#dirty tricks

[spacevixenmusic]

Source: Avatar: The Legend of Korra [2012]

[mtvscreengrabs]

Connected - Stereo MCs (1992)

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

* * * *

With little more than two weeks until Election Day, the political news is becoming stranger and more frustrating with each passing day. The MAGA disinformation machine is dropping low-quality polls at a hectic pace, Elon Musk is offering cash incentives to Pennsylvanians who have registered to vote (probably illegal), a Musk-funded PAC is sending texts claiming to be from the Harris-Walz campaign, Trump is staging mock campaign events that media outlets are reporting as real, and Trump is telling vulgar stories during campaign appearances that would terminate the bid of any other candidate.

Meanwhile, Kamala Harris is powering through campaign stops in swing states, staying on message while highlighting Trump's increasing instability and madness. Indeed, as Kamala Harris celebrated her 60th birthday, she spoke at a Baptist church in Atlanta about the need for compassion for fellow citizens. She said,

When we come across our brothers and sisters in need, let us, as the Good Samaritan, did see in the face of a stranger, a neighbor, and let us recognize that when we shine the light in moments of darkness, it will guide our feet into the path of peace.

Later in the day, Trump invoked the “Bad Samaritan” version of that parable, repeating his description of his political opponents as the “enemy within.” Per The Guardian,

During an interview with Howard Kurtz on Fox News, broadcast on Sunday, the former president said that “radical left lunatics … the enemy from within … should be very easily handled, if necessary, by the national guard, or if really necessary, by the military” – before singling out Pelosi and Schiff.

Despite the overwhelming and understandable impulse to direct emotional energy (read: rage) at the anti-democratic and illegal actions of Trump and his supporters, the most effective response is to “run up the score” to protect the integrity of the election against Trump's inevitable claims of fraud.

We must trust that state and federal officials will do their jobs by investigating possible illegal activities by Trump and Musk. Indeed, the alarm has been raised in major media, social media, and by elected officials. See CNN, Elon Musk’s daily $1 million giveaway to registered voters could be illegal, experts say.

Billionaire Mark Cuban tweeted a note to Governor Josh Shapiro reminding the governor that all lotteries are illegal under Pennsylvania law unless specifically permitted by statute. (“I’m pretty sure, that while it may or may not violate voting laws, it may violate gaming laws in Pennsylvania. @JoshShapiroPA). Shapiro, in turn has said that Musk’s tactics are “deeply concerning.”

While Attorney General Merrick Garland has been excruciatingly slow off the mark in prosecuting Trump, he has taken a more aggressive stance in protecting voting and fair elections. See DOJ.gov, Office of Public Affairs | Attorney General Merrick B. Garland Convenes Election Threats Task Force Meeting. Although I have strongly criticized Garland over his delay in prosecuting Trump, all signs point to an active task force in the DOJ looking to stop voter fraud and election interference.

If the DOJ is doing its job, it should announce this week efforts to investigate deceptive texts and websites masquerading as Harris-Walz campaign efforts. And, at the very least, the DOJ should issue a statement that it is investigating Musk’s one-million-dollar-per-day giveaway.

Let state and federal officials enforce election laws and protect voting rights. With sixteen days to go, we cannot waste a moment. Every additional voter we drive to the polls is extra protection for the integrity of the election. Ignore the noise. Keep your head down. Stick to the plan. Kamala Harris is doing just that. We should, too. It is the only path to victory.

Sorry we have to talk about this, but we do!

During a campaign rally in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, Trump rambled for ten minutes about Arnold Palmer’s path to becoming one of the greatest golfers ever. That ramble, standing alone, should have been shocking. The man has sixteen days remaining to campaign for president and he is wasting his campaign appearances with an extended biography of Arnold Palmer.

But then he went off the rails so badly that no other candidate would ever recover. Here is the NYTimes revised reporting on the story:

Former President Donald J. Trump on Saturday spewed crude and vulgar remarks at a rally in Pennsylvania that included an off-color remark about a famous golfer’s penis size and a coarse insult about Vice President Kamala Harris. The performance, 17 days before the election in a critical battleground state, added to the impression of the Republican nominee as increasingly unfiltered and undisciplined. It comes as some of Mr. Trump’s allies and aides worry that Mr. Trump’s temperament and crass style are alienating undecided voters.

The “famous golfer” is Arnold Palmer, who passed away in 2016. By Sunday morning, news anchors had dropped all pretense and were asking Speaker Mike Johnson if he thought it appropriate for Trump to be talking about “a dead golfer’s penis.” Mike Johnson practically begged Jake Tapper to stop asking questions about the story. See Salon, "Why is he talking about Arnold Palmer's penis?": Tapper grills Johnson on Trump anecdote

There are two attributes of this story worth noting. First, if anyone in our families told the Arnold Palmer anecdote in a public speech, the family would stage an intervention to ensure that the speaker got the care he needed. Here, not only is no one in Trump's life telling him he needs to step away from public life, those surrounding him are defending his comments as “entertaining the crowd.”

Second, the initial story by the NYTimes—by reporter Michael Gold—referred to Trump telling “golf stories”—a euphemism that covered-up Trump's deteriorating mental state. Readers raked Michael Gold over the coals, and he reportedly responded by telling the Times subscribers to take the matter up with his senior editor, who excised the details of the anecdote from Gold’s story. Several hours later, the Times revised its story to include the full details.

Feedback and pressure worked—this time. Keep it up!

Notably, the Times ran a story on Sunday that featured the unedited, incoherent answers that Trump had given over the previous seventy-two hours. The Times is apparently responding to criticism that its “summaries” of Trump's speeches are “sane-washing” mental deterioration and hate statements. See NYTimes, Four of Trump’s Most Meandering Remarks This Week. (Accessible to all.)

Again, feedback and pressure appear to be shaping the Times' coverage. Keep up the good work!

Elon Musk’s PAC engaged in possibly illegal activity

As noted above, Elon Musk’s PAC is offering voters in Pennsylvania a cash incentive for recruiting others to register to vote and sign a petition supporting the First and Second Amendments. NBC News, Elon Musk's PAC offers $47 payouts to refer swing state voters to sign petition.

Last week, sources reported that a Musk related PAC was microtargeting Muslim and Jewish voters in Michigan with antisemitic and Islamophobic social media messages, respectively. See Michigan Advance, Musk-connected PAC behind mailers targeting Muslim and Jewish voters in Michigan

On Sunday, Talking Points Memo reported that a Musk-funded PAC was impersonating the Harris campaign. See TPM, Elon Musk’s Fake Sites and Fake Texts Impersonating the Harris Campaign.

As explained in the article, the Musk PAC has set up websites that look and feel like Kamala Harris's without explicitly saying that they are campaign websites. The website takes Harris’s positions to an extreme. For example, they say that Harris supports the ability of teachers to give sex change operations to students at school.

Per TPM,

[I]n late September Building America’s Future set up a site called Progress 2028 which purports to be Kamala Harris’s response or counter to Project 2025. The site is designed to have the general appearance of a Harris site in the sense of being in favor of gun regulation, supportive of gender-affirming care, etc. but with wildly over-the-top versions of those policies. So for instance, it calls for minor children to be able to get sex change operations at school without the knowledge of or interference from parents, calls for a mandatory gun buy-back program etc.

The PAC also funded a text message campaign which pushes the same fake policy messages impersonating Harris’s campaign and drives recipients of the texts to the site.

As TPM notes, the same PAC is sending text messages impersonating the Harris campaign.

Although a prosecutor would need to evaluate the content of the websites and text messages carefully, the activity likely violates Federal Election Campaign Act. See FEC Record | Commission approves Notification of Disposition and Interpretation. Per the FEC interpretative rule,

The Federal Election Campaign Act (the Act) prohibits fraudulent misrepresentation in two specific ways. First, the Act prohibits a candidate or their agent from purporting to speak, write or act for another candidate or political party in a way that is damaging to them. Second, the Act prohibits any person from falsely representing that they are speaking, writing or acting on behalf of a candidate or political party to solicit contributions.

The Musk-funded PAC may be violating the FEC Act in both ways noted above. I assume that this matter has the attention of the DOJ at the highest level. If any readers are in a position to flag this matter to the attention of the DOJ, time is of the essence!

A comment on the Al Smith Memorial Dinner in NY

The Catholic Archdiocese of New York holds an annual charity fundraising dinner honoring the late Al Smith. By tradition, both presidential candidates attend the dinner to help raise money for Catholic charitable operations.

This year, Trump appeared at the Al Smith dinner while Kamala Harris did not. (Harris provided a video recording of her comments). As expected, Trump delivered remarks that were crude, insulting, and completely at odds with the teachings of the Catholic Church. By inviting Trump, the Catholic Archbishop of New York helped normalize Trump's criminal and corrupt behavior.

The Catholic Archbishop, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, said he was “doubly disappointed” that Kamala Harris did not attend the dinner in person—but offered no criticisms of Trump, whom Cardinal Dolan has praised in the past.

The conservative newspaper National Catholic Reporter published an editorial criticizing Cardinal Dolan for hosting Trump. See National Catholic Reporter, Editorial: Cardinal Dolan's 'Al Smith dinner' disappointment is misdirected.

Per the National Catholic Reporter,

The mistake — and the cardinal is hardly the first or last to make it — is to judge the moment as if it were somehow still attached to a degree of normalcy, or what we've always known in presidential politics. The sin here is not that Kamala Harris had the good sense to reply, "No thank you, I'm previously engaged." The real scandal is that the good Catholic cardinal of the great city of New York would not have the courage to say, this year, that the current Republican candidate is a walking example of so much the Catholic Church finds repugnant in today's politics that he would suspend the normal invitations. . . . . We are disappointed [Cardinal Dolan] didn't have the courage to stand up to Trump, a looming threat to the democratic ideals that allow the church to host such a high-profile public gathering.

The Catholic Church is allowing Trump to inflict immense damage on its tattered reputation. The Church undoubtedly believes that support for Trump's presidency and candidacy helps impose its moral teachings on a secular nation that largely disagrees with Church doctrine. In the process, Trump is making hypocrites and fools of every clergy who embraces a man who is the antithesis of nearly every moral principle in the Church.

Concluding Thoughts

Frankly, it is frustrating to head into the final weeks of the campaign while Trump and his major funder appear to be flouting federal election law. In a just and rational world, Trump and Musk will be held to account for any illegal actions in the 2024 campaign. But they are making the risky calculation that if Trump wins, they will get away with their illegal conduct. If he loses, they nonetheless believe their wealth and fame will allow them to avoid accountability for their actions for many years.

The four years of Joe Biden’s presidency have felt unsatisfying and disquieting because of lack of progress in prosecuting Trump. That is water under the bridge. We must focus on what we can control at this moment.

We stand at an inflection point in which our votes not only protect democracy but also ensure that the guilty are held to account for their crimes (after due process and a fair trial).

Our primary motivation should not be to hold Trump accountable, no matter how righteous that justice might be. But dispensing justice is critical to defending democracy against future threats. That is why it is important for the DOJ to acknowledge this week that it is investigating the reports of impersonating Harris-Walz websites and text messages, as well as the dubious practice of awarding a lottery prize of $1 million per day to Pennsylvania registered voters who have signed Elon Musk’s petition.

Regardless of whether the DOJ lives up to its obligations to protect election integrity (and I believe it will), our obligations remain the same: Drive massive turnout that will insulate the outcome from interference by MAGA extremists.

It all comes down to turnout. So, let’s put our outrage aside and keep working to convince Americans to vote like their democracy depends on it!

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]

[ladymisteria]

Cute childish Diego

*Diego, wiping his hands with a cloth, reads disinterestedly the newspaèer over the shoulder of a woman.* De Soto, reading aloud from the paper: The Los Angeles Guardian proudly and happily endorses Ignacio de Soto for alcalde of… San Diego?! *People start laughing, and Diego continues innocently cleans out his fingernails on the white cloth.* De Soto: De la Vega! *He angrily looks over at Diego, who lazily wipes his hands as he barely suppresses a smile.* Diego, shrugging: Well, it's a wonderful town… *De Soto keeps glaring at him, while the latter points at him.* Diego, pretending to be enlightened: You mean you wanted to be endorsed for the alcalde of Los Angeles?! De Soto, angrily as people keep laughing: Yes! Diego: I'm so sorry, Ignacio… You should have been more specific!

Season 3, Episode 14 - Dirty Tricks.

[porterdavis]

I've been looking at flights to see my granddaughters in Nova Scotia, but the discount days are gone and flights available are $250 return.

I mentioned it to my daughter and she wrote back in ten minutes with my itinerary! She had booked it at $190. When I asked her how she had found that low a fare she said "incognito window'. I literally almost slapped my forehead. I knew that trick but had forgotten it.

Today's lesson -- if 'they' know you're interested, they will bend you over the barrel and ream you up the ass. If they know nothing about you they will offer their best deal.

Ain't capitalism grand?

[vinylspinning]

Target: Target (1976)

Jimi Jamison found fame in 1985 as the singer of corporate rockers, Survivor, and their Rocky IV theme, "Burning Heart" (not "Eye of the Tiger," that was sung by David Bickler), but, almost a decade prior, he could be found paying his dues with the Memphis-based Target.

Isn't it ironic, then, that this largely forgotten band's self-titled debut album for A&M Records features a tiger (or maybe a leopard?) on its cover?

Also, I'm not sure it was a good idea that the inner sleeve design (see above) invited consumers to use the record as a dartboard!

But there's the baby-faced Jamison posing for his close-up on the jacket's rear, alongside guitarists Paul Cannon and Buddy Davis, bassist Tommy Cathey, and drummer David Spain.

Incidentally, prior to Target, which came together in '74, Jamison had put in time with local garage bands like The Debuts, who scored a regional hit with "If I Cry" in 1968 and toured with The Buckinghams, Roy Orbison, and Mitch Ryder's Detroit Wheels.

Anyway, if you take the time to read this LP's credits -- as I always do -- you'll note thank-yous to industry big-wigs like A&M boss Jerry Moss and super talent agent Frank Barsalona, so clearly Target had some major players in their corner.

But their music was basically stuck in a '70s classic rock rut: a no-man's land between early decade blues-rockers like Free and Humble Pie (see "Let Me Live," "Let Me Down Easy") and their end-of-decade AOR descendants ("Just a Little too Much," "Are You Ready") like Foreigner, REO Speedwagon, and, yes, Survivor.

That being said, if you dig this sort of sound and don't come looking for sure-fire hits à la Bad Company (clearly the best-case scenario Target aspired to in '76), then standouts like "Love Just Won't Quit" and the particularly nasty "Can't Fake It" should do just fine.

Although, the album's best showcase for Jamison's soulful grit may be Target's cover of Wilson Pickett's "Ninety-Nine and a Half (Won't Do)" -- here styled as "99 1/2" -- which proves you simply can't go wrong with the classics.

Target was granted another shot in '77, via a sophomore LP called Captured, but were dropped with a third record in the can (it was finally released in 2017 as In Range), and broke up by decade's end.

Jamison briefly resurfaced in 1983 with a band called Cobra, which curiously featured future members (Mandy Meyer, Jeff Klaven, Tommy Kaiser) of Swiss metal-heads Krokus, before landing that plum gig in Survivor.

And then, beyond the 1990s, the singer spent the rest of his life in and out of the enduring hard rockers while simultaneously pursuing a solo career (to the tune of six records), until his death from a drug-influenced stroke in 2014, at the age of 63.

More Obscure Mid ‘70s Hard Rock: Armageddon’s Armageddon, Baker Gurvitz Army’s Elysian Encounter, Bedlam’s Bedlam, Black Sheep’s Black Sheep, Black Spirit’s Black Spirit, Blackfoot’s No Reservations, Blackfoot Sue’s Nothing to Hide, Bloontz’s Bloontz,  Blue Goose’s Blue Goose, Bux’s We Come to Play, Brownsville Station’s Motor City Connection, Cain’s A Pound of Flesh, Diamond Reo’s Diamond Reo, Dirty Tricks’ Dirty Tricks, Earth Quake’s Rocking the World, Elf’s Trying to Burn the Sun, Epitaph’s Outside the Law, Gedō’s Gedō, Goliath’s Hot Rock & Thunder ...

Even More Obscure Mid '70s Hard Rock: Good Rats’ Ratcity in Blue, Granicus’ Granicus, Granmax’s A Ninth Alive, Growl's Growl, Hammersmith’s Hammersmith, Hustler’s High Street, Legs Diamonds’ Legs Diamond, Max Webster’s Max Webster, Mother’s Finest’s Mother’s Finest, Moxy’s Moxy, Murasaki’s Murasaki, Nitzinger’s Live Better Electrically, Nutz’s Nutz, Painter’s Painter, Pentagram’s First Daze Here, Piper’s Piper, Plus’ No Pisar el Infinito, Primevil's Smokin' Bats at Campton's, Silver's Children of the Lord, Starz’s Starz, Stepson’s Stepson, The Storm’s The Storm, Strider’s Exposed, Strife’s Rush, Tiger’s Tiger, Truth and Janey’s No Rest for the Wicked, Widowmaker’s Widowmaker.

[admiralderuyter]

[gwydionmisha]

Want to help Susanna Gibson beat David Owen? https://secure.actblue.com/donate/sg-web?refcode=home-cta

[vollesroah]

It destroys the employer's advantage of knowing more than you when you are interviewing each other.

Source

Good

[ladymisteria]

Cute childish Diego

De Soto, conspiratorially in Diego's ear: I want my money back. Now! Diego, innocently: Well, I'd love to oblige you, Señor. But unfortunately last night on my way home, I was robbed. By Zorro. He said something about wanting to make a donation to the mission poor box. Maybe he wanted to make amends for that pencil Victoria stole… Anyway, good luck. *He shakes de Soto's hand.* Diego: I'll be voting early in the morning. Avoid the crowds. *He walks off, smiling mischievously, while De Soto is fuming.*

Season 3, Episode 14 - Dirty Tricks.

[lenbryant]

Watch out for their voter suppression tricks.

[asinglebluefeline]

You know how the Robins were trained to be able to fight enemies way bigger than them, since they started really young and also were taught by Batman (a Very Big Guy)?

It just occured to me that the reverse is also true: Batman is very good at fighting very short enemies.

I wonder if it ever came up.

Like if someone was trying to use their smaller size to their advantage and surprise Batman but it's just. Impossible. There is no move his little hypercompetent gremlins didn't already try against him.

[christinaroseandrews]

So the attorney general in Michigan, Jocelyn Benson, is currently investigating this PAC for election interference.

https://www.woodtv.com/news/michigan/michigan-secretary-of-state-looking-into-elon-musk-backed-pac/

The thing is what they're doing is super illegal in Michigan. They're currently trying to say that oh it was a technical error we were supposed to have a form that came in from the state website and it's just not working. But the site is working directly as intended because if you read the article they stayed out right what they're going to do with the data. They are going to sell it. They are going to quote sell it to "like-minded individuals and corporations" but they are going to sell it.

This is sketchy as hell and more States need to get in on this. And I'd like to see the federal government get in on this but I don't know what their limitations are.

It's also really really dumb. Like the ZIP code I live in has a metric fuck ton of people who would be potential Republican voters. I just happened to be on the edges of the ZIP code because of postal reasons. The area I live in is a swing district. It's a toss up but unfortunately it is becoming more and more conservative as housing prices go up. If someone goes to their site who's just recently moved to the area which is really freaking likely they're going to fuck over their own potential voter base not just people they don't want voting. It's just dumb.

But I have to say it's really telling that the only group of people (trumper republicans & apartheid billionaires who couldn't get ahead without getting a massive loan from their families) that are doing this are the super weird and insecure ones. It's like they can't trust their own messaging. It's like they have to cheat to win. There is bad as Russia and their doping of athletes. It's dishonest. It's disingenuous. It's just gross. And honestly it's like just really really weird and weak.

The website says it will help the viewer register to vote. But once a user clicks “Register to Vote,” the experience he or she will have can be very different, depending on where they live.

If a user lives in a state that is not considered competitive in the presidential election, like California or Wyoming for example, they'll be prompted to enter their email addresses and ZIP code and then directed quickly to a voter registration page for their state, or back to the original sign-up section.

But for users who enter a ZIP code that indicates they live in a battleground state, like Pennsylvania or Georgia, the process is very different.

Rather than be directed to their state’s voter registration page, they instead are directed to a highly detailed personal information form, prompted to enter their address, cellphone number and age.

If they agree to submit all that, the system still does not steer them to a voter registration page. Instead, it shows them a “thank you” page.

So that person who wanted help registering to vote? In the end, they got no help at all registering. But they did hand over priceless personal data to a political operation.

Specifically, a political action committee created by Tesla

CEO Elon Musk, one aimed at giving the Republican presidential nominee Trump an advantage in his campaign against Vice President Kamala Harris, the de facto Democratic nominee.

“I have created a PAC, or a super PAC ... the America PAC,” Musk said in a recent interview.

(continue reading)

[infinitemonkeytheory]

After months of work and hundreds of thousands of signatures, Missourians may not get to vote on abortion rights after all. On Friday, a judge—who just so happens to be Rush Limbaugh’s cousin—ruled that the pro-choice measure slated for November’s ballot was invalid. This comes just a few days after Florida Republicans launched a ‘fraud’ investigation into 36,000 already-verified signatures in support of Amendment 4, with police showing up to voters’ homes to question them. 

Arkansas voters lost the chance to have a say on abortion rights two weeks ago, when GOP leaders forced the issue off the ballot using a paperwork technicality. And today, the same conservative legal group that stopped Missouri voters from weighing in on abortion will make a similar case in front of Nebraska’s Supreme Court. 

This is what Republicans mean when they say abortion should be left up to the states: Not that voters should get to decide, but that GOP-led legislatures and judges should feel free to use every dirty trick in the book to make sure abortion stays banned.