HereAndGone
12d ago
There's a difference when you say the quiet part out loud, though. And Kamala pulled all this down on top of her head by putting it in the book that she'd considered Pete but then dropped it because too risky. Nobody needed that level of kiss'n'tell, except for publicity purposes ("buy the book for more spicy revelations about insider goings-on!")
She seems to have no idea that this would ever come back to be something she would need to deal with, and even someone as sympathetic to her as Rachel Maddow had to ask it, and she fumbled the answer ("it wasn't because he was gay, it was because he was gay").
This seems to be all too common with her: says/does something, has no idea that it won't fade with the moment but will be brought up again later (see the "yes for transgender surgery for illegal immigrants in prison" bit of an interview which was just lagniappe for the Trump campaign - i.e. 'spend taxpayer dollars coddling criminals, and not even our own native criminals'). She seems to have no forward planning skills, which is something you would like to have in a president.
HereAndGone
12d ago
Being fair to Pete, there's a long tradition of mocking photos of politicians trying to eat in public. And, not to be too crude about it, if you're a gay guy who is known for being gay, then putting a phallic-shaped object near your mouth while there are photographers about is risky business. Better to apply it horizontally than vertically, just to be on the safe side.
I have to quote the Miliband story, it's too good not to share:
For a party leader anxious to avoid any more gaffes, what could go wrong buying flowers for the wife?
Plenty, it turned out, as an immaculately suited Ed Miliband turned up at New Covent Garden flower market at the ungodly hour of 6.30am to bag London’s freshest roses for wife Justine.
First came the delicate issue of his bacon roll, a vital accessory when meeting the working classes at breakfast time.
Mr Miliband’s battle to consume the greasy treat alarmed his media minders, who tried to stop photographers taking close-ups of butter oozing between his teeth. After a few bites, the Labour leader appeared defeated, and the snack was put into the custody of Lord Wood, a senior shadow cabinet member.
HereAndGone
12d ago
Unless her aim was to sprinkle some controversy into the book to generate publicity for her talk show tour, I have no idea why she mentioned Buttigieg in that context. This was answering a question nobody was asking until she went on about "well clearly I couldn't have a gay guy as my running mate".
"Why couldn't you?"
"Gimme a break, it was hard enough trying to persuade the American people to vote for me because duh, it's me, how the heck would I get them to vote for a gay on top of that? Er, not that there's anything wrong with being born that way! Just... nobody is gonna vote for you except those freaks in California, and there's not enough of them to swing it despite our best efforts".
HereAndGone
12d ago
If Biden had dropped dead, sure. But the more likely path for President Kamala would have been Biden having to step down, so he would still be around while she finished out the term. Much more difficult to navigate that; a dead Biden would have meant "don't speak ill of the dead" and would have won her more time to distance herself from any unpopular decisions, but if Joe is still alive and kicking (and the Bidens every bit as bitter about power being yanked out of his grasp as they were this time round) then trying to go "no, that unpopular policy belongs firmly in the lap of my predecessor" would evoke "oh yeah? funny how you said nothing against it at the time, traitor!" from them or loyal ex-staffers.
HereAndGone
12d ago
I do get the impression that Biden wasn't all that enthusiastic about Kamala, mostly because she was sort of imposed on him. He'd shot his mouth off about making a woman his VP, and then the black Democratic leaders wanted their pound of flesh in return for all the support, so it had to be a black woman. And it does look like Kamala got chosen as "nobody wants her but everyone will take her instead of the other choice because they want the job themselves and don't want a rival to get it".
So all the leaks about problems in the VP's office etc. that were trickling out were, I think, part of the Biden staffers strategy to keep her in her lane if she showed signs of trying to grab the reins herself. In contrast, Trump seems to like Vance just enough, or not be threatened by him, that he lets him do a more public job as VP.
HereAndGone
12d ago
The VP takes over if the President is incapacitated. Now it has come out that Biden was functionally incapacitated, but nobody wanted to rock that boat. Everyone wanted to keep it hushed up, and that was part of Harris' problem: be the whistleblower and be blamed for sowing division and revealing all the dirty linen, or keep her mouth shut and hope that Joe would stick to the plan and hand over to her?
As for taking on Jill Biden, nobody wanted that fight. And yeah, maybe Jill should run herself 🤣
HereAndGone
12d ago
if she were half-way competent she should have taken control of the Biden White House.
Well, according to the book excerpts, the Biden staffers and administration and Bidens were determined not to let her do anything like that, so they deliberately kept her overshadowed and in the background, or handed her thankless tasks. Plus, the VP is supposed to stand by and just be ceremonial/decorative, not try to muscle in on the presidential turf.
The sniping between her and some ex-Biden staffers is entertaining, but to be fair, no VP really gets a chance to take over unless the President is pretty much incapable, and in Biden's case there was a combination of "we have to cover this up so as not to give Trump and the Republicans any advantage" and Jill etc. were keeping the reins firmly in their own grip, with no intention whatsoever of handing over power to Kamala at all.
HereAndGone
12d ago
Yeah, but as time goes on, the likelihood of it becoming true increases. I don't think he's at the point of cognitive decline just yet, but I think you are right about physical lack of energy and maybe he's starting to slow down mentally as well. He's 79 now, when he hits his 80s I would definitely expect a gradual diminishment.
HereAndGone
12d ago
The thing is, so far as I can see, nobody was asking "Gee, why didn't Kamala pick Pete?" The question was "why didn't she pick Shapiro over Walz?" and the answer was "she was scared he was too ambitious".
So this is coming out of nowhere (unless anyone has any information to the contrary) and the only thing it's doing is stirring up controversy. Why is she doing this now? is the interesting question.
HereAndGone
12d ago
I mean, she's entirely happy to blame racism and sexism for why she didn't win, so as you say having a gay VP would be yet another ready-made excuse ("it's not because we ran a shoddy campaign, it's because the voters are racist sexist homophobes!")
Genuinely, the only sense I can make of what she's saying now (apart from 'gosh, ease off on the day drinking, girl') is that she wants to sabotage Buttigieg and as many others in the Democratic party as she can in revenge for what she sees as their betrayal.
HereAndGone
12d ago
she needed a charismatic speaker to shore up her weakness of being an uncharismatic machine politician
But the problem with that would be that her running mate would then overshadow her, and that was her exact problem with Shapiro, which is why she picked Walz instead.
Kamala is a little insecure, or rather she seems to find it hard to make decisions quickly and second-guesses herself and (allegedly) doesn't take advice well, but then blames staff around her when things go wrong. So picking someone who would be the Bill Clinton or Obama charisma-wise of the campaign, thus relegating her to second place, would be exactly the thing she would never do.
HereAndGone
12d ago
I think Kamala's problem wasn't in the realms of kindness and wisdom, but rather lack of any stable policy. She seemed to go with any wind that blew - see the disastrous 2019 attempt where she over-corrected for being 'Copmala' by going too far in the opposite direction, and gave plenty of hostages to fortune to be dragged out again in 2024 ("she's for they/them" being one).
To correct for 2019, she then tried tacking back to the centre, but the campaign mostly was a reprise of Biden's in 2020: "vote for me because I'm not Trump". What did she stand for, exactly? What were her policies? Balloon popping and brat summer coconut memes weren't enough.
Kamala's problem is that there does not seem to be a 'there' there. I think that based on her record, she's a local politician and becoming Attorney-General of California was as high as she could reasonably go. Yes, she became a senator, and with what result? Her name is linked with Jussie Smollett and that anti-lynching bill which ultimately failed, can anyone tell me of something substantial she achieved in her term? The fact that she's rejected running for Governor of California would indicate to me that she realises her limitations. Otherwise, that would seem like the logical next step on the career ladder - go for that, win that (it is hoped), get a term under her belt, position herself for a run for the presidency in 2032.
HereAndGone
12d ago
If TPTB had the chutzpah to just kill Biden, Kamala would have had a chance: she would have been the first female president, she would have had the advantage of being in power.
The problem is, that is a double-edged sword: give the masses the chance to see President Kamala (as she takes over from Biden and finishes out his term) and maybe we all see how badly she does when given power. See Ford versus Carter for how being the VP who took over as President wasn't any advantage.
But maybe she does okay, or at least can shuffle off any blame onto the first half of the term when Biden was still in power. Faced with Trump, maybe the Democrats rally behind her as "well, no point changing horses in midstream".
Or maybe there is enough of a run-in to let them have an open primary and choose a different candidate. How gruntled will Kamala be then? Will she get behind the new choice for the sake of the party, or will there be splits and rival camps?
HereAndGone
12d ago
I think it would make sense for Buttigieg to respond that she's right, the handicap was for anyone running with her. And let the implication be "not because she's a black woman, because she's Kamala Harris and couldn't govern her way out of a wet paper bag".
I don't think Mayor Pete is a possible president, but if we have to pick a gay guy, he's about as inoffensive as you can get (remember the criticism for him being the wrong kind of gay? not gay enough in the queerest possible sense for representation? too white picket fence?). So Kamala is definitely slipping the knife in, and I do have to wonder just what exactly went on that he offended her in some way.
HereAndGone
12d ago
From all the excerpts I'm seeing of the book and the Rachel Maddow interview, the only sense I can make of this is that Harris is angry about being dumped with all the blame for giving Trump a second term, so she's bound and determined to get her revenge on the Democratic party. She says she's not going for Governor of California, and she's being very coy about 2028, so maybe she is trying to burn Newsom in return for what she feels is his lukewarm and lacking endorsement of her in the 2024 campaign?
How else to explain things like "I thought the titans of industry would protect democracy"? That is as good as making the slogan "A vote for the Democratic party candidate is a vote for the oligarchs! The Democratic Party - the party of real billionaires!"
Everybody knew she picked Walz over Shapiro because she felt Shapiro was too ambitious while Walz knew his place as second fiddle to her. I have no idea what she is trying to do, dragging Buttigieg into this - I couldn't pick him because he was too much of a liability, but that wasn't because he was gay, it was because he was gay and I'm black and female - what? that comes across as "don't anybody pick Buttigieg except maybe as VP for a straight white guy, because otherwise he's unelectable" and again, only sense it makes to me is that she is trying to torpedo as many Democratic picks as possible because, as per her book, she thinks she was deliberately undermined by the Biden White House both while in office as VP and when running her campaign, and the party never stepped up sufficiently to have her back, and Certain People who she expected to endorse her and support her didn't do it sufficiently or at all.
Whoo, is all I can say.
HereAndGone
17d ago
Yeah, I never watched Sons of Anarchy when this was the big new hit TV show, but didn't the motorcycle club in that start off that very way? Vets back from the war (Vietnam in this case) found a motorcycle club, and gradually over the years it becomes a criminal outfit.
HereAndGone
17d ago
I've seen a few of her recent videos and found myself agreeing with her, so either I've become more liberal (doubtful) or she's moved more towards the centre (probable).
I think her reaction here is "Wait. I thought we were the good side. The compassionate side, the tolerant side, the side that tried to understand and accept despite differences? Not like the fanatics and crazies and bad people on the other side? And here are my people cheering a murder and calling for more murders, and the people they want murdered are 'fascists' and hey, that's me! I've been called a fascist!"
It's always a shock to find people you admire, or are on the same broad lines of identifying with, turning out to say and do and admire horrible shit.
HereAndGone
17d ago
Oh, girlbosses annoy me as well! I dislike the attitude that women (in popular culture representation) only become vital and interesting characters when they are copying the boys, showing they are as good as the boys at doing boy stuff like riding around on horses waving swords.
I understand why early versions of this happened, in order to adjust from the "men and boys are the main characters while the women and girls are just in the background somewhere", but it still casts the entire question in terms of "what men do and what the male world is about", rather than the mysteries of the Bona Dea. Girlboss is important because she too rides around and waves a sword, not because she engages in weaving magic or keeps the household governed in the absence of the men.
HereAndGone
17d ago
I disagree with (1) his huffing and puffing over me regarding his Tidus as a fantasy novel rather than Real Science (2) warmed-over 19th century anthropology - others in the comments have pointed out disagreement with his Just So story of How It All Happened.
He seems very put out that I'm not treating his Giant Work Of Staggering Genius (it's going to be a book, you know!) with a seemly and proper level of reverence, but rather that I'm mocking it (you know, being petulant and sarcastic and all the limitations of my viewpoint, due to the womanly faults of not having a brain but big tiddies instead).
Me and Belloc are over here laughing about "oh really, the Nordic Man myth again?"
HereAndGone
17d ago
The romanticization of biker gangs traveled far thanks to the interwoven cross-section of 1960s counterculture that helped popularize it. Groups of American ruffian drug traffickers on two-wheeled transport, sexual revolutionaries, and psychedelic entrepreneurs found commonality in their love of drugs and rebellion to the Man.
Even before the 60s, see the Marlon Brando movie The Wild One from 1953, based on a story allegedly based on a true incident. See the famous quote from the movie.
The film's screenplay was based on Frank Rooney's short story "Cyclists' Raid", published in the January 1951 Harper's Magazine and anthologized in The Best American Short Stories 1952. Rooney's story was inspired by sensationalistic media coverage of an American Motorcyclist Association motorcycle rally that got out of hand on the Fourth of July weekend in 1947 in Hollister, California. The overcrowding, drinking and street stunting were given national attention in the July 21, 1947, issue of Life, with a possibly staged photograph of a wild drunken man on a motorcycle. The events, conflated with the newspaper and magazine reports, Rooney's short story, and the film The Wild One are part of the legend of the Hollister riot.
So post-Second World War veterans returned home, more disposable income and better conditions in the 50s, a rise in interest in all kinds of communal activities, leading to a lot of guys getting interested in motorbikes as a hobby and club activity, along with a bunch of guys who would always be the type to be rule-breakers involved in motorbiking, and the tension between 'back to normie society and its rules after living in a different environment during wartime' and 'sliding into involvement with criminality' leading to, as you say, the romantic view of the guys living outside strict rules of conventional society in their own replacement culture as modern-day pioneers.
HereAndGone
19d ago
HereAndGone
19d ago
Were we in the forum I'd ask for a word with your husband
Eek! I am so terrified by the invocation of authority! Fortunately for me, I abide contentedly in blessed singleness, nor have ever had a husband, nor ever felt in the need of one.
And this kind of attitude makes me very glad that God made me as I am, freed from the desire for the desire of others. Are you seriously telling me you are going to go running to your daddy that some mean girl was rude to you on the Internet?
HereAndGone
20d ago
HereAndGone
20d ago
What better evidence could there be than him and his defense literally saying it?
He also said he was going to dress up as a unicorn. I think "not playing with a full deck" is the best approach to take here.
She believed in what can be, unburdened by what has been 😁
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