What European countries would vote for which candidate
Not a big surprise, but on this list, it isnt until you to get the Balkan states that the quantity flips majority to Trump.
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Kamala on SNL
Maya and Kamala on SNL's cold open really should have been on my radar, but it wasn't. Quite the surprise.
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"Kamala Harris Is Not Our Savior. But a Donald Trump Win Would Be Catastrophic."
It continues to be one of the weirder parts of this timeline that TeenVogue remains an important journalistic political voice. The linked is a letter from their Editor in Chief, Versha Sharma.
As the head of this publication, dedicated to young readers, I have been closely following younger generations' collective disbelief at the Biden administration's support of the Israeli government during its all-out assault on Gaza, following the brutal terror attack from Hamas last Oct. 7 — including the horrific killing of civilians in Gaza, the targeting of journalists and aid workers, and the reports of children being shot in the head.
The Democrats' policy on Israel has been disastrous. What is also true: Trump would, somehow, be even worse.
"To stop crises like genocides, climate change, and pandemics, we need strong mass movements," writes Dr. Lucky Tran, a science communicator based in New York City. "But when more people are vulnerable to deportation, sickness, poverty, discrimination etc, it's much harder to build strong movements. The living conditions under which we organize matter.
"Allowing far-right governments to hold power harms people and greatly weakens social movements. Voting alone is insufficient to win justice, but ignoring its importance makes it much harder to achieve. To win, we need to use all the tools available, including strategic voting."
Dr. Tran is elucidating a conclusion many progressive activists and organizers have come to: that we must view voting as a chess move to get us closer to the outcome we all want.
This point is extremely salient and important for understanding another part of the shadow reality of our capitalist society and conservative power brokers' motivations. "Trickle down economics" necessitates that that money passes through the hands of bosses, furthering an employee's reliance on the employer financially. I don't wholeheartedly believe it's meant as a power for bosses, I do believe originally there was an earnest belief that that money would naturally disseminate, but time has clearly shown that is not the case.
Later in the article Sharma transitions to directly discussing the effort required to maintain a democracy and further political goals even beyond winning this election. The emphasis at the end is my own:
I feel pretty confident that a majority of Americans do not support Trump. He's lost the popular vote twice now; it's why he's set the stage for baselessly claiming election fraud or encouraging political violence as a means to hold onto power.
But that majority will only make a difference if we turn out to vote and organize.
It's not enough to beat a fascist with razor-thin margins; ideally, we need to run up the margin of victory so high it becomes that much harder for Trump and his cronies to claim they represent the will of the American people. It's why voting even in "safely blue" or "safely red" states matters. To achieve a more equitable America, we need to pay attention to the democratic popular vote — and if Harris wins, we'll have Vice President Tim Walz, who believes, as so many of us do, that "the Electoral College needs to go."
I know we've all compartmentalized in various ways to even make it this close to Election Day. We've avoided the news or ignored headlines and stories because we need to get on with our lives. But democracy is not guaranteed. It is a group effort that requires we all be involved.
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Schwarzenegger Votes for Harris/Walz
I don't really do endorsements. I'm not shy about sharing my views, but I hate politics and don't trust most politicians.
I also understand that people want to hear from me because I am not just a celebrity, I am a former Republican Governor.
My time as Governor taught me to love policy and ignore politics. I'm proud of the work I did to help clean up our air, create jobs, balance the budget, make the biggest infrastructure investment in state history, and take power from the politicians and give it back to the people when it comes to our redistricting process and our primaries in California.
That's policy. It requires working with the other side, not insulting them to win your next election, and I know it isn't sexy to most people, but I love it when I can help make people's lives better with policies, like I still do through my institute at USC, where we fight for clean air and stripping the power from the politicians who rig the system against the people.
Let me be honest with you: I don't like either party right now. My Republicans have forgotten the beauty of the free market, driven up deficits, and rejected election results. Democrats aren't any better at dealing with deficits, and I worry about their local policies hurting our cities with increased crime.
It is probably not a surprise that I hate politics more than ever, which, if you are a normal person who isn't addicted to this crap, you probably understand.
I want to tune out.
But I can't. Because rejecting the results of an election is as un-American as it gets. To someone like me who talks to people all over the world and still knows America is the shining city on a hill, calling America is a trash can for the world is so unpatriotic, it makes me furious.
And I will always be an American before I am a Republican.
That's why, this week, I am voting for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.
I'm sharing it with all of you because I think there are a lot of you who feel like I do. You don't recognize our country. And you are right to be furious.
For decades, we've talked about the national debt. For decades, we've talked about comprehensive immigration reform that secures the border while fixing our broken immigration system. And Washington does nothing.
The problems just keep rolling, and we all keep getting angrier, because the only people that benefit from problems aren't you, the people. The only people that benefit from this crap are the politicians who prefer having talking points to win elections to the public service that will make Americans' lives better.
It is a just game to them. But it is life for my fellow Americans. We should be pissed!
But a candidate who won't respect your vote unless it is for him, a candidate who will send his followers to storm the Capitol while he watches with a Diet Coke, a candidate who has shown no ability to work to pass any policy besides a tax cut that helped his donors and other rich people like me but helped no one else else, a candidate who thinks Americans who disagree with him are the bigger enemies than China, Russia, or North Korea - that won't solve our problems.
It will just be four more years of bullshit with no results that makes us angrier and angrier, more divided, and more hateful.
We need to close the door on this chapter of American history, and I know that former President Trump won't do that. He will divide, he will insult, he will find new ways to be more un-American than he already has been, and we, the people, will get nothing but more anger.
That's enough reason for me to share my vote with all of you. I want to move forward as a country, and even though I have plenty of disagreements with their platform, I think the only way to do that is with Harris and Walz.
Vote this week. Turn the page and put this junk behind us.
And even if you disagree with me, vote, because that's what we do as Americans. http://vote.org
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The swelling of support around Harris feels historic. The mobilization and general mentality feels monumental. Hearing that Harris' campaign raised $250 million dollars in its first few days is incredible.
From this article:
ActBlue, which acts as the fundraising platform for Harris for President, and many other Democrats, on Sunday alone took in almost $67 million, according to a third-party ActBlue tracking program. President Biden’s announcement was made around 2:00 PM ET that day.
On Monday, as of 3:30 PM ET, ActBlue has taken in another $35 million – for a 25-hour total of over $100 million.
...
In addition to the $100 million infusion Democrats just received, Politico reports, “Future Forward, the flagship super PAC blessed by President Joe Biden, received $150 million in new commitments from major Democratic donors in the 24 hours since the president announced he would step aside from the race.”
“Future Forward already had $122 million on hand as of the end of June, according to Federal Election Commission filings.”
That means approximately $250 million – about a quarter of a billion dollars – was just added to the coffers of Democratic campaigns, including Kamala Harris’s, and PACs
My TikTok feed has also been awash with videos supporting Harris. I was introduced to the "Divine Nine" which is a term for the National Pan-Hellenic Council, nine historically African American fraternities and sororities. They have fully thrown their support behind Harris and are working to mobilize their groups to help her campaign.
This definitely feels like a moment.
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