THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO HMMM ......

 Another oldie but goodie headline ... and rather apropos for things Vice-President Harris said this morning when she was interviewed on Good Morning America (ABC)

I will put my comments in italic, but her quotes will be Full and in regular print.

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GS (George Stephanopoulos): What did the President mean by "minor incursion" and what did he mean by "minor response"?

Harris: Well, good morning George, it's good to be with you - listen, uh ... (big pause) ... Every morning I read the PDB - the Presidential Daily Brief - which you know, contains classified information about threats to our national security and hot spots around the world; I am often in the Situation Room with the President, with the leaders of our military and our Intelligence Agencies, and what I can tell you is that the President has been very clear that if Russia takes aggressive action, it will be met with serious, severe, and unified response and consequences - and that, that, position we have taken is grounded in a number of values that we hold dear, including the importance of respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity - in this case Ukraine - and we have not wavered from that perspective, we have been very clear with our partners and allies, and with Vladimir Putin, through various levels of discussions over a period of several weeks if not months

GS: So, any movement of Russian forces into Ukraine, or any part of Ukraine - even if its not a full-scale invasion of Kiev - will be met by severe sanction and perhaps a military response?

Harris: We will interpret any violation of Ukraine sovereignty and territorial integrity by Russia and Vladimir Putin, as an aggressive action and it will be met with costs.  Severe - and, and, and certain

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Escuse me - I thought the PDB was for the PRESIDENT'S EYES ONLY ... thuse the reason they are called the PRESIDENTIAL Daily Briefing ... isn't that the point of them??  And since when does the VP sit in on meetings in the Situation Room?? My understanding is that that room is for the President, the big wigs of the Military, the Defense Secretary, the Chief of Staff, and the head of the CIA, FBI, NSA ... I've never heard of the VP being invited!

Hope she has the "security clearance" because I'm pretty sure you don't get what's needed until you ARE the President!  Could explain why Biden seems so confused on her position though.

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GS: Let's talk about Voting Rights - you said after the vote last night, of course you were presiding the Senate chamber - that the administration is not going to give up on the issue.  What does that mean exactly? 

Harris: yeah ...

GS: Are there Executive actions the President can take that can take that will accomplish the same goals?

Harris: First, I, I, I appreciate you raising this its is just foundational to our Democracy, and I was there last night because there are two bills that are before the United States Senate - the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, and the Freedom To Vote Act - and they were designed, and, and, and I'm gona tell you why designed because this is the reason we're not going to give up on it - they were designed to "push back" against the blatant, and purposeful attenpt by many states in our country to make it more difficult for all Americans to vote.  There are laws that have been passed in our country that will reduce or eliminate Drop Boxes - why is that important? Well if you're a single parent, you've got 3 kids in the back seat of the car, you don't have the ability to stand in line for hours to vote, but you want to vote, so you can fill out a Black Ballot and drive by a Drop Box and drop it off.  If you are an American with a disability, and its extremely difficult for you to go where the polling place is, you can vote by mail - but there is restrictions being placed on "Vote By Mail".  When we look at laws that have been passed that make it illegal to give people who are standing in line food and water, we know this is a violation of the Spirit that we, we hold dear about our democracy in terms of the importance of everyone's Right to Vote, and every eligible American's Right to Vote.  

GS: Well, yeah, you believe it's important - I see that, there's no question about that, the President says he believes its important -

Harris: yeah ..

GS: but what are you going to do now it's not getting through the Senate?

Harris: Well, we're not going to give up on legislation because ultimately that's is one of the most important aspects of what we must do to correct what has been happening in various states.  But there are other actions, for example the Department of Justice has initiated investigations and actions - civil action - as it relates to certain laws that are a violation of our Constitution, in letter and spirit.  There is work that we will continue to do, that is about convening folks around the country to uplift the message, and to include what we need to do to expand the ability of all Americans to understand what's at stake - 'cuz George I'll tell you this one, by way of us having this conversation, you would probably not be surprised to know how many people in the midst of the everyday burdan of life are unaware of what's happening - and so part of our mission is to insure that folks know what is happening to their neighbor, what is happening in their neighboring states, and ultimately what will contribute to a weakening of our democracy  - We stated the conversation on foreign policy, I have met with presidents and Prime Minimsters, who are the leaders of our partners and ally countries, and I will tell you - it frequently comes up they ask "well what about the issue of voting in America? Because you hold yourself out to be a role model, of what it means to be a democracy, this is one of the most important pillars of democracy, and there's an erosion in America"  Well, that is an issue that we should take seriously in terms of our ability to argue for the strength of democracy vs. autocracy, and there's a direct connection between between this and what we need to do in terms of securing our national security, and securing our standing in the world - all these issues are related.

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Oh My - where to start ... well, she never ANSWERED the question, did she? All she said was "this is important to us" ... I don't believe we sent ourselves up as a "role model" - after all, when governments ask for our ideas for how they should set up their governments we often tell them to use a PARLIMENTARY system instead of a REPUBLIC which we have ... actually we are a Democratic Republic - at least I think that's the term - we have found that most countries which try to copy our system without the "republic" part, tend to fail rather quickly and disasterously!

Then there's the talk of voting issues in America - just because you have kids does NOT mean you can't go vote - my mother had 7 of us and she still managed to vote EVERY election that I know of! Just because you have a phusical disability does not keep you from voting either - the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) took care of that, all polling places MUST be handicap assessable! Where in the USA does anyone have to wait HOURS in line to vote unless they have shown up at the LAST MINUTE? While, yes, I can see water being an issue during a heat wave, I cannot see supplying voters food - I'm sorry, but there are communities which have a hard enough time feeding the POLL WORKERS much less the voters -  just bring you own water and pack a lunch, like so many poll workers have to!  Next thing you know, they are going to want to pay people to vote so they can take the time off work -- let's not get them started.

If people are waiting in lines for "hours" to vote then one of 2 things can be said - either the district needs more polling places, or the people have been very motivated to get out there.

Notice, no mention yet of voter I.D.s

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  GS: Madame Vice President, final question - you were sworn in one year ago today - reflect on that, how has this experience changed you?

Harris: That's a great question - um, you know, I will tell you one of the ways is that there's no question that we came in office during a counselence (spelling?) of crisis, and to the extent that I've been able to travel - I have met some the most extraordinary people, Americans in our country, I mean, we are in fact announcing today $100Milliom going to help healthcare workers - let's remember that from the beginning of the pandemic to today, these are folks who are the heroes among us who at the beginning, even when we didn't have vaccines, went to work everyday taking risks in terms of their own health and well-being, in service of people who are perfect strangers to them - I've met small business owners who have kept the payroll going even though they were (stumbled over words) at the very end of what they could do financially but they knew they had to keep their business open for the sake of their community and their employees.  I've met teachers who are committed to going to school and working each day, even though their resources are so few, but their mission is so important - uh, and so there is a lot about a crisis that really does reveal the heroes among us and in that way I feel very inspired, I think we all should ... 

GS: Madam Vice President, thank you for your time 

Harris: Thank you, thank you, its good to be with you.

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so ... she hasn't changed at all is what I heard ... she talked about others, but not HERSELF ... kind of rare for a politician but still, did not answer the question at all.

She's getting better with her end-runs around a question though.

Anyone else notice the mention of her TRAVELS? She says she's talked to Americans, but that must have been during the rallies in CA during the Recall of the governor, because I swear that's the only time she's actually been seen with regular "folks"

And a Softball question, of course, is the perfect question for this gal ... just too bad she missed it.