Tim Walz

I am fine with this pick. He brings a lot of good qualities to the ticket that may attract conservatives who don't like Trump.

On the feeding children issue. It isn't the child's fault if their parents can't pay for lunch or aren't willing to pay for lunch. Remove the stigma and offer a free lunch to everyone. As someone else said, most people who can afford to pay for their children's lunches aren't probably taking advantage of the situation.

I have a kid too. Though having a kid didn't help me. 😳 My dh has mighty colourful language as well. We opted to try the "Do as I say not as I do" plan. We had some hilarious success with that plan. We let ds have the word crap as his swear word and talked to him extensively about where and who was appropriate etc. The child proceeded to makeup new words using crap as the base. Think Holy Crapoly, Craptastic, Craparoni. And now ds23 is just as profane as we are. 😖

I'm trying to clean up now because my 88 year old mother, whom I've spent a load of time with this year, has been dropping f-bombs and my siblings are blaming me. 😈 They can fuck off, but I'm trying to do better in front of my mom. 

I was until I learned that having someone from a swing state doesnt guarantee that state. His position on Israel was going to be an issue for a significant portion of democrats. And the republicans would have used his being Jewish to scare their base.

It was pretty clear early on that it likely wouldnt be Kelly.

And just because parents make x amount of money doesn't mean crap. They could be in huge debt and struggling on the inside while they show off on the outside.

Yea, but you are thinking that republicans would think THAT deeply about it? yea. not. 

My dh (who will vote Harris no matter who she picked) was a little irritated that she chose Walz “who no one has heard of” instead of Kelly “who everyone has heard of”.

I told him he’ll like Walz and that likely Kelly’s Senate seat was concerning because we want to minimize potential for badness in the Senate and keep it as stable as possible. I also don’t know that everyone has heard of Kelly—we may be a little skewed living in AZ.

I’m looking forward to upcoming campaign events and am even considering going to the one in Phoenix. That’s a lot for an extreme introvert to go out into a crowd in 110+ temps! We’ll see.

I did sign up for the Women Wednesday’s for Harris calls and I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s call!

Lastly, I can’t help but add that our AZ Senator is MARK Kelly. Scott is his twin brother who was also an astronaut.

I've only lived in Minneapolis for 5 years but I also love the fact that we do not pay taxes on clothing purchases!

So true. I was a teacher for 30 years and the kids who got "free and reduced lunches" would often be teased and bullied. 

And DH even said himself that he didn't think they'd choose Kelly, but I think a tiny piece of him was still going to hold unto the idea of someone NASA minded in the White House until it was officially announced otherwise. 

Yeah, I don’t talk a huge amount about my upbringing because I was 100% raised to keep everything a secret, but my ability to get out of my upbringing was thanks to things like this. Academic magnet programs, Pell grants, student loans, a scholarship from my father’s union. I attended Ivy League schools and am a professor now because a lot of people and programs gave me a hand when I was too young to be in charge of my own future. It is why I am a Democrat and why I am endlessly thankful to have been treated like a neighbor, not an other.

Hmm....I suggest you stick to talking points you actually know something about.

Exactly this.  I work in a school, too, and free breakfast and lunch for everyone during covid was a really positive change.  Regrettably, it was only for a few years.  Kids can't learn if they are hungry.  The cost of offering meals to every kid, especially at elementary schools, is low vs the benefits of making sure that all of the students have a full belly.  Even if it means feeding kids who might not qualify financially.  I can't count the number of times that kids come to school and their morning was rushed and they didn't have time to eat.  This happens to kids from all income levels.  As others have said, during covid, breakfast and lunch was available to all of the kids, but not every kid actually choose food from the cafeteria. We still had a significant number of kids bringing lunch to school when it was free for everyone.

Also, as others have said, families on paper might not qualify, but you never know what the situation is in reality.  Are they helping or supporting an elderly family member? How much student debt do they have?  Are they paying college tuition for other kids?  Are they paying a lot in rent or towards a mortgage?  Do they have medical debt, medical expenses or pay a lot for health insurance?  Are there other extenuating circumstances?  

If you look at the actual guidelines, the income levels are relatively low.  For a family of 4, their income needs to be below $57,000 to qualify for reduced lunch or 40,000 for free lunch.  In some areas of the country that might be a lot of money, but not in areas where the cost of living or housing is high.  The only 2 places that have a different chart are Alaska and Hawaii.  

California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Mexico and Vermont also provide free lunches to all kids.

There is a stigma to applying for free or reduced lunches.  There are parents who would qualify but are reluctant for any number of reasons to apply - they don't want to give financial info to the school, they don't want other people to know about their financial situation, they don't want their kid to stand out, be bullied or stigmatized etc

I think that's the fundamental difference between Republicans and Democrats.  Republicans are invested in making sure that everything is "fair" and willing to let kids and families go without basic needs like food, housing and medical care to make sure no one receives benefits who in their opinion doesn't deserve them.  Democrats would prefer to give benefits to a broader group to ensure that everyone has their basic needs met, even if some people might not need the help.

really excited for both of them



Lets get this done

Kamala Harris @kamalaharris
When I called Tim_Walz this morning to ask him to join our campaign, I shared my deep level of respect for him and the work we've done together.

We're going to unify this country and we're going to win.

Let's go get this done.