UPDATED: The Atlantic Doesn't Seem To Think Much Of Harris

Not to be outdone by the NYT's recent skewering of the current occupant of the White House, another very liberal outlet, The Atlantic, offers a frank view of the vice-occupant. They don't sound overly impressed, which places them well with the rest of America. If you're a Dem, do you want Zhou to hang on or to be replaced? Quite the dilemma, as you watch things go to sh*t.

Sample:

 The vice president and her team tend to dismiss reporters. Trying to get her to take a few questions after events is treated as an act of impish aggression. And Harris herself tracks political players and reporters whom she thinks don’t fully understand her or appreciate her life experience. (She often mentions an episode in which a Washington Post reporter mistook the cheer of the historic Black sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha for “screeches,” I was told.) She particularly doesn’t like the word cautious, and aides look out for synonyms too. Careful, guarded, and hesitant don’t go over well. But she continues to retreat behind talking points and platitudes in public, and declines many interview requests and opportunities to speak for herself (including for this article). At times, she comes off as so uninteresting that television producers have started to wonder whether spending thousands of dollars to send people on trips with her is worthwhile, given how little usable material they get out of it. ...

Harris has been an elected official for 18 years straight, but she has only a few senior aides on staff who have worked for her for more than a few months. Turf battles have been a recurring feature of Harris offices over the years, but her newest circle believes it is finally getting her on track after years of past staffers not serving her well. Some have been surprised at how much work there is to be done, whether that’s briefing her on certain policy issues or helping her improve her sparring-with-journalists skills.

 

UPDATE: The latest YouGov poll quantifies the poor impression that Kama Sutra makes, everywhere she goes. She's underwater: +41 versus -48. Extremely unimpressive, even for a vice-occupant. It seems that the problem isn't that people don't know that much about her. It's that the things they do know lead them to dislike her with an unusual degree of intensity, considering her lack of profile.

LMAO

Jonathan Turley. He doesn't seem like the kind of guy who'd write publish, like, joke tweets. I mean, very serious guy, right? So how do you explain this tweet:

Jonathan Turley

@JonathanTurley

Replying to

@JonathanTurley

..With a special counsel, Yates would enter office in a position analogous to Jeff Sessions. Like Sessions, Yates would be expected to recuse herself since she featured prominently in signing key surveillance applications and was involved in key decisions.

2:30 PM · Dec 1, 2020·

Uh, Jonathan. Two things. 1) Yates is not Sessions. 2) Yates is a Dem. 

OTOH:

Kamala Says Biden Will Be 'Kept Comfortable' While A Discussion Ensues About Whether To Keep Him Alive

Dems, Gangs, Dementia

Two (or so) good reads today on important topics that don't get a lot of coverage.

The first is by Monica Showalter at American Thinker. The title doesn't do justice to the content. What the article is about is the coalition of street gangs and a faction of the radical Left that is behind the rioting in Chicago.

The article itself is heavily dotted with links to support its story line. The Left faction Showalter is talking about--no surprise--the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), who now control six wards (all but one controlled by Hispanic aldermen). Mayor Lightfoot herself is far Left, but this is a power struggle between rival Left factions, and the DSA has enlisted the support of gangs, which is what is giving the riots the traction they've attained.

A couple years ago, I was struck by a long article that ran in Chicago Magazine in 2011, describing how Chicago's Democratic politicians are working hand in glove with Chicago's gangs.  The fact that the police could never touch them based on their connections to Democratic political power was why Chicago's violence was so high.

If the situation was bad in 2011, imagine what it's like now. And you can also imagine that the DSA will be replicating these tactics around the country.

The second good read is by Don Surber: 25th Amendment won't save us. Surber is working off an article by Sally Zelikovsky that appeared at American Thinker, The Real Problem with Joe's Dementia.

What Surber does is argue that the notion that the Dems--in the unlikely event of a Biden victory--will probably not be able to pull off a quick switcheroo, dumping Slow Joe via the 25th amendment and substituting Kama Sutra. Here's a sample of his discussion, which I found fascinating:

UPDATED: The Kama Sutra Harris Platform

1. Abortion--whenever!

2. Bus the kids!

3. Like your Health Insurance? Can't have it!

Wait, did I mention abortion?

4. Open borders--to replace the kids from #1!

5. Free healthcare for the kids in #4!

Any questions? Whaddaya mean 'yes'? You rasiss!

UPDATE: Will Chamberlain has proposed a slightly different platform for the Dems generally:

Will Chamberlain ‏

@willchamberlain

The 2020 Democrat platform:
- Orange Man Bad
- Open borders
- Universal health care for illegal immigrants
- Universal, free abortion at 39 weeks
- Free Antifa beatings for being conservative in public
- Deplatforming if you question any of the above

I'll pass, thanks. #MAGA

10:49 AM - 30 Jun 2019

Confirmed: Kamasutra Harris Is Very Dumb

There are two articles out which expose Harris' really appalling lack of basic understanding of the law and--not surprisingly for one who traded sex for political favor and/or a fancy BMW--ethics. This came out very clearly in her attempted interrogation of AG Barr, and I bring this up not for any inherent interest that her statements contain but because at least one commenter stated an impression that Barr was "set back" on his heels by Harris.

The first article is by Brian Cates: Senator Harris Misses Huge Revelation From Barr During Senate Testimony. Cates provides an extensive transcript of Barr's testimony, but focuses on a different aspect than I intend to focus on. Cates focus on the fact that, in the second half of the transcript, Harris attacks Rod Rosenstein for what seems to be a conflict of interest in participating in the Mueller inquisition. What Harris doesn't seem to get is that that conflict--Rosenstein is a key fact witness in the Mueller inquisition--if it raises any question at all must raise questions about the very legitimacy of the entire Mueller inquisition--not of Barr's impartiality.

However, what I want to focus on is the simple fact that Harris very clearly doesn't understand what "conflict of interest" means. Bear in mind that this is a woman who passed the bar exam in California (on the second try), served as District Attorney for a major city for 7 years, and was the Attorney General of this nation's largest state for 6 years. Here's a definition of "conflict of interest":

1. A situation that has the potential to undermine the impartiality of a person because of the possibility of a clash between the person's self-interest and professional interest or public interest.
2. A situation in which a party's responsibility to a second-party limits its ability to discharge its responsibility to a third-party.

Note that a conflict of interest involves a "situation," a structural factor that "undermines" or "limits" the very ability to be impartial because of a clash of interests. It is not at all the same thing, contra Harris, as bias, or prejudging, or--as really seems to be the case here--having a different opinion than someone else, such as the questioner.

Here's the transcript (I've left some of Cates' interjections). You'll see what Cates is interested in, but pay attention to the part where Barr, clearly nonplussed, asks "What's my conflict of interest?" and Harris attempts to explain. Barr is far too polite to say what clearly must have been in his mind, but patiently tries to explain what the issues are.