the Situation Room,” Harris replied. “And he has the judgment and the experience to do exactly what he has done in making very important decisions on behalf of the American people.”

Harris was given the chance to attack Trump’s building threats to American democracy when Fox News ran a clip of Trump trying to turn the tables on the Democrats by claiming “they’re the ones doing the threats,” and comparing his suffering investigations with what happened to Alphonse Capone.

Harris countered that the clip did not properly characterize what Trump has been saying about “the enemy within.”

“You and I both know that he has talked about turning the American military on the American people, he talked about locking people up because they disagree with him,” Harris told Baier. “This is a democracy, and in our democracy, the president of the United States, in the United States of America, should be willing to be able to handle criticism without saying he would lock up people.”

•••

Meanwhile, on Univision – At a Town Hall broadcast by Univision Wednesday, Ramiro González, a New Jersey-born construction worker from Tampa, Florida, with Cuban heritage asked Donald J. Trump this: “I want to give you the opportunity to try and win back my vote. Your action and maybe inaction, during your presidency and maybe the last few years, sort of, was a little disturbing to me. What happened during January 6, and the fact that, you know, you waited so long to take action while your supporters were attacking the Capitol?”

Trump responded: “You had hundreds of thousands of people coming to Washington. They didn’t come because of me – they came because of the election – they thought the election was a rigged election and that’s why they came.”

González could be seen furrowing his brow and moving his head side-to-side, Newsweek reports, when Trump added this about January 6; “A day of love from the standpoint of millions – it’s like hundreds of thousands – it could have been  -- the largest group I’ve ever spoken to before.” 

That’s the hundreds of thousands who came to Washington because of they thought the election was rigged, not because of Trump. 

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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THURSDAY 10/17/24

Excerpts from Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ speech to East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina, Sunday afternoon …

“I have spoken to state and local officials, both Republicans and Democrats to let them know we will be with you every step of the way as you recover (from Hurricane Helene). Because at times like these we stand together as one nation. That is who we are. …

“I’m going to tell ya, it’s going to be a tight race, ‘till the very end. And we are running as the underdog, so we have some hard work ahead of us, but we like hard work. Hard work is good work, and with your help, in 23 days, we will win.”

[CROWD CHANTS: “We will win! We will win!”]

“This election really is about two very different visions for our nation. One, his, focused on the past, the other, mine, focused on the future. … 

“And here’s the thing, North Carolina, he’s not being transparent with voters. He’s not being transparent. So, check this out. He refuses to release his medical records. I’ve done it. Every other presidential candidate in the modern era has done it. …

“He’s unwilling to do a 60 Minutes interview. Like every other major party candidate has done for half a century. He is unwilling to meet for a second debate. And here’s the thing; it makes you wonder. It makes you wonder. Why does his staff want him to hide away? Are they afraid that people see that he is too weak and unstable to lead  America?”

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MONDAY 10/14/24
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