Baker Institute's "Previewing the 2024 Presidential Election" Friday, Dec. 1

The 2024 presidential election promises to deliver unexpected twists and turns. At this year’s annual conference from Rice University's Baker Institute Presidential Elections Program on Friday, December 1, the institute will host political experts from around the country to explore the state of the 2024 presidential campaign season and the challenges that lie ahead for candidates.

This event is free and open to the public, but registration is required. In-person attendance is full, but you can still sign up for the waitlist or for an email reminder with the link to the livestream. Follow @BakerInstitute on X (formerly known as Twitter), and join the conversation with #BakerLive.

9:00 am	Panel I — A Presidential Election With Legal Issues Like No Other Moderated by: Mark K. Updegrove, Presidential Historian,  ABC News; President and CEO, LBJ Foundation Richard L. Hasen Professor of Law and Political Science, University of California, Los Angeles; Director, Safeguarding Democracy Project Joshua Sellers Professor of Law, The University of Texas at Austin
10:15 am	Break
10:30 am	Panel II — Dissatisfaction With the Two-Party System Moderated by: Lisa Falkenberg, Houston Chronicle Vice President and Editor of Opinion Mark P. Jones Fellow in Political Science, Joseph D. Jamail Chair in Latin American Studies The Honorable Pat McCrory Former Governor of North Carolina; National Co-Chair, No Labels The Honorable Jay Nixon Former Governor of Missouri; Ballot Integrity Project Director, No Labels
11:45 am	Lunch
12:15 pm	Lunch Conversation Moderated by: Major Garrett, CBS News’ chief Washington correspondent Mark McKinnon Political advisor Jennifer Palmieri Political and communications strategist
1:15 pm	Break
1:30 pm	Panel III — A View From the Campaign Bus Moderated by: Julie Mason, host of daily political talk show “Julie Mason Mornings” on SiriusXM Galen Bacharier Politics Reporter, Des Moines Register Dave Carney CEO, Norway Hill Associates, Inc. Marianne LeVine National Political Reporter, The Washington Post Alex Thompson National Political Correspondent, Axios
2:45 pm	Break
3:00 pm	Panel IV — Looking Forward to the 2024 Election Moderated by: Lisa Lerer, National Political Correspondent, The New York Times Nathan L. Gonzales Editor & Publisher, Inside Elections Rebecca Pearcey Partner, Political Communications, Bryson Gillette Alex Thompson National Political Correspondent, Axios Amy Walter Publisher & Editor-in-Chief, Cook Political Report

For a more detailed description of the panel discussions or additional information about the event, click here.

Emissions of The Rich and Famous Funnies

As well as the elitists and the warmongers.

Joe Biden is spending his Thanksgiving with the CEO of the Carlyle Group- A company that is heavily invested in weapons manufacturing, defense and fossil fuels.

https://t.co/jLaCroAIdS

— Lucy 🕊️ Solidarity Forever 🍉 (@JustaCoinToss) November 22, 2023

Meanwhile in #capitalist #imperialist #USA 🇺🇸 ... https://t.co/ZsMPrn8RnH pic.twitter.com/ZyC4P6VEiR

— bkeithb 🇵🇸 (@bkeithb) November 21, 2023

COP 28 conference is coming up next week. How optimistic are you? https://t.co/pErHRnGohH pic.twitter.com/LaV1sxe2SI

— Dr. William J. Ripple (@WilliamJRipple) November 23, 2023

Turkey Day Toons

Line 'em up, chop their heads off, pluck their feathers, roast 'em for four hours at 300 degrees and carve 'em up. I'll have some white and dark meat.

And FFS leave the poor birds alone.

Duly Community Noted, #tedcruz https://t.co/84M1MC5gSx pic.twitter.com/q4hBvWgx2o

— screamschildrenremoved (@PDiddie) November 23, 2023

Don't blame the translator, blame the colonizers. And one more Norman Rockwell re-imagining ...

And here are some T-Day toons from 75 years ago.

Sunday "From the Rivers to the Seas and the Oceans" Funnies

Most of Israel’s weapons imports come from the US. Joe Biden is rushing even more arms to them:

As (Secretary of Defense) Lloyd Austin told the Senate, “We are flowing security assistance to Israel at the speed of war.”[...]

“The emphasis is on damage and not on accuracy,” Israeli military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said last month. [...]

“It is not in the US national interest to engage in arms transfers where we assess that they are likely to be used in human rights violations”, Christopher Le Mon, a senior State Department official, said in March. “It does not advance our national interests, it does not advance our national security.”

George Orwell's 1984 gets invoked a lot these days, but what happened to the word 'woke' is exactly what was intended with Newspeak. Per Wikipedia, "Orwell explains that Newspeak follows most rules of English grammar, yet is a language characterized by a continually diminishing vocabulary; complete thoughts are reduced to simple terms of simplistic meaning." With 'woke' we see the entire project of humanism reduced to a stupid insult. Shamefully, many political commentators not on the authoritarian right still use this lazy shorthand to belittle activists or anything vaguely socially conscious, invoking the right's pejorative framing.

Republican Electile Dysfunction Funnies

It's their lady problems again.

Bill Bramhall, The New York Daily News @BillBramhall #GOP pic.twitter.com/DqTzTdXjwW

— Editorial & Political Cartoons (@EandPCartoons) November 9, 2023

Democrats reading too much into last Tuesday's outcomes as a portent for two years' hence might also bear observation.

Grocery warehouse robot crushes human robot inspector to death

Washington Post editor David Shipley approved, published, then deleted the Mike Ramirez cartoon on the left:

pic.twitter.com/lD112sXiAV

— David Moss (@RedEviction) November 9, 2023

The Washington Post took down an editorial cartoon (last) Wednesday that depicted a Hamas leader using civilians as human shields after the drawing was criticized as racist and dehumanizing toward Palestinians.

More about the censored cartoon from al-Jazeera and The Hill.

Updates: Conservative media bash the removal of the 'toon, and Ramirez and the WaPo have revised their agreement regarding his contributions to their op-ed pages.

Ramirez has always been a right-wing freak, but censorship of political cartoons is not something a democracy does.  I thought we settled this topic when the offices of Charlie Hebdo were attacked.  If you were ever concerned about free speech, corporate media, and creeping fascism, now would be a great time to support/oppose as the case may be.

And take precautions when you do, but don't be paranoid.  One of the several chronic flaws of Red MAGA groupthink is violent hallucinations.

Días de Demasiados Muertos Funnies

Days of Too Many Dead