The Daily Show on the search for Harris’s running mate

Serial sex abuser and convicted felon Donald Trump (SSACFT) made a weird assertion to a group of Black journalists that Kamala Harris had always claimed that she was Indian until recently when she suddenly became Black.

It should be noted that Harris attended Howard University, a flagship university of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and while there joined Alpha Kappa Alpha, the first (and possibly biggest) sorority of Black women. She has been a proud and visible member of it ever since. The idea that she is a Jenny-Come-Lately to being Black is being greeted with hoots of derision.

Alpha Kappa Alpha is a historic African American sorority, founded on the campus of Howard University, Harris’ alma mater. It was the first Black sorority of its kind, and is a part of the “Divine Nine,” a group of Black Pan-Hellenic organizations.

Members of Alpha Kappa Alpha and other groups in the Divine Nine have already rallied to support Harris’ bid for the presidency, networking and organizing to raise millions upon millions of dollars for her campaign. Harris is also a frequent presence at high-profile events, including Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.’s biennial convention earlier this month.

The sorority has been a critical source of support and sisterhood not just for Harris, but for the 360,000 some women across the US and the world that make up its ranks. AKA members are political leaders, civil rights activists, literary icons and scientists, and the sorority’s cultural impact has deep, wide-reaching roots.

“When you become a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha, you become a member for life,” Danette Anthony Reed, international president and CEO of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. told CNN.

Ronny Chieng discusses the search process as well as SSACFT’s weird comment about Harris’s ethnicity.

On what basis should we vote?

(Pearls Before Swine)

That cartoon reminded me of a discussion I had a long, long, time ago, when I was in graduate school, with a fellow student about voting. He said that each of us should vote based on our own narrow interests because that is the way that the democratic system works best. If each of us thought only of our own interests when voting, then the results would reflect the outcomes that the general population wants, whereas if we voted on the basis of what we think might be better for other people, then the results get skewed because we do not really know what other people actually want and are merely guessing, we only know for sure what we want.

I did not agree with him then but had to acknowledge that it was an interesting argument with a certain logic, the kind that geeky physicists would come up with.
[Read more…]

The Thunderdome that wasn’t

Ever since Joe Biden’s poor debate performance on June 27th, political observers started what looked like a deathwatch, waiting to see if he would drop out of the race. Some of them (like me) were hoping that he might quit because with him as he presumptive nominee, the presidential race looked like a slow-motion train wreck, with the crash occurring on election day, and the only chance, however slim, of avoiding it would be to have a different nominee. But I was not hopeful that it would occur because Biden kept insisting that he was in the race to stay.

Some in the media may have had other reasons to have Biden drop out. They were excitedly speculating that if he did, there would be a knockdown, drag out competition for the nomination among all the Democratic hopefuls that would end up with a contested convention, with heated conflicts inside the convention hall and possibly protests and clashes outside, where the result would not be known until the end. This was sometimes referred to in typical media hyperbolic fashion as a ‘Thunderdome’ event. It would be Chicago 1968 all over again. Even if it was not as violent as back then, it would still be a ratings bonanza for the media, allowing for breathless minute-by-minute updates as people tuned in to all the drama. The GOP would also benefit because even though they felt confident about beating Biden, a bruising convention fight would leave the eventual nominee damaged.
[Read more…]

Trump’s outreach to Black journalists does not go well

He attended the convention of the National Association of Black Journalists. It started out poorly and did not get better.

During a contentious and chaotic panel hosted by the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) on Wednesday, Donald Trump parroted disinformation about immigration and abortion, questioned Kamala Harris’s race and accused a panel moderator, Rachel Scott – the senior congressional correspondent for ABC News – of being “rude” and presenting a “nasty question” when she asked him: “Why should Black voters trust you?”

Another report said:
[Read more…]