Tag: happened

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Here’s what happened this week in politics, minus Trump news

Here’s what happened this week in politics, minus Trump news
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A New York Fashion Week Mystery: What Happened to All the Plus-Size Models?

A New York Fashion Week Mystery: What Happened to All the Plus-Size Models?

Hrs ahead of the official commence of New York Fashion 7 days, model Georgina Burke appeared lukewarm about the days in advance. Burke, who is signed with IMG Products and has been a curve design for 13 several years, reported her hesitance was rooted in the actuality that brand names are inclined to reserve only a handful of spots for types like her – and that this period, all those chances had been even rarer than usual.

“They have one particular or two appears to be for furthermore women. And we usually can not obtain the outfits from the brand at all,” explained Burke, who walked in the Veronica Beard present on Tuesday night together with two other curve and mid-measurement versions (she mentioned she would be in a position to order the camel-coloured trench she wore down the runway when it arrives out).

After a fifty percent ten years wherever furthermore-dimensions products, generally defined as measurement 14 and higher than, were being an progressively widespread sight on the runway, their relative absence in New York this previous 7 days was a source of conversation on the sidelines of demonstrates and on social media.

“I anxiety this manner week may be the steepest drop still.” stated Nadia Boujarwah, co-founder and chief government officer of size-inclusive retailer Dia&Co, which released a collection of Diane von Furstenburg wrap dresses at the begin of New York Vogue 7 days.

Theories abound about the explanation guiding the shift. Some see it as a symptom of a broader cultural pivot, exactly where celebrities bragging about their skinnier frames, and the sudden ubiquity of diet medication can make it experience like the past decade-plus of messaging on body positivity in no way occurred. Many others point to more marketplace-specific results in, such as an uptick in casting of mid-sized (measurement 8-10) versions that may perhaps have occur at the expenditure of slots when reserved for their moreover-measurement peers.

The recently concluded week was not a total return to the times of heroin chic. Furthermore-sizing design Valuable Lee closing the Thome Browne clearly show “was a instant,” Burke explained, and Carolina Herrera and Mentor were being between the outstanding manufacturers to include mid-sized or plus-measurement styles on the runway. BIPOC designers in specific have ongoing to press for dimensions inclusivity and this time varying human body styles have been found at Bohn Jsell, Sergio Hudson, Kim Shui and Prabal Gurung.

But dimension inclusivity advocates say there’s been a apparent development absent from casting curve types, starting last season and accelerating in the new spherical of demonstrates. The stakes are bigger than which styles get which positions. Fashion week runways impact promoting campaigns, crimson carpets and retail merchandising methods much less visibility for plus-sizing versions may well trickle down to fewer luxurious style remaining produced, no matter whether for stars or ordinary consumers.

The runway signifies a designer’s eyesight as a entire a probability to story inform with a assortment of most important characters. The increasing range of curve designs cast more than the previous five many years had lifted hopes that body diversity was much more than the most current market trend. The actuality that several years of uneven but measurable development could perhaps be wiped out in a single season is disheartening, reported Gary Dakin, a companion at JAG Designs.

“This time proves how cyclical manner is,” he reported. “The pendulum has swung again, and it is concerning to consider about what this suggests to the each day purchaser.”

Fixing the Secret

The number of additionally-sizing types – ordinarily described as measurement 14 or over – going for walks in New York rose steadily above the very last 5 decades, from just 4 in the Autumn/Winter 2016 year to 51 last February, according to The Manner Place.

That mirrored the increase of the human body positivity movement, which put pressure on luxury designers to offer dresses in a wider size array. Sending a couple of in addition-size products down the runway grew to become a statement, and then a bona fide trend. Some considered it could even be a new normal (at minimum in New York designers in Milan and Paris never absolutely embraced the strategy). A handful of labels, like Christian Siriano and Chromat, developed their models partly around dressing bodies of all designs and sizes.

The latest cultural traits have shifted the fashion discussion around measurement in a different course. There is the ongoing fascination with all matters Y2K – and the skinny, prolonged-torsoed human body variety very low-rise jeans are designed to flatter. Boujarwah cited the Ozempic craze, saying that the ubiquity of the prescription diabetic issues drug with a recognised facet impact of fat reduction is rapidly reigniting bodyweight bias discussions.

Other individuals say it is not as simple as designers reverting to the rigid overall body expectations of 20 several years ago. Becca Thorpe, an agent at Next Designs, said casting directors this year identified as in a good deal of “above straight size” products, but the equilibrium experienced tilted much more towards mid-measurement versions (normally measurement 8-10) as opposed to products measurement 14 and over.

“We noticed excellent good results in having new faces who are above sample in front of casting administrators,” Thorpe reported. “Designers booked additional 8-10s than they did dimensions 14-16 and just did not involve far more than one type of above sample dimension model on the runway.”

Whatsoever the induce, runway casting was a hot subject matter on line in the course of the 7 days.

Candice Huffine, a design who has walked the runway for Prabal Gurung, Christian Siriano and Sophie Theallet as effectively as appeared on the cover of Italian Vogue and on the internet pages of CR Fashion Ebook, American Vogue and W, posted an Instagram story Tuesday questioning why designers who experienced formerly utilized curve versions in their demonstrates ended up now “omitting them from the conversation completely this year.”

Huffine was doing the job in Australia all through this period of New York Fashion 7 days but states that the display recaps she witnessed on-line left her let down with the absence of curve designs.

“This field yields the wonderful ability to spearhead every little thing we see, get, eat and celebrate,” Huffine shared by way of email. “I locate it very reckless to carry on turning a blind eye to what the elimination of physique variety at the forefront does to girls as a entire.”

In a tweet, New York Instances manner critic Vanessa Friedman wrote that she was “distracted by the extreme skinniness of some of the models in Jason Wu’s clearly show.” Replies expressed very similar worries or snapped back that she was participating in human body shaming, some of which Wu himself retweeted.

Friedman clarified her place in subsequent tweets indicating, “Mr. Wu is 1 of the number of runway designers who does also offer a dimensions inclusive line. This, mixed with the wider discussion about measurement inclusivity – which is at the moment additional lip-assistance than precise, created the simple fact that numerous of the models in this exhibit were being really skinny stand out, as nicely as the reality there were being no midsize or curve types at all.”

Marketing Curves

Runway representation came alongside improved awareness to additionally-sizing consumers. Luxury solutions in sizes 2XL or greater keep on being rare relative to mass merchants, but new variations at on the internet suppliers in the US and British isles did maximize 29 per cent in the second half of 2022 when compared with a 12 months before, in accordance to Edited.

Boujarwah reported she feared reversals for curve designs on the runway will direct to a identical shift in retail.

“This is the beginning of a slippery slope,” she claimed. “If curve styles really do not present the outfits, customers will not invest in the entire-sizing variety.”

Guyanese-American designer Marrisa Wilson states she cast her NYFW show to replicate her prospects, who can store her line in sizes -20. She does not stop there however: she reported she provides income details from her e-commerce enterprise to influence skeptical consumers that there is a current market for clothing at the better conclude of that range.

“It’s about catering to folks who are essentially supporting the enhancement and the progress of the enterprise,” she claimed. “So it’s a financial choice as very well.”

Sheena Butler-Youthful contributed to this posting.

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The ‘Stolen’ Election That Poisoned American Politics. It Happened in 1984.

The ‘Stolen’ Election That Poisoned American Politics. It Happened in 1984.

“Coelho requested me to go in,” reported Jim Margolis, the former senior adviser to Barack Obama who back again then was a twentysomething Democratic operative. “I believed I was likely in for two times, and I emerged, like, eight months later on,” he told me. “I can just see us in these crowded tiny clerks’ offices, with the throngs of individuals, and the vote-counting trying to acquire area, and all the histrionics.”

“Hand-counting paper ballots and punch-card ballots is a grueling system,” Stephen Nix, now the senior director of Eurasia at the Intercontinental Republican Institute, then the Midwest field director for the NRCC, told me. “Complete monotony,” he recalled, “and then all of a sudden there is a questionable ballot and most people operates to the table and surrounds the desk, and there’s all this scrutiny, and there’s all this discussion.”

By the middle of April, as the auditors went from county to county, the day-to-day updates in the papers in Evansville read like a neck-and-neck horse race. “McCloskey jumps ahead a few votes,” a headline examine on April 11. “Lead seesaws,” a headline examine on April 12. “McIntyre stretches direct to 6,” a headline read on April 13. The NRCC ran total-page ads in the papers. “Frank McCloskey and the Democrats in Washington,” the adverts read, “are executing a lot more than just insulting the persons of Indiana — they are striving to steal an election.”

On April 18, however, at the intermittently testy last general public listening to at the Municipal Developing in Evansville, the task power experienced had a person last, fateful selection. At issue have been 94 unnotarized, unwitnessed absentee ballots from a handful of counties. By law, none of them should really have been counted — a stage upon which absolutely everyone agreed. The problems was some of them have been, due to the fact some county clerks experienced despatched 62 of them to precincts, that means they already experienced been between the mix of the counted. It was way too late to just take them out. The rub now was the remaining 32. They experienced been rightfully held back by other clerks. They had not been counted.

“These were being held independently,” Panetta stated at the hearing. “They ought not to be counted.”

Clay, the other Democrat, concurred. It was “unfortunate,” he claimed, that initially group was counted, but to now rely the 2nd “would be to compound the difficulty that previously exists.”

Thomas, the just one Republican, was furious. He charged “hypocrisy.” The abiding proposition of the activity power was to “treat like ballots in a like way,” he claimed. “I read about and about all over again that the cry is rely all the ballots,” he stated. They should really “at minimum be consistent,” he explained.

“The fact is this,” Panetta countered. “While we say we depend all the ballots, we do make some judgments and we do apply some discretion.”

Thomas, getting to be much more and much more discouraged, which is obvious even from just looking at the transcript, requested Shumway for some direction. But Shumway’s career was to be in cost of the counting of the ballots — that the undertaking drive resolved to depend. “I am happy the essential choice on this,” he advised the trio, “is yours and not mine.”

“Some were being sent to the precinct and some have been retained by the clerks. My dilemma is: So what?” Thomas reported. “Is the big difference in where they have been bodily positioned sufficient to address them fully in different ways?”

“These turned scrambled when they went to the precincts. It is too terrible. But they grew to become scrambled at the precinct degree,” Panetta pressured. He called this “the distinguishing attribute.”

The task pressure place it to a vote. The Democrats mentioned no to counting the 32. The Republican stated certainly.

“Really stunning,” Thomas stated sarcastically.

And with that, and at the close of this 5-hour, 14-moment hearing, Shumway declared the ultimate tally — McCloskey, 116,645 McIntyre, 116,641. A margin of four votes. The process power audit had created the result even nearer and a lot less selected.

Republicans’ recriminations ramped up even more.

“They have the arrogant power and they use it,” Thomas reported. “We will not be civilized. We will not suppose it is small business as common. We will not go back again to taking part in the lackey.” Thomas explained he felt like he’d been “raped.” Much too sturdy? “Talk to a rape victim,” he would explain to the Los Angeles Occasions. “Ask them following it is in excess of if they can just forget about about it. I really feel individually violated.” (Thomas declined to remark.)

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Damar Hamlin injury: NFL cardiologist offers insight into what may have happened to Bills safety, what’s next

Damar Hamlin injury: NFL cardiologist offers insight into what may have happened to Bills safety, what’s next

Bills safety Damar Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest after a tackle in Monday night’s game against the Bengals, prompting the NFL to indefinitely suspend and postpone the matchup. The 24-year-old Pittsburgh product was administered CPR and had his heartbeat restored before being transported to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. He has been sedated and stabilized in the hospital’s intensive care unit since late Monday, the Bills announced, while listed in critical condition.

For more insight on Hamlin’s injury, potential recovery and other factors related to Monday’s traumatic incident, CBS Sports spoke with Dr. Aaron Baggish, of Mass General Brigham. A team cardiologist for the Patriots, Harvard University Athletics, U.S. Soccer and other organizations, Baggish is the director of the cardiovascular performance program at Massachusetts General Hospital Heart Center, and also serves as medical director for the Boston Marathon.

The following interview has been edited for content and clarity.

What was your initial reaction and assessment when watching the play that left Damar Hamlin injured Monday?

Dr. Baggish: When I saw what had happened, the type of collapse he had, where his body went completely limp, is the type of collapse that has a very, very high likelihood of the heart stopping. That’s a really concerning thing. The real good-news story is how promptly the medical team on the sideline was at his side performing resuscitation. That is not always the case.

How much did the quick response by the medical teams affect Hamlin’s diagnosis?

Dr. Baggish: Well, the diagnosis, which refers to the reason the cardiac arrest happened, is still unclear. But when something like this happens, the heart stops pumping blood, and one of the 100-percent certainties, if resuscitation isn’t done, is automatic death. So it was imperative they responded so quickly.

From your perspective, what are the possible causes of Hamlin’s cardiac arrest?

Dr. Baggish: There’s a long list: there are genetic and congenital abnormalities which could be at play, I know there’s been speculation about the blunt force from the tackle, but I would say that it’s really premature to make any speculation. In fact, to jump to a conclusion would be a mistake. The diagnosis of commotio cordis, for example [which refers to a fatal disruption of the heart rhythm from a blow to the chest], is what we call a diagnosis of exclusion, meaning other things have been eliminated. We would never conclude that unless other factors have been ruled out.

Are there potential causes that you deem more likely in this case?

Dr. Baggish: It would be irresponsible to attach any kind of diagnosis until we’re sure. The majority of cardiac arrests that occur in young athletes occur because of some genetic heart condition. That is independent of getting a blow to the chest. This is why, to come up with a short list is really not possible.

Generally how long does it take to diagnose the actual cause?

Dr. Baggish: The usual sequence would be to first get him stable, and I can’t comment on the timeframe without being at his bedside. But the diagnostic part of this is usually second in line.

From the outside, then, what happens next?

Dr. Baggish: I think one of the things that can start now is to watch how the resuscitation effort was conducted and to learn from that. It was an exceptionally effective resuscitation effort. And it speaks to the planning that goes into it. They rehearse for emergencies like this. They have to be ready. … With each day, the athlete’s status will be updated, and the recovery trajectory will probably depend a lot on the next 48-72 hours.

If the blow to the chest is, in fact, ruled the cause, how common is such an occurrence?

Dr. Baggish: If this ends up being commotio cordis, this is not the first time it’s happened, though it’s not been a (common) style of sudden death in football compared with ball sports like lacrosse and baseball, or hockey, a puck sport. This would not be the first time it’s happened in sports, certainly. But I want to be clear that I’m not saying that is the diagnosis at this point.

Aside from your medical profession, as a fan, what are your hopes and expectations moving forward?

Dr. Baggish: The only thing I can say I hope this does is reinforce medical teams that they need to be ready for unexpected catastrophe. I don’t anticipate and wouldn’t be the right person to suggest any policy change or additional changes in the way the sport is played. But I hope it’s not a knee-jerk reaction if that’s the case, because oftentimes it’s worse to change policies in knee-jerk fashion based on one problem. … First and foremost, of course, my hope is the young man recovers fully. And as a fan who also happens to be a doctor, I’m cognizant of the risk these athletes assume when they decide to play these sports, and I support their decisions to do so, but it’s always sad when something like this occurs.

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Former January 6 committee staffer says texts show evidence of ‘attempted coup’ – as it happened | US politics

Former January 6 committee staffer says texts show evidence of ‘attempted coup’ – as it happened | US politics

Denver Riggleman’s interview with 60 Minutes is a rare breach in the carefully stage managed presentation the January 6 committee has given Americans over the past months about what happened during the insurrection at the Capitol.

A former Republican congressman who was ousted by a more conservative opponent in 2020 and now considers himself independent, Riggleman acted as a technical adviser for the committee, poring through evidence such as text messages and emails obtained from people thought to have knowledge of the attack. His interview provided a behind-the-scenes look at the investigation, most details about which have come from lawmakers’ comments or the public hearings themselves.

Perhaps his most startling admission is his belief that text messages then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows voluntarily turned over the committee amounted to a “roadmap to an attempted coup.” But Riggleman shared other disquieting details in the interview, such as that a White House number called one of the rioters who had stormed the Capitol as it was happening.

Then there were the text messages Meadows received containing an array of far-right conspiracy theories from Ginni Thomas, wife of rightwing supreme court justice Clarence Thomas.

“What really shook me was the fact that if Clarence agreed with or was even aware of his wife’s efforts, all three branches of government would be tied to the stop the steal movement,” Riggleman said on 60 Minutes.

Ginni Thomas’s involvement in efforts to overturn the 2020 election results has been well documented in recent months, leading to calls for the January 6 committee to compel her testimony – efforts Riggleman said he supported. Last week, a deal was reached for Thomas to speak to investigators.

Key events

Closing summary

A former staffer for the January 6 committee went public with a claim that someone at the White House called a Capitol rioter on the day of the attack, while warning that evidence obtained from Donald Trump’s chief of staff looked like an “attempted coup”. The committee’s lawmakers downplayed Denver Riggleman’s interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes program, and have been busy themselves, sending a subpoena to the Republican speaker of Wisconsin’s assembly.

Here’s what else happened today:

  • Kyrsten Sinema, a Democratic senator known for bucking the party’s priorities, offered few reasons for her mysterious politics in a speech alongside the chamber’s top Republican.

  • Joe Biden’s student loan relief plan will cost $400 billion, if not more, the independent Congressional Budget Office said, prompting criticism from budget hawks as well as defense from Democrats.

  • Doug Mastriano, a Trump-backed 2020 election denier standing as the GOP’s gubernatorial candidate in Pennsylvania, appears to be lagging on the campaign trail.

  • Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows exchanged texts with another conspiracy theorist and 2020 election denier.

Democratic senators hit back at claims student debt relief too expensive

The Senate’s Democratic leader Chuck Schumer along with Wall Street foe Elizabeth Warren have issued a joint statement underlining their support of president Joe Biden’s student debt relief plan, and drawing a contrast with Republican policies that slash taxes for the rich.

The statement came after the independent Congressional Budget Office (CBO) found the plan announced last month would cost a sizable $400 billion or more. The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget seized on that estimate to say the plan was too expensive, and could push inflation higher.

“Today’s CBO estimate makes clear that millions of middle class Americans have more breathing room thanks to President Biden’s historic decision to cancel student debt,” Schumer, who represents New York, and Warren, who represents Massachusetts, said in their statement.

“In contrast to President Trump and Republicans who gave giant corporations $2 trillion in tax breaks, President Biden delivered transformative middle class relief by cancelling student debt for working people who need it most — nearly 90{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} of relief dollars will go to those earning less than $75,000 a year. We don’t agree with all of CBO’s assumptions that underlie this analysis, but it is clear the pandemic payment pause and student debt cancellation are policies that demonstrate how government can and should invest in working people, not the wealthy and billionaire corporations.”

Idaho’s abortion law is being challenged in federal court, but The Washington Post reports that the impact of the strict measure is already being felt by the state’s universities.

The University of Idaho has advised employees that because the law is not written clearly, it may prohibit employees from offering birth control, and thus they should refrain from doing so:

University of Idaho employees were warned Friday that they could be charged with a felony for talking about abortion, because of the state’s new abortion law.

They were also told *they could no longer provide birth control.*

Not just Plan B, but regular birth control. pic.twitter.com/qHJoDRzMc2

— Caroline Kitchener (@CAKitchener) September 26, 2022

The fiscal hawks at the independent Congressional Budget Office have released their cost estimate for the student loan relief plan president Joe Biden announced last month, and found it comes in at $400 billion, but could vary.

The plan partially satisfied Biden’s campaign pledge to provide relief for Americans struggling with loans from higher education, but was criticized both for not being generous enough, and for adding on to the country’s already mammoth federal budget deficit:

CBO estimates that the cost of outstanding student loans to the federal government will increase by about $400 billion because of an executive action canceling some debt. https://t.co/FgEHBn2XP6

— U.S. CBO (@USCBO) September 26, 2022

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, which advocates for restraint in federal spending, criticized the plan as simply too expensive:

“.@USCBO’s new estimate confirms the outrageous cost of the White House plan to cancel large amounts of student debt, by executive order, to nearly all borrowers almost regardless of need.” https://t.co/KFs9DQ8KYp

— CRFB.org (@BudgetHawks) September 26, 2022

“The debt cancellation and pause alone will cost $420 billion – a bit more than we previously thought – and costs could reach $510 to $610 billion with their IDR changes. The Biden Administration’s failure to release their own cost estimate should have been a red flag.”

— CRFB.org (@BudgetHawks) September 26, 2022

“As @USCBO’s estimates help confirm, the President’s student debt plan would wipe out the ten-year savings from the #InflationReductionAct twice over, worsen inflationary pressures, and deliver benefits to millions of Americans with advanced degrees in upper-income households.”

— CRFB.org (@BudgetHawks) September 26, 2022

“This might be the most costly executive action in history. It’s unacceptable that the President would implement it without offsets and without Congressional approval. Including these actions, the President has now added nearly $4.9 trillion to ten-year federal deficits…”

— CRFB.org (@BudgetHawks) September 26, 2022

The Biden administration is generally keeping mum about Russia’s decision to grant citizenship to Edward Snowden, who leaked National Security Agency documents and fled the United States.

Here’s the little state department spokesman Ned Price had to say about it:

State Department Spokesperson Ned Price reacts to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden being granted Russian citizenship:

“Perhaps the only thing that has changed is … apparently now he may well be conscripted to fight in the reckless war in Ukraine.” pic.twitter.com/ZemSN8CVur

— The Recount (@therecount) September 26, 2022

January 6 committee member says DoJ investigation proceeding, but slowly

A Democratic member of the January 6 committee revealed details of the department of justice’s investigation into the attack and its interaction with the congressional inquiry, describing the government’s effort as plodding, thorough and bolstered by evidence the lawmakers had uncovered.

“They have been very slow, though, on the much more comprehensive, and I believe, even more significant investigation of January 6,” California congressman Adam Schiff said of the justice department during an interview at the Texas Tribune Festival, according to CNN. However, he thought it was a mistake for the justice department to start their investigation with the individual rioters and proceed from there.

“That works when you have one plot, one conspiracy. It doesn’t work when there are multiple lines of effort to overturn an election, multiple plots, that may be all part of the same whole, but nonetheless each operating independently,” Schiff said.

The Democrat acknowledged federal investigators are matching the work of the January 6 committee, saying, “It does appear now that they have interviewed many of the same significant witnesses that we have.” He did note that the justice department had requested much of the committee’s materials, which he found “breathtaking”.

“My first reaction when we got the request – ‘Turn over all your files to us’ – was: ‘Why don’t you have your own damn files? Why haven’t you been conducting your own investigation? Why do you need us to do it?” Schiff said.

The lawmaker also found it strange that a district attorney in Georgia had been left to singlehandedly investigate Donald Trump and his allies’ involvement in trying to overturn the election there, but noted that situation might not last much longer. “That may be changing too, but it’s a long time coming,” Schiff said.

The day so far

A former staffer for the January 6 committee went public with a claim that someone at the White House called a Capitol rioter on the day of the attack, while warning that evidence obtained from Donald Trump’s chief of staff looked like an “attempted coup”. The committee’s lawmakers downplayed Denver Riggleman’s interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes program, and have been busy themselves, sending a subpoena to the Republican speaker of Wisconsin’s assembly.

Here’s what else happened today:

  • Kyrsten Sinema, a Democratic senator known for bucking the party’s priorities, offered few reasons for her mysterious politics in a speech alongside the chamber’s top Republican.

  • Doug Mastriano, a Trump-backed 2020 election denier standing as the GOP’s gubernatorial candidate in Pennsylvania, appears to be trailing on the campaign trail.

  • Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows exchanged texts with another conspiracy theorist and 2020 election denier.

There are few mysteries in Congress bigger than Kyrsten Sinema.

Once a member of the Green Party, the Democratic senator from Arizona has seized on the party’s one-vote majority in the Senate to act a spoiler for progressive proposals, including changing the filibuster to get voting rights legislation passed, raising the national minimum wage to $15 per-hour and closing a tax loophole that benefited private equity firms. Unlike with Joe Manchin, the fellow Democratic senator and frequent holdout vote who already had a reputation for conservatism and support for the fossil fuel industry, Sinema’s reasons for acting this way aren’t quite clear, and somewhat inexplicable given her left-wing activism earlier in her career. The tactic doesn’t appear to have paid off, either. An AARP poll released last week showed that independents, Republicans and, most of all, Democrats in Arizona viewed Sinema unfavorably.

The senator appeared today alongside the chamber’s top Republican Mitch McConnell for a speech in Kentucky, where she extolled the virtues of bipartisanship. While it certainly does not clear up the senator’s mysterious approach to politics, her comments here may give some hints as to why she does what she does in Washington:

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), speaking at the McConnell Center, describes her “friendship” with Senate Minority Leader McConnell (R-KY):

“While we may not agree on every issue, we do share the same values.” pic.twitter.com/2vz5ioNFeA

— The Recount (@therecount) September 26, 2022

“Not everyone likes me.”

— Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) jokes with the audience at the McConnell Center, after saying Democrats will “likely” lose some control of Congress after the midterms. pic.twitter.com/naEjHhKO5D

— The Recount (@therecount) September 26, 2022

“I signed a permission slip for a College and Career Day. What I got was indoctrination and trauma.” That sums up the experience of some of the more than 2,100 high school seniors bussed to a church in Louisiana last week on what was billed as a college fair but, as Maya Yang reports, turned into something else:

More than 2,000 public school students in Louisiana were told earlier this week that they were going to a college fair. They were then shuttled to what parents later deemed a sexist and transphobic church event which left many of the students traumatized.

On Tuesday, more than 2,100 high school seniors from the East Baton Rouge Parish School System – which serves residents of Louisiana’s capital – were taken to the local Living Faith Christian Center under the promise that they would receive college and career advice, as well as free food.

The Christian nonprofit organization 29:11 Mentoring Program organized the event, calling it “Day of Hope,” the Baton Rouge Advocate reported. The permission slips distributed to students promised “free food”, “fun and games”, “college fair” and “special guest”.

The New York Times sent a reporter to Pennsylvania to check on how the Republican candidate for governor is doing, and the verdict seems to be: not that well.

Doug Mastriano is a Donald Trump-endorsed, 2020 election denier who chartered busses to Washington on January 6 and has pledged to completely ban abortion in the state if elected. However, he’s well behind in the polls, and as the Times reports, has shunned much of what amounts to modern campaign tactics.

Here’s more from their report:

There is little indication that he has built a campaign infrastructure beyond the Facebook videos that propelled him to stardom in right-wing circles and to the vanguard of Christian nationalist politics.

“I can’t even assess things because I don’t see a campaign,” said Matt Brouillette, the president of Commonwealth Partners Chamber of Entrepreneurs, an advocacy group that is a major player in Pennsylvania Republican politics. “I’ve not seen anything that is even a semblance of a campaign.”

Mr. Brouillette, who backed one of Mr. Mastriano’s rivals in the G.O.P. primary, added: “Now, maybe he knows something we don’t on how you can win in the fifth-largest state without doing TV or mail. But I guess we’re going to have to wait until Nov. 8 to see whether you can pull something like that off.”

“The New York from which Trump emerged was its own morass of corruption and dysfunction, stretching from seats of executive power to portions of the media to the real-estate industry in which his family found its wealth,” writes Maggie Haberman in The Atlantic. “But Trump nevertheless stood out to the journalists covering him as particularly brazen.”

Haberman, a reporter for The New York Times and longtime watcher of Donald Trump, is one of the best-known chroniclers of his presidency, and the Atlantic article is a good read for those who want to better understand what drives Trump. Adapted from her soon-to-be-released book “Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America”, the piece touches on some of the drivers of his inexplicable behavior, such as his insistence that the election was stolen, and that he could even return to office in August 2021.

It also shows how Trump viewed the people around him, particularly his supporters, whose ardency appeared to take him by surprise. For more on that, take a look at how the piece starts:

Can you believe these are my customers?” Donald Trump once asked while surveying the crowd in the Taj Mahal casino’s poker room. “Look at those losers,” he said to his consultant Tom O’Neil, of people spending money on the floor of the Trump Plaza casino. Visiting the Iowa State Fair as a presidential candidate in 2015, he was astounded that locals fell in line to support him because of a few free rides in his branded helicopter. In the White House, he was sometimes stunned at his own backers’ fervor, telling aides, “They’re fucking crazy.” Yet they loved him and wanted to own a piece of him, and that was what mattered most.