At a fraught moment in President Biden’s reelection campaign, as he faces calls to drop out of the race due to serious flubs at last week’s debate, Vice President Kamala Harris addressed donors at a private fundraiser Tuesday in San Francisco and focused on the election as a choice between civil liberties and dictatorship.

“Let’s just deal with the elephant in the room. There are actually two: One is the debate, and the other is Trump,” Harris said to light laughter from a group of about 35 supporters at the Nob Hill condo of real estate executive Susan Lowenberg, in a high-rise building overlooking the city and bay.

“The debate, as the president said, [was] not his finest hour. We all know that,” Harris told the room. But the outcome of the election, she added, “cannot be determined by one day in June.”

“It is still the fact that the stakes are so high in this election. It is still the fact that the race is close. It is still the fact that there is a profound contrast on the two sides of the split screen in terms of who stands for what and what each has accomplished,” she said. “And it’s still true that Trump is a liar.”

Her appearance at the San Francisco fundraiser came the same day Trump’s campaign reported raising $331 million compared with Biden’s $264 million during the second quarter of this year, eliminating the cash advantage Biden previously had over Trump.

“President Trump’s campaign fundraising operation is thriving day after day and month after month,” the Republican’s top campaign advisors, Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles, said in a statement. “This fundraising momentum is likely to grow even more as we head into a world-class convention and see the Democrats continue their circular firing squad in the aftermath of Biden’s debate collapse.”

Harris didn’t say anything further about Biden’s debate performance while a Times reporter was present at Tuesday’s private fundraiser.

Elizabeth Ashford, a Democratic strategist who served as Harris’ chief of staff during her tenure as California’s attorney general, applauded Harris’ focus in recent days on delivering a crisp, clear message to an anxious American electorate. Harris’ job, Ashford said, is to focus on the administration’s accomplishments, and to demonstrate to voters — without actually saying it — that she can step in if necessary to effectively lead the nation.

“That is where I would be singularly focused,” Ashford said. “One of Kamala’s areas of growth has been to be really confident in how she communicates. And this is that moment.”

A new CNN poll indicates some 75% of voters think Democrats would have a better shot at keeping the White House if they swapped Biden out for someone new. The poll also showed nearly as much support for Harris as for Trump in a hypothetical matchup — with 47% of registered voters surveyed nationwide saying they would support Trump and 45% saying they would vote for Harris. The same poll indicated the difference between the current likely candidates was larger, with 49% backing Trump and 43% favoring Biden.

At the fundraiser Tuesday, Harris seemed comfortable and relaxed in a room full of longtime donors and friends stretching back to her start in San Francisco politics as district attorney 20 years ago.

Harris touted the administration’s policy accomplishments, such as capping the price of insulin for seniors on Medicare and erasing student loan debt for millions of borrowers. She highlighted the White House’s commitment to mitigating climate change through investments in green energy, and its support for reproductive freedoms and other rights for women and marginalized communities.

“There is an awareness among the American people that there is a full-on attack — an intentional attack — against hard-fought, hard-won freedoms and liberties,” she said.

Those stakes became “even higher” with the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on Monday that gave Trump — and possibly future presidents — legal immunity from criminal charges stemming from official actions while in office, Harris said.

“And let’s not forget, Donald Trump has openly said he admires dictators and intends to be ‘a dictator on Day One,’” Harris said. “We gotta fight, and we know how to fight.”

Almost everyone has likely experienced the disappointment of walking into their favorite bar only to find it too crowded, or empty, for their liking. But what if you could find out what you’re in for before you leave the house? That’s the premise behind an app launched in San Francisco earlier this year.

2nite, the self-proclaimed “all-in-one app for managing, promoting and discovering nightlife,” has partnered with a number of local bars to provide livestreams of the insides of their venues. You can also purchase tickets for events at these venues through the app.

The participating bars control the cameras within their establishments, and the app has introduced livestream blurring to ensure patrons’ anonymity. Not all San Franciscans are thrilled by the prospect, though, with many raising concerns about privacy. “You should be able to let loose in a bar where Big Brother isn’t watching you,” one resident told the Standard.

A San Francisco bookstore is fighting back against escalating anti-LGBTQ+ book bans across the US by sending prohibited queer texts to communities battling censorship.

Fabulosa Books, located in the Castro, the city’s historic gay neighborhood, has received widespread support during Pride month for its Books Not Bans program, which allows customers to buy and send books to LGBTQ+ organizations operating in conservative parts of the country.

Becka Robbins, founder and director of the program, and the bookstore’s events manager, launched the initiative last year, inspired by repeatedly witnessing how impactful it can be when youth discover queer literature for the first time: “At the store, I’ve seen young people who don’t have access to these books, and it’s definitely a cinematic moment, where they are like: ‘Oh my god!’ … This should be ordinary. They should see this queer lit in their own libraries, in their classrooms, on their parents’ bookshelves. But they’re not.”

She decided the most practical way to push back against bans, which have become a priority of anti-LGBTQ+ school boards across the country, was to send books directly to groups that could provide them to readers who might not be able to access the texts in their schools or through their families.

The project is a grassroots effort that operates out of a closet in Fabulosa, and since launching, Robbins said she has sent more than 700 books to states across the US, including Texas, Florida, Alabama, Arkansas and Oklahoma.

“I really believe in the power of fiction as a driving force for connection, resilience and empathy. It gives you the capacity, in a way that nothing else does, to connect with people who are different than you,” Robbins said. “There’s been times in my life where fiction has really kept me going.”

She has more boxes ready to ship, and since the program got recent news coverage in the Los Angeles Times, the Associated Press and local television stations, donations have been pouring in, with more people stopping by the store wanting to buy books for other communities: “It’s been a community effort. Customers come in and pay for entire boxes and say: ‘Send this to Florida.’ They leave a note that says: ‘Hang in there, you’re going to get out of that place.’ It’s encouraging and also a little heartbreaking. People shouldn’t have to leave to find safety and comfort.”

The American Library Association (ALA) reported in March that more books were banned in 2023 in US schools and libraries than any other year on record – 4,240 titles censored, which was more than the previous two years combined. Many targeted books are about race and LGBTQ+ people.

Last week, South Carolina adopted one of the harshest book ban laws in the country, with a vague policy requiring books to be “age or developmentally appropriate”, an edict that could impact a broad range of texts. Public school textbooks have also increasingly been targeted, with literature on the climate crisis, vaccines, history, racism and sex education facing censorship.

Fabulosa owner Alvin Orloff said some of the local patrons supporting Books Not Bans come from the communities that are now facing rising censorship: “Our customers live in San Francisco, but they know what it’s like to grow up in a small town where everybody’s bigoted. So they feel really strongly that they want to do anything they can to make life easier for the next generation.”

The program is also designed to show solidarity with transgender and queer groups that are sometimes faced with significant backlash and violent threats over their efforts to defend people’s rights, Orloff added: “There’s a psychological thing for them to just know there’s people out there who are thinking about them and care about them, that they’re not invisible, that there’s a world beyond their community that values them.”

Watching the escalating book bans has reminded Orloff of the 1970s campaigns of anti-gay activist Anita Bryant, who claimed her efforts were about “saving the children” and promoting parents’ rights: “Politicians just want to whip up the fear. It’s a big, symbolic thing for them to say we’re ‘protecting the children’. It’s the same thing they were saying 50 years ago when I was growing up.”

“Books offer a wider variety of role models and a greater understanding of queer communities than you’re going to see in the movies,” Orloff added. “It just makes you feel so much better to know that there are people like you out there and that you don’t have to have a life constricted by people who don’t value you.”