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“Offer our children healthier choices”: The growing push for school lunch reform

In 2022, The Lancet, a British peer-reviewed journal with a focus on global public health, published a short article with the title: “Unhealthy school meals: A solution to hunger or a problem for health?” As the report laid out, providing school meals is an important measure in preventing food insecurity as nearly 30 million children receive a free or reduced-cost breakfast and lunch on an average American school day, and many of those students rely on school meals as their main source of nutrition. 

Yet while those meals meet federal nutrition mandates, they are often simply composed of a smattering of processed foods — breakfast cereal, fruit juice, chicken nuggets, corn dogs, frozen pizza — served alongside a fruit or vegetable and carton of dairy milk. “In fact, the official meal dietary guidelines do not discourage serving pizza or corn dogs, as long as the nutritional specifications (total calorie, sugar, fat, and salt content) are met,” the report said. 

While the often dismal quality of school meals has been both a pop culture trope and lingering public health concern for decades, processed foods have become a hot topic over the last several years as a number of new reports have emerged linking the consumption of ultra-processed items to myriad health concerns, ranging from certain kinds of cancer to heart disease. 

While there isn’t current data about what percentage of American school lunches are processed, a  2022 study in the United Kingdom found that about 75% of the calories consumed from lunches served in their primary and secondary schools came from ultra-processed foods, while another recent report from Northwestern University indicates that 73% of the United States food supply is ultra-processed, meaning the stats for lunches in the States is likely similar. The reasons for this are wide-ranging and complex, including cost concerns, logistical challenges and serious kitchen staffing shortages.

However, the concerns remain and this has led some child nutrition professionals and consumer groups to raise a flag about just how safe it actually is for school lunch programs to rely on processed food as much as they do. 

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Some are targeting specific food items. 

For instance, earlier this year, Consumer Reports urged the federal government to remove Lunchables from the national free and reduced-price school lunch program after an analysis found high amounts of sodium and elevated levels of heavy metals. As Salon’s Joy Saha reported at the time, the US Department of Agriculture currently permits two Lunchable kits, Turkey & Cheddar Cracker Stackers and Extra Cheesy Pizza, to be served as part of the National School Lunch Program. Per Saha, 

In accordance with the program’s requirements, Kraft Heinz — the manufacturer of Lunchables — amped up the nutritional profile of its school Lunchable kits, adding more whole grains to the crackers and overall protein. 

However, Consumer Reports alleges the Lunchable kits served in school have even higher levels of sodium than the kits available for purchase in stores nationwide. 

“Lunchables are not a healthy option for kids and shouldn’t be allowed on the menu as part of the National School Lunch Program,” Brian Ronholm, director of food policy at Consumer Reports, said at the time. “The Lunchables and similar lunch kits we tested contain concerning levels of sodium and harmful chemicals that can lead to serious health problems over time.” 

While Lunchables have not been recalled from the school lunch program, since releasing their analysis in April, Consumer Reports has put out a petition urging the USDA to do so, and it has reached 26,964 of a desired 30,000 signatures. 

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“We urge the USDA to take the needed steps to ensure Lunchables processed food kits are not eligible for the National School Lunch Program – and give our nation's school children healthier food choices,” the petition reads. “New tests from Consumer Reports found that store-bought Lunchables had relatively high amounts of lead, cadmium, and sodium. And all but one kit (Lunchables Extra Cheesy Pizza) contained the plastic chemical phthalate, a known hormone disruptor that can contribute to an increased risk of reproductive problems, diabetes and certain cancers.”

It continued: “Even in small amounts, lead and cadmium can cause developmental problems in children, with risks increasing from regular exposure over time. And eating too much sodium can lead to high blood pressure: about 14% of children and teens have prehypertension or hypertension. Please take the necessary steps  to ensure these processed food kits aren’t eligible for the lunch program, and offer our children healthier choices.”

"Offer our children healthier choices."

Some concerned about the quality of school lunches are attempting to take a broader approach. In California, California Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel has introduced the California Assembly Bill (AB) 2316, also called the California School Food Safety Act. The bill seeks to ban public schools from serving foods containing six synthetic dyes — red dye No. 40, yellow dye No. 5, yellow dye No. 6, blue dye No. 1, blue dye No. 2, and green dye No. 3 — linked to behavioral issues such as hyperactivity and inattentiveness in children, according to a 2021 California EPA report. 

While these dyes are common in products like Froot Loops and M&Ms, they are already subject to warning labels in the European Union. Gabriel, who authored the bill, argues that outdated FDA research that allows these additives to be included in school meals fails to protect children, particularly those with ADHD, which both he and one of his children have.

“California has a responsibility to protect our students from chemicals that harm children and that can interfere with their ability to learn,” Gabriel said upon introducing the legislation. “As a lawmaker, a parent, and someone who struggled with ADHD, I find it unacceptable that we allow schools to serve foods with additives that are linked to cancer, hyperactivity, and neurobehavioral harms. This bill will empower schools to better protect the health and wellbeing of our kids and encourage manufacturers to stop using these dangerous additives.”

The bill is set for a crucial vote in the Senate Appropriations Committee next week. If it passes the committee on August 15, it will advance to the State Senate for a final vote before reaching Governor Gavin Newsom. 

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“We have to call out bad faith attacks”: Democrats rebut attempted GOP “swift boating” of Tim Walz

Democratic lawmakers and organizers who once served in the U.S. military characterized GOP attacks on Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz's military record as "unfounded" and "morally bankrupt" on a Thursday press call organized by the Democratic National Committee.

Republicans have been pushing the false line that Walz, who served in the National Guard for 24 years, abandoned his unit as it was being deployed to Iraq, with Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, characterizing his service as "stolen valor garbage."

Such attacks don't hold up to scrutiny, according to Rep. Jake Auchinschloss, D-Mass., who pointed out that Walz, who won multiple decorations and received praise from fellow officers, made the decision to retire from the National Guard months before his unit received its deployment notification.

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Walz's retirement was finalized in May 2005, two months prior to the deployment notification in July 2005, and nearly a year before his former unit went to Iraq in March 2006. Its probable that he made the decision to retire and filed his paperwork months earlier, having filed his intent to run for Congress back in February 2006.

"Typically, processing time ranges from 60 to 180 days for retirement requests based on the selected date of retirement,” said a U.S. Army Human Resources Command official in 2023, discussing such requests from reserve members.

"I think we saw twenty years ago with the swift boating of John Kerry that we cannot presume that unfounded attacks will implode under their own lies, so we have to call out bad faith attacks and show them that we are not going to be pliant about this," Auchinschloss continued. The GOP effort to paint Kerry as a liar about his own military service in Vietnam was headed by Republican operative Chris LaCivita, who is now co-campaign manager in Donald Trump's campaign.

Auchinschloss said that it's especially rich that the attacks would come from Republicans supporting former President Donald Trump, who took five deferments during the Vietnam War and "has a record of disparaging veterans and throwing them under the bus for political gain."

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Republicans are also accusing Walz of lying about his record, highlighting a speech in which he expressed his wish to "make sure that weapons of war, that I carried in war, are only carried in war." Walz did not serve in a combat zone, but did provide base protection and participate in training missions and other support operations for the war in Afghanistan while stationed in Europe. If Walz used potentially ambiguous language in that instance, he also on numerous other occasions shared careful details of his service, noting that he did not deploy to Iraq and saying that "there are certainly folks that did far more than I did. I know that."

Veterans now working as organizers for the Harris-Walz campaign said they are angry at these Republican attacks and emphasized that all military service is important and commendable. Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colorado, suggested that Trump's allies are disparaging Walz because they "have no ideas and no vision for the future, so all they can do is attack and lie and twist and contort and it shows the country their complete lack of leadership."

The call also discussed President Joe Biden and former president Trump's respective records on veterans affairs, as well as the PACT Act, which Biden signed into law in 2022 and expands the scope of benefits eligibility for American veterans.

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“Time Bandits” creators on their remake: “How lucky to get a chance to use the word ‘Pythonesque'”

In the latest “Time Bandits” episodes, the titular band shifts from staving off hunger by gnawing sticks to noshing on sandwiches, the latest rage in Georgian England allegedly invented by none other than the Earl of Sandwich. 

Long afterward, the series’ boy hero, Kevin Haddock (Kal-El Tuck), is rubbing elbows with the richest man in history, Mansa Musa. Kevin and his titular companions, led by Penelope (Lisa Kudrow), have been feted and hunted, narrowly escaping death many times.

Historic accounts are often as full of ridiculousness as wonder.

But this series is less about action than the famous friends Kevin, Penelope and the rest make along the way – all historic figures from places and times the show’s co-creators Iain Morris, Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi wish they could visit.

More accurately, Clement told Salon, most were on his 12-year-old’s wish list. “I just asked my son, who is also a history fan — history nerd, you might say – if you could go anywhere, where would you want to go? What would you want to see?”

We have him to thank, then, for the series’ sojourns to the deck of 19th century pirate Zheng Yi Sao’s ship and the Trojan War. Other suggestions came from the historians and writers on the show’s staff, who wrote a Harlem Renaissance stop into their trip as well as this week’s tagalong with Mansa Mua,  who was thought to be the richest person in history.

“So he's an obvious target to meet,” Clement said.

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Apple's "Time Bandits" reboot is a worthy journey, venturing more broadly through history

Historic accounts are often as full of ridiculousness as wonder. Terry Gilliam capitalized on that idea in his original “Time Bandits,” the 1981 classic Clement, Morris and Waititi expanded on. Given Gilliam’s wildly creative sensibilities, you’d be forgiven for assuming Clement was raised on “Monty Python’s Flying Circus,” based on the similarities between the Pythons and his absurdist comedy style, epitomized by “Flight of the Conchords” and “What We Do in the Shadows.”

Not so, he said in our Zoom conversation from his home in New Zealand. “I mean, I was only seven, and I knew ‘Fawlty Towers,’ which was on TV at the time,” he said. “I’m from the generation of ‘The Young Ones’ and ‘Black Adder.' That’s what was on when I was growing up.”

Fair enough, although I wonder if Morris, who co-created “The Inbetweeners" and previously worked with Clement (on “Conchords”) and Waititi (with whom he co-wrote the 2023 sports comedy “Next Goal Wins”), wouldn’t argue that proves Clement was touched by the Pythons more than he may suspect. 

“When you write a lot of comedy, particularly in Britain, often you get told ‘This is too Pythonesque,’ or ‘This is too surreal or weird,’ or ‘These jokes are too weird,’ this, that and the other, and to try and make it a bit less odd,” Morris observed in a separate Zoom interview. 

Adapting “Time Bandits” with Clement and fellow co-creator Taika Waititi allowed him to relax into his natural inclinations as a lifelong “Python” aficionado. “The joy of being able to write something where they're like, ‘Great, this is exactly the kind of oddness we want,’ Taika and Jemaine really pushed that, I think.” 

Time BanditsTaika Waititi in "Time Bandits" (Apple TV+)

But it also enabled Morris to play with his obsessiveness with history, as seen in Kevin and the gang’s confrontation with the Earl of Sandwich over, of all things, their decision to dine on a purloined pineapple. “A very close friend, Francesca Beauman, wrote a history of the pineapple. Jemaine knows Francesca as well,” he said. “And so, yeah, the Georgian history of the pineapple came from a friend of ours’ book.”

Beauman’s book is called “The Pineapple,” in case you were wondering, which is the series’ strength. “Time Bandits” is that rare show that successfully blends comedy and education so naturally as to make Googling further information on the kings, commanders and criminals Kevin falls in with part of its joy.

The bigger goal is to entertain parents with fond memories of watching Gilliam’s movie when they were children and inspire them to watch the show with their kids. 

“I like hearing that families are watching together, which is what we wanted,” Clement said. “And I think when people look for family movies, they often look to the ‘80s because there were so many great family movies coming out then. Now, I feel like there's less that are made for a family viewing, and so that's why we wanted to capture that from that time and from the original movie.”

A few changes were made necessary by our much-changed times. Clement’s Pure Evil, the antagonist sending agents after Kevin, Penelope and their gang, wields less of the slapstick menace than David Warner was afforded in his portrayal 43 years ago. Warner’s demonic character would incinerate his minions with a wave of his hand, whereas Clement’s baddie is a bit more judicious with his violence.

He does make a few folks explode, he assures me, as seen in one of the new episodes when a subordinate questions him. “I am fear given form,” he deadpans. “Never correct me.”

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You can and should admire the assortment of costumes Pure Evil is working with, one of the many updates the series enacts thanks to a more generous budget than Gilliam could muster back in the day. Even Apple has its limits, though, as seen in the fact that Clement is playing Pure Evil opposite Waititi’s Supreme Being. 

“We couldn't bring the people we wanted to New Zealand for these relatively small parts, you know, so we ended up doing it,” Clement explained. With that savings, he added, they were able to afford better costume designs and practical effects.

Regardless, Apple money buys more than what Gilliam could. The special effects looked much more handmade because the crew had to make do with very little. 

“I like hearing that families are watching together, which is what we wanted."

But the series' production came with other trade-offs. The movie makes Evil’s goal to take over the world using personal computers, which in 1981, were still a novelty. Clement, choosing his words very carefully, said earlier drafts of their script were more critical of technology. (Reminder: this show is brought to you by the makers of your iPhone.)  Eventually its writers shifted Pure Evil’s focus and that of Kevin’s parents to an emphasis on their withered ability to connect with their son’s old-fashioned penchant for reading and learning.

Kevin’s parents also used to be more like Gilliam’s versions, he said, as in “just horrible. But we were happy to change that because, in this version, Kevin and his sister Saffron (Kiera Thompson) are saving their parents, so we had to make them lovable enough to save.”

Time BanditsTime Bandits (Apple TV+)

Another change from the original was less welcome when the series was first announced: Morris, Clement and Waititi chose to cast average-sized actors Rune Temte, Tadhg Murphy, Roger Jean Nsengiyumva and Charlyne Yi alongside Kudrow instead of little people, who played the original bandits.

Both insist there were always going to be characters played by little people in the series. The issue was to make sure they weren’t “backward depictions." Those quotes are intentional — Peter Dinklage said that in response to Disney’s announced live-action version of “Snow White,” which went public around the same time that “Time Bandits” was beginning to come together.  

“We talked a lot about that, actually, and we read articles and stuff about what the set was like on the original ‘Time Bandits,’” Morris said. “What we didn't want to have that sense of like, ‘Oh, they're doing it again.”

Clement added that one of the actors originally hired was a little person, but they wanted to do a play staged in England and didn't want to be in New Zealand for the full production time. Their part went to another cast member. “But we'd always intended it to be a mix,” he said. 

Hence, the inclusion of a pair of inspectors working for the Supreme Being played by a pair of actors with dwarfism, whose secondary roles are set to expand in the second season . . . which has yet to be picked up.

Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.

This demonstrates a common problem with being too careful in remaking an old movie for modern audiences: overcorrection by omission.

Clement and Morris acknowledged the complaints. Other feedback has been inspiring, though. “'Time Bandits,'” Morris said somewhat jokingly, “is the first thing that my son's ever been able to watch that I've done because it's not just constant filth, which is what I normally portray.”

“The people that love ‘Time Bandits’ or know ‘Time Bandits’ really love it, but I think a lot of people didn't really know it or love it,” he added. “I’ve enjoyed playing with it, and I enjoyed taking the best from the original and being inspired by people who have been an inspiration all my life. How lucky to get a chance to use the word ‘Pythonesque,’ to use ideas that Terry Gilliam had and sort of play with them. And again, it's a big responsibility.”

Clement agreed, citing the difference between Tuck’s version of Kevin as the movie’s hero as the main example of their departure.  But I think it has generally the same theme that the thing you're good at will find its place one day, or you will find your place for it if you keep trying.”

New episodes of “Time Bandits” stream Wednesdays on Apple TV+.

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Harris campaign appeals to Latino voters in new battleground ad campaign

Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s debut ad as the Democratic ticket — titled “Determination” — was released Wednesday and targets Latino voters, emphasize Harris' own background as the child of immigrants.

The minute-long video showed features photos and clips of the vice president, including as a child, sharing the story of how Harris went “from working in McDonald’s to prosecutor, state Attorney General, U.S. Senator, and our Vice President — in only one generation.” Harris' mother is originally from India while her father was born in Jamaica.

In a press release, the Harris-Walz campaign explained that the ad is “part of a historic, two-week, seven-figure paid media blitz targeting Latino voters." It is scheduled to run in both English and Spanish in battleground states.

“As the daughter of an immigrant mother, like our community, Vice President Harris knows the power of determination,” Harris-Walz campaign spokesperson Kevin Munoz said in a statement. “Vice President Harris will use that same determination to beat Donald Trump, who is proudly running on an anti-Latino platform that demonizes immigrants, raises costs, and would make our communities less safe.”

“Daily Show” host Michael Kosta mocks Republican efforts to make “Tampon Tim” a thing

Michael Kosta of "The Daily Show" called out conservatives Wednesday night for going after Vice President Kamala Harris' running mate, Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., for inking a bill last year mandating that public schools in his state make sanitary products available in all bathrooms for sixth grade and above. Kosta, a Comedy Central correspondent since 2017, was filling in for regular host Jon Stewart, who recently tested positive for COVID-19. 

“This energy is great for Democrats,” Kosta said in his Wednesday monologue while displaying footage from Walz's inaugural rally alongside Harris in Pennsylvania. "And terrible for Republicans, which is why they spent all day trying to find an angle of attack on Tim Walz.”

Walz's signing of the bill came at the behest of student activists and medical professionals who sought to ensure that students going through puberty were provided menstrual supplies. Kosta then aired clips of GOP-ers condemning the law and dubbing the Minnesota governor "Tampon Tim." 

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“With all due respect to Tampon Tim, I really just don’t care about this,” Kosta said. “Best-case scenario: A trans kid gets tampons. Worst-case: The weird kid in class puts them up his nose and pretends to be a walrus, which is also the best-case scenario.”

“Personally, as someone who was a 13-year-old boy, it doesn’t matter what you put in that bathroom. Whatever it is, they’re going to draw a penis on it," the host added.

Kosta also showed footage of numerous Republican figures claiming that Walz was a “progressive in sheep’s clothing,” “a socialist in sheep’s clothing” and “a freak in sheep’s clothing.”

“Isn’t sheep’s clothing just like a wool sweater?" Kosta quipped. "I love wearing sheep’s clothing in the fall. I can make so many more cute outfits.”

Regarding former President Donald Trump's Wednesday phone interview with Fox News, in which he claimed that Walz was “a very, very liberal man” who “would want this country to go communist immediately, if not sooner," Kosta asked: "Immediately, if not sooner? There is no sooner. That’s what makes it immediately.”

“By the way, when Joe Biden rambled like this, all of us were like, ‘This man is obviously senile,’" Kosta said. "But now that he’s dropped out, it’s becoming more obvious that Trump’s brain isn’t exactly in great shape, either. He should get that looked at immediately, if not sooner.”

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During the discussion on "Fox & Friends," Trump also alleged that Walz was politically aligned with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. “He’s probably about the same as Bernie Sanders,” Trump said. "He’s probably more so than Bernie Sanders. She is more so than Bernie Sanders. That’s got to be your guy, Bernie Sanders, and that’s not a great guy. But there has never been a ticket like this. This is a ticket that would want this country to go communist immediately, if not sooner. We want no security. We want no anything. He’s heavy into transgender.”

Trump on Wednesday also posted to his Truth Social platform that Walz had "let Minnesota burn" during the protests that emerged in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd by former police officer Derek Chauvin.

However, Harris' campaign swiftly countered Trump's with a counter-post featuring Trump in a 2020 phone call referring to Walz as an "excellent guy" who had an "incredible" response to those very protests. 

“I totally agreed with the way he handled it the last couple of days,” Trump said. “Tim Walz, again, I was very happy with the last couple of days, Tim.”

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“Sexually forward with both women and men”: “House of the Dragon” star on her bold seafaring leader

A scene of muddy hand-to-hand combat is arguably the highlight of this season's finale of "House of the Dragon." It's also an entertaining introduction to the leader of the Triarchy — pirate Sharako Lohar (Abigail Thorn).

In the episode directed by Geeta Vasant Patel, the brash character ushers the show in a new direction as the Targaryen civil war deepens, joining a long line of strong women in "House of the Dragon" like Rhaenyra (Emma D'Arcy) and Alicent (Olivia Cooke) who push against the confines of a patriarchal world's rules. Therefore, we see Sharako challenge Tyland Lannister (Jefferson Hall,) telling him, "I will not sail with a man who cannot best me.”

"Tyland's not what she expected. But actually, the people of Westeros are not all what she thought."

Sharako and Tyland are practically swimming in a wet, slimy mud pit, trying to land as many physical blows on one another as possible. It's a fun and engaging scene where audiences are left questioning Sharako's sanity and sense of humor. Thorn describes Sharako as a "woman in a man's world, who is not afraid to jump in" especially in her beatdown of Tyland, which Thorn confirms took place in real mud: "It wasn't chocolate syrup. It tasted real . . . I still had filth under my toenails for weeks."

In Thorn's interview with Salon, she establishes that Sharako, as the leader of the Triarchy and future important puzzle to the Targaryen war, lives her life misunderstood by the men around her. "But I also think she doesn't particularly care that they don't get her deal," she says.

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"House of the Dragon": When the best action in the finale is mud wrestling, that's a problem

Though Sharako is Thorn's breakout television role, it isn't her first time playing a character that challenges gender roles and power. The award-winning play she penned, "The Prince," is roughly inspired by Tom Stoppard's "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead" and characters from William Shakespeare's "Henry IV, Part 1" but with a modern lens that focuses on queerness and gender identity. In "The Prince," Thorn plays Hotspur, an uber-masculine knight who has not yet realized she is transgender. She also leads her English army to victory against the Scottish. Thorn describes in Salon's interview that the play helped her with her part as Sharako because as Hotspur she was "running around doing a lot of sword fighting and action stuff." But also, Thorn explains there are similarities in her role in "The Prince" and "House of the Dragon" because "There was a bit of gender shenanigans going on there."

The actress, who is a popular philosophy-focused YouTuber with 1.5 million subscribers, also shares what books she would recommend her "completely bonkers" character. 

The following conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

I enjoyed Sharako Lohar so much. How did you get cast to play this pirate leader, and what were your first impressions of them?

So there were three rounds of auditions for Sharako. In the first round, it was a fake script, and we didn't know it was "House of the Dragon." I was told we're pretty sure this is what it is, but we're not sure. And I was initially told really small role — she's got like two lines. I was like, OK, no problem. And then they said, "Oh, there's going to be a recall, and Ryan's [Condal] going to be there, Sara [Hess is] going to be there, Geeta's gonna be there. Jefferson's gonna be there and head of casting." And I thought, "Oh, this isn't a small role. This is one of those roles where they tell you it's small in the first round, and then you get in and you find out it's not."

So I walked into the room and I met Ryan and Sara and shook everyone's hand. And Ryan was just like, it's Sharako Lohar. Right OK, leader of the Triarchy. So did the second round then got the call. I did the third round again with Geeta. I think my performance in "The Prince," which was my play that I did for Nebula the year before, helped a little bit because in that I played Hotspur, running around doing a lot of sword fighting and action stuff. There was a bit of gender shenanigans going on there, so I think that that probably helped a little bit. But that was how I got it.

What were your first impressions of Sharako? 

The scene I auditioned with was the one where she says, have you ever eaten human flesh? So my first impression was of a character who has a sense of humor and a sense of theatricality about her. And what I wanted to do was go, OK, like, I didn't want to walk in there and just play silly. Just play funny. If you're playing a character who's there to be fun, it's got to come from a real, authentic place and so that was a really helpful first step. The only thing they told me on the character breakdown was she's completely bonkers. From there, I had to find where does she where does her pain sit. What does she worry about? What's she trying to get out of this guy? Out of messing with his head like this? Is she messing with him for the sake of it? What is she really trying to get here? That question formed the basis of the kind of character construction that we did over the over the weeks and months of rehearsals that have followed really.

I can’t ignore how the character is introduced when another pirate tells Tyland Lannister, “You have to pass HIS test.” How does Sharako identify? What role do you think that gender plays when it comes to leadership in House of the Dragon? 

She's introduced with he/him pronouns by one particular person. I mean, gender is one of our themes in Season 2, in particular, women in a patriarchal world coming into our power. Rhaenyra's arc throughout this series is realizing that she's got to get stuck in. Basically, she's going to have to go out there on her dragon with a sword and really kick a**. There's that great moment where somebody she's holding the sword, and somebody says, "Oh, it suits you."

Sharako is a woman in a man's world, who is not afraid to jump in, who's not afraid to be a leader, and who we also see is quite sexually forward with both women and men, in a way that probably would not be expected. That would certainly shock the leaders of court. I think at least in Westeros and the Triarchy leaders, as far as we see, are all men. So Sharako sits in this space where she's a woman who I think the men around her don't really get her deal, but I also think she doesn't particularly care that they don't get her deal. I think she cares that they do what she says because she's got her own objectives, especially when it comes to this war, especially with regards to Corlys (Steve Toussaint). I think she cares about that first and foremost. As long as somebody can do what they're told at the time that they're told to do it, she doesn't particularly care whether she's referred to by this or that.

House of the DragonJefferson Hall as Tyland Lannister in "House of the Dragon" (HBO)How fun and/or challenging was that mud wrestling scene with Jefferson Hall? How long did it take to shoot and how long did it take to get clean after?

So the whole thing was shot in a day, but preceding that were many days of rehearsals with the stunt team and with Jefferson on crash maps. So it was one very long day. I think I was up at 4 a.m. to shoot that one. In terms of getting clean afterwards, God, that shower was lovely. I mean, that was really beautiful. Well, two showers, one sort of quick one in the in the trailer and then a more thorough one when I got home. But I still had filth under my toenails for weeks.

And I'm assuming it was real mud, right?

Oh yeah! It was real mud! They filtered it so it didn't have bits of broken glass or anything, but no, it wasn't chocolate syrup. It tasted real, yeah. I think they took all the mouse droppings and everything out of it so we weren't gonna get sick. It was a long day. It was great, great fun. It was exhausting, but I was grateful that I'd done a lot of physical training to get in shape before then because also I knew that on a day like that, you're up against the clock to get what you need. And I wanted to give Geeta everything she needed and to be able to go for as long as she needed to get the shot. So we're working right up to the limits of time on that day. And towards the end, we just had this amazing energy between us, me and Jefferson, just going again, again and again, and embellishing the moves. It was beautiful to see it all come together in the end.

Why is Tyland proving himself loyal through a physical challenge important to Sharako?

Because Tyland initially comes across as this very clean, soft-handed diplomat. And we talked a little bit about Sharako's perception of the people of Westeros and this two-faced doctrine, right? On the one hand, you've got these people who are a bit like Tyland, who are very sort of soft and friendly and, oh, let's form an alliance. And then the other face of it has teeth and breeds fire, right? So it's all very like, nicey-nicey. And then, you know, the dragon strike with fire, right? And so we have this moment when she comes in and she's, "Alright, which one are you? What sort of man are you? Type one, type two. Like, are you either nicey-nicey, or are you going to eat my men?"

"The show itself is quite philosophically resonant, especially this season."

And I think we talked a lot about what happens as they leave the tent when they meet, as they walk along, what they talk about. And I think she figures this guy's type one. He's the sort of clean, nice, sweet guy. He's not got any sort of fire in him. And he's like keeps his hands clean, both literally and politically. And I think she has his desire to dirty him up. And it's like, "Well, go on, let's get doing then if you want to prove to me you can fight. You want to prove that you've got some mettle in you; let's do it."

Her arc throughout the episode, the arc I chose to give her, was figuring out Tyland's not what she expected. But actually, the people of Westeros are not all what she thought. And she goes from really not liking Tyland to thinking, "OK, yeah, you're alright." I'll give you a chance to then by the end of it, actually being quite taken with him, enough to see what after the banquet scene.

At the feast, Lohar asks Tyland to be the father of their kids. But the caveat is he has to have sex with her wives . . . 

House of the DragonAbigail Thorn as Sharako Lohar and Jefferson Hall as Tyland Lannister in "House of the Dragon" (HBO)Well, I think Sharako's going to be involved in that! I think the implications she's involved with me and my wife, whether that, whether the having children is literal, or whether it's just like, I'd love to see you try, is a nice thing too, right?  One thing you didn't see is that was one take we did where I really upped the seduction thing. And as I leaned over, when I was talking to Jeff, I was unbuttoning his tunic, and then realized only the top three unbuttoned and it was actually done with a zip on the back. And he's like, "It's actually a zip." And I was like, "Oh, darn."

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What sort of conversations or thoughts did you have about this nontraditional type of relationship?

You're asking me about the people on TikTok who were shipping them. I'm down with that. I wanted to play it that Sharako is actually very taken with Tyland, and I'm just thinking in that banquet scene, I'm like, I'm gonna rock this guy's world because it's fun. Jefferson brings the comedy so wonderfully, of this fish out of water. She just wants to keep putting him out of water because he's just so cute when he squirms. We talked a lot in the rehearsals about Sharako's backstory and so on. Geeta and I talked about there might be some among the wives who are sort of special, who are a real inner circle. I was trying to picture, in my head, between the feast scene and obviously them on the ships — what happens? Who does she say bye to on the docks? Is there anyone in her life who's really close to her? So yeah, I was thinking about all of that when we were doing it. I just love they've got this great chemistry. I'm just trying to go back to the small council and be like, This is my girlfriend, queen of the pirates. F**k you guys!

Sharako plays an important role in the future "House of the Dragon" battle, how crucial was getting her brashness and thirst for battle right as this is the audience’s introduction to her? What sorts of scenes would you like to tackle as Lohar?

Getting her brashness right was an interesting one because the comedy of the character is very present. But I did a lot of work trying to figure out where the seriousness sits. There's this moment where she says, "The Sea Snake will rue the day we meet again." So I did a lot of thinking about what happened the first time. What is the grudge that she has against Corlys in particular? We thought a lot about what it would mean to Sharako to have grown up either around or potentially in the war for the Stepstones that Corlys and Daemon (Matt Smith) have fought. What she might have seen where she got this impression of the other face of Westeros diplomacy, the one with the teeth, right? And also what kind of plan she has for going up against that because, of course, they're probably going to be sailing into a fight with some dragons in it. So we better have some sort of plan. So I thought a lot about how she would feel about the prospect of going into a conflict like that, unlike the degree of her confidence and thirst for that. I did a lot of work behind the scenes figuring out the character's personal stakes in this conflict and what she might really want out of it which perhaps we'll see.

Your transition from your philosophy-focused YouTube to acting seems to be a seamless one! If you were to assign "House of the Dragon" or Sharako some philosophy reading and/or advice, what author or books would you recommend? And why?

Oh gosh! I'd be terrified to give Sharako any sort of advice, and I don't think she'd appreciate it. I think Sharako would want to read a book about naval tactics before she'd read any philosophy. I think she has probably a quite dim, dim view of it. I think the show itself is quite philosophically resonant, especially this season. That theme of what it means to be a woman taking up power within what is a very patriarchal system, and also the stakes of you've got to save the world. You're the generation that's got to fix everything. I think that's philosophically resonant enough. But no, I'd be terrified to give Sharako a book.

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Former Trump aide Stephen Miller spouts conspiracy theory about Kamala Harris and human trafficking

Stephen Miller, a former Trump White House aide who now campaigns against "anti-white" discrimination, leveled a bizarre and false charge against Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday, telling MSNBC’s Ari Melber that she was effectively leading a child trafficking ring.

“Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are the number one traffickers of children, girls, into sex slavery on planet Earth. How many people are in jail for that?” Miller said with a raised voice, expressing his frustration with the number of “innocent” Republicans and Trump supporters he felt were unjustly put in jail — a reference to the hundreds of people convicted for assaulting police and the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Miller, who was a senior policy advisor and White House director of speech-writing under President Donald Trump, made the assertion when asked about his own rule in trying to subvert the 2020 election.

Miller was instrumental in spreading conspiracy theories about voter fraud in 2021, falsely claiming, without evidence, that Trump would have won New Hampshire if "thousands" of illegal voters had not been bused there. The former aide has also been identified as a key player in advising Project 2025 through an advisory group he started called America First Legal, CNN reported. That group has led the charge against affirmative action programs and race-based admissions at universities, which it claims discriminate against white people.

The far-right narrative that Democrats are involved in sex trafficking is not a new one. The sweeping conspiracy theory known as QAnon, which Trump himself has repeatedly boosted, has long asserted that the former president and Republican nominee was secretly fighting a cabal of child sex predators comprised of Democrats and Hollywood elites, Reuters reported.  

In his appearance Wednesday, Miller portrayed his own effort to overthrown an election as patriotism, claiming that the real threat to democracy is the legal consequences that some of his allies are facing for trying to throw out President Joe Biden's 81 million votes.

“The weaponization of government is the beginning of the end of American democracy and every one of your viewers and listeners should understand — when you have a country where you can throw people in jail for violation of misinformation, for engaging in free speech, for engaging in good legal advice, for challenging illegitimate election results, you’re not a free country anymore,” Miller said.

Taco Bell looks to expand the use of artificial intelligence voice technology in its drive-thrus

In what’s being described as its biggest change ever, Taco Bell is rolling out artificial intelligence-powered drive-thrus to hundreds of US locations by the end of this year. That means consumers will soon be greeted by a computer, rather than a human employee, when they order at a Taco Bell drive-thru.

The burrito chain has been testing AI drive-thru ordering in 100 stores across 13 states, and is slated to expand the test to “hundreds more,” parent company Yum! Brands said in a press release, per Inc. Taco Bell’s ultimate goal is to implement the technology in all of its restaurant locations. 

The latest initiative comes in the wake of McDonald’s AI drive-thru hoopla, which went viral across social media. Back in June, the fast-food giant announced it was ending a test run of its AI drive-thru technology partnership with IBM in more than 100 restaurants nationwide following customer complaints. Several TikTok users shared videos showing the faulty system miscalculating orders (in the case of two customers, who were given 260 Chicken McNuggets much to their anguish) and producing unappetizing food combinations, like ice cream with ketchup and butter.

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In a statement to CNBC, McDonald’s said it isn’t ruling out potential AI drive-thru plans in the future: “As we move forward, our work with IBM has given us the confidence that a voice ordering solution for drive-thru will be part of our restaurants’ future. We see tremendous opportunity in advancing our restaurant technology and will continue to evaluate long-term, scalable solutions that will help us make an informed decision on a future voice ordering solution by the end of the year.”

Despite McDonald’s struggles, Taco Bell is sure that it won’t run into similar problems with its AI drive-thru. Yum! Brands’ chief innovation officer Lawrence Kim told CNN that the initial roll out has already led to greater ordering accuracy, happier employees and shorter drive-thru wait times.

“We are confident that we’ve approached this the right way,” Kim told the outlet, adding that it’s taken two years of testing, gathering employee and customer feedback and improving the technology to be successful with the new drive-thrus. CNN noted that Yum! Brands didn’t provide any actual data on the said successes. Yum! Brands did say it now earns $30 billion in sales (about 50% of its total revenue) from digital-first ordering channels.

Yum! Brands also refrained from specifying which technology partners the corporation is working with to make its AI drive-thrus a possibility.

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Kim explained that Yum! Brands is strengthening its AI system by training it to understand different pronunciations of certain words and menu items, namely “quesadilla” (“kay-sah-dee-ya” versus “kay-sah-DILL-uh”). He added that Taco Bell employees are still listening on the other end of the drive-thru, so if the AI system struggles to comprehend an order, an employee can jump in and take over.

Kim also addressed the main concern with AI powered technology, saying the ordering system would not replace human jobs. Instead, the AI system will “enhance the team member experience so they can focus on other tasks that are a priority for them,” Kim told CNN.

In addition to Taco Bell, Chipotle, Wingstop and Panera are just a few major chains that have been experimenting with AI in their restaurants nationwide. Del Taco began testing the technology in 2022 but announced in February of this year that it would no longer use voicebots from Presto Automation to take orders in the drive-thru.

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Starbucks’ sales dip as customers seek better-priced coffee elsewhere

A growing number of customers are abandoning Starbucks in favor of alternative coffeehouses selling reasonably priced drinks and food.

Last week, CNN reported that Starbucks sales dropped 3% globally at stores open for at least a year, including a 2% drop in its North America market. Total transactions at North American stores open for at least one year fell 6% last quarter — which CNN explained was offset, in part, by higher prices.

The recent statistics mark Starbucks’ second-straight quarter of sales declines.

CEO Laxman Narasimhan told CNBC that more consumers are buying the brand’s line of packaged coffee at grocery stores, but a “challenging consumer environment” continues to threaten sales at its cafes. Starbucks — which has long been a welcoming “third-spot” for customers to lounge, work or socialize in — joins a list of restaurant chains that are experiencing decreased consumer demand due to rising food costs. Earlier this year, McDonald’s sparked a national debate after a restaurant in Darien, Connecticut, charged a whopping $18 for a Big Mac combo meal. The backlash compelled McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski to announce that the company would make affordability a priority in 2024 during a Feb. 5 earnings call. McDonald’s has since released several limited-time offers, including a $5 value meal, in hopes of wooing its customers. Wendy’s, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut are just a few other chains that have followed suit.

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In California, Starbucks prices have increased by about 7% on average from February to April 2024, according to Kalinowski Equity Research (KER). That statistic was obtained after analysts compared menu prices at 25 individual restaurant locations before and after California’s $20 minimum wage mandate went into full effect on April 1. KER also found that a venti iced caramel macchiato costs 8.4% more than it did two months ago, while a venti caffe latte costs about 5.5% more than it used to.

In addition to price hikes, Starbucks faces increased pressure from rival drive-thru coffee chains that are attracting more price-conscious customers. Upstarts like 7 Brew Drive Thru Coffee, Scooter’s Coffee, Dutch Bros. and Ziggi’s Coffee are currently dominating the industry with quick service and creative menu options.

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More than 70% of Starbucks’ sales come from mobile app and drive-thru orders at its approximately 9,500 company-operated stores across the nation. The bulk of sales are also from cold coffee beverages, teas and lemonades rather than hot coffee.

Starbucks is hoping to win back customers with its very own value menu, called the “Pairings Menu,” which includes a drink and a breakfast item for either $5 or $6. According to CNN, the company said its new menu is proving to be beneficial and encouraging customers to make more multi-item orders.

Additionally, Starbucks introduced the Siren System, new technology that helps eliminate long customer wait times for cold drinks. The system includes faster blenders and new dispensers for milk and ice are set up in a line, allowing employees to quickly prepare drinks without reaching under or over the counter for key ingredients.     

During a call with analysts Wednesday, Narasimhan said the recent plans “are beginning to work.”  

“We’re rebuilding the operational foundation of our stores and supply chain,” he added.

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Trump left spinning by Kamala Harris’ surprise strength

It didn’t take long.

Shortly after Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris appeared Tuesday on stage in Philadelphia with Gov. Tim Walz, D- Minn., her choice for running mate, the Trump disinformation team vaulted into action. Walz, according to the Trump crowd, was a proponent of defunding the police. He wanted to let convicted felons vote – something you might think the Republicans would support since their own candidate for president is a convicted felon. They criticized Walz’s populist roots, made fun of his demeanor, his speech and attacked his record of serving in the National Guard – conveniently forgetting their own candidate never served a day in the service and got out of military service because of “bone spurs.” 

After reading all of the instant accusations against Walz, I was half expecting to hear he had flat feet, eczema, psoriasis and halitosis. One social media posting accused him of being a bedwetter. 

Democratic activist Richard Ojeda, who spent 24 years in the military, defended Walz, accusing Republicans of distorting the governor’s record (there’s a shock). “This man did 24 years in the National Guard, deployed overseas and he was selected for the highest seat in the enlisted world,” Ojeda told me of Walz. “He was operating in that position and then he retired. This guy is a solid guy.”

At the end of the day, the GOP looked like those chimpanzees in the zoo who are kept behind glass walls because they fling their fecal remains at everyone. So far, very little of this has stuck to Walz, who remains affable and effective at blocking the demagoguery. Still, the GOP won’t give up its attempts to demonize Walz and Harris. The Democrats had to know it was coming, and if they didn’t then they’re more headless than I thought. The Republicans are certainly heartless. 

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The accusations against Harris and Walz have been crazy, okay even weird, clearly indicating that even if there is doubt about whether or not the Harris/Walz ticket can win, the MAGA party is certainly melting into a puddle of its own vomit, tears and sweat over the prospect of losing. Walz, speaking before the Philadelphia crowd, did not hesitate to go after Trump, Vance and the GOP in general. For the Democrats, it was a joy to behold. 

Walz said he couldn’t wait to debate Vance – if Vance could get up off the couch. “You see what I did there,” he joked to the crowd and then smiled. He, of course, was referring to the debunked notion that Vance had sex with a couch – a rumor so ensconced in the public eye that the AP had to run a headline that said JD Vance did not, in fact, have sex with a couch. 

That’s a headline I never thought I’d see, but nonetheless, by making fun of Vance and smiling at his own joke, Walz came across as serious, yet light-hearted and that’s what the Democrats have seemingly lacked – at least according to them and their harshest critics.

The ability of running mates to work together as a team has never been more crucial to the party’s efforts.

Of course, Vance is an easy target. He’s as honest as Trump, as genuine as plastic and as appealing as a hot, steaming pile of Republican rhetoric. He has little chance of being an effective debater; or as Ojeda said, “He’ll get stomped like a Narc at a biker rally.”

Democrats tell us Walz is the populist they need, the football coach, grandfather and working-class father we all respect. He’s unpretentious, serious, funny and cutting. His wide grin and easy manner remind me of a more affable Don Rickles. His energy feeds into the Harris energy and the Democrats are ecstatic over the possibilities.

Trump, meanwhile, has dissolved under Walz’s addition to the Democratic ticket. Insiders in the Trump camp who still can nominally engage in cogent thought believe Trump made a horrible choice in choosing Vance and it will cost them the election. They’re running around with their hair on fire while trying to pull it out.

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Who’s left arguing Trump’s case but Stephen Miller, who has no hair to pull out (though he once stenciled some on his head). Miller appeared on Fox News Tuesday to tell us that the Harris/Walz ticket “Will turn the entire Midwest into Mogadishu.” Hatred, fear and incendiary rhetoric have always been key to the Trump campaign, but turning Miller loose is a step into incendiary desperation. He has all the appeal of roadkill. Of course, that probably is still better than Donald Trump’s reaction.

The former president posted on his Truth Social page a long litany of vile, racist comments, displaying his stunning ignorance and then said Biden wasn’t going to give up so easily on a second term. In essence, he begged Biden to “take back the nomination, beginning with challenging me to another debate.”

If you believe Trump sounds desperate, it’s only because he is.

Joe Walsh, the former Republican candidate for president who ran against Trump, is among a group of Republicans supporting Harris. He put it this way: “Walz brings something Democrats have sorely lacked for quite some time; a populist voice. We’ve been living in populist times for a while – regular folks are pissed off about changes in their lives and their country – Republicans demagogue this moment, but Democrats haven’t recognized this moment. Democrats have become increasingly elitist and out of touch with regular folks. Waltz is a left-of-center populist who can speak with and relate to regular, working class folks. He’s just what the Democratic Party needs.”

In other words, Walz speaks to the roots of the Democratic Party – working class citizens. That’s the same group that supports Biden. Walz may well serve that wing of the Democratic Party, keep it energized and at the same time help reach out to those voters who, for whatever reason, are still on the fence about the November general election. 

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre acknowledged in Wednesday’s briefing that Harris reached out and sought Biden’s advice on who she should appoint as her running mate. Her choice offers some insight into how much influence Biden had in the process – even if she and Biden never speak publicly about their conversation regarding that choice. 

A Democratic strategist also confirmed to me Wednesday that more than 40 of the Democrat’s top donors and strategists circulated a letter that Harris read, endorsing either Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear or Walz as her running mate. In the end, everyone was happy with her choice. The next three months determine the wisdom of that choice. A victory will be seen as a watershed event, the final flushing of Trump and his minions into the infernal swamp from which they emerged. A decisive victory will force the Republican Party to re-evaluate itself and re-energize itself with those who are more constitutionally minded than Donald Trump, the Heritage Foundation or JD “shapeshifter” Vance. It will be the leverage more sane Republicans will need to seize back control from the lunatics.

But a loss by the Democrats would be crushing to their hopes and to a majority of Americans who find the authoritarian leanings of Trump to be intolerable. That’s what’s at stake. And the Democrats had to make a decision in just a few days about a VP candidate which usually takes place over a few months. It’s not like they were under any pressure. 

Conventional wisdom says a vice presidential nominee has little effect on the outcome of the election, but this year may be the exception to the rule. The ability of running mates to work together as a team has never been more crucial to the party’s efforts.

Those in the Harris camp say Walz emerged as her choice because, as one Harris staff member said, “they got along real well from the start.” Nice to hear. Hundreds of millions of people in the U.S. and many more abroad hope that the relationship grows and endures.

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On Monday night I got a chance to see Pat Benatar and her husband Neil “Spyder” Giraldo in the closing days of their cross-country tour at a concert outside of Los Angeles.

They have been together, like my wife and I, for more than 40 years. Hard to believe, since we’re all still 19. But, anyway, as Benatar sang some of her most intimate love songs I noticed she sang them while looking directly at Spyder. He hit us with some great guitar licks while she sang with a passion borne of mutual struggle, strife, friendship and decades of love. The words seemed more meaningful and resonated far more than when I heard some of those songs in the 80s – you know when we all wore outfits and our hair in ways we either can’t or would be too ashamed to do today.

The next three months on the campaign trail will seem like 40 years to the American electorate and to the teams of Harris/Walz and Trump/Vance. They’ll have to be able to look at each other at the end of that journey with similar affection Benatar showed Monday night – at least politically – if this country is to survive.

Donald Trump’s mental decline becomes more apparent every day. Vance’s fear of women, his desire to destroy voting rights and both of their desires to turn back time to “Make America Great Again” when that past was never great for children, minorities, those of certain faiths and those in the LGBTQ community, are taking a toll on this country. 

Still, they endure and the Harris/Walz ticket will have to gel fast, in the thick of battle and with a congeniality that wins over critics. Legitimate questions remain about their ability to convert the energy the Democrats have demonstrated so far in the last 17 days into electoral votes in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan – states the Democrats must win to retain the White House.

As I reflected on Benatar belting out the lyrics to “We Belong Together,” as Spyder mesmerized the audience with his guitar,  I wondered if at the end of November Harris and Walz will say, “We belong together,” and more importantly will the country and our allies join in singing that chorus – as members of the audience did with Benatar in Southern California. 

I’m damn sure I’ll never hear Trump and Vance singing that to each other. I’m sure the majority of the country won’t, and I’m sure no one but Putin would ever look longingly into Trump’s eyes and sing “We belong together.”

So, Democrats hit us with your best shot.

Watching Trump and Vance meltdown in public is funny, weird, creepy and dangerous. But the more it becomes apparent that Trump is slipping, the more dangerous he and his vile movement become. For the country to come together, Trump cannot win. After all, who the Hell wants JD Vance a heartbeat away from the Presidency? I’m told even Trump doesn’t relish that thought.

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Harris campaign says Walz offers “playbook” for trimming Trump’s advantage with rural voters

As Vice President Kamala Harris and her newly-minted running mate Tim Walz embark on their late summer swing-state circuit, their campaign is setting up infrastructure and testing messages that they think can appeal to rural voters and shave away the GOP's statewide margins across the Midwest and Rust Belt.

According to a strategy memo sent out Wednesday afternoon, Walz, who grew up in a small Nebraska town and represented a red-tinted rural House district in Minnesota, will be the face of this new effort.

"He is a historically popular leader who consistently outperformed national Democrats in his House district, including in counties that have supported Trump, offering a blueprint for how to cut margins in rural areas across the country," the memo states. "In Wisconsin specifically, many voters we need to reach already know him, since roughly 400,000 Wisconsinites see him every day on local television coming in from Minnesota."

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Democrats appear conscious of their limitations in rural areas. Rural voters have broken for Republicans for many decades now, and urban voters for Democrats, with the divide widening more with each election cycle. A Pew Research Center analysis of the 2022 elections found that 69% of rural voters cast ballots for GOP candidates and only 29% for Democrats.

That same election cycle, Democrats lost several key rural House seats they had held for years, including Wisconsin's 3rd District, which runs up the state's western border. In 2018, Walz left his own rural congressional seat in Minnesota to run for governor; a Republican won the election to replace him. In his 2022 re-election bid, Walz roughly matched Biden's 2020 performance statewide and in Minnesota's rural counties, albeit while battling a relatively moderate Republican opponent who did not join his colleagues in some of their more inflammatory statements and positions. After winning three of Iowa's four House seats in 2018, Democrats have been pushed out of all federal and statewide offices in a state that voted for Barack Obama in the 2008 Democratic primary and general election, the latter by a nearly 10-point margin.

Obama's 2008 campaign, the most decisive electoral college victory for a Democratic candidate since 1996, won in part by rebuilding Democratic strength in rural areas and outperforming Sen. John Kerry's 2004 showing. Although Obama was never going to win rural America outright, his improvements there paved the way for urban and suburban voters to tip statewide elections and some House elections in favor of Democratic candidates.

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In a sign that they are seeking to emulate parts of Obama's strategy, the Harris campaign has hired David Plouffe, the former president's 2008 campaign manager, as a top advisor.

"We have invested in campaign infrastructure across Wisconsin and are competing everywhere because we know we need to narrow the margins in rural areas to win," the Harris-Walz campaign memo states. "Our campaign will continue to go everywhere, and Governor Walz will be a key messenger in these rural areas where we’re focused on limiting Republicans’ margins," it said later, referring to Pennsylvania.

It's an apparent contrast to some past Democratic campaigns, which relied on turning out urban voters or converting as many voters as possible in suburban areas, which are often tightly contested, rather than setting foot into more inhospitable territory. Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign, for example, lost all three blue-wall states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin that Biden recaptured in 2020, in part by trimming Trump's margins in Republican counties.

The Harris campaign believes they've identified the issues they need to pick up rural voters.

"We are campaigning on the issues that matter to voters in these areas, including lowering health care costs, protecting abortion access, and strengthening local infrastructure," the memo states. "Democrats have a track record of performing well in critical rural counties like Iowa, Sauk, and Green [in Wisconsin] in recent elections – winning all three in 2020 – and our massive coordinated campaign is poised to build on that energy in the lead-up to November."

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Tim Walz’s normal dad energy is causing MAGA to come unglued

In their first go-round in attacking Gov. Tim Walz, the Donald Trump campaign bet that maximum hyperbole could hoodwink people into dismissing the "chill dad" demeanor of Vice President Kamala Harris's new running mate. "Tim Walz will unleash hell on Earth!" a Trump fundraising email said of the former high school football coach turned top Minnesota executive. The campaign followed up with a barrage of emails describing the affable Midwesterner as "Dangerously Liberal," in clear hopes that brute repetition would distract voters from the fact that Walz reads more like "Ted Lasso" than "Che Guevara." 

The strategy had only gone on for a few hours, however, when the extremely online MAGA forces, who control the campaign to the extent of making one of their own Trump's running mate, got restless. Even they could tell that apocalyptic language about a guy cracking dad jokes is a hard sell. But it's not like the miscreants of MAGA social media had a better idea, mind you. Instead, they turned to their own weird hang-ups over gender and sexuality, attacking Walz for caring about the health and well-being of students in school. 

"There is a genuine hunger out there — I see it in many of my students — for some kind of positive model of how to be in the world as a straight white dude."

Dubbing Walz "Tampon Tim" appears to have been kicked off by popular right-wing troll Phillip Buchanan, who goes by the Twitter handle "Catturd." As documented by Media Matters, the slur took off rapidly across the MAGA internet, with users photoshopping pictures of Walz surrounded by tampons. Within an hour, it had been informally picked up by the Trump campaign, with longtime Trump aide and speechwriter Stephen Miller amplifying the nickname. It all appeared to be a race to prove that MAGA is full of weirdoes with deep psychological issues.

The impetus for this freakout was a bill signed by Walz last year requiring public schools to make menstrual products available to students at no charge. The bill was the result of student activists and medical professionals making irrefutable arguments such as, "Teenagers don’t know when they will get their period," and "We cannot learn while we are leaking." Schools have toilet paper and school nurses, so why not provide this small amount of help? No one benefits, except the bullies, if students get blood on their clothes and on the furniture.

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This hysterical reaction to a banal student health program speaks to MAGA misogyny, but also to the twisted view of masculinity at the heart of Trumpism. As Walz said in the viral clip where he also deemed MAGA Republicans "weird," it's like they're all running for "the he-man woman haters’ club." In the Trumpist milieu, hate is what makes someone a "real" man: hate of racial minorities, of LGBTQ people, and especially of women. In this view, "real" men don't accept menstruation as a normal fact of life. Instead, men are expected to lose their minds at the mere mention of periods. One MAGA influencer even tweeted, "no holes left unfilled," as if using a tampon is an exotic sexual practice instead of basic hygiene. 

Walz, in comparison, has an easygoing masculinity, one that is about love and not hate. He's a guy's guy, from his dad jokes to his career coaching football to his enthusiastic promotion of the basics of car maintenance. In one viral clip, Walz offers a "pro tip of the day" on how to fix a Ford headlight in 5 minutes with a $7.99 part. 

As a male friend texted me, "there is a genuine hunger out there — I see it in many of my students — for some kind of positive model of how to be in the world as a straight white dude." Trump and his acolytes offer an exhausting and harmful model, that is entitled, rage-fueled, and its heart, deeply insecure. Walz, however, seems comfortable in his own skin. He shows there's nothing wrong with liking football and fixing your own car — both are fine uses of a person's time! All that "traditional man" stuff can live quite comfortably with "woke" ideas like "women are people, too." As Walz has persuasively posited, his is the more normal way to be. It's the MAGA try-hards who are the weirdoes. The phrase "tonic masculinity" — in opposition to the toxic masculinity of MAGA — soon started to spread online.

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Tim Walz shops at Menards, making our Hallmark governor dreams a reality

Tuesday, I went to two Philadelphia campaign events: A small gathering for Trump's running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, and then the smash hit rally later that day for Harris and Walz. It certainly underscored this normal vs. weird narrative the Harris campaign is pushing. The people who showed up at the Harris rally came in clusters, some families and some groups of friends, all of different ages, races and attires. At the Vance event, however, there were an unusual number of supporters who showed up by themselves, and nearly all were white men. The mood was a sour one. The audience only really got going when Vance started talking about "the media," which was taken as an opportunity to turn to the journalists in attendance and shriek hate at us. 

Certainly, throwing a tantrum because a middle-aged male governor publicly acknowledged a basic fact of biology does little to discourage the "incel" image of MAGA men. Part of adulthood, for cis men and all the rest of us, is learning comfort with the biological differences we have from other people. It's childish and weird to act like even looking at a tampon box will emasculate you. Most of these MAGA guys like to talk a big game about their heterosexuality, but this behavior betrays a fear of vaginas that is incompatible with their hetero-hype. But this isn't just about sex. Being chill about menstruation is crucial if men want to be fathers of daughters, friends of women, or just people who wish to navigate the world comfortably, as it's heavily populated with people who get periods. 

Perhaps recognizing this, the Trump campaign tried to pretend the "Tampon Tim" thing was about trans identities. They complained that the program covers all students who menstruate, even if they identify as trans boys or non-binary. But, of course, this objection doesn't make sense. "No one has to bleed on their clothes" is a good rule for all students, regardless of whether Republicans approve of the names and pronouns they choose to use. 

All this whining about the pronouns and menstrual cycles of kids they don't even know only serves to prove that, for all the tough guy talk of Trump and his fanboys, the MAGA movement embraces a masculinity built on cowardice. Their entire worldview is shaped by fear. These supposedly strong men flinch in terror of literal schoolchildren whose gender self-presentation falls outside their rigid boundaries. They're so unsettled by differences that they can't handle thinking about how a uterus works. (Though they also feel entitled to tell those with uteruses what they're allowed to do with them.) These are men so afraid of intellectual challenge that even imagining what it might be like to be female or gay or trans causes them to shut down. They get so bound up in fear of emasculation that they turn into alienated weirdoes. 

Walz, with his cheerful goober dad persona, offers a view of masculinity that is far tougher than that displayed by even the most steroid-inflated men of the MAGA world. He's a guy who isn't afraid of basic empathy. A man who is confident enough not to run from those who are different. A man so sure of himself that he can let a woman be his boss without acting threatened by her power. That's what real strength looks like. No wonder a weak man like Trump thinks Walz is the apocalypse. 

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Historian Timothy Ryback on Kamala Harris’ rise: “If only Germans had had such an alternative”

President Biden reset the political chessboard when he decided to step aside as the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee in the 2024 election and to pass the torch to his vice president, Kamala Harris. Democrats and their voters and donors are now energized. Bored of and hostile to President Biden, the mainstream news media has found a new shiny object and is generally effusive in its support of Harris’ potential as a rival for Donald Trump. The very early polls, which are likely to be significantly different once the honeymoon period passes, have swung back in favor of the Democrats. The race is now tied between Harris and Trump.

However, the celebration by the Democrats and other pro-democracy Americans is very premature. The battle against Donald Trump and the neofascist movement will not be easy; it will also last much longer than the 100 or so days to Election Day.

Trump is also something much worse than a generic aspiring dictator. He is actively channeling Adolf Hitler and Nazism, with his increasingly bold threats of revenge, retribution, imprisoning (and worse) his “enemies,” plans to purge the human “vermin” from the nation’s blood, take away many of the freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and plans to create a concentration camp system to deport many millions of non-white refugees, migrants, and undocumented residents. Trump also believes himself to be some type of God. In total, Donald Trump appears to be mentally and emotionally unwell and is escalating his incitements (and threats) of violence and mayhem.

Vice President Kamala Harris, on the other hand, is a Black South Asian woman and the country’s first woman to hold such a high office. She is also the first woman of color to be a major political party’s presidential nominee. To be so many firsts and such a trailblazer makes Harris simultaneously both uniquely vulnerable and potentially quite strong in her quest to win the presidency.

Vice President Harris could be a perfect opportunity for Donald Trump to apply his preferred style of political attack(s) and general vileness. Alternatively, Harris could potentially reverse Trump and his surrogates' likely obvious avenues of attack to great effect. Ultimately, America’s political future is very uncertain.

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The familiar traits that trigger Trump's toxic rage against Kamala Harris

This is the third part of a three-part conversation with Historian Timothy Ryback, the author of several books including "Hitler’s Private Library," "Hitler’s First Victims," and "The Last Survivor: Legacies of Dachau." His new book is "Takeover: Hitler's Final Rise to Power." Ryback is the cofounder and director of the Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation at The Hague.

"Looking at the response to Kamala Harris, it’s clear that a large number of Americans (not just traditional Democrats) were waiting for a capable leader who could take on Trump and defeat the horror of everything he stands for."

Ryback warns that Trump is making similar threats as Adolf Hitler and given the corrupt Supreme Court’s recent decision enshrining “presidential immunity”, i.e. making Trump and his Republican-fascist successors into de facto kings, the existential danger to the United States and its people (and the world) has only increased greatly. Ryback also warns that Trump and his propagandists, as Hitler did, will use the recent assassination attempt in Pennsylvania as a tool for suppressing dissent and fueling the fiction that he is a tool of God and destiny.

At the end of this conversation, Ryback offers some hope as he reflects on how Vice President Kamala Harris offers the American people an opportunity to save their democracy (and themselves) from Trump and the neofascist movement that the German people in the 1930s did not have.

Trump and his propagandists are valorizing the Jan. 6 MAGA insurrectionists and have empowered right-wing militias and other thugs and enforcers. Hitler made similar moves.

I share the concern over the valorization of political violence not just on January 6, but also going back to the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville when a young woman was killed when a white supremacist drove his vehicle into a crowd in a brazen act of political violence.

Trump’s insistence that there were “good people” among the right-wing fanatics in Charlottesville reminded me of Hitler’s public support for six right-wing fanatics who were tried and sentenced to death for bludgeoning to death a foreign worker in the summer of 1932. Hitler insisted that if he were chancellor no foreign life would ever be put above that of a blood German.

Perhaps more troubling still is Trump’s embrace of some of Hitler’s most vile public rhetoric. When the former president said his political opponents were “vermin” and accused illegal immigrants of “poisoning the blood”, he echoes Hitler’s own ravings against Germany’s Jewish population as “parasites” possessing “infectious political and physical diseases.” Hitler was said to have made anti-Semitism “salonfähig,” fomenting hatred of Jews in polite company by his ceaseless and hate-filled tirades against Germany’s Jewish population. We know where that led.

Was Trump’s coup attempt on Jan. 6 an American Reichstag Fire moment?

Like everyone, I was riveted and horrified while watching the live coverage from the Capitol on January 6, and absolutely felt like this was America’s Reichstag moment. But my sense then was that this was also the moment when American strength would prevail, especially when the House Republicans joined their Democrat colleagues in condemning this act of unprecedented violence against our country’s democratic structures and processes. And then we watched this collective response dissipate into partisanship politics.  Then it truly felt like our Reichstag moment.

Unfortunately, with the recent Supreme Court decision on immunity, Trump has no need for a second Reichstag fire moment. Trump will enter office with more power than Hitler could ever have dreamed of having on his first day as chancellor back in January 1933.

The Supreme Court basically made Trump and his Republican fascist successors into kings. I am surprised we have not seen the elite agenda-setting media comparing this landmark decision to the Enabling Act that gave Adolf Hitler and the Nazis dictatorial power.

I would hesitate to speak of “fascist successors,” but I too am deeply unsettled by the recent Supreme Court decision on immunity, and I do think your invocation of the “Emergency Decrees” (Reichstagsbrandverordnung) that followed the Reichstag fire in February 1933, and the subsequent passing of the “Enabling Act” (Ermächtingungsgesetz) a month later, is as appropriate as it is worrying for the democracy in our country. 

Let me add another Nazi concept here: Here I might add Gleichschaltung, the concept by which the Nazis systematically compromised and controlled every aspect of government. Gleichschaltung is generally rendered in English as “Coordination,” but this translation lacks, to my mind, the ominous overtones of a systematic technical autocratic takeover of power. The word “gleich”, or “same,” and “Schaltung,” or switch, derives from electrical circuitry terminology, suggesting literally the switching of everything onto the same circuit, a latter-day version of which appears to be outlined in the presidential transition projects, drafted by Trump acolytes, under the euphemistic title “Project 2025.”

Why do you think that the mainstream news media has quickly moved on from Donald Trump’s comments about human vermin and blood pollution, mass deportation and concentration camps, praise of Hitler and Nazis, threats of “revenge and retribution”, plans to put his enemies in prison and worse? Trump is literally channeling Hitlerism, and often almost quoting Hitler directly. This should be a national emergency.

To my mind there are a myriad number of factors, but mainly three; First, there is not one media—there are multitudes all competing for the public’s attention. News is reported not just daily but hourly, minute by minute. It moves so fast that all the excesses, all the outrages seem to be par for the course. Second, people dismiss or accept outrageous, horrific statements not based on rational thought but on emotion. And third, it seems to me that we have simply become inured to Trump’s excesses and outrages. We stop tallying or even registering the lies. The shock value dissipates. The bar on offensive public rhetoric is lowered into the gutter.

How will Trump and his agents use the recent assassination attempt as a tool for their agenda? What does history teach us?

It was a horrific event and anathema to everything our country represents, and also a worrying sign of the dangers of political polarization combined with the proliferation of firearms in our country. I cannot comment in an informed way on how Trump and his agents might use this attempted assassination for political ends, but I suspect it will imbue Trump, at least within his hardcore base, a sense of messianic almost divine invincibility. 

Here I might mention that Hitler escaped or survived more than two dozen assassination attempts during his political career, which helped convince him that, as it did his most devoted and fanatic followers, he was destined by higher powers as the leader of the German people.

It is perhaps no surprise that Leni Riefenstahl’s “Triumph of the Will” comes to mind given the Republican Convention in Wisconsin. It was, without doubt, a triumph of Donald Trump’s will to power, and frankly, a stunning example of the exercise of the Führerprinzip in 21st-century America. Hitler developed the concept in the early 1920s when he was seeking to assert control over the Nazi movement. He systematically sidelined, co-opted or crushed all competitors and opponents within the movement and came to rule with absolute authority. 

With his near-miraculous survival of the attempted assassination in Pennsylvania and his unchallenged nomination as the Republican party candidate for the presidential election in Wisconsin, Trump has emerged as a political figure of near Hitlerian dimension, a man who commands absolute authority over his political movement accompanied by apparent divine protection, not unlike Hitler’s survival of repeated assassination attempts.  "I regard this as a confirmation of the task imposed on me by Providence to continue on the road of my life as I have done hitherto,” Hitler said in a radio address after surviving the July 1944 bomb. Trump echoed a similar sentiment following his own July 2024 assassination attempt, as he wrote on Truth Social, it was "God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening." Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, who is currently serving a prison sentence for contempt of Congress, claimed, "Trump wears the Armor of God."

Looking forward, what causes you the most worry? What if anything has given you hope?

The common wisdom among the German political elites was that Hitler’s rhetoric and conduct would cool once he was in office. The operative phrase: “Soup is always cooked hotter than it is eaten.” The politicians who facilitated Hitler’s appointment as chancellor argued that Hitler would be boxed in so tight that he would “squeak.” I don’t think there is any such illusion about a second term Trump presidency.

I worry about the weakening of the guardrails, especially the Supreme Court decision on presidential immunity. I worry about an election that delivers a Trump victory and hands the Senate, the House of Representatives, and the White House to the Republicans. I worry about America withdrawing from the international stage, rescinding its commitments abroad, especially Ukraine, and the signal that sends to the rest of the world, especially to authoritarian leaders. I worry that Joseph Goebbels was right about democracy handing its enemies the tools for its own destruction.

As for hope? As of July 21, that's easy. Biden's decision to withdraw from the election and the unprecedented $100 million in support to Harris’s campaign. The pitting of the 59-year-old former prosecutor against the 79-year-old convicted felon. Let's hope for a landslide in November both for Democrats as well as for democracy.  

Are we past the point of no return in stopping Donald Trump and the American neofascist movement? Has a type of path dependency set in?

If I learned anything in researching and writing “Takeover”, it was that the final outcome of any event is ultimately determined by political contingencies. Consider just the past two weeks. Looking at the response to Kamala Harris, it’s clear that a large number of Americans (not just traditional Democrats) were waiting for a capable leader who could take on Trump and defeat the horror of everything he stands for. An amazing burst of energy and enthusiasm has been unleashed that I think can bring people across generations and backgrounds together in a way that I haven’t seen since Obama’s campaign in 2008. This tells me that when people are no longer resigned to the inevitable, when they are given a voice and a choice they feel is credible and articulate, then they will not remain silent and passive. They will be motivated to vote in significant numbers and will rally to the cause of democracy. If only Germans had had such an alternative in 1933.

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World Health Organization updates list of infectious pathogens with pandemic potential

Another pandemic like COVID-19 is all but guaranteed, according to public health experts. Whether it happens next year or a decade from now, these massive public health emergencies naturally happen on a regular basis, especially as our world gets hotter from climate change and more viruses and other pathogens spill over from our diminishing wilderness.

The World Health Organization (WHO) keeps track of the bacteria, fungi, viruses and parasites that are most likely to cause widespread chaos and recently updated its running tally of the world's most threatening pathogens. They did this with the help of over 200 scientists from more than 50 countries who investigated the data of more than 1,600 viruses and bacteria. And, as it turns out, there are more bugs out there worth worrying about than previously reported.

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Will we be prepared for "Disease X?" Misinformation could leave us vulnerable to a future pandemic

In the report released last week, the WHO updated the list to more than 30 pathogens that could trigger another pandemic, and added new ones to the list — namely influenza A virus, dengue virus and mpox virus — to the list. One noteworthy addition to the list is the mpox virus (formerly known as "monkeypox"), which caused a global pandemic in 2022.  But the virus keeps mutating and more deadly strain is now spreading rapidly through Africa. It was reported this week that the WHO is considering declaring as "public health emergency of international concern" over the emerging crisis.

The authors of the report also warn against a Pathogen X, or as-yet-unidentified bug that may cause major public health incidents in the future.

"Pathogen X is a term used to denote an unidentified or unspecified pathogen," the authors write. "Unknown pathogens with the potential to induce a [public health emergency of international concern] or pandemics in the future. It is challenging to predict the specific pathogen that may lead to the next [public health emergency of international concern] or pandemic. While numerous viruses and bacteria capable of infecting humans exist, only a limited subset has historically been responsible for pandemics or widespread epidemics."

While the WHO's report could seem like a worrisome report, it's hard to prepare for the next pandemic if we don't know what to look out for. This "most-wanted" list is a good place to start.

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The fallout of Florida’s abortion ban has been “chaos,” experts say

Two months ago, the state of Florida enacted its strict six-week abortion law. At the time, many people worried about how this would affect access to abortion care in the South. As the Society of Family Planning's #WeCount report found, post-Dobbs Florida became one of the top three states to see a rise in out-of-state abortions. In other words, it became an unlikely surge state as the vast majority of its neighboring states had more severe restrictions.

Now, new data from the National Abortion Federation (NAF) found that in the two months after going into effect, there has been a 575% increase in people who the hotline has supported to travel out of the state for care, compared to the same time in 2023. 

Related

Abortion bans violate human rights, Amnesty International says in new report

“What we've seen in the aftermath of this ban is just devastation and chaos, and it has really impacted the lives of Floridians but also has expanded its impact throughout the southeast,” Brittany Fonteno, president and CEO of the National Abortion Federation, told Salon in a phone interview. “We have seen a dramatic increase in people being forced to travel outside of Florida, outside of the Southeast, and having to travel further distances to access the essential health care that they need.”

NAF runs the National Abortion Hotline, which is the largest patient assistance fund in the country. They help people both pay for their abortion care and with associated travel costs, whether that’s a plane ticket, rideshare voucher, or anything to help them access abortion care. Notably, NAF has observed an increase in funding needed to be allocated to each patient since people are being forced to travel longer distances. 

"What we've seen in the aftermath of this ban is just devastation and chaos."

“This point last year, the average cost of travel assistance for a patient was about $1,000,” Fonteno said. “That has already gone up, and that is before we even take into account what it costs to pay for an abortion procedure or medication abortion — this is really making abortion less accessible to people.”

According to Florida’s law, it is a felony to perform or actively participate in an abortion six weeks after gestation. The ban has exceptions for rape, incest and human trafficking up to 15 weeks, and to save a woman’s life or prevent “substantial and irreversible” impairment. However, as experts point out, these exceptions are designed to be difficult to use and frequently act as another burden for patients to overcome.

For example, according to the law, to leverage one of the exceptions for rape, incest or human trafficking, a woman “must provide a copy of a restraining order, police report, medical record or other court order or documentation providing evidence that she is obtaining the termination of pregnancy because she is a victim of rape, incest or human trafficking.”

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“A lot of times these exceptions are put into abortion bans to try to make them seem more reasonable, and they are not,” Fonteno said. “And one of the big reasons is that these exceptions are putting a burden back onto the patient, and they're designed to serve as another barrier to care.” 

Fonteno said the hotline has seen “that many people are not being able to get through based on these very narrow exceptions” and many people even in these circumstances have to travel out of state to access care. 

“They’re having to fly or travel to D.C., to New York City, places where the cost is higher to get the care that they need, and so this is really having an interesting impact on the entire field,” she said. “Because it's also impacting the amount of funding that people have available to them, because as more people travel, and as the cost of care is increasing, that means the funds that are available to support people are depleting even faster.” 

Alisha Dingus, the development director at the D.C. Abortion Fund, told Salon in July that they were seeing an influx in people from other states outside the area — specifically, from North Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Pennsylvania and South Carolina.

“After the Florida ban went into effect, we saw our call rate from Floridians go up by 200 percent just in one month,” Dingus said. “The month before the ban, we supported nine Floridians, and then the next month, we supported 36 and so that number just dramatically increased the moment the ban hit.”

At the time, Dingus said she was expecting that number to keep going up.

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Fortunately, Fonteno said they haven’t had to turn away any callers and leave people forced to carry their pregnancies to term. 

“However, I don't think that just because I'm not aware of it, that it's not happening,” Fonteno said. “And so I would say that it is a very real possibility that people are being forced to carry pregnancies to term that are either not viable or that were unwanted.”

Fonteno added that clinics in Florida are doing their best to work with people and get them in as early as possible in pregnancy to get them the care they need.

“They’re getting into the clinics as soon as possible, and when they're not able to get in before that six-week cut-off, the hotline is there to help them,” Fonteno said. “But our NAF member clinics have also said that there will be people who aren't able to access the care that they need because they cannot afford to fill in the gap and travel outside of the state for care.” 

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JD Vance awkwardly crosses tarmac to confront Air Force Two

Ohio Senator JD Vance continued his trailing campaign following Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz, with the three crossing paths on an Eau Claire, Wisconsin runway on Wednesday.

While Harris and Walz prepared for an electrifying rally featuring a performance from Bon Iver, Vance took a break after his own, much smaller, event to gawk at the vice president’s empty plane.

“I figured I’d come by and uhh, one, just get a good look at the plane because hopefully it’s going to be my plane in a few months,” Vance said, bombarding pool reporters covering Harris’ appearance, before accusing the vice president of running a campaign “from a basement and a teleprompter,” minutes before she spoke to a crowd of over 12,000.

“This is a person who has to answer questions from the media and it’s disgraceful that she runs from you guys, and it’s also insulting to the American people,” Vance said, claiming Harris hadn’t answered press questions in the days since she became the Democratic candidate.

Harris and Walz, who had left the area moments earlier after being greeted by thousands of supporters and stopping to meet with a local Girl Scout troop, didn’t seem to acknowledge Vance’s presence on the rally stage, though they were sure to remind voters of Vance’s “weird” antics and beliefs.

On TikTok, the Harris campaign poked fun at Vance’s plane, which lurked in the background of a video featuring a viral audio clip of "Dance Moms" star Abby Lee Miller saying, “All of a sudden, I hear this agitating, grating voice.”

Vance, who is trailing Harris and Walz both in popularity polling, has taken a more prominent role in the campaign despite his negative reception and off-putting comments, as Trump takes an extended, unexplained pause from campaigning, planning just one Montana appearance this week as the race enters its final three months.

Biden “not confident at all” that Trump will concede peacefully if he loses election

President Joe Biden warned Americans to take Donald Trump’s election-denying, violent rhetoric seriously, in an interview with CBS News.

In an early clip of the interview, airing in full this Sunday, the president and former Trump opponent told CBS' Robert Costa that he is “not confident at all” that Trump will allow a peaceful transfer of power to Vice President Harris if he loses the race.

“He means what he says. We don’t take them seriously,” Biden said, pointing to Trump’s comments that there would be a “bloodbath” should he lose the race. “Look what they’re trying to do now in the local election districts where people count the votes.”

Since 2020, multiple Trump-aligned election officials have refused to certify various local race results, citing unfounded fraud. A Rolling Stone report found that nearly 70 election officials across the country still denied the results of the 2020 race.

Biden, who warned as a candidate that Trump may strike against democracy again amid his calls to pardon January 6th rioters, dropped out of the race last month, citing the existential threat of a Trump presidency.

Before that decision, Trump had claimed on a debate stage that he would only accept the results of the election if they were, in his eyes, “a fair and legal and good election,” sowing doubt into the legitimacy of the race and sowing seeds for a second attack on voters.

“You can’t love your country only when you win,” Biden added

Steve Martin, acknowledging Tim Walz resemblance, passes on “SNL” offer

Steve Martin knows he looks like Tim Walz, but he’s just not ready to play a Menards Man.

Hours after Walz accepted a bid to join the Democratic ticket, social media swirled with comparisons between the 60-year-old governor and Martin, and chatter that the comedy legend may be just the man to play the VP nominee on “Saturday Night Live.”

And after fellow “Saturday Night Live” legend Maya Rudolph accepted an offer to reprise her Kamala Harris impression for the show’s 50th season, and its coverage of the November race, eyes turned to Martin even more.

Addressing the duo’s similarity, Martin posted to Threads that he “just learned that Tim Walz wants to go on the road with Marty Short,” referring to his friendship with his “Three Amigos” and “Only Murders In the Building” co-star.

On Wednesday, even NBC’s Lorne Michaels caught wind of the comparison, reportedly offering the sixteen-time host an offer. But according to the Los Angeles Times, Martin just couldn’t see himself stepping into the school lunch-loving Minnesotan’s shoes.

“I said, ‘Lorne, I’m not an impressionist. You need someone who can really nail the guy.’ I was picked because I have gray hair and glasses,” the Emmy Award winner said.

Martin also had trouble with locking himself down to the role for the season, adding that “it’s ongoing.” 

“It’s not like you do it once and get applause and never do it again. Again, they need a real impressionist to do that. They’re gonna find somebody really, really good. I’d be struggling,” he told the Times.

Casting details for the show’s 50th season beginning in September are not yet finalized — including for a Walz stand-in, should they opt not to use a current cast member — though at least two cast members are calling it quits ahead of the break’s end.

Special counsel accuses Hunter Biden of lobbying for Romanian oligarch

In a Wednesday court filing, special counsel David Weiss’ office accused Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, of taking cash from a Romanian oligarch who aimed to influence U.S. policy.

The court filing in a California tax case against the president’s son alleges that Biden’s work on behalf of Romanian Gabriel Popoviciu in 2015, while Joe Biden was vice president, was an attempt by Popoviciu to sway government policy, for which Biden and associates were paid more than $3 million.

“The government will introduce the evidence … that [Hunter Biden] and Business Associate 1 received compensation from a foreign principal who was attempting to influence U.S. policy and public opinion and cause the United States to investigate the Romanian investigation of [Popoviciu] in Romania," prosecutors wrote in Wednesday's filing, per ABC News.

Prosecutors also alleged that Biden and associates concealed the nature of the business relationship and that Biden engaged in a lobbying capacity on behalf of Popoviciu’s interests, to avoid “political ramifications for the defendant's father.”

The special counsel's office, which was tasked by President Biden’s Attorney General Merrick Garland with taking over a probe into Hunter Biden, has launched several separate investigations into the president’s son.

Biden, who filed a motion to remove the special counsel after Judge Aileen Cannon’s ruling deeming Trump special prosecutor Jack Smith’s appointment unconstitutional, was found guilty in a Delaware court in June on a variety of gun charges.

A trial for the California case is set for early September, while President Biden has committed to denying his son a pardon if found guilty.

Harris campaign attacks Trump’s criticism of Walz’s racial justice protest response, with receipts

Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign cut into former President Donald Trump’s attacks on Minnesota Governor and Vice Presidential nominee Tim Walz’s handling of protests in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, invoking Trump’s own praise-filled words from 2020.

Trump posted on Truth Social on Wednesday that “Tim Walz let Minnesota burn,” an accusation stemming from Walz’s response to protests erupting in 2020 over the police killing of Floyd and subsequent fires, many of which were pinned to arson attacks conducted by right wing counter-demonstrators.

Trump and Republicans’ calls for heavy police and military action against protestors, and even use of excessive force, differed significantly from Walz’s, who delayed deployment of the National Guard until days after protests began, spurring an immediate attack on his candidacy as vice president.

Trump’s attacks were seemingly undercut, however, as the Harris campaign uncovered audio on Wednesday of Trump praising Walz as an "excellent guy" with an "incredible" response to protests.

“I totally agreed with the way he handled it the last couple of days,” Trump said in a 2020 phone call. “Tim Walz, again, I was very happy with the last couple of days, Tim.”

Walz, who responded by saying that “our city is grieving,” expressed on the call that his decision to mobilize the National Guard was coupled with a plan to engage civic leaders and protestors.

The rebuttal comes amid Walz’s debut as Harris’s VP nominee, which has seen the pair headline rallies in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and raise tens of millions of dollars in donations, as reports indicate that Walz’s popularity eclipses that of Trump’s running mate, JD Vance.

Project 2025 architect pushes book with JD Vance foreword until after election

Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts, who penned the foreword for the group’s Project 2025, is pushing back his book release until after the election, in an attempt to cool negative chatter around the sweeping far-right policy playbook.

The move comes as Republican Vice Presidential nominee JD Vance, the author of the book’s foreword, attempts to distance himself and his running mate from the proposal, which the Harris campaign has dubbed “Trump’s Project 2025.” Vance’s foreword in “Dawn’s Early Light: Taking Back Washington to Save America” was noted last month when product details appeared on Amazon. 

“There’s a time for writing, reading, and book tours – and a time to put down the books and go fight like hell to take back our country,” Roberts wrote in a statement to Real Clear Politics. “That’s why I’ve chosen to move my book’s publication and promotion to after the election.”

Roberts, a key organizer of his organization’s Project 2025 initiative, charges institutions including Ivy League colleges, the FBI, the New York Times, the Department of Education, BlackRock, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and others with pushing “corrupt” ideology in the book’s listing, an idea Vance endorsed in the foreword described by The New Republic as “violent.”

Vance, who previously wrote a foreword for Jack Posobiec — a far-right political figure linked to neo-nazi ideology — and his book, which described leftists as “Unhumans,” is deeply tied to a multitude of Project 2025’s authors and the Heritage Foundation, previously praising parts of the proposal.

The policy manifesto, which presidential candidate Donald Trump previously attempted to distance himself from, has faced significant public scrutiny and internal turmoil since Democratic figures amplified its contents, resulting in Project 2025’s director stepping down last week.

Multiple Taylor Swift shows canceled, as Austrian authorities investigate terror plot

Three shows on Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour” have been canceled after Austrian authorities apprehended two people suspected of plotting a terrorist attack in Vienna.

The suspects — a 19-year-old Austrian citizen and another unidentified person — were arrested, with police finding chemical substances at their homes.

“According to the current status of the investigation, the two suspects became radicalized via the internet,” Austrian public security director Franz Ruf reportedly said.

According to Ruf, the 19-year-old pledged an oath of allegiance to the Islamic State group.

Per a statement released on social media by Austrian tour promoter Barracuda Music and shared by Swift’s team, the entire Vienna leg of the tour was canceled.

“With confirmation from government officials of a planned terrorist attack at Ernst Happel Stadium, we have no choice but to cancel the three scheduled shows for everyone's safety,” the statement read.

The “Fortnight” singer, who’s canceled or postponed only a handful of shows since the tour began in March of last year, planned to perform to more than 60,000 fans per night during the three-show leg of the tour, which has drawn more than 5 million attendees since it began.

Swift, embarked on the European leg of her “Eras Tour,” previously shared a statement mourning three young fans killed in a separate attack in the United Kingdom at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class. A 17-year-old suspect was arrested in that attack.

Refunds for the Thursday, Friday and Saturday shows will be issued within the next ten days, while information on potential rescheduled dates has yet to be released.

“It was just the right thing to do”: 6 heartwarming examples of sportsmanship at the Paris Olympics

From an innovative (and subsequently controversial) opening ceremony to shattered world records across the sports spectrum, the Paris Olympics have marked a celebratory return to the Games we knew and loved pre-pandemic. While the Tokyo Olympics still saw the stunning athleticism of competitors around the world, the silent stadiums and stringent public health-related restrictions left much, much more to be desired from the international event. 

Perhaps that’s part of the reason we’ve witnessed so much camaraderie this time around. In Paris, the sportsmanship and solidarity displayed by Olympians have captured our attention almost as much as the competitions had themselves. Rather than viewing their opponents as enemies, many athletes seem to be emboldened and gladdened by their competitors’ successes. Others have been quick to lend a helping hand in moments of distress, rushing to assist another Olympian without a second thought. 

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The displays of sportsmanship have been so notable, in fact, that former U.S. first lady Michelle Obama underscored one interaction between a trio of gymnasts, writing on X/Twitter, "I'm still not over this beautiful moment of sisterhood and sportsmanship!”

“You can just feel the love shining through these ladies,” Obama added. 

From start to (near) finish, here is six examples of supportive sportsmanship between Olympians at the Paris Games.

01
Daiki Hashimoto quiets the crowd
Daiki HashimotoHashimoto Daiki of Japan reacts after the horizontal bar event of the artistic gymnastics men's team final at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, France, July 29, 2024. (Cheng Min/Xinhua via Getty Images)
Japanese gymnast Daiki Hashimoto offered fans at the Bercy Arena a masterclass in, well, class when he hushed them in a seeming effort to mitigate any distractions during his opponent, Chinese athlete Zhang Boheng’s final routine. During the men’s team final, Hashimoto gestured to the audience to simmer down by placing an index finger over his mouth. “These are moments of true Olympics spirit,” one X/Twitter user wrote in sharing footage of the move.
 

His efforts on the high bar solidified the win for Japan in the all-around team competition, earning him and his teammates — Kazuma Kaya, Shinnosuke Oka, Takaaki Sugino and Wataru Tanigawa — a gold medal. China and the U.S. followed in the second and third podium slots, respectively.

02
Laotian sprinter helps collapsed opponent
Lucia Moris; Silina Pha AphayLucia Moris of Team South Sudan lies injured on the ground as Silina Pha Aphay of Team Lao People's Democratic Republic checks her condition on August 2, 2024 in Paris, France. (Michael Steele/Getty Images)
When Lucia Moris of South Sudan crumpled to the ground during a preliminary heat of the women’s 100m dash in seeming agony, the first person to rush to her aid wasn’t a medic, but another runner. Silina Pha Aphay, an athlete from Laos, ran back to where Moris lay shrieking and clutching her right leg on the lavender track at Stade de France. Pha Aphay called for help from nearby medics and stood alongside them as they began to triage Moris. “Just cry out,” Pha Aphay told her competitor, urging her to indulge her pain if she needed to.
 
“I can only share her pain,” Pha Aphay told The Washington Post. “We are athletes. We are 100 meters – the same. All 100 meters athletes have to know how being hurt feels. And this is a big competition. It’s a big dream to come here. But you get hurt here. So everybody knows the feeling.”
03
North and South Korean athletes take a podium selfie
North Korea South Korea Table Tennis Teams selfieNorth Korea South Korea Table Tennis Teams selfieGold medalists China's Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha, silver medalists North Korea's Ri Jong Sik and Kim Kum Yong, bronze medalists South Korea's Lim Jonghoon and Shin Yubin pose for a selfie: Paris 2024 Olympic Games on July 30, 2024 (Yao Yingkang/Zhejiang Daily/VCG via Getty Images)

In a surprising show of unity, table tennis athletes from North and South Korea posed for a selfie atop the podium following the mixed doubles medals matches. The long-divided nations seemed to suspend cross-border tensions after South Korea nabbed bronze and North Korea won silver — the interaction quickly circulated online after South Korea’s Lim Jong-hoon whipped out his phone to digitally document the celebration. 

 

As NPR noted, “It’s also a reminder that while the demilitarized zone divides the north and south, it did not sever centuries’ worth of Koreans’ shared family ties and culture.”

 

The podium moment is all the more special, given the rocky start the nations saw during the Olympic opening ceremony when South Korea’s 143 athletes were incorrectly introduced as being from North Korea. “The problem was identified as a human error, for which the IOC is deeply sorry,” Olympic organizers said in a statement.

04
Chinese badminton player waves tiny Spanish flag
He Bing JiaoChina's silver medallist He Bing Jiao on the podium at the women's singles badminton medal ceremony during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on August 5, 2024. (LUIS TATO/AFP via Getty Images)

When He Bingjiao of China won the silver medal in badminton, she made sure to pay tribute to her opponent in the finals, who was unable to be there. As she stood on the podium, He held her medal in one hand and a minuscule pin with the Spanish flag in the other, a symbol meant to honor Spain’s Carolina Marin, who had been leading the standings until she suffered an injury and was forced to withdraw.

 

Speaking to reporters during the medal ceremony, He said, “I hope she can see this scene and I wish her a speedy recovery,” according to the BBC.

05
Brazilian handball player carries injured Angolan captain
Tamires Araujo Frossardl Albertina KassomaTamires Araujo Frossard of Brazil carries the injured Albertina Kassoma of Angola off the court during the women's handball preliminary round group B match between Brazil and Angola at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, France, Aug. 3, 2024. (He Canling/Xinhua via Getty Images)

Halfway through an Aug. 3 handball match between Angola and Brazil, with both teams vying for a spot in the quarter-finals, Angolan captain Albertina Kassoma suffered a devastating knee injury. Unable to lift herself from the ground — even with assistance from Angola’s team doctor and Brazilian goalkeeper, Gabriela Moreschi — Kassoma seemed doomed to remain on the court. That is, until Brazil’s Tamires Araujo Frossard, a fellow line player and Romanian club league competitor, jumped in to scoop her up and carry her to the sidelines.

 

"The injury happened close to me," Frossard said of her proximity to the fallen Kassoma, per the Olympic's official website. "I kept playing at first because I didn't think it was that serious. When I saw her on the ground, I thought she wouldn't be able to get back up, because it's very rare that you fall and don't get up.”

06
Simone and Jordan bow for Rebeca
Simone Biles; Rebeca Andrade; Jordan ChilesSimone Biles; Rebeca Andrade; Jordan ChilesGold medalist Rebeca Andrade (C) of Team Brazil, silver medalist Simone Biles (R) and bronze medalist Jordan Chiles (L) of Team United States celebrate on the podium on August 05, 2024 in Paris, France. (Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

In what was perhaps the most visually stunning and viral show of sportsmanship so far in Paris, Team USA women’s gymnasts Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles revered Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade in her gold medal floor performance by literally bowing to her on the podium. Biles — the most decorated American Olympics gymnast of all time — finished runner-up to Andrade, one of her fiercest rivals, in the floor exercise on Aug. 5. After the bow, Andrade touchingly reached for Biles and Chiles’ hands

 

Speaking to TODAY about the move, Biles said, “I think it's all about sportsmanship, and we don't care whether we win or lose. We're always going to keep a good face and support our competitors because they've worked just as hard as we have for that moment.”

 

"So you have to give them their flowers," she continued, speaking about the bow. "And that's exactly what me and Jordan were doing, and we were so happy for her. She deserved it. She had the best floor routine of the day and in the Olympics. So it's like, yeah, she deserved it."

 

“It was just the right thing to do,” Biles said, according to the Associated Press. “She’s queen.”

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Childhood vaccinations seen as “not important,” Gallup poll finds

Vaccines are widely considered by experts to be some of the most important, most effective investments in health, shielding against numerous diseases that would otherwise be deadly or severely disabling. Yet fewer and fewer Americans consider vaccines to be important. A recent Gallup poll found that only 40% of people say it is "extremely important" for parents to vaccinate their kids — a significant drop from 58% in 2019 and 64% in 2001. Another 5% said it was "not very important" and 7% said it is "not important at all."

These sentiments diverge along party lines, with Republican-aligned Americans accounting for the decrease in importance, the July survey reports.

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"Until now, Republicans and Democrats generally held similar views of the net risks and benefits associated with vaccines," the authors write. "Today, 31% of Republicans and Republican leaners think vaccines are more dangerous than the diseases they are designed to prevent, compared with 5% of Democrats and Democratic leaners. The current figure for Republicans is up from 12% in 2019 and 6% in 2001."

Vaccine messaging during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, including misinformation, seems to have played a role in this growing skepticism.

"The changes in attitudes about childhood vaccines were presaged during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic," the report says. "In 2021, Gallup found far fewer Republican (19%) than Democratic parents (90%) saying they would have a young child of theirs (under age 12) vaccinated for COVID-19 once the vaccine was approved for that age group."

"Now, those doubts appear to be extending to childhood vaccines that have long been used to prevent the spread of contagious diseases, as well as the field of science in general," the authors caution.

A May 2024 study published in the journal Science tracked how vaccine misinformation has proliferated on Facebook, underscoring the importance of fact-checkers. "We estimate that the impact of unflagged content that nonetheless encouraged vaccine skepticism was 46-fold greater than that of misinformation flagged by fact-checkers," the authors wrote. "Our work emphasizes the need to scrutinize factually accurate but potentially misleading content in addition to outright falsehoods."

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