On this week's Bostonian Rap, host Rachel Miselman discusses the race for Supreme Judicial Court Clerk for the County of Suffolk, politicians' handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, being mixed race and Jewish, and more.
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Bostonian Rap
Hello, and welcome to Bostonian Wrap. My name is Rachel Meiselman, and you were listening to me on WBCALP102.9 FM Boston. This is Boston's Community Radio Station. Before we get started, we're going to go to a quick disclaimer, and then we're going to come back and jump right on in to tonight's show. The following commentary does not necessarily reflect the views of the staff and management of WBCA or the Boston Neighborhood Network. If you would like to express another opinion, you can address your comments to Boston Neighborhood Network, 302-5 Washington Street, Boston, Massachusetts, 02119. To arrange a time for your own commentary, you can call WBCA at 617-708-3215 or email radio at bnnmedia.org. Hello, and welcome back to Bostonian Wrap. In today's show, I want to talk about a few things. I want to talk about one of the local activists, a Boston activist, and I use that term "activist" very, very loosely. I want to then talk about the race for the Supreme Judicial Court Clerk for the County of Suffolk. That's shaping up to be a really strongly contested race. I'm going to weigh in with my thoughts about that, and I've talked about this race before, but I think it really kind of bears more discussion because it really truly is an important race. I'll take this opportunity to say at this point that there are a few races that, honestly, they rarely get attention, and quite honestly, they truly should, because some of the things that we gripe about, that we rant about, some of the things that we find horribly unjust are addressed by some of these positions that we just really don't know much about. If we do vote for them on election day or early voting or mail-in voting, we do so kind of laxi-daisically. Hopefully, I can play a role, however, small or big in changing that, because I really do think that it's not enough just to vote, and I've been encouraging people very strongly to vote for quite a number of years, but I want to do more than that. I want to start, and I've started to discuss this, but I want people to be more intentional when they vote, and what I mean by that is I want them to vote understanding what the office does, the different offices do, and in that way, I think they would be able to examine more critically the skill sets, the qualifications that these different candidates are presenting, because often, it's nothing more than a popularity contest, and I don't think that voting on name recognition really does any of us, ultimately any favors, because if we're voting pretty much on name recognition, but a candidate is not qualified to do the job, or candidates, they're not qualified to do the jobs, well, where does that leave us? And that only compounds, quite frankly, the many problems that this state already has. So, talk about that, race. Then, I want to talk about Kamala. Kamala Harris, there are so many things to say. I am not a fan, but I will try to treat her fairly in so far as I'm not going to contribute to the misinformation. So, I want to address one bit of information that's been making its way around the net. It's actually gone viral, this bit of information, but to be more accurate, it is actually misinformation, so we'll discuss that. So, let's just jump right on in. The activist in question is Catherine Vitaly. So, I've mentioned her before. I've talked about this woman before. She ran for the seventh congressional district, which is the race that I ran in in 2020. So, notwithstanding the fact that I didn't make the ballot, I still ran, which, of course, was in a writing campaign. And I don't discourage people from doing that. I think that it is there, and I think that it is an option that people should exercise if they truly think that they have something to bring to the table that candidates that are on the ballot cannot bring. And certainly that was what factored into my thinking. So, that's why I ran my race. But of course, it is a very difficult type of race to run. It's not only educating people on how they write your name in. And, you know, I can say this, and I can imagine a number of people saying, "Well, gee, I mean, that's easy enough. I just write your name." But a lot of people still, even some people who might think that they understand, they go in and they don't really know what to do. They don't know where to write. They might write your name in, but they don't fill in the circle next to the space where you can write in someone's name. Someone might misspell your name. And that is not necessarily a reason to discount a vote or votes because the overriding idea is to focus on the intent of the voter. So, it is possible, even with a misspelling, a vote can count. However, there are variables, there are extra steps involved. And when we consider that voter turnout is typically very low, like abysmately low, asking people to take another step, it just involves a lot of education. And it's not saying anything good or bad. It's just the reality of the situation. It involves a lot of education. And it also involves creating enough enthusiasm for people to want to take that extra step as opposed to just checking off a box, filling in an oval next to a name that's already in the ballot. So, yeah, certainly it's very, very difficult. So, I chose to run, but Catherine didn't get on the ballot and she chose not to run in a writing campaign. And I think that that's primarily because of the difficulties that I just described and the difficulties that she saw me go through when I attempted to do just that, run a writing campaign. She then decided that she would run for the Boston City Council. So, she did. And she got on the ballot for that and she finished last. Now, a lot of people are having a good chuckle over the fact that she finished last, but Catherine still got votes. She still got votes. And the fact that you have someone getting a few thousand votes, it doesn't matter if the person finished dead last. It's disturbing to me if the person holds reprehensible views and Catherine does. And so, Catherine has, for the people who are less familiar with the Boston political landscape, she made a name for herself as one of the anti-vaxxers that routinely showed up at Mayor Wu's house at stupid o'clock in the morning, you know, very early in the morning. And a tremendous amount of noise was made. And of course, not only was Wu's family affected, but her neighbors as well. So, it was just, it was, I think, a poorly thought-out strategy because even if people had problems with Wu. And certainly, when Wu took office, there were a number of missteps. And, I mean, there's been additional missteps, but certainly, there were missteps. And people were already upset, I think, and on edge because of the pandemic. The pandemic was handled very poorly by the political class. People, I think at first, were okay with the idea. Most people with restrictions being put into place. But I think that the tide started to turn when people saw that there were two sets of rules. And so, they were told that there were things that they couldn't do in our political class, you know, our politicians were doing the exact opposite. So, I think, again, it was a poorly thought-out strategy. It worked initially for Catherine and her fellow anti-vaxxers, but I think as time went on, I think that people grew less tolerant. They grew less tolerant because there just didn't seem to be any kind of plan. There didn't seem to be any kind of rhyme or reason. And it was like, "Okay, well, what's the end goal?" And for anyone who was astute enough, there really wasn't any end goal. The idea was for the anti-vaxxers to keep their names in the news and to build their public profile. And then that would be parlayed into a run for an office. And that's at least what I thought. And sure enough, that's what happened. So, again, Catherine tried to run in 2022 for Congress. She was going to challenge Ayanna Presley, which was, you know, the thought, the mere thought of it is just a colossal joke. You know, even if she had gotten on the ballot, she wouldn't have known what she was doing. She would have gotten destroyed. But that's, you know, it's a moot point at this stage. You know, again, she got on the ballot in 2023, finished dead last. But again, this is someone who got her start, who kind of introduced herself to the public by engaging in behavior that initially there was some sympathy because of the double stand. It's because of the mismanagement by the political class of the of the pandemic. But I think after a while, people started questioning the anti-vaxxers' motives. And they started kind of glomming on to other issues, methodo mild. So then they started showing up down there. Today, even though vitality and a couple of anti-vaxxer friends also ran for counsel, although there was a slate of them today, there's not been a single plan that has been released or not even there haven't even been any ideas to articulate what needs to be done. And I think that that it's insulting because it's jumping on issues like ticks jump on a dog, like lice jumps on. You know, you have a, you have a room full of, of, of nursery schoolers, you know, one kid is unfortunate enough to get it and then it just spreads. It's just, it's body surfing headlines. And I find it, yes, I find it gravely insulting because it's the idea that the public is being taken from mugs, they're being taken for fools because if you jump on an issue and you come out swinging and you're going hard, but you have no prior history and you have no game plan and you have no plans and you can't articulate anything in, in great detail, but you just making a lot of noise and going hard. It's insulting, right? Because if you're going to put yourself out there, you got to know what you're talking about. And my goodness gracious, this is scary because now I sound like the, the excreable Nick Fuentes talking about the equally excreable Candace Owens and how she's, you know, basically making a fool of herself, but I can address all of that on another show. But, but it is true that if, if one is going to put himself out there, and I think I have made this point before, you really do have to know what you're talking about. You can't be a leader, you can't peddle yourself, sell yourself as a problem solver. If you can't even really fully at the least articulate the problem. So, there's all of that, right? It's, I just, I found it all in poor taste. I found, I found it was just an endless round of self promotion. There were also pop up visits, if you will, at different political events, events for candidates, and Catherine and her friends would disrupt these events. Okay. At no point though, did she articulate anything coherent? And it was just venting, and it was just emoting. So, all of this, so we take, we put it all together, you know, we take the amalgam of it, and we just have someone who's just a particularly strident, noise maker, who's looking to take a shortcut to the top. Now, if it were just that, someone who doesn't know the issues, someone who engages in particularly vile ways to get attention and tries to parlay gotcha moments, attempts to embarrass public figures into, into some kind of perverse celebrity, that would be one thing. But as I've mentioned on this show before, as I've shared on social media, there are also Catherine's views about Jewish people. And she's been friendly with Diana Plaus, who, who ran for governor for about 10 minutes. And what was it? It was 2022. And I just, I don't know, it's all, it's all very disturbing because, you know, I've certainly talked about Diana Plaus at length. And Diana Plaus has, among other things, deny that the Holocaust has taken place. She's questioned how World War II has unfolded. And there've been other figures, there've been other people with whom Catherine has associated, and they're just not nice people. And the views that they hold are reprehensible. It's not about, well, you can't agree with everybody. It's, there's got to be some red line. There's got to be some point at which we can say, you know what, what this person is saying is reprehensible. What this person stands for violates all norms of, of good taste, of common decency. And the fact that we have this, this kind of this obscene relativism now, it's just, it's really, it's sad. It's super, super, duper sad. So you have Diana Plaus, right? Who, if you listen to her, it's every show is about the Jews. And, and, and every show, it's, it's Diana and her equally vile sidekicks who are trying to connect the dots between Jews and, and whatever is going wrong, whatever they see going wrong. But as I said, there, there've been other figures that Catherine has rubbed elbows with that she, other people that she's piled around with who hold the same views. So step forward, Lori Kaufman, Lori Kaufman ran for state committee this year. It's just an absolutely despicable creature. She was going to run for state Senate. And mercifully, she's not, I don't know what happened, but she's, she's not going to run, run for that, uh, that office. I mean, she would have gotten wiped out any old way, but, but still. And some people remember me talking about Lori and she was covered by Rolling Stone magazine. So she made, she made national news of which she was immensely proud because that's what part of this is all about, just to get attention and to be relevant. However, in whatever way possible. And she was covered as someone who admires Hitler, someone who, uh, respects Hitler, someone who, uh, who thinks that Jews should be exiled from the United States. And I laugh because it's, it's almost unthinkable that we have people like this who, who exist and who are treated as if they're somehow worthy of, of, of some kind of respect. So it's, it's just, it's really, it's, it's really, uh, it's mind blowing, but these are, are the people that the Catherine has in her orb and her and Lori seem to have, uh, uh, uh, uh, I don't want to say a BFF, but the, but the, you know, they're, they're friendly. They're pretty friendly. And I caught part of an interview that, or a conversation, if you will, that took place on a, on a zoom or streaming, I think was rumble, um, between Lori and Catherine. And so my point is, is that these, all of these things put together, Catherine's just quite frankly, disgusting tactics to get attention, um, and her, her associations, it's, how is this person suitable for public office? I just, I, I don't, I just, I, I, I can't, I can't see it. I don't understand like, how is someone like this suitable for public office? So it's, I don't want to spend the entirety of my show on Catherine, but I think that it is a low point in Boston in Massachusetts in our society that we could have such scummy people be taken seriously. Or let me, let me hit the rewind button, not that she's even taken seriously across the board, but that she has a chance, however small of breaking into the Boston political scene. And I do think it's scummy when I do, I, when she went in front of Mayor Wu's house, because I'm not a fan of a lot of Michelle's policies, but I'm not going to cross any lines. And I've said that repeatedly. I'm not going to go to Michelle Wu's home at that time and make all that noise and not try to have a conversation and not try to be conciliatory and not try to connect with people and not have any kind of game plan other than just to get like 15 minutes and then try to extend it as long as possible. Because this is a 15 minute culture, right? And just this idea of questioning what anti-Semitism is because she does that as well. And, and, and equating Holocaust denial with criticism, Judaism, this is someone, it's more than, oh, she's no one serious, she's an unserious person. It's more than that. We're talking about someone who is reprehensible. And I just, I have to question because, because I've seen a gradual deterioration and, and, and Catherine's activity. So it's just gotten cedar, it's gotten more reprehensible, it's become more deplorable. So it's, I now have to question those who would associate with her in any way. And on a more fundamental level, what is it saying about us as a society, as a, as a city, as a community, as a state, that we don't put someone like her. It's not even, I feel like it's, in some ways, it's bigger than Catherine, but she's, we can use her as this, this, the example, right? What does it say about our society? However, local or big we want to take it, that we have someone like this who could, again, break into the political arena, however small of a chance she may have, but just the fact that it is, it is possible. We have to, we have to really, we have to sit down, I think, and, and ask ourselves questions. And, and we have to ask ourselves, what exactly are our values? That's, that's what I think. So I want to move on to the, the race for Supreme, it's for Clark of the Supreme Judicial Court for the County of Suffolk. And so voters in Chelsea and with their and revere and Boston vote, but you're looking at the entirety of the state at the end of the day, but it's voters in Suffolk County who are going to be, who are going to be voting. And I just, you know, I've already gone on at length. I've already expressed my unhappiness that there's no Republican candidate. And I'm going to, I am going to say it, shame on the state committee men and women in Suffolk County for not recruiting somebody. No, really, it's, it's only one of the key aspects of the job. And they didn't even think the team in Suffolk County, they didn't even think of the members of the state committee, Republican state committee. They didn't even think of recruiting someone. So shame on them. No, really, it's just, we got to do better. We got to do better. And so what I, in order to explain what that, that then means is that whoever wins the Democratic primary, because there is one, right, I want people, I want to, when I make sure people know that, or at least a few more people know that, whoever wins the Democratic primary is, is, is pretty much assured that she is going to become the next clerk. So there are two Democrats. There is Alison Cartwright, who's been an attorney for over 30 years. I've met her. She is beyond lovely. She has such a beautiful presentation. And one more that has kind of stayed with me throughout this race is just how graceful Alison is. The other candidate is Erin Murphy. She is a member of the Boston City Council. She was sworn in in 2001, actually. So because she first ran in 2019, and so she finished sixth. And the way it works in Boston is if a city counselor leaves the seat that he or she won, because maybe he or she won a seat for another office. So for instance, when Iana Presley, when she won the Democratic primary for the seventh congressional district seat in 2000, 2018, she left the Boston City Council and that's how Althea Garrison got on. So Althea Garrison finished out Iana Presley's term on the council, that particular term. When Michelle Wu won her race for mayor, then that opened up a seat. Now the person. So what they did is this was in 2021. So what they did is they looked at, they looked at the previous race. You had Alejandra Sangeen and she had finished fifth. And then Erin Murphy finished sixth. Now initially Alejandra Sangeen was going to finish out Wu's term. But by the time, you know, there was a vote that took place. And Alejandra, you know, after all the kind of, I guess the back and forth the discussions, there was a vote. She would have only had maybe a month. And she opted not to take the seat. And so the sixth purse, the person finished six was Erin Murphy. So Erin Murphy was sworn in, she finished out Wu's term. And then because Erin won one of the four seats on the Boston City Council, one of the large seats in 2021, she was sworn in for her first full term. So Erin Murphy's time on the council has been pretty unremarkable. It's been in terms of deliverables. It's been very unremarkable. We have been bombarded with selfies. And there has been this kind of idea that Erin Murphy is everywhere. There's no place you're not going to see her. That she's got a work ethic to end all work ethics. I mean, she's just a real workhorse. And honestly, it that's just that's just branding. That's just, that's what Erin Murphy wants people to think about Erin Murphy. And she's a politician. You have someone like Julia Mejia. Julia Mejia has her little hashtag. And I don't mean to disparage it because it's been, you know, all means all I shouldn't say little hashtag because you say that. And there's this kind of idea that, well, okay, oh, so you're looking to put Julia down. I'm not looking to put Julia down. Sometimes I call her huya. I'm not looking to put huya down. What I'm just trying to say is that I think at the end of the day hashtags it's okay. It's all fine and well, but what you're actually doing is what's most important to me. So, you know, Julia, her hashtag is all means all. That's what Julia, that's what huya wants people to think about huya. And you know, you have other politicians and they have hashtags. They have, you know, they have their images. So you have Ruzzi Luizhin, who is the current council president. She's the current president of the Boston City Council. And her, I haven't seen any hashtags, but she too has this public persona that she's, you know, whip smart and not just competent, but like uber confident, rather, but she's not just competent, but she's uber competent. And okay, well, let's just break it on down. Ever Murphy was not everywhere during her first term. She just got sworn in for her second term. So she's very much a junior counselor, right? She most definitely was not everywhere. And I feel like half the neighborhoods in the city didn't get any real serious attention or maybe no attention at all from her during her first full term on the council. Uh, this idea that she's a hard worker. I mean, if you don't have deliverables too many deliverables to show it's a little hard than to say how hard you're supposedly working because then people are going to say, okay, I don't see a lot of deliverables. I know you're not, I know you're not all over the city. I do. And, and, and other people know as well. So, so then what are you doing? Right? So that kind of, that kind of makes one then question the part about how she's such a hard worker. All right. So that's Aaron. Julia. Julia, I understand that it, and it makes sense to me that Julia would want to make sure that the people in the communities in which she grew up, um, have, have a voice. I mean, it's become a cliche term, but it's, it's appropriate. Have a seat at the table. I get that. And, and I do think that that's important, but at the end of the day, my problem with Julia has, well, one of the problems, one of the main problems has been that she's representing the whole city. And so if you want to be an activist, go be an activist. But if you're a Boston city counselor at large, you got to go into all the neighborhoods. And I get it because in so far as, you know, it's not necessarily easy. If you, if you've grown up here, you're a person of color, it might not be easy to go in certain neighborhoods because Boston's very much a city in neighborhoods. You got different ethnicities. You got different dynamics. I get all that. Cause Julia, you know, who yeah, and I, Julia and I were, you know, we're, we're right around the same age. I mean, we could say you're with the same age. And then quite honestly, it's the same thing if you're white. You know what I mean? Like if you're a certain age and you're white to go around in different communities, but this is the thing, if you want to be a public servant, even if you're representing a smaller constituency than some of your colleagues, you got to be ultimately prepared to go into any community. My goodness, you know, I mixed race and I'm Jewish. People like, Oh, you're black and Jewish. No, I am mixed race and I am a Jew. You know, it's, I'm not half Jewish and half black. I'm mixed race and Jewish. And, you know, they're not a lot of people like me. I'm not saying I'm a, I'm a rare, rare bird, but they're not a lot of people like me. And so I learned at a young age, you know, I just, I mean, if I want something or I want to know something or I want to get to know someone or several someone's, I get to just go and reach out to people. And so here I am, a woman in her 50s, you're not going to, I mean, I will go into one of the societies in the north end. The north end has all these different societies. And it's the most beautiful thing. They are, they were revolved around the Catholic faith, but also the part of Italy that your family comes from. So these societies, they're, they're, you know, they're like social clubs, but it is about a celebration of faith and tradition. And again, the traditions are going to vary depending on where you have come, you know, where your family has come from, you know, what part of Italy, what region, what city, what, so it's a beautiful thing. Now, again, I am a mixed race Jew. I don't have any Italian ancestry. And let me tell you something. I have no problem with going into those societies, you know what I mean, when it's appropriate, you know, if it's members only, it's a particular event. Okay. But, you know, if it's something public and I, and as it happens, I have friends, I, you know, I, you know, I have a camaraderie with different people in the north end. So I'm going to go, I'll go to a, you know, that society or maybe this one, you know, maybe that one over there. I'm not saying that I can just walk up into anyone. But what I'm saying is that I'm not, if I've been invited somewhere, I know someone is going to be there. I'm not going to not go because I don't fit in with that because I'm not Italian Catholic. No, I'm going to go. You know, if there's a celebration for St. Patrick's Day, you better believe I'm going to go. You know, it's, you know, if there's a celebration for, for, you know, Greek Independence Day, you best believe I'm going to go. If there is, you know, something for to celebrate the Dominican community, I'm going to be there. I'm not Dominican. I don't have any Dominican blood, but I'm going to be there. You know, so it's my thing. Again, Julia, Julia has to, she has to be everywhere. It's, you know, she's at large. And it's, I understand the concept. I do. I understand, I both understand and respect the concept of bringing your community with you. But that only goes so far, right? And then you have a Ruzzi, whip smart. You know, come on. Ruzzi has a very nice education. That is true. But that doesn't make a new unique. You know, there are other members on the City Council. In fact, you know, you could argue that all the members of the City Council or a lot of people who work in City Hall have, have very nice educational backgrounds, professional formations. So I'm not ready to say that Ruzzi is a standout because of her particular background, right? And then the idea that she's not just competent, but uber competent, I just, I don't agree. I don't agree. I don't think she's accessible. And I've had issues with her and I've let her staff know. So it's not like this is like some kind of surprise or, oh, or, or, oh, wait, really? I thought there might be something, but I wasn't sure. No, the, not only did I take my displeasure with Ruzzi right to her staff, but I went into detail what I was displeased about. I mean, you know, so hey, it's, she's, she's not uber competent. And I think that this is a job that she needs to do a better job at. She's a public servant. And, and that's not something that's not a concept, because it is a concept, it really is. And it's, it's a very profound one that it's not one that everyone readily understands and gets. And I'll leave it at that. But this, but this position, look, I urge my democratic friends or my unenrolled, my, my friends were not affiliated with, with a party. If you're going to pull my unenrolled friends, the democratic ballot, I encourage you very strongly to vote for this position. Now I think that it's, it's, and I'm going to, I'm going to explain my thought process a little bit more, but I'm going to do it in a different medium. Teasing a surprise here. But I think that, how can I express this? I think that both ladies have a skillset. I think that both women have something that they can talk about. But this isn't a generic position. And although an attorney, it's not necessary to be an attorney for this position, it certainly helps. And I think that it is very important that you have someone who understands what it means to be a lawyer, because one of, one of the main responsibilities of being a clerk in the Supreme Judicial court is that you are amending attorneys to practice law. And I just think it's nice that the person who would, who admits attorneys understands what it took to become an attorney. And, and, and, and I say this respectfully, and that kind of kind of, you know, leads me to the next point, which underscores the need, I think, even more to understand what it takes to become an attorney. Because as a clerk, you're also responsible for removing attorneys if they violate the ethical standards of the profession. So it doesn't just have to be legal. It can also be ethical. So legal or, you know, ethical or legal standards of the profession. So I think that it would be really, I think it would be really a good idea to have someone who is an attorney. And then also someone who's going to bridge, or be the bridge between the justices of, of the Supreme Judicial Court. I just, I think that person should understand, again, how courts work. What is done with that in that particular court? What are the expectations? And there's only one candidate who checks all those boxes. And that's Allison Cartwright. And then, then there's the matter of organizing appeals to the Supreme Judicial Court, a single justice calendar. And there have been cases, really important cases that have come before Supreme Judicial Court single justice. So we've had a case relative to COVID. We've had a case relative to Karen Reid. So these are important cases that we can't afford any kind of delay. And, and it's not even about someone taking this role and being able to hit the ground running. It's you gotta have, it's not about having a skill set. It's about having the right skill set, bare minimum. And I'm, I'm going to add something that even if one is an attorney, I still don't think that just any attorney should be running for this office. I think that it, I think that it requires someone who's a very seasoned attorney, like Allison Cartwright, who's been practicing for over 30 years. And I think that it requires someone who has the ability to manage attorneys and legal, other legal professionals. I think that it requires someone who has a high, has an advanced ability to handle complex administrative tasks. Right. So again, it's not that this race has two people and neither of them or one of them has a skill set. No, both women have a skill set, but only one has a skill set that is suitable for this role and that's Allison Cartwright. But at the end of the day, I can't tell you who to vote for, but I can encourage you to vote in this race. And that's what I'm going to ask you to do. So that early voting continues, it started on August 24th. It goes through August 30th this Friday. And then of course, if you haven't decided to enjoy early voting, which you can do from any polling station, that's the most convenient to you, you can of course vote on election day. So, you know, that you've got options, but just vote. So important. So I'm now going to talk about Kamala Harris. And I'm going to try to get in a couple of salient points before we close out tonight's show. For me, Kamala Harris is running as if it's 2019. Right. You know, when she was, she was running, I think, did she launch her campaign in 2019? Yes, yes, she did, I believe. And so 2019, it's, yes, yes, sorry, I threw a poll. Of course she did. I have, it's, it's, you have all these, like, all these facts and numbers and dates, you're having all these people. So sometimes it's like, ooh, and you just go in a mile a minute. So I always try to, like, fact check myself. And if I miss something, I always urge listeners, if you think there's something amiss, let me know. She, of course, suspended her campaign before the Iowa caucuses. But the point is, she's running to bring back joy. Right. She's running to end polarization. She's running to bring everybody together. Does she? I mean, she's been the vice president for the last, what, three, three and a half years? I mean, I, I just, I don't understand. What has she done then? If she hasn't been able to make any headway being vice president, how is she going to bring this about? Should she be elected? I think that Kamala Harris needs to work on policies. I think she needs to work on a platform. The New York Times, of all publications, said that joy is not a strategy. And it really isn't. And I want to come back to, is I definitely want to get this up before we finish tonight's show. I don't want to ever contribute to any kind of misinformation. And so I'm definitely not a fan of Kamala Harris as I've made clear. But there is something that has been going around the internet that she said, strength through joy, and that that's her slogan that she's using for her presidential campaign. And that is, as far as I can ascertain that is false. So her running mate has talked about how she's going to bring back joy. And she is called her father was joyful warriors, but she is not using a Nazi slogan. But what I will say, and this kind of ties into my point, how she needs a platform, her platform, and how she needs policies and branding that is hers, calling her followers joyful warriors is actually something that moms for Liberty call their followers. And moms for Liberty is an organization that involves advocating for parent parental rights at every level of government. And how interesting and ironic is that Kamala Harris would use a term that people on the right use a right wing organization. So joy is not a strategy. And Kamala Harris, she needs and I think particularly because of how she became the presidential Democratic presidential nominee, I think she has even more of a responsibility to produce a platform and policy that truly is sound and robust and feasible. Thank you so much for listening. And I look forward to hanging out with you next week. 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