Hello and happy Thursday. With 74 days until the election, today we will be talking about maggots and humans.

First, maggots! Maggots weren't on my Democratic Convention bingo card, but apparently they're on the menu: The FBI is investigating how “multiple women” snuck into Chicago's Fairmont and dumped the wriggly larvae into a convention-related breakfast buffet.

Just recently, pro-Palestinian activists spread maggots in an Israeli hotel in Washington. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

There's no word yet on what, if anything, the maggot smugglers were protesting (and no arrests have been made), but the fly-and-baby condiment is starting to look like a new sit-in by activists.

I guess they're better than cockroaches, but you should be careful what you eat because they might be moving.

Now, speaking of men – specifically Tim Walz and Doug Emhoff – I’ve said before how the Republican Party’s MAGA insanity revolves almost entirely around gender, what it means to be a woman, and what it means to be a full-blooded American man.

“American politics has long been a struggle over who is the real man,” CJ Pascoe, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Oregon, told me not long ago.

That was, of course, before Ms. Harris upended that truism. But it's not just her. It's the men around her, too. Messrs. Emhoff and Waltz offer an alternative vision to the pouting Trump-Vance brothel.

Their convention speeches made it clear that the aim of this candidate selection was to run with women, not against women.

It's refreshing.

C-Waltz

Coach Waltz. You can't help but love this guy. His enthusiasm is more contagious than COVID.

Waltz took to the stage to John Mellencamp's “Small Town” (something he's used before) and chants of “Coach” from the audience.

He took a centrist stance, “I don't care about other people.”

“I believe in the Second Amendment, but I also believe that keeping our kids safe is our number one responsibility,” he said.

“Here's the thing,” he said of Project 2025, the ultra-conservative policy initiative from which Trump is trying to distance himself.

“This is an agenda that nobody wants. This is an agenda that serves no one except the wealthiest and most radical among us. Strange? Of course. But it's also wrong and dangerous.”

That “weird” comment doesn't seem to have lost any of its appeal, and it dealt such a blow to Trump and Vance that they started trying to fight back by calling Waltz a “wacko,” but this has had no effect.

But it's not just the words that Coach spoke — it's the way he delivered them. This guy is not only down-to-earth and pleasant, he's also smart and genuine.

I couldn't help but compare him to the other vice presidential candidate who just spoke, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro: Shapiro is smart and sophisticated — but too sophisticated at this point.

Waltz is the guy you can count on to bring your trash can if you forget to ask for it when you're out of town. He's just a sweetheart, and we all need a little kindness right now.

And his son, Gus, will win our hearts. As his father called the family from the stage, Gus stood up and, clearly moved, exclaimed, “That's my dad!”

The Emhoff Factor

Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff gave a speech on Tuesday night that was also fascinating.

He seemed like the best of the average Joe, a smart teddy bear (which MAGA was quick to criticize as weak).

Emhoff introduced us to his parents, Mike and Barb, and told us about his fantasy football team, named after the band Nirvana. No, I'm not talking about the band Nirvana.

He told us many times how much he loved his wife's oft-mocked laughter.

But above all, he humanized Harris. Women in positions of power, especially in politics, cannot afford to be vulnerable. This reality often leaves them perceived as cold and harsh. Harris is no exception. Consider the MAGA attempts to smear her because she hasn't had children.

But Emhoff defies that stereotype by portraying himself as a regular guy who spent his teenage years in the “Beverly Hills” of Westlake Village in the Conejo Valley, frequenting Zankou Chicken and the Hollywood Bowl.

A man who knows his wife's place is in the kitchen. And the Oval Office.

Live life

I have to put Pete Buttigieg in here too. He's a great speaker.

It's rare for a transportation secretary to make national headlines, but Buttigieg has been featured frequently on Fox News recently and, in his own words, “goes anywhere for a cause.”

He and his husband adopted two children several years ago, and while he praised Harris, he mostly spoke about his own life and how his personal, unlikely journey embodies the best of American democracy.

“My family's existence is just one example of something that was literally impossible just 25 years ago, when I was an anxious teenager growing up in Indiana wondering if I could ever find my place in the world,” he said. “In less than half a lifetime, this kind of life has gone from impossible to possible, from possible to reality, from reality to almost normal.”

You can talk all you want about freedom and rights, but Buttigieg represents progress, and like many Americans, his focus on the outcome of this election isn't just about politics.

It's about life.

What else to read

Must Read: Speaker Pelosi won't apologize for her role in Biden's exit from DNC
Funding: Trump has far less campaign cash and infrastructure than Harris.
LA Times SpecialRobert F. Kennedy Jr. to drop out of presidential bid

Stay golden,
Anita Chhabria

PS Will RFK Jr. resign?

The Kennedy clan black sheep is holding a press conference on Friday. Earlier this week, his running mate, Silicon Valley billionaire and amateur Nicole Shanahan (with her own boob fetish), said she was considering dropping out of the campaign and endorsing Trump.

PPS: American treasure Amanda Gorman read a new poem onstage. The line that stood out to me was, “Compassion liberates us and makes us greater than hatred or vanity.”

Check her out here.

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