rapid response

I was very glad too see this Harris/Walz press release in response to Donald Trump's rambling "press conference" on Thursday, 8/8/24. This is the kind of rapid response that is needed. We simply should not let Trump's lies go unrefuted or unmentioned. As one commenter on MSNBC said recently, an unanswered lie gains a patina of truth. I know that Trump lies profusely. Answering every lie would become tedious, maybe even silly, because Trump lies about EVERYTHING. Sometimes it seems he is simply incapable of telling the truth. But you cannot let his bullshit go unanswered. I have a feeling the Harris/Walz campaign is not going to let his lies go unanswered. 

For now, a press release is sufficient. In future, the Harris/Walz campaign will need to take this type of rapid response to campaign appearances, and especially at the upcoming debates. Our media seems unwilling or incapable of calling out Trump's lies, so it is going to fall upon Kamala and Tim to hammer it home. 

Donald Trump’s Very Good, Very Normal Press Conference Split Screen: Joy and Freedom vs. Whatever the Hell That Was

Donald Trump took a break from taking a break to put on some pants and host a p̶r̶e̶s̶s̶ ̶c̶o̶n̶f̶e̶r̶e̶n̶c̶e̶ public meltdown. We have a lot to say about it. Here are some initial thoughts – with more to come. He hasn’t campaigned all week. He isn’t going to a single swing state this week. But he sure is mad Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are getting big crowds across the battlegrounds. The facts were hard to track and harder to find in Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago meltdown this afternoon. He lied. He attacked the media. He made excuses for why he’s off the campaign trail. We’re here to help because his staff clearly isn’t. But first, an important reminder on the question Donald didn’t answer: how he will vote on the Florida abortion referendum. (He has been ducking this question since April.) We worked to pin down reality so Donald Trump, bless his heart, doesn’t have to. Here are the facts: We had 12,000 and 15,000 people in Wisconsin and Michigan yesterday, respectively (Not 2,000.) The ABC debate is September 10th. Not the 25th. People have spoken to bigger crowds than Donald Trump. (Obama, Clinton, literally anyone at Lollapalooza, Coachella, the World Cup…) January 6th was decidedly nothing like MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech. And Trump did not get a bigger crowd than Martin Luther King Jr. on that historic day. There was famously not a “peaceful transfer” of power after the 2020 election, which Donald Trump fought to overturn. (Famously.) Five police officers died because of January 6th. Donald Trump said he was off the trail this week because of the Democratic convention. (That convention is not happening this week.) Trump said they have commercials at a level no one else does. (He is being drastically outspent on the airwaves.) Governor Josh Shapiro is actually a great guy. Project 2025 author Tom Homan, the “father” of Trump’s cruel child separation policy, is not a person to praise. Jewish people should not “have their head examined” for not supporting him. (That’s actually antisemitic.) Trump said he was not complaining. He in fact very much was. Trump does not know the difference between asylum seekers and an insane asylum. Donald Trump does not “cherish” the Constitution. Abortion is not “less of an issue” for voters. It is not “subdued.” It is not a “small issue” for voters, despite how much Donald Trump wants it to be. Donald Trump did not answer the abortion question “very well in the debate.” Everybody did not want Roe v. Wade overturned. The American people do not support states banning abortion. After-birth abortion does not exist. Minnesota and Virginia are not the same. Donald Trump doesn’t know what progressive means. Kamala Harris does not want to take away everyone’s guns. Tim Walz is a gun owner. Vice President Harris does not support an arms embargo on Israel. Donald Trump could not remember Tim Walz’s name. Donald Trump’s tax cuts are not the biggest in history. We don’t know what “the transgender became such a big thing” is supposed to mean. Donald Trump will cut Social Security – just like he proposed every year he was in office. Government was not weaponized against Trump and Steve Bannon. Mail ballots are secure. We agree – Elon IS a different kind of guy. There are no polls that say Donald Trump is going to win in a landslide. The MAGA base is not 75% of the country. Original.

we need this joy

Yes, Kamala Harris' pick for VP is Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. This guy's resume is excellent: teacher, coach, dad, union-supporter, US House member, Governor. I would have preferred Pete Buttigieg, but after listening to and watching Tim Walz, I think her pick was the right one. The energy and excitement on the Democratic side is very palpable. Harris/Walz are speaking to massive, energetic crowds, while Don-OLD forever scowls and insults anyone and everyone. 

Trump's time has passed. We have all seen his horrendous handling of the Covid-19 epidemic and his massive tax cut for the wealthy. That is about the only thing he got accomplished while polluting the office of president. People tend to forget that buried in that massive tax cut for the wealthy were some tax increases on the middle class, such as the elimination of several tax deductions that the un-wealthy used to soften their tax bite. So in one sense, he funded the tax cuts on the backs of the middle and lower-classes, and that was the only way the tax cut was "paid for."

Harris/Walz: We Need This Joy

by The Rude Pundit

8/7/24

Something occurred to me while watching yesterday's rally in Philadelphia kicking off the campaign for the full 2024 Democratic ticket of current Vice President Kamala Harris for president and Governor Tim Walz for vice president. It occurred to me while watching Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, who had been considered a frontrunner for the VP job, pumping up the crowd like the greatest hype man in history. It occurred to me when Harris introduced Walz to a nation that, beyond those of us damned to be terminally online in the political world, knew very little about him. It occurred to me when Walz, all big  dad energy, scolded the Republicans, Donald Trump and JD Vance, for their deprivations and degradations while telling the gathered 10,000 people how they needed to get out on that field and beat the cross-town rivals. It occurred to me as I felt myself getting caught up in the excitement of the moment, with the expected cheers and spontaneous chants from the audience at Temple University. And it kept occurring to me today as I saw the elated crowds in Eau Claire and Detroit.

It was simple. I thought, "Man, we need this." And by "this," I mean all the joy and energy and possibility being embodied on that stage. But it's not only about this moment. We need this because the one thing that's been missing as we emerged from the worst part of the Covid pandemic (and recognizing that Covid is still very much a problem) is a catharsis, some release where we all recognize that we survived. And it's not just a catharsis for getting through the lockdowns and mass deaths and required health safety measures. It's a catharsis for surviving the presidency of Donald Trump, which took this country down some incredibly dark alleys, leaving it battered and weary, with a good deal of PTSD.

We couldn't actually celebrate, or even fully exhale, because hanging over all of us was the tension of what would bring the Trump saga to its end. We waited for something to validate the anger we had and to demonstrate that things would be different. We hoped that Trump would be convicted and sent to prison, but that didn't happen and may not. 

The election of Joe Biden was an absolutely necessary step to get to this point. We needed someone who knew how the federal government worked inside and out, an old hand to get to the bridge and right the ship, weld the holes, scrub off the rust, get rid of the piles of garbage, and get us back on course, all while restocking the bar. We were all scared out of our weary minds in 2020, awaiting the even deadlier next surge of Covid deaths that was coming in January 2021. Then January 6th happened, and our sense of security in the very things that are supposed to function in this country were undermined, all while watching a large percentage of the population go down a red-capped abyss of crazy and conspiracies they will likely never return from. Biden's skill was in allowing the rest of us to chill out, to see that the government hadn't lost the ability to actually work.

In the last few months, though, everything kept hitting us, even as Trump was found guilty or liable, owing hundreds of millions of dollars. All of it still didn't lead us to anything like a feeling of completion, a feeling we could, indeed, move on. We were hit again and again with insane Supreme Court decisions, with the polls that showed Biden losing, with Biden's obvious signs of aging, with this feeling that it was all going to go south again. We would stick by Biden if we had to (and more than a few were doing so gladly), but, my god, we needed celebration. We needed joy. Real joy, not the kind of joy that says, "We made it," but the joy that says, "We crushed it." We need to face our American demons, who are easily identifiable, and we need to unify to exorcise them and send them back to whatever crevices in the earth they crawled out of, not just defeat them at the polls. 

So, yeah, it's more than a little over-the-top to say this, but I got that feeling from the Harris/Walz rally yesterday, from the ecstasy with which people are reacting to this ticket. We suffered a mass trauma, both physical and psychological, from Covid, compounded by the savage incompetence and wanton cruelty of the Trump administration. And the effects of that trauma haven't been dealt with. 

But maybe this is how we heal: by coming together in joyful purpose, to laugh and mock and chant and celebrate, all in service of unifying to keep progressing, to make sure that the hard work that's been done doesn't get wasted by another Republican president, like Bill Clinton's work was wrecked by Bush, like Obama's work was wrecked by Trump. God, imagine how incredible it will be for Biden to hand it off to Kamala Harris, with no Republican in the middle to ruin it all first. God, imagine how amazing it will be to know that so many of us came together, all these disparate areas of the left, all these generations, all these races and genders and identities, for once not bothering with the in-fighting that divides us every election season, to make this happen. We can get back to all those difficult discussions about what direction we should go once we can exhale without that feeling that it's all about to end terribly.

This isn't just about vibes. It's about our deep need to feel connected again, to not just wander in our algorithm-induced scrolling comas, but to see that all that we have been through means something and can achieve something. It's a desire for authenticity, for modernity, for an embrace of who we really are. And it's a desire for normalcy again. God, we know we can never go back to what was before Trump and before Covid, but let us come up with a way to tell the delusional, harmful, weird GOP that we're done being afraid of the phantoms they demand we fear. 

In our Harris and Walz-induced joy is our strength. 

Original.

Comics for Kamala

There is some pretty funny material in this 3 hr 11 min video of the "Comics for Kamala" fundraiser. You can scan thru the program using the progress bar. It's awesome to see people that you may already respect chipping in to help Kamala crush Trump. The audio might be a little low on this one. 

Put a Woman in Charge

This one from Keb Mo, "Put A Woman in Charge," even though about 6 years ago, is appropriate for today. VOTE BLUE up and down the ticket!

Lyrics:

Put a Woman in Charge (Kevin R. Moore, Beth Nielsen Chapman, John Lewis Parker)

Way back when

In the beginning of time

Man made the fire then the wheel

Went from a horse to an automobile

He said, “the world is mine”

He took the oceans and the sky

He set the borders - built the walls

He won’t stop till he owns it all

And here we are

Standing on the brink of disaster

Enough is enough is enough is enough

I know the answer

Put a woman in charge

Put the women in charge

Put a woman in charge

Put the women in charge

The time has come

We’ve got to turn this world around

Call the mothers

Call the daughters

We need the sisters of mercy now

She’ll be a hero

Not a fool

She’s got the power

To change the rules

She’s got something

that men don’t have

She is kind and she understands

So Let the ladies

Do what they were born to do

Raise the vibration

And make a better place for me and you

Put a woman in charge

Put the women in charge

Put a woman in charge

Put the women in charge

Hallelujah

We’re gonna feel the magic

When the girls take over

it’s gonna be fantastic

Put a woman in charge

Put the women in charge

Put a woman in charge

Put the women in charge

"Celebration"

This tune, "Celebration" by David Mallett, was posted online some 8 years ago and I didn't hear it back then. I suppose I would not have heard of  it, ever, if Heather Cox Richardson (or the Wiki page, if you prefer) had not posted and plugged it on her Facebook site recently. It's got a nice message in it that is appropriate even today, 8 years later. See what you think. Lyrics below.

Filmed and produced by: Roy Clark Additional photography by: Michael Burd Lyrics: sometimes you just dont feel like tryin too many politicians lyin too many hungry babies cryin too many random bullits flyin too much time spent in struggle too many little kids in trouble too many cities gone to rubble too many people talkin double This cant be our destination This could be a better nation time to set the big horse racin we can change the situation Trains a leavin from the station need a brand new generation This could be a celebration now now situations changin fast too much plastic too much trash too many smoke stacks spewing ash too many people with no cash too much waste not enough water too many abandoned sons and daughters too many lost and hopeless feelings too many lowdown shady dealings This can't be our destination This could be a better nation time to set the big horse racin need a brand new generation Trains a leavin from the station me i got no reservation This could be a celebration now now All this time i hear this roaring pavement steel and iron ore and people shouting all so sure that their side is the right side more and more i see abandoned stores and floors weary tired and poorer all the time folks they're just buried in the wine because they're all so bored and it's become unnatural the way we need the things without a reason feed the greed the weeds grow from the roots and we're all runnin from the truth we choose to fight instead of prove ourselves leave love and hope upon the shelf divided they're just free to sell us anything This cant be our destination This could be a better nation time to set the big horse racin need a brand new generation time to change the conversation Trains a leavin from the station This could be a celebration NOW too many people loooking down too many closed up factory towns too much high priced propaganda too much sadness in this land of dreams that once could all come true now its down to me and you tell me what you gonna do tell me what you gonna do This cant be our destination This could be a better nation time to set the big horse racin need a brand new generation Trains a leavin from the station This could be a celebration me i got no reservations This could be a celebration This could be a celebration this could be a celebration this could be a celebration now NOW NOW Copyright 2016 by David Mallett

prisoner swap

Joe Biden is a good man and has been a great president. And he is leaving the Democratic Party in good hands with Kamala Harris. 

Apparently Joe finalized this swap ONE HOUR before he announced he was stepping down from the campaign. Which makes me wonder if the deal was dependent in any way upon Biden dropping out of the race. Which, in hindsight, looks like a bonehead move because Kamala has been unleashed to a wave of enthusiasm and excitement across the Democratic Party. 

Joe is so sweet, he led the group in singing Happy Birthday to one of the young girls whose dad (or granddad?) was being held prisoner in Russia. And Joe's last line in response to one of the shouted questions from the viper press pool is classic. It's at the very end.