I'm reading "Why is everyone talking about Kamala Harris and coconut trees? Ironic Kamala Harris meme-ing isn’t so ironic anymore," a Vox article from July 3rd, when KH was just coasting along in the background, shielded by the seeming candidate, Joe Biden. I don't really understand what was ever "ironic" about any of this.
I can understand her interest in being "unburdened by what has been," but she's stepping into the candidacy without having had to fight off rivals who offered new visions or even needing to present anything of her own.Four straight minutes of “what can be, unburdened by what has been.” It’s incredible. I had no idea she used it this much. pic.twitter.com/TClfC1EyH6
— John Cooper (@thejcoop) June 29, 2024
Unlike Mr. Biden, Ms. Whitmer is, in her telling, twinkle-toed on a debate stage. In a chapter called “Happy Warrior,” she writes about going up against her Republican opponent for governor in 2018, knocking him off balance by being “loose and funny,” and feeling that she “won that debate before it even started.”
Unlike Mr. Biden, Ms. Whitmer’s cultural touchstones are not those of the Silent Generation. She cites Gen X jams by Alanis Morissette, Eminem and Pearl Jam in a list of her favorite songs....
I'm glad — pleased as punch — that the name Alanis Morissette popped up. I almost fell victim to the intellectual conventional of saying her name whenever there's any discussion of the meaning of "ironic." I controlled the urge, and for that, I'm ever so slightly proud of myself, but probably not as proud as a Michigan governor writing a book about herself and "cit[ing] jams by Alanis Morissette, Eminem and Pearl Jam."
I don't know if she called her song choices "jams" and writes with the awkwardness of "jams by... Pearl Jam." That's the writing of Shawn McCreesh at the NYT, and I'm giving him a pass because: 1. I like the name Shawn McCreesh, 2. Maybe it wasn't an oversight but deliberate humor, and 3. His other writings look interesting....
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96 comments:
Call it “ironic” to avoid acknowledging it was critical.
If Barack used that “unburdened” line, he’d be praised. It’s sexism. Seriously.
As the first female, Black, and South Asian vice president, Harris was always doomed to receive an extraordinary amount of scrutiny and bias
Bullshit. She was scrutinized the same way all the other candidates were scrutinized. One of the skills some voters like to see in a candidate is the ability to communicate clearly and effectively. She struggles to string subject and predicate together. She failed.
…now were expected to accept the idea one prop is as just as good another.
First sex worker President.
I can be an awkward communicator (ask my wife), Harris is NOT that, she is a hot mess of words she means to say, words she does NOT mean to say, words she heard someone else say at some point in time, and words she had left over from stuff she tried to say earlier and threw them in so that they would get the chance to be used as well.
In addition to [what the press will immediately start calling] her speech impediment, she seems to have the mental acuity of a 7 year old hopped up on Adderall.
She is the definition of "failing up". God help this country if she wins.
The BIG question un-asked is, if Joe is not up to a re-election campaign, how in the hell is he up to the position of POTUS? He should resign yesterday. Congress should 25th him if he does not. If he says POTUS, the DNC and Biden administration are saying that running for re-election to POTUS is more taxing then BEING POTUS. The ONLY way that is true is if he is actually not in charge. This is them admitting this to anyone paying attention, which pretty much rules out the DNC, press, liberals, Democrats, etc.
Also shouldn't all the registered Democrats get a do-over? Shouldn't their votes count? What about protecting "my democracy"? They just disenfranchised every Democrat voter that was involved in the primary. Isn't that smell a bit too insurectiony?
Unburdened by what it is, what it was, or what it will be.
Get on teh Electric School Bus!
I am sure the Trump campaign has a treasure trove of opposition research on Harris and her husband. It will be interesting to how the info is doled out. My guess is that they wait until after the Democrat’s convention.
Her staff hasn't seemed to see her as joyful.
Let's call this thing exactly what it is
(What it is, what it is, what it is)
It's funky and low down dirty (What it is)
Say the peeps from left to right (What it is)
What it is is they might be doing (What it is)
This funky coup all night
Oh (Wave your hands up in the air)
Oh (Wave ‘em ‘round like you just don’t care)
Oh (What fun to take this ride)
(This country will only slide)
h/t Urethra Franklin
If you thought the gaslighting around Biden was bad just wait, it will have to go into overdrive to keep up with this half whit
This is a bald admission that Biden/Harris cheated during the campaign to date. The 14 million votes don’t mean anything because they are the consequence of fraud which is now being unmasked. Those voters are not being disenfranchised, they are being allowed to correct their fraud-induced error.
This is the principled explanation of the fraud by those who carried out the fraud.
"As the first female, Black, and South Asian vice president, Harris was always doomed to receive an extraordinary amount of scrutiny and bias"
This completely ignores the fact that well before she was VP or even part of the ticket voters found her to be totally unacceptable. Democrat voters.
Biden was trailing because of immigration and cost of living. He made it worse because of his perceived (now confirmed) senility. Harris still has those two issues, so although she isn't perceived as too old, she won't have an easy path, despite all the likely enthusiasm of the media and donors.
How do you think the Presidential debate will go, if Trump is as disciplined as he has become?
“It is ironic that Biden turned out to have dementia when he was criticized for having it.”
Am I ready for a job at Vox?
They can’t quit you, babe
So you’ll have to be the clown
For a while
an incompetent awkward hire.. that was pick EXCLUSIVELY because of her minority status..
THAT is WHO WE WANT as leader of our country!!! the cocksucking is just a plus!!
"an awkward communicator...."
Because she is insecure. Give her props for being aware of her limitations.
"to combat some of those stereotypes"
You mean, like, Condoleezza Rice? Like, an actual academic with actual talent who had actual thoughts?
"delivers many of these lines in a genuinely funny way"
It's remarkable, isn't it, how easily they move from Joe sharp as a tack to Kamala genuinely funny. They are so unselfaware that they don't catch the irony in the irony claim. But they can afford to: progs still control most of the means of propaganda.
The guy who played the President on television has been written out of the script, and now they have to re-cast the role. It's handy that he had an understudy.
Those who are unburdened by the past are doomed to repeat it.
The Democratic voters looked her over in the 2020 primary season and could not even muster enough votes among them to push her to Iowa. She dropped out of that primary first, with less than 1% of Democrats desiring to see more of her, before Iowa even happened.
And for that was promptly rewarded with the Vice Presidency, and now the Presidency of the nation because of, and I quote Konstantin Kisin here, "...because she had a vagina of color."
Tell me where I'm wrong. And explain to me how this is a qualification to run a shoe store, let alone the world.
Unburdened by what needs to be.
Harris presents as a stereotypical pretty woman who has coasted on merely her good looks and feminine charms, rather than by the outcomes of her character, intelligence, and achievements. In a normal world, she would be a perfume lady at Saks, spritzing folks as they entire the store, or the makeup saleswoman at Bloomingdale's, hawking the high-priced foundations and moisturizers. The woman has ZERO gravitas.
In many many ways, Harris presents herself as more "empty-suit" stge-figure than Biden on his worst day. The Bidens must be furious to find Joe replaced by his mediocre VP, by what was supposed to be a surefire insurance policy against premature replacement.
Expect Biden to step down from presidency before Aug 5. Hoping, likely in vain, that AWFLs can see through Mamala Kamala, and insist upon a female candidate with more serious credibility and statesman-like presentation, like Hillary, their gold-plated pussy-hatted standard bearer. Hillary must be wailing away at home in Chappaqua, because she's perhaps now been robbed of her "first female president" destiny.
As the first female, Black, and South Asian vice president, Harris was always doomed to receive an extraordinary amount of scrutiny and bias
Was she though?
Did Condoleeza Rice (admittedly not South Asian, so maybe this is why...?) receive an extraordinary amount of scrutiny and bias when she became National Security Advisor and then Secretary of State, oh so long ago? I mean, the Democrats thought she looked like a dominatrix when she wore Those Boots, but did her work come under unusual fire?
Maybe all we needed was for the first female, Black, and South Asian vice president to show some evidence of competence.
By the way... have we had any red-haired lefties yet? I know Jefferson had red hair and I think he was ambidextrous, but true lefties? Just to round out the diversity database, you know.
Bill O’Reilly offers this strategic advice to Republicans.
Don’t try to force Biden out of office now. You’ll give Harris 4 months in office, with a completely sold out media supporting her, to fabricate the story that she’s competent.
Unburdened, huh. Et tu, Kamala?
Kamala Harris ia a "California Gurl" (as in Katy Perry, not the Beach Boys):
California girls
We're unforgettable
Daisy dukes
Bikinis on top
Sun-kissed skin
So hot
We'll melt your popsicle
Ooh oh ooh
Ooh oh ooh
The idea of not being burdened by the past, that sounds like "Today is the first day of the rest of your life" and that kind of pop philosophy that shows up on posters or used to anyway.
This is really on James Clyburn, he's the one who bargained with Biden that in return for getting him the win in the SC primary in 2020, Biden would name a black woman his VP. All the chickie chicks coming home to roost now.
She laughs and smiles way too much. Like Hillary.
Is it some kind of nervous cope? An RBF coverup? I've got the same problem but when you over compensate people just think you're stupid.
Let that bitch face fly!
Don’t forget about the Venn diagrams. She loves Venn diagrams.
"an awkward communicator...."
One way to say she's just not very smart, or drunk.
The author of that piece went to college. He doesn’t know what irony is. The jokes write themselves people.
C’mon blogger, it’s just the Archies
"If Barack used that “unburdened” line, he’d be praised. It’s sexism. Seriously."
It's not that she used it, it's that she used it 100 different times. If she'd only used it once, it would be far down the list of her most cringe-inducing lines. It's actually a coherent thought, as compared to the word salads she's famous for. But repeating it endlessly shows that she's actually thinks it's a brilliant turn of phrase.
James and Bobby Purify sang it in 1966...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tyvn3QR7BRk
I never knew that vapidity was so richly nuanced.
Live!
Laugh!
Love!
Life - Louis Cole and the Metropole Orchestra
Yummy yummy yummy
She got love in her tummy
Bill O’Reilly offers this strategic advice to Republicans
The erroneous assumption in this advice is the voters will have a say in the outcome of the election. The plan is to install her not just as the candidate but as the new de facto president, same as the old de facto president…
As the first female, Black, and South Asian vice president, Harris was always doomed to receive an extraordinary amount of scrutiny and bias...
Dan Quayle was scrutinized relentlessly. I don't think he was a dumb as he was portrayed, but certainly not an impressive guy.
Kamala is a ding bat. Doesn't matter that she's the "first, female, Black, and South Asian vice-president."
Having processed all of this for a day, I'm come to conclude that it kinda stinks. Harris has not earned her place at the head of a major party ticket in any way. I dislike coronations.
I find it ironic how the writer (and editor) use "ironic", at least per their meaning of "ironic".
"As the first female, Black, and South Asian vice president, Harris was always doomed to receive an extraordinary amount of scrutiny and bias”
Of course the only reason she was selected as Biden’s running mate is that she is female, black, and South Asian.
Huh. I never knew the yummy yummy yummy song was about blow jobs! Learn something new every day.
Kamala should pick the Hauk touie girl as her running mate.
"What has been unBidended by what has been Biden". Now it makes sense.
"Waiting for her 3rd great revelation that synthesizes these two."
The above line made me think in a bit of a tangent. There was the crazy Aaron Sorkin idea, of nominating Mitt Romney--which was so asinine, even Sorkin has disavowed it. The opposite, idea is to just go with the flow and anoint Harris. Isn't the synthesis of these two ideas, RFK Jr? He'd be a lot more palatable than a kind-of Republican, but a clean-slate Democrat, critical of the Biden administration.
it goes better with Bongo Drums,
Well, she got her wish: she is at last now unburdened by that has-been Biden.
"Yummy yummy yummy
She got love in her tummy"
Didn't Ron Brown say she had the love in her mouth instead of her tummy? Are you saying she is a swallower?
...an awkward communicator...
Which is hilarious because that was always the major objection so many Lefties I've known had about Bush the Younger and Trump. They didn't sound Presidential.
And B. Hussein Obama was soooo much more articulate.
I didn't know people had taken to calling Kamala Harris a "joyful warrior,"
@Althouse, that might be because they haven’t. I am pretty certain Christian Paz made that up for this article. It’s not as though Vox is noted for its honest reporting.
Her "communication style" really worked for Willie Brown though. Her communication style was far superior to the other qualified female applicants that tried harder in law school.
Happy Warrior? More like Mister Happy Warrior.
JSM
so close. maybe just one or two more workshopping sessions, getting that syllable emphasis and those pregnant pauses just perfect and this 'be...unburdened...was' quip is sure to take off.
ts almost like obama's: 'we are the change we've been waiting for'
God help us!!
I know someone who will vote for Kamala just because she has a vagina. “It’s about time we have a woman president!”
Ugh.
Apparently what can be is you can raise your right arm, bent at the elbow, with the hand in the oath taking position, while what has been is your extending your left arm horizontally.
It's the varying inflections and rhythm of the stupid sentence that is so annoying.
She changes to pretend she is saying something new. It's just braindead.
My Looney libtard college professor AI robotics startup entrepreneur son who lives and works in Cambridge Massachusetts sent me a selfie this morning wearing a Harris 2024 t-shirt. Since I won the first $100 bet with him of Trump beating Biden, he now wants to double down on the Harris race. Like taking candy from a baby.
💪🤣🤙
Say what you want about Kamala, the cheese is still on her cracker. It's a pretty thin slice, but it's still there.
I guess women are supposed to support women who slept their way to the top. Says something, I think, but does it say it about all women? Democrat women? Democrat men who are fundamentally clueless about women?
Can the prefix "un-" modify an entire clause? Or does it only modify the rest of the word?
"Unburdened by ..." uses the former and that's part of why the phrase sounds so laughably awkward. It required some thought for me to decode what she was saying.
The latter rule would lead to "Unburdened of ..."
Well, now we know what Brown did for Kamala.
You'd think that IF Kamala was a capable person her team would have her host a press conference with open to all questioning. Successfully doing so would halt the memes and videos of her as an idiot. It would halt most of the jostling to be the D candidate. It would enthuse and solidify the party. Perhaps one could say she would then be unburdened by what has been....
Chances of that are zero.
Her team knows. The other Dems know. But they are in such a box that they do not dare expose her further.
The ironic part of VP Harris being tethered to the "...unburdened by what has been" quote is that her Presidential campaign will most certainly be burdened by her past role as Border Czar, as well as her dropping out of the Presidential Primary before any votes were cast in 2020.
It’s difficult to argue with incomprehensibility.
Trumps best response in a debate setting would be to stare at her wide eyed and simply say “I got nothing”.
Of course he won’t.
"awkward communicator"
That's the new stutter I guess.
Nikki Haley is also female, south Asian and black. She speaks coherently, and she hates Trump. Why don't Democrats nominate her for the presidency?
From the post:
"I didn't know people had taken to calling Kamala Harris a "joyful warrior..."
One meme on X is that her cackle proves she can laugh, proving that she's joyful. Here's one:
Laurin Manning Gandy @laurinnmanning
"I keep thinking about how Trump drags @KamalaHarris for her laugh. “Laffin Kamala.” I hope she embraces that moniker. Keep smiling and deploying that big, contagious laugh. Her joy is a beautiful contrast to Trump’s negativity. It is an asset, not a liability."
I've seen similar comments over that last few days. The memo has gone out.
"I keep thinking about how Trump drags @KamalaHarris for her laugh. “Laffin Kamala.” I hope she embraces that moniker. Keep smiling and deploying that big, contagious laugh. Her joy is a beautiful contrast to Trump’s negativity. It is an asset, not a liability."
You only believe Trump represents negativity if you get ALL your news from the mainstream liars AND you never ever watch the actual guy do his thing. He talks about Joy and Love far more than any Democrat (other than maybe Marianne the space cadet). And Kamala's kackle is NOT jotful. Far from it. It's filler material when her brain freezes and sometimes sounds like nervous laughter adopted as a form of shield against having to finish an interview. No one who's with her ever laughs with her. Think about that. It's creepy and cringy at the same time. It's fresh because I heard a solid half-hour of her "best" moments this morning compiled by Duane Patterson.
She sure can stay on message, always a plus in politics.
Fresh on my mind, I mean.
As the first female, Black, and South Asian vice president, Harris was always doomed to receive an extraordinary amount of scrutiny and bias
There's only been 47 US Presidents over close to 250 years. There's 330 million Americans, and only one of them gets to be President at a time.
There's no such thing as "an extraordinary amount of scrutiny" for that job, there's only "an extraordinary amount of whitewashing".
The cultural expectation of "South Asians" is that they are smart and hard working. So Harris had that going for her, until she came into office and proved to be a lazy idiot.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10277113/Even-aides-Kamala-Harris-eyeing-exits-new-report-reveals.html
Kamala Harris is branded a ‘bully’ and accused of inflicting ‘constant, soul-destroying criticism’ on staff by ex-aides who claim she refused to read briefings, then scolded them if she was slated for being unprepared as 'FOUR' staffers head for the exit
Published: 09:43 EDT, 5 December 2021 | Updated: 21:00 EDT, 22 December 2021
She sure can stay on message,
WTF are you smoking? She can't even find the message, much less stay "on" it. Unless you mean that fake-laughing hysterically is the message.
Okay then. Maybe it is. She did spend months also telling us how sharp and engaged and "very much alive" and alert Joe is.
Party members are not warriors, they're terrorists. "Happy Fascists" would be more fitting.
"But her new book, 'True Gretch,' is full of details keeping the chatter alive"
Another reason to dread her candidacy; We wouldn't have to call her 'Gretch', would we?
"She sure can stay on message, always a plus in politics."
I guess, if the message is coconuts.
Her stint was very remarkable in making sure to condemn those "white MAGA lynchings" that victimized poor Jussie Smollet.
Meet Kamala's Holistic Thought Advisor.
Kamala's problem with speeches is that she tries to make too many things seem profound that are really just ordinary or perhaps merely important. She comes off like some sophomore in High School who is following a speech rubric which includes a bullet point that says something like, "Your Speech Must Have a Passage That Deeply Moves the Audience!" And it is not just her propensity to attempt this, but also the manner in which she does this. Her cadence and inflections seem intentional, practiced, and noticeable, but not in a good way. She over-acts in her delivery in a manner which, again, comes off like a High School sophomore.
America is in a dangerous place right now, both domestically and worldwide. There's an obvious power vacuum at the "top" with many competing factions vying for the "ring" of power.
Apparently, Kamala has said today that she doesn't want to be handed the nomination - she wants to
earn it
The Vault Dweller said...
Kamala's problem with speeches is that she tries to make too many things seem profound that are really just ordinary or perhaps merely important. She comes off like some sophomore in High School
I think she sounds more like some sophomore in college who just took her first bong hit, and is not babbling about all teh "profound" things in her "mind"
Levi Starks said...
It’s difficult to argue with incomprehensibility.
Trumps best response in a debate setting would be to stare at her wide eyed and simply say “I got nothing”.
Of course he won’t.
Did you not watch any of the Trump - Biden debate?
After an immigration question, Jake asked Trump if he had a response. Trump said something along the lines of "I have no idea what he just said, and I don't think he does, either. So I have no response"
It was pretty much his most crushing line of the evening. I'm sure he'll be more than happy to use it against Kamala, too
Shouting Thomas said...
Bill O’Reilly offers this strategic advice to Republicans.
Don’t try to force Biden out of office now. You’ll give Harris 4 months in office, with a completely sold out media supporting her, to fabricate the story that she’s competent.
As usual, Bill O’Reilly is an idiot.
1: The nation is unsafe with Joe at the helm, and has been. By pushing to dump him now, it lets teh GOP attack Kamala for her part in the cover-up that kept him there so long. Politically, this is good
2: The nation is unsafe with Joe at the helm. Practically, pushing to make America better off is the right thing to do
3: Kamala Harris is a lazy, stupid, incompetent f*ckup. Going her the power of the President will make that apparent.
The press can do much better cover-ups when the person they're pushing doesn't actually have to do anything. Putting Harris in teh position where she has to actually be President, not just run for it, makes the protection much harder to pull off.
It also removes her tie-breaking vote as VP. Which then means that any one Dem Senator refusing to support something for the next 6 months kills it.
Which is helpful, when several of them are up for re-election.
Well, as my favorite blogress explained years ago:
"See, whatever happens can be said to have happened for the reason you've already reasoned is the reason for whatever happens to have happened. "
THROATUS!
Greg the Class Traitor said...
The cultural expectation of "South Asians" is that they are smart and hard working. So Harris had that going for her, until she came into office and proved to be a lazy idiot."
If you have to choose between two idiots, a lazy one and a diligent one, the lazy one will do a lot less harm. A smart person is win-win, the lazy one will do some good things, the diligent one will do lots of good things.
https://nypost.com/2024/07/22/us-news/kamala-harris-encourages-crowd-to-applaud-biden-in-awkward-first-remarks-on-presidents-retirement-you-may-clap/
“Joe Biden’s legacy of accomplishment over the past three years is unmatched in modern history. In one term, he has already …,” Harris said in a speech on the White House South Lawn, before stopping mid-sentence to add, “Yes, you may clap.”
Harris delivered her trademark laugh — often described by detractors as a cackle — while pausing at the event honoring the men’s and women’s NCAA championship teams.
Since nobody really pays any attention to the VP, I think a lot of people are going to be taken aback when they learn just how clueless she really is.
1) This is a difficult age for ALL politicians. Your speech writers come up with a "good phrase", and if you use it only 50 or 60 times, the internet mocks you for doing so. Imagine how hard KH's writers had to work to develop those eight (count them) words: “What can be, unburdened by what has been.”.
2) In contrast, we know from history that Lincoln himself wrote his Gettysburg Address on the train from DC to Pennsylvania -- he didn't have ghost-writers to pay or mollify. Luck guy! And so, to the best of my knowledge, Lincoln never re-used any part of the Gettysburg Address in later speeches.
3) I understand what "a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal" means. Can anyone tell me what “What can be, unburdened by what has been” means?
There has been a lot of Trump-positive postings on this blog the past few weeks. Probably because Biden showed himself to be so brain dead.
But now the Dems have a colored lady, promising an abortion in every pot. So althouse can return to the fold, along with the rest of the AWFLs, and cancel her husband's vote.
"Can anyone tell me what “What can be, unburdened by what has been” means?"
It means whatever you want it to mean. Cool, huh?
"Can anyone tell me what “What can be, unburdened by what has been” means?"
It means quit whining about how tough your ancestors had it, those days are long gone.
This is America, you have equal opportunity to be the best you can be.
“Awkward communicator”?
The Swedish chef on The Muppets was an awkward communicator. She’s just stupid.
I saw Humphrey speak when I was a teenager. He really was a happy warrior. Even then I was a conservative but I couldn’t help but like him.
I remember to this day what he said. After going on about how wonderful the government is he said “Programs, programs, programs! Some of them work, some of them don’t, but they all help people!”.
This was nonessential to me, but he clearly believed it, and I liked him.
"Can anyone tell me what “What can be, unburdened by what has been” means?"
It means "I am a Marxist who wants to take the world to Year Zero and start all over again."
Just like the Khmer Rouge did
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