Blessed relief! It’s a new day!
Until the weight was lifted off my heart and mind I didn't realize how omnipresent and heavy it's been. Today is a new day!
Biden’s stepping aside was the act of a patriot who put the good of democracy over his own self-interest, something Trump could/would never do. In fact, instead of being gracious in acknowledging Biden’s departure, he went straight into his victim act, whining about how this shift in candidate ruins his whole campaign strategy.
Wah wah waaah…
Trump's strategy focused on Biden being old, feeble and demented. But suddenly, guess what!?! Trump is now the oldest candidate ever, and his own questionable mental** and physical health will get the scrutiny it deserves. (Note: JD Vance is way too inexperienced in government to assume presidential duties, should something happen to Trump.)
Now, let's discuss her “cackle”…
The cacklattack. [I like that! I just made up the word.]
We knew it was coming. Trump and his allies will hit Kamala Harris with a shit-ton of racist and sexist ads, with slut-shaming innuendos, because that’s what they do. We need to get out in front of it, and call it for what it is.
The GOP does not like powerful women, and one way they cut them down is to label them: nasty, ball-breaker, bitch, hysterical, shrill, witch, nag, nuts, bossy, ditzy, crazy. Rather than point out some issue with a policy position, they undermine the women by mocking how they dress, speak or laugh. If you recall, Hillary Clinton got cacklattacked. Now she passes the broom for Kamala to ride as she “cackles.” The subliminal message? that sound is the evil laughter of witches. And witches are dangerous.
DO NOT FALL FOR THIS SEXIST PLOY. Whether or not you plan to vote for Kamala Harris, please don’t make that determination based on how she laughs. (I know folks who refused to vote for Hillary because of her laugh.) In fact, do not demean any woman for how she laughs…be grateful she has a healthy sense of humor. [Full disclosure: I am a loud laugher. My daughter is a loud laugher. My mother was one too. Laughing is good for the soul.]
BREAKING NEWS! A Zoom fundraising call to “white women for Kamala”
which was building on similar calls to “Black Women for Kamala” and “Black Men for Kamala,” this hastily organized call had the most zoom callers EVER: 164,000! I could not get in. They raised $2 million in 90 minutes!
OK back to “her laugh.”
From a recent Atlantic piece “Kamala Harris and the Threat of a Woman’s Laugh,”
In her book The Unruly Woman: Gender and the Genres of Laughter, the media scholar Kathleen Rowe Karlyn remarks that when women laugh on film and television, they reframe themselves as subjects rather than objects, asserting their right to an emotional response “that expresses anger, resistance, solidarity, joy.”
In many recent cultures, laughter for women has been an outright transgressive act. Under Taliban rule in Afghanistan, the former first lady Laura Bush noted in a 2001 speech, women faced beatings if they were seen laughing. And when the former Turkish deputy prime minister counseled women in 2014 not to laugh in public, lest they signal their “moral corruption.”
Here's Kamala's talk outlining her plan to her campaign staff. It's really good.
Trump is gonna need more, bigger diapers.
* Kamala had a great ad against Trump in 2020 when she first ran for the Democratic nomination. It’s still valid today.
**Ex-Republican George Conway has just created a PAC to shed a light on Trump’s mental health and the dangers of his malignant narcissism. His intro video on the second panel of the new website is an eye-opener.
Put yourself in the way of beauty
This is kinda cheating, but it’s too beautiful not to share. My older son, who lives in the foothills of the French Alps, took his family to stay in a hut in the Austrian Alps. Yikes! STEEP! Imagine mowing the grass…
Hang onto your hat. Hang on to your hope.
And wind the clock, for tomorrow is another day. - E.B. White