And The Weird Just Keep Getting Weirder.

I am so glad this is a short campaign season. And that, G-d willing, I'[;; be outta the country for a chunk of it.

Anyone remember Hannibal Lecter? You know....the guy from SILENCE OF THE LAMBS ?  Feckless Felon keeps bringing him up, making him sound like he's a real person. During his acceptance speech at the RNC, Feckless Felon said:

Has anyone seen ‘The Silence of the Lambs’? The late, great Hannibal Lecter. He’d love to have you for dinner. That’s insane asylums. They’re emptying out their insane asylums.

Oooookay. I could get a single, jokey reference, but this seems to be a recurrent theme. According to the Washington Post, he's used the theme over 70 times, beginning with a rally in Iowa in 2023.  What's the message here? He's already calling the immigrants rapists and criminals. I guess adding cannibals into the mix isn't a stretch. On the other hand, Feckless Felon is a guy who supposedly understands branding; maybe using Hannibal Lecter as another face of the other becomes plausible to his minions when it comes outta his mouth; Lecter, representing the ultimate horror story, morphs into a real person who commits unspeakable acts...just like the immigrants. This is seriously deranged thinking and unspeakably sick. 

Even Anthony Hopkins, the man who played Lecter, doesn't understand it. Interviewed for DEADLINE by Dominic Patten, it came up:

DEADLINE: I have to mention your one of your greatest characters, Hannibal Lecter …

HOPKINS: Why?

DEADLINE: Because he’s come up a lot during this election campaign here in America with Donald Trump speaking about him at his rallies as if he’s a real person.

HOPKINS: As if he is real?

DEADLINE: Yes.

HOPKINS: [Laughs] I didn’t know that. [Laughs again.] Hannibal, that’s a long time ago that movie. God, that was over 30 years ago. I’m shocked and appalled at what you’ve told me about Trump.

I think he was being polite. 

All sides are guilty of contributing to the garbage, although one side is clearly better than the other. Appearances and perception are the only things that count. Homework be damned! Facts be damned!

Montezuma Pass, Arizona. OlivierTouron/ Associated Press

And this one is totally brill. Feckless Felon had a border wall photo op at Montezuma Pass in Arizona. This location has been used before. It's picturesque, but not really representative of the activity at the border. There's only one, maybe two minor problems: the standing section was built during the Obama administration and the rusting stack of metal was left there, untouched by anyone, during the Feckless administration. How did the PR advance team possibly miss that minor bit of info?

From the Washington Post:

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump came here on Thursday to heap praise on the structure standing to his right — “the Rolls-Royce of walls,” he called it — and lament the unused segments lying to his left. Joining him, Border Patrol union leader Paul A. Perez called the standing fence “Trump wall” and the idle parts “Kamala wall,” after Trump’s Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris. 

Those labels were inaccurate. This section of 20-foot steel slats was actually built during the administration of President Barack Obama. Trump added the unfinished extension up the hillside, an engineering challenge that cost at least $35 million a mile. The unused panels of 30-foot beams were procured during the Trump administration and never erected.

See what I mean about real life versus fiction? This is just one more reason I cannot wait for a presidential debate. I want to see him take on Kamala Harris. Right now, I'm rather enjoying the "open mic" argument. I love that Harris wants open mics. After all, it was Mike Pence's inability to stay quiet that gave us that fabulous rejoinder, "I'm speaking now," during the vice presidential debate. If I were on Feckless Felon's team, I'd want a muted mic because he cannot keep his mouth shut. I suspect Harris would have a fabulous slice'n'dice field day with him. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch.....

Delta had already cancelled my return flight to the US on election day, but now, they cancelled my flight to Tel Aviv. This is not unexpected, but what they offered me was nonsense. I called right away and asked for the international re-accommodations desk. This is travel-agenterse for someone who understands you-cancelled-over-the-water-,I-didn't. Normally, one of the over-the-water segments designate the carried on which a ticket is issued. 

To make a long story short, since I was returning on an El Al code-share with Delta, I wanted El Al through JFK on the way out. The lady was super-helpful and called El Al. And, considering what's going on in Israel, they did not exchange the ticket, they revalidated it with the new flight from JFK to TLV. AND, they happily provided the record El Al locator when I asked for it. Within an hour, both websites showed not only the correct sequence of flights, the seats were there, too. 

Having been a corporate travel agent for more than 2 decades (artist shitty day-job) I understand just how crazy travelers can be on the phone. And I know anyone who sits on the fix-it desk is ready to deal with the crazies. I could almost hear the sigh of relief when, after explaining what happened and what I thought should happen, I used the terms PNR and over-the-water. After that, we had a fair amount of fun figuring out how to make what I wanted happen with the least amount of ticket disruption possible. There are times knowing too much is a pain, other times, it really helps to allay everyone's fears. I firmly believe if I can get 'em to laugh, I win. And we ended up laughing a lot on that call. 

In the end, there's still a war waging in Israel. I won't make the final decision about whether or not I'm going until a few days before I go. The ticket is fully refundable, so I'm not worried about that. I am cautiously optimistic that it will all be over before I go, that the remaining hostages will be returned, and that I'll get to go have breakfast near the sea in Herzliya after my friends pick me up at the airport. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

אני מאמינה שתהיה הפסקת אש בקרוב 

I believe there will soon be a ceasefire. 

I have to. 

Chicago Redux

Possibly Bettmann Archive

The 2024 Democratic National Convention begins in Chicago. Just about 56 years ago, the DNC was also in Chicago. Both conventions are happening during a turbulent time in these here United States. Back then, the Vietnam War was raging and the anti-war movement had taken to the streets in many places. What happened in Chicago would become a watershed moment for my generation. I suspect everyone is going to be looking for comparisons to the 1968 version, and if you want to know more about it, Google The Battle Of Michigan Avenue. What I want to share is  what happened four months later, when USY International Convention was held at the same Chicago Hilton in December of 1968.

I was heading to Israel the following summer. I had never been on a plane before. My folks thought it might be a good idea to take a short flight before a 12-hour one, so we decided I would go to convention. Several hundred high school kids were descending on the same hotel that had been the backdrop for unbelievably vicious attacks on protestors by the Chicago PD. As we entered through the main doors, we were silent as we walked over bloodstains still visible on the sidewalk. Many of us, self included, had already been participating in anti-war demonstrations. We were still traumatized over the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy. And we were all sentient at the time of JFK's assassination. It wasn't like we didn't know where we were going or were unaware of what had happened on that pavement. In that street. In that park. And I think it's safe to say we had a sense of responsibility to change the direction of our nation.

But I cannot speak for everyone else; I can only talk about the aftermath of that week in Chicago. 

I spent at least one night, possibly two at our  Vietnam War Peace Vigil. In a small room with low tables, we sat on the floor as if it was Tisha b'Av, lit candles around us, photos and posters on the wall, copies of appropriate psalms to recite together, prayers to murmur silently. We spoke in hushed tones about what we were feeling...sadness, desperation, impotence. 

Phil Pill, treasurer of our international board, had gone to Vietnam as the keyboard guy with Brandi Perry and The Bubble Machine to entertain troops. He was killed in a roadside ambush on July 5th, 1968. Phil was 17 years old.  I knew who he was, but I did not know him, but that didn't matter.  Death in Vietnam wasn't abstract; this was one of us. 

Looking back, I also think we were foundering a bit, overwhelmed by what was now our calling to change the world. Going to Chicago, the scene of what might have been the birth of a revolution, was far more intense that I expected. 

Was that because we were passionate teenagers, or because our inner moral compasses were slammed open? Again, I cannot speak for others who were there, but I was profoundly changed by those days. The camaraderie, the unity, and experience of finding we had a voice of our own was radical. I believed with my whole heart that my generation would change the world. That our passion for peace for all would happen in my lifetime. I was as certain as I could be that the Constitution of these here United States was a solid foundation for truth and justice for all. I wasn't so sure about The American Way, but I believed the Constitution was a workable framework and the branches of government would guarantee our freedoms.

Lots of lessons were taught that week in Chicago, lessons I would carry forward and, much to my amazement, remain an active part of my belief that the world can be changed. I learned the value of forethought and planning; that no change just happens, change requires coaxing. I learned the value of moderation; scaring the people who want to change is not an effective strategy. And most of all, I learned the value of the middle ground; if you can find a place in the middle, you can begin to have conversations about changing what that middle ground looks like..

A sort of teen-age butterfly effect. I saw my parents shift toward the anti-war side because of my older brother (who was draftable) and me. Conversations at the dinner table definitely changed. In college, I saw college administrations change policies because student bodies successfully demonstrated a need for change. I knew if we didn't win an election there would always be another one and we would have to just work harder to prevail.

I was 16 years old. This was a time of magical thinking. 

Never did I ever imagine a failed businessman who lied incessantly could be elected president. 

Never did I ever imagine a president would attempt to overturn an election.

Never did I ever imagine ours is a country where college campuses are hotbeds of anti-semitic Jew-hate rhetoric.

Never did I ever imagine American kids would choose to support, praise, and extol terrorists. 

Which brings me to Chicago DNC 2024. 

Kamala Harris will, of course, get the official nomination this week. Will she be a great president? I hope so.The last couple of weeks has brought such joy and enthusiasm into this race, banishing the oppressive cloudiness as President Biden was struggling with the decision to step down. It's entirely possible/probable that she will win. 

That's not the part that worries me. What scares me is what happens when she does. 

Secret and not-so-secret militias are taking shape around the country. Groups are forming on social media, and in at least one case, being assembled out in the open by Nassau County, NY executive Bruce Blakeman. According to the New York Times, Blakeman is... 

From the NYTimes

recruiting 75 armed citizens, many of them former police officers, for a force of “special deputies” to be activated whenever he chooses.

 

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Republican who has allied himself with former President Donald J. Trump and thrust himself into the culture wars, posted a call in March for residents with gun permits and an interest in becoming “provisional emergency special deputy sheriffs.”

 

The posting called the initiative a strategy to assist in the “protection of human life and property during an emergency” such as a hurricane or blackout — and perhaps, Mr. Blakeman later added, “a riot.”

As a Nassau County kinda girl myself, this is not even remotely surprising. Scary, but not a surprise. 

Nor is Rachel Maddow's opinion piece in the New York Times,  (and for the record, I am not a devotee) that examines how the rules for certification are being changed in a number of swing states to delay the outcome of the vote. Georgia is making major changes to those rules of certification. She wrote:

Because Georgia law holds that election boards “shall” certify results within a week of the election, this rule almost certainly will face legal challenges. But in a state where Republicans have delayed or refused certification at least seven times since 2020 — more than in any other state — the rule injects a new layer of murk into the legal waters less than 100 days before the election.

 

On Monday, the board is expected to consider yet another revision to the rules that would afford members of county election boards an additional option for delaying or refusing certification. The rule would allow local board members to demand “all election-related documentation” before certifying the results.

If you pair that with the first-day expectations from Project 2025 coupled with the official GOP platform, we should be worried about what steps will be taken to overturn a Harris/Walz victory. Every speech Feckless Felon delivers is more bullshit than substance. And speeches delivered by JB Bedbug subtly harp on how women should have no rights. A lot of GOP women are backing away from this duo because they realize they will be the ones curtailed along with the rest of us vagina-wielding baby machines. 

Feckless Felon keeps insinuating there will be a bloodbath if he loses. I don't think he's kidding. 

I'm watching the DNC. It started late because people had difficulty getting through the pro-Hamas demonstrations taking place outside the convention center. I thought a lot about the differences between the two protests. They are not the same. Both may protest a war, but one wanted our troops withdrawn from a conflict that was not our own, the other wants the US to withdraw support from Israel,  supporting, instead, terrorists who vow to destroy a sovereign state. 

And that also got me to thinking about the pro-Hamas demonstrators. If I could ask them each a question, I would ask if they celebrated the destruction of the World Trade Center on 9/11. After all, the people who brought down the two towers are the same people who murdered music festival goers and took children and old people hostage. These are the same people who have deemed homosexuality a crime punishable by death. How are these acts in line with their ultra-liberal views?  They are demanding a cease fire, and as of the national news this evening, Israel had accepted the US plan . Hamas has yet to respond about the ceasefire, but they did take credit for an attempted suicide bombing in Tel Aviv. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Listen to the candidates.

Decide who is telling the truth and who is lying. 

Decide how important truth telling is...and act accordingly.

Tisha B'Av 5784

Kotel - buit in 20 B.C.E

Fourteen years ago tonight.....according to the Jewish calendar, I wrote the first episode of The Wifely Person Speaks. It was erev Tisha b'Av and I was feeling overwhelmed by the news coming from Israel coupled with my own feelings of desolation. I wrote:

As I sit at my desk, the sun is setting and Tisha B'Av is starting. My best Tisha B'Av, if one can have a best Tisha B'Av, was in 1969, in Jerusalem, sitting on a hill overlooking the city, and I was the one to chant the opening of Eicha (Lamentations) and I did with the weight of three thousand years of history resting like a mantle on my shoulders. How could I, a kid from Long Island, possibly read these words and imbue them with the meaning they needed to have? What was my reference point? What did I know about suffering? Did I have a place in this chain? The experience was overpowering. Every Tisha B'Av after that was held up in comparison to that one. Over the years there were some more memorable than others.

And then there was last year. I was the widow. I was Jerusalem, desolate, abandoned, unable to hold up my head. I sat on the floor broken and unable to bear the words. They had new, horrible meaning and I hated every reverberating sound. I could not wait for it, all of it, to be over. I wanted to be past this day that grated on my own terrible loss. I could not imagine a worse observance.

This year isn't shaping up to be all that great, either.

I love hearing how Jews do not belong in the Middle East, specifically in Israel or how ICC declared East Jerusalem is occupied Palestinian territory. The Mosque of Omar and Al Aqsa were built in 685 C.E; the first Temple was completed around 975 B.C.E. If you do the math, that means Jerusalem was the capital of Israel for over 1000 years before Islam was even invented. But the Jews don't count as indigenous to the land. Sure. Following that through line, we are occupiers instead of the original inhabitants and therefore should be pushed into the sea for occupying less than 0.1% of the land in the ME that we've been occupying for about 3000 years. 

That means 99.9% of the ME is Arab/Muslim. And we are an existential threat to their wellbeing? Of course, this may be true since little ol' Israel has defeated them in every way waged against us since 1948. 

So now, Hamas and Hezbollah are counting on Iran to do the job for them. According to the Times of Israel, Hezbollah has evacuated its headquarters from a suburb of Beirut in preparation for a war. 

Well, Iran is big on symbolism so everyone is betting they're gonna make their move on Tisha b'Av, the day Jews mourn the destruction of both the First and Second Temple. You can learn a lot about that if you happen to be in Rome and go see the Arch of Titus. Constructed in 81 C.E., there are panels depicting the destruction of Jerusalem and the SECOND Temple...the one Jesus hung out at. And that's still almost 600 years BEFORE Islam even appears in 610 C.E. 

But Jews have no claim on Jerusalem because we never lived there. Give me a frickin' break.

And while we're on the subject, let's mention Psalm 137 from the biblical Book of Psalms. In the Septuagint, the psalm is ascribed to the Prophet Jeremiah with the annotation: 

"For David. By Jeremias, in the Captivity.". 

It's believed to have been written sometime between 597-787 B.C.E., before his return to Jerusalem in 538 B.C.E. 

 PSALM 137

silver shekel - 2200 years old

Jerusalem is never far from our hearts, our minds, our prayers. It is the heart of our homeland...even if I'm not the biggest fan of hanging around that city. Okay, I prefer Herzliya and the rest of the coast. You know...there's a beach involved. But Israel is the motherland, the homeland, the place were our language has been spoken...even in Herzliya...for thousands of years. Inscriptions in ancient cemeteries are in Hebrew we can still read. This coin is from the second year of the revolt, struck in 67-68 C.E. In other words, this is the homeland.

And just so you know the concerns are real, here are some not-so-random events that occurred around 9th of Av:

·      The Jews were expelled from England on 18 July 1290 (Av 9, 5050).
·      The Jews were expelled from France on 22 July 1306 (Av 10, 5066).
·      The Jews were expelled from Spain on 31 July 1492 (Av 7, 5252).
·      Germany entered World War I on 1–2 August 1914 (Av 9–10, 5674), which caused massive upheaval in European Jewry and whose aftermath led to World War II and the Holocaust.
·      On 2 August 1941 (Av 9, 5701), SS commander Heinrich Himmler formally received approval from the Nazi Party for "The Final Solution," which marked the beginning of the Holocaust during which almost one third of the world's Jewish population was murdered.
·      On 23 July 1942 (Av 9, 5702), the mass deportation of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto to Treblinka began.

So I'm gonna stop here. My heart and my head are in the east tonight. Tomorrow is a nerve-wracking day for Jews anyway, and right now, even more so. 

The Wifely Person' Tip o'the Week

Try to get a good night's sleep tonight.

And, for those who observe, have an easy fast.

Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Mo....Part Deux

One of my regular readers submitted a comment and while I was already working on a bonus blog for Tim Walz, I think it's worth stating again that I really like the ticket and I still do not think Walz is the perfect politician. There is no perfect politician but in the overall scheme of today's political climate, he's one of the least batshit crazy guys out there. 

There are three areas Feckless Felon and the GOP spin into a pretzel that barely resembles the truth: George Floyd, the post-COVID food distribution scandal, and the $18B surplus spending. These are all real things that happened in this administration. Understanding what they are and how they happened is also important in this Age of Deception.

Let's talk about the aftermath of George Floyd's murder at the hands of Minneapolis cops and the mobilization of the Minnesota National Guard in 2020: 

Governor Walz deployed the MN National Guard on May 28th, the first time it had ever been done in Minnesota. Some claimed Trump deployed the guard, but that is incorrect. The guard was in place until May 30th when things had calmed down.  Since this was the first time the guard was being deployed like this, the request had to come from the mayor, and then the governor could make the request. Some staffers said the guard was requested on the 27th, and there is a chain of messages that support that, but the official request was received on the 28th. Calling up the guard is not instant; it takes some time to get them in place. 

From KARE-11 archive:

Walz would go on to agree he got an informal, verbal request from Mayor Frey late Wednesday, May 27, before the mayor submitted a formal, written request on the morning of Thursday, May 28. The governor maintained it took time to deploy citizen soldiers and a brand new mission with little advance notice. 

 

It does take time.Guard personnel have 12 hours to report for duty. Other sources confirm that the governor actually asked the guard to stand ready for possible deployment on the 30th, but moved it up to the 28th after a night of rioting. A press release announcing the guard had been mobilized was issued by the governor's office at 4pm on the 28th.  

Imagine what would have happened had he not followed the protocol in place at the time. Since that time, processes have been reviewed, adjusted, and realigned to meet more modern needs. That said, the guard, made up of citizen soldiers, still has 12 hours to get to place. This is not a standing army and it will never be an instant process. 

During the riots on May 27th, 2020, the 3rd Precinct was burned out. There are so many conflicting reports about what happened, but the real bottom line is a decision made by Mayor Frey and Chief of Police Arradondo. As per wiki: 

It is a matter of debate whether the decision by city officials to abandon it helped save lives or inspired more violence. Minneapolis police chief Medaria Arradondo, and other city leaders prepared as early as May 27 for the possibility of surrendering the station, which had been the location of tense protests beginning the evening of May 26, a day after Floyd's arrest and murder.[64] According to Frey, after the precinct building was breached the city faced the choice of hand-to-hand combat with demonstrators that could result in more death, or forces could make a hasty departure and leave the building to the crowd, the latter of which happened in dramatic fashion as it was captured on live video

There was a lot of blame to throw around, but it was Walz who shouldered the responsibility for the "abject failure" of the city to respond to the rioting and destruction of property. There was plenty of blame to go around. The city owned the major part of the failure, but Walz took it on the shoulders of the state to get it fixed. 

As COVID hit, so did programs to feed those no longer able to earn a living due to the restriction. No state was prepared for this kind of crisis and Minnesota became embroiled in an incredible rip-off of resources. Again, tons of blame and not enough structure. The people in charge of running the programs within the state structure failed the people of Minnesota spectacularly. 

Based on the FBI reports, and the way our government works (when it does) the lack of oversight is a function of the MInnesota Department of Education. Like any chief executive, the governor cannot be everywhere and see everything, and depends on his cabinet to do their job. That was not the case here, and once again, Walz takes ownership of the problem. You might want to read the article in The Minnesota Reformer. The way I understood it (and the article supports what I thought) the governor's and the attorney general's hands were somewhat tied due to the FBI investigation. The masterminds of this abuse have gone to jail although the MDE has not been charged with any sort of Malfeasance This is not over yet.

And the third thing the GOP is gonna glom onto is the $18B surplus and how it was spent. Below is a line item explanation:

Source: Minnesota Senate

As with many social welfare programs, results are not instant. At the same time, there are issues with bureaucracy and not all programs were well managed. Like many government programs. Still, some of those programs save a whole lotta kids. Inroads (no pun intended) have been made in the transportation and public safety areas. Our roads, bridges, airports, and ports need work. The money was used for improvements. Did they all work out? Probably not, but time and investment provide a learning process for improvements. Spending the surplus on the state itself is not an unreasonable expectation.

It's worth noting that aside from the surplus, Minnesota also has a separate $3.3B "rainy day" fund. Governor Walz is not the slap-happy spender some news outlets make him out to be. 

Then there's the part where they go after him for being ultra-liberal: he is not just a supporter of feminism, civil rights for all, and reproductive freedom, he has built his career as an advocate and ally.

Once upon a time, Walz, a gun owner and hunter, had an A rating from the NRA. No more. On July 27th, he posted on X:

“I had an A rating from the NRA. Now I get straight F’s. And I sleep just fine,” 

I am sure someone will dig up all sorts of stuff about him because that's what political operatives do. Will it change my mind that this guy knows how to do a political job and will be incredibly supportive of Harris as POTUS? No. In the end, Tim Walz cares about his constituency...whether its the people of his congressional district, the state of Minnesota, or We, the People of the United States. I'm okay with a human in the vice president's role. I'm not okay with a reactionary troglodyte in that chair. 

The best thing Harris and Walz can do is to keep smiling and laughing at the competition.  There is a certain amount of joy they currently radiate and I hope it sticks. Always take the high road, Harris and Walz; that makes Feckless Felon and JD Bedbug look like the small, insignificant haters that they are. 

The WP's bonus tip o'the week

If you care about your country,

help to get out the vote.

Not voting is not an option this year.

Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Mo....Catch a Veep By The Toe

WALZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm kinda pissed at Kamala at the moment. Selfishly so. She couldn't announce her running mate THIS morning instead of waiting until Tuesday???? I mean, I have a blog to get out and she's gumming up the works!

Nah, just kidding. I'm not pissed at all. In fact, I'm kinda excited about the three apparent finalists, all of which were my first pick guys. Allow me to explain....although by the time most of you read this, it'll be a moot point. 

Governor Walz

Tim Walz, governor of the great Etoile du Nord, is actually a really good governor. He listens. He truly has the good and welfare of this state at heart, and he puts it first and foremost in his actions. Is he perfect?  No. He's human.  Despite ridiculous rumors , he does NOT own a yacht, he is NOT worth $400 million, and he does NOT own a giant lake house in South Dakota or any lake property in Minnesota. He does however, own a second house they use as a rental property. The guy is entitled to a salary of $149,550 as governor, but only accepte $127,629, having declined a cost of living increase. 

You should know he's retired from the National Guard (2005) and is a retired high school teacher and coach. He left teaching to represent Minnesota's 1st district in Congress from 2007-2019, when he became our governor. That he taught high school tells you he already knows how to talk to crowds. He's white haired, but only 60, so while he may look like an old white guy, he's reasonably young for national office. I happen to be a Walz fan. I like the guy. If he gets the nod, great, but I will miss him as our governor. His lieutenant governor is Peggy Flanagan....an exceptionally cool person of indigenous origin from White Earth Nation. 

Sen. Mark Kelly

Another guy in the race is Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona. Come on, people, this is another science guy; he's a real life astronaut for G-d's sake! He's flown 4 shuttle missions, 2 as commander. This is a cool cucumber in an emergency....or he wouldn't be running a space mission. His wife, Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, was the victim of an assassination attempt. This guy knows about gun control up close and personal. He is a long time supporter of women in the workplace, equal rights, and reproductive rights. How could he not, being married to Rep. Giffords after all? They are a power couple all on their own. 

In a NYTimes piece about him, Tom Zoellner wrote about Senator Kelly:

Cueball-bald and approximately 5-foot-8, with a mild personal bearing and disarming New Jersey accent, he has been called boring by more than one Arizona political observer. You would hardly know you were talking to a combat aviator and astronaut if someone didn’t tell you beforehand. And he might not even bring it up himself.

On the flip side, he is the incumbent senator from Arizona and his presence is needed in that chamber. And here's an interesting aside: if he is Harris's running mate and they win, Doug Emhoff should not remove the mezuzah from the front door of Blair House since Gabby Giffords is Jewish. Cool, huh?

Josh Shapiro

No mezuzah removal for Governor of Pennsylvania Josh Shapiro if he gets the nod. My big brother is a Shapiro fan and likes him as their governor. I like him, too. He's another strong feminist with a record of supporting equal rights for all, reproductive rights and sensible gun law. Even with his mixed messaging on school vouchers, I like the guy. He, his wife, and his kids are all products of Jewish day school. He's committed to family shabbat dinners, and while that may not say much to you, it says a lot to me about how he prioritizes family time. That's what family values are supposed to be about... putting one's family first.

Still, I worry. He and his family will have targets on their backs. 

We are in the enviable position of having a deep bench for a running mate. There were some other strong, sensible contenders that, for whatever reason, did not make the final round. It's reassuring to know the good ones didn't run screaming outta D.C. Still, it says something about the depth of the Democratic party that none of them were certifiable, batshit crazies. 

(This does not include batshit crazy RFK Jr. who dumped a dead bear in Central Park. That's a whole 'nother level. Just so we're clear about that.)

And speaking of batshit crazy..... the GOP's greatest gift to Kamala Harris is JD Bedbug. He has done what Feckless could not: he is driving Republican women away from the mayhem. Groups of Republicans for Harris are springing up in a number of locations. Former Rhode Island congresswoman Claudia Schneider who now lives in Colorado is leading efforts to bring disappointed, disenfranchised Republicans into Harris's tent. She is not alone. It might be important to note that no other president, vice president, or candidate for those offices showed up at the GOP convention. That is not normal. Former party leaders are supposed to be there to glad-hand and excite the delegates. If nothing else, that absence of support widens the fissure to chasm proportions. 

There is opportunity here to not just pick up votes, but to move toward a more cooperative congress. To be sure the blowhards will hang on. They will get re-elected, but if we're even remotely lucky, maybe some of the screechers will be gone. Not that I'm holding my breath on that. 

I'm just having a moment of guarded optimism. Like gas, it will pass. We shall see what tomorrow brings. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

We, the People are gonna lose Jeff Jackson (D-NC) in Congress come January. 

That's a shame because his insights into the business of congress are great.

Click the link and take a moment to watch some of his vlog entries.

You might learn something about how our country actually works.