Today is Sunday, March 3, 2024. Today trailing GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley achieved her first win in the Washington, D.C., Republican primary. This victory might spark some momentum ahead of next week’s Super Tuesday contests. This surprising victory for “birdbrain” Nikki Haley, as referred to in such deprecatory words by the leading GOP toddler, Donald J. Duck, is examined in an NBC News article by Matt Dixon entitled “Nikki Haley gets first 2024 win in the Washington, D.C., primary.”

The second-candidate-standing won the district primary over her verbal-challenged frontrunner and has pledged to stay in the race through Super Tuesday, when 15 states and American Samoa will hold nominating contests. Trump, unfortunately, is dominating in nearly all of those states in most public polling and is expected to extend his commanding delegate lead.

Washington’s moderate set of Republicans, many of whom who work in politics or government, are seen as vastly different than those in other early states like South Carolina and Iowa, which set up a scenario where Haley had her first legitimate chance of notching a victory. In 2016, Drumpf got just 14 percent of the vote in Washington’s 2016 primary.

And expectations for turnout were also low, which opened up the door to a different scenario than every other contest so far because the margins were expected to be thin.

In 2016, the GOP primary was won by Florida Sen. Marco Rubio when roughly 2,800 votes were cast. Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, who became the 2012 nominee, won the contest that year, when 5,200 votes were cast, and in 2008, roughly 6,200 votes were cast in a contest won by eventual Republican nominee John McCain.

Here the primary is run by the local Republican Party rather than the state, which is common in other nominating contests, with just one polling location at the Madison Hotel.

District GOP chair Patrick Mara said this about the average Washington GOPer: “The average Washington Republican is politically astute and more media savvy, they have seen coverage telling people the race is over.” Thus they wanted to vote differently than expected. Boy, wouldn’t that be nice if voters did the same in those 15 states and one American territory on Super Tuesday, thus sending a “fuck-you” message to the Chump team.

In other news, Vice President Kamala Harris called for a ceasefire of hostilities in Gaza, as she offered the administration’s sharpest rebuke of Israel’s bombardment of the region, warning of a humanitarian catastrophe. This breaking development is reported on in an online article for The Wall Street Journal by Tarini Parti entitled “Harris Calls for Gaza Ceasefire as She Urges Hamas to Accept Deal.”

Speaking in Selma, Alabama, Harris said, “Hamas claims it wants a ceasefire. Well, there is a deal on the table. And as we have said, Hamas needs to agree to that deal. Let’s get a ceasefire. Let’s reunite the hostages with their families, and let’s provide immediate relief to the people of Gaza.”

She continued her condemnation of Israel, saying, “People in Gaza are starving. The conditions are inhumane and our common humanity compels us to act.”

The Vice President said, “The Israeli government must do more to significantly increase the flow of aid. No excuses. They must open up new border crossings. They must not impose any unnecessary restrictions on the delivery of aid.”

Harris made her strongest comments against Israel while in Alabama to mark “Bloody Sunday,” the anniversary of the 1955 brutality committed by state troopers against civil-rights activists at the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

Negotiators in Cairo believe Hamas and Israel are making slow progress and could strike an agreement before Ramadan begins March 10, Egyptian officials said. Israel has agreed to the outlines of a deal, according to an Israeli official and a U.S. official.

But the Israeli official expressed concern over whether Hamas was sincere in reaching an agreement after its delegation in Cairo failed to provide a list of living hostages and the status of their conditions, a demand that mediators say Israel made over the weekend.

The United States began its first airdrops of humanitarian aid to Gaza on Saturday.

Harris has pushed for the White House to articulate more empathy for Palestinians and to focus on a postconflict Gaza plan, The Wall Street Journal has previously reported.

In a speech in Dubai in December, Harris made some of the administration’s most critical comments against Israel’s military campaign started after the Hamas assault on Israel on October 7.

At the time, Harris said, “Too many innocent Palestinians have been killed. Frankly, the scale of civilian suffering and the images and videos coming from Gaza are devastating.”

One of the group’s at the center of the effort to vote “uncommitted” in the Democratic primary in protest of the Biden’s administration’s handling of the war, the Listen to Michigan campaign, indicated Harris’s comments underscored the pressure the administration is under to do something about the worsening situation there , but they didn’t go far enough.

The group’s campaign manager, Layla Elabed, said in a statement, “Our movement’s demands have been clear: a lasting ceasefire and an end to U.S. funding for Israel’s war and occupation against the Palestinian people.”

Today we had a very lovely get-together with our adopted “niece,” “Esther,” her sister, “Rebecca,” and her boyfriend “Thomas” who came together at 3:30. This marked Rebecca’s first visit to our Forest Hills apartment and her introduction to Atticus. For some reason, Atticus was shyer this time; he didn’t put on a show like he usually does with us. Maybe it was too noisy for him; there were five people talking at the top of their lungs in front of him. So he decamped to the bedroom for most of the time our guests were with us.

For the meal, Elliot made a wonderful brisket, chicken soup, mashed potatoes, and salad consisting of sliced almonds. For dessert, our guests brought pastries from La Boulangerie right here in Forest Hills, and I served my yellow cake with chocolate frosting. I believe that was a hit with our young guests who asked to take home more of the cake. I was happy to oblige.

A few times Atticus sniffed the hors d’ oeuvres and jumped onto the coffee table where the appetizers were available. Of course, he was picked up and removed from the scene by me or Elliot.

Not only did Esther receive some of the cake to take home with her to Astoria, she asked if I had The Power Broker, Robert Caro’s mammoth biography of urban planner Robert Moses and early New York in the twentieth century and all of the massive public projects he spearheaded during his lifetime. Of course, I had it; don’t ask if I’ve read it. She also took home The Color Purple by Alice Walker. I don’t expect her to finish the first book since it’s over 1,000 pages.

We had an animated conversation about reading clubs and books, which I engaged in wholeheartedly. I even showed Thomas my comic book collection since he’s indicated he has some issues of his own.

Our guests had to leave by 7, so we – or I – had much more time to clean up. I used the dishwasher for the first time this month.

So now it’s after 10:30 and Elliot went to bed since he cooked all day. Now Atticus is getting more energetic. It’s the time of the “zoomies” for him. This is when cats demonstrate the most pent-up energy from generally sleeping for most of the day.

Have a good week, everyone. Today was a lovely day. I actually took off my winter coat and wore a much lighter jacket in the afternoon when I went out to buy slivered almonds for Elliot.

Stay safe and be well.