#Gabby Giffords

[fantastic-nonsense]

sometimes I think about how I could two truths and a lie various political figures I've met and most people would not be able to guess the lie

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Gabe Fleisher at Wake Up To Politics:

Historically, the closest parallel to what happened last night is probably the assassination attempt of Theodore Roosevelt in 1912. Like Donald Trump — who was shot in the ear at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday — Roosevelt was a former president when he survived a gunman’s fire. Also like Trump, Roosevelt at the time was running to reclaim the White House, in the midst of a campaign speech in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Finally, and most importantly, the attempts on both men’s lives will likely be best remembered for their defiance in the face of a would-be assassin. In his case, Roosevelt continued delivering his speech, even as a bullet was lodged in his chest. “It takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose,” he famously declared, going on to speak for another 50 minutes before seeking medical attention. Secret Service protocols would not allow such a display today; still, the attack on Trump will forever be defined by this instantly iconic image, of Trump’s face streaked with blood, his fist raised in the air, the American flag waving behind him. It has been 44 years since a federal elected official (Allard Lowenstein, a New York congressman) was successfully assassinated in the United States, a streak that often masks the fact that political violence has been steadily increasing over the last decade.

This is not the 1960s — when a president, a presidential candidate, and several civil rights leaders were killed in a five-year period — but more from a lack of successes than a lack of trying. It has not been an era, thank God, of murdered politicians, but it has been one of dangerously close shaves. On January 6, 2021, rioters came within 40 feet of then-Vice President Mike Pence, as Trump supporters chanted for his hanging and searched for then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), among others. Less than two years later, Pelosi’s husband sustained an attack by hammer; if a police dispatcher had not understood his coded messaging, he may have ended up with worse than just a skull fracture. In 2017, doctors told Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) that he had been “within a minute of death” after being shot at a congressional baseball practice. Then-Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-AZ) also survived gunfire, but she has never fully regained the ability of speech after a 9-millimeter bullet cut through her brain in 2011.

A man made it just outside of Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s house in 2022, armed with a pistol, knife, hammer, crow bar, and zip ties, but his assassination plot was foiled when he called the police himself, his second thoughts having taken over. Someone made it even closer to then-Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) one month later, climbing on stage during a gubernatorial campaign rally; thankfully, the attacker was armed only with a keychain. Quantifiably, according to a University of Maryland database, political violence since 2016 has been at its highest levels in the U.S. since the 1970s. Before 2016, the U.S. Capitol Police had never opened more than 1,000 threat investigations in a single year; last year, more than 8,000 threats against members of Congress were investigated. Similarly, “investigated threats against federal judges have risen every year since 2018,” according to the U.S. Marshals Service, while election officials are also facing an unprecedented level of menace.

The threats were all able to be foiled, but several — like the bullet that whizzed just inches away from Trump on Saturday — came horrifyingly close to fruition. And oftentimes, even as the politicians live, others become collateral damage of our toxic politics. Yesterday, at least one American was killed simply for attending a political rally of their preferred presidential candidate. [...] Rarely do Democratic or Republican officials stop to acknowledge that their own side might have a role to play in our divisive politics. Instead, when horrors like last night’s unfold, each side reliably finds a way to blame the other party, which only serves to exacerbate further the cycle of hatred and violence that brought us to this point. Even in their responses to tragedy, more toxicity flows loose.

Gabe Fleisher details in his Wake Up To Politics newsletter the history of close calls that would have resulted in the death of various politicians over the past decade and a half or so, such as Gabby Giffords, Paul Pelosi, Steve Scalise, Mike Pence, and most recently, Donald Trump.

[hereslookingatyousquid]

Gabby!! You are a star 🌟

Braver than any Republican

[willfrominternet]

in looking through posts on my old (and cringe) tumblr, i found my reaction to the shooting of gabby giffords on january 8 2011. yes folks, you bet that the first thought 19-year-old will had when he heard that news was "well i better go post my snap reaction to this on tumblr immediately!"

but i remember everyone talking about needing to cool down partisan rhetoric. and thirteen years later we're still talking about it, and not much has changed; in fact, it's only become worse. not that it wasn't obvious. from repression towards occupy wall street and black lives matter to racist killings by white cops against black and brown bodies to the sexist vitriol of the 2016 election cycle to charlottesville to january 6th to the constant fight between israel and palestine, as well as everything in between, political violence has wreaked havoc in america without any sign of slowing down.

hell, say what you want about trump. he sucks in every which way. but the fact that someone got close enough to aim a rifle at his head and nearly blow his brains out - instead killing corey comperatore, a firefighter who didn't deserve that - means we've gone nowhere since gabby giffords nearly lost her life in 2011. we are still drawn into this dark chasm of hatred, whether we victimize or become the victim. i'm as guilty as anyone of this. i've spewed some bullshit against people i don't like. i've wished people dead, and i've meant it. but i've always felt an immediate pang of regret. the thing is that regret only gets a person so far.

i'm not sure which way we go. i'm not too sure how we go anywhere. i don't know too much.

what i do know, however, is that gabby giffords's husband - captain mark kelly, the junior senator from arizona since 2020 - is now a top pick for vice president. and it's strange that i've coincidentally found a historical record concerning him at this point in time. in a very weird way, it feels like something's coming full circle; that maybe there's a shred of hope that something good will happen. i don't know what it is or if it will come to pass.

but of course, here i am still posting on tumblr about it. some things never change.

[the-gentleman-sockmonkey]

[moorheadthanyoucanhandle]

CAUGHT ‘22

2022 is unlikely, it seems to me, to go down in history as a banner year for popular movies. But even in less auspicious years, there are always some good flicks, and some good or even great scenes or performances in movies that aren't so great overall.

Out of what I saw, here are ten movies that stood out as best for me this past year:

Nope--Jordan Peele's latest is probably the best UFO movie since Close Encounters, though it has a more sinister edge. It's wildly original, funny and creepy sci-fi/horror, yet it also carries the heroic charge of a good western.

Good Night Oppy--This documentary about the Mars rovers Opportunity and Spirit has interesting information about the Red Planet, but it's really about the way the NASA nerds anthropomorphized the robots and fretted over them and cheered them on and ultimately grieved over them. In an entirely unpretentious way, the movie hints at the question of where sentience comes from.

The Duke--This pandemic-delayed release was, I thought, perhaps the most overlooked and delightful movie of the year. Jim Broadbent is splendid as Kempton Bunton, a cab driver, factory worker and anti-television fee protestor who in 1965 confessed to stealing Goya's Portrait of the Duke of Wellington from the National Gallery in London; Helen Mirren is his fed-up wife. The direction, by the late Roger Michell, is warm, graphically lively and period-rich.

Everything Everywhere All At Once--Family drama, immigrant saga, sly comedy, martial arts actioner, Matrix-style sci-fi adventure and more are mashed-up in this freaky yarn from writer-directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert that tries to live up to its title. It's epic, intimate, silly and profound. All at once.

Thirteen Lives--Dramatizing a technically complicated rescue mission in detail, Ron Howard is in his element in this moving account of the rescue of twelve Thai kids and their soccer coach from a flooded cave in 2018. A little tough if you're claustrophobic, but a true feel-good movie.

The Whale--Brendan Fraser gives a luminous, possibly generational performance as Charlie, a morbidly obese English teacher trying to reconnect with his furious estranged daughter. Directed by Darren Aronofsky, the movie is a little heavy and one-note aside from the star, but Fraser's radiance shines through the prosthetics.

Gabby Giffords Won't Back Down--Infuriating because of what Giffords lost when she was shot in 2011; inspirational because of how much she got back, and how courageously she refused to give in to despair. Directors Julie Cohen and Betsy West build the movie around how central music was to Giffords' recovery.

The Fabelmans--In Steven Spielberg's loosely autobiographical coming-of-age yarn, scripted by Tony Kushner, the focus is largely on the parents, beautifully played by Paul Dano and Michelle Williams. The movie isn't a grand slam, but it's fascinating, and it has the best final shot of the year.

Marcel the Shell With Shoes On--This feature expansion of the 2010 viral short by Dean Fleischer-Camp, with Jenny Slate voicing the tiny title character, is sunny and hilarious, but with improbably dramatic and poignant undertones. Isabella Rossellini is exquisite as the voice of Marcel's "Nan."

The Banshees of Inisherin--Martin McDonagh's black comedy about the agonies of friendship goes so sour in its later acts that I almost didn't put it on the list. But the brilliance of the initial conception and, especially, the magnificent acting of Brendan Gleeson, Colin Farrell, Barry Keoghan and Kerry Condon demand its inclusion.

One more list, while I'm at it; for anyone who might unfathomably be interested, here is the embarrassingly short list of books I read this year (as always, it doesn't include short stories, poems, comic books, essays, articles, reviews, automotive manuals, skywriting, menus, fortune cookie fortunes, etc etc)...

The Silent Gondoliers by William Nolan

Sucker's Portfolio by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Orphans of the Sky by Robert A. Heinlein

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning by Alan Sillitoe

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein

The Spread by Barry Malzberg

Ben by Gilbert A. Ralston

Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

The Investigation by Stanislaw Lem

The Werewolf Principle by Clifford D. Simak

Destry Rides Again by Max Brand

[thatwritererinoriordan]

I really like the idea that we only have to change (repeal) one law: The law that prevents gun manufacturers from being sued by the victims of gun violence. Let the people bring lawsuits that can be decided by a jury of their peers--that gives us one additional legal right and doesn't take away any rights. More freedom, yay! A most elegant solution.

[daziechane]

You should be able to read that without a subscription. But here it is if you can't:

By Gabrielle Giffords

Ms. Giffords was a Democratic U.S. representative from Arizona from 2007 to 2012. She is the founder of Giffords, a national organization dedicated to saving lives from gun violence.

After every shooting, blame and rationalizations fly. I know, because I was shot in the head at a 2011 congressional event near my home in Tucson, Ariz. Eighteen other people were shot at that event, six of whom died. In the weeks that followed, there were all kinds of arguments as to why and how that could have happened. To me, only one rang true: Someone dangerous had access to a gun.

There have now been two assassination attempts on former President Donald Trump in just over two months. Two separate assailants, in possession of semiautomatic weapons, came terrifyingly close to inflicting great harm. But the through line here isn’t Mr. Trump. The through line isn’t the Secret Service. The through line isn’t heated rhetoric. The through line is, as it always is, the guns.

We are a country weary of repetitive gun violence. When that happens, you have a school shooting on a Wednesday and the country’s attention has moved on by Friday. You have a country where shootings on interstate highways appear to be a pattern and students in Kentucky miss several days of school during a manhunt for the perpetrator of the most recent interstate shooting. I imagine many people reading this right now might not even know about that shooting, or that manhunt, or those kids in Kentucky, doing schoolwork at home because it’s not safe to go to school.

Political rhetoric matters — but rhetoric wasn’t in the bushes around Mr. Trump’s golf course, or on the interstate in Kentucky, or in the school hallways in Georgia, or at the Trump rally in Butler, Pa. Dangerous people with guns were. The most recent would-be attack on the former president, on Sunday, is an indicator of where we are as a nation: a place where no one is safe from gun violence.

There’s no doubt that our political debate needs to cool down. We live in a participatory democracy with a wide range of opinions. We always have times when emotions are running hot; it’s inevitable.

What’s not inevitable is angry or inexplicably violent people having such easy access to guns. In Pennsylvania, a gunman too young to buy a beer nonetheless got his hands on a semiautomatic rifle. In Georgia, the high school shooting suspect was 14, and used an AR-15-style rifle. In Kentucky, the suspected gunman reportedly sent a text message declaring his intention to “kill a lot of people” and then opened fire with an AR-15-style rifle. Nothing about these episodes was inevitable.

I didn’t grow up in a country with a lot of school shootings, or mass shootings generally. The gun industry was granted broad legal immunity by Congress in 2005 through the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, a major contributing factor to the soaring number of gun sales. That was great for gun company profits, and terrible for public safety. With the saturation of guns and loosening of gun laws came, unsurprisingly, a saturation of violence. Gun deaths have skyrocketed since the gun industry received that immunity. So when Senator JD Vance, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, says school shootings are a “fact of life,” he should know: They weren’t a fact of life in this country until guns proliferated and loopholes in our laws allowed dangerous people to get them.

I am, at heart, a political moderate. I believe that successful governing requires a measure of moderation — pragmatic concessions that lead to the breakthroughs that move us forward. The value of moderation is that it allows us to find common purpose and to act on solutions. But moderation without action is merely a different kind of talk, and talk is not what’s wanted or needed now.

How can we tell Americans it’s safe to send their kids to school, to head to the grocery store, to attend concerts or houses of worship — or political events with their families — if we won’t acknowledge the danger that weak gun laws present, and won’t take reasonable steps to keep them secure? All over the country parents are having to answer their children’s questions about whether school is protected, about why these guns threaten their childhoods and their lives.

One thing I learned as a candidate and elected official myself was never to try to talk people out of their own reality. Americans know the dangers of gun violence. They see it in their communities and on their news every week. Now they’ve seen a heavily guarded former president as the target of gun violence twice in just over two months.

And Americans know the difference between action and inaction. Recent research from my gun violence protection organization, Giffords, found that 95 percent of likely voters in battleground House districts — including 91 percent of people who voted for Mr. Trump in 2020 — support background checks on all gun sales, which would make it harder for dangerous people to get guns. Seventy-four percent of those survey respondents support banning weapons like the AR-15 and the AK-style rifles, the weapons implicated in the events this week, last week and the week before.

I have fought so hard to recover from my grievous wounds. I’ve fought hard to work, to stand shoulder to shoulder with other survivors and demand different gun laws. I’ve worked so hard to find my voice — as hard as it is, as much as I struggle to find the right words — to share not just my story of violence but also my deep belief in the American people, that we can find a different, safer way of living.

It’s Monday morning as I write this. Earlier today, students threw books and papers into their backpacks, grabbed lunch or their water bottles and headed out to school. We have promised them safety, but how can we look them, or their parents, in the face and pretend that the answer is anything other than changing easy access to guns? Our path forward requires us all — leaders, voters, Americans — to name the problem clearly and to take action.

[haveievermentioned]

If Alan does get out of the dark place, imagine Barry and Alice catching him up on the news.

Alan: Okay, so... We have this "Arab Spring" thing, A Syrian Civil War which is related, multiple assassinations or attempted assassinations, the US is revealed to be torturing people, South Sudan joins the UN, the end of the space shuttle program, something called "Occupy Wall Street", Kim Jong-Il dies, and a major video game called "Minecraft" is released. Wow that is a lot. Barry: That's just 2011. Alan:... Why are you giving me shots? Alice: there was a pandemic in 2020. Alan: And it's... 2023 now? Alice: yes. Barry: We have SO MUCH MORE to tell you.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Allison Janowski at DNC:

5:30 PM Call to Order Minyon Moore Chair of the 2024 Democratic National Convention Committee Gavel In The Honorable Veronica Escobar Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Texas Invocation Everett Kelly National President of the American Federation of Government Employees Imam Muhammad Abdul-Aleem Masjidullah Mosque, West Oak Lane, PA Presentation of Colors Illinois State Police Honor Guard Pledge of Allegiance Luna Maring 6th Grader from Oakland, California Welcome Remarks The Honorable Veronica Escobar Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Texas Joint Remarks Becky Pringle President of the National Education Association Randi Weingarten President of the American Federation of Teachers Remarks The Honorable Alex Padilla United States Senator, California

6:00 PM

Remarks The Honorable Marcia L. Fudge Former United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Remarks The Honorable Ted W. Lieu Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, California Remarks The Honorable Tammy Baldwin United States Senator, Wisconsin Remarks The Honorable Katherine Clark U.S. House of Representatives Democratic Whip Remarks The Honorable Joe Neguse U.S. House of Representatives Assistant Democratic Leader Remarks The Honorable Leonardo Williams Mayor of Durham, North Carolina Remarks The Honorable Raja Krishnamoorthi Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Illinois Remarks The Honorable Bob Casey United States Senator, Pennsylvania Remarks The Honorable Elizabeth Warren United States Senator, Massachusetts Remarks: “Project 2025—Chapter Four: Making America Weaker and Less Secure” The Honorable Jason Crow Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Colorado Remarks The Honorable Elissa Slotkin Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Michigan Remarks The Honorable Pat Ryan Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, New York Remarks Reverend Al Sharpton Civil rights leader Joint Remarks from representatives of “the Central Park Five” The Honorable Dr. Yusef Salaam Member of the New York City Council Korey Wise Activist Raymond Santana Activist Kevin Richardson Activist

7:00 PM

Joint Remarks Amy Resner Former prosecutor and friend of Vice President Harris Karrie Delaney Director of Federal Affairs at the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network Lisa Madigan Former Attorney General of Illinois Marc H. Morial President of the National Urban League Nathan Hornes Former student at Corinthian Colleges Tristan Snell Former New York State Assistant Attorney General Remarks The Honorable Maura Healey Governor of Massachusetts Remarks Courtney Baldwin Youth organizer and human trafficking survivor Remarks The Honorable Deb Haaland Remarks John Russell Content creator Remarks The Honorable Maxwell Alejandro Frost Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Florida Remarks The Honorable Colin Allred Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Texas Joint Remarks on “A New American Chapter” Anya Cook, Florida Craig Sicknick, New Jersey Gail DeVore, Colorado Juanny Romero, Nevada Eric, Christian, and Carter Fitts, North Carolina

8:00 PM

National Anthem The Chicks Host Introduction Kerry Washington Joint Remarks Meena Harris Ella Emhoff Helena Hudlin Remarks D.L. Hughley Remarks The Honorable Chris Swanson Sheriff of Genesee County, Michigan A Conversation on Gun Violence The Honorable Lucy McBath Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Georgia Joined by Abbey Clements of Newton, Connecticut, Kim Rubio of Uvalde, Texas, Melody McFadden of Charleston, South Carolina, and Edgar Vilchez of Chicago, Illinois. Remarks The Honorable Gabrielle Giffords Former Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Arizona Performance P!NK Remarks The Honorable Mark Kelly United States Senator, Arizona Remarks The Honorable Leon E. Panetta Former United States Secretary of Defense Remarks The Honorable Ruben Gallego Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Arizona Remarks The Honorable Gretchen Whitmer Governor of Michigan

9:00 PM

Remarks Eva Longoria American actress and film producer Remarks The Honorable Adam Kinzinger Former Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Illinois Remarks Maya Harris Remarks The Honorable Roy Cooper Governor of North Carolina Remarks The Honorable Kamala Harris Vice President of the United States

The speakers list for the 4th and final night of the DNC is here. The main speaker is Vice President and Democratic Presidential nominee Kamala Harris.

There could be a surprise guest or two.

Other notable speakers: Elizabeth Warren, Gretchen Whitmer, Ted Lieu, Tammy Baldwin, Al Sharpton, Roy Cooper, Gabby Giffords, Mark Kelly, and Maxwell Alejandro Frost

Performers: The Chicks, P!nk.

Illinois: Lisa Madigan, Raja Krishnamoorthi, Adam Kinzinger

[coralreeferband]

I would not be sending him to Tucson

I’d tell him to park it in the rust belt

AZ deserves the B-team right now

[deadpresidents]

The media keeps saying things like "this is unheard of". NO, IT'S NOT.

JFK. RFK. George Wallace. Gerald Ford (twice). Ronald Reagan. Steve Scalise. Gabby Giffords. Not to mention Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and MLK. And that's all since 1960. This happens pretty often in the United States.

And is anyone surprised that there's been an act of political violence in 2024? Every conversation I hear is dancing on the edge of "political violence."

[qqueenofhades]

I am FULLY ONBOARD the Harris/Waltz train, tho before this i was leaning towards Mark Kelly (AZ is a swing state! He's an ASTRONAUT!) If you want or have time, no pressure, but any thoughts on what makes Waltz a better pick?

I like Mark Kelly too, and since he's married to Gabby Giffords (having run for public office after she got shot and could no longer do so) he would have been an amazing pick in terms of supporting the first female POTUS. But he is a less charismatic public speaker than Walz (for whatever that's worth, but politics is a mess of Aesthetics and Vibes that matter as much and/or more than actual facts) and more moderate/conservative. He's been a great senator and picking him would defuse some of the BORDER IMMIGRATION BLAH BLAH!!! scaremongering that Republicans love to run on, but it would also leave open the possibility of losing a special election and other dangers with the Democratic senate that we really need to minimize. So Walz is a better choice for that alone, but also:

He really has serious progressive credentials as governor, even if he was a fairly mainstream Democrat (who flipped a rural red House district in Minnesota that Democrats have not been able to win again after he left) during his 12 years in the House. This is an INCOMPLETE LIST of what he was able to do in two years with a one-seat Democratic majority in Minnesota:

A Climate Action Plan that included:

Investing in energy infrastructure

100% carbon-free electricity by 2040 goal

Transition off of fossil fuels and onto clean energy resources

Building more electric vehicle charging stations

Providing funding to help workers acquire new skills through apprenticeship programs in clean energy fields

Direct state funding for transit

Money for rail

Tax credit for e-bikes

Permitting form to fast-track clean energy projects

And that was in addition to:

Codified abortion access in Minnesota

Guaranteed paid sick time and paid family and medical leave

Funded replacing ALL LEAD PIPES IN THE STATE

Free school breakfasts and lunches for all

Made public college free

Stronger labor protections

Drivers’ Licenses for All

Voting Rights Act to reverse recent court rulings that make voting harder, including restored voting rights to convicted felons

Banning medical debt from credit bureaus

The "Taylor Swift Bill" requiring all ticket "junk fees" be shown up front

Banning most "junk fees"

No book bans

Protection for tipped workers

Banned non-competes

Legalized recreational cannabis

Gun control, including increased penalties for straw purchases of firearms, expanded background checks and enacted red-flag laws, passing gun safety measures that the GOP has thwarted for years

Made MN a Trans Refuge State, and required health plans to cover “medically necessary gender-affirming care.”

Pay increase for Uber and Lyft drivers

Elimination of the so-called “gay panic defense”

A ban on “doxxing” election workers

A prohibition on “swatting” elected officials

In March, during the height of the Gaza/uncommitted primary protests against Biden, Walz said that young people should be listened to and they had a right to be speaking up and the situation in Gaza was horrible and intolerable, without directly slamming Biden or getting involved in the issue in a way to draw negative headlines. Regardless of what you think about any of it, that is a very deft way to handle it and pairs well with Kamala's better responsiveness on the Gaza issue overall. That was a big part of the reason why Gen Z/younger voters were very excited about Walz despite him being an "old" (actually the same age as Kamala but he has joked that teaching high school for 20 years will do that to a guy) white guy. If half the battle in politics is making the right pick to excite your core voters and reach out to new ones, then Harris nailed it. As I have said in earlier posts, there was just too much energy with young voters FINALLY checking in when Harris became the candidate, to risk introducing a big ideological split with Shapiro.

Aside from that: the most insufferable Smart White-Bro Political Pundits (TM) are big mad about Walz, many Never Trumper Republicans thought they were entitled to a "moderate" in exchange for oh-so-generously lending us their vote against Trump and not run the risk that we might end up with someone *gasp* progressive, and the regular MAGA Republicans are hysterical, which means they're terrified. It's also incredibly hard to paint Literal Midwestern Stereotype Dad (football coach, social studies high school teacher, military veteran, etc) as THE EVIL END OF AMERICA in the way they desperately want to do, though the fact that they're trying shows that they've got literally nothing. The fact that Kamala picked Walz against the PREVAILING WISDOM!!! that she had to take Shapiro (for whatever reason that might have been) is also a good sign, because by far the most genuine and extensive enthusiasm that I have seen from Democratic voters, especially those feeling burned out or disillusioned or angry with specific policy choices of the current administration, was for Walz. Having everyone excited for the pick beforehand, effectively using the "weird" line, and rallying behind the guy, only for her to actually go for him, is inspiring. It makes people feel like they're being heard and the Democrats have decided to win by being progressive, and not just endlessly Catering To The (Imaginary) Middle as they have always been told to do (and often done). That alone is MASSIVE.

Walz is tremendously funny, personable, has Democrats from AOC to Joe Manchin praising it (again, shocking), was right out the gate supporting Kamala, has already been majorly successful on TV, was by far the most progressive-on-policy picks of the VP finalists, is incredibly, hilariously wholesome and small-town Midwestern (he's the JD Vance that they wish JD Vance was), and is already sending ActBlue gangbusters with donations again. And when you're getting this kind of response on the Cursed Bird Hellsite, just:

Just. I don't know what's happening either. But let's enjoy it, and then work hard, because we gotta fucking do this and for possibly the first time this entire year, I really think we might. Heck yeah.

[spiders-hth-is-an-outlier]

Also it's been like 15 years since sitting US Senator Gabby Giffords was shot in the head and permanently disabled at a campaign event. Paul Pelosi was clubbed half to death with a goddamn hammer by a man looking for his wife, the Speaker of the House. Don't let a motherfucker who didn't lose 1 night's sleep over either of them wring a single extra second of your attention out of you, let alone seize control of the narrative.