I had a Diet Mountain Dew yesterday… I’m sure they’re gonna call that racist.
At least it isn’t woke.
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It’s about time the Kennedys were brought down from their ivory tower.
Welcome to…KAMALOT, bitches!
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Dharna Noor , fossil fuels and climate reporter at Guardian US, talks about Tim Walz’s record on climate as governor of Minnesota, and why environmental advocates are mostly pleased with Harris’s choice of him as
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I love how he doesn’t own stocks and bonds. Oh yeah, and that he does own a well-developed sense of humor!
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By the way, I highly recommend listening to the episode. It’s interesting to hear the callers from MN talking about climate change.
Could not write this before because I was at work.
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After 2 days I have made it 2/3 through the video. I think I have heard enough about JD for now. He has a real talent for speaking eloquently and verbosely about nothing. And it reinforced my opinion that his “Meemaw” was a paranoid psychopath.
While JD was occupying my brain I had a revelation. Suddenly The Conformist seemed less symbolic and more concrete. Marcello Clerici and JD Vance — both provided insight on the other.
A brief synopsis of The Conformist: Marcello Clerici had a troubled childhood and unreliable parents. As an adult, he is so determined to be perceived as “normal” that he abandons all morality and fully immerses himself in the Italian Fascist movement. It doesn’t end well.
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James had it rough making it. He’s a great guy.
Thanks for the concise summary of The Conformist, which I hadn’t known about until you informed if of its existence. Interesting.
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… what a weirdo
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My wife and I watched the the day 1 ceremonies of the DNC last night. Overall I think it was pretty good, but I have no fair comparison. I haven’t watched an RNC or DNC before, so I can’t say how this one compares. I think there was a lot of good energy in the room, and overall it feels like there’s a good chance for the Democrats this year.
There’s an extremely helpful comment with timestamps for all of segments, so check that out if you don’t want to watch over 6 hours of video. Here are a few of the highlights for me:
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1:52:56 - Various Union Leaders Speak
- The speeches themselves aren’t anything too amazing, but I feel like this campaign specifically and the Democratic party generally are aligning themselves with unions more strongly than they have in the past.
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2:57:00 - Vice President Kamala Harris speaks
- This is a very brief speech. I expect she’ll have a more elaborate one either today or tomorrow.
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UAW President Shawn Fain Speaks
- A more polished speech from a more practiced speaker than the earlier segment. Labeling Trump a scab is good/satisfying theatre.
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3:23:14 - US representative for New York, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speaks
- AOC is so very good at this, and proves why she’s the future of the Party. Let’s not wait 25 years before her presidential run. I’d say 8 is probably enough.
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3:37:45 - Hillary Clinton speaks
- This is also a pretty great speech. Maybe I’m misremembering or just wasn’t paying enough attention, but I feel like if her speeches had been like this in 2016 she might have had a better chance of winning by a large enough margin to get the electoral votes too.
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4:13:19 - US representative for Texas, Jasmine Crockett speaks
- I wasn’t familiar with this representative before. This speech leads me to believe that she is someone to keep an eye on for the future as well.
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4:25:13 - Reproductive freedom and rights speaker set
- One of the other key issues of this campaign is the mess that is the state of Women’s reproductive rights in this country. This segment is as clear of a position as you could ask for. Fair warning, this is an emotional set of stories.
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4:37:41 - US senator for Georgia, Raphael Warnock speaks
- I had seen him before on some news segment, but this is the first speech of his I’ve seen. He’s also very good at this.
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4:58:30 - US First Lady, Jill Biden speaks
- If you were to apply a theme to the night’s events, you could say that it was about respecting President Biden’s accomplishments while also promoting Vice President Harris’ candidacy. This speech exemplifies this tremendously.
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5:04:53 - First daughter of Joe Biden, Ashley Biden speaks
- Similar to the First Lady’s speech, but with a different perspective.
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5:12:25 - Joe Biden speaks
- President Biden speaks for nearly an hour, and I would hazard a guess that this is one of his best speeches as President. He proves definitively that if he were still the candidate he’s still tremendously more qualified than his opponent, while simultaneously showing extraordinary respect to his successor.
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Jasmine Crockett was the one that MTG accused of wearing too-heavy false eyelashes, and I think she retorted with a description of MTG that had the words bleached-blonde-butch-bodied bitch - I think. MTG was also not addressing Dr. Fauci with his proper title, because in her eyes he’s not a doctor.
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“Bleach blond, bad built butch body”. Not often those types get a dose of their own medicine.
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… generations ago, party conventions were like any other big group meeting, where delegates and members actually did the group’s business and debated and decided things
As parties moved away from the “smoke-filled back rooms” model to the primary-elections model they use now, the conventions were left over as a vestige of the old system, and now they’re just scripted performances for the TV cameras
I remember when it was part of the ritual for commentators to decry the loss of authenticity and relevance, but I guess everyone who remembers the old days has now died off 
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Thanx!
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The 1944 DNC automatically nominated FDR, but it wasn’t until practically the last minute that Harry Truman found out he was on the short list:
On Thursday before the Vice President was to be nominated Hannegan called me and asked me to come over to the Blackstone Hotel to a meeting of the Democratic Leaders. I went. Ed Flynn N.Y., Mayor Kelly, Chicago, Mayor Haig, Jersey City, George Allen, Ed Pauley, Bob Hannegan and several others were there. They began to put pressure on me to allow my name to be presented to the Convention. I said no and kept saying it. Hannegan had put in a call to San Diego for the President. When the connection was made I set on one twin bed and Bob on the other. When the President used the phone he always talked in such a strong voice it was necessary to hold the phone away from your ear to keep from being deafened. I could hear both ends of the conversation.
Finally Roosevelt said, “Bob, have you got that fellow lined up yet?” Bob said “No, he is the contrariest Missouri mule I’ve ever dealt with.” The President then said “Well, you tell him if he wants to break up the Democratic Party in the middle of a war that’s his responsibility” and hang up went the phone.
To say I was stunned is put it mildly. I sat for a minute or two and then began walking around the room. All the people in the room were watching me and not saying a word.
Finally I said “Well, if that is the situation I’ll have to say yes, but why the hell didn’t he tell me in the first place.”
Addendum: The 1948 DNC was about just as nuts because the DemParty split into 2 other factions: The very “pink” Wallace folks and the Southern Dixiecrats. YIKES!
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She’s not butch, though.
It seems gnc-phobic to me.
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