Here is another anti-Trump ad from The Lincoln Project group. Please share. We here at Calamity News and Politics want to give a shout out to the former Republicans who are co-founders of the group. Thank you, Rick Wilson, George Conway, Steve Schmidt, Jennifer Horn, John Weaver, Ron Steslow, Reed Galen, Mike Madrid. It will take all of us that want to keep this a democratic country to come out this election and vote Joe Biden-Kamala Harris.
Two of American’s best known feminists, Gloria Steinem and Dorothy Pitman Hughes have a message for you. The message is the same this year as every year. VOTE! Elections have consequences.
Another eye opening ad from the folks at The Lincoln Project. Love these ads. Just have to share.
It is a question that has been asked before. Though as we get closer to Election Day and things might still go either way, it is still a productive exercise to try and figure out how we got to where we are today. Particularly with so many Trump Voters, particularly in swing states, suffering industrial strength buyers guilt.
The answer seems obvious. All the Trump voters are backward, racist, sexist, idiots who don’t know what’s best for them. A ‘basket of deplorables’ as Madam Clinton once put it. This is a mistake. Not only is it reductionist and prejudiced, the very things most accuse Trump of being, it is also wrong. I don’t mean wrong in the modern sense of things that make people feel icky. I mean it in the far more basic, Aspie way of false as according to the evidence. There are simply too many people of various groups, including those whom Trump has attacked, supporting him for this to be the whole story.
If anything, the less savory things Trump has said or done are incidental to his support. Not that what he did doesn’t matter. It does in terms of general morality but a lot of things are a matter of priorities and he has other aspects that outweighed his misconduct. At least in the minds of those who prioritize such things. One of the things a lot of critics overlook is his focus on jobs. Particularly in places like Michigan. A state in which things have been so bad for so long, the condition of cities like Flint have been referred to as ‘economic terrorism.’ A situation which makes it easier to understand Trump’s support despite his desire for a border wall or his opinions on where it is okay to touch female strangers. Even if they ‘let’ you.
The Lincoln Project is the creator of my favorite 2020 election ad videos. The crew at the Lincoln Project are former Republicans. The never Trumper crowd and thank Zeus for them. There seems to be a ruthlessness in the Republican soul that the Democrats can’t match. Eric Trump was on FoxNews and he questioned Joe Biden’s mental capacity. The folks at Lincoln got busy and put a montage of Trump photo clips together, showing Trump as sadly incapacitated. #SaveAmericaVoteBlue. #Vote Joe.
The Lincoln Project: 9/11
Some of the most amazing anti-Trump ads are coming from former Republicans. The Lincoln Project is producing some of the most effective anti-Trump ads. This is their most recent effort.
Our nation just celebrated the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution which gave women the universal right to vote. “You’ve come a long way, baby…” but we have an even longer way to go. The women’s suffrage movement was a decades-long fight, giving females their voting rights, but the battle for equality is far from over.
In 1875, women’s suffrage had reached a monumental mark when Mrs. Virginia Minor filed suit against the State of Missouri for her constitutional right to vote in the presidential election. The case wound up in the Supreme Court. Unanimously, the justices claimed the privilege to vote was not a fundamental right of United States citizenship, and further asserted the denial of her voting rights was not protected by the 14th Amendment.
Before 1890, the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA), specifically worked toward securing a woman’s right to vote by a federal Constitutional amendment. The National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) had their focus on the passage of women’s voting rights legislation on a state-by-state-basis. That year they joined forces, becoming the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). Strategical arguments had threatened to derail progress towards the goal on more than one occasion.
The 1920 ratification brought enormous changes for ladies in that decade. These “Thoroughly Modern Millie’s” were scandalous, bobbing their hair, tying their pearls in a knot, painting their faces, and raising their hemlines. Men found themselves in a quandary, as these new-fangled females were standing strong as empowered women. As the musical “Thoroughly Modern Millie” put it about the watershed change of the time:
There are those
I suppose
Think we’re mad
Heaven knows
The world has gone
To rack and to ruin
What we think is chic, unique and quite adorable
They think is odd and Sodom and Gomorrah-ble
But the fact is
Everything today is thoroughly modern
Check your personality
Everything today makes yesterday slow
Better face reality
It’s not insanity
Says Vanity Fair
In fact, it’s stylish
To raise your skirts and bob your hair
In a rumble seat, the world is so cozy
If the boy is kissable
And that tango dance they wouldn’t allow
Now is quite permissible
Goodbye, good, goody girl
I’m changing and how
So beat the drums ’cause here comes
Thoroughly modern Millie now!
Everything today is thoroughly modern
Bands are getting jazzier
Everything today is starting to go
Cars are getting snazzier
Men say it’s criminal what women’ll do
What they’re forgetting is, this is 1922
Have you seen the way they kiss in the movies
Isn’t it delectable?
Painting lips and pencil-lining your brow
Now is quite respectable
Goodbye, good, goody girl
I’m changing and how
So beat the drums, ’cause here comes
Thoroughly modern Millie now!
I remember singing and dancing to that song at the age of 15 – it was the opening number for my modeling school’s graduation. I was completely inspired by those lyrics, and I was armed with my Great Lash Mascara, Bonnie Bell Jumbo Lip Smacker in the very grown-up flavor of watermelon, Aqua Net big hair, and brand new platform sandals. Just like those teenage girls getting their first experience with cosmetics when Bonnie Bell rolled out their skin care line in 1927, I was ready for these new, “all the rage” conveniences.
I stood on street corners with NOW (National Organization for Women), asking people to, “go to bat for girls in sports”. And, of course, doing everything I could to see the ERA ratified. After all, I was almost 16; surely by the time I finished my education and joined the workforce, equal rights and equal pay would be a given. My enthusiastic, “Young Miss” brain was mistaken – the fight continues on.
The 19th Amendment changed women’s lives in many ways, moving closer to equal rights in many aspects of life in the United States of America. Ladies were now advocating for education, birth control, sex education, equal wages, job opportunities, and the like. Another baby of the 1920’s, the original ERA was written in 1921 by fellow activist attorneys and feminists Alice Paul and Crystal Catherine Eastman. Ms. Paul held three law degrees and had been an instrumental leader of the women’s suffrage movement. Ms. Eastman, of Erie, PA, was a socialist, anti-militarist, journalist, and lawyer, educated at Vassar, Columbia, and NYU.
The original phrasing read, “No political, civil, or legal disabilities or inequalities on account of sex or on account of marriage, unless applying equally to both sexes, shall exist within the United States or any territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” The amendment was first introduced in Congress in 1923, and in some form had been resubmitted in every subsequent session for almost fifty years, until it’s passage in 1972.
Virginia was the 38th state to ratify the ERA since it was proposed in 1972. That ratification pushed the ERA across the threshold, however, the original deadline had run out in March of 1979. But President Jimmy Carter signed into law an extension passed by Congress, granting additional time for the ERA to be ratified until June 1982. Prior to this, though, five states had “rescinded” their ratifications, the legality of which still remains unresolved. Many hurdles still remain in the amendment’s path. It received bipartisan support with recent ratifications by Illinois in 2018 and Nevada just the year before, but these occurred after the inactivity of four decades. Whether the amendment protecting the equal rights of women will actually be added to our Constitution remains yet to be seen.
In the words of the immortal Shirley Chisholm, “You don’t make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas.” “I want history to remember me…not as the first black woman to have made a bid for the Presidency of the United States, but as a black woman who lived in the 20th century and who dared to be herself. I want to be remembered as a catalyst for change in America.” “At present, our country needs women’s idealism and determination, perhaps more in politics than anywhere else.”
“I have certainly met much more discrimination in terms of being a woman than being black, in the field of politics.” “I ran for the presidency, despite hopeless odds, to demonstrate the sheer will and refusal to accept the status quo.” Those of us that watched the Democratic National Convention will recall with pride a video clip of Ms. Chisholm exclaiming, “Why shouldn’t I run for president?”
Many women now serve as elected officials, holding public office, but none has yet to break the ultimate glass ceiling of our nation. Hilary Clinton came very close, winning the popular vote against Donald Trump in the 2016 election, but lost by electoral votes. Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Kamala Harris may just be the break we need to shatter the enormous barrier. Marginalized minorities – Native Americans, Hispanics, African-Americans, and Asian women – still fall through the cracks.
Outlandish arguments against the women’s suffrage movement are still in effect today, still being used against women’s rights. For example, many men feared women voters might disrupt harmonious family relations, distracting away from family values and the institution of marriage, with the possible consequence of divorce. Why women even may go to the extremes of wearing pants, cowboy boots, and neckties.
Both the 19th Amendment and the Equal Rights Amendment are succinct and simplistic in their directness: Amendment XIX: “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.”
Equal Rights Amendment: “Section 1: Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. Section 2: The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article. Section 3: This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.”
We as women voters owe a debt of gratitude to these sash-wearing, determined ladies of yesteryear, and those that followed in their stead. Geraldine “Gerry” Anne Ferraro, the first woman to be nominated as a vice-presidential candidate by a major political party, quipped, “Vice president-it has such a nice ring to it!” She faced much opposition, saying, ”The polls indicated that I was feisty, that I was tough, that I had a sense of humor, but they weren’t quite sure if they liked me, and they didn’t know whether or not I was sensitive. I readily admit I was not an expert on foreign policy, but I was knowledgeable, and I didn’t need a man who was the Vice-President of the United States and my opponent turning around and putting me down.” Ms. Ferraro, who’s desk drawer was filled with all kinds of prayers, humbly revered her place in history.
Author, feminist, and journalist extrordinaire Gloria Steinem reminds us, “Without leaps of imagination or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.” Vocalist Helen Reddy recorded an anthem for empowered women everywhere:
I am woman, hear me roar
In numbers too big to ignore
And I know too much to go back an’ pretend
‘Cause I’ve heard it all before
You can bend but never break me
‘Cause it only serves to make me
More determined to achieve my final goal
And I come back even stronger
Not a novice any longer
‘Cause you’ve deepened the conviction in my soul
I am woman watch me grow
See me standing toe to toe
As I spread my lovin’ arms across the land
But I’m still an embryo
With a long, long way to go
Until I make my brother understand
Oh yes, I am wise
But it’s wisdom born of pain
Yes, I’ve paid the price
But look how much I gained
If I have to, I can face anything
I am strong
(Strong)
I am invincible
(Invincible)
I am woman
For the women who planned and marched, setting the bar high for those of us that followed a century into the future, I will honor your suffrage and legacy. With a blue vote to elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, I will take my stand for equality, so that the next chapter in our history may be written with dignity and relevance. Women will decide this election; let us pave the way for our first female Vice-President of the United States. Ladies, “this is our moment. This is our mission.” (Joe Biden)
Joe Biden made history with his selection of the bright, beautiful and tenacious Kamala Harris as his running mate. As Vice President Biden points out, “There is no door Kamala won’t knock on, no stone she’ll leave unturned, if it means making life better for the people.” Joe originally met Senator Harris through his son Beau. Joe valued his son’s respect for the strong-willed senator from California. Kalama and Beau became friends when both were state AG’s and worked on financial institution reform.
Biden knows Ms. Harris has demonstrated her ability to be a leader from day one. As the Attorney General for the state of California, she ran one of the biggest governmental legal organizations in the world, and is a member of the Senate Judiciary and Intelligence committees.
Women of all races and walks of life identify strongly with this spirited heroine. Kamala Devi Harris is 5’ 2” of pure energy and strength. This pretty, petite powerhouse has stood for justice since she was a child. Senator Harris is an East Bay native, deeply rooted in the area, She was born October 20th, 1964, in Kaiser Oakland Hospital, Oakland, CA. Her name Kamala, means “lotus” and refers to empowered women.
Her parents were immigrants and academics. Donald Harris, her father, is an emeritus professor at Stanford University. Her mother Shyamala Gopalan Harris, worked at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Shyamala attended the University of Delhi, completing her undergraduate degree when she was only 19.
Kamala’s grandmother, Rajam Gopalan, who married at the age of 16. Rajam was considered an upper-caste wife. She used her elite class status to help disadvantaged women in India. She was famous for driving around in a Volkswagen Beetle, announcing through a bullhorn how underprivileged women could access birth control.
Kamala holds a Bachelor of Arts in economics and political science from Howard University. Ms Harris received her law degree through Hasting College Legal Education Opportunity Program for Students from Adverse Backgrounds. She was elected as the Attorney General of California in 2010. She was reelected in 2014. In 2016, Ms. Harris became the junior senator from California, making her the third female senator from California, and the first South Asian American senator and the second African-American woman elected to the United States Senate.
The fearless Senator Harris has always fought for our nation’s good. She has worked tirelessly for the American people, a lifelong leader for civil rights and public safety. Kamala’s political career spans decades, and her exposure to activism started early. Her parents, met at UC Berkeley and shared a passion for civil rights. When Kamala was still a toddler her parent’s took her to numerous campus protests. As a toddler, fussing little Kamala was once asked what it was she that she wanted – having already attended several civil rights rallies, the adorable, precocious tyke replied, “fweedom”.
When she was only seven years old, her parents divorced. Kamala was raised by her mother in a yellow duplex in Berkeley, along with her little sister Maya. While in first grade, she was one of a group of students bused to Thousands Oaks Elementary School, a very prosperous upper-class Caucasian neighborhood.
Maya and Kamala attended both an African-American Baptist church, as well as a Hindu temple, at the same time. Ms. Harris was influenced by her grandparents when she visited India as a child. Her grandmother was an activist and her grandfather was a government official of high-rank, both educating and fighting for the rights of the Indian people. She attended high school in Montreal, where her mother taught at McGill University, and also held a position at Jewish General Hospital as a cancer researcher. 13-year-old Kamala, along with younger sister Maya, successfully led a protest outside their apartment building due to the policy that prohibited children from playing out front on the lawn.
Harris had wanted to be a lawyer since childhood. Harris interned for Senator Alan Cranston of California, worked as a press aide at the Federal Trade Commission, and even served as a tour guide at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Her role models include Charles Hamilton Houston, Thurgood Marshall, and Constance Baker Motley. Kamala advocates for abuse victims, and works to educate the public that certain behaviors such as dress and music do not necessarily equate to gang membership.
Her sister Maya received a B.A. from UC Berkeley, and then her law degree from Stanford. She was in charge of her sister’s presidential campaign, having worked in television as a commentator and as an executive director of ACLU for Northern California. Her husband, Tony West, served during the Obama administration as an Associate United States Attorney General, and now is the Chief Legal Officer for Uber Technologies, Inc., in San Francisco.
The stunning and stylish Ms. Harris joined the sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha while at Howard University. Also, during her time at the school, she ran her first campaign, for the freshman representative position on the liberal arts student council, and was also a member of the debate team. Howard taught an excited Kamala that you can be many things – the homecoming queen can also be the valedictorian, channeling Elle Woods.
Daily after classes in law school, she helped potty-train her niece. Recalling the experience in 2018, Harris said, “I’m dealing with this brutal stuff, dog-eat-dog in school, and then I would come home and we would all stand by the toilet and wave bye to a piece of shit. It will put this place in perspective.” She passed the bar exam on her second try in 1990. The same year, she joined the Alameda County Prosecutor’s Office in Oakland, as an Assistant DA.
She was recruited by the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office to help end teen prostitution. Ms. Harris’ goal for these young women was to view them as victims, not criminals, selling sex. She has always advocated for women and children. She was instrumental in developing the San Francisco Department of Public Health program which enables emergency rooms to identify evidence of sexual abuse. Kamala is the co-founder of the Coalition to End the Exploitation of Kids, pushing the strengthening of laws to end profiteering of those under age. Her efforts produced San Francisco’s very first safe house for minors to escape sexual exploitation. Ms. Harris’ creativity and influence has resulted in punishment for perpetrators victimizing youth.
Even when she receives criticism, she does not back down from her principals. Kamala insists that it is imperative to be “smart on crime.” “Back on Track” is a program, she helped design for non-violent lower-level drug traffickers. The program offers life skill and job training, with the chance to avoid a prison sentence. Only 10% of the program’s graduates had repeat offenses, contrasted with the typical recidivism of 53% for those with drug convictions. Her rehabilitative program is more cost-effective than jail time. She refuses to consider offenders as lost causes.
Ms. Harris also targeted the truancy of elementary school children when she discovered that nearly 95% of those murdered before the age of 25 in the San Francisco area happened to have dropped out of high school. Those who were very often absent while in grammar school were more susceptible to leave high school prior to graduation, typically by age 35 ending up dead or jailed. She developed programs to assist parents with school attendance.
In 2003, Kamala Harris ran against her former boss to become the first African-American female elected DA in California. Within her first three years as the District Attorney of San Francisco, conviction rates increased from 52% to 67%. She endorsed her friend Barack Obama when he ran for the Senate in 2004, and in 2010 she went on to win the race for the state’s top attorney. Attorney General Harris filed a successful civil enforcement action citing “widespread misconduct” on foreclosures against OneWest Bank.
The fashionable and funny vice-presidential nominee often sports pearls and has an extensive collection of Converse sneakers, including platform versions and All-Stars. Her unique style rocks; a high-low mix of classic attire. Not since 1984, when Walter Mondale chose Geraldine Ferraro as his running mate, have we had the pleasure and progress of a female vice-presidential nominee. Rumor has it she enjoys a good burrito, and loves cheeseburgers, but admits we need to establish more healthy eating habits, reducing red meat consumption. She also recognizes the importance of American families being able to put food on the table.
Kamala loves to cook. In a video she shows Senator Mark Warner the proper way to assemble a yummy tuna melt. She can roast a chicken with the best of them, using salt, pepper, chopped herbs, lemon zest, and minced garlic, trussing the poultry and allowing it 24 hours in the fridge. Then rubbing it with butter or oil, and slow-roasting it at 325 degrees for at least a couple hours, making a sauce of the drippings and using the leftovers for a scrumptious chicken salad.
She is married to prominent entertainment attorney Douglas Emhoff. Harris and Mr. Emhoff met on a blind date set up by a friend. Senator Harris is tough and courageous, yet still has a big heart – her two stepchildren affectionately call her “Momala”.
She is also resolved and resilient – in 2017, her rather persistent grilling, which had Jeff Sessions remarking he was “nervous” after only three-and-a-half minutes of her interrogation, went viral. Another viral moment came during the intensive questioning of Brett Kavanaugh during his Supreme Court Justice confirmation hearings in 2018. During the 2019 Democratic Presidential Debates, Joe Biden quipped to Kamala Harris to, “Go easy on me, kid…,” Six months later he chose this amazing woman to make history as his running mate. If elected she will become the first female and minority Vice President in U.S. history.of the United States.
The lady Donald Trump referred to as, “nasty”, we call, “insurmountable, decisive, intelligent, and caring”. Kamala allows us to see her fun-loving side. One video shows her attired in leggings, a jacket, and sneakers, dancing like everybody’s watching, and we are. On November 3rd, my leggings, jacket, and sneakers are ready to join our new Vice President-elect in a victory dance – “you go, girl….”
To paraphrase the immortal words of Shakespeare, “there is something rotten in the state”(s) of the union. A creeping specter striking down the innocence and protecting the guilty. Most will point to police prejudice, particularly racism, in the exercising of State power over the citizenry. The problem is greater than brutal policing. It is in fact a society wide issue. But, policing is a very visible factor in the lives of the oppressed that frequently leads to the incarceration or death of the oppressed. It does not help matters that policing is basically grunt work. Almost anyone can apply for the job of a cop. Many police applicants have less education than EMTs, or firefighters. People certainly die in the hand of these professionals, but it is always an accident. Police officers, on the other hand, frequently serve up death through inhumane tactics, brutal force and malfeasance.
Shadows Around the Fire
Fear of ‘the other’ is ingrained in the human DNA. It is the self-protective mechanism that predates man stabbing mammoths on the tundra. In fact, it is probably responsible for the wiping out of the Neanderthals to make Homo sapiens the only higher humanoid species on the planet. Generally speaking, the term ‘othering’ is understood as an undesirable objectification of another person or group. In effect this social process, labels those defined as ‘different’ in a negative manner, whether it be by skin color, sex, sexual orientation, economic status, ethnicity, religion, or even disabilities.
"If puppies and kittens don't make you smile, you might consider therapy." D. S. Mitchell 2015.
Self-isolating has forced us to turn even more to telecommunication and social media.
The Major Cause Of Sex Trafficking Is Poverty
Many great charities, here are a couple that I support: Sierra Club, World Wildlife Fund, ACLU, and Planned Parenthood.
