Weekend Open Thread
[guest post by Dana]
Let’s go!
First news item
The richest man in the world has been very, very busy:
Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and a linchpin of U.S. space efforts, has been in regular contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin since late 2022.
The discussions, confirmed by several current and former U.S., European and Russian officials, touch on personal topics, business and geopolitical tensions.
At one point, Putin asked the billionaire to avoid activating his Starlink satellite internet service over Taiwan as a favor to Chinese leader Xi Jinping, said two people briefed on the request.
While the U.S. and its allies have isolated Putin in recent years, Musk’s dialogue could signal re-engagement with the Russian leader, and reinforce Trump’s expressed desire to cut a deal over major fault lines such as the war in Ukraine.
At the same time, the contacts also raise potential national-security concerns among some in the current administration, given Putin’s role as one of America’s chief adversaries.
So both Trump and Musk have been in contact with Putin for at least two years. I’m sure there’s nothing to be concerned about. . .
Before the inevitable wave of bullshit trying to wave this off, remember that Putin and his terrorist mafia state are avowed enemies of the United States and its allies and consider themselves in a war footing against them.
Like Trump, Musk cares only for his personal business dealings and his image. Putin, Xi, and other dictators always find such people easy to exploit because it’s also how they operate. No messy oversight, laws, or national interests, just quid pro quo.
MAGA’s regurgitation of Kremlin talking points was not a subtle clue. Whether Musk and the rest are really that ignorant & gullible or just that corrupt and treasonous will be for years of journalism and hearings to reveal. But it won’t happen if Trump wins & they write history.
Un-American? Traitorous? Certainly not a nothing burger.
Second news item
The US has said for the first time it had evidence that 3,000 North Korean troops were receiving training in Russia for possible deployment against Ukraine in “a very serious” escalation that would make them “legitimate military targets”.
. . .
The [South Korea] agency also said Pyongyang had sent more than 13,000 containers of artillery, missiles, and other conventional arms to Russia since August 2023.
Third news item
The sacrifice, as told by Alexie Navalny in his prison diaries:
I’m forty-five. I have a family and children. I’ve had a life to live, worked on some interesting things, done some things that
were useful. But there’s a war on right now. Suppose a nineteen-year-old is riding in an armored vehicle, he gets a piece of shrapnel in his head, and that’s it. He has had no family, no children, no life. Right now, dead civilians are lying in the streets in Mariupol, their bodies gnawed at by dogs, and many of them will be lucky if they end up in even a mass grave-through no fault of their own. I made my choices, but these people were just living their lives. They had jobs. They were family breadwinners. Then, one fine evening, a vengeful runt on television, the President of a neighboring country, announces that you are all “Nazis” and have to die because Ukraine was invented by Lenin. The next day, a shell comes flying in your window and you no longer have a wife, a husband, or children — and maybe you yourself are also no longer alive.
And from Navalny’s wife, Yulia Navalnaya, a warning, a caution, and wise words:
“I would say to American voters, don’t take everything like granted,” Navalnaya said in the interview when asked what her message is to Americans, less than two weeks before the 2024 election.
“You are still living in democratic country, and I still believe in American institutions, and just make the right choice,” Navalnaya said.
When asked, Navalnaya declined to say which candidate she supported in the U. S. presidential election.
Fourth news item
The Menendez brothers get a break:
Los Angeles County prosecutors are recommending that Erik and Lyle Menendez be resentenced for the 1989 killings of their parents in the family’s Beverly Hills home, providing the brothers with a chance at freedom after 34 years behind bars.
District Attorney George Gascón announced his decision at a Thursday afternoon news conference.
“We are going to recommend to the court (on Friday) that the life without the possibility of parole be removed and they would be sentenced for murder,” Gascón said.
That would normally mean a sentence of 50 years to life, he said. But because of their age — they both were under 26 at the time of the crimes — they would be eligible for parole immediately.
“I believe that they have paid their debt to society,” he said. “The final decision will be made by the judge.”
I’m sure the Menendez brothers will be sending flowers to celebrity influencer and criminal advocate Kim Kardashian for her work on their behalf.
Fifth news item
Just two weeks out from the election:
Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are at a stalemate, 48 percent to 48 percent, according to the final poll from The New York Times/Siena College before Election Day.
The results are a shift from the last Times/Siena College poll in early October when Harris had a slight lead, albeit inside the margin of error, of 49 percent to 46 percent.
. . .
The poll was conducted among 2,516 registered voters between Oct. 20 and 23. The poll’s margin of error is plus-or-minus 2.2 percentage points among likely voters.
Sixth news item
Kamala on abortion concessions:
. . . when asked if she would be willing to make concessions, including “religious exemptions,” she declined, stating, “We should not be making concessions when we are talking about a fundamental freedom.”
. . .
However, the best question to ask Kamala Harris would be if she opposes the Church amendments. The Church amendments were passed in 1973 after the Roe v. Wade decision. They were part of the Health Programs Extension Act of 1973, which was passed unanimously by the U.S. Senate and was opposed by only one House member. The Church amendments protect the rights of individuals and entities that object to performing certain procedures “because of their religious beliefs or moral convictions.” Does Harris want to force religious health-care professionals to participate in abortions against their will?
Seventh news item
A courageous woman in France:
Gisele Pelicot, the 72-year-old victim of mass rape whose ordeal has shocked the world, told a trial in southern France on Wednesday that she was determined that making her case public should help other women and change society.
Dominique Pelicot, her husband, has admitted to inviting dozens of strangers over nearly 10 years to their house to rape her after he had drugged her. Fifty other men also stand trial, accused of raping her.
Gisele Pelicot. . . told the court she was destroyed by what happened to her. She said how “unbelievably violent” it was for her that many of the accused in the trial, which started on September 2, said they thought she agreed to the rapes or was faking sleeping.
To help rape victims, Pelicot made a bold move:
She said she had insisted the trial be held publicly, and not behind closed doors, as is often the case to protect rape victims, in the hope it would help other rape victims.
“They (rapists) are the ones who must be ashamed,” she said, adding that having videos, filmed by her husband, of some of her rapes, shown during the trial, was “very difficult but necessary.”
Eighth news item:
President Biden is expected to issue a formal apology for the federal government’s Native American boarding schools during a visit to Arizona on Friday.
. . .
“I’m heading to do something that should have been done a long time ago, to make a formal apology to the Indian nations for the way we treated their children for so many years,” Biden told reporters on Thursday.
FYI:
Between 1819 and 1969, the federal government operated more than 400 boarding schools across the country and provided support for more than 1,000 others, according to the Interior department’s investigation. The goal was complete cultural assimilation.
While most people will say this doesn’t matter, to the still-living victims, their families, and tribal members, guaranteed it does.
Ninth news item
Tucker Carlson, at a Turning Point USA event, compared Trump to America’s “dad” and that the nation needs a “spanking”. . .from “dad”:
Tucker Carlson addressed a raucous crowd in Georgia on Wednesday, where he compared former President Trump’s prospective return to the White House to a dad returning home, adding that he would give the country a “vigorous spanking.”
“There has to be a point at which Dad comes home. Yeah, that’s right. Dad comes home. And he’s pissed. Dad is pissed,” Carlson said. . .
“He’s not vengeful. He loves his children. Disobedient as they may be, he loves them. Because they’re his children. They live in his house. But he’s very disappointed in their behavior. And he’s going to have to let them know,” Carlson continued.
“When Dad gets home, you know what he says? ‘You’ve been a bad girl. You’ve been a bad little girl, and you’re getting a vigorous spanking right now. And no, it’s not going to hurt me more than it hurts you. No, it’s not. I’m not going to lie. It’s going to hurt you a lot more than it hurts me. And you earned this.’”
(video)
Eew.
America doesn’t need a “dad”. America doesn’t need a “spanking”. American voters are not children. America needs a stable leader who has the peoples best interest at heart, not his own. American needs a leader who understands the importance of the Constitution and its contents, and would never, ever consider subverting it. America needs a president who respects the rule of law. America needs a leader who doesn’t care more about his personal brand than the people he serves. America doesn’t need a leader who is frustrated by limits on presidential power, and who promises retribution on his perceived enemies. America doesn’t need a president who believes that perceived “enemies within” pose a greater threat to the nation than our enemies around the world. America doesn’t need a president who is willing to use the military to stifle his in-house enemies. America doesn’t need a president who admires murderous thugs who rule their people with an iron fist. I could go on and on, but you get the picture: America doesn’t need Donald Trump.
Have a great weekend.
—Dana