Highlights from the DNC: Night Two

I  know it's Wednesday, and usually we'd be wondering on whatever strikes me. 

But, because we've got more  highlights from the Dems in Zoomland, we'll forgo our usual wondering and instead dive in and see what the main speakers had to say, starting with Stacey Abrams.

 This nation belongs to all of us and in every election, we choose how we will create a more perfect union. Not by taking sides, but by taking stock of where we are and what we need. This year’s choice could not be more clear. America faces a triple threat, a public health catastrophe, an economic collapse, and a reckoning with racial justice and inequality. So our choice is clear. A steady, experienced public servant who can lead us out of this crisis just like he’s done before, or a man who only knows how to deny and distract. A leader who cares about our families or a president who only cares about himself. We know Joe Biden. America, we need Joe Biden. 

Sally Yates. 

...from the moment President Trump took office, he’s used his position to benefit himself rather than our country. He’s trampled the rule of law, trying to weaponize our justice department to attack his enemies and protect his friends. 

His constant attacks on the FBI, the free press, inspectors general, federal judges, they all have one purpose, to remove any check on his abuse of power. Put simply, he treats our country like it’s his family business. This time, bankrupting our nation’s moral authority at home and abroad.

But our country doesn’t belong to him. It belongs to all of us. Joe Biden embraces that. He has spent his entire life putting our country first. He has never backed down from a challenge or a bully. He summons the best in us, and lives by the values that define us as Americans, service, integrity, courage, compassion.

There are countless stories of Joe Biden reaching out to someone in their moment of need. Well, this is our country’s moment of need. We need a president who respects our laws and the privilege of public service. Who reflects our values and cares about our people. We need a president who will restore the soul of America. We need Joe Biden.

Chuck Schumer.

Behind me is a site I see out of my window every night, the Statue of Liberty. The same site that greeted hopeful immigrants, like my grandparents. A symbol of freedom and a beacon of hope to the world.

Today, Donald Trump has divided our country, diminished our greatness, and demeaned everything that this statue represents. 

America, Donald Trump has quit on you. We need a president with dignity, integrity, and the experience to lead us out of this crisis. A man with a steady hand and a big heart who will never, ever quit on America. That man is my friend, Joe Biden.

Together, we can reignite the hope once felt by millions of men and women, huddled masses on creaking ships, who glimpsed this mighty woman with her torch, knowing they could build a better life here in America. And out of this long, national nightmare, America will finally awaken to a brighter future and a new day.

Jimmy Carter. 

We deserve a person with integrity and judgment, someone who is honest and fair, someone who is committed to what is best for the American people.

Joe is that kind of leader, and he is the right person for this moment in our nation’s history. He understands that honesty and dignity are essential traits that determine not only our vision, but our actions. More than ever, that’s what we need.

During these uncertain times, Joe Biden realizes that many American lives can be saved each day with the use of masks and testing, as recommended by our medical experts. Joe Biden must be our next president.

Bill Clinton. 

At a time like this, the Oval Office should be a command center. Instead, it’s a storm center. There’s only chaos. Just one thing never changes, his determination to deny responsibility and shift the blame. The buck never stops there.

Our party is united in offering you a very different choice, a go-to-work president. A down-to-earth, get-the-job-done guy. A man with a mission to take responsibility, not shift the blame; concentrate, not distract; unite, not divide. Our choice is Joe Biden.

Joe helped bring us back from a recession before, and he can do it again. In 2009, Barack Obama and Joe Biden started with the worst economy since the Great Depression. When they were done, they delivered more than six straight years of job growth.

In this job interview, the difference is stark. You know what Donald Trump will do with four more years, blame, bully, and belittle. And you know what Joe Biden will do, build back better. It’s Trump’s “us vs. them” America against Joe Biden’s America, where we all live and work together. It’s a clear choice. The future of our country is riding on it. Thank you.

Tom Perez. 

Indeed, every American story is a story about that hope, that sense of possibility. It’s what unites us, defines us, and it’s what sustains us now. We will work to meet our extraordinary challenges, because progress is made by the hopeful, not the cynical. We will do that work together because movements are built by the many, not the few.

As you watch tonight’s decidedly unconventional roll call and reflect on the diversity of our nation, remember you too are part of the American story. No matter where you come from or where you’re watching from tonight, you have a place in Joe Biden’s Democratic Party.

John Kerry.

This is the bottom line, our interests, our ideals, and our brave men and women in uniform can’t afford four more years of Donald Trump. Our troops can’t get out of harm’s way by hiding in the White House bunker. They need a president who will stand up for them. And President Biden will. Joe’s moral compass has always pointed in the right direction, from the fight to break the back of Apartheid, to the struggle to wake up the world to genocide in the Balkans. Joe understands that none of the issues of this world, not nuclear weapons, not the challenge of building back better after COVID, not terrorism, and certainly not the climate crisis, none can be resolved without bringing nations together with strength, and humility. Joe understands our values don’t limit our power, they magnify it. He knows you can’t spread democracy around the world if you don’t practice it at home.

Before Donald Trump, we used to talk about American exceptionalism. The only thing exceptional about the incoherent Trump foreign policy is that it has made our nation more isolated than ever before. Joe Biden knows we aren’t exceptional because we bluster that we are, we are exceptional because we do exceptional things. On June 6th, 1944, young Americans gave their lives and the beaches of Normandy to liberate the world from tyranny. Out of the ashes of that war we made peace and rebuilt the world. That was, and remains exceptional. It is the opposite of everything Donald Trump stands for. This moment is a fight for the security of America, and the world. Only Joe Biden can make America lead like America again. 

Colin Powell.

The values I learned growing up in the South Bronx, and serving in uniform were the same values that Joe Biden’s parents instilled in him in Scranton, Pennsylvania. I support Joe Biden for the presidency of the United States, because those values still define him. And we need to restore those values to the White House. Our country needs a commander in chief who takes care of our troops in the same way he would his own family. For Joe Biden, that doesn’t need teaching, it comes from the experience he shares with millions of military families, sending his beloved son off to war, and praying to God he would come home safe. Joe Biden will be a president we will all be proud to salute. With Joe Biden in the White House, you will never doubt that he will stand with our friends, and stand up to our adversaries, never the other way around. He will trust our diplomats and our intelligence community, not the flattery of dictators and despots.

He will make it his job to know when anyone dares to threaten us, he will stand up to our adversaries with strength and experience. They will know he means business. I support Joe Biden because beginning on day one, he will restore Americans leadership, and our moral authority. He’ll be a president who knows that America is strongest when, as he has said, we lead both by the power of our example, and the example of our power. He will restore America’s leadership in the world and restore the alliances we need to address the dangers that threaten our nation, from climate change to nuclear proliferation. Today, we are a country divided, and we have a president doing everything in his power to make it that way, and keep us that way. What a difference it will make to have a president who unites us, who restores our strength, and our soul. I still believe that in our hearts, we are the same America that brought my parents to our shores, an America that inspires freedom around the world. That’s the America Joe Biden will lead is our next president. Thank you very much.

Dr. Jill Biden.

We found that love holds a family together. Love makes us flexible and resilient. It allows us to become more than ourselves together. And though it can’t protect us from the sorrows of life, it gives us refuge, a home. How do you make a broken family whole? The same way you make a nation hole, with love and understanding, and with small acts of kindness, with bravery, with unwavering faith. You show up for each other in big ways and small ones again and again. It’s what so many of you are doing right now for your loved ones, for complete strangers, for your communities. There are those who want to tell us that our country is hopelessly divided, that our differences are irreconcilable, but that’s not what I’ve seen over these last few months. We’re coming together and holding onto each other. We’re finding mercy and grace in the moments we might have once taken for granted. We’re seeing that our differences are precious and our similarities, infinite. We have shown that the heart of this nation still beats with kindness and courage. That’s the soul of America Joe Biden is fighting for now.

...if you listen closely, you can hear the sparks of change in the air across this country. Educators, parents, first responders, Americans of all walks of life are putting their shoulders back, fighting for each other. We haven’t given up. We just need leadership worthy of our nation, worthy of you, honest leadership to bring us back together, to recover from this pandemic and prepare for whatever else is next.

Leadership to re-imagine what our nation will be. That’s Joe. He and Kamala will work as hard as you do every day to make this nation better. And if I have the honor of serving as your first lady, I will too. And with Joe, as president, these classrooms will ring out with laughter and possibility once again. The burdens we carry are heavy and we need someone with strong shoulders. I know that if we entrust this nation to Joe, he will do for your family what he did for ours, bring us together and make us whole, carry us forward in our time of need, keep the promise of America for all of us.

Tonight, we've got Barack, and HRC, and Kamala, among others - which should make for an interesting night don't you think?

Highlights tomorrow.

Sunday School 6/7/20

For your Sunday School lesson, I'm only going to visit two classrooms to listen in with only two guests: former Secretary of  State and Joint Chiefs chair General Colin Powell with Jake Tapper on CNN's State of the Union, and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation. 

In his exclusive conversation with Powell, Tapper started by asking him what he thought about all of the people speaking out against president Trump last week. Powell said he was "very happy" with what they were saying; we have a Constitution, he said, and "we have to follow that Constitution." 

And the president has drifted away from it. I'm so proud of what these generals and admirals have done and others have done. 

And, for those wondering why there was no Powell letter to go along with the others, he said he "made (his) point with respect to Trump's performance" back when he was running for office. Some of the stuff Trump said then "made it clear that I could not possibly vote for this individual.

The first thing that troubled me is the whole birthers movement. And birthers movement had to do with the fact that the president of the United States, President Obama, was a black man. That was part of it.

And then I was deeply troubled by the way in which he was going around insulting everybody, insulting Gold Star mothers, insulting John McCain, insulting immigrants -- and I'm the son of immigrants -- insulting anybody who dared to speak against him.

And that is dangerous for our democracy. It is dangerous for our country. And I think what we're seeing now, the most massive protest movement I have ever seen in my life, I think this suggests that the country is getting wise to this, and we're not going to put up with it anymore.

Powell said "You have to agree with" what General Mattis said about Trump not even pretending to try and unite us, and said he's been watching the folks speaking up, the ones who were junior officers when he left the military 25 years ago, he said. 

... I'm proud of what they're doing. I'm proud that they were willing to take the risk of speaking honesty and speaking truth to those who are not speaking the truth.

On his personal reaction to the protests against racial injustice and police brutality, Powell said the Republicans and the president "thought they were sort of immune," saying whatever they wanted to say, and worse - "even more troubling," in Powell's words - "Congress would just sit there and not in any way resist" what Trump was doing." And then, for the first time in the interview, Powell said "He lies. He lies about things, and he gets away with it, because people will not hold him accountable."

Powell reminded us there's the president, and there's Congress, and there's the Supreme Court, but

But, most of all, we have the people of the United States, the ones who vote, the ones who vote him in and the ones who vote him out. I couldn't vote for him in (2016), and I certainly cannot in any way support President Trump this year.

Powell, who's been socially and politically close with Papa Joe, the two having worked together for more than three decades, will be voting for Biden. He won't likely be making campaign appearances - campaigning is not his strong suit, he said, but he will be speaking for Biden.  And, he said, 

I think this year is going to be a different kind of year. We have done things that have offended just about everybody in the world. Our friends are distraught with us. We are down on NATO. We are cutting more troops out of Germany. We have done away with our contributions to the World Health Organization. We're not that happy with the United Nations.

And just about everywhere you go, you will find this kind of disdain for American foreign policy that is not in our interests. And we have to get on top of this. We have to start acting seriously.

Tapper asked why it's so important to Powell that Trump not be re-elected, particularly given so many independents and moderates are concerned the Dems are moving too far to the left. Powell said it's because Trump has not been effective.

He lies all the time. He began lying the day of inauguration, when we got into an argument about the size of the crowd that was there. People are writing books about his favorite thing of lying. And I don't think that's in our interest.

And this time around, he thinks the situation has gotten worse.  

Every American citizen has to sit down, think it through, and make a decision on their own. Don't listen to the -- everybody out there. Don't read every newspaper. Think it through. Use your common sense and say, 'is this good for my country,' before you say, 'this is good for me...'

So, what we have to do now is reach out to the whole people. Watch these demonstrations, watch these protests, and, rather than curse them, embrace them to see what it is we have to do to get out of the situation that we find ourselves in now.

We're America. We're Americans. We can do this. We have the ability to do it, and we ought to do it. Make America not just great, but strong and great for all Americans, not just a couple.

Brennan's conversation with Rice definitely had a different tone on some things. Generally, was about today's protests. and what's different from what she lived through as a child growing up in Alabama. One of her friends was among the four girls killed in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham. She said that people are sick and tired of being sick and tired, and while that's leading people to think about the criminal justice institution, and the "justice of our institutions,"

more importantly, it's looking-- having us look in the mirror at questions about race. It's a very, very deep and abiding wound in an America that was born with a birth defect of slavery. And I'm really hoping that this time, we'll have really honest conversations, conversations that are not judgmental. Conversations that are deep but honest conversations about what we've been through and who we want to be.

She talked about her own history, how her great-great grandfather was her great-grandmother's slave owner.

That's a very hard truth. But it is the truth of the past. We now have to talk about how to move forward. And when I talk to people of different colors, particularly my white friends, my white colleagues, I don't want it to be in the language of recrimination. I want to be in the language of how do we move forward. I think we each have an individual responsibility. It's a collective responsibility, yes, but it's an individual responsibility to ask what am I going to do specifically? What am I going to do to help heal these wounds and to move our country forward? Because race is still very much a factor in everyday life in America.

Rice looks to education as "a way to break through the barriers of prejudice," something that

... gives people a fighting chance. If you look at this COVID-19 crisis, it has exposed even deeper inequalities in our society. Just imagine being a child who's trying to learn-- to learn at home and the parents don't speak English, the parents don't have an educational background of their own. And contrast that with the kid whose parents are well educated and who can read to them. We've got a lot of work to do around inequality.

And, Brennan noted, the pandemic "seems to be widening the existing divide" economically, and she wondered about policy solutions, and where Rice saw those coming from. One thing she mentioned was equal access to reliable internet, to broadband, and that includes people in rural areas or in "schools that are not well-endowed." Having that, in the time of coronavirus and in the future, can be the difference between employment and unemployment, she said.

So, what would Rice tell the president, if she were one of his advisors? She wants him to "first and foremost speak in the language of unity, the language of empathy." Everyone doesn't agree with the president, this one or any other, but the president has to speak to every American, not just the ones who agree with him. 

I've heard the President talk about the resilience of Americans. I'd love to hear more of that. Twitter and tweeting are-- are not great ways for complex thoughts, for complex messages. When the President speaks it-- it needs to be from a place of-- of thoughtfulness, from a place of having really honed the message so that it reaches all Americans. And, by the way, not just the President. I would love to hear this from our leaders in Congress on both sides of the aisle. I would love to hear it from mayors and from governors and from others. Leaders at this particular point need to do everything that they can to overcome, not intensify our divisions.

And, Rice said, the president needs to know the history of what he says before he tweets it, referencing his use of the 'shooting and looting' comment as a "deep wound."

People look to the Oval Office as we've looked to the Oval Office throughout our history for-- for messages, for signals. And, as I said, the President has used some language that I am really very, very much admire like the resilience of the American people. Just be careful about those messages. I am not advising the President, but if I were, I would say let's put tweeting aside for a little bit and-- and talk to us have a conversation with us. And I think we need that. And I think he can do it.

What does Rice think about General Mattis and his comments about Trump being a divider not a uniter? She's got "enormous respect" for him, he's a "man of great integrity... a patriot... my friend" and he said something that he needed to say. 

What I want to speak to is the future and what we do here over the next several months. We are having protests that need to be peaceful, but we've always moved ahead in part by protest. There's no excuse-- excuse for the criminality and for the looting. That's not what-- who we are and what we are.

And, she's grateful that people are protesting, 

... as somebody who grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, Jim Crow Alabama, when if a black man was shot by a policeman, it wouldn't have even been a footnote in the newspaper, I'm really grateful to people who are going out now and saying, no, that is not acceptable. I'm grateful to those people who are thinking about how to support good police, who are thinking about how to support all of those people who put their lives on the line every day to protect us, but also to say to those who do not have our best interests at heart, who don't undertake that obligation to protect and defend without regard to color, enough. We won't put up with that either.

 And so this is a time for every American to speak to our unity but to also be very cognizant of how we describe our differences, how we address our differences, and especially how we address one another with empathy.

Brennan asked if there was any circumstance these days where it would be acceptable to invoke the Insurrection Act and send active-duty military into American cities.  She said she'd "absolutely advise against it," noting that the Founding Fathers were "very smart" and focused on the citizen soldier - which is the National Guard, not the military.

They come from these communities. They are of these communities. They are trained in everything from dealing with natural disasters to dealing with issues like crowd control. And when the local police can't handle it, the National Guard is the right-- the right answer. Our military isn't trained to do this. Our military is trained for the battlefield. And this isn't a battlefield in that sense.

They also talked about foreign countries using the protests in state propaganda, and wondered if the racial divide in America is a national security threat.  She blasted China, Russia and Iran for Tiananmen Square, the invasion of Crimea, and the Green Revolution, respectively. And she had a message for our allies, as well. 

.. And I would even say to our friends abroad, in places like Europe, where I'm seeing demonstrations in support of what is happening here, thank you for your support, but please look in the mirror. Please ask yourself, in countries in Europe and countries all across the world, what are you doing about racial and ethnic in-- inequality in your own circumstances? America has gotten better because we have been willing to confront our problems. And we're going to confront our problems again. We're confronting them now. And I think we will move forward this time. 

To be fair, our allies are protesting what's happening in their own countries, not just what's happening in America. 

The final question? Rice did not support Trump in 2016, will she support him this time? She was not as open on this as Powell; she said "you'll be the first to know when I want to speak about American politics." So, basically, she's not saying, at least not right now. Rather, 

what I want to speak to is my fellow Americans and to understand the deep divisions that we have, to understand what it is to be black. You asked about the military earlier. Let's remember, too, that our people in uniform also come from different backgrounds. They come from different races. They are united in a common cause. But this is hard for them, too. And I know that their commanders are aware of the painful conversations that need to be -- need to take place even within our military. But one great thing is when we unite for a common cause, as they often do, it helps us to overcome those differences.

Two former top diplomats, one a retired general, the other a child of the Jim Crow south. One firmly anti-Trump, the other certainly more positive and complimentary, for sure, about the president, even though she didn't support him last time out, and isn't ready to publicly comment on her decision this time.  Both were interesting interviews, for sure. 

Your Extra Credit will feature some of those former 'junior officers' Powell spoke about, and if there's room, we'll hear from some other classroom visitors. 

See you around the virtual campus, clean hands and socially distanced clear heads at all times. 

Wondering, on Wednesday (v64)

Hydrating Hillary, 1995/Getty Images

And what to my wondering eyes did appear, this Wednesday?

This slide show from Politico, in which we are offered a chance to enjoy Hillary Clinton hydrating with water, soda, or beer, or preparations for Hillary Clinton to hydrate, with water and a cough drop. I wonder how the heck I survived the past few years without having seen these pictures?

We learned about the #basketofdeplorables, which was remarkable only in that, according to polls, Clinton under-grossly-generalized - it's actually closer to 60% on some issues. And I wonder, does anyone else find it funny that Donald Trump can say whatever the hell he wants, sometimes changing the point he's sort of maybe thinking about trying to make several times in the same sentence, and nothing sticks to him, but Hillary makes an honest statement, only half of which is reported, and she becomes pilloried Hillary?

First, let's look at the entire comment Hillary made about that basket:

You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump's supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic - you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up. He has given voice to their websites that used to have only 11,00 people - now 11 million. He tweets and retweets their offensive, hateful, mean-spirited rhetoric. Now some of these folks - they are irredeemable, but thankfully they are not America.

But the other basket - and I know this because I see friends from all over America here - I see friends from Florida and Georgia and South Carolina and Texas - as well as, you know, New York and California - but that other basket of people are people who feel that the government has let them down, the economy has let them down, nobody cares about them, nobody worries about what will happen to their lives and their futures, and they're just desperate for change. It doesn't really even matter where it comes from. They don't buy everything he says, but the seems to hold out some hope that their lives will be different. They won't wake up and see their jobs disappear, lose a kid to heroin, feel like they're in a dead end.  Those are people we have to understand and empathize with as well. 

Now, I think we all know that if Trump had been the one who said the first part about the basket when he was talking about Hillary supporters, he would have been cheered by his fans, and the press would have done their best "there he goes again, and that would have been it. Here, if you're wondering whether that's true, is someone's collection of the Top 25 Most Offensive things Trump has said. And, in case you're still wondering, here is another collection, this one of Every Donald Trump Insult, which I'm sure is not even close to a comprehensive list.

One more thing I'm wondering about: why we need to know what Colin Powell thinks about either Trump or Clinton? He's a private citizen who had the misfortune of having his email hacked. That he thinks Trump is an international pariah, or a racist, or a national disgrace? Yeah, lots of people think that.  That he would rather not have to vote for Clinton? Yeah, lots of people think that, too. Publishing the hacked emails doesn't serve any real purpose, other than to get eyes to websites and newspapers. It doesn't advance the conversation, at all.

By the time many of you read, this we'll be under 54 days until Election Day. I'm wondering, finally, when we will learn something that will really be useful in helping us make our decision.