I had already come to understand the tidiness of lies, the lesson learned from the stories told by white people seeking to justify my circumstances, I appreciated Voltaire’s notion of tolerance regarding religious difference and I understood, as absorbed as I was, that I was not interested in the content of the work, but its structure, the movement of it, the calling out of logical fallacies. And so, after these books, the Bible itself was the least interesting of all. I could not enter it, did not want to enter it, and then understood that I recognized it as a tool of the enemy. I chose the word enemy, and still do, as oppressor necessarily supposes a victim.
—James, Percival Everett
1.
This from white men who have arguably never genuinely laughed their entire life: “Kamala Harris brought her cackle to Milwaukee: ‘Good afternoon, Wisconsin! Ha ha ha ha!’"
The RNC has nothing to run on so they’re going after someone else’s joy. Kamala doesn’t have all the answers, nor is she some sort of Goddess above us all. She’s a smart politician who is in the right place at the right time. And she is someone who actually laughs for real. Not a politician’s laugh. That’s what has happened when she spoke in Wisconsin, and will be happening in other campaign speeches across the country.
Maybe that’s all they have as they are stuck with JD™ Vance, the human fluctuator. Vance is in total lockstep with Fuckleroy even though he wrote a warning in 2016 that the orange marauder could be “America’s Hitler.” Now they are besties. More on Vance, if you care, in last week’s Dispatch. Oh, and Dan Quayle is beaming knowing that “JD Vance is making history as the least liked VP nominee (non-incumbent) since 1980 following his/her party’s convention. He’s the first to have a net negative favorable rating. Not surprising given how weak he ran in Ohio in 2022. Far worse than the average Ohio Republican.”
Thom Hartmann wrote yesterday that Vance’s career and his life story are a grift. Just like most all of Donald Trump’s failed businesses. Just like Nixon’s racist “law and order” grift. And Reagan’s tax-cut-for-the-rich “supply side” grift. And Bush and Cheney’s oil-grabbing Iraq “weapons of mass destruction” grift.
Even Adam Kinzinger, a recovering Republican politician who recognizes that his old party is fading away as it is converted to a fascist cause, wrote in his Substack: Altogether, the picture shows that with Biden resigning as a candidate and endorsing Harris, Trumpworld is wobbling on its axis. I say they are in serious trouble. But if you don’t believe me, take a look at what New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu, a Republican critical of Trump, recently told CNN: "Believe me: if and when they make the switch, everything's going to change. It's going to get very close in a lot of those tighter states. There's going to be more energy. The Democrat Party will be rewarded, if you will, by independents saying, 'None of us liked that whole Biden-Trump ticket to start with — you guys had the courage to change your nominee.' "
Kamala spoke to the AFT (American Federation of Teachers) in a speech yesterday morning: Project 2025 is a plan to return America to a dark past. Donald Trump and his extreme allies want to take our nation back to failed trickle-down economic policies, back to union busting, back to tax breaks for billionaires…to cut Medicare and Social Security, to stop student loan forgiveness for teachers and other public servants. They even want to eliminate the Department of Education…We want to ban assault weapons, and they want to ban books.
And just this morning the Guardian reported that an Israeli official has criticized US vice-president Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic party nominee for the presidency, after she said it was time for the war in Gaza to end given the suffering being caused by the fighting. “There has been hopeful movement in the talks to secure an agreement on this deal, and as I just told prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, it is time to get this deal done,” she said.
But most of all, everyone should go with the candidate who actually listens to real music. “Do you know music? OK, so first of all, Charlie Mingus, really one of the greatest jazz performers ever. One of my favorite albums of all time, Roy Ayers, ‘Everybody Loves the Sunshine,’ you know this one? It’s so good. It’s a classic. And then ‘Porgy and Bess,’ right? And this is a beautiful one, it’s Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong.”
2.
Fuckleroy, and now Vance, LOVE to go on and on about immigrant crime—the immigrant crime-waves!—which is just another pant load of lies. According to the Brennan Center, numerous studies show that immigration is not linked to higher levels of crime, but rather the opposite. Undocumented immigration does not increase violent crime; research examining crime rates in so-called sanctuary cities also found no discernible difference when compared to similarly situated cities without sanctuary policies. One study that focused on drug crimes and driving under the influence found that unauthorized immigration status was associated with reductions in arrests for those offenses.
3.
And in Republican shenanigans closer to home our very own GOP senator Justine Wadsack (yes, that’s her name) played the ‘Do you know who I am?’ card when pulled over in Tucson for doing 71mph in a 35mph. She told police she was “racing to get home” because she only had four miles of battery left and needed to haul ass so the EV didn’t die. The Tucson Sentinel’s Blake Morlock asked all the right questions: For starters, what the hell is the Legislature’s queen MAGA doing driving an electric vehicle? When did she get the Woke Mind Virus? Isn’t she afraid of it bursting into flames all around her? What about the birds and the sharks? Oh, wait. Windmills are killing off the birds and sharks electrocute Hannibal Lecters. Gotcha. Sorry. Forgot. It’s hard to keep up.
The ticket wasn’t enforced until after the legislature was adjourned so when they called her in late June to ask if she could come down and sign the ticket, she yelped about “political persecution” because of course she did. She was also persecuted when a police lieutenant called her “Mrs. Wadsack” and not “Senator Wadsack,” apparently. The Fraternal Order of Police previously endorsed this piece of work but after this ‘incident’ Paul Sheldon, the FOP president, released a statement saying “While Sen. Wadsack has been a consistent supporter of public safety in her official capacity, this incident and her decision to publicly impugning the motives of police personnel is conduct unbecoming an elected representative. Our endorsement committee reviewed this situation carefully, then voted to retract this endorsement. Like everyone else accused of a traffic violation, Sen. Wadsack is innocent until proven guilty. But attacking police personnel for doing their jobs is simply unacceptable.”
Morlock goes on to write, Wadsack is new school. She’s of the 9/11-was-in-inside-job variety. Conspiracy is everywhere and she’s the victim of half of them. It’s the current that supercharges her political movement. MAGAs see America as their country and the rest of us are just renters. Equal treatment offends them because there should be no equality between owners and tenants.
4.
Nicodemus, Kansas was founded in 1877 and is the only remaining western town established by African Americans during the Reconstruction Period following the American Civil War. Also during that time, the Homestead Act of 1862 provided settlement opportunities for people of modest means. A person could claim a 160-acre plot provided they lived on and develop the land for a 5-year period, after which it could be purchased. (That is precisely what my great-grandmother did in the early 1900s)
Fifth-generation Nicodemus descendant Angela Bates was raised in California but her parents were born in Nicodemus. She eventually moved back and formed the Nicodemus Historical Society and campaigned to preserve the documentary history of a town that had gradually fallen on hard economic times. Bates brought her slice of oral history to the Spencer Research Library at the University of Kansas, where a collection of photographs and documents related to Nicodemus has been archived. She said the library served as the Fort Knox of history for people tied to Nicodemus. She recently completed work on a documentary about settlement of Nicodemus and the legacy of a community far from the Kentucky hills where many settlers were recruited.
She said that the people who made a home in Nicodemus included formerly enslaved residents of the central bluegrass region of Kentucky, which included Lexington and Georgetown. The objective was to gain ownership of land in Kansas and put distance between themselves and aggressively enforced Jim Crow laws stalling the ability of Black Americans to broaden their personal experience with freedom. It was often assumed the name of the town came from Biblical stories of Nicodemus. However, the name was drawn from a Civil War-era abolitionist song “Wake Nicodemus” about the end of slavery.
5.
The latest Merzklip for ya! JUST. VOTE. BLUE.
6.
Here’s another in the folded shirt series.
And now…
Kamala's laugh reminds me of my Mom's and my Sister's laugh. I miss them. Great post. Does the shirt come in an ex lg. later tater kw
Love this post!