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