98 Days ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️

More Than Weird:  Democrats are now referring to Trump and Vance as weird, in the hope that it is a relatable way to describe the pair.  While that may be true, weird understates the danger of another Trump administration as evidenced by Trump’s statement to a group of conservative Christian voters at this weekend’s Turning Point Action Believers Summit. Trump told them that if they turned out to vote for him in this most important of elections, he would fix things so that they’d would never need to vote again. Calling VP Kamala Harris, whose name he intentionally mispronounces, an extreme socialist, Trump bragged about repealing Roe, again lied about the outcome of the 2020 election, proposed cutting billions in education funding especially for schools that require vaccinations because why would we want to prevent polio epidemics, and promised to appoint more very rightwing judges, while also repeating his now standard incomprehensible drivel on sharks, electricity and Hanibal Lecter. Keeping up with the weirdness thing, running mate and Project 2025 advocate JD Vance doubled down on his cat comments, saying that he liked cats, it was just those single childless women he objected to.  He singled out Friends actress Jennifer Aniston, calling her disgusting for her clapback at his hurtful cat comments because insulting Aniston, who tried for years to conceive, is a vote winning proposition in what alternative universe?  Polls, for what they’re worth, show that Harris, even without having designated a running mate, has narrowed Trump’s lead and has blown past him in some of the states like Minnesota and Virginia that his team had hoped to make competitive. That’s good but it’s far too early to know if the enthusiasm for Harris has staying power or if it will grow and it remains depressingly unfathomable that so many voters remain in Trump’s camp.  That said Harris favorability ratings have improved while Trump’s which had benefited from his assassination attempt, where the FBI is now saying he really was injured by a bullet or a bullet shard, are decreasing, especially among those all-important independent voters. JD Vance’s are even worse which together with the release of more videos of him sharing his extreme positions has fueled more chatter about the possibility of him being replaced.  Democrats, including Senate Leader Chuck Schumer who suggested that could happen, should be careful what they wish for because if that’s even possible there’s a chance that Trump would then choose someone marginally more palatable.    

Peeps and Veeps:  The clock is ticking on Harris’ VP selection process.  A lot of pundits, and mudslingers from both sides have focused in on Arizona’s Senator/Astronaut Mark Kelly and Pennsylvania’s Governor Josh Shapiro but others such as Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and the reliably articulate, Fox killing Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg continue to attract attention. Additionally, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear appear to also remain under consideration and since little about this election is normal, maybe everyone’s wrong and someone, even a non-politician, someone like Mark Cuban, could be in the pack. As to those still wanting Harris to choose a Republican, that remains highly unlikely because all of the energized voters lining up to support her would probably be more than a bit upset if she chose an anti-abortion running mate so give it up already.  Not that I haven’t been wrong in the past.  Given Trump’s increasingly unpopular choice, Harris’ team would be wise to dig deep, scrutinizing everything about everyone under consideration before making a final decision because women,  🐱s and 🐶s matter. Though a number of prominent politicians from across the aisle still haven’t issued Harris endorsements, Georgia’s former Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan, a Republican who had previously endorsed President Biden has endorsed Harris.  Additionally, Andrew Yang who most recently had aligned himself with the centrist Forward Party and who had expressed concerns about Biden’s reelection, has endorsed Harris saying that Trump “doesn’t have the character to serve.” Sadly, prominent Texas Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee passed away last week.  Both President Biden and VP Harris will be heading to Houston this week to pay their respects. In other people news, President Biden has nominated former Florida Congresswoman/Senate candidate Val Demmings to serve on the US Postal Service board.  Assuming Demmings’ nomination makes it through the Senate confirmation process and that Biden’s other nominee is also confirmed, Trump appointee Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s days will finally be numbered.   

Fog:  With all the focus on Gaza, it’s important not to ignore that Hezbollah, another Iranian surrogate, has been regularly bombing and disrupting life in Northern Israel.  Over the weekend one of Hezbollah’s rockets struck a soccer field in Majdal Shams, a Druze village in the Golan Heights, killing 12 Arab children, and wounding 44 others. An incredibly sad tragedy that will further feed regional hostilities, likely Iran’s intent.  Turning to South America, though opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez may have won this weekend’s disputed presidential election, Venezuela’s election authorities have declared current president, socialist Nicolas Maduro the winner.  In a really ironic post on X, Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee, an outspoken Trumpist, who still questions the outcome of the 2020 US election, expressed outrage at Maduro’s manipulation of the election results. Senator Lee is right; Maduro’s actions are autocratic and anti-democratic but maybe not so much when Trump tried to do the same?     

#BringThemAllHomeNow