Evan Almighty ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️

Whiplash: Things keep happening.  On Wednesday, there was the National Association of Black Journalists conference where Trump was Trump at his racist worst, yesterday there was a complex, historic, multi-country hostage release and the cauldron that’s the Middle East appears about to boil over.  First, the happy news.  Sixteen hostages held in Vladimir Putin’s Russia, including US Citizens Evan Gershkovich, Paul Whelan and Alsu Kurmasheva and green card holder Vladimir Kara-Murza were released in exchange for 8 Russian prisoners, including the German held Russian hitman Vadim Krasikov in a multinational swap that involved the US, Norway, Germany, Poland, Sweden and Turkey. As detailed in the Wall Street Journal,  Evan Gershkovich’s employer, the swap resulted from months of intense diplomatic negotiations and the leveraging of alliances, all further fueled by the persistent pressure of Gershkovich’s Russian émigré mother Ella, the Jewish mother that everyone should want in their corner when facing a threat, bully or even just a mean teacher. President Biden and his diplomatic team deserve kudos for their accomplsihment and for being able to resusitate the swap which was almost derailed by the death in custody of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navlany so naturally Trump is up in arms.  Instead of congratulating the Biden team or simply welcoming the hostages home, he responded with one of his despicable Truth Social posts, accusing Biden of handing over reams of cash for the hostages “because we never make good deals, at anything but especially hostage swaps.”  Adding “our negotiators are always an embrassment to us!” To be clear, no cash was handed over to Putin and though sending assassin Krasikov back to Russia is a hard pill to swallow, Biden’s team managed to extract 16 hostages in exchange, a notable accomplishment. Petty, petulant Trump is mostly upset that his “friend” Vlad who he insisted would release Gershkovich minutes after he “wins” the 2024 election instead released him to Biden and that it’s Biden and Harris who got to greet the arriving hostages last night. Furthermore, because the value of alliances with world leaders who aren’t autocrats or dictators isn’t something the NATO bashing Trump appreciates, he’s even more aggrieved by all of them, especially Germany stepping up to help Biden.   

Turning Black:  The leadership of the National Association of Black Journalist faced lots of heat for inviting Trump who routinely bashes their members, showering extra vitriol on their female members, to its annual convention.  That criticism grew louder after they refused to accommodate Vice President Kamala Harris’ now jam packed schedule by letting the soon to be official Democratic nominee appear via video but then Trump happened and now everyone, except maybe those members of Trump’s team who thought letting him appear at the conference was a wise idea, are celebrating his performance, but not in a good way. Trump appeared on stage with three Black women TV journalists including moderator Rachel Scott from ABC, Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner, and Semafor political reporter Kadia Goba.  He responded to Scott’s asking why Black voters, given his past rhetoric about them, should trust him by calling Scott hosile and her question nasty, the word he typically uses to describe Black women who challenge him. Things went downhill for him from there.  He tussled with Scott over the definition of DEI, he refused to say that JD Vance would be ready to assume the presidential reins if necessary instead saying that VP’s don’t really matter, he said he would pardon the January 6^th prisoners, even those who’d bashed the heads of the Capitol police and he went on and on about Kamala Harris not really being Black because apparently having a Black Jamaican father doesn’t really count if your mother is Indian. He acused Harris of only recently “turning Black,” an offensive accusation under any circumstances but partiularly absurd given that as a 17 year-old Harris opted to attend Howard University, one of the most preminent Black Universities.  He also went on about how migrants were crossing the border to take “Black” jobs and by Black jobs think housekeeprs and janitors not journalists, doctors, or presidents.  The audience mostly laughed at him and sometimes booed.  Though Trump who had arrived late because he’d been arguing with the sponsers over their plans to fact check him in real time was scheduled to appear for a full hour, his staff pulled him at the 35 minute mark.  Trump insisted that his trainwreck appearance was a resounding success, his Republican political and media echo chamber publicly agreed, his Loony fangirl Laura Loomer posted a picture of Harris in Indian garb on social media to “prove” that she is really Indian, and, at the southern Arizona border while dressed like a dime store cowboy VP partner JD Vance, shape shifter extraordinaire, accused Harris of being a “phony who caters to whatever audience is in front of her.’

Drums of War:  Early yesterday morning snippets about the still news embargoed prisoner swap were already on Twitter (X), this morning there are warnings about Iran imminently attacking Israel with a barrage of missiles in retaliation for the assasination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and the assasination of Hezbollah leader Fuad Shukr in Beirut.  Adding to Iran’s fury, it turns out that Haniyeh was killed by a bomb that was smuggled into a Tehran guest house months ago presumably by Mossad operatives, evidence that Iran has a Mossad infiltration problem. For the record neither Haniyeh nor Shukr were “nice” guys.  Haniyeh helped plan and then publicly celebrated the October 7 attack on Israel and Shukr was responsible for the recent strike on the soccer playing Druse children and also played a central role in the 1982 attack that killed 241 at the US Marine barracks in Beirut.  Stay tuned.  It could be a rough weekend in Israel.  

Election, Election:   The DNC has begun the virtual delegate roll call which when completed will formally designate Kamala Harris as the Democrat’s presidential candidate.  Harris is expected to announce her VP pick on Tuesday. The finalists are still thought to include Pennsylvania’s Josh Shapiro, Arizona’s Mark Kelly, Kentucky’s Andy Beshear, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Minnesota’s Tim Walz, and Illinois’ JB Pritzker, who I forgot to mention on Wednesday.  Notably a few of these white guys 😊  have cleared their schedule at the request of Kamala’s team either to be available for interviews or to troll us. In particular, much has been made of the fact that Shapiro who is already being attacked by the left on Twitter for being pro Israel, views shared by the other finalists, will no longer be traveling to the Hamptons for three previously scheduled events. In other political news, Arizona election denier Abe Hamedeh who was endorsed by Trump won his congressional primary against Blake Masters who was also endorsed by Trump because one way to make sure his candidate wins is for Trump to endorse everyone. Hamedeh still hasn’t conceded his loss in 2022’s Arizona Attorney General race and Master’s name is likely familiar because he’s the Peter Thiel funded candidate who lost his Senate race to Mark Kelly.  Primary election season is not over yet.  Next week Minneapolis area Democratic Squad member Ilan Omar faces off against  Don Samuels, the same Democratic challenger who came close to beating her last time around, she’ll probably beat him again. The following week St Louis area Squad member Cori Bush faces off against prosecutor Wesley Bell, if polls are right, she isn’t likely to fare as well as Omar.  

#BringThemAllHomeNow

Stallions v Rocks ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️

The Race: The enthusiasm for Kamala Harris’ run for the presidency continues to exceed expectations.  Last night she held a boisterous, standing room only rally in Atlanta, Georgia where, after a performance by Megan Thee Stallion rather than Trump’s fave Kid Rock, she delivered the high energy stump speech that voters needed to hear but that President Biden could no longer deliver.  Georgia, which Biden won in 2020 by the 11,780 votes that Trump infamously demanded Republican election official Brad Raffensperger “find,” had fallen off of the Democratic map but now appears to be back in play. A set of Morning Consult/Bloomberg polls released yesterday show Harris picking up points in all the key swing states.  She is in a dead heat with Trump in Georgia, leading him by 11 points in Michigan, by 2 points in Arizona, Wisconsin, and Nevada while trailing him by 4 points in Pennsylvania and 2 points in North Carolina.  With the exception of Michigan, all of these results are within the margin of error so it’s far too early to relax but Harris’ improving position provides evidence that enthusiasm for her candidacy may actually be translating into votes. Harris’ climb in the polls likely explains why Trump, never all that stable, has tossed his civility promise aside and is instead lashing out like crazy.  Yesterday, among other sinister, sexist and racist things he said that Harris, wouldn’t be able to stand up to world leaders due to her “appearance,” because “she’ll be like a play toy.” “They’ll look at her and say we can’t believe we got so lucky….they’ll walk all over her.”  He also slammed all Jews intending to vote for Harris calling them fools, while also calling Senate Leader Chuck Schumer “a Palestinian,” and Kamala’s husband Doug Emhoff a “crappy and horrible Jew,” presumably for sticking with his “Jew hating” wife.

Veep Sweeps: It looks like Harris will be announcing her VP partner in Philadelphia on Tuesday, in what will be the first stop of a campaign march through the swing states. Her campaign cautioned that no one should read too much into the location of the announcement, their way of saying that just because Josh Shapiro is the Governor of Pennsylvania doesn’t meant that he’s her pick though he could be.  In addition to Shapiro, Minnesota Governor Walz, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear and maybe Michigan Senator Gary Peters, a new possibility, are still among the possible choices with a number of pundits hoping that Pete Buttigieg is too because of his viral Trump and Vance takedowns.  However, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper is no longer in the mix . He withdrew because should he be selected his rightwing, Holocaust denying Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson could step into his shoes.  At least for now Trump appears to be sticking with his VP partner, JD Vance, because his cat women comments about those “psychopathic” childless single ladies shouldn’t be taken as insulting but rather just an indication of how much JD endorses parenthood and traditional family values.  Trump probably will stick with Vance but still it’s worth remembering that back in 1972 Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern dumped his VP partner Senator Thomas Eagleton after saying that he 1000% was going to stick with him despite his hospitalizations for depression, something that Eagleton conveniently failed to mention during his vetting process, so there is a precedent for candidates dumping their partners after their party convention.  While Trump may be sticking with JD, at least for now, he is trying to distance himself from Project 2025, the extreme rightwing blueprint for how dictator wannabees can reconfigure the government to facilitate their desired autocracies.  Yesterday in response to pressure from Trump, Paul Dans who authored the 2025 plan was forced to step down from the Federalist Society and Trump’s campaign issued a statement saying that they had no association with either Dan or “his” plan, never knew him and how dare you suggest he ever did, surprise to running mate JD who wrote the forward to Dans’ soon to be released book. For their part the Federalist Society said that Dans stepped away only because his plan was finished not because they didn’t want to see it fully implemented.      

The Supremes:  On Monday Biden announced his Supreme Court reform plan which calls for Congress to pass legislation that would impose term limits on Justices and an enforceable SCOTUS ethics code. He also called for a constitutional amendment limiting presidential immunity.  All of this falls into the category of wishful thinking because unless Democrats win control of both houses and dispense with the Senate filibuster no legislation will pass and the last time I checked the Equal Rights Amendment still hasn’t been voted in.  In other SCOTUS news, CNN reported on the internal machinations that led the Supreme Court to temporarily forestall the further limitations on abortions that Idaho wanted to impose on emergency room care. CNN reports that SCOTUS agreed to hear the Idaho case by a vote of 6 to 3, an indication that at first the Court’s conservative majority was lockstep in wanting to rule in Idaho’s favor but that after oral arguments three of the conservative justices, Amy Coney Barret, Brett Kavanaugh and Chief Justice John Roberts, were convinced by the Court’s three liberal justices to send the case back to the appellate court for a hearing on its merits.  As a result, emergency room abortions, while still in jeopardy, can be performed in Idaho, at least for now. The CNN report is an indication that despite all the outrage about the early peek at the Dobbs opinion, the Supreme Court is still leaking.  To that end, CNN has published another article about the Court’s immunity decision which indicates that its outcome was never in doubt since from day one the six conservative Justices were pretty much all in protecting presidents who crime.

Fog:  Israel has retaliated for the murder of the Druse soccer playing children first with a strike on Beirut that killed Fu’ad Shukr, the top Hezbollah military commander responsible for the Druse murders and then by killing Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh who was in Tehran to attend the inauguration of Iran’s newest president.  To put it mildly Iran is not happy, the retaliatory cycle will most certainly continue and could get worse.       

#BringThemAllHomeNow             

           

98 Days ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️

More Than Weird:  Democrats are now referring to Trump and Vance as weird, in the hope that it is a relatable way to describe the pair.  While that may be true, weird understates the danger of another Trump administration as evidenced by Trump’s statement to a group of conservative Christian voters at this weekend’s Turning Point Action Believers Summit. Trump told them that if they turned out to vote for him in this most important of elections, he would fix things so that they’d would never need to vote again. Calling VP Kamala Harris, whose name he intentionally mispronounces, an extreme socialist, Trump bragged about repealing Roe, again lied about the outcome of the 2020 election, proposed cutting billions in education funding especially for schools that require vaccinations because why would we want to prevent polio epidemics, and promised to appoint more very rightwing judges, while also repeating his now standard incomprehensible drivel on sharks, electricity and Hanibal Lecter. Keeping up with the weirdness thing, running mate and Project 2025 advocate JD Vance doubled down on his cat comments, saying that he liked cats, it was just those single childless women he objected to.  He singled out Friends actress Jennifer Aniston, calling her disgusting for her clapback at his hurtful cat comments because insulting Aniston, who tried for years to conceive, is a vote winning proposition in what alternative universe?  Polls, for what they’re worth, show that Harris, even without having designated a running mate, has narrowed Trump’s lead and has blown past him in some of the states like Minnesota and Virginia that his team had hoped to make competitive. That’s good but it’s far too early to know if the enthusiasm for Harris has staying power or if it will grow and it remains depressingly unfathomable that so many voters remain in Trump’s camp.  That said Harris favorability ratings have improved while Trump’s which had benefited from his assassination attempt, where the FBI is now saying he really was injured by a bullet or a bullet shard, are decreasing, especially among those all-important independent voters. JD Vance’s are even worse which together with the release of more videos of him sharing his extreme positions has fueled more chatter about the possibility of him being replaced.  Democrats, including Senate Leader Chuck Schumer who suggested that could happen, should be careful what they wish for because if that’s even possible there’s a chance that Trump would then choose someone marginally more palatable.    

Peeps and Veeps:  The clock is ticking on Harris’ VP selection process.  A lot of pundits, and mudslingers from both sides have focused in on Arizona’s Senator/Astronaut Mark Kelly and Pennsylvania’s Governor Josh Shapiro but others such as Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and the reliably articulate, Fox killing Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg continue to attract attention. Additionally, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear appear to also remain under consideration and since little about this election is normal, maybe everyone’s wrong and someone, even a non-politician, someone like Mark Cuban, could be in the pack. As to those still wanting Harris to choose a Republican, that remains highly unlikely because all of the energized voters lining up to support her would probably be more than a bit upset if she chose an anti-abortion running mate so give it up already.  Not that I haven’t been wrong in the past.  Given Trump’s increasingly unpopular choice, Harris’ team would be wise to dig deep, scrutinizing everything about everyone under consideration before making a final decision because women,  🐱s and 🐶s matter. Though a number of prominent politicians from across the aisle still haven’t issued Harris endorsements, Georgia’s former Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan, a Republican who had previously endorsed President Biden has endorsed Harris.  Additionally, Andrew Yang who most recently had aligned himself with the centrist Forward Party and who had expressed concerns about Biden’s reelection, has endorsed Harris saying that Trump “doesn’t have the character to serve.” Sadly, prominent Texas Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee passed away last week.  Both President Biden and VP Harris will be heading to Houston this week to pay their respects. In other people news, President Biden has nominated former Florida Congresswoman/Senate candidate Val Demmings to serve on the US Postal Service board.  Assuming Demmings’ nomination makes it through the Senate confirmation process and that Biden’s other nominee is also confirmed, Trump appointee Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s days will finally be numbered.   

Fog:  With all the focus on Gaza, it’s important not to ignore that Hezbollah, another Iranian surrogate, has been regularly bombing and disrupting life in Northern Israel.  Over the weekend one of Hezbollah’s rockets struck a soccer field in Majdal Shams, a Druze village in the Golan Heights, killing 12 Arab children, and wounding 44 others. An incredibly sad tragedy that will further feed regional hostilities, likely Iran’s intent.  Turning to South America, though opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez may have won this weekend’s disputed presidential election, Venezuela’s election authorities have declared current president, socialist Nicolas Maduro the winner.  In a really ironic post on X, Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee, an outspoken Trumpist, who still questions the outcome of the 2020 US election, expressed outrage at Maduro’s manipulation of the election results. Senator Lee is right; Maduro’s actions are autocratic and anti-democratic but maybe not so much when Trump tried to do the same?     

#BringThemAllHomeNow

 
Thanks for Everything Julie Newmar ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️

Cat Women:  Kamala Harris is still on a roll, or as one of Trump’s pollsters put it, she’s in her “honeymoon” period.  To that end, at five this morning, the Harris campaign released a video of Barack and Michele Obama’s much anticipated endorsement of her presidential run. Additionally, following in the footsteps of Sunday’s Black women for Kamala zoom call, a number of other groups have held similar virtual rallies/fundraisers.  Last night’s record setting zoom, organized by gun control activist Shannon Watts, included 136,000 white women, and raised in excess of $2 million.  Not a bad take for a “bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made,” the words that Republican VP candidate JD Vance used to describe women like Kamala Harris during a now 2021 infamous interview with Tucker Carlson.  Not satisfied with only insulting childless women and Swifties, Vance also name checked Pete Buttigieg who unbeknownst to him was in the midst of his adoption journey at the time of the Carlson interview, not that Vance or his followers are okay with nuclear families headed by people like Pete and his husband Chastain. Vance believes that all women should be in “traditional” marriages and have lots of children.  Despite his wife’s impressive legal career, his preference would be for women to be stay at home mothers whether they can afford to or not. He’s also on record suggesting that large families be awarded extra votes, controlled of course by the fathers, so that they can wrest political control away from all those miserable cat women and their LBGTQ friends. Vance who is heard on another video calling for pregnant women to be barred from crossing state lines to obtain abortions also wrote the forward to a forthcoming book by the head of Project 2025, the authoritarian, crypto fascist endorsed rightwing plan that is thought to be the blueprint for Trump’s next administration something that Trump keeps trying to disavow.  Trump is likely having buyer’s remorse about appointing Vance as his running mate, not because he disagrees with his views or doesn’t want to eliminate the “deep state,” the Department of Education and the EPA and take over full control of the courts and Justice Department, but because of all the attention those views are receiving right now.  Given the unprecedented nature of this election, he might actually act on that remorse because if Democrats can replace Biden why can’t he replace Vance?  Yesterday while repeating her view that old politicians should take mental acuity tests, Nikki Haley reupped her Trump endorsement.  Maybe she and a number of others, including even RFK Jr, are hanging by their phones?

What Me Worry?  Last night Trump whose rally speeches repeatedly include riffs on sharks, batteries, windmills, and Hannibal Lecter, as well as a new line claiming that Kamala Harris endorses post birth abortions, hates all Jews (news to her husband) and wants to ban cows and hamburgers, issued a statement saying that given the “chaos surrounding Mr. Biden and the Democrats” and their “nominee” who even Obama is skeptical of, it would be “inappropriate to schedule things” like a debate with Harris at this time “because Democrats very well could change their minds.”  His way of saying hell no, I am not going to debate that articulate Black cat women who keeps calling me a predator and a criminal.  Trump has also had it with Christopher Wray, the FBI director who he appointed after he fired former Director James Comey who in an earlier episode of the Trump chronicles paved the way to Trump’s 2016 victory.  His current beef with Wray has to do with his ear. On Wednesday while testifying before the House Committee looking into the assassination attempt,  Wray had the audacity to suggest that Trump’s ear injury may have been caused by flying shattered glass rather than a bullet. While having any projectile whiz by your head is very bad, bragging about surviving a bullet is so much more macho than living through a glass shard attack and Trump’s a macho, macho man.    

Fog: Following his speech to a joint session of Congress, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met separately with President Biden and VP Harris. After her meeting with Bibi, Harris spoke to the eagerly waiting press. Her remarks got full on Rorschach Test treatment. Depending on who was listening, she either fully endorsed Biden’s Israel policy or, because she showed empathy for the suffering of the Gazans, is ready to dump Israel.  In other words, she’s a politically shrewd politician who chose her words carefully because her first priority right now is winning in November and her hope is that Biden’s team will achieve that much desired ceasefire and return of hostages before the Middle East becomes her problem, assuming it becomes her problem rather than Trump’s. And remember when Elon Musk said that he would be contributing $45 million per month to a PAC to help fund Trump’s campaign, apparently that was just another Rorschach Test that everyone failed because now he says that he didn’t really say he was throwing all that money at Trump. To be clear,  Musk is still all in on Trump, he’s just not feeling as generous, maybe something to do with Tesla’s earnings’ dive or maybe he’s just trolling.   

#BringThemAllHomeNow

      

Prosecutor v Persecutor ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️

Democrats in Array:  Democrats are no longer in disarray.  With President Biden, who will be speaking tonight about his decision, no longer running, without chaos but with lots of enthusiasm they have lined up behind Vice President Kamala Harris.  Although a few holdouts remain, including Michigan’s Rashida Tlaib who rarely throws her support to anything not related to Palestinians, and a very small group of vulnerable red district or state Democrats such as Alaska’s Mary Peltola, Washington’s Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, Maine’s Jared Golden who is generally an outlier, and embattled Montana Senator Jon Tester, almost all Democratic House and Senate members have endorsed her or at the very least said that they will support her run.  Harris also has more than enough delegate votes to become the official nominee. Despite preferences by some donors and pundits for a more robust selection process, perhaps a series of debates or even a primary of some sort, the reality is that given campaign finance laws that made it difficult for Biden’s campaign funds to go to anyone else, Biden’s late withdrawal, his endorsement, and the tight calendar a “process” was never in the cards. As to the calendar squeeze, the Democratic convention is late this cycle because of the Olympics and because Republicans got the earlier calendar slot. To ensure that their presidential and VP candidates are on the ballot everywhere, including in states with early ballot deadlines and uncooperative Republican election officials, Democrats had already decided to hold a virtual delegate roll call to appoint and qualify Biden and Harris.  Now that roll call, scheduled to take place in early August,  will be used to appoint Harris and her VP pick which also explains why Harris needs to vet and select her running mate well before the convention.  That vetting process is underway now, being undertaken by Eric Holder, former President Obama’s Attorney General.

But Her Laugh: The good news is that Kamala Harris’ candidacy is generating a huge amount of enthusiasm.  Endorsements and cash are rolling in, with the first day haul from small donors now estimated at $100 million. Even George Clooney is back on board and those big donor cash infusions that he helped hold up they are expected to be incoming shortly. The concern, and it’s a big one, is whether all the enthusiasm will translate into votes, especially in the critical swing states. For what it’s worth, the first post Biden poll completed by Reuters/Ipsos shows Harris slightly ahead of Trump in a two-person race and even more ahead when RFK Jr is added to the mix.  That’s an improvement over where Biden stood but it’s a national poll and what matters are the swing state polls.  It’s also worth noting that Trump did not get a post-convention/post assassination attempt bump even in the polls that paired him against Biden.  Though it’s likely that Harris will pull in more of the young voters who wanted little to do with either of the two old guys and that she has energized the Black and maybe even the Hispanic communities, she may not hold on to the all the older white voters who made up Biden’s coalition and those voters are key in the whiter swing states.  The bottom line is that while enthusiasm is great it’s way too early to tell if she’ll rack up more votes than Biden.  That said, judging by her appearance at what is now her campaign headquarters in Delaware as well as her speech at her first official campaign stop in Wisconsin, Kamala has upped her game significantly since 2020. Naturally, that’s freaking Republicans who have already started attacking her and they’re not even bothering to dog whistle, they’re going full on racist and sexist, calling her a DEI candidate, attacking her for being childless, and suggesting that she slept her way to the top. That last one is both particularly disgusting and ironic given that her opponent is an overgrown nepo baby who’s been married three times, engaged in multiple “affairs” while his current wife was home with their newborn son, and that his current wife, as opposed to Kamala’s husband Doug Emhoff, appears to only show up when contractually obligated to do so. 

Memes and Fog:  When her daughters complained about their troubles, Kamala’s mother would say “I don’t know what’s wrong with you young people. You think you just fell out of a coconut tree.”  That explains the current fascination with coconut themed drinks. You may also have heard Kamala referred to as Brat. That comes from British pop singer Charli xcx who tweeted “kamala IS brat” right after she received Biden’s endorsement. I am too old to know for certain, but I think that means Kamala is effortlessly super cool.  And the lime green thing is from Charli’s Brat album cover.  Whatever.   Bibi Netanyahu is in Washington today where he’ll be speaking in front of Congress.  It’s going to be very, very messy, possibly even violent in DC today and not all Democrats will be in attendance.  Republicans are making hay out of that as well as the fact that Kamala won’t be there, she’ll be at a previously scheduled event in Indiana and is scheduled to meet with Bibi later in the week.  But JD Vance won’t be there either because he is also on the road.  As to JD Vance who’s all in on Diet Mountain Dew which is apparently the drink of his people whoever those people are, if you think that’s racist according to JD that’s on you, reports are that Trump is having second thoughts about picking him as his running mate because Vance is falling flat on the road where his speaking style is somewhere between boring and pathetic. Is there a Mountain Dew meme yet? Maybe Mike Pence, the guy Trump tried to hang, is still available?  Shifting back to Israel and Gaza, the thorn in the Democrat’s side, per the NY Times, though Kamala has expressed more sympathy for the Gazans than Biden there’s no reason to think that her policies with regard to Israel are much different than Biden’s though, in addition to painting her as an extreme socialist left winger, Republicans also want everyone to believe that she’s wears a Kaffiyeh under her suit. 

And:  Convicted New Jersey Senator Bob Menedez has notified Senate Leader Chuck Schumer that he will be leaving the Senate on August 20 right after his last paycheck clears.  New Jersey’s Democratic Governor Murphy is expected to appoint an as yet unnamed Democrat to temporarily fill Menendez’s seat until next January.  That person will not be Murphy’s wife who at one time sought the seat nor will it be Representative Andy Kim, the Democrat who is running to replace Menendez. Secret Service head Kimberly Cheatle is no longer the head of the Secret Service.  While Trump survived the attempt on his life and ear, she did not in part because both Democrats and Republicans found her performance at this week’s Congressional hearings to be rather dismal but mostly because the Secret Service appears to have messed up bigly.  Last night Lawrence O’Donnell listed all of the times presidents have been shot at, it’s a fairly long list that in addition to JFK’s assassination, includes two attempts in 17 days on Gerald Ford and the shooting of Ronald Reagan.  It took much longer for the heads in charge at the times of those attacks to be fired but things happen faster these days, so Cheatle is out.  Good luck to the next guy, running the Secret Service is not easy particularly given the proliferation of guns.  

#BringThemAllHomeNow      

 
Kamala Harris ?! ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️

Polls and Money:  As my Spectrum app was the first of many to alert me, President Biden announced yesterday afternoon that he is no longer running for reelection. He made that decision after a Saturday night meeting with two of his aides who showed him their latest set of truly dreadful polls.  Not only was he behind Trump nationwide and in the key swing states but the polls revealed that he was dragging down House and Senate candidates and might even lose in one or more reliably blue states like Virginia.  Then there’s the money, with big money donors closing their wallets and some really big ones announcing huge contributions to Trump, the funding advantage that Democrats had enjoyed earlier in the year had fizzled.  Biden, who still wanted to stay in the race, finally couldn’t ignore the writing on the wall and made the decision to step away, throwing his support to Vice President Kamala Harris. Despite calls from the Republican echo chamber, including Speaker Mike Johnson and NY’s increasingly despicable Elise Stefanik, who insist that if he’s too “feeble” to run he shouldn’t stay in office, Biden’s not stepping down he’s just not running for reelection. After all, since the Supreme Court said president’s are almost always immune from prosecution, he’s got lots to do before departing. Though VP Harris isn’t the official candidate yet, absent another earthquake, meteor, or whatever else is waiting in the wings, she will be.  She’s already been endorsed by Bill and Hillary Clinton, 10 Governors, 32 Senators, 153 House members, including South Carolina’s Jim Clyburn, the king maker who anointed Joe Biden in 2020, and the Congressional Black and Asian caucuses. Though former President Obama,  Democratic leaders Hakeem Jeffries, Chuck Schumer and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi haven’t endorsed Kamala yet, they’re expected to do so once the formal process, whatever that turns out to be, plays itself out.  Significantly, California Congressman/Senate candidate Adam Schiff, a Pelosi surrogate, has endorsed Kamala and he wouldn’t have done that without a Nancy nod. Yesterday, all of the state Democratic party chairs endorsed Kamala and the Democratic delegates from Tennessee, Florida, New Hampshire, Louisiana, South Carolina, and North Carolina announced they were committing to her with many more states expected to follow shortly.  Because the Democratic convention is late this cycle, Democrats had already been planning to hold their delegate vote virtually to ensure qualification for their ticket on all state ballots, so it’s likely that Harris will be voted in before the physical convention’s August 19 start date.  On the financial front, because Kamala’s name was on the Biden ticket, most, if not all of the money that the Biden campaign has raised to date flows to Kamala.  In addition, yesterday a number of PACs indicated that they’re redirecting their funds to her campaign, with more expected to follow. Small donors hit ActBlue yesterday, contributing close to $60 million to the Kamala campaign yesterday. No word yet from George Clooney.

The Alta Kocker Brigade:  Naturally, 76-year-old West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin who left the Democratic Party to become an Independent earlier this year, is now attempting to throw a wrench into the process. He’s considering reregistering as a Democrat to challenge Kamala’s anointment.  Worth noting, Manchin isn’t running for reelection to the Senate because he can’t win in his home state. Marianne Williamson, 72, is another one who wants a “process.”  She’s now running again and insists that she can win.  Spoiler alert, she can’t.  Not to be outdone, RFK Jr, 70,  another one who dropped his Democratic affiliation insists that the Democrats should hold an “open process.”  He added that it’s now a two-man race, emphasis on man, between him and Trump. That may have been the brain worm, age unknown, speaking, we’ll never know for sure. Trump weighed in too, taking some time out from one of his soliloquys about sharks and his newest bestie Hannibal Lecter, the fictitious cannibal who he apparently thinks is real, to slam Biden once again.  Apparently having called for Biden to pull from the race, Trump, at 78 now the glitchy old man in the race, is upset that Biden has stepped down and is demanding a refund for the money he has already spent campaigning against him.  Trump is also calling for the planned September presidential debate to be reassigned from ABC to Fox and has accused Biden of faking his current case of COVID.  Trump’s medical accusation is particularly adorable given that the medical report that he had released about his ear injury was from Texas Congressman Ronny Jackson, the former White House doctor who is no longer a rear admiral because of his bad behavior and is also no longer licensed to practice medicine.

Running Partner:  With Kamala the likely Democratic candidate, the question now turns to her running partner. The top of the list candidates are North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, and Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear.  Other possibilities being bandied about are Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer, California’s Gavin Newsom, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and Illinois Governor Pritzker.  Notably Cooper, Shapiro, and Kelly all quickly endorsed Kamala yesterday. Given that electing a woman president has proven to be a stretch in this country, it’s highly unlikely that a two women ticket would work so Whitmer is probably out.  It’s also not clear that the country is ready for a mensch or at least a Jewish one yet either so that could knock both Shapiro and Pritzker off the list. And despite his obvious capabilities Buttigieg probably isn’t on that list either because gay bashing is still a thing.  Newsom is likely off the list too because Kamala is from California and Democrats can’t afford to put California’s huge number of delegates at risk.  That leaves Cooper, Beshear, and Kelly, assuming that giving up an Arizona Senate seat is okay, as the likely picks. 

Fog: Somehow, despite his conviction and a lot of pressure to resign Bob Menendez is still the Senator from New Jersey.  The hostages are still hostages, including WSJ journalist Evan Gershkovich who was found “guilty” of bogus espionage charges and has been sentenced to 16 years in a Russian prison. That prison sentence is horrendous but since real hostage negotiations with Russia often don’t bear fruit until after sentencing takes place maybe, just maybe there’s a glimmer of hope there.  Or not. Israel has retaliated against Yemen for the Houthis drone attack on Tel Aviv, because of course, and Bibi Netanyahu is visiting the US, presumably still meeting with Biden who may or may not still be shedding COVID virus.   

#BringThemAllHomeNow

 

Crunch Time  ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️

Outage and Outage:  If you are traveling today, check in with your airline before going to the airport. Major airlines have grounded all their planes because of a worldwide Microsoft cloud service outage.  Health systems and some banks and brokerage firms are affected as well so don’t have a coronary when you check your balances and see that they’ve been temporarily zeroed out because there will be no place to go for anywhere near the level of emergency care that Trump got for his injured ear last weekend.  Still donning a mini sanitary pad on that ear, not that any of his cult members would question him if he moved it to the other ear, Trump delivered his convention speech last night and despite its somewhat muted tone it was littered with the usual outrage.  He droned on for ninety minutes.  He milked the ear and his “heroic” survival for all its worth, starting off subdued, before launching into his usual lie ridden claims and insults.  He once again called Nancy Pelosi crazy, bemoaned the state of the country, trashed migrants and failed to stick to the “unite” the country scrip which shouldn’t surprise anyone because he is who he is and anyone who thinks otherwise has eaten too much of his Jello.

The Clock is Ticking:  Beating the twice impeached, multiply indicted adjudicated sex offender Trump in November should be possible but right now seems like a stretch because of the concerns about President Biden’s age and capability.  At this point it almost doesn’t matter if those concerns are valid, what matters is that the Democratic party is having a very public battle with an increasing number of prominent party members calling for him to bow out.  California Congressman/Senate candidate Adam Schiff has joined the chorus of Democrats calling publicly for Joe to step aside. Schiff matters because he is close to Nancy Pelosi and though she’s no longer the titular leader of House Democrats, she continues to call the shots behind the scenes and reportedly Senate leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority leader Hakeem Jeffries share her view. Their inside polls indicate that Biden is behind Trump and is dragging down a number of pivotal House and Senate races which also explains why Montana’s Senator Jon Tester who is facing a tough reelection fight in his home state joined the “Joe step aside” chorus last night.  It’s not just them, a number of high dollar donors are also holding back their contributions and with Trump’s donor base growing that’s a huge problem. The pundits report that Biden who is in COVID isolation in Delaware is seriously considering withdrawing though their reports may be based on their preferences so its hard to tell what’s really happening.  In any case, Biden needs to do something soon because time is running out.  There are many questions about what changing horses at this point in the election cycle will entail including, who will replace Biden;  will that person get the support of Biden loyalists including influential Black voters, especially high turnout Black women;  how does the “replacement” process even work; and, most importantly can a replacement, probably but not definitely VP Kamala Harris together with an unnamed VP partner rally Democrats to show up and vote in November?  It’s jumping the gun to predict a ticket, but one possible VP name floating on social media is Arizona Senator/Astronaut Mark Kelly because as a few have noted he really is an American hero, and Democrats need a hero right now. Thoughts?

Fog:  A tall building in Tel Aviv was struck by a drone overnight. Iran’s Houthi rebel surrogates have taken credit for the attack. Though it appears that only one person was killed, the drone did considerable damage and the fact that it made it all the way to Tel Aviv is, to put it mildly, not a good thing and is likely to further fuel an already out of control retaliatory cycle.  Adidas has gone ahead and shot themselves in one of their sneakered feet, not with a bullet or drone but with a tone-deaf advertising campaign.  The company that spent years overlooking Kanye West’s anti-Semitism because his Yeezy sneakers were profitable was, at least until yesterday, promoting a retro 1972 Olympic sneaker first launched during the infamous Munich Olympics where eleven Israeli athletes were abducted from the Olympic village and then killed by Palestinians terrorists.  And because celebrating the Munich Olympics on the anniversary of that horrifying massacre isn’t bad enough, their featured model is Bela Hadid, whose vocal support for Palestinian causes has been tainted by lots of anti-Israel rhetoric and whose father is known for his anti-Semitic rants and homophobic attacks of Congressman Richie Torres for his support for Israel.  Adidas says they are “rethinking” the campaign.  Rethinking seems an odd word to use since it doesn’t appear that they gave it any thought in the first place, either that or Adidas’ marketing people are woefully ignorant or all in on celebrating their Nazi roots. 

#BringThemAllHomeNow