When does someone become a girlfriend? It’s a fine line. Fifth date with someone last night, what would I call her? And if it sticks, I need a nickname. She’s a liberal sort (again, there is nothing else), total TDS, but will hold her nose and vote for Kammy just to keep OMB out. OTOH, she can intelligently discuss Keynes versus Friedman and doesn’t flinch when she grills me about my idiosyncratic politics. I’m sure she listens to NPR, but she hasn’t brought it up yet. Former lawyer, then rose through corporate ranks to be the president of a VERY large medical products company. No, she hasn’t seen this site. Need a nickname here, unless she runs away screaming this week. I count on your creativity, since y’all came up with Tomb Raider for the last one, a perfect sobriquet.
Birthdays today include the first white supremacist; the likely inventor of the Clark Bar; a guy who helped run our deficit… err… defense; a guy who was actually a pretty good Interior secretary; a woman who outmassed the boat she went down on; a woman whose main claim to famer was a long-term marriage to an evil incompetent; a guy convicted of what every rock band got away with; a guy who made my mom melt; a guy who really did have some fabulous furniture; another fine nominee for the Dumbest Semi-Human in Congress; a fine comic actress best described as sweet; and a guy with no original ideas but a genius for PR.
And Links may be a good distraction from my various conundrums.
I’m glad this election is focused on substantive issues.
“Whatever you do, don’t mention the war!”
My main regret is that I can’t vote for her.
When did Ireland turn into Germany?
Of course Team Blue would jail me for that.
Make sure you neuter/spay your Leftist.
Since you awful people were way too unhip to get the genius of Sierra Ferrell and I’m not mean enough to subject you to Niko Case, how about some classic ’60s boogie?
I suppose Dr. Quinn would be too obvious. Good morning in any event, OMWC… glad the dating is at least going well enough for you to pop this question to us. 😉
On to actually reading the links…
I have the sequence plotted, and no matter what, it will be entertaining. First screen: meeting WebDom and l0b0t. That’s 90% likely to result in, “Have a nice life!” Second screen: meeting SugarFree. 95% chance there of “OMG, who that fuck am I dating???”
So 0.5% chance of success.
Bring her to a Zoom.
Damn… I was expecting McNamara.
As a Colonel though – he really couldn’t cut the mustard.
Two dates late, but you asked for it. 😁
a guy who was actually a pretty good Interior secretary;
Happy birthday James Watt!
a guy who really did have some fabulous furniture;
Happy birthday Ingvar Kamprad!
Fine, I’ll do it
Now, Neko Case is a 1000x better than what ever that was yesterday (de gustibus, et al). Plus, early on you got the Sadie’s!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2l7ZKJS47o
Nowhere in there do I see “under just what authority do they think they can do this”. (Especially if the activity is solely within a state — thanks, f’ing Wickard!)
An Amendment that any law, regulation or rule change must explicitly first have a section which defends itself as if challenged in court as to how it is a right and proper function and authorized use of government leaps to mind.
Not that it would likely do much good in the long run (if you can work around “shall not be infringed”, you can do anything). Only works when enough people care about making it work, after all… and we’re obviously way way past that point.
Again, sigh.
Well, they already banned interstate online poker, table games, and sports betting, and now no one gambles on any of those things, so surely this ban will also do exactly what it says on the tin.
You greatly underestimate the capacity for sophistry that our political class possesses. In the end it is just ink and paper.
“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” – John Adams.
Thus the strong push for demoralization of our society. We have gone so far off of the rails that having males beat the shit out of females in sports is considered normal. No sane, moral or sensible person would consider that acceptable.
I dunno, seems like a lot of pro football players practice on their own time.
I’m not mean enough to subject you to Niko Case,
I remember when Neko Case was a Guest Programmer on TCM she included several of the Dogville shorts between the features. Gotta love her for that.
Those dogs don’t look terribly happy. OTOH, they are amusing.
Damn… links were just black pill heaven today. I’m calling in an emergency ray of sunshine strike.
Off-script juvenile personal attacks is his strong point though. Trump’s not the type of candidate who’s going to do well trying to appear like an intellectual policy wonk reading from a script developed by RNC pollsters.
And completely factually correct attacks at that.
I’m not seeing the problem and even the Grauniad couldn’t provide any examples of the “outright falsehoods” they claimed.
Bingo.
When did Ireland turn into Germany?
SNP is Scotland, not Ireland.
So, the question really is: When did Scotland turn into Ireland?
All you goyim look the same to me.
Protip: Not all goyim are circumcised.
Only the amateur tips are?
Just the tips?
Presbyterians, not Catholics.
I thought all of the British isles were being turned into Syria or Pakistan? That doesn’t happen without a large dash of antisemitism.
One of the few upsides of Stamer’s leadership of Labour has been his absolute ruthlessness in purging the anti-semite/Corbyn wing out of Labour. IIRC, the Greens and Lib Dems had a few candidates win on a ‘From the to the sea’ platform.
“And if it sticks, I need a nickname. She’s a liberal sort (again, there is nothing else), total TDS, but will hold her nose and vote for Kammy”
You sure seem to need those eggs, Alvy.
I have heard Kamala pronounce her own name in two different ways so she and her white knights can suck it.
However they pronounce it in Hindi should suffice.
“VP Harris.”
Sticky trap avoided. Just like I’ve been practicing ways to speak naturally without using pronouns.
When did Ireland turn into Germany?
Scotland, and it’s been coming for years. Remember when the argument against voting for independence was that they would lose the welfare money from England.
Took me a few minutes to decode “SNP” as something other than “single nucleotide polymorphism”.
DNC Attendees Will Have Opportunities For Free Vasectomies, Abortions
Did no one stop for one second to think how this would play outside the Dem bubble?
Whycome you hate women?
Alsotoo, vasectomies != abortions.
But the two combined does equal RETARD.
cLuMPs oF cELls! EvErY SPeRm iS sAcREd!
and other false equivalencies
From a practical standpoint as a person on the opposite end of the political spectrum I like this behavior on the part of the Democratic Party and I encourage more of it.
Hooray, lower the breeding population of Dems?
Well, over time, that’s one way to make the party smaller.
It’s not going to lose them any voters from the current population, although it may have salutory consequences starting in 2042.
It may drive some red-leaning voters to the polls. Because what is today’s rite of virtue signalling will become tomorrow’s mandate should these people win. How long until we hear “parenting licenses” mentioned?
That’s why the party is so vociferously committed to throwing open the gates to the third world. A permanent underclass for the business class donors, and a permanent-enough voting bloc to keep the party in power for another 5 generations.
Hilarity?
Why. Hello there.
https://x.com/alexwoodsZ/status/1820851951698898945
If politicians couldn’t lie like that dumb Jim Carry movie, this is exactly what a debate would sound like.
It isn’t already? I heard Kamala’s platform out of her own mouth the other day…I would swear that is exactly what she said.
“I am a communist. Elect me and you will starve to death in a ditch somewhere.” <—- right from her speech. It even garnered applause.
Just returned from a junket in Edinburgh and London.
They sure do speak a lot of english out there. Well, not sure what the Scots speak but it sounded english.
Edinburgh – which whisky bars did you like?
I just entered a couple of random private shops and bought a couple of bottles we can’t find here in Canada. I had no time to spend on whiskey as much as I like it. You need some time to really do that. I was there only four days and had other places to hit like the Highlands and taking in a show at the Fringe.
“Ex-president quickly broke away from prepared speech to accuse vice-president of being a communist and a fascist”
Of course The Guardian’s going to get all huffy but I’m not seeing the problem here. An ex DA who wants price controls, she sucks.
Wasn’t her father involved with the Jamaican government back when they wrecked their economy with price controls?
If that’s the case it seems like she’d have learned her lesson but that presumes wrecking the economy isn’t the goal.
She doesn’t seem the type who learns from mistakes. She seems to be of the “we didn’t prog hard enough” school.
It’s always someone else’s fault Tonio. I blame the Kulaks, mon…
The Guardian complained about that? I would think they would accuse Trump of campaigning for the evil bitch.
I’d tap that too.
I have no idea what that chart is about.
You’re hired!
Former lawyer, then rose through corporate ranks to be the president of a VERY large medical products company.
I am impressed that is a helluva lot to get done by 12. Law school and kindergarten is tough to balance.
what is her onlyfans?
So she’s an attorney who worked corporate and wound up up outside GCO. She was in medical devices no less and some how fees compelled to support Team Blue.
I’m going with she’s a mercenary. So you need some variation of mercenary or merc.
I would say that Team Blue is the default of that class. Much like driving a Mercedes is.
Not much more to it than that.
In government and the plaintiff bar for sure. Corporate and defense much less so in my experience.
Looks like Judge Dracula in Brazil started secretly threatening to arrest X employees and X pulled out rather than bending the knee:
https://x.com/GlobalAffairs/status/1824819053061669244
Good on them.
“The people of Brazil have a choice to make – democracy, or Alexandre de Moraes.”
The conflation of “democracy” with “legitimate government that respects rights” grinds my gears. Democracy merely describes a process for selecting government leaders, it is not incompatible with any particular kind of leader or government. Democracy is perfectly compatible with thuggish government
Majoritarianism is the most morally correct utilitarian solution to political issues, except when the majority holds the wrong sort of views.
I admire him for this.
The obvious solution is to refer to her as “that commie bitch”.
I don’t recommend this nickname, OM.
Oh, you meant Kamala…
Yeah, not to her face.
Today in youtube shorts recommends
after the only pans chick another mildly attractive woman doing cooking shorts and mixing cooking with looks to get views
https://youtube.com/shorts/Gm_D6swz_Zw?si=7vXky-yBly_RacKW
and also mildly attractive man cooking who according to the female commenters gets extra sexy points for cleaning the kitchen
https://youtube.com/shorts/Gm_D6swz_Zw?si=7vXky-yBly_RacKW
There is a ;shit ton of that on yewtewb.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=the+naked+gardener
A million sexy teases for the most boring shit.
I like the AI ones that includes a 98% naked hottie in a suggestive pose with ‘such and such sooooo satisfying’. Click on that and you get a series of videos of industrial mass production processes, not a titty in sight.
Also, the YT is rotten with people in love with the sound of their own voices. Ten minutes listening to some dolt flapping their gums before telling us what should have taken 10-15 seconds. Dude, you really are not as interesting as you think you are.
“again, there is nothing else”
That’s a depressing fishing hole.
Dude, it’s not even a puddle.
You think you hate journalists. You don’t hate them enough.
https://x.com/OGAride/status/1824924921350549774?t=LkASyIxCEob4KAgeo1MeIA&s=19
just globalizing the intifada like a good anti oppression prog
The New York Times? No! Say it aint so.
The NYT has always supported genocide, haven’t they? They never met a mass murderer they didn’t fall in love with.
I played https://squaredle.com/xp 08/18:
*25/25 words (+11 bonus words)
📖 In the top 2% by bonus words
I played https://squaredle.com 08/18:
*61/61 words (+17 bonus words)
📖 In the top 4% by bonus words
🔥 Solve streak: 409
I played https://squaredle.com/xp 08/18:
*25/25 words (+2 bonus words)
🎯 In the top 14% by accuracy
I swear I only remember one screw up — and that is that I differ with them and consider “poot” a word. Ah well.
I played https://squaredle.com 08/18:
*61/61 words (+4 bonus words)
🎯 In the top 5% by accuracy
🔥 Solve streak: 511
“The presidential campaign for Kamala Harris is now including special pronoun options for job applicants, as part of their commitment to diversity and inclusion.
The job application for the Harris campaign includes nine different options for pronouns, including ‘xe/xem,’ ‘ze/hir,’ ‘ey/em,’ ‘fae/faer’ and ‘hu/hu.’
‘Fae/faer,’ indicates a gender-fluid person but non-masculine, sometimes of Celtic origin. ‘Hu/hu,’ pronouns are third person gender-neutral pronouns referring to both a man and a woman.”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13750591/kamala-harris-job-campaign-pronouns.html
A serious campaign for serious people.
Why do you hate diversity and inclusion?
And people say the left cant meme. They are a walking talking meme all by themselves, self-writing parody.
We dont meme, we just observe.
Nickname suggestion:
Triple L
(Lovely Lawyer Lady)
And maybe fortuitously it happens to be her bra size?
She stopped doing law about 20 years ago when she moved into management, so that’s out. Does refer to herself as a “recovering lawyer.”
“WTF! Is Wrongful Death Covered Under The Disney+ ‘Terms of Service'”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73EfvH07xSM
WTF, indeed.
NPR:
“The DNC starts tomorrow. Here’s what you need to know.”
Stay the fuck away from Chicago.
Nurses must not refuse to treat racists
On the one hand, no one is entitled to the compulsory labor of anyone else. On the other, we’re rapidly coming upon a time when it’s going to become impossible to transact any business or obtain any goods or services without at least feigning the correct political opinions. Because of the former, libertarianism has no answer to the latter, except a vacuous assurance that markets will self correct around collective refusal of service. Which might even be true in the long run. But Keynes, despite being an equally vacuous shithead, was right to notice that in the long run, we’re all dead.
“On the one hand, no one is entitled to the compulsory labor of anyone else.”
Otoh, England has nationalized health care.
Please You must clap.
(The please was meant to be struck through. 🙄)
True, of course, which complicates it from a legal standpoint, but the ethical issue would remain even in an open market.
This is where it gets interesting. The American press and academia has destroyed itself with this stuff. Looks like NHS is going to do the same.
There will be a lot of untreated middle eastern and Asian men.
Ha. Ha. Ha. Funny guy, that isn’t racism, that is cultural difference!
Or, are they “white adjacent?”
A week from committing people to asylums for wrong think? Hell, I dont know, maybe they are doing it already.
“In addition to the mobile clinic, another group, Americans for Contraception, plans to erect an 18-foot-tall inflatable intrauterine device, or IUD, named “Freeda Womb,” The Times reported.”
https://nypost.com/2024/08/17/us-news/free-abortions-vasectomies-will-be-available-to-dnc-attendees/
OFFS!
I think OMB has his nickname.
Winner.
It is going to be a complete freak show. Totally unexpected….
Looking for a ranch for sale in Montana? Check out the Checkpoint Ranch for sale near Huson, MT which features 1,101± deeded acres with 3 large lakes and premier wildlife habitat.
The Checkpoint Ranch is undoubtedly one of the finest ranches in the coveted Ninemile Valley and a significantly large holding for the area, spanning roughly 1,101± acres. With unobstructed 360-degree mountain, meadow, and lake views at every turn, it would be difficult to find a more picturesque ranch anywhere, let alone this close to Missoula.
In addition to its scenic beauty, the rolling nature of the topography, a blend of creeks, ponds, lakes, grasslands, and heavy timber inside the property lines, create a haven for wildlife. The lands provide crucial undeveloped wildlife passage between the Rattlesnake Wilderness Area and Missions to the northeast and the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness to the southwest. Frequent sightings of elk, whitetail deer, turkey, eagles, waterfowl, and songbirds, and occasional visits from moose and grizzly bears, are a testament to the ranch’s habitat productivity.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfL7w7NYooE
$18,900,000
\How about this one?
$65 million
Yeah, I have seen that one up before. 65million? I think they misplaced a decimal there. I wish them luck.
i am 20 bucks short
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/08/hilarious-don-lemon-interviews-new-jersey-voters-finds/
NJ is MAGA country.
Good thing he didn’t try to get a sandwich.
Outside Camden and Essex and Hudson Counties NJ is mostly Red.
The issue that’s a large chunk of the population.
Even with Atlantic City most of Atlantic County is Red.
Slutty Sunday rejects your free vasectomy.
https://archive.is/LW4iK
“According to the official website for the Harris and Tim Walz campaign, the list of job opportunities includes a mandatory requirement for COVID-19 vaccination as part of the qualifications. A statement on the website reads that employees must be “up to date” with their vaccination status in order to be considered for employment.”
https://thepostmillennial.com/kamala-harris-campaign-still-requires-staffers-to-be-up-to-date-with-covid-vaccinations
SCIENCE!!!!!
Good. Commies deserve the clot shot.
Abortions and clot shots. Decrease the surplus population of Marxists faster!
Between not having children via one method or other and suicidal tendencies the problem of leftists among us will turn out to be self-solving.
Remember when she said she wouldn’t take the Trump vaccine?
“Did You Know? Democrats Are Using Organization with 50,000 Physicians and Software Giant Epic to Sign Up Patients to Vote – Includes a Script for Undocumented Aliens – Led By Harvard Dr. Linked to Kamala Harris”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/08/did-you-know-biden-regime-is-using-organization/
No, but I’m not surprised.
“Well, actually, the reason is that, interestingly, a few days before I found out about this, there was a tweet from an anonymous physician on the West Coast. I believe it was the Oregon area. It’s a female physician who said that if she treats Conservatives, she often misdiagnoses them and gives them the wrong treatment.”
She seems nice.
So…murder.
If true, then criminal conduct.
“ Former lawyer, then rose through corporate ranks to be the president of a VERY large medical products company.”
C-Sweety
👏
I hope you find your Nancy, OMWC, and not another Heather.
“I’m a Veronica, not a Heather.”
I intentionally did not pluralize Hs, but I like how you think.
A pop culture reference which will have to be slowly explained to me.
Do yourself the favor and watch Heathers.
The broken glass ceiling fallacy?
That one is a bit long.
She also sounds like she has a lot of wealth.
Simple:
Medical Sugar Momma or MSM
Sweetie
We should start a betting pool of how many more dates OMWC lasts with “Medi gal.”
‘
Eva B-Braun?
That one is harsh.
Abortions and clot shots. Decrease the surplus population of Marxists faster!
How many generations of imbeciles re enough?
Good question. I think we are about to find out.
PR blitz
A mad scramble is underway to introduce Vice President Kamala Harris to Americans who know little about her, with both campaigns vying to leave a vivid impression that sinks in before voters start casting ballots this fall.
In the 11-week sprint to the election, Harris’ campaign is pouring tens of millions of dollars into an ad blitz meant to humanize a candidate whom the electorate may know only as the understudy to Joe Biden.
The ads have stressed the parts of her biography they believe match up well against Donald Trump, framing her as a prosecutor who has cracked down on fraudsters and stood up for victims of sexual abuse.
Is the campaign compensating the news outlets for the slobbery hagiographies sprouting everywhere, or is that just a happy coincidence?
I don’t care if this is a bad habit of mine.
https://frinkiac.com/caption/S06E04/1279294
So…the opposite of the truth. Shocking.
One of these beautiful peppers is going in a new container of salsa today.
https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/dX85pwb0TZmf1r20eMkPLA.Ftd6SRrHMGiCFE2bOK_nl2
Maybe that chocolate bhutlah…
EXTERMINATE THE BHUTLAHS!!!!!
ZARDOZ HAS SPOKEN!!!
“I’ve cautioned all of my Republican friends not to underestimate her,” said Jim Brulte, a Trump supporter and former chairman of the California Republican Party. “In my experience, she has unbelievably good people skills and the ability to connect not only one-on-one, but one-on-20,000.”
She has that pitiless hyena cunning.
Butthead: This girl talks through the back of her nose.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMQkg1HGCZc
“The doctor says you need to spend money to make money.”
Did she star in a movie showing that “one-on-one” connection, over and over?
As the junior senator, Harris hewed to California’s liberal orientation. In a 2020 report on the Senate’s ideological leanings, the government transparency website GovTrack.us ranked her as the second-most liberal senator, next to Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
But legislation isn’t the arena where she distinguished herself.
More lefty than Elizabeth Warren, But let’s not talk about that.
How did communists/fascists manage to rebrand themselves as ‘liberal’?
Oh, the same way they branded Hitler as right wing.
As far as I can tell, the only place she distinguished herself is in bed.
I don’t care if this is a bad habit of mine.
Bad Habit
A habit of mine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpqDTQOFvf0
I haven’t heard that in an age. Excellent selection.
Running short of money, Harris dropped out before the first contest in Iowa. From the wreckage of the 2020 campaign came a coveted opportunity. Biden won — and made Harris his running mate.
“Her 2020 campaign was a disaster and failed, but it did succeed in getting her to the vice presidency. And that succeeded in getting her to where she is now,” said Gil Duran, a former aide to Harris in the California Attorney General’s Office. “In a strange way in Kamala’s career, even the failures have been steps toward the current moment.”
Failing ever upward.
She is an inspiration to us all.
2024 ELECTION
Harris scrambles to introduce herself to voters before Trump succeeds in villainizing her
This week, the Democratic National Convention offers Harris a chance to roll out her biography to voters who know little about her background.
Photo Illustration: A collage of photos of Kamala Harris from different points in her career
Justine Goode / NBC News; Getty Images / Alamy
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Aug. 18, 2024, 3:00 AM MDT
By Peter Nicholas
WASHINGTON — A mad scramble is underway to introduce Vice President Kamala Harris to Americans who know little about her, with both campaigns vying to leave a vivid impression that sinks in before voters start casting ballots this fall.
In the 11-week sprint to the election, Harris’ campaign is pouring tens of millions of dollars into an ad blitz meant to humanize a candidate whom the electorate may know only as the understudy to Joe Biden.
The ads have stressed the parts of her biography they believe match up well against Donald Trump, framing her as a prosecutor who has cracked down on fraudsters and stood up for victims of sexual abuse.
What does Kamala Harris hope to accomplish at the DNC?
01:51
But Harris’ best chance to pique the interest of a mass audience comes this week. Political conventions have long been a forum for nominees to reassure voters who may have doubts about their candidacy, and the need may be more acute for Harris, who rose to the top of the ticket without winning a single primary.
As Democrats assemble in Chicago, Harris’ challenge is to persuade voters that the story she’s telling about her life and vision rings true, and that Trump’s caricature of her falls flat.
Coming off the abrupt Harris-for-Biden swap, Trump is working to villainize her — resorting to his familiar tactic of name-calling. He’s trotted out various attack lines, questioning her intelligence and racial makeup.
“I’ve cautioned all of my Republican friends not to underestimate her,” said Jim Brulte, a Trump supporter and former chairman of the California Republican Party. “In my experience, she has unbelievably good people skills and the ability to connect not only one-on-one, but one-on-20,000.”
New poll shows Harris gaining in states where Biden was behind
01:43
Trump labeled Harris a “radical left socialist” during a news conference at his Bedminster, New Jersey, home on Thursday — recycling the same phrase he used to disparage Biden four years ago in a speech to conservative activists.
“People don’t know who she is,” Trump added.
Who is she, then?
Whatever happens in November, Harris’ identity will be forever tied to Trump. Had it not been for his political ascent, Harris’ might have been short-lived.
‘Rapid fire and confrontational’
Kamala Devi Harris’ first foray into national politics came in 2016, the year of Trump’s stunning victory over Hillary Clinton in the presidential race. Then the attorney general of California, Harris easily won the statewide election that year to replace retiring Sen. Barbara Boxer.
Her victory celebration had a morose feel to it, though, with Democrats across the country shaken by Trump’s upset.
After hearing about Trump’s impending win during an election-night dinner at a Los Angeles restaurant, Harris scrapped her prepared speech and reworked it for an audience that was stunned by the news, said Debbie Mesloh, a friend and former Harris adviser.
“Do not despair,” Harris told the crowd, with her husband, Doug Emhoff, standing at her side. “Do not be overwhelmed. Do not throw up our hands when it is time to roll up our sleeves and fight for who we are. And that’s what we are about to do.”
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Kamala Harris.
Kamala Harris celebrates winning her Senate race in Los Angeles in 2016.Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images file
As the junior senator, Harris hewed to California’s liberal orientation. In a 2020 report on the Senate’s ideological leanings, the government transparency website GovTrack.us ranked her as the second-most liberal senator, next to Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
But legislation isn’t the arena where she distinguished herself.
A lawyer by training, Harris began her career as a prosecutor in the Oakland, California, area, and in 2003 she won an election to become San Francisco’s district attorney.
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Election 2024 live updates: Harris and Walz make final campaign stops ahead of convention
Skills she learned cross-examining witnesses proved valuable when Trump’s officials and nominees for high office testified before her committees.
Harris appeared to unnerve Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh when asking him during his confirmation hearing in 2018 whether he could think of any laws in which the government made decisions about the “male body.”
The implication was clear: Politicians are more apt to intrude on women’s bodily rights than men’s.
“Um,” Kavanaugh said. “I’m happy to answer a more specific question.”
At a Judiciary Committee hearing the following year, she asked Trump’s attorney general, William Barr, if Trump had ever suggested that he open an investigation into anyone. Yes or no? she asked.
“I’m trying to grapple with the word ‘suggest,’” Barr said. “There have been discussions of matters out there that … they have not asked me to open an investigation.”
Asked about Harris’ methods at the hearing, Barr told NBC News: “In her questioning, she adopted — as she always does — a style that is a caricature of a tough prosecutor — rapid fire and confrontational.”
The Senate served as a springboard for Harris’ next big leap. Capitalizing on the attention she’d gotten in the hearings, she jumped into the 2020 presidential race after just two years in the Senate.
She announced her candidacy before a crowd of 20,000 people in Oakland, the city where she was born to an Indian mother and a Jamaican father, both immigrants.
“I wasn’t surprised when she ran, but in my interactions with her it didn’t feel like, as with some people, that she reeked of that kind of ambition from the moment you meet them,” Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said in an interview. “You didn’t get that kind of creepy, transitory feeling I’ve had with some of my colleagues.”
Harris’ campaign quickly flatlined. She labored to explain her health care policy and failed to run a disciplined operation. One of her campaign aides in 2019, Kelly Mehlenbacher, wrote a resignation letter obtained by The New York Times that said, “I have never seen an organization treat its staff so poorly.”
Harris’ exchange with Biden during the first Democratic debate, though, seemed to garner at least his grudging respect. She questioned his opposition to busing as a means of integrating schools in the 1960s and ’70s.
Describing how a little girl was bused from one school to another in Berkeley, California, to ease segregation, she said, “That little girl was me.”
At the next debate, Biden greeted her with a warm smile: “Go easy on me, kid,” he said.
Running short of money, Harris dropped out before the first contest in Iowa. From the wreckage of the 2020 campaign came a coveted opportunity. Biden won — and made Harris his running mate.
“Her 2020 campaign was a disaster and failed, but it did succeed in getting her to the vice presidency. And that succeeded in getting her to where she is now,” said Gil Duran, a former aide to Harris in the California Attorney General’s Office. “In a strange way in Kamala’s career, even the failures have been steps toward the current moment.”
‘She takes care of her friends’
Harris’ transition to the vice presidency was a tough one. Since her election as San Francisco district attorney in 2003, she had been her own boss.
Now she was subordinate to Biden. Her job was to make him look good and propel his agenda. He tasked her with addressing the root causes of illegal migration, a largely diplomatic assignment that Trump has hung around her neck, mocking her as a failed “border czar.”
Biden’s approval ratings slumped, as did hers.
Senior Harris aides came and left, raising concerns about her managerial style.
Duran, who served as her communications director in 2013 when she was attorney general, said: “I left after five months, so I’ll let that speak to that. The narrative of staff dysfunction is something she’ll have to work on.”
Kamala Harris.
Kamala Harris speaks to supporters at an election night rally in Los Angeles in 2016.Chris Carlson / AP file
Some former aides insist that she’s held to a different standard than male bosses. Jeffrey Tsai, a former senior official in the Harris-led attorney general’s office, said in an interview, “I found the three years of working for the attorney general critical to my development as a lawyer.”
Swipes at her executive temperament, he added, have “a ring of sexist overtones.”
Duran disagreed. “Dianne Feinstein,” the late California senator, “was the best manager I ever worked for and she’s a woman, so I don’t consider my critique sexist,” he said.
A former White House aide suggested that because she’s serving in top roles, Harris faces pressures on her time that require a no-nonsense approach.
“At each higher level, she has had less time,” this person said. “I’ve worked with men, too, who are driven by time efficiency. I’ve seen it. When I was working with President Biden, I’ve heard him say during briefings, ‘Don’t pull a fast one on me.’”
A view among Harris loyalists is that she had little chance to shine in an office that, by tradition, requires unwavering deference to the president. Now that she’s standing on her own, she’s drawing large crowds and forging a direct connection with Americans that wasn’t possible when she was Biden’s No. 2, in this view.
“I don’t know if that’s true, but it has the ring of truth to it,” Warner said.
In private, she often displayed the ease and amiability that Americans are now seeing on the campaign trail, her supporters said. Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, said Harris would invite female senators from both parties to the vice presidential residence for dinner. Harris made cheese puffs for the group once, then handed out her recipe.
Hirono mentioned another instance when the vice president appeared in the Senate to break a tie vote. Harris noticed that Hirono’s scarf was undone and, at the dais, fixed it herself.
“How many people presiding [over the Senate] would do that?” Hirono said. “She takes care of her friends.”
‘She belongs in this role’
Brian Brokaw, a former Harris campaign aide, came to the White House last year to see his old boss and pass her notes that his two young children had written her.
In a picture taken of the meeting, Harris is holding the letters in her hand, leaning forward on a sofa. She’s in her West Wing office, down the hall from the Oval, nearly 3,000 miles from that school bus she boarded in the hope that Black children would get the same opportunities as white kids.
“Can you believe this?” Brokaw said to her. “Here you are in your West Wing office! That’s pretty cool, isn’t it?”
Harris gave him a look, he recalled, as if to say, “Of course I’m here!”
“She 100% believes she belongs in this role,” Brokaw said in an interview.
Of course she does.
What the fuck happened there?
Haaaaaalp, Edit Fairy!
“What the fuck happened there?”
Well, if you sneeze while posting, KenShultz can take over your body.
Aw, I liked him.
Muh edit button!
“Is Madison Campbell a ‘Fraud’—or a Feminist Hero?
She says she’s democratizing rape kits. Two state attorneys general say she’s guilty of deception.
If you don’t like it, make your own. That’s the ethos that has driven decades of American founders in Silicon Valley—and that led a 28-year-old named Madison Campbell to develop an at-home rape kit….”
https://www.thefp.com/p/madison-campbell-fraud-or-feminist
Why not both?
Yeah, I was gonna say…the question is redundant.