Blog Entries reposted from the my blog

My letter to Kamala Harris

Subject: Encouragement and Strategy for the Campaign
________________________________________
Dear Kamala,

First and foremost, congratulations on your nomination and the early days of your campaign. Your energy, resilience, and ability to break new ground (including that memorable Zoom moment and the “falling off a coconut tree” meme) have brought joy and laughter to the race. Keep that spirit alive!

I appreciate how you’ve reclaimed the word “freedom” from the political right. Now, let’s do the same with “Patriot.” For instance:

“It is time for American patriots to stand up and reclaim their country!”

Avoiding the Hillary trap is crucial. You’re everywhere, showing the world that you’re ready and committed—not just phoning it in or acting entitled. Well done!

Now, let’s discuss strategies for dealing with Trump:

1. Stand Up and STFU:
o Force Trump to back down. Speak boldly: “Donald, do the country a favor—STFU, retire, and play golf with your buddies. Exit as a winner rather than lose again, especially to a Black woman.”

2. Mock Him:


o Trump can’t handle being mocked. Keep it up 24/7. “There goes Grandpa, off his meds” whenever he says something ridiculous. “How do you know when Trump is lying? His lips are moving.”

3. Let Their Words Speak:
o Highlight Trump’s own statements and those of his minions, including JD Vance.

o Frame the choice: hate vs. hope, backward vs. forward, fascism vs. democracy.
4. Reminders for Voters:

o Trump’s bankrupted casino and financial losses.
o Abortion: Trump and Vance’s pro-birth fascism.
o Immigration: Trump’s failure to address the crisis.
o Concentration camps: Trump’s deportation plans.
o Climate change: Their lack of a plan while the world burns.
5. Who Is Donald Trump?
o A whiny, senile man past his prime.
o JD Vance: a fake hillbilly and a creepy young man.

Let’s keep spreading the message: America deserves better!

Warm regards,

John (Jake) Cosmos Aller
715 Rockey Road
Medford, Oregon 97504
Tel [phone]
e-mail: [e-mail]
web: Https://theworldacoordingtocosmos.com

originally appeared as a blog posting here: https://wp.me/p7NAzO-334


Personal note: I grew up in Berkeley and attended Thousand Oaks elementary about nine years before you did. My father was active in Bay Area politics and was the President of both the Berkeley Co-Op and the Peralta Community College system and taught at Cal State SF and was the undersecretary of labor for Kennedy and Johnson.

I served 27 years in the U.S. Foreign Service with the State Department retiring in 2016.




My Thoughts on the Harris Candidacy.
https://wp.me/p7NAzO-2Zb

Health Care Reforms For Joe and Kamala
Joe, Go Bold or Go Home – revised
Joe, Either Go Bold or Retire!


I still believe in her and in the basic goodness of the American people. I believe that the people will choose goodness over evil, love over hate and progress over going back. When faced with the choice – a demented, deranged senile old man
filled with hatred and revenge, or a competent accomplished woman they will make the right choice.

Congratulations, my Berkeley hometown girl. You got this girl.

Go Bold or go Home!
Berkeley Girl Makes It
The news
that Biden
was stepping down
throwing his support.

for Kamala Harris
as President.

filled me with joy
and anticipation.

Kamala Harris
attended my elementary school
Thousand Oaks in Berkeley
a few years before me.

and is a Berkeley girl
through and through.

Go Berkely !
Thousand Oak Girl I say.
T.O Toughie Girl Power.

the first Female VP
of Asian descent
the first VP
of black descent

the first Caribbean
to be on the ticket.
and the first Hindu
as well.

and the first
Berkeley native
on the ticket.

it is time
for Berkeley to rule
in my humble opinion.
Kamala

here’s what I would campaign on.

I retired from the U.S. State Department in 2016 after 27 years of service. I grew up in Berkeley (attended Thousand Oaks school a few years before you did, went to college at the University of the Pacific. and graduated from the University of Washington (MA in Korean Studies, MPA). I also served in the Peace Corps in Korea and served 27 years in the Foreign Service in ten countries. I have been to all 50 States and 50 countries.
the theme would be getting stuff done for the people!
Reforming the Federal Budget

This is perhaps boring to voters but very important to the long-term stability of the country.
I would call upon Congress to change how they do budgets and shift to a two-year budgetary cycle. The first year of Congress would be devoted to passing the two-year budget, the second year would be devoted to oversight and supplemental budget requests.

Coupled that shifting to a calendar year budget. Eliminate the possibility of government shutdowns by enacting automatic CR’s if budgets are not passed on time. But also require budgets to be passed on time – December 1 in the prior year. If a budget is not passed on time, keep congress in town until the budget is passed. And if for some reason the budget is not passed, dinge congressional salaries until the budget is passed.
Second commission a study to look at our tax situation and make suggestions for common sense tax reform. Start by figuring out how much money the government spends in a given year, the reform of the tax code to generate most of the revenue from taxes. Consider a national sales tax as well. Reserve borrowing for large scale infrastructure, and military spending. And consider a surcharge on income of about 25 million per year.

I would also look at federal spending and ask that all departments identify lower priority projects with a required 5% reduction in federal spending per agency over a four-year period, except for health related and education related agencies which would be given a considerable bump up in spending. I would do this for three years so that in three years overall spending has been reduced by about 10 percent. Leave it up to the agencies to identify lower priority projects that should not be micromanaged by the White House.

For the defense department consider eliminating such things as golf courses, domestic PX and commissary stores and other non-essential spending.

Finally consider turning over some federal government functions to the states. The conservative idea of moving federal agencies out of Washington DC has considerable merit in my opinion.

My advice, in a nutshell, is to make this a campaign about the future and your vision of the future. Paint your opponent Donald Trump as yesterday’s candidate, and mock him, calling on Grandpa Trump to retire to Florida and play golf. Depict him as senile, out of touch, corrupt and focused on returning America to the 19th Century. And call for progressive bold new ideas for the future of America. Be optimistic, be full of hope and goodwill. Freely steal from Bernie and Elizabeth's proposals and adopt her detailed plans - after talking with her of course. Call for reform not revolution and stress competence vs. incompetence and chaos.

Hillary’s biggest mistake was in my view making it all about how bad Donald Trump is, and not giving the voters a real sense of where she wanted to take the country. and making it seemed that she thought she was entitled, and it was her time. that is a big turnoff in politics.
She also took it for granted and did not compete everywhere. You have to out hustle Trump and go everywhere - hold virtual town halls everywhere until the Corona virus threat fades away.
You have to earn the trust of the voters and can't be seen as thinking you are entitled to the presidency because you have done your dues so to speak. That is the kiss of electoral suicide - look at Mitch Romney and Hillary Clinton - both lost because they thought that it was their time and they were entitled to the presidency, the voters simply thought otherwise and showed them the door.

And in an age where the voters were ready for a big change to the status quo, being the establishment candidate was the kiss of death. Not to mention she refused to compete everywhere. And allowed Donald Trump to paint her as “crooked Hillary” and as too much part of the establishment which the public rightly destructed so much. She could have picked Bernie Sanders as her running mate, and perhaps defeated Donald Trump. In the end she won where it did not matter and did not compete where she should have competed.

So, in this upcoming election you have to tell the voters why you are so much better for them and the country than Donald Trump. It will not be enough to run against Donald. People have to want to vote for you. Your experience counts for a
lot, but it is not enough.
How to Beat Trump

talk constantly about Donald Trump being the most corrupt president in US history and that he is guilty or gross nepotism. Call him Conman Don, for felon Con, or despicable me wanna be Don.
Finally, ignore his tweets. When he tweets something obnoxious dismiss it with the phrase "There he Goes Again".
then talk about your bold yet pragmatic agenda over and over again. Remember the best way to handle a bully is to mock them over and over again. They can't handle that and he will become more unhinged and dangerous as you mock him. So Mock him, girl. He deserves it. and in the debate call him on his BS brutally fact check his ass live on TV. Show the world
what an ignorant senile old man he has become.
GO BOLD OR GO HOME
The times cries out for bold progressive challenges and for fresh thinking. Make people want to vote for you as they share your vision of the possible future. and want to have a positive, can-do message. Here are my suggested policy proposals.
I would put forth a series of comprehensive bold future-oriented policies and reiterate them every chance you get. You could call them Joe’s Plan for the Future of America, or Kamala's Contract with the American People, something along those lines.
“Let’s Boldly Go into the Future,”
and rename your campaign as "Kamala for the American People" . Use one of your great assets your reputation for being an everyday person. But be big, bold, brassy, optimistic and challenge your opponents to produce a better plan or shut up and work with you to solve the nation’s problems.

Call for Free College Education Coupled with National Service Requirements.
Call for all Americans to serve three years in public service either in the military or in the government or NGO sector and in return, they will get four years of college paid for. For recent grads, they can serve and get their college debt forgiven. To those who say we can’t afford this, say we can’t afford to continue to put our college students in crippling debt they cannot afford. And everyone, especially the rich, should shoulder the burden of national service.

Call for The Green New Deal
Point out time and time again China, Germany, and other countries are building the green energy resources of the future while the U.S. which invented green energy is moving back to the 19th century.
When critics say we can’t afford this, tell them we can’t afford to ruin the world for our children’s future. We can’t afford to continue burning fossil fuels. Climate change is real, and the U.S. must lead the way forward. That is what great nations do, lead the world in embracing change, in embracing the promise of the future. We can do no less.
Call to Fix Obama Care
Point out time and time again that we still have a broken down too expensive too burdensome a health care system. Point out time and time again that we have the most expensive system in the world, yet we are about 25th in terms of health care outcomes. No one in this land should fear going bankrupt if they need to get medical care. We can do this right and we must do it right.

I would acknowledge that Obama Care is not perfect and that if you had a chance to re-do it you would make it much less bureaucratic and less burdensome. But be proud of what the Democrats accomplished. Promise to fix it and make it work.
One potential fix would be to open the Federal Health Care system to anyone who needs insurance and continue to provide subsidies to keep the premiums down.
Another option would be an expansion of Medicare, so it covers about half the country.
And enact permanent paid sick leave up to a month for all companies employing more than ten people.
When Republicans proclaim that they will repeal Obamacare and replace it with something, call them on their bullshit. Demand to know the plan now or tell them to shut up and work with you to fix Obamacare.
call for a slight reduction of military spending and national security spending to beef up health care spending and universal education access.

Call to repair our alliances
Declare that our allies are our allies and our friends, and we will work with them to solve the world’s problems and restore American leadership. We will rejoin the Paris Climate Change and work to make sure it works. We will rejoin the Transpacific Partnership. and we will figure out how to work with China and even Russia to solve problems of mutual interest such as climate change. Vow to restore partnership with Mexico and Canada and Latin America as well as India and Southeast Asia. and restore ties with Europe as well. Rebuild the UN and international organizations. And join the international criminal court. Finally close Gitmo as an affront to the American system of justice and human rights. Re Israel vow to work with Palestinians and Israelis alike to restart the peace process.
Offer a New Deal to North Korea

We will continue to negotiate with the North Koreans, offering them a way towards reunification with South Korea and rejoining the world economic community. You can damn the former President here with faint praise. Say that it was good that he took the initiative to break the log jam and talk to the North, but due to his inexperience and his naivety he was unable to make a deal as the North Koreans played him. You can finish the job.
Offer to Talk with The Iranians
Tell the Iranians we are ready to talk with them and want a new deal that would benefit them and the U.S. along the lines of what we are offering the North Koreans.

Bring the Troops Home
I would call for some U.S. troops to return to the U.S., where they will be reposted along our borders and serve as adjunct border patrol agents and first responders as part of their mandatory new national service.

Rebuild America

I would gradually reduce military spending and devote resources to rebuilding America’s crumbling infrastructure. This must include high-speed trains, and must include perhaps hyper-loop technology or Maglev trains? And the next generation of airplanes as well. We must rebuild our mass transit systems. We must embrace the development of driverless vehicles. and as mentioned we must beef up health care spending and assure universal access to higher education. These must be the new national priorities. I would throw the republicans a bone offers to look at modest reductions in other government spending for example decreasing spending on NPR but not eliminating it, and a slight decrease in foreign assistance, and UN contributions etc. and other government programs could be trimmed down a bit to pay for higher priorities.
Challenge the Republicans on their “you are weakening national security” BS. When the Republican scream you are weakening national security call them out on their BS.
Ask them how repositioning troops to help deal with national security issues at home weakens national security? How does going to universal military service weaken national security? How does getting out of endless wars weaken national security? How does closing a few bases in Europe weaken national security? Or closing a golf course? Or a commissary? Point out that we already spend more on national security than any other nation on earth. How does rebuilding America’s failed infrastructure weaken national security? How does providing medical care or universal higher education which benefits the entire nation hamper national security? Challenge them to produce a better plan.

Call for Comprehensive Immigration Reform

Start by acknowledging we need to improve security at the border, but the wall is a waste of time and money that will not solve the problem. We need a comprehensive 21st century immigration policy that balances the need for continued immigration with the need to ensure that immigrants contribute to our country and enrich our country as they always have and always will. Again throw the republicans a bone offers to ensure that E Verify is widely used by all employers and punish employers who hire illegals. I would also consider getting rid of the diversity visa program and the sibling immigration category but grandfather people in that category giving them two years to complete the immigration process with no new applicants being accepted. I would also push English language skills for immigrants as one of the new requirements - they must be able to handle the immigrant visa interview in English. That is something I agree with Trump on.

Challenge the Republicans to come up a better plan and work with you to implement it.

Call for A Return to Space Including Lunar Colonies and Martian Colonies
It is time for the U.S. to lead the world again in space exploration. Offer to lead the way in building lunar and Martian colonies with the participation of the world’s other space powers.
Call for The Legalization of Marijuana, Emptying the Prisons of Marijuana Offenders
End the endless war on drugs. Repeal marijuana prohibition. Empty the prisons of marijuana offenders. End the private prison for profit system. End the prison pipeline that sweeps up brown and black youths and sucks them into prison for life. Reserve prisons for the most dangerous offenders, all other prisoners should be sentenced to community service, drug treatment or other non-prison sentences. Use the money saved by closing prisons for rebuilding infrastructure.

Gun Control
I like your gun control proposals. It is a step forward. Continue to push for universal background checks.

Fully Support LGBT rights
Fully Support the religious freedom of all Americans including non-believers. Call to re-ignite Roe V Wade standards.
Call for a Return to traditional American civil norms that Trump has so badly damaged
call for reforming the Supreme Court. Including nominating the first hispanic member.
For VP Pick a centrist male governor.

I like the governor of Kentucky or North Carolina The governor of Michigan would be a good choice too. the Governor of California not so much.
To sum up, be cautious, small-minded, narrowly focused, and all about how bad Donald is, you will lose.

In short,
GO BOLD OR Go Home
Sincerely
Jake Cosmos Aller
703-436-1402
[e-mail]
https://theworldaccordingtocosmos.com
T.O. Alumnus

Call for Public Service
wikipedia on history of national service in the US

pros and cons on national service proposals
Time to Embrace National Service in Exchange for free college tuition< h1>why national service is worth it
open letters to the candidates send to democratic candidates
Embrace Public Service, Mr. President!
In any event, I believe that the time is now to call for national service in exchange for free college tuition/vocational training or grants to open small businesses. Three years of service followed by four years of either college/technical training, or assistance in opening a small business.
Call for Free College Education Coupled with National Service Requirements.

Dear Democratic Candidates:

I am writing to all of you and to President Trump to call for your to embrace national service in exchange for free college/technical training or assistance in opening a business.
It is time to change the game plan in Washington DC. You need a new bold proposal that will unite the country and heal the divisions. My proposal is for you to embrace mandatory national service for three years. Everyone finishing their service would receive full funding for college, technical training or a grant to set up their own business because after all not everyone needs to go to college, we need to encourage technical training and starting up small business as well.
the key is that the service would be universal and all citizens and LPR’s between the ages of 18 and 25 would serve three years – no exceptions. Most would be military, but people could serve as fine fathers. adjust police officers, adjust border patrol officers, adjust teachers, peace corps volunteers or serve in state/local and federal government positions.
Call for all Americans to serve three years in public service either in the military or in the government or NGO sector and in return, they will get four years of college paid for. For recent graduates , they can serve and get their college debt forgiven. To those who say we can’t afford this, say we can’t afford to continue to put our college students in crippling debt they cannot afford. And everyone, especially the rich, should shoulder the burden of national service. and point out that shifting to a mandatory national service requirement would save the Pentagon money on salaries. the cost would be modest – minimum wage, housing, medical care and college tuition after their service. People would serve between age 18 and 25 one year of training and two years of service, with an optional second enlistment for three more years of educational benefits through PHD/professional degrees. Starting at age 18 until age 25 people will be randomly selected to begin service. those who are 25 will have until they turn 26 to report for service. They would have one year to report for service.

Free College/Technical Training or Money to Open a Business in Exchange for National Service
Most people will start college, or tech training institute, then do military or other service, and then return to college to finish their college. That is fine. Ensure that colleges will not only accommodate that but will also offer college credits for military and other on -the-job training acquired during national service. This would also cut the cost of college attendance for most people to a manageable three years instead of four to five years. And of course, ensure that people can go to technical training institutes instead of a traditional college as we really need to grow the next generation of technical workers as well. and also ensure that those who wish financial assistance in setting up a small business would receive that assistance as well as we need to encourage the small business start-ups as well.
After Service can compete to become an NCO/Officer or work for the Federal/State/Local/tribal government/ UN or NGO
After finishing basic service, those who wish to make a career of it could compete to become an NCO or an officer and resume service after finishing college. And/or compete to enter government service for the Federal government or state and local government as well. The service academies will only accept those who have finished basic service. This would apply to new service academies being set up, see below for more details.

All Must Serve

And most importantly, shared national service will help restore America’s sense that this is our land, this land belongs to everyone. The rich and the poor alike. We are all in this together. We have lost sight of that. The military has become an army of paid mercenaries recruited from the lower classes. If everyone serves, there will be less temptation to send troops into harm's way. This will be a win- win for everyone except for the student loan vultures.
I would bring most of the troops home and station them along the southern border where they could be used to help bolster border security and assist as first responders to natural disaster. Sell this as real border security that will get the
job done.
Establish New Service Academies for the Diplomatic, Intelligence Services/ Space Force/NASA, and law Enforcement
I would also call for four new national service academies to be set up. One would be for diplomatic and intelligence service, the other would be for law enforcement, the third would be for the Space Force/and NASA, the last would be more technical scientific agencies of the Federal government focusing on science and technology issues. These academies, like the military academies including a coast guard academy, and beefing up the maritime service academy, would take only those who finished their military basis service. this would be a great way to restore our diplomatic corps and intelligence services as well as our law enforcement person. All graduates can meet their service obligation (five years post graduation) through working for Federal/State/local/tribal governments, the UN or NGO’s. all the service academies as well as the Medical Medical schools, the foreign service training center (which will be transformed into the new diplomatic/intelligence training academy) would work together on the national service academies consortium to coordinate policies and training, including postgraduate training programs at the various military and other federal government training programs.

National Service Will Bring US together as one nation
I believe that this proposal could be enacted with widespread bipartisan support. It would go a long way to help heal the divisions of our country and bring us all together as a nation. I hope you will fully embrace this proposal and I look forward to discussing it with your staff.

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Trump Must Drop Out Because He's Old As f***
JUL 22






Dear Humans,
God here. Now that President Biden has heroically passed the torch to Kamala Harris, can we talk about the orange elephant in the room?
TRUMP MUST DROP OUT BECAUSE HE’S OLD AS f***.
Yeah, I said it. At 78-years-old, Donald is practically fossilized. You wouldn't trust your grandpa to fix your Wi-Fi, so why let him run the country? He's older than dirt and twice as clueless.
Like holy shit, did you see his speech at the RNC last week? The giant creep rambled on for 2 hours like he was Grandpa Simpson.

Look, the presidency is a tough gig. It needs someone with energy, someone who can stay awake past 7 PM without nodding off. Trump?

HE FALLS ASLEEP IN THE COURT.

He fell asleep during his own convention. He's got one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel. The only marathon he’s running is a nap marathon.
Support Our Satire

And let's talk about the gaffes—Donald says some stupid insane shit that doesn’t make sense every single time he speaks. The only people it makes sense to are also totally delusional Christian Nationalist freaks like Marjorie Taylore Greene.
And don't get me started on the health issues. Remember that mysterious trip to Walter Reed? Make America great again? This man can’t handle a ramp. The only thing he can make great again is the act of face planting into the ground.
So, here’s the divine decree: Trump, pack it up. Go home, put on your slippers, and watch Matlock reruns. Leave running the country to someone who can remember what day it is without checking Fox News. It’s time for you to drop out, you crusty old bag of assholes.
Now that I, the LORD THY GOD, have brought attention to this issue, I am sure the media will be obsessing about it every
day from here on out.
THE LORD HAS SPOKEN.
Seven Lessons from Joe Biden's Candidacy
The Democratic party is healthy. The Republican party is not.
JONATHAN V. LAST


JUL 22


1. Seven Lessons
Before we start: I did a YouTube thing about Biden last night, if you’re interested.

Now let’s go.
(1) The Democratic party is a healthy institution.
On the night of June 27, the various power centers within the Democratic party began a difficult conversation: Was Joe Biden still capable of running a vigorous campaign?
Over three weeks the party reached a diffuse—if not unanimous—consensus: He was not. This consensus was the product of all levels of the party: Elder statesmen such as Nancy Pelosi, elected Democrats analyzing their own future prospects, donors making decisions about spending, and the main body of public opinion among Democratic voters.
Once this consensus was reached, the various power centers began a dialogue with the party’s leader, President Biden. The party expressed its choice. Biden pushed back. The party took up the question again and, after due consideration, held firm.

Joe Biden then stepped aside for the good of the nation.
This is how healthy institutions are supposed to work.
At The Bulwark there has been a lot of drama over the last three weeks. We told you what we really thought, even though it meant making some people mad.
Our mission is to have honest and real conversations. Because that’s what healthy institutions do.
Right here, in the Bulwark community, those conversations were great. I mean, they were often painful. But they were always civil and conducted in good faith.
How special is this community? We had one member who was so disappointed in us that he cancelled his subscription and then came back to the comments every day to try to convince others to cancel their subscriptions, too. And he did it passionately, but with respect.
Where do you find people like that on the internet? It was amazing.

The coming weeks are going to be full of history. Come and ride through it with us.
J The process which elevated Kamala Harris was sensible.
The Democratic party made another institutional decision in parallel with the Biden question: It vetted Kamala Harris.
This subroutine executed in the background, but it was active. Democratic voters began to consider her as the nominee and polling showed that they were comfortable with her. Party elders evaluated her fitness. Donors and elected Democrats took her measure. The fact that no anti-Harris groundswell—or even boom let—emerged is proof that the party decided that Harris was an acceptable nominee.
After Biden blessed Harris on Sunday afternoon, the party coalesced around her in much the way it did Biden after the New Hampshire primary in 2020.
The Democratic party will enter the election more unified than it had been pre-debate.

3. Kamala Harris can run as an insurgent, but with the advantages of an incumbent.
The largest advantage of incumbency is that a candidate does not have to take base-pleasing positions during a primary campaign that can hurt him during a general election.
Because of the extraordinary nature of her ascendence, Harris possesses this advantage. She will carry nearly every advantage of incumbency and yet she can credibly position herself as this election’s change agent.

4. Trump is holding the age bomb.
The Trump campaign spent two years creating a political bomb concerning old age. They assumed that they could plant this bomb at the feet of Joe Biden.
Trump is now the one holding the age bomb. He is not only a full generation older than Harris—everything about him looks geriatric by comparison. From his gait to his bronzed-over pallor; from the way he rambles and gets lost in sentences to his inability to keep facts straight.
Every split screen now makes Trump look old and decrepit by comparison.

5. There was enormous pent-up demand among Democrats for a younger leader.
In the first 24 hours, Kamala Harris raised over $100 million from small-dollar donors.
Sit with that for a moment. $100 million.
That’s more money than any Democrat has ever raised in a single day. It’s twice as much as Trump raised following his felony conviction. If this doesn’t snap your head back, it should.
Because it’s as good a proxy as you’ll find for excitement.
It will be several days until we have polling with a more detailed view of Harris’s support from Democratic voters, but it is already clear that she will perform much better than Biden has within her party.
Here’s my advice: You should be open to the idea that Harris could ride a wave of excitement and passion that absolutely no one was seeing until Biden stepped aside. I’m talking Obama ‘08-levels of energy.
It’s not a given. But it’s in the realm of the possible. Keep your eyes peeled for it.

6. The Republican party is a failed state.
At the debate, Donald Trump also demonstrated (again) that he is unfit for office. He rambled and lied incoherently. He is a convicted felon. A jury found him guilty of sexual assault. He has said he wants to be a “dictator” and that he wants to “terminate” parts of the Constitution. He selected as his running mate a man who advised disobeying orders from the Supreme Court and forcing a constitutional crisis.
Until last week there was nothing stopping the Republican party from forcing Trump off the ticket. The party elders and elected officials could have demanded that Trump step aside. Republican voters could have said that they had no confidence in his ability to govern. Donors could have closed their wallets.
But the plain fact is that not one single Republican called on Trump to step aside.

Not one.
Why? Because the various precincts of the Republican party understand that they hold no power—at all—over Trump. They could not ask him to withdraw from the race. Even broaching the subject would be grounds for excommunication from the party.

The Democratic party is a functioning institution, with checks and balances, constituencies and power structures. Like any institution, it is amorphous and its decision making is mostly organic.
The Republican party is an autocracy where the only thing that matters is the will of the leader. All power flows through
him. All decisions are made by him. There are no competing power centers—only vassal states overseen by his noblemen.

7. Harris is an underdog.
One of the reasons the last three weeks have been so difficult is because Democrats were not choosing between a “good” outcome and a “bad” outcome.
Those sorts of choices are easy.
Instead, Democrats were tasked with deciding between least-bad options. Humans rebel against the idea of “least-bad.” When faced with choices, we want to believe that at least one of them is “good.”
When the first real Harris-vs.-Trump polling comes out next week we’ll see how big of a hole she’s in. But unlike Biden, Harris has the ability to spend the next three months on offense, all day, every day. If she can deliver the goods, she has a puncher’s chance.

2. In Praise of Biden
A slight push-back against those who believe Biden took too long to step aside:
It was three and a half weeks from the debate to Biden pulling out. That’s it.
Joe Biden is the president, but he’s also just a man. Coming to a decision like this one—an unprecedented decision—is hard. There’s a lot to weigh and there’s a tremendous responsibility to get it right.
My own view is that Biden made the call basically as quickly as possible. He couldn’t have done it the week of the NATO summit. Then Trump was shot in the ear. Then there was the Republican convention. To my mind, Biden’s timing on this was optimal, actually.
Nothing about Joe Biden’s presidency was inevitable. Not his candidacy. Not his victory over Trump. Not his withdrawal from reelection.

At nearly every turn, Biden did the right thing for America.
His legacy is assured. He will be remembered as one of the great modern presidents.
I said this last night and I’ll say it again. History had its eye on Joe Biden, and he met the moment. He did his part. Now it’s up to Kamala Harris and us to do ours.
This is the moment. Live it with us.
Join now

3. Revealed Preferences
In the coming weeks we will find out if the people who said, “I hate Trump, but Biden is too old” really meant it.
Will they find some new excuse for why they have to vote for Trump? Will they become unconcerned about the risks of old age and cognitive decline in a president?
I’m not talking about partisan public personalities on Twitter. I’m talking about swing voters: The kind of Trump-to-Biden voters who have been backsliding in Trump’s direction.
Sarah’s focus groups are going to be absolutely vital for understanding how this group thinks. Don’t miss them.


elsieisy


chill the f*** out, we’ve got this
there’s no need for panic
JEFF TIEDRICH


JUL 22






so, that happened.

Upgrade to paid
for about an hour after Biden’s announcement, I ran around with my hair on fire. I’d just spent a month warning everyone about the chaos that Biden dropping out would bring — infighting, battles over fundraising, lawsuits, atonal music, human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together — mass hysteria.

and then a thing happened that I absolutely did not see coming: just about the entire Democratic establishment immediately threw their support behind Kamala Harris.

one after another, the endorsements came in.
Mr. Biden endorsed Ms. Harris within minutes on Sunday afternoon. Before she had uttered a word about her intentions, he was swiftly followed by other party leaders, including Bill and Hillary Clinton, key Democratic senators and influential House members. By the evening, Mr. Shapiro had publicly backed Ms. Harris after a phone call from her. She also picked up endorsements from Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, Mr. Cooper and Mr. Kelly.
Andy Beshear.
AOC, too.
all fifty State Democratic Party chairs.
numerous state delegates.

even a Nikki Haley PAC has endorsed Kamala.
A coalition of former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley voters pledged their support for Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris' presidential bid on Sunday, hours after President Joe Biden announced that he was dropping out of the race.
and in one day, Kamala Harris raised over $50 million.

as I’m writing this, the total haul is now about $69 million. nice.
Joe Biden remains a master at doing politics. Dark Brandon dark-Brandon the shit out of his passing of the torch. clearly, this wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision. Joe had to have worked behind the scenes to shore up this much immediate support for Kamala. he made sure not one word of any this leaked. he timed the announcement of his decision so that Donny and the Republicans spent the entire convention running against the wrong candidate. and the pièce de résistance —
Sending out a press release on Sunday afternoon, after the morning talk shows, totally screwed the media. No video clips, no “breaking news,” no chance for pundits to comment on how he sounded, looked, walked, etc. No chance to schedule guests to pick him apart as he spoke. He totally starved them of clicks and eyeballs, in repayment for them starving his candidacy of positive coverage purely for the sake of clicks and eyeballs.
look, I didn’t want any of this to happen. Biden was my guy, and I was prepared to back Joe all the way to November and beyond. but, that said, I have to admit that last night I slept better than I have any time in the last month.
now let’s turn our attention to all the people who need to f*** all the way off.
Brian Stelter can f*** off.

Stelter spent a month screaming that JOE MUST GO — but now that he’s gotten what he wanted, he’s moved the goalposts to JOE MUST GO BUT NOT LIKE THIS. some people are just never happy.
Maggie Haberman can follow Brian Stelter all the way to f***offistan.

good old Maggs, still the reliable stenographer to whom all the Republicans run when they have a trial balloon to float.
in fact, Maggie Haberman can f*** off twice.

Maggs, no Democrat gives one shit what Bobby McBrainworms Junior does with the rest of his annoying life. he doesn’t matter.
Ross Douthat can f*** off.

show us on the doll where Kamala hurt you, Ross.
hey, the entire New York Times can f*** off.

“some” is doing a f***-ton of heavy lifting here. are these “some” black voters in the room with us right now?

note to Times nepo-publisher Arthur Gregg Sulzberger: it doesn’t matter how hard you suck up to Donny, he’s not going to make the Times his official state media if he takes power. stop trying.
hey, Washington Post — you can f*** off, too.

no. just no.
in fact, all the nitwits still rooting for their own personal fantasy ticket can f*** off.

how many times does Michelle Obama need to state that she has no interest in running for office? you’re wasting everyone’s time with this mental masturbation. do it in private.
Holy Mike Johnson can seriously f*** off.

we all knew that the Republicans were immediately going to pivot to “now Joe Biden must resign” — but these clowns are not thinking this through. first of all, Joe quitting is a big bowl of never gonna happen. second, does the GOP really want to spend the next three months running against President Kamala Harris?
now this is awesome: the Republican Party just realized that they’re no longer running against icky old Joe Biden who smells bad and is too demented to realize that he died six months ago. they created this whole fiction about Joe Biden and now they can’t use any of it — and they’re freaking the f*** out.
look at Nosferatu McGoebbels. he’s practically in tears as he melts all the way down on Fox News.
“they held a primary! people, they had ballots! they filled out circles! they went to the voting booths! they spent money on advertisements! and as President Trump, said the Republican Party spent tens of millions of dollars running against Joe Biden! now they just woke up one morning and said never mind, we’re canceling the entire primary, we’re getting rid of our candidate and pretending the election just never even happened and let donors hand-pick a new nominee?”
it’s not fair! how dare the Democrats come together around a young and vibrant candidate, leaving our guy to be the old fart in the race.
boo f***ing hoo, you grievance-babies. you demanded this happen, and now you’re whining about it. shut the f*** up and dry your eyes. here’s your binky.

as Stephen Miller noted in his crybaby rant, Donny Convict is hopping mad. he’s demanding to speak to Sleepy Brandon’s manager because he wants his money back.

So, we are forced to spend time and money on fighting Crooked Joe Biden, he polls badly after having a terrible debate, and quits the race. Now we have to start all over again. Shouldn’t the Republican Party be reimbursed for fraud in that everybody around Joe, including his doctors and the Fake News Media, knew he was not capable of running for, or being, President? Just askin’?
sorry bro — no dice. you broke it, you bought it.
in fact, Donny spent hours last night on his crappy app, yelling at Joe Biden.

I don’t know what Donny’s issue is. he’s never had a problem supporting a Kamala Harris run for office in the past.

for the Republicans, their problems are just beginning.
our presumptive candidate is young, energetic, smart — and can speak in complete sentences.
their guy is a quadrice-indicted twice-impeached once-convicted popular-vote-losing adderall-huffing insurrection-leading ear-diapering testimony-ducking judge-threatening lawyer-ignoring witness-tampering day-one-dictatoring disabled-veteran-dishonoring inheritance-squandering rube-fleecing clown-makeup-smearing language-mangling serial-sexual-predating draft-dodging casino-bankrupting butler-bullying daughter-perving hush-money-paying real-estate-scamming bone-spur-faking ketchup-hurling justice-obstructing classified-war-plan-thieving golf-cheating weather-map-defacing horse-paste-promoting paper-towel-flinging race-baiting tax-evading evidence-destroying charity-defrauding money-laundering diaper-filling 88-count 78-year-old fluorescent tangerine felony factory.

it’s the prosecutor versus the felon. I’ll take that.
everyone is entitled to my own opinion as a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
...
...
My thoughts on the Harris Candidacy.

I still believe in her and in the basic goodness of the American people. I believe that the people will choose goodness over evil, love over hate and progress over going back.
when faced with the choice – a demented, deranged senile old man filled with hatred and revenge, or a competent accomplished woman they will make the right choice.
Congratulations, my Berkeley hometown girl. You got this girl.
Go Bold or go Home!
Berkeley Girl Makes It





The news
that Biden
was stepping down
throwing his support.

for Kamala Harris
as President.

filled me with joy
and anticipation.

Kamala Harris
attended my elementary school
Thousand Oaks in Berkeley
a few years before me.

and is a Berkeley girl
through and through.

Go Berkely !
Thousand Oak Girl I say.
T.O Toughie Girl Power.

the first Female VP
of Asian descent
the first VP
of black descent

the first Caribbean
to be on the ticket.
and the first Hindu
as well.

and the first
Berkeley native
on the ticket.

it is time
for Berkeley to rule
in my humble opinion.
Kamala
here’s what I would campaign on.
the theme would be getting stuff done for the people!
Reforming the Federal Budget
This is perhaps boring to voters but very important to the long-term stability of the country.
I would call upon Congress to change how they do budgets and shift to a two-year budgetary cycle. The first year of Congress would be devoted to passing the two-year budget, the second year would be devoted to oversight and supplemental budget requests.
Coupled that shifting to a calendar year budget. Eliminate the possibility of government shutdowns by enacting automatic CR’s if budgets are not passed on time. But also require budgets to be passed on time – December 1 in the prior year. If a budget is not passed on time, keep congress in town until the budget is passed. And if for some reason the budget is not passed, dinge congressional salaries until the budget is passed.
Second commission a study to look at our tax situation and make suggestions for common sense tax reform. Start by figuring out how much money the government spends in a given year, the reform of the tax code to generate most of the revenue from taxes. Consider a national sales tax as well. Reserve borrowing for large scale infrastructure, and military spending. And consider a surcharge on income of about 25 million per year.
I would also look at federal spending and ask that all departments identify lower priority projects with a required 5% reduction in federal spending per agency over a four-year period, except for health related and education related agencies which would be given a considerable bump up in spending. I would do this for three years so that in three years overall spending has been reduced by about 10 percent. Leave it up to the agencies to identify lower priority projects that should not be micromanaged by the White House.
For the defense department consider eliminating such things as golf courses, domestic PX and commissary stores and other non-essential spending.
Finally consider turning over some federal government functions to the states. The conservative idea of moving federal agencies out of Washington DC has considerable merit in my opinion.
The rest of my earlier suggestions follow with a few updates
I retired from the U.S. State Department in 2016 after 27 years of service. I grew up in Berkeley went to college at the University of the Pacific and graduated from the University of Washington (MA Korean Studies, MPA). I also served in the Peace Corps in Korea. I have been to 49 out of 50 states (minus Alaska) and 45 countries.
My advice, in a nutshell, is to make this a campaign about the future and your vision of the future. Paint your opponent Donald Trump as yesterday’s candidate, and mock him, calling on Grandpa Trump to retire to Florida and play golf. Depict him as senile, out of touch, corrupt and focused on returning America to the 19th Century. And call for progressive bold new ideas for the future of America. Be optimistic, be full of hope and goodwill. Freely steal from Bernie and Elizabeth's proposals and adopt her detailed plans - after talking with her of course. Call for reform not revolution and stress competence vs. incompetence and chaos.
Hillary’s biggest mistake was in my view making it all about how bad Donald Trump is, and not giving the voters a real sense of where she wanted to take the country. and making it seemed that she thought she was entitled, and it was her time. that is a big turnoff in politics.
She also took it for granted and did not compete everywhere. You have to out hustle Trump and go everywhere - hold virtual town halls everywhere until the Corona virus threat fades away.
You have to earn the trust of the voters and can't be seen as thinking you are entitled to the presidency because you have done your dues so to speak. That is the kiss of electoral suicide - look at Mitch Romney and Hillary Clinton - both lost because they thought that it was their time and they were entitled to the presidency, the voters simply thought otherwise and showed them the door.
And in an age where the voters were ready for a big change to the status quo, being the establishment candidate was the kiss of death. Not to mention she refused to compete everywhere. And allowed Donald Trump to paint her as “crooked Hillary” and as too much part of the establishment which the public rightly destructed so much. She could have picked Bernie Sanders as her running mate, and perhaps defeated Donald Trump. In the end she won where it did not matter and did not compete where she should have competed.
So, in this upcoming election you have to tell the voters why you are so much better for them and the country than Donald Trump. It will not be enough to run against Donald. People have to want to vote for you. Your experience counts for a lot, but it is not enough.
How to Beat Trump
talk constantly about Donald Trump being the most corrupt president in US history and that he is guilty or gross nepotism.
Finally, ignore his tweets. When he tweets something obnoxious dismiss it with the phrase "There he Goes Again".
then talk about your bold yet pragmatic agenda over and over again.
GO BOLD OR GO HOME
The times cries out for bold progressive challenges and for fresh thinking. Make people want to vote for you as they share your vision of the possible future. and want to have a positive, can-do message. Here are my suggested policy proposals.
I would put forth a series of comprehensive bold future-oriented policies and reiterate them every chance you get. You could call them Joe’s Plan for the Future of America, or Kamala's Contract with the American People, something along those lines.
“Let’s Boldly Go into the Future,”
and rename your campaign as "Kamala for the American People" . Use one of your great assets your reputation for being an everyday person. But be big, bold, brassy, optimistic and challenge your opponents to produce a better plan or shut up and work with you to solve the nation’s problems.
Call for Free College Education Coupled with National Service Requirements.
Call for all Americans to serve three years in public service either in the military or in the government or NGO sector and in return, they will get four years of college paid for. For recent grads, they can serve and get their college debt forgiven. To those who say we can’t afford this, say we can’t afford to continue to put our college students in crippling debt they cannot afford. And everyone, especially the rich, should shoulder the burden of national service.
Call for The Green New Deal
Point out time and time again China, Germany, and other countries are building the green energy resources of the future while the U.S. which invented green energy is moving back to the 19th century.
When critics say we can’t afford this, tell them we can’t afford to ruin the world for our children’s future. We can’t afford to continue burning fossil fuels. Climate change is real, and the U.S. must lead the way forward. That is what great nations do, lead the world in embracing change, in embracing the promise of the future. We can do no less.
Call to Fix Obama Care
Point out time and time again that we still have a broken down too expensive too burdensome a health care system. Point out time and time again that we have the most expensive system in the world, yet we are about 25th in terms of health care outcomes. No one in this land should fear going bankrupt if they need to get medical care. We can do this right and we must do it right.
I would acknowledge that Obama Care is not perfect and that if you had a chance to re-do it you would make it much less bureaucratic and less burdensome. But be proud of what the Democrats accomplished. Promise to fix it and make it work.
One potential fix would be to open the Federal Health Care system to anyone who needs insurance and continue to provide subsidies to keep the premiums down.
Another option would be an expansion of Medicare, so it covers about half the country.
And enact permanent paid sick leave up to a month for all companies employing more than ten people.
When Republicans proclaim that they will repeal Obamacare and replace it with something, call them on their bullshit. Demand to know the plan now or tell them to shut up and work with you to fix Obamacare.
call for a slight reduction of military spending and national security spending to beef up health care spending and universal education access.
Call to repair our alliances
Declare that our allies are our allies and our friends, and we will work with them to solve the world’s problems and restore American leadership. We will rejoin the Paris Climate Change and work to make sure it works. We will rejoin the Transpacific Partnership. and we will figure out how to work with China and even Russia to solve problems of mutual interest such as climate change. Vow to restore partnership with Mexico and Canada and Latin America as well as India and Southeast Asia. and restore ties with Europe as well. Rebuild the UN and international organizations. And join the international criminal court. Finally close Gitmo as an affront to the American system of justice and human rights. Re Israel vow to work with Palestinians and Israelis alike to restart the peace process.
Offer a New Deal to North Korea
We will continue to negotiate with the North Koreans, offering them a way towards reunification with South Korea and rejoining the world economic community. You can damn the former President here with faint praise. Say that it was good that he took the initiative to break the log jam and talk to the North, but due to his inexperience and his naivety he was unable to make a deal as the North Koreans played him. You can finish the job.
Offer to Talk with The Iranians
Tell the Iranians we are ready to talk with them and want a new deal that would benefit them and the U.S. along the lines of what we are offering the North Koreans.
Bring the Troops Home
I would call for some U.S. troops to return to the U.S., where they will be reposted along our borders and serve as adjunct border patrol agents and first responders as part of their mandatory new national service.
Rebuild America
I would gradually reduce military spending and devote resources to rebuilding America’s crumbling infrastructure. This must include high-speed trains, and must include perhaps hyper-loop technology or Maglev trains? And the next generation of airplanes as well. We must rebuild our mass transit systems. We must embrace the development of driverless vehicles. and as mentioned we must beef up health care spending and assure universal access to higher education. These must be the new national priorities. I would throw the republicans a bone offers to look at modest reductions in other government spending for example decreasing spending on NPR but not eliminating it, and a slight decrease in foreign assistance, and UN contributions etc. and other government programs could be trimmed down a bit to pay for higher priorities.
Challenge the Republicans on their “you are weakening national security” BS. When the Republican scream you are weakening national security call them out on their BS.
Ask them how repositioning troops to help deal with national security issues at home weakens national security? How does going to universal military service weaken national security? How does getting out of endless wars weaken national security? How does closing a few bases in Europe weaken national security? Or closing a golf course? Or a commissary? Point out that we already spend more on national security than any other nation on earth. How does rebuilding America’s failed infrastructure weaken national security? How does providing medical care or universal higher education which benefits the entire nation hamper national security? Challenge them to produce a better plan.
Call for Comprehensive Immigration Reform
Start by acknowledging we need to improve security at the border, but the wall is a waste of time and money that will not solve the problem. We need a comprehensive 21st century immigration policy that balances the need for continued immigration with the need to ensure that immigrants contribute to our country and enrich our country as they always have and always will. Again throw the republicans a bone offers to ensure that E Verify is widely used by all employers and punish employers who hire illegals. I would also consider getting rid of the diversity visa program and the sibling immigration category but grandfather people in that category giving them two years to complete the immigration process with no new applicants being accepted. I would also push English language skills for immigrants as one of the new requirements - they must be able to handle the immigrant visa interview in English. That is something I agree with Trump on.
Challenge the Republicans to come up a better plan and work with you to implement it.
Call for A Return to Space Including Lunar Colonies and Martian Colonies
It is time for the U.S. to lead the world again in space exploration. Offer to lead the way in building lunar and Martian colonies with the participation of the world’s other space powers.
Call for The Legalization of Marijuana, Emptying the Prisons of Marijuana Offenders
End the endless war on drugs. Repeal marijuana prohibition. Empty the prisons of marijuana offenders. End the private prison for profit system. End the prison pipeline that sweeps up brown and black youths and sucks them into prison for life. Reserve prisons for the most dangerous offenders, all other prisoners should be sentenced to community service, drug treatment or other non-prison sentences. Use the money saved by closing prisons for rebuilding infrastructure.
Gun Control
I like your gun control proposals. It is a step forward. Continue to push for universal background checks.
Fully Support LGBT rights
Fully Support the religious freedom of all Americans including non-believers
Call for a Return to traditional American civil norms that Trump has so badly damaged
For VP Pick a centrist male governor.
I like the governor of Kentucky or North Carolina The governor of Michigan would be a good choice too. the Governor of California not so much.
To sum up, be cautious, small-minded, narrowly focused, and all about how bad Donald is, you will lose.
In short,
GO BOLD OR Go Home
Sincerely
Jake Cosmos Aller
703-436-1402
[e-mail]
https://theworldaccordingtocosmos.com
T.O. Alumnus

Call for Public Service
wikipedia on history of national service in the US
pros and cons on national service proposals
Time to Embrace National Service in Exchange for free college tuition< h1>why national service is worth it
open letters to the candidates send to democratic candidates

Embrace Public Service, Mr. President!
J
In any event, I believe that the time is now to call for national service in exchange for free college tuition/vocational training or grants to open small businesses. Three years of service followed by four years of either college/technical training, or assistance in opening a small business.
Call for Free College Education Coupled with National Service Requirements.
Dear Democratic Candidates:
I am writing to all of you and to President Trump to call for your to embrace national service in exchange for free college/technical training or assistance in opening a business.
It is time to change the game plan in Washington DC. You need a new bold proposal that will unite the country and heal the divisions. My proposal is for you to embrace mandatory national service for three years. Everyone finishing their service would receive full funding for college, technical training or a grant to set up their own business because after all not everyone needs to go to college, we need to encourage technical training and starting up small business as well.
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the key is that the service would be universal and all citizens and LPR’s between the ages of 18 and 25 would serve three years – no exceptions. Most would be military, but people could serve as fine fathers. adjust police officers, adjust border patrol officers, adjust teachers, peace corps volunteers or serve in state/local and federal government positions.
Call for all Americans to serve three years in public service either in the military or in the government or NGO sector and in return, they will get four years of college paid for. For recent graduates , they can serve and get their college debt forgiven. To those who say we can’t afford this, say we can’t afford to continue to put our college students in crippling debt they cannot afford. And everyone, especially the rich, should shoulder the burden of national service. and point out that shifting to a mandatory national service requirement would save the Pentagon money on salaries. the cost would be modest – minimum wage, housing, medical care and college tuition after their service. People would serve between age 18 and 25 one year of training and two years of service, with an optional second enlistment for three more years of educational benefits through PHD/professional degrees. Starting at age 18 until age 25 people will be randomly selected to begin service. those who are 25 will have until they turn 26 to report for service. They would have one year to report for service.
Free College/technical training or money to open a business in exchange for national service
Most people will start college, or tech training institute, then do military or other service, and then return to college to finish their college. That is fine. Ensure that colleges will not only accommodate that but will also offer college credits for military and other on the job training acquired during national service. This would also cut the cost of college attendance for most people to a manageable three years instead of four to five years. And of course, ensure that people can go to technical training institutes instead of a traditional college as we really need to grow the next generation of technical workers as well. and also ensure that those who wish financial assistance in setting up a small business would receive that assistance as well as we need to encourage the small business start ups as well.
After Service can compete to become an NCO/Officer or work for the Federal/State/Local/tribal government/ UN or NGO
After finishing basis service, those who wish to make a career of it could compete to become an NCO or an officer, and resume service after finishing college. And/or compete to enter government service for the Federal government or state and local government as well. and the service academies will only accept those who have finished basic service. This would apply to new service academies being set up, see below for more details.
All Must Serve
And most importantly, shared national service will help restore America’s sense that this is our land, this land belongs to everyone. The rich and the poor alike. We are all in this together. We have lost sight of that. The military has become an army of paid mercenaries recruited from the lower classes. If everyone serves, there will be less temptation to send troops into harms way. This will be a win- win for everyone except for the student loan vultures.
I would bring most of the troops home and station them along the southern border where they could be used to help bolster border security and assist as first responders to natural disaster. Sell this as real border security that will get the job done.
Establish New Service Academies for the Diplomatic, Intelligence Services/ Space Force/NASA, and law Enforcement
I would also call for four new national service academies to be set up. One would be for diplomatic and intelligence service, the other would be for law enforcement, the third would be for the Space Force/and NASA, the last would be more technical scientific agencies of the Federal government focusing on science and technology issues. These academies like the military academies including a coast guard academy, and beefing up the maritime service academy, would take only those who finished their military basis service. this would be a great way to restore our diplomatic corps and intelligence services as well as our law enforcement person. All graduates can meet their service obligation (five years post graduation) through working for Federal/State/local/tribal governments, the UN or NGO’s. all the service academies as well as the Medical Medical schools, the foreign service training center (which will be transformed into the new diplomatic/intelligence training academy) would work together on the national service academies consortium to coordinate policies and training, including post graduate training programs at the various military and other federal government training programs.
National Service Will Bring US together as one nation
I believe that this proposal could be enacted with widespread bipartisan support. It would go a long way to help heal the divisions of our country and bring us all together as a nation. I hope you will fully embrace this proposal and I look forward to discussing it with yours staff.

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Trump Must Drop Out Because He's Old As f***
JUL 22







READ IN APP






Dear Humans,
God here. Now that President Biden has heroically passed the torch to Kamala Harris, can we talk about the orange elephant in the room?
TRUMP MUST DROP OUT BECAUSE HE’S OLD AS f***.
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Yeah, I said it. At 78-years-old, Donald is practically fossilized. You wouldn't trust your grandpa to fix your Wi-Fi, so why let him run the country? He's older than dirt and twice as clueless.
Like holy shit, did you see his speech at the RNC last week? The giant creep rambled on for 2 hours like he was Grandpa Simpson.
Look, the presidency is a tough gig. It needs someone with energy, someone who can stay awake past 7 PM without nodding off. Trump?
HE FALLS ASLEEP IN THE COURT.
He fell asleep during his own convention. He's got one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel. The only marathon he’s running is a nap marathon.
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And let's talk about the gaffes—Donald says some stupid insane shit that doesn’t make sense every single time he speaks. The only people it makes sense to are also totally delusional Christian Nationalist freaks like Marjorie Taylore Greene.
And don't get me started on the health issues. Remember that mysterious trip to Walter Reed? Make America great again? This man can’t handle a ramp. The only thing he can make great again is the act of faceplanting into the ground.
So, here’s the divine decree: Trump, pack it up. Go home, put on your slippers, and watch Matlock reruns. Leave running the country to someone who can remember what day it is without checking Fox News. It’s time for you to drop out, you crusty old bag of assholes.
Now that I, the LORD THY GOD, have brought attention to this issue, I am sure the media will be obsessing about it every day from here on out.
THE LORD HAS SPOKEN.

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Seven Lessons from Joe Biden's Candidacy
The Democratic party is healthy. The Republican party is not.
JONATHAN V. LAST


JUL 22





1. Seven Lessons
Before we start: I did a YouTube thing about Biden last night, if you’re interested.
Now let’s go.
(1) The Democratic party is a healthy institution.
On the night of June 27, the various power centers within the Democratic party began a difficult conversation: Was Joe Biden still capable of running a vigorous campaign?
Over three weeks the party reached a diffuse—if not unanimous—consensus: He was not. This consensus was the product of all levels of the party: Elder statesmen such as Nancy Pelosi, elected Democrats analyzing their own future prospects, donors making decisions about spending, and the main body of public opinion among Democratic voters.
Once this consensus was reached, the various power centers began a dialogue with the party’s leader, President Biden. The party expressed its choice. Biden pushed back. The party took up the question again and, after due consideration, held firm.
Joe Biden then stepped aside for the good of the nation.
This is how healthy institutions are supposed to work.
At The Bulwark there has been a lot of drama over the last three weeks. We told you what we really thought, even though it meant making some people mad.
Our mission is to have honest and real conversations. Because that’s what healthy institutions do.
Right here, in the Bulwark community, those conversations were great. I mean, they were often painful. But they were always civil and conducted in good faith.
How special is this community? We had one member who was so disappointed in us that he cancelled his subscription and then came back to the comments every day to try to convince others to cancel their subscriptions, too. And he did it passionately, but with respect.
Where do you find people like that on the internet? It was amazing.
The coming weeks are going to be full of history. Come and ride through it with us.
Join now
2. The process which elevated Kamala Harris was sensible.
The Democratic party made another institutional decision in parallel with the Biden question: It vetted Kamala Harris.
This subroutine executed in the background, but it was active. Democratic voters began to consider her as the nominee and polling showed that they were comfortable with her. Party elders evaluated her fitness. Donors and elected Democrats took her measure. The fact that no anti-Harris groundswell—or even boom let—emerged is proof that the party decided that Harris was an acceptable nominee.
After Biden blessed Harris on Sunday afternoon, the party coalesced around her in much the way it did Biden after the New Hampshire primary in 2020.
The Democratic party will enter the election more unified than it had been pre-debate.
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3. Kamala Harris can run as an insurgent, but with the advantages of an incumbent.
The largest advantage of incumbency is that a candidate does not have to take base-pleasing positions during a primary campaign that can hurt him during a general election.
Because of the extraordinary nature of her ascendence, Harris possesses this advantage. She will carry nearly every advantage of incumbency and yet she can credibly position herself as this election’s change agent.
4. Trump is holding the age bomb.
The Trump campaign spent two years creating a political bomb concerning old age. They assumed that they could plant this bomb at the feet of Joe Biden.
Trump is now the one holding the age bomb. He is not only a full generation older than Harris—everything about him looks geriatric by comparison. From his gait to his bronzed-over pallor; from the way he rambles and gets lost in sentences to his inability to keep facts straight.
Every split screen now makes Trump look old and decrepit by comparison.
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5. There was enormous pent-up demand among Democrats for a younger leader.
In the first 24 hours, Kamala Harris raised over $100 million from small-dollar donors.
Sit with that for a moment. $100 million.
That’s more money than any Democrat has ever raised in a single day. It’s twice as much as Trump raised following his felony conviction. If this doesn’t snap your head back, it should.
Because it’s as good a proxy as you’ll find for excitement.
It will be several days until we have polling with a more detailed view of Harris’s support from Democratic voters, but it is already clear that she will perform much better than Biden has within her party.
Here’s my advice: You should be open to the idea that Harris could ride a wave of excitement and passion that absolutely no one was seeing until Biden stepped aside. I’m talking Obama ‘08-levels of energy.
It’s not a given. But it’s in the realm of the possible. Keep your eyes peeled for it.
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6. The Republican party is a failed state.
At the debate, Donald Trump also demonstrated (again) that he is unfit for office. He rambled and lied incoherently. He is a convicted felon. A jury found him guilty of sexual assault. He has said he wants to be a “dictator” and that he wants to “terminate” parts of the Constitution. He selected as his running mate a man who advised disobeying orders from the Supreme Court and forcing a constitutional crisis.
Until last week there was nothing stopping the Republican party from forcing Trump off the ticket. The party elders and elected officials could have demanded that Trump step aside. Republican voters could have said that they had no confidence in his ability to govern. Donors could have closed their wallets.
But the plain fact is that not one single Republican called on Trump to step aside.
Not one.
Why? Because the various precincts of the Republican party understand that they hold no power—at all—over Trump. They could not ask him to withdraw from the race. Even broaching the subject would be grounds for excommunication from the party.
The Democratic party is a functioning institution, with checks and balances, constituencies and power structures. Like any institution, it is amorphous and its decision making is mostly organic.
The Republican party is an autocracy where the only thing that matters is the will of the leader. All power flows through him. All decisions are made by him. There are no competing power centers—only vassal states overseen by his noblemen.
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7. Harris is an underdog.
One of the reasons the last three weeks have been so difficult is because Democrats were not choosing between a “good” outcome and a “bad” outcome.
Those sorts of choices are easy.
Instead, Democrats were tasked with deciding between least-bad options. Humans rebel against the idea of “least-bad.” When faced with choices, we want to believe that at least one of them is “good.”
When the first real Harris-vs.-Trump polling comes out next week we’ll see how big of a hole she’s in. But unlike Biden, Harris has the ability to spend the next three months on offense, all day, every day. If she can deliver the goods, she has a puncher’s chance.
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2. In Praise of Biden
A slight push-back against those who believe Biden took too long to step aside:
It was three and a half weeks from the debate to Biden pulling out. That’s it.
Joe Biden is the president, but he’s also just a man. Coming to a decision like this one—an unprecedented decision—is hard. There’s a lot to weigh and there’s a tremendous responsibility to get it right.
My own view is that Biden made the call basically as quickly as possible. He couldn’t have done it the week of the NATO summit. Then Trump was shot in the ear. Then there was the Republican convention. To my mind, Biden’s timing on this was optimal, actually.
Nothing about Joe Biden’s presidency was inevitable. Not his candidacy. Not his victory over Trump. Not his withdrawal from reelection.
At nearly every turn, Biden did the right thing for America.
His legacy is assured. He will be remembered as one of the great modern presidents.
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I said this last night and I’ll say it again. History had its eye on Joe Biden, and he met the moment. He did his part. Now it’s up to Kamala Harris and us to do ours.
This is the moment. Live it with us.
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3. Revealed Preferences
In the coming weeks we will find out if the people who said, “I hate Trump, but Biden is too old” really meant it.
Will they find some new excuse for why they have to vote for Trump? Will they become unconcerned about the risks of old age and cognitive decline in a president?
I’m not talking about partisan public personalities on Twitter. I’m talking about swing voters: The kind of Trump-to-Biden voters who have been backsliding in Trump’s direction.
Sarah’s focus groups are going to be absolutely vital for understanding how this group thinks. Don’t miss them.


elsieisy


chill the f*** out, we’ve got this
there’s no need for panic
JEFF TIEDRICH


JUL 22






so, that happened.

Upgrade to paid
for about an hour after Biden’s announcement, I ran around with my hair on fire. I’d just spent a month warning everyone about the chaos that Biden dropping out would bring — infighting, battles over fundraising, lawsuits, atonal music, human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together — mass hysteria.

and then a thing happened that I absolutely did not see coming: just about the entire Democratic establishment immediately threw their support behind Kamala Harris.

one after another, the endorsements came in.
Mr. Biden endorsed Ms. Harris within minutes on Sunday afternoon. Before she had uttered a word about her intentions, he was swiftly followed by other party leaders, including Bill and Hillary Clinton, key Democratic senators and influential House members. By the evening, Mr. Shapiro had publicly backed Ms. Harris after a phone call from her. She also picked up endorsements from Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, Mr. Cooper and Mr. Kelly.
Andy Beshear.
AOC, too.
all fifty State Democratic Party chairs.
numerous state delegates.

even a Nikki Haley PAC has endorsed Kamala.
A coalition of former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley voters pledged their support for Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris' presidential bid on Sunday, hours after President Joe Biden announced that he was dropping out of the race.
and in one day, Kamala Harris raised over $50 million.

as I’m writing this, the total haul is now about $69 million. nice.
Joe Biden remains a master at doing politics. Dark Brandon dark-Brandon the shit out of his passing of the torch. clearly, this wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision. Joe had to have worked behind the scenes to shore up this much immediate support for Kamala. he made sure not one word of any this leaked. he timed the announcement of his decision so that Donny and the Republicans spent the entire convention running against the wrong candidate. and the pièce de résistance —
Sending out a press release on Sunday afternoon, after the morning talk shows, totally screwed the media. No video clips, no “breaking news,” no chance for pundits to comment on how he sounded, looked, walked, etc. No chance to schedule guests to pick him apart as he spoke. He totally starved them of clicks and eyeballs, in repayment for them starving his candidacy of positive coverage purely for the sake of clicks and eyeballs.
look, I didn’t want any of this to happen. Biden was my guy, and I was prepared to back Joe all the way to November and beyond. but, that said, I have to admit that last night I slept better than I have any time in the last month.
now let’s turn our attention to all the people who need to f*** all the way off.
Brian Stelter can f*** off.

Stelter spent a month screaming that JOE MUST GO — but now that he’s gotten what he wanted, he’s moved the goalposts to JOE MUST GO BUT NOT LIKE THIS. some people are just never happy.
Maggie Haberman can follow Brian Stelter all the way to f***offistan.

good old Maggs, still the reliable stenographer to whom all the Republicans run when they have a trial balloon to float.
in fact, Maggie Haberman can f*** off twice.

Maggs, no Democrat gives one shit what Bobby McBrainworms Junior does with the rest of his annoying life. he doesn’t matter.
Ross Douthat can f*** off.

show us on the doll where Kamala hurt you, Ross.
hey, the entire New York Times can f*** off.

“some” is doing a f***-ton of heavy lifting here. are these “some” black voters in the room with us right now?

note to Times nepo-publisher Arthur Gregg Sulzberger: it doesn’t matter how hard you suck up to Donny, he’s not going to make the Times his official state media if he takes power. stop trying.
hey, Washington Post — you can f*** off, too.

no. just no.
in fact, all the nitwits still rooting for their own personal fantasy ticket can f*** off.

how many times does Michelle Obama need to state that she has no interest in running for office? you’re wasting everyone’s time with this mental masturbation. do it in private.
Holy Mike Johnson can seriously f*** off.

we all knew that the Republicans were immediately going to pivot to “now Joe Biden must resign” — but these clowns are not thinking this through. first of all, Joe quitting is a big bowl of never gonna happen. second, does the GOP really want to spend the next three months running against President Kamala Harris?
now this is awesome: the Republican Party just realized that they’re no longer running against icky old Joe Biden who smells bad and is too demented to realize that he died six months ago. they created this whole fiction about Joe Biden and now they can’t use any of it — and they’re freaking the f*** out.
look at Nosferatu McGoebbels. he’s practically in tears as he melts all the way down on Fox News.
“they held a primary! people, they had ballots! they filled out circles! they went to the voting booths! they spent money on advertisements! and as President Trump, said the Republican Party spent tens of millions of dollars running against Joe Biden! now they just woke up one morning and said never mind, we’re canceling the entire primary, we’re getting rid of our candidate and pretending the election just never even happened and let donors hand-pick a new nominee?”
it’s not fair! how dare the Democrats come together around a young and vibrant candidate, leaving our guy to be the old fart in the race.
boo f***ing hoo, you grievance-babies. you demanded this happen, and now you’re whining about it. shut the f*** up and dry your eyes. here’s your binky.

as Stephen Miller noted in his crybaby rant, Donny Convict is hopping mad. he’s demanding to speak to Sleepy Brandon’s manager because he wants his money back.

So, we are forced to spend time and money on fighting Crooked Joe Biden, he polls badly after having a terrible debate, and quits the race. Now we have to start all over again. Shouldn’t the Republican Party be reimbursed for fraud in that everybody around Joe, including his doctors and the Fake News Media, knew he was not capable of running for, or being, President? Just askin’?
sorry bro — no dice. you broke it, you bought it.
in fact, Donny spent hours last night on his crappy app, yelling at Joe Biden.

I don’t know what Donny’s issue is. he’s never had a problem supporting a Kamala Harris run for office in the past.

for the Republicans, their problems are just beginning.
our presumptive candidate is young, energetic, smart — and can speak in complete sentences.
their guy is a quadrice-indicted twice-impeached once-convicted popular-vote-losing adderall-huffing insurrection-leading ear-diapering testimony-ducking judge-threatening lawyer-ignoring witness-tampering day-one-dictatoring disabled-veteran-dishonoring inheritance-squandering rube-fleecing clown-makeup-smearing language-mangling serial-sexual-predating draft-dodging casino-bankrupting butler-bullying daughter-perving hush-money-paying real-estate-scamming bone-spur-faking ketchup-hurling justice-obstructing classified-war-plan-thieving golf-cheating weather-map-defacing horse-paste-promoting paper-towel-flinging race-baiting tax-evading evidence-destroying charity-defrauding money-laundering diaper-filling 88-count 78-year-old fluorescent tangerine felony factory.

it’s the prosecutor versus the felon. I’ll take that.
everyone is entitled to my own opinion as a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
...



chill the f*** out, we’ve got this
there’s no need for panic
JEFF TIEDRICH


JUL 22






so, that happened.

Upgrade to paid
for about an hour after Biden’s announcement, I ran around with my hair on fire. I’d just spent a month warning everyone about the chaos that Biden dropping out would bring — infighting, battles over fundraising, lawsuits, atonal music, human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together — mass hysteria.

and then a thing happened that I absolutely did not see coming: just about the entire Democratic establishment immediately threw their support behind Kamala Harris.

one after another, the endorsements came in.
Mr. Biden endorsed Ms. Harris within minutes on Sunday afternoon. Before she had uttered a word about her intentions, he was swiftly followed by other party leaders, including Bill and Hillary Clinton, key Democratic senators and influential House members. By the evening, Mr. Shapiro had publicly backed Ms. Harris after a phone call from her. She also picked up endorsements from Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, Mr. Cooper and Mr. Kelly.
Andy Beshear.
AOC, too.
all fifty State Democratic Party chairs.
numerous state delegates.

even a Nikki Haley PAC has endorsed Kamala.
A coalition of former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley voters pledged their support for Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris' presidential bid on Sunday, hours after President Joe Biden announced that he was dropping out of the race.
and in one day, Kamala Harris raised over $50 million.

as I’m writing this, the total haul is now about $69 million. nice.
Joe Biden remains a master at doing politics. Dark Brandon dark-Brandon the shit out of his passing of the torch. clearly, this wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision. Joe had to have worked behind the scenes to shore up this much immediate support for Kamala. he made sure not one word of any this leaked. he timed the announcement of his decision so that Donny and the Republicans spent the entire convention running against the wrong candidate. and the pièce de résistance —
Sending out a press release on Sunday afternoon, after the morning talk shows, totally screwed the media. No video clips, no “breaking news,” no chance for pundits to comment on how he sounded, looked, walked, etc. No chance to schedule guests to pick him apart as he spoke. He totally starved them of clicks and eyeballs, in repayment for them starving his candidacy of positive coverage purely for the sake of clicks and eyeballs.
look, I didn’t want any of this to happen. Biden was my guy, and I was prepared to back Joe all the way to November and beyond. but, that said, I have to admit that last night I slept better than I have any time in the last month.
now let’s turn our attention to all the people who need to f*** all the way off.
Brian Stelter can f*** off.

Stelter spent a month screaming that JOE MUST GO — but now that he’s gotten what he wanted, he’s moved the goalposts to JOE MUST GO BUT NOT LIKE THIS. some people are just never happy.
Maggie Haberman can follow Brian Stelter all the way to f***offistan.

good old Maggs, still the reliable stenographer to whom all the Republicans run when they have a trial balloon to float.
in fact, Maggie Haberman can f*** off twice.

Maggs, no Democrat gives one shit what Bobby McBrainworms Junior does with the rest of his annoying life. he doesn’t matter.
Ross Douthat can f*** off.

show us on the doll where Kamala hurt you, Ross.
hey, the entire New York Times can f*** off.

“some” is doing a f***-ton of heavy lifting here. are these “some” black voters in the room with us right now?

note to Times nepo-publisher Arthur Gregg Sulzberger: it doesn’t matter how hard you suck up to Donny, he’s not going to make the Times his official state media if he takes power. stop trying.
hey, Washington Post — you can f*** off, too.

no. just no.
in fact, all the nitwits still rooting for their own personal fantasy ticket can f*** off.

how many times does Michelle Obama need to state that she has no interest in running for office? you’re wasting everyone’s time with this mental masturbation. do it in private.
Holy Mike Johnson can seriously f*** off.

we all knew that the Republicans were immediately going to pivot to “now Joe Biden must resign” — but these clowns are not thinking this through. first of all, Joe quitting is a big bowl of never gonna happen. second, does the GOP really want to spend the next three months running against President Kamala Harris?
now this is awesome: the Republican Party just realized that they’re no longer running against icky old Joe Biden who smells bad and is too demented to realize that he died six months ago. they created this whole fiction about Joe Biden and now they can’t use any of it — and they’re freaking the f*** out.
look at Nosferatu McGoebbels. he’s practically in tears as he melts all the way down on Fox News.
“they held a primary! people, they had ballots! they filled out circles! they went to the voting booths! they spent money on advertisements! and as President Trump, said the Republican Party spent tens of millions of dollars running against Joe Biden! now they just woke up one morning and said never mind, we’re canceling the entire primary, we’re getting rid of our candidate and pretending the election just never even happened and let donors hand-pick a new nominee?”
it’s not fair! how dare the Democrats come together around a young and vibrant candidate, leaving our guy to be the old fart in the race.
boo f***ing hoo, you grievance-babies. you demanded this happen, and now you’re whining about it. shut the f*** up and dry your eyes. here’s your binky.

as Stephen Miller noted in his crybaby rant, Donny Convict is hopping mad. he’s demanding to speak to Sleepy Brandon’s manager because he wants his money back.

So, we are forced to spend time and money on fighting Crooked Joe Biden, he polls badly after having a terrible debate, and quits the race. Now we have to start all over again. Shouldn’t the Republican Party be reimbursed for fraud in that everybody around Joe, including his doctors and the Fake News Media, knew he was not capable of running for, or being, President? Just askin’?
sorry bro — no dice. you broke it, you bought it.
in fact, Donny spent hours last night on his crappy app, yelling at Joe Biden.

I don’t know what Donny’s issue is. he’s never had a problem supporting a Kamala Harris run for office in the past.

for the Republicans, their problems are just beginning.
our presumptive candidate is young, energetic, smart — and can speak in complete sentences.
their guy is a quadrice-indicted twice-impeached once-convicted popular-vote-losing adderall-huffing insurrection-leading ear-diapering testimony-ducking judge-threatening lawyer-ignoring witness-tampering day-one-dictatoring disabled-veteran-dishonoring inheritance-squandering rube-fleecing clown-makeup-smearing language-mangling serial-sexual-predating draft-dodging casino-bankrupting butler-bullying daughter-perving hush-money-paying real-estate-scamming bone-spur-faking ketchup-hurling justice-obstructing classified-war-plan-thieving golf-cheating weather-map-defacing horse-paste-promoting paper-towel-flinging race-baiting tax-evading evidence-destroying charity-defrauding money-laundering diaper-filling 88-count 78-year-old fluorescent tangerine felony factory.

it’s the prosecutor versus the felon. I’ll take that.
everyone is entitled to my own opinion as a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.



Kamala Harris, the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, two genius parents, one a Stanford economist, the other a brilliant Berkeley scientist, both active in the 1960s civil rights movement of their beloved adopted country, America, and proud to have their children be among the first to integrate a public school in California — that Kamala Harris was now, in 2024, accepting the all-but-certain nomination to be the Democratic Party candidate for President of the United States.
And, it should be noted, the chance to become the first woman ever to hold this esteemed office.
Yes, that was just one week ago. A euphoric nation exploded in a joyful belief that finally the promise of the American Dream was no longer just a “promise” nor a “dream” but a roaring reality that immediately took off like a rocket.
And each day this week has seen a new record set for a Presidential campaign:
• A Record-Smashing Surge of Volunteers Signing Up Across Key Swing States (a total of 170,000 throughout the nation as of this morning);
• The Biggest One-Day Haul of Campaign Contributions Ever, 60% of them from first-time donors (the total overall take is more than $350 million as of today);
• The Largest Zoom Call Ever for a Campaign Meeting (160,000 participants, with more than double that expected on Monday night’s “Women for Harris” Zoom — feel free to join in, click here);
• The Most People Ever to Register to Vote Over a 48-Hour Period: Almost 40,000 New Voters!
• 85% of all Convention delegates (3,404 of them) endorsed Harris after she had only been a candidate for three days — and all this 4 weeks before the Convention even starts!
Historians and political scientists agree that this level of enthusiasm this quickly is unheard of in modern American politics. Trump is furious. He is planning to sue to “keep Harris off the ballot.”
Good luck with that. It won’t work. Apparently, somewhere along the way, Trump Van Winkle must have fallen into a deep sleep and missed the memo that many white men like him also seemed to miss:
“America is no longer your America, the exclusive club for the gender missing its second X chromosome, which then makes you prone to war, violent outbursts, something called ‘mansplaining,’ harassing the other gender, dying on average 6 years before that other gender — and yet still holding the majority of the wealth, the property, the tee times and most of the seats in Congress (72% of those seats at last count are yours).”
That America is being shown the door.
Here’s what the New America looks like:
Seventy-nine percent of the United States is either Female (51% of the country), Persons of Color (42% of the country is now Black, Brown, Asian or Indigenous), or Young Adults between 18 and 39 (the Gen Z-ers and Millennials now make up 42% of the country!) — or some combination thereof of these three demographics.
This Country Is Female, Young and Not-So-White Anymore.
Not the best place to run for President if your three main personality traits are misogyny, bigotry, and sounding like everyone’s Uncle Don.
Oh — and then there’s this…
Here’s the truth about who our fellow Americans really are (and here’s the list nobody has bothered to show you because, well, we need to keep perpetuating our own belief that we are stuck living in a white, Christian Nationalist, conservative, red-neck, deep-fried-Oreo-loving country — when, in fact, the vast bulk of the United States is not like that anymore):
69% of Americans support legal abortion.
72% of Americans don’t own a gun.
90% of the country wants more gun control laws.
72% of us believe the Climate Crisis is real.
71% of all Americans approve of labor unions.
79% of us insist the rich must pay more in taxes.
76% of us want a much higher minimum wage.
70% of all voters believe marijuana should be legal.
73% of the country want student loan debt relief.
74% of Americans want more affordable homes.
65% support term limits on all Supreme Court justices.
84% of Americans want free Pre-k and 3-k.
69% of Americans support same-sex marriage.
65% of Americans want to end the electoral college.
89% of Americans oppose gerrymandering.
70% of us are demanding a permanent ceasefire in Gaza NOW!
72% of all Americans want money removed from politics!
70% of Millennials say they would likely vote for a Socialist candidate.
THAT is who we are.
Mr. Trump — how do you expect to win when what you believe in is the opposite of what more than two-thirds of the country believes regarding many of the major issues of the day?! You are running as a right wing whackadoodle in a country that has seriously become more open and progressive. The majority of Americans HATE what you stand for. Just look at those poll numbers I listed above. Those percentages don’t come from me, they come from Gallup, the Associated Press, PEW Research, CNN and others. They come from the American people.
And finally, one last powerful fact:
The Republicans have LOST the popular vote in 7 of the last 8 Presidential elections! Since 1988, the American people have made it abundantly clear: They don’t want a Republican running the country. The ONLY reason we were stuck with Bush and Trump is because the Founders created the Electoral College in order to appease the slave states and try to avoid a Civil War (and that seemed to work out ok).
But here’s the kicker: The majority of these 3 groups — women, young people, People of Color — vote Democratic in every election! The statistics don’t lie: 51% of women are Democrats, as are 61% of young people, and 83% of African Americans. Those facts alone should guarantee that the Democrats hold a majority of political power in the United States. But as long as there is gerrymandering, the Electoral College and voter suppression, the concept of “one-person, one-vote majority rule” — the singular underpinning of a true Democracy — is sadly missing as the “Democracy” is still yet to be realized.
So what’s the takeaway here? It’s quite simple:
THERE ARE MORE OF US THAN THERE ARE OF THEM!
We are now the majority.
We are a Liberal Nation.
We are going to elect the first woman — a Black woman, no less! — to be the President of the United States.
So what could possibly go wrong?
THE ONLY WAY TRUMP CAN WIN IS IF LIBERALS AND DEMOCRATS STAY HOME.
But why would that happen? The unthinkable — a certain skill set many Democrats have repeated ad infinitum — would have to take place:
1. For instance, if the candidate, Kamala Harris, suddenly starts taking “centrist” positions in order to not offend anyone — yet in doing so she ends up offending everyone, i.e., the MAJORITY of Americans who are liberal, Left and progressive women, People of Color, young people, and the working class. That is not going to happen.
2. Or, if Harris continues Biden’s embrace of Netanyahu and America’s funding of, and the arming of, the slaughter in Gaza, this will hand Michigan over to Trump and put him in the White House. Michigan has 200,000 registered Muslim voters, and 300,000 Michiganders are of Middle Eastern or North African descent. Plus, 13% of young voters in Michigan have already declared they will leave the Presidential line on the ballot blank. In fact, I think one way to fix things in Michigan would be for Vice President Harris and her running mate to make a major announcement in Detroit, on a stage with numerous area Arab Americans, Muslims, and leaders of a wide-ranging coalition of Jewish peace groups, to offer her action plan as to what she and Biden can do now to keep their initial promise to Netanyahu — that if he uses American tax dollars or weapons to violate international law and human rights, such “assistance” will be withheld. Said Biden to Bibi in October: “When America experienced the hell of 9/11, we felt enraged as well… [and] we made mistakes. So, I caution the government of Israel not to be blinded by rage.” In other words, Biden’s warning to Bibi was this: Do not do what we did to Iraq — and to ourselves.
Netanyahu refused to listen — and then did the opposite of what Biden warned him not to do. And after each round of carpet bombings, obliterating hospitals, schools, childcare centers and refugee camps, with hundreds and then thousands of Palestinian bodies piled higher and higher, Biden would admonish Netanyahu and tell him that we were going to have to cease gifting him with an unlimited supply of American tax dollars and weapons. And each time, President Biden, already in obvious decline, seemed not to know what to do or how to handle the horror he had personally unleashed on the good people of Palestine. And so it continues to this day. There is no place anywhere on the planet outside of the Arab and Muslim world with as many Arab and Muslim souls than in the state of Michigan. That is why I will keep talking about this until I am heard. The Party doesn’t get it. In 2016, Hillary lost Michigan when she didn’t need to. I will not sit by and let the same fate befall Kamala Harris — which perhaps, after she refused to sit on the dais with Netanyahu at his speech to Congress last Wednesday, hopefully this seems unlikely. And, after her one-on-one meeting with him the next day, there was no hug. She walked out and addressed the gaggle of cameras and microphones with this steely direct statement regarding the suffering of the Palestinian people: “I will not be silent.”
3. Likewise, if Vice President Harris appoints Josh Shapiro as her Vice Presidential candidate, this too may result in losing Michigan. Shapiro said it’s “antisemitic” for anyone to join the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel in order to convince them to stop their apartheid behavior. He also cruelly compared peaceful college students to the Ku Klux Klan because they were calling for an end to the slaughter in Gaza. Actions like these will diminish the Arab American vote for Harris and depress a large swath of the youth vote throughout the country. As Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times has said, “Biden is in danger of losing Michigan and, with it, the whole election.”
Also, more than 2 dozen public education advocacy groups have asked Vice President Harris not to choose Shapiro as her running mate because, as they stated in their letter to her on Wednesday, “we respectfully ask you not to select Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, who has supported education policies mirroring Project 2025.” As we Michiganders gave the world Trump Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, we are especially concerned about even the slightest whittling away of our public schools, and we, too, ask Vice President Harris to pick a running mate who is a million miles away from any of these efforts.
4. Finally, should Harris decide to do the bidding of the wealthy who are lining up with big checks so they can try to control her, this would clearly put her on the side against the workers and consumers. Case in point: This week Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, gave her $7 million. What will he want for his money? He’s already revealed the quid pro quo: He wants the removal of one of Biden’s best appointments, the head of the FTC, Lina Khan. She is on a mission to break up monopolies and to police Corporate America in the hopes of stopping them from doing more harm. Hoffman and other Big Money donors want to stop her. Hoffman has no shame in stating what he expects in return for his $7 million “donation” to the Harris campaign: “I would hope that Vice President Harris would replace her.” Will Harris do what she is told? My hope? Absolutely not.
But as many have said, the Dems are pros at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
So, as I see it, that’s the only way we can lose. If too many people sense it’s the same old political hoo-ha, the Democratic vote will be seriously depressed, millions will stay stuck in their despair, and all of this may lead to a Trump victory.
This must not happen. The overwhelming jolt of joy from this last week must continue, but with ACTION — and that is where you and I come in!
In my next letter to you, I will reveal the blueprint/playbook/ battle plan for what we millions — the Majority — must do over these next 100 days. I think you’re going to like it. It includes simple things we can all do. It will be fun. You’ll meet new friends. There are Door Prizes! You might become a local hero. And we’re all gonna party like it’s 2029!
Stay tuned…

Kamala, hi. Hey there.
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Barack and Michelle Obama call Kamala Harris to endorse her as the Democratic candidate
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At long last, Democrats have leaned into the word “weird.”
Vice President Kamala Harris, now the Democratic Party’s presumptive presidential nominee, has started using it to describe convicted felon and former President Donald Trump. It seems Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who’s on Harris’ vice presidential candidate list, led the charge, succinctly saying of Trump and his running mate this weekend: “These guys are just weird.”

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And it is.
Donald Trump is very, very weird, and we've known this for some time
The rise of Trumpism and the bizarre chaos it ushered in ‒ from family members lost down conspiratorial rabbit holes to the denial of facts and abandonment of shared reality ‒ has given us election lies and Trump-branded Bibles and Rudy Giuliani giving an insane news conference outside a landscaping business in Philadelphia and a dude called the QAnon Shaman wearing a horned fur cap as he joined an attack of the U.S. Capitol.

Jake Angeli, a Phoenix man known as the QAnon Shaman, took part in the raid of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Angeli pleaded guilty to a felony count of obstructing a civil proceeding and was sentenced that November to 41 months in prison.© Getty
“Weird” may be the nicest possible description.
It’s certainly the most apt label for Trump and his unhinged rants, his nonsensical stories about sharks or Hannibal Lecter, his blabbering cruelty and unfiltered spouting of whatever odd thought passes through his hate-addled mind.
Kamala Harris should keep leaning into Trump's weirdness

Vice President Kamala Harris returns to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland after attending her presidential campaign fundraising event in Massachusetts on July 27, 2024.© Stephanie Scarbrough/Pool via AFP via Getty Images
It’s all weird. He’s surrounded by lackeys who are weird and go on Fox News and say weird things about Trump being the greatest president of all time. He is supported by slavish Republicans who once openly denounced him, and their hypocrisy is weird.
His running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, has a slew of past interviews in which he derided “childless cat ladies” and suggested the votes of people who have children should count more than the votes of those who don’t. And that’s all really weird. Plus, he has a tech-bro vibe that’s weird and impersonal ‒ but mainly weird.

Tim Walz, with Minnesota-nice, hit the nail on the head by calling Trump weird
Last week, Gov. Walz said on MSNBC, “These guys are just weird. They’re running for He-Man Women Haters Club or something. That’s what they’re doing. That’s just not what people are interested in.”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks at a Biden-Harris campaign news conference on July 17, 2024, in Milwaukee.© Jim Vondruska, Getty Images
Yes. YES! Finally!
We've watched so much weirdness from Trump world over the years
We’ve spent years watching all-praise-be-to-Trump types getting three different kinds of worked up over drag queens and books about gay penguins and transgender school kids who just want to be allowed to exist.
The moment President Joe Biden stepped aside and endorsed Harris for the top of the ticket, MAGA Republicans started labeling her a “DEI candidate,” a blatantly racist description of an accomplished politician and sitting vice
The GOP presidential nominee is a twice-impeached, one-term president who was convicted of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in a case involving hush money paid to an adult film star. He has had multiple bankruptcies, faces hundreds of millions of dollars in fines from a civil fraud ruling and was found liable of sexual abuse. And he is revered by the Republican Party's evangelical base.
Do you want to know what’s weird to a majority of Americans who are just trying to live their lives? EVERYTHING IN THOSE PREVIOUS THREE PARAGRAPHS!
Joe Biden didn't bust out the 'weird' word, but he should have
For some reason, Biden’s campaign didn’t directly hit Trump with the W-word. But as soon as he stepped aside, Walz, the Harris campaign and other Democratic leaders wasted no time calling the former president what he is: weird.
Harris VP pick? Republicans, pay attention to who Harris picks for VP. One of them should scare us.
Trump never laughs. He’s rarely seen in public with his wife, Melania. He regularly says stuff like this from a recent rally: “We won in 2016. We did much better in 2020, but it was rigged. It was rigged.”
A lot of people throughout the Trump era have looked at his rallies or listened to him or one of his minions on TV and probably quietly said: “How in the heck is anyone taking these weirdos seriously?”
USA TODAY
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The word 'weird' fits. It works. It's concise and comfortingly spot on.
This is a smart labeling move by Harris and the Democrats. “Weird” captures an almost-exhausted emotion many of us have felt but failed to identify.
And it’s directed where it should be, at Trump's MAGA disciples and the elected Republicans who fall in line. It’s not a broad labeling of his supporters along the lines of Hillary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables.” This isn’t punching down.
It’s cutting to the chase. It’s pointing at the bizarre characters and charlatans who willfully turned our politics toxic and sold ‒ and continue to sell ‒ snake oil and scapegoats to millions of Americans.
What Harris and Co. are rightfully saying to Trump and the Republican leaders in his sway is simple: “Enough. You all are really freakin’ weird.”
Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on X, formerly Twitter, @RexHuppke and Facebook facebook.com/RexIsAJerk
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Democrats have decided to publicly label Donald Trump 'weird' and it's about time
Far from a novel form of populism, J. D. Vance’s appeals are indistinguishable from the economic vision of the 1970s John Birch Society.
“The American left,” as the historian Matthew Karp wrote in Harper’s recently, “has failed to develop a politics capable of winning over the American public.” From economic inequality and workplace democracy to Gaza, the Left has become politically impotent and, in an age of class dealignment, confined to outposts of highly educated urban areas, “from Brooklyn to Minneapolis to Denver,” with “little relationship with the vast country beyond.”
Enter J. D. Vance. The Ohio senator-cum-nominee for vice president’s speech at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this month raised eyebrows. Vance gave a fiery, quintessentially right-wing populist speech, condemning NAFTA (and the Iraq War) and blaming out-of-touch elites in Washington for pushing policies that destroyed the jobs of autoworkers in Michigan, factory workers in Wisconsin, and energy workers in Pennsylvania. He castigated Wall Street barons for the Great Recession and Democrats with opening the borders to drive down wages. “We will build factories again, put people to work making real products for American families, made with the hands of American workers.”
In many respects, Vance’s speech was simply recycling rhetoric that Donald Trump has used for years. As many commentators have pointed out, not only were Trump’s economic policies during his first term largely bog-standard Republicanism (the occasional flare-up over tariffs aside), but there is now a bipartisan consensus around national industrial policy driven largely by geopolitical concerns. And yet the Financial Times wrote that Vance’s selection as Trump’s running mate “cements the Republican party’s shift from the free-market conservatism of the Reagan and Bush eras to the economic populism of the Make America Great Again movement.” Trump-Vance 2024 is pro-tariff and more autarkic and favors targeted regulations of certain industries, especially banking and Big Tech. The Economist wrote that Vance’s views include “some lefty policies that would thrill Bernie Sanders,” including some state protections for blue-collar workers and a minimum-wage hike. Commentator Matt Stoller called Vance “THE leader of the post-financial crisis Republican generation,” who represents a clear post-2008 break with GOP orthodoxy.
Through this lens, the Trump-Vance ticket poses a profound challenge for the Left — perhaps best exemplified by Teamster president Sean O’Brien’s speech at the RNC. The basic narrative is that due to class dealignment, the Democratic Party is now the party of the educated professional class. Both the Democrats and the Left have profoundly alienated the working class — specifically white workers but also working-class men of various racial backgrounds — by embracing cultural radicalism. And so the danger posed by the Republicans’ embrace of economic populism and pro-worker rhetoric is that working-class cultural affinity for Trump will be matched by actual material and class interests as well. MAGAism, not the politically impotent left and certainly not the Democratic Party, will be the real home for the working class in American politics.
This is a reasonable concern, but it fundamentally misunderstands the MAGAists’ strategy and the history it derives from. Vance did offer a nationalist and populist vision for American workers in his RNC speech. He did not offer bromides about free markets but rather condemned NAFTA and free trade. But Vance savvily did not mention in Milwaukee a phrase that he has used before to more targeted audiences. In a keynote speech to the Claremont Institute in 2021, Vance inveighed against “woke capital,” which he defined as “the biggest businesses, the most powerful institutions” being aligned “against us,” “us” being “those of us on the right.” As for who the “woke capitalists” were, Vance offered some specifics. He blamed the insurance industry for the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, claiming that insurance companies were “one of the biggest funders of the Black Lives Matter movement,” who “refused to pay their own clients’ claims for their damaged property while at the same time they were making that damage more likely by funding the movement that was causing it.” Vance went on to blame everyone from Jeff Bezos to the Ford Foundation for financing social-justice causes with the explicit intention of squeezing the American middle class and “destroy[ing] the American way of life.”
Vance’s speech was all but indistinguishable from the claims of the John Birch Society in the 1970s. Senior Birch leader Gary Allen (father of Axios executive editor Michael Allen) wrote in his 1971 book, None Dare Call It Conspiracy, that a group he called the “Insiders,” consisting of “power-seeking billionaires,” sought to squeeze the middle class “to death by a vise.” This would be done by pursuing a strategy of tension: the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations would channel money to Students for a Democratic Society, the Black Panthers, and a whole sordid host of New Left organizations to stir up trouble in the streets “while the Limousine Liberals at the top in New York and Washington are Socializing us. WE ARE GOING TO HAVE A DICTATORSHIP OF THE ELITE DISGUISED AS THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROLETARIAT.” The hidden hand of the Insiders lay behind the radical tumult of the late 1960s and early 1970s, all at the expense of the American middle class. Crucially, although None Dare Call It Conspiracy included anti-capitalist elements, it was still profoundly hostile to socialism and communism, with Allen at one point arguing that both ideologies were simply different terms for monopoly capitalism.
Bircherite producerism did not prevail in the 1970s, either within the contested space of American right-wing politics or national policy. “Woke capital” is used essentially in the same way as “the Insiders,” and not just by J. D. Vance. Andy Olivastro, the director of coalition relations at Heritage, defined it as “a top-down anti-democratic movement . . . on the part of some of the biggest and most important names in American business . . . to change the definition of capitalism itself.” The only major distinction between “woke capitalism” and the Insiders is that Allen insisted that the core goal of the conspiracy was power as such, whereas “woke capital” is more interested in ensuring liberal and left-wing social policy.
Nonetheless, today’s right-wing critics of neoliberalism are fundamentally embedded in the same political tradition. Thankfully, Vance, one of the most unpopular vice-presidential candidates of the past fifty years, is a poor messenger for his Bircherite economic politics.

Look, I live in “the rest of the world”, specifically Scotland . It’s abundantly clear to the entire planet (except the Trump cultists) that the most corrupt president that ever disgraced the White House is, without shadow of doubt, Donald J Trump. He has utterly disgraced the USA on a world stage.
I’m not even going to bother with all the evidence, which is fully in the public domain, worldwide. If you are a Trump supporter and can’t see this by now, you are willfully blind. If you value critical thought, get out of your social media bubble/ Fox News / chosen right wing propaganda channel. Refer to reputable sources for this, for example the BBC or your very own courts and security services.
On the international stage, Biden is seen as a credible, competent and is respected as a world leader who also manages to be a decent human being. Obama was revered.
Trump grafted, lied, cheated and bullied his way to power with the help of his best pal and puppeteer, Vladimir Putin.
TL:DR The most corrupt president in the USA ever was No.45. And that’s before we get to the teensie weensie issue of inciting an insurrection. Yes, we watched that happen on our live TV coverage too.
Here’s some properly sourced information for you:
History is full of unlikely heroes.

At first glance, Kamala Harris may seem an unlikely savior of democracy. As a career prosecutor, including stints as the district attorney of San Francisco and the attorney general of California, she specialized in sending people to jail and prison, adding to the nation’s crisis of mass incarceration. As a senator and failed 2020 presidential candidate, she was often accused of opportunism. As vice president, she operated largely out of public view for three years, and was saddled with disapproval ratings that rivaled and sometimes exceeded those of President Biden.
But if the study of the past teaches us anything, it is that history is often driven by unlikely heroes who rose to the occasion in an hour of dire need. Abraham Lincoln, born into poverty in a log cabin in Kentucky, ended chattel slavery and defeated the Confederacy in the Civil War. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, born into wealth and privilege, oversaw New Deal programs that rescued the American working class from the Great Depression and a world war that defeated the Nazis.
Harris may never be mentioned alongside Lincoln and FDR, but she is off to a good start. She has already rescued the Democrats from certain defeat in November and energized the party’s base in a way not seen since Barack Obama in 2008. Barring the unforeseeable, she will be the Democratic nominee, and, if the election breaks her way, she will make history as the first female president.
If the study of the past teaches us anything, it is that history is often driven by unlikely heroes who rose to the occasion in an hour of dire need.
Harris will campaign for the presidency at a time of national emergency born from the dark impulses of Donald Trump and the MAGA movement he leads. There are many ways to understand and characterize Trumpism, a phenomenon that is at once authoritarian, racist, misogynistic and reactionary. I was among the first opinion writers to refer to Trump explicitly as a fascist, and I continue to believe there is no better label to describe his behavior, psychopathology, support for white supremacy, nostalgia for a mythical past and dictatorial aspirations.
Whether Harris ultimately decides to pin the “F” word on Trump — and to-date (unlike Biden) she has not — it is imperative that she defines Trumpism and the stakes in the election in stark and unmistakable terms. In a speech delivered in Wisconsin on July 23, two days after Biden announced his withdrawal from the race, she did just that, framing the election as a choice between “freedom, compassion and the rule of law [and] … chaos, fear and hate.”
To win, Harris will have to do more than highlight Trump’s negatives or promote herself as a seasoned prosecutor capable of standing up to her opponent. The “cop versus con” slogan that has emerged in the early going is catchy but insufficient. A successful campaign will require the formulation of a forward-looking positive agenda. In this regard, too, Harris has made considerable strides.
Appearing before the Zeta Phi Beta sorority in Indianapolis on July 24, she began to sketch the outlines of that agenda while at the same time boycotting Bibi Netanyahu’s war-mongering address to Congress. Harris set herself up as the perfect foil to Trump — a multi-racial woman who, at age 59, is younger, more vital and more articulate than the former president, who turned 78 in June and is showing the same signs of cognitive decline that drove Biden into retirement. “We face a choice between two different visions,” she told the cheering crowd of 6,000. “One focused on the future, the other focused on the past. With your support, I am fighting for our nation’s future.”
Harris touted the Biden administration’s achievements in reducing student debt, broadening assistance for new mothers and cutting child poverty. Looking ahead, she pledged to expand affordable health care, secure childcare and eldercare for all Americans, establish universal paid maternity leave and restore the right to abortion.
“Across our nation,” she declared, “we are witnessing a full-on assault on hard-fought, hard-won freedoms and rights. The freedom to vote. The freedom to be safe from gun violence. The freedom to live without fear of bigotry and hate. The freedom to love who you love openly … the freedom to learn and acknowledge our true and whole history, and the freedom of a woman to make decisions about her own body.”
In what may be the dominant theme of her campaign, she tarred Trump and the GOP as “extremists” who want to “take us back, but we are not going back.”
On July 25, at a gathering of the American Federation of Teachers in Houston, she expanded on her vision for the future, vowing to sign both the Protecting the Right to Organize Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act into law, and to pass an assault weapons ban.
A successful campaign will require the formulation of a forward-looking positive agenda.
Back in Washington on July 25, she unexpectedly moved left on the war in Gaza in a press conference held after meeting privately with Netanyahu. In contrast to the deference Biden has shown to the Israeli prime minister, she said that while she recognizes Israel’s right to self-defense and denounces Hamas for the “horrific acts of sexual violence” committed on Oct. 7, “We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies [committed by the Israeli military] in Gaza. We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering and I will not be silent.” She called for a ceasefire, the release of the hostages and the establishment of a Palestinian state, adding, “As I just told Prime Minister Netanyahu, it is time to get this deal done.”
Harris is not a perfect candidate for all voters, and in the coming weeks and months, she will come under withering attacks by Trump and the GOP, who have already begun to mock her for her distinctive laugh and for being “a childless cat lady.”
Such slanders paid great dividends for Trump in 2016, and to rebut the attacks this time will require a united front akin to the effort mounted by the French electorate that blocked the far right from taking power in June. This late in the election cycle, Harris is the only realistic alternative to Trump and all that he stands for. We have much to gain from supporting her, and everything to lose if we don’t.
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After predicting decades of presidential elections with near-perfect accuracy, historian Allan Lichtman revealed that Democrats have the edge using his time-tested formula.
Lichtman told Fox News that he used 13 true-false questions — which he calls "keys" — to determine who will win the presidency. A candidate receives a "key" if a question is true.
According to Fox News, Lichtman checks the following for each candidate:
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– party mandate
– contest
– incumbency
– third party
– short-term economy
– long-term economy
– policy change
– social unrest
– scandal
– foreign/military failure
– foreign/military success
– incumbent charisma
– challenger charisma
So far, Vice President Kamala Harris has held the lead over former President Donald Trump.
The historian said that Democrats held six "keys," including the primary contest, the short-term and long-term economy, policy change, no scandal, and no challenger charisma.
Meanwhile, Republicans held three "keys," according to Lichtman. The keys included the Republican 2022 primary win, the current incumbent's not seeking re-election, and the current incumbent's lack of charisma.
The remaining keys included "no social unrest," "foreign military failure," and "foreign military success."
"A lot would have to go wrong for Harris to lose," Lichtman told Fox News....

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