Over the last several years there's been this kind of perversion that has taken place, which is to suggest that the measure of the strength of a leader is based on who you beat down, when what we know is the real and true measure of the strength of a leader is based on who you lift up.
This week's featured post is "Harris, Trump, and Our Broken News Media".
This week everybody was talking about the Democratic Convention
The Democratic National Convention in Chicago has already started, if you count events that don't usually get much coverage, like the delegate breakfasts. Main programming begins at 4 this afternoon, central daylight time. This livestream link begins at 5:30.
Politico has a good article about the convention, including the various ways you can watch it. The major networks are only committed to an hour of coverage 10-11 each night, but CSPAN and various streaming options should cover everything.
Tonight's headliners are President Biden, who I expect to get a heartwarming reception from a party that appreciates what he has sacrificed for the greater good, and Hillary Clinton, who may finally see her dream of a female president realized this year. The Obamas will speak Tuesday. Wednesday's lineup includes Tim Walz, Nancy Pelosi, Bill Clinton, and Pete Buttigieg, while Thursday belongs to Vice President Harris. Jason Carter at some point will appear on behalf of his grandfather Jimmy Carter, who is hoping to hang on long enough to vote for Harris in the general election.
This convention will contrast with the Republican Convention in a number of ways that I think will work in the Democrats' favor. For one thing, the party is not running away from its past, and its nominee has the support of all its major stars. And while the RNC tended to be dour and dystopian, the DNC should be much lighter and joyful.
Also, the Democratic headliners are just better speakers. I expect that Walz on Wednesday and Harris on Thursday will each have a point and make it, in a speech that has a beginning, a middle, and an end. They should contrast well with Trump's 90-minute ramble at the RNC, and whatever it was that J. D. Vance was doing.
The wild card in the week is how intense and disruptive pro-Palestinian protests will be.
and Ukraine's invasion of Russia
On August 6, Ukraine flipped the script on Russia and sent its troops into Russian territory in the Kursk region, which is famous as the site of the largest tank battle in history. (The Russian victory over Germany at Stalingrad is considered the greatest single turning point in World War II, but Germany's defeat on the Eastern Front didn't become inevitable until after Kursk the next summer.)
It's hard to know what this all means. A substantial fog of war prevents accurate reporting, but it's clear that Russia was surprised and has not been able to repel Ukraine yet. The attack could turn out to be anything from a strategic masterstroke to a modern-day Gettysburg campaign that has early successes but ultimately hastens defeat.
In the meantime, it's a substantial political embarrassment to Putin, whose image of strength is taking damage.
and Gaza
The dying continues in Gaza, and the Palestinian death count has now passed 40,000. The Biden administration continues to push for a ceasefire/hostage release deal, but it's not clear that either side really wants peace.
and you also might be interested in ...
It's always hard to decide how much attention to pay to the latest Trump outrage. It's important not to become desensitized to them, but they've been going on for nine years and haven't ended his career yet.
This week he disrespected Medal of Honor winners, who are America's greatest war heroes.
Trump on Thursday, when talking about giving GOP donor Miriam Adelson the Medal of Freedom, the nation’s top civilian honor, said it is “actually, much better” than the Medal of Honor “because everyone (who) gets the congressional medal of honor, that’s soldiers. They’re either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets, or they’re dead.”
Trump's former Chief of Staff, former General John Kelly, responded:
No president, member of Congress, judge or political appointee — and certainly no recipient of the Presidential Medal — will ever be asked to give life or limb to protect the Constitution. The two awards cannot be compared in any way. Not even close.
Trump's remarks would be bad enough in the context of a Medal of Freedom winner who saved many lives through peaceful means, like vaccine developer Jonas Salk, or who risked life and limb in a non-military context, like first man on the Moon Neil Armstrong. But it's obscene to say such a thing while giving the award to Miriam Adelson, who essentially bought the honor by (with her late husband) contributing hundreds of millions to Republican candidates, including Trump himself.
I discussed Trump's Mar-a-Lago press conference in detail in the featured post, and barely mentioned his interview with Elon Musk. CNN did a fact check, for what that's worth. But their discussion of climate change is worth paying attention to, because it so clueless. Bill McKibben dubbed this "the dumbest climate conversation of all time".
Trump said the same stupid thing he's said before, which is that rising sea levels aren't worth worrying about because you just wind up with "more seafront property". Not only is this wrongheaded, it's just plain dumb, as McKibben points out:
a rising ocean clearly reduces the amount of oceanfront property. If Florida goes underwater there will be a new stretch of seafront along what’s now the Georgia border—but the amount of oceanfront will be greatly reduced.
But most of the truly idiotic comments come from Musk, while Trump just sits there and seems to agree. Musk is pushing electric cars not because he worries about the climate, but because he worries about running out of oil. Also, he pictures increased CO2 in the atmosphere not causing any real problems until it gets around 1000 ppm (from it's current level of just over 400), because that would cause breathing problems.
McKibben comments:
There is not a serious climate scientist on planet earth who has ever contemplated a thousand parts per million with anything less than panic and horror. ... What Musk’s math implies, of course, is that we have endless time to deal with this crisis. If 1,000 is the danger level, and we’re going up two parts per million per year, that does indeed “give us quite a bit of time.” Three hundred years, roughly. ... This is the point of their conversation, at least when it comes to climate. It is to insist that nothing need be done now, that we should just go on expanding the fossil fuel industry.
Social media is trolling Musk: "Elon Musk, dead at 52, says there is no need for misinformation laws".
Sexism is sexism, even if it comes from a woman. I am appalled that the WaPo published a Kathleen Parker column including this:
Without her beauty, Harris might be joining Biden in retirement. All you have to do is imagine her spoken words coming from a less-attractive package. Or put her on radio.
Hillary wasn't attractive enough. Kamala is too attractive to take seriously. There's no winning.
Tim Walz hasn't forgotten how to speak to a football team. Decades ago, politicians of both parties made these kinds of speeches all the time to promote civic virtues in the rising generations. But it's been a long time since I've heard one.
The DeSantis takeover of New College in Sarasota hasn't resulted in book burnings, but a lot of gender diversity books that students might have wanted are winding up in the dumpster
and let's close with some resemblances
James Lucas posts a thread on X that celebrates pareidolia, "our brain's tendency to see familiar shapes in random patterns", like the Waterfall of the Bride in Peru.
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