#all she had to do was break from Biden policy
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shellem15 · 2 months ago
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Kamala harris' campaign alienated half their damn voter base by catering to the mythical "moderate republican" and refusing to give anyone any damn reason to vote FOR her. And now liberals are going to blame Arabs and leftists and anti-genocide protestors instead of the democratic party's complete incompetence for Trump's win. Absolutely ridiculous state of things.
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probablyasocialecologist · 2 months ago
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Harris stretched her coalition into incoherence. Inhumanly—as well as fruitlessly—she attempted to score points from the right on immigration, accusing Trump of insufficient dedication to building the wall. Her cack-handed performances of sympathy with Palestinians accompanied an evident commitment to follow Benjamin Netanyahu into a regional war. The Harris campaign featured a grab bag of policies, some good, some bad, but sharing no clear thematic unity or vision. She almost always offered evasive answers to challenging questions. And she adopted a generally aristocratic rather than demotic manner, which placed the candidate and her elite friends and allies at the center rather than the people they sought to represent. In these ways, Harris repeated not only Hillary Clinton’s errors but many of the same ones that she herself had made in her ill-starred 2019 presidential campaign, which opportunistically tacked left rather than right, but with equal insincerity and incoherence. Who remembers that campaign’s biggest moment, when she attacked Biden for his opposition to busing and what it would have implied for a younger version of herself, only to reveal when questioned that she also opposed busing? Or when she endorsed Medicare for All, raising her hand in a debate for the idea of private insurance abolition, only to later claim she hadn’t understood the question? Voters, then as now, found her vacuous and unintelligible, a politician of pure artifice seemingly without ideological depths she could draw from and externalize. She often gave the sense of a student caught without having done her homework, trying to work out what she was supposed to say rather than expressing any underlying, decided position. Even abortion rights, her strongest issue, felt at times like a rhetorical prop, given her own and her party’s inaction in the years prior to Dobbs. How many times before had Democrats promised to institutionalize and expand the protections of Roe, only to drop the matter after November?
[...]
The Democrats, in other words, comprehensively failed to set the terms of ideological debate in any respect. Their defensiveness and hypocrisy served only to give encouragement to Trump while demobilizing their own voters, whom they will no doubt now blame—as though millions of disaggregated, disorganized individuals can constitute a culpable agent in the same way a political party’s leadership can. But the party’s leaders are to blame, not that many in the center have cared or even seemed willing to reflect on a decade of catastrophe. Has anyone who complained that the 2020 George Floyd rebellion would cost Democrats votes due to the extremism of its associated demands reckoned with the empirical finding that the opposite proved true? That the narrow victory of Biden in 2020 was likely attributable to noisy protests that liberals wished would be quieter and calmer? Has anyone acknowledged the unique popularity of Sanders with Latinx voters, a once-core constituency that the Democrats are now on the verge of losing outright? The pathologies of the Democrats, though, are in a sense not the result of errors. It is the structural role and composition of the party that produces its duplicitous and incoherent orientation. It is the mainstream party of globalized neoliberal capitalism, and at the same time, by tradition anyway, the party of the working class. As the organized power of the latter has been washed away, the commitment has become somewhat more aspirational: Harris notably cleaned up with the richest income bracket of voters. The only issues on which Harris hinted of a break with Biden concerned more favorable treatment of the billionaires who surrounded her, and her closest advisers included figures like David Plouffe, former senior vice president of Uber, and Harris’s brother-in-law Tony West, formerly the chief legal officer of Uber, who successfully urged her to drop Biden-era populism and cultivate relations with corporate allies.
8 November 2024
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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 4 months ago
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Billboard project
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One for the history books!
September 12, 2024
Robert B. Hubbell
After delivering one of the best debate performances in American political history, Kamala Harris is receiving begrudging and stinting praise from many in the media and commentary class. But 67 million people saw Kamala Harris demonstrate she is made of presidential timber. They witnessed a masterful performance that revealed a penetrating intellect tempered by decency and humanity. On the substance and execution, she should have earned the support of all voters and unqualified praise from the media and political commentators.
Trump's performance was vile and disqualifying. It was worse than Joe Biden’s widely panned debate by far. While Joe Biden turned in a horrible debate performance as measured by the artificial rules of made-for-tv spectacles, Donald Trump made dozens of statements that were objectively depraved, racist, antidemocratic, delusional, and deceitful.
Trump transcended the debate format and devolved into fascist demagoguery that should have resulted in universal condemnation by all voters, the media, and political commentators. If Joe Biden was driven from the presidential race because of his poor debate performance, Trump should be banished from politics, expelled from his party, and relegated to a place of dishonor in the annals of American history.
Talking about the debate is difficult because of the urge to focus on Kamala Harris’s brilliantly executed strategy of baiting Trump into ranting about his insecurities and the horror of Trump's worst-in-the-history-of-the-nation performance on substance.
I get it. Harris’s ninja debating moves and Trump's racist deer-in-the-headlights stare made for riveting television. But we focus on those aspects of the debate to the detriment of the substance of Kamala Harris’s message. She spent a substantial portion of the debate discussing her policies and her plan to help heal the divisions that beset America.
It is disappointing to see so many stories and commentators describe the debate as “fierce” or “contentious.” I heard one commentator on MSNBC bemoan the fact that neither candidate seemed interested in bridging the divide in America. That is false. Kamala Harris promised to be a president for all Americans and to focus on the needs of the people, not the needs and wants of the president. She said, in part,
And I think the American people want better than that. Want better than this. Want someone who understands as I do, I travel our country, we see in each other a friend. We see in each other a neighbor. We don't want a leader who is constantly trying to have Americans point their fingers at each other. I meet with people all the time who tell me "Can we please just have discourse about how we're going to invest in the aspirations and the ambitions and the dreams of the American people?" [¶¶] I've only had one client. The people. And I'll tell you, as a prosecutor I never asked a victim or a witness are you a Republican or a Democrat. The only thing I ever asked them, are you okay? And that's the kind of president we need right now. Someone who cares about you and is not putting themselves first. I intend to be a president for all Americans and focus on what we can do over the next 10 and 20 years to build back up our country by investing right now in you the American people.
Kamala Harris repeatedly offered her policy vision for America, including tax breaks for business startups; subsidizing downpayments for first-time home purchases; incentivizing the construction of starter homes; granting tax credits for families with newborns; investing in American chip technology, quantum computing, and AI; supporting worker’s rights; reducing reliance on fossil fuels; granting tax cuts for the middle class; requiring the ultra-wealthy to pay their fair share of taxes; and protecting the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, and Medicaid. She also promised to protect reproductive liberty, LGBTQ equality, and voting rights of all Americans.
The media has hounded Kamala Harris for weeks about the alleged absence of policies in her campaign. On Tuesday, she talked about dozens of specific policies—and the media is not saying a word about those policies after the debate.
Not. A. Word.
It’s almost as if the media didn’t really care about Kamala Harris’s policies but were only interested in a talking point they could use to criticize her. Hypocrites!
So, before talking about how well Kamala Harris executed her strategy of baiting Trump and how abhorrent Trump's performance and positions were, let’s give Kamala Harris her due on the substance: She gave a presidential-level discourse on policies that will affect the lives of hundreds of millions of Americans. The fact that Trump and the moderators ignored those policies does not diminish the respect she showed for the American people by clearly setting forth her policies if elected as president.
Among the many insipid criticisms of Kamala Harris was that she used facial expressions to convey her disapproval, amusement, and disbelief over Trump's utterances. This was an effective use of her non-speaking time and allowed her to diminish Trump without saying a word.
Dahlia Lithwick demolishes the critics who faulted Kamala’s facial expressions—a criticism that would only be leveled against a woman. See Dahlia Lithwick, Slate, Harris–Trump debate: Kamala Harris’ face on Tuesday was the stuff of legend. (slate.com). Lithwick writes,
It must be beyond maddening for a political actor to be summoned into a “debate” that is not really a debate, pitted against some frothing amalgam of WWE reenactor and Tasmanian devil, warned that your microphone will be muted while he is speaking, cautioned that he will be allowed to talk over you and the moderators, then be criticized for … blinking? [¶¶] Harris’ face roamed free and far on Tuesday, and it was thoroughly warranted and frequently enjoyable. I think of her mobile, legible face as a satisfying call-and-response to Trump’s lifelong preference for female adulation and Botox. Women have faces. Their faces have expressions. If that was upsetting to you during Tuesday’s debate, you might be dismayed to learn that deep beneath our expressive faces lie thoughts, dreams, frustrations, and other markers of human agency. If a woman smiling freaks you out, imagine what happens when a woman votes.
While talking about Kamala Harris’s facial expressions may seem superficial, it is not. One of Harris’s most significant accomplishments was her ability to show herself to be a likable, relatable human being. She did so by using the medium of television to her advantage. Were the expressive facial reactions real or practiced? It doesn’t matter; they were successful. People liked Kamala Harris. For a candidate who has been on the national scene since 2018, the percentage of voters who still say they don’t “know” her is shocking. But she went some distance in the debate to introduce herself to those voters in a positive way.
Among Harris’s many pointed and powerful answers on Tuesday, none were better than her response to Trump's gloating over the demise of Roe v. Wade. Harris said,
In over 20 states there are Trump abortion bans which make it criminal for a doctor or nurse to provide health care. In one state it provides prison for life. Trump abortion bans that make no exception even for rape and incest. Which—understand what that means. A survivor of a crime, a violation to their body, does not have the right to make a decision about what happens to their body next. That is immoral. And one does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree: The government, and Donald Trump certainly, should not be telling a woman what to do with her body. You want to talk about, this is what people wanted? Pregnant women who want to carry a pregnancy to term, suffering from a miscarriage, being denied care in an emergency room because the health care providers are afraid they might go to jail, and she’s bleeding out in a car in the parking lot? She didn’t want that. Her husband didn’t want that. A 12 or 13-year-old survivor of incest being forced to carry a pregnancy to term? They don’t want that. Understand in his Project 2025, there would be a national abortion—a monitor that would be monitoring your pregnancies, your miscarriages.
There is more room to praise Kamala Harris’s performance in the debate, but we must turn to Trump's horrific statements during the debate. So, let’s get Trump’s “debate performance” out of the way: It was the worst debate performance (in terms of style) in the history of political debates. See The Guardian, Republicans dismayed by Trump’s ‘bad’ and ‘unprepared’ debate performance. Brit Hume of Fox News said, “Let’s make no mistake. Trump had a bad night. We just heard so many of the old grievances that we all know aren’t winners politically.” Coming from a Fox commentator, that is as bad as it gets for Trump.
There were many disgraceful, disqualifying statements during the debate by Trump: Refusing to say that he hoped Ukraine would defeat the Russian invasion; refusing to acknowledge that he lost in 2020; refusing to express any regret for his actions on January 6; claiming that “every Democrat” wanted to “get rid of” Roe v. Wade.; and repeatedly saying that execution of babies after a full-term delivery was permissible under existing law.
To state the obvious, if Kamala Harris had uttered a single statement that was one-tenth as egregious as any of the above, the major media would be calling for her withdrawal from the race.
But Trump's worst statement was the race-baiting claim that Haitian immigrants are capturing domestic pets in Springfield, Ohio and eating them. That trope was originally directed at immigrants from other countries but has been repurposed by Trump to slander Haitian immigrants who are legally in the US.
The claim is false and started as triple-hearsay thrice-removed:
On Sept. 6, a post surfaced on X that shared what looked like a screengrab of a social media post apparently out of Springfield. The retweeted post talked about the person’s “neighbor’s daughter’s friend” seeing a cat hanging from a tree to be butchered and eaten, claiming without evidence that Haitians lived at the house.
So, a “screenshot” of a retweet (three levels removed from personal knowledge) talked about a “neighbor’s daughter’s friend” (three more levels removed from personal knowledge). In short, the claim is the worst sort of internet rumor—intentionally unverifiable. Repeating such a rumor is beneath a candidate for the presidency.
But the crassness of repeating the rumor is the least of the offense. Trump did not repeat a rumor—he asserted the rumor as “fact” for the purpose of stirring racial hatred against Haitian immigrants. The false rumor has been circulating for weeks among right-wing websites that attack Haitian immigrants as the cause of an increase in crime in Springfield. See WaPo, Anatomy of a racist smear: How false claims of pet-eating immigrants caught on.
Trump then leveraged the cat-eating Haitian claim to smear all immigrants as law-breaking, violent, less-than-human invaders whom he would deport en masse from the US. The entire episode was an appeal to the most racist, xenophobic backwaters of American society. It was shameful and divisive. It may lead to violence against immigrants—just as past statements by Trump have led to violence against immigrants in Texas. See NBC (8/5/2019), Trump's anti-immigrant 'invasion' rhetoric was echoed by the El Paso shooter for a reason.
No modern presidential candidate has appealed to racial animus during a presidential debate. Trump's attack on the Haitian community should have been the end of his candidacy. As should his statements about Ukraine, the 2020 election, January 6, and abortion—and that list excludes his dozens of other falsehoods.
In short, the debate should move the needle in favor of Kamala Harris. Whether it will do so is a different question—one that will be determined, in part, by whether the media maintains the same intense focus on Trump's  debate performance that it maintained on Biden’s debate performance in July. On the substance, Trump's debate performance was objectively worse, by far. Let’s hope the media doesn’t get distracted by the less consequential matters.
[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]
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lizbethborden · 4 months ago
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I think the point these people make is that thinking that Harris is better than Trump is an illusion. They're two sides of the same coin, funding cop cities, funding racist anti immigration programs, funding Israel's genocide in Gaza, spreading dangerous islamophobic antisemitic misogynistic etc rhetoric. Trump is just doing it in a vulgar style. Harris has been vice president for a while now and her administration has not undone much of the work of Trump, when it hasnt prolonged or amplified it. So I think lots of people are feeling defeated, disillusioned, and like they are being manipulated when the 'at least she's not Trump' argument is brought forth. If she's not Trump, but signs off on the same policies and budgets, and represses protests the same way, there is no difference on the ground. Also I think more people are becoming radicalized and hope for a global change - third party candidates, the people's revolution, whatever. It's a rejection of the establishment altogether rather than rejecting just one - I understand the frustration but I can't fault people who refuse to participate in a system that they feel is working against them regardless of the outcome.
I take issue with a lot of the framing of this response.
First of all, it's not Harris' administration; it's Biden's. I'm not going to argue she has no agency as a political actor, but the way the system works is that he is the central driver of action and policy. Arguing that she, personally, should have accomplished more is frankly silly, both when 1) they HAVE accomplished quite a lot and 2) where they have struggled to accomplish goals, it is often because of deadlocks in the legislative branch, where Republicans hold a majority in the House and Democrats only the slightest majority in the Senate (and considering one of their number is Joe Manchin, it kind of doesn't count).
To the point that they HAVE accomplished a lot:
Established the Office for Gun Violence Prevention and signed anti-gun violence legislation into law
Passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which has significant climate change and drug price provisions
Approved literal billions in debt relief for people with student debt, with still more to come
Signed an executive order to regulate AI usage and to scrutinize use of AI for potential discriminatory effects
Passed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, allocating over $400 billion for infrastructure works
Pushed protections for consumers re: airline travel and its exorbitant fees and delays, via DoT and Pete Buttigieg
Achieved a 3.5% unemployment rate, which is the lowest in 50 years
Harris also has, explicitly, called for a ceasefire in Gaza and in fact had her intended statements about the humanitarian crisis there "watered down" by officials, ostensibly so that she didn't seem to be breaking away from Biden's approach to Israel and the genocide. I am not going to argue that the Biden-Harris administration is perfect, does no wrong, or does not have significant responsibility for dangerous, violent policies and political actions. That's the nature of Western government and it would be deeply offensive to suggest otherwise. But to suggest that they're just Trump but more polite is inaccurate and honestly shows a significant degree of political ignorance. Also very odd to suggest that a Black woman is like, equally as racist as Trump?
Moreover, the head-in-the-sand, I-would-prefer-not-to, "the revolution will come soon so no worries :D" approach is simply not helpful in the day-to-day. So, I, for one, absolutely can fault people who choose not to participate in the actions that will have significant effects on the day-to-day governance of the country in which they live. If the idea is to sit around and complain until all the oligarchs get beheaded, nothing will get done. This is the exact attitude taken during the 2016 election, which actually got Trump elected and resulted in the policies that killed large numbers of people during COVID, exacerbated racist and islamophobic violence, and nearly led to a white supremacist Christian nationalist coup that overthrew the government. If you're fine with that, good for you. I, personally, am not.
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messed-up-stargazer · 2 months ago
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Political Rant Incoming
I’m not usually one to talk about my own personal politics but after today. I cant keep this inside. If you’re looking for something positive, resources to help people, this is not the place. I am angry, I’m feeling hopeless,and I need to let it out in order to be strong again.
If you are not President Biden, then you can skip this if you need to. Or stay, I don’t really care. We need to take care of our mental health to prepare, so make the right choice for yourself.
Note: nothing in this letter is threatening, secret service. Not only am I against violence in itself, but I wouldn’t be stupid enough to post my threats to the actual president on a fucking tumblr post. I’m not like the fucking rioters who posted all about them invading the capital like the fucking traitors they are. They can protest that name, but that doesn’t mean it’s not true.
Dear President Biden:
You’ve damned us. You’ve damned this country. You made a promise to this country and you betrayed us. Your ego was more important than every single person in this country, every man, woman, genderqueer person, every single one of us. You promised us you would be a one term president. You promised us. We didn’t want you, but we sucked it up for the country because you won the primary for reasons I don’t even know at this point. you appealed to old people, and they’re the most consistent voting block, because they’ve got nothing else to fucking do. So we voted you in in order to save our country. And look what you’ve done to us.
Every trans person’s death that comes from his presidency is on your soul. Every family that dies from poverty, every woman who loses everything or even dies from the lack of abortion services, every Palestinian’s death, they’re going to stain your soul and send you down to Hell, Mr. President. You have damned this country, you have damned the world, and while I don’t believe in Hell, you fucking do and you’re fucking going there. You failed the world, Mr. President. Not just Americans, but the world. The world was watching as we just did the stupidest thing in our country’s history, and it’s all because of you.
You may be saying Star, I wasn’t even the nominee. How could I be responsible for so many deaths that he is going to cause with his disastrous policies? Let me tell you. You didn’t give the country a chance. While I liked Kamala Harris’s policies, you forced her onto the country. She needed to run her own race. It is entirely, 100% your fault that we didn’t have an actual primary because you decided to break your promise. We could’ve chosen someone who had a much better shot at winning than the Black, Indian woman. I wanted so badly for her to win, it’s about fucking time that a woman be elected president, but she was never going to convince the moderate republicans just because she���s all three of those things. They do not think women can run the country, and as much as they’re wrong, we needed them to sit out or vote for us. And you didn’t give anyone else the chance to be a better candidate for them. Because as much as we hate it, because of the goddamn electoral college, we need to get the moderates on our side, because the moderates decide elections. The people who don’t pay attention to politics, the people who don’t remember what the last administration was like, they decided the election. And you didn’t give us a chance to win those people older.
You never should’ve ran for a second term. It was your ego, your desire for power that had you thinking you could run again, after you promised you wouldn’t! You’re already the oldest president we’ve ever had, we can see you declining, we could see it for years, and you still fucking ran again! It was your choice and your choice alone. Every harm that is felt during the next administration is going to be entirely on you. I hope you feel every death, every sob of the people who are forced to become homeless, every scream as a child has to carry her rapists baby to term, every soul as despair sets in when they realize they don’t have enough money to live because of the inevitable recession he’s going to cause. Because you are the reason it will happen. There is no one else to blame but you. You stayed far too long in the race, and then to add insult to injury, right at the end, you pulled a fucking “basket of deplorables”. You tripped the country at the finish line, and every hurt that comes from the injuries that our country, that our world endures is on you. You made choice after choice, and you’ve damned us!
I won’t say I hated the Biden administration. Some of what you did was great, some of what you did was really progressive. And it’s all ruined now because he’s going to undo every single thing, just like he did with Obama. Every good thing you did for the country will now be erased and you will have no lasting positive legacy on this country. Your legacy will forever be “he gave us a second trump term.” When history books write about you, they will treat you like Neville Chamberlain. As a failure. As a weakling. Except you’ll also be labeled egoistic and maybe even narcissistic because you refused to put your ego aside and let the democratic voters choose a candidate we wanted.
Since I know you’re Catholic, when you die (which I hope isn’t soon, I could never wish death on anyone truly) you believe you’ll meet God. When he shows you your lasting legacy of pain and devastation and he asks you, “why didn’t you keep your promise to the people of America and step down gracefully? Why did you run again and not give the American people a chance? You knew how dangerous he was, how dangerous his policies would be.” I doubt your answer of “I still wanted to be president.” Will be good enough for him!
Signed,
A lesbian who is absolutely terrified of what’s going to happen to her and her country
PS- And to those of you who voted for Russian plant Jill Stein (seen with fucking Putin, no regular American citizen is ever seen with him!) you did exactly as Russia wanted you to. You did exactly what we said you would. We told you if you voted for Jill Stein, the votes would go to trump, and we were right. Especially those of you who live in swing states. For all of you single issue voters who claimed that you couldn’t vote for Kamala because of Palestine, I hope you can live with what you’ve done because he’s said he wants to wipe Palestine off the map. He wants to put his hotels and golf courses on Palestinian land, and when he starts selling weapons to Israel again, as he said he would!, they’re going to give him the opportunity to do just that. And their blood will be on your hands too. I hope that moral superiority feels good now. I hope you fucking choke on it.
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countessravengrey · 2 months ago
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“I disagree with Kamala’s position on the war in Gaza..."
Bernie Sanders sets the record straight on Palestine and the election:
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"| understand that there are millions of Americans who disagree with President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on the terrible war in Gaza.
I am one of them.
While Israel had a right to defend itself against the horrific Hamas terrorist attack of October 7th, which killed 1,200 innocent people and took 250 hostages, it did not have a right to wage an all-out war against the entire Palestinian people.
It did not have the right to kill 42,000 Palestinians, two-thirds of whom were children, women, and the elderly, or injure over 100,000 people in Gaza.
It did not have the right to destroy Gaza's infrastructure, housing, and healthcare system. It did not have the right to bomb every one of Gaza's 12 universities.
It did not have the right to block humanitarian aid, causing massive malnutrition in children and, in fact, starvation.
And that is why I am doing everything I can to block U.S. military aid and offensive weapon sales to the right-wing extremist Netanyahu government in Israel. And I know that many of you share those feelings, and some of you are saying:
"How can I vote for Kamala Harris if she is supporting this terrible war?"
And that is a very fair question. And let me give you my best answer. And that is that even on this issue, Donald Trump and his right-wing friends are worse. In the Senate, in Congress, the Republicans have worked overtime to block humanitarian aid to the starving children in Gaza. The President and Vice President both support getting as much humanitarian aid into Gaza as soon as possible.
Trump has said Netanyahu is "doing a good job" and has said Biden is "holding him back." He has suggested the Gaza strip would make excellent beachfront property for development. And it is no wonder Netanyahu prefers to have Donald Trump in office.
But even more importantly - and this I promise you - after Kamala wins, we will together do everything that we can to change U.S. policy toward Netanyahu. An immediate ceasefire, the return of all hostages, a surge of massive humanitarian aid, the stopping of settler attacks on the West Bank, and the rebuilding of Gaza for the Palestinian people.
And let me be clear. We will have, in my view, a much better chance of changing U.S. policy with Kamala than with Trump, who is extremely close to Netanyahu and sees him as a like-minded right-wing extremist ally.
But let me also say this - and I deal with this every single day as a U.S. Senator - as important as Gaza is, and as strongly as many of us feel about this issue, it is not the only issue at stake in this election.
If Trump wins. women in this country will suffer an enormous setback and lose the ability to control their own bodies. That is not acceptable.
If Trump wins, to be honest with you, the struggle against climate change is over. While virtually every scientist who has studied the issue understands that climate change is real and an existential threat to our country and the world, Trump believes it is a "hoax." And if the United States, the largest economy in the world, stops transforming our energy system away from fossil fuel, every other country - China, Europe, all over the world - they will do exactly the same thing. And God only knows the kind of planet we will leave to our kids and future generations.
If Trump wins, at a time of massive income and wealth inequality, he will demand even more tax breaks for the very richest people in our country while cutting back on programs that working families desperately need. The rich will only get richer while the minimum wage will remain at $7.25 an hour and millions of our fellow workers will continue to earn starvation wages.
Did you all see the recent Trump rally at Madison Square Gardens? Well, I did. And what I can tell you is that, as a nation, as all of you know, we have struggled for years, against impossible odds, to overcome all forms of bigotry - whether it's racism, whether it's sexism, whether it's homophobia, whether it's xenophobia, you name it. We have tried to fight against bigotry. But that is exactly what we saw on display at that unbelievable Trump rally. It was not a question of speakers getting up there, disagreeing with Kamala Harris on the issue. That wasn't the issue at all. They were attacking her simply because she was a woman, and a woman of color. Extreme, vulgar sexism and racism.
Is that really the kind of America that we can allow?
So let me conclude by saying this: this is the most consequential election in our lifetimes. Many of you have differences of opinion with Kamala Harris on Gaza. So do I.
But we cannot sit this election out. Trump has got to be defeated. Let's do everything we can in the next week to make sure that Kamala Harris is our next president.
Thank you very much."
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odinsblog · 1 month ago
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[re: this this post and this post]
Let’s keep it 💯: Joe Biden did a terrible fucking job of managing post-COVID healthcare. And before I anger all of the but-he-was-better-than-the-alternative liberals, yeah, sure, he is better than Trump, but that is a laughably low bar. Aim higher, demand fucking better from our elected leaders.
So a while back I agreed that today I would take someone to get their latest COVID shot, but I got a frantic phone call from them saying that they don’t have the money to pay for their shot and they are uninsured and don’t qualify for Obamacare. And I was like, “No dude, you can get your shot for free at CVS or Walgreens or someplace like that,” and just to reassure them, I called CVS (with them on the phone), and unfortunately we learned that CVS is now charging $166 per vaccination shot.
After a little digging, I did find some places that offer free vacations, but they have long ass lines and limited hours of availability that don’t match up with my friend’s work schedule … so I’m gonna bite the bullet and just pay for their shot myself.
I am so mf mad rn.
This is what happens when you elect conservative ass “Democrats” who side with big pharmaceutical companies like Gilead and value cAPitALism over people’s health.
Vaccines should be fucking free. All vaccines. Every fucking one of them. And I mean free to anyone who wants them. Periodt.
And just because I know how annoyingly asinine sycophantic liberals can get if you aren’t constantly and profusely praising whoever the democratic president is, lemme remind you that not only did Biden declare, “The pandemic is over - Back to normal, back to work!” while walking around without a mask at an international car show, but in capitulating to conservatives, Biden also made an unprecedented change to America’s immigration policy by forcing asylum seekers to wait in other countries until we get around to processing their paperwork, and Biden also deported a shit ton of non-European asylum seekers (especially Haitians; see also: Title 42).
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And Biden proudly and repeatedly announcing that he is a “proud Zionist” as he allowed funded Israel’s genocide against Palestinians was probably not too helpful for Harris defeating Trump. And now that I think about it, waiting so damn long to step aside for Kamala to run wasn’t very helpful either—she had about 100 days to run a campaign against Trump (and I’m not saying her campaign was perfect, but Biden’s waiting so damn long absolutely hobbled her).
And speaking of waiting too long, Biden constantly waiting to arm Ukraine wasn’t thee most helpful thing either—like damn, what’s the difference between arming them with long range weapons now (when you have only 2 months left in your term), versus arming Ukrainians 2 fucking years ago when it would have made a bigger difference, and would have saved more Ukrainians?? If it’s safe to arm them now, then it was probably safe to arm them at the beginning of Putin’s colonialist war of aggression.
I’m sorry, yes, I voted for him (and Kamala), but Joe Biden was a shitty ass president. I do not want another Republican-lite, cop loving “Democrat” who values chasing conservative white voters more than trying to listen to and at least pretend to placate the Democratic base.
At the end of the day, Joe Biden will have helped move the Democratic Party further right, just as Bill Clinton did in the 90s.
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Oh, and remember when Biden promised to waive copyright patents so that other countries could make their own COVID vaccines? He never did that, did he?? But many of y’all insisted on giving him credit just for saying that he would. But he didn’t.
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If Biden had any damn nads, and if he wasn’t sO addicted to following all the rules that Republicans have and will continue breaking, he would go buck wild in his last two months and forgive all student debt, pardon people, and just do whatever good he can while he still has the power to do so.
Anyway, I said what tf I said.
If you don’t like it, you know where the block button is.
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justinspoliticalcorner · 2 months ago
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Qasim Rashid at Let's Address This:
This article will upset some people. But my responsibility as a human rights lawyer is not to speak soothing falsehoods, but hard truths. The Democratic Party has lost two winnable Presidential elections in the last three contests, resulting in devastating consequences for the American people. This moment calls for self-reflection and self-analysis. The fate of our republic is literally at stake, and we cannot afford continued failure. What went wrong, and how do we fix this? Let’s Address This.
A Quick Overview
Let’s start with some high level points. Black women and Black men showed up, voting 92% and 78%, respectively, for Harris. White women and white men, meanwhile, voted 52% and 59%, respectively, for Trump. Latino men shifted right 18% from 2020, and 54% voted for Trump in 2024. Latino women shifted right 7% from 2020, and 37% voted Trump in 2024. In short, Black people showed up for Harris, white people showed up for Trump, and Latino’s shifted right to Trump—with the overall majority of Latinos still voting for Harris.
Let’s also acknowledge the continued failure of legacy media. From LA Times and Washington Post refusing to endorse any candidate, to CBS and CNN refusing to fact check the Presidential debates, to the New York Times whitewashing Trump’s clear cognitive decline—legacy media absconded in its responsibility to hold powerful politicians accountable. Many will note that while Biden’s age was a constant state of focus, the moment he resigned media completely forgot that Trump is only a few years younger than Biden. Next, racism and misogyny absolutely played a damaging role in this election. Legacy media gobbled up Trump’s attempts to question Harris’s identity, distracting from issues that matter—like her actual policies. Disinformation about Haitian migrants created fear and hate of Black people and of immigrants. Misogyny and racism continued to dominate political discourse and Harris faced the onslaught of both, undoubtedly costing her votes in ways she had no ability to mitigate.
And finally, third party candidates like Jill Stein, Cornell West, and RFK played their roles in trying to break up the duopoly, with negligible success. Election results demonstrate that Stein did not cost Harris any electoral votes, and little evidence exists that her involvement played any meaningful role in Trump’s win. In other words, she did not pull a Nader 2000. All of the above are factors that impacted the election, but none of them individually, or even collectively, prevented Harris’s victory. It is critical the Democratic Party reflect on the matters within their control that they fumbled—fumbles that directly resulted in a Harris loss and Trump re-election to the White House—if they have any real hope of preventing a third presidential loss in four tries in 2028.
1. Joe Biden’s Arrogance
Let’s be blunt about this. I put the primary blame for the Election 2024 debacle on Joe Biden. And I will be as bold as to say that he set up Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party for failure. Here’s why. Back in 2020 Joe Biden ran for President on the promise of being a “bridge President” to a younger generation, suggesting he would only serve one term and then pass the torch. At numerous rallies he loudly declared,
[Look, I view myself as a bridge, not as anything else. I view myself as a transition candidate.]
It was with that explicit expectation that a monsoon of young voters helped him cross the finish line with a victory, earning 7 million more votes than Donald Trump. But when it became clear that President Biden had no intention of stepping down, those who suggested he follow through on his campaign promise were dismissed, decried, and denounced. Even as poll after poll showed that Biden’s support among the young people who helped him win in 2020 was all but gone, those who believed Biden should withdraw were shouted down. 
And there are countless such examples. By backtracking on his campaign promise to serve only one term, and then stepping down last minute, Joe Biden denied Democrats a robust primary. How valuable is a robust primary? It is quite literally the difference between winning and losing. The data on this is undeniable.
[...]
Now in 2024, the Democratic Party did not, or was unable to, hold a primary. The end result—Harris lost the popular vote by 4.5 million votes, lost the Electoral count 226-295+, and voter turnout dropped 2.5% to 64.5%—a drop that cost the Democratic Party the White House, the Senate, and potentially the House. Just like in 2016 when a 2.4% drop in turnout was the difference between controlling all of the White House, House, and Senate, and controlling none of them, in 2024 a 2.5% drop in turnout has resulted in Democrats losing control of the White House, the Senate, and grasping at straws to win control of the US House.
To be clear, this analysis does not absolve the very real misogyny and racism Kamala Harris faced. But those two obstacles of misogyny and racism make holding a primary that much more important, because such primaries help build the critical and larger coalitions needed to more effectively overcome the obstacles of misogyny and racism. Likewise, this analysis does not second guess nominating Kamala Harris. After Joe Biden finally dropped out, she was the most logical choice as the Democratic Party’s nominee. This analysis is a critique of the fact that an impossible job was thrown upon her—pick a VP running mate with negligible voter input, speed date 330 million Americans, and define yourself as distinct from Joe Biden, all in 100 days or less. Black women can, and do, many amazing things, but a person can only be at one place at one time. It is revealing that even on Election Day one of the top google search questions was, “Did Joe Biden drop out?” That is not a question any voter should be asking on November 5, and one no voter would be asking if the Democratic nominee had more than the blink of an eye to make her case to the American people via a robust primary.
[...]
Losing the Palestine Argument
Despite the improved rhetoric from Harris on Palestine, when asked whether she has any policy shifts from Biden, the answer was always a firm no. This is significant because polling was absolutely clear that stopping arms to Netanyahu would result in more votes for Harris. Harris could have broken away from Biden by stating that she sees no contradiction between maintaining Israel’s security and upholding American and international human rights law. She chose not to, and Trump was able to commandeer the brand of the “peacetime President.” A YouGov/IMEU Policy Project poll among Democrats and Independents in the swing states of Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania, found that the Harris/Walz path to victory included announcing a cessation of arms to Netanyahu.
In Arizona, 35% of voters said they would be more likely to vote for the Harris if she vowed to stop weapons to Israel. Only 5% said they are less likely to vote for that policy—a 7:1 ratio of voter support in a state Biden won by only 11,000 votes.
In Georgia, 39% of voters said they are more likely to vote for Harris if she vowed to stop weapons to Israel. Only 5% said they are less likely to vote for that policy—an 8:1 ratio of voter support in a state that Biden won by 12,000 votes.
In Pennsylvania, 34% of voters in Pennsylvania said they are more likely to vote for Harris if she vowed to stop weapons to Israel. Only 7% said they would be less likely to vote for that policy—a 5:1 ratio of voter support in a state Biden won by only 82,000 votes.
And beyond swing states, a national CBS/YouGov poll reported the following critical facts about American support of a policy change to withhold arms from Israel:
61% of Americans oppose weapons to Israel’s assault in Gaza
77% of Democrats reject US weapons to Israel
63% of moderates reject US weapons to Israel
77% of voters under 30 oppose weapons to Israel
75% of Black Americans oppose weapons to Israel
66% of women oppose weapons to Israel
64% of Hispanic Americans oppose weapons to Israel
56% of white college grads oppose weapons to Israel
American Muslims comprise of roughly 1% of the United States population. The vote some American Muslims withheld due to Biden’s policy on Israel did not impact the election results. But the Biden administration’s refusal to listen to 77% of Democrats, 63% of moderates, and 61% of all Americans, absolutely did.
[...]
Conclusion
The Harris campaign raised nearly $1 billion in just three months, compared to Trump’s $388 million over 10 months. Yet, at the end of the day, Trump found ways to ensure his base came out and voted for him, and the Democratic Party found ways to ignore the critical voters that catapulted them to victory in 2020. Racism, misogyny, media failures, Russian interference, third party candidates—all played a role. But at the end of the day, this was the Democratic Party’s election to lose, and they must take responsibility if they hope to meaningfully reform their fatal flaws and win in 2026 or 2028, and beyond.
Donald Trump is a fascist, and Project 2025 will invite fascism to America. This is the reality we face. The Democratic Party must understand that it will never ‘out conservative’ or ‘out center’ Republicans. Instead, the Democratic Party must stop cosplaying as a left party, and actually become a left party that prioritizes economic, social, and climate justice with meaningful action, not meaningless rhetoric. Today, the Democratic Party has two very distinct paths ahead of it. It can either blame everyone else as racist, embrace war criminals like Dick Cheney, and hold loaded primaries, thereby ensuring a repeat of this election’s failures in the future. Or, the Democratic Party can look inwardly and actually listen to its base and future—young voters, Black voters, Asian and Muslim voters, and Latino voters—and ensure success on the local, state, and federal level for a generation or more.
Qasim Rashid is 100% correct about what went wrong for the Democratic Party in the wake of Tuesday’s loss, and there were multiple factors that played into it: the global anti-incumbency trend, mainstream media’s sanewashing of Donald Trump, racist and sexist prejudice against a Black and South Asian woman leading the nation, Joe Biden’s decision to run for re-election, too much deference to protecting Israel at all costs, and alienating the base by lurching too much towards the center-right.
As for Kamala Harris herself, she help saved the Democrats from an even worse loss. While it was a short-term loss, it was a medium-to-long term win that keeps them alive.
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mariacallous · 19 days ago
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Mayor Eric Adams took office pledging to cut red tape and speed up construction and development.
After three years in office, prosecutors overseeing three separate indictments say his administration has been doing just that — for a price.
Adams’ longtime top aide Ingrid Lewis-Martin is the latest member of the administration to face accusations of greasing the wheels of city government in exchange for cash or gifts. Adams faces similar allegations involving bribes from the Turkish government. The mayor’s first buildings commissioner is also accused of accepting bribes in exchange for expediting inspections. Taken together, the indictments allege that corruption is alive and well in New York City real estate – and touching the highest levels of local government.
On Thursday, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg alleged Lewis-Martin urged then-acting Buildings Commissioner Kazimir Vilenchik to approve plans for a rooftop bar near Herald Square on Dec. 8, 2022. Two days later, prosecutors say, she told Vilenchik to “assist” with a separate construction project, this time at a hotel on Rivington Street, that had been halted by the buildings department.
Lewis-Martin and her son received more than $100,000 for the assistance from real estate investors involved in both projects, prosecutors said. Lewis-Martin, her son and the investors all pleaded not guilty.
“I’ve worked in government for over 35 years,” Lewis-Martin said. “I have never taken any gifts, money, anything.”
Outside the courthouse on Thursday, her attorney Arthur Aidala said she was merely following through on Adams’ campaign pledge to be a friend to the business community.
“She helped a constituent. She helped a citizen navigate the thick red tape of city government,” Aidala said. “What she was doing here was just moving things along.”
But John Kaehny, executive director of the good government group Reinvent Albany, called the allegations “stunning” and part of a pattern.
“That fact that she was allegedly not afraid to order the DOB commissioner to do things on multiple occasions is not a good sign because it speaks to a culture of corruption,” Kaehny said.
The charges come two years after a task force convened by Adams issued 111 recommendations to “cut red tape, streamline processes, and remove administrative burdens.” Bribing city officials was not among them.
“The more difficult and time-consuming it is to get permits to do lawful things — such as constructing a building — the more likely it is that someone will be eager to break the rules to find a shortcut,” said Citizens Housing and Planning Council Executive Director Howard Slatkin, a former city planning administrator.
Adams himself is accused of pressuring the former fire commissioner, Daniel Nigro, to get inspectors to approve the fire safety system at a Turkish consulate building despite their concerns so it could open in time for a visit from that country’s president, Recep Erdogan. Federal prosecutors say Adams made the move after receiving luxury travel perks from Turkish officials and businesspeople tied to the Turkish government.
In the same indictment, prosecutors said the buildings department lifted a partial stop-work order at a stalled condo complex in Brooklyn days after the project developer reached out to Adams and asked for help. Prosecutors say the developer funneled $10,000 in illegal contributions to Adams’ mayoral campaign.
Adams has pleaded not guilty and accused the Department of Justice of political retribution for his criticism of President Joe Biden.
But evidence has emerged that the Adams administration codified a policy of streamlining inspections and approvals for favored donors and megadevelopers. Emails obtained by Gothamist last year reveal how City Hall instructed inspectors to usher select projects to the front of the months-long line for fire safety inspections — at times cancelling scheduled inspections of schools and small apartment buildings.
Prosecutors say two fire chiefs then used that list to mask their own illegal side hustle. One pleaded guilty to slipping projects onto the list after receiving bribes from expeditors hired by the building owners.
The buildings commissioner also allegedly got his cut.
In 2023, Bragg charged former Buildings Commissioner Eric Ulrich with receiving $150,000 in gifts from business people and associates in exchange for favors, like expediting inspections, helping lift a vacate order and attempting to clear a homeless shelter.
Ulrich has denied the allegations, which are unrelated to the Lewis-Martin indictment. He declined to comment. City Hall did not respond to an inquiry.
Lewis-Martin stepped down from city government this past weekend. Prosecutors say she hinted at the decision in a June phone call with a real estate agent working with her son and one of the investors charged with giving her bribes.
“I’m not playing. Your sister has to be rich! I’m gonna retire,” Lewis-Martin said, according to court papers.
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ingek73 · 2 months ago
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How can I vote for Kamala Harris if she supports Israel’s war? Here is my answer
Bernie Sanders
Trump says Netanyahu is doing a good job and Biden is holding him back. Even on this issue, Trump is worse
Wed 30 Oct 2024 15.30 GMT
I understand that there are millions of Americans who disagree with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on the terrible war in Gaza. I am one of them.
While Israel had a right to defend itself against the horrific Hamas terrorist attack of 7 October 2023, which killed 1,200 innocent people and took 250 hostages, it did not have the right to wage an all-out war against the entire Palestinian people.
It did not have the right to kill 42,000 Palestinians, two-thirds of whom were children, women and the elderly, or injure over 100,000 people in Gaza. It did not have the right to destroy Gaza’s infrastructure and housing and healthcare systems. It did not have the right to bomb every one of Gaza’s 12 universities. It did not have the right to block humanitarian aid, causing massive malnutrition in children and, in fact, starvation.
And that is why I am doing everything I can to block US military aid and offensive weapons sales to the rightwing extremist Netanyahu government in Israel. And I know that many of you share those feelings. And some of you are saying, “How can I vote for Kamala Harris if she is supporting this terrible war?” And that is a very fair question.
And let me give you my best answer. And that is that even on this issue, Donald Trump and his rightwing friends are worse. In the Senate and in Congress Republicans have worked overtime to block humanitarian aid to the starving children in Gaza. The president and vice-president both support getting as much humanitarian aid into Gaza as soon as possible.
Trump has said that Netanyahu is doing a good job and that Biden is holding him back. He has suggested that the Gaza Strip would make excellent beachfront property for development. It is no wonder Netanyahu prefers to have Donald Trump in office.
We cannot sit this election out. Trump has to be defeated
But even more importantly, and this I promise you, after Harris wins we will, together, do everything we can to change US policy toward Netanyahu – including an immediate ceasefire, the return of all hostages, a surge of massive humanitarian aid, the stopping of settler attacks on the West Bank, and the rebuilding of Gaza for the Palestinian people.
And let me be clear. We will have, in my view, a much better chance of changing US policy with Harris than with Trump, who is extremely close to Netanyahu and sees him as a like-minded, rightwing extremist ally.
But let me also say this, and I deal with this every single day as a US senator. As important as Gaza is, and as strongly as many of us feel about this issue, it is not the only issue at stake in this election.
If Trump wins, women in this country will suffer an enormous setback and lose the ability to control their own bodies. That is not acceptable.
If Trump wins, to be honest with you, the struggle against the climate crisis is over. While virtually every scientist who has studied the issue understands that the climate crisis is real and an existential threat to our country and the world, Trump believes it is a “hoax”. And if the United States, the largest economy in the world, stops transforming our energy system away from fossil fuel, every other country – China, Europe, all over the world, they will do exactly the same thing. And God only knows the kind of planet we will leave to our kids and future generations.
If Trump wins, at a time of enormous income and wealth inequality, he will demand even more tax breaks for the very richest people in our country, while cutting back on programs that working families desperately need. The rich will only get richer, while the minimum wage will remain at $7.25 an hour, and millions of our fellow workers will continue to earn starvation wages.
Did you all see the recent Trump rally at Madison Square Garden? Well, I did, and what I can tell you is that as a nation, as all of you know, we have struggled for years against impossible odds to try to overcome all forms of bigotry – whether it is racism, whether it’s sexism, whether it’s homophobia, whether it’s xenophobia, you name it.
We have tried to fight against bigotry, but that is exactly what we saw on display at that unbelievable Trump rally. It was not a question of speakers getting up there and disagreeing with Kamala Harris on the issues. That wasn’t the issue at all. They were attacking her simply because she was a woman and a woman of color. Extreme vulgar sexism and racism. Is that really the kind of America that we can allow?
So let me conclude by saying this. This is the most consequential election in our lifetimes. Many of you have differences of opinion with Harris on Gaza. So do I. But we cannot sit this election out. Trump has to be defeated. Let’s do everything we can in the next week to make sure that Kamala Harris is our next president.
Bernie Sanders is a US senator, and chair of the health education labor and pensions committee. He represents the state of Vermont, and is the longest-serving independent in the history of Congress
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jangillman · 3 months ago
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Posted by Wisconsin Right Now on FB...
I'm not sure who is going to win this, but I’d rather be #Trump right now than #HarrisWalz because he’s peaking at the right time, and the issues people rank highest (economy, border) favor him. He’s surging and it feels like she’s cratering.
But the Democrats have made so many mistakes this election season. James Carville can rant and rave all he wants, but that’s just a fact. The key mistakes include:
-Not reaching out to #Elon Musk, and instead unfairly villainizing a guy with $240B and making it clear that this election will be existential for him personally;
-Charging Trump criminally with a series of novel legal theories that pushed the envelope of the law. If you’re going to go after the king, you better not miss or he gets stronger and, in this case, they turned him into a martyr and the well-worn Hollywood archetype of the underdog fighting the system and elites. People don’t like it when people don’t play fair and criminally charging your political opponent over 94 (or whatever) half-baked accusations (at best) was not playing fair;
-Not admitting Biden’s severe cognitive issues earlier so there could be a competitive primary on the Democratic side rather than foisting an untested and clearly unserious VP on voters. They would have been better off choosing a nominee who could run against the Biden-Harris administration’s worst policies and promise a new course (probably a governor). Harris has had the unenviably impossible task of promising a new future when she’s part of the current administration. Minimally when the Hur report came out, they should have bailed on Biden. She can’t plausibly separate herself from Biden enough no matter how hard she tries.
-Choosing Walz as VP because Josh Shapiro wasn’t acceptable to the pro Gaza wing.
-Not ensuring Trump had adequate and effective secret service protection. The near misses of the 2 assassins (especially the first one) turned him into the aforementioned archetype all the more. And it was just wrong.
-Not reaching out to black and Hispanic male voters until the last minute, at which point it seems pandering and desperate. Having no plan to reach out to men, period, until the last minute and instead emphasizing the gender gap (ie turning Kamala into Hillary 2.0, pantsuit and all, talking about “reimagining masculinity,” the girls’ sports issue etc);
-Not giving even the slightest nod to parental rights. They’re underestimating the power of that issue.
-Not reaching out to RFK Jr and bringing him back into the fold (all they had to do was care about children’s health) and instead trying to destroy him through undemocratic lawfare and insults;
-Putting Harris on the media circuit after the debate. She’s clearly not up to it. As pathetic as it is, they would have been better off keeping her in bubble wrap.
All that being said, it’s amazing they’re still in it. And really the biggest challenge for them - all of the above aside - is the core fact that people believe they were better off four years ago. That’s “event memory” so to speak. No matter what you tell people in ads about their own lives, they know what they pay for groceries.
I miss anything? #trump #breaking #ElectionDay #Wisconsin
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By: Max Eden
Published: Apr 26, 2024
The Biden administration’s new Title IX rules mean that all American public schools must operate on the fundamental falsehood of gender ideology.
Earlier this month, the U.K.’s National Health Service released the Cass Review, a report that urged Great Britain to pump the breaks on the experimental, sterilizing treatments marketed as “gender affirming care.” By contrast, earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Education issued its new Title IX regulations, which require public schools to facilitate a school-to-sterilization pipeline.
According to the Biden administration, Title IX of the Civil Rights Act now requires schools to treat students who suffer, or claim to suffer, from gender dysphoria as though they were the opposite sex. As the Cass Review argues, this is essentially a medical intervention. If you require teachers and students to treat a girl who thinks she is a boy as though she were a boy, you increase the likelihood that she will persist in that belief. The longer she does, the more likely she is to seek sterilizing hormone treatments and mutilating surgical interventions.
This is what Moms for Liberty called “grooming” back in 2021. At the time, the media compared this reaction with QAnon accusations of elite pedophile rings. But parental-rights activists pointed out that the description fit the stated position of major educational organizations. The National Education Association, for example, had passed a resolution declaring that teachers could influence children’s gender identity and ought to have total legal freedom to do so. And the organization behind the CDC-endorsed National Sex Education Standards is named SEICUS: Sex Ed for Social Change. If influencing children’s gender and sexuality to advance a social agenda isn’t grooming, what is it? Last weekend, Bill Maher offered liberals another term for this practice: entrapment.
Whether you call it entrapment or grooming, the Biden administration is now requiring all American public schools to affirm that children can be born in the wrong body. How exactly will that work?
For starters: a boy who says he’s a girl must be granted access to the girls’ bathroom or locker room. Because the Biden administration requires no documentation to affirm gender identity, and indeed because it refused to define gender identity at all, a boy could identify as a girl “fluidly.” The federal government protects his right to be a girl only when he enters a girls’ bathroom.
In addition, teachers and students must refer to a gender dysphoric child by her preferred pronouns and alternative name. The Biden regulation magnanimously allows that a “stray” “misgendering” doesn’t automatically violate Title IX. But by logic—and by the administration’s own past enforcement practice—if several people “misgender” a student, or if someone “misgenders” a student several times, then the school risks losing all federal funding if it doesn’t remedy the situation.
The policy of secretly socially transitioning students will spread even further. Currently, more than 10 million students attend schools that will socially transition them without their parents’ knowledge or consent. The regulation says that Title IX doesn’t strictly require that transitioning be concealed from parents. But it does say that in the event of a conflict between Title IX and the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act, Title IX overrides. If a child says she doesn’t want her parents to know, the Biden administration insists that the school will be totally compliant with federal law by keeping it secret.
This regulation will essentially help facilitate the sterilization of gay and autistic children in blue states on a scale that nineteenth-century eugenicists could only have imagined. Parents in red states that have outlawed these experimental medical interventions can’t necessarily rest easily, however. California has passed a law that would effectively strip parents of their custodial rights if their child travels there to access puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones. And any parent who enrolls a child in a U.S. public school is now sending them to an institution required to operate on the premise of a fundamental falsehood.
Republican politicians have been conspicuously quiet about the new Title IX regulation. Perhaps because they’re uncomfortable stating flatly that gender ideology is false, congressional Republicans are not actively fighting the new Title IX mandate on gender-affirming schooling. They would prefer to battle the Biden administration on its plan to use Title IX to mandate that men can participate in women’s sports, but the administration has denied them that debate until after the election, relegating the sports issue to a separate regulation that it waited nine additional months to propose. 
The fight over the new gender standards for schools will instead play out in the courts. In the weeks to come, state attorneys general will file suit. The regulation will almost certainly be enjoined, and then eventually overturned by the Supreme Court. But not before transitioning the default social setting of American public schools to embrace gender ideology.
In the interim, parents should ask school board members whether they plan to comply with Biden’s Title IX regulation. If the answer is yes, then traditionalist parents should look into transitioning their children—to private schools. Parents should also ask Republican state lawmakers if they support universal school choice. If the answer is no, then parents will know that these lawmakers essentially endorse teaching students that gender ideology is true.
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probablyasocialecologist · 2 months ago
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Many of Harris’s mistakes were similar to those Hillary Clinton made in 2016. Like Clinton, Harris cozied up to billionaire donors. Mark Cuban, for instance, said he was delighted that Harris was abandoning Democrats’ commitments to progressive principles and letting the business community propose the policies it wanted. Like Clinton, Harris and Tim Walz made hubristic campaign stops in solidly red states like Texas and Kentucky rather than spending the final days laser-focused on crucial battlegrounds. Like Clinton, Harris emphasized celebrity endorsements while failing to successfully court unions. (Most notably, the Teamsters declined to endorse her after she refused to pledge that she wouldn’t break a national railway strike.) Like Clinton, Harris focused too much on the danger of Donald Trump (which is very real) and not enough on the reasons why she would be good at being president herself. Most importantly, like Clinton, Harris ultimately decided upon a strategy of trying to woo moderate Republican voters away from Trump, reasoning that it didn’t matter if doing so alienated progressive voters and the Democratic base. Chuck Schumer, speaking of Hillary’s 2016 strategy, infamously promised: "For every blue-collar Democrat we lose in western Pennsylvania, we will pick up two moderate Republicans in the suburbs in Philadelphia. And you can repeat that in Ohio and Illinois and Wisconsin." In fact, they just lost the blue-collar Democrats and didn’t pick up the Republicans! In 2024, Harris, too, aggressively touted endorsements from Republicans, promised to put a Republican in her cabinet (she even cited that as the answer to what she would have done differently from Biden!), and went so far as to praise and embrace Dick and Liz Cheney! The strategy was an abject failure. Because she wanted to appease both Republicans and progressive voters, Harris had to further indulge her weakness for speaking in meaningless word salads, since taking stances that were meaningful could have alienated one of these constituencies. Trump, who is canny about portraying himself as more anti-war than Democrats, correctly pointed out that an endorsement from the hawkish Cheneys should be a badge of shame, not honor. (Specifically he said Cheney is “"the King of Endless, Nonsensical Wars, wasting Lives and Trillions of Dollars, just like Comrade Kamala Harris. I am the Peace President, and only I will stop World War III!")
[...]
The lesson to Democratic leaders in 2016 should have been that Bernie Sanders had been right, that the party had betrayed working-class voters and would be doomed if it could not effectively counter Trump’s pseudo-populist appeal with a visionary alternative. (See the excellent analysis in Thomas Frank’s Listen, Liberal.) Unfortunately, the lessons weren’t learned then, and it doesn’t seem like they’re going to be learned now, either! MSNBC anchor Joy Reid is already insisting that Kamala Harris’s campaign was “flawless” (because she got “every prominent celebrity voice”), and pundits like Jill Filipovic are saying things like, “this election was not an indictment of Kamala Harris. It was an indictment of America.” (Good luck ever winning with the slogan “You’re the problem, America!”) USAToday’s Michael Stern says that instead of talking about “where the Harris campaign went wrong” we should talk about “where the American people went wrong.” The Harris campaign itself is blaming unspecified “obstacles that were largely out of our control.” 
6 November 2024
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honeyandpumpkins · 3 months ago
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I'm sorry it's unhinged to think that any of the Dems unspecified "PROBLEMS" you and your celebrity crush found pale in comparison to my place or work in Springfield getting constant bomb threats since trump and Vance incited bomb threats here. Sorry I'm scared because people at night at breaking into my car and leaving fake bombs at my door. So sorry to upset you and Ms. Amstutz of Missouri. I'm clearly some sort of ghoul because my experiences with republicans are directly violent and my experiences with Dems are not violent at all. Again, sorry.
i think you're really underestimating the amount of nuance that someone can have when approaching politics. i'm not sure why you think i would take issue with you being scared of republican policies and actions, I'm right there with you. you're experiences are absolutely unacceptable, and republicans should be shamed out of holding any power in the US. i have long believed that republicans are an extremist party that must be defeated by any means necessary.
all i'm saying is that chappell was not equating republicans and democrats in her statement. she said that she will vote for democrats, but she does have issues with them. that is a position that i and many other progressives hold, and is basically uncontroversial in progressive spaces. you say that democrats' problems are unspecified, but in her statement chappell specifically cited policies around transgender issues and palestine as some of her concerns. democrats have been recently critiqued for being mostly silent on transgender issues during this campaign, and of course there has been mountains of critiques from the left on the biden administration's support for israel while its assault on gaza has resulted in thousands of deaths, including children and babies. i share her concerns on both of these issues. i'm glad for you that you have always felt safe with democrats, but i would hope you could extend empathy for others who have not always felt safe.
of course, there is nuance to be had here. democrats policies on transgender issues are still some of the most progressive in the world, and they would face significant political backlash from moderates if they were to oppose israeli's treatment of palestinians. but just as it would be ridiculous to say that republicans and democrats are the same, it's equally ridiculous to suggest that the left should NEVER critique them, or that they simply can't do any better. critique is how we make the party better.
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head-post · 4 months ago
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Harris ahead of Trump in fierce debate
Democratic candidate Kamala Harris forced her Republican rival Donald Trump to get defensive in a combative presidential debate, according to Reuters. (Updated 11 September at 11:20 a.m.)
A former prosecutor, Harris, 59, repeatedly prompted Trump, 78, to deliver a series of responses about his suitability for office, support for abortion restrictions, and legal challenges.
Eight weeks before the election and days before early voting begins in some states, the debate offered both candidates a rare opportunity to make their case to a television audience of tens of millions of voters. The candidates clashed on immigration, foreign policy, and health care, but the debate contained few specifics.
Instead, Harris managed to focus on Trump, leading her allies to cheer and some Republicans to acknowledge Trump’s challenges. He repeated his claim that his defeat in the 2020 election was due to fraud, called Harris a “Marxist” and argued that migrants have caused a surge in violent crime.
The candidates also traded accusations about the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, though neither gave specifics on how they would seek to end each conflict.
How it proceeded
The debate, hosted by ABC in Philadelphia, began at 01:00 GMT on Wednesday with a surprise handshake between the two opponents, who had never met before. Harris approached Trump at his lectern, introducing herself by name, marking the first handshake at a presidential debate since 2016.
The candidates began the debate by focusing on the economy, an issue that opinion polls showed favoured Trump. Harris criticised Trump’s intention to impose high duties on foreign goods, while praising her plan to give tax breaks to families and small businesses.
Harris lambasted Trump over his criminal conviction for hiding secret cash payments to a porn star, as well as other charges and a civil judgement finding him guilty of sexual assault. Trump denied guilt and again accused Harris and Democrats of orchestrating all of the cases without evidence.
The vice president delivered a lengthy criticism of abortion restrictions, speaking passionately about women who did not receive emergency care and incest victims who could not terminate their pregnancies because of state-level bans. She also stated that Trump would support a national ban.
Harris also tried to link Trump to Project 2025, a conservative political plan proposing to expand executive power, repeal environmental regulations, and make it illegal to transport abortion pills across state lines. Trump responded that he had “nothing to do” with Project 2025.
In turn, he criticised Harris for constant inflation during the Biden administration’s term. He said it “has been a disaster for people, for the middle class, for every class.”
Meanwhile, American musician Jonnie King suspected Harris of cheating, accusing her of using an audio earring.
Kamala Harris war wearing Nova H1 Audio earrings tonight whic are wireless earphones during her debate with Donald Trump. This is why she was seen continuously taking notes with her pen during the debate, when it was explicitly agreed upon before that there would be NO notes.
Early outcomes
Pop star Taylor Swift told her 283 million Instagram followers immediately after the debate that she would support Vice President Harris and her running mate Tim Walz in the 5 November election.
Online prediction market PredictIt 2024 showed that the likelihood of Trump winning during the debate dropped to 47% from 52%. Harris’ chances, meanwhile, rose to 55% from 53%. The polls also show that the vast majority of Americans have already made up their minds, leaving a small portion of undecided voters.
In a sign of confidence in the outcome of the debate, Harris’ campaign staff challenged Trump to a runoff in October. Afterwards, Trump took the rare step of going to a nearby “spin room.” He later stated:
This was my best debate. She wants it because she lost. I have to think about it, but if you won the debate, I sort of think maybe I shouldn’t do it. Why should I do another debate?
The meeting was particularly important for Harris, as opinion polls showed that more than a quarter of likely voters felt they did not know enough about her. She entered the race just seven weeks ago after President Joe Biden left office.
Presidential debates do not necessarily change voters’ minds, but they can carry profound implications. Biden’s poor performance against Trump in June forced him to abandon his campaign on 21 July.
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thessalian · 6 months ago
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Thess vs Political Media Spin
Thinking about the French election (CONGRATULATIONS, FRANCE) and realising that it's probably finally time to discuss a thing about the UK elections that nobody in the media wants to talk about. Because they mostly want to talk about Reform's 4.1m votes and 5 Parliament seats. Which is ... okay, not entirely fair, but understandable given that an awful lot of news media is written for "engagement" and is thus generally ragebait. However, there are two things that those of us in the UK really, really need to keep in mind:
We had an atrociously low voter turn-out this year, probably because so many of us were depressed and beaten over how the two main parties are behaving right now.
The Greens came in second for votes in forty constituencies. One of them was mine. (That latter shouldn't surprise me because this whole borough has been a very safe Labour seat for awhile and isn't it funny how this place started leaning towards the Greens when that Tory-with-a-red-tie Starmer was leading the party? Almost as if all those "safe Labour votes" are just very lefty votes looking for a place to break out?)
Now, point 2 couldn't work in the US. You guys have a two-party system, just because of how your voting works. While you guys get Electoral College votes for That One Guy, we get actual seats - actual voices - in the House of Commons. And honestly, Labour would have still had its landslide even without the forty seats the Greens could have won if a few more people had actually come out. But even the Americans can take a message away from this, and the message is: "refusal to vote is very liable to cripple any chance things have of getting better".
For the US - if you don't vote Democrat, and Trump gets in again, he's going to destroy your country. The question becomes who you'd rather have stacking the Supreme Court, and who you'd like to hand the loaded gun that is the current Supreme Court's decision to give Presidents immunity from prosecution in the course of "official acts", particularly when the full and detailed definition of "official acts" has yet to be determined. Do not assume he'll never win - my mother assumed that in 2016, because apparently she has not as yet plumbed the depths of human stupidity the way only those of us whose brains are trash and who live on the internet can. Do not assume that Biden will get enough votes without you protest-voting for a third party. If you want some examples of how that thinking works out, consider Brexit, and how many people who actually voted for it and then said, "Well, I mean, I didn't think we'd actually leave; I just wanted to protest it a little!" immediately afterwards.
For those of us in the UK, though? I know a lot of people didn't come out and vote and I understand why. But look what could have happened if you had. Imagine forty-four seats for the Greens, instead of just four, and those forty-four voices speaking and voting for us in the Commons. Imagine if the Greens had got the kind of votes Reform did. The media could not have ignored that the way they ignore the Greens' four seats.
Media spin basically crushed those of us who want better into not voting at all. I don't know if this country will get better under Labour, but I doubt it, and I mourn the chance we had. I am so thrilled that France has at least shown that left-wing politics aren't entirely dead. I can't save my own country beyond my one vote (the Greens this year, and I'm happy to have contributed to an actual left-wing party getting the second-most votes in my constituency, thanks), but I can give warnings. To the UK ... I know Starmer's a dickweed, but we can get a louder voice in Commons if we don't just give up on the entire electoral process. To the US ... I get that Biden is ... honestly, he is better than Starmer; it's just that "slow and steady wins the race" policies don't make headlines anymore. Just ... do you want God-Emperor Trump? Not voting in the US is how you get God-Emperor Trump.
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