Israel/Hezbollah Near Full Scale War, Venezuela in Chaos, Harris Choosing VP Candidate to Win Over "Racist" Independents? (The Five for 07/30/24)
[one]
The nation which once ranked 4th in the world for wealth per capita (in the 1950’s) is now in poverty…and in the hands of a functional dictator.
NPR reports:
Amid accusations that Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro had brazenly stolen Sunday’s presidential election, thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets to protest while the opposition gathered evidence to show that its candidate, Edmundo González, had won in a landslide.
Venezuelans across the country banged pots and pans, marched and chanted anti-Maduro slogans. In western Falcón state, a group of protesters tore down a statue of the late President Hugo Chávez, Maduro’s mentor who ushered in Venezuela’s leftist revolution a quarter-century ago. In Caracas, they gathered in front of the heavily guarded presidential palace where they sang the national anthem.
“I’m here because I want a change. I can no longer stand this government," said Deiker Boadas, 18, as he joined one of the marches in Caracas. “This was fraud. Maduro didn’t win anywhere.”
Anger was also rising overseas. The United States, the European Union and many Latin American countries that have been inundated by Venezuelan migrants fleeing an economic crisis at home, demanded an audit of Sunday’s results.
After hours of total silence, the pro-Maduro National Electoral Council early Monday morning claimed that President Maduro had won a third term with 51% of the vote, compared to 44% for González.
But the electoral council did not provide any detailed voter tallies and is headed by Elvis Amoroso, a Maduro loyalist. Indeed, it was Amoroso who, while serving as comptroller general in 2023, banned opposition leader María Corina Machado from running for president, prompting her to recruit González as her stand-in.
Keep in mind, Mardura likely lost the election even with armed guards trying to stop people from going to the polls.
It’s very possible that violence breaks out…very soon.
The problem with socialism is: You can vote your way into it, … but you’ll have to shoot your way out of it!
-attributed to Oscar Wilde
[two]
The assumed-Democratic nominee (remember, it’s not official yet) is looking for a white guy to be her VP…but someone in her camp said the quiet part out loud.
The campaign is particularly interested in someone who will appeal to the demographics and the voters that Biden would have brought to the table, including older white voters and suburban women, according to a source familiar with the campaign’s thinking. That source said Harris’ team also would like the running mate to appeal specifically to white men who don’t like Trump but who may question whether they want to vote for a Black and South Asian woman.
“Let’s just face it. There’s a lot of sexist, racist white dudes out there in America who don’t like Trump, but just need a little extra validation,” one person familiar with the campaign's thinking said. “And, bringing one of the people mentioned onto the ticket helps validate her among those constituents.”
One of the moments in 2016 that cost Hillary Clinton the election was her “basket of Deplorables” comment about Republican voters. Similarly, then-President Obama drew ire when he similarly slandered Republican voters in 2008:
They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.
Perhaps someone should have told the 44th POTUS that people really don’t like seeing their manufacturing jobs shipped overseas…I’m not really sure what guns or God has to do with it.
But hey, at least Barack & Hillary slandered REPUBLICAN voters. Kamala’s camp taking shots at Democrats and Independent voters who may not show up for her at the polls…probably isn’t going to inspire them to get out and vote.
While Harris is trying to play to white men, the Republican ticket is trying to undo the damage from JD Vance’s “cat ladies” comment with suburban women. Vance responded to Jennifer Anniston’s rant against him (in which she incorrectly stated he was against IVF—when his voting record says otherwise) via an interview with Megyn Kelly.
First of all, that’s disgusting, because my daughter is two years old. And secondly, I would do everything I could to help her, because I believe families and babies are a good thing. That’s the whole point, if you believe families and babies are a good thing, you should try to promote life.
I know beautiful children who play with my kids who were brought into the world with IVF.
Harris is turning up the heat on DJT/JD with one word…weird.
From the Associated Press:
Vice President Kamala Harris and her Democratic allies are emphasizing a new line of criticism against Republicans — branding Donald Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, as “weird.”
Democrats are applying the label with gusto in interviews and online, notably to Vance’s comments on abortion and his previous suggestion that political leaders who didn’t have biological children “don’t really have a direct stake” in the country.
The “weird” message appears to have given Democrats a narrative advantage that they rarely had when President Joe Biden was still running for reelection. Trump’s campaign, which so often shapes political discussions with the former president’s pronouncements, has spent days trying to flip the script by highlighting things about Democrats it says are weird.
Harris may, or may not, be gaining in the polls…so maybe the junior high level insults are sticking.
This week, Harris’ favorability rating increased (to 35%), but her unfavourability rating also increased (from 42% to 46%), according to ABC News.
[three]
I hate writing about this…but it’s an important story on where media and politics are in 2024. A Twitter user started a rumor that J.D. Vance’s book recounts the Vice Presidential nominee knowing a couch…in the Biblical sense of the term.
From Business Insider:
The American electorate is fully in the grip of Couch Discourse.
On July 15, shortly after former President Donald Trump announced Sen. JD Vance would be joining his ticket, the X user @rickrudescalves posted a joke: "can't say for sure but he might be the first vp pick to have admitted in a ny times bestseller to [redacted] (vance, hillbilly elegy, pp. 179-181)."
Needless to say, pages 179 through 181 of "Hillbilly Elegy" are not devoted to an account of Vance's couch surfing, and there's no evidence that he's ever done anything to a couch other than sit on one.
Over the past week, for every seven people searching Google for "JD Vance," one person has searched "JD Vance couch," according to Google Trends. Memes of Vance fantasizing about living-room furnishings have flooded the internet. Despite being, very obviously, a joke, the post was debunked in two fact-checks by mainstream media outlets — one by Snopes and one by The Associated Press (which later deleted the fact-check from its website). Foreseeably and perversely, those debunkings propelled Couch Discourse into the mainstream.
The rumor's spread has also heralded a new style of online engagement from Democrats. In marked contrast to the Obama-era decorum of "when they go low, we go high," Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign has embraced a tongue-in-cheek tone, including writing on X, "JD Vance does not couch his hatred for women."
Couch Discourse even made it to TV. "Where does someone even get an idea like that?" the "Late Show" host Stephen Colbert asked last week.
This behavior from Harris’ campaign, and from Colbert, is gross. But I guess we’re in a cycle where Democrats say “hey, Republicans are that nasty, so why shouldn’t we be.” And Republicans say “hey, Democrats lie and are disgusting, so let’s turn up the heat.”
And I have no idea how we end that cycle. Probably in the next terrorist attack or global war, when we get that post 9/11 kindness back.
[four]
But hey, that global war that reminds us of what is important inches closer.
A rocket, which Israel says was launched by Hezbollah from Shebaa in southern Lebanon, slammed into a soccer pitch in the Druze town of Majdal Shams. Twelve children, ranging in age from 10 to 16, were killed while taking part in a training session. Hezbollah has denied responsibility for the strike. Will Hochstein’s fear of a fuller-scale war now also come to pass?
If Israel’s Foreign Minister, Israel Katz, is to be believed, it probably will. “We are approaching the moment of an all-out war against Hezbollah,” he said in an Israeli television interview on Saturday evening. “The response to this event will be accordingly.”
The United States has apparently blessed retaliatory action, to some degree. “We stand by Israel’s right to defend its citizens from terrorist attacks,” said Secretary of State Antony Blinken, before adding that the US did not want to “see the conflict escalate.”
The response, so far, has been relatively timid. More strikes will probably follow. “We’re fed up with lofty rhetoric and hollow words accompanied by feeble action,” former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett told CNN. “The only way to stop all of this, the only way to deter our enemies from hitting us… is to fight back and to hit them. There’s no other way.”
[five]
And one more thing about that global war.
A number of European countries halted mandatory conscription after the end of the Cold War, but several nations – particularly in Scandinavia and the Baltics – have reintroduced it in recent years, largely because of the Russian threat. Failure to enlist can result in fines or even jail time in some countries.
Latvia is the latest to implement conscription. Compulsory military service was reintroduced on January 1 this year, after being abolished in 2006. Male citizens will be put up for the draft within 12 months of reaching the age of 18, or graduation for those still in the education system.
“At first there was a lot of pushback,” said Arturs Pīlācis, a 20-year-old student. He’s yet to go up for the draft but voluntarily went on a month-long military course.
But ultimately, “the need for a state defence service was clear,” he said. “There wasn’t really an option where we can stand by and think things will go on as they were before because of the unprovoked aggression in Ukraine.”
Please bear in mind…I am not endorsing larger conflicts. Quite the opposite. I’m simply reporting the news, and the news is pointing in one direction.
If you are a person who prays…pray for peace.
If you are not a person who prays…start. Find that old Bible somebody gave you. Rediscover what is important now. For the world grows more grim.
Until the next one,
-sth