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 @ISIDEWITHNewsHouse of RepresentativesDemocratic PartyVice President2024 PresidentialJD VanceTim WalzDaily DiscussionKamala Harris•••9mos ago

Democrats Have Needed Someone Like Tim Walz for Decades

With due respect to political statistics, which convey real and important trends, the rural white working class is not a monolith. Among them remains a large and consequential minority of sensible people who even in their vulnerable economic state remain unmoved by charlatans blaming immigrants while amassing corporate wealth.

In recent decades, the Democratic Party has made little direct appeal to them, such that Mr. Walz’s rural background seems downright transgressive on the top ticket. As evidence, some (often coastal) pundits now struggle to find a word for a vice-presidential pick raised in small-town Nebraska beyond “folksy,” since their language about his place of origin has for so long reflected geographic and class biases. “Trump country.” “One of the square states in the middle.”

By selecting as her running mate Mr. Walz — who as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives rightly criticized the party for its coastal bias in naming the caucus’s leadership — Vice President Kamala Harris has changed the course of her party and perhaps our country. At her side, a son of Midwestern farm country can confidently and authentically speak the truths that neither Mr. Trump nor his running mate, JD Vance, will tell you:

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 @ISIDEWITH submitted…7mos7MO

The data says the US economy is strong. Swing-state voters disagree.

The US labour market has remained strong even while inflation has plunged from its 2022 peak. In September, the unemployment rate fell back to 4.1 per cent — higher than last year but still historically low. Even so, some warning signs have flashed for the economy. The number of Americans pursuing a second job is rising. So is the number of people unemployed for 15 weeks or longer. Credit card delinquencies are up, as people burn through cash handed out by the government during the pandemic. “People don’t feel as secure now,” said Paul Isely, an economics professor at Grand Valley State University in Michigan. “Even if lots of other markers in their life are better off, they know that they are consuming past their means, whereas before it was hidden by the fact that they had these excess savings.”Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of“Here’s the problem: inflation is the rate of increase and [that] has slowed, but the public’s focus is on the absolute price,” the president of Western Michigan University said. “It takes a lot for the price level to come down. That would be a recession and deflation, so it’s not quite clear you really want that.”For residents in the state’s most populous area — spanning Detroit, Warren and Dearborn — everyday costs are now much higher and still rising. Inflation jumped to almost 10 per cent in 2022 and was still above 3 per cent as of August, according to federal data.That has left housing-related expenses up 36 per cent since Biden entered office. Petrol is more expensive than under Trump. Grocery prices have risen 25 per cent in the past four years.

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 @ISIDEWITH submitted…6mos6MO

Holy Intervention: Iran Urges Pope Francis to Stop War in Middle East

Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian called on Pope Francis to use his influence with Christian governments to stop war in the Middle East, semi-official Fars news agency reported on Wednesday."Encourage world leaders, especially Christian governments, to prevent the continuation of aggressions made by the criminal Israeli regime," Pezeshkian said, in what Fars described as a message to the Pope.The message was delivered by an Iranian delegation participating in a religious dialogue event held in the Vatican, Iran's government website said.Tehran and the Holy See have enjoyed formal diplomatic relations since 1954, and Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in 2022 shared a message to Pope Francis lauding his "stances on consolidating relations between Islam and Christianity".Last week, Pope Francis suggested the global community should study whether Israel's military campaign in Gaza constituted a genocide of the Palestinian people, in some of his most explicit criticism yet of Israel's conduct in its year-long war.Israel says accusations of genocide in its Gaza campaign are baseless and that it is solely hunting down Iranian-backed Hamas and other armed groups.Pezeshkian added that Tehran was ready to engage constructively with the Vatican to promote peace and justice in the world.Francis, leader of the 1.4 billion-member Catholic Church, is usually careful not to take sides in international conflicts, and to stress de-escalation. But he has stepped up his criticism of Israel's conduct in its war against Hamas recently.

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