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DNC Convention 2024: Day 1

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Rayne
The Democratic National Committee Convention 2024 opened today at United Center in Chicago IL. Discuss the convention here.
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Loose Ends on the George Santos Plea Deal

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emptywheel
There are several loose strands in the George Santos case that may never be explained after he pleads guilty today.
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2024 Remains an Unpredictable Race: Six Predictable Things that Could Still Upend It

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emptywheel
Kamala Harris is in good shape as she heads into the Democratic Convention. But there are a lot of distinctly possible developments that could upend the race.
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Fruit Loops and Taco Talk

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emptywheel
Trump's press conferences have discredited the notion of press questions. Meanwhile, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are running the kind of selfie campaign that may resonate better with younger voters thirsting for authenticity in politics.
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With Tim Walz, There Is TOO Such a Thing as a Free Lunch

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emptywheel
Trump seemed to report that "Surreals have gone up 26%" yesterday before he turned to explaining his food props.
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The Saudi Payments to Trump Are More Important than the Suspected Egyptian One

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emptywheel
Given Trump's ongoing Saudi business deals, we literally do not know whether Trump would enter the White House as a business partner, an employee, or an unregistered foreign agent of the Saudi state. That makes questions about his Saudi ties more urgent than questions about the suspected $10 million payment from Egypt.
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In Attempting To Claim WaPo Doesn't Chase Rat-Fucks, WaPo Lies about Chasing Rat-Fucks

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emptywheel
WaPo is telling fairy tales about whether mainstream outlets gave up their fondness for rat-fuckery. They did not.  And as such, the decision not to embrace this rat-fuckery, however correct it might be, is a double standard. 
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After Serving as a Pawn for Russia, Roger Stone Became a Pwn of Iran

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emptywheel
The news that Roger Stone was pwned by suspected Iranian hackers may get more interesting. For now, however, it recalls the 2020 Iranian effort that adopted false identities of the Proud Boys.
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Journalists Struggle to Distinguish Elon Musk's Chat from Press Conference They Validated

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emptywheel
Journalists are indulging their own vanity by imagining they're doing any better at interviewing Donald Trump than Elon Musk did.
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Elon Musk's Machine for Political Violence

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emptywheel
Just a week after Elon Musk used Xitter to sow political violence in the UK, Donald Trump returned to Xitter.
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In Which Ian Miles Cheong Understands Trump's Campaign Better than NYT

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emptywheel
Trump melted down after seeing Kamala Harris' spectacular Detroit rally immediately, well before his unhinged conspiracy theories yesterday. And Harris' campaign had been goading him into doing so.
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The Trump Hack Could Extend Far Beyond a Hack-and-Leak

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emptywheel
The question of how to approach this news that Iran hacked Trump's campaign goes well beyond the question of whether to publish the documents allegedly stolen. In significant part because Trump refuses to firewall his political life from his criminal life, hacks by Iran could create real damage to the United States far beyond what they do to Trump's campaign.
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Trump's Broken-Down Helicopter Was a Vehicle to Make Up Shit about Kamala Harris

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emptywheel
It has taken two days and at least ten journalists to chase down Trump's fabrications about a helicopter flight with Willie Brown on which he badmouthed Kamala Harris. But the stories have yet to focus on that part -- that the failing helicopter was just a vehicle to tell more lies about the Vice President.
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Fridays with Nicole Sandler

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emptywheel
Nicole and I talked about the selection of Tim Walz to be Kamala Harris' VP -- and the swiftboating of him by JD Vance.
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Trump's Imaginary Helicopter Friends and Bacon Emergency

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emptywheel
Trump spent 6 minutes lying about crowd size. He spent 6 minutes lying about polls. He spent 6 minutes lying about the criminal cases against him. None of that has led the press to call the GOP to replace him.
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Trump Commends the Deep State; Media Buries That Fact

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emptywheel
The press could have told the American public that Trump will compliment the FBI when they're protecting him. But that's not the horserace that the media wants right now.
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Jack Smith Asks for an Extension

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emptywheel
Jack Smith probably asked for a delay of the status report on Trump's January 6 case to figure out how to approach the two obstruction charges against him in light of SCOTUS' ruling on Fischer. But a delay until August 30 allows for the possibility Jack Smith might supersede Trump's indictment.
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Vance and the Void

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Rayne
There’s something freakishly unsettling about JD Vance in AP Newsroom's photo collection.
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Derek Hines' Romanian Freeh Fall

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emptywheel
The allegations about influence peddling on behalf of Gabriel Popoviciu that David Weiss wants to present at Hunter Biden's tax trial -- allegations that are wildly tangential to the charges against the President's son -- implicate the conduct of former FBI Director Louis Freeh, Derek Hines' former boss.
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Walz' Leadership and JD's Spin: The Ethics of Service

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emptywheel
JD Vance, the former Marine propagandist, has made Tim Walz' decision to serve the public and his fellow Veterans in Congress rather than the Guard an issue. Which ought to lead to a focus on the notions of service each man took away from their military background.
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