The classic "Fear and" title is "Fear and Loathing," but somehow, in these days of loathing, we've got "Fear and Joy."

I'm so skeptical... as I'm reading "Fear and Joy in Chicago/The excitement that radiated through the Democratic National Convention was the other side of what had until recently been a deep despair" by Fintan O'Toole (NYRB).

[T]he Democrats in Chicago were singing a redemption song. It had three parts: valediction, malediction, and benediction....

Having taken a break to listen to "Redemption Song" (see below), I will concentrate on the malediction:

[B]ad-mouthing Trump at a Democratic convention is not that hard. Yet it too had its complications. Just as the Democrats had to navigate between loving Joe and giving him a jubilant cheerio, they had to figure out how to manage another contradictory feat: cutting Trump down to size while retaining a clear sense of the threat he poses to the very existence of the American republic...

They seemed — to O'Toole — to be trying "to reconfigure Trump as the Wizard of Oz, a little man who has conjured an illusion of MAGA magnitude." 

Even the renegade Republican Adam Kinzinger was entirely on message when he called Trump “a weak man pretending to be strong. He is a small man pretending to be big…. He puts on quite a show, but there is no real strength there.”

I add my favorite blog tag, "big and small." 

"Speculation was rampant over the past few days that the 32-time Grammy winner would appear at the convention... But the final speaker of the night, Harris, was followed by 100,000 balloons..."

"... and a piped-in recording of Beyoncé’s 'Freedom,' a song the Harris campaign has been using in campaign ads and videos that aired throughout the event.... Columnist Laura Bassett mused: 'teasing a huge surprise guest and leaking that it’s both beyonce and taylor swift just to get people to tune in is actually kind of funny.' In fairness, it wouldn’t have been out of the question. In 2020, Beyoncé seemed to endorse President Joe Biden and Harris: On the eve of the election, she called for Texas residents to vote via an Instagram clip that showed her wearing a Biden-Harris mask...."

From "Beyoncé at the DNC? It wasn’t to Bey. Speculation was rampant that the 'Freedom' singer would make a surprise appearance. She never materialized" (WaPo).

I was trying to picture "a Biden-Harris mask," and thinking of one of those rubbery Halloween things with celebrity facial features and finding it weird that Beyoncé would disguise herself like that. Somehow, Covid had slipped my mind:

 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Beyoncé (@beyonce)

It's a bad move to trick people into staying tuned and then denying them what they thought they'd get, but I'm glad there was so little use of pop-culture celebrities. I was picturing one celeb after another, but I don't think they did that. I watched very little of the convention, but I got the impression that the Democrats went in the opposite direction and kept filling the stage with clusters of relatively ordinary people who exemplified one issue or another. That's good, though not enough for me to watch. 

I didn't watch the Kamala Harris convention speech — way too late for me — but how can I catch up now?

When things are happening live, you sit through them as they happen, including long breaks, such as the one that impelled me to switch off the TV last night. The stage was empty, music was playing, the conventioneers were waving American flags, and the voice-over commentators were enthusing inanely about how wonderful it was to see such a large crowd waving flags. 

I knew that in the morning, all the speeches would be on YouTube, but when you have recorded speeches, are you really going to watch them through? I'd like to, just so I could write about the effect. Did Kamala do what she needed to do with this speech? We went for a long walk yesterday, and one topic was predicting how well the speech would go. I had a scale from 1 to 100 — 1 being the worst possible speech and 100 the best possible. Think of the absurdities. 50 was just: She did what she needed to do, nothing wrong, nothing special. Meade predicted 51, and I took the "under" bet. 

So there's a vague need to figure out where she did on my scale. I've skimmed the headlines and the text of the speech, but I'm disinclined to watch the whole YouTube. Can I just rely on Mickey Kaus?

Haven't read anyone else's comments on Kamala speech. Here are mine: 

High point: "out of their minds" 

Other effective themes: Caring for one another, non-Dem outreach, Project 2025 attacks (however disingenuous); not a series of ethnic or interest group panders--represents broad American interest. 

Low points: All that family stuff, all the furrow-browed pleading ( joy?), general blandness of text; oratorical Olestra. 

Bottom line: Job of speech was to make her plausibly presidential. Mission not accomplished. I doubt this will hurt her campaign but a big missed opportunity. Hollywood trainers could not transform her (which is kind of reassuring).

ADDED: The "out of their minds" bit was this:

And get this. Get this. He plans to create a national anti-abortion coordinator, and force states to report on women’s miscarriages and abortions. Simply put, they are out of their minds. And one must ask — one must ask, why exactly is it that they don’t trust women? Well, we trust women. We trust women.

Language tip: It's better to say "They are out of their mind," singular, because each person only has one mind. 

The use of children in politics.

Tim Walz is under fire for aggressively pulling his son Gus Walz’s arm on stage at the Democratic National Convention.

The incident was apparently filmed on the third day of the event (Wednesday), the same day Walz gave his speech.

Gus is 17-years-old and reportedly has a… pic.twitter.com/5yMWpgy8Ur

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) August 23, 2024

 

Tim Walz's son Gus is 17. We were discussing him yesterday in "Simply having a neurodivergent son is not enough reason for [Tim Walz] to be praised..." 

Yesterday's post title is a quote from an MSNBC article that goes on to say "what makes the Walz family’s story so reassuring is that they seem to want to help Gus live a good life rather than change who he is." I hope that is what they want. But if we're going to talk about what "they seem to want," then we have to contemplate the way Tim Walz — who's being held out as some sort of Dad for All of Us — yanked the boy into place on the stage. But let's talk about all the children who were — conspicuously or not — yanked onto that stage — or any stage.

It's been bothering me for a long time. I've had a tag — "using children in politics" — to collect the many stories over the years. 

ADDED:

This deceptive clip is going viral on right-wing media for supposedly showing Walz “abusing his son” by grabbing his hand & pulling him. In the 2nd clip, I show that he was pulling his son away from smashing his head into the teleprompter, which his daughter has to walk around. pic.twitter.com/EUE2AH5UdK

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) August 23, 2024

Oh, no.

That happened at the Democratic National Convention last night. Some kind of Minnesota = Prince = Tim Walz concept. 

I was starting to think why not Bob Dylan, but the answer is clear: Dylan lives. Prince isn't around to object to this travesty.

Replete with cheeseheads and "Jump Around"...

Wisconsin weighed in at the convention:

I don't know why Governor Tony Evers had such trouble getting the words out, but what does it matter? The votes were cast, and the votes were not real anyway.

Nice to see Ben Wikler by his side.

As for the convention in general, no, I did not watch. Maybe I'll take a look at the Obamas speeches on YouTube... or just look at the transcripts... count how many times they said "hope" or something.

ADDED: I scrolled right to Wisconsin and felt good about hearing "Jump Around," but I see that all the states got their popular song. Here's a full list. Because they went in alphabetical order, Alabama was first, and the song is a song that used to make lefties cringe: "Sweet Home Alabama."

In my mind, I'm going to the Democratic Convention/Can't you see the sunshine/Can't you just feel the moonshine/Ain't it just like a friend of mine/To defenestrate Joe Biden....

"Women are not without electrical power."

Women aren't without what? pic.twitter.com/MZVeVK6DxN

— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) August 20, 2024

President Biden was attempting to reference this passage in the Dobbs opinion, which took abortion out of the realm of individual rights and put it in play in the political processes:

Our decision returns the issue of abortion to those legislative bodies, and it allows women on both sides of the abortion issue to seek to affect the legislative process by influencing public opinion, lobbying legislators, voting, and running for office. Women are not without electoral or political power. It is noteworthy that the percentage of women who register to vote and cast ballots is consistently higher than the percentage of men who do so. In the last election in November 2020, women, who make up around 51.5 percent of the population of Mississippi, constituted 55.5 percent of the voters who cast ballots.

Biden was making a good point but garbled it badly. He went on to say: 

Women are not without electoral power or political power — no kidding. Republicans found out the power of women in 2022, and Trump is going to find out the power of women in 2024.

A very well-written line that had a hard time traveling from Teleprompter to vocalization. 

By the way, Biden has found out the power of women in 2024. Nancy... Kamala... they ousted him.

At the Democratic convention, as Hillary beams, the crowd chants "Lock him up!"

I'd fallen asleep by then, because it was my bedtime and because I'd already watched a bunch of speeches. As I texted to my son, "I can't just be watching some coach." 

But this morning I was reading "'There Was a Whole Lot of Sass for a Gathering of Democrats': The Best and Worst Moments From Night 1 of the Convention" (full access link), with the NYT opinion writers giving individual opinions on concise topics, and, asked what was the worst moment, Charles M. Blow said, "It dragged on too long — and the unfortunate image of delegates chanting 'Lock him up' from the convention floor."

So I'm watching — and sharing — the relevant clip. Hillary looks great and seems to be doing what needs to be done, at least in that minute. I wonder what Blow thinks is so "unfortunate" about the delegates chanting "Lock him up." That criminally prosecuting the former President was deeply wrong or, at least, reflects badly on Democrats? That it reminds us of the chant "Lock her up" and creates a lot of dissonance for Democrats? 

Trump's convention speech had 2 phases, both brilliant, but very different.

In the first phase, Trump describes the assassination attempt from his perspective and for what he asserts is the last time:

So many people have asked me what happened. “Tell us what happened, please.” And therefore, I will tell you exactly what happened, and you’ll never hear it from me a second time, because it’s actually too painful to tell. It was a warm, beautiful day in the early evening....

This fills 20 minutes and segues into an unrushed tribute to the man who died and the 2 other men who were injured. There's an iconic stage prop, Corey Comperatore represented in the form of his empty helmet and jacket. Trump kisses Comperatore's head and pats him on the shoulder then returns to the lectern to lead a silent prayer. Again unrushed (but not overlong). We see different members of the audience in different attitudes of prayer. (Jared Kushner, eyes wide open, looked straight ahead.) 

The first phase continued with the uplifting abstract material that Trump had promised to deliver. I've copied this section in full:

"Somehow, his typically insufferable manner worked well in the big convention setting."

I'm reading "'A Joyful Fellowship of Patriots': The Best and Worst Moments From Night 2 of the Republican Convention" — a collection of opinions from various NYT contributors. Asked what was the "best moment" of Night 2, there's this from Michelle Cottle:

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Vivek Ramaswamy was en fuego. His barn burner of a speech included the requisite partisan red meat, but the way he talked about the shrinking American dream could resonate well beyond the Republican base. Somehow, his typically insufferable manner worked well in the big convention setting. Go figure.

I haven't watched this yet. I'll give you the video and come back with my opinion:

 

ADDED: I've listened. Great content and delivery. But Cottle couldn't say it without calling him somehow simultaneously "insufferable." The "insufferable manner" works in the big arena. Fine. He's still insufferable (per Cottle). It's the received view of Ramaswamy and you must never forget it.

"Speaker after speaker on Tuesday bent their knees, offering tribute to a man who had once insulted them, belittled them and, eventually, defeated them."

"Senator Ted Cruz thanked 'God almighty' for protecting the man who once insinuated that Mr. Cruz’s wife was ugly and his father had been involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy.... Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, for whom Mr. Trump coined the nickname Little Marco, said the former president had 'inspired a movement' among working men and women.... And Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, whom Mr. Trump mocked mercilessly for the height of his boot heels, his polling numbers and his alleged pudding-eating techniques, praised Mr. Trump.... 'Donald Trump has been demonized,' the governor said. 'He’s been sued. He’s been prosecuted, and he nearly lost his life. We cannot let him down, and we cannot let America down.' The parade of former opponents is expected to continue on Wednesday, when a man who privately fretted just eight years ago that Mr. Trump could become 'America’s Hitler' stands side by side with him on the ticket. ..."

From "In Milwaukee, a G.O.P. Transformation From Dysfunctional to Unified/On Tuesday, Republicans effectively took a victory lap in the middle of the presidential race, expressing a sense of invincibility at their convention" (NYT).

"She makes us smile. She loves everybody. And how could the message possibly be any simpler than just that?"

I can't remember the last time we had a good nonhuman political animal in the spotlight. But this was Jim Justice, an oversized governor on the GOP convention stage with his overweight dog Babydog, summarizing the GOP message as vast unconditional love.

It really is a welcome relief to look at a fat dog and think about love, simplicity, and smiling. Here's a WaPo article about it:

"You're going to be so blessed, you're gonna be tired of being blessed."

NOT FUNNY!!!😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/ha3EeFosAj

— il Donaldo Trumpo (@PapiTrumpo) July 16, 2024

Trump walks out into the GOP convention: What was your reaction?

I watched live last night — did you? — and I'm rewatching now:

0:06 — Trump ambles out slowly. He's got a patch of white gauze atop his upper ear. 

0:16 — We're seeing him backstage, where he can — with his famous and his unfamous ear — hear the crowd cheering. He looks serious... and tired.

0:22  — Lee Greenwood, live on stage, begins Trump's theme song — If tomorrow all the things were gone — and Trump raises his arm into a fist pump — the gesture last seen 2 minutes after he nearly died.

0:35 — He's mouthing some words, he waves, does another fist pump, looks down, gives a thumbs up, mouths "Thank you, thank you."

0:57 — I remember thinking last night that he looks different and I flashed on the possibility there could be a body double then estimated it at zero when he turned sideways and we could see his idiosyncratic ducktail.

2:00 — Ascended onto the podium, he looks happy now. He moves to the speaker's position, but he gives no speech, only a mouthed "Thank you" and another fist pump. He smiles for a moment then walks over to join a select group of family and friends. Not Melania, but Tiffany and the 2 older boys. J.D. Vance, Byron Donalds, Tucker Carlson. Lee Greenwood: "He is here tonight to show his courage, his defiance against somebody who tried to kill him."

2:08 — His facial expression becomes softer, gentler. He seems as if he might cry.

2:25 — From the lakes of Minnesota, to the hills of Tennessee — we know he is sensitive to music, and hearing this song again, now, must be an overwhelming emotional experience. Watch his face at this point.

2:53 — He dances slightly. 

3:13 — He's calmed down a bit now and is smiling and waving. 

3:43 — There's some restrained interaction with Vance after which his eyes swivel Vanceward, as if it might be possible for Trump to observe him unnoticed.

3:51 — Vance points at something, which seems to warm things up, and the 2 men chat. Then the 2 men point together. Pointing at something out of our view — perhaps at nothing at all — is a standard political gesture, and the 2 men seem to flow smoothly into this performance.

4:09 — The song ends, Trump salutes, the crowd chants the chant from the scene of the attempted assassination: "U-S-A! U-S-A!"

4:24 — Trump joins the chant. He's got a very wide smile, and again, I feel that he's holding back tears.

"Trump Says He Will Announce V.P. Pick Today."

The NYT reports.

The convention began as the stream of good news for Mr. Trump turned into a torrent. Already lifted by what some supporters call a miraculous intervention during the shooting... the former president was handed an unexpected gift on Monday. A judge he appointed, Aileen Cannon, flouted decades of precedent to dismiss in its entirety the [documents] case... 

The veepstakes is down to three: Mr. Vance, Mr. Rubio, and Mr. Burgum. Mr. Trump told Bret Baier of Fox News that he would announce his choice on Monday but did not say when. Trump campaign officials had envisioned a grand entrance for the former president on the first night, with his pick joining him on the stage for a big reveal. But the pick might be announced during the day instead....

"Monday will be dedicated to events under the banner 'Make America Wealthy Once Again,' Tuesday’s theme is 'Make America Safe Again,' Wednesday’s is 'Make America Strong Again' and Thursday’s is 'Make America Great Once Again'...."

Do you realize the GOP convention is just a few days away?

I'm reading "RNC schedule: Major speakers, events and when Trump will accept the nomination/From July 15 to 18, Republican lawmakers, delegates and other party figures will descend on the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to officially crown Trump the nominee and see him announce his running mate" (Independent).

Will we watch the Republican Party spectacle when we've got the Democratic Party debacle going on?

If only the Democrats had a schedule for the next week of the show they insist on staging for us. I'm thinking:

"[Trump's] speech elevated the darkest themes of the convention.... Joe Biden, Mr. Trump said, is a 'Trojan horse for socialism' in whose America 'no one will be safe.'"

"Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) summed it up earlier in the week: 'The woke-topians will . . . disarm you, empty the prisons, lock you in your home and invite MS-13 to live next door.' All this scaremongering was accompanied by outright slander of Mr. Biden, against whom Republicans leveled unsubstantiated corruption charges — and whose record and platform alike Mr. Trump distorted into almost a parody of radicalism.... In this fictional realm, a man who lauded white supremacists as 'very fine people' becomes a champion of racial comity, and a leader who ignored warnings about the pandemic actually sets the global standard for disease response.... The conjured specter of widespread 'urban violence,' combined with warnings that the dictatorial Democrats against 'guns, gasoline and God' would force Americans to wear masks, lock them down and keep them from church, may well resonate with people the GOP is aiming to fire up. And the falsely comforting portrait of the president may soothe those the party is hoping to persuade: giving them permission to support someone whose values jar their consciences by pretending his values are something else altogether."

From "Trump desecrates a public monument in the finale to a convention of lies" by the Editorial Board of The Washington Post. Oddly, somebody chose a haloed image of the President to illustrate their condemnation:



I could laugh, but I won't, at "In this fictional realm, a man who lauded white supremacists as 'very fine people'...." WaPo editors speak of Trump's "fictional realm" while plainly displaying themselves as existing in their own fictional realm, the one in which Trump "lauded white supremacists as 'very fine people.'"

The haloed image could be understood as sarcasm. Biden is the light of the world. Trump is darkness. I do think it works to command attention to the hand gesture, because I fell into a reverie about paintings... but which paintings?! I linger over the hand gesture. What paintings am I thinking of? St. Thomas in "The Last Supper"?



"Salvator Mundi"?



Plato in "The School of Athens"?



Or am I supposed to see the white power "OK" sign?

"Before Samuel was even born, I was told his life wouldn’t be worth living. When early tests revealed he had Down syndrome..."

"... our doctor encouraged me to terminate the pregnancy. He said, 'If you do not, you will be burdening your life, your family, and your community.'... When we went to register Samuel for kindergarten, we were told to just put him where he would be comfortable. Don’t stress him out by trying to teach him. When we pushed for him to attend his neighborhood school with his sisters, we were told, 'Just go home and let us do what we do.' When I inquired about functional learning, I was told, 'This is all you get, like it or not.' Well, I did not like it. One size did not fit all. So, I helped fight to pass legislation in Ohio for a special needs scholarship, so that all students could choose the right program for their needs. I worked to start a new functional learning program at our local private school. Finally, Samuel had an appropriate place to learn. Last December, Samuel was invited to the White House to meet our President and share his thoughts on education freedom. He said, 'School choice helped my dreams come true. My school taught me the way I learn best. I was able to fit in. I made many friends. I became a part of my community. My teachers helped me become the best I can be.' President Trump shook my hand and said, 'Wonderful job, mom. Your son is amazing.'"

From last night's GOP convention, a woman named Tara Myers.

Here's the video. I am especially touched at the part where she quotes her son:

"I’m supporting President Trump because he believes as I do, that a strong America cannot fight endless wars."

"We must not continue to leave our blood and treasure in Middle East quagmires.... President Trump is the first president in a generation to seek to end war rather than start one. He intends to end the war in Afghanistan. He is bringing our men and women home. Madison once wrote, 'No nation can preserve its freedom in the midst of continuous warfare.' I’m proud to finally see a president who agrees with that. Compare President Trump with the disastrous record of Joe Biden, who’s consistently called for more war. Joe Biden voted for the Iraq War, which President Trump has long called the worst geopolitical mistake of our generation. I fear Biden will choose war again. He supported the war in Serbia, Syria, Libya. Joe Biden will continue to spill our blood and treasure. President Trump will bring our heroes home. If you hate war like I hate war, if you want us to quit sending $50 billion every year to Afghanistan to build their roads and bridges instead of building them here at home, you need to support President Trump for another term."

Said Rand Paul on the second night of the GOP convention. Video. Transcript.