Not Just Weird🌴 ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️ 🌴

Misogyny Much:  This week, Trump offended grieving military families and posted a disgusting misogynistic attack on Kamala Harris while also using QANON language to call for a second revolution and plain English to call for Barack Obama and a number of his other “enemies” to be tried by military tribunals.  Either one of those moves should be disqualifying but with Trump they are par for the course.  It’s what he does, and his diehard voters, media echo chamber, and even the rest of the mainstream media either don’t care or have gotten so used to his deplorable behavior that they’ve given him another pass. Besides Trump’s awful utterances generate viewership and 💰 💰, so who cares about the damage they do?  What gets the media up in arms is that Kamala Harris who is running a time compressed campaign for the country’s highest office and has been engaged in a whirlwind swing state tour while also preparing for a debate hasn’t found time for them and when she finally did sit for her first press interview, she had the audacity to bring along her running mate, Tim Walz. That apparently is galling in their eyes even though it’s traditional for presidential candidates to conduct their post nomination interviews with their partners, Romney did it, Obama did it, Hillary Clinton did it, and even Trump did it. And that interview, conducted by CNN’s Dana Bash, it was uneventful.  Kamala did what candidates are supposed to do, moved to the center, didn’t say anything offensive and praised her party’s current president. No fireworks, just lots of normal.   

66 Days:  Labor Day is Monday, we’re barreling towards the November election and despite Kamala’s improving polls given the vagaries of the electoral college system, Trump, who absent a disaster will once again lose the popular vote, could pull out an election victory because all he has to do is win, or maybe just assert he won, a few of the swing states.  Let me say that again, the Putin/Hanibal Lecter loving convicted felon and adjudicated sex offender who staged a thumbs up photo op at Arlington which he then posted all over social media even after one of his staff members had a physical altercation with an Arlington employee who his press person then painted as mentally deranged and who also slut shamed (WTF) the current Vice President by reposting a tweet that is so vile I am not going to repeat its contents here could return to the White House. That Arlington visit was so offensive that the US Army issued a statement condemning it and the Arlington employee who tried to get Trump’s team to abide by “federal laws, Army regulations, and Department of Defense policies” against staging political events at the cemetery’s hallowed grounds is afraid that if her name goes public, her life will be ruined because that’s what Trump does to people who cross him.  So, the next time one of your friends tells you that they’re not sure about Kamala and Tim because they’re communists (they’re not) and/or are worried about their taxes, etc., feel free to let loose with the expletives of your choice (nothing violent), because their guy and his running mate, the one who in addition to his bizarre cat ladies slam is also on record saying childless people shouldn’t teach “our” children aren’t just weird, they’re dangerous in too many ways to count and the only way we get back to a viable two party system, if that is even possible given the MAGA proliferation, is by defeating Trump again.

And:  Late yesterday, Trump’s lawyers again asked for the New York “hush” money case to be moved to a federal court where they will then ask for Trump’s guilty verdict to be vacated because he’s a king or thinks he’s one and has convinced the Supreme Court that he is.  Trump’s due to be sentenced on September 18.  It’s unlikely that his case will be moved to federal court though it is possible that Judge Merchan will postpone the sentencing until after the election. Trump is growing increasingly nervous about “his abortion problem,” no neither he nor anyone in his orbit is dealing with a problem pregnancy that we know of, they’re rich so their problems can almost always be dealt with, but he’s worried about losing votes which explains why he’s now claiming that if elected he’ll help families pay for IVF so “we can produce babies.” Produce?!? Don’t believe him and anyway, though subsidizing the costs of fertility treatment would be nice, a lot of countries do, it wouldn’t solve the “abortion” problem that his court created.

#BringThemAllHomeNow

Have a great Labor Day weekend!   

 

 68 Days 🌴 ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️ 🌴

Debate Update:  The September 10 on again of again debate between Harris and Trump is on, at least for now.  The two sides had been arguing over mic procedure, with Harris’ team wanting the mic’s open at all times and Trump’s team preferring that candidate’s mics remain off when the other side is speaking, the deal struck when Biden was the candidate.  After a verbal tussle, with Trump actually saying that he’d prefer they stay on at all times, his team, which wants to limit opportunities for him to make rude and stupid off the cuff remarks, prevailed so the debate will proceed with the Biden negotiated mic procedures.  Much the way Trump continues to assert that the November election will be tainted, but only if he doesn’t win, he’s spent the last few days dumping on everyone at debate host ABC News calling the network the “nastiest and unfair,” but that’s just his way of alerting his base that if he doesn’t perform well, it will be the network’s fault, not his.  In other news, Harris and Walz will be sitting down for their first joint interview with CNN’s Dana Bash on Thursday.

Practice Makes Perfect?   Though Trump would prefer everyone to believe that he’s not engaging in any debate prep, he has been practicing with former Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabard standing in for Kamala. Although Gabbard, who Hillary Clinton once aptly described as a “favorite of the Russians,” ran for president as a Democrat in 2016, she has grown increasingly red pilled ever since.  Her politics are akin to those of Tucker Carlson who she frequently subbed for during his last year on Fox. She’s been in Trump’s camp for some time, but to counter the growing list of Republicans and former security officials who’ve endorsed Harris, Trump’s team announced her endorsement and her participation on his transition team this week as if it was new following fellow endorser and transition team member RFK Jr’s assertion that a lot of prominent Democrats would be soon endorsing Trump. That’s probably not going to happen, but then again, Trump’s crowd tends to prevaricate.  As evidenced by what two members of his staff did this week at Arlington Cemetery, they also tend to be violent and disrespectful.  Trump who frequently disses veterans, especially those who’ve died or been injured in action participated in a wreath laying ceremony honoring the 13 service members killed during the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.  His appearance was less about the service members and more about staging a photo op to highlight and blame the messy Afghan withdrawal which he initiated on Biden and Harris. The problem is that “Federal law prohibits political campaign or election-related activities within Army National Military Cemeteries to include photographers, content creators or any other persons attending for purposes, or in direct support of a partisan political candidate’s campaign.”  When told to ditch the cameras, two members of Trump’s staff got into a physical altercation with an official at the cemetery. Naturally, Trump’s team denied that they’d done anything wrong, and instead issued a statement attacking the unnamed Arlington official as “suffering from a mental health episode.”  The incident was caught on camera, the individual was just doing his job. 

Legal Update: Special Prosecutor Jack Smith is still trying to get things done, nice but increasingly pointless because at best nothing will come of his hard work until after the election and at worst, if Trump wins, he’ll be out of a job. That said, Smith is still trying to make Trump face consequences for his actions. He’s appealed Judge Eileen “loose” Cannon’s decision to throw out the Mar a Lago purloined documents case by arguing that her ruling which followed from her conclusion that Attorney General Garland had illegally appointed Smith was ill founded, wrong, idiotic, and ignores lots of precedent. Yesterday he filed a superseding indictment against Trump in the Washington DC case. The new indictment deletes the “crimes” that the Supreme Court recently opined can be committed by presidents because of their newly defined expanded immunity.    

😊:  Some good news for a change on the hostage front.  Yesterday, Israeli forces rescued Farhan al-Qadi, a 52-year-old member of Israel’s Bedouin Arab minority. Al-Qadi who was found in a Hamas tunnel, had been working as a security official at a produce packaging plant on October 7 when he was kidnapped. He’s one of 7 Israeli Bedouins who were kidnapped on October 7, 18 others were killed during the massacre.

#BringThemAllHomeNow   

 

 
Whale Heads 🌴 ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️ 🌴

The Kennedy Legacy? On Friday, RFK Jr who in addition to dumping a bear carcass in Central Park has also decapitated and brough home the head of a dead whale exited the presidential race and endorsed Trump. Not a surprise, he’s been telegraphing his plans for some time and his biggest donor by far, Timothy Mellon, is also one of Trump’s biggest donors.  He and Trump are made for each other, they’re both dangerously charismatic, delusional, power hungry nepo babies who’ve mastered the art of speaking somewhat populist gibberish. They’ve both eviscerated each other in the past but that was then, and this is now.   Nothing RFK said during his Friday announcement made any sense, so his utterances are not worth repeating, but it’s more than fair to assume that Trump has promised him a very senior position of some sort, likely one where he’ll be able to endanger the country with his dangerous anti-vaccine positions and to be clear his opposition to vaccinations extends way beyond the COVID vaccine. Although he’s tried to equivocate, he’s on record dissing all vaccines, including those for all the childhood diseases.  Count me as one who thinks it’s particularly weird that a former, well hopefully former, heroin addict who according to his college friends also sold cocaine is okay with pumping himself full of steroids but not okay with disease preventing vaccines.   

Does It Matter?  The question isn’t how many of members of RFK’s family are outraged by his decision, most of them with the exception of his complicit wife Chery Hines are and his sister Kerry called his action obscene, but whether or not his endorsement moves the needle enough towards Trump to impact the outcome of the election. We’ll have to wait for the full onslaught of this week’s polls to get a better picture as to whether his endorsement matters but at least one pollster/statistician has weighed in.  Yesterday Nate Silver explained why he thinks that RFK’s withdrawal from the race will have almost no impact. According to Silver’s model which reflects that it’s procedurally too late for RFK to take himself off the ballot in some swing states including Wisconsin and North Carolina where ballots have already been printed, RFK’s withdrawal improves Harris’ polling average by 0.8% from 48.0% to 48.8% while goosing Trump’s 1.1% from 43.7% to 44.8%.  In any case, this week’s set of polls will be revealing because in addition to reflecting RFK’s endorsement, they’ll also reflect Harris’ post-convention bounce.  Of note, third party candidates Cornell West and Jill Stein are still running.  In an attempt to grab some of RFK’s voters, West is now repositioning himself as a vaccine skeptic.  Stein also appears set on remaining in the race, but Trump is trying to court her, and they do share the same Russian friend so there’s that.

Reproductive Rights:  Abortion is on the ballot in ten states including Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada New York,  and South Dakota.  Not all of them are swing states, but some of them are and all of them have down ballot races which will be affected by an influx of voters showing up to vote for the reinstatement of reproductive rights, so Trump is now trying to reposition himself as being “great for women’s reproductive rights.” That’s obviously bull sh-t but there are probably some low information and/or gullible voters who’ll buy it.  Similarly, JD Vance, another one who has repeatedly taken a hardline position against abortion insisted this weekend that Trump wouldn’t sign legislation that imposes a nationwide ban on abortion.  That’s probably not true but even if it is, Trump and his judicial appointees can affectively ban abortion by eliminating access to mifepristone by strictly enforcing the antiquated but still in place Comstock Act of 1873 which outlaws the conveyance of “obscene” materials through the mail.  On the subject of Trump judges, citing the 2022 Bruen Supreme Court ruling, the decision where Clarence Thomas said that only gun regulations that are “consistent with this Nation’s historical tradition of firearms regulations” is copacetic one of them ruled last week that the ban against machine guns is unconstitutional because apparently we need more machine guns in the hands of lunatics and since our forefathers didn’t explicitly ban them they can’t be banned now.   

Fog:  Before the October 7 massacre and the subsequent war in Gaza, Israel’s primary concern was an attack from the north by Iran’s heavier armed and more capable Hezbollah surrogates. That concern has never gone away. This weekend Hezbollah had planned to launch 3000 rockets and drones into Israel, but their plans were thwarted by Israel’s preemptive strike which took out most of their launch pads.  Hezbollah still managed to send off 300 of their rockets and drones but with the help of the Iron Dome they were not able to inflict much damage in Israel although they did take out a lot of chickens something that provided feed for some in the Arab press who mocked the attack’s failure. Despite its failure, Hezbollah and Iran are claiming that the attack was a success and that’s not a bad thing because painting it as a success to their population is face saving, a way to back off from additional attacks, at least for now.   The peace talks slog on. Hamas is still Hamas. The hostages are still hostages.  Civilians in Gaza are still suffering. 

#BringThemAllHomeNow

Joy Comes in the Morning 🌴 ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️ 🌴

Wow, Wow, Wow:  That was one hell of a convention, joyful and chock full of incredible speeches with each night surpassing the night before, but to paraphrase Democratic House Leader Hakeem Jeffries you only get to joy in November after a period of hard work, and that hard work has just begun. Still, let’s enjoy the convention afterglow for a few more hours. On Wednesday night it became clear why Kamala Harris chose Tim Walz as her running mate.  He’s the teacher who guided you in the right direction, he’s the coach that pushed you beyond where you thought you could go, and the loving parent that every child needs and that many of us now miss, but no one should be fooled that he’s just a teddy bear because behind his affability is a tough as nails strategist.  You don’t make it to Governor and then onto the presidential ticket by being just warm and cuddly. A special shout out to Walz’ son Gus whose tearful expression of pride and love for his father so offended right wing pundit Ann Coulter that she thought it was okay to mercilessly attack him.  Unfortunately, as a hate slinger, Coulter hardly stands alone, the slog to election day will be filled with more of that after all, Trump’s response to Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s convention speech was to pull the Jewish card, calling him an “overrated Jewish Governor,” hardly a surprise from the “both sides” guy who dines with neo-Nazis, but still despicable and a harbinger of what’s to come. Coulter and Trump aside, everything was pitch perfect on Wednesday including the surprisingly fun music filled delegate roll call (a link to a tweet with the list of songs played is included below),  purple attired Oprah tossing her usual independent stance aside to endorse Kamala and Tim, the very conservative former Lieutenant Governor of Georgia Geoff Duncan who is so disgusted with the MAGA-fication of his party that he showed up to speak on Kamala’s behalf, the speeches from former President Clinton and Nancy Pelosi, and the emotional appeal for peace and the return of the hostages delivered by Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg, whose severely injured son Hersh has been held hostage by Hamas for 321 days. Their speech was notable for two reasons, first because, despite their pain, they expressed genuine sympathy and concern for the citizens of Gaza and second because, despite Trump’s insistence that the Democratic party is chock full of Israel hating anti-Semites, the convention crowd greeted Polin and Goldberg warmly, showering them with sympathy while chanting for the hostages to be brought home now.      

Kamala, Kamala, Comma-La:  Last night we didn’t get Beyonce, but instead got more of her Freedom song and a surprise video endorsement from gold medal basketball player Stephen Curry as well as an awesome performance by Pink and her very talented 12- year-old daughter Willow.  We also heard from a line-up of speakers including Republican Adam Kinzinger, former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, and Arizona Senator Mark Kelly who all slammed Trump for his affinity to dictators, his dissing of veterans, and his disparagement of allies. Kelly’s wife, former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, also spoke, capping off speeches from several other victims of gun violence. Then there was the long-awaited acceptance speech from Kamala Harris. She didn’t disappoint at all.  She delivered a five-star, two thumbs up performance that was spot on in every way. We know that because a clearly rattled Trump spent the night sh-t posting, and probably throwing ketchup at the wall.  At last count he posted 40 missives, no reports on the number of ketchup bottles bashed.  Still, circling back to Hakeem Jeffries, though this week was full of joy, the work has just begun, much needs to be done between now and November, and probably all the way up to inauguration day to take down Trump.  The NY Times reports that RFK Jr who was polling in the low single digits, has already withdrawn his Arizona ballot application.  Later today he is expected to endorse Trump in a “joint” presentation.  One can only imagine what position Trump has offered him in exchange for that endorsement.  The hypocrisy of the one-time environmental activist joining the climate denying, pro-oil Trump train is stunning but sadly not surprising. Whether his support will shift enough votes to Trump to blunt Harris’s expected convention bump or worse yet, permanently close the gap between the two is the question.  We’ll have to wait for the next round of polls to quantify the value of RFK’s endorsement. Sadly, if his endorsement pushes Trump over the top, we’ll then be able to measure his impact in cases of polio, measles, mumps, rubella and so on.

Trouble Ahead:  Trump’s Bedminster Golf Club will be hosting a fundraiser for the January 6^th defendants on September 5.  Those are the “nice tourists” who created mayhem and caused a few deaths at the Capitol after Trump lost the last election.  It’s sadly very fair to assume that this election we will be seeing some more of the same.  Trump is already planting seeds of doubt about the election’s integrity, MAGAs in states like Georgia are already suggesting that they won’t certify election results they don’t like, and Republican officials in other states are making it more difficult for “some” voters to vote.  Yesterday, the Supreme Court weighed in on some new Arizona election “voter suppression” rules. By a vote of 5 to 4 with Justice Amy Coney Barrett joining the liberal minority, they partly granted a request from the RNC for Arizona to enforce a recently passed law requiring people to show proof of US citizenship when registering to vote. Election lawyer Mark Elias said that the ruling, while not ideal, could have been worse because at least for now, a provision that would have blocked thousands of previously registered voters from casting their ballots was rejected.  

 

And:  Abortion rights will be on the ballot in Montana which could give Democratic Senator Jon Tester a bit of a boost in what is likely to be a very tough race.  New Jersey Congressman Bill Pascrell, the 87-year-old Representative who’d been in and out of the hospital has died.  Democrats now need to find themselves a new candidate for the November election.

#BringThemAllHomeNow

Music Link:

 

For those who have asked…a table with every state and territory's song title and artist at tonight's #DNC2024 roll call.

Benjy Renton (@bhrenton) x.com

 

 

 

Goldilocks 🌴 ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️ 🌴

On Fire: So far, the Democratic convention has rocked.  There have been good and sometimes even great speeches, tributes to Joe and lots of exhortations to get onboard for Kamala and Tim.  VP candidate Tim Walz is scheduled to speak tonight after former President Clinton.  Presidential candidate Kamala Harris is scheduled to deliver her acceptance speech on Thursday.  Putting distance between their speeches and those of the Obamas was a good scheduling move because the Obamas were in tip top shape last night, with both delivering forceful riveting speeches.  If you missed it, the former President not so subtly equated Trump’s obsession with crowd size to a certain part of his anatomy while Michelle, whose speech may have been her best one ever, very astutely pointed out that now is not the time to be a Goldilocks because seeking perfection when the opposition is as flawed and dangerous as Trump is the kind of folly that could lead to disaster. Both warned that the election will be close and it likely will be which explains why Trump’s team is doing their best, and by best think worst, to load the dice throughout the country but especially in swing states like Georgia where in addition to putting in place procedures intended to make it more difficult for people in heavily Democratic areas to vote, three members of the State Election Board have managed to “slip in” rules that allow local election officials to delay or deny certification if they have “concerns” about the election results. No definition of what would constitute valid concerns because just a general feeling of unhappiness will suffice.  Each of those “concerned” board members still question the result of the 2020 election so it’s more than fair to believe that their intent is to refuse to certify election results that don’t go Trump’s way. They don’t stand alone, MAGA Republican election officials in other swing states like Arizona and Pennsylvania have similar plans. It’s not hyperbole to say that this is a five-alarm fire, not only will Democrats have to win convincingly on election day but they’re likely to be spending the months following the election fighting to get results certified.

Ugh:  Added further fuel to the fire, yesterday during a podcast interview RFK Jr’s running mate Nicole Shanahan said that their campaign is considering dropping its bid and joining forces with Trump as it “weighs options for the future.”  For his part Trump told CNN that he “certainly” would be open to RFK Jr playing a role in his administration in exchange for an endorsement, adding “I like him, and I respect him,” he’s a “smart” guy.  It’s fair to assume that Trump will give RFK whatever title he wants to get that endorsement and it’s also fair to assume that RFK is open to negotiating a position especially one that would allow him to put the kibosh on vaccinations.  Afterall, it’s not a coincidence that RJK Jr’s largest donor is billionaire Timothy Mellon, the heir to the Mellon banking fortune, who in addition to giving $25 million to RFK’s campaign also has contributed $125 million to Trump’s.  It’s highly likely that Mellon’s contributions to RFK were always intended to help Trump. RFK is polling in the low single digits right now and given how close this election is expected to be, if a disproportionate number of his voters follow him to Trump, they will influence the outcome of the election.  

More Stupid:  House Republicans have released their Biden impeachment inquiry report concluding that though they have no evidence that he did anything wrong, Biden should be impeached because of course.  It’s not expected to go anywhere largely because with Biden stepping aside what’s the point and also because they have some vulnerable House candidates who can’t afford to be voting on a totally ridiculous Biden impeachment right now. Intelligence officials have confirmed that Iran really did hack into Trump’s campaign by compromising (likely through phishing) Roger Stone’s Hotmail and Gmail accounts to gain access to the emails of Trump campaign aides.  Apparently, the Iranians also tried to hack into Harris’ campaign, but their attempts weren’t successful possibly because having been burned in 2016, the DNC team is being more careful about responding to emails from questionable sources than their Republican counterparts, who think that hacking and disseminating information is okay but only when it is done to Democrats.

Fog:  A ceasefire and hostage release deal remain elusive.  Secretary of State Blinken reports that Israel has agreed to ceasefire terms, but Hamas says that they have not agreed to those terms.  Meantime Iran’s Hezbollah surrogates have been waging a war of attrition against Israel in the north.  Their constant bombardment hasn’t been getting as much press attention maybe because it doesn’t fit into the Gaza narrative but it’s most definitely escalatory and dangerous.  And taking a page from Nixon’s pre-election Viet Nam playbook, PBS’s Judy Woodruff reports that Trump has been urging Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to hold off cutting a deal right now over concerns that a ceasefire would help the Harris campaign. Trump admits to having tanked the border/immigration deal for a similar purpose so this is definitely something that he would do, and we know that more death and destruction wouldn’t bother him if it led to his winning in November. 

#BringThemAllHomeNowALIVE because while recovering bodies is important, bringing home live hostages is infinitely better.    

 

77 Days  ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️

Economics 101:  On Friday Kamala Harris announced her economic plan which includes a ban on price gouging for groceries and food, the cancellation of medical debt, a cap on prescription drug costs, a $25,000 subsidy for first-time home buyers, and a $6000 per child tax credit for the first year of a baby’s life.  Her aspirational populist plan was immediately slammed by Republicans especially Trump who claimed that her “communist” plan would ruin the economy, the one that he consistently describes as worse than Venezuela’s, the country he said he’ll go to if he loses the election.  Absent any offsetting revenues Harris’ plan would increase the debt but by much less than Trump’s plan to extend and increase the tax cuts he implemented during his administration.  It would also be less inflationary than Trump’s widely panned promise to impose across the board tariffs on foreign goods because despite Trump’s assertion that countries like China would “pay” for his planned hike in tariffs, they would largely be absorbed by US consumers.  In any case, Harris’ plan is just that, because for the most part nothing happens without legislative approval and though it’s considered more likely than not that the House will go blue in November, in order for the Democrats to retain control of the Senate, they’ll have to hold on to every one of their at risk seats including Jon Tester’s most at risk Montana seat, and even then they’ll be down a seat because Senator Joe Manchin’s West Virginia will definitely go red. The bottom line, we need more affordable housing, drug costs in the US are higher than elsewhere and pro-family politicians, regardless of their party, should be supportive of helping out parents but addressing problems and solving the housing crisis takes cooperation across the aisle and that’s unlikely to happen anytime soon so if you like Harris’ plans be prepared for some disappointment and if you hate them, don’t lose sleep because passing sweeping legislation isn’t easy and anything that passes is likely to be full of compromises. 

Dumb and Dumber: A lot of the rest of the weekend’s political news was chock full of stupid.  Republicans are attacking Harris as unpresidential because she said she stress ate a whole bag of Doritos when Trump became president. Doritos aren’t my chip of choice but really, who doesn’t think that downing a large bag of chips over Trump’s election isn’t entirely relatable? At a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, where he was particularly unhinged, Trump once again called Kamala, who is clearly living in his head rent free, beautiful, but then insisted that he was far “better looking.” That comment speaks for itself.  Continuing with his fascination with “beautiful” women, yesterday he reposted an AI generated image claiming that he had received and accepted Taylor Swift’s endorsement.  He most certainly has not been endorsed by Swift, though it’s fair to assume that her people, who as of this morning haven’t yet responded to his very false assertion, are looking into whether or not they can sue him for his lie. During a Fox interview,  JD Vance asserted that giving Kamala Harris control over inflation “is like giving Jeffrey Epstein control over human trafficking policy.”  Just a reminder Trump was friends with Epstein, rode on his plane several times and rented his plane last week for one of his campaign trips so maybe pulling out the Epstein card, is kind of counterproductive but then again, it’s Vance and he’s a bit tone deaf. Keeping with the Jeffrey Epstein theme, the Trump campaign newest campaign video shows Trump dancing to a sexually offensive rap song and then climbing on to the same leased Epstein jet.  The expected pro-Palestinian protesters a number of whom are also pro-Hamas and as evidenced by their Nazi salutes also anti-Semitic, are already doing their thing in Chicago because nothing helps their cause better than abetting a Trump victory?

People, Places and Things: Assuming courts on Long Island haven’t floated away, a possibility given the torrential downpours that fell across the New York area last night, George of many names Santos is expected to plead guilty today to a whole bunch of federal crimes, the fraud, not the absurd lies about his identity and athletic prowess.  On Friday New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy announced that he’s appointing George Helmy, his former chief of staff to temporarily replace outgoing felon/Senator Bob Menendez who will be stepping out of the Senate shortly. Unless something unexpected happens in November, it’s likely that Democratic Congressman Andy Kim who is running against Republican hotelier Curtis Bashaw will win that seat. Because they’ve gotten good at throwing shade, the DNC projected a “Project 2025 HQ” message onto Trump’s Chicago hotel tower.  The Democratic convention begins today, and former Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger is now on the speakers list.  No word yet if Liz Cheney or Chris Christie will weigh in but lots of Republicans have crossed party lines to endorse the Harris ticket as evidenced by last week’s Republicans for Harris Zoom call, part of an expanding series that has included Dead Heads for Harris, Comics for Harris, and the Jewish Women for Harris one which featured Barbra Streisand. Polls are also looking up but not they’re only polls and we’ve been fooled before.

Fog:  Peace and a ceasefire remain distressingly elusive in the Middle East.  Think Lucy with a football, except the football is a live grenade and that’s not fair to Lucy.    

#BringThemAllHomeNow                     

 

On to Chicago ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️

Eliquis, Xarelto, Etc:  Yesterday with VP/Candidate Kamala Harris by his side President Biden announced that as a result of the passage of his Inflation Reduction Act, Medicare had negotiated down the prices of ten commonly prescribed drugs.  It’s estimated that the reduced drug prices will result in around $6 billion in savings for the federal government and a $1.5 billion reduction in out-of-pocket costs for seniors once those price reductions go into effect in 2026 assuming Republicans don’t take over and unwind the deal. Biden who looked and sounded better than he has in a while jokingly called the former guy Donald Dump while “signaling unity” with Kamala, a sign that while he may hold a grudge against those who pushed him aside, she’s remains solidly in his good graces. Fresh off a speech in North Carolina where he was supposed to talk about the economy but instead went with his usual grievance full rant, Trump held another hastily scheduled “press conferences,” this one at his Bedminster Club AKA Ivana’s cemetery. Surrounded by boxes of cereal and slabs of bacon which were there to serve as props for what was supposed to be another speech about the economy, Trump once again went with the airing of grievances.  By the way, does anyone believe he’s ever been in a Stop and Shop?  Trump is harping, or at least he’s supposed to be harping on the economy because historically, despite evidence to the contrary, voters rate Republicans higher when it comes to economic issues but like almost everything related to this election cycle, precedent is proving meaningless. According to the latest Financial Times poll 42% of voters say they trust Harris most to handle the economy, while 41% trust Trump.  That’s a slim difference but notable, Harris’s trust number represents a 7% gain on where Biden was just one month ago. That and this week’s inflation figure which shows inflation down to 2.9%, the first time it’s been below 3% since 2021, is a problem for Trump who has been campaigning on what he’s been calling Biden and Harris’ “disastrous economy.” Harris is expected to detail her economic plans shortly, if she veers to far to the left, maybe Trump will retake the usual Republican position but even if she doesn’t, he’ll call her out as a communist as will his echo chamber and maybe that will be enough for him.     

Bets: The expectation that there isn’t a recession ahead combined with the surprising rise of Kamala Harris and Trump’s shtick wearing thin may be why Real Clear Politics’ average of six betting markets now shows Harris with a 54% chance of winning in November with Trump at 45%. Not that any of us should let our guard down, Trump has remarkable staying power but at the very least Kamala’s improvement in the polls, betting and otherwise, has definitely gotten under Trump’s skin, hence these pointless, stupid “press conferences” and the return of former campaign aide Corey Lewandowski to his campaign leadership team.  Lewandowski, who like Trump has a habit of sexually harassing women and engaging in public messy extra marital affairs, the most recent with South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem,  is one of Trump’s comfort blankets, so is Steve Bannon but since he’s currently in prison, he’s unavailable. However, Kellyanne Conway is out and about so don’t be surprised if she shows up next. On the subject of weird guys, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention RFK Jr’s newest gambit.  First, he offered to pull out of the race and endorse Trump in exchange for a cabinet position.  Nothing came of that, at least so far, so he made the same offer to Kamala’s team.. He’s mad because they haven’t returned his calls so he appears to be turning back to Trump’s team, who may be desperate enough to give him something in exchange for his endorsement.  With this election likely to be close, nepo-RFK’s power to disrupt is real and disturbing because who doesn’t think Trump would promote polio if it got him back to the Oval office.           

Vets:  Trump who announced that he was again running for president back in 2022, had plenty of time to vet his running mate while Harris had only two weeks to bring hers onboard.  So far, we’ve learned that Kamala’s choice, Tim Walz, is all in on making tampons available in school bathrooms and that he left the National Guard after “only” 24 years of service.  In contrast we keep on learning more disturbing factoids about JD Vance. Not only has he dissed childless cat women, a group that includes the ultimate influencer Taylor Swift, but more recently we learned that he believes that raising grandchildren is the sole purpose of post-menopausal women, that it isn’t normal for women to care about their reproductive rights, and that corporations who support abortion rights do so only because they “want a pool of cheap labor.”  JD Vance’s views shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who did any research on him since he made many of them known during a series of podcast appearances that were easily available to a vetting team.  Either Trump’s team did a really bad job, or they found nothing problematic about Vance’s positions which says a lot about them and Trump.  Similarly, while Trump keeps trying to distance himself from the extreme right- wing positions that make up Project 2025, JD Vance is closely tied to the plan and its author.  No surprise then that Trump is bleeding support among women, even among white women, a group that he usually wins. Trump also appears to be doing his best to offend veterans and Jews.  Last night during an event which was about combatting anti-Semitism, odd in itself since Trump sees good people on both sides and dines with neo-Nazis, he said that the presidential medal he gave Miriam Adelson, one of his largest donors, was better than the top military honor given to heroic soldiers because “they’re either in very bad shape, hit so many times by bullets or they’re dead.”  A wonderful way to show appreciation for those who put their lives on the line for his country?

Will You Still Love Me:  The Democratic convention takes place next week in Chicago, not the city I would have chosen given what happened in 1968.  In case that’s before your time, think violence, anti-Viet Nam War protests, Mayor Daly, blood and guts rather than Saturday in the Park. if the expected pro-Palestinian protestors don’t pull off a repeat of 1968, and they might, the Harris/Walz ticket could get a post-convention bump.  If so, expect Trump to further unravel.

#BringThemAllHomeNow

 

Daffy Duck and Friend ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️

Space Cadets: In an effort to recapture the news cycle without having to leave his Mar a Lago residence, Trump participated in an X Spaces interview with X owner Elon Musk.  Things did not go as planned, hardly a surprise since as Trump earlier noted Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s campaign launch on X was a complete failure. As a result of what were probably similar technical difficulties to the ones that turned the DeSantis launch into a laughingstock, problems which Musk initially blamed on outside players, but which he later admitted were due to the instability of the Spaces platform, the start of the interview was delayed for 45 minutes leaving expectant listeners in the lurch.  Once the almost two-hour interview finally got going, it became clear that it wasn’t an interview but instead was a whiney kvetch session between the presidential candidate and one of his most ardent and rich fans, no tough or probing questions but lots of softball ones.  USA Today described Trump as sounding like a disoriented, racist Daffy Duck, a sentiment shared by many.  His speech was slurred and his brain occasionally glitched not that it mattered because he covered little new ground.  Instead, he stuck with his usual rants about illegal immigration and his plans to eliminate regulation while also bemoaning his recent assassination attempt. Clearly aggrieved that Time Magazine has a picture of Kamala Harris on this week’s cover, he described her as beautiful, comparing her to Melania, but of course also calling her a terrible, radical, stupid leader.  Prompted by Musk to say something intelligent about global warming, Trump instead said that rising sea levels which he insisted will rise by only “one eighth of an inch over the next 400 years” were a good thing because “you get more oceanfront property.”  According to a 2022 Federal Report sea levels along US coastlines are expected to rise by between ten and twelve inches over the next thirty years so that’s a lot of new “oceanfront property” at the expense of previously occupied land but why quibble over details?  Trump whose Project 2025 transition plan calls for the firing of as many “deep state” government employees as possible praised Musk for firing so many of his, especially those Tesla workers trying to unionize, calling him the “greatest cutter” for cutting striking workers.  That sentiment didn’t go over well with the United Auto Workers whose leader responded by filing unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board against Trump and Musk alleging that those statements interfered with workers who may “want to exercise their right to join a union.”  The complaint will probably go nowhere but expressing blatant anti-union statements hardly does much to improve or even maintain Trump’s share of union voters.  Trump who has been criticized for his light travel schedule added a North Carolina rally to this week’s schedule which had only included one in Pennsylvania to combat charges that he’s a tired old man but also because both swingy states, especially Pennsylvania, appear to be moving away from him.  Presumably, he won’t be traveling on the Jeffrey Epstein plane that he “accidentally” traveled on last week.  By the way, appearing on X while also declining in the polls is doing nothing good for Trump’s Social Media stock which has been sinking of late.  

Abortion Politics:  Trump insists that abortion access is no longer an issue because the Justices he appointed to the Supreme Court “fixed” the problem.  He’s wrong, it’s still an issue, a bigly one, ask the Texas women who are now suing the state because they were denied abortions for life threatening and fertility killing ectopic pregnancies.  Abortion amendments will be on the ballot in Florida, Arizona, Missouri, Maryland, South Dakota, Colorado, Nevada, and New York. Republican officials have been fighting to keep the abortion referendums off their state ballots, an indication that they know that abortion remains a voter energizing issue, one that is expected to help Democratic candidates up and down the ballot and could keep Nevada blue, turn Arizona from purple to blue and might even give Trump and Florida’s Republican Senator Rick Scott who is up for reelection a run for their money, or at the very least make them spend more money,  in the Sunshine State. 

People, Places and Things:  At least for now RFK Jr is off the ballot in New York State.  A judge ruled that his claims about being a New York State resident are false because he doesn’t reside in NY, doesn’t have a residency in the state, and lives in California. That hobbles RFK’s spoiler plans because though no one sane thinks he stands a chance of influencing the outcome of the New York presidential election, he’s asserted New York residency in many other states where he could be a spoiler.  Some of those states are now expected to try to kick him off their ballots. Trump says that he plans to sue the Department of Justice for $100 million in damages over their “unprecedented raid“ of his Mar a Lago property, alleging that their efforts to retrieve the super-secret documents that he took with him upon leaving the White House was done with “clear intent to engage in political persecution.” Trump threatens to sue frequently, it’s not clear whether he’ll really go forward with this one or whether it’s just part of his effort to grab more attention from Kamala but if he does sue the discovery will be epic. Minneapolis area Congresswoman Ilhan Omar won her primary yesterday, that’s not a surprise, she was expected to win.  Despite all the press attention about AIPAC’s involvement in other “Squad” races, they were not active in hers.  Maryland Congressman, former Democratic Majority Leader, Steny Hoyer, who is 85, is recovering from what he describes as a minor ischemic stroke.  He says that he has no lingering effects and plans to resume a normal schedule next week.  That puts him ahead of New Jersey Democrat Bill Pascrell, who at 87 is the oldest member of the House. Though he recently won his primary he’s been ill with respiratory issues that resulted in a month long stay in a local hospital. He was finally released from the hospital to a rehab facility last week but was readmitted to the hospital over the weekend after spiking a high fever.    

Fog:  The bombs and rockets are still flying over Gaza, Israel, and Lebanon but maybe a new round of ceasefire negotiations is scheduled to begin tomorrow and maybe Iran is sitting on its attack plans, but only for now.  Your guess is as good as mine. Also, Hamas says that one of its terrorists killed a male hostage and that two other female hostages were shot.  Russia is withdrawing some troops from Ukraine to better reposition them in response to Ukraine’s surprisingly effective incursion into Russian territory.  Russia is not giving up, but since wars only end when both sides are willing to negotiate and Russia will only negotiate when it absolutely has to, maybe, just maybe, Ukraine holding on to some Russian land is what it will take to get to the table.  Or maybe that’s just wishful thinking from the peanut gallery. War sucks.

#BringThemAllHomeNow

84 Days ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️

Russia if You Are Listening:  Kamala Harris continues to be riding a wave while Trump remains vengeful and crazy.  Recent polls show her edging out Trump in the popular vote though the results fall well within the margin of error so it’s far too early to celebrate.  Harris may still be in a “honeymoon” period and Trump despite all his foibles and increasingly bizarre behavior enjoys a lot of stubborn popularity.  Moreover, because the electoral college is the only thing that matters, the outcome of the November election will be all about the electoral college rich swing states. There is some good news on that front too.  Recent polls, to the extent they are to be believed, show Harris leading in the blue wall states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz spent their weekend holding well attended rallies in the swingy places while Trump, who attended one rally in Montana which he almost missed after his old plane experienced a mechanical problem but where upon finally arriving, he called Montana’s vulnerable Democratic candidate Jon Tester fat, spent his weekend fuming and posting outlandish messages on his Twitter wannabee platform. Crowd obsessed Trump accused Harris of using artificial intelligence (AI) enhanced pictures to fake the size of her rallies.  He called her a “CHEATER” who had “NOBODY waiting,” adding the false assertion that she used AI to make her crowds look huge.  Sticking with projection he went on to say that her use of AI provided more evidence that “Democrats win Elections by CHEATNG” calling for her to be “disqualified because the creation of a fake image is ELECTION INTEFERENCE.” Not only was his allegation absurd but it was revealing of his new familiarity with AI technology as over the past few weeks he’s been reposting AI generated pictures of himself standing arm in arm with groups of Black women. In some of those pictures the women all have the same face so either he’s discovered a well of quintuplets of color or someone’s taken photoshop and AI manipulation classes from Princess Kate.  On the subject of election interference, it appears that there has been some going on, but the culprit isn’t Kamala and at least so far, isn’t Russia either.  Someone, likely from Iran, hacked into Trump’s campaign system probably by phishing an unwitting, now former staff member, and walked away with the JD Vance vetting file and some tidbits about Senator Marco Rubio. That file which contained publicly available information was then sent via AOL email, the first sign that it was phishy, to Politico. Unlike in 2016 when the press willingly and all too eagerly shared the DNC’s John Podesta emails, the right leaning Politico sat on the files they received.  Additionally, Trump who called upon Russia to hack Hillary in 2016 with his infamous “Russia are you listening” speech where he called on Vlad to find and share Hillary’s emails had his campaign sit on the news until this weekend. The content of the stolen emails isn’t revelatory but the fact that at least one and probably more foreign actors are trying to influence the outcome of the election is a bigly problem, again, indicative that anything can happen. If ever an election cycle was vulnerable to black swan 🦢 events, it’s this one so be wary and concerned because there could be a few more election upheavals around the next corner.

Weirdly Enough:  JD Vance spent his weekend being a pit bull and doing the Sunday morning show rounds. Vance who dressed in drag during a Law School Halloween party, no big deal except that his party prides itself on being anti-drag, accused his Democratic opponents of using school yard bully tactics for calling him weird.  Has he met his boss, the guy who was caught on tape calling Kamala a “f-cking bitch” while in a golf cart with youngest child Barron?  Enough said. Vance who isn’t stupid but who is a world class shapeshifter also called out Harris for changing her positions because only he can do that?  On the subject of weird, the NY Times reports that while Trump doesn’t like the adjective, he isn’t all that concerned about it because he “knows” it pertains to Vance rather than him.  There’s some news on the endorsement front.  White Supremacist Nick Fuentes and popular Podcaster Joe Rogan have moved out of the Trump’s camp though their moves, like that of Kyle Rittenhouse who jumped ship early last week only to have been intimidated back onto the Trump bandwagon, could be temporary. Calling JD Vance’s attack on Tim Walz’ military record “despicable” former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura who was once the governor of Minnesota has endorsed the Harris ticket.  And most importantly of the Culinary Union, including it’s Nevada affiliate, has endorsed the Harris Walz ticket, a disappointment to Trump who though his “get rid of taxes on tips” gambit would lure its members to his ticket.  By the way, Harris is now also calling for the elimination of taxes on tips, and Trump is bigly mad that she’s copied his idea because that’s not allowed. Lastly not that his base cares, but it turns out that Trump’s tale of learning all kinds of dirt from former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown who dated Kamala Harris about her during a “near fatal helicopter” ride in the 1990s wasn’t true.  Brown wasn’t on that helicopter, the Black guy in question was Nate Holden, a former LA city council member who did not date Harris and didn’t discuss her during the ride.  Holden is Black but unlike Brown who is short, he’s rather tall.  However, as Holden put it when you think all Black people look alike, it’s easy to get them confused.  It’s also easy to get confused when you are old and prone to making up stories and spend time talking to Hanibal Lecter.    

Fog:  Over the weekend, Israel bombed a former school compound in Gaza which it said was being used as a Hamas base. Hamas authorities reported that only innocent children and women were killed, so absent verification the press reported the attack as another wanton killing by Israel but didn’t seem all that upset about the missiles and drones landing on Israelis in Northern Israel.  Israel also took out another Hamas leader who was hiding in Lebanon. Israel expects that the imminent Iran attack is now really imminent, and Hamas now says it will not participate in scheduled ceasefire talks not that anyone knows if Israel’s Netanyahu would actually agree to a ceasefire. Ukrainian troops are now fighting within Russia proper, another sign that things aren’t going as planned for Vlad. Switching from the violent to the absurd, RFK Jr was in court last week trying to prove that he’s a resident of New York state.  That matters because he filled out his ballot applications across the country using a New York address largely because he doesn’t want to admit to living in the same state as his really rich running mate who is a California resident.  The problem is that he really does lives in California with his wife actress Cheryl Hines and does not in the one room “space” in New York that he rents from a friend and claims as his official residence. Everyone knows you can’t fit a bear, even a cub, in a one room apartment. 

#BringThemAllHomeNow

The Ketchup is Flying ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️

Mar a Lago Freak Out: It’s too early to know whether Kamala Harris’ rise in the polls will continue and go the distance but one thing is certain, its freaking out Trump.  Yesterday, in an effort to wrest attention away from Harris who, together with her new running mate Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, is joyfully barnstorming her way through the swing states, Trump held a hastily scheduled press event at Mar a Lago where he tried to prove that “only he can fix it” but didn’t. His podium performance was reminiscent of the worst of the ones he’d delivered from the White House during the height of the COVID crisis, no bleach cocktails but plenty of vitriol.  He called Kamala a person of low intelligence, insisted that all the polls still showed him in the lead, claimed that everyone except Black women were in his camp, called Pennsylvania’s Josh Shapiro who has an enviously high approval rating in his state very unpopular, and said Jews who plan to vote for Kamala needed to “get their heads checked.” Because crowd size is what keeps him up at night, he went on and on about how attendance at his rallies far exceeded Kamala’s and anyone else who’d ever held one including Martin Luther King whose March on Washinton “I’ve Got a Dream” rally was historically huge. Ignoring the day’s positive employment data and a 700 point uptick in the volatile Dow average because only bad news counts he attacked the economy and said that failing to return him to the White House would put the country in “mortal danger” while describing his 2020 departure from Washington which did put the country in danger as a peaceful transition because after all his supporters who beat the crap out of the Capitol Police were just nice tourists.  In an effort to distinguish himself from Harris who has been facing criticism for her failure to hold a formal press conference since replacing Biden at the head of the ticket, he took questions from the press but couldn’t resist calling a question from a reporter who asked him why his schedule had been pared down to just one rally per week stupid. During the Q & A he asserted that he wasn’t sure how he’d vote on Florida’s abortion amendment but that “he’s get back to everyone in two weeks with an announcement, possibly at the same time that he releases his health plan and tax filings. He either didn’t know that mifepristone is the “abortion drug” or pretended not to hear a question about whether or not he’d ban it if he made it back to the White House and also seemed to believe that the “millions” of asylum seeking migrants had all recently been released from asylums because obviously no word can have more than one meaning which could explain why one political cartoonist depicted him in a strait jacket.  And despite all the times that he called for Hillary Clinton to be locked up, he claims he didn’t, it was only his fans who did and anyway he could have done bad things to her if he’d wanted to and still might if he’s elected.  

Debate, Debate, Swift Boat: Kamala Harris may be a “childless cat woman” but she’s appears to have mastered the art of ignoring the whines and demands of a petulant toddler so despite Trump’s insistence that the debate schedule that his team agreed to when Biden was the candidate was no longer valid and that she should instead debate him on Fox, the station that has paid out three quarters of a billion dollars for its election lies, no Fox debate is scheduled but the September 10^th debate on ABC is back on.  Though both JD Vance and Tim Walz say that they’ll be happy to debate each other, to date no debate between the two vice presidential candidates has been scheduled but the progeny of Mike Pence’s fly are waiting in the wings. Debate or not, JD and his team have been doing their best to “swift boat” Governor Walz.  Swift boating for those who’ve forgotten or missed the 2004 election cycle is what the Republican’s did to then Senator John Kerry who ultimately lost his presidential run against George W Bush. The Bush campaign team which included Chris LaCivita, who is one of Trump’s campaign chairs, attacked Kerry’s Viet Nam war service, claiming that Kerry who’d fought in the war but later grew disillusioned and protested it, had not deserved his combat medals.  Their claims about Kerry were eventually debunked but the attack on his war record proved effective during the campaign.  With JD Vance as its instrument the Trump team has spent the past few days attacking Walz’ military service.  Walz served in the National Guard for 24 years, retiring before his unit was called up to go to Iraq because he’d decided to run for Congress. Walz had achieved the rank of Command Seargeant Major, one of the top ranks for an enlisted soldier but because he left the service before completing the rank’s required coursework, for pension benefit purposes he was reduced to a Master Sargent.  JD Vance brags about his four years in the Marines but he wasn’t in combat either, rather he was a combat correspondent in a non-combat position in the public affairs department in Iraq. The bottom line: both candidates deserve appreciation for their military service, neither was a war hero and attacking another soldier for his service, especially one who served for 24 years is very wrong but sadly effective. Even the Wall Street Journal gets that it’s wrong, this morning their editors wrote “The US military is a volunteer force and only about 1% of the population serves in uniform. Mr. Walz and Mr. Vance both served their country. “ They of course then went on to say “there are other and better reasons to oppose Mr. Walz’s candidacy” but that’s the point. Disagreeing on policy is fair, even if those disputed policies included such “awful” things as providing breakfast to hungry school kids but calling out Walz for imaginary “stolen valor” not at all.  By the way, Trump didn’t go to Viet Nam because of his imaginary heel spurs and current Congressman/former White House doctor Ronny Jackson who has been all in on the Walz smear campaign still calls himself an Admiral even though he was demoted for cause.   

Fog:  The Middle East is still boiling but so far at least, no major attacks, though plenty of “smaller ones,” perhaps because of a combination of enhanced US military presence in the region, threats and intense diplomatic efforts by the Biden administration and European and Middle Eastern leaders or maybe because Iran is biding its time. And just to be clear, despite some press reports that Kamala Harris told representatives of the Muslim and Palestinian community that she would be willing to discuss an Israel arms embargo her campaign issued a statement last night saying that she did not, instead her representative said that she told them that she would continue to engage with them about the war.  She’s clearly trying to walk a fine line, reeling in as many voters as possible.  Further evidence of that is how she responded to protesters who shouted “Kamala, Kamala, you can’t hide, we won’t vote for genocide” at her Michigan rally.  Using some of the same stern “cat mother” skills she used with Trump, she said “Everyone’s voice matters. But I am speaking now,” adding “You know what? If you want Donald Trump to win, then say that, Otherwise I am speaking.”  The rest of the crowd then drowned the protesters out..

#BringThemAllHomeNow

  

 

And the VEEP is..... ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️

This White Guy:  Kamala Harris picked Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, one of her white, heterosexual, non-Jewish options, to be her running mate.  Walz, a former Congressman, teacher, football coach, and long-term member of the National Guard, entered the veepstakes as a dark horse. Until yesterday he wasn’t as well-known as some of the other white guys she was considering.  At sixty he’s only one year older than Harris, but he gives off lovable grandfather vibes and, as he demonstrated by going there with a couch joke, he’s got a wicked sense of humor to boot. For those who don’t know about the “couch” thing, suffice it to say it has something to do with some icky things that JD Vance, who Walz was the first to call weird, may or may not have done with a “love” seat.  Harris made her official announcement at Philadelphia’s Temple University to a packed 10,000-person crowd of boisterous supporters after a more than rousing introduction by her second choice, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro who more than warmed up the crowd that clearly loves him with a rip-roaring speech that he’d probably prepared back when he thought he might be her pick. The party line is that Harris felt instant camaraderie with Walz, the more likely reality is that Shapiro lost out over concerns that, if ever, now isn’t the time for a Black woman to run with a Jewish partner, particularly one who has been outspoken about his support for Israel which isn’t to say that Walz isn’t supportive of Israel too, he’s just more palatable to the factions of the Democratic party that Kamala needs to keep on board as well as some of the much sought after rural voters that Kamala wants to lure in. Though the press, particularly on the right, immediately painted Walz as a left wing progressive or worse a dreaded socialist, one of the first to celebrate his selection was West Virginia centrist Senator Joe Manchin so maybe Walz really does have the everyman, secret sauce needed at this time because when was the last time that Bernie Sanders, AOC and Joe Manchin agreed on anything?  At the very least, his selection appears to have freaked out Trump who posted on his Truth Social platform a bizarre assertion that “Crooked Joe Biden” whose presidency was “STOLEN from him” by “Kamabla,” Barack HUSSEIN Obama, Crazy Nancy Pelosi, Shifty Adam Schiff, Cryin’ Chuck Schumer and others on the Lunatic Left” will “CRASH” the Democratic convention to try to take back the “Nomination.” If that post doesn’t convince the fence sitters that they need to step up to vote for Harris and Walz, then they’re totally red pilled and only pretending to be wavering. While Harris and Walz plan to spend the rest of this week on a whirlwind swing state tour, Trump has only one campaign event planned because in addition to being crazy, he’s old and besides his golf card is booked.  He’s going to Montana, a state he won by 16 points in 2020. His visit will help Republican Senate wannabee Tim Sheehy who is running against embattled Democratic Senator Jon Tester but won’t do much for him.

People, Places and Things:  Democratic squad member/St Louis area Congresswoman Cory Bush will not be returning to Washington in January. In yesterday’s Missouri primary her main challenger Wesley Bell beat her by 6 points.  Though much is being made about Bush being outspent and targeted by AIPAC, like New York’s Jamaal Bowman she had other problems. Local labor groups weren’t happy with her no vote on Biden’s infrastructure legislation, and she is being investigated for serious campaign financing violations.  Jenna Ellis, the one-time Trump campaign attorney best known for sitting next to Rudy Guiliani at the infamous sweat inducing Four Seasons Landscaping press conference is now cooperating with Arizona prosecutors in the Arizona fake electors’ case.  Likely as a result of Ellis’ cooperation, yesterday, Lorraine Pellegrino, one of the eleven Arizona Republicans who falsely posed as Trump’s electors has accepted a guilty plea to a charge of filing a “false instrument.” Ellis’ cooperation and Pelligrino’s plea deal put additional pressure on Guiliani who is expected to lose his valuable New York co-op soon.  Add Elon Musk to the list of people now being investigated, again, this time by the states of Michigan and North Carolina.  It appears that his pro-Trump PAC’s website is inviting voters in swing states to “register to vote” but instead of actually registering any of them, the PAC is just storing their voter data, a nifty way of engaging in voter suppression and also a violation of state election law. Kellyanne Conway who never really went away may be back.  Reports are that with Harris ascending Trump is unhappy with his campaign managers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita.  LaCivita acknowledged that dissatisfaction with his recent social media post of a Sopranos era James Gandolfini F-you picture.  Kellyanne who has been the source of a lot of the ”dump JD” gossip is waiting in the wings to replace them.  Fun to watch.  

Trump Legal Update:  The Supreme Court rejected the State of Missouri’s longshot bid to block Trump’s still scheduled for September 18 sentencing in his New York hush money case. Naturally, Justices Alito and Thomas both said that they would have allowed Missouri to file its suit.  By the way, Clarence appears to have conveniently forgotten to disclose a few more of those private plane rides and trips gifted to him by billionaire Harlan Crow because of course he did. Having finally received the January 6 case back from its long sojourn with the Supreme Court, Judge Tanya Chutkan is back in action and ready to proceed with what ever she can still proceed with on Trump’s January 6 case. It turns out that New Jersey’s felonious Senator Bob Menendez who will be leaving the Senate on August 20 may not be the only one who received a bribe from Egypt.  It appears that Trump did too, back in 2016 when he allegedly received a $10 million “gift.” Investigation into that bribe was put into the deep freezer by Trump’s Attorney General William Barr, the guy who also misrepresented the results of the Mueller investigation.  Given that Trump has been very upfront about his willingness to accept bigly donations from fossil fuel industry executives, the crypto crowd, and Elon Musk in exchange for eliminating environmental protections, easing crypto prohibitions, and saying nice things about the electric vehicles he previously dissed, it’s easy to see how he would accept money from Egypt after all as president he lifted Obama era sanctions on Egypt for its human rights violations for far less money than all the others are now coughing up.   

Fog:  The Middle East remains on high, high alert. No all-out war yet but the drone attacks on Israel and the responding tit for tats continue.  UNWRA, the UN relief Agency, has fired nine of its workers for their involvement in the October 7 massacre, which is nice but probably just the tip of the complicit iceberg. And, Hamas has chosen Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the October 7 attacks as its new leader because of course they have.     

#BringThemAllHomeNow

Lions & Tigers & Bears, Oh My ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️

It’s Official:  Kamala Harris is now the official Democratic candidate.  Though the Democrats’ virtual delegate vote continues through today, by the end of Friday she had received enough votes to clinch her candidacy.  Harris was off the campaign trail this weekend,  busy interviewing potential running mates.  Late yesterday one of those potential veeps, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly posted on social media “Now my mission is serving Arizonans” raising speculation that he was no longer in contention but then he deleted his tweet so maybe he’s still in. In any case, the pundits believe that Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz are the front runners, Shapiro largely because of the importance of winning Pennsylvania where he is very popular and fixed that damaged highway incredibly fast, Walz because though winning Minnesota is a given, he’s a well-liked Midwestern everyman whose popularity might spillover to swingy Michigan and Wisconsin.  Shapiro’s downside is that his religion and pro-Israel views might be too much for those who’ve taken to calling President Biden genocide Joe though it’s worth noting that at least one national Muslim group, the Black Muslim Leadership Council, that had declared itself “uncommitted” on Biden’s reelection endorsed Harris last week.  Also, though there have been anti-Shapiro posts on Twitter (X) and Threads there have been more “let’s all get on board” no matter who Harris picks s her running mate posts. Walz’s downside is that he’s viewed as a bit too far to the left which likely explains why he is Bernie Sanders pick and as a result may be a turn off to moderates. Assuming Harris sticks to her schedule, we’ll know her pick tomorrow. 

Orange Maniac: Trump, who at least for now is sticking with JD Vance, held one of his typical Trumpian political rallies in Atlanta on Saturday.  He thanked Putin for Biden’s impressive hostage release while once again calling it a horrible deal and insisting that the Biden administration had paid a huge ransom for the release even though they did not pay any ransom.  He discussed his “friend,” the late great Hanibal Lecter, attacked Bruce Springsteen, Mitt Romney, and Paul Ryan. He repeatedly mispronounced Kamala (comma la for those like me who need help saying it right), while making a series of racist remarks because that’s what racists do.  He attacked Georgia State, where the rally was held, claiming that officials there were preventing more people from entering their arena because his crowd was smaller than Kamala’s was during her rally held in the same location.  And because it worked so well for him in 2020, he attacked Georgia’s popular Republican Governor Brian Kemp, Kemp’s wife who said she’ll be submitting a write-in vote for her husband on election day, and election official Brad “find me more votes” Raffensperger.  The Raffensperger attacks, while not surprising, are ironic because he’s done as much as anyone to implement voter suppressing policies that help Republicans.  Democrats eked out a victory Georgia in 2020 but with Biden heading the ticket chances of a repeat were virtually nonexistent but with Kamala on top, no thanks to Raffensperger, the state is back in play, so attacking Kemp and his team only helps Democrats.  Let’s hope Trump keeps it up. On the subject of voter suppression, keep an eye on Arizona, where the Maricopa County Republican official who pushed back on the “stop the election” crowd just lost his primary because he did the right thing in 2020. Lastly, good for Simone Biles for pointing out that being the 🐐 gymnast is a Black Job.  She’s not just amazing she’s good a throwing shade.   

🐻 Bear Bingo? RFK Jr who is still running for president despite sinking further in the polls admitted that he’d left a dead bear 🐻 cub in Central Park in 2014, something about picking it up off the highway to bring it home for its skin and to grill bear burgers but then because he was in a rush to get to an event, he needed to get rid of it quickly or risk a really stinky car. He alleged that unlike his companions he wasn’t inebriated at the time but maybe he’d have been better off saying that he was.  RFK who is 70 years old now was 60 at the time of the bear dump so it was not a youthful prank, so maybe blame it on his worm hole? The recount for the contested Virginia 5^th District Republican primary is in and the loser is House Freedom Caucus leader Bob Good. It turns out that endorsing Ron DeSantis for president and voting to unseat former Speaker Kevin McCarthy was a bad thing at least for Good.  Also, it turns out that Doug Emhoff isn’t perfect.  Over the weekend we learned that he’d had an affair during his first marriage. Apparently, that’s not news to either Kamala who he told early in their relationship or the Biden team as Emhoff had disclosed it when Harris was vetted for the VP slot. Emhoff unlike the thrice married, repeatedly unfaithful, sex abusing Trump is not running for office and his first wife is Team Kamala so whatever. And congratulations are in order for South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, the lifelong bachelor who married his fiancée this weekend.  There’d been lots of speculation that Scott’s marriage plans would fall by the wayside once he wasn’t chosen to fill Trump’s VP spot, but he did, a good move since that slot could reopen.  

War Drums:  Expectations are that the bombs and missiles will start flying in the Middle East in bulk within the next 48 hours not that the past few days have been all that serene. Over the weekend Israel took out the leader of Hamas’ military wing, two Israelis were killed in a stabbing attack in Tel Aviv suburb Holon,  and Hezbollah drones continued to target Northern Israel.  And because why not, Venezuela’s ersatz President Nicolas Maduro who is trying to hold on to leadership in his country despite the will of the country’s electorate is now blaming International Zionism and Jewish controlled satellites for his loss that he says wasn’t a loss.  He failed to mention Jewish Space Lasers but give him time.

#BringThemALLHomeNow