Trump's Values! Elon Musk! Republicans Showing Off Their Geographical Knowledge! Kamala!

 'No values': Bay Area billionaire blasts Trump in exchange with Elon Musk

Vinod Khosla, the billionaire venture capitalist co-founder of the bygone Sun Microsystems, called for an open Democratic convention on X following Biden’s announcement, saying he wanted to get a “more moderate candidate who can easily beat” Trump. Musk, replying to Khosla’s post, urged him to instead back Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, saying “LFG!!”

“Hard for me to support someone with no values, lies, cheats, rapes, demeans women, hates immigrants like me,” Khosla replied. “He may cut my taxes or reduce some regulation but that is no reason to accept depravity in his personal values. Do you want President who will set back climate by a decade in his first year? Do you want his example for your kids as values?”

Elon Musk mystifies me for many reasons. I do not understand how his mind works:

Musk, perhaps sensing he’d touched a nerve, gave a relatively measured reply in which he admitted that Trump has flaws but said the country needs an “administration that is more likely to be meritocratic and promote individual freedoms over the heavy hand of government.”

Trump has no interest in merit - he did not rise on his own merits but on his father's money. As for the heavy hand of the government, Mr. Musk must be very sensitive, like a quivering jellyfish, if he thinks any American government is heavy-handed with its regulations. Mr. Putin is far more heavy-handed - except with his friends.

Jacobin asks Which Kamala Harris Are We Getting?

Harris has been a frequent critic of the criminal-justice system, an encouraging sign. She outlined her philosophy in her 2009 book, Smart on Crime: A Career Prosecutor’s Plan to Make Us Safe, the title of which became a common refrain for Harris. Her “smart” approach, according to the book, involves focusing on “short-circuiting the criminal careers of offenders much earlier,” “getting offenders out of the system permanently,” ensuring “lower rates of recidivism,” and “investing in comprehensive efforts to reduce the ranks of young offenders entering the criminal justice system.” One of her suggestions was to teach nonviolent inmates and some juvenile offenders skills for employment.

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During Donald Trump’s term in office, Harris became even more outspoken. She came out in support of single-payer health care and free college tuition for families earning less than $140,000 a year. She’s a frequent critic of Trump’s policies. In her short time in the Senate, she put forward bills to end the pay gap for black women and clarify the rights of people detained at US ports of entry, and cosponsored bills to raise the federal minimum wage, close tax loopholes for Big Oil, ban agricultural use of dangerous pesticides, and stop new oil and gas leases as well as the renewal of old ones in the Arctic Ocean.

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But Harris’s record is defined by policies that undercut her proclaimed vision.

The death penalty is a prime example. Harris deserves credit for refusing to execute a man while under tremendous pressure to do so. But despite her vaunted personal opposition, she never challenged the death penalty during her time as attorney general — and in fact did the very opposite, actively working to keep it in existence. 

There is more, read it. My takeaway is the Republicans may find it harder to pigeonhole her. Good. If we can get a Congress better for the working class, then I can take Harris with her lukewarm progressivism.  

I would think a Californian would know the difference between San Francisco and Oakland. I do. That would be like me not knowing the difference between Fort Wayne and Indianapolis. But that is exactly what happened: Calif. lawmaker trashes Kamala Harris' 'hometown' of SF. She's from Oakland.. Maybe the Republicans should do more about schools teaching geography and less about putting the Ten Commandments in a classroom. Unless they prefer dumber Americans.

The Clash are playing in the background, so I am passing on the podcast Fox News’s Awful New Kamala Harris Smears Hit Nuclear Levels of Idiocy from The New Republic.

The Socialist view of Biden: Joe Biden Wanted This:

Whether he knows it or not — and based on the case he desperately made for himself the past weeks, Biden views esoteric foreign-policy matters like NATO expansion and AUKUS as his most important accomplishments — Biden’s presidency, in a strange twist of history, ended up playing a vital role in the ongoing political transformation of the country. Against all odds, Biden — a career-long conservative who welcomed the election of Ronald Reagan, voted for NAFTA, and once said that “[Bill] Clinton got it right” when he rejected “class warfare and populism” — advanced the fortunes of an organized left that he had never cared for.

Meanwhile, good news from Chris Cillizza in his The Morning: Donald Trump is *totally* beatable:

A Quinnipiac poll released after Vice President Kamala Harris entered the presidential race shows Trump at 49% to 47% for her — a statistical dead heat.

And Trump’s approval numbers — despite, well, everything, are still stuck in the low 40s, according to 538.

Take heart, then. Remember to vote on Election Day! Unless you are working for the clampdown.

sch 7/23