Florida Sentinel Bulletin

Taylor Swift and her Swifties

Taylor Swift has yet to publicly endorse a candidate, but some of her fanbase are already mobilizing for Kamala Harris. The Swifties for Kamala Coalition officially launched on Tuesday, raising more than $138,000 for the Democratic candidate in a virtual rally featuring Carole King and the senators Elizabeth Warren and Kirsten Gillibrand.

Swift, who has no affiliation with the group, was not present on the Zoom call nor involved in the event. The group has amassed about 250 million followers on social media platforms since Joe Biden dropped out of the race in late July and endorsed the vice-president.

More than 26,000 people joined the Zoom call on Tuesday,

VP Kamala Harris and her running mate Tim Walz

Vice President Harris has taken the lead over former President Trump in the national polling average kept by Decision Desk HQ/The Hill, underscoring how the new Democratic presidential candidate has quickly seen polls move in her favor.

The Harris lead in the DDHQ/The Hill poll is a narrow 0.3 points as of Monday, but it comes amid wider evidence that the newly-minted Democratic presidential candidate and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), are moving up in the polls.

A poll released Saturday from The New York Times/Siena College gave Harris 4-point leads in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, three states that are part of the “blue wall” that swung the election to Trump in 2016 before flipping back for President Biden in 2020.

For Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, it was “grandmother” — the label she frequently turned to when defining herself to voters, attempting to show them who she was apart from her work in politics.

For Kamala Harris, it might be “auntie.”

Harris’s presidential nomination has made history several times over. She is the second woman,  the first Black woman and the first South Asian woman ever nominated for president by a major party. Now, as she pushes to break the nation’s highest glass ceiling, women — and especially Black and South Asian women, who already lean Democratic — have mobilized, donating to her campaign in record-breaking numbers, including the $1.6 million raised by Win With Black Women only hours after Harris declared her candidacy.

Harris claims that identity proudly in her social media bios, calling herself “Wife, Momala, Auntie.” Friends and family have been known to use the “auntie” label in addressing her. References to aunties — including “Auntie Kamala” herself — pepper Harris’ 2019 memoir, “The Truths We Hold.”

Vice President Kamala Harris has signed-up 170,000 volunteers

WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign has raised $200 million since she emerged as the likely Democratic presidential nominee last week, an eyepopping haul in her race against the Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump.

The campaign, which announced its latest fundraising total on Sunday, said the bulk of the donations — 66% — comes from first-time contributors in the 2024 election cycle and were made after President Joe Biden announced his exit from the race and endorsed Harris.

Over 170,000 volunteers have also signed up to help the Harris campaign with phone banking, canvassing and other get-out-the-vote efforts. Election Day is 100 days away.

“The momentum and energy for Vice President Harris is real — and so are the fundamentals of this race: this election will be very close and decided by a small number of voters in just a few states,” Michael Tyler, the campaign’s communications director, wrote in a memo.

Her campaign said it held some 2,300 organizing events in battleground states this weekend as several high-profile Democrats under consideration to serve as Harris’ running mate stumped for her.

VP Kamala Harris receives $7 million from Netflix founder Reed Hastings.

Reed Hastings’ donation to the Harris super PAC for her presidential campaign is the largest donation the co-founder has ever made on behalf of one political candidate.

Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings donated $7 million to the Kamala Harris presidential campaign. Hastings’ donation to a PAC that’s supporting the Harris campaign is the largest donation the tech entrepreneur has ever made on behalf of one political candidate.

Hastings also took to social media, expressing his support on X, writing “Congrats to Kamala Harris – now it is time to win.”

Predictably, not everyone was pleased with Hastings, prompting a call for users to boycott the streaming platform, causing #CancelNetflix to trend. “Many of those calling for a boycott identified themselves as conservatives or supports of the MAGA movement on social media,” Newsweek reports.

One user, @TX_Vet_MAGA, said, “Just canceled @netflix due to @reedhastings $7 million political donation to Kamala Harris. #boycott #netflix #BoycottNetflix.”

Clarence Thomas

The corruption allegations against Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas are only getting worse after a review discovered last week that the RV-loving, yacht-riding, jet-setting judge did not recuse himself from a 2004 health insurance case despite a clear conflict of interest.

In 1999, Thomas took a $267,230 loan from health insurance executive Anthony Welters to buy a motor coach, a term he will defend more vehemently than the well-being of the nation’s populace. Welters was CEO of AmeriChoice when he gave Thomas the loan. The executive claims it was just money given to a friend… who happened to serve on the Supreme Court when they met. The HMO would be acquired by UnitedHealth in 2002, where he remained an executive. While Justice Thomas recused himself from two cases involving UnitedHealth, Rolling Stone found that not only he participated in a case but he also wrote the court’s unanimous decision.

Aetna Health Inc. v. Davila, the 2004 case in question, confirmed that insurers couldn’t be held liable for malpractice when the health plan denies life-saving or medically necessary treatment. While UnitedHealth wasn’t a named party in the case, the decision had massive ramifications for the entire healthcare industry.

President Joe Biden

President Biden sent a two-page letter to Democratic lawmakers on Monday to say that “I am firmly committed to staying in this race,” saying speculation over his future was helping former President Donald Trump — and that it was time to stop.

“The question of how to move forward has been well-aired for over a week now. And it’s time for it to end. We have one job,” Biden said.

Biden, 81, has been insistent that he would continue his campaign even after he badly faltered in a debate with Trump — a performance that alarmed Democrats worried about his ability to run, win and govern. He has said he had a cold and jet lag, and has been working since to try to demonstrate he is still up to the job.

On Monday morning, he made an unusual live call in to MSNBC’s Morning Joe and angrily defended his electoral and policy record. He angrily expressed his frustration with the Democrats who are questioning his stamina.

“I’m not going to explain anymore about what I should or shouldn’t do — I am running,” Biden said during the 20-minute conversation with the show’s hosts.

“I don’t care what those ‘big names’ think. They were wrong in 2020, they were wrong in 2022 about the red wave. They’re wrong in 2024,” Biden said.

Lieutenant Governor, Mark Robinson 

North Carolina’s Lieutenant Governor,

Folks, here’s some news you NEED to know about. As he should be, North Carolina’s Lieutenant Governor, Mark Robinson, is embroiled in controversy following a provocative speech at Lake Church in White Lake, North Carolina, on June 30. A clip from the event has been circulating online, in which Robinson, a staunch MAGA Republican and gubernatorial candidate endorsed by former President Donald Trump, can be heard saying “Some folks need killing.”

The video shows Robinson discussing the importance of Independence Day and emphasizing the need to protect freedom “at all cost.” His comments quickly drew ire, particularly when he mentioned that there exist people in the nation who care only about control, without regard for political affiliation.

“Folks, you see, there’s a class of people in this nation that want you to forget that,” Robinson proclaimed. “They want control. They don’t care about Democrats, they don’t care about Republicans, they don’t care about anything. They care about control.”

Robinson compared the current state of the nation to the U.S. military’s actions during World War II, referencing the attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan in December 1941. He stated, “We didn’t quibble about it. We didn’t argue about it. We didn’t fight about it. We killed it.”

The most incendiary part of his speech came shortly after, where he dismissed potential backlash from “some liberal somewhere,” who might find his words offensive, Newsweek reports.

“Too bad,” he said. “Get mad at me if you want to. Some folks need killing. It’s time for somebody to say it. It’s not a matter of vengeance. It’s not a matter of being mean or spiteful. It’s a matter of necessity.”