1/. Michelle Goldberg talks to Kamala voters, and we may have the beginnings of our own cult.....
Tracy Nailor, a 56-year-old Atlanta pediatrician, wasn’t particularly impressed with Kamala Harris when she first ran for president. “I think I succumbed to the narrative about her,” she said. She thought Harris wasn’t experienced or accomplished enough to merit the Democratic nomination. “I just didn’t know enough,” she said. “I didn’t do my homework.” Instead of Harris, she supported the trusted, familiar Joe Biden in the last election.
But as Biden’s most recent presidential campaign ground on, her faith wavered. She knew it was going to be hard for the aging president to win again. “I was not hopeless, but I was definitely concerned,” she said. Amid all that worry, the sudden ascension of Harris felt like deliverance. “I’m a person that believes in spirit, and I’m a person who believes that but God. And I say that a lot: But God.” She meant that no matter how desperate the situation and improbable the possibility of rescue, God can always turn things around. “I feel like that’s what’s happened,” she said. “This is not only a political movement. This is a social movement. This is an inflection point. And this is, to me, a spiritual movement.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/02/opinion/kamala-harris-atlanta-rally.html
2/. Tom Tomorrow - MAGA Man and Fertility Lad....
3/. Fight Democrats, fight - keep calling him weird and get creative too......
Weird? As contemporary insults go, it feels fairly survivable. In fact, when compared with boomer, bigot, karen, gammon and hag – key concepts in much progressive civic discourse – weird is practically, in ascribing individuality to the targeted person, a compliment. Which when applied to a tech prodigy, weird usually is.
But vagueness about the exact offensiveness of weird is probably one reason this demi-slur is currently considered, by senior Democrats and a host of US commentators, to be the perfect, supremely effective response to the much cruder attacks on Kamala Harris now emanating from Donald Trump and his deputy.
4/ If you didn't see this, it's well worth the hour.....the rally in Pennsylvania where Kamala introduces Tim Walz.
I don't get excited about political speeches any more, but this was a doozy. Wonderful!
If you are watching it again, check out Kamala's face as Walz is speaking.....
5/. Interesting story from the Daily Kos on how the Trump campaign is crumbling....
6/. Trump gave a press conference today that was more bonkers than usual......this is about as much as I could stand to watch.....
7/. Remember the story about 500 golf carts for Kamala in the Villages? The Trumpies in the Villages got pissed, but only managed 800 golf carts...
A factoid - the Democratic club in the Villages is the largest in the State, and it's something about being a minority surrounded by fanatics.....
The golf carts lined up by the hundreds, festooned for Trump fandom: a teddy bear with orange hair and a red tie. A surprisingly realistic Trump mask. A Trump rubber duck. An inflatable Trump tube, depicting his mouth open and fists pumped in the air.
On Saturday afternoon, The Villages, Florida’s retirement mecca, was abuzz with a parade for former President Donald J. Trump — even as Tropical Storm Debby menaced.
8/. t's so hard for them.....
9/. Thom Hartmann with everything you didn't know about Bill Barr......what an evil bastard.....
The Washington Post reported last week that there’s very good reason to believe that Egypt’s dictator, Gen. Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, organized a $10 million cash bribe to Donald Trump when he was most desperate for the same amount of money during the 2016 election. American intelligence reported that el-Sisi ordered $10 million in $100 bills be taken from a bank in Egypt — representing a large chunk of that country’s entire US dollar foreign reserves — and have them transported, possibly, to Donald Trump.
https://hartmannreport.com/p/will-bill-barr-and-donald-trump-ever-574?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=302288&post_id=147394119&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=2cwgv&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
10/. Jordan Klepper went out last week to talk to Trumpies......and nothing has changed.....
11/. AIPAC is the Israeli lobby PAC, who just defeated progressive Cori Bush in her primary, but the money
they had to spend is a symptom of how support for Israel is collapsing in the US.....
O
n Tuesday night, Representative Cori Bush lost in a Democratic primary election to challenger Wesley Bell, whose election campaign was overwhelmingly financed by pro-Israel groups such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac). According the New York Times, the spending by pro-Israel groups “transformed the race into one of the most expensive House primaries in history”. While Bush, an outspoken opponent of Israel’s crimes against Palestinians, is on her way out of Congress because of Aipac’s big spending, the victory for Israel donors is the latest sign of their cause’s decline in the United States and especially in the Democratic party.
12/. Is she black enough?
13/. DeSantis and the Florida Republicans are just cruel......could give a shit about the poor.....
Florida governor Ron DeSantis’s “shameful” rejection of a federal food aid program left countless families struggling to feed their children this summer, according to advocates who fear the Republican is about to turn down help for next year too.
The summer electronic benefits transfer (EBT) program, known as Sun Bucks, would have given disadvantaged families $120 per child to help pay for groceries during June, July and August while schools are out.
But DeSantis balked at spending a little more than $12m on administration costs to receive $250m of federal money, denying caregivers of the 2.1 million Florida children who receive free or reduced priced lunches during the school year the opportunity to obtain the debit cards.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/aug/06/ron-desantis-rejects-federal-food-aid-children?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
14/. Spike Dolomite is a Lefsetz-like blogger......emotional, and descriptive.....
Trump agreed to a debate on September 10 and then chickened out and cancelled because he’s scared of Kamala.
To show how plugged in young people are to the presidential race, the TikTok ad that Kamala’s digital team made out of clips from Trump’s rally in North Carolina where he slurred his words got over 1 million likes.
White Women for Kamala had over 150,000 participants on a call last night. They raised $20,000 a minute and crashed both the donation website and Zoom. Total raised: $1.8 million in under 2 hours.
Barack and Michelle Obama have formally endorsed Kamala Harris.
Geoff Duncan, the former lieutenant governor of Georgia endorsed Kamala. He’s a Republican.
15/. Just a fun [if pretty violent] commercial.....
16/. A long but interesting story about how the "Truth Social" stock got started - as with everything
Trump, it's riven with fraud...
And we are pleased to say Truth Social stock is down to $26.....
What may turn out to be a hinge in American history occurs one day in November 2004, when the future president of the United States asks his then-girlfriend to turn around so the nation can see how her ass looks in a pair of jeans.
The occasion is season two, episode 11, of The Apprentice. Two teams have been tasked with creating an ad campaign for Levi’s, and one side has come up with a catalogue bereft of butt shots. Donald Trump is steamed. “Jeans are supposed to show off the body,” he fumes back in the boardroom, after Melania has done a twirl for the camera. “In particular, they are supposed to show off the ass. How come you didn’t show off that part of the body?”
17/. Clarence Thomas.....more corruption, more private jet trips and cruises on yachts...
Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden revealed on Monday that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas had failed to disclose even more flights aboard a private jet owned by Republican mega-donor Harlan Crow than were previously known.
18/. If you watched and loved "Killing Eve", this new Netflix series "Kleo" is for you.....
“Killing Eve” went off the air in April 2022. “Kleo” came along four months later. The offbeat, darkly comic, cold-war-related spy thriller abhors a vacuum.
The German writers and producers Hanno Hackfort, Bob Konrad and Richard Kropf, who created “Kleo” for Netflix, evidently were not afraid of comparisons to the popular “Killing Eve,” which ran for four seasons on BBC America. Kleo Straub (Jella Haase), their East German protagonist, is a lethal assassin with a guileless pride in her abilities, reminiscent of Villanelle, the “Killing Eve” role that brought Jodie Comer an Emmy.
Kleo also comes with her own version of Sandra Oh’s Eve, here a West German cop named Sven Petzold (Dimitrij Schaad) — an operative from the other side who is obsessed with Kleo and whose on-and-off, cat-and-mouse, will-they-or-won’t-they relationship with her is the show’s emotional center. And the two series share a style: the spy caper as darkly humorous fairy tale, shifting between mordant, violent theatricality and mordant, goofy comedy.
19/. Bob Lefsetz with what sounds like an amazing documentary! "Mountain Queen"....
I was into Everest before it was big.
That’s what we used to say about rock acts in the sixties and seventies, like Yes, whose first album my dentist turned me on to and didn’t break through until two LPs later, really three, with “Fragile.”
That used to be the process. You discovered and owned an act, followed them from the club to the theatre to maybe the arena after they had a big AM hit, and when the hoi polloi came on board, that’s what you’d say. Or as Bill Murray told his girlfriend in “Stripes,” “You know one day Tito Puente’s gonna be dead, and you’re gonna say ‘Oh, I’ve been listening to him for years, and I think he’s fabulous.'”
The funny thing is Tito Puente didn’t die for two decades.
But that’s not the point.
The point is someone turned me on to the book “Annapurna” in high school. I vividly remember reading it, becoming enraptured with the tale of Himalayan mountain climbing.
https://lefsetz.com/wordpress/2024/08/05/mountain-queen-the-summits-of-lhakpa-sherpa/
20/. And Bob Lefsetz with a book review......."The God Of The Woods".....
Ultimately this is a mystery, but it doesn’t read like one.
First and foremost it is set in a summer camp. Where I spent some of my best years. And that’s why I started reading it, and on that note it worked, but “The God of the Woods” is so much more.
Generally speaking I don’t read genre books, because I find the endings unsatisfactory. There’s an unforeseen twist, which makes you feel ripped off, angry you wasted so much time trying to figure it out.
Actually, I wasn’t that invested in the mysteries of “The God of the Woods,” the disappearance of two children. And thank god I didn’t find out until the very end what happened to them, because these results were not as interesting as what came before. Which had to do with friendships, class relations, personal growth, individuality.
https://lefsetz.com/wordpress/2024/08/07/the-god-of-the-woods/
Today's WW2 Joke
An American soldier, serving in World War II, had just returned from several weeks of intense action on the German front lines.
He had finally been granted R&R and was on a train bound for London.
The train was very crowded, so the soldier walked the length of the train, looking for an empty seat.
The only unoccupied seat was directly adjacent to a well-dressed middle-aged lady and was being used by her little dog.
The war weary soldier asked, "Please, ma'am, may I sit in that seat?" The English woman looked down her nose at the soldier, sniffed and said, "You Americans. You are such a rude class of people.
Can't you see my little Fifi is using that seat?"
The soldier walked away, determined to find a place to rest, but after another trip down to the end of the train, found himself again facing the woman with the dog.
Again he asked, "Please, lady. May I sit there? I'm very tired."
The English woman wrinkled her nose and snorted, "You Americans! Not only are you rude, you are also arrogant. Imagine!"
The soldier didn't say anything else; he leaned over, picked up the little dog, tossed it out the window of the train and sat down in the empty seat.
The woman shrieked and railed, and demanded that someone defend her and chastise the soldier.
An English gentleman sitting across the aisle spoke up, "You know, sir, you Americans do seem to have a penchant for doing the wrong thing.
You eat holding the fork in the wrong hand.
You drive your cars on the wrong side of the road.
And now, sir, you've thrown the wrong bitch out the window.
Today's oldie but goodie joke....
If you can read this whole story without laughing, then there's no hope for you.
This is an actual account as relayed to paramedics at a chili cook-off in Texas .
Note: Please take time to read this slowly.
If you pay attention to the first two judges, the reaction of the third judge is even better.
For those of you who have lived in Texas , you know how true this is.
They actually have a Chili Cook-off about the time Halloween comes around.
It takes
up a major portion of a parking lot at the San Antonio City Park .
Judge #3 was an inexperienced chili taster Frank, who was visiting from Springfield
Frank: "Recently, I was honored to be selected as a judge at a chili cook-off.
The original person called in sick at the last moment and I happened to be standing there at the judge's table, asking for directions to the
Coors Light truck, when the call came in.
I was assured by the other two judges (Native Texans) that the chili wouldn't be all that spicy; and, besides, they told me I could
have free beer during the tasting, so I accepted and became Judge 3."
Here are the scorecard notes from the event:
CHILI # 1 - MIKE'S MANIAC MONSTER CHILI
Judge # 1 -- A little too heavy on the tomato. Amusing kick.
Judge # 2 -- Nice, smooth tomato flavor. Very mild.
Judge # 3 (Frank) -- Holy crap, what the heck is this stuff? You could remove dried paint from your driveway.
Took me two beers to put the flames out. I hope that's the worst one. These Texans are crazy.
CHILI # 2 - AUSTIN 'S AFTERBURNER CHILI
Judge # 1 -- Smoky, with a hint of pork. Slight jalapeno tang.
Judge # 2 -- Exciting BBQ flavor, needs more peppers to be taken seriously.
Judge # 3 -- Keep this out of the reach of children. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to taste besides pain.
I had to wave off two people who wanted to give me the Heimlich maneuver.
They had to rush in more beer when they saw the look on my face.
CHILI # 3 - FRED'S FAMOUS BURN DOWN THE BARN CHILI
Judge # 1 -- Excellent firehouse chili. Great kick.
Judge # 2 -- A bit salty, good use of peppers.
Judge # 3 -- Call the EPA. I've located a uranium spill. My nose feels like I have been snorting Drano.
Everyone knows the routine by now. Get me more beer before I ignite.
Barmaid pounded me on the back, now my backbone is in the front part of my chest.
I'm getting smashed from all of the beer.
CHILI # 4 - BUBBA'S BLACK MAGIC
Judge # 1 -- Black bean chili with almost no spice. Disappointing.
Judge # 2 -- Hint of lime in the black beans. Good side dish for fish or other mild foods, not much of a chili.
Judge # 3 -- I felt something scraping across my tongue, but was unable to taste it.
Is it possible to burn out taste buds? Sally, the beer maid, was standing behind me with fresh refills.
This 300 lb. woman is starting to look HOT ... just like this nuclear waste I'm eating! Is chili an aphrodisiac!
CHILI # 5 - LISA'S LEGAL LIP REMOVER
Judge # 1 -- Meaty, strong chili. Cayenne peppers freshly ground, adding considerable kick. Very impressive.
Judge # 2 -- Chili using shredded beef, could use more tomato. Must admit the cayenne peppers make a strong statement.
Judge # 3 -- My ears are ringing, sweat is pouring off my forehead and I can no longer focus my eyes.
I farted, and four people behind me needed paramedics.
The contestant seemed offended when I told her that her chili had given me brain damage.
Sally saved my tongue from bleeding by pouring beer directly on it from the pitcher.
I wonder if I'm burning my lips off. It really ticks me off that the other judges asked me to stop screaming.
CHILI # 6 - VERA'S VERY VEGETARIAN VARIETY
Judge # 1 -- Thin yet bold vegetarian variety chili. Good balance of spices and peppers.
Judge # 2 -- The best yet. Aggressive use of peppers, onions, garlic. Superb.
Judge # 3 -- My intestines are now a straight pipe filled with gaseous, sulfuric flames.
No one seems inclined to stand behind me except that Sally. Can't feel my lips anymore.
I feel like I need to wipe my butt with a snow cone.
CHILI # 7 -- SUSAN'S SCREAMING SENSATION CHILI
Judge # 1 -- A mediocre chili with too much reliance on canned peppers.
Judge # 2 -- Ho hum, tastes as if the chef literally threw in a can of chili peppers at the last moment.
**I should take note that I am worried about Judge #3. He appears to be a bit distressed as he is cursing uncontrollably.
Judge # 3 -- You could put a grenade in my mouth, pull the pin, and I wouldn't feel a thing.
I've lost sight in one eye, and the world sounds like it is made of rushing water.
My shirt is covered with chili, which slid unnoticed out of my mouth.
My pants are full of lava to match my shirt. At least during the autopsy, they'll know what killed me.
I've decided to stop breathing, it's too painful. Who cares; I'm not getting any oxygen anyway.
If I need air, I'll just suck it in through the 4-inch hole in my stomach.
CHILI # 8 - BIG TOM'S TOENAIL CURLING CHILI
Judge # 1 -- The perfect ending, this is a nice blend chili. Not too bold but spicy enough to declare its existence.
Judge # 2 -- This final entry is a good, balanced chili. Neither mild nor hot.
Sorry to see that most of it was lost when Judge #3 farted, passed out, fell over and pulled the chili pot down on top of himself.
Not sure if he's going to make it. Poor feller, wonder how he'd have reacted to really hot chili..
Judge # 3 - No Report
Today's oldies joke.....Two elderly people living in Trailer Estates, he was a Widower and she a widow, had known each other for a number of years.
One evening there was a community supper in the big activity center.
The two were at the same table, across from one another as the meal went on, he took a few admiring glances at her and finally gathered the
courage to ask her, " Will you marry me?"
After about six seconds of ' careful consideration' , she answered "Yes. Yes, I will. "
The meal ended and, with a few more pleasant exchanges, they went to their respective places. Next morning, he was troubled.
"Did she say 'yes' or did she say 'no'?" He couldn't remember.
Try as he might, he just could not recall.
Not even a faint memory.
With trepidation, he went to the telephone and called her.
First, he explained that he didn't remember as well as he used to.
Then he reviewed the lovely evening past.
As he gained a little more courage, he inquired, "When I asked if you would marry me, did you say 'Yes' or did you say 'No'?"
He was delighted to hear her say, "Why, I said, 'Yes, yes I will' and I meant it with all my heart."
Then she continued, "I am so glad that you called, because I couldn't remember who had asked me.
.
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