You're not on your own. Neighbors help neighbors.

My Sunday viewing was the Netflix movie Yeh Ballet. I think it translates to something like “These Ballet” according to Google Translate. The translation was briefly mentioned near the start of the film, but I didn’t remember it. The story takes place in Mumbai, much of it in the slums. We meet Asif as he is break dancing with his buddies, proclaiming himself the king of their group. And he’s good enough his buddies mostly agree. We meet Nishi as he is dancing in a talent contest. He doesn’t go on to the next level, though is awarded a special prize (which is recognition and little else) by one of the judges. His parents are giving him money for college but he is actually spending it on dance classes. The third main character is Saul. He’s a white guy, quite angry with the world. He is in Mumbai because Nishi’s dance school invited him to teach. We later find out he’s there because he couldn’t get a teaching job in America, Israel, or anywhere else. He loudly grumbles that nearly all the students in his class aren’t ready for what he can teach them. I’m not sure I followed the circumstances on why Asif ended up in the same ballet class. As Saul tries to teach the class he soon sees that Asif and Nishi actually have considerable talent. But there is disapproval from parents and community – when the family is so poor why spend money on ballet? Asif gets in the middle of a Muslim/Hindi conflict. Add a bit of tragedy. And what future is there for ballet dancers in India? I enjoyed it. The movie is based on a true story. Back in 2017 Sooni Taraporevala wrote and directed a 15 minute documentary of Manish Chauhan and Amiruddin Shah, two young men who rose out of Mumbai poverty to be accepted in ballet schools in America and Britain. I don’t think that documentary is available. In 2020 the same director expanded the story into this two hour movie with Chauhan playing the role of Nishi (essentially a version of himself). Last Thursday Mark Sumner of Daily Kos wrote that the nasty guy seemed to have disappeared from the news. Understandable in the week Biden bowed out of the race and Kamala raised vast sums and volunteers. But it’s a new feeling for the old guy – who has dominated the news for nine years and last week didn’t. Isn’t it nice? Alas, the fresh air won’t last. He’ll say something outrageous and media will give him the attention he demands. Just today he said that Harris will destroy the country in the same way she destroyed San Francisco. Which sounds pretty good to me since San Francisco is humming along quite nicely. On Friday Sumner wrote about all the things that in the nasty guy’s view had gone wrong last week. Which means it was a good week for the rest of us. Walter Einenkel of Kos reported that FBI director Christopher Wray told the House committee investigating the assassination attempt on the nasty guy that it isn’t clear whether that ear was hit by a bullet or much smaller shrapnel. The only official word on what struck that ear is from the nasty guy’s doctor Ronny Jackson who was not the attending physician and whose authority to practice medicine has been sharply curtailed. But that is enough “proof” to allow Speaker Johnson to condemn Wray’s testimony. Joan McCarter of Kos noted the hospital released very little about the ear. It’s mighty strange there is no official information. The state of the ear should be public knowledge. Whether the ear was hit by a bullet or shrapnel shouldn’t matter – the nasty guy definitely survived an assassination attempt. Even so, he insists it was a bullet.

Trump needs to bolster the mythology that he, in his words, “took a bullet for democracy.” It wasn’t enough to have survived a horrendous assassination attempt. The MAGA hagiography demands more drama, that he be “shot”—a whole convention was centered on that.

Which leads me to believe that while the ear bled a lot there isn’t much of a wound. Kos of Kos wrote that the nasty guy has withdrawn from debating Harris. He could have said he would debate whoever was the official Democratic nominee. But he didn’t. So, wrote Kos, he’s too afraid to debate her. On Friday Sumner wrote about another cringy thing JD Vance said. He proposed that Americans without children should pay higher taxes. I’ll work hard to ignore some of the other strange and ugly things he’s said (though if you insist Sumner documented many). Conclusion: Vance is weird and not in a good way. He’s also a big gift for Democrats. On Monday Sumner documented more Vance weirdness and more responses to it. Some Republicans are now calling for Vance to be removed. But will the nasty guy ever admit he’s made a bad choice? Which, in this case, is good. For Democrats. oscarsmom of the Kos community reminds us that the nasty guy used a good long time to vet Vance and chose him for a reason. That reason appears to be that much of Vance’s thinking matches that of the nasty guy. The prime example is how completely they both disrespect women. Einenkel reported on Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz talking about Vance to Jen Psaki of MSNBC. Here’s some of what Walz said.

The golden rule that makes small towns work, so we're not at each other's throats all the time, is mind your own damn business. I don't need him to tell me about my family. I don't need him telling me about my wife's health care and her reproductive rights. I don't need him telling my children what books they can read. I think rural America is, they are angry. They were gutted. But Joe Biden's policies, and now soon-to-be President Harris, bringing back manufacturing jobs, bringing back dignity. Investing in infrastructure. How are you going to build a water treatment plant in a town of 400, if you don't have a collective effort at it? So I have to tell you, they scream socialism. We just build roads, and we build schools, and we build prosperity into this. ... You're not on your own. Neighbors help neighbors.

Walz also contrasted that with the goals of the nasty guy, Vance, and Republicans. With Walz having such a straightforward way of explaining things many Democrats are now saying, “Hey, Kamala, Tim would be a dandy VP pick.” Even if he isn’t from a swing state. Not bad to go from national obscurity to being pushed for VP based on one TV appearance. In the comments of a pundit roundup on Kos are a few good memes and cartoons. From memes posted by exlrrp:

Kamala has raised so much money that Clarence Thomas wants to go on vacation with her. Nasty guy: Lyin’ Kamala Harris destroys everything she touches. Harris: Which is exactly why you’re too intimidated to debate me!!! Why did the chicken cross the road? So he wouldn’t have to debate Kamala!

Tjeerd Royaards put up a cartoon showing a crowd watching Democracy Demolition at the Olympics: The ranking show: Russia, China, United States, Hungary, Turkey, Israel... Shotgun Rider played off Vance’s comments on Cat Ladies and said we haven’t yet heard from the Cat Daddies, who will have a lot to say. Jeff Danzinger posted a cartoon to Kos showing two woman at the grocery checkout with full carts and bawling kids. One says, “Was I happier being a childless cat lady?” The other replies, “I remember cats were cheaper.” Today McCarter reported Biden has called for Supreme Court reforms. He did so in an op-ed in the Washington Post. Biden called for term limits for justices and an enforceable ethics code. He also called for a constitutional amendment saying presidents don’t have immunity from being charged with crimes, an attempt to reverse the Court’s ruling for the nasty guy. Harris quickly released a statement with her agreement. On Thursday Justice Kagan, speaking at a judicial conference, had endorsed an enforceable code of conduct.

“I think that the thing that can be criticized is, you know, rules usually have enforcement mechanisms attached to them. And this one, this set of rules does not,” Kagan told the federal judges and lawyers. “Courts shouldn’t use individual cases as vehicles to advance some broader agenda or some broader project to change our governance structure or our society,” she said. “Hopefully, it doesn’t happen much, but there have been cases in the last few years in which it has happened to my lights, at least.”

Leonard Leo, the architect of today’s Court and saying something so Alito and Thomas don’t have to, blasted the idea of enforceable ethics. And Johnson called the proposals “dead on arrival” in the House – as we well know. But Biden put it out there to show the difference between Republicans and Democrats. And Republicans definitely played their part. Strange that Biden issued these reforms to restore people’s faith in the Court while Johnson says the reforms would “erode” that same thing. McCarter reported that recently the Supremes ruled that courts, not government agencies, should have the final say in federal policy. A group of eleven Democratic senators, led by Elizabeth Warren are now proposing legislation to undo that ruling. It would say that scientist, not courts and corporate interests, should write the rules. Already, red state Attorneys General have asked for a Supreme Court emergency ruling to block EPA rules intended to limit greenhouse gas emissions. And they’re well into preparing to challenge as many other government protections as they can, which would flood the courts. Again, nothing will happen until Democrats control the House, Senate, and presidency.