#joyful Harris Campaign

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Mike Luckovich

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

August 12, 2024

Heather Cox Richardson

Aug 13, 2024

The 2024 election is shaping up to be bizarre on the Republican side. The party’s presidential nominee, former president Donald Trump, has largely stayed home and posted on social media while his vice presidential running mate J.D. Vance has been trying to cover the campaigning for the team. Indeed, Vance’s offer on Wednesday during a rally in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, to debate Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris suggests that Vance is not unwilling to be seen as the face, if not the leader, of the Republican ticket.

The actual presidential nominee appears even more unstable than usual, and it certainly appears that his handlers are trying to keep him off stage. As Tom Nichols of The Atlantic noted yesterday, “When Trump is on TV a lot, his approval goes down. When he’s in hiding and his surrogates are rearranging his bonkers crazypants word salads into something like real thoughts, his approval goes up.” 

Observers, including Jackie Calmes of the Los Angeles Times, have been clear that “Donald Trump’s state of mind should be under debate.” “Trump’s fire hose of cray-cray has inured Americans to his outrages,” Calmes wrote today. “But now that President Biden, a normal and empathetic man, has been pushed out of the 2024 race over concerns about his age and mental acuity, Trump’s more manifest unfitness for office should be ignored no longer—by the media, former advisors and military leaders who remain silent and, yes, Republicans.”

Trump held a surprise “press conference” on Thursday, where, according to a team of reporters and editors at NPR, he misstated things, exaggerated, or lied outright at least 162 times in 64 minutes, a rate of more than two times a minute.

He said that the United States “is in the most dangerous position it’s ever been in from an economic standpoint,” and warned we could end up in another depression like the Great Depression of the 1930s. In fact, the economy is strong and growing at a faster rate than it did in three of the four years of Trump’s presidency. 

He warned of a national crime wave although crime has been plummeting after a surge in 2020, during Trump’s term, and said that we are “very close to a world war,” which illustrates that Trump’s main lever to turn out voters is fear. With the successes of the Biden-Harris administration having neutralized the economic fears that worked in the past, and with the goals of antiabortion activists achieved in 2022 with the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, Trump is apparently going for broke with the threat of World War III.

Altogether, the event did Trump no favors. 

Poll numbers for Harris and her running mate Minnesota governor Tim Walz have climbed since President Joe Biden announced on July 21 he would not accept the Democratic nomination, and observers have reported that Trump’s anger is leading him into unforced errors, picking fights with allies and seemingly unable to let go of his focus on the lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him, a focus that his advisors warn is turning off voters.

Trump has repeatedly seemed to fantasize that Biden will return to the head of the Democratic ticket, and on Sunday, seemingly frantic about Harris’s huge rallies while he can no longer attract big crowds, released a rant accusing Vice President Harris of using AI to create fake footage showing large groups of supporters greeting her airplane. Faking crowds with AI is a technique we know Trump uses, but there is no evidence Harris does. Immediately, people who attended her events released their own videos proving the size of the crowds, and political pundits openly questioned Trump’s mental health.

Then, this morning, Trump posted on his social media channel: “I’m doing really well in the Presidential Race, leading in almost all of the REAL Polls, and this despite the Democrats unprecedentedly changing their Primary Winning Candidate, Sleepy Joe Biden, midstream.” He went on until his closing: “We are going to WIN BIG and take our Country back from the Radical Left Losers, Fascists, and Communists. We will, very quickly, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” This afternoon, Five Thirty Eight showed Harris up 2.7 points in the national polling average.

Trump’s advisors are pleading with him to stop name-calling and to stay on message. His campaign began today to run ads on X that look like his tweets but are much more like standard political ads. 

Tonight, X owner Elon Musk planned to “interview” Trump, although it seemed pretty clear the event was intended simply to be a long advertisement for him. European Union commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton wrote an open letter to Musk warning about E.U. laws against amplifying harmful content “that promotes hatred, disorder, incitement to violence, or certain instances of disinformation.” Breton warned that his team “will be extremely vigilant” about protecting “E.U. citizens from serious harm.” Musk responded with a meme that said: “TAKE A BIG STEP BACK AND LITERALLY, F*CK YOUR OWN FACE!” 

Last month the European Union charged X with failing to respect its social media law by letting disinformation and illegal content run rampant. X faces fines of up to several million euros. 

In the end, technical difficulties delayed the start of the X Spaces event. Instead, wrote BBC journalist Shayan Sardarizadeh, who specializes in exposing disinformation, a “deepfake livestream of the Trump-Musk interview” was playing “on a fake Tesla channel on YouTube, with 200,000 people watching.” Sardarizadeh noted that the channel was running a crypto scam, and YouTube finally suspended it. When the real X channel finally began to function, it showed Musk and Trump heaping praise on each other. But Trump was slurring his words, and when HuffPost White House journalist S.V. Dáte asked the campaign about his inability to articulate, it answered: “Must be your sh*tty hearing. Get your ears checked out.” 

Trump went to Montana on Friday in support of Republican candidate Tim Sheehy, who is running to unseat popular Democrat Jon Tester, but otherwise has said he is not planning to hit the road until after the Democratic National Convention concludes next week, an odd lack of campaigning at this point in a presidential contest. He seems to be trying to regain control of the political narrative through tweets and social media. Today he said he is suing the government over the raid on Mar-a-Lago that recovered hundreds of classified national security documents, but this is almost certainly posturing to try to make him look strong: he would never be willing to undergo the discovery phase of such a lawsuit.

In the midst of Trump’s frenzy, J.D. Vance has been doing the usual appearances of a campaign, although, unable to generate rally crowds himself, he has been reduced to following Harris and Walz to theirs and trying to grab headlines there.

On Sunday he did the rounds of the morning talk shows, where on CNN he complained that Democrats are bullying him by calling the MAGA Republicans “weird.” Political journalist Brian Tyler Cohen promptly answered: “Crooked Hillary, Crazy Nancy Pelosi, Sleepy Joe, Coco Chow, Lyin Ted, Ron DeSanctimonious, Birdbrain Nikki Haley, Old Crow McConnell, Gavin Newscum, Pencil Neck Schiff, Pocahontas, Cryin Chuck, and Kamabla would all like a word.”

Republicans have made punching down a key part of their rhetoric since at least the 1980s, and Vance’s frustration that the tables have turned feels a bit as if someone is finally standing up to the schoolyard bully. 

Outside of the MAGA frenzy, Harris and Walz last week held big, joyous rallies in the swing states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, and Nevada, contrasting their happy campaign with the MAGA Republicans’ drumbeat of carnage and revenge. A cover article from Time magazine today by Charlotte Alter described the scene of one of her rallies as a mashup of a Beyoncé concert, Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, and “the early days of Barack Obama”: “a kind of reception a Democratic presidential candidate hasn’t gotten in years. Fans packed into overflow spaces, waving homemade signs made of glitter and glue as drumlines roared. When Harris introduced her new running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, the cheering lasted more than a minute.”

At the same time, the grave issues that are propelling the Democrats continue to gain traction. The Associated Press today reported that in the wake of the 2022 Dobbs decision, more than 100 pregnant women have been treated negligently or turned away from emergency rooms despite federal law. Two women, each of whom lost a fallopian tube to an undertreated ectopic pregnancy—one also lost 75% of one of her ovaries, and the other nearly bled to death—have asked the federal government to investigate whether the hospitals that sent them home to miscarry without medical assistance violated federal law.   

On Saturday, Trump’s campaign said it had been hacked, after Politico reported that it had received communication from an account called “Robert” about internal Trump campaign documents. David Kurtz of Talking Points Memo put together a helpful timeline of the story today, explaining that on Sunday the Washington Post said it had also received some of that information and said it believed the information to be that referred to in an August 9 warning from Microsoft that Iran was engaged in an influence campaign. Today the New York Times also said it had received the information, and this afternoon the FBI said it is investigating attempted hacking against both the Trump-Vance and Harris-Walz campaigns. 

CNN national security and justice reporter Zachary Cohen reported tonight that the hackers apparently were able to access the campaign by compromising the personal email account of Trump operative Roger Stone. 

“Buckle up,” Chris Krebs, the former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, wrote on X. “Someone is running the 2016 playbook, expect continued efforts to stoke fires in society and go after election systems—95% votes on paper ballots is a strong resilience measure, combined with audits. But the chaos is the point….”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[cyarsk52-20]

Seeing @VP Harris with her baby nieces is a breathe of fresh air right now. 💛 📸: @meena

This woman was trying to save the world and America chose a fucking criminal.

This country doesn’t deserve women like her

[zot3-flopped]

The fight for our freedom will take hard work, but like I always say, we like hard work. Hard work is good work. Hard work can be joyful work. And the fight for our country is always worth it. It is always worth it.

To the young people who are watching, it is OK to feel sad and disappointed, but please know it’s going to be OK. On the campaign, I would often say, when we fight, we win.

But here’s the thing – sometimes the fight takes a while. That doesn’t mean we won’t win, that doesn’t mean we won’t win. The important thing is, don’t ever give up. Don’t ever give up. Don’t ever stop trying to make the world a better place. You have power. You have power. And don’t you ever listen when anyone tells you something is impossible because it has never been done before.

You have the capacity to do extraordinary good in the world.

And so to everyone who is watching, do not despair. This is not a time to throw up our hands. This is a time to roll up our sleeves. This is a time to organize, to mobilize and to stay engaged for the sake of freedom and justice and the future that we all know we can build together.

- Kamala Harris, November 6th 2024

[schraubd]

The Joy of Being a Democrat

  One of the things I'm enjoying most about the Harris/Walz campaign, and the current Democratic mood more broadly, is how joyful it is. A common critique of progressives has always been that we're joyless, and while that attack has never been entirely fair, it doesn't come wholly from nowhere either. There's a generalized version of the old Futurama joke ("I'm sorry, but if it's fun in any way, it's not environmentalism!") -- if you're not trudging along in grimdark misery, then you don't understand the stakes/don't care about the oppressed/aren't a true believer in the revolution. It's exhausting to live out, and it isn't a lifestyle anyone really wants to join. But that isn't us right now! It's the right that is wallowing in its own self-induced machine of rage and fear and misery. The Olympics were a great example -- conservatives spent their time searching for their calipers and reliving their frustration that Simone Biles didn't snap her neck in 2021; meanwhile liberals just enjoyed watching some of the greatest athletes on Earth do incredible things under the American banner. Who would you rather be?  And this divide is present all over the 2024 race. The complete inability of conservatives to make anything stick on Tim Walz stems from their complete bafflement that a basic cishet white guy can just be happy in 2024. Doesn't he know that trans-CRT-illegal-abortionists are coming for his daughter?!? The RNC was a miserable slog of one apparatchik after another warning us that we're all going to die unless the God-king Trump is restored; the DNC was a dance party featuring your favorite tunes from middle school. Hell, one of the primary attack lines Republicans have been trying against Kamala Harris is her laugh! Democrats now are literally the party of laughing (and football, and Bud Light)! It's really nice. And for what it's worth, I do understand the stakes, and I do understand that many people are hurting, and I do understand there's a lot of work to be done. But joy counts for something. And it feels really good to be part of a joyful Democratic coalition. via The Debate Link https://ift.tt/ey54oaZ

[ridenwithbiden]

On Jan. 6, 2021, then-President Donald Trump held a rally on the Ellipse, with the White House in the background, telling his supporters to “fight like hell” before a mob of them violently stormed the Capitol where Congress was certifying that he had lost the election.

Tonight, a week before Election Day, Vice President Harris will use the same backdrop to lay out the closing argument of her campaign: that it’s time to turn the page on the divisive and chaotic Trump era.

More than 20,000 people are expected for the event, which is aimed at reaching what campaign operatives call "low propensity" voters who aren't usually all that interested in politics — to try to convince them to cast a ballot.

”This speech is really designed to reach those undecided voters, those folks that are making the decision to break through in a moment when it's sometimes hard to break through, and really to talk about what's at stake in this election,” campaign chair Jen O'Malley Dillon told reporters.

”It's really a reminder of the gravity of the job: how much a president can do for good — and for bad — to shape the country and impact people's lives,” she said.

Rally after rally, Harris has talked about Jan. 6

Harris started off her campaign as a joyful warrior. But as the race wore on and polls showed it tightening, Harris has increasingly leaned on the dangers of electing Trump — a candidate she argues is “unhinged and unstable.”

Harris elevated dire warnings about Trump as she campaigned with former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney, trying to peel off moderate Republicans and independents appalled by what had happened on Jan. 6.

“He refused to accept the will of the people and the results of an election that was free and fair,” Harris has said.

Last week, she agreed that Trump is a “fascist” after the New York Times released interviews with retired Marine Gen. John Kelly making that same charge.

Kelly had been White House chief of staff to Trump and said his former boss, in private, even praised Hitler and his generals. The Trump campaign dismissed Kelly’s stories as fabrications.

For Harris, this was another opportunity to drive home her warning. “This is a window into who Donald Trump really is from the people who know him best,” Harris said.

Echoes of Clinton’s campaign

Hillary Clinton also issued dire warnings in the closing days of her 2016 campaign, reminding voters that in a debate, Trump had refused to say he would accept the results of the election.

“Make no mistake: by doing that, he is threatening our democracy,” Clinton said.

Trump won the 2016 election and gladly accepted the results.

At the time, Clinton’s warnings were seen by many as over the top: a last-minute effort to try to move voters. People were skeptical, said Brian Fallon, who worked on the Clinton campaign and is a senior adviser to Harris now.

“There was a phenomenon of taking Trump seriously but not literally,” Fallon said echoing a line that became a mantra after Trump’s 2016 win.

But now, Fallon argues it’s different — because Trump refused to accept his loss in 2020, and still hasn’t. He has described Jan. 6 as “a day of love” and has pledged to pardon at least some of those who were prosecuted for their actions that day.

“We’re not asking anybody to suspend disbelief in order to entertain these warnings,” said Fallon. “This is something that is the American people’s actual experience over the past several years.”

The argument is persuasive for some groups of voters

The Harris campaign has its attention trained on swing-state suburbs where tens of thousands of Republicans voted for Nikki Haley rather than Trump in the Republican primary — in some cases, even after she had dropped out of the race.

In polls and focus groups, voters say they are worried about violence around this year’s election.

“This isn’t hypothetical anymore,” said Celinda Lake, a Democratic pollster. “It’s real lived experience.”

Warnings about Trump are persuasive to women swing voters, and are mobilizing for women and Democratic men, Lake said. These are voters like Susan Shurina, who spoke to NPR’s Asma Khalid after voting early in Alpharetta, Ga.

“I supported the Democratic Party this time although I’m a registered Republican,” Shurina said last week. “I’m just fearful of the rhetoric I hear from Trump. He seems to be very violent in wanting to control, and vengeful.”

But Marc Lotter, who served in the Trump administration and now works at a pro-Trump think-tank, argued Harris’ warnings will ring hollow with a lot of voters, who already lived through one Trump term.

“Well, he didn’t lock her up,” Lotter said of Trump’s threat to Hillary Clinton.

Lotter said he sees Harris’ warnings as a desperation move — a scare tactic — because Harris hasn’t been able to convince undecided voters she would be better for them than Trump.

“I don’t see how that’s going to be the winning factor at the end,” Lotter said.

Harris will present a contrast

Some Democrats have worried Harris’ warnings are not enough to get across the finish line in a very tight race where voters rank economic concerns as their top priority.

Joseph Geevarghese, executive director of Our Revolution, a group that grew out of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2016 campaign, said he is worried some on the left will stay home rather than vote, or will consider third parties.

Harris is set to argue that Trump, if elected, will continue to focus on himself and his growing list of personal enemies, citing his own increasingly inflammatory closing arguments.

“He calls these Americans the enemy within and says that he would use the American military to go after American citizens,” said Harris.

She will contrast that with what she has been calling her “to-do list” of policies to try to bring down prices and make life easier for Americans.

“She's obviously going to touch on lowering costs on things like groceries, housing, health care,” Harris' campaign chair O'Malley Dillon said. “You're going to hear her really speak to middle class families, and what they're worried about and what she's going to do about it.”

NPR's Asma Khalid contributed to this story.

[ingek73]

Meghan: I’m airing my struggle with suicidal thoughts to help others

Duke and Duchess of Sussex appear on US television to publicise project to tackle child safety online

Caroline Davies

Sun 4 Aug 2024 18.41 CEST

The Duchess of Sussex has spoken about her struggles with mental health and suicidal thoughts as she and her husband launched an initiative to tackle child safety online.

Meghan, who revealed in an interview with Oprah Winfrey three years ago that she thought of taking her own life while a working royal, said she hoped by speaking out she could help others.

“When you’ve been through any level of pain or trauma, I believe part of our healing journey – certainly part of mine – is being able to be really open about it,” she said on Sunday in a joint interview with Prince Harry on the US network CBS.

“And you know, I haven’t really scraped the surface on my experience. But I do think that I would never want someone else to feel that way. And I would never want someone else to be making those sort of plans. And I would never want someone else to not be believed.

“So, if me voicing what I have overcome will save someone, or encourage someone in their life to really genuinely check in on them and not assume that the appearance is good, so everything’s OK, then that’s worth it. I’ll take a hit for that.”

The duchess, 43, was speaking as the couple, parents to Prince Archie, five, and Princess Lilibet, three, launched the Parents’ Network, in association with their Archewell Foundation, to provide an online community and resources to help combat social media harm. The No Child Lost to Social Media campaign was set up after a two-year pilot programme with families whose children had felt the harmful effects of social media.

Prince Harry said the grief these families had suffered could happen to anyone. “We always talk about in the olden days if your kids were under your roof, you knew what they were up to. At least they were safe, right? And now, they could be in the next-door room on a tablet or on a phone and can be going down these rabbit holes. And before you know it, within 24 hours, they could be taking their life.”

In the couple’s 2021 interview with Winfrey, Meghan told the chatshow host: “Look, I was really ashamed to say it at the time, and ashamed to have to admit it to Harry especially, because I know how much loss he suffered. But I knew that if I didn’t say it, that I would do it … and I just didn’t want to be alive any more. That was a clear, real, frightening and constant thought.”

Speaking of the Parents’ Network, she told CBS on Sunday: “I think you have to start somewhere, to look at it through the lens of, ‘What if it was my daughter? What if it was my son? My son, or my daughter who comes home, who are joyful, who I love, and one day, right under my roof, our entire lives change because of something that was completely out of our control?’” She said that, for a parent, the only way to look at the problem was to try to find a solution.

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

interview:

[vomitdodger]

This is actual an amazing time to analyze all this. And what’s going on still while people are becoming awake.

Notice the title of the speaker in the chyron. She was also on the Biden Harris campaign of 2020. Always have to push the narrative.

The reaction to the OJ acquittal at the time couldn’t have been further apart based on race (GENERALLY speaking and according to the media). Video still in below article shows an all black university classroom erupting in joyful tears to OJs acquittal. Funny how Screw tube took that video down. The exact university escapes me now. Videos elsewhere were what one would expect: disbelief and outrage mixed with sadness.

“Fringed” groups have been lied to and manipulated as useful idiots forever to promote an agenda. Academics, politics, media, etc. Complete pandering on every aspect.

Funny thing is that these fringed groups are ever more awakening to how they’ve been used and lie to. Social media is awash with blacks (predominantly) saying they’re done with democrats. Good. Be done with useless RINOs as well. Just yesterday the below happened to Trump at a Georgia Chick Fil A. You’ll note her color and statement. Pic from accompanying article below it but it’s viral everywhere.

Morgan Freeman said it best a while back in a famous interview and yes I know he may have walk it back a bit since. I suspect he is progressively down with the libtard for whatever reason as his commentary on climate change couldn’t be more leftist. At least in his paid narrative nature documentaries.

[darkmaga-returns]

Harris is smearing Trump as a fascist, even though ironically, he has been the target of fascist machinations from her own party and supporters for nearly a decade.

By Victor Davis Hanson

October 31, 2024

In the last two weeks, Kamala Harris has been trying to revive her stagnant campaign by smearing Trump as being Hitlerian and a fascist. She claims Trump is planning to put his enemies in encampments.

Yet in the modern era, it was not Trump who put large numbers of U.S. residents and citizens into “relocation camps,” but liberal Democrat President Franklin D. Roosevelt who sent Japanese-American citizens and residents into them.

If Harris refers to Trump’s supposed fascist policies during his prior four-year tenure, there is no such evidence.

Nonetheless, the once “joyful” Harris is ending her campaign by trafficking in lies and smears reminiscent of the Joe McCarthy era.

Recall that fascists hijack law enforcement and the military to suspend constitutional rights and punish enemies. But Trump did neither.

Instead, in 2016, a corrupt FBI went after Trump himself during the Obama administration with the bogus Steele dossier.

The FBI, which in 2016 had hired the faker Steele, in 2020, fused with social media to suppress accurate news reporting of the embarrassing Hunter Biden laptop scandal.

A number of FBI directors and intelligence officials—John Brennan, James Clapper, James Comey, Andrew McCabe—who openly sought to destroy Trump had a long history of either lying or feigning amnesia under oath.

Fascists try to warp the legal system. But Trump’s own Justice Department selected an independent special counsel to investigate the invented Russian collusion accusations against him.

In vast contrast, the Biden Justice Department coordinated with Georgia prosecutors Fani Willis and Nathan Wade, special counsel Jack Smith, Manhattan prosecutor Alvin Bragg, and New York Attorney General Letitia James to prosecute Trump, bankrupt him, and keep off the campaign trail.

Fascists use their governments to destroy their enemies.

[gwopijon]

Donald Trump has won the president four years after he sat for months on Covid being deadly and after he incited an insurection.

He's an abjudicated rapist. He stole classified documents. He's a traitor. He is personally corrupt but it meant nothing to voters.

He hid the fact that Covid was deadly for months. We had empty shells and long lines at food banks but it meant nothing to voters.

He had zero ground game. He’s a felon. He incited an insurrection less than four years ago. But he was running against a woman again, and if there’s one thing Americans hate, it’s women.

In 2016, I still had some sense of hope that whatever happened during a Trump presidency, we could find a way to survive and recover. I don’t have that hope this time. Not after everything that’s happened, not after the past nine years of this utter sh-tshow. This is the American electorate looking at this orange clown and saying “that’s my guy.” This man spewed the most despicable, hate filled rhetoric and someone who is clearly declining physically and mentally. They heard “mass deportations” and they said “anything to bring down housing costs.” They heard every single warning about Trump’s authoritarian fascism and they said “sounds amazing.” They heard the promise of authoritarianism and they said “sign me up.”

What’s especially crazy is that Trump doesn’t even want to be president again. He was just running to avoid prison. This senile, hateful, disgusting 78-year-old man was exhausted and phoning it in for most of the campaign. He kept disappearing for weeks at a time to golf and sundown in peace. When he went to vote in Florida yesterday, he sounded almost resigned to losing. Even he underestimated the stupidity of Americans. Even he can’t believe that people fell for it again.

Kamala Harris was a great Democratic Presidential Candidate. She still lost.

In 2016, in the hours after Hillary Clinton lost, I was partly in a fugue state, half-numb and half-enraged. Accusations flew across the political spectrum – what if Hillary had done more in the Rust Belt, what if she did this or that differently, why did she run given the “Clinton Fatigue,” why did James Comey f–k her over in the final weeks. There’s really none of that eight years later. We couldn’t have asked for a better candidate than Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris was disciplined, joyful, wonkish, fun and cool. She energized the base and she had widespread cross-party appeal. The only things “wrong” with Kamala Harris were: she’s a woman, she’s a Black woman, and she isn’t Donald Trump.

This isn’t even because of one particular demographic – white women, men of all races, Latino voters, suburbanites, they all swung wildly against Kamala Harris.

I hope Kamala knows that she did the best she could with the hand she was dealt. The numbers don’t reflect a failure on her part, in my opinion. The numbers reflect a failure of the American electorate. Good news for the American electorate: Donald Trump promised that this would be the last votes you would ever have to cast, that he will “fix” everything so no one has to vote anymore. Congrats on making it count.

I’m terrified as a woman. As a biracial woman. As someone with complex healthcare needs. As a gay woman. As the friend of many LGBTQ+ people. And I’m genuinely scared for the many Republicans who had the courage to speak out against Trump, particularly Liz Cheney, Fascists do not deal lightly with perceived disloyalty.

Bibi and Putin are celebrating today. Gaza will be nuked into oblivion and Ukraine will be handed to Russia just like Taiwan will be handed to China. YOU did that!

I am struggling with my faith with feeling anger and hatred towards those ingrates who came and found the table set from the blood, sweat, tears, whipping, lynching and jailing of my ancestors and threatened us with a Trump/Vance/Heritage Foundation/ Project 2025 has Harris not tap danced on Gaza knowing full well, she was doing her job as VP she could not supersede the sitting President of this country. Some of ya'll knew she was personally against arming Israel and has always been for a 2 state solution. For those voters: FUCK YOU!

FUCK you if you voted 3rd Party.

FUCK you if you didn't vote at all while you could and should have.

In order it went white men, white Latino men, and white women who overwhelmingly voted for Trump. We should stop with “economic uncertainty” again as a cover.

Sam Alito and Clarence Thomas will fucking retire and this motherfucker will nominate who Leonard Leo orders him to nominate and the fucking Supreme Court will unleash on our asses for the next 40 years. Roe vs Wade and the overturning of Affirmative Action will be nothing to what is next to come...

We black people have no fucking allies. Folks been piggybacking off black blood, sweat and tears for too fucking long. We're tired. We're fucking done. DON'T fucking expect us anymore

What hurts most is, this is apparently who we are as a country. Racist. Misogynistic. It doesn’t happen twice unless that’s just who the fuck we are. The rest of us will continue to fight against it, but it just got a lot harder. I think MVP and others will still help guide us but DON'T fucking expect black women to fight our battles and YOURS. FUCK that. We're done. We're gonna fight our battles nowadays .

I will not protest anything Trump wishes to do. DON'T expect us black women to play Mammy and clean shit after you anymore. We're done playing Captain Save a Hoe for you ingrates. I think he should have full reign to do whatever he plans and America should get it good and hard. It's what they asked for.

This country is not the Eutopia some of you are foolishly hoping for. IF you think a unqualified backbench like AOC or corrupt Nina Turner (the OPPO dossier on her is out there) or Katie Porter or Warren would have fared better or will ever become president; think again. It will NEVER happen. NEVER gonna fucking happen!

We black women as of last night have done what Pontius Pilate did and to wash our hands with America:

[originalleftist]

Kamala Harris's campaign is a miracle.

I have NEVER seen Democrats this united, this enthused, this competent. After an absolutely agonizing, shameful month of disunity and defeatism that seemed all but certain to lead to irrevocable, self-inflicted destruction, the party has united with stunning speed around the best possible candidates and we are doing everything right.

It's as though in that shameful month following the debate, the Democratic Party finally got all the infighting and stupidity and cowardice out of its system and in its place is a fierce, brilliant, joyful determination to do right by this country at last.

And, Harris and Walz have their faults. I'm sure there will be disappointments and setbacks.

But we have been given a miracle when we needed it most, and we are NOT going to waste it.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Matt Wuerker

* * * *

"We're not weird."

August 10, 2024

Robert B. Hubbell

I am watching the Harris-Walz rally in Arizona as I write this newsletter on Friday evening. The venue is packed, and the crowd is wildly enthusiastic. Tim Walz delivered an even more enthusiastic speech than when he was introduced in Philadelphia on Tuesday. (Who knew? Where has this guy been hiding?)

But the most striking takeaway is the look of pure joy and happiness on Kamala Harris’s face as she delivers her remarks. She is genuinely enjoying herself as she delivers hopeful remarks and plays off the energy of the crowd.

Trump, on the other hand, used his press conference yesterday to predict the “end of days,” including an economic depression and World War III. And on Friday evening, he was reduced to telling his MAGA supporters, “We’re not weird.” It's hardly a compelling campaign slogan, but Trump has to work with what he’s got.

Which message is more likely to motivate voters to turn out at the ballot box? If the trends in the polls and the reaction of crowds at rallies are any indication, the momentum strongly favors Harris and Walz.

Kamala Harris has led the most remarkable political turnaround in American history for which she (and Joe Biden’s immediate endorsement) deserve tremendous credit. But there is much work to be done. We know that Republicans will sow chaos to interfere with a Democratic victory. That is why we must do everything in our power to ensure that Kamala Harris wins the presidency by a wide margin. We must convert enthusiasm into votes.

To state the obvious, converting enthusiasm into votes is a much better problem than fighting a pervasive sense of impending doom. We must not deceive ourselves about the level of effort and organization being demanded of us. But as we engage in the hard work of converting enthusiasm into votes, we should do so with a sense of hope, confidence, and joy.

For the second weekend in a row, we can look to the future unburdened by the anxiety that dragged us down for so long. I will go into the weekend with the image of Kamala Harris’s joyful remarks to an enthusiastic crowd in a swing state that is now back in play. It doesn’t get much better than that!

Coda to yesterday’s press event at Mar-a-Lago.

First, if you have not watched Lawrence O’Donnell’s analysis of the media's collective failure in its reporting on Trump’s press event at Mar-a-Lago on Thursday, I urge you to do so. Lawrence O’Donnell’s segment is destined to become a classic of broadcast television that rivals the statement during the McCarthy hearings by Army lawyer Joseph Welch, “Have you no sense of decency?”

I guarantee that if you watch the segment, it will deepen your understanding of how the media enabled Trump’s initial rise and continued viability despite an attempted coup, inciting an insurrection, attempted bribery of Ukraine, refusal to return national defense documents, and two impeachments. See Lawrence: 'Stupidest' candidate Trump did not answer reporters' questions (msnbc.com).

Two post-debate developments underscore the bizarre nature of the press event yesterday.

Were reporters mere props at Trump’s press event on Thursday?

Susan Glasser published an analysis in The New Yorker, Does Anyone in America Miss Joe Biden as Much as Donald Trump? Glasser’s analysis included this shocking statement:

Trump summoned handpicked members of the media to Mar-a-Lago for a press conference, the point of which was to change the subject from Harris’s remarkable honeymoon.

If true, the hand-picked journalists were used as props by Trump in a propaganda event. Worse, they knew they were props but played their assigned role nonetheless.

If true, that fact would explain the journalists' odd complacency, the obsequious nature of the questions, and the lack of follow-up in the face of obvious lies.

I say “If true” because I can find no separate confirmation of Glasser’s statement. But someone should pursue that question. If true, it is a scandal, and every reporter who participated in the sham press event owes an apology to the public.

Was Trump involved in an emergency landing of a helicopter with Willie Brown, the former Speaker of California’s State Assembly?

At the press event, Trump claimed he was in an emergency landing of a helicopter on which California Speaker Willie Brown was a passenger. Trump told the story of the near crash in a helicopter to frame a story that Willie Brown told him something negative about Kamala Harris during that helicopter ride. Trump said of Willie Brown, “He told me terrible things about her.” (Kamala Harris and Willie Brown dated in the 1990s. )

Willie Brown told the media that he was not on a helicopter with Trump that was forced to make an emergency landing. The NYTimes published a story on Thursday titled, That Time Trump Nearly Died in a Helicopter Crash? Didn’t Happen. (This article is accessible to all.)

The Times’ story makes clear that “several elements of the story” do not stand up to scrutiny, including the claim that Willie Brown was on the helicopter with Trump.

On Friday, Trump threatened to sue the NYTimes, claiming that he had flight records to back up his story.

So, this is interesting. Trump is either doubling down on his lie, or the NYTimes published a story with false statements.

As of Friday, it appears that Trump is doubling down on his lie—a fact that became clear when another Black politician—Nate Holden—told Politico that he was on the helicopter ride with Trump that was forced to make an emergency landing. See Politico, The other Black politician who says he was with Trump in that near-fatal chopper crash.

So, it appears that Trump has confused two Black politicians from California. And the Black politician who was on the helicopter ride with Trump told Politico the following:

Before he hung up with Politico, Holden assured a reporter that nobody discussed—let alone criticized—Kamala Harris as Trump claimed Brown did.

“He either mixed it up,” Holden said. “Or, he made it up. This was just too big to overlook. This is a big one. Conflating Willie Brown and me? The press is searching for the real story and they didn’t get it. You did.”

The most reasonable inferences are (a) Trump confused two Black politicians from California, and (b) there was no discussion of Kamala Harris on the helicopter ride.

Now that Trump has threatened to sue the Times for defamation over the story, perhaps the Times will show more interest in documenting Trump’s lies.

A final bizarre aspect of this story occurred on Friday. Trump told the New York Times he was going to sue the Times and asserted that he had flight records to prove his story. Here is the Times’ account of the exchange:

“We have the flight records of the helicopter,” Mr. Trump insisted Friday, saying the helicopter had landed “in a field,” and indicating that he intended to release the flight records, before shouting that he was “probably going to sue” over the Times article. When asked to produce the flight records, Mr. Trump responded mockingly, repeating the request in a sing-song voice. As of early Friday evening, he had not provided them.

So, Trump is doubling down on his story that Willie Brown told him “terrible things” about Kamala Harris and has descended into a childish mocking of the Times’ reporter asking for records of some elements of Trump’s story.

While this story may seem overly complicated and like a tempest in a teapot, the fact that Trump has put the Times’ credibility on the line could be a tipping point for the Times to begin holding Trump to a standard for veracity that it applies to all other politicians. That would be a welcome development, indeed!

[Late update: In a Truth Social post late Friday, Trump attacked Maggie Haberman of the New York Times over the story, calling her “Maggot Hagerman.” Looks like the gloves may be coming off.]

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]

[aquitainequeen]

'In 2022 Tom Bonier and I believed that we would do better than folks expected because all the indicators of intensity were pointing to us - overperformance in special elections, voter reg turning more Dem, Dems raising more money and finally we outperformed expectations in the early vote. And we did do better than everyone expected. We are seeing that same Dem heightened intensity that drove our wins in 2022 in this election now. We are raising more money. Voter reg got much better for us after Harris became the candidate. In the limited special and primary elections we had this year saw this repeated Dem overperformance and that MAGA struggle. And now we are seeing Dems outperforming expectations in the early vote. To repeat - it is incredible that Republicans have not been able to make gains in the battleground early vote this year despite their enormous efforts. It is a huge failure by the Trump campaign, and is perhaps a sign of what is to come on Election Day. We are winning the 2024 election my friends, but have not won it yet. We need to keep working hard and enter Tuesday night with no regrets and having left it all out there on the playing field, together.'

Read more!

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Olivia Little at MMFA:

Right-wing media figure and now teen fiction author Glenn Beck is partnering with Moms for Liberty to place his new novel in public schools. Beck was an early supporter of Moms for Liberty, an anti-LGBTQ “parental rights” organization whose members have advocated for banning books across the country and harassing school officials, and his Blaze Media outlet even has a page on its website dedicated to promoting the group. Notably, Beck is set to speak at the group’s 2024 summit beginning this week. The Moms for Liberty Foundation ran a special campaign in late July as part of its “Moms for Libraries” initiative to place conservative propaganda in school libraries and classrooms, promising that 100% of donations to the foundation would go to putting Chasing Embers, Beck’s premiere teen fiction novel, into public schools. This suggests that the money raised was likely eventually fed to Beck through payouts from his publisher.

According to Beck’s Moms for Libraries page, Chasing Embers is just the first in The Oarsmen series, which “will become a six-book-adventure” — well, “with your support” (money). The Chasing Embers world is boldly described “as complex and exciting as Harry Potter. But, instead of witchcraft,” the book is “powered by our history."

Right-wing extremist “parental rights” group Moms For Liberty is partnering with Blaze Media founder Glenn Beck to place his teen fiction novel Chasing Embers into school libraries. Beck is set to speak at the organization’s Joyful Warriors National Summit this weekend.

[head-post]

US election: Harris urges supporters to accept results, world freezes awaiting Trump’s statements on Ukraine conflict

Vice President Kamala Harris, has conceded defeat in the 2024 presidential election, while the world is frozen in anticipation of Donald Trump’s statements on the military conflict in Ukraine.

Harris is urging supporters to accept the results after Trump’s election victory

Harris said, speaking at Howard University, her alma mater, in Washington, DC:

Earlier today, I spoke with President-elect (Donald) Trump and congratulated him on his victory. I also told him that we will help him and his team with their transition and that we will engage in a peaceful transfer of power.

One hundred and eight days into her campaign, the “joyful warrior,” as she called herself, spoke of her defeat in strong terms in an attempt to reassure the American people. She also added:

I know folks are feeling and experiencing a range of emotions right now. I get it. But we must accept the results of this election.

Closing a chapter in the history books after a tense campaign, the Vice President urged supporters to “roll up their sleeves” in response to the election results.

Trump discusses plan to end Ukraine conflict

US President-elect Donald Trump promised during his campaign to end the Ukraine conflict in 24 hours. Now he is forced to choose a strategy to stop the fighting by his inauguration on January 20, 2025, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Trump has already received several proposals to resolve the conflict from his advisers. Despite the different approaches to solving the problem, each option has a common idea: a sharp retreat from current US President Joe Biden’s stance on military aid to Kyiv – “as much as it takes.”

During his election campaign, Trump criticised Biden’s actions as he believes they could lead to World War III. Moreover, the president-elect believes that Kyiv cheated the US by getting expensive weapons for free. Despite his assurances about the possibility of a quick resolution to the conflict, Trump has not revealed exactly how he can bring Russia and Ukraine to the negotiating table, as he allegedly will not be able to use the plans once they are disclosed.

WSJ, citing Trump’s allies, writes that the politician has not approved specific proposals, although he has a choice. Only Trump will decide which strategy to pursue.

The publication’s journalists suggested that former US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, who may become defence secretary, will insist on resolving the conflict without serious benefit to Russia. Other associates, including Richard Grenell, who could become national security adviser, prioritise ending the conflict in the short term, which would likely force Ukraine to make significant concessions. However, they all agree on one thing: what is needed now is a suspension of hostilities, a consolidation of territory already taken under Russian control, and a suspension of Ukraine’s aspirations to join NATO.

The WSJ says one proposal is as follows: Kyiv has not joined NATO for at least 20 years, the US continues to supply Ukraine with weapons to prevent any future attack. The front line remains where it is at this point, a demilitarised zone would be created around it.

That said, who will monitor this zone is unknown, but the US will definitely not be sending troops. One adviser told the publication:

We are not sending American men and women to keep the peace in Ukraine. And we’re not paying for it. Ask the Poles, the Germans, the British and the French to do it.

Earlier, Senator J.D. Vance spoke about a similar plan. He suggested that Russia should retain the territories it took control of and create a “heavily fortified” demilitarised zone to prevent future attacks, while Ukraine should remain neutral, not join NATO or similar alliances.

Keith Kellogg and Fred Fleitz, who served in the Trump administration during his last term, have suggested halting military support for Kyiv until they agree to come to the negotiating table. That said, Ukraine can still regain lost territory, but only peacefully.

Not everything is so smooth

At the moment, it is not known exactly what strategy Trump will follow. However, there are pitfalls in all options for the development of events.

WSJ reports that neither Russia nor Ukraine wants to change their military goals. Russian troops are advancing, which does not motivate Moscow to negotiate. Some NATO members believe Ukraine should agree to negotiate on its own and negotiate on its own terms. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky would in theory be easier to force negotiations than Russian leader Vladimir Putin, but Ukraine’s population would view the loss of territory as a surrender, which would get Zelensky in trouble. Kyiv is concerned that Trump’s stance will end up settling the conflict in Russia’s favour.

Despite the fact that Trump has repeatedly criticised Zelensky and called him “the greatest salesman,” the Ukrainian leader has already congratulated the politician on his victory. Moreover, he even called him personally. Zelensky wrote on X:

We agreed to maintain close dialogue and advance our co-operation. Strong and unwavering US leadership is vital for the world and for a just peace.

Ukraine’s wishes

On October 16, Zelensky partially declassified his “victory plan,” which he provided to US and EU partners. It contains five open items and three secret ones.

According to the plan, Ukraine should be admitted to NATO, the West should help strengthen Ukrainian defence (provide air defence systems, jointly shoot down missiles and drones, invest in weapons production in Ukraine, allow long-range missiles to hit Russian territory), deploy a “comprehensive non-nuclear strategic deterrent package” in Ukraine, conclude an agreement with Ukraine on joint protection of the country’s critical resources, and replace certain contingents of the US Armed Forces with Ukrainian units.

Meanwhile, Ukraine is cautiously optimistic about continued US support under President-elect Donald Trump and expects “clear and quick steps” from the new leadership, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told the Kyiv Independent on Thursday.

Shmyhal said at the Kyiv International Economic Forum:

Donald Trump is a strong leader, there is no doubt about that.

Shmyhal believed that bipartisan support for Ukraine in both the US Congress and American society remains, giving grounds for “cautious optimism.” The Republican Party has won not only the White House but also the Senate, while the elections for the House of Representatives are still in limbo.

The Prime Minister highlighted President Volodymyr Zelensky’s phone conversation with Trump after the election, which the Ukrainian head of state called “a great phone call.”

Ukrainian officials tried to put a positive spin on Trump’s victory, expecting him to take a “peace through strength” approach and invoking the memories of Ronald Reagan, a former US Republican president known for his hawkish stance on Moscow. Shmyhal commented:

We understand that the US’s core value is the protection of democracy, the protection of democratic values. This remains unchanged, regardless of the elections. I am sure that we can continue our co-operation with the United States.

Russia’s reaction

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov believes that Trump’s plans for peaceful aspirations on the international stage, his desire to end old wars and prevent the emergence of new ones, may change after the inauguration. He said:

Yes, this statement is quite important, but now after the victory, actually preparing to enter the Oval Office or entering the Oval Office – here sometimes statements after that take on a different tone, and that’s why we say that we are carefully analysing everything, observing everything and we will draw conclusions on specific words and specific steps.

The Russian Foreign Ministry also said it had “no illusions” about Trump. The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on its website.

The ruling political elite in the US, regardless of party affiliation, adheres to anti-Russian attitudes and the line on “containing Moscow.” This line is not subject to the fluctuations of the domestic political barometer in the United States, whether it is “America First” as interpreted by D. Trump and his supporters or the “rules-based world order” on which the Democrats are “fixated.” Russia will work with the new Administration when it “takes up residence” in the White House, rigidly defending Russian national interests and focusing on achieving all the set goals of the special military operation. Our conditions are unchanged and are well known in Washington.

Read more HERE

[mightyflamethrower]

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a moving display of compassion, Vice President Kamala Harris today solemnly placed a "Joy" sticker on the tomb of a Marine who was killed during the U.S. exit from Afghanistan.

The Democratic candidate for president stood in hushed silence in front of the tomb for several seconds before stepping up to place the "Joy" decal on the wreath to commemorate his sacrifice.

"This sorrow is a joyful moment," Harris said to reporters following the ceremony. "In sorrow, we find joy. Joy is happiness. When we are happy, we have joy. And having joy is very joyous for those who have it. This is America. And America is JOY.

Political analysts were quick to point out that while Harris was Vice President during the universally criticized withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, she is now a candidate of joy. "She produces joy everywhere she goes," said one commentator. "Where there is Kamala, there is Joy — even here as we mourn those who died during the perfect and flawless withdrawal from Afghanistan!"

"Vote for joy!"

At publishing time, Harris campaign staffers asked the media present at the ceremony not to air any footage of the vice president dancing and cackling while speaking to the dead soldier's family.

[lenbryant]

(Long Post)

Column: Kamala Harris faced a high bar in convention speech. She soared past it

By Mark Z. Barabak

 and Anita Chabria

Aug. 23, 2024 7:35 AM PT

Kamala Harris on stage at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday night.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

On the final night of the Democratic National Convention, expectations were high and rumors were rampant. 

Speculation of a surprise guest — Taylor Swift? Beyoncé? — turned out to be nothing but wishful thinking. 

No matter.

Kamala Harris crushed it.

The vice president was always the main attraction of the four-day event and her Thursday night acceptance speech was always intended as its grand finale. 

From the moment she strode out flashing her high-wattage smile, Harris commanded the stage with a purpose and passion that eluded her the last time she ran, aimlessly and unsuccessfully, for the White House.

In just over 37 minutes, Harris capped what’s been a remarkable monthlong run of luck and political success with a powerful address that strongly positions her for the last stretch of this fiercely fought presidential campaign.

Our columnists, Mark Z. Barabak and Anita Chabria — who, combined, have attended precisely zero Swift or Beyoncé concerts — overcame their disappointment at the no-show and collected themselves to share these thoughts.

Barabak: Previewing this convention, I’d made fun of the breathless most-important-speech-of-her-career hype that anticipated Harris’ Thursday night closer. Not because it wasn’t true, but because it was so predictable and trite.

That said, it was a hugely consequential political moment, and Harris delivered flawlessly. I’ve followed her career going back to her days as San Francisco district attorney and never saw her give a better speech.

She was tough. She was authoritative. She was substantive. And, yes, she was joyful.

Your thoughts?

Chabria: There was little to criticize with this speech. To put it simply, she looked presidential — which was the whole point. 

Throughout the week, we’ve seen dozens of loud, yelling speeches — the kind that are a staple of rallies and meant to inspire with their energy. But on this arena stage, with its made-for-television sound system, many of those have seemed over-the-top theatrical and just plain loud to at-home viewers. 

Harris took a different approach. This was a speech meant to inspire with content as much as delivery. She was confident. She was cool — and most of all, she was in control. This was her moment to sell herself to undecided voters, and she gave a flawless pitch. 

Barabak: The Democrats’ indulgent and sloppy scheduling pushed other speakers way past TV’s prime time when, crucially, the most people are watching.

That wasn’t a problem Thursday night.

Harris, a former courtroom prosecutor, knows how to hone an argument. She had much ground to cover — she is that odd combination of famous and largely unknown — and she did so crisply and with forensic precision.

She offered her life story, starting as a little girl, outlined her career as politician and prosecutor — leaning heavily into her role as California attorney general, fighting crime and protecting consumers — and outlined a vision of what a Harris presidency would look like.

Buttressing and broadening the middle class would be, Harris vowed, “the defining goal of my presidency.”

She promised a middle-class tax cut, to fight to restore a nationwide right to abortion, to “end America’s housing shortage” — the presidency comes with no magic wand, so good luck with that one — and to fix the nation’s broken immigration system by signing bipartisan legislation that Trump tanked for political purposes.

Chabria: But she also didn’t shy away from the tough stuff. Gaza and the U.S. response to the Israel-Palestine conflict has been a subtext of this convention. While the huge, disruptive protests that many either feared or expected didn’t materialize, there were protests. And there was a hard but unsuccessful push to include a Palestinian speaker on the agenda.

Harris hit the issue head-on, with clear position statements. 

“I will always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself, and I will always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself. Because the people of Israel must never again face the horror that the terrorist organization Hamas caused on October 7th,” she said. 

Then she turned to Gaza. 

“At the same time, what has happened in Gaza over the past 10 months is devastating,” Harris said. “President Biden and I are working to end this war such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom and self-determination.”

This part of the speech garnered some of the loudest and longest applause. One speech doesn’t make this issue go away for her, of course, and it shouldn’t — Biden and Harris both need to deliver on those promises. 

But hitting it directly and with clarity shows the kind of accountability we look for in leaders. 

She also went directly after Donald Trump. What did you think of that part of her remarks, Mark?

Barabak: She lacerated Trump, citing his role inciting the Jan. 6 riot, his felony conviction for election interference and a jury’s finding he was liable for sexual abuse.

“Just imagine Donald Trump with no guardrails,” she said, citing the get-out-of-jail-free card handed him by a pliant Supreme Court.

But Harris didn’t leave it to the imagination, outlining a litany of barbarities that await should Trump slink back into the Oval Office: Journalists and his political opponents jailed. Jan. 6 insurrectionists turned loose. The military sicced on the country’s citizens to clamp down on dissent.

Strong stuff.

Chabria: She certainly gave us a sense of what she must have been like in a courtroom. And it drove Trump nuts. He was over on his Truth Social platform tweeting like a madman. What struck me was how stale Trump’s comebacks were — labeling her a communist, blaming her for the border — compared to what Harris was saying on stage. 

For those all-important undecided voters, she really is offering something fresh, something that wasn’t on the ticket with Biden. Undecided voters are always a mystery because you don’t know if they are just not paying attention, have already made up their minds and don’t want to say or are just working off their own idiosyncratic criteria. But if there are voters out there searching for a candidate with a new feel, she’s it. 

Beyond Harris, the convention did a good job last night with the speakers who led up to her. Her grand-nieces did a cute bit on how to pronounce her name (which even Bill Clinton flubbed). Comma-la. Not hard. 

Four of the Central Park Five, now known as the Exonerated Five, also gave a powerful speech — reminding us how Trump continues to believe in their guilt decades after the real rapist and DNA cleared them. I was struck by how much of Trump’s language around that case, and those Black teens, now mirrors his language around immigrants. 

But the one that got me was sexual abuse survivor and advocate Courtney Baldwin, a Californian who was “bought and sold” via the website Backpage.com while she was a teen, she said. 

It was the attorney general’s office under Harris (and Asst. Atty. Gen. Maggy Krell, who is now running for California state Assembly) that shut down that site with a novel legal strategy and a lot of relentlessness. 

Harris is a champion of sexual abuse victims, and it’s a part of her background that she’s mentioned but is still little understood — for all the trafficking panic on the right, Harris has actually put a lot of pimps behind bars. 

“She protected people like me her whole life,” Baldwin said. “I know she will fight for us all as president.”

Was there anything else that stood out to you, Mark?

Barabak: Let’s be real. As a woman, Harris faces doubts about her toughness, especially when it comes to defense and foreign policy. But Trump, with his weird suck-up approach to authoritarianism, made it easy for the vice president to draw a pointed contrast.

She vowed never to be a push-over to flattery, like a certain vain ex-president, and said she would always make sure America has “the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world.” 

Take that, Putin!

One of the most interesting things to watch in recent years has been the political role reversal under Trump’s Russia-loving, isolationist Republican Party. Now it’s Democrats who are the cold warriors.

Look at all the American flags filling the convention hall and hear those recurrent chants of “USA!” “USA!” and you’d have thought you were at one of Ronald Reagan’s GOP conventions.

Chabria: Republicans love to demonize women, individually and collectively. Remember how they treated Hillary? They literally accused her of staying artificially young by sacrificing children in a secret lair beneath a pizza parlor. 

No doubt, Harris will see the pressure to label her as something beyond just a bad politician — something evil — increase. 

But that kind of individual attack can’t be separated from the collective attack anymore. Women in general now feel under assault with the abortion issue, and that makes aggression towards Harris’ gender feel different than with Clinton. 

As Harris put it, “One must ask why exactly is it that they don’t trust women. Well, we trust women. We trust women.”

Any final thoughts, Mark?

Barabak: Harris has always prepared herself to within an inch of her life. So her boffo performance — it is, after all, a performance — was not surprising.

The vice president’s forte is the big set piece — a major speech, a congressional hearing — where the climate is controlled. 

When she leaves Chicago, it’s back to the messy and unpredictable campaign trail and at least one debate with the feral, unpredictable Trump.

Who knows what crisis may present itself in the next 70–odd days or what gaffes Harris might commit. Can her luck continue?

The path from here to November is unclear. But she’s certainly stepping off from the convention on the right foot.

And in a brief programming note, that’s it from Chicago. Thanks for joining us and we hope you’ll stick around for more to come.