Dark Brandon crushed it

Today’s Big Stuff. August 20, 2024.

It’s Tuesday. There are 77 days until the general election. Night One in Chicago rocks, the speakers who reminded us what this election is about and Dark Brandon knocks it out of the park. 

Be advised: This newsletter uses profanity. It’s how we cope with not having Kevin Sorbo at our convention. 

Note: Sexy Patriots! How freaking awesome was it to see the crowd go nuts last night when VP Kamala Harris made a surprise visit on the first night of the convention? Or seeing Steve Kerr? Or Mallory McMorrow? Or Hillary Clinton? Or Jason Isbell? Our tears had goosebumps and our goosebumps were crying. And just when we thought we couldn’t feel any better about our life choices, we were reminded that this is what the Republican Party is. Turd Alert!

Yikes. Feels pretty good to be a Democrat right about now, don’t it? Like we had already forgotten the GOP shat out that loser. But that’s what the modern Republican Party is — con artists, grifters and the first man to walk on Mars while also curing cancer. So bye, George. You won’t be missed. And we hope you have to room with Trump because that’s what you both deserve. Y’all have a blessed day.

Note two: The ovations for VP Harris, Hillary and Joe Biden last night totally wrecked us. Sam is still crying. The ovation for President Biden lasted more than four minutes. And the Lock Him Up chants while Hillary was speaking were really the cherry on top. 

Note three: By the way, Steve Bannon is still in prison. So that’s fun.

Note four: Conservative icon Judge Michael Luttig has endorsed VP Harris. So that’s one conservative who isn’t a total asshole. More: CNN

Note five: Everyone is laughing at Trump. It feels so good.

Note six: Steve Kerr was one of our favorites last night. We’re not Golden State fans, but how can you not love that dude? He hit Trump with the Steph Curry “night night!” More: Huff Post

Note seven: Were y’all able to catch Jason Isbell performing last night? He’s so good. And in our opinion much better than Kid Rock. More: Pitch Fork

Note eight: We were sorry to hear James Taylor got bumped. We’re big fans. But also we have a lot of kick-ass Democrats who needed to address the nation. More: JS Online

Note nine: Iran is denying that they hacked Trump’s campaign after the U.S. accused them on Monday. They tried to hack Harris’s campaign and failed. More: Associated Press

Note 10: We’ll talk more about this in the news section, but we figure we can’t talk enough about courage like this…

Note 11: Remember the brain worm guy? Yeah, we forgot too. Anyway, his campaign is broke. Like his soul. More: Politico

Note 12: Speaking of assheads who want Trump and Putin to win, it was nice to see Jill Stein surrounded by people waving signs that said “Abandon Harris ‘24.” Not! More: NO GODDAMN LINK

Note 13: Fox News wouldn’t show the women talking about abortion last night. And they haven’t run a single piece about Trump attacking Medal of Honor recipients. We’re starting to think they’re not a real news organization. More: Media Matters

Note 14: Last night Nate Silver was pushing conspiracy theories about Biden’s late start, the New York Times tried to fact-check Biden when he said Trump won’t accept the election results and the WaPo fact-checker wrote up his piece like he was wearing a red hat. So yeah, TBS is gonna have to be the new media because the old ones suck.

Note 15: We don’t know about y’all, but we have become big Dougie fans…

Note 16: How great were Jasmine Crockett and AOC last night? The future for Democrats is so bright we just put on some shades.

Note 17: How much are we loving Shawn Fain? More: Huff Post

Note 18: Tonight is going to be another great night in Chicago. We’re excited to hear President Obama tear the roof off that joint. More: Huff Post

Note 19: For today’s Happy Ending, we share this video of VP Harris telling President Biden she loves him. They’re good people, and we’re so happy to be supporting them.

Note 20: And on that heart-melting note, let’s go do some news! We sure hope y’all are enjoying this as much as we are. And by this we mean George Santos going to jail. But the convention is pretty great too! Love y’all!

Night one

Ok so we’ve gone over this a lot already but it was so wonderful to see a packed house of thousands joyously uniting to take down orange fascism. And the noise when VP Harris made a surprise visit should send a chill down the spine of every Trump-loving asshole on the planet. Last night was a good reminder that we are on the good side and that’s why we will prevail. It was also a good reminder that no one should ever have to speak after Sen. Raphael Warnock. More: Huff Post

Hear them

While so much of Monday night was a celebration, the most powerful part of the evening came courtesy of the women who are having to live with the consequences of Donald Trump’s cruelty. Before Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear took the stage, Amanda and Josh Zurawski, Kaitlyn Joshua and Hadley Duvall spoke to Americans about the hell that was invited on them after Trump overturned Roe. We were flat out sobbing listening to them, and it is our sincere hope that all of America heard them. More: Rolling Stone

Thank you, Joe

Welp, Joe Biden brought the dang house down. When he looked at the camera and said “and I love you, America,” we just flat out lost it. Joe Biden has been perhaps the best president of our lifetimes, and we were so happy to see him get his flowers last night. Thank you to him and to everyone in that building who showed him just how loved and appreciated he really is. Thank you, Mr. President. More: CBS News

Today’s clips

The Inflation Reduction Act has sparked a manufacturing boom across the U.S., mobilizing tens of billions of dollars of investment, particularly in rural communities in need of economic development. More: NBC News