Eugene Robinson, at the Washington Post — “Harris plants her flag in Chicago: The future is now”:
It is Kamala Harris’s Democratic Party now. The United Center here has had its roof blown off before, but seldom as explosively as it did on Thursday night. When Harris accepted the Democratic convention’s nomination for president, the hall erupted the way it did when NBA legend Michael Jordan would commit some jaw-dropping violation of the law of gravity.
She and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, will lead the party in a crusade that Harris called “a fight for America’s future.” The beginning of Harris’s speech was autobiographical and the end was political, but a good deal of the middle was prosecutorial: She laid out the case against ever allowing Donald Trump back into the White House.
The arena was perhaps at its loudest when she led the crowd in what has become a rallying cry: “We’re not going back!”…
Harris is the embodiment of the nation’s diversity, complexity and multiculturalism. She is a mirror, reflecting not America’s future but its present. The election might hinge on whether Trump can make voters feel unnerved or frightened by what they see.
Much of the evening was clearly aimed at independents and Trump-weary Republicans, offering reassurance and creating a permission structure allowing them to vote for a Democrat. This moment is “a precious, fleeting opportunity to move past the bitterness, cynicism and divisive battles of the past,” Harris said. “I know there are people of various political views watching tonight. And I want you to know: I promise to be a president for all Americans.”…
Around midday on Thursday, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was hurrying along the suite-level corridor of the United Center, fresh from a television appearance, family entourage in tow. I asked how she thought the convention had gone so far, and she answered with a big smile. Then, she put on her game face and leaned closer.
“Now, we have work to do,” she said. “There is a lot of very important work that has to be done.”…
shorter Times: Harris now faced with ominous surplus of momentum and joy. pic.twitter.com/htjZFliLqH
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) August 23, 2024
Josh Marshall, at TPM – “Thoughts on the Final Night”:
First, on the speech … rock solid. I doubt her advisors and press people thought it could have gone much better. At the beginning I thought it might be understated somehow. Not bad at all, but understated, a bit quieter than we expect from these speeches. But as it progressed I realized she was developing an emotional audience, in person and on television. This came through later in the speech when she ranged from intense to boisterous to categorical. It worked with a mixture of intensity and authenticity. There’s no point in my doing more interpreting of the speech. It hit every point and hit every one well. The most telling comments were those from Republican commentators who couldn’t find their way around saying that it was a strong speech before, of course, reassuring listeners that Harris is obviously terrible and they agree with her about nothing…
What I took from this is a sense of focus and discipline from the people running Harris’ convention and campaign — not getting lost in glitz or stagecraft but defining a specific list of critical deliverables and then methodically checking them off the list. This was going on in the midst of what was unquestionably a high-powered and high-energy event. There was a mix of discipline and ability there that could not fail to have an impact but was also, in the intensity of the final day of a convention, easy to miss.
I continue to think there’s more going on in this campaign than much of the political and commenting class has yet understood or reckoned with.
Oldest DNC delegate: Each convention has been so exciting. But this one especially. It's for women. It's for everyone. It's something that I can't explain. I feel like the world is opening up to everybody, every color, every creed, and every woman pic.twitter.com/5JluNJQ41M
— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) August 22, 2024
Kamala Harris leaves the Democratic convention having upended political gravity. Democrats are basking in the country’s sustained attention, and, for once, Donald Trump is not the central fact of American politics, culture, and society. https://t.co/xpUMg94Qu3
— Intelligencer (@intelligencer) August 23, 2024
I owe someone a credit for this…
Baud
“Harris risks winning blowout election, raising expectations among her supporters” – – NYT
Trivia Man
After a great week and a great closer there is a ton of reference material. The other guy tried his own plot twist with a “sudden” friday reveal of a “new” ally. But there are so many powerful and simple highlights from the week, that twist will be soon forgotten.
Trivia Man
@Trivia Man: And by reference material, i mean jokes and policy soundbites and human anecdotes and philosophy nuggets. Short clips that can be applied in any situation by the mighty army of social (media) justice warriors. A library of reaction gifs if you will.
NotMax
Okay, folks. Taking all comments about a NYC meet-up into consideration, how about this?
When: Saturday, August 31st.
Where: Pershing Square Cafe (across the street from Grand Central).
Time: 5 p.m. until ??
POST FOR THE MEETUP IS UP. (after this one)
.
HinTN
O.M.F.G. – as accurate and powerful an assessment as you’ll ever see.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
@HinTN: Yeah that’s one great meme.
japa21
Good morning. Love the torch meme.
Does anyone know how the Orange One’s rally went in terms of attendance?
lowtechcyclist
Gotta admit, what the 95 year old delegate said moved me to tears.
Good morning, y’all!
Baud
@japa21:
The one picture I saw made it look like it was well attended.
Mousebumples
Good morning!
I picked up yard signs for Sen. Baldwin and my State Assembly race yesterday.
They were out/hadn’t arrived for Dr. Lyerly and Harris/Walz. My State Senate race isn’t up this year.
Friend birthday party for my oldest today. Family birthday party tomorrow. What chaos and joy.
Raven
Trump asked Arizona Police Association President Justin Harris to get a move on during a speech where he endorsed the GOP nominee.
TBone
The sign says “You are now entering badass territory. Act accordingly.”
🎶
https://youtu.be/IC9WO9M-wLo
mrmoshpotato
Quick! Someone get the FNYT a pacifier of rotting horse anuses!
Baud
@Raven:
Reddit
Princess
Pockets of my normie acquaintances are starting to say, “but what are her pooooolicies???” Proving the NYT still has too much sway over our side.
I say: a) I want to know my president’s legislative priorities. The legislature writes the policies. Expecting everything from the president helps make them a king. I hate that. And b) She can give us detailed policy the day after Trump described how he’s going to replace Obamacare and what his plans are for infrastructure week.
Baud
@Princess:
Start with abortion, then when they ask for a second, go to voting rights.
Or vice versa.
TBone
Policies:
Replace hate with love
Continue to be a badass who got game
Laugh!
mrmoshpotato
@japa21: Whinily? 👶😭
Baud
If we win a trifecta and dump the filibuster, the first two things Dems will do are voting rights and abortion rights.
TBone
Bad Ass. 🎶😎
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vqNcyFNMfLM
TBone
@Baud: WHEN!
(not if)
TBone
Our county daredevil is flying his go cart slung from a motorized parasailing wing overhead right now. It’s a sight to behold! Crash helmet and anti gravity chinstrap!
prostratedragon
This taking back stuff is leaving a mark:
narya
@Baud: With SCROTUS reform third on the list. From your fingertips to FSM’s noodly appendages.
Trivia Man
Time to triangulate down ballot. EVERY single republican candidate for EVERY office must be asked REPEATEDLY if they support donOld. They have no good response.
1) loud and proud gets them a pat on the head from dear leader and maybe a positive tweet mentioning their name. But no money. This makes that base happy but draws attention from all anti-trump voters.
2) tepid support then change the subject will make MAGA angry and they might withhold votes. Normie republicans will feel better about voting but it wont draw any dem or undecided.
3) distance themselves explicitly. Might even depress turnout from MAGA because it gives them a sad.
But it is important in any case to get them on the record. A roll call of traitors before shit hits the fan.
HinTN
Since it’s an OT, let me retract my criticism, from a day or so ago, of the folks submitting the signatures for the abortion referendum in Arkansas.
From LGM
https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2024/08/democracy-does-not-exist-in-arkansas
Grrrr
pajaro
@Princess
That’s off the top of my head.
sdhays
@Raven: I’m glad Trump afforded him the respect he was due.
TBone
@HinTN: they must be yeeted into the sun.
RawStory – In an official resolution, the National Federation of Republican Assemblies (NFRA) – a 90 year-old GOP-aligned organization that counted former President Ronald Reagan among its membership — took the position that Harris should not be allowed to hold the office of president, citing several “precedent-setting U.S. Supreme Court cases.” Among the six cases the NFRA cited was the Dred Scott v. Sandford decision of 1857
“Several states, candidates, and major political parties have ignored this fundamental Presidential qualification, including candidates Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy and Kamala Harris whose parents were not American citizens at the time of their birth,” the NFRA’s resolution read.
The resolution attorney Andrew Fleischman posted to the social media platform Bluesky, cited Article II, Section 1, Paragraph 5 of the Constitution, which pertains to only natural-born U.S. citizens being eligible to serve as president.
The NFRA argued that the phrase “natural born citizen” is defined as “a person born on American soil of parents who are both citizens of the United States at the time of the child’s birth.”
The Dred Scott case concerned a slave from Missouri who then lived in the free states of Illinois. When he sued for his freedom, the Supreme Court denied his petition stating that he lacked the standing to sue in federal court.
In the decision, Chief Justice Roger Taney asserted that Article III of the U.S. Constitution made it impossible for the descendants of slaves to have the rights of citizenship.
The oppressors must be soundly
defeatedrazed from this earth.K-Mo
@Baud: By transcending pettiness and focusing on broad themes of major significance, will Kamala Harris lose connection with the petty bourgeoisie?
moonbat
@pajaro: Don’t forget Supreme Court reform. Expand the court to cover the 13 circuits and pass a binding set of ethics rules.
mrmoshpotato
@prostratedragon: WATB!
mrmoshpotato
@pajaro: 11. Atomic wedgies for all Trump trash
Nukular Biskits
Good mornin’, y’all!
How’s everyone?
Beautiful day here on MS Gulf Coast. Last few days, in fact, have been absolutely gorgeous, with morning temps in low to mid 70s and clear skies. Uncharacteristic for this time of year down here.
sdhays
@TBone: I read that last night and initially thought it must be a nasty joke. Fred Scott as a precedent? Really?
It’s no joke. Very, very stupid and nasty, but not a joke.
sdhays
@mrmoshpotato:We’ll need to do an environmental impact study on the amount of radiation generated from all those atomic wedgies. Might be dangerous for innocent bystanders.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Princess: Yeah this is what’s driving the “fact checkers” into self parody. They keep fact checking Harris’s claims against DonOld’s policy positions that often don’t exist, and when they do he’s on record saying the opposite of whatever policy position the fact checker picks as his true policy position. So whose to say whether his official position is what he said today, when he said the opposite yesterday? Then there’s the fact that if his lips are moving he’s lying so nobody has any idea what he’d actually do. So it’s impossible to fact check anything his opponent claims about his positions because nobody can know anything with any certainty.
As for Harris’s policy positions I’d start with free and fair elections and the rule of law. It’s obvious that the only certain things about a second DonOld term is he would never relinquish power peacefully, have no respect for the nation’s laws, and would impose martial law whenever he felt sufficiently disrespected by anyone. Other than those things nobody can know much of anything.
Nukular Biskits
@Baud:
It’s a good thing DougJ isn’t paying the bills based on Pitchbot … the FTFNYT, et al, are moving in on his territory.
Tony Jay
@TBone:
Nukular Biskits
@HinTN:
Love that image!
Nukular Biskits
@Baud:
I second this.
I’ll add put judicial confirmations into warp drive as third.
TBone
Oh dear! My very trumpey, religious, church-going every Sunday teacher/football coach neighbor just dropped a huge Eff bomb out in his driveway. At first, I thought “what is hubby doing over there at this hour?” But no! This is very out of character for neighbor dad!
Must need a fresh diaper.
TBone
@Tony Jay: 😆💙
Newt was on Fux last night when I channel surfed. He looks…
Frail
sdhays
@Nukular Biskits: … Surely Baud was joking, right?
Right???
OzarkHillbilly
In water is wet news: RFK Jr voters on ‘frustrating’ suspension of campaign: ‘He’s playing politics’
Well, yeah, he was always playing politics. Kinda hard not to in a “political campaign”.
But as to their feelings about his backing trump, I would venture to say 98% of his ‘voters’ were backing him because he was neither DEM nor GOP. In other words, it’s all much ado about nothing.
Nukular Biskits
@sdhays:
Baud is this blog’s version of Schrödinger’s Cat.
H.E.Wolf
Such a rotten deal for the folks in Arkansas.
Electoral-Vote.com added their comments, and pointed out the glass-half-full aspect (regarding the 2024 elections nationwide):
https://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2024/Items/Aug23-3.html
Glass half-full, because if Democratic voters everywhere in the nation sweep House, Senate, and Presidency, Arkansans will benefit from the abortion-rights legislation that a Democratic Congress will pass, and Harris will sign.
Baud
@Nukular Biskits: I thought Schrodinger’s Cat was this blog’s version of Schrodinger’s Cat.
Ohio Mom
@TBone: My maternal grandparents immigrated here in the very early 1900s and did not become citizens until middle-age, after their three children had been born; I don’t know about my paternal grandparents but I suspect their story is similar.
They were able to live and work as they pleased, they did not see a need for a piece of paper. Most likely their experience growing up as Jews in Eastern Europe made them skeptical about interactions with government.
Anyway, if none of them were citizens when my parents were born, then my parents weren’t citizens and by extension, I’m not a citizen.
My point is, by this logic, hardly anyone is a citizen. Think you’re exempt because your ancestors came over on the Mayflower or fought in the Revolutionary War? Exactly which ancestor was officially naturalized?
K-Mo
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?: They need a new category for TFG: bullshit.
OzarkHillbilly
@Nukular Biskits: I thought Schrödinger’s Cat was this blog’s version of Schrödinger’s Cat.
Dammit Baud, beat me to it again.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
The hell, dude? ©
Tony Jay
@TBone:
He Who Walks Between The Rows will take His pounds of doughy flesh.
K-Mo
@pajaro: (nodding)
Ken
@OzarkHillbilly: There’s a sad, or maybe sad trombone, side effect of RFK withdrawing. In many states he had persuaded some small party with ballot access to let him run as their candidate, allowing him to skip the expensive signature petition drives that a new party generally has to meet.
Now that he’s out those parties have no candidate in the general election, and in a lot of places will lose their ballot access — retention usually requires getting some percentage of the vote. So they’ll have to run an expensive signature petition drive if they want to be back in 2026 or 2028.
Nukular Biskits
@Baud:
“The hell, dude?” is copyrighted?
Ken
@Nukular Biskits: By The Ohio State University, no less.
Frankensteinbeck
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?:
Also only an unserious rube would believe one side is honest. The savvy observer knows Democrats must be cynically deceiving their voters and Trump must have a point that’s merely exaggerated for the game of politics. All that’s left is to find the pretzel the pundit needs to twist into to explain these bedrock truths.
I will give them this: Even people here desperately want to believe Trump has a strategy and can’t just be a flailing idiot.
TBone
@Ohio Mom: 👍
They are SUCH petty pikers! Do you feel pwned? Me neither!
I can hear the “har har har” of the pro slave party like they have a bullhorn. They. Will. Not. Win.
TBone
@Tony Jay: 💙
He who dips the wrong bin gets his tombstone urinated upon for eternity!
Percysowner
@Nukular Biskits:
I’d add expanding the Supreme Court to match the number of Federal Judicial Districts and expanding the House of Representatives to match the population and losses in states. That changes the math on electoral votes, which should help from here on out.
Fake Irishman
@Baud:
The third will be DC statehood.
TBone
@Ken: sad trombone (“I got high and I forgot”):
https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2024-08-20/rfk-jr-to-defend-bid-to-get-on-pennsylvania-ballot-against-democrats-challenge
Baud
@Fake Irishman:
A new flag would be a nice way to signal a break with the past and to welcome the country to the 21st century.
TBone
@Baud: I can sew and I have ideas! Heads would explode across the nation tho…
oldster
@Baud:
Well, it is and it isn’t.
OzarkHillbilly
If a picture is worth a thousand words, this one writes a tome.
Ramalama
@Princess:
You might also mention that we are still waiting to hear back from Trump’s people (on the ground) about the real Obama birth certificate from Hawaii.
Lapassionara
@Princess: to paraphrase David Sedaris, to ask for policies in this election is to ask how the chicken is cooked when the choice is between chicken and tires rims and anthrax.
Jackie
@japa21:
Not yet; but TCFG may have bragging rights for sending 100+ attendees to the hospital for heat related issues during the outdoor rally. It might be a record!
Fake Irishman
@pajaro:
In addition:
Without filibuster reform:
1. Extension of enhanced Obamacare subsidies
2. tweaks to tax credits and spending under the IRA for renewable energy and other ways to fight global warming
3. Putting Biden’s child tax credit back on the table (the really popular one from the American Rescue Plan Act, which expired and that Kay here was enamored with)
4. Expansion of Medicare Drug price negotiation
With filibuster reform:
1. Some sort of Clean electricity standard and probably legislation directly delineating low or no carbon standards for many industrial processes
2. Some sort of legislation extending price caps on insulin to private sector and perhaps for broader classes of generic drugs (think like the profit caps on insurance companies)
3. A lot of legislation clarifying standards, fixing excessively narrow court rulings (eg the statute of limitations thing on regulatory relief the court screwed up) adoption of most recent standards of preventative care, tweaks to appointment process to create safe harbors for lots of regulations.) This won’t undo the damage from the court’s last term, but it will mitigate a lot of it.
4. An enforceable ethics code for the judiciary branch.
Nukular Biskits
@OzarkHillbilly:
Which is why I wish the US gov’t policy wasn’t always “Israel, right or wrong!”.
I fully realize that the Palestinian/Israeli conflict is a very difficult issue to resolve, with ratfvckers on all sides (Iran, Israeli hardliners, etc).
But I can’t understand why we’re not using both our bully pulpit AND our global power to rein in the IDF’s actions against civilians.
lollipopguild
@Frankensteinbeck: Trumpty-Dumpty has a strategy and it’s called me me me and everything belongs to me!
HinTN
@OzarkHillbilly: One could reasonably say to those RFK idiots
but I just don’t have the time for them.
Starfish
@pajaro: Nice. You missed gun safety.
Starfish
@Nukular Biskits: Oh, I am so glad that you are getting relief from all the heat.
Another Scott
@Percysowner:
Not enough, IMHO. We need to do much more.
E.g.
Split it up.
Ban “judge shopping” and all the other abuses by the RWNJs, also too.
As for the SCOTUS, Fight for 15!!
Cheers,
Scott.
Fake Irishman
@Nukular Biskits:
Agreed, but worth noting Judicial confirmations already are proceeding very quickly. Considering that he started with very few vacancies, Biden has done an amazing job filling slots. I know folks here get frustrated with Durbin, but he has shepherded more than 200 into positions, even a considerable number into deep red districts.
They’ve also made considerable progress at the appellate level: the fifth and eighth circuits are still huge problems, but they’ve narrowed the gap a lot on the seventh and have the potential do do so on the sixth, which narrows the avenues for mischief quite a bit.
Starfish
@TBone: Did someone show him the highlights of the DNC? What is going on over there?
Nukular Biskits
@Starfish:
Yeah, but I’m suspicious. I’m convinced sometime next week near-triple digits w/ a bazillion % humidity will return after we’re lulled into fall mode. Right after I’ve planned for a couple of outside projects.
What does surprise me, though, is I have yet to here the belligerent ignorati trot out the “WHATEVER HAPPENED TO GLOBAL WARMIN?!?!? HYUCK!HYUCK!HYUCK!”
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Lapassionara:
Always a good day when Cole’s “tire rims and anthrax” analogy is pulled out.
Regarding the abortion “ruling” in Arkansas, it highlights the inherent danger in ‘judicial capture’ as we’ve seen play out at the Extreme Court level. My (most likely vain) hope is that voters see this for what it is and realize they need to elect people who are not part of the American Taliban, otherwise, those reactionaries will appoint…reactionaries to the bench.
In keeping with the glass half full perspective on this, okay, so one state blatantly is trying to turn back an effort on abortion rights but look at the rest that have successfully made it this year. It’s *really* an impressive count, 11.
Okay, NV’s vote is just the first one, they hafta do it again but hey, if that helps drive voters to the polls this time and next time, we’ll take it. And in Floriduh, the ballot requires 60% to pass but if BCrack’s reports of polling hold up, it might get passed there.
And other states with potentially narrow margins for Dem candidates (Tester in MT for example), these ballot measures might just pull candidates like him across the finish line.
Circling back to Arkansas, JFC, it’s no wonder people leave such states (my older brother has lived in Little Rock since the early 80s and has seen this kinda crap play out over the years).
Starfish
@OzarkHillbilly: Oh! That poor child.
Another Scott
@OzarkHillbilly: @Baud:
Zooks!
Did the mask slip??
Did the wave function collapse??
Are OzarkHillbilly and Baud a superposition of Yin and Yang?!?
Cheers,
Scott.
MomSense
My Aunt just left and I miss her already. In the cool Aunt category she is an all star. I’m so glad my mom got to spend some time with her.
OzarkHillbilly
@Nukular Biskits: I have stated in the past that I think the US has precious little influence w/ Israel right now. Bibi’s got his war on and he’s not about to give it up. He needs it to stay in it to secure his PM-ship. If he gave it up the hard right would abandon him in droves.
I think Joe figures it is better to have some influence over him as opposed to none. Mind you, I am hard pressed to see any influence at all just now.
MomSense
@OzarkHillbilly:
My heart is broken for all the children of Gaza.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Chicagoland jackals: I’m leaving in 15 minutes to go to the Elmhurst library author fair. The fair runs from 10-2. Come see me! Mr DAW will be there too, though sometimes he wanders off.
Jackie
@Baud:
Added bonus: No MAGAts will recognize not fly a 51 state flag.
Kay
“Codifying Roe” is a legal question at this point, which is why I think Democrats aren’t promising that specifically (nor should they). There are questions on whether a federal statute would rest on the Commerce Clause or the 14th Amendment and attempts to game out what Alito would do in response to any federal pro choice legislation. An error there could mean the far Right majority on the SCOTUS could use a new law grounded in the 14th A as a jumping off point to “fetal personhood” which would make the United States the most radically far Right on that issue in the world. So the stakes to get it right are pretty high. But I think the caution on how we present this is important, because we really, really do not want to overpromise. It’s essential we retain credibility with our voters on this.
Starfish
@Nukular Biskits: They could laugh about it for some years because it was already hot where you are, and you weren’t experiencing the temperature changes.
But the floods and hurricanes are no joke.
artem1s
I honestly don’t believe that Ohio can be in play until serious changes happen with the way the state Democratic Party operates. But someone is feeling very uncomfortable with the Ohio gerrymandering reform bill if they feel the need to bring Moses in to raise money to defeat the bill.
https://x.com/AndrewJTobias/status/1826732773664751880
Mike DeWine is facing some serious questions about whether he was bribed to support and sign the First Energy bill that’s robbed millions of dollars from Ohioans. LaRose is on the hotseat because of the way he keeps monkeying with state law to interfere with how Issues get on the ballot. I haven’t seen Ohioans this pissed about getting ripped off by the GOP in a long time.
Ken
From Aaron Rupar on bluesky: Someone tweeted a picture of Trump and RFK as “the strongest anti-establishment ticket in American History” — and Trump reposted it on his Truth Social account.
I remember Trump used to fire people in his administration by tweet. Maybe Vance should give him a quick call to see if he should still be hanging around Pennsylvania bothering people.
Nukular Biskits
@OzarkHillbilly:
I can’t say as I disagree.
MinuteMan
The Salt Lake Tribune mostly reprints national and world news articles from the NY Trump Times so I was accosted this morning by the headline shown above. Sadly we also get, as an added bonus, all of FNYTT’s punditry, too. It’s sad the Sinclair-like reach that the legend-in-is-own-mind paper has and the unfortunate state to which many local papers have been reduced.
Starfish
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: These folks never get voted out of power because there is a lot of voter suppression going on there, and the power structures that prop them up start out when they are in college. Part 5 in Anne Helen Peterson’s series on frat and sorority culture goes straight through to Katie Britt and other Republican leaders in the state. When she is talking about “The Machine,” she is talking about a subset of students in the highest ranked frats and sororities.
Another Scott
@Ohio Mom:
Melania and Usha, also too. They don’t care about the logic and the rules and the laws and the norms. They, like a certain other New Yorker, think that those quaint things only apply to little people – not the special people in their tribe.
Harris is right to try to change the conversation from the tired old Us vs Them to us all being Americans and working together to make things better. IOW, don’t let them define the game and the playing field. We have a great story to tell, and great story tellers.
+1
Cheers,
Scott.
Kay
@Nukular Biskits:
My heart just sank when I read this last night:
I don’t know what to think anymore. It gets worse every day. We’re so far from the “red line” on Gaza (remember that?) and we just keep doubling down. I don’t know what it will take to get thru to US policymakers that this approach is a disaster.
That ceasefire deal is a nonstarter. It has Israel occupying a swathe of Gaza. The other parties are never, ever going to sign on to that. Blinken guaranteed just last week that this wouldn’t happen and now the US is presenting an occupying force remaining as part of a deal. I would never agree to it if I were in Palestinians shoes. No one would. It’s a dealbreaker.
lowtechcyclist
I’m gonna suggest DC statehood in the top 3-5 on the legislative to-do list. Let’s get those extra 2 Dem Senators in place as soon as possible! This should be high on the list because it’s a change that will help enable other changes.
And Puerto Rico as well, if the citizens of PR are on record as supporting statehood. I realize their politics are different from those of the mainland, so it may or may not be a gain for our party, but if a majority of Puerto Ricans want statehood, then they should have it.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone 😊 😊 😊
prostratedragon
@Tony Jay: “Both Sides Battle-Chat” Heh!
rikyrah
😂😂😂😂
Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) posted at 9:18 PM on Fri, Aug 23, 2024:
Oh dear struggling Old Man Don trying to bogart the “joy”
A concept he’s actually congenitally unable to understand.
(https://x.com/joshtpm/status/1827168694113378308?t=piNVZLD8ppG-uXyswc-Y5Q&s=03)
Nukular Biskits
@rikyrah:
Mornin’, laggard! 😊
rikyrah
Love this communications team
Sarafina Chitika (@SarafinaChitika) posted at 9:02 PM on Fri, Aug 23, 2024:
NEW from @KamalaHQ as Trump continues his days long meltdown in Arizona tonight:
Voters are watching an unhinged, unserious man rant on Truth Social, rave on Fox News, and hold weird revenge rallies where he rambles about his own problems.
@KamalaHarris is focused on the issues https://t.co/F5isxB1Usa
(https://x.com/SarafinaChitika/status/1827164497426985120?t=_tKtIYQyI7B75-0z5P9QVw&s=03)
Kay
@rikyrah:
That was genuinely funny, how he really thinks just saying “joy” after almost a decade of unrelenting nastiness is a switch he can make.
catclub
Continue and expand support for Ukraine.
Fake Irishman
@Fake Irishman:
Also without fillibuster: raising the minimum wage to about $15 hour in stages, linking it to inflation and reducing or eliminating the tip differential.
rikyrah
Amongst the most selfish muthaphuckas on the planet 😡😡 😡
Ronald Brownstein (@RonBrownstein) posted at 11:11 PM on Fri, Aug 23, 2024:
In @pewresearch 2023 poll, 2/5 of Rs & 2/5 of white evangelicals say parents should be allowed not to vaccinate their public school kids “even if that creates health risks for others.” That’s 2x the % as in 2019. But 7/10 of all adults disagree. Trump/RFK team gives Ds an opening
(https://x.com/RonBrownstein/status/1827196971804684336?t=2eVw4HncRTPif6YF9aeS1w&s=03)
Geminid
@Nukular Biskits: This may be news you can use, from Trains Magazine:
Amtrak hopes to have the route up and running in time for Super Bowl LIX, to be held February 9 at the Superdome in New Orleans.
UncleEbeneezer
@prostratedragon: Camo hats directly inspired by Chappell Roan, a young, queer, feminist woman from the mid-west. Which makes it even better.
Nukular Biskits
@Kay:
I gotta wonder what would happen if we put the same restrictions regarding the use of US weapon systems on Israel as we do on Ukraine, the latter case here being ridiculous.
At the risk of sounding like I side with genocidal criminals in the Israeli gov’t, I fully support Israel’s right to exist and defend itself … and said right should include offensive actions when absolutely necessary. And that extends to us providing the support to do those things.
BUT … the US should not be giving a blank check nor turning a blind eye towards policies and military actions that are clearly disproportionate and result in the indiscriminate injury and deaths to civilians.
Nukular Biskits
@Geminid:
Yeah, I had seen that and I think it’s a good thing, although I doubt I’d ever avail myself of those services.
Now, if they included a light metro service running between Gulfport and the Ingalls Shipyard in Pascagoula …
Ken
“Not any more.” — Trump fave Hannibal Lecter
Fake Irishman
@lowtechcyclist:
agreed on PR. Give them the option. Statehood would stabilize a lot of things there, especially Medicaid. That probably changes some of the politics over the medium term as well.
sdhays
@Baud: You clearly don’t understand quantum physics.
Nukular Biskits
Okay.
Coffee’s drank. Breakfast is ated. I’m burning daylight.
Y’all keep me in your thoughts & prayers because when the weather is beautiful down here, I’ll be out in the yard all day long working myself to death.
Kay
@Nukular Biskits:
We actually enforced the Leahy law with Ukraine – we said one of their units was violating our laws so that unit could not receive aid. Ukraine didn’t go fucking ballistic in response and insist we had abandoned them – they accepted us enforcing our own laws and were grateful for the aid they got. For some unknown reason it is impossible for us to apply Leahy in Israel, although we apply it literally everywhere else.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
rikyrah
President Kamala’s Hand (Again) (@myronjclifton) posted at 8:20 AM on Sat, Aug 24, 2024:
Mass media, maga, Hamas, Russia, China, Iran, etc are pissed at democrats right now so they’re gonna do their best to steal joy
They’re smearing VP Harris & Gov Walz, downplaying their unifying messages, & successful convention
They’re all over this app being trolls &
p-ricks
(https://x.com/myronjclifton/status/1827335199849648341?t=L57rHBYNixUl3MSUOXR4Ew&s=03)
lowtechcyclist
@OzarkHillbilly:
We give them >$3B in aid each year. Let Biden test whether withholding upcoming payments would constitute an ‘official act.’
Ken
I like these suggestions for Harris administration legislative priorities, but I’d really like to see her explore what can be done just by the executive branch, using those spiffy new official-act immunity powers the Supreme Court recently found in a previously-unnoticed page of the Constitution.
For example, can the President have members of the Supreme Court held in an undisclosed location without access to counsel, if in her judgment they have not followed the “good behavior” required of their offices? I realize the Court doesn’t take hypotheticals, so this would have to be determined experimentally.
rikyrah
KerrBear 🪷 (@MPLSKerrBear) posted at 7:57 AM on Sat, Aug 24, 2024:
This is the reason 200 content creators were given access to the DNC. Unlike the media who was silent on P25, content creators kept sounding the alarm. In fact, the Harris campaign told us, they learned of P25 from content creators. Legacy media continues to push the message given to them by Trump.
https://t.co/pPaDG2bl3K
(https://x.com/MPLSKerrBear/status/1827329348405231709?t=0byhwx6COH2FSTcsIeH3Eg&s=03)
rikyrah
Political monk 🇺🇸🌴 (@dentalmanMonk) posted at 8:06 AM on Sat, Aug 24, 2024:
one big thing at the DNC that will go unnoticed is that content creators and influencers are going to play a major role in preserving our democracy and saving us from fascism. a role that was originally supposed to be played by the msm, but they blew it big time and chose profits
(https://x.com/dentalmanMonk/status/1827331527900110986?t=CEom9rw6pSZFjkGNSB59_w&s=03)
Leto
AFT (American Federation of Teachers) Union just sent out a mass email to their member leadership (Avalune is part of it) covering Project 2025.
Highlights:
– Reproductive Rights
– Climate Change
– Ending Public Education
– Persecuting LGBTQ
– Encouraging Racial Discrimination
– Mass Deportation
– Inserting Christian Nationalist Ideology
– Giving Unchecked Power to the President
On the second page of the document, they really kick it off:
Kay
@Nukular Biskits:
Biden hiring a super hawk on weapons transfers doesn’t really bode well for “working tirelessly for a ceasefire” now does it. They’ve already dropped more bombs on a population of 2 million than the Dresden and London bombings combined. There’s only 20% of “Gaza” left standing. It’s all but leveled. How many more tons of bombs could they possibly drop on those people?
OzarkHillbilly
@lowtechcyclist: To repeat myself:
rikyrah
emptywheel (Chucks) (@emptywheel) posted at 4:33 AM on Sat, Aug 24, 2024:
On top of Kamala’s successful speech and the pizzazz of the DNC, Dems succeeded in doing something else arguably rare for them: maintaining relentless message discipline on abortion and Project 2025. Both are electoral Kryptonite–not just for Trump, but the entire GOP.
(https://x.com/emptywheel/status/1827277952423190787?t=JccLmHtgRnENFdcdD_dIAA&s=03)
Kay
@lowtechcyclist:
We just gave them 30 billion more! As a reward, I guess. Unfuckingbelievable. We double down literally every month. There’s only 2 million people there – I’m not sure any superpower could attack them MORE at this point.
Geminid
@Nukular Biskits: It seems like one key to the success of Amtrak’s $66 billion expansion, funded by the Infrastructure bill, will be building out bus connections to the train stations. Maybe a private/opublic effort betwen your shipyard and local cities can make the service you propose possible. Like U.Va. Medical Center, Chalottesvilles’ largest employer, which now runs a bus line for employees and patients between Staunton and Charlottesville, with stops in between.
I expect the next Congress will pass an Infrastructure 2.0 bill that will fund more mass transit initiatives, and that could help in this respect.
rikyrah
🪷 Madam Auntie VP Kamala Harris for PRESIDENT! (@flywithkamala) posted at 7:35 AM on Sat, Aug 24, 2024:
This new Kamala Harris ad highlighting her vision to build an Opportunity Economy is now on TV in battleground states. 🇺🇸✊🏾#HarrisWalz2024 https://t.co/7Pz01jV5uH
(https://x.com/flywithkamala/status/1827323839140737041?t=U0lzecbRXFqsqDY8P_5irg&s=03)
Elizabelle
@rikyrah: Excellent tweets at 121 and 122.
zhena gogolia
It’s a terrible tragedy that Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, knowing full well how the Netanyahu government would respond.
Shalimar
@Leto: I hope the Harris campaign has a pivot ready for the last few weeks before the election to go from highlighting Project 2025 to discussing all the same shit posted as their platform on Trump’s campaign website. Because that mostly goes unnoticed, and it is the logical knockout punch after he spends 2 months distancing himself from Project 2025 like all the kryptonite is contained there.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: Think there’s any chance U.S. enforcement policy might change under Harris? It won’t under Biden, and most Americans don’t give a damn.
Betty Cracker
@zhena gogolia: Agreed — they’re sociopaths. The far-right extremists in Israel are blood-thirsty terrorists too. I feel sorry for all the civilians caught between them.
zhena gogolia
@Betty Cracker: Me too. I would like to hear about what concrete steps we could take to help them.
ETA: Netanyahu holding onto power is the same kind of horror as Putin and Trump having power.
Steve LaBonne
So I keep seeing shit to the effect that Harris has been a big surprise because she was an “indifferent” VP. Mediot motherfuckers, YOU made it look that way because you studiously ignored her. Only now are we finding out things such as, she was the strongest voice urging Biden to share US intelligence about the impending Russian invasion with Ukraine, and she was the one who flew to Kyiv to meet with Zelenskyy and deliver that information.
rikyrah
Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) posted at 8:41 AM on Sat, Aug 24, 2024:
When they talk about
1. crime
2. the border
3. family values
4. defense
5. the economy
remind them that Trump
1. is a convicted criminal
2. killed the border deal
3. paid hush money to a porn star
4. failed to defend us on January 6
5. presided over the loss of 2.7 million jobs
(https://x.com/keithboykin/status/1827340576124969433?t=p8E_7a7_uNZORJny90y37w&s=03)
TBone
@Starfish: he hasn’t been out with his LEAF BLOWER blowing off in the public street since Barack Obama called him out at the convention!!! 😆😆😆 He’s been bottled up ever since!
Another Scott
@OzarkHillbilly:
There’s always a Tweet: RFK Jr on 5/10/2023.
(Can’t find a Twitter link that works.)
It’s all just mouth noises to these 🤡 🤡 🤡 🤡 🤡.
(via MuellerSheWrote)
Cheers,
Scott.
sdhays
@rikyrah: What a damning indictment of the media in general.
zhena gogolia
@Steve LaBonne: Yes, it’s maddening.
rikyrah
@rikyrah:
The MSM was silent, as an entity about Project 2025 until Taraji P Henson discussed it live at the BET AWARDS
Leto
@Shalimar: agreed. I think this is where the social media people, that rikyrah is linking to and the Harris campaign gave access to, will do that as well. Drawing the direct parallels between the project and the platform. They’re basically the same. Trumpov’s campaign initially tried to say, “This isn’t our plan! We have Agenda 47, which is totally different!” And then when you looked at it… nope, the same.
sdhays
@Steve LaBonne: The so far unwritten story of how all this happened is how deeply the VP has been embedded in the administration and campaign over the last several years. The hand off between Biden and Harris isn’t something you can spin up in secret over a weekend if most of the pieces aren’t just already in place.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
I don’t think so. I listened carefully to her statement, as did Arab Americans. They immediately pulled up a statement from George W Bush, second term, where he was much more specific and firm on Palestinian rights than Harris was. They think we’re lurching backward and I have to agree.
I’m not a single issue voter but if I were I think I would despair. It gets worse every week and the US doubles down every month.
People used to say “it could be worse! What about Dresden?” – they’ve dropped twice as much on Gaza as they did on Dresden and with double the civilian casualties. It’s much, much worse than Dresden. So now the hawks have moved the goalposts. They say “what about Hiroshima?” you could just fucking weep. That’s our new red line – Hiroshima.
Just as an American I resent Blinken’s gaslighting. Don’t fucking tell me the US will never agree to an occupation WHILE crafting a deal with Israel that includes occupation. I can read a fucking contract proposal, as can the entire Arab and Muslim world. We’re not fooling anyone.
I hope Harris will reconsider and break from Biden’s disastrous policy when she’s in. That’s the only hope for Palestinians and the US reputation in the rest of the world.
Geminid
@Steve LaBonne: Your assessment of Vice President Harris’s tenure is correct, except that Harris delivered the war warning to President Zelenskyy at the Munich Security Conference held on the eve of Russia’s invasion. It was CIA Director William Burns who flew to Kyiv to brief Zelenskyy and other government leaders about Russia’s plans.
TBone
@Ken: 😆😎
Shana
@pajaro: Continued support for NATO is another one
Chief Oshkosh
@Kay: Of course, if we win the House, Senate, and Presidency, we could just impeach all of Trump’s appointees for lying during their hearings and impeach Thomas for corruption AND expand to 13 or 15 AND term limit/rotate the seats.
We could…
rikyrah
They lived under Fascism in America for almost a century. Have no desire to experience that again.😡😡😡
Shay Stewart Bouley (@blackgirlinmain) posted at 3:00 PM on Fri, Aug 23, 2024:
I’ve lived long enough to have heard my elders, most now ancestors, discuss what life was like 50-70 years ago. To understand that, I’m not interested in finding out how bad things can get.
I suspect most of us under 60 have no real concept of how bad bad can be.
(https://x.com/blackgirlinmain/status/1827073535514218607?t=BAclKCLzjxYeLXhxUDoHBQ&s=03)
Steve LaBonne
@Geminid: Thanks for the correction.
Harrison Wesley
@rikyrah: Maybe he’s thinking of “Strength Through Joy.”
Chief Oshkosh
@Ken: Jesus does not love us enough for Trump to replace slimy with slimy and bug-nuts crazy.
But we live in hope!
rikyrah
Greg Bluestein (@bluestein) posted at 5:01 AM on Sat, Aug 24, 2024:
Vice President Kamala Harris will kick off a bus tour through south Georgia on Wednesday that will culminate with a Thursday evening rally in Savannah as she tries to sustain the momentum from her party’s nominating convention. #gapol https://t.co/wy40MZalOm
(https://x.com/bluestein/status/1827284968109961546?t=Er2GHwCXhkza_1Ftom3GnA&s=03)
TBone
@rikyrah: thank you for the relentless FOCUS
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
I think the hope is Harris CAN be moved to be reasonable and Biden cannot. A slim reed, but it’s all they have. That and pressure other US allies. They’ve had some success with that. Japan is moving firmly into the pro Palestinian camp, because the Japanese public are there. They have a historical sympathy there, a national memory, because of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, like the Irish do with England wiping them out. So they’ve moved Ireland, Spain and Japan. Not enough to move the US, but something.
Captain C
@Baud: The third will be to build a powerful railgun to yeet the Shitty Six SCOTUS judges right out of the Solar System (less Delta-V needed than for sending them into the Sun).
schrodingers_cat
Patrick Healy in the Garbage Times
TBone
@Captain C: toot sweet!
rikyrah
😡😡😡😡😡
Reecie @BlackWomenViews (@ReecieColbert) posted at 1:25 AM on Sat, Aug 24, 2024:
I expected to find that the federal judge who ruled that Breonna Taylor’s boyfriend caused her death was appointed by a Republican, but I was surprised to see he was appointed by Ronald Reagan 38 years ago. Remember, when you vote (or not) for the president, you are shaping the courts for a generation, not an election cycle. This judge will be more than willing to step down if Trump wins to allow a young ⚪️ male lifetime appointee to serve for 40 years.
https://t.co/WDyoOwqVhW
(https://x.com/ReecieColbert/status/1827230654301368547?t=R54IN8B5kulAyladVpu12g&s=03)
TBone
@schrodingers_cat: 😆😆😆😆😆😆
Show us on the picture where you got hurt
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Good piece on respective TV ratings from each convention:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/8/23/2265343/-Trump-s-worst-nightmare-DNC-trounces-RNC-in-TV-ratings
Executive summary: We cleaned their clock. Yeah, yeah, it doesn’t mean squat except it’ll get inside the Orange Fart Cloud’s head because it’s something he holds dear to his, narcissistic, sociopathic heart, popularity as judged by TV ratings.
Danielx
@TBone:
I’d look frail if I was married to his helmet haired harpy of a wife.
TBone
@Danielx: 😂
😆
rikyrah
There is racist shyt.
And then there is RACIST SHYT 😡😡😡
DRED 👏🏾SCOTT 👏🏾
Kristin Mink (@KristinMink_) posted at 8:29 AM on Sat, Aug 24, 2024:
The Dred Scott ruling found that African Americans cannot be citizens of the U.S. For obvious reasons, it’s regarded as one of the Supreme Court’s worst mistakes.
The National Federation of Republican Assemblies just cited it to claim Kamala Harris is ineligible to be President.
(https://x.com/KristinMink_/status/1827337378488369532?t=cq5ygd2lZy7wu9YqNugARQ&s=03)
TBone
@rikyrah:
Another Scott
@Kay:
Eh? Mira Resnick’s bio at State.gov.
Managing weapons transfers – carrying out policy – is different from setting policy. She doesn’t set policy in that role. Painting her as some sort of nefarious “deeply involved” Rasputin or something is stupid.
Critics of Israel and US policy toward Israel go overboard with their characterization of low-level actors. It’s counter-productive. Akbar Shahid Ahmed (HuffPo’s reporter) uses lots of “clouds and shadows” language in his piece and leaves readers less informed as a result.
Go after Congress and Biden and the courts if you don’t like US policy. They’re the ones setting the policy.
My $0.02. FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
RevRick
@Princess: First of all, due to the nature of the Senate, a President can only ask to do about three big things. (Their schedule is loaded with confirmation of Cabinet-level appointees, ambassadors and judges.) So, my response would be to turn the question around and ask, “What three things do you think should be Harris’ top priorities?”
Geminid
@Steve LaBonne: I always respected Kamala Harris, but her forceful representation of the US at that February, 2022 conference left no doubt that she was of Presidential caliber.
Burns similarly impressed Ukrainian officials, and he must of impressed President Biden too because Biden elevated his CIA Director to Cabinet rank later that year.
raven
@Another Scott: your gonna get it!!!
Jackie
@Another Scott: He’s got the flip flopping down!
When a GQPer or pseudo GQPer starts any sentence with “I will NEVER…”
Believe the opposite. Always.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
This is Obama on Palestinians. They think (rightfully, I believe) that the US position on Palestinian political and human rights has degraded- gone backward. Reading their argument I don’t disagree. It is worse.
They’re single issue voters, the same way some liberal voters are single issue abortion voters or single issue immigration voters. It’s no different to them, and, again, if I’m honest I can’t disagree.
RevRick
@Steve LaBonne: An indifferent VP? Like she didn’t tie the record for tie-breaking votes. Like she didn’t have successful negotiations to release the hostages in Russia or help organize the response to their invasion of Ukraine. Like he work with Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras didn’t stem the tide of refugees from those countries, which by the way is the source of the bullshit GOP ads claiming she was border czar.
BR
@lowtechcyclist:
Add to it this interview Roland Martin did with Opal Lee, grandmother of Juneteenth:
https://youtu.be/BXjjHds6pW0?t=22647
scav
@schrodingers_cat: Funny how they’re all so tacitly satisfied with hatred as the only motivating force.
lowtechcyclist
@prostratedragon:
I love the top response, “you can’t claim camo with who your party leader is, a draft dodger who spits on veterans”
Ken
That sort of thing is keeping the “fact-checkers” in business.
You’d think after a few go rounds of “Half a pinocchio; the Democrats are correct that Trump said X, but here’s a time when he said not-X” they’d notice that you shouldn’t give any weight to what Trump says on any given day.
zhena gogolia
@schrodingers_cat: DID YOU MAKE THAT UP? Is that DougJ?
Leto
@Ken: you’d think after 8 years they’d know this.
Ken
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Trump was screaming about fake polls recently — possibly during that Fox call that got cut off — so I’m sure he’ll cope in his usual way, by denying reality.
Kay
@Another Scott:
Did you read the article? “Rasputin” is an exxageration. They want to see a change to the status quo because the status quo is a failure. It has failed. They are now openly discussing allowing a continuing occupation, which they are calling “a bridge” (temporary) knowing that none of the other parties would ever accept that, because it’s an incredibly bad deal. So the pitch is “accept this horrible deal and we’ll get a better one later! Pinky swear!” Would you accept that? It would mean Palestinians could not return home. They would be permanently displaced people. At some time in the future the United States will somehow allow them to return home. That’s the take it leave it deal we gave them. It’s not a serious proposal.
scav
@Leto: Well, to be utterly fair, they may have had a teeny little difficulty hearing anything Chump said because of the thunderous applause they erupt into as soon as his lips quiver.
lowtechcyclist
@OzarkHillbilly:
OK, but let’s at least hasten the day when the IDF runs out of bullets and bombs. Hard for Bibi to fight a war without ammunition.
Danielx
@rikyrah:
When you cite the Dred Scott decision as support for your position you might as well have White Supremacist tattooed on your forehead.
rikyrah
Democrat, Environmentalist, & the establishment (@BlueSteelDC) posted at 7:37 AM on Sat, Aug 24, 2024:
We are witnessing a Bitter Btches moment in American Media
They were not the gatekeepers of who became the American nominee as the candidates of choice..and they are freaking out.
(https://x.com/BlueSteelDC/status/1827324320068026775?t=oDcDRWqVenqdxcjUQQs4nQ&s=03)
Ken
A few days ago I passed along a joke about Harris-Walz “successfully making the 85-MPR handbrake turn”, but I must say this tops that switcheroo: https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/40967750/danny-jansen-play-blue-jays-red-sox-same-game
TBone
PSA it is Grace Kelly day on TCM’s Summer Under the Stars, for all who celebrate. To Catch A Thief with Cary Grant is at 8pm! FIREWORKS 🎇 🎆
As a proud Main Line- adjacent PA citizen, I adore her. High Society is on right now 💙 Celeste Holm is a badass.
Jackie
@TBone: By that definition the first SEVEN American presidents weren’t qualified. Martin Van Buren was the first president born on American soil.
Robin
@pajaro: very helpful
zhena gogolia
@TBone: I hope they’re doing Rear Window!
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Ken:
Live by Nielson, die by Nielson. :)
SatanicPanic
@Ken: ha! That is one of the best things about baseball- the occasional implausible, low-odds scenario actually taking place.
My dad used to love these things- he’d be like “did you see there was an unassisted triple play today!?! I even guessed how it happened!”
BR
@Kay:
I dunno why but I am sometimes eerily at peace about wars globally, whether the US is directly or indirectly involved — outrage fatigue I guess. I also struggle with how disproportionate the attention is of death and destruction in US politics.
In theory being on the left we are supposed to care about a life anywhere as equal to anywhere else, but even the most vocal leftists don’t do that. Nobody does. I think about how all of us have clothes in our closets made by slave labor in Xinjiang, a product of a genocide against a native Muslim people of a scale and duration that dwarfs Gaza, and basically nobody knows or talks about it. And for all the talk about the truly horrific starvation in Gaza, at the exact same moment an even larger and longer famine is taking place in Sudan.
Another Scott
Remembering the important caveats about polling these days, … TexasTribune.org (from 8/22):
Good, good.
Forward!!
UH.edu/Hobby (19 page .pdf)
I would expect a bump up in the September numbers (as a result of the DNC), but it will be a fight.
Cheers,
Scott.
TBone
@Jackie: 👓 good eye
TBone
@zhena gogolia: 👍 10pm
I also adore Thelma Ritter!
Frankensteinbeck
@rikyrah:
Yep.
zhena gogolia
@TBone: Me too — and they play together beautifully in that one.
trollhattan
@Steve LaBonne:
One supposes these news media politics specialists can provide a dossier of the many accomplishments of Vice President Pence over those four glorious years of his reign?
I do recall him staring intently at North Korea from across the DMZ. Still basking in the afterglow.
Harrison Wesley
@TBone: I heard a story many years ago (don’t know how true it is) that her father ran the Philadelphia Zoo, so he actually was in charge of a larger territory than Monaco. Well, I thought it was an amusing story, anyway.
cmorenc
@H.E.Wolf:
…which will quite predictably be overturned by 6-3 or 5-4 SCOTUS decision that such is beyond the powers Congress or Executive were granted in the Constitution. But with the consequence that such a decision would also preempt a future GOP trifecta from imposing a nationwide ban on abortion…unless Alito talks his RW mates into finding an implicit constitutional right of “life” from moment of conception. Inconsistent with refusal to find any implicit right of privacy in the constitution? Yes, but it’s the result, not the argle bargle nominal legal arguments that are consistent with arrogantly hard-right ideologues like Alito.
lowtechcyclist
@RevRick:
Yeppers. There are well over a thousand positions in the Executive Branch and in independent agencies that are filled by Presidential appointment and require Senate confirmation.
That’s way too many for the Senate to meaningfully review. There needs to be a rule that any nominee that doesn’t get an up-or-down vote within, say, 120 days of being nominated, is automatically confirmed.
SatanicPanic
@BR: or in Yemen. Saudi Arabia is an ally that we send arms to (I think we sell them). SA is inarguably a worse country than Israel. But it never gains the same attention.
I’m not trying to make a joke here but Palestinians are sort of the Giant Pandas of foreign policy concerns. Saving them is complex, difficult, and not something we can actually affect much. The focus tends to crowd out other situations where we might even be more effective. I don’t think it’s because Palestinians are cute but there’s some reason they capture people’s attention more than others.
Ken
@zhena gogolia: Years after seeing Rear Window, I read the Cornell Woolrich story it’s based on (“It Had to Be Murder”). The story has a twist ending — in literally the last sentence, we find that the narrator has been in a leg cast the whole time! I guess even Hitchcock couldn’t figure out a way to film it that way.
BR
@SatanicPanic:
Yeah, the numbers I saw were that under the Trump admin and separately under Obama the number of deaths caused directly by US missile strikes (Yemen, Syria, Pakistan, Afghanistan, etc.) were more than all the deaths in Gaza under Biden. None of these are good — I wish for once we’d stick to diplomacy and take our weapons out of the equation in the region. But the coverage is vastly disproportionate. (Especially on the horseshoe left, where the whole purpose for existing is to bash Dems — the drone attacks ordered by Trump were constant and vast and yet we constantly were told about how he was isolationist and dovish.)
OldDave
@Captain C:
Witness the Parker Solar Probe, which required a Delta IV Heavy to send it on its merry way.
Ken
“Not being murdered by the President’s goons” is a kind of accomplishment…
Admittedly one shared by almost all Vice Presidents, though someone really should look into James Madison’s terrible, awful bad luck in that department.
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: Nope its not made up. It is from yesterday’s Vichy Times.
Here is the link
BR
@schrodingers_cat:
And thank you for an archive link — I can’t give NYT any clicks anymore, even for hate reads.
TBone
@Harrison Wesley: that’s a new one to me! Kelly Drive is a treasure! Art walk:
https://www.associationforpublicart.org/tours/along-kelly-drive/
Jeffro
@rikyrah: trump/RFK’s hard-core anti-vax stances have serious potential to help Dems peel off suburban parents.
we’ve had them (vaccines and vaccine requirements) for decades…why should loons be able to put your kid at risk for polio or measles, America?
Just because the right wing would rather try and blame vaccines than acknowledge trump fucked up our nation’s Covid (non)response, doesn’t mean the rest of us have to get sick
ETA: and just because trump is losing and desperately feels he needs RFK & his fringe supporters’ support, doesn’t mean you have to agree, Republican voters. In fact, you could think about what it means that trump wants your vote more than he wants your kids healthy
comrade scotts agenda of rage
I think I’m gonna hurl:
https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-communications/how-ezra-klein-helped-set-the-stage-for-kamala-harriss-nomination?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-us
Gin & Tonic
@Steve LaBonne: To the best of my knowledge Harris has never been to Ukraine.
SatanicPanic
@BR: yes I wish we’d leave the region to its own devices. You’d think though that SA would be an easy target. The only reason we’re allied with them is oil which we hardly import. Which is why it’s is so weird to me that it wasn’t a big deal . Maybe the horseshoe left just has a problem with Jews.
I’ve always had this longstanding suspicion that Libertarians and people on the far left adopt anti-war rhetoric because it’s an easy gateway into their wierder beliefs. Like who loves war? No one. It’s easy to oppose, it costs nothing, and it’s not going to end so the issue never goes away. It’s like how the right uses child trafficking. I’m not saying these aren’t real issues, but I’m always suspicious about groups that would center these issues in their rhetoric. It strikes me as a ruse.
BR
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Total BS. As Josh Marshall accurately documented this week, the “Thunderdome” pundits, Klein included, had no interest in Harris being the nominee. I mean the NYT published — two days *after* Biden dropped out — a chart of who their pundits thought would be a good nominee rated on “excitingness” and “ability to win” and they rated *Josh Shapiro* (and virtually everyone else) as more exciting and more likely to win than Harris. She was their lowest rated candidate.
BR
@SatanicPanic:
Well put. I do hope that we drop Saudi Arabia like a hot potato in the next year or two, because with an aggressive renewable energy plan plus the crazy levels of US oil production today, we don’t need them. The only thing I can imagine that we want to avoid is that they become a client state of China, but at this point that seems inevitable.
Ken
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: At least it’s consistent with their “the important news is about the press” stance, previously revealed by all the reports coming out of the DNC complaining about the seating for the reporters.
Matt McIrvin
@OzarkHillbilly: I’ve always wondered how many of them have him confused with one or another of his relatives (possibly a dead one).
zhena gogolia
@Ken: I read that one too, but don’t remember much. He’s a good writer!
Kay
@BR:
Ah, yes. The world weary “things are tough all over”
We’ve killed 12,000 Palestinian children in Gaza and no end in sight. We could stop supplying the bombs to drop on them. Instead we’re busy brokering a deal that no one one in their right mind would accept.
Do you know how many times the US has anounced we were on the verge of a ceasefire? NINE TIMES. Palestinians can hear us. They can read. They know what we say. It’s fucking cruel. Just stop saying it. It isn’t true and the whole world outside the US knows it isn’t true.
Gaza is almost gone. They’re now just blowing up random mosques.
Enough. Stop giving them bombs to drop on those people. The place is a fucking parking lot. We’ve punished civilians in Gaza enough.
zhena gogolia
@BR: Yes. Let’s not forget.
Matt McIrvin
@Ken: Pence’s best moment was refusing to be part of an obviously illegal coup d’état, one that it was just assumed he would be OK with, or to get out of the way and let it happen. I do give him that.
The oddest part of the story is that the elder statesman who told him he mustn’t do it was Dan Quayle.
Geminid
@lowtechcyclist: You may have missed this, but while you were lollygagging in Florida the Maryland Association of Counties was toiling away in the spartan confines of Ocean City. They were devising new ways to increase your quality of life (and enhance their revenue base which to them is the same thing).
MACO interrupted their labors to hear a presentation by Kristen Pironis, executive director of the organization Visit Annapolis and Anne Arundel County. She pitched a plan for establishing passenger ferry service in 14 “baseline communities” on Chesapeake Bay. According to WTOP News:
Pironis expects the network to be develop in pieces, starting with a grant proposal to “look at a first leg that would connect Kent Island with Baltimore and Annapolis.”
I think this idea has been percolating within MACO for a while. The December, 2020 edition of their newsletter, Conduit Street, had an article about the Claiborne Annapolis Ferry Company. That company’s ferries hauled 2 million people and 1 million cars across the Bay before it closed in 1952. That was the year the Chesapeake Bay Bridge began operation.
Bsck in the day, Claiborne’s pedestrian passengers could catch a train that ran from their Claiborne terminal to Ocean City by way of Easton. Similar service could be provided by bus if the new ferries come to be. In her presentation to MACO, Pironis said that Delaware communties are interested in the ferry network, an indication that bus service is planned as a complement to the ferry service.
BR
@Kay:
Things *are* bad all over, and I’m tired of being told by folks who are purer in heart than me that somehow I’m a monster for supporting candidates who are better in almost every way because they haven’t done better on the one thing I’m told matters more than everything else. Throughout my youth I saw real hunger and starvation in person in the country my parents are from and had family members who lived there in what by US standards would be considered abject poverty. It’s not abstract to me.
Mick McDick
I normally just lurk on this fine blog, but I will poke my head up from lurker’s abyss to say that I like Anne Laurie’s posts a lot; she wipes the bar and thoroughly wrings out the politics dishrag onto this page; she has a good a sense of what matters; I like her mix picks and I like her cranky writing style too. Good on you Anne!
Baud
@Mick McDick:
👍
Baud
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
At the next DNC, Ezra can have the cubicle that’s not right next to the boiler.
Kathleen
@artem1s: I didn’t realize the Ohio Democratic Party was even operating. It’s been horrible for a long time IMHO, though I also feel guilty about ripping them when I’m not involved in it at all and if I were serious about this I would “Do Something” which I realize is the only responsible response.
Bupalos
@BR: I listened to a lot of the Klein content. It is consistently misrepresented here. He definitely thought the most likely outcome of what he refers to there and referred to before as a kind of “exhibition” would be Harris emerging. Clyburn said much the same thing. The concern of this group was that Harris not be perceived as hand picked by Biden, because the whole idea was to separate from Biden. If Klein was more vocal about it it’s because he likely overrated the difficulty in creating that separation.
It’s certainly true that people had different opinions on what candidate would raise our odds the most, but few openly advocated for particular candidates. Which is what you’d expect if they really did see the process as first and foremost a means of selecting a candidate rather than a means of more successfully managing the transition away from Biden to Harris.
As it turns out, the shock to the political system, Trump’s flatfooted incompetence, and Harris’s surprisingly strong campaign performance upgrade from 2019 seems to have made the question largely moot.
SatanicPanic
@Kay: I agree with all this. We really should withdraw our support.
@BR: good lord. If NYT pundits were a baseball team they’d be sent down to the minors. But pundit is like being a Supreme Court justice- no accountability.
Geminid
@SatanicPanic: Last year Yemen’s destructive civil war was finally stopped (at least for now) by a ceasefire agreed to by Iran and Saudi Arabia. They supported the two main fighting forces which had fought each other to a stalemate.
The Yemen ceasefire was brokered by Oman and China. Oman has been the site of other negotiations, and reports are that US and Iranian diplomats often speak directly at a venue in Oman.
These exchanges are not publicized, in accordance with the Emir’s policy: “What happens in Oman stays in Oman.”
Kay
@BR:
I’m well aware Democrats don’t want to talk about it so we get “what about…” What’s your point? You would think the pro Palestinian activists were better people if they also talked about Sudan? Really? Your objection to them is their lack of consistency?
We could’t talk about it at the convention because that’s not the time. We can’t talk about it now because that’s not the time. As soon as the November election is over we won’t be able to talk about it because it wil be the pre midterm period. It reminds me of gun people on the right. It’s never time to talk about gun violence.
I know Democrats don’t want to talk about it. Ever. I don’t care. I didn’t agree to become a volunteer lobbyist for the Democratic Party. I’m a member of a political party, not a religion. I vehemently oppose the Biden/Harris approach to Palestinian civil and human rights. I think it’s an utter failure. I hope they reconsider and as a Democrat I will appeal to them to do so. Pretend it’s an issue you DO care about _ I appreciate your honestly in admitting you don’t care about it- really. I admire the honesty.
You would do the same thing with an issue you cared about and I would accept that, because that’s how coalitions work. I accept the center and the Right in the Democratic Party. I wasn’t thrilled with Democrats extolling the virtues of Ronald Fucking Reagan at our convention but I know there’s a whole group of Democrats who are basically moderate Republicans and I accept that. I just wish the center and Right would accept the Left side of the Party. I don’t know why it’s not reciprocal – why they demand I accept their views but they are wholly intolerant of mine. This “coalition” seems to only work one way.
SatanicPanic
@Geminid: ah good to know!
Kay
@BR:
The real irony would be if the far Right Israeli government fucks Biden/Harris with an October surprise – which is basically a coin flip at this point. All the Democrats careful management of this topic and the white knuckled grip on the dialogue and the rigorous stifling of any dissent will have been for naught.
I love this country so I sure hope it doesn’t happen, but it damn well might because the far Right government in Israel want Donald Trump – he’s popular there.
Geminid
@SatanicPanic: In effect, the ceasefire partitions Yemen into a Houthi portion and a larger area that has its own problems including attacks by the local Islamic State affiliate.
The US has tried to suppress Houthi attacks on shipping with air defense and limited airstrikes on Houthi military assets, instead of blasting away at them. I think one reason for this is we don’t want to blow up the ceasefire.
The Houthis have a modern and colorful social media presence. I saw a video a few weeks ago that began with two Houthi soldiers proudly standing on the deck of a ship they had captured. Then the music began and the two men started rapping.
Kay
If I can listen to far Right, anti choice Adam Kinsinger at the Democratic Convention and suffer thru people saying how great Ronald Reagan is, center and Right wing Democrats can allow a single pro Palestinian elected Democrat to speak.
Remember the “Obamacans”? The Republicans who supported Obama in ’08? Every single one of them had abandoned us by the 2010 midterms and this bunch won’t be any different. I get the political expediency of letting them in, but pretending who gets to speak and who doesn’t is about “loyalty” is nonsense.
Ruckus
@HinTN:
As an old, white, veteran almost as old as shitforbrains, who has worked as a volunteer on political campaigns, this is one of those times in an old mans life that the direction of politics could not be any clearer. Yes it is picking a torch but it is also far, far more than that. It is a decision between reality of society and an old, far worse than useless old fart and a person who is and will be a fantastic leader. We have a history of very limited diversity in our choices of leaders. Half the population has never had an actual representative president. This is supposed to be a country of, by and for the PEOPLE, all of them. We need leaders that represent all the people, not some semi rich asshole who only represents himself. And does a rather crappy job of that. Look up who our presidents have been and the diversity is rather minimal. Look at our population and the diversity is rather normal, good and wide. Our leaders should be as well. And we have to have leaders that represent ALL of us, not just the old, wealthy, white men. ALL of the humans that make up this democracy. That statue on Liberty island in NY says it well. This country is about ALL of us, the wealthy, the poor, those of color and those of pale, the men, the women, the children, the skilled, the laborers. The president is one of us, not one above us, and should represent ALL of us. We have an opportunity to show all of us that the words really do mean ALL of us. And it is about damn time.
BR
@Kay:
Oh, absolutely, Bibi is a bad actor and the far right there is even worse. And Adam has been right for all this time saying that Biden is getting duped by them.
They *will* pull an October surprise, though at this point I don’t even know what they could do that would really be a big deal — they’re practically at war with Iran and Lebanon at this point, and ironically I think war with Iran/Lebanon would both reduce their interest and capacity to attack Gaza and would take the political pressure off of Biden because there isn’t some huge US constituency supporting Iran and Lebanon as nation states since they have their own arms and militaries.
Juju
@Ohio Mom: The 14th Amendment gives us birthright citizenship. If one is born to parents who are subjected to the laws of this country, then that person is a citizen.
BR
@Kay:
As it happens I’m *not* a member of the Democratic party — never have been and never will be. But that probably doesn’t matter much. And there are a million issues I want Dems to be totally different on, and I rarely gripe about any of them because I guess I have a mental wall between what I think is likely/practical and what I want.
Gaza is bad, what do you want me to do about it? It’s lower than a dozen of my other policy priorities that I think will affect the lives of hundreds of millions of more people than changing Gaza policy will. And I barely have the chance to advocate for those. I think single issue voters will do what they do, but I think that way of thinking about any issue is missing the forest for the trees.
Kathleen
@Mick McDick: I agree completely. Also, I think she is an outstanding writer on par with Betty Cracker and John Cole.
Ruckus
@Kay:
the far Right government in Israel want Donald Trump – he’s popular there.
They can HAVE him. Hell I’ll buy the plane ticket to get his dumb ass over there, although I’d bet raising that would take about 30 seconds. And as long as there is an absolute NO RETURN policy.
Kay
@BR:
The best policy idea I heard from Harris was the 6000 tax credit for children. They can use it towards day care which is much more expensive than when I used day care. It was affordable for me. It’ll help young parents and they need help. I woudn’t have been able to save for retirement if I paid what they pay now for day care.
Ruckus
@mrmoshpotato:
rotting horse anuses
OK that is way above the average for positive comments about the FNYT.
Kay
@Ruckus:
Lately he’s been cracking me up. His Truth posts are desperate in a very funny way. I guffawed when I saw “is she talking about me?”
I swear he is attracted to Harris. He can’t seem to handle her at all. It’s odd- she’s disarmed him in some way.
Matt McIrvin
@Kay: Ironically that’s functionally the same as JD Vance’s insistence that people with no children should be punished with higher taxes… only not evilly motivated or phrased like an asshole.
Ksmiami
@cmorenc: if we get the trifecta, Court Reform needs to be the first agenda item.
Geminid
@Kay: The tax credit would help Roy Fitzgerald’s daughter. Fitzgerald mows the big lawn at the property where I do landscape maintenance part time,
We usually yak for a while every other Friday when he mows, and yesterday he told me his daughter was expecting her second child in February and she planned to take a couple years off to care for the newborn and her 2 year-old son.
She and her husband teach in Fluvanna County schools, and they will try to make it on his income and some part-time income from her. One reason: day care costs would eat up much of the money she would earn in teaching.
Harrison Wesley
@TBone: That’s ’cause I screwed it up – he was president of the Fairmount Park Commission. (And FP for sure is bigger than Monaco).
Ruckus
@TBone:
Just looked him up and the current Google picture of him looks far worse than frail. And far older than his age of 81. Google Newt – if you have the stomach.
Betty
@OzarkHillbilly: I keep saying to offer him a plea deal and get him out of the way.
Kay
@Matt McIrvin:
I don’t think the 25,000 for home buyers will matter much but I think it’s important she said something- housing is a huge problem. But the 6000 will really matter. I love how simple it is. The original BBB bill had child care but it was not great – too complicated and probably unworkable. Just give them all 6000 dollars a year. They’ll know what to do with it.
Ruckus
@Frankensteinbeck:
Even people here desperately want to believe Trump has a strategy and can’t just be a flailing idiot.
Not this people. I’ve always thought he is a flailing idiot. Mainly because he keeps proving it on a regular basis.
Citizen Alan
@TBone: Newt Gingrich is second on my champagne list behind Mitch. Mcconnell, in that I have a bottle of champagne that I keep chilled which I will consume in its entirety upon hearing that the son of a bitch is dead
rikyrah
Jaye T. (@JayeJaybird54) posted at 10:40 AM on Sat, Aug 24, 2024:
Words about the DNC from Dan Rather:
“It is no secret that I have seen a few things, been around not just the block but the whole damn city. I can tell you all about national political conventions. I’ve covered 32 of them, going back to 1960. Here’s my takeaway from Chicago 2024: It wasn’t just well done, it was a spectacularly produced event. Frankly, I can’t recall a convention that went off this smoothly or looked this good.
In big games, you always hope your best players will be in top form. In Chicago, all the big Democrats showed up, ready to play. From the old-school Dems (the Obamas and the Clintons) to the new kids on the block (Governor Walz and the party’s bench of young, rising stars), the speeches were spot on. That was especially true for the newly minted nominee. Vice President Kamala Harris’s address was one of the more impressive acceptance speeches I have heard. Most nominees in the modern era have months or longer to prepare for the biggest night of their political lives. Harris pulled it off with 30 days notice.
For all of the stagecraft wizardry, her speech needed to be everything all at once, a high-wire act with no net. What she said and how she said it could mean the difference between winning and losing.” – Dan Rather
(https://x.com/JayeJaybird54/status/1827370522453106828?t=A-JeYYfRCz3G_fA9vi6L0w&s=03)
Kay
@Geminid:
I’m really bullish on Dems congressional chances. They’ve been better than they “should” be all year. I think they’ll regain the House and perhaps hold the Senate, if not w/Tester than with a flukey upset somewhere else. I hope they can jam the 6k credit thru. People will love it.
Ruckus
@Nukular Biskits:
Because that global power would be our military.
Nothing else is going to change those minds.
And likely, neither would that.
RaflW
@Princess: The BBC has put together a pretty good Top 10 summary of Harris’s policies and positions on key issues. Is it a 500 page “white paper” outlining things in the excruciating (and execrable) detail of Project 2025? No. It doesn’t need to be.
While I agree with Josh Marshall who outlined the ways (free link!) in which Harris-Walz are running a campaign that almost puts Trump in the incumbent position (a smart bit of campaign judo), the central message is that she will continue Biden’s work but make it better.
And judges. G.D. judges everywhere. I do hope she says more about fixing the f–d up SCOTUS.
Ruckus
@lollipopguild:
Is that why he’s stomping his feet while crying his eyes out and demanding a lollypop? (He’s reverting to his early days – age 3 to 73)
TBone
@Citizen Alan: I really like yer style!
Scout211
Does this man need a welfare check? HuffPost
He’s seems . . . not okay.
Citizen Alan
@Chief Oshkosh: In my fantasy world, we would win the house and take a total of 66 senate seats and then just impeach every trump, appointed judge en masse in a single day. And then someone would bring me a pony.
Harrison Wesley
@Scout211: Grotesque? Pathetic? Weird? Yeah….weird seems to fit…
Attapooch
@Scout211: I’d be willing to bet that before Election Day Trump collapses to the point of dropping the n-word wrt Harris.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Citizen Alan:
Think bigger: that farts rainbows.
Kent
Go to the Harris Walz campaign web site and see if you can find policy statements on either of those subjects. Or anything else. Go ahead, we’ll wait.
Here, I’ll help you: https://kamalaharris.com/
Steve LaBonne
@Scout211: Narcissistic collapse.
Citizen Alan
I’ve told right-wingers for years that, if they had any sense, they would be big supporters of renewable energy, because it would make us completely independent of all those Muslim theocracies that they hate so much and our government would no longer have to kowtow to the likes of saudi arabia.
David 🐝KHive🐝 Koch
shorter Times: Harris has gone negative by employing a positive, joyful campaign.
The Audacity of Krope
@Citizen Alan: There are too many corrupt American businesses depending on our relationship Saudi Arabia and…other Middle East countries.
Weapons manufacturers come to mind. Shit, even chain restaurants.
lollipopguild
@Kay: Part of her appeal is that she is a good looking woman. Horndog trump understands that appeal and knows he cannot do anything about it.
Kent
On the flip side, it was a nominating convention for the president. Kinsinger was ENDORSING Harris for president and committing to vote for her. Anyone claiming to be “uncommitted” was by definition NOT doing either of those things. It isn’t that complicated.
West of the Rockies
@Mick McDick:
Absolutely concur!
And lurk less, please.
The Audacity of Krope
So why not come to agreement on an issue separating them and where they will, thereby, commit?
West of the Rockies
@Citizen Alan:
I’d like to nominate Roger Stone, Mike Flynn, and Kushner as well.
The Audacity of Krope
@West of the Rockies: I’m picturing a gorgeous wine cellar where all the bottles have a winger’s name on them. Several dozen at least.
The Audacity of Krope
@The Audacity of Krope: Wanted to add that the uncommitted delegates, representing real Democratic voters, notwithstanding; the elected Ds who stood by the administration when the media and the Donorcrats were running their jihad against Biden were the same ones who are brave enough to stand up for the Palestinians.
So much of both issues come down to moral courage and recognizing the depravity of our media.
Kent
And a 15 minute speaking spot at say 1 pm on Tuesday would have accomplished that?
In any event, it was too late anyway. The roll call and nomination already happened. Their “uncommitted” votes were irrelevant at that point. At some point you have to commit or you become irrelevant.
Personally I think climate change is a bigger existential threat to the planet than Gaza. But I don’t recall any climate scientists given speaking roles either.
Kay
@Kent:
This has been repeated over and over on Balloon Juice and it isn’t true. They submitted names to the DNC weeks ahead. One of the names was a Palestinian state lawmaker from Georgia. She submitted her speech to be approved. In the speech she endorsed Harris. She was denied. All the names were denied.
If people just want to punch wildly at the Left for sport, feel free, but misreresenting events to make them look bad isn’t fair game. You’re free to not follow what uncommitted does or doesn’t do, but if you’re not going to follow it don’t make pronouncements on it.
Any of the people here and on Twitter who weighed in on this could have read about her, what happened, and read her actual speech. But it was easier to just take a jab at the pro Palestinian Left, I guess, because that’s just sport on BJ.
The Audacity of Krope
@Kent: Climate scientists weren’t given speaking spots. Several elected Democrats and activists who had speaking spots spoke about climate change, however.
Don’t be cute.
The Audacity of Krope
We just have to accept the fact that Islamophobia is bipartisan and the haters have a voice on this here blog.
Kay
@Kent:
An elected Democrat who endorsed Harris. The one and only reason she was denied is because she is Palestinian. It’s shameful- the Democratic Party should apologize to her and promise to be less bigoted going forward.
Kent
Maybe they were, maybe they weren’t. Probably a combination of both. There is no party membership requirement to vote in the Michigan primary. Anyone can vote in either the Democratic or Republican primary, just not both.
Soprano2
@UncleEbeneezer: I cannot get over how a woman singer from Willard, MO is this popular and famous all of a sudden, especially a queer woman. I watched that video, maybe my bar should advertise that we’re just around the corner from the World’s Biggest Fork.
ETA – One of my best karaoke singers is from Willard. He’s around her age, I should ask him if he knows her.
The Audacity of Krope
@Kent: They showed up in a Democratic primary. That indicates interest in Democrats. I have never voted as a registered Democrat, yet I support them consistently. The party-wide dedication to Islamophobia…notwithstanding.
Kay
@Kent:
CNN interviewed some of the pro Palestinian delegates. They weren’t afraid to let them speak. People on this blog rant and rave about “media bias” all the time. Well, in this instance the media behaved much more fairly and decently than the Democratic Party. Ive been ashamed of Democrats before and I’ll be ashamed of them again, I’m sure. They fucked up. They should apologize.
Leto
The Guardian: Muslim Women for Harris disbands and withdraws support for candidate
Group says Harris campaign denying a Palestinian speaker at the Democratic convention is a ‘terrible message’
Well, I can see who AIPAC is targeting next.
Kent
Did she endorse Harris? Are you sure about that? I thought she was a leader of the “uncommitted” movement which, by definition, had NOT endorsed Harris.
Kay
@The Audacity of Krope:
Country-wide dedication to Islamophobia. Not even strictly Islamophobia. A huge number of the Michigan Arab Americans who object to this are Christians.
To not just do this but do it when visiting a city that has the largest Palestinian American population in the country – ooof. Just an unearned “fuck you” to those people. Just for kicks.
Did you see Coates essay on it? Very good.
Kay
@Kent:
I linked to it. Read it yourself. I kept waiting for someone to say “that’s not what happened at all” when this was repeated on this blog 20 times, but no one ever did. Same on Twitter. There were 1000 Blue MAGAS screaming that she should be banned and they had no idea what they were talking about.
I’m surprised. You’re IMO one of the sharpest people on this blog.
Geminid
@Kay: There are two important races in the Pacific Northwest, near Portland, Oregon. Democrat Marie Gluesnkamp flipped Washington’s 3rd CD in 2022 and faces Joe Kent in a rematch. The district sits across the Columbia River from Portland.
On the Oregon side, Republican Lori Chavez-DeRemer faces State Rep. Janelle Bynum. This is a rematch of sorts, because Bynum has beaten Chavez-DeRemer in two campaigns for State Rep.
Rep. Bynum was born Janelle Sojouner Irick in Washington, D.C. She earned a degree in Electrical Engineering from Florida A&M, and an MBA from the University of Michigan while working for GM.
These districts are in a way mirror images of each other. Blue Dog Curt X (I’ve forgotten his name already) lost his primary in 2022 and then Republican Chavez-DeRemer barely won the seat in November.
On the Washington side, Jaime Herrera Butler lost her primary that year after joining the 9 other Republican Reps voting to impeach in Trump’s second impeachment. Then, 34(?) year-old Gluesenkamp Perez eked out a narrow win in the general election. Both districts have suburban components as well as rural/exurban.
Earlier this summer, the Republican Congressional Congressonal Campaign Committee bought $6 million in advertising time for the Portland market. They’ll use it for offense against Gluesenkamp Perez and for defence in the case of Chavez-DeRemer.
Kent
When I lived in TX I cross the aisle and voted for Ted Cruz in the 2012 Republican primary because he looked more beatable than his mainstream GOP opponent David Dewhurst who was Lt. Governor. Others did the same since on the Dem side Paul Sadler didn’t have any serious competition. It retrospect it didn’t work. But then no Democrat was likely to win statewide in Texas in 2012.
People vote in primaries for any number of reasons. Some of those uncommitted voters were no doubt Democrats. Others probably not.
There is only one party that exhibits party-wide Islamophobia. And it isn’t the Democrats.
The Audacity of Krope
Yeah, but the Republicans, as across-the-board bigots, go without saying. And I point it out as Islamophobia not because I believe all Palestinians practice Islam, but because they are primarily associated with Islam and that is why they don’t get a fair shake, regardless of their religious diversity.
I think back maybe 6 years when Joe Kennedy didn’t seek reelection for his House seat and about 12 Democrats competed for that seat. All but one took an unbalanced position in support of Israel. The one who didn’t ran a distant third.
It is noteworthy that the winner of the primary was the only person to express explicit anti-Muslim bigotry rather than just tactic; Jake Auchincloss.
Islamophobia is not only accepted, but encouraged by Democrats, right from the grassroots up.
ETA: And I just opened up that essay, thanks.
Kay
And I didn’t in fact, link to it. I linked to a video. I think it’s here.
Leto
@Kay: it was a really good speech. Maybe 3 mins tops if she read it slow. A few lines I really liked:
And
And
I mean, it’s like a 45 sec read.
Edit: here’s the link to the speech at Mother Jones. So many sites have a copy of this, but here you go: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/08/dnc-speech-uncommitted-movement-harris-walz-ruwan-romman/
The Audacity of Krope
See my story about a fairly recent MA primary @293.
Tactic should be tacit, fucking autocorrect eliminating real words for being uncommon.
Bill Arnold
@Kay:
I despair a bit at how accepting the USA polity is of Israeli laws-of-armed-conflict war crimes. The (democratic) state of Israel is somewhere between Hafez al-Assad (the elder) and Bashar al-Assad in civilian body count. (The daily/weekly protests in Israel are huge relative to the total population size; there is an active protest culture, but it is not politically dominant.)
The Biden administration took a lot of heat, which might have caused political damage (not clear), for interrupting the supply of 2000 lb bombs, which are often used by Israelis for extermination of extended families in targeted strikes on a single family member (really, alleged militant’s phone, often at night). (The guided 500 lb bombs are just regular family extermination devices, in this context.)
The 972mag Lavender piece laid out an aspect of it in horrifying detail: Lavender’: The AI machine directing Israel’s bombing spree in Gaza – The Israeli army has marked tens of thousands of Gazans as suspects for assassination, using an AI targeting system with little human oversight and a permissive policy for casualties, +972 and Local Call reveal. (Yuval Abraham, April 3, 2024)
japa21
@Kay:
There are a couple commenters here who take jabs at the left, no matter who they are or what they are saying. Not very many.
Most people here have expressed grave concern over what is happening in Gaza and have expressed a desire to see a chance in the administrations policy.\
In fact, most people here are both pro-Israel and pro-Palestine.
I think, considering what she was going to say, that a mistake was made in not allowing that speaker a place at the podium in prime time. Interestingly, the basic gist of the speech is almost identical to what Harris said in her speech.
FWIW, I do take exception to your statement that “we have killed 12,000 Palestinian children.” No, the IDF has. Some of those weapons used were supplied by the US, probably most were not.
I have a hunch we will see more statements from Harris and her team about the situation. We know she has already made her views about needing an immediate cease-fire known to Bibi directly. We also know she has been a voice in the administration expressing more concern about the civilians in Gaza.
Geminid
@The Audacity of Krope: I remember that primary. Auchingloss won with less than 30%, and Bay State Jackals were barking about the need for Ranked-choice voting.
It sounds like Rep. Auchingloss has shifted to the left some since. At least, I saw a picture of him and Rep. Ocasio-Cortez touting some bill they co-sponsored. I recall there was a river in the background, so the bill likely had something to do with the environment.
Another Scott
@Kay:
RollCall.com (from August 19):
Meanwhile, … Mondoweiss.net (from July):
The choice is Harris or Trump. All the rest is commentary.
My $0.02. FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
Gin & Tonic
@The Audacity of Krope: No Ukrainian-Americans were given speaking spots either. It’s politics, you don’t always get what you want.
Steve LaBonne
@japa21: My understanding is that they rejected her without even asking to see the speech. I have no idea what they could have objected to if they had seen it. Reflexive decisions made without using available information are generally not good decisions and this one was no exception.
Leto
@japa21:
You might want to reconsider that.
From an article by the Council on Foreign Relations:
So the phrase “strategic stockpile” in the first paragraph is a hyperlink that takes you to a Guardian article.
Gaza war puts US’s extensive weapons stockpile in Israel under scrutiny
Both articles are good. We supply Israel with a majority of their weapons. Both weapon systems, as well as munitions used by those systems.
But here’s the more salient part. Even if we didn’t, at this point the Palestinians on the ground equate every bomb dropped, every bullet fired, every mine detonated as American. There’s news story after news story, both print and video, with Palestinians saying, “These are American weapons.” The narrative has been established, and we should do the work to change it.
Bill Arnold
@Kay:
Re the corridors, one of the major news agencies had a map that was not to scale. This has a map[1] to scale of the corridors. However, it has been repoted that Israel has recently widened to Netzarin corridor from 2 km to 4 km. (As in all structures … removed.) The map shows a 2 km corridor.
War on Gaza: What are the Philadelphi and Netzarim corridors and why do they matter? – The buffer zone between Gaza and Egypt and the line that cuts the enclave – both controlled by Israel – have become sticking points in truce talks (Middle East Eye, Rayhan Uddin, 23 August 2024)
[1] link to map
BethanyAnne
I am all in for Kamala, but I agree with Kay here. I wish Kamala had let Romman speak. The tragedy in Gaza an ongoing war crime, and the US needs to find some way away from supporting it.
Ruckus
@MinuteMan:
Think about 75-100 yrs ago and what we had for news.
Newspapers. Radio – which have for a large part has lost most of their power. Sure the big newspapers still exist but between TV and the web, the news business has changed. Sure newspapers still exist, at least the biggies but how many small town papers still exist? Mine doesn’t and I’d bet many no longer do. Radio? Who listens to it other than in a car or for music or sports? Hordes or few? I’m going closer to few than hordes. So that leaves TV and the web for news. How many read/listen to news on the web regularly? TV news is far different than decades ago.
My point is that communications of all types has changed significantly in the last 2-4 decades. What we are doing now is far different than what existed 20 yrs ago. You carry a communications device in your pocket/purse that can reach around the world, and I can remember when you had a hard time calling outside a 20 mile radius. A lot of daily life has changed significantly but has changed slowly so the changes are not as noticed. 25 yrs ago what we are doing here/now barely existed and was no where near this level. Somethings have not changed all that much, but others have changed far beyond what could have been imagined 30 yrs or more.
Leto
@Gin & Tonic: did they ask, and were they rejected? Besides the fact that Zelensky has had multiple face-face meetings with both Biden and Harris, and spoken in front of Congress, and had Biden visit him IN Ukraine, did a Ukrainian-American official ask to speak in front of the DNC and get denied?
Captain C
@SatanicPanic: I watched the unassisted triple play that happened against the Mets a few years back on TV as it happened. It was a very surreal moment; it took a few seconds to process: ‘oh, shit, line drive out, double…wait, was that an unassisted triple play I just saw?’
I was also at the 1977 Yankee-Ranger game in which the Rangers hit back to back inside the park home runs. I think that’s only happened one other time, back in the 19th Century.
Captain C
@BR: This seems to be a good site for keeping up with the goings on in Sudan.
Ruckus
@Kay:
I believe that Joe is working within the limitations that exist outside of national structure. We see, in many ways that national structure is fixed but in some countries/areas that is nowhere near true. The middle east is one of those areas. How do you do anything within that without military intervention or feeding extreme egos? The world has changed significantly in my lifetime in many ways and most places. But. There are still parts of this world that are run by people that cannot accept that they need to fit into a variable world, for them the world MUST change to meet their demands. This world used to be far more on that side of the concept of nations than the one that exists today. But today’s world does not suit everyone, same as it’s always been. This creates instability and often deaths, but most of the people that hold that they are in one way or another supreme will often take their power from others because they care about power over lives, especially lives of others. I am amazed that that many parts of the world now recognize this because in my lifetime, most didn’t.
Kent
I did look it up. The winner of that primary got 22% and I could find no evidence whatsoever that Israel/Gaza was even a minor issue for the electorate in 2020, much less anything that swung the election. Not to mention support for Israel is not remotely the same thing as Islamophobia. That is a canard.
And one inner-city Democratic primary in Boston says nothing about party-wide Islamophobia in the Democratic party.
Kay
@japa21:
The bombs are US supplied. This is ours. It’s ours because we could stop it, cold. Israel simply could not do this without US support.
The very least we can do is accept responsibility for civilians killed by the weapons we supplied.
japa21
@Kay:
I am not saying we have no responsibility.
Anyway, I think you might like this article from Friday’s Chicago Sun-Times. It is by one of my favorite columnists.
Kay
@Ruckus:
I don’t believe that. I think Joe Biden has a blind spot a mile wide when it comes to Israel and Palestinians. I don’t think anyone can even reason with him about it. He says things that just aren’t true. How many times did he tell the beheaded babies story? That story isn’t true.
For the US to say they are some kind of neutral party regarding Palestinians is ludicrous. As far as I can tell the only people who believe this are Americans.
I hope Harris gets a new team with fresh eyes and more open minds.
Kay
@japa21:
Thanks. I will read it.
Leto
@Ruckus: this is when we start to apply our basic powers: DIME. In this case we’d apply the E, Economic. We’re applying the diplomacy, we’re not going to apply I or M, but we can and should apply economic pressure here. We have a myriad of ways of doing this, both hard and soft.
Here’s a quick example from the CFR article I listed above:
How is it that that fuck stain Reagan can do it, but Joe can’t? Neither one of us can answer that, but the point still stands. When we propose that the US stop supplying Israel with weapons, we’re as if we Pentecostals writhing on the floor, speaking in tongues. We have precedent here.
BR
@Captain C:
Thanks for sharing that. It makes me think about the one thing that Peter Singer got right (and then had warped by the Effective Altruists), which is the basic idea of The Life You Can Save. Right now the US could probably most effectively save lives by putting resources into Sudan vs. Gaza, because the scale is larger, the opposition weaker, and the costs lower. It’s an idea that doesn’t get applied as often as it should be.
Captain C
@BR: Actually getting towards some sort of rapprochement with Iran would be very helpful in getting away from Saudi Arabia. Unfortunately, Shrubya turned them away both in 2001 and 2003 when they basically offered everything we wanted except for regime change. It’s probably a bit harder now, with a quarter century more distrust between us and them.
BR
@Kay:
Yeah, Biden probably doesn’t listen to anyone on this — he’s been in the weeds of Middle East policy for 50 years and probably has a set mind about things. And that puts Harris in a terrible position — if she creates actual policy distance between her and Biden, it’s Dems in Disarray and we’ll have Biden’s pro-Israel natsec folks leaking to the press (which they’ve done before). If she says something vague and toothless like at the convention, she is attacked for not changing policy from Biden. Right now this is on Biden to take a meaningful step to penalize Netanyahu for his actions.
Geminid
@Captain C: London-based Middle East Eye also hss covered the war in Sudan since it broke out. Middle East Eye has good reporting on other conflicts in Africa including articles by Levent Kemal.
Kemal is a veteran freelance security reporter based in Ankara and with a couple colleagues maintains the site Acta Fabulae which is also good. A typical Acta Fabulae post might show a map of Mali with dozens of symbols denoting clashes between government forces and different groups of insurgents during the month July, plus commentary and analysis.
Leto
@Captain C: Trumpov had another hand in that with scuttling the JCPOA. I don’t know how long that’ll take to recover from the fallout of that.
tam1MI
I have come to the conclusion that nothing will be accomplished on that matter until Netanyahu is out of office, and by then it may be too late.
Meanwhile, back in the US, I don’t see a way to force the Biden administration to change course. once Biden was forced to step aside in the hunt for re-election, all leverage was lost over him. And no matter who wins the Presidency in November, our next Congress will be objectively more pro-Israel than the last one. AIPAC has been very good at picking off legislators who were pro-Palestine, and the Uncommitted folks apparently didn’t make make an effort to save those legislators or to get more in to replace them.
Best to just face it now. Israel has won this one. Like they always do.
Geminid
@Kent: I might not disagree with the rest of your comment, but I think Auchingloss’s district is composed of suburbs and towns south of Boston.
Ruckus
@Nukular Biskits:
How does one go about changing anything between them?
A lot of the world has seen what war does and seems to becoming more convinced that it is very much a last resort. But in one part of the world, war seems to be the only point because they both seem to want the same thing – that the other side ceases to exist or gives them exactly what they want. And either of those answers only exist when one side or the other ceases to exist. It is as old an answer as humanity since when there were more than 2 of us walking upright. We, as a species need to figure out how to make this work just a tad better. Many seem to be finally understanding this – but. There will always be some that never understand, they will always demand, whatever the cost.
Msb
@rikyrah: damn right.
I really appreciate you posting these tweets. I can’t navigate Elon’s hellscape.
Ruckus
@Another Scott:
When you don’t have anything to actually say then noise is all that one has. And RFK jr actually has nothing.
Msb
@Kay: I don’t agree with Kinzinger on anything except devotion to the Constitution and the rule of law. Nevertheless, he flushed away a 12-year political career, his future in his party and doubtless relationships that he valued to do the right thing. After his speech at DNC, he was doubtless inundated with more threats to himself and his family. That’s more courage than most other ex-Rs have shown, and more than I’ve ever been obliged to show. So I honor that. And I can do that without expecting that Ds’ alliance with never-trumpers like him will survive trump’s eventual extinction.
Dan B
@Kay: The majority of Palestinian Americans in Seattle are Christian. It’s horrifying to me that Harris and/or her team would not give a spot to a Palestinian woman. This may cost us Michigan so, at the very least, there should have been a political calculation. You can’t make everyone happy but making an important, and highly charged issue toxic is not good.
Captain C
@Geminid: Thanks for the links/info!
Another Scott
@Ruckus:
Not only that, but how does one go about forcing that change to happen right now?
During an election with a too-closely divided electorate?
While sensitive negotiations have been going on for months to try to bring another, but lasting, pause to the fighting?
When the people that you are demanding to change policy actually are doing the work to end the fighting, while the monsters on the other side who would make absolutely everything worse – and proudly tell us they would make everything worse, who advocate pushing all the Palestinians into the sea – don’t get presented with similar asks and demands from those same advocacy groups?
Everything isn’t VVP stirring up trouble. And everything isn’t a Vast Right Wing Conspiracy. But good-faith recognition of political realities, and some grace for the people who are having to juggle all the flaming cats and chainsaws, wouldn’t be such a terrible thing and might be more persuasive.
The idea that Biden is somehow some babe in the woods when it comes to Bibi and Israel is only a little bit short of delusional to me. Itamar Rabinovich at Brookings.edu (from April):
This stuff is ungodly complicated, even without US elections coming up in 70-something days (and early voting starting before that). It’s about much, much more than cutting off arms or a prime-time speech.
No changes to US policy WRT to Israel are likely to happen before the election or before a durable ceasefire is in place.
Eyes on the prizes.
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Captain C
@Leto: That was just a horrible decision, done out of spite, stupidity, and shortsightedness.
Kay
@Msb:
I can see that. I can’t really warm up to him. I’ve gotten much less tolerant of anti choicers as they have become more and more of a threat to women. But I see your point.
Kay
@Another Scott:
I don’t think Biden is naive. I think he believes Israeli lives are more valuable than Palestinian lives. I think he loves Israel to an extent where he is not entirely rational on it. The behavior is weird- insisting that he saw photos of beheaded Israeli babies when he never did, refusing to look at photos of dead Palestinian children, referring to sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas but negecting to mention the big ongoing rape scandal in the IDF. He’s not treating these two groups of civilians equally. I think it’s a bias, and irrational.
tam1MI
From what I am seeing in Michigan, especially in the primaries, no, it won’t. Which is both good news and bad news.
Another Scott
@Kay:
Snopes on the “beheaded babies”.
Biden obviously wasn’t there, and was obviously relaying information he had been presented, apparently by the Israeli government via a Bibi-friendly reporter.
I think all of us know that both sides in nearly any conflict like this will try to paint the others as monsters. There is nothing new there.
More at the link, FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
Ksmiami
@Dan B: let’s win first- then push for a durable solution.
tam1MI
@Ksmiami: My sentiments exactly.
Tinare
Thank you for posting the interview with Angie Gailloreto (the oldest PA delegate). I grew up in the neighborhood where she lived. Her husband was my brother’s Little League coach and she and my mom were friends. She was really great friends with my mother’s cousin Irene who died many years ago and used to be a delegate too. I thought of her when the Convention began and hadn’t looked to see if she was still able to go. Glad she is still kicking it at 95!
Kayla Rudbek
Geminid
@Kayla Rudbek: The proposed ferry system will likely be electric. Electrificstion is the coming thing in ferries. Noray is well into electrifying their fleet, and California has mandated that its fleet be electrified. Washington state’s system is the most extensive in the nstion and they have ordered their first two electric ferries.
They ordered 4 new diesel-electric hybrids also, so they intend a gradual tranisition. This is because of a need to build the neccesary charging infrastructure, and also because ship builders are just beginning to build these ferries.
Plus, battery technology is improving so electric ferries will become more efficient as the decade progresses. Sodium-ion batteries may prove better for the purpose than the current lithium-ion batteries, and less expensive. And there is the possibility that hydrogen fuel cell propulsion could be employed.
So if and when Maryland begins to build out this system, and Governor Wes Moore rides the first one out of Annapolis, he’ll get to tout Maryland’s state-of-the-art ferries.
Virginia could have its own electric ferries by then. Maybe Governor Spanberger will ride up from Reedville and meet Moore st Crisfield. The two Governors could sign off on another route between Virginia and Maryland, and size each other up.