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