#vice President

[simply-ivanka]

David Sacks:

“"We're in debt almost $40 trillion, and anytime anyone tries to cut anything in Washington, the whole city screams bloody murder. The question is, why? Well, now we know. The money is all going to them."

"New York Times, getting paid. Politico, getting paid. Bill Kristol, perennial warmonger, getting paid. Ukraine, like 11 out of 12 publications, getting paid. Viktor Orban, the Prime Minister of Hungary, was saying his political opposition is funded by USAID."

"In Poland, the left-wing political opposition is funded by USAID. BBC in the U.K. Every left-wing organization in the world seems to be getting paid by this slush fund at USAID, which distributes $50 billion a year. That's a billion dollars a week. That's a lot of money."

"It makes you wonder. The left, in general, tries to portray itself as a movement of the people. That it's grassroots, this is the exact opposite. This is astroturf. This money is coming from the top down out of Washington to fund all these groups all over the world. So it makes you wonder, what is the real level of local support for these left-wing policies all over the world?"”

[saywhat-politics]

"Judges aren't allowed to control the executive's legitimate power," the vice president wrote

J.D. Vance signaled the Trump administration may try to ignore judicial orders, which could trigger a constitutional crisis.

The vice president wrote on X, “If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal. If a judge tried to command the attorney general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, that’s also illegal. Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.”

Vance also shared a post by Adrian Vermeule, professor of constitutional law at Harvard, who wrote, “Judicial interference with legitimate acts of state, especially the internal functioning of a co-equal branch, is a violation of the separation of powers.”

Elon Musk, who has led Donald Trump‘s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) as it attempts to dismantle and take over federal agencies, signaled he may also support defying the courts. He reshared an X post by “Insurrection Barbie” that said in part, “I don’t like the precedent it sets when you defy a judicial ruling, but I’m just wondering what other options are these judges leaving us.”

[charlesoberonn]

"Riddle me this, Senator Vance: You can sit on it. You'd might like to ride it. But you wouldn't like to sleep on it. What is it?"

"A couch?"

"No, Senator Vance... a horse. The answer is a horse."

[destiel-news-channel]

[Image ID: The Destiel confession meme edited so that Dean answers 'Tim Walz is Kamala Harris' running mate.' to Cas' 'I love you'. /End ID]

This is according to a source that told CNN, he has not been formally called by Harris yet. CNN link

EDIT: It is now official!

Tim Walz is the one who started the tactic of calling Republicans 'weird', by the way.

Tim Walz is in his second term as the Minnesota governor. He is 60 years old and a former high school teacher.

Memorable information (click the text for its source)

Walz is "a champion of Democratic causes, including union organizing, workers’ rights and a $15-an-hour minimum wage."

eliminated nearly all of Minnesota's abortion restrictions

protected gender-affirming care for transgender youth

legalized the recreational use of marijuana

"free school meals to children, free tuition at public colleges for students whose families earn less than $80,000 a year, a paid family and medical leave program, health insurance regardless of immigration status, gun violence prevention, abortion rights protections, voting rights expansion and more"

Feel free to add more.

[reasonsforhope]

Kamala Harris just announced that her vice president will be Minnesota governor Tim Walz. Based on the coverage so far I'm really reassured by this decision.

The Washington Post did an obviously great job of making a prepared article for each option, considering how long an article they had up 7 minutes after the announcement.

((Okay technically it's not an official announcement yet it's "according to three people familiar with the pick, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a decision that is not yet public." But listen. I am 99% sure this is a weather balloon. (Meaning: a deliberate leak to gauge reaction.) Because the sheer weakness or incompetence on the part of the Harris campaign that it would take for three people to all confirm that within a few hours hours of each other and the planned announcement it is massive.))

-via The Washington Post, August 6, 2024

Honestly this decision, from everything I've read and can tell, looks like it's brilliant politics.

Important Context: The vice president(ial candidates)'s job in an election is not to be similar to the president. The vice president's job on the ballot is very, very much specifically to be different from the president. Why? So they can cover each others' weaknesses. Especially regionally.

(Sidenote: I feel a bit ridiculous saying this. But genuinely if you want to get a stronger understanding of how US elections really work. Go watch seasons 6 and 7 of The West Wing. Genuinely, a lot of politicians have said - especially back in its day - that that was the most accurate depiction of an election they'd ever seen. Also specifically features an entire arc about a contested Democratic primary convention, so also very good if you're interested in understanding weird nominating convention shenanigans.)

From the article:

"Harris’s choice for a running mate was among the most closely watched decisions of her fledgling campaign, as she sought to bolster the ticket’s prospects for victory in November and rapidly find someone who could be a governing partner. In picking Walz, she has selected a seasoned politician with executive governing experience and signaled the importance of Midwestern battleground states such as Wisconsin and Michigan.

Walz’s foray into politics came later in life: He spent more than two decades as a public school teacher and football coach, and as a member of the Army National Guard, before running for Congress in his 40s. In 2006, he defeated a Republican to win Minnesota’s 1st Congressional District--a rural, conservative area--and won reelection five times before leaving Congress to run for governor.

Walz was first elected governor in 2018 and handily won reelection in 2022. Though little-known outside his state, Walz emerged publicly as one of the earliest names mentioned as a possible running mate for Harris, and in the ensuing days he made the rounds on television as an outspoken surrogate for the vice president...

“These are weird people on the other side. They want to take books away, they want to be in your exam room. … They are bad on foreign policy, they are bad on the environment, they certainly have no health care plan, and they keep talking about the middle-class,” Walz told MSNBC in July. “As I said, a robber baron real estate guy and a venture capitalist trying to tell us they understand who we are? They don’t know who we are.”

Walz also has faced criticism from Republicans that his policies as governor were too liberal, including legalizing recreational marijuana for adults, protecting abortion rights, expanding LGBTQ protections, implementing tuition-free college for low-income Minnesotans and providing free breakfast and lunch for schoolchildren in the state.

But many of those initiatives are broadly popular. Walz also signed an executive order removing the college-degree requirement for 75 percent of Minnesota’s state jobs, a move that garnered bipartisan support and that several other states have also adopted.

“What a monster. Kids are eating and having full bellies, so they can go learn, and women are making their own health-care decisions,” Walz said sarcastically in a July 28 interview with CNN when questioned whether such policies would be fodder for conservative attacks, later adding: “If that’s where they want to label me, I’m more than happy to take the [liberal] label.”

Walz also spoke at a kickoff event in St. Paul for a Democratic canvassing effort, casting Trump as a “bully.”

“Don’t lift these guys up like they’re some kind of heroes. Everybody in this room knows--I know it as a teacher--a bully has no self-confidence. A bully has no strength. They have nothing,” Walz said at the event, sporting a camouflage hunting hat and T-shirt.

Walz has explained that he felt some Democrats’ practice of calling Trump an existential threat to democracy was giving him too much credit, which prompted his decision to denounce the GOP nominee instead as being “weird.”

“I do believe all those things are a real possibility, but it gives him way too much power," Walz said on CNN’s “State of the Union” regarding the Democrats’ rhetoric. “Listen to the guy. He’s talking about Hannibal Lecter, shocking sharks, and just whatever crazy thing pops into his mind.”

If Walz is elected vice president, under state law, Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan (D) would assume the governorship for the rest of his term. Minnesota Senate president Bobby Joe Champion, a Democrat, would become lieutenant governor."

-via The Washington Post, August 6, 2024

--

This guy. Sounds like. fucking Moderate swing-state/rural/Midwestern/southern/"heartland"/working class white voter catnip. He sounds like he's also a very smart politician and strong campaigner. And he's apparently genuinely a good guy with a good record, too.

He sounds like he's going to do a really good job of appealing to voters in several of the big deal swing states without being from any of them specifically. Which means it doesn't feel like pandering to one of the states involved (and thereby spurning the others), which is also great.

(Also he was the one who started "weird" @ conservatives and I think we should take that seriously as a very good political instinct/move. Judging in large part by how it has so clearly hit an actual nerve with conservatives like so little else. Also hugely relevant: that post going around about how part of why conservatives are so upset about "weird" is because in the Midwest, "weird" specifically also implies anti-social or harmful behavior.)

Officially feeling more optimistic about Trump not winning in November

[destiel-news-network]

(Source)

[davidaugust]

“I invite her [Harris] to use the office the American people gave her,” -JD Vance showing he does not understand the powers and limits of the office of the Vice President, while pursuing the office of Vice President

[not-on-the-cocytus]

Oh my gods we do not need more homes. We do not need more houses that will sit there and rot because nobody can afford them. We need to be able to afford EXISTING HOMES.

[foreverlogical]

[triassictriserratops]

I just can't believe I saw the announcement BEFORE I saw the SPN "I love you" edit

[simply-ivanka]

[saywhat-politics]

They hate being called Nazis and yet they are literally going through the 1930’s Germany playbook.

JD Vance at the National Conservatism Conference:

"The professors are the enemy."

[destielmemenews]

source 1

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[democracyunderground]

[inkbirdie]

WHEN TRUMP PEACEFULLY TRANSFERRED POWER?? WHEN IN JANUARY HE PEACEFULLY. TRANSFERRED HIS POWER. WHEN TRUMP FAMOUSLY PEACEFULLY AND NICELY TRANSFERRED HIS POWER i’m losing it guys i can’t do this anymore