Jimmy Carter ( 1924-2024) A Good Man

 

It is not to be unexpected that a centenarian has passed, but if there have been obituaries I might have, as the sobriquet goes, "read with great interest", this is one I write with rue. Everything I suppose I will read will be some version of: "a good man and a terrible president". He was, in the office of the presidency, well-intentioned but poorly suited--and I don't think seasoning and acquaintance with the ways of DC would have remedied his "outsider" status. As for his status as a man on this earth, he was always in the right place--in service to others, actively living his faith, housing the homeless, looking for social justice, fighting to eradicate tropical disease. 

It's hard to take a view of the Carter presidency without the accumulated history of the last 40 something years. I'm not even going to try. He was born in a segregated state, his rise politically would always be admixed, but he tried to be on the right side. He was for human rights and included those of women. He saw the environment and health care as also being about justice. 

Pods Won't Save America, Probably

 

I'm really sympathetic to the idea that there might have been some quality of "screwed" baked into the Harris campaign when she took over in July, and I was optimistic that the actual policy record of the Biden Administration vs. the actual history of.... uh whatever TrumpWorld is, would dawn on people as being a no-brainer. 

The reason I believed that is because I'm a hardcore Democratic Party schmuck. I've had a party preference since I was 18. The party of Rush Limbaugh and Phyllis Schlafly vs. the party of ::waves hands in the direction of not entire shithead bigots::? 

You've got to be kidding me. 

But here's what I noticed--I truly think that everyone who was going to cross over from the GOP to vote on principle for Harris because Trump was a horrowshow--appeared in a digital ad online some time during the campaign and there wasn't a a goddamn other one. It was great to be appreciative to former Rep. Liz Cheney--but the reason her party did her the way they did is because they could. 

If someone was comfy in the party of Limbaugh and Schlafly, it would take a lot to embrace the actual mess that is the actual Democratic Party., our political figures (Not AOC! Not San Fransisco liberal Nancy Pelosi!), and find themselves on the same side as our base. (You know: welfare queens, flaming homos, childless cat ladies, the Black Panthers and dope-smoking commies--don't look at me like that--you know I love you. But some conservatives were raised to HATE YOUR ASS AND MINE.).

Bad Vibes

 

I woke up Wednesday morning in the same world I woke up in the day before. I wasn't sad, not disappointed or even depressed. I checked my pulse to see if I died or something and considered I might be dissociating or something, but that wasn't it, either. I had wanted to be optimistic and keep a positive face and try to believe that who and what Trump was and did mattered leading up to the election, but I didn't have to do that anymore, and honestly, that part was almost a relief.

He got the popular vote, you guys. This wasn't echoes of 2016 for me, this was echoes of 2004, when I was positive that people might realize the Bush was not a really great president in a lot of ways, and look past all that Swift Boat shit and just...

And then some farkakteh "security moms" who were really, really concerned about terrorism got him a second term. Or so the narrative went. But anyway, John Kerry was basically Jane Fonda and....

Whatever. 

Anyway, the thing that made me feel like Oh shit wasn't the election--it was an SNL skit featuring Tim Kaine. 

Here's a Bit of History

 

If your spirits are down, lift them with this thought:

Jimmy Carter lived long enough to vote for Kamala Harris today. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/rODaa8Yzlp

— Steven Senski 🇺🇦 🌈 🥥🌴 (@StevenSenski) October 15, 2024

This is the first president whose inauguration I can remember. Now, if you know my age, you might think that is improbable, but 1976 was a big year in Philadelphia with the Bicentennial and all. And I guess I imbibed political sensibility a bit from my mom. In 1977 I had a turntable, a Kiss album alongside my Sesame Street records and was a fan of Happy Days and watched some documentary about the 25th anniversary of rock and roll on PBS about a dozen times, it felt like. 

I remember the 1970s. I was already me by the time I was a toddler cleaning up shot glasses after parties (the taste of blackberry brandy and the sound of Steppenwolf) and listening to the Midnight Special. when I definitely wasn't supposed to still be awake and turning on the sole tv in the house and was lifting cold pizza out of the fridge. Mom finding me zonked on the floor with the farm report or Chief Halftown on in the morning.

He reminded me of Mr. Rogers then, and that was all right by me. He still does, and I don't have a greater compliment. He cares, and he acts on his sense of caring. It's the best thing you can say anyone ever does. 

Kamala Harris, For the People

 

As she began her speech to accept the nomination of the Democratic party, Kamla Harris thanked the audience--a lot. One social media commenter, perhaps a bit confused by the concepts of both gratitude and subtlety, wondered why she was saying "Thank you" quite so much, but most people understood why--

She was grateful for the applause of course, but she wanted to get down to business. The "thank yous" were a signal to the audience to stop clapping because she had a speech to do. And I loved that. Oh, I have seen people bask in well-deserved applause--it's fine. But being ready t get started and move forward was so on point for Kamala Harris.

This truly was the speech of a public servant who cares about what she does and who she does it for. Her biography let us know her dedication to getting things done, to doing them well--and not "half-assed". We learned what motivates her, what she has done, and what she will do for the people--the only client she has ever served. And she drew a contrast between herself and a certain someone who only serves himself. 

What Makes us Great

 

Crowd chanting USA at the DNC pic.twitter.com/zNh8WBPNRM

— Acyn (@Acyn) August 19, 2024

The above clip is from a full house at the DNC showing pride in the USA. They aren't calling for mass deportations. They don't want a day-one dictator to make America great by looking towards some mythologized past. They don't want some parade of demagogues to tell them horror stories about an imagined dystopia in the hopes they will trade today's freedoms for a false promise of security in a less-free tomorrow.

They want to move forward. Time's arrow goes in one direction, and they want that trajectory to bend towards justice. 

This diverse crowd has come together to do the work, to put in the sweat equity of democracy. The first night of the DNC was a crowded stage and at times, I felt something in my heart swelling about that. Unity through inclusion. Strength in protecting and defending one another's freedoms and hearing one another's stories. Standing up for what is right and even great about this country. 

This Looks Like News

 

No this isn’t a concert it’s the Harris/Walz rally in ARIZONA 🔥🔥🔥#KamalaBringsUsJoy
pic.twitter.com/WDBWD0yLPh

— Skyleigh Heinen-Uhrich (@Sky_Lee_1) August 9, 2024

This clip is the Harris/Walz crowd in Arizona yesterday. It's big, and these people are turned up to eleven.

Now, I understand the news media like to cover Donald Trump--if it bleeds, it leads, and there's probably money riding on his having a big old red-faced aneurism on stage one day or of course, he just spews his usual "American carnage"-flavored rant--it's a lurid carnival where both the observers and the observed are the freak show. 

But what if there was a thirst for something different and better? Maybe instead of hearing for the hundredth time about low water pressure and whales being driven mad by windmills, insults against journalists, other politicians, immigrants, wide swaths of the American people, and of course, lying about every little thing under the sun and a few beyond it, we could have a conversation about something more constructive than that. 

I think this is the podium to train the cameras on--not the empty one that stays empty even when a late, sweaty, angry old man finally lumbers behind it. Take a look at this crowd, and what had happened to those poll numbers over the last two-three weeks, and ask yourself "What are these people seeing now that they weren't before?"

This looks like news to me. What if we just want some good news for a change? What if people are tired of being mad and just want nice things for a change? What if they want some truth? For a change?

You know, I could go with that. I think a lot of people could.

This is the Right Energy

 

Walz: In Minnesota we respect our neighbors and their personal choices that they make. Even if we wouldn't make the same choice for ourselves, there's a golden rule, mind your own damn business. pic.twitter.com/TRQNlbySlE

— Acyn (@Acyn) August 6, 2024

Kamala Harris made a terrific choice. Tim Walz is a regular guy, and an exceptional regular guy. He's authentic.  He gets what public service means and is a thoughtful person who encouraged thoughtfulness in others as an educator. He shows what leadership can be--looking out for other people. Leading by setting a strong example. He's an ally. He gets that government should make things easier for people, not control them.  

And he's not afraid of the weirdos. 

I'm just really, really excited to see what Harris and Walz will do. 

On the Couch with Jesse Watters

 

ive never seen him this mad before pic.twitter.com/12GdLBzVzg

— Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew_lawrence) July 30, 2024

Look, I think it's great that Fox News wants to address this throbbingly important issue of the day, and who better than Watters to do it, but let's not get it twisted. Politics isn't beanbag, and Democrats are not like Republicans. See, Republicans have little "jokes" they want to make about Kamala Harris like she "slept her way to the top" (sexist) or that she's a "DEI hire" (sexist and racist) or that because her parents were both born elsewhere, she isn't really, really a US citizen (Birtherism 2).  Do they believe those things? Maybe, maybe not, but they are mean and dumb and they find it funny to repeat those things in all seriousness even if it's bullshit.

As for Vance and the couch thing, sure, it's bullshit and there are far more substantive things to criticize about him, like being the ideas guy for a future dystopia. But it's also fun to point out that he seems like the kind of funky little creep who waits until someone gets off the couch to go to the bathroom, has his way with the warm spot, and then lets them sit back down and wonder why the spot is still warm. 

Do I really, really believe he's that kind of guy? I dunno. I do think he backs Project 2025 and isn't lying when he says he would do for Trump what Pence wouldn't.  So, let's put it this way--we aren't sharing the sofa.  He can have the fringe. 

It's Up to Us

 

I spent the last few days putting off writing about the "Pass the Torch" movement. Oh, I was getting ready. I was going to sit down and take names and call out the fuckery. People didn't start one minute from the first question during the debate before I think the "drop Biden" movement started, in a way that felt coordinated and desperately shitty to me. 

Who the fuck treats a decent man who just gave us an astonishingly successful 3.5 years like this? Why are Democrats even airing our laundry in public? I'm a fan of transparency on one hand, but on the other it felt disrespectful to the man and his honorable public service. 

Every dumb horserace "Here's what a contested convention would look like" article, every "who might we see in a blitz primary?" thumbsucker, seemed to be a repudiation of the primaries we just had. 

The last straw wasn't the has-been campaign mahoffs of yesteryear who have displayed the political savvy of brain-damaged lemmings in the rush to shaft the incumbent Democratic president, though, that was going to make me bleed my frustration all over the internet--it was the distilled self-parody of Sorkinism: suggesting Democrats nominate Mitt Romney. 

Big "not The Onion" energy, but why did my eyes water? 

Because much as my feelings about Mitt Romney have moderated from 2012--he still isn't a Democrat, and it felt defeatist. One major party is captured by racist, violent authoritarianism, and the other is consigned to irrelevance and mere "Never Trumpism"?  Fuck that. 

Rest in Power, Sheila Jackson Lee

 

The time is now to unite behind the President and get to work beating Donald Trump — one last time. https://t.co/d84qoX5n5h

— Sheila Jackson Lee (@SJacksonLee) July 19, 2024

What an admirable career of fighting for others! In that spirit, let's get right, unite, and fight.

TWGB: With Fear for Our Democracy

 

I will respect the limits of presidential powers that I have for three and a half years. But any president, including Donald Trump, will now be free to ignore the law.

I concur with what Justice Sotomayor wrote today:

"With fear for our democracy—I dissent."

So do I. pic.twitter.com/YmrPBMQhgY

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 2, 2024

I took a weekend-sized break from commenting on the "replacing Biden" discourse in advance of this actual decision.  Chief Justice Roberts can pretend he limited the immunity of a deranged and/or criminally intentioned officeholder to their "official acts", but I fail to see a brightline or obvious test for what that actually means. It is the decision of Humpty-Dumpty: When the court uses a word (or a phrase) it means what they chose it to mean, neither more nor less.   

The contentiousness of the debate over whether Biden. finding himself tongue-tied and twisted in a 90-minute fact-free-for all against a serpent-tongued bigot, misogynist, traitor, rapist, and white collar fraud, should step down pales before this--of course Trump is a bad man and Joe Biden is a good man. But who the fuck among them believes in the American experiment of a country of the people, by the people and for the people?  Because don't be mistaken, and far too many were in 2000 and in 2016:

You aren't just voting for a person, you are voting for a government. Will that administration care about good government that tries to lift us all up because it is the right thing to do? Or are you getting a petty tyrant and corruption? (Please ask yourselves what legalizing bribes and inviting everyone to go on ahead and sue to get the law you like, the congress be damned means--draining the swamp my fat ass.) 

Our talking heads and assorted media jackals aren't up to this shit. If Trump has a political enemies list, then the press-the folks he has called "enemies of the people" are going to be on it, it's just a question of when.  And they want to talk about whether an old man with a cold who has won back our allies, stands up to our enemies, and has reinvigorated our economy glitched during a dog and pony show? 

Are they not up to this historical moment? Do they have no read on the failures of history? Are they entranced by the notion that It Can't Happen Here? 

Joe Lieberman RIP

 

Former US senator and Democratic Party vice presidential nominee Joe Lieberman died at age 82 in New York City after suffering complications from a fall, his family said https://t.co/KNXD9UnQf7

— Reuters (@Reuters) March 28, 2024

I enthusiastically voted for Gore/Lieberman, although they did not, per history and SCOTUS, win. I did not always agree with Senator Lieberman, and truly did want the US Senate to skew more liberal. I never understood why someone whose VP chances were screwed up in part by Ralph Nader and Pat Buchanan, would associate himself with No labels.

I don't have to understand every part of that to wish his family well. And his other loved ones. May his memory be a blessing. 

Happy St. Pats to Everyone but RFK Jr.

 

Sometimes an entire family is needed to properly slap a cabbage-headed man into something like reality, but also, it hardly works when he's long been away with the fairies. Some people have noted that despite the talk of anti-vax RFK. Jr. selecting anti-vax sports figure Aaron Rodgers as his running mate, he's liable to declare some wealthy idiot named Nicole Shanahan who has enough money to maybe get him on some ballots as his running mate. 

I guess I don't know for sure she's an idiot. I guess it depends on whether she agrees to be the Kennedy idiot's running mate. For all I know, the idiot he runs with is Jesse Ventura, although, despite his lad working for RT, I never thought Ventura was quite that kind of idiot, except possibly in the "fire doesn't melt steel bars" kind of way. 

Anyway cheers to St. Pat, who got the snakes out of Ireland. I truly would love it if there was a saint who would ger the sheer idiots out of politics. But I am proud to support Joe Biden because of his anti-malarkism. 

It's a brilliant start. 

Does Dean Phillips Have a Path?

 

Andrew Yang tantalizes us with this question: Does Dean Phillips have a path to the Democratic nomination?  The answer is something like, Dean Phillips plays hockey and will feel familiar to people in Michigan. I don't know what that has to do with politics. Andrew Yang doesn't know what that has to do with politics. Andrew Yang doesn't get politics, and I don't think Dean Phillips does either. Dean Phillips is carbon-based and bilaterally symmetrical. It feels familiar. Is that something? 

Being 51 years old doesn't qualify you for president. I mean, it's older than the requirement to be at least 35 years of age. I'm 51. Dean Phillips, Andrew Yang, Nikki Haley, Beto O'Rourke, and all the members of Green Day are around the same age. So's Elon Musk. The idea that politics is about demographics and branding feels really business school and dumb. So are the packaging ideas:  I do a sport, so I'm relatable. I wear a vest. I have a haircut. I look presidential. 

The lesson of New Hampshire should be--Dean Phillips doesn't have a path, because there were no delegates to be awarded there but 1) $5 million got spent on him and 2) a mostly grassroots write-in campaign said "drop out Dean" and he got hammered and he isn't dropping out. Clue-having he isn't.

Here She Goes, Again!

 

I suppose I could have used a more flattering picture of Jill Stein, who has decided to enter the 2024 presidential race as the Green party candidate, but if you know me by now, you know why I'm not going to. She knows her candidacy in 2016 was used by Russia to leach votes away from Hillary Clinton helping set up a Donald Trump win. She raised money for a recount campaign that got used for other things. 

But here she goes! Whither the Cornel West campaign, though? Terrible story, that. First, he abandoned the lush, deep infrastructure provided by the Green party (yes, I'm being snarky), and then he got caught getting a maximum donation from his good friend, Brother Harlan Crow and had to return it. 

Sometimes, if you want good "progressive" third party fuckery, you just have to see to it yourself. So, she's seeing to it. But why? (Could it be because the other supposed "progressive" lane, RFK, Jr., is more likely to take votes away from Trump? One may well wonder.) 

If someone actually wanted a progressive movement, they could build on the progressive wing of the existing Democratic party and mount a serious opposition. Or we could have Marianne Williamson.

Heck, if you wanted an "exactly the same but younger and awkward" movement you could have Dean Phillips, who demonstrates that one of the things you learn when you are older and wiser is, don't fuck with Jim Clyburn. Anyway, his campaign just picked up Jeff Weaver and Zach Graumann, which is exactly what a campaign would do if the Democratic establishment machine was like BRRRRR against it--probably according to their respecting hiring pitches.  

Or if you wanted to go more conservative, I guess there could be Joe Manchin? I'm not saying he's likely to run, but I'm sure conservative billionaire-funded "No Labels" is ringing him up.

All I know is, I'm having some 2015-2016 flashbacks, and I am not liking them. History people--let's be learning from it!

A Good Election Night for Our Rights

 

This was a Democratic ad calling out Daniel Cameron, the Trump-endorsed GOP nominee for Kentucky Governor.

He just lost. pic.twitter.com/5svhTxuKai

— No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) November 8, 2023

The big news out of Ohio was that voters came out to support a bill enshrining the right to abortion in the state constitution, but the evening's results showed more than that: the above ad shows that voters understood their rights were on the line in Kentucky, and in Virginia, the Democrats held the state senate and flipped the house, denying bland but super-conservative Gov. Youngkin the opportunity to ban abortion there. 

It was a good night for reproductive rights. 

It was also a good night for Yusef Salaam who won a New York City council seat--he was one of the Exonerated Five. He got sort of an "endorsement" from Donald Trump once--he endorsed that innocent man be executed. 

Anyway, there were good signs for Democrats. Democrat Dan McCaffrey won a Supreme Court seat in Pennsylvania against an anti-abortion candidate, but this win is also big for what is sure to be a meaningful year ahead regarding voting rights and election law. 

I guess Republicans can point to their success in keeping very corrupt Tate Reeves in as governor in Mississippi...but well. It's Mississippi.

I like Talenti Gelato, I guess?

As U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips launches a Democratic primary challenge against President Biden, Black political experts warn it will be a distraction they fear could hand Donald Trump the White House for another four years.

Read More 👇🏿https://t.co/lpMaGgHz3v

— theGrio.com (@theGrio) October 30, 2023

The first thing I ever heard about Dean Phillips at all was that he was challenging our current president right here, right now, when foreign policy (Biden's wheelhouse) is crucial and the argument this dude is bringing is: Biden is old and I'm chronologically younger. 

My Democratic bona fides are impeccable and I'm even younger than Dean Phillips. I don't look like someone ordered David Duchovny from Wish. I also too, have had jobs that don't have a thing to do with electoral politics--except I have twenty-five years of civil service. I sort of qualify too for running for president? (Hell naw! Let's don't be ridiculous about what it takes! You have to get set apart and be at least a little famous and capable of 1) raising money and 2) getting elected )

I like some of what Dean Phillips has done--he's not a bad guy, I just don't know what he thinks he's doing now since it isn't necessary, and I don't think there's a really great call for it. I know what Steve Schmidt thinks he's doing--making bank.  He likes the sound of his own voice once he gets jumped-up enough, and here's his thing:

He thinks Biden ish but younger takes away the argument that Biden is old. Whev. I think the fun thing to fuck around with is Trump is old and out of his fucking mind. Doesn't know where he is and is legally fucked round the bend anyways. We don't need a better man to beat Trump--we just need every outlet to get more scrupulous about who Trump really is. 

So, I don't care for this Dean Phillips thing. But I do have an out-sized craving for gelato. 

That opinion isn't really a money-maker. But I would rather eat gelato and stand with Biden than try some other guy just because we got all wobbly about the age thing. And I say that with the likelihood of earning nothing from it at all. 

We Can Figure Out this Kennedy Conspiracy

 

RFK Jr. has filed to run in the 2024 Democratic presidential primary. He is an anti-vax loon. He talks at events where neo-Nazis are in attendance. Maybe someone is hoping his name recognition is a threat in Democratic circles?

Sigh. You can see what's up with this. I can see what's up with this. But they are trying it.

UPDATE: Well, exactly--Steve Bannon apparently pushed for a long while to get RFK Jr. to do this dumb thing because he might be useful as a chaos agent to spread anti-vax memes. Is Steve Bannon actually like a billion viruses in three shirts and a jacket? Because he's behaving exactly like a billion viruses in three suits and a jacket, or maybe like a guy working closely with or for an actual CCP agent who is just trying to fuck up the US. 

I don't actually think all the anti-vax, friends with Flynn, Stone and Bannon, and talking in fornt of neo-Nazis and such will win him friends on our side, even though I once admired his environmentalism. Anyway, I used to like Ralph Nader, until he ran third party in 2000 like a dude who was too Ralph Nader to just buy a sports car for his mid-life crisis. Anyways, get back to me when Robert's son Conor wants to run for office. 

Also, a funny thing that would come up for RFK Jr. is how he, the environmentalist horked onto Hugo Chavez, the leader of a petrostate, the way his dad was associated with actually good labor leader Cesar Chavez. 

Anyway, that's funny as heck to me now because of the whole Smartmatic/Dominion connection to deceased Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez thing. My sense of humor hasn't been right since like, 2000 or so. 

So, I thought you all might appreciate it. 

Gifted Amateurs

 

Andrew Yang and Marianne Williamson seem to be suggesting that Democrats shouldn’t prioritize Black voters because it will disenfranchise… racists. pic.twitter.com/CjT4FV36L6

— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) March 10, 2023

Is it possible that the professional Democratic party folks understand what shapes their constituency better than 2020 presidential party also-rans? I'm not going to presume malice or racism, to explain Williamson and Yang here when they are just echoing the common wisdom that both parties in our two-party system are equally responsible for the polarization.

Yang represents the Forward Party (not right or left, but forward, whatever that's supposed to mean). You all know how I feel about third parties (they make no mathematical sense). Williamson was caught on a hot mic saying the following:

"What does it say that Fox News is nicer to me than the lefties are? What does it say that the conservatives are nicer to me?" Williamson said after an interview with Eric Bolling on Sinclair Broadcast Group's America This Week last week. 

"It's such a bizarre world," she added. "I didn't think the left was as mean as the right, they are," the activist and author asserted.

She feels the heat from the left more because she's closer, but she also doesn't seem to understand that the right-wing hopes she does bleed support from Joe Biden, so that Democrats will lose. They aren't being "nice". 

 I'm not saying Yang and Williamson are bad people. They are people who have some good ideas and some not-so-good ideas, but that doesn't really mean they "get" what are polarization is about or what we need to do about it. 

See, I'm not even siding with actual fascists to fill potholes. And there's one party that will fill potholes while not being fascists, and another that is calling for child labor and the elimination of trans people. This is why I greet the opinions of gifted amateurs with annoyance and even some condescension. They don't represent a new direction or an opportunity for healing. They seem naïve and a distraction.