Kamala Harris knows things no vice president has ever known

Men in power might sympathize with women’s issues, but Kamala Harris knows them by heart.

By Monica Hesse | Washington Post

In the week before the country potentially elects its first female vice president, I’ve been trying to write a sweeping essay about progress and trailblazers and glass-breakers and what it all means. But what I keep thinking about is this: At some point in Kamala Harris’s life, someone has instructed her to carry her keys like a weapon when she walks to her car. Someone has said, Get them out of your purse even before you leave the grocery store. Arrange them between your fingers, and if someone attacks you, aim for the face

How do I know this? Because this is Woman 101. It’s the first page of the instruction manual teaching us how we’ll need to navigate the world. I have never met a woman who hasn’t heard this piece of advice. And I doubt that in 232 years of male leadership there’s ever been a sitting president or vice president who has.

I keep thinking about how, at some point in Kamala Harris’s life, she has painstakingly reviewed her office wardrobe with the understanding that the difference between “slut” and “feminazi” is a few inches of worsted-wool hemline. At some point, she has approached a stranger in a public bathroom because the Tampax machine is broken again, and she has said, I’m so sorry, but do you have — and then she didn’t have to finish the question because women in bathrooms know that there is only one end to that question.

Continue reading “Kamala Harris knows things no vice president has ever known”

World Leaders Ready Themselves for a Biden Presidency

After a drawn-out vote count, many global leaders were quick to respond to Joe Biden’s election victory, with most sending congratulations and vowing to work with him.

Leaders from around the world continued to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden on Sunday, though several officials have remained silent.

In Europe, where many hope Mr. Biden will reverse some of the decisions of the Trump administration, leaders in Germany, France and Italy as well as the secretary-general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization applauded Mr. Biden’s win.  [ . . . ]

Continue at WALL STREET JOURNAL: World Leaders Ready Themselves for a Biden Presidency – WSJ

Church bells in Paris, Fireworks in London, as Biden win celebrated abroad

 

In countries across the globe, people reported fireworks and cheering after President-elect Joe Biden was named the winner of the 2020 election on Saturday. 

Locals in the United Kingdom, where many had leftover fireworks from Guy Fawkes Night this week, reported fireworks going off in London. There were videos of fireworks in Edinburgh, Scotland, and reports of celebrations in Germany.

NBC, CNN, ABC and The Associated Press all called the race for Biden shortly before 11:30 a.m. EST Saturday.

Though cities are celebrating, President Trump has not accepted the race call.

Trump issued a statement minutes after numerous news outlets declared Biden the winner of the presidential race claiming that networks were helping the former vice president “falsely” pose as the winner and promising to fight the results in court.

Source: Fireworks in London, Edinburgh as Biden win celebrated abroad | TheHill

Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos was the Trump administration’s most elitist do-nothing.

The Trump administration’s most elitist do-nothing.

So long, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos! It wasn’t just that you were unqualified to lead America’s educational system, as someone who never worked at a public school, attended a public school, or took out a school loan. It was that you were the opposite of qualified, an early example of the Trump administration’s elitist disregard for the very role of government agencies themselves. You sailed into the Department of Education as if sailing into port on one of your yachts, buoyed by your belief that public schools are a “dead end,” your declaration that government “sucks,” and your family’s hundreds of millions of dollars donated to Republican causes.

And yeah, you made the most of the opportunity. You promoted charter and religious schools while ignoring public schools. You reduced protections for victims of sexual assault, for minority students, for gay and trans students. You gleefully ignored a court order and continued to collect loan payments from students at a defunct, fraudulent for-profit university—16,000 times, including wage garnishments and tax seizures.

Continue reading “Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos was the Trump administration’s most elitist do-nothing.”