Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves? (hint, it’s door #2)

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

The revolution will be supervised.

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

Donald Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it’s a trap.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

When we show up, we win.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

You are here: Home / Civil Rights / Deserved Plaudits Open Thread: Kamala Harris Received the NAACP Image Awards’ Chairman’s Prize

Deserved Plaudits Open Thread: Kamala Harris Received the NAACP Image Awards’ Chairman’s Prize

by | 93 Comments

This post is in: , , ,

Former Vice President Kamala Harris stepped on the NAACP Image Awards stage Saturday night with a sobering message, calling the civil rights organization a pillar of the Black community and urging people to stay resilient and hold onto their faith during the tenure of President Donald Trump.

“While we have no illusions about what we are up against in this chapter in our American story, this chapter will be written not simply by whoever occupies the oval office nor by the wealthiest among us,” Harris said after receiving the NAACP’s Chairman’s Award. “The American story will be written by you. Written by us. By we the people.”…

In her first major public appearance since leaving office, Harris did not reference her election loss or Trump’s actions since entering the Oval Office, although Trump mocked her earlier in the day at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

Harris spoke about eternal vigilance, the price of liberty, staying alert, seeking the truth and America’s future.

“Some see the flames on our horizons, the rising waters in our cities, the shadows gathering over our democracy and ask ‘What do we do now?’” Harris said. “But we know exactly what to do, because we have done it before. And we will do it again. We use our power. We organize, mobilize. We educate. We advocate. Our power has never come from having an easy path.”

Other winners of the Chairman’s prize have included former President Barack Obama, the late Rep. John Lewis and the late actor Ruby Dee…

Reader Interactions

Commenters

No commenters available.

  • Ajabu
  • Betty
  • catclub
  • chemiclord
  • comrade scotts agenda of rage
  • Darkrose
  • Elizabelle
  • frosty
  • Geminid
  • Gin & Tonic
  • glc
  • Glory b
  • Gvg
  • Jackie
  • japa21
  • Jay
  • JaySinWA
  • John Cole
  • Josie
  • Just Some Fuckhead
  • Kayla Rudbek
  • Kirk
  • LAC
  • LeftCoastYankee
  • Lily
  • Matt McIrvin
  • Miss Bianca
  • Msb
  • Nelle
  • Old Dan and Little Ann
  • Old School
  • RaflW
  • Raoul Paste
  • Redshift
  • rikyrah
  • satby
  • Steve LaBonne
  • stinger
  • suzanne
  • tam1MI
  • UncleEbeneezer
  • VFX Lurker
  • zhena gogolia

Filtered Commenters

No filtered commenters available.

    Settings




    Settings are saved immediately; press X to close the box.

    93Comments

    5. 5.

      LeftCoastYankee

      So the 77 million are experiencing FAFO. What are the 90 million experiencing?

      It’s good to see and hear Madame VP.

      Reply
    6. 6.

      Elizabelle

      Thank you for this, AL.  Will watch it.  I hope Kamala will be out and outspoken in public a lot more.

      Show people what they could have had, had they not gone with a convicted felon who sold his office to the richest man in the world.

      We wanted to live in President Kamala land.

      Reply
    14. 14.

      rikyrah

      Acyn (@Acyn) posted at 7:43 PM on Sun, Feb 23, 2025

      Crockett: Right now they have a Trump trifecta. So when and if the government shuts down, it is going to be on Trump and his minions. It is not going to be on us as Democrats because we weren’t elected to gut social security, to gut medicaid and medicare, to gut USAID, to gut any of these programs that they’re going after. That’s not what we campaigned on. So that’s not what we’re going to do.

       https://t.co/h4batj2fNL
      (https://x.com/Acyn/status/1893839103801860466?t=BsL5jvsECIexxJtd50idMg&s=03)

      Reply
    17. 17.

      Ajabu

      I wanted to live in Kamala Land also. If we can survive This insanity maybe we still can. (Thanks FAFO imbeciles…)

      OT- just lost the woman who gave me my first national road tour.
      R.I.P. Roberta Flack

      Reply
    25. 25.

      Gin & Tonic

      US votes with Venezuela, Nicaragua and russia (among a few others) against a UN resolution calling for a just and lasting peace in Ukraine.

      Reply
    28. 28.

      RaflW

      @Gin & Tonic: If we pull through all this and come out the other side with a democracy and a second reconstruction, one lasting effect that may actually be good for the world (but maybe not, because China will be in ascendency), US hegemony is probably busted for quite some time.

      The new German chancellor just pledged support for Ukraine as a top priority for his government and that Ukraine must “win the war”.
      “Victory means restoring territorial integrity” and “we are not neutral, we are not standing aside. We are on the side of Ukraine.”

      I fervently hope all the NATO members save us are working out the plans for an effective post-US NATO.

      Reply
    31. 31.

      tam1MI

      @Elizabelle: We wanted to live in President Kamala land.

      I wouldn’t have minded staying in President Biden land, but either way I think we can agree that President Trump land SUCKS.

      Reply
    33. 33.

      Kirk

      @RaflW: US hegemony has been busted – well, cracked and declining – since W was in office. Arguably longer but my point of inflection is when a fair chunk of the US could not handle that we were not impervious to a foreign agency’s attack.

      I am unhappy that China is the most likely next candidate for hegemonic status, but I don’t think it’s inevitable and I don’t think it’ll be true hegemony any more than the US’s was.

      Reply
    35. 35.

      japa21

      Okay, how long before someone (not here) starts saying that Harris should just shut-up, she lost, her opinions are useless. Isn’t that what happened with Clinton?

      Reply
    36. 36.

      LAC

      Thank you so much for this post, AL. Another homerun.  I wanted to live in Kamala world too.  The only thing goodish coming into this nightmare is be clearer in my peace and focus to work on the things in my power.

      Reply
    39. 39.

      Nelle

      @Kirk: Ten years ago, I was admiring the new hospital in Western Samoa.  The Chinese built it, I was told.  My sister lives in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.  Evidence of China’s soft power investments all over Africa.  Between being mesmerized with first, the Tea Party and now Maga (such navel gazing here) and cutting AID, the US is totally out of the soft power game.

      Reply
    45. 45.

      UncleEbeneezer

      I will never stop being mad about the fact that this extraordinary woman ran a damn-near perfect campaign only to be constantly shit on and called horrible names by a loud segment of our coalition.  She deserved better.  And shame on everyone who participated in or defended that bullshit.

      Reply
    48. 48.

      suzanne

      I am proud to have supported Kamala in 2020 and 2024. She’s fantastic, and I hope she is living her very best life.

      Reply
    53. 53.

      catclub

      @RaflW: I fervently hope all the NATO members save us are working out the plans for an effective post-US NATO.

       

      US defense contractors will not be high on the Europeans’ list of priorities.

      Also, interoperability with US gear will go down.

      Reply
    54. 54.

      catclub

      @RaflW: ​
       

      The new German chancellor just pledged support for Ukraine as a top priority for his government and that Ukraine must “win the war”.
      “Victory means restoring territorial integrity” and “we are not neutral, we are not standing aside. We are on the side of Ukraine.”

      More power to him!

      The US is not standing aside, either. Trump is on the Russian side.

      Reply
    56. 56.

      Jay

      @JaySinWA:

      The Resolution affirms the territorial integrity of Ukraine.

      Israel has plans for a chunk of Syria, Lebanon, and of more than a chunk of the West Bank and Gaza.

      Reply
    58. 58.

      chemiclord

      @Matt McIrvin: Oh, you mean the thin-skinned assclown who casually drops transsexual slurs in his posts, and bans people who call him out on it?

      If there was a guy who needed to “stay in his own fucking lane,” it’s Erik Loomis.

      Reply
    60. 60.

      Old Dan and Little Ann

      I just found out one of the cleaning ladies at our school was taken by ICE over February Break.  Unfuckingbelievable.

      Reply
    61. 61.

      Jackie

      This from The Atlantic:

      Jonathan Rauch: “Even those who expected the worst from his reelection (I among them) expected more rationality. Today, it is clear that what has happened since January 20 is not just a change of administration but a change of regime—a change, that is, in our system of government. But a change to what?”

      “There is an answer, and it is not classic authoritarianism—nor is it autocracy, oligarchy, or monarchy. Trump is installing what scholars call patrimonialism. Understanding patrimonialism is essential to defeating it. In particular, it has a fatal weakness that Democrats and Trump’s other opponents should make their primary and relentless line of attack.”

      I don’t have a subscription, so…

      From Google:

      Patrimonialism is a political system where a ruler has absolute power, and the state is seen as the ruler’s personal property. The ruler may be a king, sultan, or maharaja.

      How does patrimonialism work? 

      • The ruler makes decisions without many checks on their power.
      • The ruler may reward loyalists with state resources.
      • The ruler may have a personal administrative staff.
      • The ruler may have a political apparatus staffed by slaves, mercenaries, or conscripts.

      What are the consequences of patrimonialism?

      Patrimonialism can lead to favoritism and nepotism, Patrimonialism can undermine institutional effectiveness, Patrimonialism can stifle meritocracy, and Patrimonialism can create obstacles to economic development. 

      Reply
    62. 62.

      comrade scotts agenda of rage

      @Nelle:

      Between being mesmerized with first, the Tea Party and now Maga (such navel gazing here) and cutting AID, the US is totally out of the soft power game.

      This discussion on soft power is an interesting one.  One of the better pieces from Dubya’s second term:

      https://www.nafsa.org/sites/default/files/ektron/files/underscore/frontlines_jan_feb.pdf

      Since then?  This author served in the Obama Administration and provides an excellent analysis of how the GOP abandoned soft power as an international stragety–it not surprisingly started under the Bushies, then kicked into over drive with the advent of rwnj astroturf groups like the Tea Turds:

      https://coloradonewsline.com/2025/02/08/american-soft-power-makes-us-great/

      Reply
    64. 64.

      UncleEbeneezer

      @chemiclord: He also writes constantly about White People’s racist complicity in choosing schools, gentrification etc. while showing a stunning refusal to listen to the actual Dem Base (Black Voters) when they support policies/candidates that aren’t progressive enough for his taste.  One of those White Progressives who still doesn’t understand why “Primary Obama/Replace Biden” was so deeply offensive to the most loyal members of our coalition.  But he’s happy to lecture us all on how to be allies…

      Reply
    65. 65.

      frosty

      @rikyrah:  Both my sons had IEDs. One has Medicaid while he’s in college. I’ve got Medicare and SS.

      I’d happily give it all up to make my betters like Musk a little richer. //

      Reply
    66. 66.

      Elizabelle

      @Jackie:  Here is The Atlantic article via archive.is

      https://archive.is/ZIeJK

      It’s entitled One Word Describes Trump.  Of course, The Atlantic’s “word” may not match our own!

      Also:  be forewarned:  illustrated with big photo of The Felon.

      Last:  I don’t mind a bit using archive.is to get around paywalls.  Already subscribe to a LOT of publications, and one cannot pay for them all.   YMMV.

      Reply
    68. 68.

      comrade scotts agenda of rage

      @UncleEbeneezer:

      Lemiuex isn’t any better, he just couches the message, particularly when it comes education, differently and never sees the cognitive dissonance of what he says about that versus some of his other, very neoliberal, policy proscriptions.

      Reply
    69. 69.

      Ajabu

      @zhena gogolia:

      I almost didn’t get the job. At the time I was a completely unknown musician living in Oakland. I got a late night call from Roberta Flack. I thought it was a prank so when she said.” This is Roberta Flack” My response was” This is Stevie Wonder and I’m trying to get some sleep” and I hung up on her. I got an immediate call back from her tour director informing me that this was not a joke. They had called a more prominent musician who was too busy and he recommended me. Two days later, I was on the road. I lucked out!

      Reply
    72. 72.

      UncleEbeneezer

      @comrade scotts agenda of rage: Yup.  I stopped hanging out there a year or two ago (thankfully before the Biden witch-hunt).  Are they still pushing the myth that Abolish The Police is very popular with Black voters (and if you criticize it, it just proves you’re racist?)

      Reply
    73. 73.

      chemiclord

      @UncleEbeneezer: It’s honestly astonishing how thin of a skin he has while being so damn certain of his rightness, and the power trips he goes on when challenged.

      There was a time where I figured you had to believe one of two things about Mr. Loomis (I refuse to respect his doctorate anymore, as far as I’m concerned he’s lost any respect his education might have granted him):

      1) That a college professor was so absolutely shit at communication that he routinely words things terribly, and just doesn’t understand why people might take offense.

      or 2) He actively trolls his readers, but his thin skin doesn’t allow him to be able to handle the totally predictable consequences of his rhetoric.

      But now?  I think there’s an option 3) Both.  He’s an absolutely sloppy writer, who leans into it to stir up dander, but being used to having to deal with students who don’t have any choice but to put up with his brand of bullshit, makes him incapable of dealing with laymen who are not at all obligated to take his shit sitting down.

      Reply
    74. 74.

      Geminid

      @RaflW:

      Fun Nato fact. If the US left Nato, Turkiye would have the aiiance’s largest Army and largest Air Force. They already sell more military drones worldwide than any competitor.

      Turkiye used to buy its submarines from Germany and their frigates from the US. Right now tbey have 25 ships under construction including a corvette for Ukraine. They already completed a corvette, the Hetman Ivan Mazeppa which is training in the Sea of Marmara out of reach of Russian warplanes.

      Reply
    77. 77.

      Elizabelle

      @Ajabu:  That’s a great story.  My condolences for losing a friend.

      Rest in peace and grace, Roberta Flack.

      That song was so unlike anything else on the radio when it came out.  At least, at that time.  (And we speak pretty much of AM, for me.)

      Reply
    78. 78.

      Elizabelle

      @Geminid:  Appreciate learning about Turkiye in bite-sized morsels from you.

      That beautiful country goes on my 2 year bucket list.  My nephew and his fiancé visited last year, and loved it. (She is a very adventurous traveler.  She will be good for him.)

      Reply
    80. 80.

      Elizabelle

      LOL.  Lester Holt is stepping down as anchor at NBC News.  Will expand his role on Dateline.

      Was he a DEI hire too?

      Reply
    81. 81.

      UncleEbeneezer

      @chemiclord: Being in academia, doesn’t impress me as much as it used to.  It’s not like being a professor somehow makes one honest or any less willing to refuse the possibility that they might be wrong.  And while I hate the whole Liberal Professors fear mongering bullshit that my Buckley-Republican Dad has spouted for my whole life, this past year has really opened my eyes to how there is some truth to the fact that certain Liberal/Progressive dogmas exist in Academia and that there are pressure campaigns to make sure nobody questions them.

      Izabella Tabarovsky is a scholar who studies Soviet Anti-Zionism and has chronicled an extensive and well documented propaganda campaign that targeted the West/Global Left (including US Universities) to spread Anti-Israel sentiments using Anti-Racist, Anti-Imperialism etc. language that perpetuates antisemitic stereotypes and conspiracy theories straight out of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.  She has all the receipts on how the Soviets did this through thousands of publications, radio broadcasts, and conferences etc.  She points out that the language of Soviet propaganda is identical to all the stuff that Anti-Zionists use nowadays and that there’s no question that it is a result of the Soviet effort.  I’ve read dozens of her articles and listened to several presentations.  There is nothing Islamophobic in there at all.  She doesn’t bash Palestinians or deny their connection to the land.  All she does is connect the dots from Soviet propaganda to the Anti-Zionist language we see today and explain why the Soviets engaged in this campaign.  Last month she had two academic invitations to conferences canceled by pressure from FreePalestine protestors/orgs.  She is a world-renowned expert in her field and also a Jewish woman.  But apparently Academia is really not interested in exploring the possibility that maybe everything they’ve ingested and promoted about Israel for the past 40 years, came from Soviet propaganda aimed to sow Anti-Israel and Anti-American sentiment.

      Relatedly, I’ve listened to many interviews with good faith (ie- not MAGA or Likkud-loving) Jewish American professors, students and even personal friends I know in real life, who say that there is a very real problem with the way universities (don’t) handle antisemitic harassment of students when that harassment is performed under the cover of Anti-Zionism/Palestinian solidarity.  Our universities seem very reluctant to even consider the possibility that their Diversity/Multicultural/Intersectional approaches regularly fail Jewish students/professors on campus.

      Reply
    84. 84.

      Gvg

      @Jackie: I am noticing that this time the children are not as prominent, especially the daughter and son in law. I have been wondering if they thought it wasn’t going to go well, or were scared off by all the antisemitism that has latched onto Trump.

      Reply
    86. 86.

      Elizabelle

      @Glory b: if Jackie does not answer, I will try to read the Atlantic article and respond sometime tonight. It would be a great topic for maybe around 8 PM or so. Were you  able to access the article via the archive link?  My comment #66.

      Reply
    87. 87.

      Darkrose

      @UncleEbeneezer: Erik Loomis is the only non-racist white man ever to exist. This not only give him the green light to attack white people he deems racist, but anyone who criticizes him.

      When he posted about Loretta Lynn’s death, some people pointed out that she’d gone MAGA in later life, and that perhaps she wasn’t such a great populist country icon. Loomis lectured people on why they shouldn’t conflate art and artist, and then posted one of her record covers that has a slur used against Native women on it.

      I pointed out that maybe the white dude shouldn’t highlight a word that the Interior Secretary had announced they were removing because, you know, slur. Loomis proceeded to lecture me–not Native, but a woman of color–about how it was okay because some Native musician used that word.

      I left LGM after that, but I went back, which was a mistake, because he just got worse.

      Reply
    89. 89.

      chemiclord

      @Darkrose: Yeah, he’s expanded his vocabulary to transsexual slurs now as well.  But, I guess it’s okay because he uses them “ironically.”

      Just evidence that having the right political views doesn’t necessarily make you a good person.  Within twenty years, he’ll be the next Glenn Greenwald, mark my words.

      Reply
    90. 90.

      UncleEbeneezer

      @Darkrose: Gross.  And sadly not that surprising.  White Progressives who have a big problem actually listening to marginalized groups are unfortunately pretty common and par for the course.

      Reply
    91. 91.

      glc

      I’m going to stick in a health notice that we may be coming back to in some form:

      Measles vaccinations

      The part that interests me is that if you were born before 1957 you probably don’t need to revaccininate because you got the disease. Other parts may interest other people.

      Reply
    92. 92.

      Msb

      @glc: yep, I was born in ‘56 and was nearly hospitalized with measles at age 5. Out of action for 6 weeks in total. I don’t have words bad enough to describe anybody who exposes their kids to that, plus possible brain damage, deafness and death.

      Reply
    93. 93.

      Kayla Rudbek

      @glc: I had to get a second vaccination before I visited my baby godson (I forget if it was MMR or DPT). Gen Xers, get your vaccines now. There were problems with what we got as children.

      Reply

    Leave a Comment

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    If you don't see both the Visual and the Text tab on the editor, click here to refresh.

    Clear Comment

    To reply to more than one person, click the X to save & close the box.