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President Biden explains his reasons for passing the torch. Donald Trump on the attack. Prison release halted. CBS News Correspondent Steve Kathan has today's World News Roundup.
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Anyone hoping to glean hints of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s plans for the Gaza war and its aftermath will have been disappointed: it was a political speech aimed at Israelis. Nigerians spend more than anyone on food, as a fraction of income. We look at the factors making the squeeze even tighter (11:44). And Starbucks franchises as community-level drivers of innovation (18:28).
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Before the rise of Silicon Valley, long before the 1906 quake, way before indigenous peoples settled in the Bay Area—actually way, WAY before humans even existed as a species—some fearsome creatures roamed this land. That's right, I'm talking about dinosaurs. This week we're reprising our 2017 episode from reporter Daniel Potter about what kinds of these "monstrous lizards" swam, stomped and flew over the Bay Area.
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This story was reported by Daniel Potter. Bay Curious is made by Olivia Allen-Price, Katrina Schwartz, Amanda Font, Christopher Beale, and Ana De Almeida Amaral. Additional support from Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Maha Sanad, Holly Kernan, and the whole KQED family.
Alabama News:
*AL Rep reacts to head of secret service stepping down
*Sen Tuberville on CDC epidemic and voting in general election
*Mobile mayor regrets not firing former police chief
*Al AG no fan of rescheduling marijuana
*University of AL rebranding DEI office's across the state
*SOS awaiting for Democrat party rules regarding general election ballot
National News:
*Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses congress
*President Biden Prime time address on leaving the presidential race
*FBI Director on the hot seat on Capital Hill
*New poll shows tight race between VP Harris and Donald Trump
*Trump challenging VP Harris using President Biden's campaign funds
*Crowd Strike financial costs revealed
*EV's not selling at car dealerships across the country
*Salt Lake City to host 2034 Winter Olympics
Most of the media-verse right now is focused on a handful of serious and important questions: Kamala’s VP pick, if Democrats have been anti-Democratic, if Kamala can receive Biden’s campaign money without a legal battle. And whether or not China will see the opportunity of our lame-duck president to make moves against Taiwan.
But today we aren’t here to talk about any of that. Today we’re here to talk about memes and whether or not Kamala Harris is “brat.”
On Sunday, July 21, we found out that President Joe Biden was stepping down from the race because he posted a letter on X. Then, 23 minutes later he endorsed Kamala Harris as the nominee and that was it.
Days went by, and we didn’t see him or hear from him. And we’re all supposed to accept that as normal. And in his absence something really strange happened. Kamala Harris became a Gen Z icon. Kamala became “brat.”
And if you’re anything like me, you’re not exactly following. So, let us explain: the singer Charli XCX posted Sunday on X that “Kamala IS brat,” a reference to her new album called Brat. Which, for those who don’t know, according to Gen Z, is this summer’s official vibe and aesthetic. Don’t worry, if you still aren’t following, neither are the talking heads on CNN or Fox.
But whether they understand it or not, Kamala’s campaign does. Her staff changed her campaign’s X page to the brat chartreuse color (the album’s theme color), with the words “Kamala HQ” to match the Brat album cover.
The internet went crazy. Just take the video of a group of men in Fire Island in chartreuse crop tops that say “kamala” in the brat font. The caption on the tweet: “BRAT Kamala shirts already on Fire Island. The gays move SO FAST.” And it wasn’t just brat that went viral, we’ve also seen a repacking of viral clips overnight: the coconut quote, Kamala loving Venn diagrams, and a whole lot of Kamala laughing.
As the internet was off to the races, mainstream politicians were forced to make a choice: embrace the Twitter-sphere or ignore it. And most chose the former. Hawaiian senator Brian Schatz endorsed Kamala on X simply by posting a photo of himself climbing a coconut tree, the caption reading: “Madam Vice President, we are ready to help.” Colorado governor Jared Polis simply posted a tweet with a coconut emoji, a palm tree emoji, and an American flag emoji. Senator Mazie K. Hirono posted a photo with Kamala with the brat chartreuse filter on it.
Clearly a unique consensus has emerged. As Katherine Boyle wrote for The Free Press this week, “The online and offline are finally merging.”
It’s fun, it’s trippy, it’s campy, it’s weird, but the question remains, will any of this translate to actual votes?
To help us better understand are two Free Press writers—River Page and Kat Rosenfield. This week for The Free Press, River explained how the phrase “Twitter isn’t real life” has never seemed less true and that “Twitter is now the center of the country’s political universe. For better or worse.” And Kat made the case that Kamala is brat, but not in the way we think, and she’s not so sure it’s a good thing.
The internet moves fast, but River and Kat move faster, and they’re here today to help us dissect it all: the meme-ification of politics, brat, and how internet culture is rewiring election norms.
If you liked what you heard from Honestly, the best way to support us is to go to TheFP.com/subscribe and become a Free Press subscriber today.
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