The grand old man!!! Joe! Joe! Joe!!!!!

I just realized that I've watched 19 DNCs in my lifetime.

Yeah, I'm old, but I was only seven years old when I became a convention junkie, and compared to the Republicans, the DNC was the only game in town! The color, the excitement, the life of the Democratic Party spilled through our 14" black and white tv and into our living room. We didn't get to see the smoke filled rooms, but the hours long demonstrations for the different presidential contenders (still undecided or just semi-secret? I didn't know. I was just seven, after all) impressed the heck out of me. They played the conventions all day and long into the night. A lot must have been past my bedtime, but I still remember watching both Stevenson and Eisenhower's speeches. I doubt I understood much of what they said, but I was hooked and I've watched long through the night ever since.

I remember most vividly when John F Kennedy was introduced to the nation with his brilliant keynote speech at the DNC in 1956. I was 11 and so excited I jumped up and down on our poor couch for much of it. (I was 5'2" and 110 pounds and the couch was far from new.)
He was instantly a leading candidate for the Vice Presidency because Stevenson had left the nomination open for the convention to fill. Talk about breathless excitement! It felt like I was counting the votes right along with Bobby.

And then it was 1960, which was by far the most exciting of my life. I was 15 and could stuff envelopes in my local party office, which meant I actually got to see my idol in person from the third or fourth balcony of the old Chicago Stadium, just a few days before the election.

I've watched every one of the DNCs since then, cheering on our nominees (though I couldn't get excited about Hubert Humphrey after Bobby's assassination). I'm over the moon about Kamala, and I will always adore Obama, but nothing will ever top the 1960 convention -- not for me, at least.

Here's to the DNC!
hedda

He's Losing His Mind --new parody song by Sandy Ricardi

The pig has been practicing and so far sounds better than he should.

Horrible.

Stephen Colbert interviews Trump juror #11!

Post numbers are not showing up for me.

This is only happening on my Windows 10 desktop, but I thought I should post about it in any case.

Thanks,
Hedda

For House Republicans, failure is the only option

DU4 is not formatting properly on my Kindle Fire.

I've never had a problem with DU4 on Kindle before, but this morning it suddenly shifted to what looks like plain HTML. The whole page is there but the formatting has gone away so everything lays out vertically on Latest. Threads don't seem to format at all.

FBI warning of new "Phantom Hacker" scam.

The FBI is warning the public of a recent nationwide increase in "Phantom Hacker" scams, significantly impacting senior citizens. This Phantom Hacker scam is an evolution of more general tech support scams, layering imposter tech support, financial institutions, and government personas to enhance the trust victims place in the scammers and identify the most lucrative accounts to target.

The "Phantom Hacker" scam involves three phases. In Phase 01, a scammer contacts a victim posing as tech support to warn them that their financial accounts are at risk of a virus on their computer. The victim's computer, however, is unaffected by any virus. In Phase 02, the scammer contacts the victim, posing as a representative of a relevant financial institution. The scammer directs the victim to transfer their money to a 'safe' third party account such as the Federal Reserve or other government agency. In Phase 03, the scammer poses as a government official to further have the victim move their money.

Learn more about this scam at: https://www.ic3.gov/Media/Y2023/PSA230929

I'm in the Western suburbs of Chicago. It's 98 degrees with 107 heat index right now.