It’s Biden and Harris
We’re all set now with the tickets as VP Biden made his choice. In Kamala Harris he picked the right person (unless Michelle Obama would have accepted). He committed to a woman early, and then as events unfolded and he made some comments that surprised the parties most loyal base, he had to go for a minority woman. In Harris he has a charismatic, experienced individual who is an excellent debater and she will help the ticket.
The Republicans for their part will play the Harris attacks on Biden and point out how she has changed positions over time. Remember her raising her hand for medicare for all at debate one? Now she isn’t for it. So their attack will be do you want a leader or someone who outs a finger in the air to see which way the wind is blowing.
Two final thoughts:
First, the Presidency is decided on the top of ticket. So lot’s of noise this week, but when people vote its Biden vs Trump.
Second, the coverage this week on Kamala and the Democratic convention next week will see a bump in their polls.
seattle and the country
I know you saw that the Seattle Police Chief (the first black woman to have that role) resigned after the council voted 7-1 to reduce the force and cut the pay of the chief and remaining officers. The chief was already upset with the stand down policy and this was the final straw. She quit and spoke out.
By the way, in the 7-1 vote you should know the 1 was not a supporter. That council member voted no because he felt this didn’t go far enough!
Imagine that, this policy and action were too little!
You get what you vote for.
On that score there are stories like this everyday:
Today people watch their leaders in city after city fail to keep the peace and restore order as protesters riot at will, and they make plans to move out. In the suburbs and country, they quietly observe the inability of cops to quell the violence, and they buy guns.
Here’s a message to those moving out. Don’t bring your voting attitudes and actions to the new neigborhood. You get what you vote for. If you’re running from what your leaders support, try not being the problem again.
a story on foreign policy implications:
President Trump wants to dramatically reshuffle U.S. forces in Europe to chastise Germany for not spending enough on defense, but that and a range of other foreign poliies pushed by the president are likely to fall by the wayside if presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden wins the office.
Mr. Biden would seek to cancel a slate of key Trump initiatives, including the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear and Paris climate deals, as well as the planned U.S. exit from the World Health Organization, analysts say.
While speculation is rampant over how the Democrat might overhaul Mr. Trump’s aggressive policy toward China, military insiders say there is little doubt the former vice president would move quickly on the Europe troop realignment issue with the goal of stopping it dead in its tracks.
Pentagon leaders have made it abundantly clear that they intend to move with great caution. They stress that it will take many months to pull nearly 12,000 troops from Germany, move U.S. European Command headquarters from Stuttgart to Mons, Belgium, and take other steps outlined by the Defense Department last month.
The slow process could create a key window of opportunity for Mr. Biden, who likely would cancel — or at least delay and review — many of the Europe moves as part of a broader effort to repair bruised relationships between the U.S. and NATO partners.
Such a move would allow the former vice president to put an immediate stamp on military and international affairs.
Your vote, you decide.
The flynn case
While we await the results of the hearing yesterday before the appellate court on whether or not the judge can stop the charges from being dropped, there was this incredible story that broke yesterday on the Flynn case. I am going to try and make it concise, but it says so much of what we don’t know.
The players are:
Stefan A. Halper, the FBI source who assisted the Russia investigation.
Svetlana Lokhova, a Russian-born scholar.
Steven Schrage, a former White House and G8 worker. It was he who first connected Carter Page with Stefan Halper.
Now, the reason Schrage introduced Page to Halper was to attend a conference where Madeline Albright the Obama Secretary of State would be representing the Clinton campaign and they needed a “token” Trump representative.
Mr. Lokhova said that it was Halper, not a fan of Flynn, who later spread the unfounded smears to create the Russia conspiracy story. In fact, Halper made remarks to Schrage (recorded) on Jan. 10, 2017, two days BEFORE a Washington Post column on Flynn led to his White House dismissal.
Schrage has outed himself as a whistleblower with a post saying:
“In these discussions I stressed that Flynn was indispensable. He was perhaps the only campaign adviser who both had Trump’s personal trust and the deep intelligence experience necessary to expose hidden problems in the intelligence community. At one point, I even recall telling Halper that taking Flynn out would be like ‘beheading’ Trump’s team. I had no idea I had been unintentionally aiding a spy preparing the guillotine and helping lead Flynn to exactly such a beheading.”
The story is hard to follow but put pieces of the puzzle are falling in place and support what Page, Papadopoulos and Flynn have said from the outset. They just didn’t know the players and how it came about. The DOJ lawyers told the court they had more documents to support dropping the case but could not release them yet.
The squad sweeps
In Minnesota, Representative Ilhan Omar won her primary so all four members of “The Squad” easily won renomination, so those saying they would lose were wrong. Omar won easily in Minnesota, where with all the recent unrest some thought she would have trouble.
is a divide example?
So two conferences the Big Ten and Pac 12, cancelled fall football. In the meanwhile the SEC and ACC are planning to play. Is it just a coincidence where these schools are located?