Queer Rednecks

Rolling Stones, Sanibel Island, Florida, 1976
used for the cover of the album Black and Blue
photographer :: Hiro

The hour of MAGA's Waterloo has arrived.
The beginning of the end is finally here.
Strap in, it’s gonna be a bumpy ride

Steve Schmidt of The Warning on Substack
[https://substack.com//note/c-65905640?utm_source=feed-email-digest]

Congratulations to Gott's Roadside on their 25th Anniversary.
The party will be memorable and fun.

"In 1999, Gott’s opened for business in the heart of Napa Valley on Highway 29 in St. Helena, California. Brothers Joel and Duncan Gott took over a humble roadside stand dating back to 1949 and remade it into the “cult classic” destination that it is today.

The vision was simple: bring wine country sensibility to American roadside dining. Craveable, inventive, timeless dishes, made with high-quality ingredients, are served alongside craft brews and exceptional wines. All of this, paired with a relaxing, welcoming environment earned them a James Beard Award and recognition as an early pioneer of fast casual dining.

Gott’s gradually opened new locations by invitation: San Francisco’s Ferry Building, then Napa’s Oxbow Market, contributing to these landmarks becoming Bay Area centerpieces of artisanal food culture.

Three suburban locations followed, along with a licensed location at SFO, and most recently a location at the Chase Center, home of the Golden State Warriors. Gott’s expanded its menu with salads and vegetarian dishes, offering something for everyone."

just arrived - Roller Coaster
cover by Barry Britt

Lausanne, Switzerland
Kurtis Marschall of Australia competing at the men’s pole vault event at the Wanda Diamond League Athletissima


Photograph: Daniela Porcelli / SPP / Rex / Shutterstock / The Guardian

those were fun days, cruising down the coast

New coronavirus vaccines are now approved. Here’s what to know.
The mRNA coronavirus vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna tailored for the KP.2 variant could be available within a week.
The Food and Drug Administration approved new mRNA coronavirus vaccines Thursday, clearing the way for shots manufactured by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna to start hitting pharmacy shelves and doctor’s offices within a week.

Health officials encourage annual vaccination against the coronavirus, similar to yearly flu shots. Everyone 6 months and older should receive a new vaccine, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends.

The FDA has yet to approve an updated vaccine from Novavax, which uses a more conventional vaccine development method but has faced financial challenges.

Our scientific understanding of coronavirus vaccines has evolved since they debuted in late 2020. Here’s what to know about the new vaccines.

Why are there new vaccines?
The coronavirus keeps evolving to overcome our immune defenses, and the shield offered by vaccines weakens over time. That’s why federal health officials want people to get an annual updated coronavirus vaccine designed to target the latest variants. They approve them for release in late summer or early fall to coincide with flu shots that Americans are already used to getting.

The underlying vaccine technology and manufacturing process are the same, but components change to account for how the virus morphs. The new vaccines target the KP.2 variant because most recent Covid cases are caused by that strain or closely related ones.

Covid is less dangerous overall than it was earlier in the pandemic because our bodies have become used to fighting the virus off and nearly everyone has some degree of immunity from receiving shots or getting sick. A new shot is meant to shore up existing defenses.

“It’s an opportunity to mitigate or to reduce that risk even further rather than just relying on what happened in the past,” said Robert Hopkins Jr., medical director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases and a physician in Arkansas.

Who needs a new coronavirus vaccine?
The United States differs from other countries in recommending an updated coronavirus vaccine for everyone except young infants, rather than just those at heightened risk for severe disease because they are 65 or older, are moderately to severely immunocompromised or have serious medical conditions.

Health officials rejected a more targeted recommendation, with some contending that it’s easier to tell everyone to get vaccinated than to try to define what makes a person high-risk. Most Americans have a risk factor for severe Covid, such as being overweight or having diabetes.

Critics of this approach, including Paul A. Offit, a pediatrician and director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, worry that it detracts from the urgency of vaccinating vulnerable people who have a harder time mounting an immune response to the coronavirus.

Do the vaccines prevent infection?
You probably know by now that vaccinated people can still get Covid. But the shots do offer some protection against infection, just not the kind of protection you get from highly effective vaccines for other diseases such as measles.

The 2023-2024 vaccine provided 54 percent increased protection against symptomatic Covid infections, according to a CDC study of people who tested for the coronavirus at pharmacies during the first four months after that year’s shot was released.

“People who get vaccinated are much less likely to get infected in the first place,” said David J. Topham, director of the University of Rochester Translational Immunology and Infectious Disease Institute. “We’d love vaccines to be perfect, but Mother Nature is pretty damn smart.”

A nasal vaccine could be better at stopping infections outright by increasing immunity where they take hold, and one is being studied in a trial sponsored by the National Institutes of Health.

If you really want to dodge Covid, don’t rely on the vaccine alone and take other precautions such as masking or avoiding crowds. But if you want to carry on with life as normal, a new vaccine lowers your risk of getting Covid — at least in the short term.

Do the vaccines help prevent transmission?
You may remember from early coverage of coronavirus vaccines that it was unclear whether shots would reduce transmission. Now, scientists say the answer is yes — even if you’re actively shedding virus.

That’s because the vaccine creates antibodies that reduce the amount of virus entering your cells, limiting how much the virus can replicate and make you even sicker. When vaccination prevents symptoms such as coughing and sneezing, people expel fewer respiratory droplets carrying the virus. When it reduces the viral load in an infected person, people become less contagious.

That’s why Peter Hotez, a physician and co-director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development, said he feels more comfortable in a crowded medical conference, where attendees are probably up to date on their vaccines, than in a crowded airport.

“By having so many vaccinated people, it’s decreasing the number of days you are shedding virus if you get a breakthrough infection, and it decreases the amount of virus you are shedding,” Hotez said.

How long does vaccine protection last?
CDC data shows that the effectiveness of the 2023-2024 vaccine, meant to reduce emergency room visits and hospitalizations, declined sharply more than four months after receiving it. But the risk of hospitalization still remains low for most people, which made it harder for the CDC to compare outcomes for people who received an updated shot with those who did not.

The CDC usually recommends a second dose for those at greatest risk, rather than everyone.

Vaccines create antibodies that target the spike protein of a virus that enters a cell, but the spike protein is often evolving to overcome them or avoid detection. Other elements of the immune response, such as killer T cells, are more durable and recognize the additional parts of the virus that are not mutating.

“Once the virus gets in, [T-cells] can kill off infected cells,” Topham said. “They can slow the infection down. They can prevent it from spreading throughout the body. It shortens your disease.”

Do vaccines prevent long Covid?
While the threat of acute serious respiratory Covid disease has faded, developing the lingering symptoms of “long Covid” remains a concern for people who have had even mild cases. The CDC says vaccination is the “best available tool” to reduce the risk of long Covid in children and adults. The exact mechanism is unclear, but experts theorize that vaccines help by reducing the severity of illness, which is a major risk factor for long Covid.

When is the best time to get a new coronavirus vaccine?
It depends on your circumstances, including risk factors for severe disease, when you were last infected or vaccinated, and plans for the months ahead. It’s best to talk these issues through with a doctor.

If you are at high risk and have not recently been vaccinated or infected, you may want to get a shot as soon as possible while cases remain high. The summer wave has shown signs of peaking, but cases can still be elevated and take weeks to return to low levels. It’s hard to predict when a winter wave will begin.

If your priority is to avoid getting sick ahead of the holidays or a major event such as an international vacation, you could get your vaccine a month ahead of the event to increase your protection.

If you were recently vaccinated, the FDA advises waiting two months since your last shot to get the updated vaccine. The CDC has previously said people can wait three months after an infection to get vaccinated.

Manisha Juthani, Connecticut’s public health commissioner, said people who have recently had covid could time their next vaccine several weeks before a holiday when they will be exposed to a lot of people, whether that’s Halloween, Thanksgiving or end-of-year celebrations.

Where do I find vaccines?
Most insurance plans are required to cover recommended vaccines under the Affordable Care Act, but some may not cover shots administered by out-of-network providers. Officials say billing code errors and failure to update systems that led to improper charges last year should mostly be resolved, but if you are still getting charged for vaccines, you or your provider should contact your insurance company or appeal to the agency that regulates your plan.

The federal Bridge Access Program, which provided free coronavirus vaccines to people without health insurance, ends this month. People might be able to find other assistance through federally qualified health centers, local health departments or nonprofit groups.

Can you get your Covid and flu shot together?
Public health officials encourage receiving Covid and flu shots in the same visit as a way to increase vaccination rates, and say that no serious side effects associated with co-administering the vaccines have been identified.

But if you are someone who will get both vaccines no matter what, it could be beneficial to space them apart. Flu shots are best administered in September or October, so it might make sense to get a flu shot first with a coronavirus vaccination later if you already had Covid this summer.

Coronavirus vaccine manufacturers are working on combination flu/coronavirus shots. Moderna reported promising trial results that keep it on track to go to market as early as fall 2025. Pfizer-BioNTech reported mixed results from its trials, a setback.
The Washington Post

New coronavirus vaccines are now approved. Here’s what to know. The mRNA coronavirus vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna tailored for the KP.2 variant could be available within a week.

Ann Telnaes :: Joyful warrior or leaf blower

The reminded me of the uniting of all Americans to win World War II.

75 DAYS until the election. Time to get to work to prove that freedom, and the Constitution still matter.

LGBTQ people are never going back, we are going forward...

stay at least 20 feet away from sea lions for your safety

California, US
Hundreds of sea lions lie in the sun at San Carlos beach in Monterey

Photograph: Anadolu / Getty Images / The Guardian

Marine Life :: When globally famous gay penguin Sphen died in Sydney, his partner began to sing

Zoo staff brought Magic to Sphen’s side to process the loss, and the penguin colony joined in his mournful call

Sydney gentoo penguin Sphen, whose same-s*x love story made him and partner Magic an equality symbol worldwide, has died.

The couple shot to fame in 2018 when news of their same-s*x male relationship in a Sydney aquarium made global headlines.

The duo recently celebrated six years together and successfully adopted and raised two chicks: Sphengic (Lara) in 2018 and Clancy in 2020.

The couple’s impact around the world as a symbol of equality was immeasurable, Sea Life Sydney Aquarium said in a statement on Thursday.

Their love story inspired a Mardi Gras float, was included in the New South Wales education syllabus and even featured in the Netflix series Atypical.

Countless books speak of their love story and even documentaries on same-s*x animal couples have featured Sphen and Magic, the aquarium said.

“The loss of Sphen is heartbreaking to the penguin colony, the team and everyone who has been inspired or positively impacted by Sphen and Magic’s story,” aquarium general manager Richard Dilly said on Thursday.

“We want to take this opportunity to reflect and celebrate Sphen’s life, remembering what an icon he was, the unique bond he shared with Magic and the positive impact he made in the world.”

Sphen appears to have died of natural causes in August as he approached his 12th birthday.

His younger partner, aged eight, was taken to his side to help process the loss and understand his partner wouldn’t return.

“He immediately started singing, which was beautifully reciprocated by the colony,” the aquarium said.

Aquarium staff said their focus was the welfare of Magic, who faces a first breeding season without his partner.

photograph: Gentoo penguins Sphen, left, and Magic, right, at Sydney’s Sea Life Aquarium in happier times.
SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium / PR IMAGE

When globally famous gay penguin Sphen died in Sydney, his partner began to sing Zoo staff brought Magic to Sphen’s side to process the loss, and the penguin colony joined in his mournful call

Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)

save water, shower with a friend

Detective Sam Spade is back in this neo-noir on Netflix.
Recommended. The cast is excellent. Clive Owen is Sam Spade.

The Washington Post :: With six words, Michelle Obama rewires America’s conversation on race

Most of us, Michelle Obama said, “will never benefit from the affirmative action of generational wealth.”

In her speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2016, Michelle Obama coined one of the defining phrases of the political era: “When they go low, we go high.”

Going high did not work. Donald Trump won that election. While many of his supporters expressed discomfort with his go-low approach to politics, far more embraced it. Trump, despite his pedigree as a New York billionaire, would embarrass and attack and disparage the perceived elites, and many Americans loved him for it.

Lesson learned. In her speech Tuesday night at the 2024 Democratic convention, Obama didn’t explicitly revoke the “we go high” mantra, but she made clear that a different moment called for a different approach. It wasn’t that the former first lady went low, exactly, but she was unsparing in her disdain for and criticisms of her husband’s successor.

In one of the more memorable stretches of her speech, she equated the Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, with the majority of Americans who never enjoyed Trump’s wealth and privilege — and the safety net that accompanies them.

Harris “understands that most of us will never be afforded the grace of failing forward,” Obama said. “We will never benefit from the affirmative action of generational wealth. If we bankrupt a business or choke in a crisis, we don’t get a second, third or fourth chance. If things don’t go our way, we don’t have the luxury of whining or cheating others to get further ahead. No.

“We don’t get to change the rules so we always win,” she continued. “If we see a mountain in front of us, we don’t expect there to be an escalator waiting to take us to the top. We put our heads down. We get to work.”

Trump’s name wasn’t used but it didn’t need to be. That line about the escalator, a call back to Trump’s 2015 campaign launch, made the point obvious, if it wasn’t already.

But there are six words in that stretch that extend well beyond Trump. Obama used a phrase that succinctly and elegantly reframes the ongoing debate over inequality in the United States and how it might be addressed: “the affirmative action of generational wealth.”

It’s concise, centered on two familiar concepts. The first is “affirmative action,” the term used to describe programs generally focused on ensuring that non-White Americans have access to resources and institutions they might not otherwise have. And the second is “generational wealth,” the transition of economic (and social) power through families and, at times, communities.

These are descriptors of elements in American society that are in tension. If you are a recipient of generational wealth, you don’t need affirmative action to ensure you have access. If you are someone who would benefit from affirmative action, you generally are not someone with access to generational wealth. Of course, you might be, which is one of the outliers used to criticize affirmative action programs: They often center more on demographic traits than on economic class.

The linchpin of Obama’s phrase, though, is its shortest word: “of.” She isn’t contrasting affirmative action and generational wealth as conduits to power and success, she’s overlapping them. She’s noting that generational wealth is a form of affirmative action, here in the person of Trump but certainly beyond that.

How? Because generational wealth presents opportunities to people who might otherwise not have access to them: legacy admissions at Ivy League colleges, tutors and training, vehicles and housing that make entry-level jobs or internships more feasible. These are benefits that derive from social and economic class — a form of affirmative action.

This is how reframing a subject works; it presents familiar information in a new context.

The natural response, of course, is that a parent bolstering her child’s success is different from a government program that includes an effort to ensure that Black Americans have equal access. But this is the point of the word “generational.” We’re not simply considering a rich parent and the advantages they might offer. We’re focused on patterns of wealth transitioning from parent to child over and over again. And those patterns, traced backward over surprisingly few decades, very quickly bring us back to racial divisions.

Column by Philip Bump

Column | With six words, Michelle Obama rewires America’s conversation on race Most of us, Michelle Obama said, “will never benefit from the affirmative action of generational wealth.”

"Most of us will never benefit from the affirmative action of generational wealth"
Michelle Obama

Ann Telanes is on fire :: Opinion | Donald Trump’s excess baggage

Baking bread in the bread machine.
All ingredients are stored in the refrigerator.

King Arthur Baking Company :: 100% Whole Wheat Bread

measurements are exact.
this was developed for the Zojirushi bread machine, some adjustments to the recipe may be needed for your machine.

For a 1 1/2 pound bread machine
• 1 1/4 cups of water
• 2 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
TIP: this oil is added to a measuring cup - 1/4 cup - that is then used for honey or maple syrup... this makes clean-up easier
• 1/4 cup honey or maple syrup - I use organic

• 3 to 3 1/2 cups white whole wheat, or traditional whole wheat flour - adjust as needed for your machine
TIP: I measure flour in 1 cup scoops. I tap the measuring cup with a flat edge knife to settle the flour, and then run the edge over the measuring cup to remove excess flour.
I use 2 cups of white organic bread flour + 1 cup of organic wheat flour.

• 1/4 cup sunflower, sesame, or flax seeds, or a combination [optional]. I like organic flax seeds.
• 1 tablespoon of vital wheat gluten
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast - SAF is a favorite

Put the ingredients into your bread machine in the order listed.
Program for basic white bread [bread on my machine], and press Start. 4 hours and 10 minutes later, you will have a fresh loaf of bread far better quality and taste than most supermarket bread.

AND your home will smell fabulous.

the almost empty honey containers on the stove are waiting for a hot water bath to liquefy the honey for use..

The Guardian :: Photography :: My Best Shot

Clinging on naked in a Norwegian waterfall: Svante Gullichsen’s best photograph

‘OCD made me intensely anxious – and being photographed in freezing water gave me the numbness I craved’

Interview by Edward Siddons
Wed 14 Aug 2024 10.44 EDT

Last summer, I spent 10 days travelling through Norway with my partner. We toured Jotunheimen, a national park in the south criss-crossed with ravines, streams and waterfalls. I’d had an idea of an image I wanted to shoot, and Jotunheimen seemed the perfect place.

I wanted to photograph myself in the midst of a waterfall, but lots of the ravines and waterfalls we passed were too dangerous. One day, on a small, unpaved road at quite high altitude, I spotted a couple of streams converging in this black expanse of water.

We stopped the car. I tested how slippery the rocks were, how cold the water was. About 20 metres further on there was a very steep drop, but this spot was safe. The stream ran wide and the darkness of the underlying rock acted as a frame for my body.

I set up the camera for my partner and took my position in the stream. It took a few attempts to get it right. During one of them, a bus drove past me naked in the waterfall. The passengers all started cheering.

This particular image captures the ways in which we are all subject to external forces – things that seem to be eroding us constantly. I wanted the viewer to answer the questions the picture poses. Will he survive? Will he be swept away by the current? Or will he keep it together?

Making these images is a form of therapy for me. This one is taken from the third installment of a trilogy I’ve spent the last few years shooting that documents my struggles with my mental health, and OCD in particular. Each series documents a new phase: falling ill, going through therapy and leaving behind some of the worst years of my life.

Even as a child, I found it extremely difficult to talk about what was going on inside my head or to communicate my emotions and needs. I started making these artworks because it was a way for me to vent.

At my worst I was intensely anxious. But these stunts, whether in freezing cold water or suspended at high altitude, gave me brief moments of nothingness in my mind. All I could focus on was the moment. The ice-cold water or altitudes made the anxiousness I felt feel justified: there was a reason for it. And after the stunts, I felt nothing – in a good way. It gave me a release, a complete blankness that I craved during those times.

I don’t use nudity just because it is interesting, but also because it’s a way for me to be honest. Without clothes, there’s nothing you can protect yourself with. And aesthetically, I think it’s pleasing because of the contrasts it creates between the dark, hard rock, or the inky expanses of cold water against the warmth of human skin.

These works are also about the relationship between humans and the natural world. In Finland, my home country, we mythologise our relationship to nature. Yet we have spoiled our lakes with eutrophication and felled old forests to feed the economy. My work is about building different relationships, both with myself during my dark times, and with the world in which we live. My work situates myself in nature, not as a conqueror over it.

I held an exhibition in Helsinki last autumn of this final installment of the trilogy, a conclusion to years of work. It also signaled the end of my time in therapy. It felt like a moment of recognition of how much better I felt in myself. It was a form of closure.

More of Svante Gullichsen’s work can be found on his Instagram. He is represented by Albumen Gallery.

Svante Gullichsen’s CV

Born: 1994, Turku, Finland.
Trained: Self-taught.

Influences: “Modern Finnish self portraitists such as Arno Rafael Minkkinen and Elina Brotherus, and old Finnish masters including Hugo Simberg, Tove Jansson and Akseli Gallen-Kallela.”

High point: “In spring 2022 I won the Hellerau residency prize in Dresden, Germany. Despite the terrible state of my mental health I went, and while hiking, felt like I was getting my life back. That OCD didn’t keep me anymore as a hostage.”

Low point: “Recently I gathered eight people, loads of props and camera gear to shoot in the thick Helsinki fog. As soon as we arrived the fog cleared and the pictures looked terrible. You can’t always succeed. But it’s necessary to take risks when making art. Otherwise you get stuck.”

Top tip: “Take pictures of yourself: there is no one to judge. Try even the craziest ideas, you learn self acceptance, and you also learn how to guide your models better.”

The Guardian :: Cinema posters through the decades

In the age of streaming, we may not think too deeply about the impact of film posters, but for decades these designs played a vital part in guiding cinemagoers on what to see.
In a new book edited by Tony Nourmand, a vast selection of posters spanning the past century offers insight into contemporaneous tastes and styles, showcasing the medium’s eye-catching artistic innovations: glamorous paintings for 1922’s Salomé, scratchy, left-field illustration for 1987’s Withnail and I, and that terrifying, looming shark for 1975’s Jaws. “These images and artworks that covered our streets and consciousness over the last 100 years did not just appear by accident,” says Nourmand. “They were and are the work of some of the most talented artists of our time.”

• 1001 Movie Posters: Designs of the Times will be published on 3 September by Reel Art Press

Australia :: Fleece de résistance: the Australian alpaca national show

The best alpacas and fleece producers in the land came to Bendigo in Victoria for the Australian Alpaca Association National Show. About 300 Suri and Huacaya alpacas and 200 fleeces were on show at the event, along with art, craft and photography. The association says Australia has one of the world’s largest alpaca breeding herds and is at the forefront of fibre quality

more [https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/gallery/2024/aug/19/fleece-de-resistance-the-australian-alpaca-national-show-in-pictures]

An emotional, joyous, and loud beginning to the Democratic National Convention AC

Day one of the Democratic national convention in Chicago

more photographs and live updates at The Guardian
[https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/gallery/2024/aug/19/dnc-democratic-convention-day-one]

"Democracy must be preserved." Joe Biden

The New York Times :: Opinion | Frank Bruni, Maureen Dowd, Michelle Goldberg and Patrick Healy

Four Writers on Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton and How to Win the White House

Patrick Healy: The Democratic convention will be bookended by two historic figures: Hillary Clinton, the first woman nominated for president of a major party, will speak on Monday night, and Kamala Harris on Thursday night will become the second woman nominated to lead America. Maureen, Michelle, Frank: The four of us covered Clinton over the years, and now write about Harris. Clinton and Harris are approaching history pretty differently. For one thing, Clinton leaned into gender in 2016, talking about breaking the glass ceiling. And she won a big vote from women, but her percentage of the women’s vote was a little less than Barack Obama’s — and she had a slightly wider gender gap. Maureen, how do Clinton and Harris differ in how they deal with gender?

Maureen Dowd: Hillary Clinton did not lose because she was a woman. She lost because she was a Clinton. The family just had too much baggage, and scarring from the Obama dismantling of the Clinton machine in 2008. The biggest difference between Harris and Clinton is that Harris is not tangled up in the issue of gender. In 2008, Clinton’s strategist Mark Penn told her to run like a man. That didn’t work, so then in 2016 she ran a campaign focused on her gender, with Katy Perry music and Lena Dunham appearances.

Healy: Her allies were talking about gender, too, like Madeleine Albright saying at a Clinton campaign event that “there’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help each other.”

Dowd: The moment when it became clear that Clinton was too wrapped around the axle on gender was in the second debate with Donald Trump in 2016, when he was lurking behind her onstage and she did not turn around and let him have it. I think she could have won the election in that moment if she had delivered a line like Ludacris’s “Move, bitch, get out the way.” But she froze, not wanting to come across as the aggressive harridan that she was caricatured as by her critics. As she later wrote in her book about the campaign, “Maybe I have overlearned the lesson of staying calm, biting my tongue.” It was a fatal overcorrection, I think.

Healy: Have you seen anything along these lines with Harris?

Dowd: So far, Harris has not emphasized her gender, which is smart. The best template was set by Nancy Pelosi, who is comfortable in her feminine style but never leaves any doubt that she could crush you if you go against her. When she ran for speaker, she told her caucus: “Don’t vote for me because I’m a woman. And don’t vote against me because I’m a woman.”

Michelle Goldberg: One advantage Harris has in terms of gender is the unconventional way she was nominated. Women have historically done better in parliamentary systems than presidential ones, perhaps because they rely less on open competition within parties, and so women aren’t punished for displaying their ambition. Harris didn’t become the nominee by taking on a man but by supporting one, and then by stepping in when the party needed her. As a result, she ascended without creating many resentments among other Democrats.

A lot of women felt sheepish about supporting Clinton because she was so demonized from both the left and the right. I’ve written before that Pantsuit Nation, a major pro-Hillary Facebook group, was closed to the public to protect its members from harassment. After the 2016 election, when I went to Georgia to report on the suburban women of the so-called Resistance, many told me they hadn’t even realized there were other Democrats on their block because they’d been quiet about their own politics. There’s none of that with Harris — the enthusiasm is completely unbridled.

Harris doesn’t need to lean into the historic nature of her candidacy both because it’s implicit in almost everything she does and because her fans are driving it home on social media. That said, I am wondering how many times they’re going to play Chappell Roan’s “Femininomenon” at the convention, a banger that’s about le***an s*x but has become a sort of unofficial theme song to the campaign.

Frank Bruni: Something crucial to note here is that while no people in their right minds would deny or minimize Hillary Clinton’s accomplishments on her own, she rose to political prominence in concert with — and often in service to — her husband, Bill. She was first lady before she was a senator, a secretary of state or her party’s presidential nominee. So her haters and doubters often portrayed her as someone who had hitched a ride to power on Bill’s coattails, and she knew that — that had to put a defensiveness in her. Harris married her husband, Doug Emhoff, who was not an immediate or obvious part of any political career of hers, later in life. We call him the second gentleman. That has a whole different feel and introduces a whole different gender dynamic.

Goldberg: I agree, and I always thought that the mode of Clinton’s ascent lessened the pathbreaking power of it. It’s pretty common, especially in less developed democracies, for the great man’s wife to take over after he’s gone, and it doesn’t usually feel like feminist progress.

more [https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/19/opinion/kamala-harris-hillary-clinton-convention.html]