Sunday morning cafe.
August 4, 2024
The comments section is open to all on Sunday morning for as long as possible. Please be respectful when commenting. Happy Sunday, all!
This photo is of M101—the Pinwheel Galaxy, not the Fireworks Galaxy as noted on the photo. I misidentified it while labeling old photos in Lightroom over the weekend. That teaches me to label photos as soon as I take them!
M101 is 21 million light-years from Earth.
Kamala Harris has had a stellar rise. We cannot let ourselves be dazzled by the light.
The momentum is unprecedented, and yet we must both sustain and build on it.
In 2016 many were taken in by the notion that Hillary could not lose and that Trump could not win. Many were blinkered by an unproven assurance. Fallacious rhetoric and wishful thinking served as voter suppression. Too many believed that Hillary did not need *their* vote. Mistaking voting for an individual exercise in personal expression, they made excuses not to vote for a candidate who did not meet their own purity tests. They followed the pipe dream that disaster could be avoided while they indulged in turning up their nose, sitting on their hands, or following some Pied Piper. They could not imagine that a man such as Trump could win the American presidency. They could they imagine sufficient numbers of voters would hold their nose and vote for Trump. A fatal lack of imagination. Trump voters kept their eyes on the prize - the Supreme Court. And won even more. With the help of potential Democratic voters who'd split off rather than accepting that we had a binary choice and that voting is a joint exercise in taking power.
In 2020 the shock of 2016 and the horrors of the Trump presidency were still fresh. We united and elected Joe Biden. Despite the Trump insurrection and the intransigence of a Republican party thoroughly devolving into the rough beast that is MAGA, the Biden administration has been remarkably successful. Not nearly perfect - in failing the enforce the Leahy Laws (which Biden expanded with his National Security Memorandum 20) and to pause delivery of offensive military aid to Israel, Biden tied us to the abuses of the racist right wing religious extremist Netanyahu regime.
I say this as an American Jew and a Zionist. Netanyahu, AIPAC and CUFI (Christians United For Israel) are no friends of Israel. Or the United States. We should root out but not be distracted by the antisemitism of some critics of Israeli policy. The criticism is deserved. Netanyahu's bad policies and misplaced priorities (supporting Hamas to hobble the Palestinian Authority and attempting a Leonard Leo type capture of the Israeli Supreme Court) contributed to the greatest intelligence failure in Israeli history and Israel's bloodiest war. Netanyahu's inchoate and disproportionate response to the Hamas atrocities of Oct 7, have implicated Israel in crimes against humanity and genocide. Now Netanyahu, in a fevered Gotterdamerung fit, is provoking Iran and the United States into direct military conflict. In part, because he trusts that only a Trump win can save his hide.
Republicans want a Trump win at any cost. To capture and corrupt the Executive branch through Trump and Project 2025 as they captured and corrupted the Judiciary through Mitch McConnell, Trump, and the Federalist Society. And for decades Republicans have been itching to bomb Iran. For Christians such as GOP Speaker Mike Johnson, instigating Armageddon is an act of faith devoutly desired. I dwell on this existential threat because it is also great threat to a Democratic victory. We cannot let anything get in the way of our Getting Out The Vote for Kamala Harris.
The only thing I have to say early on a Sunday morning is this: We are likely to have a VP pick soon, maybe a leak tomorrow before Tuesday’s announcement, and some will not like the pick. Here’s the thing: Of the six men nominated, they are all qualified. We have to accept VP Harris’ pick. It may not be our personal first pick but we must support the ticket.