What happens when a woman takes power

The Democrats are holding their convention! I’m not watching. The reports on liberal news, like Daily Kos, are a lot more fun to read than reports of the Republican convention. I even read through parts of the transcripts for some of the speeches. Here is line from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez:

And I, for one, am tired of hearing about how a two-bit union buster thinks of himself as more of a patriot than the woman who fights every single day to lift working people out from under the boots of greed, trampling on our way of life.

An excerpt from Hillary Clinton’s speech:

I wish my mother and Kamala’s mother could see us. They would say, keep going. Shirley [Chisolm] and Gerry [Geraldine Ferraro] would say, keep going. Women fighting for reproductive health care are saying, keep going! Families building better lives, parents stretching to afford childcare, young people struggling to pay their rent, they are all asking us to keep going. So, with faith in each other, and joy in our hearts, let's send Kamala Harris and Tim Walz to the White House!

Kos posted a bunch of photos of the first day. These people look like they’re having fun. Bill Madden posted a video tagged with the convention, but I don’t know how it relates. It’s a 3 minute video of young women singing “What happens when a woman takes power.” Mark Sumner of Kos reported that Shepard Fairey, who created the iconic poster for Obama, has created one for Harris. Obama’s poster is in red and shades of blue and has just one word: “Hope.” It has been much imitated, including using a different face and the words, “Nope” and “Dope.” The poster for Harris is mostly shades of blue with red for her lips and logo. Her word is “Forward.” A beautiful job and message. In a pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin included tweets by Damion Schubert on why Walz (white rural dad) is so viscerally hated.

1. Theory 1: they know if they attack Harris, the MAGA base will go racist. (Don’t like this theory, it’s too smart). 2. Theory 2: They view Walz as a traitor. Straight white male, vet and football coach with a ‘keep govt out of our lives’ streak? 3. Theory 3: Walz pointing out they are weird is much more dangerous to them. If a black, gay trans person calls ‘em weird, they can shrug it off, but Walz is solidly a normie dad. When HE calls you weird, it just sticks more.

Way down in the comments is a tweet from Kid Phantasm:

OH NO, the GOP are accusing Kamala of being a communist. The only time in my lifetime this has happened was when Carter, Mondale, Dukakis, Bill Clinton, Gore, Kerry, Obama, Hillary and Biden ran for President. How will she handle this unexpected accusation?

exlrrp responded: “I’m older: add Truman, Stevenson, Kennedy, Johnson, Humphrey and McGovern to that list.” In the comments of another roundup are a few good memes and cartoons. An image by John Palmadessa shows the words:

Hope [with the Obama logo] History [with the Hillary logo] Healing [with the Biden logo] Harris

Republicans against Trump posted a photo of a sign, “Things I trust more than Donald Trump.” Some of them:

1) Flint, Michigan tap water. 2) Gas station sushi. 4) Taco Bell bathrooms. 5) Tom Brady putting air in my tires.

A cartoon posted by the Tennessee Holler shows a man standing on a big pile of cash with a “tax cuts” sign while beside the pile people hold signs saying, “Universal Health Care” “Affordable Housing” “Affordable College.” The man says, “You just want free stuff!!” David Folkenflik of NPR talked to Phillips O’Brien, strategic studies professor at the University St. Andrews in Scotland, about what might be the strategy of Ukraine’s incursion into Russian territory. The audio is four minutes. I’m working from the transcript. The US and other allies said they didn’t want Ukraine to attack Russia. That meant Russia had a huge advantage because it didn’t have to defend its border. Ukraine said enough to that. Another reason is Russia has very few reserves and has put all it has into Donbas. Ukraine has also captured a lot of conscripts. That shows how weak the Russian military really is. It also hits Putin’s image of being strong and able to protect his people. Ukraine doesn’t see this as an overreach because trying to only defend Donbas and slowly take it back is a meat grinder. Better to play on Russia’s weaknesses than its strengths. Ukraine isn’t going to simply leave. They’ll only retreat if faced with a big Russian force. James Waterhouse, Ukraine correspondent for BBC also has reasons why Ukraine invaded. One reason is to create a buffer zone around Sumy. Russia had been heavily bombing the city and surrounding region. Ukraine now occupies several important towns and strategic positions. This occupation is prompting Russia to redeploy its limited troops away from Donbas. Troops are moving towards Kursk, but not away from Donbas. All those captured conscripts are now able to be used in exchange for prisoners of war. The incursion puts pressure on Putin. His citizens now feel the horror and anger of an assault. Ukraine’s hold on Russian territory can be swapped for Russian held Ukrainian territory – if Ukraine can keep it long enough. Michael Harriot has a thread on Threadreader about the GI Bill and racism. White soldiers in WWII used the bill to improve their lives. With that improvement of the white middle class all white people benefited from it. Black soldiers, because of various racist policies in the Bill and in existing laws, were mostly not able to benefit from it. Though they could not use it to improve their lives, they still had to pay taxes that funded it.

Black Americans paid for roads & schools in those whites only suburbs. They funded public colleges they couldn’t attend. ... It was a white-approved national policy intentionally created to build & maintain the white middle class’ economic stability.

Joan McCarter of Kos wrote that last week was the 89th birthday of Social Security. The picture at the top of the post shows Franklin Roosevelt signing it into law. There is one woman in the photo. That woman is Frances Perkins. She was the first woman to be a cabinet secretary, serving as Secretary of Labor for twelve years under Roosevelt. She was instrumental in the creation and passage of many of the New Deal programs, especially Social Security. The Social Security website has a biography of her and some quotes by her. Back to marking the policy’s birthday. Over 66 million Americans depend on Social Security, half rely on it for most of their income, a quarter for 90% or more. Without it the poverty rate for seniors would be 38%, with it the rate is only 9%. It is an extremely efficient program with admin costs less than a penny on the dollar. Nearly 70% of voters rank it as very important. Republicans have said they want to cut it. Democrats want to preserve it. Who are you voting for this fall?