Category: Political / Governments / Nations / Countries /
X Suspends Account For “White Dudes For Harris”
Newsweek reports:
Newsweek observed that the White Dudes for Harris X account had been suspended after the group held a star-studded virtual call on Monday night that raised more than $4 million.
The automated message when the account was suspended read: “X suspends accounts which violate the X rules.” Mike Nellis, who is involved in the organization, shared an update on Tuesday explaining that while the X account is live again, it still remains suspended.
He said the account is “permanently in read-only mode,” meaning it cannot post. When contacted by Newsweek for comment, X’s press office responded: “Busy now, please check back later.”
Read the full article.
So Twitter is defacto a GOP political asset.
Technically not GOP, but definitely a platform for white racist bigots, Nazis, and other hate-filled bigots. Which, I suppose, is pretty much the same thing nowadays.
I like to combine the old name into the new: Xitter, with the X pronounced as /sh/, because that is exactly what it has become since Musk took over. In a similar fashion, the messages are now xits, with x pronounced the same way
Yes. And both the GOP and Xitter are Kremlin political assets.
He’s an asshole, and should be deported back to South Africa
“Remarks to Women for Harris National Organizing Call
“Bad night for mascara, great night for democracy.”
Charlotte Clymer Jul 30, 2024
Last night, I was honored and delighted to join a phenomenal group of brilliant leaders and hundreds of thousands of women across the country in support of the Vice President on the first Women for Harris National Organizing Call.
You can watch the organizing call in its entirety right here, and I strongly recommend doing so.
Speakers included Women for Harris Director Rhonda Foxx, Sen. Laphonza Butler, Chelsea Clinton, Min Jin Lee, Yvette Nicole Brown, Shannon Watts, Ai-Jen Poo, Glynda Carr, and so many more.
I honestly did not expect to cry so much, but when Ms. Lee began telling her story and teared up, I completely lost it. By the time Ms. Clinton reminded us all of the history of women seeking the White House, I was a mess.
It was a bad night for mascara and a great night for democracy.
Below are my remarks:
Good evening!
My name is Charlotte Clymer, my pronouns are she/her, I’m a writer and activist, and I am so excited to be part of this historic gathering of women across the country.
Now, look, I’m not gonna repeat to y’all what the brilliant and eloquent women who spoke before me stated, nor do I have the eloquence and brilliance of the women who will speak over the remainder of this evening.
I’m just gonna tell y’all a quick story about why I proudly support Vice President Harris.
I am a proud American, a proud Texan, a proud military veteran, a proud trans woman, and a proud Democrat.
And I have found that there a lot of folks, including Donald Trump and J.D. Vance, who want to place me in a specific box.
They say I’m too queer to be a proud military veteran.
They say a trans woman like me can’t be a Christian and a strong person of faith as I am.
They say women like me don’t belong in America.
Well, here’s what I have to say to that: thank goodness our leader, Vice President Harris, has common sense and believes no American, no human being, belongs in a box.
A little over four years ago, a number of rightwing extremists took a picture of me from a public event and attempted to harass me online. They wanted me to be ashamed of how I look as a trans woman.
Now, just like the women I admire—women like my grandmother, women like Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett from my home state of Texas, women like Vice President Harris—am I going to give these sad and insecure people that kinda power over me?
No.
I don’t have time for that. I love how I look. I know I’m beautiful.
So, I wrote a thread explaining that, and I offered an open hope that these sad and insecure people will someday have the kind of peace and comfort in their own skin as I have in mine.
She fights for the military veteran who comes back from war with horrific wounds. She fights for the woman turned away from life-saving abortion access. She fights for the public school teacher who’s overworked and underpaid. She fights for every child, every senior, every single American. She fights for all of us.
One of the first public figures to respond to that thread was then-Senator Kamala Harris. (emph. mine-A)
She gave me support. She gave me encouragement. She made me feel seen. And in that moment, she sent a clear message that supporting her means supporting the basic concept that all of us are worthy to be who we are authentically.
I want to be clear: there were no incentives for her here. I hadn’t endorsed her. I hadn’t talked with her campaign. It wasn’t like she was gonna fundraise off this moment.
She did it because Vice President Harris is the kind of leader who fights for every American.
Donald Trump and J.D. Vance are gonna throw everything they got at her—every cruel remark, every disgusting sexist and racist trope, every bit of vile—and they’re gonna find out the hard way that it just isn’t enough.
And why is that? Because we have a clear strategy here. All we have to do is follow the example of Vice President Harris. She is a leader who builds bridges, who invites tough conversations, who always embraces discomfort as a gift for growth.
If we follow her example, if we make every phone call, if we knock on every door, if we invite tough conversations with our friends and family and neighbors who are on the fence in this election, I guarantee you, on everything I hold dear, that Kamala Harris will be the 47th President of the United States.
Thank god this is our leader. Let’s follow her example. Let’s go win this thing.
To find out how to volunteer and elect our first woman president and save democracy from Trump and Vance and Project 2025, text WOMEN to 30330.
And donate to the historic and exciting campaign of Vice President Harris right here: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/charlotteforharris
“The Only Member of Congress Who Has Worked for Kamala Harris”
“‘What I saw is someone who is not for sale,’ Katie Porter told the Prospect.”
by David Dayen July 29, 2024
Snippet (no paywall, and it’s worth the click):
At the risk of repeating myself until the end of time, I continue to be annoyed that Kamala Harris and her allies emphasize how she “stood up to the big banks.” In reality, nobody stood up to the big banks after the 2008 financial crisis. No executive saw a prison cell for the mountain of fraud committed; their companies only got bigger, nearly all of the penalties imposed on them amounted to taking the air out of their books; homeowners saw virtually no relief (literally less than 10 percent of what was promised); and millions of families lost their homes unnecessarily and in most cases illegally. To elevate that as some kind of accountability moment is an insult to foreclosure victims.
But I want to make myself clear: Nobody stood up to the big banks. Harris was no worse than any of the other law enforcers who brought us that shameful course of events, and at least in one key area, she was actually better. Harris insisted that California have its own monitor for the National Mortgage Settlement, someone who could scrutinize banks’ compliance with the terms of consumer relief and improve it to the greatest extent possible. (emph. mine-A)
That monitor, who made the very best of a bad deal, ensuring that California wound up playing host to nearly two out of every five principal reductions granted in the settlement (the most sustainable form of relief), was Katie Porter, then a law professor at the University of California, Irvine. You now know her as Rep. Katie Porter, who served three terms in Congress—and it was her experience as California monitor that really launched her career in politics. She happens to be the only person now in Congress who has actually worked for Kamala Harris, and so I tracked her down to talk about that experience. (snip)
There was a national monitor for the $25 billion settlement, North Carolina banking commissioner Joseph Smith. But other than California, no state had one. “This position was a creature of [Harris’s] will,” Porter told me. “She pushed to get something like this. The banks didn’t want it.”
When the time came to choose a monitor, Porter explained, Harris wasn’t steeped in consumer protection issues, having just become attorney general a year earlier after a career as a prosecutor in criminal cases. So she asked Elizabeth Warren, who at the time was still a Harvard law professor, for advice on who to choose for the position. Porter had been Warren’s student at Harvard Law and had co-authored a book with her. So Warren asked Porter to identify possible monitors. Porter suggested three other people, including the current director of the U.S. bankruptcy trustee program, Tara Twomey. Ultimately, though, Harris selected her.
Of the issues where Porter thought she could be most helpful, she cited affordable housing.
(snip-More on the page)
https://prospect.org/politics/2024-07-29-member-congress-worked-kamala-harris-katie-porter/
‘Violates free speech rights’: Part of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Stop W.O.K.E Act dies with permanent injunction by federal judge
Jul 28th, 2024, 12:06 pmUpdated Jul 29th, 2024, 1:11 pm
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis addresses the crowd before publicly signing “Stop W.O.K.E” bill in Hialeah Gardens, Florida, on April 22, 2022. (Daniel A. Varela/Miami Herald via AP)
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis often says the Sunshine State is the place where “woke goes to die.” But a federal judge on Friday killed part of the Stop W.O.K.E. Act championed as standing up against “indoctrination.”
Judge Mark Walker of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida issued a permanent injunction, saying the law that bans diversity training in private workplaces “violates free speech rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.” The ruling follows a three-judge appeals court panel’s March decision that upheld Walker’s original injunction. The State of Florida did not oppose the motion to make the ruling permanent.
Florida honeymoon registry company Honeyfund.com and Primo Tampa, a subsidiary of a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream franchisee, were among those who filed the lawsuit after the Legislature passed the law in 2022. Shalini Goel Agarwal counsel for Protect Democracy which filed the lawsuit on their behalf said the ruling is “a powerful reminder that the First Amendment cannot be warped to serve the interests of elected officials.”
“Censoring business owners from speaking in favor of ideas that politicians don’t like is a moved ripped straight from the authoritarian playbook,” she said in a statement.
DeSantis addressed the matter at a press event Monday.
“We have every right as a state to provide protections for employees and businesses to say if they are doing woke training which is basically discriminating against folks on the basis of race, you have a right to opt out,” he said. “It’s not a question of what the company can say. They can say whatever they want. But you have a right to not self flagellate. You have a right to not sit there and listen to that nonsense.”
Sara Margulis, CEO of Honeyfund.com, hailed the appeals court decision from March.
“We moved Honeyfund to Florida in 2017 because it was known as a business-friendly state,” she said in a statement. “Passing laws that seek to squash free speech like HB7 is not only a violation of The First Amendment but is also a losing strategy because businesses serve people of all backgrounds, walks of life, and political views. Therefore the law would have effectively hampered the ability of Florida businesses to grow and serve their market. I don’t think that’s what Florida really wants. It’s clearly not in line with American values. I couldn’t be happier that we stood up for free speech and business in the state of Florida.”
The legislation — HB 7, formally called the “Stop Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees Act” — is also aimed at blocking school teachers and college professors from offering their opinions on what DeSantis described as “pernicious ideologies” that could potentially make students, because of their race, feel personally responsible for past racism, sexism, or other discrimination in the U.S. That part of the law also has an injunction and is awaiting a ruling from a higher court.
Critics have said it’s an attempt to stop meaningful discussion of the ongoing effects of longstanding systemic discrimination and topics including critical race theory and privilege. A slew of lawsuits were filed against the legislation including by professors, students and the ACLU. Courts have repeatedly blocked portions of the law.
According to the bill’s text, “[i]t shall constitute discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, or sex under this section to subject any student or employee to training or instruction that espouses, promotes, advances, inculcates, or compels such student or employee to believe” the following:
1. Members of one race, color, national origin, or sex are morally superior to members of another race, color, national origin, or sex.
2. A person, by virtue of his or her race, color, national origin, or sex is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously.
3. A person’s moral character or status as either privileged or oppressed is necessarily determined by his or her race, color, national origin, or sex.
4. Members of one race, color, national origin, or sex cannot and should not attempt to treat others without respect to race, color, national origin, or sex.
5. A person, by virtue of his or her race, color, national origin, or sex bears responsibility for, or should be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment because of, actions committed in the past by other members of the same race, color, national origin, or sex.
6. A person, by virtue of his or her race, color, national origin, or sex should be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment to achieve diversity, equity, or inclusion.
7. A person, by virtue of his or her race, color, sex, or national origin, bears personal responsibility for and must feel guilt, anguish, or other forms of psychological distress because of actions, in which the person played no part, committed in the past by other members of the same race, color, national origin, or sex.
8. Such virtues as merit, excellence, hard work, fairness, neutrality, objectivity, and racial colorblindness are racist or sexist, or were created by members of a particular race, color, national origin, or sex to oppress members of another race, color, national origin, or sex.
Matt Naham and Marisa Sarnoff contributed to this report.
Let’s talk about Harris, momentum, and numbers….
I’m writing postcards for candidates
So far, I’ve got a couple hundred GOTV postcards coming next week, then in a couple of months, I’ll be writing for Rep. Davids of KS-03 (not my rep, but wish she was!) I’ve signed up with the Harris campaign to write for her, too, as well as phone banking for her close to the election.
For the Harris campaign, one can sign up to volunteer at https://kamalaharris.com/ . When you go there, there will be a cover screen asking for dollar contributions. If this is not what you want or can do, simply close that, then on the home screen, input your info. You’ll go to a page where you can look and choose what you want to do, including the phone banking, walking your neighborhood, postcards and letters, and text banking (I hate those damn things, and I don’t do ’em. But they must work.)
To do the postcards, I’m signed up with a couple of organizations, and just now got this one from John Pavlovitz’s Damn Giver’s Dispatch. It’s Postcards to Swing States, at https://www.turnoutpac.org/postcards/ . Right now, they’re looking for postcard writers for US Reps. Every single seat of the US House is up for election every two years. Currently, the MTG contingent is in semi-control; hence the lack of work performed there. Anyway, here you can choose which district to write for. If you don’t have one close to you, or that you care about, I’ve read that Alaska’s Rep. Peltola can use a boost, but you’ll see a list. The smallest number of postcards offered here is 200. I’ve done 200 before, and they really go faster than it seems as if they would (templates are provided.) But even if you get 10 done, that’s 10 more voters reached on behalf of the candidate. The other active organization sending out postcards for GOTV is MomsRising. You do not have to be a mom to write for them; they don’t ask. But all of us care about moms, and especially the kids, which makes us part of the village. MomsRising offers 20 or 100 postcards, at https://action.momsrising.org/survey/2024_Postcards_May/ . These activities are free to us but for our time! Well, and the ink we use to write.
Here’s hoping we each find the time and energy to do a little something to help Democrats win elections in November. Even simply talking someone up in the grocery line is helpful, and will make a difference. It is vital that we each vote, but it’s also vital that we do a little more. It was never intended that all US citizens had to do about our government was vote. This time it will matter as much as ever!
Thanks for your time.
Enjoy. It’s fantastic, yet real.
Buttigieg Recounts Trump’s Lies On Fox News [VIDEO]
“He didn’t keep his promise of 6% economic growth. He broke his promise to pass an infrastructure bill. He even broke his promise to that J6 mob when he said, ‘I will be at your side when you march down to the Capitol.’
“But he actually did keep two promises: He kept his promise to destroy the right to choose in this country, and he kept his promise on tax cuts to the rich.
“If you want to know what a second Trump term would look like, I would look at those rare promises that he actually managed to keep. He’s disavowed a lot of things. I don’t believe him. He lies all the time.
“Republicans who are in Trump’s personality cult look at Donald Trump and say he’s perfectly fine even though he seemed unable to tell the difference between Haley and Pelosi, even though he’s rambling about electrocuting sharks and Hannibal Lecter. We don’t have that kind of warped reality on our side.
“Crime is down under Joe Biden and crime was up under Donald Trump. Now, I don’t know how often that gets reported on this network, so if you’re watching this at home, do yourself a favor and look up the data.
“Why would America want to go back to the higher crime that we experienced under Donald Trump?” – Pete Buttigieg, this morning on Fox News.
Vance Once Told Trans Close Friend “I Hate The Police”
The Daily Beast reports:
J.D. Vance’s long friendship with a transgender friend who attended his wedding has been revealed—including how he spoke about hating cops and disparaged Donald Trump and conservative icon Antonin Scalia.
Sofia Nelson, a Yale Law School contemporary of Trump’s running mate, revealed how they corresponded by text and email for years until falling out over his support for a ban on gender-affirming medical treatment for minors.
In October 2014, after the police killing that summer of Michael Ferguson, an 18-year-old Black man in Ferguson, Missouri, caused widespread protests and violence, Vance wrote to Nelson: “I hate the police. Given the number of negative experiences I’ve had in the past few years, I can’t imagine what a Black guy goes through.”
The New York Times reports:
The emails, in which Mr. Vance criticizes former President Donald J. Trump both for “racism” and as a “morally reprehensible human being,” add to an already-existing body of evidence showing Mr. Vance’s ideological pivot from Never Trumper to Mr. Trump’s running mate.
And they reflect a young man quite different from the hard-right culture warrior of today who back then brought homemade baked goods to his friend after Nelson underwent transition-related surgery. The visit cemented their bond.
Nelson, now a public defender in Detroit, said they visited each other’s homes, talked on Zoom during the pandemic and exchanged long emails discussing a range of subjects, from the minutiae of daily life to weighty discussions of current events and public policy issues.
Gift link for the lengthy Times report here.
Scottie's Playtime 