The Voice Of Experience | Filosofa’s Word

Journalist Dan Rather has been around the block a few times in his career that began in 1960.  During that time, he has covered no fewer than 32 national political conventions, so he knows of what he speaks when he tells us that this week’s Democratic National Convention was the best he has seen.  But I’ll let him tell you in his own words …


NOW THAT WAS A CONVENTION

Dems have new life after Kamala Harris stuck the landing

By Dan Rather

24 August 2024

It is no secret that I have seen a few things, been around not just the block but the whole damn city. I can tell you all about national political conventions. I’ve covered 32 of them, going back to 1960. Here’s my takeaway from Chicago 2024: It wasn’t just well done, it was a spectacularly produced event. Frankly, I can’t recall a convention that went off this smoothly or looked this good.

In big games, you always hope your best players will be in top form. In Chicago, all the big Democrats showed up, ready to play. From the old-school Dems (the Obamas and the Clintons) to the new kids on the block (Governor Walz and the party’s bench of young, rising stars), the speeches were spot on. That was especially true for the newly minted nominee. Vice President Kamala Harris’s address was one of the more impressive acceptance speeches I have heard. Most nominees in the modern era have months or longer to prepare for the biggest night of their political lives. Harris pulled it off with 30 days notice.

For all of the stagecraft wizardry, her speech needed to be everything all at once, a high-wire act with no net. What she said and how she said it could mean the difference between winning and losing. 

First, the how. Harris is not just a trained trial attorney but a prosecutor. She has honed her oratory skills in front of a jury. She used that skill to her advantage Thursday night. As one pundit put it, she made her case like a lawyer, not a poet. The country doesn’t need poetry right now — it needs a bulldog. That is what she promised she would be, for all Americans.

She was confident and poised. She spoke with authority but without condescension. She felt relatable and authentic while appearing presidential. She was able to toggle from grace, when talking about being raised by her fiercely capable and intelligent mother, to fiery, when lambasting the Republicans for their draconian plans on abortion. “Get this. He plans to create a national anti-abortion coordinator and force states to report on women’s miscarriages and abortions. Simply put, they are out of their minds,” she said. 

It would be easy to get sucked into making Donald Trump a punching bag for the entire speech. There’s certainly enough material there to talk for hours. But Harris was strategic in her chiding of her opponent. Starting with this salient point: “In many ways, Donald Trump is an unserious man. But the consequences — the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious. Consider not only the chaos and calamity when he was in office but also the gravity of what has happened since he lost the last election.”

Which brings us to the what. Harris had to walk a thin line when talking about policy. She isn’t the incumbent, but she works for him, and he is not terribly popular. She was able to articulate her own ideas for how to improve American lives without throwing her boss under the bus. 

Harris spoke of creating an opportunity economy, protecting body autonomy, supporting veterans, and fixing border security. She was particularly strong on foreign policy, promising to shore up NATO and not to cozy up to autocrats. She was able to assert Israel’s right to protect itself while lamenting the plight of the Palestinian people and promising to help end their suffering — something President Biden has not articulated. 

Thematically, the speech was a testament to how different Harris is from Biden. She has moved the party from darkness to light. She was able to pivot away from dire warnings about the end of democracy to a promise to protect freedom. Her flip from a negative campaign to one of positivity mirrors many people’s feelings about the race, from one in which they said they were voting against Trump to now voting for Harris.

Speaking of, her ability to confront the bully in the race with measured strength is admirable. Let’s hope she can maintain that composure when she is on the same stage with him at the debate next month.

Democrats have a long history of not dancing to the same tune, while Republicans are known to be more disciplined and united. This convention, with Harris as the leader of the party, has turned that narrative on its head. The Democrats appear to be unified in a way we have seen only once before in this century, with Barack Obama in 2008. And the Republicans are acting like cult members blindly following their undisciplined leader.

I was thinking last night, as the thousands of red, white, and blue balloons were descending from the rafters of the coincidentally named United Center, that no one, in the hundreds of years of American political history, could have predicted the turn of events that brought Kamala Harris to accept her party’s nomination. 

The Chicago celebration is in the rearview. Anytime you party hard, the next morning brings a reckoning. Now, the hard work of trying to win begins, with only two and a half months until the election. No one should kid themselves. This is still an uphill fight. Trump and the MAGA right will be coming for Harris hard, tough, and ugly. And the presidential debates are still to be had. This might be a good time to hold on tight, stay steady, and watch this space. Traditionally, presidential campaigns begin in earnest after Labor Day. 

Democrats should know this: Their convention was a rousing success. The party has a second life. The joy is authentic. At the very least they now have a fighting chance, which a month ago they didn’t have. The question is, can they build on the new momentum and ride it to vict

Source: The Voice Of Experience | Filosofa’s Word

Blumen auf Fensterbänken – Senioren um die Welt

In schöne Blumenkästen gepflanzt und geschmackvoll arrangiert sind Blumen auf der Fensterbank ein toller Hingucker und schmücken jedes Fenster und auch die ganze Fassade eines Hauses. Die bunten Blumenfensterbänke haben aber noch andere Vorteile. Sie können unerwünschte Einblicke von außen erschweren, insbesondere dann, wenn an den Fenstern keine Gardinen vorhanden sind. Außerdem sind sie für Insekten eine Nahrungsquelle, die durch die bunten Farben angelockt werden.

 

 

 

 

 

Auch wenn auch von den Innenräumen aus ist es schön, wenn man nach draußen blickt und die bunten Blumen vor sich auf der Fensterbank sieht.

Source: Blumen auf Fensterbänken – Senioren um die Welt

Y llegó la vida – Santiago Galicia Rojon Serrallonga

Derechos reservados conforme a la ley/ Copyright

Soñador, romántico e iluso, el tiempo pensó que los pasillos y los rincones, convertidos en ruinas, en ayer, exhalarían hondos suspiros y permanecerían en la memoria colectiva o de algunos, y no tomó en cuenta que ya era otra gente; pero llegó el olvido que, con un dejo de arrogancia y superioridad, se declaró invicto por su indiferencia y capacidad de borrar cualquier signo de remembranza. El tiempo sonrió con mofa sin tomar en cuenta que el infinito lo desdeña. Más tarde, segura de sí y triunfante, asomó la muerte y ambos, recuerdo y olvido, percibieron la cercanía de sus sus pasos y, ansiosos y temerosos, escucharon su mensaje de caducidad de todo cuanto es y existe en el mundo. Sometidos por la muerte, un tirano implacable para los que pierden el sentido de su esencia, el recuerdo y el olvido se descubrieron en el naufragio y se sintieron rotos, hasta que la vida se manifestó entre las ranuras de los muros carcomidos y derruidos, en las piedras, arriba, a los lados, abajo, y demostró, sin presunción, que es incesante y que tiene capacidad de pintar, dar forma y colocar perfumes, latidos y sabores, incluso, sobre los escombros yertos y las tumbas en las que gravita tan temible vacío. Superior, la vida abrazó a quienes, entonces, la recibieron con amor, gratitud y respeto, al entender que aquí, en este plano, es una llave hermosa y noble que abre las puertas de la inmortalidad.

Derechos reservados conforme a la ley/ Copyright

Source: Y llegó la vida – Santiago Galicia Rojon Serrallonga

Opinion: Ignore my brother Bobby, Max Kennedy says – Los Angeles Times

I’m heartbroken over my brother Bobby’s endorsement of Donald Trump.

I think often about my father and how he might have viewed the politics of our time. I’m not sure what he would have thought about TikTok or AI, but this much I know for sure: He would have despised Donald Trump.

Trump was exactly the kind of arrogant, entitled bully my father used to prosecute. Robert F. Kennedy’s life was dedicated to promoting the safety, security and happiness of the American people. That is why he would have so admired another former prosecutor, Kamala Harris. Her career, like his, has been all about decency, dignity, equality, democracy and justice for all.

Trump is the enemy of all that. The only thing he seems to be for is himself and, disturbingly, autocrats such as Vladimir Putin, whom my father would have regarded as an existential threat to our country.

Yet my brother now endorses Trump. To pledge allegiance to Trump, a man who demonstrates no adherence to our family’s values, is inconceivable to me.

Worse, it is sordid. Earlier this month, as Harris surged in the polls, my brother offered her his endorsement in exchange for a position in her coming administration. He got no response.

Now he has offered that same deal to Trump. His is a hollow grab for power, a strategic attempt at relevance. It is the opposite of what my father admired: “the unselfish spirit that exists in the United States of America.”

It is all the more tragic because of our brother’s name. To carry the name Robert F. Kennedy Jr. means a special legacy within a legacy. It would strongly imply a desire to carry on our father’s work. But Bobby’s alliance with Trump puts this in jeopardy.

Let me go through the record.

My father was an anti-racist who joined the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in common cause, and forged a powerful bond with African Americans everywhere he went in 1968.

Donald Trump is a lifelong racist whose entire career has been shaped by his dislike of people with a different skin color.

My father believed in expanding legal immigration because he came from an immigrant family and knew how much talent and drive hard-working families bring if we open our doors to them.

Donald Trump stirs up hatred of immigrants, whom he mischaracterizes as criminals and drug addicts.

My father believed in the rule of law, as a prosecutor, and as the attorney general of the United States.

Donald Trump has contempt for the law, as evidenced by his attempts to overthrow the 2020 election and his ongoing legal struggles. He is the first felon to run as a serious candidate for the presidency.

My father believed in bringing Americans together. He said, “I don’t think that we have to shoot at each other, to beat each other, to curse each other and criticize each other, I think that we can do better in this country.”

Donald Trump’s entire campaign is about stoking division.

My father loved the priceless inheritance of our land and water and surely was an environmentalist in his way, even if the term did not catch on until later.

It feels especially hypocritical that Bobby, a genuine environmentalist, has thrown in with the most anti-environmental president in our history, who promises to “drill, baby, drill” if elected.

My father was against the “mindless menace” of gun violence. Donald Trump is against any meaningful form of regulating guns.

My father believed in democracy. Donald Trump does not.

My father believed in the truth. Donald Trump does not.

At the University of Kansas, on March 18, 1968, my father said, “[W]e as a people, are strong enough, we are brave enough to be told the truth of where we stand. This country needs honesty and candor in its political life and from the president of the United States.”

The truth is essential to democracy. And truth is essential inside a family, too. For all of these reasons, the truth requires me to set the record clear. I love Bobby. But I hate what he is doing to our country. It is worse than disappointment. We are in mourning.

Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I would be motivated to write something of this nature. With a heavy heart, I am today asking my fellow Americans to do what will honor our father the most: Ignore Bobby and support Vice President Kamala Harris and the Democratic platform. It’s what is best for our country.

As my father said, in a campaign of his own, “I want all of us, young and old, to have a chance to build a better country and change the direction of the United States of America.”

Max Kennedy is an author, an attorney and the ninth child of Ethel and Robert Kennedy. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Vicki.

Source: Opinion: Ignore my brother Bobby, Max Kennedy says – Los Angeles Times