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