Weekend Open Thread
[guest post by Dana]
Let’s go!
First news item
Trump on Liz Cheney: "Let's put her with a rifle standing there with 9 barrels shooting at her. Let's see how she feels about it. You know, when the guns are trained on her face." pic.twitter.com/Mtx1fbLtwE
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 1, 2024
Everyone okay with a former (and possibly our next) president and Mr. Protector of Women, targeting an American in this way? Are you okay with him rallying MAGAland like this? Or is it okay because she is on his “enemy from within” list?
A mentally unwell individual seeking retribution against Americans has no business being in the Oval Office.
Liz Cheney responds to Trump’s comments:
This is how dictators destroy free nations. They threaten those who speak against them with death. We cannot entrust our country and our freedom to a petty, vindictive, cruel, unstable man who wants to be a tyrant. #Womenwillnotbesilenced #VoteKamala
Here is Patterico’s observation of the Trump tweet:
Yeah! I mean he has signaled his agreement with Liz Cheney facing a military tribunal, but in this case his gleeful portrayal of a rifle pointed at Liz Cheney’s head has an alternate explanation! (Mr. Bone Spurs wants a rifle pointed at her head in war.) Outrageous! https://t.co/nMA4x28E5z
— Patterico (@Patterico) November 1, 2024
Moreover:
People are responding to this seeming to think I don’t understand he painted this gleeful image as one of Cheney being in a war. I said that right in the tweet! But if you can’t see the malicious pleasure he takes in this violent imagery, you might be a hyperpartisan.
Second news item
Preparing for a loss: It’s “rigged,” yet again:
Trump’s allies – and the former president himself – are increasingly pushing debunked claims of voter fraud, spreading their rhetoric through podcasts with massive audiences, megachurch sermons and political rallies in key states. Some Trump backers, including pastors associated with Christian nationalist ideas, have described the election as a fight between good and evil, describing Harris as the antichrist or suggesting that God has anointed Trump as the victor.
If he loses the election, it won’t be pretty.
Third news item
Warnings if Harris wins the election:
“Are you feeling good about where things stand?” Dan Abrams, the founder of Mediaite, inquired. . .
Steve Cohen (D-TN) warned that if Vice President Kamala Harris defeats former President Donald Trump next week, “there may be blood.”
“But I think Trump won’t stop at anything, and we’ll be in courts, and we’ll be in litigation, and he’ll be telling people again to go to the Capitol if you want to have a country and fight like hell. I mean, we’re gonna have– there may be blood, and I’m concerned. And I said something to the caucus yesterday on a group call: they’re going to put up high, sturdy fences between, I think, the Electoral College and the swearing-in, the inauguration.
But I think they ought to get them up back up there Monday week. There could be behavior that’s untoward and violent anytime if Trump doesn’t win. He claims he wins, they say he doesn’t win, there could be chaos.
Fourth news item
The man who wants to become the next President doing what he always does:
Former President Trump filed a lawsuit against CBS News Thursday, alleging the network engaged in election interference by doctoring a “60 Minutes” interview with Vice President Harris, per a court filing.
Driving the news: Trump is seeking $10 billion in damages for CBS’s alleged “partisan and unlawful acts of election and voter interference,” which the lawsuit claims were intended to confuse the public and “attempt to tip the scales” toward Democrats in the 2024 presidential election.
Distract, distract, distract.
Fifth news item
President Zelensky’s understandable frustration with the lack of response to North Korean troops entering the battle:
“And if there is nothing — and I think that the reaction to this is nothing, it has been zero — then the number of North Korean troops on our border will be increased,” he warned.
South Korea has long claimed that North Korea, a nuclear-armed state, has been providing weapons to Russia, and it alleges that North Korean soldiers began mobilizing after Kim Jong Un signed a defense agreement with Putin in June.
Sixth news item
GOP report on campus anti-semitism rules officials:
The report also criticized senior leadership at Harvard University for failing to condemn Hamas following the group’s attack on Israel on October 7 –– saying that the school’s public statement –– published on October 9 –– was edited down to cut the word “violent” when describing Hamas’ incursion.
The report noted that Columbia’s leadership offered greater concessions to encampment organizers than the school publicly divulged –– “touting aggressive actions on antisemitism to the media,” but not adequately disciplining students that were involved in the “criminal takeover” of Hamilton Hall on April 30 this year.
In a statement from Columbia, a spokesperson from the school said that the university “strongly condemns antisemitism and all forms of discrimination,” adding that “calls for violence or harm have no place at our university.” The spokesperson also said that under Interim President Katrina Armstrong, the school has established a “centralized Office of Institutional Equity” to handle all cases of discrimination and harassment.
Lawmakers contributing to the investigation also reported that university leaders were hostile toward congressional oversight on antisemitic behavior at colleges, treating the issue like a “public relations” problem rather than a “serious” one.
Seventh news item
Iran will deliver a “definitive and painful” response to Israel’s recent attack on its territory, likely before the US presidential election on November 5, CNN reported Wednesday, citing an anonymous senior source.
The source, apparently an Iranian with knowledge of deliberations in Tehran, told the network: “The response of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the Zionist regime’s aggression will be definitive and painful.”
Eighth news item
Jesse Watters said on Fox’s The Five show that his wife, Emma DiGiovine, “pulling the lever for Harris, that’s the same thing as an affair,” when the panel discussed the vice president’s new ad encouraging wives to make their own choice in the voting booth.
. . .Watters went on to say the scenario of his wife voting for Harris “violates the sanctity of our marriage—what else is she keeping from me, why is she lying about it?”
As the other panelists began to talk over each other, Watters added: “Why would she say she was voting Trump and then vote Harris? And then I caught her and she said, ‘I’ve been lying to you for the last four years.’ It’s over Emma. That would be D Day.”
What an absolute insult to his wife and their marriage. From the party of “family values,” it’s amazing he would openly admit his disrespect in this way.
Ninth news item
The continuing dehumanization of Afghan women:
“Even when an adult female prays and another female passes by, she must not pray loudly enough for them to hear,” Khalid Hanafi said in an audio clip released on Monday.
He also reiterated an earlier decree forbidding women from singing, saying: “How could they be allowed to sing if they aren’t even permitted to hear [each other’s] voices while praying?”
“They [the Taliban] are waging an all-out war against us, and we have no one in the world to hear our voices,” a former civil servant told the paper from Kabul. Now, “we cannot even hear each other’s voices”.
. . .
Women’s voices are “deemed to be potential instruments of vice”, said The Guardian. In this light, it’s “concerning” that international organisations have been “trying to normalise relations with the Taliban”, said former Afghan parliamentarian Shukria Barakzai. They are “whitewashing” the Taliban, disregarding its “widespread human rights violations”.
I can’t imagine what it’s like to not have the freedom to talk to anyone I want, wear what I want, and vote for the candidate of my choice without having to answer to anyone. And I really can’t imagine having a man in my life who is afraid of women and their agency.
Have a good weekend.
—Dana
