Saturday, August 15, 2020

Kamala Harris For VP

I didn't watch TV news enough to know how her name is pronounced, But a recent kerfuffle with Tucker Carlson that I read about told me it's not pronounced "Ka-Mal-a" but "Comm-la." So from now on, when I talk about her I'll do her the courtesy of pronouncing her name right. It's the minimum of decency.

And the minimum of decency is all that I think Kamala Harris deserves. A lot of liberals are excited by her being picked to be the [loathsome] Joe Biden's running-mate. A woman of colour! A former California Attorney General! A US senator! It's a testimony to the wonderfulness of the awesome Democratic Party USA! It's a testimony to the better side of US-American politics! The feminist, fighter for social justice, anti-racist, meritocratic, embodiment of the opportunity and fairness party in the world's "indispensable nation"!

Whereas I on the other hand, am not excited by her being the VP pick. I think I first heard of her when firebrand comedian/political YouTuber Jimmy Dore played her video announcing her primary run for 2019 and showed it (and therefore her) was full of nothing but empty platitudes.

She was subsequently known for refusing to prosecute the bank run by Wall Street criminal (and shit-headed beneficiary of nepotism) Steven Mnuchin even though her office told her a cursory investigation found evidence of massive criminality and that further investigation would no doubt find even more. Some people are pointing to Mnuchin's having donated $2,000 to one of Ms. Harris's campaigns as some sort of quid pro quo. I don't think that's it. Mnuchin is worth $400,000,000. Donating $2,000 to Harris's campaign was more like you or I tipping a waiter with a penny. Certainly AG Harris didn't sell her soul for a $2,000 donation either. I think it was the case that Harris knew that Mnuchin was a wealthy, connected member of the elite and holding him accountable for his crimes would constitute a massive social faux-pas. That sort of thing just isn't done. 

So what if Steve Mnuchin is a talentless moron, beneficiary of nepotism, low-functioning criminal psychopath who bought a failing bank at a discount, giving him ownership of the mortgages held by that bank, and then used blatant fraud to force innocent people out of their homes in order to seize those assets? The important point is that Mnuchin used his money to finance all sorts of wonderful Hollywood films. "Steve Mnuchin draws a lot of water in this town. His victims didn't draw shit."

So, from this little episode we see that Kamala Harris, the "law-and-order" Attorney General is quite happy to not enforce the law if it means that powerful people will be inconvenienced. Perfect for a federal politician! Not inconveniencing the powerful, even when they're criminals, is how the game is played.



8 comments:

lagatta à montréal said...

French proverb:

Selon que vous serez puissant ou misérable Les jugements de cour vous rendront blanc ou noir.

Quote from Lafontaine but might go back much farther.

thwap said...

lagatta,

The thing about languages is that if you get some small things wrong you end up with big mistakes.

Which is why I failed French as often as I failed math. (Like Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman, "I was more a humanities guy.")

But I think I get your meaning.

lagatta à montréal said...

Selon que vous serez puissant ou misérable Les jugements de cour vous rendront blanc ou noir.

The following is an off the cuff translation:

Depending on whether you are powerful/mighty or miserable , Court judgements will paint you you white (innocent) or black (guilty). Yes, the refences sound racist as well as classist, but it seems that Lafontaine is denouncing them.

I thought languages were among the humanities.

I speak several languages but am horrible at maths.

lagatta à montréal said...

Depending on whether you are powerful or miserable, Court judgements will paint you white or black (innocent or guilty).

thwap said...

I'm so bad at languages I forgot they were part of the humanities.

lagatta à montréal said...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnUSGAi9j8I We built this city on rock and roll. The song itself reeks of 80s crap, but does carry a powerful message on gentrification and corporatisation, not to mention the verse 'Police have got the chokehold'...

thwap said...

lagatta,

When that song came on the radio I always changed the channel, so I never even got a chance to hear the lyrics.

35 years later, San Francisco is a completely unaffordable, gentrified, oppressive place.

Corporate "culture" is toxic and Trump is the symptom of it.

lagatta à montréal said...

Well, the song is speaking out against that - including police brutality - but it is true that its envelope is 1980s kitch. Most of the people I knew in S.F. have decamped to Oakland, but it is also suffering from the onslaught of gentrification.