The Sad, Pathetic Spectacle of John Kelly’s Critics; The Bulwark, October 23, 2024

SARAH LONGWELL, The Bulwark; The Sad, Pathetic Spectacle of John Kelly’s Critics

"WHEN GEN. JOHN KELLY WENT PUBLIC about Trump’s praise for Hitler and his fears about a dictatorial second Trump term, he joined a growing list of former Trump officials ringing the alarm.

He also sparked what has become a pathetic if not predictable pattern, in which a chorus of Trump sycophants obediently rush forward to explain away the alarming revelation and impugn the witness’s credibility.

Here’s reliable Trump lickspittle Scott Jennings telling us that Kelly probably made the whole thing up and that the real Hitlers are on college campuses. Trump apologist ​​Ryan James Girdusky said, “I, honest to God, like most Americans, do not care about Gen. Kelly’s farewell tour.”

Brian Kilmeade on Fox and Friends said of Trump’s praise for Nazi generals: “I can absolutely see him go, ‘It'd be great to have German generals that actually do what we ask them to do,’ maybe not fully being cognizant of the third rail of German generals who were Nazis, or whatever.” (Not a parody.)

Trump confidante Mike Davis called Kelly “Gen. Christine Blasey Ford”—get it? Chris Sununu is unbothered: “We’ve heard a lot of extreme things from Donald Trump. With a guy like that, it’s kinda baked into the vote.” Sen. Bill Hagerty, on CNN, downplayed the entire revelation as a matter of personal dispute between two men. Kelly and Trump, he said, “were not a good fit.”

There is something deeply pernicious to this routine. These people want you to forget the cumulative weight of the accusations against Trump, especially when those accusations are coming from his own former employees—many of them high-ranking military officers. They’re doing so not because they don’t believe the accusations but because they know how harmful they could be.

You know how we know this? Because the claims of Kelly and others are backed up by what we’ve seen with our own eyes over the last nine years."

Likenesses Of Michael Douglas, Amy Schumer And Chris Rock Warn Voters Of Election “Deepfakes” In New PSA; Deadline, October 22, 2024

Ted Johnson , Deadline; Likenesses Of Michael Douglas, Amy Schumer And Chris Rock Warn Voters Of Election “Deepfakes” In New PSA

"A new public service announcement featuring likenesses of celebrities including Michael Douglas, Chris Rock and Amy Schumer aims to warn voters about AI deepfakes, including those that could be unleashed on Election Day to try to suppress the vote.

The spot is from RepresentUS, a nonpartisan anti-corruption organization that includes figures like Ed Helms and Jennifer Lawrence on its board."

Rattled Elon Musk goes on late-night attack against Tim Walz after ‘dips***’ comments; Independent, October 23, 2024

Gustaf Kilander , Independent; Rattled Elon Musk goes on late-night attack against Tim Walz after ‘dips***’ comments

"Elon Musk went on a late-night attack against Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz after he called the billionaire a “dips***” during a rally in Madison, Wisconsin. 

“Elon’s on that stage, jumping around, skipping like a dips***,” Walz said on Tuesday, referring to Musk as former President Donald Trump’s“running mate.”...

“That guy is literally the richest man in the world, spending millions of dollars to help Donald Trump buy an election,” the Minnesota governor said.

Musk responded to Walz on X on Tuesday afternoon, writing: “You’re gonna lose, @Tim_Walz. Saving the American people from the torture of hearing you speak for four years was worth it.”...

Walz also criticized Musk’s $75 million donation to a new political action committee to which he’s so far the only donor. The billionaire has also been giving out checks for $1 million to people who sign his PAC’s petition. It’s a lottery that some experts have called illegal and an attempt to buy votes."

Texas county reverses classification of Indigenous history book as fiction; Texas county reverses classification of Indigenous history book as fiction, October 22, 2024

Daniel Wu , The Washington Post; Texas county reverses classification of Indigenous history book as fiction

"CORRECTION

A previous version of this article incorrectly said that the book "Colonization and the Wampanoag Story" detailed the Wampanoag tribe's encounters with Christopher Columbus and the Pilgrims. The Wampanoag tribe never encountered Columbus. The book details encounters between the Wampanoag tribe and the Pilgrims, as well as encounters between Columbus and other Indigenous tribes. The article has been corrected...

A Texas county on Tuesday reversed a decision to reclassify a children’s book on Native American history as fiction after the move drew anger from authors, advocates and one of the world’s largest publishing companies.

A citizen committee in Montgomery County, just north of Houston, moved the nonfiction book “Colonization and the Wampanoag Story” from the county library system’s juvenile nonfiction collection to its fiction collection last week, according to an email from a librarian shared with The Washington Post. The book details encounters between the Wampanoag tribe and the Pilgrims, as well as encounters between Christopher Columbus and other Indigenous tribes.

Advocates and nonprofits, including the Texas Freedom to Read Project, Authors Against Book Bans and the American Indian Library Association, blasted the move in an open letter Wednesday asking the county to move the book back to the nonfiction collection. They were joined by Penguin Random House, which published the book by author and Indigenous historian Linda Coombs."

Real men reject fascism; The Ink, October 23, 2024

ANAND GIRIDHARADAS, The Ink; Real men reject fascism

"Two things have grown increasingly clear: Donald Trump is a fascist, and he is winning the support of most American men. But it doesn’t have to be like this. There is a way out.

Yesterday, a breathtaking report arrived in The New York Times. John Kelly, Trump’s former chief of staff, warned in the starkest terms that Trump is a fascist with a real authoritarian vision and confirmed the murmurs about Trump being jealous not to have had the kind of generals Hitler did...

The distressing thing is that a majority of American men are looking at all of this and saying, “Yeah, let’s do that.” We are dude-bro-ing our way into democratic death...

So now here we are in a country that is changing a lot, has changed a lot — indeed, has, over the past few generations, done more to change the status and rights and dignity of women than hundreds of prior generations did. And we have done the right things while failing to manage social and psychological change — failing to manage the minds and hearts of those who experience these worthy changes as headwinds.

This seems to me central to the story of how a majority of men could do what populations bewildered by change and anxious about the future and their place in it have done: support fascism, support dictatorship, support tyranny to smash it all...

Yes, change is scary. Yes, it sometimes feels like you don’t know how to be these days. Don’t know what to say. Yes, it’s tempting to shake things up when you’re scared. When you feel attacked by the future itself.

But don’t. Because men worthy of the word don’t outsource the care and protection of their families to dictators. Men worthy of the word don’t depend for their self-esteem on the crushing and marginalizing of Others. Men worthy of the word don’t need women to be locked in the fourteenth century legally to feel whole. Men worthy of the word don’t hand over the keys to the future to billionaires who pull the strings.

However one might reject their premises, some fraction of the mass of American men who have succumbed to the lure of Trump’s fascism need to feel seen and heard and recognized in their stress and anxiety and sense of dislocation in the future that is coming. And they need to be invited into a contrary story of progress. Saving the country from tyranny needs to become aspirational for men. Not a lecture.

They need to remember, and become excited to say, that real men reject fascism."

TRUMP: ‘I NEED THE KIND OF GENERALS THAT HITLER HAD’; The Atlantic, October 22, 2024

Jeffrey Goldberg , The Atlantic; TRUMP: ‘I NEED THE KIND OF GENERALS THAT HITLER HAD’

"The personal qualities displayed by Trump in his reaction to the cost of the Guillén funeral—contempt, rage, parsimony, racism—hardly surprised his inner circle. Trump has frequently voiced his disdain for those who serve in the military and for their devotion to duty, honor, and sacrifice. Former generals who have worked for Trump say that the sole military virtue he prizes is obedience. As his presidency drew to a close, and in the years since, he has become more and more interested in the advantages of dictatorship, and the absolute control over the military that he believes it would deliver. “I need the kind of generals that Hitler had,” Trump said in a private conversation in the White House, according to two people who heard him say this. “People who were totally loyal to him, that follow orders.” (“This is absolutely false,” Pfeiffer wrote in an email. “President Trump never said this.”)...

Trump’s singularly corrosive approach to military tradition was in evidence as recently as August, when he described the Medal of Honor, the nation’s top award for heroism and selflessness in combat, as inferior to the Medal of Freedom, which is awarded to civilians for career achievement. During a campaign speech, he described Medal of Honor recipients as “either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets or they’re dead,” prompting the Veterans of Foreign Wars to issue a condemnation: “These asinine comments not only diminish the significance of our nation’s highest award for valor, but also crassly characterizes the sacrifices of those who have risked their lives above and beyond the call of duty.” Later in August, Trump caused controversy by violating federal regulations prohibiting the politicization of military cemeteries, after a campaign visit to Arlington in which he gave a smiling thumbs-up while standing behind gravestones of fallen American soldiers...

One former Trump-administration Cabinet secretary told me of a conversation he’d had with Trump during his time in office about the Vietnam War. Trump famously escaped the draft by claiming that his feet were afflicted with bone spurs. (“I had a doctor that gave me a letter—a very strong letter on the heels,” Trump told The New York Times in 2016.) Once, when the subject of aging Vietnam veterans came up in conversation, Trump offered this observation to the Cabinet official: “Vietnam would have been a waste of time for me. Only suckers went to Vietnam.”...

Trump, those who have worked for him say, is unable to understand the military norm that one does not leave fellow soldiers behind on the battlefield. As president, Trump told senior advisers that he didn’t understand why the U.S. government placed such value on finding soldiers missing in action. To him, they could be left behind, because they had performed poorly by getting captured."

As Election Nears, Kelly Warns Trump Would Rule Like a Dictator; The New York Times, October 22, 2024

Michael S. Schmidt, The New York Times; As Election Nears, Kelly Warns Trump Would Rule Like a Dictator

"Few top officials spent more time behind closed doors in the White House with President Donald J. Trump than John F. Kelly, the former Marine general who was his longest-serving chief of staff.

With Election Day looming, Mr. Kelly — deeply bothered by Mr. Trump’s recent comments about employing the military against his domestic opponents — agreed to three on-the-record, recorded discussions with a reporter for The New York Times about the former president, providing some of his most wide-ranging comments yet about Mr. Trump’s fitness and character...

Here are excerpts from, and audio of, Mr. Kelly’s comments...

Trump told him that “Hitler did some good things.”

Mr. Kelly confirmed previous reports that on more than one occasion Mr. Trump spoke positively of Hitler.

“He commented more than once that, ‘You know, Hitler did some good things, too,’” Mr. Kelly said Mr. Trump told him...

Kelly said Trump looked down on those who were disabled on the battlefield.

In response to a question about previous stories about Mr. Trump having disdain for disabled veterans, Mr. Kelly said Mr. Trump did not want to be seen in public with those who had lost limbs on the battlefield.

“Certainly his not wanting to be seen with amputees — amputees that lost their limbs in defense of this country fighting for every American, him included, to protect them, but didn’t want to be seen with them. That’s an interesting perspective for the commander in chief to have.”

“He would just say: ‘Look, it just doesn’t look good for me.’”

He said Trump called service members who were injured or killed “losers and suckers,” despite denials from Trump and some aides.

Confirming a statement he gave to CNN last year, Mr. Kelly said that on multiple occasions Mr. Trump told him that those Americans wounded, captured or killed in action were “losers and suckers.”

“The time in Paris was not the only time that he ever said it,” Mr. Kelly said, referring to reports that Mr. Trump told him that he did not want to visit a cemetery where American service members killed during World War I were buried...

Mr. Kelly had nothing good to say about Mr. Trump

Mr. Kelly was asked whether Mr. Trump had any empathy

“No,” Mr. Kelly said.""

Is X a threat to American democracy?; The Tufts Daily, October 16, 2024

 Olivia Bye, The Tufts Daily; Is X a threat to American democracy?

"Park’s experience on the site mirrors that of X’s roughly 550 million monthly users and can largely be attributed to X’s acquisition by multi-billionaire businessman and investor Elon Musk in October 2022. In the two years following Musk’s purchase of X, the site has seen unprecedented levels of misinformation and disinformation clouding its user base, a trend that has only been exacerbated in recent months by the 2024 presidential election. The combination of growing artificial intelligence capabilities and a social media platform that has, in nearly every sense, exonerated its regulations of what can or cannot be shared to the site has raised the question: Is X a threat to American democracy?...

However, Associate Professor of Political Science Michael Beckley is skeptical that the increase in political misinformation sets this year’s presidential election apart, citing comparable patterns that have occurred throughout history. “We’ve seen similar things when radio first came out. [People wondered], was this going to allow strong men to rally people behind their cause? We saw the same thing with TV,” he said. “So [the misinformation] is jarring, but I don’t see it as a unique factor. It is rather a pretty chronic factor in a democratic system.”

Kelly Greenhill, an associate professor of Political Science, identifies the normalization of false information spread by notable figures as a key reason behind increased disinformation in the media... 

Greenhill suggests that possibly the best solution to avoid X’s abundance of misinformation is, simply, to leave. “People don’t have to use X. They can leave. They can delete their accounts. They can also leave social media. They may not want to, and they may not choose to, but they can,” she wrote. Some users are choosing to do just that; social media sites that have advertised themselves as alternatives to X, such as Bluesky and Mastodon, have amassed popularity in recent years."

Elon Musk expands his empire of misinformation; CNN, October 15, 2024

 Allison Morrow, CNN; Elon Musk expands his empire of misinformation

"At any Tesla event, you have to go in expecting a good amount of smoke and mirrors. This is the company run by Elon Musk, after all — its self-anointed Technoking who’s made overpromising and underdelivering a theme of his career.

But Thursday’s “Cybercab” robotaxi unveiling was, even by Musk-ian standards for bluster, one giant optical illusion. The kind of spectacle that should remind everyone that the world’s richest person is someone who promotes and appears to relish misinformation and hyperbole on a mass scale, whether he’s speaking to investors, his millions of followers on X or whichever politician he feels is most likely to agree with his increasingly right-wing and conspiracy-laden worldview...

The robotaxis, Tesla’s fully driverless vehicles that it hopes to put into service next year, were the main event. But the company’s humanoid Optimus robots stole some of the spotlight as they danced and mingled with the crowd, pouring drinks and playing charades.

That all would have been impressive if not for a few liiiittttle things. Like, the fact that the robots were not actually autonomous and were being operated remotely by humans, which was first reported by Bloomberg. At one point, an attendee even got a bartending bot to admit that it was being assisted by a human.

“This was not disclosed, and many thought they were operating autonomously,” Gordon Johnson, a longtime Tesla critic and short-seller, said in a note Monday.  “In our view, this is very deceptive.”

The event — rather appropriately held on a Hollywood stage — was light on details about how Tesla plans to improve its “Full Self Driving” system, or how it plans to actually get its driverless cars on the road."

Central Park 5 sue Trump for defamation over debate comments; The Hill, October 21, 2024

 ZACH SCHONFELD , The Hill; Central Park 5 sue Trump for defamation over debate comments 

"The exonerated Central Park Five sued former President Trump for defamation Monday over his comments at the recent presidential debate about the group’s wrongful convictions for rape and assault.

During a segment on race and politics at the Sept. 10 debate against Vice President Harris, Trump said “they admitted — they said, they pled guilty.

“And I said, well, if they pled guilty they badly hurt a person, killed a person ultimately. And if they pled guilty — then they pled we’re not guilty,” Trump continued. 

The five Black and Hispanic teenagers were wrongfully convicted of the 1989 rape and assault of a woman jogging in New York City’s Central Park. They spent years in prison before their convictions were overturned in 2002, once the true culprit confessed and was corroborated by DNA evidence. 

The lawsuit notes the five members never pleaded guilty and the victim wasn’t killed, claiming Trump’s comments were made with a “reckless disregard for their falsity” to the tens of millions of Americans who tuned into the debate."

Former GOP lawmakers, officials urge Garland to investigate Musk; The Washington Post, October 21, 2024

 Perry Stein, The Washington Post; Former GOP lawmakers, officials urge Garland to investigate Musk

"Former Republican lawmakers, advisers and Justice Department officials have called on Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate tech billionaire Elon Musk for awarding cash prizes to voters in swing states if they sign his political organization’s petition, according to a letter obtained by The Washington Post and sent to Garland on Monday.

The letter argues that the large prizes set up by Musk, a vocal supporter of Republican nominee Donald Trump, violate federal voting laws that prohibit paying people to register to vote.

Musk announced Saturday that his political group, America PAC, would use a lottery to award $1 million each day until the election to a registered voter who signs a petition saying they support free speech and the right to bear arms. Only voters registered in seven swing states — including Pennsylvania, Georgia and Nevada — are eligible for the prizes."

On X, the Definition of ‘Blocking’ Is About to Change; The New York Times, October 21, 2024

Sandra E. Garcia , The New York Times; On X, the Definition of ‘Blocking’ Is About to Change

"A lot has changed on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter since Elon Musk bought it two years ago. The company, renamed X, is on the verge of yet another major shift, with changes coming for what happens when one user blocks another.

The block function, a powerful tool which makes your account effectively invisible to anyone of your choosing, will soon let those people see what you are posting. The difference, according to a thread posted by X’s engineering account, is that blocked users will not be able to engage with the post in any way...

The overall sentiment from users, however, is that the impending change to the block feature will allow for more abuse."

Elon Musk targets Michigan with voter misinformation; The Washington Post, October 21, 2024

 Sarah Ellison, The Washington Post; Elon Musk targets Michigan with voter misinformation

"Two weeks before the presidential election, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D) accused billionaire Elon Musk of spreading “dangerous disinformation” about voting in her state after Musk, owner of X and Tesla, shared a post suggesting falsely that the state’s voter rolls, swelled by large numbers of inactive voters, were likely to result in widespread fraud."

AI is just one of the thorny issues facing photography – here’s how the industry can prioritise ethics; The Conversation, October 21, 2024

Savannah Dodd, Postdoctoral research fellow, Centre for Creative Ethnography, Queen's University Belfast , The Conversation; AI is just one of the thorny issues facing photography – here’s how the industry can prioritise ethics

"While questions of image ethics are not new, this crisis is only deepening with the exponential growth in the production and use of AI-generated images.

It is often difficult to differentiate between photographs and photo-realistic AI-generated images, and the lines between the two are being increasingly blurred as AI images are sold on picture library platforms and used by advocacy campaigns for charities. AI images are now being used in the campaign for the upcoming US election, perhaps most famously with an AI image of Taylor Swift endorsing Donald Trump.

Despite the ongoing discussion about photography ethics, practice is sometimes slower to change. This can create a tension between those who espouse more traditional approaches to photography, and those who are critiquing those approaches. This is contributing to polarisation within the industry and a growing uncertainty about how we can use photography ethically today.

As an anthropologist who teaches visual media ethics, I am interested in how professional photographers think about and practise ethics in their work. This year, as part of my research into this topic, I analysed 48 interviews I conducted between 2020 and 2023 with people working in photography.

These interviews focused particularly on the perspectives of professionals, including those whose voices have often been marginalised within the industry. This includes black photographers, photographers of colour, photographers in the global south, disabled photographers and female photographers. All of these interviews are publicly available online."

Microsoft boss urges rethink of copyright laws for AI; The Times, October 21, 2024

 Katie Prescott, The Times; Microsoft boss urges rethink of copyright laws for AI

"The boss of Microsoft has called for a rethink of copyright laws so that tech giants are able to train artificial intelligence models without risk of infringing intellectual property rights.

Satya Nadella, chief executive of the technology multinational, praised Japan’s more flexible copyright laws and said that governments need to develop a new legal framework to define “fair use” of material, which allows people in certain situations to use intellectual property without permission.

Nadella, 57, said governments needed to iron out the rules. “What are the bounds for copyright, which obviously have to be protected? What’s fair use?” he said. “For any society to move forward, you need to know what is fair use.”"

News Corp Sues AI Company Perplexity Over Copyright Claims, Made Up Text; The Hollywood Reporter, October 21, 2024

 Caitlin Huston , The Hollywood Reporter; News Corp Sues AI Company Perplexity Over Copyright Claims, Made Up Text

"Dow Jones, the parent company to the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Post filed a lawsuit Monday against artificial intelligence company Perplexity, alleging that the company is illegally using copyrighted work.

The suit alleges that Perplexity, which is an AI research and conversational search engine, draws on articles and other copyrighted content from the publishers to feed into its product and then repackages the content in its responses, or sometimes uses the content verbatim, without linking back to the articles. The engine can also be used to display several paragraphs or entire articles, when asked."

‘Blade Runner 2049’ Producers Sue Elon Musk, Tesla and Warner Bros. Discovery, Alleging Copyright Infringement; Variety, October 21, 2024

 Todd Spangler , Variety; ‘Blade Runner 2049’ Producers Sue Elon Musk, Tesla and Warner Bros. Discovery, Alleging Copyright Infringement

"Alcon Entertainment, the production company behind “Blade Runner 2049,” sued Tesla and CEO Elon Musk, as well as Warner Bros. Discovery, alleging that AI-generated images depicting scenes from the film used for the launch of Tesla’s self-driving Robotaxi represent copyright infringement.

In its lawsuit, filed Monday in L.A., Alcon said it had adamantly insisted that “Blade Runner 2049,” which stars Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford, have no affiliation of any kind with “Tesla, X, Musk or any Musk-owned company,” given “Musk’s massively amplified, highly politicized, capricious and arbitrary behavior, which sometimes veers into hate speech.”"

Trump refuses to denounce threats to FEMA, doubles down on falsehoods; The Washington Post, October 21, 2024

Marianne LeVine

 and 

Isaac Arnsdorf

, The Washington Post, ; Trump refuses to denounce threats to FEMA, doubles down on falsehoods

"Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump declined to condemn violent threats to Federal Emergency Management Agency workers providing relief to Americans impacted by Hurricane Helene, instead criticizing the government’s storm response using false allegations.

Asked during a news conference here about whether the former president is harming the recovery effort after a man was arrested for threatening federal relief workers this month, Trump responded by repeating falsehoods, including those the suspect said motivated him. Trump did not offer any concern for the workers’ safety or a denunciation of violence."

Trump Suggests Abraham Lincoln Should've Let the South Keep a Little Slavery; Vanity Fair, October 18, 2024

 Bess Levin, Vanity Fair; Trump Suggests Abraham Lincoln Should've Let the South Keep a Little Slavery

"Donald Trump appeared on Fox News this morning, where, during a characteristically bizarre interview, he suggested Abraham Lincoln could have avoided the Civil War by cutting a deal with the South—which, as a reminder, wanted slavery to remain legal.

Asked by a 10-year-old who his favorite president was when he was “little,” Trump began by saying he “liked Ronald Reagan.” (Note: Trump was 34 when Reagan first took office, and 42 when he left.) Then he turned to Lincoln, who he believes was a great president—but could’ve been better if he’d “settled” the Civil War.

“Great presidents?” Trump said. “Lincoln was probably a great president, although I’ve always said, why wasn’t that settled? You know, I’m a guy that—it doesn’t make sense we had a Civil War…. You’d almost say, like, why wasn’t that [settled]? As an example, Ukraine would have never happened, and Russia, if I were president. Israel would have never happened; October 7 would have never happened, as you know.”"

Elon Musk And Marjorie Taylor Greene Rehash Debunked Dominion Vote-Stealing Conspiracy; Forbes, October 19, 2024

 Antonio Pequeño IV, Forbes; Elon Musk And Marjorie Taylor Greene Rehash Debunked Dominion Vote-Stealing Conspiracy

"Tech billionaire Elon Musk and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., this week pushed theories about Dominion Voting Systems, the vote-counting machines widely used in U.S. elections, threatening to revive the conspiracies spread by Donald Trump and his allies in 2020 that sowed chaos—and were repeatedly debunked."

Pennsylvania Gov. Shapiro: Law enforcement should 'take a look at' Elon Musk voter payments; NBC News, October 20, 2024

Alexandra Marquez, NBC News; Pennsylvania Gov. Shapiro: Law enforcement should 'take a look at' Elon Musk voter payments

"Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said Sunday that tech mogul Elon Musk’s plan to give money to registered voters in Pennsylvania is “deeply concerning” and “it’s something that law enforcement could take a look at.”

Shapiro’s comments on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” come one day after Musk announced in Pennsylvania that every day until Election Day, he would give $1 million to a random registered voter who signs a petition circulated by his super PAC “in favor of free speech and the right to bear arms.”

The super PAC has made signing the petition a prerequisite for attending rallies headlined by Musk, and on Saturday he surprised one rally attendee by giving away the first $1 million check onstage."

Trump fixates on Arnold Palmer as ‘all man’ in showers during profane rally; The Washington Post, October 19, 2024

 

Marianne LeVine

 and 

Isaac Arnsdorf, The Washington Post; Trump fixates on Arnold Palmer as ‘all man’ in showers during profane rally

[Kip Currier: Read and/or listen to the words of Donald Trump himself at the Latrobe, Pennsylvania rally on October 19th. Then ask yourself:

• Is this a person who has the character to lead this country and the free world?
• Is this a leader who has the moral compass and the core values to stand for every American?
• Is this a human being who is a good role model for children AND adults?
• Is this someone who has the sound judgment and ethical decision-making capabilities to hold the nuclear codes and be the Commander in Chief for America's brave and selfless military forces?

The media -- The New York Times, Fox News, The Hill, etc. -- MUST stop sane-washing and character-washing. Report and convey what is actually being said by Donald Trump, not what you are interpreting him as saying. Democracy is at stake.]

[Excerpt]

"LATROBE, Pa. — Seventeen days from the election, here in arguably the most decisive swing state, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump spent the first 10 minutes of his speech without mentioning politics.

Instead, [Donald Trump] delivered a long tribute to Arnold Palmer, the late golfer who was born here and is the namesake of the airport where Trump was speaking. Trump’s soliloquy about Palmer included an account of how other athletes reacted to seeing him in the showers.

“Arnold Palmer was all man. And I say that in all due respect to women and I love women. But this guy, this guy, this is a guy that was all man. This man was strong and tough. And I refused to say it, but when he took showers with the other pros, they came out of there, they said, ‘Oh my God, that’s unbelievable,’” Trump said...

When he finally focused on his opponent in the presidential race, Trump turned vulgar.

“You’re a [vulgarity censored by Kip Currier, so Blogger doesn't remove this post if a reader posts a complaint about the actual expletive voiced by Donald Trump] vice president,” he said to cheers. Some in the crowd shouted out, echoing the profanity.

Trump acknowledged the indiscretion while explaining he had received a letter from evangelical leader Franklin Graham encouraging him to refrain from swearing.

“You can’t put the same emphasis,” he said. “So tonight I broke my rule.”

At another point, as Trump criticized the Biden administration, he said: 

“Everything they touch turns to —”"

“S---!” the crowd responded."