Tag: VP Candidate

Will The Real JD Vance Stand Up?

We have the GOP VP nominee and running mate for Trump….and during his acceptance speech we heard all about his life as a poor boy from Ohio or was it Kentucky…..but was it a story told to fools or was he all that?

It is a Friday and what better time for an FYI feature I found an article by someone from the region and his story and what he thinks of the tale spun by Vance.

I was raised in Coal City, West Virginia and when Monday’s big news about Trump’s vice presidential selection was announced, I felt instant rage. I wrote to my friends:

“J.D. Vance was named Trump’s running mate, which means people are talking about his stupid fucking book again, in which a venture capitalist from suburban Ohio who spent a couple of summers in Kentucky praises himself for pulling himself up by his bootstraps and blames the continued poverty of his ‘fellow’ hillbillies on their poor choices.

“Instead, read literally anything else. Read Appalachian Reckoning which responds to J.D. Vance’s stupid fucking book. Read Demon Copperhead. Read Another Appalachia. Dump a can of alphabet soup onto the floor and read whatever comes out of that. I guarantee it will be better than J.D. Vance’s stupid fucking book.”

Vance fills me with rage, in part, because I’m a lot like him.

When viewed from a distance, the arc of my life looks remarkably similar to his. Unlike Vance, my story actually starts in Appalachia. I was born in 1997, one town over from Coal City which doesn’t have luxuries like hospitals. My parents were white but that was basically their only advantage. My father is chronically ill and disabled. After getting a hysterectomy, and on the advice of her doctors, my mother started taking OxyContin. This prescription turned into an addiction that would carry her to an early grave.

Like Vance, I was raised primarily by my hillbilly grandparents, especially my mamaw. Papaw had died years earlier from stomach cancer that was left untreated when he refused to go to the doctor because he couldn’t afford to miss a shift in the mines. Papaw left mamaw with a meager pension and a roof over her head.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/i-grew-up-in-appalachia-too-jd-vance-is-a-hillbilly-phony-caleb-miller-writes

Maybe he is not the ideal person that he wants the world to believe…..all politicians fudge their life story a bit no matter the party.

But you decide whether this is the guy you want to be a secondary voice of your desires.

This is the end of my reporting week and now it is time for all of us to go out and enjoy the weekend wherever you live.

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I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Vance Off And Running

So far the RNC convention has been a collection of Trumpites babbling their way through their allotted time and then came the highlight of the night….the VP candidate speech…..OMG! Such bullshit spread with a pinch of chest thumping.

YAWN!  Ah–choo….sorry I am allergic to bullshit!

He rambled and I thought I would have to rip my ears off to get him to shut up….he had lots to say and none of it was anything a thinking person would agree with on any level.

Introducing himself to the nation after being tapped as Donald Trump’s running mate, JD Vance used his Wednesday night address to the Republican National Convention to share the story of his hardscrabble upbringing and make the case that his party best understands the challenges facing struggling Americans. In his first prime-time address since Trump made his pick, the 39-year-old Ohio senator cast himself as fighter for a forgotten working class, making a direct appeal to the Rust Belt voters who helped drive Trump’s surprise 2016 victory and voicing their anger and frustration. Standout lines from the AP:

  • The first millennial on a major-party ticket, Vance spent much of his speech talking up Trump and going after Biden, using his relative youth to draw a contrast with the 81-year-old president. “Joe Biden has been a politician in Washington as long as I’ve been alive. For half a century he’s been a champion of every single policy initiative to make America weaker and poorer.”
  • “Never in my wildest imagination could I have believed that I’d be standing here tonight,” Vance said. He shared his story of growing up poor in Kentucky and Ohio, his mother addicted to drugs and his father absent. He later joined the Marines, graduated from Yale Law School, and went on to the highest levels of US politics—an embodiment of an American dream he said is in now in short supply.
  • The Hill reports the personal details he shared included references to “Mamaw,” the grandmother who helped raise him, and his mother, who has been sober for the last decade and was greeted with cheers of “JD’s mom!” as she was seated.
  • The Wall Street Journal reports he ended his speech by sharing the story of proposing to his wife, the daughter of South Asian immigrants. “We were in law school, and I said, ‘Honey, I come with $120,000 worth of law school debt and a cemetery plot on a mountainside in eastern Kentucky.'”
  • He spoke more about his Appalachian background, and said, “In small towns like mine in Ohio, or next door in Pennsylvania, or in Michigan, in states all across our country, jobs were sent overseas and children were sent to war. To the people of Middletown, Ohio, and all the forgotten communities in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Ohio, and every corner of our nation, I promise you this: I will be a vice president who never forgets where he came from.”

He paints a great picture as the poor kid from down the street….manure all was manure!

Let me look at a couple of his positions that need addressing…..why?  Because they are fucking insane.  First housing crisis….his cure is to deport 20 million people.

Now, he even cites Trump’s campaign promise to deport between 15 and 20 million people as a way to address the nation’s housing affordability crisis.

In a tweet responding to the allegation that conservatives have few plans to address rising housing costs, Vance argued that cracking down on immigration would go a long way.

read more….

https://www.businessinsider.com/jd-vance-deport-20-million-immigrants-reduce-home-prices-rents-2024-7

You think that is crazy how about his voting rights position?

This Yutz believes that childfree people should not have the same voting rights as people with children…..that’s right with this d/bag your voting rights would be in jeopardy if you have decided not to have children.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/morgansloss1/jd-vance-childless-left-voting-power-parents

Nothing about this man stands out other than he is a massive POS.

But wait!  The Big Cheese speaks tonight (oh the joy of the Big Cheese)

If you vote for this ticket then you should have a lobotomy for the good of the nation.

For god’s sake the future of this country is at stake please reconsider your support for this person and his running mate….old ‘whats his name’.

Learn the candidate’s positions….they will not change after the election.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Who Will Get The VP Nod?

For a couple of months now there has been a wealth of speculation on just who Donald the Orange will pick as his running mate…..we will know for sure at the RNC Convention this Summer….but until then there is a list that many think are his choices.

Donald Trump appears to be zeroing in on a running mate. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s campaign has requested vetting documents from eight people, sources tell the Washington Post: GOP Sens. Marco Rubio, JD Vance, Tom Cotton, and Tim Scott; North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum; Republican Reps. Elise Stefanik and Byron Donalds; and a member of his own former cabinet, Ben Carson, who served as secretary of housing and urban development. Coverage:

  • Axios has a rundown on what Trump likes about some of the candidates, noting that the No. 1 thing the former president is looking for in a VP candidate is loyalty.
  • NPR runs down the “pros and cons” of the top contenders.
  • USA Today reports on recent comments from Donalds, who is Black, suggesting there was an upside to the Jim Crow era in America. “You see, during Jim Crow, the Black family was together. During Jim Crow, more Black people were not just conservative—Black people have always been conservative-minded—but more Black people voted conservatively,” the congressman said during a Trump campaign event Tuesday. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries had a blunt response to that: “We were not better off when people could be systematically lynched without consequence.”
  • CNN reports that Scott, who is also Black, has launched a multimillion-dollar outreach effort aimed at getting more Black and Latino voters to back Republicans at the polls.
  • Interested in what the casting director for the West Wing would do, if this were all a TV show? Well, the Daily Beast spoke to him, and he put Vance and Cotton at the top of his list. They’re “both standard, unimaginative, low-risk choices. That’s not my style of casting, but I think it might be appropriate casting in this environment.”

I agree that this election is as boring as watching flies mate….but you could put some funny in it by starting a pool on who his, Trump’s, decision on a running mate will be.

Make your pick and have some fun….

1–Marco Rubio

2–JD Vance

3–Tom Cotton

4–Tim Scott

5–Gov. Doug Burgum

6–Rep. Elise Stefanik

7–Rep. Byron Donalds

8–Ben Carson

9–None Of The Above

Personally I do not think he would want to lose a senator he needs help with women and Blacks….Carson and Stefanik are my choices.

Do you have anything you would like to add?

If you are bored with this election it will not go away so at least have some fun.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Trump’s Number Two Sweepstakes

After the tally was counted on Black Tuesday it became very apparent that Trump will have no problem gaining the nomination for president for the GOP….if that is true then who will he choose to nestle up to him as his VP?

I and others have come up with a not so short list of possibilities…..

Here we go….

Elise Stefanik–NY Rep.

Tim Scott–SC Senator

Kristi Noem–Gov. SD

Doug Burgum–Gov. ND

Sarah Huckabee–Gov. Ark

Dr. Ben Carson–

Add ons….

DeSantis–Gov. Fla

Vivek Ramaswamy–billionaire

Byron Donalds–Rep Fla

Tulsi Gabbard–Hawwaii

And have even heard Tucker Carlson batted around as a possibility as well.

I do not think that Donald will name a woman….he will want someone that will kiss his ass and sit in the corner for 4 years….to me that sounds like Ben Carson or Tim Scott.

The one name that sort of surprised me was that of Tulsi Gabbard….that closet hater from the 2020 election….who showed her true colors once the election was over with….do not trust her!

You have my list….do you have a better one or would you like to give your take on my list?

If so I am all ears.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“Lego ergo scribo”

2020 VP Pre-Debate

Just a reminder in case you were unaware…..tonight is the only debate, the only chance to see Pence and Harris go head to head…..

Most voters are turned off….but since I am such a geek then you have me to let you know what’s what…..that is for those voters that think VPs are significant in some small way.

The candidates will be all but hermetically sealed in their debate positions…..

As Quartz notes, vice presidential debates are not typically a huge draw for audiences—but that could very well change this year, thanks to the participation of Kamala Harris. While VP debates typically bring in significantly lower ratings than presidential debates, the debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden got higher ratings than any of the debates that year between the presidential nominees (not to mention the highest ratings for any VP debate, ever). The second-highest ratings for a VP debate? The 1984 debate between George HW Bush and Geraldine Ferraro, the only other one to feature a female candidate. Add to that the fact that Harris is known as an accomplished debater and has already been at the center of several viral debate moments from this year’s Democratic primary, and the Wednesday night ratings could be pretty darn good. More on the debate:

  • Who is the moderator? USA Today’s longtime bureau chief Susan Page. The Los Angeles Times has an extensive piece on the “veteran White House reporter, who has covered six administrations and 11 national campaigns.” She’s also the author of a Barbara Bush biography and has a book on Nancy Pelosi coming out next year, and is a frequent panelist on political roundtable shows. The article notes she’s the first print reporter to moderate a televised debate since 1976.
  • Safety precautions: Harris and Mike Pence will be 12 feet, 3 inches apart on the stage, separated by a plexiglass shield, and will not come any closer than that for a physical greeting. The New York Times notes that while Pence’s team objected to the barrier, by late Tuesday it had acquiesced. Both candidates will also be tested for the virus prior to the debate; while Pence has had multiple negative tests in recent days, he had frequent interactions with multiple White House advisers who have since been diagnosed with COVID, and experts warn the incubation period can be as long as 14 days. Event organizers will escort out any audience members not wearing a mask.
  • What to expect: Per Fox News, don’t anticipate a repeat of the “chaotic” first Trump-Biden debate; pundits expect this one to be “more sane.” Tim Kaine, of course, debated Pence during the 2016 campaign; he tells the New York Times, “Pence is a professional communicator. He was a radio talk show host before he was in politics, so he can deliver a line. And, I think it’s frustrating when you’re onstage with somebody who’s delivering a line that’s false. But he does it—he can do it very, very well.” Read his full interview here.
  • What to expect, part 2: Harris’ former chief of staff tells the AP he hopes she won’t be forced into too conservative a stance: “Overly scripting Kamala Harris is tantamount to removing five bullets out of her gun before you walk into a gun fight.”
  • When, where, and how to watch: The debate starts at 9pm Eastern time in Salt Lake City, Utah, and will run for 90 minutes with no commercial breaks. CNET has a rundown on how to watch it.
  • As for the final two presidential debates: They’re scheduled for Oct. 15 and 22, but it’s still not clear whether President Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis and the larger White House coronavirus outbreak will impact them. Joe Biden told reporters Tuesday that if Trump is still positive for the virus, next week’s debate should be canceled, Fox News reports. Biden added that he is looking forward to the debate, should it happen: “I’ll do whatever the experts say is appropriate for me to do. Listen to the science. If scientists say that it’s safe … then I think that’s fine.” Sources tell the NYT a virtual debate is being considered, and some close to Trump say the POTUS has suggested an outdoor debate.
  • Speaking of that outbreak: The very helpful WH Covid Tracker is tracking those whose infections have been publicly confirmed; check it out on Twitter.

I will return tomorrow with my thoughts on this debate.  You have been warned!

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“lego ergo scribo”

 

It Is Now Official!

Last night Joe Biden made his acceptance speech that he must give to make it official that he was the Dem candidate for president…….and that means that it is also official that the VP candidate is Kamala Harris….and there is where we pick up this post.

I have written several times that I do not support Biden nor his VP pick…..there are many reason, probably too many for a short post but I will hit n the main points….at least for me.

Since I am a foreign policy wonk let me start there….

Kamala Harris’ foreign policy record is coming under closer scrutiny now that she has been named as Biden’s running mate. The record shows a mix of fairly conventional liberal internationalist commitments with encouraging signs of opposition to some of our more reckless policies overseas. Harris has made some relatively hawkish noises on certain issues, such as North Korea, but her voting record on Yemen and Saudi Arabia over the last few years has been quite good. Joe Cirincione reviewed her record earlier this week, and he described her opposition to the war on Yemen:

…

It is worth underlining here that Harris was an early opponent to arms sales to the Saudis. That suggests that she could influence a Biden administration foreign policy in the right direction when it comes to reassessing the relationship with the Saudis. She has said that “we need to fundamentally reevaluate our relationship with Saudi Arabia, using our leverage to stand up for American values and interests.” It remains to be seen if she and Biden would follow through on that, but it is the right position to take. Her opposition to the war on Yemen could help keep Biden from backtracking on his belated pledge to end U.S. involvement in the war. She objected to Trump’s quasi-withdrawal in Syria because of the process (or lack thereof), but she has also said that she wants to get U.S. forces out of Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria.

What Is Kamala Harris’ Foreign Policy?

It seems that all pundits are happy with her choice to satisfy the “identity politics” thing……but why?

To me it appears to be another incident of “tokenism”……

To be sure, having a woman of color is something that in other circumstances ought to be celebrated. The US does indeed lag behind comparably developed nations when it comes to gender equality. But this is a clear case of tokenism when taken in a broader context. Though neither Biden nor Harris have spelled it out, it appears that race and gender were the major factor behind this choice.

After all, Harris performed poorly in the 2020 Democratic primary, failing to win a single state before pulling out in early December 2019. So she bucks the trend of a presidential contender picking a running mate who came up runner-up, or at least was a serious contender, in the party’s primary contest. Harris even attacked Biden during the primary for his close partnership in the senate with southern segregationists (which was, in fact, close friendship in at least one case). In short, she hasn’t done anything to endear herself to Biden nor demonstrated that she has significant broad support based on her own merits as a candidate.

Kamala Harris Represents Everything Wrong with Empty Identity Politics

I am not one of her supporters….and I read that black men are not thrilled with her as well……again I ask….but why?

Sen. Kamala Harris has a problem with Black men. Rather, Black men have a problem with Sen. Kamala Harris.

Since her selection as presidential candidate Joe Biden’s running mate, I’ve received a deluge of phone calls, text messages, and WhatsApp group chats from Black men — only two of whom had positive things to say about her. One was from someone who sees himself in Harris; like her, he has one parent from Jamaica and another from India. The other is totally aligned with her policy positions. Everyone else, though, is down on the pick.

This conversation is tough. Emotions are high. Nuanced discourse is rare. The discussion is either black or white. That all-or-nothing approach is already common on social media, but now it’s jumping into my real-life conversations. It’s shocking, even disheartening, but it’s not surprising.

Black men, let’s establish what we know. As Malcolm X said, the most disrespected, unprotected, neglected person in America is the Black woman. And yes, Harris is Black, so let’s stop with any false narrative that she’s not. Bad actors seeking to create dissent will do a good enough job spreading false propaganda without our assistance. It’s already beginning with the birther movement; the once-silent dog whistles have turned into a blaring sound system used at President Donald Trump’s rallies, White House press briefings, and on the presidential Twitter account. Therefore, we must have her back at all times during this election.

https://level.medium.com/why-black-men-dont-like-kamala-harris-and-how-it-can-stop-4d0b34a5415c

This is something that means little to most people for they are in the mode of “anybody but Trump”…….principles be damn!

As much as I dislike Trump principles still mean something to me.

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“lego ergo scribo”

The Views About Kamala

Biden’s pick for VP has a wealth of views on her and her issues……let’s start with Donald the Orange…..of course it is some sort of birtherism….something he is known for in the past…..

“I heard it today that she doesn’t meet the requirements. I have no idea if that’s right.” That’s what President Trump had to say Thursday when asked about the racist conspiracy theory that Kamala Harris is ineligible for the vice presidency. He continued, per NPR, “I would have assumed that the Democrats would have checked that out before she gets chosen to run for vice president.” The conspiracy theory has made the rounds since Harris announced her run for president last year, and is making headlines again thanks to this column. But, as the AP and other media outlets note, there is zero credence to the idea; as Harris’ birth certificate shows, she was born in Oakland, California, near the city of Berkeley, where her mom (who is from India) and her dad (who is from Jamaica) met as graduate students.

Some have falsely claimed, on social media and elsewhere, that Harris would be ineligible to serve as president due to the fact that her parents were immigrants. “I can’t believe people are making this idiotic comment,” one expert told the AP last year. “She is a natural-born citizen and there is no question about her eligibility.” After Trump, who was also a driving force behind the “birther” conspiracy theory that plagued Barack Obama, made his comments about Harris, Joe Biden’s team was quick to respond. Trump is “the national leader of the grotesque, racist birther movement with respect to President Obama and has sought to fuel racism and tear our nation apart on every single day of his presidency,” says a campaign rep. “This is what racism sounds like,” adds a senior adviser.

Another cheap shot from a toad that is king of the cheap shots.

Does anyone remember back to the Dark Ages of 2019…..Biden had some accusations of improper conduct leveled at him….and Harris stated that she believed these women…..

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) said Tuesday that she believes women who say they felt uncomfortable after receiving unwanted touching from former Vice President Joe Biden.

“I believe them and I respect them being able to tell their story and having the courage to do it,” Harris said at a presidential campaign event in Nevada.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/437107-harris-i-believe-biden-accusers

I am not a fan of Harris….she is a pro-business centrists that will do little to change the social upheaval we are experiencing…..

With the selection of Kamala Harris to be the running mate of Joe Biden, the framework of the 2020 elections has been set. As was to be expected, the Democrats have chosen the most right-wing candidates to run the most right-wing campaign possible.

There is a certain inevitability to the choice of Harris. In July of last year, the World Socialist Web Site—based on a survey of who would be the worst, most reactionary and at the same time most suitable choice for second spot on the Democratic Party ticket—predicted that Harris would most likely be named the vice presidential candidate if she failed to win the nomination. She had all the ruthlessness, narcissism and careerism requisite for the job, plus the ethnic background to suit the Democrats’ obsession with racial and gender identity.

Kamala Harris is a dyed-in-the wool political reactionary.

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/08/13/pers-a13.html

Harris is the perfect candidate to explain the real path of the Democrats…..

Kamala Harris might be the perfect lens to reveal who the Democrats really are.  A good run-down on her track record highlights her assertion that “It is not progressive to be soft on crime.”  As a San Francisco social worker, I sat on the school district committee that met with families of chronically truant students.  Once, when we asked a student why he didn’t go to school, he said there was too much police tape and shootings at his school bus stop.  Harris, as CA Attorney General, was putting parents/caregivers in jail if their child was chronically truant.  Also as Attorney General, she denied a DNA test to Kevin Cooper, a very likely innocent man who came within hours of execution in 2004.  Such positions certainly furthered her political career as a tough-on-crime, prosecution-friendly politician, as well as garner political and financial support from police and prison guards.

Kamala Harris? Really? Desperate Times, Desperate Measures

Harris denounces Trump’s “endless wars” but offers no specific plans to end them. During her presidential primary campaign, she failed to commit to withdrawing all US troops from Afghanistan, even by the end of a first term in 2024.

Is Kamala Harris a Hawk?

Harris ticks all the boxes….centrist…..pro-business…..war hawk…..law and order…..black….female…..perfect!

We all have heard of  Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS)…(not to be confused with STD)…..this is an insult leveled at liberals for their dislike of Donald the Orange…..but then “Anybody But Trump” mentality tells me there is such a disease out there and the Dems are ate up with it.

The choice this election are slim to nothing……Biden or Trump….hold your nose and vote for Tweedle  Dumb or Tweedle Dumber…..neither one is acceptable to me…..

For kindness sake, one of them, Joe Biden, should be put back out to pasture; for the sake of justice, the other, Trump, should be put behind bars.

Trump and Biden, Two Ignoble Minds Here O’erthrown

Neither Biden nor Harris ticks any boxes for me with the exception is they are not Trump or Pence……is that enough for my vote?

That is a decision I will make in the coming days…..are my principles more important that a dislike of Trump?

For God Sake….Learn Stuff!

For God Sake…..VOTE!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

VP Speculation Is Over

For months the media has been pushing this person or that toward Biden for his consideration as his running mate in November…..mercifully they can cease the speculation.

Biden has made his choice and Kamala Harris is the “chosen one”….and as I said in the past posts Kamala Harris is the perfect centrist person of the ones the media pushed for Biden.

The Democratic ticket in November will be Biden-Harris. After months of speculation that Joe Biden was most likely to pick Sen. Kamala Harris as his running mate, the presumptive Democratic nominee confirmed it Tuesday, the BBC reports. If elected, Harris will become the first female, first Black, and first Asian American vice president, reports NBC. “You make a lot of important decisions as president. But the first one is who you select to be your Vice President,” Biden said in an email to supporters. “I’ve decided that Kamala Harris is the best person to help me take this fight to Donald Trump and Mike Pence and then to lead this nation starting in January 2021.”

In a tweet, Biden described his former rival as “a fearless fighter for the little guy, and one of the country’s finest public servants.” Harris and Biden are expected to speak in Wilmington Wednesday. The AP reports that Biden picked the 55-year-old Harris after an “expansive” search that also looked at Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Reps. Val Demings and Karen Bass, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, and former Obama national security adviser Susan Rice. Rice congratulated Harris Tuesday, calling her a “tenacious and trailblazing leader.”

And of course Trump had something to say (or should I say Tweet?)…….

Trump slams “radical” Harris. President Trump tweeted a video Tuesday that portrayed Harris as part of the “radical left.” At a White House briefing Tuesday, the president said he was “a little surprised” that Biden had picked somebody who was so “disrespectful” to him in the primaries, the AP reports. “She was my No. 1 draft pick and we’ll see how she works out,” Trump said.

Radical?  Only a moron would label Harris a radical…she is not a radical!  Nor progressive!  She is a typical spineless centrist…the perfect running mate for Biden…..period!

More thoughts on Biden’s pick……

Obama: She’s “more than prepared.” Barack Obama tweeted in support of Biden’s choice, saying he has known Harris for a long time and she is “more than prepared for the job.” “She’s spent her career defending our Constitution and fighting for folks who need a fair shake,” Obama said. “This is a good day for our country. Now let’s go win this thing.”

  • “She worked closely with Beau.” In a tweet Tuesday, Biden noted that Harris had worked closely with his late son Beau Biden, who served as Delaware’s attorney general. “I watched as they took on the big banks, lifted up working people, and protected women and kids from abuse,” he said. “I was proud then, and I’m proud now to have her as my partner in this campaign.”
  • Liberals have their doubts. The Washington Post notes that liberal Democrats concerned by Harris’ record as a prosecutor “have criticized her past stances as too harsh and contend that her record does not meet a moment when police misconduct has rocketed into the national conversation.” But she has also “been a forceful advocate for Black families” during the pandemic, “and she helped draft a bill ending qualified immunity for police,” leading some skeptics to soften their stances.
  • Where she stands. Politico rounds up Harris’ stances on key issues including policing, immigration, and health care. She supported “Medicare for All” during the Democratic primaries, but later backtracked.
  • Her background. The Washington Postlooks at the early life of Harris, the daughter of a Jamaican father and an Indian mother. She grew up in a “mostly white world”—until she attended a historically Black university in Washington, DC.
  • Pence: “See you in Salt Lake City!” Mike Pence, who will debate Harris in Utah on Oct. 7, attacked her Tuesday for being part of the “radical left” that is calling for “higher taxes, open borders, socialized medicine, and abortion on demand.” He added: “So my message to the Democratic nominee for vice president: Congratulations. I’ll see you in Salt Lake City!”
  • Advice from Sarah Palin. Sarah Palin, John McCain’s running mate in 2008, offered Harris some advice, the Hill reports. She urged Harris to connect with voters in “her own unique way” and not to “get muzzled.” “So stay connected with America as you smile and ignore deceptive ‘handlers’ trying to change you.” Geraldine Ferraro, the only other woman to have been on a major-party presidential ticket, died in 2011.

There we have our tickets for November…Biden/Harris versus Trump/Pence

Learn Stuff!

VOTE!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

That Short List

For months now the media has been trying to drum up a story out of the possible VP pick of Biden….

We have Warren, Harris, Rice and on and on…….and a few virtual unknowns……

And now the media has something to talk……

Joe Biden’s announcement of his running mate has to come soon—the Democratic convention gets underway in less than two weeks on August 17. As the vetting process winds down, Biden has dropped a few hints, including that four Black women are on his short list. But now the buzz is focusing on two of those women in particular, Sen. Kamala Harris and Susan Rice, former UN ambassador and national security adviser to President Obama. Coverage, including a controversial post about the process by a Virginia mayor:

  • Down to two: Axios, while tacking on the caveat that only Biden himself knows for sure, reports that the choice has indeed narrowed to Harris and Rice. It has another Black woman, Rep. Karen Bass, in third. The piece notes that the selection of Rice would come with a bonus—”the enthusiastic presence of both Barack and Michelle Obama on the campaign trial.”
  • Ditto: Conservative pundit Ben Shapiro also has Harris and Rice as the final candidates, per Fox News.
  • GOP preference? Politico reports the Trump campaign wants Biden to pick Rice. “She is absolutely our No. 1 draft pick,” says an anonymous Trump campaign official. The idea is that she will fire up the GOP base by become a “‘deep state’ villain,” writes Anita Kumar. For example, expect the Benghazi controversy to be fully revetted, though Axios notes that Rice would try to mitigate that by raising the issue herself and explaining that misstatements she made were the result of faulty intelligence she received.
  • Tucker, too: Fox’s Tucker Carlson opened his Monday show with a rant against Rice, and he also is out with an opinion piece against her. He sees Rice as the top candidate at the moment.
  • Mayor’s post: Amid the widespread speculation that Biden will pick a Black woman, the mayor of Luray, Virginia, reposted a meme on Facebook reading, “Joe Biden has just announced Aunt Jemima as his VP pick.” The backlash has been furious, but Barry Presgraves tells the Page Valley News, “Hell, no, I’m not resigning.” He deleted the post and says he doesn’t understand the “fuss” it’s caused. “I saw it last week, and I thought it was funny,” he says. City council members may censure him or ask him to resign. The meme also plays off the news that Quaker Oats was ditching its Aunt Jemima log
  • And sexism: The AP has a story about how all the female candidates are being subjected to stereotypes: For example, Rice has been told she doesn’t smile enough, and Harris has been faulted for being too ambitious and not apologetic enough for earlier attacks on Biden. “The fact is that although we’ve come really far in the last 100 years, we haven’t come far enough for women candidates to be treated with the same level of decency as the male candidates are,” says Donna Brazile, a former Democratic National Committee chair.

Now the drama builds around those two…..

Rice would give Trump and the RNC lots of ammo because of her involvement in the Benghazi thingy…..

Harris is a screaming centrist and would be the better pick of the two in question…IMHO.

Why?  Biden is a screaming centrist and the closest he ever got to progressive was by using the word in is political lies.

If it were me I would pick someone that the media did not know about……give them something to do …….

I know I have been really critical about Biden and his campaign….I will be explaining why in upcoming posts about me and my thought processes.

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Susan Rice–Biden’s VP?

There is one name that is taking over the conversation about who Biden will choose as his VP….that name is Susan Rice.

Susan Rice is suddenly the topic of a lot of speculation in Joe Biden’s running mate sweepstakes. The 55-year-old worked with Biden in the Obama administration as national security adviser and as ambassador to the UN, but she was also was embroiled in the controversy over the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi. Coverage:

  • Unorthodox: Politico puts her near the top of the shortlist in a lengthy story. It would be an “unorthodox” pick given that she has never run for public office and nearly all of her credentials revolve around foreign policy. Her powerful edge is that Biden has worked closely with her and knows her well; it also doesn’t hurt that she isn’t seen as a VP who would be eyeing a presidential run, as is the perception with Sen. Kamala Harris.
  • Simpatico: The New York Times also is out with a story, noting she was a Rhodes scholar at 21 and an assistant secretary of state at 32. “While she and Mr. Biden have had policy disagreements over the years, they share a deeply held view of the importance of diplomacy and international institutions, a concern for promoting democracy and human rights and a common pride in Obama-era achievements that they helped shape, like the Paris climate agreement and the Iran nuclear deal,” writes Alexander Burns. Her foreign policy chops would allow Biden to focus on the national crises of the pandemic and the economy.
  • Controversies: Rice’s surge up the list of potential running mates is giving some Democrats pause because she is such a lightning rod for critics on the right, reports the Daily Beast. Choosing her might “reinvigorate” the Trump campaign in some respects. One Democratic aide sums up: She “is extremely accomplished and experienced and would obviously help a President Biden tremendously on national security, but on the political side, unfortunately, she has been the target of crazy right-wing hate for years.”
  • Benghazi: Yes, wild conspiracy theories about the 2012 attack that left four Americans dead were debunked, but as the Times‘ Burns points out, “Rice ended up taking the political fall for appearing on the Sunday shows to deliver a set of flawed administration talking points describing it as an outburst of spontaneous violence rather than organized terrorism.” Expect the whole controversy to be raised anew if Rice is on the ticket.
  • In favor: At Washington Monthly, Jonathan Alter makes the case for Rice, discussing all of the above issues, along with another: Rice’s son, John Rice-Cameron, is a prominent Republican. But that might actually work in Rice’s favor. “Many voters with friends and relatives who are Trump supporters may find Rice’s situation with her son human and relatable.”
  • Top 6: Aaron Blake of the Washington Post has updated his list of top contenders. Here are the top six, in order: Sens. Harris, Elizabeth Warren, and Tammy Duckworth; Rice; and Reps. Val Demings and Karen Bass.

My thought on this chance….NO!  NO!  NO!

Bad choice!

Why?

“Susan Rice is right in the middle of the road, when you think about foreign policy hands in DC,” said John Glaser, director of foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute, in an interview with The American Conservative. “She has a lot of high level experience in foreign policy, but I’ve never been able to detect a way she stands out as a unique thinker, in that she had something to say about the way she’d prefer the U.S. to go. She says things that are plastic, packaged to be right in the center of the foreign policy consensus in D.C. That’s how I see her: run of the mill, not an extraordinary pick … If she were VP, our foreign policy would not be different than what we’ve seen the past 30 years.”

Given that Biden is campaigning on a “return to normalcy,” the foreign policy of the last 30 years isn’t necessarily something that Biden views negatively.

A Biden-Rice presidency would seek a return to the Paris climate accords, the JCPOA Iran deal negotiated during Obama’s second term, and would expand and strengthen NATO. They would likely avoid engaging in any new ground wars like Libya or Syria. Biden and Rice would be more hawkish on Russia, and if Rice’s latest op-eds are any measure, they would likely be more assertive with China as well.

Our Foreign Policy Nightmare: Vice President Susan Rice

Rice is a centrist….that puts her in the camp of a Neoliberal ….she will do little to prevent more war…..and that would be in the same vane as Biden.

Not a good choice in my opinion.

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