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2024

👩🏽 Harris accepts Democratic nomination as convention closes

What do Samwise Gamgee, Oprah, Lance Bass, and thousands of political activists have in common? They all attended the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The star-studded DNC closed up shop last night when Vice President Kamala Harris accepted her party’s nomination for the presidency of the United States.

• Following in Hillary Clinton’s footsteps, Harris is the second woman ever to win a major party’s presidential nod.

• Yesterday was a big day for Harris in more ways than one. The vice president and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff celebrated their 10th anniversary. Said Emhoff, "Ten years of marriage, forever to go" (gooey slideshow included).

Kamala Harris spoke for about 38 minutes last night. She opened her acceptance speech with personal anecdotes about her family and growing up in a working-class East Bay neighborhood and told stories about her time as a prosecutor. She emphasized that she'd be a president for "all Americans" regardless of party and focused on her plan for the middle class.

• Harris took the stage last night and accepted the nomination (would pretend declining be in poor taste?) exactly eight weeks after President Biden set a fateful record for "worst debate performance literally ever."

Seeing stars: We don’t make the rules but all the good celebrities are Democrats (sorry, Republicans). And this year’s DNC in Chicago was no different. Performers at the world’s weirdest music festival included Lil John, Pink, The Dixie Chicks, Maren Morris, Stevie Wonder, and John Legend. Strangely not among the performers? Chicago.

• On the fashion front, Politico took a critical look. Kamala Harris wore an on-brand “Coconut Brown" suit on Monday and (spoiler alert) Walz's jacket was "puckered."

On Wednesday, members of Tim Walz's old high school football team came out on stage ahead of their old coach's speech, in which Walz spoke about his family's struggle with infertility. He also played the traditional VP role of "attack dog" and tagged JD Vance as an elitist for going to Yale. Vance responded, saying he "grew up in a very poor family" and is "proud" of what he accomplished.

• Walz's 18-year-old son, Gus, who has some learning disabilities, made headlines in a tearful moment, shouting "That's my dad!"

Problems: Despite pleas from many Democrats, the DNC refused to allow a Palestinian American on stage to speak about the war in Gaza. As a result, the group “Muslim Women for Harris-Walz” says it will disband and no longer support her.

UNITED STATES

💵 Central bankers from around the world are in Jackson Hole, Wyoming for the Federal Reserve’s annual summit. Fed Chair Jerome Powell (the top dog of American monetary policy) will deliver his biggest speech of the year today. The big question on everyone’s mind: When will the Fed cut interest rates?

📉 The Labor Department dun goofed on a recent jobs report (technically the Bureau of Labor Statistics, but who’s counting?). Turns out, the U.S. economy created 28% fewer jobs than we thought from April 2023 to March 2024. Revisions are normal as the data solidifies but this was the largest adjustment since 2009.

⚖️ The Supreme Court is on summer break. But that didn't stop the justices from issuing an emergency 5-4 order allowing Arizona to enforce a law requiring "documentary proof of citizenship" before registering to vote in state or local elections. Voters who don't provide that proof can still vote in federal races as long as they swear they're citizens — Arizona lost on that front.

POLITICS

Now that the party conventions are in the books, the Primary campaign is technically over and the General Election campaign can officially begin. If everything goes smoothly, we'll know who America's 47th president will be in 74 days.

• Early voting begins in just a few weeks. Pennsylvania kicks things off on September 16 and the dominos fall from there.

• Polls will soon begin excluding responses from self-proclaimed “Registered Voters” who don’t consider themselves “Likely Voters.” As nerd Christmas Election Day draws near, the more accurate “LV” polls will take over.

• Between now and November 5, billions of dollars will be spent trying to sway your vote for everything from president to dog-catcher (wait, no, Vermont nixed that a few years back). In 2020, the bill for presidential and congressional races ran up to over $16 billion.

🔴 Donald Trump visited the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona yesterday with a local sheriff and the head of the Border Patrol labor union. Trump was joined at an incomplete section border wall by the mothers of children killed by immigrants who were in the U.S. illegally.

• Immigration is one of Trump's stronger issues with voters, but Harris is closing the gap as she gets wiggle room from her party to moderate on the issue.

• Following a manhunt, police near Trump's Arizona event captured a man who made death threats against the former president.

• On that note, JD Vance responded to fiery DNC speeches by invoking the Trump assassination attempt and urging Democrats to “pump the brakes a little bit on the apocalyptic rhetoric" around him.

⚪ Independent candidate and former Democratic Party royalty Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. will reportedly drop out this afternoon and endorse Donald Trump.

📊 Polls: A British polling firm dipped its toes into U.S. elections. They show:

• 🔴 Trump leading by 1% in Arizona, Michigan, and Nevada

• ⚪ Trump and Harris tied at 46% in Georgia

• 🔵 Harris leading by 2% in Pennsylvania and by 4% in Wisconsin.

• 🔵 Democratic Senate candidates leading in Arizona, Nevada, and Pennsylvania

🇺🇸 RIP: Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) passed away on Wednesday at 87. Local Democratic Party leaders will pick his replacement on the ballot. And they’ll have to do it by the state's deadline next Tuesday. Ballots have to be printed ASAP to be shipped to overseas military members and returned before Election Day. This is a safely Democratic district in suburban NYC, so the new Democratic nominee is all but guaranteed to win.

TRIVIA

If Kamala Harris gets her wish, she’ll soon become the first woman to serve as president of the United States (cheer, boo, or shrug as you please). While no woman has ever served as president, hundreds have served in Congress. But that wasn’t always the case. Who was the first woman to serve in Congress?

Hint: There is no hint today. You’ve probably never heard of this woman.

WORLD

🇪🇬 Egypt: U.S. diplomats and other mediators are in Cairo again this week continuing work on an Israel-Hamas truce proposal to end the war in Gaza. One major disagreement: Which parts of Gaza will Israel be allowed to leave troops in after the war?

🇰🇮 Kiribati: Kiribati is tiny. But size isn't everything. The island nation's 313 square miles of land are spread across a strategically important 1.4 million square miles of the South Pacific. And its voters just reelected a pro-China government, helping cement China's foothold in the region.

🇷🇺 Russia: No, it’s not the start of a bad Colleen Hoover book. As the Ukrainian army pushes deeper into Russia, Moscow is desperately trying to get its citizens to stop using dating apps to avoid unwittingly handing intel to the enemy. Elsewhere, Russian mercenaries are becoming more active in Africa.

BRIEFS

• Chick-fil-A considers launching family-friendly streaming service with unscripted focus

• FBI investigating whether presence of maggots in DNC delegate breakfast intentional or merely disgusting

• Thailand confirms first Asian mpox case after patient’s trip to Africa

• Pentagon claims “environmental disaster” as Yemen’s Houthi terrorists attack oil tanker in Red Sea

• British billionaire entrepreneur Mike Lynch dies after superyacht sinks in Italy

• Venezuela's top court certifies Maduro win amid international outrage at rigged vote

• Canadian government orders immediate end to railroad strike as rail companies and unions point fingers

QUOTE

SNACKS

🕺 Dance: Pommel Horse Guy (aka Stephen Nedoroscik) will compete on the upcoming season of “Dancing with the Stars,” which premiers on September 17.

🍿 Watch: The good folks at Rotten Tomatoes finally realized what we’ve all known for years: Movie critics have bad taste. Their solution? A new “Verified Hot” badge for high audience ratings to supplement the critics’ “Certified Fresh” honor.

😎 Read: We could all use a little confidence boost once in a while. Nice News takes a look at where confidence comes from and how to build more of it.

ANSWER

Rep. Jeannette Rankin sealed her place in history by winning a seat in the House of Representatives in 1916. She lost reelection in 1918 but later served another second two-year term from 1941 to 1943.

Rankin was a devout pacifist and, as luck would have it, served her two terms during the U.S.’s entry into both world wars. She was one of 50 congresscritters to oppose a U.S. declaration of war on Germany in 1917. In 1941, Rankin was the only representative to vote against declaring war on Japan in the wake of Pearl Harbor.