Melania Trump is introduced during the Republican National Convention Thursday, July 18, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
AMERICA’S CURSED LADY
Melania Trump is suddenly claiming to be a pro-choice champion, distancing herself from her own husband’s track record — right before an election likely to determine the future of reproductive rights. Not suspicious at all!
- Former First Lady Melania Trump isn’t known for expressing her political views, preferring to stay at arms-length from her certified sex-predator husband (who can blame her) while seeming content to raise Barron Trump alone. While Melania usually dodges former President Donald Trump’s controversies, she’s hardly an innocent bystander: She’s been married to the damn guy for almost two decades! That’s what makes her new memoir — in which she claims to be an ardent pro-choice supporter — so strange.
- “Why should anyone other than the woman herself have the power to determine what she does with her own body? A woman’s fundamental right of individual liberty, to her own life, grants her the authority to terminate her pregnancy if she wishes,” Melania writes in an excerpt, ahead of her book’s release. “Restricting a woman’s right to choose whether to terminate an unwanted pregnancy is the same as denying her control over her own body. I have carried this belief with me throughout my entire adult life.” She followed up with a direct-to-camera video on social media. “There is no room for compromise,” she says… glossing over the fact that she literally married the guy who personally orchestrated the downfall of the federal right to an abortion in this country.
- So, let’s get this straight: Melania has supposedly been secretly pro-choice this entire time — but didn’t speak up when her husband single-handedly caused Roe v. Wade to be overturned? Or when he flip-flopped on whether he would veto a federal abortion ban, lied about Democrats supporting abortion “after birth,” and countless other examples of Trump professing his desire to strip Americans of reproductive rights? In the book, she writes that disagreements on politics between them were par for the course, but she chose to address them privately rather than publicly. Another noteworthy part of this story: Melania’s publisher said that CNN could interview her about the memoir — if they paid $250,000 (the publisher later claimed the request was a mistake).
- Speculation is swirling that Melania’s newfound concern for reproductive rights could be an arch political ploy by the Trump campaign to improve his position on one of his most vulnerable issues. Perhaps, the thinking goes, persuadable voters will think: See, his wife is pro-choice, how could he possibly pass a nationwide abortion ban? But the answer is: He brags about overturning Roe! He has no morals! Of course he might sign a national ban.
- No one knows whether Trump’s campaign had a role in the excerpts being published right now. What is clear: Melania is now trying to make herself out to be an influential member of Trump’s inner circle. In another excerpt, Melania claims that she convinced the former president to scrap his hardline immigration policy of separating migrant children from their parents. “This has to stop,” she claims to have told Trump. Of course, at the time, she made headlines by taking a trip to the epicenter of the family separation crisis in Texas wearing a jacket emblazoned with the words: “I really don’t care. Do U?”
No matter what she claims, Melania Trump doesn’t have much sway over Donald Trump’s political views. But like her husband, she seems to be interested in trying to make a pretty penny off politics.
A WIN FOR ANTI-COLONIALISM
Decades ago, the U.S. and U.K. expelled Indigenous people from an African island chain — to make a military base. After years of pleading, the Chagossians will finally be allowed to return to some of the islands.
The U.K. struck a deal today to allow people who live in Mauritius, a small African country, to return to the Chagos Islands. More than 1,000 Indigenous people were forcibly removed by the British and American governments in the 1960s and 1970s, which Human Rights Watch has called “appalling colonial crime.”
Activists repeatedly launched legal challenges that sputtered. The U.K. and U.S. said that a military base (built on an island named Diego Garcia in the chain) was too “strategically important.” Last year, I spoke with a leading activist who lobbied the Biden administration to apologize for the expulsion: “If you commit something wrong to other people, find a solution,” he said.
The solution: The military base on Diego Garcia will stay under American and British control for the next 99 years, but people will be allowed to resettle on all other islands. The U.K. will also provide financial support to help boost the economy on the islands.
“This is clearly a major, major historic victory for the Chagossians and for the people of Mauritius,” David Vine, who wrote a book on the dispute, told What A Day. “But I think it’s an incomplete victory… because a return to Diego Garcia is not part of the agreement,” where most of the people trace their ancestry.
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-Tim Walz, on Trump’s recent campaign appearance in a grocery store debate
NEWS NEWS NEWS
A jury found three former Memphis cops guilty on witness tampering charges in the beating of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man who died days after the incident. But it wasn’t a full victory for prosecutors. “All of the officers were acquitted of the most serious charge in the case — violating Mr. Nichols’s civil rights by causing his death,” per the New York Times.
More than 200 people have died after Hurricane Helene tore through the Southeast U.S. over the past week. About 1 million people are still without power, most in the Carolinas, as rescue efforts continue.
Striking dockworkers reached an agreement with their employers to go back to work on Friday. There isn’t a final agreement on the union contract, CNN reports.
Kindergarten vaccination rates fell last year while the number of children who sought exemptions for shots rose to a record high. About 80,000 fewer children were vaccinated, according to health officials, as the percentage of nonmedical exemptions increased.
Billionaire conspiracist Elon Musk donated tens of millions of dollars to Republican causes earlier than previously thought. He gave money to groups connected to Trump advisor Stephen Miller and backers of Gov. Ron DeSantis’s presidential campaign, per the Wall Street Journal. The contributions make him one of the biggest conservative donors, but one of the biggest donors to losers. Masterful gambit, sir!
Speaking of which: Tesla issued a fifth recall within a year for its hideous Cybertruck due to a problem with the rearview camera. Please do our eyeballs a favor and recall them forever.
Oil prices surged after President Joe Biden said he is “discussing” whether he would support Israel striking Iran’s oil facilities, after Iran launched nearly 200 rockets at Israel earlier this week.
A group called Arab American for Harris-Walz launched today, with the goal of shoring up support among the community ahead of the election. It’s a last ditch effort to convince voters that Kamala Harris would be better than Trump on Palestinian rights, even though many Arab American — particularly in Michigan — are frustrated with the Biden administration.
Trump said he would deport thousands of Haitian migrants living in Springfield, Ohio — who are here legally.
Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) dressed up as Michael Jackson and wore Blackface during Halloween in 2006, according to photos obtained by the New York Times. Lawler told the outlet that the costume was meant to be “truly the sincerest form of flattery.”
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