One original thought
Andy Beshear would be an excellent vice presidential choice for Kamala Harris. He’d be the anti-Vance.
A cartoon(ed) martyr
This editorial cartoon was drawn to appear in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. The artist, L.K. Hanson, explains that the paper decided that it was “too soon” and refused to publish it. Thus Hanson asks that anyone who wishes to pass the cartoon around do so.
HCR on July 21
Heather Cox Richardson on yesterday’s big news.
On last night’s debate
Heather Cox Richardson: ”This was not a debate.”
Shrinking Trump
Cognitive decline + personality disorder = Shrinking Trump, a new podcast, available from the usual purveyors.
Paul Berman on slogans
“Bad faith is when you don’t like the truth so you lie about it. Then you lie about having lied about it. You might even convince yourself that in lying about lying you’re not lying. That’s bad faith. It’s a twisted consciousness. We’re seeing a mass movement for a twisted consciousness.”
Nihilism in disguise
Aaron Rupar warns of nihilism masquerading as leftism.
Paying attention
From yesterday’s installment of Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American .
“Molly, you in danger, girl”
Jonathan Capehart: “There’s a great scene in the movie Ghost where Whoopi Goldberg says to Demi Moore, ‘Molly, you in danger, girl.’ And, you know, if I were to see Doanld Trump, I would say exactly that to him.”
Heather Cox Richardson on the Second Amendment
“The idea that massacres are “the price of freedom,” as right-wing personality Bill O’Reilly said in 2017 after the Mandalay Bay massacre in Las Vegas, in which a gunman killed 60 people and wounded 411 others, is new, and it is about politics, not our history.”
Supreme count
(6 - 2) + (3 + 2) = 9.
Precedented
From today’s installment of Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American: “This is the first time in history a former United States president has been indicted, although it is worth remembering that it is not new for our justice system to hold elected officials accountable.” Including a number of Illinois governors.
Word of the week: shitshow
Yep, in the House.
Getting things done
Heather Cox Richardson: “The first thing they did was to remove the metal detectors that were installed after the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.”
Recently updated
Still more lies from George Santos.
Updating
More and more George Santos lies.
About last night
In Illinois: we have a Democratic governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, &c. Voters approved a constitutional amendment guaranteeing workers the right to organize and bargain collectively.
Past and future
From President Biden’s speech last night: “We must vote knowing who we have been, what we’re at risk of becoming.”
Reaching out
This morning I have had a president, a vice president, and an undefeated former president reach out to me, one of them “personally reaching out.”
Gabbard, Palin, Hitchens
Tulsi Gabbard is the Sarah Palin of Christopher Hitchenses. Or: Tulsi Gabbard is the Christopher Hitchens of Sarah Palins. I can see it both ways.
IRA = BFD
IRA: the Inflation Reduction Act. BFD: Self-explanatory, I hope. If not, ask Joe Biden.
Rodney Davis vs. Mary Miller
The New York Times has an article about their primary contest.
Another vote from Mary Miller
My (nominal) representative in Congress, Mary Miller (R, IL-15), was one of fifty-seven House Republicans to vote yesterday against additional emergency appropriations for Ukraine. There’s something about Mary.
Word Matters on Orwell’s “Politics and the English Language”
Scrupulous or even cursory reading of “Politics and the English Language” reveals, again and again, that the Merriam-Webster editors’ criticisms of the essay have no basis in the essay. Orwell deserves better than he got in the podcast Word Matters.
Ted Cruz’s afterglow
In the news: “Senator Ted Cruz was caught checking his phone for Twitter mentions by a photo journalist after a confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson on Wednesday.” But the sentence needs rewriting.
Eww
Our household’s representative in Congress, Mary Miller (Illinois-15), has been endorsed by Ted Cruz, the junior senator from Texas.
Shining star, or dim bulb?
“She’s one of the shining stars representing Illinois because of her leadership, intelligence and courage”: thus an Illinois congressional candidate touts his endorsement from Mary Miller.
No more weeks
President Joe Biden, a few minutes ago in his State of the Union address: “We’re done talking about infrastructure weeks.”
Miller vs. Davis
In Illinois’s redrawn 15th Congressional District, Mary Miller, endorsed by a defeated former president, is struggling in her primary race against fellow Republican incumbent Rodney Davis.
With apologies to Malvina Reynolds
ittle boxes from the White House, Little boxes gone to Florida.