The Perfect Lesson On the Correct Usage of 'Literally' and 'Figuratively'

I love Joe Biden, and I'm obviously going to vote for him and Kamala Harris exactly one month from now on November 3rd, but Joe does have a linguistic glitch that has figuratively driven me crazy at times, his constant use and misuse of the word 'literally.' (Full disclosure: I spent part of my early working years copyediting and checking the copyediting of books and I have a number of grammatical pet peeves, of which this is only one.)

First some video examples of Joe using his favorite word:

Now here is the perfect lesson in a single sentence to help Joe remember the difference, based on the largest events currently dominating the news: I don't literally want to see Trump buried because of COVID-19, but I figuratively want to see Trump buried under the largest landslide in American history.

Is Russia Still Targeting American Blacks on Social Media?

And will we only find out the details years after this November's election?

One of the most shocking conversations I had in the days after the election of November 2016 took place over a lunch with two African-American co-workers, one male and one female, both in their forties. I spoke (ranted?) about my horror of the new White House resident planning to move in on January 20, 2017, and both of them told me that they had not voted, even though they were registered and had voted in 2008 and 2012. When I asked why, the short answer was that "Hillary Clinton would be just as bad as Trump" and "her emails" were somehow proof that she was just as dishonest as Trump. Neither one of them was a heavy consumer of television news or a reader of the New York Times (our local paper), but they were both watchers of popular entertainment (including the Apprentice shows) and active on social media. As more and more has come out about targeted Russian propaganda aimed at American Blacks through Facebook (as addressed in the following 2019 video from Senator Kamala Harris), I have to believe that some of their attitudes about Hillary came from that blizzard of lies, even though we were not living in one of the swing states that Trump's Campaign Manager Manafort had told the Russians to target.

Today’s bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report on Russia confirms what I talked about back in August 2018: Russians targeted Black voters and attempted to suppress Black voter turnout. pic.twitter.com/8tjDdy0t4o

— Kamala Harris (@SenKamalaHarris) October 8, 2019

With only 41 days until the election, what lies are currently being told to Black voters (and other key groups) about vice-presidential candidate @KamalaHarris in targeted social-media posts? What lies are being told about @JoeBiden to suppress voter turnout in 2020?

Another Twitter Poll: Am I Safe In Ordering My "Biden Harris 2020" Bumperstickers Early?

POLL:
Not that @JoeBiden is looking at my Twitter account for guidance, but -- just out of curiosity -- who is your favorite running mate for Joe?

— True Blue Liberal (@TrueBlueLiberal) August 5, 2020

The True Blue Liberal Poll About the First Democratic Debates

Please vote in the following poll in the next three days. If you thought someone other than Harris, Warren, Castro, or Biden won the two nights of debates on that crowded stage, please tell us why in the comments here and on Twitter.

POLL:
Who was the biggest winner of the last two nights of debates? Sorry, Twitter only allows four spaces, so include your winner in the comments if s/he is not in the choices below.

— True Blue Liberal (@TrueBlueLiberal) June 28, 2019

Goodbye 2018. It's time to start seriously thinking about Donald Trump's replacement.

On this last day of Trump Year 2, Senator Elizabeth Warren is in the news for formally announcing the formation of her presidential exploratory committee. She won't be the last challenger throwing her (or his) hat into the ring for the Democratic nomination. Earlier this week, the Times ran an article focusing on four U.S. Senators who are likely early candidates: Massachusetts' Warren, New Jersey's Cory Booker, California's Kamala Harris, and New York's Kirsten Gillibrand.

That led me to post this early Twitter poll:

POLL: Which one of these probable presidential candidates mentioned in the @NYTimes do you prefer at this very early point in the 2020 campaign?

— True Blue Liberal (@TrueBlueLiberal) December 29, 2018

With a new Democratic House of Representatives and the beginning of the 2020 presidential campaign, I hope 2019 gives all of us much more hopeful news about Democrats and much less news about you know who.