The Most Disgusting President* in U.S. History.
NYT Headline: “In Islamophobic Rant, Trump Seeks to Stir Republican Base in Michigan.” David Sanger & Bayliss Wagner of the New York Times: Donald “Trump turned to Islamophobic stereotypes to motivate Michigan Republicans on Sunday, claiming at a rally that Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic Senate nominee, if elected, would bring a wave of jihadists to the United States. 'If Abdul and the Democrats win, they will open the floodgates and invite hordes of jihadis to our shores, creating a nightmare of violence and terror until you cannot even have a Christmas,' Mr. Trump told more than 4,000 supporters gathered in Port Huron, a working-class, waterfront city in a deep-red congressional district 60 miles northeast of Detroit. Mr. Trump called Dr. El-Sayed, whose family immigrated from Egypt, a 'jihadist Muslim Brotherhood member,' a baseless claim. He then contrasted Dr. El-Sayed, a Muslim who was born in the United States, with his Republican opponent, Mike Rogers, who is white and also born in the United States. 'I call him apple pie,' Mr. Trump said of Mr. Rogers, who is 63. 'He’s like, perfect, this guy. He’s like central casting. He’s what your state is all about.'...
"Speaking at the rally in Port Huron, Mr. Rogers again accused Dr. El-Sayed of having family ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. He said that watching Dr. El-Sayed try to tell the truth is like 'watching an octopus put his socks on in the morning.' And he said the country 'can’t risk his extreme ideology and thinking.' On NBC News’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday morning, Mr. Rogers did not endorse Mr. Trump’s baseless claim that Dr. El-Sayed is 'a terrorist,' but did not condemn it outright. 'I’ve never called him a terrorist,' Mr. Rogers said of Dr. El-Sayed.” The link is a gift link.
Tim Balk of the New York Times: “Former President Barack Obama returned to the campaign trail on Saturday for midterm rallies in Cleveland and Detroit, setting up a rare split screen with ... [Donald] Trump, who staged a rally in the evening in a small city in central Georgia. Their pitches offered a contrast in style and substance. Mr. Obama prosecuted his case against the Trump administration in two tightly scripted, roughly 40-minute bursts on Saturday. Mr. Trump, who has been crisscrossing the country for weeks in a midterm push to save his party’s congressional majorities, defended his administration in a rambling and at times profane hour-and-a-half speech Saturday night. Here’s how Mr. Trump and Mr. Obama made their arguments 10 days before the election.” The link is a gift link.
Marie: Here's a story I missed last week because it's firewalled; however, Forbes also produced this video covering the story of Trump's billion-dollar tax write--off: pretending his golf courses are "bird sanctuaries" & (probably) preventing the IRS from challenging those fake write-offs: ~~~
~~~ Also, do watch "The Story of Lil Jared and the BIG Financial Crime," embedded yesterday.
Meryl Kornfield & Kevin Crowe of the Washington Post: “Republican campaigns and political action committees have spent nearly $3 million at ... Donald Trump’s businesses since he returned to office, according to a Washington Post analysis of federal campaign finance records. The spending has continued even after Trump’s Washington hotel — once the hub of his first-term political and fundraising orbit — stopped operating under the Trump Organization. Instead, GOP money has shifted south to Mar-a-Lago. Spending at the Florida club has more than tripled, adjusted for inflation, compared with the same period of his first term.”
It was abundantly clear that without my intervention, the possibility to bring humanitarian aid into the city and to evacuate the elderly would be impossible. -- Melania Trump, statement on the White House Website ~~~
~~~ Gary Legum of Wonkette comments on [link fixed] Melanie's taking credit for Pope Leo's sickbed effort to secure a very limited ceasefire in one city in Ukraine. MB: Maybe I'm all wrong here, but it seems to me that when you start saying out loud that you're better than the Pope, you might want to rethink your communications strategy. On the other hand, Leo made the arrangements when he was in the hospital recovering from lung surgery, so maybe Melanie thought he would be too sick to notice what she was up to. ~~~
~~~ Reagin von Lehe of the Daily Beast, republished by Yahoo! News: "First lady Melania Trump has been accused of trying to steal credit from the pope for securing a ceasefire in Ukraine. The White House announced the agreement with great fanfare Friday, with ... Donald Trump praising Melania for the move.... When asked how it happened, Trump said the ceasefire was Melania's initiative, contacting 'both sides, and both sides wanted to do it.'... A ceasefire confined to the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky will begin Oct. 29 to allow humanitarian aid in and prepare evacuations, according to a statement from the first lady.... Contrary to their claim that the first lady herself made the ceasefire happen, however, the Vatican told Reuters that Pope Leo XIV had called Putin and 'asked him to arrange a ceasefire to let aid and food into the town' on Oct. 16.... The Vatican's secretary of state, Pietro Parolin, said the ceasefire was the pope's initiative. The pope also spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Oct. 19, according to a Vatican announcement.... The Vatican didn't validate Melania's claim of indispensability, but corroborated her efforts."
Josh Gerstein, et al., of Politico: “A federal appeals court appears poised to reject the Justice Department’s last-minute bid to force California election workers to set aside ballots the Trump administration claims may be cast by noncitizens. During an unusual Sunday argument session, a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals — featuring two Trump appointees and a Biden appointee — signaled that it sees serious flaws in DOJ’s demand for immediate action to separate any ballots submitted by voters on a 20,000-person list of suspected noncitizens on California’s voting rolls. 'It seems to me you want us to issue an injunction that is entirely inconsistent with the law the California Legislature has adopted,' Judge Mark Bennett, a Trump appointee, said.... All three judges voiced concerns that the Justice Department rushed too quickly to the appeals court while a lower-court judge, Clinton appointee David Carter, was still weighing the matter.” The New York Times story is here; this is a gift link.
Pranshu Verma & Elizabeth Dwoskin of the Washington Post: “As Trump’s approval rating plummets, Silicon Valley companies that ingratiated themselves with Trump’s Washington are bracing for the possibility of a Democratic Congress — and with it congressional investigations targeting their dealings with the president and his administration. Democrats are preparing to investigate some defense technology firms, as well as manufacturing and mining companies that serve the military supply chain, according to conversations with nearly a dozen congressional staffers, political lobbyists, lawyers, investors and executives.... The firms make a tantalizing target for Democrats because of their close ties to the Trump administration and mounting public anger over unregulated AI, autonomous weapons and data centers, the people said.”
Maria Curi & Alex Isenstadt of Axios: "Anthropic's Claude accessed publicly available Georgia voter data without human authorization, a disclosure sure to add to growing concerns about AI security ahead of the upcoming midterm elections.... Claude accessed aggregate vote counts while on an internal statistics project, pulling data that the state makes available to the public for a fee. It didn't access the state's voter registration system or change or pull any voting records, an Anthropic spokesperson said." ~~~
MEANWHILE.... Elizabeth Dwoskin & Gerrit De Vynck of the Washington Post: “Cathedral, a months-old cybersecurity start-up, recently told Claude chatbot maker Anthropic that its researchers had penetrated sensitive internal data and messaging systems at the artificial intelligence company.... The start-up, founded by former members of the cost-cutting U.S. DOGE Service, offers AI-powered cybersecurity tools to the U.S. government and corporate clients. Its researchers got inside Anthropic systems by exploiting vulnerabilities in business software used by the AI firm and many other companies for administrative and sales tasks.... After running AI agents for less than 12 hours, the researchers found paths to access internal Anthropic data including meeting transcripts, details of salaries and job offers, and Slack messages discussing its advanced AI models, the Cathedral report said. The start-up probed Anthropic under a company program that invites outside cybersecurity experts to test its systems.”
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Alaska Senate Race. Jalen Beckford of Politico: “Former Rep. Mary Peltola is postponing campaign stops in her bid for Alaska’s Senate seat after she and her family sustained minor injuries in a car crash Saturday night. Peltola and her family were traveling to the Alaska Federation of Natives’ annual banquet when another driver struck their vehicle, her campaign announced Sunday on social media.... Anchorage police said a vehicle rear-ended the car carrying Peltola at a red light Saturday evening, pushing it into a third vehicle. Peltola and the other passengers of her car were taken to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.” The New York Times story is here; this is a gift link.
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Brazll. Ana Ionova & Adam Ellick of the New York Times: “Brazilian voters on Sunday handed the leftist president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a fourth term in office and a surprise victory over Flávio Bolsonaro, his right-wing challenger, in a striking rebuke to a conservative surge sweeping Latin America. Mr. Bolsonaro refused to accept the outcome and said it was the result of foul play, increasing the risk of unrest over the election result. The rejection by voters of Mr. Bolsonaro, the son of a former president jailed for attempting a coup four years ago, is also a loss for President Trump, who had embraced the Bolsonaro family and the region’s rising right. Mr. Lula, in contrast to many world leaders, has often and defiantly clashed with Mr. Trump, and his victory suggests that Latin America’s left-wing forces still wield influence despite a string of losses across the hemisphere.” The link is a gift link.
Venezuela. Julie Turkewitz, et al., of the New York Times: “Venezuela’s most popular opposition leader, María Corina Machado, returned home on Sunday after nearly a year in exile, increasing pressure on the country’s authoritarian government — and its new chief authority, the United States — to move quickly toward a democratic transition.... In the past, the Trump administration had made clear in private exchanges to foreign officials that it did not support Ms. Machado’s return, according to U.S. officials, and her travel was blocked. But on this occasion U.S. officials decided not to intervene. As critical U.S. midterm elections near, some voters in Florida have maintained that the United States is not pushing hard enough for democratic change in Venezuela.” The link is a gift link.
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