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To live freely in writing...
From the NYT article:
But with his television-ready presence, trial-lawyer training and a teaspoon of Appalachian drawl, Mr. Beshear appears ready and willing to take on another role: attack dog....
“JD Vance ain’t from here,” Mr. Beshear said this week on MSNBC, assailing the senator as an Ohio interloper....
Mr. Beshear kept it up later on CNN. “He claims to be from eastern Kentucky, tries to write a book about it to profit off our people, and then he calls us lazy,” he said of Mr. Vance, who has suggested that Mr. Beshear, the son of former Gov. Steve Beshear, owes his own success to nepotism. “This makes me angry.”
Kamala and Doug when they were young. pic.twitter.com/aclB5sl4gC
— Kimberley Johnson (@AuthorKimberley) July 26, 2024
Not that Ahab isn’t appalling and even, at times, criminal. So is Macbeth; so is Othello. But do we really want our works of the imagination to mirror our own best selves, responsible and even-tempered, doing our small part to make the world a better place?
Let me tell you what I really think. I don't have *any* inside info about this particular event. However, it is a fact that presidents have body doubles and decoys for security reasons. And, from a very reliable, firsthand source: To the extent our intel agencies (or whomever)… https://t.co/lAgeTIYQbm
— Sharyl Attkisson 🕵️♂️💼🥋 (@SharylAttkisson) July 26, 2024
It's obvious. Just look at the lineup (at WaPo):
"What was weird was [Vance] joking about racism today and then talking about diet Mountain Dew. Who drinks diet Mountain Dew? But in all seriousness, he ain't from here. He is not from Kentucky. This is a guy who would come maybe in the summers for some period of time, or to weddings or funerals."
Writes Nell — commenting on a TikTok video — and it's "extremely validating" to the man who was treated as though he'd done something hopelessly weird.
"... leaving her and her siblings to be cared for by their mother or by nannies even though Musk had joint custody, and she said Musk berated her when he was present. 'He was cold,' she said. 'He’s very quick to anger. He is uncaring and narcissistic.' Wilson said that, when she was a child, Musk would harass her for exhibiting feminine traits and pressure her to appear more masculine, including by pushing her to deepen her voice as early as elementary school. 'I was in fourth grade. We went on this road trip that I didn’t know was actually just an advertisement for one of the cars — I don’t remember which one — and he was constantly yelling at me viciously because my voice was too high,' she said. 'It was cruel.'... 'I would like to emphasize one thing: I am an adult. I am 20 years old. I am not a child,” she said. “My life should be defined by my own choices.'... 'He doesn’t know what I was like as a child because he quite simply wasn’t there.... And in the little time that he was I was relentlessly harassed for my femininity and queerness.'"
From "Elon Musk's transgender daughter, in first interview, says he berated her for being queer as a child/In an exclusive interview, Vivian Jenna Wilson said her father’s recent statements, including that she is 'not a girl,' inspired her to speak out: 'I’m not just gonna let that slide'" (NBC News).
Here's what Elon Musk said in that conversation with Jordan Peterson:"It happened to one of my older boys.... I was essentially tricked into signing documents for one of my older boys, Xavier. This is before I had really any understanding of what was going on.... I was told oh you know Xavier might commit suicide.... It wasn't explained to me that puberty blockers are actually just sterilization drugs... and so I lost my son essentially uh so you know they uh they call it dead naming for a reason.... the reason it's called dead naming is because uh your son is dead. So my son is dead, killed by the woke mind virus...."
It's hard to believe Elon Musk was "tricked into signing documents." Wilson doesn't believe Musk was tricked. You can see that Musk is very angry, and Wilson depicts Musk as a person who gets angry — "constantly yelling at me viciously." But this supports the position Jordan Peterson is taking, that there are deeper personal and family issues at play in these cases of transgenderism.
I thought the antagonism to "Kamala" was a bad idea, and I said so here.
But I switched to the "Harris" approach, as you can see in the previous post.
Then somebody asked me where I got the idea that to use the first name alone would make me look as though I were declaring my opposition to her. My aim is neutrality, cruel neutrality.
So I googled and found "'Harris' or 'Kamala'? Inside the debate over calling women by their first or last name/The vice president has enough support from delegates to assure her the Democratic nomination, but what name does Kamala Harris want to go by?" (Yahoo). Excerpt:
There's that "brat" crap again, with the fuzzy font and the intentionally repulsive green color.
I call her "Harris." I was going to call her "my girl Kamala" — because that's what Mrs. Obama calls her in that phone call — but the powers that be have warned us not to call her "Kamala" and of course you can't say "girl" — unless you can — and "my" is a terrible problem, perhaps insinuating a perverse sense of ownership. So I'll keep my distance. "Harris" is it. Don't harass me.Earlier this week, Michelle and I called our friend @KamalaHarris. We told her we think she’ll make a fantastic President of the United States, and that she has our full support. At this critical moment for our country, we’re going to do everything we can to make sure she wins in… pic.twitter.com/0UIS0doIbA
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) July 26, 2024
I mean, Sunday, I was still hearing from Democrats worried about Harris... And now, I mean, watching the party not just converge around her, but feel a real thrill around her, like really, really become passionate Harris stans, like watching the whole party fall outta the coconut tree and live unburdened by what has been, and only in the imagining of what could be. It's fun to watch Democrats have fun. They have not had fun in a long time. And it's also a good reminder that people don't know how something is gonna feel until it actually happens....
People talking about fun... enthusing This is fun... that's not a good marker of fun... whatever fun is....
I think of Zippy the Pinhead: "Are we having fun yet?"
And "And she'll have fun fun fun/'Til her daddy takes the T-bird away...."“I truly can’t believe this is coming from a potential VP of The United States,” actress Jennifer Aniston wrote Wednesday.... “Mr. Vance, I pray that your daughter is fortunate enough to bear children of her own one day.... I hope she will not need to turn to IVF as a second option. Because you are trying to take that away from her, too.”
That's the new episode of the "Advisory Opinions" podcast (audio and transcript, here).
Is the legal question too abstruse to think about? I'd say yes, but one thing jumped out at me. I'll put it in boldface:SARAH ISGUR: It definitely won't be resolved until well after the election if it's ever resolved at all... [And Harris either] gets $96 million in the Harris campaign [or]... $96 million in the DNC coffers to help the Harris campaign. And... probably this $96 million is just not make or break for the Harris team or for the Trump team to prevent the Harris team.
LAWPROF DEREK MUELLER: That's, that's probably right. Although I would point out, and this is the slightly cynical take —right? — you know, we, we do have a candidate running who, uh, was, uh, convicted of felonies for intentionally misrepresenting paperwork relating to campaign finance funds.
AND: The words, according to the transcript, are: "We’ve come so far since my inauguration. On that day, I told you as I stood in that winter — we stood in a winter of peril and a winter of possibilities, peril and possibilities." I listened to that repeatedly before reading the transcript and I listened after reading the transcript, and every single time I hear "winter apparel."OMG — 😂😂😂
— Catturd ™ (@catturd2) July 25, 2024
pic.twitter.com/QnDTNXeQIw
As someone who takes many pictures of watches...I took one look at the photo and thought something is amiss...
I don't care about Joe's watch collection but others seem to be and they claim he wears couple Omegas- a Seamaster and a Moonwatch and also a Rolex Datejust. The only one of these this watch could be is the blue dial Rolex Datejust. I believe moden Datejust has lumed sword style hands and the inset photo looks like dauphine or dagger hands- not the same. It looks 'off'...
I went to find high-res of the address video. I'm watching but it is hard to tell- lots of refraction caused by bright lights. I sometimes believe I see the absence of hands between the five and seven markers- no hour hand between the six and seven markers and sometimes think I see the time reads about five after eight early in the video...
I'll look some more but I put a place marker on fake...
Caption from Nick Dixon (at X): "Matt Walsh tricking Robin DiAngelo by slightly changing his hair has got me reassessing Clark Kent’s glasses."Matt Walsh tricking Robin DiAngelo by slightly changing his hair has got me reassessing Clark Kent’s glasses.
— Nick Dixon (@nickdixoncomic) July 24, 2024
pic.twitter.com/2rYnTxup1E
It appears that every historical monument in DC is being vandalized with no intervention from the police. pic.twitter.com/dQxKcW0NlS
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) July 24, 2024
Nate Silver writes, displaying a list of 9 polls, only one of which shows Harris ahead of Trump. One has the 2 candidates tied, and 7 show Trump leading. Trump is up by 8 in one, as Silver notes. He's up by 6 in two, by 4 in one, and by 2 in three.
Kevin Piette, paraplegic since an accident, made history today by carrying the Olympic flame with his exoskeleton! 💪
— Kevin W. (@Brink_Thinker) July 23, 2024
pic.twitter.com/oejQHQRAwG
The Lees are just one example of what a family of four can save thanks to the Biden-Harris Administration's actions to lower costs.
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) July 22, 2024
Head to https://t.co/MeAL17UoIM to see what your family can save on child care, grocery costs, and more. pic.twitter.com/5lpc4tm4kL
Remember "Life of Julia"?
“I do not want my calls for resignation to be a distraction from the great work each and every one of you do towards our vital mission,” Ms. Cheatle said in [email to the Secret Service], which was reviewed by The New York Times.
She was monumentally horrible at the hearing yesterday.
That was really tweeted by Joe Biden's official X account, last February 11th. Here's a screen shot, in case it disappears:Just like we drew it up. pic.twitter.com/9NBvc5nVZE
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) February 12, 2024
AND: Here's the entire conversation between Jordan Peterson and Elon Musk:So actually @elonmusk bought X not to “own the libs” but because of the infinite depth of his love for his son who was trans’ed by the left. To destroy what destroyed his son, even as his som rejects him. That’s… wow. That’s some kind of love.❤️
— Liz Wheeler (@Liz_Wheeler) July 23, 2024
pic.twitter.com/YKC7BmrTsV
My conversation with @elonmusk. Live today at 3pm ET. https://t.co/RyaZFmvC8i
— Dr Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) July 22, 2024
Less than a day after President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential campaign and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for the Democratic nomination, the Republican Jewish Coalition launched a series of tweets calling Harris “a total disaster for Israel” and “disgraceful,” falsely accusing her of refusing to condemn a Hamas supporter during a speaking engagement at a college.
Piling on, David Friedman, who served as ambassador to Israel in the Trump administration, wrote on X, “There is now the widest gap in American history between the two candidates’ support for Israel. Donald Trump is the best ever — Kamala Harris would be the worst.”...
There's also this from last April: "Emhoff calls Columbia University leaders amid campus unrest/White House side steps getting drawn in to the campus protests" (Politico).
“The Second Gentleman recognized that while every American has the right to freedom of speech and to protest peacefully, hate speech and calls for violence against Jews is both antisemitic and unacceptable,” said the official, who was granted anonymity to describe private conversations.
The well-orchestrated “palace coup” to stop the faltering president seeking re-election has been in place for weeks, but stubborn Biden fought against it every step of the way, a source close to the Biden family told The Post Monday. The insider also made clear the anger, paranoia and frustration Biden displayed as the party elite circled around him and piled on the pressure.
Paranoia? But they were out to get him. If only he'd been more "paranoid" when the set up that early debate. But he gave them the material to use against him, and they spent the next 3 weeks jacking up the pressure on the staunch old man, and it seems they were ready to go as far as necessary.
“That debate was a set-up to convince Democrats that he couldn’t run for president,” the source said Monday. As calls for him to bow out mounted, Biden insisted he would continue, but party bigwigs threatened to invoke the 25th Amendment to the US Constitution....
Following the debate, first son Hunter Biden suddenly became more involved in his father’s day-to-day business and insisted upon attending every official and unofficial meeting, the source said. “Hunter felt he [Joe Biden] was being set up and he was very concerned about his father,” the source said. “These people, these officials were not on Joe’s side.”...
Democratic Party insiders have also known for at least two years how Biden was in decline, said the source. “When I saw him a couple of years ago, it was frightening,” said the source. “He was just repeating slogans and had no idea who I was.”
They were out to get him, but only after he'd sewn up the nomination, excluding all challengers. Did the old man enjoy his seeming triumph, winning the nomination — a nomination that Kamala Harris would probably not have won, had Biden dropped out a year ago — before they grabbed it and handed it to Kamala?
Was the NY Post's source Hunter?
Glenn Reynolds quips darkly, linking to something I wrote earlier this morning.
ADDED: Speaking of evidence, Kamala Harris is a first hand witness:
"I am first hand witness that everyday, our president, Joe Biden, fights for the American people, and we are deeply, deeply grateful for his service to the nation."
She is quoted in "Harris: ‘We are deeply grateful’ for Biden’s service/Harris spoke on the South Lawn of the White House for a celebration of NCAA championship teams, filling in for Biden as he recovers from Covid" (Politico).
So she's filling in for him and simultaneously attesting to his daily work, his "fight" for us. The last time we saw him, he was fighting to keep his place as the nominee. KH is a "first hand witness," that is, we're stuck with hearsay.
I have a tag for the word "deeply," and she just said it twice in a row. She must really mean it.
AND: Here's the original post where "deeply" became a tag: "Deeply... it's such a poser word." That's from 2014. There, I made a list of earlier examples of the use of "deeply" in the blog archive. And look what's #1 on the list!
1. "Beauty is a system of power, deeply rooted, preceding all others, richly rewarded," wrote Garace Franke-Ruta, explaining "Why Obama's 'Best-Looking Attorney General' Comment Was a Gaffe."
Obama's 'Best-Looking Attorney General' was, of course, Kamala Harris.
And he repeated the idea this morning:It’s not over! Tomorrow Crooked Joe Biden’s going to wake up and forget that he dropped out of the race today!
It’s a new day and Joe Biden doesn’t remember quitting the race yesterday! He is demanding his campaign schedule and arranging talks with Presidents Xi of China, and Putin of Russia, concerning the possible start of World War 3. Biden is “sharp, decisive, energetic, angry, and ready to go!”
AI fashion show for world leaders 😂😂😂 #OccupyJKIA Muhoho Sodium Cyanide Joe Biden #Leak Michelle Obama New World Order pic.twitter.com/XRjkS4OfWG
— Derrick Shabatai (@DerrickShabz) July 22, 2024
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
After three weeks of often angry refusals to step aside, Mr. Biden finally yielded to a torrent of devastating polls, urgent pleas from Democratic lawmakers and clear signs that donors were no longer willing to pay for him to continue.
Mr. Biden’s decision abruptly ends one political crisis that began when the president delivered a calamitous debate performance against Mr. Trump on June 27. But for the Democratic Party, Mr. Biden’s withdrawal triggers a second crisis: who to replace him with, and specifically whether to rally around Vice President Kamala Harris or kick off a rapid effort to find someone else to be the party’s nominee.
My longstanding tag — "biden drops out" — has come true.
MORE: Will he be able to avoid the pressure to resign as President? From "Biden Drops Out of Race, Scrambling the Campaign for the White House/The president’s withdrawal under pressure from fellow Democrats after a disastrous debate cleared the way for a new nominee to take on former President Donald J. Trump in the fall" (NYT)(free-access link):I'm reading "To Sell Prized Paintings, a University Proclaims They’re Not ‘Conservative’/Valparaiso University is arguing it should never have acquired two paintings, including a Georgia O’Keeffe, in the 1960s. It hopes to sell them to pay for dorm renovations" (NYT)(free-access link).
The school bought the painting with money from a gift that restricted the purchase of art to work "exclusively by American artists preferably of American subjects' and "of the general character known as conservative and of any period of American art." Now that the school wants to sell the painting, it's saying the painting should never have been bought.Ann Althouse said... "The shower scene was creepy too and I'm not talking about the movie."
Read aloud and laughed over here at Meadhouse.7/21/24, 8:10 AM
IN THE COMMENTS: Jersey Fled said:Donald Trump roasts himself for his “severe comb-over” 🤣
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) July 20, 2024
“I looked up there I said ‘WOW’— look at that, wow. That’s like a work of art” pic.twitter.com/3RegJ7ZbCb
Would “Hitler” make fun of his mustache? I think not.
No one quite knows what the process of picking a new nominee would be if Joe Biden did step aside – but many Democrats say that any process is likelier than ever to quickly end with Vice President Kamala Harris as the nominee.
Many Democrats say!
The informal conversations about how a fight to replace Biden at the top of the ticket would play out have been raging for weeks behind the scenes. But uncertainty about the process has been so unclear it’s given multiple Democrats – even those with serious concerns about Biden – pause about coming out against the president’s candidacy, given that what comes next could be even messier.
“F**k it, I’m coconut pilled. I just want this to stop,” said one well-known Democratic operative, referring to the online meme that has taken off from an old video of the vice president telling a story of her mother saying, “You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?”
It's been so unclear that unclearness itself is causing clarity. You know how it is when you're engulfed in chaos, you get so confused and desperate that if there is one thing that you can see you rush headlong there. You're driving in dense fog, but you can see what looks like 2 taillights up ahead. Those 2 lights become your entire conception of the road and you drive forward with confidence.
You drive forward with the candidate you have, not the candidate you might want or wish to have at a later time.
Some are pushing for a fast and closed process, where delegates would bless the swap as part of their planned pre-convention virtual nomination plan....
Bless the swap, that says. Not bless the swamp.
The article continues:
Few can conceive of Biden stepping aside and not tapping his running mate to take over.
That's why he can't step aside!