#First Mate Illinois

[thevoidstaredback]

It all seemed to start within a snap of Time; the tick of a clock; the drop of a hat; the blink of an Eye.

Just before any of the assembled Justice League could leave the Watchtower, every alarm went off and pandemonium re-erupted across the space station.

"What the hell is going on?" Batman demanded as he and Robin re-entered the meeting room they'd just left.

Constantine and Zatanna were both using several different ways of communication, talking in frantic tone and jumping between conversations without losing any of them. Deadman had disappeared completely. The America based heroes were all getting calls, all just as confused as each other as to what was going on.

Batman pulled up a map on the projector, the one that was shown in the Observation part of the Watchtower, and glared at the red dot that was slowly taking over Illinois. "Constantine, Zatanna. What is this?"

Constantine glared back at Batman, "What we were trying to avoid by calling a meeting today!" He went right back to whatever conversation he was having in Esperanto.

"Yeah, look what good that did us anyway," Zatanna scoffed between conversations, "We were both late and ignored." She, too, had started speaking on Esperanto.

"That's where Red is based," Robin said quietly from beside Batman. "I-I need to call- make sure she's alright!"

Batman put his hand on Robin's shoulder. "Don't panic, chum, we'll get a plan started and then you can all Red Huntress." The boy nodded, but opened his own communicator anyway, likely to contact his team. Batman turned to the heroes in the room. "Everyone!" He waited until all eyes were on him before continuing, "Calm down. Constantine, Zatanna, find out what's going on-"

"Already doing that, Batsy!" the man hollered before jumping into a fourth conversation.

Batman's eye twitched behind the white lenses of his mask, but he otherwise didn't react to the interruption. "-the rest of us need to go and isolate the threat. We'll plan from there. Make sure your comms are on. Robin, get your team ready for rescue efforts and try to contact Red Huntress to see if she knows what's going on." When the heroes started moving, he grabbed Superman. "Where's Deadman?"

Superman shook his head. "No idea. He was gone by the time any of us came back in here."

Batman nodded and let him go. Everyone was on their way to Illinois right now, but there was something that Zatanna said that struck him as strange. He didn't have to wait ong before her three ongoing conversations all came to a stop. "Earlier, you said that Amity Park liked to stay in Illinois. What did you mean?"

Zatanna jumped when he spoke, obviously not realizing he was still there, but she answered him, "The city's been prime for supernatural activity since its founding. On top of the two dimensional rifts, that much magic contained in one area is bound to give it some form of sentiance, especially because most of that magic is death and life focused."

He hummed and left the room with a sweep of his cape. Containing the issue will be tricky if the source manages to move around them. Regardless, it needed to be done fast.

***

It took another twenty minutes before all five on Constantine's conversations ended. He had gotten the same unfortunate answer from all five of them, and, judging by the look on her face, Zatanna had been given the same news as him.

"We tried to warn them. We fucking tried-!" she slammed her fist down on the table, "But we were too fucking late!"

He ran a hand down his face with a heavy sigh. "C'mon, mate, let's go make sure they don't fuck anything else up."

"And help them defend the idiots that started all this? No way. Let them lie in the grave they dug."

"Horrible metaphor, love. And, as much as I hate to say it, we can't let the world get taken over."

"Why not? They've been practically begging for it to happen since Superman was first introduced. That's why the Green Lanterns had to step in and lay down the law, quite literally." She huffed. "Besides, the Realms won't be gunning for the world. They're looking for their child."

"And if they don't find the kid in perfect condition?"

"...I see you're point."

"Good! We're on the same page, then."

She sighed again. "How're we going to play this? Are we running interference?"

"No," he shook his head, "The only thing we can do is keep anyone from dying or attacking."

"Without Deadman to talk to the Realms?"

"Yep,"

"You realize how hard this is gonna be, right?"

"I'm gonna make Batsy pay me in hard liquor."

"Agreed."

***

The Justice League had set up a perimeter around the town of Amity Park, Illinois. They were a few miles out from the town, close enough to see it but far enough away as to not set off any panic. When Constantine and Zatanna arrived, they had made it very obvious that the town and it's citizens were probably very aware that they were there. They called another meeting, though only taking a few heroes away from watch. Zatanna was the one to explain things to them while Constantine kept tabs on the town in case it decided to move.

The heroes still weren't exactly sure what they meant by that.

Zatanna stood at the front of the heroes she'd pulled aside. Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman, Aquaman, The Flash, and Green Lantern stood in a half circle, all very clearly anxious to keep their eyes on the town. Too bad for them, this was her specialty, so she got to keep facing it while they turned their backs.

"They aren't going to listen to you guys," Zatanna said, "Like we tried to warn you earlier, their looking for a child that the US Government took from them."

"The one in the pictures?" The Flash asked.

"Yep," she affirmed, "His name's Phantom, like we said. He's this town's hero."

"I thought Robin said Red Huntress was the town's hero?" Aquaman wondered.

Zatanna pushed down the flare of anger with a deep breath. "Phantom has been operating for several months longer than Red Huntress. she is closer to being a hero while Phantom leans more towards being a vigilante."

"Is that why he doesn't stick around after his fights?" Superman tilted his head slightly in question.

"Yes," she glared, "Can I get back on topic, or are we wanting to waste even more time?" The heroes fell silent and she waited for a few seconds before continuing. "From what Deadman explained, Phantom is technically still a baby ghost because he's only been dead for about a year." She ignored the expressions on the heroes faces. "Not only that, but he's the favorite of several Ancient Beings. Think Primordials or Titans."

"Oh, dear," Wonder Woman whispered. Several had paled slightly.

Zatanna nodded. "Don't attack any of the Realms' people, not even in self defense. We're going to have to help them find Phantom, keep them from attacking the US Government, and keep the Government from attacking them."

"A bit late for that!" A new voice joined the group. They all startled, reaching for weapons and dropping into ready stances.

Above and slightly to the side of the group was a girl who looked to be in her late teens. She had teal-grey skin, a slight teal glow, and flaming teal hair tied in a high pony, bangs framing her face. Her eyes glowed the same radioactive green as Phantom's had in the picture, though less so. She was wearing black pants, a black crop-top, grey knee boots, and a single black elbow glove. There was a guitar strapped to her back that gave off a slight purple glow. Even from where the Justice League heroes were standing, they could feel heat radiating off of here.

"And you are?" Batman asked.

"Don't matter who I am, does it?" the girl sneered, "What matters is that you dickheads took one of ours." She very obviously assessed the small group, looking each person up and down with a frown on her face. "Phantom told me that this place had other heroes, so where were you?"

Superman blinked. "Excuse me?"

"Where were you?"

"I'm, uh, not quite sure what you mean."

"You're talking about when this place was catalyst for world threats, right?" Zatanna stepped forward.

The girl turned her full attention to the magician. "So, you knew?"

Zatanna nodded. "Me and my colleagues were keeping on eye on Amity Park after the rifts opened up last year."

The girl seemed to reassess the magician. "You're one of the ones Deadman told us about."

"You know Deadma?" Green Lantern asked. He was ginored.

"Yeah?"

"I'm Ember." She landed and held her hand out for a hand shake. "Deadman got the Council to agree to hold ourselves in Amity until the end of the day. After that, we move on our own."

Zatanna shook her hand. "I'm Zatanna. We're gonna find him."

Ember glared, tightening her grip, "You better. He's done more for this world than you heroes even know." She turned her glare on the others before flying back up. "And once he's back with us, where he belongs, we'll think about a cease fire." She left before anyone could get another word in.

Zatanna fell into a squat, her hands covering her face. "This is a nightmare," she whispered, "That definitely could've gone much better." She popped back up to her full height. "Well, you heard her. We've got 'til the end of the day to find Phanom."

The group shared looks, nodding at each other before separating to spread the word to everyone else

The first plan was the same one they had for every mission that needed quick recon done. Flash was sent out to get a location. Once he had one, they'd set off.

Part 1 Part 3

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Kamala Harris herself has now borrowed Walz’s lingo and is also calling her opponents “weird”, while Walz is all over our television screens, bolstering the vice-president’s candidacy and playing “attack dog” against the Trump/Vance Republican ticket. I’ll be honest: last month, I would have struggled to pick Walz out of a lineup. This month? I’m Walz-pilled. I have watched dozens of his interviews and clips. And I’m far from alone. He has an army of new fans across the liberal-left: from former Bernie Sanders 2020 campaign co-chair Nina Turner, to one-time Democratic congressman Beto O’Rourke, to gun-control activist David Hogg. “In less than 6 days, I went from not knowing who Tim Walz is,” joked writer Travis Helwig on X, “to deep down believing that if he doesn’t get the VP nod I will storm the capitol.” According to Bloomberg, the Harris campaign has narrowed down its “top tier” of potential running mates to three “white guy” candidates: Walz (hurrah!), plus the Arizona senator Mark Kelly and Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro. Both Kelly and Shapiro have their strengths – and both represent must-win states for the Dems. Allow me, however, to make the clear case for Walz. First, there’s his personality. The 60-year-old governor would bring energy, humor and some much-needed bite to the Democratic presidential ticket. There’s a reason why his videos have been going viral in recent days. Tim Kaine he ain’t. Pick the charismatic and eloquent Walz and you have America’s Fun Uncle ready to go. Then, there’s his résumé. A popular midwest governor from a rural town. A 24-year veteran of the army national guard. A high school teacher who coached the football team to its first state championship. It’s almost too perfect! Finally, there’s his governing record. You will struggle to find a Democratic governor who has achieved more than Walz in the space of a single legislative session. Not Shapiro. Not JB Pritzker of Illinois. Not even Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan. [...] Think about it. Democrats can have Tim Walz on the ticket, who called the anti-war, pro-Palestinian ‘uncommitted’ movement “civically engaged” and praised them for “asking for a change in course” and “for more pressure to be put on” the White House, or they can have Josh Shapiro, who called for a crackdown on anti-war, pro-Palestinian college protesters and even compared them to the KKK. They can have Walz on the ticket, who has reportedly “emerged among labor unions as a popular pick” after signing “into law a series of measures viewed as pro-worker” including banning non-compete agreements and expanding protections for Amazon warehouse workers, or they can have Mark Kelly, who opposed the pro-labor Pro Act in the Senate (but has since touted support for it). They can have Walz, who guaranteed students in Minnesota not just free breakfasts but free lunches, or Shapiro, who has courted controversy in Pennsylvania with his support for school vouchers. They can have Walz, who calls his Republican opponents “weird” and extreme, or Kelly, who calls his Republican opponents “good people” who are “working really hard”. This isn’t rocket science. Walz is the obvious choice. Not only is he the ideal “white guy” running mate for Harris, against both Trump and Vance, but he is already doing the job on television and online, lambasting Vance in particular over IVF treatment and insisting he mind his “own damn business”.

Zeteo News founder Mehdi Hasan for The Guardian on why picking Tim Walz as Kamala Harris's running mate is the best option (07.29.2024).

Zeteo News founder Mehdi Hasan wrote in The Guardian why Tim Walz should be Kamala Harris’s running mate. Hasan’s opinion piece is worth reading.

[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.

[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.

[simply-ivanka]

A Minnesotan Sizes Up Tim Walz

During his tenure, student achievement has slipped, crime has surged, and state residents have fled.

By Scott W. Johnson - Wall Street Journal

St. Paul, Minn.

Tim Walz has such a bad record as Minnesota’s governor that I was astonished when he landed on Vice President Kamala Harris’s vice-presidential shortlist. As Minnesota’s Center of the American Experiment has documented, under Mr. Walz Minnesota has become a high-crime state. Student achievement has tumbled as spending on schools has skyrocketed. Per capita gross domestic product has fallen below the national average. Minnesotans have joined residents of New York, California and Illinois in fleeing their home state.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro—also on Ms. Harris’s shortlist—made sense to me. Pennsylvania is a key state. Mr. Shapiro seems to be a man of substance and would give liberal Jews a reason to vote for Ms. Harris without a guilty conscience. As a Jewish supporter of Israel, I worried that Mr. Shapiro would give the animus throbbing in the heart of the Democratic Party cover. Indeed, that animus drove a nasty intraparty campaign against him.

But Tim Walz? I’m a conservative Republican. I don’t completely understand Democrats’ ways. As an observer of Minnesota politics, however, I understand how Mr. Walz became governor. Having served six terms in Congress from a rural district, he challenged the endorsed DFL (Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party) candidate—a liberal metro-area state senator, Erin Murphy—in the 2018 DFL primary. Ms. Murphy was also challenged by another metro-area liberal, Lori Swanson, then state attorney general. With Ms. Murphy and Ms. Swanson dividing the liberal urban vote, Mr. Walz and his far-left running mate, former state Rep. Peggy Flanagan, won the primary with 41%.

On taking office in 2019, Gov. Walz was restrained by a one-seat Republican majority in the state Senate—until Covid hit in the spring of 2020. He declared a state of emergency on March 25, 2020, and ruled by decree for 15 months. He proclaimed the emergency on the basis of an allegedly sophisticated Minnesota Model projection of the virus’s course in the state. In fact, the projection reflected a weekend’s work by graduate students at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. Relying on their research, Mr. Walz presented a scenario in which an estimated 74,000 Minnesotans would perish from the virus. The following week the Star Tribune reported that with the lockdown Mr. Walz ordered, 50,000 would die. Maybe it would have been preferable to address the virus through democratic means.

Having destroyed jobs and impeded life routines, including family get-togethers and church attendance, Mr. Walz finally let his one-man rule lapse on July 1, 2021. When the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center stopped counting in March 2023, the deaths of 14,870 Minnesotans were attributed to the virus. (In 2020 I successfully sued the administration for excluding me from Health Department press briefings on Covid.)

During the state of emergency, protests broke out in Minneapolis on Memorial Day 2020 following the death of George Floyd. That Thursday, rioters burned Minneapolis’s Third Precinct police station to the ground. Mr. Walz didn’t deploy the National Guard until the weekend. Riots, arson and looting throughout the Twin Cities caused about $500 million in damage.

Minnesota leads the nation in Covid fraud. Under the auspices of the Feeding Our Future nonprofit, its founder, Aimee Bock, allegedly recruited mostly young Somali men to seek reimbursement for millions of meals supposedly served to poor students and families. According to indictments handed up by a grand jury to U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger, Ms. Bock and others allegedly defrauded the state and federal government of $250 million. Ms. Bock has pleaded not guilty to the fraud charges.

Among the 70 defendants charged to date, 18 have pleaded guilty. In April the first of the cases to go to trial had seven defendants; five were convicted. The remaining cases have yet to be tried. In all, the Minnesota Department of Education oversaw the payout of $250 million to reimburse fictitious meals. The nature and scale of the fraud are staggering. Mr. Walz tried to blame state district court judge John Guthmann, who in April 2021 handled a case regarding the department’s processing of applications for reimbursements. According to Mr. Walz, Judge Guthmann ordered the state to continue payouts to the alleged perpetrators of the fraud even after the state Education Department discovered it.

In September 2022, Judge Guthmann authorized a news release titled “Correcting media reports and statements by Gov. Tim Walz concerning orders issued by the court.” The release concluded: “As the public court record and Judge Guthmann’s orders make plain, Judge Guthmann never issued an order requiring the MN Department of Education to resume food reimbursement payments to FOF. The Department of Education voluntarily resumed payments and informed the court that FOF resolved the ‘serious deficiencies’ that prompted it to suspend payments temporarily. All of the MN Department of Education food reimbursement payments to FOF were made voluntarily, without any court order.”

In November 2022 Mr. Walz was elected to a second term, and the DFL won majorities in both chambers of the Legislature. In the preceding two years the state had accumulated an $18 billion budget surplus. With the DFL in full control, Mr. Walz and the Legislature have spent the $18 billion surplus on infrastructure, education and other programs that will burden the state for years. They have also raised taxes.

Mr. Walz and his DFL colleagues have backed measures establishing Minnesota as a mecca for abortion and a “trans refuge.” The legislation prohibits enforcing out-of-state subpoenas, arrest warrants and extradition requests for people from other states who seek treatment that is legal in Minnesota. It also bars complying with court orders issued in other states to remove children from their parents’ custody for authorizing hormone treatment or surgery to alter sex characteristics.

Like so many Democrats who have kept up with the demands of the progressive agenda, Mr. Walz has “grown” in office. In his second term, he has been the most left-wing Minnesota governor since the socialist Floyd B. Olson (1931-36). I doubt that Mr. Walz could be elected to Congress in his old district, which is now represented by a Republican. The idea that he can appeal to voters who don’t already support Ms. Harris seems far-fetched.

Mr. Johnson is a retired Minneapolis attorney and contributor to the site Power Line.

[octuscle]

I keep seeing Midwestern stuff everywhere. Ads for Illinois tourism. Football fans wearing Vikings and Packers gear. Fuck it, can’t beat ‘em, join em. Can you make me into a big, beefy corn-fed Midwestern football guy?

Sure thing, mate! Time to turn you into a big, beefy corn-fed Midwestern football guy! First things first, we gotta get you suited up proper. We’re talking a classic flannel shirt, jeans sturdy enough to handle farm work, and a pair of solid boots. Don't forget the trucker cap on your greasy mullet, gotta rep the local team!

Now, we gotta beef you up. Get you hitting the gym, pumping iron like there’s no tomorrow. We want arms like tree trunks and a chest that can stop a charging bull. And of course, we gotta get you eating like a true Midwesterner. That means plenty of steak, potatoes, and don’t forget the corn on the cob!

Next up, we gotta get you into the football scene. Start watching every game, learning the plays, and cheering on your local team like they’re family. Get yourself a jersey, maybe even paint your face in team colors for game day.

And last but not least, we gotta work on that accent. You gotta start drawling out those words like you’re straight outta the heartland. Throw in a “ya know” here and a “uff da” there, and you’ll be fitting in with the locals in no time!

There you have it, buddy. You're now a big, burly, corn-fed Midwestern football guy who's ready to tackle anything that comes his way! I've added a few more inches to your cock. I think that will come in handy when you're fucking your buddies at the sports bar or in the locker room at the gym.

[mariacallous]

JD Vance agreed with the notion that raising grandchildren was “the whole purpose of the postmenopausal female,” an unearthed 2020 podcast shows.

Vance also seemed to concur when the host suggested that having grandparents help raise children was a “weird, unadvertised feature of marrying an Indian woman.”

It's the latest in comments from the Republican nominee for vice presdident about women and "traditional" roles that have drawn ire. Vance has faced intense criticism in recent weeks for previous sexist comments, including his remarks about "cat ladies."

Now, his appearance on ThePortal podcast with host Eric Weinstein in April 2020 has been thrust back into the limelight Vance spoke about his wife’s Indian family, noting that they emigrated to the US about a year before his wife, Usha Vance, was born. He said at the time, her parents were “devoted” to Usha and their grandchild as well as to “future grandchildren.”

The couple has three children, born in 2017, 2020 and in 2021.

“You can sort of see the effect it has on him to be around them like they spoil him,” he said of his first child. “There's sort of all the classic stuff that grandparents do to grandchildren, but it makes him a much better human being to have exposure to his grandparents.”

He added: “And the evidence on this is like super clear.”

“That’s the whole purpose of the postmenopausal female in theory,” Weinstein said at the time.

“Yes,” Vance agreed.

“When your child was born, did your in-laws, and particularly your mother-in-law, show up in some huge way?” Weinstein asked Vance.

“She lived with us for a year,” former President Donald Trump’s running mate noted.

“I didn't know the answer to that. So that's a weird, unadvertised feature of marrying an Indian woman,” Weinstein responded.

“It’s in some ways, the most transgressive thing I've ever done against sort of the hyper-neo-liberal approach to work and family,” Vance said. “My wife had this baby seven weeks before she started the clerkship, [she’s] still not sleeping any more than an hour and a half in a given interval. And her mom just took a sabbatical. She's a biology professor in California, just took a sabbatical for a year and came and lived with us and took care of our kid for a year.”

He added that it was “painfully economically inefficient.”

“Why didn't she just keep her job, give us part of the wages to pay somebody else to do it?” he asked. “That is the thing that the hyper-liberalized economics wants you to do. The economic logic of always prioritizing paid wage labor over other forms of contributing to a society is to me ... a consequence of a sort of fundamental liberalism that is ultimately gonna unwind and collapse upon itself.”

“It's the abandonment of a sort of Aristotelian virtue politics for a hyper-market-oriented way of thinking about what's good and what's desirable,” he added. “If people are paying for it and it contributes to GDP and it makes the economic consumption numbers rise, then it's good, and if it doesn't, it's bad ... that's sort of the root of our political problem.”

The Director of Rapid Response for Kamala Harris, Ammar Moussa, wrote on X: “I’m sorry - who is out here just out here talking about the ‘postmenopausal female’ and their role in society?”

Democratic Illinois Congressman Sean Casten added: “Are you a post-menopausal woman? Did you quit your job to look after your grandkids? Because if you didn’t, you are not meeting your ‘whole purpose’ according to JD Vance.”

Vance has faced criticism for a number of unearthed comments from his past, most notably telling Fox News host Tucker Carlson in 2021 that the US was being run by “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made, and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too.”

“It’s just a basic fact — you look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC [Alexandria Ocasio Cortez] — the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children,” he said. “And how does it make any sense that we’ve turned our country over to people who don’t really have a direct stake in it?”

Harris has two stepchildren and Buttigieg, the transportation secretary, adopted twins in August 2021.

idk, pretty sure the intent is fairly clear *and* we can put election-swaying weight to it!

Also, it's fucking weird to talk like this about people!

[2btheanswertothequestion]

She finds out about it a few weeks after her classes start. It happens by chance, and almost seems too good to be true.

But it's not.

The University of Illinois does actually have its own newspaper for gays and lesbians. It exists, made explicitly for them, by them.

And Robin needs it.

It requires some snooping, though it's basically nothing after everything she did at Starcourt. Soon enough, she is $8.50 ($7.50 for a yearly subscription and $0.5 each for the two previous issues) poorer in dollars and infinitely richer in happiness.

People Like Us: News, opinions, and features for the C-U gay and lesbian community it says on the front page. Issues 2 and 3 are both 8 pages long while the first issue is slightly shorter. They have everything. News about marches in Chicago and local gay-friendly businesses. Opinion pieces on places to meet up and homophobia. Roommate ads, reviews, and personal stories. News about AIDS. And, in the very back, a blurb proclaiming LESBIAN CONTRIBUTORS WANTED.

Maybe that'll be her one day. She's no Nancy, but she can write. For now, though, she's content with reading. It's almost overwhelming to hold the papers, knowing that it's made by people like her. That someone like her might be reading the same words at the same time. Less lonely, in a way.

No one else on campus knows about her. Ellen, her dorm mate, seems fine so far, but Robin won't take her chances just yet. She struck gold with Steve, Eddie, and the kids, but someday her luck will run out. So she hides the issues in a hard folder under her mattress whenever she isn't reading.

Then she gets the October issue in her hand and nearly dies of excitement. On the front page, the news section is announcing that "two highly acclaimed gay/lesbian films are set to appear on campus this month". The groundbreaking Desert Hearts and Parting Glances will be screened four times each, one week apart from each other, at the end of the month.

At her first opportunity, she calls and tells Steve about it.

"You have to come and see them with me!" she says. "I can't go alone!"

So he does, and he barely complains about the 3-hour drive.

On Sunday, October 19, he shows up at 7 in front of her building. They catch up while having a bite to eat before the film. It's mostly her talking, blabbing about classes and professors and new people and Illinois and the college experience while he chews his half of the pizza, staring at her with big eyes that scream I missed you, I missed you, I missed you!

She takes every chance she gets to knock their feet together under the table and clutches his arm on their way to the film. Just in case her own eyes don't scream it back loud enough.

By the time Desert Hearts starts, she's giddy. She knows only what the newspaper told her: that it's about a soon-to-be-divorced college professor meeting a lesbian country girl in Reno in the 50s, and that it includes a 'climactic lovemaking scene'. Both facts have her squirming with excitement, her seat squeaking beneath her.

The lights go out and the movie starts. It's slow-paced and atmospheric, using the Nevada scenery to its advantage. Parts of it are actually really slow, but she doesn't mind, especially not as it builds and builds toward Vivian ultimately accepting her attraction to Cay.

Steve is with her from beginning to end, scoffing at the antagonistic stepmother, squeezing her hand when the lovers are separated, and squeezing some more when they're reunited. When they reach the intimate scene, he gasps loudly. Then both of them succumb to a giggle fit and must stifle themselves lest they be thrown out. The newspaper was right – it is pretty hot stuff.

There's no dramatic declaration of love at the end, no the ending is as slow and quiet as the rest of it. Still, it hits hard. A sledgehammer to the chest, shattering her ribs and smearing her heart all over. Because these women look each other in the eyes and say 'I love you'. They say 'I want you'. They say 'she just reached in and put a string of lights around my heart', and they say it like it's normal. Which, Robin knows it is. But her world is small and their world is the silver screen and they say it like it's normal.

Steve turns to her when the credits roll and the lights come back on, saying it was good. But when she looks at him, his face falls. Arms wrapping around her, he pulls her into his lap and guides her face into the crook of his neck. Fingers cramping where they clutch his shirt, she buries herself deep and cries, cries, cries. She thinks she hears someone ask if she's okay, but Steve shoos them off, so it doesn't matter.

He walks her home in comfortable silence. As they stop outside her building he tucks her hair behind her ear and offers to stay with her. But she tells him no – he has work in the morning, so she'll have to make do without him.

The responsible thing to do after waving him off is go to bed, wake up early for class. Instead, she steers her step to the nearest payphone and punches in a California number. Minutes later she's got Vickie on the line, wondering if she's okay and if she's been crying. Robin reassures her, then recounts the evening. Soon Vickie's bell of a laughter envelops her; they discuss who's the Cay to whose Vivian until Robin runs out of coins.

Next week, Steve is back and they do it all over again, except this time they eat burgers. They even snatch the same seats they had the previous screening.

Parting Glances follows a gay couple for 24 hours of their daily life. Because they're established, their intimate scene happens much earlier. Steve's muttering about how unfair it is that it's less explicit than the lesbian scene has pride burn in her chest, even as she shushes him.

All in all, it's a really good film. It doesn't hit her as hard since it's about gay men and no lesbians, but it still hits. Again, because it's presented as something normal. They're people in love, and they have jobs and problems and dreams and friends. The hardest hit of them all is Nick, who has AIDS but not in a pitiful way. He's a rockstar with a sense of humor, still cool and charismatic. Sexy, even, thanks to the oozing confidence and the intensity of his gaze.

Steve is quietly contemplative on the way out. She slips her hand into his and lets him think. It's first when they're halfway home that she breaks the silence. Spinning so she's walking backward in front of him, him holding her waist to steer her away from lampposts and curbs, she asks:

"Did you like it?"

"I did. But it left me a little sad." He shrugs. "I just hope Nick survives and gets back together with Michael."

She chews the inside of her cheek. "I don't know if… I mean, AIDS is-"

"I know, Robbie, I'm keeping myself up to date. Or I try. It's just… It's very…" Steve sighs, shaking his head. "You know."

And she does know. The fear of being targeted and the frustration of being helpless. The fury of knowing diseases are supposed to be cured, until the ones affected are people who aren't supposed to exist in the first place.

Steve says, "I think he'll be okay. Nick."

"Yeah," she says, a little choked up.

"And he and Michael will be happy."

"Yes."

"And Cay will stay on the train, or Vivian will return to Nevada, and they'll be together. For real."

"They will. And even if they don't," she reaches up to cup his cheeks, caressing his stubbled jawline, "they'll have someone else. Someone just as good. Or better."

His gaze on her is heavy and bright, boring through, seeing inside. He nods.

"Or better," he says.

With that, he grabs and swings her around (in a pretty impressive move, not that she'll admit it to him) until she's latched onto his back. Then he carries her home.

It's maybe 50 degrees out, so not freezing but enough to leave you shivering if your jacket is old and getting threadbare, like Robin's. She's not cold, though, because Steve always runs hot. His back is firm and his grip on her thighs is secure; she burrows into him, absorbing his warmth and familiar scent. Lulled, not to sleep per se, but to rest by his even strides, she dreams of all the beautiful things she wants to have, and even more vividly of the things she wants to keep.

------------------------------

People Like Us was a real newspaper. You can find the issues that helped inspire this fic here.

(Oh, and you should really watch both those films if you haven't already.)

[rjzimmerman]

You know I'm obsessed with the piping plovers that annually migrate to Montrose Beach in Chicago, mate, have babies and migrate away. All the while totally unaware of their star status and the number of people who eagerly wait for all the news about them. Here's an excerpt from the latest development, from the Chicago Sun-Times:

Piping plovers Imani and Searocket have produced a full clutch — or four eggs — at Montrose Beach, giving birders more hope for a new generation.

The first egg was found May 31 in a protected area of the beach and since then Searocket has laid three more, the Chicago Piping Plovers announced Friday.

The nest is one of 32 nests being incubated in the wild across the Great Lakes.

Chicks hatch throughout the month of June and into July, according to Great Lakes Piping Plovers.

Since the eggs were laid, the Chicago bird community has faced some challenges in trying to keep the nest safe.

“Montrose is a very public place; we are challenged daily with people entering the protected area,” said Tamima Itani, lead volunteer coordinator of the Chicago Piping Plovers group.

To keep the nest and eggs safe, people are urged to respect the closed area boundaries, keep dogs on leashes and take trash with them at the end of their beach visit.

Imani was hatched at Montrose Beach in 2021, an offspring of the piping plovers Monty and Rose. Searocket, a captive-reared chick, was released at Montrose Beach in July 2023.

Piping plovers had disappeared from Illinois beaches around 1955, according to the park district. In 2019, Montrose Beach fledged chicks for the first time since 1955.

“This grand experiment in trying to recover the iconic symbol of the Great Lakes shoreline has come full circle with the return of both wild-hatched and captive-reared young,” Brad Semel, an Illinois Department of Natural Resources endangered species recovery specialist, said last month.

[meret118]

The 13-year and 17-year broods that will emerge from underground this spring will be appearing together for the first time in 221 years.

Brood XIII (blue dots) and Brood XIX (red dots) will likely overlap in central Illinois and eastern Iowa. 

“Nobody alive today will see it happen again,” says Floyd W. Shockley, an entomologist and collections manager at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, to the New York Times’ Aimee Ortiz. “That’s really rather humbling.”

. . .

The rare, synchronized event should be finished by early July, meaning residents of affected states will once again be able to enjoy some peace and quiet. Cicadas’ mating songs can reach nearly 100 decibels, which is similar to the sound intensity of a chainsaw or a motorcycle.

[hooked-on-elvis]

Elvis escaped a crew-length haircut more than once before the army

It is widely known by the fans that one funny story of how Red West saved Elvis from getting his hair cut off by bullies when he was only a teenager attending the Humes High School in Memphis, Tennessee. For those who never heard/read this story before, well.. long story short, Elvis was kind of a misfit in High School because of the way he used to dress different from his mates. "He looked like a sore thumb," said Ronny Trout, a classmate who shared a workbench with Elvis in wood shop in school (as wrote by Peter Guralnick in one of his books on Elvis). While all the guys usually had crew cuts and dressed in jeans, Elvis had this "movie star" look. Apart from the flashy clothes — such as ascot ties and dress pants Presley is said to have worn while attending classes — he also would proudly show off his truck driver sideburns and a duck tail hairstyle around the hallways. Some of the kids in his school just couldn't stand it. Most of them thought Elvis looked weird, possibly they got the impression as if he was cocky or something but more likely they just found him strange, out of place. One day some guys corned Elvis in the bathroom and threatened to cut his hair right off. Red West came in just in time. Even tho they weren't friends yet, that selfless good deed of Red turned Elvis into a, let's say, fan of his. Presley was beyond grateful for the unexpected help. This was before Elvis was, you know, "Elvis". West and Presley became friends after this day, little by little - not immediately, and it turns out that a long, long term friendship between the two came out of that uncanny situation. At a point, Red West became part of Elvis' personal security guard and remained friends with him up until July 1976, a little more than one year previous to Elvis's death in August 1977. Anyway, Red's efforts only postponed Elvis' haircut. Presley actually had to surrender to the crew cut style in March 1958 when he was inducted into the U.S. Army. But did you know before the Army's intervention and after the High School incident, there was another time when Presley's hair almost was chopped off? That was during movie production of "Jailhouse Rock", in 1957.

The still photographs of Elvis wearing the short "Butch" wig were taken on Monday, May 13, 1957. William Tuttle (head of the make-up at MGM Studios) and his department produced very convincing results. This was the first time the wig was ready to be fitted, and the first scene shot using the wig was on May 20, scene 11 - Barber Shop. Elvis is wearing the wardrobe for Scenes 5 & 6 - Courtroom.

Having read the script for Jailhouse Rock, Elvis was fully aware that the storyline called for his character to be sent to prison, and was told by the studio that, to be authentic, he would have to get his hair clipped. Elvis set off a personal appearance tour, prior to reporting to MGM Studios in Hollywood. The short tour commenced on March 28, 1957. The first stop was Chicago, at a press conference at the Saddle and Sirloin Club at the Stockyards Inn that afternoon, when Elvis spoke to the assembled press. When the subject of his haircut for his new picture was raised, he revealed: 'When I get back to Hollywood, I'm gonna have my hair cut. They're gonna cut it down to crew length for this new movie. Personally, I don't care if they cut my hair, I don't think it makes much difference. Because it'll grow out again.'

March 28, 1957. Elvis Presley at a press conference at the Saddle and Sirloin Club at the Stockyards Inn, Chicago, Illinois.

Within a week, MGM Studios and producer, Pandro S. Berman, were swamped with four thousand letter and post-cards from Presley fans begging that the studio let their hero act with his original hair. "Don't Be Cruel - Don't Cut Elvis' hair," they demanded in varying terms. Some threatened to boycott the picture; some said they'd see it anyway because they'd always be loyal to Elvis - but they'd be "All Shook Up." It was decided something had to be done to save Elvis' hair and also alleviate the fans' feelings, so the Studio started to look at alternative ideas with tests quickly set up in the Studio make-up department under the stewardship of William Turtle, head of the make-up at MGM Studios. Elvis revealed the solution to columnist Aline Mosby, 'So now the studio has decided I'll wear a wig, a crew-cut wig, for the prison scenes.' During pre-production, tests were undertakes with the 35mm film camera, to establish any issue. It was realized by Director of Cinematography, Robert J. Bronner, that Elvis' hair required a red tint due to the black and white film. Elvis later confirmed this in an interview once filming had been completed: 'My hair will look the same, except it was reddened because in black-and-white it photographed like a cap instead of hair.'

The fans plea worked good this time but there's the old saying that goes like: "what's meant to be will be".

Elvis Presley gets his hair cut before entering the Army, at Fort Chaffee in Barling, Arkansas. Presley entered the service March 24, 1958 at Fort Chaffee Reception Station. Picture of the 23-year-old rock star and barber Pete Peterson.

On December 10, 1957 Elvis received a letter from the Memphis Draft Board notifying him he was up for the next military draft. Presley's fans, once more, confident that their pleas would be heard just as they were by the Hollywood people, begun sending hundreds of letters to certainly everyone they could find would be helpful on the matter. They begged, "Please, please, do not touch Elvis' hair!" — some of them even felt kinda "suicidal" about Elvis' hair being cut off. One of the fan letters addressed to then U.S. President, read: "Dear President Eisenhower, My girlfriends and I are writing all the way from Montana. We think it's bad enough to send Elvis Presley to the army, but if you cut his sideburns of, we will just die."

NO DEAL WAS MADE THIS TIME. On March 24, 1958 Elvis was inducted into the U.S. Army and finally had to surrender to the crew-haircut. Truth be told, his fresh unfamiliar haircut didn't affect a bit his exquisite beauty - if anything, Presley appealed even worse to his female audience as a soldier.

Well, that's it. There it goes the story of how it took at least three attempts, including one movie and the U.S. government, to finally get that famous sideburns and pompadour out of Elvis' pretty little head.

SOURCE: Excerpts from book "The Making Of Jailhouse Rock" (Book "Movie") by David English and Pål Granlund (2021).

[ridenwithbiden]

"Some famous “white dudes” — including the guy who played “The Dude” — rallied in support of Vice President Kamala Harris, who would be the first female president if elected, in the inaugural event of a new group called White Dudes for Harris on Monday night.

The name may be a bit facetious, but the star-studded Zoom call attracted more than 180,000 participants and raised almost $4 million, according to organizers, who are themselves a group of white dude Democratic political operatives.

Over the nearly 3½-hour call, they said, they sold more than 5,700 White Dudes for Harris trucker caps — “not the pointy ones,” joked Ross Morales Rocketto, one of the organizers, referring to less PC gatherings of white dudes like the Ku Klux Klan.

Actor Jeff Bridges, who played "The Dude" in the cult classic "The Big Lebowski," was excited when he heard about the gathering of his fellow white dudes.

“I qualify, man! I’m white, I’m a dude, and I’m for Harris,” Bridges said. “A woman president, man, how exciting!”

Guests included several of the white dudes Harris is considering to be her vice presidential running mate, including Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, who announced he was withdrawing from consideration moments before the call began.

“The vibes are incredible,” Buttigieg said.

Walz, who has shot up the charts of progressives’ favorite white dudes in recent days as he has made the rounds on TV, said was thrilled by the idea of Harris’ beating former President Donald Trump.

“Make that bastard wake up afterwards and know that a Black woman kicked his a-- and sent him on the road and you know that’s something that guy’s going to have to live with the rest of his life,” Walz said.

In a world where representation matters, the white dudes showed up in force.

There were white dude singers like Josh Groban and Lance Bass. White dude actors like Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Mark Hamill, Josh Gad, Paul Scheer and Sean Astin. And their white dude boss, director and Hollywood executive J.J. Abrams.

There were also plenty of white dudes from the world of Democratic politics, like White House infrastructure czar Mitch Landrieu, Rep. Adam Schiff of California, former Sen. Doug Jones of Alabama and Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, who pledged a $50,000 donation match.

“What a variety of whiteness we have here” said actor Bradley Whitford of “West Wing” fame. “It’s like a rainbow of beige.”...

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Zeke Miller at AP, via HuffPost:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign on Sunday was launching “Republicans for Harris” as she looks to win over Republican voters put off by Donald Trump’s candidacy. The program will be a “campaign within a campaign,” according to Harris’ team, using well-known Republicans to activate their networks, with a particular emphasis on primary voters who backed former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. The program will kick off with events this week in Arizona, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Republicans backing Harris will also appear at rallies with the vice president and her soon-to-be-named running mate this coming week, the campaign said.

The Harris campaign shared the details of the program first with The Associated Press before the official announcement. Her team is trying to create “a permission structure” for GOP voters who would otherwise have a difficult time voting for Harris. The effort will rely heavily on Republican-to-Republican voter contact, with the belief that the best way to get a Republican to vote for Harris is to hear directly from another Republican making the same choice. Trump’s “extremism is toxic to the millions of Republicans who no longer believe the party of Donald Trump represents their values” and will vote against him again in November, said Harris’ national director of Republican outreach, Austin Weatherford. He said the campaign would be “showing up and taking the time every single day to earn the vote of Republicans who believe in putting country over party and know that every American deserves a president who will protect their freedoms and a commander in chief who will put the best interests of the American people above their own.” Weatherford is a onetime chief of staff to former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., who had endorsed the Biden-Harris ticket before President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance against Trump. Kinzinger is backing Harris once more as part of the launch.

“As a proud conservative, I never thought I’d be endorsing a Democrat for President,” he said in a statement. “But, I know Vice President Harris will defend our democracy and ensure Donald Trump never returns to the White House.” Kinzinger developed a national profile as one of two Republicans on the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. The committee highlighted a number of Trump’s transgressions before and during the deadly attack as Congress tried to certify the results of the 2020 election that Biden won over Trump.

[...] The Harris campaign’s effort includes former Govs. Bill Weld of Massachusetts and Christine Todd Whitman of New Jersey, former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, former Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, and 16 former Republican members of Congress, including Kinzinger and Reps. Joe Walsh of Illinois and Susan Molinari of New York. All have been notable critics of Trump in the past. Former Trump press secretary Stephanie Grisham is also endorsing Harris.

Republicans For Harris is launched to serve traditionally GOP-leaning voters turned off by Donald Trump.

[mornington-the-crescent]

There Will Never Be Another Bill Clinton Or Barack Obama

As we enter into 2024, for what is bound to be a contentious election cycle, there is one simple fact that needs to be addressed: Never again will the Democrats have another Bill Clinton or Barack Obama; men who, however you feel about them, were nonetheless popular, capable of energizing a thoroughly demoralized and disinterested political base. We will never see their like again.

A Brief Background

For the much of the 20th century, the Democrats and Republicans would trade the White House back and forth every eight years; there were a few outliers to be sure, but for the most part, if a Democrat just finished eight years in office, you could expect a Republican the next time around, and vice versa. Round and round the electoral carousel would go, and in 1980, one Ronald Reagan got his chance to ride it, in one of the largest landslides in United States electoral history. In 1984, he won again, by an even larger margin this time. And as 1988 rolled around, there were likely many on both sides who expected a Republican to get off the carousel, and for a Democrat to get on.

That didn't happen.

In 1988, Reagan's Vice President, George Bush (the first one) absolutely trounced Democrat Mike Dukakis. This had not happened in a non-wartime setting since the 20's: Two Presidents in a row belonging to the same political party. It was then that the Democrats had their "Come to Jesus" moment. What worked in the past clearly wasn't going to work the next time around. They needed something new, something fresh. And that something was the governor of the state of Arkansas, a man named William Jefferson Clinton.

Bill Clinton

Clinton did not come from a Washington background. He was a political outsider, young and charismatic. He had a movement and a message. He was a genius at political fundraising. People were, for the first time in a long time, excited to vote for a candidate. And Clinton won handily in 1992, unseating an incumbent President, something that rarely ever happened. He won again in 1996, by a larger margin than he had the first time.

America was riding high as the 90's drew to a close, and much of that, rightly or not, was attributed to Clinton. And as the 2000 election loomed on the horizon, the Democrats needed to pick his replacement. And who did they choose? Albert Gore, Jr.

Whereas Clinton was viewed as a young upstart when he made his run, Gore was very much a name in Washington even before he was chosen to be Clinton's running mate. He had served in Congress for almost two decades by that point, and was the son of a prominent politician who had also served for several decades. Whereas Clinton was viewed as hip and charismatic, Gore had a reputation for being stuffy, often described as being robotic. And which is more, Gore tried during his run to distance himself from Clinton; while it seemed like a good idea to distance yourself from someone who is mired in scandal, it likely hurt Gore's odds to distance himself from the man who many, rightly or not, attributed the booming economy of the 90's to.

However you feel about what went down in 2000, George W. Bush became the President. He won again in 2004, defeating John Kerry, another man who had a long history in politics, and whom voters were hardly excited for. What worked in the past clearly wasn't going to work the next time around. They needed something new, something fresh. And that something was a freshman senator from Illinois, a man named Barack Hussein Obama.

Barack Obama

Obama did not come from a Washington background. He was a political outsider, young and charismatic. He had a movement and a message. He was a genius at political fundraising. People were, for the first time in a long time, excited to vote for a candidate. And he won handily in 2008, as many young people engaged with the political process for the first time. He won again in 2012; not by quite as wide a margin, but still quite comfortably so.

Young Americans were politically engaged. They felt hopeful for the future, ready to keep the Hope and Change train rolling. And as the 2016 election loomed on the horizon, the Democrats needed to pick his replacement. And who did they choose? Hillary Clinton.

Obama had been a fresh face in the political scene; Hillary Clinton had been in the public eye in a national political sense since the early 90's. Obama was viewed as fresh and new; Clinton was famous for her scandals, and for being tied to the scandals of her husband. Obama was charismatic; Clinton was viewed as being radically out of touch with anyone who wasn't a coastal elite. Whereas Obama had a movement and a message behind his campaign and his terms in office, Clinton had nothing beyond "First Woman President" and "It's My Turn, Goddammit". Even when the primary voters did not want her, the Democratic National Committee made sure that her name was on the ballot in November; the Establishment wanted an Establishment candidate.

The Republicans, meanwhile, chose Donald J. Trump: A political outsider with a movement and a message, a singularity of charisma, who was a genius at political fundraising. However you feel about what went down in 2016, Trump became the President. The next several years were marked with conflict, but also with a booming economy. Trump had a deeply loyal base, and was viewed as someone who could fight the corruption in Washington. As 2020 reared its head, the Democrats needed someone who could take on this titan. And who did they pick? Joe Biden.

Joe Biden

If Hillary Clinton was Establishment, Joe Biden was

ESTABLISHMENT,

bold, italicized, triple-underlined, with the "E" in 72-point font. This was a man who had been in professional politics for half a century at that point. He was wildly unpopular, with all the personal charisma of a wet dishrag. He rambled incoherently, reminding many of nothing quite so much as a dementia patient. He was confrontational with potential voters, he often made casually racist remarks, his prior run for President in 1988 was derailed due to scandal. There was not a single person who was excited about the idea of a Biden White House.

This time, the Democrats tried a different strategy: Rather than giving you reasons to vote for Biden, they instead went whole hog on why you should vote against Trump: Trump was a fascist, Trump was a racist, if Trump was elected to a second term then everyone in America who wasn't a straight white Christian male would be rounded up and summarily executed. For months and months on end, "Vote Blue No Matter Who" was the rallying cry, accompanied by wild, apocalyptic predictions about a second term of Trump.

"Who cares if you don't like Biden?" was the message, "You NEED to vote for him! Or else you are literally voting for genocide!"

"Who cares if you don't like Biden?" was the message, "You NEED to vote for him! Or else there will be right-wing death squads!"

"Who cares if you don't like Biden?" was the message, "You NEED to vote for him! Or else it will be literally the end of human civilization!"

However you feel about what went down in 2020, Biden was now in the White House. And the political future of the Democratic Party was now carved in stone.

What If...?

Imagine a world where Trump got a second term in 2020. As 2024 rolled around, the Democrats would have to have another "Come to Jesus" moment, lest the Republicans gain another term in office. They would need to find another young, charismatic political outsider with a movement and a message, someone who could energize a thoroughly demoralized and disinterested voter base. Someone that people would be excited to vote for.

But what 2020 proved to the DNC, beyond all doubt, is that they don't need to do that anymore. They have found a strategy that works, regardless of who they're running. The days of the Outsider, wild and unpredictable, are over. No longer will somebody come from the outside, promising to upset the apple cart. The Establishment will only entrench itself further, putting up candidates that nobody, outside of a small cabal of Beltway insiders, actually wants. All they need to do is proclaim, evidence optional, that the Other Guy is actively and willfully malicious, that the entire Republican Party actively and willfully wants to murder anyone Different, and that the only way to Save Humanity is to Vote Blue No Matter Who. This is the Most Important Election In History, they say. If you don't Vote Blue, then there will Never Be Elections Again. It will be the End Of The World. There will be triple-Nazis goose-stepping down every Main Street in America before the ink on the ballots is even dry.

You will never see another progressive, liberal Democrat get within a country mile of the White House ever again. You will get what the DNC wants, and you will just have to live with that.

There will never be another Bill Clinton or Barack Obama, ever again.

And it is your fault.

[marksmangeek]

Harris Picks Up Enough Delegate Support to Win Nomination on

Vice President Kamala Harris swiftly secured the Democratic nomination for president, reaching the required delegate threshold just one day after launching her campaign. Following President Joe Biden’s unexpected withdrawal and endorsement of Harris, she has amassed the necessary delegate support to become the Democratic Party’s standard-bearer.

Wave of Endorsements

The rapid accumulation of endorsements from potential rivals, lawmakers, governors, and influential labor and advocacy groups was pivotal in Harris’s quick ascent. On Monday evening, state delegations pushed her over the threshold of 1,976 pledged delegates needed to win the nomination on the first ballot, according to CNN’s delegate estimate.

Harris’s Campaign Kickoff

Harris’s campaign began with a bang. She held a campaign event in Milwaukee and visited the campaign’s headquarters in Delaware, delivering a powerful speech that outlined her vision and set the tone for her campaign. During her address, she emphasized her prosecutorial background and directly confronted former President Donald Trump’s scandals and legal troubles.

Financial Surge

Harris’s campaign announced an unprecedented fundraising haul of $81 million in the first 24 hours, with over 880,000 grassroots supporters contributing. ActBlue, the Democratic donation-processing site, confirmed it was the biggest fundraising day of the 2024 cycle. The Democratic super PAC Future Forward also secured $150 million in commitments within 24 hours of Biden’s announcement.

Uniting the Party

Harris has received widespread support across the Democratic Party. Four governors of crucial Midwestern states — Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer, Minnesota’s Tim Walz, Wisconsin’s Tony Evers, and Illinois’s JB Pritzker — endorsed her, along with other notable governors like Kentucky’s Andy Beshear, North Carolina’s Roy Cooper, California’s Gavin Newsom, and Pennsylvania’s Josh Shapiro.

On Capitol Hill, Harris has garnered the backing of over 40 Democratic senators and nearly 100 House members. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi publicly announced her enthusiastic support for Harris. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries are also expected to endorse her soon.

Broad-Based Support

Harris’s support spans the ideological spectrum of the Democratic Party, from moderate populists like Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown to progressives such as Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The political arms of the Congressional Black Caucus, Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and Congressional Progressive Caucus, along with key labor unions like the Service Employees International Union and the American Federation of Teachers, have also endorsed her.

Conclusion

The coordinated and rapid endorsements reflect the Democratic Party’s unity and urgency to rally behind Harris. With no credible challenger emerging after Biden’s exit, the primary focus now shifts to who Harris will choose as her running mate. The overwhelming support she has received underscores her strong position as the party’s nominee and sets the stage for a dynamic 2024 presidential campaign.

[deadpresidents]

Vice Presidential Profiles: Thomas Riley Marshall (VP #28)

THOMAS RILEY MARSHALL 28th Vice President of the United States (1913-1921)

Full Name: Thomas Riley Marshall Born: March 14, 1854, North Manchester, Wabash County, Indiana Religion: Presbyterian College: Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Indiana Career Before the Vice Presidency: Lawyer, Columbia City, Indiana (1875-1909); Unsuccessful Democratic candidate for Prosecuting Attorney of Whitley County, Indiana (1880); 27th Governor of Indiana (January 11, 1909-January 13, 1913) Political Party as Vice President: Democratic State Represented as Vice President: Indiana Term as Vice President: March 4, 1913-March 4, 1921 Length of Vice Presidency: 8 years, 0 days Age at Inauguration: 58 years, 355 days Served: President Wilson (1st term and 2nd term)/32nd Administration (1913-1917) and 33rd Administration (1917-1921)/63rd Congress (1913-1915), 64th Congress (1915-1917), 65th Congress (1917-1919), and 66th Congress (1919-1921) Post-Vice Presidential Career: Lawyer, Indianapolis, Indiana (1921-1925); Author (1921-1925); Appointed by President Harding to serve as a member of the Lincoln Memorial Commission (1921), Appointed by President Harding to serve as a member of the Federal Coal Commission (1922-1923) Died: June 1, 1925, Washington, D.C. Age at Death: 71 years, 79 days Cause of Death: Heart attack Buried: Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis, Indiana

Random Facts About Vice President Marshall: •On August 27, 1858, 4-year-old Thomas Riley Marshall accompanied his father, Daniel, to Freeport, Illinois, where Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas were engaging in the second of seven debates which would go down in history as the epic "Lincoln-Douglas Debates". Little "Tommy" was too young to understand what was going on, but he had the best seat in the house. When Lincoln spoke, Tommy Marshall sat on the lap of Senator Douglas. When Douglas spoke, Marshall sat on the lap of Abraham Lincoln. •While Marshall attended college, he wrote an article for the school newspaper about a visiting female speaker who gave a lecture on campus at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana. The woman felt Marshall had crossed the line and sued the future Vice President for libel in 1872. Each side lawyered up with notable legal representation. The plaintiff hired Lew Wallace, who was a Union General during the Civil War, later became Governor of the New Mexico Territory, and is best-known today as the author of Ben-Hur. Marshall found himself a lawyer in Indianapolis that was also a former Union General during the Civil War and who would later surpass even Wallace's political accomplishments. Marshall's lawyer was able to make it clear to the plaintiff that Marshall's comments might have been in poor taste, but they were likely true, and the case was dropped. Marshall's attorney was future President Benjamin Harrison. •After beginning his own law career, Marshall fell in love with a young woman named Kate Hooper, but she died shortly after they were engaged to be married. Marshall was devastated by her death and began drinking heavily. Alcoholism took a toll on Marshall's health, career, and reputation until he finally married Lois Kimsey in 1895. Lois helped Marshall quit drinking, which gave him the focus to begin his political career. He didn't win his first political election until he was 54 years old.

•In 1909, Marshall -- as Governor of Indiana -- installed the final brick to complete the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the site of the Indianapolis 500. •Marshall was not Woodrow Wilson's first choice as his Vice President in 1912. In fact, Marshall wasn't Wilson's choice as a running mate at all. Wilson had wanted the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Oscar Underwood of Alabama, to join him on the ticket, but Underwood declined the offer. The delegates of the Democratic National Convention decided upon Marshall, and Wilson was not pleased with the choice. He thought Marshall was a "small-calibre man". •Despite his original doubts, Wilson stuck with Marshall in 1916 when many of the President's closest aides suggested dumping the VP in favor of another running mate. With their victory that year, Marshall became the first Vice President since John C. Calhoun in 1828 to be re-elected to another term. •Thomas Riley Marshall is largely remembered because of his many humorous quotes poking fun at the insignificance of the Vice Presidency. When he was nominated as VP, Marshall pointed out that it made sense since he was a native of Indiana, "the mother of Vice Presidents, the home of more second-class men than any other state." A favorite Marshall story was one about a man who had two sons: "One went away to sea...the other was elected Vice President...he never heard from either one afterward." •Other popular Marshall quotes: -"I don't want to work [after retiring], but I wouldn't mind being Vice President again." -"If you look on me as a wild animal, be kind enough to throw peanuts at me." (To a group touring the Capitol) -"What this country needs is a good five-cent cigar." •Despite Marshall's humor and frivolity, there was a serious Constitutional crisis near the end of Woodrow Wilson's Presidency. Wilson suffered a massive stroke in 1919 that virtually incapacitated him and kept him from fully discharging the duties of his office. For the last 18 months of of Wilson's Presidency, Wilson's wife and a handful of close aides carefully managed the Administration, keeping the truth about Wilson's health hidden. Today, a President in Wilson's condition would almost certainly need to hand the office over to the officer next in the line of succession, either temporarily or permanently. But the 25th Amendment did not exist during Wilson's time, and a group of Wilson confidants conspired to keep the truth from the rest of Wilson's Administration, including Vice President Marshall. Marshall didn't push to find out the extent of Wilson's illness; if he had, Wilson likely would have been forced to resign and Marshall would have become President. Most of the people close to President Wilson believed it would be disastrous to pass the reigns of government on to Vice President Marshall. But considering the track record of the Wilson Administration at the end of his Presidency, many historians believe that "President Marshall" could have helped get the Treaty of Versailles ratified and shepherd the United States into joining the League of Nations.