The kamikazes’ casualty list this year is long. They blew up the debt-ceiling vote this summer, sparking a downgrade in the nation’s credit rating. They blew up the appropriations process so thoroughly that routine spending votes morphed into philosophical standoffs that nearly locked down the federal government three times and required seven temporary funding patches just to keep the lights on. And this week, they managed to blow up not just a tax cut that nearly everyone in Washington agrees is a good idea, but also their party’s hard-earned reputation for cutting taxes and, quite possibly, their chances at a long-term majority in the House and future control of the Senate.
— Patricia Murphy, writing in the Daily Beast that Democrats have dubbed the Republican House freshmen “the kamikazes” because they “have shown time and again that they are willing to blow up their careers and everything around them in service to their cause.”
To Trump, all politics is transactional, we know,
But he’s reached a level that’s an all-time low.
Trump promises oligarchs tit for tat.
To businesses, he offers this for that,
For Trump, it’s always: “Give me your quid and name your pro quo.”
“When there were questions about Biden’s ability, it made perfect sense to them to switch to Trump, particularly since many believe they could influence him. Now with Kamala, I think they regret it, but they so publicly identified with Trump, they feel they have no choice but to stay with him. I’m guessing they feel that ‘worst case it’s only four years’ and best case they can influence him to do what they want.”
— Mark Cuban, quoted by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, on why many Silicon Valley tech leaders are backing Donald Trump.
“This was a hate rally. This was not just a presidential rally, this was also not just a campaign rally. I think it’s important for people to understand these are mini January 6 rallies, these are mini Stop the Steal rallies. These are rallies to prime an electorate into rejecting the results of an election if it doesn’t go the way that they want.”
— Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), on MSNBC, about Donald Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden.
“I hope that you will forgive me if I’m a little angry that we are indifferent to Donald Trump’s erratic behavior. His obvious mental decline, his history as a convicted felon, a known slumlord, a predator found liable for sexual abuse. All of this while we pick apart Kamala’s answers from interviews that he doesn’t even have the courage to do.”
— Michelle Obama, at a campaign rally for Kamala Harris.
“If there ever were an incident that stands for the proposition that democracy, and journalism, cannot rest on the shoulders of oligarchs, this is it. Bezos did a lot of good for the Post when he first took it over, but the consent of the billionaire is not a stable structure for newspapers or magazines in an authoritarian era. Eventually, they can be counted upon to protect themselves, and that may sometimes mean not speaking the truth—either by lying or, as here, just by not speaking at all.”
“These Latinos, they love making babies, too. Just know that they do. There’s no pulling out. They don’t do that. They cum inside, just like they did to our country.” A few moments later, the comedian took a second swing at Puerto Ricans: “There’s a lot going on. I don’t know if you guys know this, but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico.”
— “Comedian” Tony Hinchcliffe crudely mocked Latinos — a key constituency for any winning campaign in 2024 — during preprogramming for Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally October 27, NBC News reports.
“As many as one in 20 Floridians, a million people, could be expelled from the country under a mass deportation plan that is a cornerstone of Donald Trump’s campaign, according to a report released by a Washington think tank and immigration advocacy group,” the Miami Herald reports.
The length of time Josseli Barnica suffered before dying during premature labor because doctors refused to treat her since it would have been a crime to give her an abortion.
The Washington Post has now had more than 250,000 cancellations — approximately 10% of all paid circulation — since the newspaper made its decision to not endorse in the presidential race, NPR reports. The Guardian: “The numbers are based on the number of cancellation emails that have been sent out, according to a source at the paper, though the subscriber dashboard is no longer viewable to employees.”
“Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign claimed she drew a crowd of more than 75,000 people in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday to hear her speech at the Ellipse, the site of Donald Trump’s infamous 2021 speech exhorting supporters to ‘fight like hell’ in the moments just before the January 6 Capitol riot,” The Independent reports.
MSN: “What many Americans may not realize is that U.S. elections are an outlier, especially compared to other industrialized democracies. Canada’s campaign typically lasts between 36 and 50 days. The total campaign bill for its 2021 election: $69 million in today’s dollars—about 1/27th the price tag per voter south of the border. U.S. elections cost about 40 times more per person than the U.K. or Germany.”