Finally Friday Reads:

Good Day,

Sky Dancers!

I wish I could say that this is the usual Labor Day Weekend start of the Silly Season heading toward the election, but I can’t.  The first establishment media interview with Vice President Harris and Governor Walz went to Dana Bash, who is not exactly in the bag for MAGA but just a poor interviewer. CNN used to be the place to go for news.  Now it’s the place to go for yawns and gotcha questions.  I didn’t see the interview, but their follow-up panel was sleep-inducing.  I did see bits and pieces last night.  I waited for the Transcript and the video this morning to take in more than just the CNN-chosen ‘highlights.’  There were only two questions and comments that grabbed my attention.

BASH: On that note, you had a lot of Republican speakers at the convention. Will you appoint a Republican to your Cabinet?

HARRIS: Yes, I would.

BASH: Any one in mind—

HARRIS: Yes, I would. No, no one in particular in mind. I got — we got 68 days to go with this election, so I’m not puttin’ the cart before the horse. But I would. I think — I think it’s really important. I — I have spent my career inviting diversity of opinion. I think it’s important to have people at the table when some of the most important decisions are being made that have different views, different experiences. And I think it would be to the benefit of the American public to have a member of my Cabinet who is a Republican.

BASH: Speaking of Republicans, I want to ask you about your opponent, Donald Trump. I was a little bit surprised, people might be surprised to hear that you have never interacted with him, met him face to face. That’s gonna change soon, but what I want to ask you about is what he said last month. He suggested that you happened to turn Black recently for political purposes, questioning a core part of your identity.

HARRIS: Yeah.

BASH: Any—

HARRIS: Same old, tired playbook. Next question, please. (LAUGH)

BASH: That’s it?

HARRIS: That’s it.

It allowed Harris to share her priorities and discuss Biden/Harris’s achievements. The gotcha moments came over the misunderstanding of her role in border negotiations in North Central America, fracking, and the ‘affordability crisis.’  She answered these questions directly and succinctly.  That’s not stopping the Trumplican Media from saying the interview was a Dumpsterfire.  But then, it’s doubtful any of the MAGA faithful actually watch CNN. I didn’t think any of the gotcha questions landed, but then I operate in a world where I don’t want White Male Christian Dominance with a token Tulsi Gabbard and Vivek Ramaswamy added as props.

BASH: You talk about — you call it the opportunity economy. You are well aware that right now many Americans are struggling. There’s a crisis of affordability. One of your campaign themes is, “We’re not going back.” But I wonder what you say to voters who do want to go back when it comes to the economy specifically because their groceries were less expensive, housing was more affordable when Donald Trump was president.

HARRIS: Well, let’s start with the fact that when Joe Biden and I came in office during the height of a pandemic, we saw over 10 million jobs were lost. People — I mean, literally we are all tracking the numbers. Hundreds of people a day were dying because of COVID. The economy had crashed.

In large part, all of that because of mismanagement by Donald Trump of that crisis. When we came in, our highest priority was to do what we could to rescue America. And today, we know that we have inflation at under 3%. A lot of our policies have led to the reality that America recovered faster than any wealthy nation around the world.

But you are right. Prices in particular for groceries are still too high. The American people know it. I know it. Which is why my agenda includes what we need to do to bring down the price of groceries. For example, dealing with an issue like price gouging.

What we need to do to extend the child tax credit to help young families be able to take care of their children in their most formative years. What we need to do to bring down the cost of housing. My proposal includes what would be a tax credit of $25,000 for first-time home buyers so they can just have enough to put a down payment on a home, which is

part of the American dream and their aspiration, but do it in a way that allows them to actually get on the path to achieving that goal and that dream.

BASH: So you have been vice president for three and a half years. The steps that you’re talking about now, why haven’t you done them already?

So, my answer would be, “D’oh, I’m Vice President, and my job is to implement President Biden’s policy, you know.”  But she’s classier than me and answered this way.

HARRIS: Well, first of all, we had to recover as an economy, and we have done that. I’m very proud of the work that we have done that has brought inflation down to less than 3%, the work that we have done to cap the cost of insulin at $35 a month for seniors. Donald Trump said he was gonna do a number of things, including allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices. Never happened. We did it.

So now, and I — as I travel in the state of Georgia and around our country, the number of seniors that have benefited, I’ve met — I was in Nevada recently. A grandmother who showed me her receipts. And before we capped the cost of insulin for seniors at $35 a month she was paying hundreds of dollars, up to thousands of dollars a month for her insulin. She’s not doing that any longer.

BASH: So you maintain Bidenomics is a success.

So, my answer would be: “Look at the damned economic, inflation, and job numbers, you stupid bitch!”  But, again, she’s classier than me, and I guess I would have to maintain a modicum of dignity, being an economics professor and all.  I would not say that to my class, but they are students, and she’s an overpaid talking head with a penchant for too much one hand then the other hand journalism even when the other hand is stealing us blind and wants to be a dictator.

HARRIS: I maintain that when we do the work of bringing down prescription medication for the American people, including capping the cost — of the annual cost of prescription medication for seniors at $2,000; when we do what we did in the first year of being in office to extend the child tax credit so that we cut child poverty in America by over 50%; when we do what we have done to invest in the American people and bringing manufacturing back to the United States so that we created over 800,000 new manufacturing jobs, bringing business back to America; what we have done to improve the supply chain so we’re not relying on foreign governments to supply American families with their basic needs, I’ll say that that’s good work. There’s more to do, but that’s good work.

But hey, what about?  That came next.  Read more at the link or watch the video.

Today, I was delighted by a Washington Post Op-Ed by Dana Milbank, which was witty and true. It was a definite dig at that horrid thing at the New York Times earlier in the week. In a test of character, Trump shows his true grift. In his disorientation, the GOP nominee and former president retreats to his instincts.”

The New York Times ran a fine specimen of unintentional comedy this week: an essay by conservative writer Rich Lowry titled “Trump Can Win on Character.”

The only thing that could have made it better was if it had been under the byline of Stormy Daniels.

Lowry’s argument itself wasn’t quite as absurd as the headline. He was only suggesting that Trump repeatedly call Vice President Kamala Harris “weak,” which Trump probably won’t do, because he’s too busy calling her a communist, a copycat, stupid, a recent conversion to being Black or someone with a crazy laugh who is not as good looking as he is.

Trump could win on various things: inflation, immigration, isolationism. But the notion that a felon and adjudicated sexual abuser who shouts barnyard obscenities and vulgar epithets at his rallies would return to the White House on the strength of his upstanding character? Well, let’s just say there are very fine people on both sides who would have trouble making that argument.

As though in answer to the suggestion that he can “win on character,” Trump responded over the next couple of days by:

• Holding a campaign event in front of graves at Arlington National Cemetery, where his staff reportedly pushed aside a cemetery official trying to enforce rules against politicizing the sacred ground. Trump posed graveside with a big grin and a thumbs-up, and his campaign set the Republican nominee’s cemetery visit to music and posted it as a TikTok video. When a Harris spokesman commented on the “sad” event, Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, declared that Harris herself “can go to hell.” (Vance, after a cool reception last week at a doughnut shop in Georgia, got booed by firefighters this week in Boston.)
• Announcing that two of the nation’s most prominent conspiracy theorists — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard — would be co-chairs of his presidential transition if he wins the election, with influence over key appointments and policies. Gabbard’s trumpeting of Russian propaganda has been labeled “treasonous” by Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), and Kennedy’s long-shot presidential campaign somehow fizzled after he acknowledged, among other things, having a brain worm and leaving a dead bear cub in New York’s Central Park.
• Rolling out his latest attempt to cajole his supporters to line his own pockets. This time, he offered another round of “digital trading cards” featuring a Trump superhero. Supporters who parted with $1,485 or more in this Trump-enrichment scam would be sent a piece of the fabric cut from the “knockout suit” he wore during his June debate with President Joe Biden.
• Proclaiming that it was “Biden’s fault and Harris’s fault” that he was the victim of a failed assassination attempt, asserting without evidence that they prevented the Secret Service from protecting him and that he might have been shot “because of their rhetoric.” The FBI reported that the shooter, a Republican, had searched online for both Biden and Trump events and settled on the Trump rally as a “target of opportunity.”
• Sharing another fusillade of posts on social media that cited QAnon slogans, called for the imprisonment of his opponents, and suggested that Harris used sex to advance her career.

On Thursday, Trump was in Michigan and as coarse as ever — referring twice to Harris’s running mate, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, as “Tampon Tim”; preposterously claiming that in Democratic states “you’re allowed to kill the baby after the baby is born”; and saying of Harris: “Nobody knows who the hell she is. She does not give a damn about you.” While complaining that the Army had said he used the Arlington National Cemetery visit “to politic,” he went right on “politicking” about it. Referring to the families of the fallen he met with, Trump said Biden and Harris “killed their children as though they had a gun in their hand.”

That last bit still has me peeved.  I have relatives buried in Arlington National Cemetary, and my Dad chose to be buried in a Washington State Veteran’s Cemetery, where the Pilot and Navigator of his World War II B-25 bombing crew is also buried.  I am incensed about this for my family, who served in the Military from the Revolutionary War forward, including the winning side of the Civil War. Historian Heather Cox Richardson puts this into perspective in her Substack, Letters from an American.

And now the U.S. Army has weighed in on the scandal surrounding Trump’s visit to Arlington National Cemetery for a campaign photo op, after which his team shared a campaign video it had filmed. The Army said that the cemetery hosts almost 3,000 public wreath-laying ceremonies a year without incident and that Trump and his staff “were made aware of federal laws, Army regulations and [Department of Defense] policies, which clearly prohibit political activities on cemetery grounds.”

It went on to say that a cemetery employee “who attempted to ensure adherence to these rules was abruptly pushed aside…. This incident was unfortunate, and it is also unfortunate that the… employee and her professionalism has been unfairly attacked. [Arlington National Cemetery] is a national shrine to the honored dead of the Armed Forces, and its dedicated staff will continue to ensure public ceremonies are conducted with the dignity and respect the nation’s fallen deserve.”

“I don’t think I can adequately explain what a massive deal it is for the Army to make a statement like this,” political writer and veteran Allison Gill of Mueller, She Wrote, noted. “The Pentagon avoids statements like this at all costs. But a draft dodging traitor decided to lie about our armed forces staff, so they went to paper.”

The deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh said the Department of Defense is “aware of the statement that the Army issued, and we support what the Army said.” Hours later, Trump campaign manager Chris LaCivita reposted the offending video on X and, tagging the official account for Army Secretary Christine Wormuth, said he was “hoping to trigger the hacks” in her office.

In Talking Points Memo, Josh Marshall reported that the Trump campaign’s plan was to lay a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery to honor the 13 members of the U.S. military killed in the suicide bombing during the evacuation of Kabul, Afghanistan, in August 2021. They intended to film the event and then attack Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden for not “showing up” for the event, which they intended to portray as an “established memorial.”

She has also some good news to share from the Financial World. I can only say that Janet Rivlin’s hands are all over this.  Good for her!

Another major story from yesterday is that the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has finalized two rules that will work to stop corruption and money laundering in U.S. residential real estate and in private investment.

This is a big deal. As scholar of kleptocracies Casey Michel put it: “This is a massive, massive deal in the world of counter-kleptocracy—the U.S. is finally ending the gargantuan anti–money laundering loopholes for real estate, private equity, hedge funds, and more. Can’t overstate how important this is. What a feat.”

The White Stripes are the latest band telling the DonOld Campaign to cease and desist! “‘Fascists’: Jack White threatens to sue Trump campaign over use of music. White Stripes singer angered after Trump aide shares social media post using clip of band’s hit Seven Nation Army.”  I wonder if it’s too late for Chachi to record something dismal? The display of privilege in all these acts of theft of dignity and expression is just the latest in the NepoBaby news.

Another bit of Trumplican Justice and Karma from The Hill.  “Georgia election workers seek control of Giuliani’s assets to collect on $146M defamation judgment. Two Georgia election workers have asked a federal judge for control over Rudy Giuliani’s  assets to collect on the $146 million defamation judgment against him for baselessly claiming they engaged in election fraud in 2020.”

The request from Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss comes just short of a month after the ex-New York City mayor’s defunct bankruptcy, filed in the aftermath of the staggering judgment, was formally closed.

“Mr. Giuliani has spent years evading accountability for his actions — first in litigation in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, and then in chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings that Mr. Giuliani commenced in this District,” Aaron Nathan, an attorney for the mother-daughter duo, wrote in a Friday court filing. “Now that Mr. Giuliani’s bankruptcy case has been dismissed, Plaintiffs are finally in a position to receive a measure of compensation by enforcing their judgment.”

Freeman and Moss asked the judge to order Giuliani to turn over personal property in his possession and to give the women the power to take possession of and sell any property he does not turn over.

“Those remedies are overwhelmingly justified under New York law,” Nathan wrote. “And they are all the more appropriate in the context of this case, where Mr. Giuliani has proven time and again that he will never voluntarily comply with court orders, much less voluntarily satisfy Plaintiffs’ judgment.”

After a trial in December, a jury ordered Giuliani to pay Freeman and Moss more than $148 million, though after attorneys fees and other adjustments, the judgment was formally entered just under $146 million.

The election workers testified to their lives being turned upside down by a torrent of racist and violent threats after Giuliani, the ex-personal lawyer of former President Trump, baselessly claimed they committed widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

Giuliani froze the judgment, and other pending lawsuits against him, by filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. But the judge’s dismissal of that case enabled the two election workers to collect on the judgment — even though they are likely to recover far less than $146 million, given Giuliani disclosed only $10.6 million in assets to the bankruptcy court.

Well, y’all have a great long weekend and remember how many lives it has cost to make this country what it is and can be.  We can’t afford to let them all down now.

What’s on your reading and blogging list today?