Trump has BIGGEST MELTDOWN Yet after ATLANTA DISASTER

 

Do "R" voters pay attention to this MIS FIT?

tRUMP PRAISED PUTIN FOR PRISONER SWAP!

LOW IQ?  QUOTES CHINESE DICTATOR....OMG! MORE FICTITIOUS 

HANNIBEL LECTER...ATTACKING REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR AND 

THEIR FAMILIES....IMAGINED DEBATE DATE....

IRRATIONAL RACIST COMMENTS BECAUSE tRUMP HAS NO 

POLICY....

If you're a stupid & uninformed tRumper who ignored the nomination of Kamala Harris for VP, apparently they cheer the racism....

it's a NON-ISSUE for SANE PEOPLE.

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MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on Donald Trump totally losing his mind as it sets in that he is losing bad to VP Kamala Harris. Visit https://meidastouch.com for more! Support the MeidasTouch Network:   / meidastouch   Add the MeidasTouch Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Buy MeidasTouch Merch: https://store.meidastouch.com Follow MeidasTouch on Twitter:   / meidastouch   Follow MeidasTouch on Facebook:   / meidastouch   Follow MeidasTouch on Instagram:   / meidastouch   Follow MeidasTouch on TikTok:   / meidastouch  

POLITICO Nightly: A win for election denialism

By Zach Montellaro Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer sits at his desk. | Zach Montellaro for POLITICO ‘WINNERS AND LOSERS’ — You may not have heard of Maricopa County, Ariz., Recorder Stephen Richer, who was defeated in a primary earlier this week. But his loss is reverberating across the political world, an ominous sign of a disease that continues to afflict the administration of American elections. Home to Phoenix, Maricopa County is Arizona’s largest jurisdiction and contains more people than 25 states. Since 2020, when Donald Trump refused to accept his defeat there, the county has emerged as an epicenter of conspiracy theories and unfounded ballot fraud accusations. Richer has also been one of the most vocal Republican critics of the “Big Lie,” the false claim that the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump and his allies. And because of that, Richer lost his job on Tuesday. Richer was not preordained to play a central role in the fight against election misinformation, which in recent years has predominantly — but not exclusively — radiated from the Trumpified Republican Party. Before becoming Maricopa County’s top election administrator, Richer was a lawyer straight out of Republican central casting, with time served at AEI and the Cato Institute before running for public office. He ran against then-County Recorder Adrian Fontes in 2020 with deep criticisms of how the Democrat was running the office, resulting in more-than-a-little hurt feelings between the pair. But Richer’s narrow win was accompanied by a narrow loss for Trump, both in Arizona and nationally, sending the soon-to-be-former president and his supporters into a tailspin of lies about the security of American elections — many of them centered on Maricopa. Richer could have easily washed his hands of it, and heaped the blame on Fontes, who actually ran the office that was now under the microscope. Instead he — and the Republican-controlled county board of supervisors, which also oversees aspects of elections in an unusual split-duty system — vociferously defended the county through public attacks, including a sham “audit” run by amateurs with no prior experience. Richer continued to do so throughout his term, fending off conspiracy theories from effectively the entire Republican ticket in the state in 2022, including gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and secretary of state hopeful Mark Finchem. The bizarro world of Arizona politics ultimately led to Richer to quietly root for Fontes, the Democrat he defeated less than two years prior, to win his secretary of state race over Finchem. “I think some of the differences that he and I have, have become muted in that the conversation has just so materially shifted,” Richer told me in his office in February 2023. “It’s a playing field on whether or not the election was stolen in 2020 — and whether or not the election was stolen in 2022. We’re obviously on the same side.” With Fontes in the secretary of state’s office and Richer in the recorder’s office in the state’s largest county, the one-time rivals became a bipartisan odd couple willing to fight election deniers — and jovially argue about their political differences on a small speaking tour. But that bill, at least for Richer, came due Tuesday. The pessimist’s take here is obvious: The Big Lie’s hold isn’t weakening, at least among the Republican primary electorate in Arizona. Richer lost to state Rep. Justin Heap, who the Arizona Mirror writes “won’t say if Arizona’s elections were fair, but he’s voted like an election denier.” (Neither Heap nor Richer responded to interview requests this week.) Heap will face Democrat Tim Stringham in November. It turned out to be a rough evening for election defenders in Arizona, as VoteBeat notes : Lake won her Republican primary for Senate, albeit by an underwhelming margin. Finchem successfully primaried state Sen. Ken Bennett, a former secretary of state, who has “been the deciding vote blocking Republican proposals to restrict voting in the state, such as eliminating early voting or transitioning back to precinct-based voting.” Maricopa County Board of Supervisor Chair Jack Sellers, another Republican who prominently spoke out in the aftermath of 2020, also lost, and fellow Republican Supervisor Bill Gates, a former county commission chair, had previously decided to not seek reelection this year after suffering with PTSD for the violent threats he faced from election deniers. “Folks really understand now, especially in the political world, the value of [the recorder’s] office and how important it is to the overall system,” Fontes told me Thursday, saying he has already received calls from across the country about the race. The tens of thousands of Americans who help run this country’s elections aren’t asking to be lionized. They’re your neighbor just trying to put in an honest day’s work to help tens of millions of Americans exercise the most basic of fundamental rights. But it’s worth remembering that when faced with immense pressure, almost all of them, regardless of party, resisted efforts to disregard the results. Even after a blow like Arizona’s primary elections Tuesday, guardrails persist. In the 2022 midterms, election deniers — at least across swing states — were almost universally rejected for key roles. Many of the highest profile positions are occupied by “lowercase d” democrats from both parties who have already passed the test of history in 2020, ranging from Republicans like Georgia’s Brad Raffensperger and Pennsylvania’s Al Schmidt to Democrats like Fontes and Michigan’s Jocelyn Benson. Richer himself is leading by example. He will remain in office through the November election, and pledged to show his eventual successor the same “grace, class, professionalism, and selflessness” during the transition that Fontes showed him. “Elections have winners and, sadly, losers,” he wrote on X . “But that’s the name of the game. Accept it. Move on.” Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com . Or contact tonight’s author at zmontellaro@politico.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @ZachMontellaro . What'd I Miss? — Rising unemployment jolts Biden-Harris economic message: The U.S. unemployment rate unexpectedly rose last month and job gains slowed, fueling concern that the economy may be headed for a recession. The jobless rate rose to 4.3 percent in July — its highest level since late 2021 , the Labor Department reported today. Though that number is still low by historical standards, it comes after more than two years of unemployment below 4 percent — the bright spot in an economy battered by rising prices. More concerningly, the data suggests that the job market is now weakening more quickly as high interest rates bite into spending and investment, raising questions about whether the U.S. might be entering a downturn — something few economists were worried about just a couple of months ago. — Justice Department sues TikTok over alleged kids’ privacy violations: The Justice Department sued TikTok today over allegations from the Federal Trade Commission that the app and its Chinese parent company ByteDance violated children’s online privacy protections The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, accuses TikTok of violating a 2019 settlement with the FTC by continuing to collect data on millions of children under 13 without their parents’ consent, and failing to honor parents’ data deletion requests, in violation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. — Trump’s stalled election-subversion prosecution revs back to life: The Supreme Court’s landmark ruling on presidential immunity — a breathtaking legal victory for Trump’s bid to sideline his criminal prosecutions — had kept the election-subversion case on ice for months. Even after the ruling, the high court’s rules required a one-month delay to give prosecutors the chance to ask the justices to reconsider the outcome. Today, that window closed. The case was returned to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, which took just minutes to send the matter back to the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who has been in a holding pattern since December awaiting the outcome of the immunity fight. The action carries the prospect of reviving action in the gravest of the four criminal cases against Trump — and it comes at a time when others have stalled. Nightly Road to 2024 IT’S OFFICIAL — Kamala Harris has won the votes of enough Democratic convention delegates to become the party’s presidential nominee , Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison said today — cementing the vice president’s rise from running mate to standard bearer.  “I am so proud to confirm that Vice President Harris has earned more than a majority of votes from all convention delegates and will be the nominee of the Democratic Party following the close of voting” on Aug. 5, Harrison said on a video call today. CALL TO THE BULLPEN — Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign is bringing on a new echelon of senior advisers , most prominently David Plouffe, the former top political adviser to Barack Obama. The personnel move follows weeks of speculation — and lobbying from some Harris allies — to inject a fresh set of eyes into the campaign apparatus she inherited from President Joe Biden after he dropped his reelection bid last month. Plouffe was Obama’s 2008 campaign manager and in 2012 served a similar role in Obama’s reelection from his perch as a White House senior adviser. AROUND THE WORLD Russia's President Vladimir Putin welcomes Russian citizens released in a major prisoner swap at Moscow's Vnukovo airport on Thursday. | Pool photo by Sergei Ilyin DEVIL’S IN THE DETAILS — New details emerged today on the largest prisoner swap since the Cold War, with the Kremlin acknowledging for the first time that some of the Russians held in the West belonged to its security services , reports The Associated Press. Families of freed dissidents, meanwhile, expressed their joy at the surprise release of their loved ones. While journalists Evan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva and former Marine Paul Whelan were greeted by their families and President Joe Biden in Maryland on Thursday night, President Vladimir Putin embraced each of the Russian returnees at Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport, and promised them state awards and a “talk about your future.” Among the eight returning to Moscow was Vadim Krasikov, a Russian assassin who was serving a life sentence in Germany for the 2019 killing of a former Chechen fighter in a Berlin park. German judges said the murder was carried out on orders from Russian authorities. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters today that Krasikov is an officer of the Federal Security Service, or FSB — a fact reported in the West even as Moscow denied state involvement. He also said Krasikov once served in the FSB’s special forces Alpha unit, along with some of Putin’s bodyguards. “Naturally, they also greeted each other yesterday when they saw each other,” Peskov said, underscoring Putin’s determination to include Krasikov in the swap. Earlier this year, Putin stopped short of identifying Krasikov, but referenced a “patriot” imprisoned in a “U.S.-allied country” for “liquidating a bandit” who had killed Russian soldiers during fighting in the Caucasus. PRISONER SWAP BLOWBACK — A day after a historic prisoner swap, Germans are grappling with mixed feelings . In one of the biggest and most complex prisoner swaps since the Cold War, two dozen Americans, Germans and Russian dissidents were released in exchange for eight Russians imprisoned in five different countries. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock referred in a radio interview to Thursday’s large-scale prisoner swap as a “highly sensitive dilemma” that “rightly leads to much, much need for conversation.” The family of the murdered dissident felt “disappointed” and found the decision “incomprehensible,” Inga Schulz, the lawyer who represented them during trial, told POLITICO. The deal caused blowback in Poland, too, as the government came under fire by the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party for not including Andrzej Poczobut, a Polish journalist imprisoned in Belarus — a country allied with Russia. Nightly Number $310 million The amount of money that the Joe Biden-turned-Kamala Harris campaign raised in July , more than doubling the $137 million brought in by former President Donald Trump. RADAR SWEEP ‘ONE OF THE MOST DANGEROUS JOBS IN THE WORLD’ — The nadir of rap music-related violence is generally agreed to be in the mid-1990s, when two pillars of the industry — Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls — were killed in drive-by shootings. But even though rappers are likely safer now than they were 30 years ago, we still frequently see prominent figures in the hip hop community losing their lives to gun violence, including Nipsey Hussle, XXXTentacion and Pop Smoke in recent years. These rappers have varying degrees of security, but almost to a person they have some form of protection. The bodyguards assigned with protecting them are signing up to be in the line of fire — and do an ultra-dangerous job. For The Guardian, Thomas Hobbs looks into the life of the bodyguards of rappers — and what they’ve done to prevent many more deaths. Parting Image On this date in 1983: Three victims of AIDS are sworn in before a House Governmental Relations subcommittee hearing on Capitol Hill to study strategies for dealing with the fatal disease. | John Duricka/AP Did someone forward this email to you?  Sign up here .   Follow us on Twitter Charlie Mahtesian @PoliticoCharlie Calder McHugh @calder_mchugh   Follow us

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POLITICO Nightly: The presidential race that no one wants

 

BY CALDER MCHUGH Donald Trump and Joe Biden participate in the final presidential debate of the 2020 cycle on Oct. 22, 2020 in Nashville, Tenn. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images COLD SHOWERS — For as long as public polling on the 2024 presidential race has been available, it’s been clear that most Americans don’t want Trump v. Biden II. This week, though, the pure cavalcade of bad news and missteps from both candidates is reminding them why, underscoring the manifest weaknesses and limitations of the two likely presidential nominees, and puncturing the idea that either is on any sort of glide path to victory. There is Donald Trump, who immediately upon seizing the lead against Joe Biden in poll after presidential poll, reached back to the Third Reich for material for his stump speech. In recent weeks, the former president had finally deprived his GOP primary foes of their most potent argument against him — suddenly, the bulk of polling suggested he could defeat Biden. This week, however, Trump’s returned to familiar form, fending off allegations that he’s paraphrasing Hitler and forcing Republicans to answer for his remarks. Loudly insisting “I never read Mein Kampf” is no recipe for winning back suburban moms. Biden isn’t alarming his party with his rhetoric. Rather, it’s the seeming lack of response to his diminished political position. For months, he’s insisted everything is fine and preached calm. “You’re reading the wrong polls,” he insisted to reporters on Sunday. But he remains in a nosedive, with no signs of pulling up. WITH CALLER  ID, WHO ANSWERS THE PHONE?  Monmouth University polling released Monday has Biden sitting at 34 percent approval — his worst job rating ever from the polling shop. And in head-to-head, swing-state matchups with Trump, he’s consistently behind. Biden’s approval rating at this point in his term is the worst of any president at the same point since reputable national polling became available according to FiveThirtyEight, which tracks the stat back to 1945 . No incumbent president has come back from such a hole to victory in the modern political era — and the White House doesn’t have a convincing message to panicked Democrats about why they shouldn’t be sweating. Biden’s great fortune appears to be his opponent. Trump’s legal troubles have come roaring back after simmering in the background. On Tuesday, the Colorado high court ruled that Trump is ineligible to run again for president — and thus won’t appear on the state’s ballot — because of his role in stoking an insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021. The ruling is likely to force the Supreme Court to resolve whether he can hold future public office, adding yet another question for the court to decide, in addition to Special Counsel Jack Smith’s request to the Supreme Court last week that they decide on Trump’s claim that he’s immune to prosecution for charges related to his bid to subvert the 2020 election. But even if the Supreme Court rules in Trump’s favor in one or both of the cases that might be before them, his potential legal liabilities remain a black box that could easily sink his chances. Trump is going to spend much of 2024 in court — his first criminal trial is set to begin in March (though appeals could push back that date), right around when he hopes to wrap up the Republican nomination. Primary voters haven’t seemed to mind Trump’s legal woes, but it’s an open question as to how many Americans will respond when they’re confronted with potential criminal convictions; some of them might remember why they soured on him or held their nose and voted for Biden in the first place. If they’ve forgotten, Trump has provided fresh evidence to the Republican Party of his capriciousness as a leader and his willingness to blow up the party on a whim. Just this week, Trump called for a primary challenge to Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), a conservative lawmaker who’s supporting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Nevermind that the Texas filing deadline has passed already. And from the man who brought you Doug Mastriano, Herschel Walker and Blake Masters, here’s Bernie Moreno: a former car dealer who’s never held elected office and is focused on “fighting the Deep State” in his run for Senate in Ohio. Moreno, who secured Trump’s official announcement on Tuesday, is locked in a tight primary battle with Ohio state Sen. Matt Dolan and Secretary of State Frank LaRose. A November poll from Emerson College has Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) leading Moreno by 11 points, while only beating LaRose by five and Dolan by three. While Biden avoids the wrecking ball approach to his party, he confronts persistent, nagging problems that he hasn’t been able to knock down — among them, that he’s been an ineffective steward of the economy. Polls report Americans continue to have a grim outlook of the economy — regardless of the actual state of the economy — despite Biden’s best efforts. And on Monday, the president discovered the limits of his embrace of industrial policy. U.S. Steel agreed on Monday to a full cash sale to Japan’s Nippon Steel worth $14.9 billion. The agreement has Rust Belt Democrats running for reelection — including Ohio’s Brown and Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania — apoplectic, while Republicans pile on. It also takes some real air out of Biden’s carefully constructed self-image as a manufacturing whisperer who can protect American jobs, an essential part of his pitch to voters in key Midwestern swing states. Add to that Biden’s political vulnerability on border security — voters vastly prefer Trump to Biden on immigration issues — where the president is resting his hopes on an elusive bipartisan immigration deal. Again, this week provided another cold shower: After weeks of bargaining to wrap the issue up before the holidays, any lasting hopes of an agreement fell apart on Tuesday as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell issued a joint statement that they’re “committed” to getting something done in the new year. Even if Biden can get a deal through, he’ll assuredly have to swallow concessions that will infuriate much of his party. As Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) told POLITICO , “I’m an absolute no on any bill that’s going to change asylum status, or remove parole.” It’s a needle that might just be impossible to thread. Look at France, which passed a hardline immigration bill this week that has far-right leader Marine Le Pen claiming “ideological victory” and centrist President Emmanuel Macron’s party in total chaos. With the left — and in particular, young progressive voters — already threatening to abandon Biden in droves due to his support of Israel’s incursion into Gaza, a rightward lurch on immigration could drive these voters into the hands of a third-party candidate or to their couches next November. Together, the recent run of show may have provided a revealing glance at what’s to come: a campaign that can’t gain momentum between candidates Americans don’t want. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com . Or contact tonight’s author at cmchugh@politico.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @calder_mchugh . PROGRAMMING NOTE: We’ll be off next week for the holidays but back to our normal schedule on Tuesday, Jan. 2.   GLOBAL PLAYBOOK IS TAKING YOU TO DAVOS! Unlock the insider's guide to one of the world's most influential gatherings as POLITICO's Global Playbook takes you behind the scenes of the 2024 World Economic Forum. Author Suzanne Lynch will be on the ground in the Swiss Alps, bringing you the exclusive conversations, shifting power dynamics and groundbreaking ideas shaping the agenda in Davos. Stay in the know with POLITICO's Global Playbook, your VIP pass to the world’s most influential gatherings. SUBSCRIBE NOW .     WHAT'D I MISS? — Venezuela hands U.S. ‘Fat Leonard’ and others in prisoner exchange: Venezuela has released 10 Americans as part of a prisoner exchange with the United States , along with famed fugitive “Fat Leonard,” senior Biden administration officials told reporters today. Overall, more than 30 detainees are expected to be freed. The U.S. is releasing alleged money launderer Alex Saab, an ally of Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro, to the South American nation as part of the trade. — Humanitarian groups urge Austin to halt Israel aid over Gaza operations: A group of prominent humanitarian organizations is calling on Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to halt military and other aid to Israel over its operations in Gaza that they say have caused “staggering” civilian harm, according to a letter sent to the Pentagon chief today. The groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, urged Austin in the letter to “withhold U.S. assistance, in accordance with U.S. law and policy, that would facilitate violations of international humanitarian law” and “refrain from transferring explosive weapons to Israel for use in Gaza.” The letter was also sent to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser. — Biden: Trump’s an insurrectionist but courts can decide his ballot fate: President Joe Biden said today there was no question that former President Donald Trump was responsible for leading an insurrection . But he declined to weigh in on the legal argument unleashed by the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling that barred Trump from the state’s ballot, pointedly leaving those matters to the judiciary. “It’s self-evident. You saw it all. Now whether the 14th Amendment applies, I’ll let the court make that decision,” the president said during a trip to Wisconsin. “But he certainly supported an insurrection. No question about it. None. Zero.” NIGHTLY ROAD TO 2024 CHRISTIE’S CRUSADE — Calling the latest wave of the nation’s drug crisis “a test of our national resolve,” Republican presidential hopeful Chris Christie returned to a New Hampshire recovery center today to outline a people-focused, not punitive, policy plan , reports the Associated Press. Christie led a White House commission on opioid misuse in 2017, and he praised former president Donald Trump for endorsing all 56 of its recommendations. But only about half have been enacted, and both Trump and President Joe Biden have treated the problem as a crisis in name only, Christie said. Meanwhile, other Republican presidential candidates have focused too narrowly on preventing drugs from getting into the country, he said. ‘FLAGRANT VIOLATION’ — Marianne Williamson is crying foul after the Massachusetts Democratic Party submitted only President Joe Biden’s name for the state’s Super Tuesday presidential primary ballot, reports POLITICO. “Dem Chair Steve Kerrigan’s misplaced attempt at protecting Joe Biden robs Massachusetts Democrats of their voice and choice in the upcoming election,” Williamson, the longshot Democratic presidential candidate, wrote in a post on X , formerly known as Twitter, today. “This action is a flagrant violation of DNC rules and process.” Massachusetts Democrats are the latest in a string of state parties to leave the president’s challengers off their lists of candidates for the primary ballot, in what Biden’s rivals have decried as incumbent protection that disenfranchises voters. But there are two other ways to get on the primary ballot in Massachusetts. Candidates can submit 2,500 nominating signatures to local election officials by Friday, or the secretary of state can add candidates who have been “recognized by the national media” if their party doesn’t put their name forward. AROUND THE WORLD Migrants sail after boarding a smuggler's boat on the beach of Gravelines, near Dunkirk, northern France on Oct. 12, 2022, in an attempt to cross the English Channel. | Sameer Al-Doumy/AFP via Getty Images WE’VE GOT A DEAL — The European Union today broke years of political deadlock by agreeing on a deal that will significantly change how the bloc limits migrant entry , moves migrants around EU countries and effectively makes it easier to deport unsuccessful asylum seeker applicants, reports POLITICO EU. European Parliament President Roberta Metsola hailed the deal as historic. Negotiators worked through the night to agree on the overhaul of the EU’s asylum procedures, signaling a shift to the right after years of failed attempts to agree on regulations appeasing both border countries that want help handling asylum seekers and inland countries that argue too many migrants are arriving in one EU country, and then moving on to others. Under the agreement, which still needs to be formally ratified, front-line countries in Southern Europe will institute a stricter asylum procedure at their non-EU borders and will be more empowered to deport rejected asylum seekers. Countries further inland will be given a choice of whether to accept a certain number of migrants or pay into a joint EU fund. “Migration is a European challenge that requires European solutions,” European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said, further signaling a unified EU-backing of stricter measures to combat the rising popularity of anti-immigrant far-right platforms across Europe. The deal comes just six months before the EU election, with polls showing a surge in support for far-right, anti-immigration parties in countries like Germany and the Netherlands. The debate around immigration is set to be a decisive and divisive element of elections in Europe in 2024.   POLITICO AT CES® 2024 : We are going ALL On at CES 2024 with a special edition of the POLITICO Digital Future Daily newsletter. The CES-focused newsletter will take you inside the most powerful tech event in the world, featuring revolutionary products that cut across verticals, and insights from industry leaders that are shaping the future of innovation. The newsletter runs from Jan. 9-12 and will focus on the public policy-related aspects of the gathering. Sign up today to receive exclusive coverage of the show .     NIGHTLY NUMBER 21 percent The percentage of mayors who reported a decrease in optimism since taking office , according to POLITICO’s final Mayors Club survey. Of 47 mayors who responded, 10 mayors stated some decrease in optimism after serving as mayor, with 14 reporting no change since taking the role. Three mayors declined to answer. RADAR SWEEP ART OR AI? — Would Michelangelo use AI to help create his now famous sculptures if he had the technology back then? According to Giacomo Massari from the company Litix, of course he would — and Litix is hoping to recreate the marbled beauties he once made. In Carrara, Italy — the epicenter for the pearly white marble used in Michelangelo’s sculptures — Massari and sculptor Filippo Tincolini have created Litix, a company creating automated robotic sculptors. The company is using AI and robotic arms to help recreate famous sculptures, including those from history previously destroyed. In a story for Smithsonian Magazine, Elaine Sciolino and photographer Caleb Stein take us into the world of a tech company lodged within the historic marble mountains of Carrara looking to bring art and AI together. PARTING IMAGE On this date in 1994: Former President Jimmy Carter smiles as he walks out of the Bosnian Serbs headquarters while Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić follows after a meeting. Carter traveled to Bosnia to help broker peace in the midst of sectarian violence in the region, and said that Karadžić had agreed to a four-month nationwide cease-fire. Karadžić was later convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes by the ICC for his part in the directed extermination of non-Serbs in the region. | Michel Euler/AP Did someone forward this email to you?  Sign up here .   Follow us on Twitter Charlie Mahtesian @PoliticoCharlie Calder McHugh @calder_mchugh   FOLLOW US

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