Monday Mood [DOT 22/7/23]

22/7/24 MegMegMcGee 44

Today may call for a donut or a bear claw from Panera.

They are busting out the BIG fonts for this one!

Biden drops out of 2024 presidential race, Harris vows to defeat Trump
https://www.washingtonpost.com

Biden drops out of presidential race and endorses Harris to be nominee
https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/biden-trump-election-07-21-24/index.html

Sprots!

Tadej Pogacar wraps up Tour de France victory to seal historic double
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/article/2024/jul/21/tadej-pogacar-wraps-up-tour-de-france-victory-to-seal-historic-double

Stonks!

Asia stocks fall as Biden drops presidential bid; China unexpectedly cuts interest rates
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/07/22/asia-stock-markets-biden-drops-out-china-lpr.html

Have a great Monday!

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44 Comments

  1. The folks in the DC area must be going crazy. We happened to be in DC when Reagan died. He died out in California and had been out of office for 15 years or so. BH was testifying in front a Congressional sub-committee as kind of like a friendly, neutral, industry spokesman, explaining the potential harm that a proposed bill might cause. (Some of them were humdingers. I read a funny insult recently: I wouldn’t trust [in my case, Congresspeople] to back my car out of my driveway.)

    But Reagan’s death was all anyone could talk about. In restaurants, in bars, we went to this big party… And they weren’t disapproving, it was just a ripe topic of conversation.

    • One of the few reasons the stock market closes is for a presidential funeral, so the only good thing I can think of that Reagan ever did for me was to give me a day off!

      • I was on the phone with a guy at the Mercantile Exchange in Chicago right after Reagan died (he’d just called in to set up phone service at his apartment), and during the call they were observing a moment of silence for him.

        It’s vaguely awkward to deal with someone who’s observing a moment of silence while you’re not, as I recall.

  2. …so…I’m reading that team (D) has been absolutely raking it in on the donations since joe walked…while the other guy whined on truth social that his lot ought to be refunded all the money they plowed into campaigning against biden

    …not gonna lie…that gave me a good feeling…which the morning news generally doesn’t

    …& judging by the map showing where the donations are from…& the number of delegates pledging for her…& her having already applied to the FEC to inherit joe’s campaign funds

    …is there a chance the dems might actually be in array?

    (…even if for whatever reason obama hasn’t endorsed her)

    • Harris had the single greatest fundraising day in history, almost $50 million in 9 hours. The Dems are definitely in array, and pretty much everybody has endorsed Harris at this point.

      I still feel like Biden could’ve pulled it off, but the sheer amount of hope and excitement over Harris is incredible. It’s no wonder Republicans are freaking out.

      I’m certain Obama will announce his endorsement when the impact is greatest. I could see him introducing her at the DNC.

      • I agree @BryanLSplinter!

         

        I’m wondering if it won’t perhaps be a dual endorsement from Both Obamas, and YES, I could see that introduction coming from him.

        I’ve been cackling since yesterday evening, at the breakouts we’re starting to see about how, “It isn’t faaaaair!!!!”😉😈😂🤣

        • That was *supposed* to say “freakouts” not breakouts😖😱😂

           

          the ADHD tax is EXPENSIVE today!

          My brakes went out-ish on Friday, so I’m taking the bus to work today… annnnnd I missed my bus by being across the street wondering *where* I was supposed to go, as I watched it pull away🙃🫠

          So now I’m waiting something over an hour for the next express to suburbia…

          OTOH, though?

          At least I *DO* live *in* Minneapolis and have the privilege of *having* another Express bus to Suburbia–unlike being out *there* and desperately trying to make it in, on one of those “two-buses in and one bus back out” per day routes!💖

          At least *here* there are multiple buses going.

          And, in the spirit of Cousin Matty–I can say I *DID* see the Mary Tyler Moore statue this morning, as the first bus drove upthe Nicollet Mall!😉

           

           

          • That reminds me that I haven’t seen an MTM Show or Dick Van Dyke rerun in ages. Last night we watched an episode of Ironside from 1969. I had forgotten that the show took place in San Francisco. There are a couple of overhead panning shots of the whole downtown area and if you look closely enough you can see the lot cleared to make way for the TransAmerica Pyramid.

            Raymond Burr was in a decades-long gay relationship and he and his partner bought a vineyard up in Sonoma or Napa so that must have been good. In the same way that around the same time, slightly later, Rock Hudson was filming McMillan and Wife in SF and apparently he went through the entire SF gay community during his years there.

    • I’m sure you’ve all seen this quote, but it is epitome of the tact required to win (I think):

       

      I prosecuted sex predators. Trump is one. I shut down for-profit scam colleges. He ran one. I held big banks accountable. He’s owned by them. I’m not just prepared to take on Trump, I’m prepared to beat him. Kamala Harris

      Democrats need to stop all the mealy-mouthed whinging, take off the gloves, and come out swinging. There – I even threw in two sprots metaphors for y’all. Democrats need to say it out – to shout that Republicans are afraid – afraid of women, of persons of color, of education, etc.
       

      After this weekend, I am radicalized – and I am very, very angry about the possibility of the orange buffoon coming back into power. (Cue any/all of Splinter Rips excellent names for the plague upon our country.)
       
      Also – PA’s governor ain’t half-bad, and would swing the state.

      • The pundits who want a deadlocked convention were pushing for Shapiro to be a candidate, and of course he quickly backed Harris instead.

        There’s been a lot of organizing in the background, and I eouldn’t be surprised if it’s been going on before the GOP convention started and Biden made the call a lot sooner than reporters have been saying.

      • Shapiro is a very effective governor. My one concern about him is how he will play with young voters given his stance on Palestine and cracking down on protesters. Do you think it’s cost him in PA?

        • I think people are more interested in their personal issues at the state level – healthcare, costs of goods, abortion, LBGTQIA+, etc. It is basically Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in action; according to him, only after physiological, safety, and security are attained do folks have an interest in connection, respect for others, and morality. (I argue that one can be connected, respectful, and moral without having basic needs and security met – but it isn’t my chart). That said, if Shapiro can take the greater metro Philly, Allentown, and Pittsburgh areas, that’s 70% of the 12.97 million population. And nearly 60% of Jewish persons in PA live in those areas. (I “knew” these stats proportionally, but my friend Google had the numbers.) So TL:DR I doubt his lack of morality re Palestine will dissuade young voters from voting against Trump.

          • Thanks, my family in PA all love him. He’s done a lot of good there and we certainly need the PA electoral votes. I know there’s no perfect candidate. I’d happily vote for a Harris Shapiro ticket.

  4. The clown car of convicts and grifters is scrambling now.

    Trump forced to regroup after gains, as advisers prepare to face Harris

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2024/07/21/trump-response-biden-dropping-out/

    Several people close to Trump said they expect Harris would be a more effective messenger on abortion than Biden was, and could stem some of the anger over the Israel-Gaza war that has bedeviled Biden’s candidacy. They also braced for the prospect that, if nominated, Harris would choose a popular running mate from a swing state, such as Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona or Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania. And, as one Trump ally put it, “she can actually speak and campaign.”

      • It also helps that Harris has given them very little to attack on except misogyny and racism. They can complain that she didn’t fix the border, but she can fire right back and say Republicans blocked the border bill. And since Biden did almost everything right on the economy, that’s not gonna get much traction either. So they’re reduced to making up shit, like “Harris will ban drinking straws” (that was literally one statement).

        I’ll be very interested to see how Republicans twist themselves over her VP pick. If she picks Mark Kelly, how will R’s explain that astronauts are bad?

        • Yes but let’s be clear: the press has been carrying the Republicans water over economic messaging forever. They still refuse to speak reality about the economy without qualifying it with “but that’s not how people feel.” So that argument will stick even though it’s total bullshit.

        • And being married to Gabby Giffords, survivor of an assassination attempt, would allow him to push back on trump’s “they tried to kill me” narrative without coming across as insensitive.

  5. In case any one asks y’all about Coconut Trees elsewhere (I got asked Friday or Saturday night, when I mentioned Kamala would/should be the Nom, if Biden were to step out/step down), here’s the info;

    https://www.glamour.com/story/whats-the-deal-with-kamala-harris-and-the-coconut-tree

    Ngl, as someone who has this kids’ book (and this version in particular!) practically memorized?

    I am so here for the Coconut Tree memes!😉😂🤣

    https://www.glamour.com/story/whats-the-deal-with-kamala-harris-and-the-coconut-tree

    More on the K-Hive, too:

    https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryancbrooks/2020-stans-khive-beto-pete-kamala

    https://www.huffpost.com/entry/kamala-harris-2024-things-to-know_n_669d901ee4b078bc22609ffb

      • …no kidding…the republican spokesman the BBC got on the world at one today responded to the presenter pointing out that kamala was considerably younger (they didn’t break out the “your guy’s the oldest nominated candidate there’s ever been” but you could almost hear it anyway) with “is age really the appropriate measure to guage a candidate’s capability?”…with zero irony…while getting themself tied in knots of their own making about how it was important the VP was a young guy but somehow inappropriate for the top of the ticket to be under 60…with a silent “& a girl, & not white”

        …probably shouldn’t have…but it made me laugh?

        …either I’m giddy or my bar for humor has taken a beating the last few years

      • Remember how the GOP kept insisting that Harris wasn’t Black? They aren’t going to be able to attack her South Asian heritage without calling more attention to JD Vance’s wife and children sharing that ancestry. Something the neo Nazi’s are already unhappy with. They will go all in on her being Black now. Which won’t help in their appeals to Black voters. Not that I think they stood much of a chance there anyway.

  9. I’m all in for Kamala and whichever midwestern white guy VP – but the reality is the wealthy Dems got to decide our fate by pushing Biden out and maybe they were right – but I have zero trust in the Dem donor class to do anything that isn’t completely self serving. And, we should never ever listen to what actors or anyone associated with the entertainment industry want as far as government.  They are narcissistic prima donnas that buy into their own bullshit. Also – fuck Peter Thiel.

  10. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/kamala-harris-running-mates-democratic-presidential-ticket-rcna162848

     

    NBC has a short (speculative) list of Harris’ VP picks. I personally like Mark Kelly, Pete, and my governor, JB. Though if I lived in AZ, I would probably want Mark Kelly to stay in my state doing local good than go be a VP. Pete is already in the White House and JB is at the end of his governor tenure. There’s been presidential whispers around him for a couple years now. It is very hard to get excited about IL politicians but he’s very progressive and I’m super impressed with what he’s done in IL.

    • …been hearing the name shapiro a lot today…but pritzker seems like a decent pick?

      …someone on the BBC was convinced that she needs, basically, whoever can ensure she doesn’t lose pennsylvania which seemed to have been decided at some point was the choke-point of all their electoral math solutions that didn’t have the other guy winning but I can’t say as I know if they’re right about any part of that?

      • I too have been hearing Shapiro a bunch.  I just hope that whomever they pick it doesn’t cause us to lose a dem seat in congress or the senate or even governor, we can’t afford that.  I’m just glad that Joe Manchin made clear he won’t be her vp as I am sure he was on her short list of possibilities (insert eye roll here).

    • JB won’t help in the red states around Illinois because folks rag on Illinois constantly.

      However, I don’t think anyone would really help in the same states because of how obsessed the republicans are with their cult leader.

      • Exactly. No one on the list would help for the same reasons. They would hate Newsome because CALIFORNIAAAAUUUGHGHGHG.

        But Pritzker won 2 terms here. IL is blue despite the downstate redhats.

    • Politically I like Roy Cooper out of NC. He’s a popular governor there who’s term-limited (so he was leaving the job anyway.) NC was real close last time out, and he gives them a shot at flipping it.

      The other one is the flip-in-case-of-emergency that they won’t do because they’re cowards, but: Bernie Sanders. Most popular pol in the country, finished second in ’16 and ’20 in the primaries. (The downsides are he’s old as fuck and VT has a light GOP gov so that might be an issue for a few months in the Senate, but … managable.)

      Many of the other people I think would be good — I like Pritzker a lot, and Shapiro is good but I think he should stay in PA — but they have more complicated replacement scenarios.

    • I worked on Dan Pritzker’s multi hundreds of million dollars vanity project about musician Buddy Bolden. He is JB’s totally stoner cousin.

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