[guest post by Dana]

Let’s go!

First news item

Excellent:

Liz Cheney: "In this election, putting patriotism ahead of partisanship is not an aspiration. It is our duty." pic.twitter.com/cUrQdNj00Y

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 3, 2024

This is why Republicans are voting for Harris. Listen to the entirety of Cheney’s speech. You won’t be disappointed. Well, unless you’re ‘party before country’…then you will be rolling your eyes.

Second news item

No welcome from Trump for the Haitians in Springfield, Ohio:

Former President Trump said Wednesday he would revoke immigration status for Haitian migrants who are living legally in the U.S.

. . .

Trump, speaking to NewsNation in Houston, Texas, said he would revoke the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitian immigrants and “bring them back to their country.”

“In my opinion, it’s not legal. It’s not legal for anybody to do,” Trump said.

TPS is a federal program that allows migrants from some countries to legally live in the United States for a certain period when the conditions in their home country are unsafe.

Migrants from Haiti, Afghanistan, Ukraine and Venezuela are among some countries eligible for the program, requiring participants to re-register with the Department of Homeland Security each year.

Meanwhile:

A Haitian organization in Ohio filed criminal charges against former President Trump and running mate Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) on Tuesday, alleging the pair has caused harm by spreading baseless smears about Haitian immigrants.

Third news item

Pot meet kettle:

In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, former President Donald Trump has blasted the Biden administration for its handling of the disaster — going so far as to accuse Democratic leaders of ignoring the needs of Republican storm victims.

But a review of Trump’s record by POLITICO’s E&E News and interviews with two former Trump White House officials show that the former president was flagrantly partisan at times in response to disasters and on at least three occasions hesitated to give disaster aid to areas he considered politically hostile or ordered special treatment for pro-Trump states.

But of course:

Mark Harvey, who was Trump’s senior director for resilience policy on the National Security Council staff, told E&E News on Wednesday that Trump initially refused to approve disaster aid for California after deadly wildfires in 2018 because of the state’s Democratic leanings.

But Harvey said Trump changed his mind after Harvey pulled voting results to show him that heavily damaged Orange County, California, had more Trump supporters than the entire state of Iowa.

Fourth news item

With a bit of pressure from President Biden, there is a tentative agreement on the port strike:

“Effective immediately, all current job actions will cease and all work covered by the Master Contract will resume,” the ILA and USMX said in a joint statement Thursday evening.

The tentative agreement would increase workers’ wages by 62% over the life of the 6-year contract, sources familiar confirm to ABC News.

This represents a significant increase from the shipping industry group’s offer of a 50% wage increase earlier this week. The union had been pushing for a 77% pay hike over six years.

Note:

The ILA, the union representing 50,000 East Coast and Gulf Coast dockworkers under the contract at issue, was seeking higher wages and a ban on the use of some automated equipment.

Fifth news item

Anne Applebaum on the folly of “red lines” in the Ukraine-Russia war:

But in truth, the imaginary red lines, the slow provision of weapons, and the rules about what can and can’t be hit are not the real problem. On its own, a White House decision to allow the Ukrainians to strike targets in Russia with American or even European missiles will not change the course of the war. The deeper limitation is our lack of imagination. Since this war began, we haven’t been able to imagine that the Ukrainians might defeat Russia, and so we haven’t tried to help those who are trying to do exactly that. We aren’t identifying, funding, and empowering the young Ukrainian engineers who are inventing new forms of asymmetric warfare. With a few exceptions, Ukrainians tell me, many allied armies aren’t in regular contact with the people carrying out cutting-edge military experiments in Ukraine. Oleksandr Kamyshin, Ukraine’s minister of strategic industries, says that the Ukrainians have spare capacity in their own drone factories, and could produce more themselves if they just had the money. Meanwhile, $300 billion worth of frozen Russian reserves are still sitting in European clearinghouses, untouched, waiting for a political decision to use that money to win the war. Biden is right to tout the success of the coalition of democracies created to aid Ukraine, but why not let that coalition start defending Ukraine against incoming missiles, as friends of Israel have just done in the Middle East? Why isn’t the coalition focused on enforcing targeted sanctions against the Russian defense industry?

Worse—much worse—is that, instead of focusing on victory, Americans and Europeans continue to dream of a magic “negotiated solution” that remains far away. Many, many people, some in good faith and some in bad faith, continue to call for an exchange of “land for peace.” Last week, Trump attacked Zelensky for supposedly refusing to negotiate, and the ex-president continues to make unfounded promises to end the war “in 24 hours.” But the obstacle to negotiations is not Zelensky. He probably could be induced to trade at least some land for peace, as long as Ukraine received authentic security guarantees—preferably, though not necessarily, in the form of NATO membership—to protect the rest of the country’s territory, and as long as Ukraine could be put on a path to complete integration with Europe. Even a smaller Ukraine would still need to be a viable country, to attract investment and ensure refugees’ return.

Right now, the actual obstacle is Putin.

Sixth news item

What is it with bigoted Republican politicians:

Thinking before you speak publicly is an important skill. Idaho State Sen. Dan Foreman, a conservative Republican, apparently did not get the memo.

As Boise State Public Radio, an NPR affiliate, reported on Thursday, a “meet the candidates” forum was held on Tuesday evening in Kendrick, a town with a population of about 300. Foreman attended, as did others running for District 6 state House and Senate seats…

After Trish Carter-Goodheart, a Democrat running for a House seat, pointed out that discrimination and racism exist in Idaho, Foreman reportedly lost his temper and told her to “go back where you came from.”

Among the various problems with that statement, Carter-Goodheart happens to be a member of the Nez Perce tribe, which has a reservation smack in the middle of District 6. She was where she came from. Foreman, as the radio piece noted, was born in Illinois.

Seventh news item

Hurricane Helene’s aftermath leaves 215 dead, and 200 individuals unaccounted for. You can make donations here to help with disaster recovery.

Have a good weekend.

—Dana