Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
President Biden is off Air Force One here in Austin & speaking with a number of local Democratic leaders who came to greet him.
He'll soon head to the LBJ Library for a speech on the Civil Rights Act. @KXAN_News pic.twitter.com/Xl2JkPRK0X
— Will DuPree (@willdupreetv) July 29, 2024
Biden is due to speak starting at 5pm blog time (4pm Austin time).
Open Thread: Livestream of President Biden’s Speech At the LBJ LibraryPost + Comments (195)
Biden wrote an op-ed in the Post today about the most corrupt part of our corrupt federal judiciary. Here’s a gift link if you’re willing to sign in. His proposals:
(1) is a non-starter. (2) and (3) would probably be overturned by the current court, since constitutional law is now whatever they say it is, neener, neener, neener.
This is not to criticize Biden (and Harris’) efforts to draw attention to this issue. Everything he says is a good idea, and if laws (2) and (3) were passed, watching the Supremes overrule them would just keep the issue in front of the public.
Impeaching Thomas and Alito, which again would not result in a conviction barring some miracle in the Senate, is probably more effective in the short term, because it subjects them to really uncomfortable personal scrutiny and shitty publicity. I’d expect them to resign if Harris is elected and Democrats take the House and Senate because it would suck for them to go through an impeachment trial and four more years of work. AOC knew what she was doing when she filed articles of impeachment.
Also, yes, I am traveling, but I happen to be camping in a powered spot so I can run my Starlink all day. I am in Canada and only licensed outlets can sell beer, liquor or cannibis, and the nearest one is miles away, and for some reason my wife and I decided that a few sober days wouldn’t be so bad. We were wrong, so now the only addictions I can satisfy are the Internet and politics, and I’m hitting it hard.
We have news from Worker Power, where we recently funded a student so they could attend the Worker Power Leadership School. It looks like Worker Power will be sharing their weekly newsletter with us over the 4 weeks of Leadership School. This is the second I have received.
This is a helpful reminder to me that good things have been happening this week, which will pay off in the fall and for years ahead, even we have been mostly focused on the drama of these past few weeks.
You guys said you are interested in these, so here you go!
Reminder:oOne of the students from this year’s school will be leading the team we will funding for 3 weeks in the fall. We don’t know who our team leader will be in the fall, but won’t it be fun if it turns out to be one of the students that is featured here?
Welcome to Field Notes, our newsletter highlighting students and faculty of the second Worker Power Leadership School, a month-long program dedicated to training the next generation of progressive leaders who will run winning campaigns for working people.
In this volume of Field Notes, we have a faculty spotlight on Fernando Roman, who led a workshop last week on “Reversing Runaway Inequality,” and a student spotlight on Daniel Espinoza, a student from Orange County, CA. Sunari Weaver-Anderson, a student from Los Angeles, shares her experience connecting this week’s classes to her work talking to voters at the doors.
Worker Power Leadership School – Field Notes Vol. 2Post + Comments (7)
Since Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has been getting some well-earned attention for his great messaging as well as his wholesome personality, I wanted to make a few observations from the perspective of someone who is around the same age and from roughly the same area.
First, Walz went to Chadron State College (I’ve been in Chadron many times, long story) and used the GI Bill to pay for his education. (Chadron State used to be called “Nebraska State Teachers College”. If you grew up on the plains, most of your teachers went to the nearest teachers college.) He’s obviously a smart, accomplished guy, but he didn’t go to an Ivy or Berkeley/Stanford. This to me is a big deal, for two reasons. First, this is a far more humble educational background than the average DC Democrat. There’s such a gross prejudice in the major media against anyone who didn’t go to a big name school, and Walz is a walking, talking demonstration that some great people have come from places that aren’t even on the map for DC reporters. Second, East Coast reporters have no fucking clue how to deal with a smart guy who doesn’t fit their mold. Their default mode when doing Cletus safaris is to remark on the quaint habits of these people who live in places where you can’t even get a decent Negroni. I think they might pull their punches because of their discomfort.
Second, refreshingly, he isn’t a god damned lawyer who thinks they’re so fucking smart and subtle (Schiff is a good example of this, but there are many, many others). More importantly: he’s a teacher, and teachers are used to repeating their message over and over, without excessive subtlety. This is an incredibly undervalued political skill. Also, he taught on the Pine Ridge reservation, and that inspired him to go into teaching. If you teach in Pine Ridge and you decide to become a teacher after that, there’s something special about you.
Third, he won a tough district, Minnesota’s 1st, which is pretty rural and is currently R+7. He’s only the fourth Democrat/DFL candidate to hold that district since 1863.
Fourth, he rose to high enlisted rank in the Army National Guard, retiring as a Master Sergeant. That’s a perspective on military service that’s also sorely lacking in modern politics.
Finally, I don’t know how Josh Shapiro could be the pick when Walz has been loud-and-proud against vouchers, especially for rural communities where they would just bleed the already-hurting rural public schools dry.
There’s a lot more to like about Walz — though he’s not from Wisconsin or Michigan (or Ohio if you’re a dreamer), he’s got the ability to communicate with persuadable rural voters in those states.
This is long enough, and Kelly would be a fine pick, too, but I think there’s something rare in Walz that deserves a closer look.
Biden is pivoting to his legacy. He speaks Monday at the LBJ Presidential Library https://t.co/eVJmTX3Vr5
— The Associated Press (@AP) July 29, 2024
Per the Austin American-Statesman, Biden’s speech will be livestreamed on YouTube at 4pm Austin time (5pm blog time). “Media members will be allowed to attend, but no tickets are available to the public.”
President Joe Biden, who belatedly opted against seeking reelection, on Monday will pay a visit to the library of the last president to make the same difficult choice, more than a half-century ago.
Biden’s speech Monday at the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin, Texas, is designed to mark the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, enacted under President Lyndon Johnson. But the visit has taken on very different symbolism in the two weeks it took to reschedule it after Biden had to cancel because he got COVID-19.
The speech, originally set for July 15, was once seen by the White House as an opportunity for Biden to try to make a case for salvaging his sinking presidential campaign — delivered in the home district of Rep. Lloyd Doggett, the 15-term congressman who was the first Democratic lawmaker to publicly call for Biden to step aside.
Two weeks later, the political landscape has been reshaped. Biden is out of the race. Vice President Kamala Harris is the likely Democratic nominee. And the president is focused not on his next four years, but on the legacy of his single term and the future of democracy…
Biden has said he is “determined to get as much done” as he can in his final six months in office, including signing major legislation expanding voting rights and a federal police bill named for George Floyd.“I’ll keep defending our personal freedoms and our civil rights, from the right to vote to the right to choose,” Biden said from the Oval Office. “I’ll keep calling out hate and extremism, make it clear there is no place, no place in America for political violence or any violence ever, period.”
Later Monday, Biden will also travel to Houston to pay his respects to the late Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, who died July 19 at age 74.
It would likely have been the complete opposite had he waited even 18-24 hours.
The Sunday shows would have eaten Biden/Harris alive, and they would have had an entire week to both consume them and also try to drive Harris off the ticket as well.
— The New York Times is the #VichyPress (@Needle_of_Arya) July 28, 2024
Sharing is caring:
That’s why I hope so much that we we all put in the time and work to help @KamalaHarris win so that this tremendous progress may continue.
There’s 100 days left.
Three resources in campaigns: money, people (your labor), & time.
We don’t control the last one, but max out 1&2. https://t.co/d1stjPbiLr— Clean Observer (@Hammbear2024) July 29, 2024
Monday Morning Open Thread: Counting Down A Hundred DaysPost + Comments (149)
Still in Flyover Country, and headed back to Austrailia and the Cascade Loop!
Time moves fast for migrant birds, arriving here in April or May and kicking the kids out of the nest in June or July. They also become harder to photograph, as they spend less time singing and showing off and more time foraging to feed a hungry family.
On The Road – Albatrossity – Summer 2024 in Flyover Country – 1Post + Comments (26)
Still singing in early June, this Eastern Meadowlark (Sturnella magna) was not using an elevated perch; those are hard to come by on a prairie. This is one of the dominant voices in the local grasslands, replaced in the west by the very similar and even more melodic Western Meadowlark. Interestingly, there is little evidence that these two nearly identical species interbreed in the wild, and studies with captive birds demonstrate that the hybrids are sterile. This is quite unlike the case with Carolina and Black-capped Chickadees, whose hybridization substantially increases the confusion factor for birders in the hybrid zone. Click here for larger image.
I’m tuckered out and have not much to say, so here is a thread for the Olympics.
