Kamala Harris: Madam Vice President

[Audrey2]

48 minutes ago, Alisamer said:

I do wish there was a way to better ensure that the government represents the actual people. Term limits would be a decent first step IMO - no reason anyone should be locked in to their job until they die, and a 14-20 year term limit for congress would be plenty to allow a mix of experienced and newer representatives, and the more experienced older ones could be valuable in a mentoring or advisory capacity. 

Because I do think in large part the government lags behind the people. Some of that is just due to something so huge necessarily being slow, but it is insulting IMO to have people who in any other business would have long since retired who have been living in a political bubble for decades making decisions that will long outlive them. There needs to be a mix - and politicians need to actually listen to and represent their constituents. 

I can handle your 14 to 20 year term limits much more than the 6 to 8 year limits that many people toss about when they talk about term limits. I've been in enough organizations that I do believe we need institutional knowledge and the ability to work together with people you may not agree with, and the trust and relationships and institutional knowledge usually aren't built in 2 to 4 years or even six to eight.

Just using the last 15 years or so as an example, I would be concerned about those who got in under the tea party movement and those who got in under the Trump movement (like MTG and Bobert) being able to rapidly advance their cuckoo ideas because Congress would be churning very quickly. If turn limits were shorter like I mentioned above, I could also see the same idea that happens in the presidency, where when each new group takes power they try to undo everything that the other group did instead of trying to improve on ideas.

Edited July 24 by Audrey2

[TuringMachine]

20 hours ago, Alisamer said:

There are people (bots? Maybe?) already spreading around posts about how she's "not actually black." So far the attacks seem to be to:

• Call her a slut or whore and imply she slept her way into office
• Make sure the white voters consider her an angry black woman
• Try to convince the black voters that she's not actually black and remind them her husband is Jewish
• Try to convince family values voters that she is terrible for never giving birth, in case the attacks on her sexual history don't sway them away
• Imply that because she has no kids and they're convinced she is a slut that she must have had tons of abortions
• And some of the dumber people are convinced she's not a US citizen, somehow. 

So they are trying to make the misogynists hate her more than they already do, make racists hate her more than they already do, undermine any support she might have from people of color, try to make her look like a horrible anti-family harridan, and try to disqualify her from office somehow.

I think they're throwing everything at her and trying to see if anything sticks.

I was just talking to my friend about how there are plenty of perfectly valid things to criticize Kamala for, yet the best MAGAs seem to have come up with is wOmAn NoT iN kItChEn

[Alisamer]

39 minutes ago, Audrey2 said:

I can handle your 14 to 20 year term limits much more than the 6 to 8 year limits that many people toss about when they talk about term limits. I've been in enough organizations that I do believe we need institutional knowledge and the ability to work together with people you may not agree with, and the trust and relationships and institutional knowledge usually aren't built in 2 to 4 years or even six to eight.

Just using the last 15 years or so as an example, I would be concerned about those who got in under the tea party movement and those who got in under the Trump movement (like MTG and Bobert) being able to rapidly advance their cuckoo ideas because Congress would be churning very quickly. If turn limits were shorter like I mentioned above, I could also see the same idea that happens in the presidency, where when each new group takes power they try to undo everything that the other group did instead of trying to improve on ideas.

Yeah - I think 8 years is good as president because that's usually someone with some experience already, but for congress I think longer term limits could be valuable - you ideally would want a mix of new and experienced. Of course ideally they'd all also have functioning brains and be interested in working together for the greater good, but that seems like a pipe dream these days.

A 14 or more likely 20 year term limit though seems just about right to me - someone elected at 50 wouldn't stay past 70, someone elected at 30 would retire at 50 but be in a great situation to move into a cabinet position, governorship, presidential candidacy, or be a very valuable member of an organization of some variety. People would know when their time was coming up and could begin mentoring whoever they support as a possible successor. There'd be a variety of experience levels because it'd be unlikely to ever have everyone hitting term limits at once, and there'd be no career senators sitting in there for lifetimes well past the Weekend at Bernie's stage completely out of touch with current life. And supreme court justices absolutely should have the same term limits. Lifetime appointments are ridiculous.

I also kind of feel like there should be some sort of requirements for congress members - I'm not sure exactly how to explain what I mean, though. But it seems some only visit the area they are representing when it's campaign time. Is there any transparency about whether they actually pay any attention to calls and letters they get from constituents? Some barely show up to congressional sessions it seems like. 

Like CPAs have to take continuing education to maintain that. Teachers often have continuing education stuff. Pilots are constantly having training and check rides and such. Even people like cosmetologists have to keep up with standards and maintain a license. My mom had to get first aid certification to be an assistant Girl Scout troop leader back in the 80s! Yet we have people in congress who seem to have no clue what the constitution says and who seem not to care in the slightest what their constituents want. If there can't be basic knowledge requirements to be elected, surely there can be an 8th grade civics level review class every couple years or so for representatives, right? A required number of town hall meetings per year in the area they are representing? Something? I know the election is supposed to weed out the terrible and useless, but it clearly doesn't always work.

All of which is really off topic for VP Harris who seems knowledgeable and qualified to me. But still something I think about.

[Audrey2]

31 minutes ago, Alisamer said:

Yeah - I think 8 years is good as president because that's usually someone with some experience already, but for congress I think longer term limits could be valuable - you ideally would want a mix of new and experienced. Of course ideally they'd all also have functioning brains and be interested in working together for the greater good, but that seems like a pipe dream these days.

A 14 or more likely 20 year term limit though seems just about right to me - someone elected at 50 wouldn't stay past 70, someone elected at 30 would retire at 50 but be in a great situation to move into a cabinet position, governorship, presidential candidacy, or be a very valuable member of an organization of some variety. People would know when their time was coming up and could begin mentoring whoever they support as a possible successor. There'd be a variety of experience levels because it'd be unlikely to ever have everyone hitting term limits at once, and there'd be no career senators sitting in there for lifetimes well past the Weekend at Bernie's stage completely out of touch with current life. And supreme court justices absolutely should have the same term limits. Lifetime appointments are ridiculous.

I also kind of feel like there should be some sort of requirements for congress members - I'm not sure exactly how to explain what I mean, though. But it seems some only visit the area they are representing when it's campaign time. Is there any transparency about whether they actually pay any attention to calls and letters they get from constituents? Some barely show up to congressional sessions it seems like. 

Like CPAs have to take continuing education to maintain that. Teachers often have continuing education stuff. Pilots are constantly having training and check rides and such. Even people like cosmetologists have to keep up with standards and maintain a license. My mom had to get first aid certification to be an assistant Girl Scout troop leader back in the 80s! Yet we have people in congress who seem to have no clue what the constitution says and who seem not to care in the slightest what their constituents want. If there can't be basic knowledge requirements to be elected, surely there can be an 8th grade civics level review class every couple years or so for representatives, right? A required number of town hall meetings per year in the area they are representing? Something? I know the election is supposed to weed out the terrible and useless, but it clearly doesn't always work.

All of which is really off topic for VP Harris who seems knowledgeable and qualified to me. But still something I think about.

I like your ideas. I could even handle 20 years in the house and 6 years in the Senate (if you've maxed out your house service.), which would still be moving on from the house with a different focus.

(A six year limit on the Senate would be for people who served at least 16 years in the house. For all others, I'd limited the Senate to 18 years, both for those who start on the Senate, like Mark Kelly, and those who move to the Senate after being their state's governor.)

[kpmom]

My husband brought up RFK, jr. yesterday, wondering if he could syphon votes from Harris. 
The very little I know about whatever he stands for, it seems he’s more in line with the felon. 
 

To me he seems like a non-entity to either candidate, but I was wondering what you all thought?
 

 

[Pecansforeveryone]

RFK is a militant anti-vaxer and COVID conspiracy theorist. He has had recent allegations of sexual assault against his children's former nanny. He has far more in common with the felon than Harris. 

[libgirl2]

37 minutes ago, kpmom said:

My husband brought up RFK, jr. yesterday, wondering if he could syphon votes from Harris. 
The very little I know about whatever he stands for, it seems he’s more in line with the felon. 
 

To me he seems like a non-entity to either candidate, but I was wondering what you all thought?
 

 

I have always, from the beginning seen him closer to the orange felon than President Biden and the Dems. 

[Alisamer]

1 hour ago, Pecansforeveryone said:

RFK is a militant anti-vaxer and COVID conspiracy theorist. He has had recent allegations of sexual assault against his children's former nanny. He has far more in common with the felon than Harris. 

Is he the one with the brain worm?

[libgirl2]

22 minutes ago, Alisamer said:

Is he the one with the brain worm?

Yes. 

And his VP pick I believe has no political experience whatsoever, which would be right up the trumper's alley. So neither of them can go there with Harris. Though for some reason the GOP are saying the same. Where have they been the last 4 years (at the least)? 

Edited July 24 by libgirl2

[Audrey2]

33 minutes ago, libgirl2 said:

Yes. 

And his VP pick I believe has no political experience whatsoever, which would be right up the trumper's alley. So neither of them can go there with Harris. Though for some reason the GOP are saying the same. Where have they been the last 4 years (at the least)? 

They just want it both ways. First, let's say that Biden wasn't really running the country, that he was so old and senile that he just signed what they gave him. But wait- that might give some credit to Kamala, his VP. We can't have that! Never mind, Kamala doesn't have any experience. 

[GreyhoundFan]

37 minutes ago, libgirl2 said:

Yes. 

And his VP pick I believe has no political experience whatsoever, which would be right up the trumper's alley. So neither of them can go there with Harris. Though for some reason the GOP are saying the same. Where have they been the last 4 years (at the least)? 

She was selected because she has deep pockets and is a nutjob. Birds of a feather. ..

[libgirl2]

4 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

She was selected because she has deep pockets and is a nutjob. Birds of a feather. ..

TBH, I don't think he will make much of an impact as say Perot. 

Oh the plus side, some guy who lives in my area took down his Let's Go Brandon sign. 

[Destiny]

1 minute ago, libgirl2 said:

Oh the plus side, some guy who lives in my area took down his Let's Go Brandon sign. 

That stupid childish crap never made sense to me. The, "Teehee, Let's Go Brandon," stuff is so freeking twee. Just say fuck already.

Yes, this annoying me is my stupid hill to die on for the last, what, two years now? 😂

[47of74]

2 hours ago, Audrey2 said:

I like your ideas. I could even handle 20 years in the house and 6 years in the Senate (if you've maxed out your house service.), which would still be moving on from the house with a different focus.

(A six year limit on the Senate would be for people who served at least 16 years in the house. For all others, I'd limited the Senate to 18 years, both for those who start on the Senate, like Mark Kelly, and those who move to the Senate after being their state's governor.)

I like that because it would make Grassley leave and put Joni on the clock. 

[libgirl2]

40 minutes ago, Destiny said:

That stupid childish crap never made sense to me. The, "Teehee, Let's Go Brandon," stuff is so freeking twee. Just say fuck already.

Yes, this annoying me is my stupid hill to die on for the last, what, two years now? 😂

I know, they think they are so clever. It seems the only signs I see with things like this are always from the right. We had one guy who was flying a huge f--- Biden flag. I reported him to the HOA. Its a family neighborhood for goodness sake! Kids are outside playing! It was taken down and never went back up again. We did seem the same kind of flag flying from a pick up truck parked at a restaurant we went to. We get it, you don't Biden but why do I have to explain to my child what that means? Because you are a toddler yourself throwing a fit because your orange god lost. 

[GreyhoundFan]

A somewhat surprising endorsement:

 

[GreyhoundFan]

This is a great speech:

 

[GreyhoundFan]

[thoughtful]

31 minutes ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Softball, grammar humor, teamwork - I love it.

[GreenBeans]

10 hours ago, Alisamer said:

Lifetime appointments are ridiculous.

It means people cling to a job they may no longer be fit to do.

I’m a lawyer, and there’s a reason most law firms (here in Germany at least) set an age when partners must retire from the firm as partners. They can still work as lawyers, potentially even work for the firm in some of-counsel type capacity, if both sides involves are willing to set that up, but not as decision-making partners. I think it eliminates a lot of unpleasant “we really think it’s time you stepped down” conversations.

[WatchingTheTireFireBurn]

I'm for term limits. I think 30 combined from either house or senate is actually more reasonable. You could have somebody at 35-40 (a very reasonable age) get into congress and still work a full career and retire at 65-70 like a "normal" person. And they still would have had time to have some sort of career prior to congress. 

I think the supreme court should have to retire by 70 or 75 like most other people. It used to be a news story all the time that XYZ company forced people to retire at 70. Not that you can't make good decisions or whatever after 70 automatically. But we as a society do need to set some boundaries. Will there be people who would be fine working past that - sure. But there's a reasonable number of people who by 70-75 are having enough health issues, possible cognitive decline, issues of being out of step with current society, etc. that for the benefit of society as a whole -a boundary must be made. Especially considering the decisions of the supreme court last for so long and are so difficult to overturn.

Also the supreme court should be bigger. It's waaaaay to easy right now to divide on party lines with such a small group. And it doesn't reasonably allow any body to recuse themselves. Which is becoming more and more noticeable.

-------

RFK jr.

I keep forgetting he exists until I roam other social media and somebody says "oh that's it. I'm voting for RFK" and I'm like...oh yeah that guy.

Interesting data point from just this evening.  In June and early July I was getting a lot of Biden ads. Haven't seen any political ads in over a week at least....Tonight I got an anti-RFK one. But it was all on conservative talking points. I didn't catch who paid for it (the one time I want to pause an ad to look at it!).  So since this weekend, somebody has decided that there needs to be an RFK ad geared to attracting trump supporters.  Very interesting. I think RFK pulls more from maga land. It's all the trump conspiracy, anti-intellectual BS but with new shiny covers. 

---

Kamala's baseball team pun name is delightful.

---

Whatever trump said about Harris today hasn't infiltrated my little bubble, which surprised me. Somehow every whining BS thing trump said about biden got repeated all around my social media. So I expected to come home to a lot of nasty things about Harris. I'm sure there were but for some reason it didn't take over my social media the way the biden comments kept doing.

I take that as a win that at least for now that all the comedians and news pundits and whatever had better things to talk about than 2nd hand bashing biden. Now it's over I think it's so much more clear how much the dems were talking about his age and trump was loudly pointing the elephant in the room out. Dems couldn't bring themselves to say it out loud directly but  would refer to trump's comments.

( I realize I could look up what trump had to say. I don't want to and wont. But usually it was quoted so much every where else I ended up knowing it anyway.)

-----

I love how much everything has taken a turn this week. If more of the narrative turns against Vance and his very very questionable history over the next few days it will be the cherry on top!! I'm tired of hearing about Trumps problems. We've heard them all a million times. Let's see a new wildly inappropriate republican we're all supposed to just ignore the red flags and see how that goes

 

[Alisamer]

15 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

A somewhat surprising endorsement:

 

I really hope more Republicans grow some spine and recover their sense of basic decency and do the same. Trump has turned their party into the trashiest circus ever seen. They've seen how little he did as president - his few accomplishments (like stacking the Supreme Court) were entirely due to others setting everything up and telling him who to appoint or what to sign. He's becoming more and more blatant about wanting to become a dictator and about the fact he cares nothing at all about his supporters. And in 20 years or less he's going to be dead. Statistically, it's certain, there's no way he's hanging on past 100. And he's already incoherent and was never that smart.

If the Republicans who are, or at least once were, semi-decent people with consciences and some smattering of common sense would vote for Harris this time, they'd have 4 years to let Trump hopefully face consequences for his crimes, continue to age and decline, and give them a chance to start rebuilding their way out of this insanity.

I don't think most of them have the guts to do that, though.

[Howl]

This is the FIRST TIME since Trump came on the scene that he hasn't been able to suck the air out of the room.  Complicit MSM has covered everything Trump for so long,  What do Trump voters think, blah blah, Trump this, Trump that.  Can anyone remember an MSM segment covering what Democratic voters think?  Can anyone remember an MSM segment consistently covering, in depth, Biden's accomplishments? 

Finally,  VP Harris running for president seems to have shaken things up, at least a little bit, and there's a lot of coverage.  

Republicans are currently using the two pronged approach to denigrate a woman of color:  DEI and misogyny.  I don't think they have a clue how many women they are pissing off, seriously pissing off, and men as well.  And Vance?  He's turning out to be a boat anchor; he's not going anywhere and he's also pissing off women.  

Trump, at least momentarily, seems irrelevant.  I'm loving the "prosecutor vs felon" narrative that's emerging for VP Harris vs Trump.  

 

[AnywhereButHere]

38 minutes ago, Alisamer said:

I really hope more Republicans grow some spine and recover their sense of basic decency and do the same. Trump has turned their party into the trashiest circus ever seen. They've seen how little he did as president - his few accomplishments (like stacking the Supreme Court) were entirely due to others setting everything up and telling him who to appoint or what to sign. He's becoming more and more blatant about wanting to become a dictator and about the fact he cares nothing at all about his supporters. And in 20 years or less he's going to be dead. Statistically, it's certain, there's no way he's hanging on past 100. And he's already incoherent and was never that smart.

If the Republicans who are, or at least once were, semi-decent people with consciences and some smattering of common sense would vote for Harris this time, they'd have 4 years to let Trump hopefully face consequences for his crimes, continue to age and decline, and give them a chance to start rebuilding their way out of this insanity.

I don't think most of them have the guts to do that, though.

I saw a video, I think on Tik Tok, contrasting politics "now and then". It was a clip from the McCain/Obama election with McCain calling out and correcting supporters who were saying nasty things about Obama. Then there was a clip showcasing some of trump's greatest hits. The contrast was staggering. I'm not overly sentimental, but I almost wanted to cry over how far we've devolved.

Disclaimer - I'm including myself in the devolution. l would never have thought that my first thought on hearing someone got shot at would be "damn, he missed", but here I am. 

[libgirl2]

1 hour ago, Alisamer said:

I really hope more Republicans grow some spine and recover their sense of basic decency and do the same. Trump has turned their party into the trashiest circus ever seen. They've seen how little he did as president - his few accomplishments (like stacking the Supreme Court) were entirely due to others setting everything up and telling him who to appoint or what to sign. He's becoming more and more blatant about wanting to become a dictator and about the fact he cares nothing at all about his supporters. And in 20 years or less he's going to be dead. Statistically, it's certain, there's no way he's hanging on past 100. And he's already incoherent and was never that smart.

If the Republicans who are, or at least once were, semi-decent people with consciences and some smattering of common sense would vote for Harris this time, they'd have 4 years to let Trump hopefully face consequences for his crimes, continue to age and decline, and give them a chance to start rebuilding their way out of this insanity.

I don't think most of them have the guts to do that, though.

I think that is the best description I have heard yet. 

17 minutes ago, AnywhereButHere said:

I saw a video, I think on Tik Tok, contrasting politics "now and then". It was a clip from the McCain/Obama election with McCain calling out and correcting supporters who were saying nasty things about Obama. Then there was a clip showcasing some of trump's greatest hits. The contrast was staggering. I'm not overly sentimental, but I almost wanted to cry over how far we've devolved.

Disclaimer - I'm including myself in the devolution. l would never have thought that my first thought on hearing someone got shot at would be "damn, he missed", but here I am. 

I miss those days when at least there was some measure of decorum despite differences. 

And yes, I should include myself in the devolution as well.