#Election Nomination

[zorangezest]

more of this shattered glass au!

here’s the high guard! elita, bee & orion together overpower D pretty easily and start frolicking through the city laying waste to everything, so they side with D to help him make a stand against his ex-gang and….they have a big fight or something??? i dont know!! but it’s cool to draw!!

Orion, bee, and elita still ultimately end up killing alpha trion through the power of friendship, but thats a comic for another time!!

[cupcakeslushie]

Well, he can’t make any campaign promises in exchange for your votes, since he only owns the schmatte on his back, but you don’t really want him whisked back to the Prison Dimension so soon, do you?

Vote for feral Leo over at @tmnt-multiverse-election

[gay-impressionist]

i can't believe macron just nominated a prime minister from a party that has 8% of the seats at the national assembly. i mean i can because he's the worst but. 8%. there are three coalitions that have more seats than that.

he just. threw suprise elections then refused to nominate a PM for two months... only to appoint someone from the party who came 4th. someone who's 73yo and the most stereotypical right-wing politician you could dream of. even though the left-wing coalition got the most votes.

fucking bullshit.

[deadpresidents]

"As many of you know, before I was elected Vice President, before I was elected as United States Senator, I was the elected Attorney General, as I've mentioned, of California, and before that, I was a courtroom prosecutor. In those roles, I took on perpetrators of all kinds.

Predators who abused women. Fraudsters who ripped off consumers. Cheaters who broke the rules for their own game. So hear me when I say I know Donald's Trump's type!"

-- Vice President Kamala Harris, speaking to campaign staff in Wilmington, Delaware, July 22, 2024.

Oh believe me...if we're getting this version of Kamala -- the San Francisco DA/California AG version of Kamala -- this campaign is going to be FUN. The rest of the country doesn't know that Kamala very well, but she is a delight.

[newyorkthegoldenage]

Franklin D. Roosevelt delivers the nominating speech for Alfred E. Smith at the Democratic Convention at Madison Square Garden, June 29, 1924. This speech is often considered FDR’s first major gesture of re-entry into national politics after recovering from his bout with polio. Smith did not get the nomination—that went to John W. Davis, who was roundly defeated in the general election by Calvin Coolidge.

Photo: FDR Presidential Library

[originalleftist]

Kamala Harris has officially secured the endorsements of enough delegates to win the Democratic nomination!

This is important because, while Biden endorsed her when he dropped out, he can't actually require the delegates he won in the primary to do likewise- they could choose to vote for someone else.

However, with a majority now pledged to Harris, its pretty much a done deal, aside from the formality of the official nomination vote.

Let's Go Harris!

[tomorrowusa]

Let me make a case for Kamala Harris choosing Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate.

Tim Walz b. 06 April 1964 (just a few months older than Kamala)

Second term governor of Minnesota.

Midwestern born, bred, and educated.

Taught social studies for 20 years.

Served 24 years in Army National Guard (decorated).

Served 12 years in the US House representing a heavily rural swing district.

Excellent progressive record as governor.

Married - has wife, son, and daughter.

Folksy but intelligent.

Gov. Walz oozes Midwestern credibility. Hillary took the Midwest for granted in 2016 and carried just Minnesota and Illinois. Walz was born in Nebraska and moved to Minnesota for grad school.

He represented a House district in Minnesota which has usually been held by Republicans. He understands the problems of rural America better than more urban Democrats.

He served in the US House for 12 years. He knows how things get done in Washington. He's not some n00b who could get rolled by slick operators.

His record as governor of Minnesota would make liberals smile. After his first term with a split legislature he quickly pushed through progressive programs after Dems took control of both chambers in 2022.

Tim Walz is a team player. He seldom talks about his administration without mentioning Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan. This is from his re-election site. The phrase "Tim and Peggy" is mentioned 20 times.

Accomplishments - Tim Walz for Governor

Unlike Trump or Vance, Tim Walz is actually likeable.

Unlike Trump who hates pets, the Walz family has two: Honey the Cat and Scout the Dog.

[more-flotsam-and-jetsam]

The United States Constitutional process to elect a President

[justinspoliticalcorner]

As President Joe Biden (D) wraps up his term today, his four years in office had successes and blunders. I was proud to have voted for this man in the 2020 general and the 2024 primaries. Regardless of where he ends up on the Presidential rankings, he was still a better President than his predecessor or successor. His successes were the fact he led the US out of the COVID pandemic, defended Ukraine from Russian aggression, secured infrastructure investments, got COVID-19 vaccines out to the American people, signed the Inflation Reduction Act, signed the CHIPS Act, signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, signed the American Rescue Plan, delivered a 3rd round of stimulus checks, put Ketanji Brown Jackson on SCOTUS, appointed a record number of judges, signing the PACT Act, expanded food assistance benefits, expanded the child tax credit that lasted for 6 months (and should have lasted longer if it weren’t for the Sinema-Manchin duo), joined striking UAW workers on the picket line by becoming the first sitting President to do so, signed the Respect For Marriage Act into law to protect against a potential Obergefell overturn, made Juneteenth a federal holiday, signed the Emmitt Till Anti-Lynching Act that makes lynching a federal hate crime, got the US out of Afghanistan (though the handling of it can be debated), got Sweden and Finland to join NATO, blocked Nippon Steel from buying US Steel, managed to get a ceasefire deal done (though it came too late), brought home Brittney Griner, Paul Whelan, and Evan Gershkovich from Russian prison in prisoner swaps, tried to solve the student loan debt crisis (although the right-wing activist judges keep denying him that), and signing a bill that makes the bald eagle America’s official bird. His failures were his constant enabling of Israel’s genocide of Gaza, signing a bill banning TikTok in which SCOTUS upheld in TikTok v. Garland, signing the 2025 NDAA that banned trans children of military soldiers on Tricare from getting gender-affirming care, failure to get voting rights and Roe codified into law (though Sinema and Manchin are to blame here), and perceptions of chaos at the US/Mexico Border which he tried to solve with a bipartisan border security bill that Trump complained and forced the GOP to scuttle it. During his tenure in office, like Barack Obama-- who he served under during his time as VP-- Biden was subjected to partisan faux investigations by House Republicans. On June 27th, 2024, the debate between him and former insurrection-inciting felon “President” Donald Trump (R) revealed what a lot of Americans knew about Biden: his decline in cognitive ability and why running for a 2nd term was a colossal mistake. That awful debate performance led to him ending his re-election bid on July 21st after weeks of hemming and hawing. As a result of Biden calling it quits in the race, Vice President Kamala Harris (D) moved up to the lead spot on the ticket. Harris later picked Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) to her running mate. On November 5th/6th, 2024, the Harris/Walz ticket lost to the Trump/Vance ticket in the election, and the Democratic ticket not only lost the Electoral College vote but also the popular vote for the first time since 2004. The result left the question of whether aspects of Biden’s legacy will hold up better or worse in the long run.  There were lots of reasons why the Harris/Walz ticket list, and the key reasons for that are as follows (and some of these were out of the control of the candidate):

Right-wing disinformation and misinformation being amplified on social media, such as the infamous Springfield pet-eating hoax and paranoia-induced QAnon/Pizzagate-tinged conspiracy theories about Hurricanes Helene and Milton, Lahaina wildfires, East Palestine train derailment, LGBTQ+/transgender issues (such as pushing the false “social contagion” myth, baselessly comparing gender-affirming care to “mutilation”, and comparing LGBTQ+ community members to “pedophiles” and “groomers”), COVID-19 (especially the promotion of discredited treatments such as ivermectin), and vaccines.

Normalization of anti-vaccine and anti-expertise sentiments.

Biden’s continued enabling of Israel’s genocide of Gaza.

Biden signing a bill banning TikTok, which ended up being costly to Democratic chances among young Americans.

Worldwide anti-incumbent backlash.

President Biden’s low job approval ratings, especially in the 2nd half of his term.

Inflation rate during most of Biden’s Presidency.

House mortgages and grocery prices rising in recent years.

The fact that a sizable amount of Americans were afraid of a woman leading the country, and a Black/South Asian biracial one at that.

Right-leaning and right-adjacent podcasts such as Joe Rogan, Theo Von, Nelk Boys, Shawn Ryan, and Charlie Kirk-- especially those geared to young males-- helped normalized Trump and his misogynistic ways to that crowd.

Right-leaning posts/videos getting more traction than left-leaning or neutral posts/videos on social media outlets, especially on Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), and YouTube. This is despite the overheated claims of “censorship” of conservative content on social media.

In shortened form: conspiracy theories, Gaza genocide, disinformation and misinformation, TikTok ban bill, anti-incumbent sentiment, right-wing content dominating social media, President Biden’s low job approval ratings, and inflation were the key drivers for the 2024 losses for the Democrats. As for Harris, I really don’t blame her for the loss very much considering the circumstances that she was thrown in, as I believe that President Biden, cost of living increases, and worldwide anti-incumbent sentiments were the main reasons for her loss. Harris replacing Biden as the Dem nominee helped save the Democratic Party in the medium-to-long term, as she fought Trump to an almost draw in the Electoral College and Popular Vote, got the House to a manageable distance for the Democrats to retake in the 2026 midterms, and got the Senate to a doable chance to flip within the next two election cycles. Imagine if Biden was our nominee in 2024 instead? The Democrats would have fared far worse at the polls, causing them to lose even more states such as New Jersey, Maine’s two statewide ECVs, Nebraska-02, Virginia, New Hampshire, Minnesota, and New Mexico, and potentially put safe states like Illinois, Oregon, Colorado, Rhode Island, and New York in peril. They would have lost 15-30 more House seats and 5-7 more Senate seats, which would have quashed any chance of getting a majority for at least the rest of the decade.

Here is my take on Joe Biden's four years of being the President of the USA: President Biden had his successes and failures.

Key successes: - funding Ukraine. - got the US out of the COVID pandemic. - got COVID vaccines and boosters out to millions of Americans. - set a record on judicial confirmations. - made Juneteenth a federal holiday. - the first sitting president to join a strike.

Key failures: - enabling Israel's genocide of Gaza - signing the bill that got TikTok banned. - perception of chaos. - declining cognitive abilities.

See Also:

The JGibson Report: Joe Biden's four years as President: The good and the bad

[hocksburn]

man there is no way we r blaming the institution of racism on a popularity contest on tumblr dot com. not to mention that the nhl is not exclusively colorist, but also xenophobic and classist. and how, bc this is an international community, biases can widely differ. but thats another issue which is not going to be solved by the results and/or setup of a popularity contest on tumblr dot com.

can we try making more appreciative posts about players we love instead of nitpicking the setup of a popularity contest on tumblr dot com. because the appreciative post will draw more ppl to become fans of the players you love. shoutout to jason robertson nick robertson pojo and boko imama my beloveds. and also cody ceci recently discovered filipino icon

[undergroundusa]

Moving Forward, It’s Alinsky Rule No. 8: Keep The Pressure On

"The Right side of the aisle has been miserably delinquent in utilizing Alinsky’s rules against their opponents. For whatever reason, Conservatives have chosen to die on the hill of political morality, even as the far-Left plays by the code of moral relativism: the ends justifies the means…"

ORIGINAL CONTENT: https://www.undergroundusa.com/p/moving-forward-its-alinsky-rule-no

PLEASE SUBSCRIBE, SHARE & EDUCATE

[democracyunderground]

[lightdancer1]

This is also a factor in Taffy or Mehane fics:

The Tara they write in them has literally nothing of Tara's actual background or character notes, she's an in name only relationship sue which ironically is the precise flaw the canon character evolves out of and is right to evolve out of. She was not, in fact, Willow's perfect reward for magic, and Willow treating her as that to a point was where Willow went to her nadir in multiple ways as a character.

Treating her as that for whichever character she gets set up with instead, and ironing out literally all of her flaws is not 'doing Tara justice.' It's substituting a character with Amber Benson's face and literally none of those motifs. Canon Tara trusted Willow so little she spent an entire year under the influence of the cult that traumatized her keeping a vitally important secret from her about that magic she was doing.

Why would miss "Doomed to be a demon" react BETTER To the literal DEMON SLAYER? This should be a vital motif, Tara should be far more visibly and repeatedly nervous and standoffish around Faith or Buffy PRECISELY because up until Family she thinks she's the exact kind of thing Slayers exist to kill. She'd be even vaguer with them than she would be around Willow. She would have literally every single reason in the world to be. This should be a major point of where their characters grind against each other and grow as it was with Willow and Tara.

Does it even come up in 99% of these fics? Hell no.

Add to this as well that Tara literally is both more emotionally mature than ANY of the other Scoobies, not just Willow, and has her own life OUTSIDE of those narrow channels. None of them, not just Willow, would be entirely at ease with that. These are people who live in a very closed circle who are used to a life limited to that and both badass and less emotionally mature than a random rock in a gravel bed.

Tara is none of these, Tara has her own trauma background but blends that with reaching a level that none of her friends did. This would 100% cause major friction in different ways reflecting the different insecurities of Buffy and Faith, and would rival the 'you loved me but never trusted me enough to tell me you were a demon and I might have to kill you when you turned 20' for entirely normal relationship friction and the stuff stories are made of.

Omitting 99% of Tara's actual motifs and story arcs does not mean you write Tara, it means you want a relationship sue to kiss the Slayers and fix their boo boos and Tara is the closest one that fits, which is true, she is the morally best character on the show. Still means if you want to write that you should actually write her, Willow if written without any of her own far more ambiguous to outright evil moments would be more like the character they think Tara is.

Willow's evils rise out of her greatest virtue, the way she loves her friends so much she renders her own personality invisible on their behalf. Tara is far more guarded of her own person and was always more aware of that than Willow was, even without the Bramble and the rest that was going to cause a big blowup between them at some point where they either get past it and much stronger or it goes to Hell permanently and not necessarily in a way solely Willow's responsibility.

There is an entirely understated and almost never used canonically valid reason for Tara to switch relationships that Willow essentially goes 'I poured out my heart to someone who never told me the truth, how can I ever trust her for anything again' and essentially 'friend zones' Tara as her 'reward' for everything in that first year and goes on to Kennedy or Faith or something like that.

An even slightly more emotionally intelligent Willow would have had serious problems with that, and even the canon version SHOULD have had major issues with what Tara did that entire first year of the relationship and some trust issues. It's debatable canon intended it but it might be its own part in why Willow listens rather less to Tara for the rest of Seasons 5 and 6 as a kind of passive-aggressive retaliation, if her actions are viewed in a purely negative light or even a more cynical one. It's a pre-existing justification for 'everything I do is right and why I don't have to listen if I elect to ignore it.'

[sunkissed-melodies]

:|

[deadpresidents]

do you think the democratic nominee will end up being kamala for sure and if it is who do you think will be her vp and who would you choose if it was up to you?

I received about 90 (that's not an exaggeration) different versions of these questions yesterday, but like I said, I wanted to give President Biden's remarkable act of political courage and patriotism some room to breathe and be appreciated in the hours after he stepped aside on Sunday. Now we can get down to business, however.

First of all, I'm pretty confident that Kamala Harris is going to be the Democratic nominee for President. I think the Democratic National Convention is going to be an open convention in that President Biden will release his delegates to support another candidate on the first ballot of the convention, but considering how quickly most leading Democrats coalesced around Kamala on Sunday, I think there's a very good chance that she'll be nominated on the first ballot anyway. Nearly all of the candidates who had been talked about as potential challengers for the nomination against Vice President Harris endorsed her as the Presidential nominee almost immediately. I think most Democrats have felt that the campaign has been chaotic enough in the wake of the debate debacle and ensuing questions about whether or not President Biden would drop out of the race and feel that it's in the best interests of the party to not have a potentially messy battle for the nomination in next few weeks before the convention in Chicago. I was actually (pleasantly) surprised in how quickly the leading Democrats across the ideological spectrum of the party unified behind Kamala in just a matter of hours. Most of the people mentioned as potential candidates in an open convention didn't even seem to dip their toes in the water after President Biden dropped out of the race, and I think that type of unity is a very strong signal that the party is going to be in a good place by the time the convention kicks off in Chicago in a little less than a month.

As for running mates for Kamala Harris, I still think her best bet would probably be a moderate/centrist Governor from either a battleground state or a red state where that Governor has demonstrated an ability to win statewide elections in a place that Democrats don't usually win and haven't carried in recent Presidential elections. Here is what my shortlist would be for Vice Presidential nominees alongside Kamala Harris: •Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania: This has been the name mentioned by nearly everybody in the past few days, and it makes a lot of sense. Shapiro is a popular Governor in a tremendously important battleground state. He's only been Governor for less than two years, but he's one of the fastest rising stars in the Democratic Party. •Governor Andy Beshear of Kentucky: One of the most popular Governors in the nation, and a two-term Governor (he also won a statewide race as Attorney General) in an otherwise solid red state (Bill Clinton is the only Democrat who has carried Kentucky since 1980) with a Republican supermajority in their state legislature. •Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg: Another one of the Democratic Party's young rising stars. Like Beshear, Buttigieg would help symbolize the long-awaited generational shift in Democratic leadership. A Harris-Buttigieg ticket would excite the progressive base of the party and energize voters in a way that North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper or Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker could not. •Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona: Kelly checks pretty much all of the boxes for a running mate that balances the ticket. He's a moderate Democrat from a battleground state who could appeal to voters in the center. He's not only a military veteran with significant combat experience, but he was an astronaut. He knows the dangers of the current climate of political extremism because he's married to former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords who was nearly killed in an assassination attempt. I'd just be very hesitant in risking losing a safe Senate seat in a state where it's very difficult for Democrats to win, especially when the margin for majority control of the Senate is razor-thin.

But if I was personally asked to choose Kamala Harris's running mate, who would I pick?

•Admiral William H. McRaven: Anybody who has been following me for a while knows that I've spent over 10 years suggesting and promoting my belief that retired Admiral William McRaven is the type of candidate for President or Vice President who could truly reach voters from both sides of the aisle and possibly change the current trajectory of American politics by being an Eisenhower-like figure. McRaven is well-respected by political leaders across the ideological spectrum, and has a resume that no politician can deny being impressed by (except, of course, for Donald Trump). A former Navy SEAL with 40+ years of combat experience and the longtime Special Operations commander, McRaven just happened to plan and implement the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. McRaven also oversaw the capture of Saddam Hussein, the mission that killed Saddam's vicious sons Uday and Qusay, the rescue of Captain Richard Phillips from Somali pirates, and scores of other missions that we'll probably never hear about. McRaven literally wrote the book on Special Operations warfare. I think McRaven would open the door to voters that might otherwise stay home in November and, in my opinion, a Harris-McRaven ticket would be borderline impossible for Trump-Vance to defeat.

[newyorkthegoldenage]

The 1924 Democratic National Convention was held at Madison Square Garden from June 24 through July 9, 1924. In this photo from June 28, 1924, police work to control the immense crowd that tried to gain entrance.

Photo: Underwood Archives/Pixels.com