The Week In Recommendations 10.30.24

Good/bad holiday rom-coms, the leftie case for Kamala, wide-leg jeans and Emma's dream wedding shoes. Plus, ways to get out the vote!

This is the free edition of Rich Text, a newsletter about cultural obsessions from your Internet BFFs Emma and Claire. If you like what you see and hear, consider becoming a paid subscriber. Our latest podcast was about the “Love Is Blind” S7 finale! An episode about the “LIB” DC reunion is coming on Friday! Rich Text is a reader-supported project.

We are in the FINAL DAYS leading up to the 2024 election! We want to encourage ourselves and this community to do what we can to protect our democracy. A great way to do that is in-person canvassing or phone banking events with Knock for Democracy or the Harris/Walz campaign.

Also, a reminder that reproductive rights are on the ballot in the following states: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New York and South Dakota. Your vote matters more than just at the top of the ballot.

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Claire has been reading… 📖

Mindy Isser’s Substack essay on why she’s voting for Kamala Harris, as a leftist who is heartbroken, angry, and frustrated with the campaign’s refusal to bend on supporting the genocide being committed in Gaza. She sums up the case in a way that I basically agree with: “I think a lot of people want to believe that they’re playing some kind of 3D chess. withhold vote from Kamala = Trump wins = the Democrats are punished = genocide ends (???) I deeply understand the feelings of anger, rage, frustration, sadness, grief, etc. — I share them — but the math just isn’t mathing, as the kids say. I have yet to see a compelling strategic case for voting third party — no one thinks Jill Stein is going to win and end the genocide, they just want to discipline the Democrats. but the Democrats are not going to learn from the left if they lose, they’re just going to continue whatever they’re doing.” 

Regarding Gaza, I also read this article from Vox following up on a piece from last year in which they interviewed experts about whether the war on Gaza meets the threshold of being termed a genocide. Several of the experts who had told Vox last year that it did not meet the threshold have now changed their minds; only one academic who responded to their follow-up query maintained his original stance that it doesn’t qualify. One, a Notre Dame professor who had previously hesitated to use the label, now says it could be termed a genocide “even in a narrow legal sense.” 

Eric Levitz’s Vox piece about the likelihood that a Harris defeat would be blamed on the progressive wing of the Democratic party, and would weaken the left’s power to shape the party.

Also, this little reminder from New York Mag about the long-term Supreme Court consequences if Trump wins next week.

Suffice it to say that I think it’s urgently important to vote to prevent Trump from a second term, and also that I do feel devastated and guilty about it – because there’s no vote I could cast that would end American support for the bloodshed, because I haven’t done enough outside of voting to stop it, because even those who have given everything they can to stop it have been unsuccessful.

Emma has been reading… 📖

Friend of the newsletter (and real-life friend)

Laura Bassett

’s Elle profile of Jessica Reed Kraus, the mommy blogger-turned mega Substacker-turned RFK Jr./MAGA-adjacent mouthpiece. This self-described “independent” writer calls J.D. Vance “America’s newest crush,” and believes Donald Trump has been “totally misconstrued by the media.” It’s a chilling tale of how the right-wing media ecosystem elevates and rewards people who are willing to prostrate themselves on the altar of access. (Kraus is now making more than $1 million dollars a year on this very platform.)

I also was moved by

Jill Filipovic

’s case for Kamala Harris from a leftist perspective. “As Rebecca Solnit put it, voting is not a valentine; it’s a chess move,” she wrote. “A vote is not an endorsement of everything a candidate has ever done. In the US, it is a binary choice.” And that choice will have dire consequences.

The Case for Kamala

Claire has been watching… 📺

“The Franchise,” a new HBO comedy from John Brown (“Veep,” “Succession”). Set amid the chaotic shoot of an underbaked, big-budget superhero franchise movie called “Tecto,” the show follows first AD Daniel (Himesh Patel), the de facto whipping boy of the production, and his various on-set tormentors.

Photo Credit: HBO

His new third AD Dag (Lolly Adefope) keeps cheerily undermining his authority and asking for career advice at inopportune times; the director (Daniel Brühl) is a sensitive artist who needs to be handled with care; the lead, Adam (Billy Magnussen) is insecure and simple, while his costar (Richard E. Grant) is bitter about being second on the call sheet and is waging a covert psychological war against Adam in retribution. Meanwhile, Daniel’s secret ex Anita (Aya Cash) has just been made producer and put in charge of giving him public reamings in order to scare everyone else straight. It’s funny and fast-paced, and as a Marvel hater (sorry!) I’m down with the subject matter as well.

Emma has been watching… 📺

I have begun my dissociative viewing of made-for-TV holiday films! Are they garbage? Yes! Do I need that garbage and love that garbage? Also yes! I enjoyed Hallmark’s “The Christmas Charade,” about a librarian named Whitney who through a series of miscommunications ends up posing as an undercover FBI agent’s girlfriend during a sting operation to track down an art thief who may be targeting a Christmas Eve charity ball. LOLOLOL. If you feel like turning your brain off for 90 minutes, highly recommend.

Photo Credit: Hallmark

On the other side of the spectrum is the speech Michelle Obama gave outlining the stakes of this election at a rally in Michigan, on repeat. (Starts around 12:20.) We are truly not worthy of her oratory skill. The part that really struck me is this: “We all know we have a lot more work to do in this country. But to anyone out there thinking about sitting out this election or voting for Donald Trump or a third-party candidate in protest because you’re fed up, let me warn you, your rage does not exist in a vacuum. If we don’t get this election right, your wife, your daughter, your mother, we as women will become collateral damage to your rage.”

Claire has been listening to… 🎧

An episode of “On the Media” about the Dems’ new messaging around climate action: it’s patriotic, baby. The episode looks at how Harris is using this rhetoric during her campaign, and digs into recent research that has found emphasizing patriotism is effective in convincing both conservatives and liberals to support climate change measures. Given the state of, well, everything, optimism has been thin on the ground lately. But as someone who would personally like to be alive on a habitable planet for the next fifty years, and someone who personally has children she would like to provide with a habitable planet for even longer, I felt the smallest flicker of hope listening to this episode, which also notes how the terrifying and rapid rise of obviously climate-change-fueled weather events has, at least, made people across the political spectrum more open to taking it seriously.

Emma has been listening to… 🎧

PJ Voght’s two-part series on Search Engine about why it’s so hard to tax billionaires. I admit that tax codes are a part of politics and daily adult life that I understand more in the abstract than the minutiae. (Which I think is true for many Americans and also by design. Complexity makes it easier for people to just throw up their hands and not investigate further!) It was fascinating to hear Voght and ProPublica reporter Jesse Eisinger dive into the somewhat-miraculous history of how the American income tax was first established, and how it was subsequently whittled away at for the benefit of the wealthiest. They also go over some potential solutions to our get-billionaires-to-pay-income-tax problem. And, spoiler alert, it’s not as straightforward as I may have once thought it was.

Claire has been buying… 🛍️

My first pair of full-length, non-skinny jeans since 2008: the Levi’s Ribcage Wide Leg in the Wrong color (interesting name, but it’s a basic medium wash). It feels odd to have so much denim flapping around my feet still, but I do like that it lengthens my legs and frees me up to wear more shoe styles, since I only like wearing cropped jeans with boots or open flats. I never dreamed I’d be willing to pair running sneakers with wide-leg jeans, but I’m finally ready to shift with the culture. These fit a little less snugly at the waist than my Ribcage ankle jeans, but they’re affordable (especially if you find a discount code), have my preferred high waist, and have a flattering shape.

Emma has been buying… 🛍️

Potential wedding heels! I want low heels with a closed toe in white, red, silver or gold. (Our venue is full of gold, red, black and white!) I’ve started ordering some shoes to try on — all returnable, of course. Options on the table include these D’Accori Saturn Slingback Mules in red, these Staud cream slingbacks, these Valentino gold slingbacks, these Gucci GG slingbacks…. the list goes on. My dream shoes are these Dior J’Adior gold slingbacks (or really the J’Adior slingbacks in any iteration), but not sure I can justify the price tag. But maybe I’ll find a pair secondhand?

I’m also contemplating this Gwyneth slip skirt from J. Crew that’s on major sale right now. I feel like it could be a great fall/winter layering piece with chunky sweaters? Should I go for it?

Claire has been making… 🧶

Pumpkin muffins so good that every time Greg had one he would text me something like “those muffins are unreal.” I decided to dial it back on the health quotient, since my last batch were so whole-grain-healthy that my preschooler wouldn’t eat them, and went with this recipe from Sally’s Baking Addiction. I cut back on the granulated sugar a bit, subbed whole wheat for about half of the all-purpose flour, and guesstimated the amounts of various pumpkin pie spices, since I don’t have a dedicated pumpkin spice mix. They’re a little heartier from the whole wheat, but still silky, moist, and autumnal.

Emma has been making… 🧶

The trip to Bucks County, PA with my friends Sami and Kate to canvass for the Harris/Walz campaign and Pennsylvania Dems! This is the first federal election I’ve been able to canvass — for good reason, you aren’t allowed to volunteer for or donate to a campaign when you work as a reporter in a newsroom — so it felt good to at least channel some of my anxious energy in a productive way. We had some really tough conversations with voters in this swing county (it’s almost exactly 50/50 Republicans and Democrats), but also some really hopeful ones. It was a great reminder that while it may be near impossible to get through to people who have already wholeheartedly decided to vote for Trump, it’s far more possible to forge really connection with people who just feel demoralized by the whole system and believe their vote won’t make a difference.

I wouldn’t say I left the day feeling *positive*, but it was certainly eye-opening and energizing. And I want to wake up on November 6th feeling like I did whatever I could to protect the future of our imperfect democracy. If you’d like to canvass ahead of election day, you can find opportunities here.

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