June 29, 2022

Kamala Harris and her "really interesting" Venn diagram.

Wanting to write about something Kamala Harris had said about the overturning of Roe v. Wade, I thought I'd find it in The Washington Post. But the name "Kamala" appeared nowhere on the home page and a search for the most recent mentions of her name turned up this:


Her name hasn't appeared in The Washington Post in 20 days. If we go back as far as the beginning of May, there are 3 mentions — 2 of which are about the prospect of the overruling of Roe v. Wade.

One is "Kamala Harris finally found her moment and her message"! The moment was before Roe got overruled? What about after?! 
From thankless, unsolvable issues (e.g., Central America’s corruption and violence) to poor staff picks to snippy and misogynistic coverage, she has gotten off to what can charitably be called a rocky start. But in the wake of the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion reversing Roe v. Wade, she seemed to find her voice and gravitas....  

That's by Jennifer Rubin. The other, by Kimala Price, is "Women of color want reproductive justice, not just abortion rights." Oh! There's nothing there about Kamala Harris at all. I searched for "Kamala," and I guess the machine thought "Kimala" was close enough.

But here's what I was looking for, something Kamala Harris said yesterday: "VP Harris calls for abortion-rights supporters to channel frustration into action." That's at NPR. NPR White House correspondent Asma Khalid interviewed her about post-Roe politics:

"It is profound, in terms of where [the decision] takes us back. We have a 23-year-old daughter who is going to know fewer rights than my 80-something-year-old mother-in law," Harris said... 
"I think we all felt, and rightly, a huge blow when this decision came down," Harris said. "That's real. So I don't deny anybody how they are feeling right now. I know how I'm feeling right now."

Okay. It's profound and it's real.  

"There is no daylight among us who understand the seriousness of this moment and the real consequence to millions of women, and those who love them, around the country," Harris said. 

It's profound, real, and serious, and did I say real? 

"Now the question becomes, what can we do?... We cannot underestimate the significance of the upcoming elections and the need for all people who care about this issue to understand that we have to have a pro-choice Congress to pass this law," she said....

"I think this is an opportunity to coalition-build — an opportunity to bring under one roof all the folks who understand what's at stake right now," she said.

"If you take it as a Venn diagram, the part of the circle that is about attacks on voting rights, the circle that is about the attacks against the LGBTQ community, and the circle that is the attacks on a woman's right to choose, it's really interesting to see the overlap of those circles."

It's "really interesting" — but what is in the overlap? As described, there isn't any overlap. There are 3 kinds of attacks, and an attack on voter rights isn't also an against the LGBTQ community or an attack on a woman's right to choose. There are 3 independent circles. I get the feeling somebody explained something to her using a Venn diagram, but she's forgotten what the circles represented and what was in the overlapping parts.

It was really interesting, but I guess you had to be there.

Would Jennifer Rubin like to revisit the notion that Kamala Harris finally found her moment and her message? I can't see that there's anything there.

73 comments:

Curious George said...

"Would Jennifer Rubin like to revisit the notion that Kamala Harris finally found her moment and her message? I can't see that there's anything there."

Of course not. It's like mother's milk to her readers.

gspencer said...

"Her name hasn't appeared in The Washington Post in 20 days."

As a WP subscriber you should consider yourself lucky.

tim maguire said...

I assume the overlap is the people. Which is why she doesn't say what the overlap is--she can't actually name any people, but we're all sure they're there. This is just a wordier version of the lazy accusation, "the same people who...!" A charge that is never actually substantiated because is almost never true.

Enigma said...

Topic 1: Kamala is wildly out of her depth. Not news. Imagine the press coverage if George W. Bush said that!


Topic 2: Swap the word "women" for "guns" and consider the erosion of freedom over the last few generations.

Mike Sylwester said...

[the decision] takes us back. We have a 23-year-old daughter who is going to know fewer rights than my 80-something-year-old mother-in law

Before 1973, the population had the right to affect abortion laws in their state legislatures. Someone who is 80 years old now had that right before 1973.

After 1973, people could not affect abortion laws in their state legislatures. Someone who is 23 years old now never has been able to exercise that right.

Now the US Supreme Court has decided that abortion laws again will be made by the state legislatures -- not by the US Supreme Court.

Now everyone in the USA again has the right to affect abortion laws in their state legislatures.

Temujin said...

Here's all you need to know about the importance of Kamala Harris' thoughts: Mike Pence has appeared in WaPo multiple more times than Kamala Harris has over the past 20 days. Hell...over the past week. And you might say, well...it's due to the Gigantic Insurrection we had. But was that any larger an event than the recent Court decision? In other words, WaPo finds Mike Pence more interesting to write about than Kamala. Think about that.

I've forgotten which thing Biden put Kamala in charge of this week, but she's excelled in whatever it is in the same way she did the border. M.I.A. If anything, she's proven even less capable of doing anything than even I had projected in my small mind. In this respect, she has surpassed my expectations.

If I were a WaPo "journalist" I would take that last sentence and turn it into: Kamala Harris is surpassing voters expectations already!"

Kai Akker said...

You misogynist.

Paddy O said...

Wasn't she supposed to be owning the immigration issue? Curious to have some response to the tragedy of the dozens of deaths in the trailer.

David Begley said...

Wondering if Harris would have passed Althouse’s class at Wisconsin Law.

Ann Althouse said...

"Wasn't she supposed to be owning the immigration issue? Curious to have some response to the tragedy of the dozens of deaths in the trailer."

That is in the interview:

"Reproductive rights is not the only intractable issue that Harris has been assigned since taking office. One of the first issues in her portfolio was finding ways to address the root causes of migration to the U.S. southern border. Khalid asked Harris about the tragic news that at least 50 people died, trapped in a tractor trailer in San Antonio on Monday.

"Harris said that the tragedy should prompt change, but also noted that political leaders need to act – and that Congress had not moved on immigration reforms "because they're playing political games.""

Clyde said...

1. The house press organ of the nomenklatura thinks that Kamala Harris is irrelevant. That tells you all you need to know.

2. Any job is 'thankless, unsolvable' if you take no action whatsoever to try to solve it. Kamala's role is to show up in public occasionally as a woman of color, and that's all she has been capable of doing. The fact that this cipher is a heartbeat or an invoking of the 25th Amendment away from being put in charge of the Executive Branch should scare the hell out of every American with an IQ above room temperature.

Wince said...

"Her name hasn't appeared in The Washington Post in 20 days."

Remember, Hillary will have to push both Joe and Kamala aside.

Ralph L said...

Kamala isn't really from SF, she's from Oakland.

Laslo Spatula said...

The LGBTQ community seems to be in every Venn diagram nowadays.

When it isn't the White Supremacists.

I am Laslo.

J Severs said...

I expect VP Harris meant to say something like “When you consider the people whose voting rights are under attack, the LGBTQ people who are under attack, and women (whose right to choose is under attack), the COMBINATION of these three groups would be a substantial number of voters.”

Lloyd W. Robertson said...

Building on tim maguire: Kamala or the person who briefed her must mean "the people": "the same people who ..."

So: the real reason anyone opposes all the quickie changes to voting rules in 2020 is racism/hatred of the previously disadvantaged; the real reason anyone denies there is a right to abortion in the Constitution is hatred of women and/or sexual freedom; LGB etc., much the same. The people in all three categories would be hard core Republicans or Trump voters. It might be a way to rally Dems and independents to say: "we have to fight on all three fronts."

Strange situation: the mere fact that Kamala is Veep means many people don't want Biden to die or leave office, at least until 2024.

Christopher B said...

"Harris said that the tragedy should prompt change, but also noted that political leaders need to act...

So what are the President and Vice-President if not "political leaders"? The border was under control on 20 January 2021. What changed, and how? What are she and (p)Resident Potato Head doing besides calling on other people to act? And last I checked, the people who are running Congress are in her political party.

Backhanded admission that neither she and (p)Resident Potato Head are in charge of a g-d thing.

Laslo Spatula said...

The overlap of White Supremacists and the LGBTQ community is a white trans-woman named Adolphina, possibly.

I am Laslo.

Beasts of England said...

"Harris said that the tragedy should prompt change, but also noted that political leaders need to act – and that Congress had not moved on immigration reforms "because they're playing political games."

Gravitas.

Kevin said...

The most important Venn diagram for Harris is: black, woman, and incapable of getting Joe removed by the 25th Amendment.

She’s performing flawlessly.

Laslo Spatula said...

Adolphina is tired of these cis POC immigrants: we need more trans-people from the Scandinavian counties.

I am Laslo.

exhelodrvr1 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Breezy said...

"Harris said that the tragedy should prompt change, but also noted that political leaders need to act – and that Congress had not moved on immigration reforms "because they're playing political games.""

What reason is there to reform immigration laws? The current ones are not being followed, so why would new ones be followed?

rastajenk said...

Curious George said...
"Would Jennifer Rubin like to revisit the notion that Kamala Harris finally found her moment and her message? I can't see that there's anything there." Of course not. It's like mother's milk to her readers


Who are her readers?

exhelodrvr1 said...

Control of the border was actually a "gimme" issue for her. It would have been simple to combine border security with legislation for increasing the number of legal immigrants. But she is simply too dense.

narciso said...

This is how little they think of african americans they keep her in. Becerra is what they think of hispanics

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Someone I know, has this book on his desk.

MartyH said...

"...that political leaders need to act – and that Congress had not moved on immigration reforms "because they're playing political games.""

Embrace the power of "I", Madam Vice President. The President appointed you to make progress on this very issue. Your party has complete control of the House. Schumer has brought several votes to the floor that he know he will lose. Are you pushing a bill? Working the phones to your former colleagues in the Senate? Negotiating a compromise on a particularly sticky issue?

Or did the President appoint you just to burnish your resume? Isn't that a political game?

Ampersand said...

Kamala is the poster child for the phrase:The less said the better.

Paddy O said...

Thanks for that quote. I'm pay walled from reading it all. She's right and makes me wonder how she would push more comprehensive policy if given the chance.

traditionalguy said...

She is a Pretend Vice President. Nobody takes her seriously. Maybe her problem is being heterosexual. She needs to marry a woman. That would make up for her lack of any real qualifications.

michaele said...

I was amused at Kamala's heavy dependence on the "w" word during her CNN interview about the Roe v. Wade decision. She thought about it "as a woman, as the daughter of a woman and as the granddaughter of a woman". Hmm, I wonder if she was being questioned as a Supreme Court nominee, she could define what a woman is.

n.n said...

Progressive pricing empowered by single/central/monopolistic solutions and sanctions without borders; World War Springs (WWS) including coups without borders, catastrophic anthropogenic immigration reform (CAIR); transgender spectrum (e.g. "LGBTQ") conversion therapy; diversity [dogma], inequity, and exclusion (DIE) doctrine; and performance of human rites under the Progressives' Pro-Choice ethical religion for social, redistributive, clinical, and fair weather causes. Wicked.

MartyH said...

Venn diagram this:

80% of Americans support voter ID.

80% of people think late term abortion should be banned.

Over 60% of Americans oppose trans men competing in Women's sports.

No, you really don't need a Venn diagram to see that she is on the wrong side of public opinion.

Michael said...

I think the Venn diagram circles were supposed to be the people who oppose (her view of) voting rights, reproductive justice, and gay rights, so the overlap is people who oppose all three. What they really oppose, of course, is Progressive over-reach, but her use of Venn diagrams is (oddly) correct.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

If the White House doesn't have something substantive in response to the Supreme Court decision, Kamala has to hide from this.

Hiding, challenges her real job as VP: to make the President look good. Especially on this issue. Her predicament is not so different from that of Pence, when Pence was in the White House, if you stop and think about it. Pence was under pressure to do something for Trump, Pence felt he could not do. And Kamala is (probably?) under pressure to make Biden do something Biden (or whoever is really in charge) do not seem prepared to want to do.

Scott Patton said...

"There is no daylight among us"
Another opportunity for an interesting Venn diagram.

n.n said...

Kamala "take a knee" Harris has as much viable concern about reproductive rites as Monica "smoke 'em" Lewinsky.

Pete said...

In Kamala's world, the people who think conservatives attack voter rights, are against the LGBTQ community or attack a woman's right to choose are all in the same circle, with 100% overlap.

Bob Boyd said...

I get the feeling somebody explained something to her using a Venn diagram

Yup. And she's clearly been traumatized. Let's give her a break. The poor woman was baffled in an active diagramming incident. Some staffer...seemed like a normal guy...kinda quiet...his white board had been legally acquired. But still, there were signs. Like, the guy would send people memes he thought were hilarious that nobody else got until he explained them and then they weren't funny anymore. He was a little too smart, if you know what I mean.
Where was her Secret Service detail? They should have put themselves bodily between the Vice President and this nut case as soon as he started drawing a third circle. Why did they wait to go in? And how did somebody intelligent get that close to the Vice President in the first place?

These high-capacity Venn diagrams are murder. Nobody needs 3 circles to make a point.
Enough is enough!

Howard said...

The DNC has fingered out that the best way to improve Kamala's brand is by keeping her out of the public spotlight.

Eric said...

So now WaPo is bringing up problems with Joe Biden and running a blackout on Kamala Harris. When will they reveal their pick?

n.n said...

The peculiar intersectionality exists with people... persons who oppose voting integrity, support politically congruent ("=") constructs, back DIE doctrine, indulge human rites, and conflate logical domains.

M Jordan said...

I read last week Kamala came out … as a Baptist. What?! Kamala’s a Baptist? She doesn’t seem very Baptist to me, the son of a Baptist preacher and nephew of seven Baptist preachers and a Baptist preacher’s grandson. My Baptist bonafides are quite strong though I left that denomination long ago.

So she’s a Baptist. Maybe she’s a Northern Baptist or some other liberal, smaller Baptist subset. At any rate, doesn’t she know Baptists are really, really uncool these days?

My point here, which I admit is only now becoming clear to me, is Kamala may be a slightly different person than I thought her to be.

That’s it. I’m done here.

MadTownGuy said...

From the post:

"It's "really interesting" — but what is in the overlap? As described, there isn't any overlap."

The overlap is the evil, evil, SCOTUS, and by association, Donald Trump. He's still living rent-free in her head.

Oh, and good to see you, Laslo Spatula!

Jamie said...

Side note: what on earth is "reproductive justice"? Not that "reproductive rights" had any meaning close to what the words might ordinarily be taken to mean, but what is "reproductive justice," in contrast with those "rights"?

On Harris: when a person says something is "interesting" without elaboration, I pretty much assume - based on several decades of evidence - they don't know anything about the thing but want to sound profound.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

"It is time for us to do what we have been doing. And that time is every day."

-Kamala Harris


A favorite Kamala quote.

Earnest Prole said...

Jen Rubin is a textbook Mediocre White Woman. Kamala Harris is a textbook Mediocre Woman of Color. Venn diagram that.

rastajenk said...

"A favorite Kamala quote."

It reinforces the significance of the passage of time.

Kevin said...

The circles representing "an attack on voter rights isn't also an against the LGBTQ community or an attack on a woman's right to choose" don't exist, because these things only exist in the imaginations of these people who have convinced themselves they are martyrs.

The venn diagrams for these things are not circles, they are therefore 1 dimensional dots, and by definition then cannot overlap

Skeptical Voter said...

Kamala Harris is out of her depth in the shallow end of the kiddie's pool. But it's nice to see that the WaPoo is getting around to ignoring her.

n.n said...

Jen Rubin is a textbook Mediocre White Woman

Woman (by Nature) of White (WOW)... it's a diversity [dogma] bloc and political congruence ("=") thing.

Eleanor said...

With so many really smart "women of color" out there, why do the Democrats look for the most vacuous ones they can find?

n.n said...

what is "reproductive justice

It's the fair and equitable resolution of the woman's chosen "burden" h/t Obama for social, redistributive, clinical, and fair weather causes.

gilbar said...

Bob Boyd said...
These high-capacity Venn diagrams are murder. Nobody needs 3 circles to make a point.
Enough is enough!

"The Constitution, from the day it was passed, limited the type of the people who could own a Graph [and] what type of chart you could own. You couldn’t buy a Venn diagram.”

Biden's RIGHT! *IF* people think they 'have to' use a graph; use a Pie Chart, like they did back then!

Gusty Winds said...

Things are SO BAD right now I'm almost looking forward to Biden stepping down just watch Harris the unprepared ascend to the throne. I'm sure the Chinese and Taiwan are watching too.
We're screwed with this administration for years anyway.

Might as well rip the band-aid off and just go for it. See how low we can go with Kamala Harris, 1/3rd of a Montel Williams threesome, as President.

The empty speak video clips alone would be worth it. Best part is...she doesn't seem to understand how bad she really is because any interviewer just swoons over her by obligation.

rcocean said...

A venn diagram with Jennifer Rubin, Kamala harris, and joe biden would show an overlap labeled "Stupid liars".

BTW, in case you forgot, Liberal Democrat Jen Rubin, pretended for about 10 years to be a conservative Republican and constantly advised that we had to beat those Goddamn Democrats whatever the cost, even if it mean nominating Liberal Republicans. We couldn't afford purity tests, and nominate Conservatives who might lose.



rcocean said...

talking about Venn diagrams shows you went to college and are a bad politican.

Tina Trent said...

You are Joe Biden's campaign manager.

You're panicking.

How are you going to find someone for VP who can make Joe Biden look competent?

Michael K said...

Blogger Howard said...

The DNC has fingered out that the best way to improve Kamala's brand is by keeping her out of the public spotlight.


The same was true, although less dramatic, with Obama. The less he said, the better his poll numbers were.

Interesting article about Kamala and Karen Bass, who was considered for VP by Biden's handlers. Bass is running for LA Mayor. She is a hard lefty but not as dumb as Kamala.

Michael K said...

Biden's RIGHT! *IF* people think they 'have to' use a graph; use a Pie Chart, like they did back then!

Pie charts were invented by Florence Nightingale in the Crimean War.

Tina Trent said...

Or, look, this is not the issue where we alienate white female suburban voters by using the word "intersectional."

J2 said...

Bob Boyd

gilbar

LOL - (for a long time or repeatedly)

wildswan said...

Bob Boyd said...
These high-capacity Venn diagrams are murder. Nobody needs 3 circles to make a point.
Enough is enough!

Have to disagree. Three circles in a Venn diagram don't make one point but six while Kamala talking about circles in a Venn diagram doesn't make even one point.

Richard Dolan said...

"It was really interesting, but I guess you had to be there."

So, Kamala's attempt at intersectionality gets an F from the professor. Sounds right.

There's one aspect of the Dobbs/Roe drama that I haven's seen explored anywhere. Assume for the moment that the Dems magically got to replace two justices in the Dobbs majority. Would a new, Dem-dominated court want to go back to the Roe/Casey regime, in which the Court had to constantly keep juggling the stream of cases from pro-life states testing the 'undue burden' standard? Part of what made the result in Dobbs understandable, quite apart from its compelling logic, and why the alternative being pushed by CJ Roberts was finding no takers, was that after 50 years there was just no buy-in to the notion that the body politic should accept that the abortion debate had been settled. The pro-life side came into existence because of Roe, and they never accepted the premise that state regulation of abortion presented any real federal constitutional issue at all -- they always saw it as just a judicial power play. So, better to just end the whole charade and send a disputed and highly divisive political issue back to the political branches.

I can see how and why Dem politicos need to bang the drum loudly about Dobbs, but I have a harder time seeing why a Dem-dominated court would want to get back into the abortion-regulation business. There's no textual basis for any constitutional standard limiting a state's power to regulate abortion, or any principled way to distinguish 'due' from 'undue' burdens. So what's the upside of getting back into that morass? If they wanted to strike a blow for their team, it's much easier seeing a Dem-dominated court taking aim at Heller and gun rights -- and for parallel reasons to the Dobbs/abortion situation. Like abortion prior to Roe/Casey, prior to Heller the issue of gun rights was left entirely to the political process, with very different regimes governing the issue in (say) NYC than in Idaho.

Narayanan said...

Kamala has been sent to Media basement! is stare decisis for any future D candidates :
just following Biden precedent [it takes time and effort to fit puppet strings]

Left Bank of the Charles said...

“It's "really interesting" — but what is in the overlap? As described, there isn't any overlap.”

An empty set? That would be interesting. I think she is getting at that women of color are in all three circles.

JAORE said...

"I get the feeling somebody explained something to her using a Venn diagram"
and all she took from the explanation is that there were several circles.

Mason G said...

"and all she took from the explanation is that there were several circles."

Count your blessings. She could have thought they were squares.

The Godfather said...

My "23-year-old daughter . . . is going to know fewer rights than my 80-something-year-old mother-in law". Not so. When the daughter was born in about 1994, she had no legal right to life until (at best) late in her gestation. The mother-in-law in contrast had a legally protected right to life until and then after her birth in around 1940.

Achilles said...

Eleanor said...

With so many really smart "women of color" out there, why do the Democrats look for the most vacuous ones they can find?

The most important qualification for any Democrat woman is that they enable and service the male predators that are the Democrat Men.

veni vidi vici said...

"Harris ... noted that political leaders need to act...."

PROFILES IN LEADERSHIP.

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

Kamala Harris is Vice President to a 79 year old President who has no chance of serving a second term, yet she fails to carry any authority whatever.

She went to a DNC fundraiser in Virginia, saw guests who wore no masks, and complained about it afterwards.

YOU ARE THE VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. Tell them to wear the masks!

Duck Cheney would have just entered the room with a mask and everyone would get the message, and if not he would make sure they did.

Everyone knows Kamala Harris won't lead America because she never has led anyone anywhere. She appeals to political leaders to do something when she is one! She even has a vote in the Senate. Yet she's helpless and has to beg and complain.