Two Fox News Channel interviews bracketed today: one this morning with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in front of an audience of hand-picked Republican women in Georgia, the other by Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris with host Bret Baier.
''Writer Peter Wehner, who worked for presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush, wrote: “Bret Baier has rarely looked as bad (or tendentious) as he did in his interview with Kamala Harris. On the flip side, this was one of her best interviews. She dominated Bret. All in all it was quite a bad day for MAGA world's most important media outlet.”''
I saw the clip...she was on fire and brilliant...Bret looked like a deer in the headlights. The conversations around Fox after that session should have been rich.
Kam was on fire yesterday; she was brilliant smashing through the Faux News maga Agit-Prop after uniting with truly bi-partisan citizens not just Liz near Philadelphia.
That was a memorable American-to-the core campaign day for Kamala Harris! In a word: "Presidential".
In exchanges with two high school buddies yesterday (Class of 1958) I learned that they can't handle the truth about Donald Trump. One is an atheist and one a Southern Baptist and both are MAGA. Is is impossible to question them about anything to do with Trump. They are committed to Trump, one of the most flawed humans ever to walk the stage of American politics.
One's an atheist, huh? Wow ... he's figured out the specious nature of religion, one would think he could see through the demagoguery of a despicable human being.
Half of my family are MAGA. They live in rural North Carolina. They have 8th grade educations, live off social security and don't pay taxes. They buy new cars every year on credit, generally wreck it in some road rage incident and wave that TRUMP flag proudly over the roof of a house that my husband and I purchased for them to live in. They are truly simple minded and brain-washed. P.S. They aren't even church going folks and aren't looking at Donald Trump to save them but be like them. In many ways (narcissism included), they are a perfect match. Very frustrating.
You must utilize social psychology to understand this. That ole blame game that white people are privileged and to blame and folks are peed off trust me on this.
Wonder if they truly feel that way or are just 1. Fearful of saying anything derogatory about him because he is a person of retribution or 2. That would mean admitting they wear duped and wrong about him. You will never really know if behind the curtain of the secret ballot if they vote otherwise. Let’s hope they do.
I was initially skeptical of Kamala Harris. I thought she was vein, self-serving and not very in depth thinker. I was wrong. It’s not the first time I misjudged someone. My gut tells me know ( hoping I’m not wrong) that she will be a transformative president. She will understand the need to bring us back to the center and if I were to spell it out, my critics here would disparage me. And you know who you are, lol. I know you swore not to respond and that’s cool. We are all on the same side, don’t forget.
Bill, speaking as one of your occasional critics and one who has stated that I'll no longer engage with you, well, here I am. I'm glad we agree on Kamala Harris. However, we will likely never agree on what the "center" is. I choose to believe it's what any issue a majority of Americans support (climate change, taxation, women's rights, LGBTQ+, gun control, Ukraine, education, democracy, immigration vs the need for border security, etc. etc.) These are all issues that a majority of the American public sides with Harris and the Democratic Party. That, to me, constitutes the "center". You and I have had this discussion before, and I'll say no more about it nor will likely respond to your reply, but I'm curious to hear how you (or truly any other reader here) would define the "center".
Doug, as Americans become more enlightened, (civil rights, women’s rights, environment) I believe “the center” is fluid. That’s really the issue, conservatives holding ego-centric values sense that they’re on the wrong side of history and they don’t like the shift
The world has shifted quite a bit since the Dark Ages and the Medieval Lord ancestors are still railing about it
Labels like “center” actually masks individual issues. They’re kinda like polls
Dave, conservative is not a viable descriptor for MAGA. They are far right radicals who are also cultists and are backing a fascist monster. I consider my next door neighbor, a former R pol, to be conservative. He has two Harris/Walz signs in his yard and another for a local D pol. He also has one for a R who we consider smarmy, but OK. He is registered as an I and he can't stand death star and his minions. The behavior of the people at the top has not shifted much at all throughout history. They usually have been concerned about power and wealth in nearly all places and times. And they have used the peons, the hoipolloi, the peasants, the serfs, the slaves, the immigrants, and the poor to serve them. That is the reason that they wanted sons and complete control of women as male members of the family were everything. I doubt all those R women in GA know how late women have been able to vote, to get credit cards, to have control of their children, etc. I bet most, if not all of them are against abortion. Personally, I do not understand how any woman can vote for that creep.
Excellent point. If we can get back to where "the center" was in, say, the early '60s, only with people of color and women of all colors included this time, we can start moving forward again.
That's why I define the center as the majority, Dave, using the bell curve as a model. There will always be 15% at each extreme end, and the big 70% lump is in the middle. I would guess that the feudalists today are at one of the extreme ends, and the woke idealists at the other.
"Back to the center"? The gutless "center" helped get us into this mess. Denying the urgency of climate change, calling anyone who called for economic justice "far left" . . . Thanks to the "center," the country kept sliding farther and farther to the right, to the point where fascism really is on the ballot and we've barely started to deal with climate change (which we knew plenty about several decades ago).
I don't think the center is as you describe it, Susanna. In all the statistical analysis I've seen, the majority of Americans support economic justice, renewable energy, female autonomy, and everyone's right to love as they will. I think the slide to the right has occurred because of corrupt politicians who put their pockets and/or power over the will of their constituents.
I can't agree that "the centre" is solely responsible for the slide into fascism. The centre to me is the place of common decency, of judicious thought but also of knowing the value of truth and honour. That includes centre right as well as centre left. It's also the place of moderation. My late sainted mother the minister's wife used to say she was "extremely moderate". To me a centrist can see the honest arguement of both sides.
Trumpism is just whack a doodle narcissism and is not a political view but a psychiatric condition.
Insights, knowledge and understanding grow with experience and time, certainties get chipped away by the tools we bring to our struggles for truth. The centre is not a battleground, it’s a process rooted in goodwill and humility, even humour, in the service of the common good and the overriding desire to do no harm.
I like your phrase, "certainties get chipped away," RJ. I believe that critical thought is enabled by a flexible mentality, that new discoveries bring shifts of opinion. I equate what I call critical thought with what you call "...process rooted in goodwill..."
RJ, so to distill that, it's “live and let live”, or do I misinterpret you? (I happen to like that philosophy, although there is a point at which it can become extreme.)
I believe that everything you list here is the center: let people be who they want to be. Target danger in our society, like weapons used to kill masses of innocent children and others. Keep your guns to protect your home and to hunt. Just a few ‘for instances.’
Jennifer: indeed. Treat *every* person the same. Allow all to be free to be who they want to be, with few necessary limitations dealing with protections of individual rights to live safely and happily (to the greatest extent possible); the common good, etc.
And this is *not* Libertarian thinking, as I see the news to protect members of society from those who would threaten us either passively or not -- your comment suggesting reasonable gun control comes to mind.
"Bill, speaking as one of your occasional critics and one who has stated that I'll no longer engage with you, well, here I am." Doug, I salute you for being a big man.
If we look at any bell curve, Doug, by definition the majority=the center. I, too, often disagree with Bill. In many ways the Harris campaign stands for our ability as a nation to agree on broad issues and sustain diverse opinions on causality and solutions. I locate my disagreements with Bill in that space.
Sometimes the “center” is Truely undefinable. And sometimes it’s not even issues. Because of so much diverse literature on race for example, and I believe this is the great unspoken and non-discussed argument, those of us who are Caucasian are often so sick and tired of being called privileged. I know I am and yet, it doesn’t move me needle to the right. But with many, it does. So I say stop the blame game. It only serves those who wish to cause an ugly backlash.
Again, a matter of perspectives on issues instead of “center.” The Ukraine Russian war never needed to be fought. This war shou,d be called the Joe Biden War because he didn’t state emphatically no NATO to Ukraine. Ukraine was never a good candidate for NATO in the first place and this of course, can be argued. Half of the country the eastern half was a good deal Russian anyway. But American leaders often forget how quick we are to encourage war of actually invade. We never learn. So this is a “center” issue but one nevertheless important.
I have thought of and read some on the topic of urban inequality. That poverty remains through generations. No matter how much government helps so I need to ask why. I’m reminded of a conversation I witness as a freshman high school student in an urban high school. Our your homeroom teacher had recently given birth without the help of a partner. This she revealed and she engaged a 14 or 15 year old Black girl in class in a discussion about motherhood. The girl had recently also given birth. Communities cannot thrive when today (written in a Black journal) up to 72% of Black children are born out of wedlock. Poverty and all that accompanies it will continue for hundreds of years until family planning is ingrained in the community. I expressed this one in my writing and I was thoroughly trashed so I generally don’t go there anymore. And so the natural response is how dare I tell a Black girl what she should and shouldn’t do with her body. And I agree I don’t. This issue is for Black leadership to address not I.
My issues are less center but more talking points that should be considered by democratic leaders. Or we are setting ourselves up for a future less bright even if we emerge from this one with the greatest political monster ever to walk to the stage.
To your beliefs that Kamala was vain, self-serving, and not a very in-depth thinker, I will say that I have a friend whose cousin has been good friends with Kamala for a while. And she has said that everytime you speak to Kamala, she is sincerely focused on YOU and your feelings and thoughts. She is not vain, or self-serving, and she is certainly not a shallow thinker.
I've seen her respond to people who have expressed loss and sorrow, and her reaction is real, not fake like someone else we know.
As a conservative by temperament, I greeted Vice President Harris with skepticism as a plodder, career politician, and a smug lib. I was dead-wrong, too. Thank you, Bill, for being a big man; you inspire me.
Anyone who knew she braved the winter storms of Montreal, Quebec to get to high school.......took in an abused friend to live..........made Kavenaugh look like a drooling baby during the cross........knew long ago that Kamala is an American hero in waiting.........now is her time to shine bright
Mike, Kamala is always "on fire and brilliant" in my opinion.
How anyone thought that Trump would "win" the debate against her is just funny to me.
Trump calls her dumb, slow, of low IQ. What??
I knew she would rip him apart at the debate.
Her words in Pennsylvania yesterday reminded me somewhat of Lincoln's words and sentiments.
Such disrespect for her abounds.
People around me still refuse to pronounce her name correctly. When I remind them what it is, they either laugh or repeat their incorrect pronunciation with jeering voice and expressions.
Thank goodness there are decent people across our nation to counter the insanity of Trump and HIS Republican party.
May there be enough of these decent folks to save us from the vileness and danger of another Trump
Pam, while I agree with your sentiments, the mispronunciation of Kamala's name doesn't bother me, and I doubt it bothers her, because pretty soon they'll be addressing her as "Madame President" or "President Harris".
I believe that our side does the same by calling the convicted felon (see?) "DonOld" or other such things. And I have no problem with that, either 😉.
Ellen, I'm not so sure I agree. I've always thought using someone's first name suggests familiarity or informality, and calling someone by their last name (unless an athlete, or long-decwqawd person, etc.r) is disrespectful unless preceded by Mr, Mrs., Ms. or Miss (or the like.) However, in this case I think the objective is disrespect, as her first name is uncommon, hence easy to make fun of.
As a woman in medicine, I have very often been called by my first name, by mostly men, when they refer to male Drs as Dr Last Name. It's pervasive in our culture & the more we call it out, the fewer people will feel free to disrespect women.
My personal issue is that I know three "KAM-a-la" people. It is hard to translate for me sometimes. I mean no disrespect, and know what it is like to have an uncommon first name that is spelled differently that 99% of the other "Allison"'s.
I saw one that had a music staff with a breath mark (looks like a comma) and in the key of C had an "F" half note in the staff. (reference: solfège, or as Maria would say: Do, a deer, a female deer, etc.)
Thanks to Ally (of whom I think as “ally”) and Trevy for the fun. “The Sound of Music” like the revival of “Our Town” gives us a bit of the unbearable lightness of being to survive the next few(?) months.
JDH, one of our local radio stations (back in the day when we had them) was an AM station that broadcast the U of O men's sports and had originally (at least as I knew it in the 70's) played pop music. When the department finally started letting am/fm radios in the patrol cars (early 90's; it was too expensive to "special order" them without commercial radios) I was working nights, and listened to a lot of talk radio; Art Bell to be precise. I had the opportunity to tune in early one evening (I was on overtime) and I heard a news broadcast that ended with "We report, you decide". As I listened a few more times, I realized this was the station that broadcast Rush Limbaugh during the day, and Fox was its "news" carrier. What utter garbage. At least I knew Art Bell was a wing nut... and very entertaining as I patrolled the empty roadways of Lane County.
Yep, am radio was noted for being nut crazy. One b-I-l was always complaining about it and the other one was always quoting Rush. It was vicious toward Dems with the “libtard” crap. I just called it fringe and ignored. So many found a home.
Trevy they do get push back, but hers was so right on target, indignant and so well focused it was a pleasure to watch. Bret did a stupid thing by playing a much edited clip that she was familiar with to respond to. He set himself up and found out who this woman is. Fox has been editing to their agenda for years...playing the "wag the dog" game....and they got called out big time...this mistake will haunt them.
But with who? It certainly won't harm them with their loyal base who love Trump. And elsewhere, who matters? Are there really any undecideds who might go "Harris" as a result? I doubt it. So I really fail to see how their idiocies will actually "haunt" them in any way, sigh.
No. This was all pre-arranged by Harris&Waltz, and part of their agreement with FNB, who stood to make millions from Harris being on their screen. FNB shareholders aren't dumb. Harris&Waltz told them to "take it or leave it". FNB seeing $$ signs agreed to their terms. "Bret" is a paid employee of FNB, he had his marching orders. He's getting abonus.. for throwing himself under the bus. Faux is not owned by numb-skull#45. He's just a tool for FNB,and he's getting 'duller-by-the-minute! IMHO.
C'mon Trevy.., no way that was some impromptu getogether. The Harris/Waltz team spelled it out the "rules" for Faux noose, or Faux WOULD NOT get to make a whole-helluva-lot of money hosting it. And you better bet Faux saw the $$$'s jingling into their coffers from all the dedicated Faux noose fans with their pre-programed TV sets. No doubt (in my military-mind) that FNB made money, but I'll bet Harris/Waltz didn't fork over a dime. Numb-skull #45.., is becoming bad juju for FNB advertisers.
I suspect (hope!) he was actually internally applauding her comments! He can’t/wont speak the truth. It seemed like that was the only time he didn’t interrupt her! He really let her run with it, and she was fabulous!!
As a video editor myself the producer/editor who created that clip for broadcast should be ashamed of themselves. It was total manipulation and propaganda. If there is an editing award of shame...they should get it. Actually folks on here should reach out to Fox with that message.
I saw that comment made elsewhere too; you’re not alone in that. I’m happy she had the chance to show she’s NOT “retarded”, and she’s not going to put up with BS from anyone.
I literally pray that our country is granted enough wisdom to finally dispense with Donald Trump
On air, Fox commentators incl Baier himself tried to spin the interview very hard, casting aspersions on Kamala and complimenting Baier on a "good interview". He also stated that he had 4 people talking in his ear. They must have stressed him out, and clearly they pushed him to push the narrative. He said later that the time for the interview had been cut short too, adding to his "inability to get through all the questions he had prepared (paraphrased)." He then blamed Kamala for a 15 minute late arrival. Who plans these things? They never plan around late arrivals for the busiest people in the world? When Trump is routinely an hour late?
I was very disappointed and even angry at his constant interruption and overtalking of her....because he wanted more talking time for his "questions" (aka rightwing disinformation vectors ). He barely gave her 3 seconds to answer before cutting her off. It was the classic male dominance shtick. Kamala wasn't having it; she rightly pointed that out, held her ground and her right as the Presidental Nominee to have the larger speaking role. The audience is, after all, listening to what the candidate is saying, not the moderator. They have always been so willing to let Trump ramble on about nothing!
I watched the interview plus Sean Insanity's commentary about his ridicule of Vice President Harris's "covering up" (sic) for President Biden's mental impairment (sick). Here is an analysis which I trust far more. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rn-Dw2JUVmo (Yeah . . . ¡Jimmy Kimmel!) 🥳
Of course, the M.A.G.A.-types focused on her not answering the question, willfully oblivious to the compelling non-verbal message. Prior to contesting the premise of Brat Boor's gotcha, Vice President Harris's face exhibited a pained expression. 😢
She knew the question was a trap, though, to be explained, that was not the reason for her brazen exhibition of humanity.
> Admitting that President Biden was impaired (sic) would admit to participating in a deception of the American people. 😥
> Contesting the assertion that President Biden was impaired, which he was not, would only open her up to petty snipes about her unassailable intelligence. 😯
BUT THAT SET-UP WAS NOT THE REASON FOR THE PAIN. 💔
Vice President Harris was not about to make her mentor, her manager, her President, her friend some political football for the bread-&-circus bitchorama that is Fox News. 🤢
So her anguished non-answer said everything to those with even a smidgeon of empathy. 🙏
VP Kamala Harris is on track go down in history as one of the greatest, fearless, tireless, formidable,heroic, intelligent, brilliant, literal, humorous, tactful,cool, calm, collected,...............heros in the entire history of the United States of America
It was so satisfying!! She talked over him until he had to stop talking. I have seen Trump do this over and over. It was a great moment to watch Harris take charge.
I know Conservatives typically argue in bad faith, but pulling an edited video up during an interview to try and get her in a gotcha moment is the height of bad journalism, dishonest and straight up gaslighting. Insane
Here is a seven-minute clip from the Univision town hall. Candidate Trump remained coherent; the only catch being that he was . . . ¡fool of scheiße! 🤢
Kamala is also starting to distance Herself from Biden... If elected, she has stated that she will chart her own course, this is Good Politics... Joe Biden is a Good, Compassionate Man, but his Administration was never Popular... The Dark Siths are more Powerful than Ever, i.e. Elon Musk, and the General Populace are more UnHappy...
" let us together stand up for the rule of law, for our democratic ideals, and for the Constitution of the United States. And in twenty days, we have the power to chart a New Way Forward, one that is worthy of this magnificent country that we are all blessed to call home.”
lol. By chance I am reading Alan Taylor's American Revolutions. It's a very good dose of history on the origins and follow through to the founding of the USA up to about 1800. Racism based on slavery is documented well enough to get the idea, and puts the biggest tell on the idea of the "imperfect union" , fits right in with Heather's own historical telling. Of course, Kamala in her inspirational was not there to rub that side in her audience's faces. How did the Beatles put it, "long and winding road"....
Joe was hammered non stop from day one by money and dark forces of absolute evil. There is nothing free about this election, and it’s anything but fair, with Fox and clones (clowns) lying with unabated fervor from day one (started the day he was inaugurated.). Free and fair election has been an anomaly since Fox took to the air.
I agree...When Rupert Murdoch showed up in the U.S. he should have been grabbed by his collar and seat of his pants and "escorted" to the nearest seaport and placed forthwith on a slow boat to Australia and prohibited from ever setting foot in the US again.
I hold Murdoch responsible for much of the damage that has been done to the fabric of this country. I keep hoping the universe's arc of moral justice lands him a blow that sends his media empire right into bankruptcy.
Rush was the first of the brain-washing marketing "geniuses" who managed to convince so many Americans that he "was on their side" even as he lived it up down in Palm Beach. The deception was breathtaking (and seemingly too stupid to believe in) then, and the results....a cult worshipping MAGA, terrifying now.
They have crowed about every speech anomaly and completely ignored every achievement. Instead, they have lied about the economy, employment, immigration, inflation, Ukraine, NATO, and the integrity of our elections.
The TV ads I've been seeing for Republican candidates repeat all the usual lies. There's one ad that uses the word "illegals" multiple times, and it makes me want to throw a brick through the TV set. Immigrants aren't people, they're "illegals" who are blamed for every little thing. 😠
And, to be honest, imo, Biden has been unduly trashed by not just the Maga crowd. I laughed when Bret Baier tried to get her to admit she had noticed him slipping "cognitively" during the last year or so of his administration. Even if there was a tincture, even a little more, no way was she going to give him anyway roadway on that.
"Biden unduly trashed"....yes!!! President Biden has served this country with his whole life. He has been a man of faith....that means he knows he needs faith in a power greater than himself and he was willing to humbly receive this love by faith (because I am a person of faith, I understand this amazing , living, forgiving, present love. I know about this triune God who answers prayer in amazing ways...not always as we would choose.)
With successes, he has experienced great loss...his first wife and daughter killed in a car accident...His beloved Beau dying due to cancer from exposure working near burn pits as he served our country over seas. Joe and Jill, as have many of us have also have overcome other family struggles. They are real...they are open, they understand American citizens as regular human beings.
He and Jill have renewed friendships that had been destroyed by a previous President. President Joe Biden renewed a sense of trust amongst our international leaders and renewed respect within leaders of our military.
Jill, as a teacher at a Community College, has encouraged the use of an excellent two year education in order for students to find jobs with pay that can support the graduates without the higher cost of a 4-year degree.
Joe and Jill Biden have and continue to work to improve the lives of regular Americans. They have lived to serve this country and each and all of its people.
Kamala has proven she too is a great American. As a lawyer, she has fought against dangerous criminals fearlessly and WON!!! She is for all of us. She is a true leader...truly a great American!!!!
We know Joe Biden stands for Democracy....we know he works for the people of the United States of America, NOT FOR HIMSELF!!!!
Kamala has proven she too is a great American. She also knows many of our world leaders and they know her! She is ready to serve as the next President of the great United States of America....for everyone!!!!
Sorry for as much as you acclaim Biden, I still to this day can not forgive him for his complicity in foisting Clarence Thomas upon us and upon the Supreme Court by his denigration of Anita Hill's accusations of misconduct. We can lay at his doorstep many of the outrageous decisions that have been made by the court since 2020 when the majority of the court finally turned dark MAGA "red".
That one Biden disaster may out weigh every other good thing he has ever done, because it's effects will live on long after he is gone.
Indeed but as I noted above Biden was instrumental in making it happen. At the time the Democrats held the majority in the Senate and could have easily bounced him (as they did with Bork) but Biden supported him and as chairman of the Judiciary committee, he held the keys to the court. Probably the worst thing Biden ever did in his political life but has never really said "Boy did I screw THAT up!"
Bret looked especially weak when following a line of questions designed to please MAGA instead of his usually better journalistic sense. Harris was genius is csll8ng him a "serious journalist", making him slide off his track.
As I note elsewhere, there will never (for me) be any way to rate Biden "highly". No matter how much credit you can give him for many things he had done in his career, for me in the end the true tipping point was his cooperation in putting Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court. That one thing for me almost completely outweighs whatever good he has done for this country because Thomas on the Court will have far reaching effects for decades. That for me is Biden's personal Watergate moment and in many ways I think it is as bad or worse than NIxon's actual Watergate. Watergate's effects were long but Thomas on the court (which would never have happened without Biden's complicity) will last longer.
Far as I can see, the Biden Administration is beyond criticism. The past four years have been de-railed, stumped, impeded by the (R)ss-holes in the Senate, Congress, and many judge-ships, as to be almost incapacitated. The border fracas being blown right out of proportion. Our unfettered/unadulterated support of Israel's policies that some people are more equal than others, with thanks to its proponents having decision-makers right by the balls, has been with us for some time. Don't tell me Netanyahu (IDF) didn't know Hamas was arming and tunneling the entire town. C'mon. Just an excuse to finally be "justified" to blow the crap out of non-believer ragtag countries surrounding them, not to mention taking over the countryside for personal development (hello J. Kushner). So, now we have short-sighted Americans who would threaten non-support of Harris/Waltz? Really. What planet would they like to move to? Let us move on.. Please.
Netanyahu, is playing us so well...it is shameful!!! He could care less about the hostages. He is keeping himself out of prison.
Putin is enjoying the game. We are being "set up" to bomb Iran.
BRING THE HOSTAGES HOME!!!!...THAT IS THE REASON FOR OUR BEING THERE!!!
Netanyahu just wants us to be involved with our military "fire power". He is distracting us from saving the lives of the hostages....if any are still alive!!!!
There are persons in Israel who want to take over Gaza. It is a dream to expand Israel's boundaries. I believe this because of expansion beliefs among some Jewish citizens of Israel, which I have read. Also for years, Jewish families have been slowly occupying land that is legally a part of Gaza.
I cannot bear as a human being to see more babies, women and children and the elderly human beings in Gaza slaughtered. Those citizens have done nothing wrong!!!! Their blood is ON US!!!! Netanyahu must be stopped!!!!
Well said, Emily. If I was a relative of one of those hostages, I'd be outraged by what Netanyahu has done, because he certainly hasn't focused on bringing them home safely.
The remarkable epilogue to Bob Woodward's WAR, out today: He says "many of the news-making scenes in my prior books are stories of failures, mismanagement, dishonesty and the corruption of executive power," but in the Biden White House he found "steady and purposeful leadership." [Copied from Robert Scott Horton]
Biden, in his genuine "good faith efforts", created a coherent national security team who over 4 years combined "decades of experience and basic human decency." Together, they pursued "intelligence driven foreign policy" "to wield the levers of executive power responsibly and in the national interest. At the center of good governance is teamwork. "
Even though "there were failures and mistakes", Woodward believes that "the Biden administration will be remembered in history as one of steady and purposeful leadership."
[Paraphrased and quoted from Bob Woodward's epilogue]
Sorry but there is no way I could ever honor Joe Biden. In the end all of his good deeds are out weighed by his catastrophic failure in letting Clarence Thomas waltz on to the SCOTUS while denigrating Anita Hill. He will be lucky to go down in history as a "mixed bag" leader, one who did many things good but made one of the most grevious mistakes in political history, in many ways more devastating than Watergate.
Apache. Kamala’s speech game me chills. So proud of the Woman/Candidate for President she is. She has the knowledge, passion and dedication to keep our Home safe, hopeful and moving forward.
Mr Biden reminded that his administration charted a course of its own, different from that of the Obama administration and expects Ms Harris to also do so. Said, that is the normal thing every administration does.
This proves to me that Kamala should do a Fox News interview EVERY DAY - even after she wins the Presidency and after she takes office. Perhaps Rupert could install a little Fox Hole right next to the Oval Office????
Yup, I’m sure you are correct, Sharon: No more invites from Fox, but I’d love to hear Kamala say - day after day, how she’d love to give Brett another chance to “mansplain” some more stuff to her.
" And in twenty days, we have the power to chart a New Way, one that is worthy of this magnificent country that we are all blessed to call home.” We are must include T5rump supporters who have felt that the democracy has wronged them. I agree with their concern when I see less than one percent of citizens enjoy more than 95 of the wealth of a country that produces 25% of the world GDP.
Yes, democracy wins, we all sincerely hope. But I regret that Kamala Harris' success and demonstrated integrity and suitability for the Office of President of the United States is lauded in terms of dominance. Why celebrate Harris' greater knowledge and experience and understanding of American ideals of democracy as dominance? Why join Trump in reducing the election to a wrestling match? There is too much dominance in today's world. Look what dominance as an ideal has done to men over the centuries. It has created a culture that exalts men over women because of domination, imposing one's will on another. Women are just emerging from millennia of male dominance and it hasn't been pretty. Trump is all about dominance as we all know well. Is that what we now call success? Valuing dominance as the highest form of success has brought the world to the climate precipice on which we all teeter over the abyss of extinction of all life on earth.
Harris has the greater understanding of what is at stake. She was savvy to Baier's chicanery in editing out Trump's references to using America's military against Americans who oppose his ambition of dominance - Trump's idea of Americans who oppose him as "the enemy within". Harris called Baier out on his unethical representation of Trump and won by speaking truth to the corrupted power of Fox News. Baier was utterly flummoxed by the truth. That's not Trumpian "dominance" - that's being honest and true and Baier clearly didn't know what to do with honesty and truth because he wields dishonesty and lies to gain his power.
Harris is not going to win because she dominates. She's going to win because she lives by the standards of honour and truthfulness that are foundational to the ideals of her country and people who support her recognize that here, at last, is a leader that is not going to shuck and jive her way to power for power's sake. That is the power of Harris-Walz. Not dominance.
You're absolutely right to highlight the problem with framing Kamala Harris' success in terms of dominance. Reducing leadership to dominance perpetuates a damaging narrative that has historically exalted power over others rather than power to serve. Harris' strength lies in her commitment to truth, integrity, and democratic principles, not in dominating opponents. Her confrontation with Fox News wasn’t a display of brute force but a triumph of transparency and accountability over deception. True leadership should be measured by one's ability to uplift and inspire rather than overpower, and Harris embodies that distinction perfectly. It's a critical reminder that genuine success, especially in leadership, is grounded in ethics, not domination.
After disagreeing with her yesterday about candidate Trump's performance in Chicago, Dr Cox Richardson uncorked one of her best essays today. What is most heart-warming is the paucity of foot-notes, indicating that we behold her substance and what a profoundly passionate, poignantly patriotic substance that is. 🤝
¡Bravò, Dr Cox Richardson! ¡Bravò! ✌🏽
Were I a participant on Truth (sic) Social (sick), I would write: ¡I LOVE PRESIDENT HARRIS! ❤️
Below is a clip of the opening remarks by two Republicans that really touched me, deeply. The citation below that excerpt, snipped from Dr Cox Richardson's inspiring essay, brought me almost to tears. 😇
“'[O]ur campaign is not a fight against something', she said. 'It is a fight for something. It is a fight for the fundamental principles upon which we were founded . . . [W]e are all here together this beautiful afternoon because we love our country . . . .'" ⚖️
Kamala will be Madame President. She dominated the Fox interview and did so well that Baier announced that he will not conduct a debate between Trump and Kamala. Why? Because Kamala does not come to play. She comes with facts, figures, and compassion for the country and her people. I have my sister telling me that we will lose the Senate because Tester’s polls look bad and because of that dipshit, Manchin, West Virginia will elect a Republican. We don’t even have a Dem running in that state. I truly hope this isn’t true. I sure would like to see a clean sweep for both the House and Senate.
I don't know why or where it came from but America, as a country, has always had a sort of dark streak in it's soul. There has always been a segment of our population that has liked & popularized bullies, bullying and cruelty. It occasionally peeps out in our literature and frequently in our culture and sometimes even gets celebrated by some folks. Trump has greeted this dark streak kindly--one could almost say happily--and he is one of those who celebrates it. Cruelty is the point.
If I had to guess, I would say that the emotions triggered by hatred, violence and cruelty are perhaps stronger and more addictive (to those who have an addictive propensity) than the emotions created by love, peace compassion and contentment.
Of course many many different factors combine to influence our natures, so expressing our highest or lowest selves isn't solely the province of emotional triggers...but many people do tend to rely on emotions rather than reason in their daily lives.
And that we--or at least a segment of the population--refuse(s) to own it and teach the history makes sure that it continues to burden the conscience of the nation.
I agree, T L. My own explanation is that, in an effort to whitewash American history, we have pretended “facts” not in evidence. Consider that white Europeans who emigrated to North America weren’t all seeking “religious freedom.” I suspect that many of them were simply oddballs who couldn’t get along with their European neighbors. That was the first thread of the “dark streak.” The streak became deep and wide when these white Europeans confiscated at gunpoint the land from the Native Americans who were the rightful owners for literally thousands of years. Slavery made the streak indelible. Theft, violence and hate of “the other” have been in America’s DNA from the beginning. “Religious freedom” is just the deceptive packaging of the ugly product inside.
Do I hate the U.S.? No. But to borrow from A.A., the only way we can seek a cure for our disease is to admit that we have it.
Please note the number of programs in the media that are both popular and violent. As a watcher of even police dramas from France or Germany they do not stress the violent acts and views of same but finding the criminals who did the deeds. Look at the recent violence in Slow Horses or movies here.
Oh I know. I can point a finger at several shows that are simply disgusting for their enshrinement of violence as the answer to every ill. Gaming, too. So many facets of culture here celebrate our least civilized impulses and tendencies.
Carol, I’ve also been appalled by the percentage of programming that is focused on violence. All Crime All The Time. Three versions of FBI, three more of CSI and Law and Order. Movies, too; that’s where the violence is most gory.
It’s odd that with all the TV shows and movies focused on police, detectives, and forensics viewers don’t seem to have more respect for our police and criminal justice system. Instead there is less respect. Could it be that the occasional but real corrupt police actions magnified by the news media contrast too vividly with the idea of the Good Guys shown onscreen? That doesn’t make sense to me.
The fascist streak has always been bigger than the socialist streak. All the wannabe fascists think that they will be the ones in control. They never see that the system itself tells them that they probably won't be.
Just think of the Nazi lovers in the 30’s. And one could say what is more cruel than lynchings after church on Sunday with Jim Crow. And the beat goes on…
Even back to the days of cowboys and indians, gunman who went around robbing and killing were worshiped as heroes by some. I think our country and many others, have always had that dark streak. Human nature?
Marlene, Thank you for eloquently representing Kamala’s commanding performance and for informing us of Baier announcing he wouldn’t moderate a presidential debate (I wasn’t aware). As for the Senate, I encourage all of us to remember, excluding Manchin and Sinema, we currently have 49 Senate Dems whose seats we need to defend. Admittedly, because we could lose some, we must focus on additional races, wherein our candidates are most competitive. In my view, they include 1) Ruben Gallego (D-AZ); 2) Dan Osborn (I-NE) (As for Dan, I would note, while he has announced he won’t caucus with either party, his win would take out the incumbent Republican); 3) Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (D-FL); 4) Colin Allred (D-TX); 5) Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD).
I would note this list is not exhaustive and would add, that with 20 days until Election Day, my hope is that we’re all laser-focused on phone banking and canvassing, the latter possibly entailing travel to a battleground state closest to home.
Barbara, excellent comments, Don’t forget Lucas Kunce to replace the Repug Josh Hawley. And we need Sherrod Brown in OH and Jon Tester of Montana to hold the Senate.
Pam, Thanks for writing. I would note I didn’t include Brown and Tester because my list was comprised of likely prospects who could help us retain a Senate majority were we to lose any of the 49 seats we currently hold. As for Kunce, regrettably, the last time I checked, he was down by several points.
If the polling data is dominated by Republican-affiliated polls, that might very well affect the numbers we’re seeing for down-ballot races? It’s a strategic ploy by Republicans to create the appearance that Democrats will lose (and perhaps fuel Trumpian claims of election rigging if/when he loses). Also it steers big donors to bet on the winning Republicans.
I think polls are over-rated and emphasize horse-race reporting, to the detriment of deeper analysis. So easy to pre-determine the numbers by the selection process.
I’m totally ignoring polls right now. For my own sanity as well as my disgust with rigging by Rethugs.
If Dan is elected but refuses to caucus with the Ds or Rs he may be limiting his long-term success in the Senate given the way committee assignments are doled out.
MisTBlu, In my view, Dan, whose policy positions, btw, seem more closely aligned with Democrats, despite not being given committee assignments, would be mighty relevant in the chamber as each party vied for what could be the tie-breaking vote.
Yes, he would be important in a head count. But if he plans on serving more than one term in the Senate he'd be limiting his options as those who don't caucus don't get the juicy assignments.
Angus King (I-ME) said the same thing when he first ran for the Senate. He has caucused with the Dems since then. He is up for reelection and hasn't received a penny from the Democrats.
Meanwhile, Elon Musk is donating to House candidates giving millions. This includes in ME-2 where a 30 year old ex-Nascar driver is running against Jared Golden.
He said he supports women's reproductive care, but if he wins we all know how he will vote.
To me, his caucusing with the Dens is more about his career than alignment with the party. You say they haven't given him any money. Has he raised funds them or campaigned for Dem candidates? Those are generally the actions that are expected of those who want support from the party.
I contribute monthly to each of these and Kunce, Slotkin, Tester and Brown. There are some House seats also on my list. It's a stretch, but it makes me feel good. From now on, it's only one month to go.
Thanks for mentioning Alsobrrooks here in Maryland. We've had quite enough of Hogan. On his head are the no money for the bridge bumpers that might have saved the Key Bridge and yes man to Trump despite his supposed no Trump attitude.
Barbara Jo......or just stay at home and support for us Floridians!
Debbie Mucarsel- Powell has just come out with the best ad against the cadaverous Rick Scott....it follows a big, slithering python with Scott's face on it! At the end she says" he has squeezed us enough. Time to elect a Senator with a spine!"
well, now I have to go make a donation to Tester! I've never before contributed to so many out of state candidates -- we have to do all we can to move past the Trumpster Dumpster fire.
There is one more Senate seat that we should be able to flip. If you can, donate to Democrat Katrina Christiansen who is running to unseat Republican Senator Kevin Cramer (the author of the national abortion ban legislation) in North Dakota.
Me too, I have been donating monthly to Senate races none of which are here in GA. If I support Kamala why wouldn’t I want her to have a senate that will work with her, it seems a no-brainer. Don’t forget Texas we can get rid of Cancun Cruise and wouldn’t that be sweet.
Everyone seems to agree that the Senate is a tough map for the Dems this year. And Tester is behind (by about 7) if the polls are correct. Colin Allred does have a shot at flipping Texas and Debbie Muscarel-Powell may also have a shot at flipping Florida. Damn near every race looks to be tight as tick. We just have to hope that enough Americans in enough of the right places see through the cynical, hateful lies and disinformation of Trump and other right wing media liars.
Marlene, the down-ballot races are the ones I am really sweating bullets about. Dems are notoriously bad about pushing against the Christo-fascist Rethuglican takeover of local political institutions. I read that two-thirds of local election seats are UNOPPOSED, and the majority of those, I would suggest, are currently held by the anti-Democratic side. If the Dems don't prosecute every single damned political position, and if Dems, who are notoriously lazy about voting (consistently under 50% of registered Dems actually turn out and vote), don't go to the polls, we are sunk. We need all hands on deck. We. Have. To. Bury. Them. A squeaker is NOT an option. But Dems are uninterested unless there is an existential threat--and even then, they think only of the federal elections and not the local ones. I am hopeful (to some extent) about keeping control of the White House this year but very very worried about Congress. And that means I might be looking at flats in Wales for me and my standard poodle come January.
There are a couple of Senate candidates that are leading the Republican incumbent--in NE and FL And Ted Cruz, who is highly unpopular looked the fool in his debate with Colin Allred.
Jon Tester may be in trouble and Sherrod Brown too, but all of these races are too close to call.
I'm really surprised Fox didn't cut away as Kamala let loose... No minute-long beep, no changing the picture to a video of a cheering Trump crowd... I'm really, really surprised.
Well Marlene, it would appear that 'the advertisers' helping to fund Faux are increasingly finding #45 to be bad juju for product sales. Hence we see FNB serving notice to the (R)ss-hole party regarding some adjustments necessary to appeal to a more discriminating listening audience. $$$'s talk. That would include my neighbor across the street with his 'big screen' visible thru his living room window so everyone can see Faux News from the street. Whew!!
Agreed, i think there may be a few slim chances in that tight lineup. I think Manchin was a strange energy support bastion in that ruby red state. To think he was musing running for President for a bit back there...
Sadly it is true. As you noted there is no Dem running on WV as it is considered a waste of political capital. WV hasn't elected a statewide Dem except Manchin in something like 40+ years and had the highest margin for Trump in 2020. Manchin was always a total anomaly and it was a disaster to "write him off" because it was known to be a guaranteed assignment of another Senate seat to a Republican. And Tester is down by 8+points, in Montana, a state he has narrowly won twice before but never in an election where Trump was on the ballot.
We are virtually certain to lose the Senate so we'd better take whatever tranquilizers we need to prepare and move on to making absolutely sure we can take the White House and the House of Reps.
Regarding Washington crossing the Delaware, since my sixth great grandfather Isaac Cleaver of the Pennsylvania Volunteer Militia was one of those in the boats, I'd like to point out a few necessary corrections and additions to the account here.
The event came at the lowest point in the Revolution. The British had taken New York and chased the revolutionaries out; they were a ragged lot hiding in the woods while the majority of them "left early" (a polite way of saying "deserted" - their enlistments were up on New Year's Day). There were maybe as many as 2,000 left.
Before they made the crossing, their (elected) officers read to them Tom Paine's "The American Crisis" ("These are the times that try men's souls.... ") which Paine had written for them at General Washington's request. That's why there's all the explanation in the following paragraphs about the whys and wherefores of the past six months.
The "British garrison" was actually the main base of the Hessians, German mercenaries Britain had brought over to terrorize the colonists. The Americans lay in the snow in the woods listening to the Hessians singing Christmas Carols and then at dawn took the hung-over mercenaries and captured them all.
Because the Hessians were so hated, their defeat was a Very Big Deal among the colonists, and the event revived a Revolution that the night before had been close to sputtering out.
Well done, TC. I suspect few Americans realize just how near run a thing the Revolutionary War was in the aftermath of the defeats on Long Island and New York. That tattered band hiding in the woods was all that was left.
Growing up in Morristown, NJ, around the corner from Washington’s Headquarters, I learned this history early on. Thanks for reminding us of this crucial battle.
I must add perspective to that Kamala Harris moment at the Delaware River crossing site. Her vision and articulation of values are as powerful as were Paine’s and Washington. She understands and identifies America’s problems and obviously is far more capable of resolution than Trump ever could.
But most important Kamala herself stands as a powerful patriot who is the right person at the right time to summon the strengths of the Rule of Law to bring America together. Her time is now and we must ensure it happens.
Spot on. And captured in “The Crossing” 2000,, if you care to show a child the history of that turning point in our history. Vice President Harris is trying to lead that same crossing. Hopefully, the enemy will be once again asleep.
This election must be even more special for you given your family history TC.
Harris seems so much more intelligent and moderate than her opponent. She completes sentences and ideas. She looks for middle ground and ways to unite us. She doesn’t make empty threats. Why anyone would want 4 more years of division and strife is beyond comprehension.
And why in Heaven's name do the mandarins in the Fox "News" Room want to drag our country down? Bret Baier's disrespectful style of questioning of our sitting VP, and his disrespect of truth, should disqualify him from the airwaves. I'd certainly applaud him being shunned in the next Harris Administration.
Obviously one reason only... $$$$$. Fox News dominated the TV press for from 2016 to 2021. They want to have all that money again. Murdoch doesn't care about truth or even ideology, just $$$$$.
Not likely. I THINK he might be a citizen now but he certainly has a green card. You can't deport someone because you don't like their politics. They have to commit some kind of serious crime to justify that action.
Phil, to answer "why anyone would want 4 more years of division and strife?" one need only look in the direction of those with mega-money who want to continue to avoid taxes and those who seek to be free of government regulation and those who seek a "more Christian Nation" or illiberal democracy or foreign adversaries like Russia or China or even North Korea to begin to see just who might benefit from "4 more years of division and strife."
It’s high time to take the gloves off, and by god, Kamala did it!
Now go after J. D. Vance the same way. He’s their boy now. Someone needs to look into the ties between Opus Dei and his backers, the Project 2025 architects, who bankrolled his campaign.
Pope Francis just went after Opus Dei, and J. D. became an ultra-Right Roman Catholic convert in 2019. There’s something fishy in all this.
I am a Catholic who has no use for Opus Dei and these other cults of personality in my church. Opus Dei got John Paul II to recognize them because OD bailed the Vatican out financially, and in return, they received the status of a personal prelature and JosemarÍa Escrivá, who was a most unsaintly man (he was a Boss from Hell,) was canonized as a saint and the Vatican ignored the many people who were prepared to testify as to Escrivá’s nasty, petty and cruel behavior. I don’t regard him as a saint.
Gareth Gore recently published the book “Opus,” which discusses a lot of Opus Dei’s history and financial dealings, and he discusses some of Opus Dei’s influence in American politics. Personally, I wish they would butt out. No one asked them to butt in.
Power hungry cretins need no invitation. Religion is made to order for shysters, charlatans, and carnival barkers. Also for snakes and other slime. Also for abusers of every stripe. Ask Gateway Church in Dallas. I think they have had a recent name change though.
Lust for Absolute Power is under that. The claim of absolute supremacy, religious, racial, national, whatever, is the rationale for runaway narcissism. It's a tragic flaw in human nature that manipulators exploit, around the world and across history.
Wish Kamala would skewerJD and leave him sputtering. He is a smooth traitorous bastard that needs a lesson or two. Tim doesn’t have that killer instinct that she has.
In talking to a friend about Vance yesterday, I described him as empty and my friend added that he puts off a dark energy. I got a bit of a chill because that nails it. There’s a dark energy around him that makes him more dangerous than DJT.
Herb Klinker, please provide more about Pope Francis “ just went after Opus Dei”. I consider two things to be “work of GOD” and beyond my input:
The man and woman who begat me…
The place on this planet where it happened…
Beyond those two facts, I am no different from my “red and yellow, black, and white” 🎶 they are precious in HIS sight from “Jesus Loves Me”…the Sunday school song I sang as a child. The cult of exceptionalism that I understand Opus Dei to represent is scary stuff! I want to know more about Pope Francis’ opinion on this.
Alongside the religious right wing, the Tech Bros want to be in charge of everything. We just need to get over our worries about dictatorship. A CEO, not an elected government. JD Vance, Peter Thiel, and others get ideas from Curtis Yarvin, who favors a “techno-monarchy.”
To combat climate change, some in Big Tech say we don’t need to use our current options now, because they will come up with something much better. (And they will be the heroes.) Don’t get into that lifeboat now, a much better lifeboat is on the drawing board.
What I find so powerful about HCR’s letter today is her focus on Harris’s outstanding framing of what is at stake. In my fixation on the news in the past couple of days it seems like all the media oxygen is being pumped into Trump’s astounding self immolation at the town hall and his troubling contemporaneous interviews. Even the late night hosts are guilty of covering the, admittedly, mock worthy Trump disassembling. But there is just not enough coverage out there of the Harris and Walz masterful campaign and interview counter narrative.
Yes - the media still - STILL - hasn't figured out how to cover Trump, or actually, how to cover Harris! She is doing astounding things - she's still only been the candidate for less than THREE MONTHS! yet she is criticized for every single tiny "mistake" she makes or decisions to do (or not do) whatever it is the media THINKS she should be doing..
Trump, on the other hand, continues to be "sane-washed" by the media - his town hall dance party was decribed by the AP as "turned into a concert" or something like that. The NYT wasn't much better.
As I noted I love the guardian too but can you HONESTLY say that it is balanced? It is a strongly left wing newspaper and wears its biases quite proudly. I read it because it emphasizes the view points I personally hold but I would never mistake it for "balanced". No more balanced IMHO than Fox News (just the completely opposite bias).
I think the Guardian was even better in the days of Bush II, but I subscribe and appreciate their coverage. The are my chief daily paper. They were way ahead of pack in the "W" Iraq War.
Balanced? LOL I love the guardian but it is NOT in any way balanced. It is a highly liberal left wing publication and if you think their articles are balanced, you have really drunk the left wing lol koolaid! The NYT is really the only newspaper I trust for balanced coverage any more.
I am fine if you like the Guardian (I love it and read it pretty religiously) but let's not put it on a pedestal where it doesn't belong.
Agree totally! So pathetic to see the weakness of certain networks that seem afraid to openly criticise Trump - perhaps because of his threats of closing down, attacking media that isn't loyal to him. Insane what American people are willing to believe and not understand the danger trump would mean not only for Americans and America but also for our allies.
It’s true: “A woman has to be twice as good as a man to get half as far.” Fannie Hurst at the 1945 National Conference of Women.
In this case, Harris is ten times better than her cruel, lying, demented criminal opponent. I wish someone could convince me that if Harris loses it is not because of misogyny and racism.
Sarah Longwell did a focus group with former Trump voters who were “undecided.” One woman said she would have to do “more research” on Harris. Longwell asked what concern she needed to “research” and the woman said she had heard Harris “slept her way to the top.” I nearly cried.
This has been a lifelong frustration for me…now, far worse than being a Red Sox fan. My vexation had been tempered in the past by a sense that you shouldn’t meet a bully on their own terms; Michelle Obama’s when they go low we go high. (Also I am by temperament a person who shies away from direct confrontation…too many older siblings🙃.) But THIS moment is like no other. I really felt like Harris was strongly pushing back against His condescending body language and outright distortion in her Fox interview yesterday. Now she will be characterized as ‘contentious’ (both today’s NYT and WaPo) and strident with an undertow meaning of unladylike. Perhaps ‘feisty,’ arghhh.
Shinier anyway, like a sparkling lure used to catch a fish. Entertainment alone can't guide wise choices (and by entertainment, I mean mere diversion. Even fiction, consider "1984", or "McBeth", can pack a clarifying wallop. Even abstract art can stimulate thought). (That said my guilty pleasure is escapist murder mysteries).
At least since Reagan, the media has emphasized a leader's media stage presence over competence, accomplishments, integrity, or character. But that how we got four years of Trump. Maybe more.
Chump would have been thrown off any other stage. What a loser. I am fond of murder mysteries also. Murdoch and Brokenwood Mysteries my favs.
Murdoch deals with turn of the century history (in a way) and Brokenwood just makes me laugh out loud, in unexpected ways. Check them out…much better than chump
She's also a great example of how well people might do when given an occasion to rise to! Many people have strengths that are rarely seen, a sad reality that I hope to see change in an opportunity economy.
I truly have to believe that the polls are wrong and almost half the country doesn’t really support the fascist, demented lunatic. The ones who do understand that the United States will cease to exist as a democracy and still plan to vote Republican in this election are the really scary people in this country. The orange guy will ultimately fade, but who will carry on those unAmerican ideas, and will they ultimately succeed? Questions that literally keep me up at night.
Funny we rely on English, Abby, and so call them people.
They're not. They are cultists: Vance, Thiel, Musk, Clarence, Alito, Mike Johnson, Marjorie Taylor G., Boebert, the three newest clones to the Clarence court, Putin, Orban, Netanyahu, Modi, etc. Zero humanities among them. Cultists all.
Truth is a human thing. It's personal. Always wrapped in layers of complications, always fraught with individual pain.
Kamala and Tim see the human. Defend a nation under law as safeguarding humanity -- in the same proportion that medieval Clarence court rules one convicted criminal as above the law.
So Phil, how do you reconcile Biden's support of Thomas' nomination to the Supreme Court and his denigration of Anita Hill and her charges of sexual assault? People still give him (Biden) a pass on this which I refuse to do. It's not that far in the rear view mirror and will probably haunt us for years to come even when Biden is long gone.
Hopefully there are plenty of people who fear openly admitting that they want and will vote for Kamala due to Trump's threats to all those who aren't loyal to him. He is truly unfit for the presidency!!
We get saddled with losers by the patently undemocratic "Electoral College", but beyond that I think our society inadequately explains the self-governance responsibilities voting entails. We are making choices that affect others, sometimes profoundly, and social justice demands that we weigh our preferences in a context of the common weal. Those who say "I won't vote for the clearly better candidate because of a position on this or that single issue, even when that issue merits far more recognition, abandon their opportunity, and yes, responsibility, to at least not lose ground. I have held my nose often.
I think that our society insufficiently encourages "long chain" thinking, in which the comprehension of context may be just as important as the action or issue. Lacking a long term strategy, we may win a battle, yet lose the war.
MAJOR CRISIS FOR WASHINGTON’S CONSTITUTIONAL DEMOCRACY
I found it fitting that Kamala, with about 100 prominent Republicans who are supporting her, gathered at Washington Crossing to dedicate themselves to working together to preserve the United States of America that had so valiantly been created by General & President Washington.
Washington, before Christmas, 1776, was in dire straits. His volunteer army had dwindled to a few thousand, most of whose enlistments expired at the end of December. His troops were ill-feed and badly armed and had been retreating during the full year.
Counseled by some to surrender and to abandon the American revolution, instead Washington chose an audacious Hail Mary. He would somehow cross the icy Delaware River at night and attack over 1,000 Hessian soldiers—the same highly trained troops that had massacred hundreds of his soldiers in Brooklyn.
This he accomplished without the loss of a single soldier. His troops killed some Hessians and captured 900, together with vital food and armaments.
We are at another major crisis in our country’s history. George Washington had presided over the Constitutional Convention at which, through secret discussions and unimaginable compromises, the failing Articles of Confederation was transformed into the Constitution of the United States of America.
A governing key was checks and balances where the Executive, Legislature, and Judiciary checked one another. Also, in the first 10 Amendments, the rights of citizens and states within a federal system were spelled out.
This constitutional government is now at stake in the 2024 presidential election. Trump, when president, trashed the Constitution and engaged in an unprecedented attack on the Capitol Building in which over 140 security personnel were killed or wounded.
He and Senator McConnell were responsible for unprecedented shenanigans that have transformed the Supreme Court to the Stench court.
Trump has made clear, were he to return to the White House, that he would use the Justice Department to seek revenge against his ‘political enemies’ and, when necessary, employ the military to pursue his political whims.
I salute Kamala Harris and the stalwart Republicans who gathered at Washington Crossing to rededicate themselves to what General/President Washington had created.
The electoral fight this year is against the ‘enemy within’—a phrase used by Trump against his political opponents but which, in actuality, describes him and his MAGATS.
Less than three weeks remain in this fight to preserve the country that Washington created.
FIGHT FIERCELY IN THE COMING DAYS SO THAT WE CAN CELEBRATE A VICTORY FOR GEORGE WASHINGTON, FOUNDER OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
Keith, just back from the rabbit hole as the phrase “The Enemy Within” rang bells. I was thinking of Pulitzer Prize winner “The Internal Enemy”, by Alan Taylor that I read years ago and thoroughly enjoyed, but a search on Amazon for “The Enemy Within” turned up numerous titles attacking anything not mainstream, including a RFK (the real one) exposé of Labor. Also liberals, witches, atheists, blah blah blah. I wonder who inserted these bon mots into Trump’s speeches. Smells of Steven Miller.
We need a greater exposé of Steven Miller. A graduate of Duke University he seems to be focused on hatred instead of the liberal arts education universities used to provide.
I once wrote Nancy MacClean, Professor of History at Duke (confession: I am a UNC-CH graduate), author of “Democracy in Chains,” asking whether the university would rescind Miller’s degree, but she thought not. After all, Duke was founded with tobacco money.
The Harris speech at the Washington crossing the Delaware site was awe inspiring. If you haven't please watch it. Stop for a moment doom scrolling and overfocusing on crazy and watch her speech. VP Harris' eloquence is uplifting and also realistic. It is fuel for the last few days of this election.
What is left to weigh? Where is there any equivalence?
I understand the die-hard MAGA voters, having drunk the Kool-Ade, can't change their collective mind, and admit they were taken in by the best con man this country ever produced. I don't like it, but I understand. It's not easy admitting you've been hustled.
But undecided? At this point? How can you be a sentient human being, functioning in the modern world, and still be unable to decide between the very distinct political choices we face?
I drives me nuts thinking the fate of the nation might hang on some dope flipping a coin on Nov. 5.
I saw a clip of her exchange with Brett. She chewed him up. I was so proud of her—you can hear the passion she has for democracy in her voice. The same passion that should be expressed by all Americans.
Kamala Harris showed the world that she has the guts to call out lies and hypocrisy directly! She simply outclassed Bret! At the same time she further exposed Trump for what he really is, a demagogue who is afraid to do legitimate interviews or to debate!
Good Heather today gets Kamala's triumph over at Fox. But we're still in suspense. Cultism yet rules.
Anand Giridharadas has been speaking in mainstream media on how to get so many back -- on the tens of millions who got their jobs offshored to feel since grievously abandoned, neglected, unheard.
Here's from his latest, today:
"If you want people to believe again, especially the people who are right now still on the fence, you need to tell them a story that not only persuades them but all but rewires their brain. You need to help them make new meaning of what they have seen and heard and felt."
Notice when he says, "tell them a story." He could cite novels, films, songs. But he cannot do that.
The reason isn’t simply how schools dehumanized, all replaced by the conceits of standardized testing. There’s another difficulty. That’s the fact that there’s something more than just citing some novel (say Barbara Kingsolver’s “Demon Copperhead”) and applying it to some U.S. sore spot (say MAGA militia hunting F.E.M.A. aid workers in hurricane-hit mountain North Carolina). The difficult part is that to do that, we need to draw upon something personal in ourselves to make the connection urgently human.
Personal? Right now we’ve a few million women (and their loved ones) more than piqued by medievalists taking away their personal rights. A few more million black women perfectly aware of MAGA racism.
Others in America who can draw on the personal, even if apart from humanities no one can use?
Robin, I do that with my former work cohort; I'm a lesbian, out from the get-go at work, who just celebrated 40 years with my wife (legally married in 2008 in honor of our 25th anniversary). When I communicated my fears that my lawful marriage is at risk of being overturned, they all said "don't worry, it is settled case law". After Roe was overturned, and I communicated my fears, they said nothing. Well, except the one guy, who in response to my comment regarding the next three cases that were in their sights (based on Injustice Thomas's concurring opinion in Dobbs which for some strange reason did not target Loving v. Virginia) tried to explain how the legal reasoning for all those cases was wrong and it had NOTHING TO DO with contraception, gay sex, or gay marriage.
- Pulled Quote -
''Writer Peter Wehner, who worked for presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush, wrote: “Bret Baier has rarely looked as bad (or tendentious) as he did in his interview with Kamala Harris. On the flip side, this was one of her best interviews. She dominated Bret. All in all it was quite a bad day for MAGA world's most important media outlet.”''
Democracy wins in November!
I saw the clip...she was on fire and brilliant...Bret looked like a deer in the headlights. The conversations around Fox after that session should have been rich.
I watched it - with satisfaction. Nothing unsure - or ingratiating - about that leader.
Kam was on fire yesterday; she was brilliant smashing through the Faux News maga Agit-Prop after uniting with truly bi-partisan citizens not just Liz near Philadelphia.
That was a memorable American-to-the core campaign day for Kamala Harris! In a word: "Presidential".
She was truly herself. So good to watch.
In exchanges with two high school buddies yesterday (Class of 1958) I learned that they can't handle the truth about Donald Trump. One is an atheist and one a Southern Baptist and both are MAGA. Is is impossible to question them about anything to do with Trump. They are committed to Trump, one of the most flawed humans ever to walk the stage of American politics.
Pitiful, isn't it?
Bizarre. Terrifying. We have a huge population of brain washed citizens who think up is down.
One's an atheist, huh? Wow ... he's figured out the specious nature of religion, one would think he could see through the demagoguery of a despicable human being.
Half of my family are MAGA. They live in rural North Carolina. They have 8th grade educations, live off social security and don't pay taxes. They buy new cars every year on credit, generally wreck it in some road rage incident and wave that TRUMP flag proudly over the roof of a house that my husband and I purchased for them to live in. They are truly simple minded and brain-washed. P.S. They aren't even church going folks and aren't looking at Donald Trump to save them but be like them. In many ways (narcissism included), they are a perfect match. Very frustrating.
You can't fix stupid!
You must utilize social psychology to understand this. That ole blame game that white people are privileged and to blame and folks are peed off trust me on this.
Wonder if they truly feel that way or are just 1. Fearful of saying anything derogatory about him because he is a person of retribution or 2. That would mean admitting they wear duped and wrong about him. You will never really know if behind the curtain of the secret ballot if they vote otherwise. Let’s hope they do.
I doubt that an atheist could support a tRump. Just a thought - MHO.
I suggest we begin flooding Fox News stories with our pro Harris comments. I do every day and so do other.
A fine idea!
How nice it would be if we could do the same on truth social! Too bad you have to become a member.
👏 yes Kamala
I was initially skeptical of Kamala Harris. I thought she was vein, self-serving and not very in depth thinker. I was wrong. It’s not the first time I misjudged someone. My gut tells me know ( hoping I’m not wrong) that she will be a transformative president. She will understand the need to bring us back to the center and if I were to spell it out, my critics here would disparage me. And you know who you are, lol. I know you swore not to respond and that’s cool. We are all on the same side, don’t forget.
Bill, speaking as one of your occasional critics and one who has stated that I'll no longer engage with you, well, here I am. I'm glad we agree on Kamala Harris. However, we will likely never agree on what the "center" is. I choose to believe it's what any issue a majority of Americans support (climate change, taxation, women's rights, LGBTQ+, gun control, Ukraine, education, democracy, immigration vs the need for border security, etc. etc.) These are all issues that a majority of the American public sides with Harris and the Democratic Party. That, to me, constitutes the "center". You and I have had this discussion before, and I'll say no more about it nor will likely respond to your reply, but I'm curious to hear how you (or truly any other reader here) would define the "center".
Doug, as Americans become more enlightened, (civil rights, women’s rights, environment) I believe “the center” is fluid. That’s really the issue, conservatives holding ego-centric values sense that they’re on the wrong side of history and they don’t like the shift
The world has shifted quite a bit since the Dark Ages and the Medieval Lord ancestors are still railing about it
Labels like “center” actually masks individual issues. They’re kinda like polls
Dave, conservative is not a viable descriptor for MAGA. They are far right radicals who are also cultists and are backing a fascist monster. I consider my next door neighbor, a former R pol, to be conservative. He has two Harris/Walz signs in his yard and another for a local D pol. He also has one for a R who we consider smarmy, but OK. He is registered as an I and he can't stand death star and his minions. The behavior of the people at the top has not shifted much at all throughout history. They usually have been concerned about power and wealth in nearly all places and times. And they have used the peons, the hoipolloi, the peasants, the serfs, the slaves, the immigrants, and the poor to serve them. That is the reason that they wanted sons and complete control of women as male members of the family were everything. I doubt all those R women in GA know how late women have been able to vote, to get credit cards, to have control of their children, etc. I bet most, if not all of them are against abortion. Personally, I do not understand how any woman can vote for that creep.
Excellent point. If we can get back to where "the center" was in, say, the early '60s, only with people of color and women of all colors included this time, we can start moving forward again.
That's why I define the center as the majority, Dave, using the bell curve as a model. There will always be 15% at each extreme end, and the big 70% lump is in the middle. I would guess that the feudalists today are at one of the extreme ends, and the woke idealists at the other.
I agree, Dave.
"Back to the center"? The gutless "center" helped get us into this mess. Denying the urgency of climate change, calling anyone who called for economic justice "far left" . . . Thanks to the "center," the country kept sliding farther and farther to the right, to the point where fascism really is on the ballot and we've barely started to deal with climate change (which we knew plenty about several decades ago).
I don't think the center is as you describe it, Susanna. In all the statistical analysis I've seen, the majority of Americans support economic justice, renewable energy, female autonomy, and everyone's right to love as they will. I think the slide to the right has occurred because of corrupt politicians who put their pockets and/or power over the will of their constituents.
I can't agree that "the centre" is solely responsible for the slide into fascism. The centre to me is the place of common decency, of judicious thought but also of knowing the value of truth and honour. That includes centre right as well as centre left. It's also the place of moderation. My late sainted mother the minister's wife used to say she was "extremely moderate". To me a centrist can see the honest arguement of both sides.
Trumpism is just whack a doodle narcissism and is not a political view but a psychiatric condition.
Insights, knowledge and understanding grow with experience and time, certainties get chipped away by the tools we bring to our struggles for truth. The centre is not a battleground, it’s a process rooted in goodwill and humility, even humour, in the service of the common good and the overriding desire to do no harm.
I like your phrase, "certainties get chipped away," RJ. I believe that critical thought is enabled by a flexible mentality, that new discoveries bring shifts of opinion. I equate what I call critical thought with what you call "...process rooted in goodwill..."
RJ, so to distill that, it's “live and let live”, or do I misinterpret you? (I happen to like that philosophy, although there is a point at which it can become extreme.)
I believe that everything you list here is the center: let people be who they want to be. Target danger in our society, like weapons used to kill masses of innocent children and others. Keep your guns to protect your home and to hunt. Just a few ‘for instances.’
Jennifer: indeed. Treat *every* person the same. Allow all to be free to be who they want to be, with few necessary limitations dealing with protections of individual rights to live safely and happily (to the greatest extent possible); the common good, etc.
And this is *not* Libertarian thinking, as I see the news to protect members of society from those who would threaten us either passively or not -- your comment suggesting reasonable gun control comes to mind.
"Bill, speaking as one of your occasional critics and one who has stated that I'll no longer engage with you, well, here I am." Doug, I salute you for being a big man.
Gosh Ned, I believe you're overstating things!
If we look at any bell curve, Doug, by definition the majority=the center. I, too, often disagree with Bill. In many ways the Harris campaign stands for our ability as a nation to agree on broad issues and sustain diverse opinions on causality and solutions. I locate my disagreements with Bill in that space.
I like your definition! But I think others would define it as being much farther right of these issues which are dear to us.
Doug,
Sometimes the “center” is Truely undefinable. And sometimes it’s not even issues. Because of so much diverse literature on race for example, and I believe this is the great unspoken and non-discussed argument, those of us who are Caucasian are often so sick and tired of being called privileged. I know I am and yet, it doesn’t move me needle to the right. But with many, it does. So I say stop the blame game. It only serves those who wish to cause an ugly backlash.
Again, a matter of perspectives on issues instead of “center.” The Ukraine Russian war never needed to be fought. This war shou,d be called the Joe Biden War because he didn’t state emphatically no NATO to Ukraine. Ukraine was never a good candidate for NATO in the first place and this of course, can be argued. Half of the country the eastern half was a good deal Russian anyway. But American leaders often forget how quick we are to encourage war of actually invade. We never learn. So this is a “center” issue but one nevertheless important.
I have thought of and read some on the topic of urban inequality. That poverty remains through generations. No matter how much government helps so I need to ask why. I’m reminded of a conversation I witness as a freshman high school student in an urban high school. Our your homeroom teacher had recently given birth without the help of a partner. This she revealed and she engaged a 14 or 15 year old Black girl in class in a discussion about motherhood. The girl had recently also given birth. Communities cannot thrive when today (written in a Black journal) up to 72% of Black children are born out of wedlock. Poverty and all that accompanies it will continue for hundreds of years until family planning is ingrained in the community. I expressed this one in my writing and I was thoroughly trashed so I generally don’t go there anymore. And so the natural response is how dare I tell a Black girl what she should and shouldn’t do with her body. And I agree I don’t. This issue is for Black leadership to address not I.
My issues are less center but more talking points that should be considered by democratic leaders. Or we are setting ourselves up for a future less bright even if we emerge from this one with the greatest political monster ever to walk to the stage.
"The Ukraine Russian war never needed to be fought"?! Tell that to Putin, who is fully responsible.
I’ll go with your center, particularly climate change. Unfortunately too many are incapable, for a variety of excuses, to accept the reality.
To your beliefs that Kamala was vain, self-serving, and not a very in-depth thinker, I will say that I have a friend whose cousin has been good friends with Kamala for a while. And she has said that everytime you speak to Kamala, she is sincerely focused on YOU and your feelings and thoughts. She is not vain, or self-serving, and she is certainly not a shallow thinker.
I've seen her respond to people who have expressed loss and sorrow, and her reaction is real, not fake like someone else we know.
I'm glad you realize you misjudged.🙂
As a conservative by temperament, I greeted Vice President Harris with skepticism as a plodder, career politician, and a smug lib. I was dead-wrong, too. Thank you, Bill, for being a big man; you inspire me.
OK Bill. I hear ya.
Anyone who knew she braved the winter storms of Montreal, Quebec to get to high school.......took in an abused friend to live..........made Kavenaugh look like a drooling baby during the cross........knew long ago that Kamala is an American hero in waiting.........now is her time to shine bright
Mike, Kamala is always "on fire and brilliant" in my opinion.
How anyone thought that Trump would "win" the debate against her is just funny to me.
Trump calls her dumb, slow, of low IQ. What??
I knew she would rip him apart at the debate.
Her words in Pennsylvania yesterday reminded me somewhat of Lincoln's words and sentiments.
Such disrespect for her abounds.
People around me still refuse to pronounce her name correctly. When I remind them what it is, they either laugh or repeat their incorrect pronunciation with jeering voice and expressions.
Thank goodness there are decent people across our nation to counter the insanity of Trump and HIS Republican party.
May there be enough of these decent folks to save us from the vileness and danger of another Trump
“Trump calls her dumb, slow, of low IQ. What??”
- Projection. Projection. Projection. What he has done all his life (and what seems to be the basis of most of the GOP leadership at this point).
The vileness and danger of another Trump AND idiots who bow to him.
Pam, while I agree with your sentiments, the mispronunciation of Kamala's name doesn't bother me, and I doubt it bothers her, because pretty soon they'll be addressing her as "Madame President" or "President Harris".
I believe that our side does the same by calling the convicted felon (see?) "DonOld" or other such things. And I have no problem with that, either 😉.
But women candidates are often referred to on a first-name basis, far more than men. It's disrespectful.
Ellen, I'm not so sure I agree. I've always thought using someone's first name suggests familiarity or informality, and calling someone by their last name (unless an athlete, or long-decwqawd person, etc.r) is disrespectful unless preceded by Mr, Mrs., Ms. or Miss (or the like.) However, in this case I think the objective is disrespect, as her first name is uncommon, hence easy to make fun of.
"pretty soon they'll be addressing her as "Madame President" or "President Harris".
Uh, no. These kind of people will call her President Kamala and continue to mispronounce it.
MAGA=Misogyny and Racism
Perhaps, Diane. But I know I have disrespected the last several Rep presidents in one way or another., whether by name or adjective.
But are you in government? A public speaker?
As a woman in medicine, I have very often been called by my first name, by mostly men, when they refer to male Drs as Dr Last Name. It's pervasive in our culture & the more we call it out, the fewer people will feel free to disrespect women.
My personal issue is that I know three "KAM-a-la" people. It is hard to translate for me sometimes. I mean no disrespect, and know what it is like to have an uncommon first name that is spelled differently that 99% of the other "Allison"'s.
The best ad I saw was a picture of a comma followed by LA. That image fixes it: , + LA
I saw one that had a music staff with a breath mark (looks like a comma) and in the key of C had an "F" half note in the staff. (reference: solfège, or as Maria would say: Do, a deer, a female deer, etc.)
I love that❣️ Grew up playing classical music and hadn't thought of that one.
Thanks to Ally (of whom I think as “ally”) and Trevy for the fun. “The Sound of Music” like the revival of “Our Town” gives us a bit of the unbearable lightness of being to survive the next few(?) months.
They're not used to having guests on who challenge their story
THAT'S about the size of it! Fox is a propaganda network.
And then there's the Murdoch owned Sky News Australia. A big investment in
disinformation about Democrats in general and Harris in particular.
I thought the Rupert offspring that runs the Australia network was more honest than Lachlan. Not so, it seems…
Yep. I delete it, day after day.
just unsubscribe!
From day one, I watched at a bff’s house where it was on literally 24/7. I was shocked and they were entranced.
JDH, one of our local radio stations (back in the day when we had them) was an AM station that broadcast the U of O men's sports and had originally (at least as I knew it in the 70's) played pop music. When the department finally started letting am/fm radios in the patrol cars (early 90's; it was too expensive to "special order" them without commercial radios) I was working nights, and listened to a lot of talk radio; Art Bell to be precise. I had the opportunity to tune in early one evening (I was on overtime) and I heard a news broadcast that ended with "We report, you decide". As I listened a few more times, I realized this was the station that broadcast Rush Limbaugh during the day, and Fox was its "news" carrier. What utter garbage. At least I knew Art Bell was a wing nut... and very entertaining as I patrolled the empty roadways of Lane County.
I have to admit I stayed in a really bad marriage as I listened to “Dr. Laura” everyday on the way to work. That repeated drumbeat can take a toll.
Yep, am radio was noted for being nut crazy. One b-I-l was always complaining about it and the other one was always quoting Rush. It was vicious toward Dems with the “libtard” crap. I just called it fringe and ignored. So many found a home.
Trevy they do get push back, but hers was so right on target, indignant and so well focused it was a pleasure to watch. Bret did a stupid thing by playing a much edited clip that she was familiar with to respond to. He set himself up and found out who this woman is. Fox has been editing to their agenda for years...playing the "wag the dog" game....and they got called out big time...this mistake will haunt them.
And it's long overdue
But with who? It certainly won't harm them with their loyal base who love Trump. And elsewhere, who matters? Are there really any undecideds who might go "Harris" as a result? I doubt it. So I really fail to see how their idiocies will actually "haunt" them in any way, sigh.
No. This was all pre-arranged by Harris&Waltz, and part of their agreement with FNB, who stood to make millions from Harris being on their screen. FNB shareholders aren't dumb. Harris&Waltz told them to "take it or leave it". FNB seeing $$ signs agreed to their terms. "Bret" is a paid employee of FNB, he had his marching orders. He's getting abonus.. for throwing himself under the bus. Faux is not owned by numb-skull#45. He's just a tool for FNB,and he's getting 'duller-by-the-minute! IMHO.
I believe Pete B has also been on the network (?)
Regularly, Pete takes them down.
C'mon Trevy.., no way that was some impromptu getogether. The Harris/Waltz team spelled it out the "rules" for Faux noose, or Faux WOULD NOT get to make a whole-helluva-lot of money hosting it. And you better bet Faux saw the $$$'s jingling into their coffers from all the dedicated Faux noose fans with their pre-programed TV sets. No doubt (in my military-mind) that FNB made money, but I'll bet Harris/Waltz didn't fork over a dime. Numb-skull #45.., is becoming bad juju for FNB advertisers.
Well Trevy absolutely:-) Kamala out foxed Fox. Let’s rename it? Any ideas?
The Trash network? Or HWCUB (howwrongcanyoube).
I suspect (hope!) he was actually internally applauding her comments! He can’t/wont speak the truth. It seemed like that was the only time he didn’t interrupt her! He really let her run with it, and she was fabulous!!
As a video editor myself the producer/editor who created that clip for broadcast should be ashamed of themselves. It was total manipulation and propaganda. If there is an editing award of shame...they should get it. Actually folks on here should reach out to Fox with that message.
I saw that comment made elsewhere too; you’re not alone in that. I’m happy she had the chance to show she’s NOT “retarded”, and she’s not going to put up with BS from anyone.
I literally pray that our country is granted enough wisdom to finally dispense with Donald Trump
On air, Fox commentators incl Baier himself tried to spin the interview very hard, casting aspersions on Kamala and complimenting Baier on a "good interview". He also stated that he had 4 people talking in his ear. They must have stressed him out, and clearly they pushed him to push the narrative. He said later that the time for the interview had been cut short too, adding to his "inability to get through all the questions he had prepared (paraphrased)." He then blamed Kamala for a 15 minute late arrival. Who plans these things? They never plan around late arrivals for the busiest people in the world? When Trump is routinely an hour late?
I was very disappointed and even angry at his constant interruption and overtalking of her....because he wanted more talking time for his "questions" (aka rightwing disinformation vectors ). He barely gave her 3 seconds to answer before cutting her off. It was the classic male dominance shtick. Kamala wasn't having it; she rightly pointed that out, held her ground and her right as the Presidental Nominee to have the larger speaking role. The audience is, after all, listening to what the candidate is saying, not the moderator. They have always been so willing to let Trump ramble on about nothing!
Baier constantly interrupting Harris and not giving her time to respond to questions annoyed the &%*@ out of me!
I watched the interview plus Sean Insanity's commentary about his ridicule of Vice President Harris's "covering up" (sic) for President Biden's mental impairment (sick). Here is an analysis which I trust far more. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rn-Dw2JUVmo (Yeah . . . ¡Jimmy Kimmel!) 🥳
Of course, the M.A.G.A.-types focused on her not answering the question, willfully oblivious to the compelling non-verbal message. Prior to contesting the premise of Brat Boor's gotcha, Vice President Harris's face exhibited a pained expression. 😢
She knew the question was a trap, though, to be explained, that was not the reason for her brazen exhibition of humanity.
> Admitting that President Biden was impaired (sic) would admit to participating in a deception of the American people. 😥
> Contesting the assertion that President Biden was impaired, which he was not, would only open her up to petty snipes about her unassailable intelligence. 😯
BUT THAT SET-UP WAS NOT THE REASON FOR THE PAIN. 💔
Vice President Harris was not about to make her mentor, her manager, her President, her friend some political football for the bread-&-circus bitchorama that is Fox News. 🤢
So her anguished non-answer said everything to those with even a smidgeon of empathy. 🙏
VP Kamala Harris is on track go down in history as one of the greatest, fearless, tireless, formidable,heroic, intelligent, brilliant, literal, humorous, tactful,cool, calm, collected,...............heros in the entire history of the United States of America
It was so satisfying!! She talked over him until he had to stop talking. I have seen Trump do this over and over. It was a great moment to watch Harris take charge.
I know Conservatives typically argue in bad faith, but pulling an edited video up during an interview to try and get her in a gotcha moment is the height of bad journalism, dishonest and straight up gaslighting. Insane
Philly, Kamala says “ I see what you did there, now I’m going to explain you did to your fawning audience
Surprise.
Here is a seven-minute clip from the Univision town hall. Candidate Trump remained coherent; the only catch being that he was . . . ¡fool of scheiße! 🤢
https://youtu.be/L4FqJJW7WUE
Needless to say, el Sr. González was underwhelmed. 😊
Kamala is also starting to distance Herself from Biden... If elected, she has stated that she will chart her own course, this is Good Politics... Joe Biden is a Good, Compassionate Man, but his Administration was never Popular... The Dark Siths are more Powerful than Ever, i.e. Elon Musk, and the General Populace are more UnHappy...
Another pulled quote, the grand finale:
" let us together stand up for the rule of law, for our democratic ideals, and for the Constitution of the United States. And in twenty days, we have the power to chart a New Way Forward, one that is worthy of this magnificent country that we are all blessed to call home.”
Cue the skyrockets.
lol. By chance I am reading Alan Taylor's American Revolutions. It's a very good dose of history on the origins and follow through to the founding of the USA up to about 1800. Racism based on slavery is documented well enough to get the idea, and puts the biggest tell on the idea of the "imperfect union" , fits right in with Heather's own historical telling. Of course, Kamala in her inspirational was not there to rub that side in her audience's faces. How did the Beatles put it, "long and winding road"....
I like it when presidents give us a little dose of history in their speeches occasionally. As we know with HCR, we Americans need that perspective.
Right? I teared up READING it!
Joe was hammered non stop from day one by money and dark forces of absolute evil. There is nothing free about this election, and it’s anything but fair, with Fox and clones (clowns) lying with unabated fervor from day one (started the day he was inaugurated.). Free and fair election has been an anomaly since Fox took to the air.
I agree...When Rupert Murdoch showed up in the U.S. he should have been grabbed by his collar and seat of his pants and "escorted" to the nearest seaport and placed forthwith on a slow boat to Australia and prohibited from ever setting foot in the US again.
I hold Murdoch responsible for much of the damage that has been done to the fabric of this country. I keep hoping the universe's arc of moral justice lands him a blow that sends his media empire right into bankruptcy.
Let’s not forget Rush Limbaugh, who brainwashed countless (now old) men, and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from the dumpster fire.
A travesty by any measure
Rush was the first of the brain-washing marketing "geniuses" who managed to convince so many Americans that he "was on their side" even as he lived it up down in Palm Beach. The deception was breathtaking (and seemingly too stupid to believe in) then, and the results....a cult worshipping MAGA, terrifying now.
Let's get real. People don't believe lies unless they want to.
Always.
It's the anger America has been feeling since the 60s:
Aka racism and misogyny.
And the senators and representatives who continued to push the lies from Faux News (what a bad joke!).
He took Rush’s ball and kept it rolling. Sort of like an avalanche
I right-wing Platform, drudge, headlined "Cat ate Fox".
I love that! Or another one could be "Harris Lays Baier Fox News' Bias"
LOL
That is rich, Counsellor.
👏👏👏
For sure, JD, Biden has been a "red meat" target for Maga et al since day one, as you put it.
But he has endured. Back straight.
Truth
They have crowed about every speech anomaly and completely ignored every achievement. Instead, they have lied about the economy, employment, immigration, inflation, Ukraine, NATO, and the integrity of our elections.
The TV ads I've been seeing for Republican candidates repeat all the usual lies. There's one ad that uses the word "illegals" multiple times, and it makes me want to throw a brick through the TV set. Immigrants aren't people, they're "illegals" who are blamed for every little thing. 😠
The lies in Texas are blatant and constant. Don’t know why Allred didn’t say to Lying Cruz “you are the biggest liar in Texas.” Stop the toxic lies.
You got that right, JDH.
Sadly so
And, to be honest, imo, Biden has been unduly trashed by not just the Maga crowd. I laughed when Bret Baier tried to get her to admit she had noticed him slipping "cognitively" during the last year or so of his administration. Even if there was a tincture, even a little more, no way was she going to give him anyway roadway on that.
Frank,
"Biden unduly trashed"....yes!!! President Biden has served this country with his whole life. He has been a man of faith....that means he knows he needs faith in a power greater than himself and he was willing to humbly receive this love by faith (because I am a person of faith, I understand this amazing , living, forgiving, present love. I know about this triune God who answers prayer in amazing ways...not always as we would choose.)
With successes, he has experienced great loss...his first wife and daughter killed in a car accident...His beloved Beau dying due to cancer from exposure working near burn pits as he served our country over seas. Joe and Jill, as have many of us have also have overcome other family struggles. They are real...they are open, they understand American citizens as regular human beings.
He and Jill have renewed friendships that had been destroyed by a previous President. President Joe Biden renewed a sense of trust amongst our international leaders and renewed respect within leaders of our military.
Jill, as a teacher at a Community College, has encouraged the use of an excellent two year education in order for students to find jobs with pay that can support the graduates without the higher cost of a 4-year degree.
Joe and Jill Biden have and continue to work to improve the lives of regular Americans. They have lived to serve this country and each and all of its people.
Kamala has proven she too is a great American. As a lawyer, she has fought against dangerous criminals fearlessly and WON!!! She is for all of us. She is a true leader...truly a great American!!!!
We know Joe Biden stands for Democracy....we know he works for the people of the United States of America, NOT FOR HIMSELF!!!!
Kamala has proven she too is a great American. She also knows many of our world leaders and they know her! She is ready to serve as the next President of the great United States of America....for everyone!!!!
Great write up, Emily!
Sorry for as much as you acclaim Biden, I still to this day can not forgive him for his complicity in foisting Clarence Thomas upon us and upon the Supreme Court by his denigration of Anita Hill's accusations of misconduct. We can lay at his doorstep many of the outrageous decisions that have been made by the court since 2020 when the majority of the court finally turned dark MAGA "red".
That one Biden disaster may out weigh every other good thing he has ever done, because it's effects will live on long after he is gone.
The real atrocity for me was that that lackwit, Thomas, was conceived of as being an adequate replacement for Thurgood Marshall.
Indeed but as I noted above Biden was instrumental in making it happen. At the time the Democrats held the majority in the Senate and could have easily bounced him (as they did with Bork) but Biden supported him and as chairman of the Judiciary committee, he held the keys to the court. Probably the worst thing Biden ever did in his political life but has never really said "Boy did I screw THAT up!"
Bret looked especially weak when following a line of questions designed to please MAGA instead of his usually better journalistic sense. Harris was genius is csll8ng him a "serious journalist", making him slide off his track.
Trump was after Biden before Biden was even a candidate. He got the Hillary treatment, just not 20 years long
She handled that exceptionally well, though again was interrupted.
in the repartif she managed out run him over a few times lol, and how he complained
Let’s curb the actions and appetite of the Opus Dei ! Please 🙏 let’s wake up.
Religious fanatics are the worst kind, has always been true. Hell is full of them, if there is any justice
Hardly just "religious" fanatics, JD, check your history books.
Ooh, "JDH" now. No JDs here.
I've noticed that.
Had my identity hijacked
Not meant to be all inclusive.
Always knew “of” them, but am reading Garett Gore’s new book. Less than halfway through and I am appalled.
Thanks, MLMinET for the reference for more enlightenment about Opus Dei.
Garett Gore’s latest book: Opus: Dark Money, a Secretive Cult, and the It’s Mission to Remake Our World
Another book on my list. As always, follow the money…the root of all evil, yep!
That would be Gareth Gore.
Biden may not have sold his agenda effectively but I think history will rate him highly.
As I note elsewhere, there will never (for me) be any way to rate Biden "highly". No matter how much credit you can give him for many things he had done in his career, for me in the end the true tipping point was his cooperation in putting Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court. That one thing for me almost completely outweighs whatever good he has done for this country because Thomas on the Court will have far reaching effects for decades. That for me is Biden's personal Watergate moment and in many ways I think it is as bad or worse than NIxon's actual Watergate. Watergate's effects were long but Thomas on the court (which would never have happened without Biden's complicity) will last longer.
Far as I can see, the Biden Administration is beyond criticism. The past four years have been de-railed, stumped, impeded by the (R)ss-holes in the Senate, Congress, and many judge-ships, as to be almost incapacitated. The border fracas being blown right out of proportion. Our unfettered/unadulterated support of Israel's policies that some people are more equal than others, with thanks to its proponents having decision-makers right by the balls, has been with us for some time. Don't tell me Netanyahu (IDF) didn't know Hamas was arming and tunneling the entire town. C'mon. Just an excuse to finally be "justified" to blow the crap out of non-believer ragtag countries surrounding them, not to mention taking over the countryside for personal development (hello J. Kushner). So, now we have short-sighted Americans who would threaten non-support of Harris/Waltz? Really. What planet would they like to move to? Let us move on.. Please.
MadRussian, I love (R)ssholes!! Junior High brain is fully engaged!
MadRussian12A,
Netanyahu, is playing us so well...it is shameful!!! He could care less about the hostages. He is keeping himself out of prison.
Putin is enjoying the game. We are being "set up" to bomb Iran.
BRING THE HOSTAGES HOME!!!!...THAT IS THE REASON FOR OUR BEING THERE!!!
Netanyahu just wants us to be involved with our military "fire power". He is distracting us from saving the lives of the hostages....if any are still alive!!!!
There are persons in Israel who want to take over Gaza. It is a dream to expand Israel's boundaries. I believe this because of expansion beliefs among some Jewish citizens of Israel, which I have read. Also for years, Jewish families have been slowly occupying land that is legally a part of Gaza.
I cannot bear as a human being to see more babies, women and children and the elderly human beings in Gaza slaughtered. Those citizens have done nothing wrong!!!! Their blood is ON US!!!! Netanyahu must be stopped!!!!
NOTE: I am NOT prejudice against Jewish people.
Well said, Emily. If I was a relative of one of those hostages, I'd be outraged by what Netanyahu has done, because he certainly hasn't focused on bringing them home safely.
The remarkable epilogue to Bob Woodward's WAR, out today: He says "many of the news-making scenes in my prior books are stories of failures, mismanagement, dishonesty and the corruption of executive power," but in the Biden White House he found "steady and purposeful leadership." [Copied from Robert Scott Horton]
Biden, in his genuine "good faith efforts", created a coherent national security team who over 4 years combined "decades of experience and basic human decency." Together, they pursued "intelligence driven foreign policy" "to wield the levers of executive power responsibly and in the national interest. At the center of good governance is teamwork. "
Even though "there were failures and mistakes", Woodward believes that "the Biden administration will be remembered in history as one of steady and purposeful leadership."
[Paraphrased and quoted from Bob Woodward's epilogue]
Sorry but there is no way I could ever honor Joe Biden. In the end all of his good deeds are out weighed by his catastrophic failure in letting Clarence Thomas waltz on to the SCOTUS while denigrating Anita Hill. He will be lucky to go down in history as a "mixed bag" leader, one who did many things good but made one of the most grevious mistakes in political history, in many ways more devastating than Watergate.
Apache. Kamala’s speech game me chills. So proud of the Woman/Candidate for President she is. She has the knowledge, passion and dedication to keep our Home safe, hopeful and moving forward.
Mr Biden reminded that his administration charted a course of its own, different from that of the Obama administration and expects Ms Harris to also do so. Said, that is the normal thing every administration does.
This proves to me that Kamala should do a Fox News interview EVERY DAY - even after she wins the Presidency and after she takes office. Perhaps Rupert could install a little Fox Hole right next to the Oval Office????
Great idea, Paul! And thanks for a good laugh...something I need more and more these days.
It is doubtful Fox will invite her back to be interviewed. LOL
Yup, I’m sure you are correct, Sharon: No more invites from Fox, but I’d love to hear Kamala say - day after day, how she’d love to give Brett another chance to “mansplain” some more stuff to her.
" And in twenty days, we have the power to chart a New Way, one that is worthy of this magnificent country that we are all blessed to call home.” We are must include T5rump supporters who have felt that the democracy has wronged them. I agree with their concern when I see less than one percent of citizens enjoy more than 95 of the wealth of a country that produces 25% of the world GDP.
Yes, democracy wins, we all sincerely hope. But I regret that Kamala Harris' success and demonstrated integrity and suitability for the Office of President of the United States is lauded in terms of dominance. Why celebrate Harris' greater knowledge and experience and understanding of American ideals of democracy as dominance? Why join Trump in reducing the election to a wrestling match? There is too much dominance in today's world. Look what dominance as an ideal has done to men over the centuries. It has created a culture that exalts men over women because of domination, imposing one's will on another. Women are just emerging from millennia of male dominance and it hasn't been pretty. Trump is all about dominance as we all know well. Is that what we now call success? Valuing dominance as the highest form of success has brought the world to the climate precipice on which we all teeter over the abyss of extinction of all life on earth.
Harris has the greater understanding of what is at stake. She was savvy to Baier's chicanery in editing out Trump's references to using America's military against Americans who oppose his ambition of dominance - Trump's idea of Americans who oppose him as "the enemy within". Harris called Baier out on his unethical representation of Trump and won by speaking truth to the corrupted power of Fox News. Baier was utterly flummoxed by the truth. That's not Trumpian "dominance" - that's being honest and true and Baier clearly didn't know what to do with honesty and truth because he wields dishonesty and lies to gain his power.
Harris is not going to win because she dominates. She's going to win because she lives by the standards of honour and truthfulness that are foundational to the ideals of her country and people who support her recognize that here, at last, is a leader that is not going to shuck and jive her way to power for power's sake. That is the power of Harris-Walz. Not dominance.
You're absolutely right to highlight the problem with framing Kamala Harris' success in terms of dominance. Reducing leadership to dominance perpetuates a damaging narrative that has historically exalted power over others rather than power to serve. Harris' strength lies in her commitment to truth, integrity, and democratic principles, not in dominating opponents. Her confrontation with Fox News wasn’t a display of brute force but a triumph of transparency and accountability over deception. True leadership should be measured by one's ability to uplift and inspire rather than overpower, and Harris embodies that distinction perfectly. It's a critical reminder that genuine success, especially in leadership, is grounded in ethics, not domination.
After disagreeing with her yesterday about candidate Trump's performance in Chicago, Dr Cox Richardson uncorked one of her best essays today. What is most heart-warming is the paucity of foot-notes, indicating that we behold her substance and what a profoundly passionate, poignantly patriotic substance that is. 🤝
¡Bravò, Dr Cox Richardson! ¡Bravò! ✌🏽
Were I a participant on Truth (sic) Social (sick), I would write: ¡I LOVE PRESIDENT HARRIS! ❤️
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c5137210/user-clip-vice-president-opens-bi-partisan-umbrella-sunny-day (Vice President Harris's most lucid speech of those I have watched.) 🖖
Below is a clip of the opening remarks by two Republicans that really touched me, deeply. The citation below that excerpt, snipped from Dr Cox Richardson's inspiring essay, brought me almost to tears. 😇
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c5137206/user-clip-whats-bad-felling-good (¿What's so bad about feelin' good?) 🥳
“'[O]ur campaign is not a fight against something', she said. 'It is a fight for something. It is a fight for the fundamental principles upon which we were founded . . . [W]e are all here together this beautiful afternoon because we love our country . . . .'" ⚖️
Had to look up "tendentious" and started the day right off learning something!
Sadly, however, most corporate media practices this type of coverage at all times now.
My belief as well…
Kamala will be Madame President. She dominated the Fox interview and did so well that Baier announced that he will not conduct a debate between Trump and Kamala. Why? Because Kamala does not come to play. She comes with facts, figures, and compassion for the country and her people. I have my sister telling me that we will lose the Senate because Tester’s polls look bad and because of that dipshit, Manchin, West Virginia will elect a Republican. We don’t even have a Dem running in that state. I truly hope this isn’t true. I sure would like to see a clean sweep for both the House and Senate.
Kamala is exhibiting the genuine strength of character that Trump's sociopathic shameless arrogance has been mistaken for.
Trump is a weakling posing as a strongman. He believes that bullying people will get him everywhere.
And it has been very popular. A national shame
I don't know why or where it came from but America, as a country, has always had a sort of dark streak in it's soul. There has always been a segment of our population that has liked & popularized bullies, bullying and cruelty. It occasionally peeps out in our literature and frequently in our culture and sometimes even gets celebrated by some folks. Trump has greeted this dark streak kindly--one could almost say happily--and he is one of those who celebrates it. Cruelty is the point.
I do not think this is a uniquely American trait. Mans' inhumanity to man is seen around the world daily and throughout history.
The rare trait is understanding, kindness, compassion, and the bravery to protect.
If I had to guess, I would say that the emotions triggered by hatred, violence and cruelty are perhaps stronger and more addictive (to those who have an addictive propensity) than the emotions created by love, peace compassion and contentment.
Of course many many different factors combine to influence our natures, so expressing our highest or lowest selves isn't solely the province of emotional triggers...but many people do tend to rely on emotions rather than reason in their daily lives.
TL, it just may be that a country founded on genocide and enriched by enslavement has a very deep dark streak in its soul.
And that we--or at least a segment of the population--refuse(s) to own it and teach the history makes sure that it continues to burden the conscience of the nation.
I agree, T L. My own explanation is that, in an effort to whitewash American history, we have pretended “facts” not in evidence. Consider that white Europeans who emigrated to North America weren’t all seeking “religious freedom.” I suspect that many of them were simply oddballs who couldn’t get along with their European neighbors. That was the first thread of the “dark streak.” The streak became deep and wide when these white Europeans confiscated at gunpoint the land from the Native Americans who were the rightful owners for literally thousands of years. Slavery made the streak indelible. Theft, violence and hate of “the other” have been in America’s DNA from the beginning. “Religious freedom” is just the deceptive packaging of the ugly product inside.
Do I hate the U.S.? No. But to borrow from A.A., the only way we can seek a cure for our disease is to admit that we have it.
Right on!!!
Please note the number of programs in the media that are both popular and violent. As a watcher of even police dramas from France or Germany they do not stress the violent acts and views of same but finding the criminals who did the deeds. Look at the recent violence in Slow Horses or movies here.
Oh I know. I can point a finger at several shows that are simply disgusting for their enshrinement of violence as the answer to every ill. Gaming, too. So many facets of culture here celebrate our least civilized impulses and tendencies.
Carol, I’ve also been appalled by the percentage of programming that is focused on violence. All Crime All The Time. Three versions of FBI, three more of CSI and Law and Order. Movies, too; that’s where the violence is most gory.
It’s odd that with all the TV shows and movies focused on police, detectives, and forensics viewers don’t seem to have more respect for our police and criminal justice system. Instead there is less respect. Could it be that the occasional but real corrupt police actions magnified by the news media contrast too vividly with the idea of the Good Guys shown onscreen? That doesn’t make sense to me.
The fascist streak has always been bigger than the socialist streak. All the wannabe fascists think that they will be the ones in control. They never see that the system itself tells them that they probably won't be.
Just think of the Nazi lovers in the 30’s. And one could say what is more cruel than lynchings after church on Sunday with Jim Crow. And the beat goes on…
The lynchings were particularly cruel and inhuman.
Even back to the days of cowboys and indians, gunman who went around robbing and killing were worshiped as heroes by some. I think our country and many others, have always had that dark streak. Human nature?
Trompy turned over the rocks hiding the gremlins and trolls and welcomed them into the MAGA movement which sadly became normalized for some.
😢😢😢
Bullying is DT’s modus vivendi. Remember Roy Cohn and Fred Trump?
Like most bullies.
Well said!
Vice President Harris what she need to approve above all: that she is tougher than candidate Trump.
Marlene, Thank you for eloquently representing Kamala’s commanding performance and for informing us of Baier announcing he wouldn’t moderate a presidential debate (I wasn’t aware). As for the Senate, I encourage all of us to remember, excluding Manchin and Sinema, we currently have 49 Senate Dems whose seats we need to defend. Admittedly, because we could lose some, we must focus on additional races, wherein our candidates are most competitive. In my view, they include 1) Ruben Gallego (D-AZ); 2) Dan Osborn (I-NE) (As for Dan, I would note, while he has announced he won’t caucus with either party, his win would take out the incumbent Republican); 3) Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (D-FL); 4) Colin Allred (D-TX); 5) Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD).
I would note this list is not exhaustive and would add, that with 20 days until Election Day, my hope is that we’re all laser-focused on phone banking and canvassing, the latter possibly entailing travel to a battleground state closest to home.
Barbara, excellent comments, Don’t forget Lucas Kunce to replace the Repug Josh Hawley. And we need Sherrod Brown in OH and Jon Tester of Montana to hold the Senate.
Sending Hawley packing, in and of itself, would be a national service for all Americans, not just for the citizens of the Show-Me state.
Ditto with Ted Cruz in Texas.
That's for sure
Pam, Thanks for writing. I would note I didn’t include Brown and Tester because my list was comprised of likely prospects who could help us retain a Senate majority were we to lose any of the 49 seats we currently hold. As for Kunce, regrettably, the last time I checked, he was down by several points.
If the polling data is dominated by Republican-affiliated polls, that might very well affect the numbers we’re seeing for down-ballot races? It’s a strategic ploy by Republicans to create the appearance that Democrats will lose (and perhaps fuel Trumpian claims of election rigging if/when he loses). Also it steers big donors to bet on the winning Republicans.
I think polls are over-rated and emphasize horse-race reporting, to the detriment of deeper analysis. So easy to pre-determine the numbers by the selection process.
I’m totally ignoring polls right now. For my own sanity as well as my disgust with rigging by Rethugs.
Yes, indeed.
Thanks for the correction Barbara!! Totally understand.
If Dan is elected but refuses to caucus with the Ds or Rs he may be limiting his long-term success in the Senate given the way committee assignments are doled out.
MisTBlu, In my view, Dan, whose policy positions, btw, seem more closely aligned with Democrats, despite not being given committee assignments, would be mighty relevant in the chamber as each party vied for what could be the tie-breaking vote.
Yes, he would be important in a head count. But if he plans on serving more than one term in the Senate he'd be limiting his options as those who don't caucus don't get the juicy assignments.
Angus King (I-ME) said the same thing when he first ran for the Senate. He has caucused with the Dems since then. He is up for reelection and hasn't received a penny from the Democrats.
Meanwhile, Elon Musk is donating to House candidates giving millions. This includes in ME-2 where a 30 year old ex-Nascar driver is running against Jared Golden.
He said he supports women's reproductive care, but if he wins we all know how he will vote.
To me, his caucusing with the Dens is more about his career than alignment with the party. You say they haven't given him any money. Has he raised funds them or campaigned for Dem candidates? Those are generally the actions that are expected of those who want support from the party.
I contribute monthly to each of these and Kunce, Slotkin, Tester and Brown. There are some House seats also on my list. It's a stretch, but it makes me feel good. From now on, it's only one month to go.
Thanks for mentioning Alsobrrooks here in Maryland. We've had quite enough of Hogan. On his head are the no money for the bridge bumpers that might have saved the Key Bridge and yes man to Trump despite his supposed no Trump attitude.
I did not know that! How shortsighted.
Barbara Jo......or just stay at home and support for us Floridians!
Debbie Mucarsel- Powell has just come out with the best ad against the cadaverous Rick Scott....it follows a big, slithering python with Scott's face on it! At the end she says" he has squeezed us enough. Time to elect a Senator with a spine!"
well, now I have to go make a donation to Tester! I've never before contributed to so many out of state candidates -- we have to do all we can to move past the Trumpster Dumpster fire.
There is one more Senate seat that we should be able to flip. If you can, donate to Democrat Katrina Christiansen who is running to unseat Republican Senator Kevin Cramer (the author of the national abortion ban legislation) in North Dakota.
Me too, I have been donating monthly to Senate races none of which are here in GA. If I support Kamala why wouldn’t I want her to have a senate that will work with her, it seems a no-brainer. Don’t forget Texas we can get rid of Cancun Cruise and wouldn’t that be sweet.
That would be soooo wonderful!
So true
Same here, Laurie. I just sent more to Brown. Tester is next, after the 24th.
House and Senate - never been more important.
Absolutely!
Everyone seems to agree that the Senate is a tough map for the Dems this year. And Tester is behind (by about 7) if the polls are correct. Colin Allred does have a shot at flipping Texas and Debbie Muscarel-Powell may also have a shot at flipping Florida. Damn near every race looks to be tight as tick. We just have to hope that enough Americans in enough of the right places see through the cynical, hateful lies and disinformation of Trump and other right wing media liars.
IMHO only because the polls miss the effect of groups like FT 6, Movement Labs, and the power of Gen Z, Swifties, David Hogg, et al.
@ Marlene,
W VA-- former Wheeling Mayor Glenn Elliott. It is within the realm of possibilities that Gov Jim Justice's legal problems can undermine his huge registration advantage. https://westvirginiawatch.com/2024/10/16/second-greenbrier-auction-averted-justice-family-refinances-debt/
We have a good chance in FL and TX.
Support Katrina Christiansen and Lucas Kunce.
Everyone please follow Simon Rosenburg and use his links to donate to the Senate races that need it most
Marlene, the down-ballot races are the ones I am really sweating bullets about. Dems are notoriously bad about pushing against the Christo-fascist Rethuglican takeover of local political institutions. I read that two-thirds of local election seats are UNOPPOSED, and the majority of those, I would suggest, are currently held by the anti-Democratic side. If the Dems don't prosecute every single damned political position, and if Dems, who are notoriously lazy about voting (consistently under 50% of registered Dems actually turn out and vote), don't go to the polls, we are sunk. We need all hands on deck. We. Have. To. Bury. Them. A squeaker is NOT an option. But Dems are uninterested unless there is an existential threat--and even then, they think only of the federal elections and not the local ones. I am hopeful (to some extent) about keeping control of the White House this year but very very worried about Congress. And that means I might be looking at flats in Wales for me and my standard poodle come January.
There are a couple of Senate candidates that are leading the Republican incumbent--in NE and FL And Ted Cruz, who is highly unpopular looked the fool in his debate with Colin Allred.
Jon Tester may be in trouble and Sherrod Brown too, but all of these races are too close to call.
I'm really surprised Fox didn't cut away as Kamala let loose... No minute-long beep, no changing the picture to a video of a cheering Trump crowd... I'm really, really surprised.
Well Marlene, it would appear that 'the advertisers' helping to fund Faux are increasingly finding #45 to be bad juju for product sales. Hence we see FNB serving notice to the (R)ss-hole party regarding some adjustments necessary to appeal to a more discriminating listening audience. $$$'s talk. That would include my neighbor across the street with his 'big screen' visible thru his living room window so everyone can see Faux News from the street. Whew!!
Agreed, i think there may be a few slim chances in that tight lineup. I think Manchin was a strange energy support bastion in that ruby red state. To think he was musing running for President for a bit back there...
The Dems have Glenn Elliott, but he is so far behind in the polls as to be nonexistent
Sadly it is true. As you noted there is no Dem running on WV as it is considered a waste of political capital. WV hasn't elected a statewide Dem except Manchin in something like 40+ years and had the highest margin for Trump in 2020. Manchin was always a total anomaly and it was a disaster to "write him off" because it was known to be a guaranteed assignment of another Senate seat to a Republican. And Tester is down by 8+points, in Montana, a state he has narrowly won twice before but never in an election where Trump was on the ballot.
We are virtually certain to lose the Senate so we'd better take whatever tranquilizers we need to prepare and move on to making absolutely sure we can take the White House and the House of Reps.
Please, oh please!!! 🤞🙏🤞🙏🤞
https://ballotpedia.org/Glenn_Elliott
Regarding Washington crossing the Delaware, since my sixth great grandfather Isaac Cleaver of the Pennsylvania Volunteer Militia was one of those in the boats, I'd like to point out a few necessary corrections and additions to the account here.
The event came at the lowest point in the Revolution. The British had taken New York and chased the revolutionaries out; they were a ragged lot hiding in the woods while the majority of them "left early" (a polite way of saying "deserted" - their enlistments were up on New Year's Day). There were maybe as many as 2,000 left.
Before they made the crossing, their (elected) officers read to them Tom Paine's "The American Crisis" ("These are the times that try men's souls.... ") which Paine had written for them at General Washington's request. That's why there's all the explanation in the following paragraphs about the whys and wherefores of the past six months.
The "British garrison" was actually the main base of the Hessians, German mercenaries Britain had brought over to terrorize the colonists. The Americans lay in the snow in the woods listening to the Hessians singing Christmas Carols and then at dawn took the hung-over mercenaries and captured them all.
Because the Hessians were so hated, their defeat was a Very Big Deal among the colonists, and the event revived a Revolution that the night before had been close to sputtering out.
Now you know why the event was important.
Great post, TC!!!
We too should all be reading and rereading Tom Paine's "These are times that try men's souls..." and taking courage.
Strange, isn't it, that Tom Paine should still be so much more alive, so much more 'with it' than today's media and millions of today's Americans...
Those words! Those words!
"WE HAVE IT IN OUR POWER TO BEGIN THE WORLD OVER AGAIN."
Well done, TC. I suspect few Americans realize just how near run a thing the Revolutionary War was in the aftermath of the defeats on Long Island and New York. That tattered band hiding in the woods was all that was left.
Thanks for that excellent addition. It's not everyone who can add to Heather's discourse of historical events.
Growing up in Morristown, NJ, around the corner from Washington’s Headquarters, I learned this history early on. Thanks for reminding us of this crucial battle.
And the captured Hessians had no interest in returning to Germany after hostilities and were part of the creation of the Pennsylvania "Deutsch".
I must add perspective to that Kamala Harris moment at the Delaware River crossing site. Her vision and articulation of values are as powerful as were Paine’s and Washington. She understands and identifies America’s problems and obviously is far more capable of resolution than Trump ever could.
But most important Kamala herself stands as a powerful patriot who is the right person at the right time to summon the strengths of the Rule of Law to bring America together. Her time is now and we must ensure it happens.
Amazing how history repeats itself.
Off-topic,I’ve heard reports that the Russians are bringing North Korean mercenaries to fight in Ukraine!
Never forget Putin, he know how to spread evil far and wide.
Ugh
Yup.
Thank you, TC. Always good to see you here.
Agreed!
Spot on. And captured in “The Crossing” 2000,, if you care to show a child the history of that turning point in our history. Vice President Harris is trying to lead that same crossing. Hopefully, the enemy will be once again asleep.
This election must be even more special for you given your family history TC.
Asleep or awake, having nightmares, spreading nightmares, being a cosmic nightmare.
May all Americans awake and shake off "the powers of darkness"!
PM me, re more history
TC….I always respect the way you come in and firmly set a chair straight that has tilted itself askew during a squabble or discussion.
Now THAT, is democracy itself, in action.
Salud!
🗽💜
Harris seems so much more intelligent and moderate than her opponent. She completes sentences and ideas. She looks for middle ground and ways to unite us. She doesn’t make empty threats. Why anyone would want 4 more years of division and strife is beyond comprehension.
Not “seems so much more intelligent and moderate ”—she IS!
By contrast, , the vainglorious Emperor has nothing to show; apart from a wake of missteps and treachery. Trump in the raw is no inspiring sight.
He would be laughed off any other stage.
She is a compassionate, reasonable person.
He is a petulant malignant narcissist. And unfortunately, his threats are far from empty.
And why in Heaven's name do the mandarins in the Fox "News" Room want to drag our country down? Bret Baier's disrespectful style of questioning of our sitting VP, and his disrespect of truth, should disqualify him from the airwaves. I'd certainly applaud him being shunned in the next Harris Administration.
Obviously one reason only... $$$$$. Fox News dominated the TV press for from 2016 to 2021. They want to have all that money again. Murdoch doesn't care about truth or even ideology, just $$$$$.
Maybe he could be deported?
Not likely. I THINK he might be a citizen now but he certainly has a green card. You can't deport someone because you don't like their politics. They have to commit some kind of serious crime to justify that action.
The money wants more, the hate still hates, and the cult still hasn’t been deprogrammed.
Brilliant, practically a haiku!
Accidental haiku
Phil, to answer "why anyone would want 4 more years of division and strife?" one need only look in the direction of those with mega-money who want to continue to avoid taxes and those who seek to be free of government regulation and those who seek a "more Christian Nation" or illiberal democracy or foreign adversaries like Russia or China or even North Korea to begin to see just who might benefit from "4 more years of division and strife."
All of the above.
and she's a dueling mack the knife when it comes to sparring in a "conversation". He kept wimping how hard she was on him
It’s high time to take the gloves off, and by god, Kamala did it!
Now go after J. D. Vance the same way. He’s their boy now. Someone needs to look into the ties between Opus Dei and his backers, the Project 2025 architects, who bankrolled his campaign.
Pope Francis just went after Opus Dei, and J. D. became an ultra-Right Roman Catholic convert in 2019. There’s something fishy in all this.
I am a Catholic who has no use for Opus Dei and these other cults of personality in my church. Opus Dei got John Paul II to recognize them because OD bailed the Vatican out financially, and in return, they received the status of a personal prelature and JosemarÍa Escrivá, who was a most unsaintly man (he was a Boss from Hell,) was canonized as a saint and the Vatican ignored the many people who were prepared to testify as to Escrivá’s nasty, petty and cruel behavior. I don’t regard him as a saint.
Gareth Gore recently published the book “Opus,” which discusses a lot of Opus Dei’s history and financial dealings, and he discusses some of Opus Dei’s influence in American politics. Personally, I wish they would butt out. No one asked them to butt in.
Power hungry cretins need no invitation. Religion is made to order for shysters, charlatans, and carnival barkers. Also for snakes and other slime. Also for abusers of every stripe. Ask Gateway Church in Dallas. I think they have had a recent name change though.
“…. other cults of personality in my church.”
- - - SMH
I thought the Vatican was one of the richest institutions in the world. Off to research.
A religious war is what they crave.
As if history can’t document enough…
Lust for Absolute Power is under that. The claim of absolute supremacy, religious, racial, national, whatever, is the rationale for runaway narcissism. It's a tragic flaw in human nature that manipulators exploit, around the world and across history.
No argument here. The power of the few over the many. - always
Wish Kamala would skewerJD and leave him sputtering. He is a smooth traitorous bastard that needs a lesson or two. Tim doesn’t have that killer instinct that she has.
He lies better than Trump because he hides it in pleasantries. A dangerous puppet of the maga right.
A snake who has told us who he is…
In talking to a friend about Vance yesterday, I described him as empty and my friend added that he puts off a dark energy. I got a bit of a chill because that nails it. There’s a dark energy around him that makes him more dangerous than DJT.
Dark energy. I think the astrophysicists should check him out.
He’s way smarter than the insipid orange turd, he can actually put two sentences together, and smart evil is more dangerous than ignorant evil.
Just have Tim address him as a miscreant and troublemaker on his team. I'll bet he could find the fire then!
Herb Klinker, please provide more about Pope Francis “ just went after Opus Dei”. I consider two things to be “work of GOD” and beyond my input:
The man and woman who begat me…
The place on this planet where it happened…
Beyond those two facts, I am no different from my “red and yellow, black, and white” 🎶 they are precious in HIS sight from “Jesus Loves Me”…the Sunday school song I sang as a child. The cult of exceptionalism that I understand Opus Dei to represent is scary stuff! I want to know more about Pope Francis’ opinion on this.
Alongside the religious right wing, the Tech Bros want to be in charge of everything. We just need to get over our worries about dictatorship. A CEO, not an elected government. JD Vance, Peter Thiel, and others get ideas from Curtis Yarvin, who favors a “techno-monarchy.”
To combat climate change, some in Big Tech say we don’t need to use our current options now, because they will come up with something much better. (And they will be the heroes.) Don’t get into that lifeboat now, a much better lifeboat is on the drawing board.
Not just Opus Dei and not just Catholics.
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/09/theobros-jd-vance-christian-nationalism/
Don-thanks for sharing this article. It's an eye opening and twisted look at how these so called Christians want to "make America great again".
What I find so powerful about HCR’s letter today is her focus on Harris’s outstanding framing of what is at stake. In my fixation on the news in the past couple of days it seems like all the media oxygen is being pumped into Trump’s astounding self immolation at the town hall and his troubling contemporaneous interviews. Even the late night hosts are guilty of covering the, admittedly, mock worthy Trump disassembling. But there is just not enough coverage out there of the Harris and Walz masterful campaign and interview counter narrative.
Yes - the media still - STILL - hasn't figured out how to cover Trump, or actually, how to cover Harris! She is doing astounding things - she's still only been the candidate for less than THREE MONTHS! yet she is criticized for every single tiny "mistake" she makes or decisions to do (or not do) whatever it is the media THINKS she should be doing..
Trump, on the other hand, continues to be "sane-washed" by the media - his town hall dance party was decribed by the AP as "turned into a concert" or something like that. The NYT wasn't much better.
SO very frustrating.
I have been restacking Guardian coverage…pretty much into a void I know…but honestly it’s coverage is so much more balanced and instilled than either the NYT’s and WaPos and there is no mandatory paywall. It’s round-up this morning is a case in point: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/17/us-presidential-election-trump-harris-updates?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
I subscribe to and support The Guardian. I so appreciate their coverage.
As I noted I love the guardian too but can you HONESTLY say that it is balanced? It is a strongly left wing newspaper and wears its biases quite proudly. I read it because it emphasizes the view points I personally hold but I would never mistake it for "balanced". No more balanced IMHO than Fox News (just the completely opposite bias).
I think the Guardian was even better in the days of Bush II, but I subscribe and appreciate their coverage. The are my chief daily paper. They were way ahead of pack in the "W" Iraq War.
Balanced? LOL I love the guardian but it is NOT in any way balanced. It is a highly liberal left wing publication and if you think their articles are balanced, you have really drunk the left wing lol koolaid! The NYT is really the only newspaper I trust for balanced coverage any more.
I am fine if you like the Guardian (I love it and read it pretty religiously) but let's not put it on a pedestal where it doesn't belong.
Two phrases come to mind watching the media sphere’s coverage: Gaslighting & Goal-Post-Moving
Agree totally! So pathetic to see the weakness of certain networks that seem afraid to openly criticise Trump - perhaps because of his threats of closing down, attacking media that isn't loyal to him. Insane what American people are willing to believe and not understand the danger trump would mean not only for Americans and America but also for our allies.
It’s true: “A woman has to be twice as good as a man to get half as far.” Fannie Hurst at the 1945 National Conference of Women.
In this case, Harris is ten times better than her cruel, lying, demented criminal opponent. I wish someone could convince me that if Harris loses it is not because of misogyny and racism.
Marge-If she loses it sure won't be because people compared competence, experience, empathy and vision.
Sarah Longwell did a focus group with former Trump voters who were “undecided.” One woman said she would have to do “more research” on Harris. Longwell asked what concern she needed to “research” and the woman said she had heard Harris “slept her way to the top.” I nearly cried.
You might like the history of that quote.
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2020/01/07/twice-good/
The semi-collapse of the fourth estate has much to do with our present difficulties. "Democracy Dies in Darkness".
Democrats have been on the back foot for far too long.
This has been a lifelong frustration for me…now, far worse than being a Red Sox fan. My vexation had been tempered in the past by a sense that you shouldn’t meet a bully on their own terms; Michelle Obama’s when they go low we go high. (Also I am by temperament a person who shies away from direct confrontation…too many older siblings🙃.) But THIS moment is like no other. I really felt like Harris was strongly pushing back against His condescending body language and outright distortion in her Fox interview yesterday. Now she will be characterized as ‘contentious’ (both today’s NYT and WaPo) and strident with an undertow meaning of unladylike. Perhaps ‘feisty,’ arghhh.
Maybe that’s why they are going directly to the people instead of pandering to our weak and unreliable news media.
But the shiniest object gets the most attention. Like John Bradshaw said, let crazy enter the room and everybody stops what they are doing…
S[l]i[m]iest?
Thank you, but crazy is brighter and gets more attention than boring competence.
Shinier anyway, like a sparkling lure used to catch a fish. Entertainment alone can't guide wise choices (and by entertainment, I mean mere diversion. Even fiction, consider "1984", or "McBeth", can pack a clarifying wallop. Even abstract art can stimulate thought). (That said my guilty pleasure is escapist murder mysteries).
At least since Reagan, the media has emphasized a leader's media stage presence over competence, accomplishments, integrity, or character. But that how we got four years of Trump. Maybe more.
Chump would have been thrown off any other stage. What a loser. I am fond of murder mysteries also. Murdoch and Brokenwood Mysteries my favs.
Murdoch deals with turn of the century history (in a way) and Brokenwood just makes me laugh out loud, in unexpected ways. Check them out…much better than chump
Harris is the bravest woman in America. She deserves to be the hero in a Superhero film because she is a Superhero for all of us.
She's also a great example of how well people might do when given an occasion to rise to! Many people have strengths that are rarely seen, a sad reality that I hope to see change in an opportunity economy.
I truly have to believe that the polls are wrong and almost half the country doesn’t really support the fascist, demented lunatic. The ones who do understand that the United States will cease to exist as a democracy and still plan to vote Republican in this election are the really scary people in this country. The orange guy will ultimately fade, but who will carry on those unAmerican ideas, and will they ultimately succeed? Questions that literally keep me up at night.
Funny we rely on English, Abby, and so call them people.
They're not. They are cultists: Vance, Thiel, Musk, Clarence, Alito, Mike Johnson, Marjorie Taylor G., Boebert, the three newest clones to the Clarence court, Putin, Orban, Netanyahu, Modi, etc. Zero humanities among them. Cultists all.
Truth is a human thing. It's personal. Always wrapped in layers of complications, always fraught with individual pain.
Kamala and Tim see the human. Defend a nation under law as safeguarding humanity -- in the same proportion that medieval Clarence court rules one convicted criminal as above the law.
So Phil, how do you reconcile Biden's support of Thomas' nomination to the Supreme Court and his denigration of Anita Hill and her charges of sexual assault? People still give him (Biden) a pass on this which I refuse to do. It's not that far in the rear view mirror and will probably haunt us for years to come even when Biden is long gone.
Hopefully there are plenty of people who fear openly admitting that they want and will vote for Kamala due to Trump's threats to all those who aren't loyal to him. He is truly unfit for the presidency!!
He's actually unfit even for criticism.
Your statement got an LOL from me!
Only question that matters. WHO preaches hate and is an unashamed bully who cheats always, especially in elections. Well, duh. It’s not rocket science
We get saddled with losers by the patently undemocratic "Electoral College", but beyond that I think our society inadequately explains the self-governance responsibilities voting entails. We are making choices that affect others, sometimes profoundly, and social justice demands that we weigh our preferences in a context of the common weal. Those who say "I won't vote for the clearly better candidate because of a position on this or that single issue, even when that issue merits far more recognition, abandon their opportunity, and yes, responsibility, to at least not lose ground. I have held my nose often.
I think that our society insufficiently encourages "long chain" thinking, in which the comprehension of context may be just as important as the action or issue. Lacking a long term strategy, we may win a battle, yet lose the war.
MAJOR CRISIS FOR WASHINGTON’S CONSTITUTIONAL DEMOCRACY
I found it fitting that Kamala, with about 100 prominent Republicans who are supporting her, gathered at Washington Crossing to dedicate themselves to working together to preserve the United States of America that had so valiantly been created by General & President Washington.
Washington, before Christmas, 1776, was in dire straits. His volunteer army had dwindled to a few thousand, most of whose enlistments expired at the end of December. His troops were ill-feed and badly armed and had been retreating during the full year.
Counseled by some to surrender and to abandon the American revolution, instead Washington chose an audacious Hail Mary. He would somehow cross the icy Delaware River at night and attack over 1,000 Hessian soldiers—the same highly trained troops that had massacred hundreds of his soldiers in Brooklyn.
This he accomplished without the loss of a single soldier. His troops killed some Hessians and captured 900, together with vital food and armaments.
We are at another major crisis in our country’s history. George Washington had presided over the Constitutional Convention at which, through secret discussions and unimaginable compromises, the failing Articles of Confederation was transformed into the Constitution of the United States of America.
A governing key was checks and balances where the Executive, Legislature, and Judiciary checked one another. Also, in the first 10 Amendments, the rights of citizens and states within a federal system were spelled out.
This constitutional government is now at stake in the 2024 presidential election. Trump, when president, trashed the Constitution and engaged in an unprecedented attack on the Capitol Building in which over 140 security personnel were killed or wounded.
He and Senator McConnell were responsible for unprecedented shenanigans that have transformed the Supreme Court to the Stench court.
Trump has made clear, were he to return to the White House, that he would use the Justice Department to seek revenge against his ‘political enemies’ and, when necessary, employ the military to pursue his political whims.
I salute Kamala Harris and the stalwart Republicans who gathered at Washington Crossing to rededicate themselves to what General/President Washington had created.
The electoral fight this year is against the ‘enemy within’—a phrase used by Trump against his political opponents but which, in actuality, describes him and his MAGATS.
Less than three weeks remain in this fight to preserve the country that Washington created.
FIGHT FIERCELY IN THE COMING DAYS SO THAT WE CAN CELEBRATE A VICTORY FOR GEORGE WASHINGTON, FOUNDER OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
Some learn, some just grow old. Thank you for every post. Wisdom hard earned is invaluable.
JDH My youthful inspiration comes from Heatherites like you!
Thank You, Keith.
Keith, I so appreciate your comments here. The depth and breadth of your experiences comes shining through.
Ally I am waiting for a tuba solo to accompany my middle-of-the-night blatherings. Your continued interaction inspires this late middle age vagabond.
Ralph Vaughn Williams tuba concerto is one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjkYVAfyhho
Reflections on the Mississippi is another:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPnurVsbQwU
Some tango
https://professorcarol.com/2020/05/29/piazzolla-tube-etude/
Ally Sounds good, but will be difficult to top the tuba solos by the New Orleans Preservation Jazz Band—sadly, the soloist is long gone.
Now there was some tuba playing!!!
Keith, just back from the rabbit hole as the phrase “The Enemy Within” rang bells. I was thinking of Pulitzer Prize winner “The Internal Enemy”, by Alan Taylor that I read years ago and thoroughly enjoyed, but a search on Amazon for “The Enemy Within” turned up numerous titles attacking anything not mainstream, including a RFK (the real one) exposé of Labor. Also liberals, witches, atheists, blah blah blah. I wonder who inserted these bon mots into Trump’s speeches. Smells of Steven Miller.
We need a greater exposé of Steven Miller. A graduate of Duke University he seems to be focused on hatred instead of the liberal arts education universities used to provide.
I once wrote Nancy MacClean, Professor of History at Duke (confession: I am a UNC-CH graduate), author of “Democracy in Chains,” asking whether the university would rescind Miller’s degree, but she thought not. After all, Duke was founded with tobacco money.
Virginia Stephen Miller is a Himmler look and act alike.
Might be worth another try! Good work!
Spot on Keith, like usual, spot on. 🙏
The Harris speech at the Washington crossing the Delaware site was awe inspiring. If you haven't please watch it. Stop for a moment doom scrolling and overfocusing on crazy and watch her speech. VP Harris' eloquence is uplifting and also realistic. It is fuel for the last few days of this election.
This is why we fight. God Bless America.
A big second to that!
And yet still there are undecided voters?!
What is left to weigh? Where is there any equivalence?
I understand the die-hard MAGA voters, having drunk the Kool-Ade, can't change their collective mind, and admit they were taken in by the best con man this country ever produced. I don't like it, but I understand. It's not easy admitting you've been hustled.
But undecided? At this point? How can you be a sentient human being, functioning in the modern world, and still be unable to decide between the very distinct political choices we face?
I drives me nuts thinking the fate of the nation might hang on some dope flipping a coin on Nov. 5.
I'm reminded of two memes:
One says "I know Darth Vader is out to destroy the world. I just don't know enough about Princess Leia."
The other says, when offered an in-flight meal of chicken or ground glass, "how is the chicken prepared?"
I cannot answer your questions, Ralph. It just flummoxes me.
Or, is the chicken free-range organic?
Here here!
Harris had an outstanding day!
I saw a clip of her exchange with Brett. She chewed him up. I was so proud of her—you can hear the passion she has for democracy in her voice. The same passion that should be expressed by all Americans.
Debbie Blackwell,
Kamala is a TRUE AMERICAN!!!!
I am not only proud of her but so grateful for the amazing American she is !!!!!
Tears in my eyes - she is so ready to meet this moment. Madam President please take your place and lead us out of this darkness 🙏 🇺🇸❤️🤍💙
Kamala Harris showed the world that she has the guts to call out lies and hypocrisy directly! She simply outclassed Bret! At the same time she further exposed Trump for what he really is, a demagogue who is afraid to do legitimate interviews or to debate!
Good Heather today gets Kamala's triumph over at Fox. But we're still in suspense. Cultism yet rules.
Anand Giridharadas has been speaking in mainstream media on how to get so many back -- on the tens of millions who got their jobs offshored to feel since grievously abandoned, neglected, unheard.
Here's from his latest, today:
"If you want people to believe again, especially the people who are right now still on the fence, you need to tell them a story that not only persuades them but all but rewires their brain. You need to help them make new meaning of what they have seen and heard and felt."
Notice when he says, "tell them a story." He could cite novels, films, songs. But he cannot do that.
The reason isn’t simply how schools dehumanized, all replaced by the conceits of standardized testing. There’s another difficulty. That’s the fact that there’s something more than just citing some novel (say Barbara Kingsolver’s “Demon Copperhead”) and applying it to some U.S. sore spot (say MAGA militia hunting F.E.M.A. aid workers in hurricane-hit mountain North Carolina). The difficult part is that to do that, we need to draw upon something personal in ourselves to make the connection urgently human.
Personal? Right now we’ve a few million women (and their loved ones) more than piqued by medievalists taking away their personal rights. A few more million black women perfectly aware of MAGA racism.
Others in America who can draw on the personal, even if apart from humanities no one can use?
Others in America who can draw on the personal... Lesbians (me) and gay men, now queers of all sorts, the disabled, mentally ill, unhoused,
mothers and people who mother which can include men to some degree, and speaking as a health provider - health providers.
Robin, I do that with my former work cohort; I'm a lesbian, out from the get-go at work, who just celebrated 40 years with my wife (legally married in 2008 in honor of our 25th anniversary). When I communicated my fears that my lawful marriage is at risk of being overturned, they all said "don't worry, it is settled case law". After Roe was overturned, and I communicated my fears, they said nothing. Well, except the one guy, who in response to my comment regarding the next three cases that were in their sights (based on Injustice Thomas's concurring opinion in Dobbs which for some strange reason did not target Loving v. Virginia) tried to explain how the legal reasoning for all those cases was wrong and it had NOTHING TO DO with contraception, gay sex, or gay marriage.
Total repudiation of the 14th amendment, wherein they vaguely quote RBG.
Robin Birdfeather,
Together...we are each and all FULLY Americans.
We must stand for the wellbeing of one another!!!!
Are you stating the FEMA worker incident in N CA is a false story?
F.E.M.A. aid workers and local police reported MAGA militia as real, dangerous threat.
It was also established that there were no "truckloads" of armed militia. There was one armed man.
He had a cohort of supporters, Anne-Louise -- all questioned, none arrested.
Odd, all the coverage I’ve seen since his arrest solely leaves the terrorism in his lap despite the earlier hair on fire claims.
Truckloads?