Reading archive 2024-08-09

TV ad blitz launched in Maryland Senate race: Republican nominee Larry Hogan puts $2 million behind casting himself as an independent. His opponent, Angela Alsobrooks, frames the contest as a fight to protect a Democratic majority.

Assessing claims about Tim Walz’s military service: Republicans are attacking the Democratic vice-presidential nominee on his retirement timing and with allegations of “stolen valor.”

"Bringing back the joy": Kamala Harris' rally blows away JD Vance's weird appearance across town: In Philadelphia, thousands cheered for Tim Walz, while Trump's running mate spoke to a small, aggrieved group

White Dudes for Harris have assembled. What comes next?: Their Zoom call got lots of attention and raised millions, but some worry about how the demographic mobilization could be perceived. - "'Everybody needs space. We’re not the segregated South of the 1960s, we’re just organizing,' says Bakari Sellers, a Democratic strategist and Harris ally. 'There are conversations that White men have to have amongst themselves, there are conversations that Black women need to have amongst themselves — issues that matter to them more than they matter to others.'"

Opinion ‘Weird’ doesn’t begin to capture the Trump-Vance campaign: As Democrats play to massive, raucous crowds, the Republican ticket is busy courting angry young men. - "'Every type of white man that gets a hasty ‘swipe left’ on his dating profile was in attendance,' wrote Salon’s Amanda Marcotte, including 'glowering loners staring at the two women under 40 like cats watching birds out a window.'"

#GuyonPorch and #WomaninCar were a D.C. mood on Jan. 6. And now.: They embodied the feelings of most D.C. residents during the insurrection. Steeling for more drama, they’re now cautiously optimistic. - "Harris would represent many firsts if she’s elected to the Oval Office. 

"And her inauguration would be Jan. 20, Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday."

Billion-dollar deficits, drastic cuts: Metro faces fiscal catastrophe: D.C.’s transit system dodged a crisis this year, but far bigger ones loom if the region doesn’t take action. - "Fares would need to jump more than 500 percent to address the kind of deficits the agency has faced, according to a Metro presentation last year, which contemplated a $19.35 one-way fare to Metro Center from Bethesda — or $32.70 from Ashburn.

...

"In December 2019, Metro’s board of directors approved a four-year collective bargaining agreement with the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689, which represents more than 9,000 Metro train and bus operators, station managers, mechanics, custodians and others. It included a 1 percent bonus wage increase for workers if rail and bus ridership increased by at least 2 percent from one year to the next. 

"Then the world was upended. 

"The pandemic slashed Metrorail ridership by more than 90 percent. After the system hit bottom, 2 percent growth has been a cinch. Workers got their bonus, which cost the agency $5.8 million in 2023 alone, even though ridership remains down."

Moscow rushes to send troops as Ukrainian attack on Kursk tests Kremlin: The surprise incursion by Ukrainian forces into western Russia posed the biggest challenge for President Vladimir Putin since the June 2023 uprising of Wagner mercenaries.

The other problem with Donald Trump’s helicopter ride story: At his news conference Thursday, the former president apparently invented the sort of tale for which he once excoriated a hated member of the news media.

Harris rallies get edgy with four-letter words: The vice president, known to curse liberally behind closed doors, is one of the few not swearing onstage at rallies that are growing in size — and spiciness. - "'We have to know that sometimes people will open the door for you and leave it open,' Harris said in a moderated conversation with actor and comedian Jimmy O. Yang at a meeting of the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies. 'Sometimes they won’t, and then you need to kick that f---ing door down.'"