I sat down with my computer this morning looking forward to the latest Beschloss reflection. Then in my head I heard "You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?! -- with Kamala's laugh. Just think of it, someone who was raised as a minority with a profound somatic and cerebral understanding of inclusivity and community--soon to be at the helm of this great nation-ship. And to choose as her running mate someone who understands community from the good earth of Nebraska all the way to DC.
When Harris was first given the nod, the media -- long entranced by the orange man -- briefly came back to life and shrieked: "We don't know anything about her. We don't know what she has done as vice president." You would think they would be embarrassed by their malpractice of journalism but they don't seem to be. And so I am pretty sure that if they have missed knowing about all the accomplishments and stances of an accomplished bold woman who has served for nearly 4 years in the second highest office in the land (as well as all her previous very public governmental positions) that they also know precious little about the vast and varied army of women,not captured by their poorly designed polls, who will rise up to vote for Kamala.
Because we know, we women long invisible to the power structure, we know that we did not just fall out of a coconut tree. We are more than ready to celebrate that truth, bring our talents and lived experience and heal this nation together.
Thank you, Steven for creating this space to cheer each other on and share sorrow and, more importantly, hope and joy.
I read comments about this being a honeymoon period for Harris/Walz. But the energy and positivity behind their nascent campaign says otherwise. The momentum is building, not easing. And that isn't a honeymoon.
Trump lost the popular vote to both Clinton by 3 million and Biden by 7 million. There is no way on God's Green Earth that he will win the popular vote against Harris. But...if he prevails this November expect two things from the Trump/MAGA camp.
1) There will be interference at various polling places in states around the country to try to influence or even deny a fair vote.
2) The timeline between Nov. 5th & Jan. 20th will be fraught with legal battles and challenges. We can only hope that this last guardrail holds like it did in 2020.
For these reasons the popular vote cannot be a close one. It needs to be overwhelming in nature. Only that way will the possibilities of a stolen election be minimalized to the point of hopelessness for Trump and his unmerry band of sycophants.
"Unmerry"! A perfect descriptor for a group who loves to wallow in misery, much of which is self-inflicted (though always blamed on others).
And if I may say, to hell with the mainstream press. Their performance since 2015 has been nothing short of malpractice.
Thank you to President Biden for his leadership and now for his sincere support for Vice President Harris. What a refreshing and much-needed change in our country's atmosphere.
3) After Donald loses, many mass media platforms will amplify the "stop the steal" con game. Which was started by Roger Stone in April, 2016 as a money scam. The Press and the political experts we see on TV every day have failed to blow the whistle on this scam for 8 years. They are complicit.
Regarding #1, we need to support the efforts of the Secretary of State in Arizona where disgustingly biased courts have sidelined his common sense rules regarding polling places. Hopefully a lot of folks will vote early and dodge what could be truly ugly events in that state.
It really was glorious to see Biden together with Harris and to feel the genuine respect and love the two clearly share for one another. President Biden, aside from giving us the most productive and successful term of my life … helping everyone get some of that safety net we all at some time need and deserve … accomplishing sweeping infrastructure, CHIPS, COVID relief, Life saving vaccination programs, permanent Juneteenth National Holiday certification, land and water preservation, historic numbers of judicial appointments filled by the rich diversity reflecting the makeup of our wonderful nation … too much to list …. ASIDE from all of that : he saved the soul of America twice. In 2021, just weeks after Jan 6 … when he took office and restored normalcy and decency and dignity to this country and began to repair our Trump-broken relationships with the rest of the world. And vaccinated millions and millions in the first six months of that year. And then, saved our soul again, a month ago when he announced he was leaving the race for a second term and wholeheartedly supporting his hand picked VP and allowed for no room for fracture among his Party. No catastrophic scenarios emerged just a smooth transition to his VP, a person he trusted and whom had shadowed HIM during all those sweeping achievements this whole term, and therefore a person - a strong, smart, competent, compassionate black woman of proud multi-racial identity - whom WE could all wholeheartedly support as well. And in her first major decision she picks from a wealth of riches in terms of Democratic Party candidates, the ideal candidate for her VP. Governor Walz. He helped to shepherd this change so as to ensure calmness and unity. And then VP Harris injected this whole WORLD with a vision and a very real vision and possibility of bringing us back together … of opening our tent as wide as it has ever been opened. And a smart, kind, competent and compassionate 60 year old white man showed the country how glorious it is to be the VP to her P. To be in the role of supporting his boss, a strong black woman. And to do it with his whole heart and such grace and respect. They are literally showing the country how we come together and allow the light to overtake the darkness. Trump has been tugging us apart since 2015. And this country has never been so desperately ready to work together to change the path toward our future.
President Biden up there with VP Harris yesterday, showing again that he was not only going through the motions, he was clear eyed about this being PART of his remarkable Presidency. Part of saving the soul of America.
And now we choose Hope. We chose Joy. We chose Unity. We chose Respect. And we chose Freedom.
Americans are seeing the glaring differences between the darkness and the light. One candidate is floundering in his mental cesspool of hate and rage, while the other is welcoming every American into a future of decency and hope.
Quote: "There will be more to say about the continuing media failure to hold Donald Trump accountable—to spotlight his flaws and the risks he poses to the nation—with anything close to the compulsive fervor with which they attacked Joe Biden." End quote.
That very thought has perplexed me from day one. The MEDIA has nurtured the Trumpian terror. The MEDIA has all but celebrated the Orange Man Horror Show. I wonder how much of their cherished freedoms they would lose under a Trumpian empire? Trump wants to burn us to the ground. Chinese philosopher/Warrior Sun Tzu said, "An evil man will burn his own nation to the ground to rule over the ashes." ... Harris-Walz is the ticket to our republic's salvation and continuance. Trump-Vance is a ticket into eternal hell and destruction of our great country.
The MEDIA is not owned by journalists. News/Journalism is mostly an “add on” for various entertainment conglomerates looking to turn a profit.
The MEDIA is not trained in Horror Show news. It failed to see that it is a deliberate tactic to project a certain type of strength. Therefore it failed to see the difference between feeding and necessary reporting. Initially his tactics were written off as a clown show.
Now it is much more difficult to course correct because he achieved his goal. Trust in the “enemy of the people” evaporated. The public no longer shares common sources of information or a baseline for what is factual.
I can trace this erosion of fact and truth back to Ronald Reagan, where he welcomed in the Murdoch empire of fake and destructive forms of journalism. Reagan nixed The Fairness Doctrine. Truth and fact became victims. Liars stepped forward and have become powerful beneficiaries.
Hell, people can’t agree on facts any longer. Look at what this country went through with the COVID epidemic. It’s alternative facts, whatever they are. It’s sheer madness.
We need to be talking about Trump getting $10 million from the Egyptian government, not so much about the warm and fuzzies from the Harris campaign. The media is just plain ignoring this story.
I mean, if we cannot win this election while the other, the dark side is doing everything it can to lose, if we cannot win this election when the choices - between good and evil, kindness and cruelty, enlightenment and ignorance - are so stark, then all I can say is that we will deserve the government that we will get.
While our Democrat candidates continue to spread hope & joy & promise democracy's freedoms to Americans, the other side is waiting in the wings to put forth Project 2025 to destroy them. trump insists he knows nothing about this plan, does not agree with it. Pretending to be relatives of a rich donor to trump but really from the British Centre for Climate Reporting, two men secretly videoed an interview with Russell Vought, one of its authors & past cabinet member. For two hours, he laid out the Christian nationalism program that he said will go into immediate effect when trump wins. As for trump's disavowal, he said that was just politics.
What a rich topic for Harris to run with & expose.
I am feeling much better about being an optimist, especially after your post today. Nothing is ever gained by negatives. We can only move forward with positives, and Harris/Walz is all about positives. IT IS SO REFRESHING to hear positive discussions rather than the same idiotic dribble coming from Trump/Vance. As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, with the selection of Walz, the two have dominated the news cycles to Trump's great trepidation. Now, the Democratic Convention starts, and the news cycles for at least the next week will be dominated by the "feel good" confab in Chicago. All the gloom and doom about protests are mitigated to great extent. They will still be there, but welcomed rather than fought. Folks everywhere, except for the die hard MAGAs (and eved some of them are changing) will see that positivity can rule. Ain't this fun!!
I can't just sit around and read, even if it's "joy-scrolling" for the most part. So I applied to door knock in Michigan encouraging Dem voters to cast their ballots. Passed the training test (and background check) and really looking forward to speaking with real voters!
Now if we could all just stop looking at the orangutan flinging feces, we'd have more time to work for victory. Ignore-ance is bliss, believe me!
The media is failing the American people. Their unwillingness to expose the obvious unfitness of Trump to be a dog catcher, let alone the POTUS, is appalling. I guess we'll just have to keep the Harris-Walz coffers full so they can compete with all that earned media Trump is getting. Shameful.
Some of the comments back and forth remind me of the Obama campaign theme of hope and change. Just as Obama put forth that narrative, the Harris-Walz team is putting forth that narrative. Things are good, getting better (e.g. inflation slowing) and will get even better when their policies are enacted. On the other hand, 45 says how bad things are in this country. That sounds so depressing, when our country offers so much and with good policies can offer even more. Then 45 flips and talks about how things are going to be great. (again). If he thinks things are so bad now, he had a big mountain to climb to lift people out of the doldrums and make their lives better. I don't understand why he doesn't give the voters a more positive image of America. Perhaps he hasn't traveled to the countries where some immigrants come from, where they are so desperate to get out and come to America because things are so horrible where they currently reside. Perhaps 45 is spending too much time inside his various private, member-only golf clubs, where he sees only the richest of the rich. Perhaps he should get off the golf cart and take a road trip in a car or on a bus - ditch the private plane for a few days. There are nice places in America, places that can be made better. I wonder how much of this country 45 has seen, beyond the airport hangers where he has his rallies. Then he complains that Harris is proposing some of the same economic policies that he is proposing. He hasn't trademarked those policies. So those policies are for anyone to put forth. As has often been said: imitation is the greatest form of flattery. Perhaps he could think of turning his complaining into feeling flattered that Harris supports the same policies that he supports. Perhaps he could just THINK. That would be a good start. I saw the tape of people discussing Project 2025 on tv. Clearly it is linked to what 45 is going to do if elected and clearly he is aware of it. However, he is lying again by saying he has no idea what is it and that only he and his campaign make policy. We need the Washington Post Fact Checkers to delve deeply into this matter. Also, our political parties tend to be defined as liberal vs conservative. We do not have Communists in this country. McCarthy did away with that in the 1950's. Again I wonder if he want to his high school American History classes. I was glad to turn the tv off as I finished lunch today, just after I heard the quote from 45 about Comrade Harris being a Communist. Fact Checkers, please. His staff set up an entire display for him yesterday to talk about the economy, particularly the supermarket prices, a kitchen table issue important to all Americans. Yet, 45 went off script, no surprise; and turned the event into a name calling, degrading women event. Harris and Walz are the adult in the room, educated people who have plans. 45 continues to be the adolescent, whose only plan to try to gain office (and only so he can stay out of jail) is to call his opponents names. I support and will vote for the education, knowledgeable, forward thinking, caring for other people in the room. Kamala Harris nd Tim Walz. God Bless America. 🇺🇸
I sat down with my computer this morning looking forward to the latest Beschloss reflection. Then in my head I heard "You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?! -- with Kamala's laugh. Just think of it, someone who was raised as a minority with a profound somatic and cerebral understanding of inclusivity and community--soon to be at the helm of this great nation-ship. And to choose as her running mate someone who understands community from the good earth of Nebraska all the way to DC.
When Harris was first given the nod, the media -- long entranced by the orange man -- briefly came back to life and shrieked: "We don't know anything about her. We don't know what she has done as vice president." You would think they would be embarrassed by their malpractice of journalism but they don't seem to be. And so I am pretty sure that if they have missed knowing about all the accomplishments and stances of an accomplished bold woman who has served for nearly 4 years in the second highest office in the land (as well as all her previous very public governmental positions) that they also know precious little about the vast and varied army of women,not captured by their poorly designed polls, who will rise up to vote for Kamala.
Because we know, we women long invisible to the power structure, we know that we did not just fall out of a coconut tree. We are more than ready to celebrate that truth, bring our talents and lived experience and heal this nation together.
Thank you, Steven for creating this space to cheer each other on and share sorrow and, more importantly, hope and joy.
Thank you for your thoughtful reflection, Beth.
thank you
I truly love “malpractice of journalism”, a perfect description of the Fourth Estate of our time. And so sad!
I read comments about this being a honeymoon period for Harris/Walz. But the energy and positivity behind their nascent campaign says otherwise. The momentum is building, not easing. And that isn't a honeymoon.
Trump lost the popular vote to both Clinton by 3 million and Biden by 7 million. There is no way on God's Green Earth that he will win the popular vote against Harris. But...if he prevails this November expect two things from the Trump/MAGA camp.
1) There will be interference at various polling places in states around the country to try to influence or even deny a fair vote.
2) The timeline between Nov. 5th & Jan. 20th will be fraught with legal battles and challenges. We can only hope that this last guardrail holds like it did in 2020.
For these reasons the popular vote cannot be a close one. It needs to be overwhelming in nature. Only that way will the possibilities of a stolen election be minimalized to the point of hopelessness for Trump and his unmerry band of sycophants.
"Unmerry"! A perfect descriptor for a group who loves to wallow in misery, much of which is self-inflicted (though always blamed on others).
And if I may say, to hell with the mainstream press. Their performance since 2015 has been nothing short of malpractice.
Thank you to President Biden for his leadership and now for his sincere support for Vice President Harris. What a refreshing and much-needed change in our country's atmosphere.
I'll vote for "merry"!!
Agree. Add:
3) After Donald loses, many mass media platforms will amplify the "stop the steal" con game. Which was started by Roger Stone in April, 2016 as a money scam. The Press and the political experts we see on TV every day have failed to blow the whistle on this scam for 8 years. They are complicit.
Regarding #1, we need to support the efforts of the Secretary of State in Arizona where disgustingly biased courts have sidelined his common sense rules regarding polling places. Hopefully a lot of folks will vote early and dodge what could be truly ugly events in that state.
It really was glorious to see Biden together with Harris and to feel the genuine respect and love the two clearly share for one another. President Biden, aside from giving us the most productive and successful term of my life … helping everyone get some of that safety net we all at some time need and deserve … accomplishing sweeping infrastructure, CHIPS, COVID relief, Life saving vaccination programs, permanent Juneteenth National Holiday certification, land and water preservation, historic numbers of judicial appointments filled by the rich diversity reflecting the makeup of our wonderful nation … too much to list …. ASIDE from all of that : he saved the soul of America twice. In 2021, just weeks after Jan 6 … when he took office and restored normalcy and decency and dignity to this country and began to repair our Trump-broken relationships with the rest of the world. And vaccinated millions and millions in the first six months of that year. And then, saved our soul again, a month ago when he announced he was leaving the race for a second term and wholeheartedly supporting his hand picked VP and allowed for no room for fracture among his Party. No catastrophic scenarios emerged just a smooth transition to his VP, a person he trusted and whom had shadowed HIM during all those sweeping achievements this whole term, and therefore a person - a strong, smart, competent, compassionate black woman of proud multi-racial identity - whom WE could all wholeheartedly support as well. And in her first major decision she picks from a wealth of riches in terms of Democratic Party candidates, the ideal candidate for her VP. Governor Walz. He helped to shepherd this change so as to ensure calmness and unity. And then VP Harris injected this whole WORLD with a vision and a very real vision and possibility of bringing us back together … of opening our tent as wide as it has ever been opened. And a smart, kind, competent and compassionate 60 year old white man showed the country how glorious it is to be the VP to her P. To be in the role of supporting his boss, a strong black woman. And to do it with his whole heart and such grace and respect. They are literally showing the country how we come together and allow the light to overtake the darkness. Trump has been tugging us apart since 2015. And this country has never been so desperately ready to work together to change the path toward our future.
President Biden up there with VP Harris yesterday, showing again that he was not only going through the motions, he was clear eyed about this being PART of his remarkable Presidency. Part of saving the soul of America.
And now we choose Hope. We chose Joy. We chose Unity. We chose Respect. And we chose Freedom.
For every single one of us.
It is a beautiful thing.
Dr. Joanie, What a great tribute to the Democratic team. I have nothing to add. Thank you for writing this column-within-a-column!
Paragraphs are a wonderful invention!
Americans are seeing the glaring differences between the darkness and the light. One candidate is floundering in his mental cesspool of hate and rage, while the other is welcoming every American into a future of decency and hope.
Quote: "There will be more to say about the continuing media failure to hold Donald Trump accountable—to spotlight his flaws and the risks he poses to the nation—with anything close to the compulsive fervor with which they attacked Joe Biden." End quote.
That very thought has perplexed me from day one. The MEDIA has nurtured the Trumpian terror. The MEDIA has all but celebrated the Orange Man Horror Show. I wonder how much of their cherished freedoms they would lose under a Trumpian empire? Trump wants to burn us to the ground. Chinese philosopher/Warrior Sun Tzu said, "An evil man will burn his own nation to the ground to rule over the ashes." ... Harris-Walz is the ticket to our republic's salvation and continuance. Trump-Vance is a ticket into eternal hell and destruction of our great country.
We got here because …
The MEDIA is not owned by journalists. News/Journalism is mostly an “add on” for various entertainment conglomerates looking to turn a profit.
The MEDIA is not trained in Horror Show news. It failed to see that it is a deliberate tactic to project a certain type of strength. Therefore it failed to see the difference between feeding and necessary reporting. Initially his tactics were written off as a clown show.
Now it is much more difficult to course correct because he achieved his goal. Trust in the “enemy of the people” evaporated. The public no longer shares common sources of information or a baseline for what is factual.
I can trace this erosion of fact and truth back to Ronald Reagan, where he welcomed in the Murdoch empire of fake and destructive forms of journalism. Reagan nixed The Fairness Doctrine. Truth and fact became victims. Liars stepped forward and have become powerful beneficiaries.
Hell, people can’t agree on facts any longer. Look at what this country went through with the COVID epidemic. It’s alternative facts, whatever they are. It’s sheer madness.
They are the breath of fresh air we so sorely needed. “Somebody open up a window!”
We need to be talking about Trump getting $10 million from the Egyptian government, not so much about the warm and fuzzies from the Harris campaign. The media is just plain ignoring this story.
I mean, if we cannot win this election while the other, the dark side is doing everything it can to lose, if we cannot win this election when the choices - between good and evil, kindness and cruelty, enlightenment and ignorance - are so stark, then all I can say is that we will deserve the government that we will get.
While our Democrat candidates continue to spread hope & joy & promise democracy's freedoms to Americans, the other side is waiting in the wings to put forth Project 2025 to destroy them. trump insists he knows nothing about this plan, does not agree with it. Pretending to be relatives of a rich donor to trump but really from the British Centre for Climate Reporting, two men secretly videoed an interview with Russell Vought, one of its authors & past cabinet member. For two hours, he laid out the Christian nationalism program that he said will go into immediate effect when trump wins. As for trump's disavowal, he said that was just politics.
What a rich topic for Harris to run with & expose.
Goodbye, donald !
I am feeling much better about being an optimist, especially after your post today. Nothing is ever gained by negatives. We can only move forward with positives, and Harris/Walz is all about positives. IT IS SO REFRESHING to hear positive discussions rather than the same idiotic dribble coming from Trump/Vance. As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, with the selection of Walz, the two have dominated the news cycles to Trump's great trepidation. Now, the Democratic Convention starts, and the news cycles for at least the next week will be dominated by the "feel good" confab in Chicago. All the gloom and doom about protests are mitigated to great extent. They will still be there, but welcomed rather than fought. Folks everywhere, except for the die hard MAGAs (and eved some of them are changing) will see that positivity can rule. Ain't this fun!!
I can't just sit around and read, even if it's "joy-scrolling" for the most part. So I applied to door knock in Michigan encouraging Dem voters to cast their ballots. Passed the training test (and background check) and really looking forward to speaking with real voters!
Now if we could all just stop looking at the orangutan flinging feces, we'd have more time to work for victory. Ignore-ance is bliss, believe me!
Hope and Joy!
💙🇺🇸
Nice article Steven!
Steven, this is the strongest ticket the Dems have had for a very long time. Hi am so very happy!
The media is failing the American people. Their unwillingness to expose the obvious unfitness of Trump to be a dog catcher, let alone the POTUS, is appalling. I guess we'll just have to keep the Harris-Walz coffers full so they can compete with all that earned media Trump is getting. Shameful.
Some of the comments back and forth remind me of the Obama campaign theme of hope and change. Just as Obama put forth that narrative, the Harris-Walz team is putting forth that narrative. Things are good, getting better (e.g. inflation slowing) and will get even better when their policies are enacted. On the other hand, 45 says how bad things are in this country. That sounds so depressing, when our country offers so much and with good policies can offer even more. Then 45 flips and talks about how things are going to be great. (again). If he thinks things are so bad now, he had a big mountain to climb to lift people out of the doldrums and make their lives better. I don't understand why he doesn't give the voters a more positive image of America. Perhaps he hasn't traveled to the countries where some immigrants come from, where they are so desperate to get out and come to America because things are so horrible where they currently reside. Perhaps 45 is spending too much time inside his various private, member-only golf clubs, where he sees only the richest of the rich. Perhaps he should get off the golf cart and take a road trip in a car or on a bus - ditch the private plane for a few days. There are nice places in America, places that can be made better. I wonder how much of this country 45 has seen, beyond the airport hangers where he has his rallies. Then he complains that Harris is proposing some of the same economic policies that he is proposing. He hasn't trademarked those policies. So those policies are for anyone to put forth. As has often been said: imitation is the greatest form of flattery. Perhaps he could think of turning his complaining into feeling flattered that Harris supports the same policies that he supports. Perhaps he could just THINK. That would be a good start. I saw the tape of people discussing Project 2025 on tv. Clearly it is linked to what 45 is going to do if elected and clearly he is aware of it. However, he is lying again by saying he has no idea what is it and that only he and his campaign make policy. We need the Washington Post Fact Checkers to delve deeply into this matter. Also, our political parties tend to be defined as liberal vs conservative. We do not have Communists in this country. McCarthy did away with that in the 1950's. Again I wonder if he want to his high school American History classes. I was glad to turn the tv off as I finished lunch today, just after I heard the quote from 45 about Comrade Harris being a Communist. Fact Checkers, please. His staff set up an entire display for him yesterday to talk about the economy, particularly the supermarket prices, a kitchen table issue important to all Americans. Yet, 45 went off script, no surprise; and turned the event into a name calling, degrading women event. Harris and Walz are the adult in the room, educated people who have plans. 45 continues to be the adolescent, whose only plan to try to gain office (and only so he can stay out of jail) is to call his opponents names. I support and will vote for the education, knowledgeable, forward thinking, caring for other people in the room. Kamala Harris nd Tim Walz. God Bless America. 🇺🇸