Who Is Kamala Harris?
Issue #190
I wanted to find out more about the leading candidate to become America's next Maximum Leader, so I read the book Amateur Hour: Kamala Harris in the White House by Charlie Spiering (5 stars and a Should Read).
According to the book, Kamala's parents “were ideologically radical leftists and part of the radical Afro American Association study group at Berkeley....they admired communist dictators such as China's Mao Zedong and Cuba's Fidel Castro.” They also supported radical black nationalism, the Black Power movement and the Black Panther Party. The author of the book Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition cited Kamala's mother as a close friend.
Kamala's father Donald—a college professor who ended up at Stanford--“demonstrated a great appreciation for Marxist economic theory.” The college newspaper described him as a “Marxist scholar,” and his book “is a dense treatise of Marxist ideas and critiques of capitalism.” He also admired radicals such as Malcolm X, writing that the Nation of Islam “lumps together all white as 'blue eyed devils' and rejects the whole system of white institutions from the Christian Church to the white-owned business firm....I had the privilege of knowing [Malcolm X] personally....[his] eloquence was electrifying.”
The above doesn't automatically make Kamala a radical Marxist, though usually the fruit doesn't fall far from the tree.
When she was 29, Kamala started dating California Speaker of the Assembly Willie Brown, who was 60, married and a notorious philanderer. (Brown's wife tolerated this situation, as she told a friend Kamala “may have him at the moment but come Inauguration Day and he's up there on the platform being sworn in, I'll be the bitch holding the Bible.”) Brown appointed her to two state boards (one of which met twice a month) that paid her more than $400,000 (in mid-1990s dollars) over five years. He also gave her the keys to a BMW and introduced her to the Democratic elite. Curiously, she did not mention Brown in her 2019 memoir, and I never heard him mentioned at the Democratic National Convention.
As the district attorney for San Francisco, Kamala treated violent protesters with kid gloves and started manipulating conviction statistics by prosecuting fewer cases and offering plea deals, which made her conviction rate go up. Although she promised to tackle the backlog of murder cases, “she gradually dismissed them at an astonishing rate. [She] began offering generous plea bargain deals to defendants,” including those charged with murder. “[In] 2005, Oprah Winfrey featured 'superstar prosecutor Kamala Harris' on her morning show, boasting of her '90% conviction rate' and praising her....” So Kamala's recent town hall with Oprah is part of a game that has been in the making for nearly two decades.
In 2006, Kamala announced she would begin prosecuting the parents of children who tried to escape from government schools. In 2008, she promoted a campaign advertising San Francisco as a sanctuary city, reminding illegal aliens they would not be charged with a crime.
Kamala's Back on Track program “placed first-time felony offenders in job-training programs instead of sentencing them to prison.” When a woman had her purse snatched and skull fractured by an illegal alien, it became apparent that Kamala's “prosecutors were sending illegal immigrants to a job-training program for jobs they were not legally allowed to have instead of deporting them. Harris feigned ignorance about the issue,” which became a common theme of the book.
When she ran for California attorney general, she wrote a book about her “smart on crime” approach and went on a media tour. Spiering writes she “was learning the art of failing up. As she made her way through the media circuit, Harris started dazzling the national media as she was already being described as the 'female Obama'.”
I have to admit here that I didn't predict that Kamala would succeed Biden, as until recently, she was the most disliked Vice President ever and widely considered an incompetent buffoon, even among Democrats. That's why I recently read the book Michelle Obama 2024: Her Real Life Story and Plan for Power (5 stars). Even though Kamala had been a longtime protege of Barry Soetoro, I think she outmaneuvered the Obamas at the last minute.
I've read that after about a month of the Democratic elite “trying to overturn the results of the election” (as Democrats like to say), Barry called Joe and told him that Kamala was now willing to invoke the 25th Amendment. I think Kamala lobbied Joe hard to endorse her, which he did about half an hour after he announced that he was dropping out of the race. Even though Jill Biden never forgave Kamala for attacking Joe's civil rights record during the Democratic primary, and the Biden White House quickly sidelined Kamala due to her public complaints, disloyalty, incompetence, unpopularity and naked ambition, I think The Big Guy endorsed her as payback to the Obamas for the way Barry treated him. This explains why the Obamas were among the last prominent Democrats to endorse Kamala, because they had planned to drop in Michelle as their own Manchurian Candidate with the same number of votes that Kamala had earned: zero.
During her campaign for attorney general, a primary opponent assembled a highlight reel of Kamala “laughing off tough questions from reporters.” This is a technique that “Cackling Kamala” uses to this day to avoid having to answer difficult questions.
Later her Republican opponent alleged that she would use the position as a stepping stone to higher office: “She doesn't want to be the attorney general. She wants to be senator, governor, vice president. But I would be very happy to stop her ambitions at an early point in her career. There's just too much at stake.” He called her a radical, but she embraced the term at a Google Talks event: “And yeah, I am a radical. I do believe we have to get radical about what we are doing and take it seriously.”
During the (statewide) race, she “earned the support of Jeff Zucker, then the CEO of NBCUniversal [and later president of CNN], who hosted a breakfast for her....Zucker was all-in,” saying, “I believe Kamala is not just important for the city of San Francisco, the state of California, but for the entire country.” He actually met Kamala four years earlier. Again, this has been a long time in the making.
In 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court held that California's prison system was unconstitutional due to overcrowding, and ordered the state to reduce its prisoner population. Kamala's office fought the ruling in court, “arguing that they couldn't release prisoners because the prisons 'would lose an important labor pool' and 'severely impact fire camp participation' for inmates to fight fires. When there was an uproar in the press, Harris feigned ignorance....It was a familiar response for those following the career of Kamala Harris. Instead of taking responsibility, she always returned to the notion she had no idea what was going on in her own office.”
Spiering writes, “In her second term as attorney general, Harris began using her office to pick fights with her political enemies....It was a useful way to show leftist activists she not only cared about their political issues but would fight for them in her political future. Chief among her enemies was the pro-life movement. Harris wielded her bully pulpit to champion California's Reproductive FACT Act, a bill requiring pro-life pregnancy centers to provide information on abortion services against their will.”
As a U.S. senator, Harris tried to raise her profile and show leftist activists that she would fight for them by grilling those testifying before her committee with rapid-fire questions, demanding a binomial answer and repeatedly interrupting them before they could answer by asking another question. It was an ineffective way to learn the facts, but it was quite effective at creating short video clips that could go viral online, which is what she really wanted. This annoyed even some of her Democratic colleagues, earning her a reputation as an ambitious showboat.
In 2017, Kamala cosponsored (with Bernie Sanders) the College for All Act, which would provide government-funded college to anyone who wanted to go. She was also the first cosponsor of Sanders' Medicare for All bill that would provide government-funded health care for everyone, as she believed that “health care should be a right.” Referring to private health insurance, she said, “Let's eliminate that.”
During the Democratic convention I heard Kamala's sister Maya talk about growing up with their mother in Oakland (but no mention of their Marxist father or living in Canada). Also omitted: the fact that Maya was a professional activist and Kamala's closest political advisor. Among other positions, Maya was a policy advisor for Hillary Clinton during her 2016 presidential campaign. She was also vice president of a program at the (leftist) Ford Foundation, a senior fellow at the (statist) Center for American Progress, and an analyst for MSNBC. For many years, her husband worked at the Justice Department in the Clinton and Obama administrations.
In the last decade or so, climate activists have claimed that the methane from cow farts harms the environment “and proposed dietary restrictions on beef as a solution....When asked if she would support the federal government changing dietary guidelines to reduce the consumption of red meat,” Kamala responded affirmatively. Don't worry, you'll still get some protein. Bill Gates is now the largest owner of farmland in the U.S. and plans to use it to raise edible bugs.
“Harris was already an abortion warrior, supporting the right to abortion until just before birth and the use of taxpayer funds to pay for them.” She told activists she intended to go on offense and “proposed a law that would require the Justice Department to approve [state] abortion laws....”
Kamala also went on the offensive against guns, “supporting a nationwide mandatory buyback program for some semiautomatic rifles. She also vowed to use executive action to restrict gun sales....” She supported many criminal justice reforms, including eliminating private prisons, mandatory minimum sentences, mass incarceration, cash bail and the death penalty. She supported decriminalizing illegal border crossings (which is ironic because now she's showing Trump's border wall in her campaign ads, implying that she supports it) and taxpayer-funded health care for illegal aliens.
Kamala's 2019 campaign for president was an unmitigated disaster. “Staffers complained of weak leadership and lack of vision....Harris was portrayed as clueless....Disgruntled staffers were bailing and leaking to reporters just how bad things were.” The campaign's state operations manager shared her resignation letter publicly, saying “This is my third presidential campaign and I have never seen an organization treat its staff so poorly,” and complained of “indecision and a lack of leaders who will lead....Morale has never been lower.” She said campaign leadership “refused to confront our mistakes and continued making the same unforced errors over and over.”
Spiering writes that “More than 50 current and former campaign staff members and allies of the campaign spoke to the Times about the horrors they experienced on the campaign trail.” The Times reported, “Many of her own advisers are now pointing a finger directly at Ms. Harris” and her uncertainty and inconsistency. “Campaign advisors found Harris unapproachable and her circle of trust extremely tight.” In an interview after the campaign, Kamala said, “It's really important for all of us...to create safe spaces and be conscious about who is in your tight circle.”
Forget about politics and policies for a moment, and contrast the above with how Trump—who has been in the hospitality business his entire career--relates to people. He is famous for taking the time to talk with even the lowest employees of the Trump organization, learning their names, asking about their families and handing out generous cash tips. Recently J.D. Vance related the story of how Trump spent half an hour talking with his gardener about who he thought Trump should choose as his running mate. Despite being a billionaire, Trump takes an interest in the common man, listens to him and thus understands him, which is why they love him.
Continuing on, the book says that Kamala “united her cause to that of climate activists, promoting the idea of 'environmental racism'.” She and AOC “introduced the Climate Equity Act of 2020, a more woke version of the Green New Deal...[which] promised to fight 'systemic socioeconomic disparities'.”
Following the death of George Floyd, as Antifa and BLM rioters looted, destroyed and burned hundreds of small businesses in Minnesota while governor Tim Walz withheld National Guard troops and his wife savored the aroma of burning tires (which is not “weird” at all, BTW) prosecutor Kamala used social media to promote the leftist Minnesota Freedom Fund, which bailed out rioters who had been thrown in jail. “The fund bailed out multiple criminals, some of whom were accused of horrific crimes, including rape, sexual assault, child molestation, strangling women, domestic violence and murder.” Kamala praised the “intensity and brilliance” of the riots, saying, “They're not going to stop....And they should not, and we should not.”
So how did Kamala become Vice President? She was the ultimate diversity hire. Spiering explains, “Biden and his team knew that the Black Lives Matter protests had changed the narrative of the election, but he was also suffering criticism in the black community for a series of boneheaded comments about race.” So Biden sought to mute that criticism by choosing the most qualified candidate a black female as his running mate, which turned out to be the primary requirement of a number of the most important positions in his administration.
However, “...members of Biden's family and even some of his advisors were not happy with the idea. Why would the campaign choose the woman who accused Joe Biden of being a racist? Harris had also attacked Biden for reported misconduct with women. In 2019, Harris backed four women who alleged that Biden had inappropriately touched or kissed them. 'I believe them, and I respect them being able to tell their story and having the courage to do it',” she said. “What frustrated them most was that Harris never expressed contrition for her attacks on Biden during the campaign.” When asked about it later, she began laughing and said, “It was called a debate. Everyone traveled to the debate. There were journalists there covering the debate where there would be a debate.”
“As Biden remained indecisive [about his choice for running mate], a key Harris ally tried to reassure him about the idea of Vice President Harris: his former boss, President Barack Obama, who was already a fan.” Ah! This helps explain why the Obamas never left D.C., and why Barry still flies around the world meeting with leaders like the British prime minister.
Regarding the strange laugh that Kamala often resorts to when asked a tough question, Spiering writes, “...on the debate stage, at a press conference, during an interview, or at the podium, [her laugh] frequently made her appear awkward, unserious, and unprepared. Sometimes she laughed to mask surprise or genuine fury; other times she laughed when events spiraled out of her control. Political enemies dubbed it the 'Kamala cackle'....” I should add that personally, if I had to endure her nasaly/whiny tone of voice for the next eight years, it would be annoying AF. I just heard John C. Dvorak of the No Agenda Show say that it was unacceptable and is a sufficient reason alone to not vote for her.
The book details Kamala's hypersensitivity and grievance mindset. “...news editors and reporters had been on the receiving end of complaints of sexism and racism from Harris' team....Reports emerged that Harris herself was keeping an 'enemies' list....During her presidential campaign, Harris called out the entire media industry, accusing them of covert racism.” Which makes their current fawning over her as the Second Coming seem very strange.
During a September 2020 interview, when Kamala was asked if she would take the COVID-19 vaccine, she replied, “...if Donald Trump tells us that we should take it, I'm not taking it.” Spiering writes, “Now, with Biden in charge, Harris changed her tune, warning black people to get the vaccine or suffer the consequences.” As she explained to Al Sharpton, “The point, Rev, is this. I got vaccinated. I can tell you first of all that these vaccines are safe. It will save your life.” Good to know!
The book contrasts Kamala's heavy-handed, relationship-destroying approach to getting Biden's legislative priorities through Congress with the Old School approach based on relationships, negotiations and persuasion that Biden had successfully used in the Senate for decades: “The idea that Harris was going to use her powers of persuasion to help get Biden's agenda through Congress was a joke to Biden's team....Harris had barely even had time to make any friends on the Hill. The unserious pursuit of her personal political rise alienated her Senate Democrat colleagues....” She tried “to bully [Senator] Manchin into submission by speaking directly to the voters of West Virginia” in an interview with a local TV station. “Manchin was furious, telling reporters that no one from the White House had told him about the interview. Harris appeared to be stabbing him in the back.”
Spiering writes, “With a boss who was thin-skinned, uncooperative, and impatient...staff exits from the vice president's team mounted as reports of a nightmarish working environment piled up in the press, while DC insiders marveled at the wreckage. Reports cited 'an abusive' office environment under an unpredictable boss who berated staffers who failed to fulfill her erratic demands, or even for handing her the wrong type of pen.” As a former staffer said, “It's not a healthy environment and people often feel mistreated. It's not a place where people feel supported but a place where people feel treated like s___.”
Spiering writes, “Former staffers who worked for Harris before she became vice president also shared their stories of a manager who easily threw staff under the bus for her own mistakes. Staffers said that interns and low-level staffers frequently were reduced to tears as she berated them...and hung up abruptly during phone conversations....” A former staffer related, “With Kamala you have to put up with a constant amount of soul-destroying criticism and also her own lack of confidence. So, you're constantly sort of propping up a bully, and it's not really clear why.” Spiering continues, “Several [Biden] administration officials used the word shitshow when describing Harris' office....By the end of the first 18 months, at least 13 staffers had called it quits.”
Kamala has become infamous for her “word salads”—a circular paragraph of words that is devoid of any meaning but delivered as if she was sharing a deep philosophical truth. For example, during “a high-profile visit to Paris to speak about the importance of the alliance between the U.S. and France,” she said, “And in then this moment, for nations who are partners and allies, we must together, work together, to see where we are, where we are headed, where we are going and our vision for where we should be, but also see it as a moment, yes, to together address the challenges and to work on the opportunities that are presented by this moment.” Now Trump is not an eloquent orator either, but couldn't she just read a prepared speech from a teleprompter?
Another (famous) example: “We were all touring the library here and talking about the significance of the passage of time, right? The significance of the passage of time, so when you think about it, there is great significance to the passage of time in terms of what we need to do to lay these wires, what we need to do to create these jobs. And there is such great significance to the passage of time when we think about the day of the life of our children.” Put it in Kamala's Little Red Book!
During an appearance with the Jamaican prime minister in 2022, Kamala explained the importance of U.S. economic aid to that country: “We also recognize just as it has been in the United States, for Jamaica, one of the issues that has been presented as an issue that is economic in the way of its impact has been the pandemic. So to that end, we are announcing today also that we will assist Jamaica in COVID recovery by assisting in terms of the recovery efforts in Jamaica that have been essential to, I believe, what is necessary to strengthen not only the issue of public health but also the economy.” Unfortunately, the Office of the Vice President doesn't have the funds to hire a speechwriter, so must rely on an early prototype of ChatGPT.
Speaking about abortion rights at her alma mater, Kamala said, “So, I think it's very important, as you have heard from so many incredible leaders for us at every moment in time and certainly this one, to see the moment in time in which we exist and are present, and to be able to contextualize it, to understand where we exist in the history and in the moment as it relates not only to the past but the future.” In future years, I can envision schoolchildren reciting these speeches from memory like the Gettysburg Address.
During a roundtable discussion about abortion rights, Kamala responded to a question about culture: “Well, I think culture is—it is a reflection of our moment in our time, right? And—and present culture is the way we express how we're feeling about the moment. And—and we should always find times to express how we feel about the moment that is a reflection of joy, because every—you know, it comes in the morning. [laughter] We have to find ways to also express the way we feel about the moment in terms of just having language and a connection to how people are experiencing life. And I think about it in that way, too.”
Spiering writes that “Harris' word salads provided endless content and entertainment for comedians and conservative media organizations, but her inability to communicate quietly sparked a crisis of confidence in the Democratic Party. The ability to speak well is one of the most crucial skills of a political candidate....As more people watched, they realized that Harris was never that good at speaking or answering questions and was only getting worse. No one wanted to talk about it publicly, as criticism of Harris was immediately branded as racist and sexist by her defenders....Democrats quietly gave up on the notion that Harris would take over for Biden in 2024 as she lacked one of the most basic political skills for the executive branch.”
I've mentioned this before, but increasingly in recent years, I feel like aliens have surreptitiously moved me to a glass jar like a pet scorpion and are poking me with a stick just to get a rise out of me. Having to endure over eight more years of this linguistic mashup of Marxist Critical Theory, a game of Centrifugal Bumble-Puppy and the babble of a duplicitous loon would complete the demoralization phase of America's conquest.
In closing, Spiering notes that “A June [2023] NBC News poll showed Kamala with only a 32% approval rating and 49% negative, including 39% who had a 'very negative' view of [her]. The net negative approval rating of minus 17 was the lowest in the history of the poll—even lower than...Dick Cheney.” Who recently endorsed her, BTW. In the book's conclusion, he writes, “In my time spent reporting for this book, I was surprised to learn how few Democrats even like Harris, let alone respect her....”
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