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