Kamala Harris: Madam Vice President

[Audrey2]

I don't know if anyone else is a fan of Politics Girl or not. She was able to attend the DNC last week and I loved her video on roll call. Not only did she do a nice job describing it but I love the little dig that she got in it trump, saying that the DNC had secured permission from all of the artists to use the different songs that each state used as a walk-on song and that this is what happens when you don't anger all of the musicians.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Gee, made in the USA, unlike TFG's trashy merchandise.

 

[WatchingTheTireFireBurn]

I know everybody is on a DNC high right now. But I'm worried. I didn't think the DNC speakers were all that exciting. Seemed pretty standard issue. Harris' speech was fine but compared to Obama(x2) it was weak. 

I'm getting absolutely SLAMMED  with pro trump attack ads here in one of the swing states.

I hope now they're through this they can ramp up but I'm worried dems just can't seem to get together a compelling message to attract middle ground people. 

I think it was in an Al Franken interview, he was saying that Walz is a very good campaigner. I hope we get to see that side and soon!!

I had a democratic canvasser come by my house yesterday, she said people seemed very locked in one way or the other. I'm crossing fingers and toes that more than 12k more democrats have moved here and registered vs republicans. Apparently we added 74k in 2022 (last data available) but many came from Texas, TN, and FL.

 

[Smash!]

@WatchingTheTireFireBurn 

Today’s (25. August 2024) letter by Heather Cox Richardson is pretty optimistic.

Quote

The Democratic National Convention buoyed the Democrats. Thirty-four million dollars worth of donations came into ActBlue on the night of Vice President Kamala Harris’s acceptance speech. That money added to the other donations pouring in to make a record-breaking total of $540 million since July 22, when Harris’s campaign launched. 

Analyzing voter registrations in Michigan, pollster Tom Bonier found an immediate increase in young women registering to vote in the week of July 21, and his models suggest a 20-point Democratic advantage among those new registrants. 

and (the whole letter is under the spoiler)

Quote

Telegram is a social media app launched by Russian-born billionaire Pavel Durov, and it is the main communications tool in Russia. Durov was arrested today in France on charges that Telegram has been used for money laundering and other crimes. 

Spoiler

The Democratic National Convention buoyed the Democrats. Thirty-four million dollars worth of donations came into ActBlue on the night of Vice President Kamala Harris’s acceptance speech. That money added to the other donations pouring in to make a record-breaking total of $540 million since July 22, when Harris’s campaign launched. 

Analyzing voter registrations in Michigan, pollster Tom Bonier found an immediate increase in young women registering to vote in the week of July 21, and his models suggest a 20-point Democratic advantage among those new registrants. FiveThirtyEight shows Harris up 2.7 points over Trump in the national polling average, a six-point improvement from Biden’s last day as a candidate. Across the country, the campaign has 400,000 volunteers.

Harris and Minnesota governor Tim Walz will cross southern Georgia by bus next week to build on the momentum of the convention, working with the 35,000 volunteers, 174 staffers, and 24 campaign offices across the state. 

Trump and the MAGA Republicans have not taken the Democrats’ momentum quietly. Trump has been frantically posting. 

On Thursday morning he assured readers on his social media channel that “My Administration will be great for women and their reproductive rights,” although he has boasted about ending the 1973 Roe v. Wadedecision that protected women’s access to abortion and suggested that women who obtain abortions should be punished. Maureen Dowd of the New York Times wrote that his posts “were too ridiculous even for Trump,” and she wondered if his account had been hacked by Iranians. 

Then Trump went to Montezuma Pass, Arizona, to praise a section of border wall constructed there. A Border Patrol union leader called it the “Trump Wall,” and Isaac Arnsdorf, Marianne LeVine and Erin Patrick O'Connor of the Washington Post wrote that Trump’s visit was designed to recapture the storyline of this presidential race from Harris. But it turned out that the section he visited was actually built under President Barack Obama. The nearby Trump portion was unfinished and cost at least $35 million per mile. As president, the reporters note, “Trump spent more than $11 billion to finish more than 450 miles of wall along the almost 2,000-mile southern border, one of the most expensive federal infrastructure projects in history.” 

Harris’s acceptance speech had Trump apparently beside himself. During her 38-minute speech he posted 59 times on his social media platform, saying, among other things, “WHERE’S HUNTER?”  referring to President Joe Biden’s son. After the speech ended, he called in to the Fox News Channel to rant, in what Dowd called a “scream-of-consciousness,” in which he insisted he is “doing very well in the polls,” until host Bret Baier cut him off. So he turned to right-wing media outlet Newsmax, where he continued his diatribe.  

That night, apparently increasingly concerned about his chances of election, Trump—or his team, because it didn’t really sound like him—reached out on social media to Georgia governor Brian Kemp, whom he has lambasted since 2021 for refusing to help him steal the 2020 election. As recently as August 3, Trump went after Kemp, but on Thursday he thanked the governor “for all of your help and support in Georgia, where a win is so important to the success of our Party and, most importantly, our Country. I look forward to working with you, your team, and all of my friends in Georgia to help MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memocommented: “Nothing tells you Trump is in full panic more than seeing him crawl back to nemesis Brian Kemp begging for help in Georgia.” “Kemp wanted a public groveling,” Ron Filipkowski wrote, “and that’s what Trump did tonight.” 

It wasn’t just Trump who was concerned about the Democratic National Convention. A number of prominent Republicans who will be voting for Harris spoke there, providing a permission structure for other Republicans to shift their support to Harris and Walz. But that message did not make it through to viewers of the Fox News Channel. Media Matters, which monitors right-wing media, reported that the Fox News Channel did not air any of the Republicans’ DNC speeches. 

In the Wall Street Journal, Peggy Noonan complained that Democrats “stole traditional Republican themes (faith, patriotism) and claimed them as their own”—as if somehow Democrats shouldn’t be able to claim either faith or patriotism—and worried that Trump “is famously off his game.” His “old insult shtick isn’t working,” and when he tries to read from a teleprompter, “he talks like a tranquilized robot.” Because he has insulted everything, when he now disparages something, she wrote, “it seems part of his act.”  

Recognizing the momentum of the Harris-Walz campaign, the Trump-Vance campaign on Saturday sent out a memo predicting a post-convention bump for Harris-Walz but promising the bump would be temporary. It also did not mention that Trump and Vance did not get the normal post-convention bounce after their 2024 convention in July. 

Friday brought more bad news for the Trump campaign when twelve Republican lawyers who served in the administrations of presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush wrote an open letter endorsing Harris because they believe Trump is a threat to American democracy and the rule of law. They continued: "[W]e urge all patriotic Republicans, former Republicans, conservative and center-right citizens, and independent voters to place love of country above party and ideology and join us in supporting Kamala Harris."  

They join conservative jurist J. Michael Luttig, who endorsed Harris on Wednesday and wrote: “In voting for Vice President Harris, I assume that her public policy views are vastly different from my own, but I am indifferent in this election on any issues other than America’s Democracy, the Constitution, and the Rule of Law, as I believe all Americans should be.”

Also on Friday, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who was running for president as an Independent, suspended his campaign and endorsed Trump. He joined Trump onstage in Glendale, Arizona, to the music of the Foo Fighters, who made it clear the campaign did not ask permission to use the song, they would not have allowed it, and that they will donate all royalties from its use by Trump’s campaign to the Harris-Walz campaign.

It is not clear that Kennedy’s endorsement will help Trump much. He was polling at under 5%, and his numbers were dropping. Kennedy also is a poor candidate to help Trump combat the “weird” label the Democrats have attached to his campaign. His odd past includes recent stories that he claimed in court to suffer from a worm in his brain and that he dumped a dead bear cub in New York’s Central Park and tried to make it look as if a bike had hit it. Josh Marshall added that the endorsement also “puts a spotlight on the fact that [Trump’s] desperate and trying basically anything now to shake up the race.”

Five of Kennedy’s siblings called the endorsement “a betrayal of the values that our father and our family hold most dear. It is a sad ending to a sad story.” Quoting President John F. Kennedy, his grandson Jack Schlossberg endorsed Harris on stage at the DNC. 

Trump seemed thrilled with the endorsement, though. On Saturday he shared a post calling himself and Kennedy “the Strongest anti-establishment ticket in American History.” But, of course, Kennedy is not on the ticket. J.D. Vance is. 

Vance’s dismal rollout has not gotten better. He appears to have taken on the task of actually campaigning for the ticket, but he is enormously inexperienced, and it’s not going terribly well. An awkward visit to a donut shop in Georgia where Vance ordered “whatever makes sense” has become a viral TikTok meme. An AP_NORC poll has Vance at –17 (27% favorable versus 44% unfavorable); Walz is +11 (36 to 25). 

Finally, in a post on his social media site tonight, Trump appears to be hinting that he will pull out of the planned debate between him and Vice President Harris scheduled for September 10. “I watched ABC FAKE NEWS this morning,” he wrote, “and I ask, why would I do the Debate against Kamala Harris on that network?... Stay tuned!!!” 

One other item came from Trump this week, but it got little oxygen with everything else that was going on. Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump have been teasing a “big announcement” this month related to cryptocurrency and decentralized finance, or DeFi. On Thursday, Trump announced a new cryptocurrency project called “The DeFiant Ones” and linked to a Telegram channel set up on August 6, the same day Eric posted that such a project was in the works. 

Telegram is a social media app launched by Russian-born billionaire Pavel Durov, and it is the main communications tool in Russia. Durov was arrested today in France on charges that Telegram has been used for money laundering and other crimes. 

 

Harris and Walz are building a movement. In the comments of Richardson‘s letter mothers tell about their daughters who for the first time are interested in politics. It‘s because the Harris campaign focus on social media to get their message out. Many people have hope again that their vote will matter. This will drive them to the polls.

 

[church_of_dog]

On 8/12/2024 at 6:14 AM, Howl said:

There's a photo of Kamala Harris' jet on the tarmac with people in the foreground. It's being circulate by right-wing media and reich-wing amplifiers like Sean Feuct and  Dinesh D'Souza as AI generated because there are reflections of a hangar along the belly line, rather than the crowd, which seems quite close.  That reflection is an artifact of compression in long-distance photography. The crowd is quite far away, the reflection shows the hangar and not the crowd.  

Thank you for explaining about photo compression.  I knew the crowd wouldn't have been AI faked, but I couldn't understand why everyone was allowed to be way out on the tarmac near the plane.  I forgot about that compression illusion.

[FiveAcres]

2 minutes ago, church_of_dog said:

Thank you for explaining about photo compression.  I knew the crowd wouldn't have been AI faked, but I couldn't understand why everyone was allowed to be way out on the tarmac near the plane.  I forgot about that compression illusion.

I was amazed at the photos that the profession photographer took of our former house when it went on the market, both interior and exterior. Yes, we had already staged the house, and put probably over 60% of our remaining stuff in storage at that point, but it was amazing how spacious the photos made our house, with its eccentric layout, look. He also captured some views including our house which showed the beautiful surroundings of Colorado hillside.

Oddly enough, a year or so ago, I found another set of photos of the house on Zillow. I didn't like the colors they used to repaint, but what was really odd was how strange the angles were especially of the bathrooms. Our realtor's photographer did a much better job.

[WatchingTheTireFireBurn]

Watched the general news round up just now - one was saying that Harris internal polling is worse for Harris vs what's public. Apparently PA in particular is not looking very good.

I continue to think Trump has pushed the crazy so far that nothing he does even registers any more. They are fine with him. They are fine with Vance.

There are zero Harris articles anywhere noticeable in my newsfeeds today. Only Trump, trump, and more trump. I'm looking for  Harris - how is Harris reaching the people who aren't actively looking? One of the biggest complaints about Harris is "I don't know anything about her" and that's still true. If I hadn't watched the DNC, I would have seen no articles about her background, her family, her motivations, and aspirations. I don't care about it that deeply but general voters do - I saw an interview with a guy saying he would vote for vance "because he's a hillbilly like me" with zero awareness that vance's book was very negative about hillbillies. 

So I don't know - I'm more worried today. If trump finds some stupid catch phrase that sticks, it's going to be very hard because right now nobody knows anything about her. Supposedly she's agreed to an interview but nobody on the clips tonight knew any details. 

 

 

[Smash!]

@WatchingTheTireFireBurn In the end there‘s no other way than to fight. To volunteer for all those grassroot organizations, or to volunteer to be a poll worker. Like a tennis player who is behind in an important match will fight for every point until it‘s over. And even if he has lost, he will reevaluate and come back stronger. This is the mindset we need now. 

 

[WatchingTheTireFireBurn]

13 hours ago, Smash! said:

@WatchingTheTireFireBurn In the end there‘s no other way than to fight. To volunteer for all those grassroot organizations, or to volunteer to be a poll worker. Like a tennis player who is behind in an important match will fight for every point until it‘s over. And even if he has lost, he will reevaluate and come back stronger. This is the mindset we need now. 

 

I wish I could. unfortunately for me my health is terrible and I struggle to work my part time job, I have a pending gastero procedure, and on top of it all yesterday I got abnormal results on a gyno ordered ultrasound and they're wanting an endometrial biopsy - which is apparently worse than child birth? So....I guess I'm all talk and no action on this battle front.

[onekidanddone]

Yea Harris is way ahead in the polls, but so was Clinton in 2016.  So what’s different this time? 

[GreyhoundFan]

31 minutes ago, WatchingTheTireFireBurn said:

I wish I could. unfortunately for me my health is terrible and I struggle to work my part time job, I have a pending gastero procedure, and on top of it all yesterday I got abnormal results on a gyno ordered ultrasound and they're wanting an endometrial biopsy - which is apparently worse than child birth? So....I guess I'm all talk and no action on this battle front.

I’m sorry to read. I’ve had three endometrial biopsies. They are no walk in the park. Demand serious pain meds for before and after. If you don’t demand, the doc will suggest Tylenol or Advil. I received Percocet, which helped some. You can also request Misoprostol, which helps soften the cervix. A warning about that, though, you will have super severe cramps. If you can tolerate it, you can request an injection of Lidocaine in the cervix. I couldn’t do that as I’m extremely needlephobic. The biopsy itself is fairly quick. The dilation was the hardest part. I wish you luck. 

[onekidanddone]

8 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

I’m sorry to read. I’ve had three endometrial biopsies. They are no walk in the park. Demand serious pain meds for before and after. If you don’t demand, the doc will suggest Tylenol or Advil. I received Percocet, which helped some. You can also request Misoprostol, which helps soften the cervix. A warning about that, though, you will have super severe cramps. If you can tolerate it, you can request an injection of Lidocaine in the cervix. I couldn’t do that as I’m extremely needlephobic. The biopsy itself is fairly quick. The dilation was the hardest part. I wish you luck. 

Apologies ahead of time, if I’m off base with my question.  Can the procedure be under anesthesia like a colonoscopy? I had a D and C under anesthesia for excessive bleeding during my period. 

[GreyhoundFan]

Just now, onekidanddone said:

Apologies ahead of time, if I’m off base with my question.  Can the procedure be under anesthesia like a colonoscopy? I had a D and C under anesthesia for excessive bleeding during my period. 

My doctor required the biopsies before the D&Cs. The D&Cs were under anesthesia. 

[WatchingTheTireFireBurn]

I'm reading in Europe and other places this biopsy is done with some level of anesthesia - like twilight for colonoscopy.

Apparently it's worse for "childless cat dog ladies"  and I just don't know what to do. due to my insurance being what it is I can't even talk to the doctor/doctor's nurse before my appt. I can send a "nonurgent questions" message but half the time it seems like an assistant answers and they didn't actually read my question. VERY disgruntled about my care and I'm starting to look at just paying full price out of network for a good gyno despite not having much extra $$. They wanted me to make a video visit appt to even hear the results - those are booked up 2 months out. Then I would have had to wait another 2-3 months for another in person appointment. I happened to have already scheduled this September in person appt months ago for a different issue, otherwise wait wait wait! I'm exhausted and I just don't wanna with medical stuff any more. It's not even like my insurance is cheap. But it's like all insurance - it works best when you don't have any problems!

 

Anyway - So harris has finally agreed to an interview - with CNN!!!  Why??? Why not a normal network CBS (is there still CBS?) ABC or NBC?  And they're doing a joint interview. I wonder what the logic is on that? Do they not think one of them can't interview on their own? I hope it goes well because apparently how the vibes are will determine people's voting actions. 

 

 

[Smash!]

@WatchingTheTireFireBurn I‘m sorry to read you have this many problems. Those are exhausting, especially if you have to deal with insurance on top.

I still think the coming election is far from doomed. I read the Harris campaign has many lawyers and works with voting rights lawyer Marc Elias together. 

[Smash!]

https://x.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1828451646994583810

I don’t know why it doesn’t embed the tweet. It‘s from Republicans against Trump and shares a video. The description says: „The Republicans for Harris movement gaining serious momentum. Country over party“

Edited August 28 by Smash!

[GreyhoundFan]

2 hours ago, Smash! said:

https://x.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1828451646994583810

I don’t know why it doesn’t embed the tweet. It‘s from Republicans against Trump and shares a video. The description says: „The Republicans for Harris movement gaining serious momentum. Country over party“

You have to change the x.com to twitter.com for embedding to work.

[LongTimeLurkerOG]

On 8/27/2024 at 3:33 PM, WatchingTheTireFireBurn said:

I wish I could. unfortunately for me my health is terrible and I struggle to work my part time job, I have a pending gastero procedure, and on top of it all yesterday I got abnormal results on a gyno ordered ultrasound and they're wanting an endometrial biopsy - which is apparently worse than child birth? So....I guess I'm all talk and no action on this battle front.

The campaign has different training on how to engage online. Different ways to get involved. I wouldn't door knock and take my life in my hands, and other reasons; so have looked for different things to chat with people (like we do here 😀) to get the word out and info sharing.

Hope all goes well.

[LongTimeLurkerOG]

Whiny baby finally agreed... Because he's scared of the VP. 

[AnywhereButHere]

I vote, but I don't usually get involved much beyond that. Until the last few elections anyway.

In 2008, it felt imperative to put some skin in the game (god I miss the days of Sarah Palin being the bogey monster...), so husband convinced me to go door knocking in PA. Public speaking is my idea of hell, and I didn't figure me stuttering, turning bright red, and possibly vomiting, would do much to sell Obama as a candidate, but he promised me I'd only have to keep him company. He'd do the talking. And I'm not a complete social moron. Once a conversation is going, I'm social as hell. So off we went. Note - we were not in Philly or Pittsburgh. We were in the middle of nowhere PA.

First house - guy took forever to answer the door. While we were waiting, I noticed huge ass bugs crawling all over the door jamb and walls. Guy finally opens the door and says hello in hella slow motion. Much like the sloth from that Disney movie. He then lazily picks a bug off my shoulder and slo-mo flung it outside. Now I'm noticing the same bugs all over the inside of the house and am hit with a smell that instantly explains it all. The fastest I saw dude move was his sprint to close his basement door to what I'm assuming was his grow room... He was super interested in hearing our pitch. I was super interested in getting the hell away from his (not so little) crawly friends. 

Second house - Very large man in very small sweatpants and a shirt rolling up like a window shade holding a very small but very barky chihuahua. Semi interested in our pitch. The dog was not. I'm pretty sure it wanted to chew my face off. 

Several houses later - Guy outside fixing his motorcycle yelled at us that he had no intention of voting for (insert mean word here) and we needed to get the hell off his property. We were on the sidewalk but were not going to argue semantics...

 

In 2016, husband volunteered me to send those annoying text messages. Mostly went well. There are always the people who can't just delete an unwanted text though and feel the need to be rude in response. One person made the mistake of being rude but also sending a "cat fact" and telling me I'd be getting a cat fact until I stopped harassing them. Being me, I had to keep responding. Cat facts are fun, and I don't like assholes. I do recognize that this also made me an asshole, so hypocrisy mode totally activated.

 

This year, we've decided I need to do something that has the least amount of actual contact with people. We're sending postcards.

 

[libgirl2]

43 minutes ago, AnywhereButHere said:

I vote, but I don't usually get involved much beyond that. Until the last few elections anyway.

In 2008, it felt imperative to put some skin in the game (god I miss the days of Sarah Palin being the bogey monster...), so husband convinced me to go door knocking in PA. Public speaking is my idea of hell, and I didn't figure me stuttering, turning bright red, and possibly vomiting, would do much to sell Obama as a candidate, but he promised me I'd only have to keep him company. He'd do the talking. And I'm not a complete social moron. Once a conversation is going, I'm social as hell. So off we went. Note - we were not in Philly or Pittsburgh. We were in the middle of nowhere PA.

First house - guy took forever to answer the door. While we were waiting, I noticed huge ass bugs crawling all over the door jamb and walls. Guy finally opens the door and says hello in hella slow motion. Much like the sloth from that Disney movie. He then lazily picks a bug off my shoulder and slo-mo flung it outside. Now I'm noticing the same bugs all over the inside of the house and am hit with a smell that instantly explains it all. The fastest I saw dude move was his sprint to close his basement door to what I'm assuming was his grow room... He was super interested in hearing our pitch. I was super interested in getting the hell away from his (not so little) crawly friends. 

Second house - Very large man in very small sweatpants and a shirt rolling up like a window shade holding a very small but very barky chihuahua. Semi interested in our pitch. The dog was not. I'm pretty sure it wanted to chew my face off. 

Several houses later - Guy outside fixing his motorcycle yelled at us that he had no intention of voting for (insert mean word here) and we needed to get the hell off his property. We were on the sidewalk but were not going to argue semantics...

 

In 2016, husband volunteered me to send those annoying text messages. Mostly went well. There are always the people who can't just delete an unwanted text though and feel the need to be rude in response. One person made the mistake of being rude but also sending a "cat fact" and telling me I'd be getting a cat fact until I stopped harassing them. Being me, I had to keep responding. Cat facts are fun, and I don't like assholes. I do recognize that this also made me an asshole, so hypocrisy mode totally activated.

 

This year, we've decided I need to do something that has the least amount of actual contact with people. We're sending postcards.

 

It is just too crazy now to go door to door. I don't trust anyone. 

[Alisamer]

1 hour ago, libgirl2 said:

It is just too crazy now to go door to door. I don't trust anyone. 

Yeah in my area too many rednecks, too many guns, too many idiots.

I've donated a little bit to the Harris campaign and worked on my parents, so there's that?

[libgirl2]

31 minutes ago, Alisamer said:

Yeah in my area too many rednecks, too many guns, too many idiots.

I've donated a little bit to the Harris campaign and worked on my parents, so there's that?

Some people seem so nice but trump can bring out the worst in them. Especially against us "Leftists" 

[noseybutt]

On 8/27/2024 at 4:27 PM, WatchingTheTireFireBurn said:

 

 

Anyway - So harris has finally agreed to an interview - with CNN!!!  Why??? Why not a normal network CBS (is there still CBS?) ABC or NBC?  And they're doing a joint interview. I wonder what the logic is on that? Do they not think one of them can't interview on their own? I hope it goes well because apparently how the vibes are will determine people's voting actions. 

 

 

I have to agree with the choice of CNN being a headscratcher. Given the discussions here about problems with mainstream media, I have started reading more from the CNN site and they strike me as erratic. At times they seems slightly left of the American center when it comes to social issues like abortion, but then BAM they will run stories that seem extremely pro-billionaire and anti working class. Like, they are in love with the rich and powerful.

It's almost like some wealthy owner(s) push for extremely pro-capitalist content, and the journalists go along without critical pushback. 

But maybe that's all news outlets at this point?

[onekidanddone]

My daughter and I sent in a request for a mail-in ballot no questions asked.  I’m doing it because I’m disabled but also because I’m too anxious about going in person and running into some MAGA goon. 
 

My daughter is away at college.