What would *you* say I should do?

I’m thinking tonight of friends with hispanic surnames, after listening to a former government appointee loudly promising on TV that he means to return to government to facilitate the largest deportation in US history, starting asap after January 20, 2025. 

And who do they mean to deport? It would begin with (*will* begin with, if they think they can get away with it) good Americans I know with family names like Acosta … Aguilar … Cano … Carranza … Cisneros … Contreras … Delgado …Del Rio … Diaz … Duran … Elias … Escalante … Esperanza … Guzman … Hinojosa … Leys … Llama … Lopez … Mejia … Montalvo … Montoya … Morales … Nava … Navarro … Ramos … Reyes … Rodriquez … Sanchez … Santos — and more whose names sound like they *could* fit the bill.

And I’m thinking, If I want to stop government agents from coming for these friends and their children next year, asking about their associates and extended family, and demanding to see their papers, and investigating them, or taking them away for processing if they’re not satisfied with the papers they produce — I’m thinking what should I be doing *this* year – in *the next three weeks* — to keep that from happening….

If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It, Donald

Donald Trump‘s only tool is a hammer. So, to him, every problem looks like a nail.

Thus, Donald Trump may support the Project 2025 proposal to commercialize vital National Weather Service forecasting…

But AccuWeather explicitly does not.

https://www.accuweather.com/en/press/accuweather-does-not-support-project-2025-plan-to-fully-commercializing-nws-operations-noaa-has-critical-role-in-american-weather-enterprise/1670156

What I’m Voting For...

These are things I’m voting for in 2024…

• The rule of law and the future of American Democracy

• Full legal protection for American women, beginning with health care

• Equal justice before the law for LGBTQ+ people in America

• Equal justice before the law for black and brown Americans

• Sensible, comprehensive immigration law and policy reform

• Evidence based climate responsibility and care

• Continuing leadership in the rules based international order

• Fair taxation at every income level

• Responsible infrastructure maintenance, upgrades, and innovation

• The future of Social Security and Medicare

• Accountability for convicted January 6 criminals

• The American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act

• The John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act

So I’m voting for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.

How do you talk to young voters?

A colleague asked how I talk to young voters about this election.

Mostly, I’m trying to center questions like:

Given that you won't find perfection in any person or party, on the evidence...

• Who do you believe is thinking about you and the people you care about? 

• Who do you expect will ensure your access to the medical care you need? 

• Who will protect the right to equal protection under law for your brown and black friends and family? 

• Who will ensure equal protection under law for your friends and family who are immigrants to this country?

• Who will work proactively to protect the environment and reverse the human causes of climate change? 

• Who will work to assure the place of our nation *alongside* our allies around the globe rather than in opposition to them or seeking to dominate them? 

• Who shows the will to resist oppressors on the world stage without fear or favor?

• Who do you anticipate will work to improve the wages of people who work for a living? 

• Who appears to understand your contribution to the real economy — as someone whose work contributes to the gross domestic product … as someone who circulates a large percentage of your income in ways that support jobs in the real economy of housing, goods and services,.. as someone who, at a minimum, pays sales taxes that support significant state and local government services….

• Who has expressed a committment and a plan for fairer access to safe and more affordable housing? 

• Who shows a readiness to curb the impulses of irresponsible capitalists who don't care who pays the price for their obsession with producing more wealth for the already wealthy — including their willingess to continually punch holes in the economic future of the US for the short term benefit of financial elites? 

• Who has shown a willingness to protect you from the ravages of unregulated gun violence? 

and so on….

How do *you* talk to young voters about this election?

Video . Georgia’s former Republican Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan endorses Kamala Harris

Apparently, the Fox News Channel did not air the speeches of Republicans who spoke at the Democratic National Convention.

Here’s Georgia’s former Republican Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan speaking to the nation at the Democratic National Convention, August 21, 2024.

The presidency might be one of those *Black jobs*

 Read it yourself . Michelle Obama’s remarkable address to the nation at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago . August 21 2024

https://time.com/7013289/michelle-obama-2024-dnc-speech-full-transcript/

the quiet part out loud

"All we have to do is define our opponent as being a communist or a socialist or somebody that's gonna destroy our country."

— Donald Trump . 08.25.24 https://x.com/amconmag/status/1824203483567817189

Saying the quiet part out loud … how dumb does he think you/we are?

Poison Control . Flinging Manure at the Wall

Last Thursday, Donald Trump invited reporters to Mar-a-Lago to listen to him talk. What he said wasn't all true.

• Donald Trump diminished the number of people at Harris/Walz events by an order of magnitude. There were not 2,000 people; there were 12,000 in Wisconsin and 15,000 in Michigan . https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/aug/07/harris-walz-wisconsin-rally

• Donald Trump said the ABC debate is September; it’s September10th . https://abc.com/news/6abdd5ab-5cdc-48c2-8184-8be2f1a532c1/category/1138628

• Donald Trump said he’s spoken to larger crowds that anyone ever. Barack Obama spoke to much larger crowds  . https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/article24505645.html .  https://www.mprnews.org/story/2008/10/18/st-louis-rally-largest-obama-crowd-in-us

• Donald Trump likened his speech on January 6th to Martin Luther King’s ‘I Have a Dream” speech, and his own crowd was bigger. There’s no favorable comparison between the events, the speeches, or the crowd sizes . https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-january-6-martin-luther-king-dream-speech-2024-8 . https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/15/us/january-6-martin-luther-king-jr-birthday-blake-cec/index.html

• Donald Trump claimed the events of January 6, 2021were part of the peaceful transfer of power on January 20, 2021. They most certainly were not . https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/interactive/2021/capitol-insurrection-visual-timeline/

• Donald Trump said no one died as result of the violence on January 6, 2021. The public record says otherwise .  https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/05/us/politics/jan-6-capitol-deaths.html

• Donald Trump said abortion is less of an issue in the 2024 presidential campaign than at some unidentified time in the past. Women’s access to holistic reproductive health care is not less of an issue . The evidence suggests he is either actively misinforming the American people or he is ludicrously misinformed himself . https://news.gallup.com/poll/645836/record-share-electorate-pro-choice-voting.aspx . https://www.axios.com/2024/06/13/abortion-2024-election-poll . 

• Donald Trumps said everybody wanted to see Roe v. Wade overturned and access-to-abortion laws returned to the states . That’s not even a little bit true unless “everybody” means less than half . https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2022/07/06/majority-of-public-disapproves-of-supreme-courts-decision-to-overturn-roe-v-wade/#:~:text=The%20survey%20finds%20that%20adults,slightly%20more%20(52%25)%20disapprove . https://www.prri.org/research/abortion-views-in-all-50-states-findings-from-prris-2023-american-values-atlas/ . https://news.gallup.com/poll/321143/americans-stand-abortion.aspx

• Donald Trump said there are ‘abortions” after birth taking place under the color of law. There are not, nor does anyone want that . https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/27/abortion-myths-republicans

• Donald Trump said Kamala Harris wants to take away everyone’s guns. She does not. (Oh, and her running mate is a gun owner and hunter) . https://www.reuters.com/world/us/gun-laws-or-second-amendment-is-false-choice-harris-says-chicago-2023-08-11/ . https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tim-walz-on-gun-control/#:~:text=For%2012%20years%2C%20from%202007,for%20gun%20owners%22%20in%202016.

• Donald Trump claimed Vice President Harris supports an unconditional arms embargo against Israel. She does not. Nor does she support enabling Israel to kill civilians indiscriminately . https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/08/us/politics/harris-israel-arms-embargo.html

• Donald Trump claimed his tax cuts were the biggest in history. They were not . https://www.cnn.com/2017/12/15/politics/is-trumps-bill-largest-tax-cut-in-history-no/index.html

• Donald Trump talked as if he would never cut Social Security … which is exactly the opposite of each of his proposed budgets while he was in office . https://www.forbes.com/sites/joshuacohen/2024/03/12/former-president-trumps-history-of-proposing-cuts-in-medicare-spending/

• Donald Trump said mail-in ballots are insecure. They’re not . https://bipartisanpolicy.org/report/mail-voting-is-safe-secure/

• Donald Trump claimed the MAGA base is 75% of the country. It is not . https://www.newsweek.com/trump-claims-maga-base-kamala-harris-polls-1936903

• Donald Trump claimed polls predict he will win in a landslide. They do not . https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-general/2024/national/

If I were in poison control, I would, I think, be very interested in controlling poison.

The Christianists

The Christianists

[a deconstruction]

First they abandon Jesus

Then they abandon Paul

Then the abandon Moses

Before they chuck it all

Grumpy Old White Guy for Kamala

√ Grumpy

√ Old

√ Straight

√ Married

√ Father

√ White

√ Jesusy

√ for Kamala

Yes Please . Kamala Harris for President

We already elected Kamala Harris for exactly this purpose.

My vote for Joe Biden was always a vote for Kamala Harris ... and Antony Blinken ... and Janet Yellen ... and Jared Bernstein ... and Alejandro Mayorkas ... and you get the picture.... It's one thing to *promise* the best people, and quite another to deliver the best — measured by subject matter competence and accomplishment — as Joe Biden did.

Kamala Harris is intelligent, accomplished, strong, confident.

• A clear-  and tough-minded thinker.

• Solidly GenX

• A strong legal mind — an experienced elected prosecutor and California Attorney General

• A solid legislator in the Senate and an exemplary President of the Senate as Vice President.

• Great policy and foreign affairs chops.

• Known and respected by world leaders, diplomats, the intelligence community, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

• Fully invested in the Biden Administration agenda for a more just and prosperous America.

Kamala Harris is Donald Trump's nightmare ... she already beat him in a general election.

A Prayer at Midsummer

We 

Thank 

Thee

O God

That

Thou

Dost 

Hate

Exactly 

The 

Same

People

We

Do.

Amen.