just joking we're not joking

Hey, all:

Apologies (as always) for it being such a long time since I last befouled your inbox!

Those of you with superior memories may recall me starting a post about Kamala Harris that—as is perhaps typical of me—never really got around to talking about Kamala Harris?

And that’s probably just as well, though in a way a disappointment for the contrast of this newsletter vs. reality: I was going to go on to talk about the big lesson of Fear & Loathing on the Campaign Trail ‘72, which is how much the Dems go on to shoot themselves in the foot with their VP pick, how it was going to be super-likely it was going to be Josh Shapiro this time around and thus the Dems will continue to do what they usually do, which is learn nothing.

But, hey! Tim Walz over there proving me wrong! Huge crowds, lots of genuine excitement! Even Edi has been pulled in—she’s now working watching MSNBC; she’s watching Trump’s press conferences, in awe of how much the guy is falling apart.

It’s great….I guess?

I mean, it is but…man, I remember the middle four years or so of Obama’s time in office where, slowly and stupidly, I realized Obama only had been elected on an implicit promise of change, not an explicit one. Cops were killing. Drones were droning. Glasses of Flint tap water were pressed to thin, ungenerous lips so those lips could naysay the concerns of the disempowered.

That other newsletter, unwritten now, would’ve talked about Kamala the Cop; the D.A. who jailed moms for truant kids, who was no pal to transgender prisoners, who played no small role in shutting down Backpage in the fight against human sex trafficking and making the world of sex workers much more dangerous. And it would’ve speculated about who our first female president will turn out to be, probably not kindly (or wisely, or well).

But not this newsletter! I’m glad we probably will not have to deal with another Trump presidency, so let’s just leave it at that.

And rather than try and segue to the next topic, I’m gonna get while the getting’s good. Nice and short means more frequent newsletters? We will certainly see!

Anyway, I hope you are very, very well. And I hope these damn things aren’t too annoying.

-Jeff