NATIONAL BOURBON DAY UPDATES
If Anyone Wanted To Tip Me With a Maker's Mark Ambassadorship, I Would Not Turn It Down ...
-You may have heard that Convicted Felon Ex-President Trump (R-apist) decided to visit Washington for the first time since he attempted to overturn the results of the 2020 election he lost to Joe Biden via a violent insurrection yesterday - or, as Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) put it, "Bring Your Felon To Work Day" - and it was actually even MORE insane than you could possibly it would imagine that did not involve more window-smashing. How insane? Let us count the ways ...
-First, Trump reportedly called the meeting to collect the MAGAGOP Congresspeople in order to make sure they pledged their fealty, bending knees and hips and anything towards him. And aside from a small handful of Republicans (most notably Lisa Murkowski (AK)), they did - most notably outgoing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (TuRtle, KY), who met Trump for the first time since the insurrection as a symbol that Mitch is owned by Trump as Mitch ends his historically-important-for-all-the-wrong-reasons career.
-While behind closed doors, Trump reportedly read them a bit of a riot act about what he saw as their lack of constant praise and embrace of Trump - as if the dictum from the Trump-led Republican National Committee to donate a percentage of any donation to a GOP candidate be tithed to Trump wasn't enough - but that wasn't all he apparently talked about ...
-Trump also went off on a bizarre-even-for-him riff attacking a daughter of Speaker Emeritus Nancy Pelosi, but in doing so claimed that Christine Pelosi said that Trump should actually DATE Pelosi, with Trump reportedly demurring over "age" (because Pelosi is about 70 years older than his type) (and yes, Christine slapped back to point out that the claim was complete and utter Depends-filler).
-But if Trump couldn't have Pelosi (glurp), there was another woman he spent obsessing about with the MAGA GOP - Taylor Swift. From gushing over how "beautiful" Trump reportedly thinks Swift is (glorp) to musing sadly that Swift is "probably" a Democrat (she did endorse Biden in 2020 and has gotten tens of thousands of Swifties to register to vote to protect women's rights, which would decidedly make her Not a Trumper), Trump apparently went on as long as he did about batteries and sharks in Nevada last weekend.
-Reportedly chastised enough, the MAGA horde went out to a microphone to bring Trump out with ... a standing ovation, which Trump received with a hideous cocked-head-to-one-side smile that may remind some of a little girl getting imaginary applause from her stuffed animals at a play-tea party.
-And Trump took the time to remind his minions that he will need their help as the 2024 campaign pivots to the MAGAGOP Convention in Milwaukee. From there, Trump showed the charm and warmth he always does by calling Charm City "a HORRIBLE city" (which, of course, has been seized by the city and Democrats and anyone with a brain - because Milwaukee is a cool city with an amazing art museum (the building itself is a work of art!), several breweries (natch!), a lovely view of Lake Michigan, and cheese curds for the love of God.
-Just to put one more dollop of rancid on this scene, Trump followed up this mess with an interview with the newsletter Semafor in which he confident-for-him explained that, as part of what he is sure will be significant black votes for him, that there is absolutely no WAY he could EVER be accused of being racist because ... get ready ... of all the black friends he has (naming Darryl Strawberry, Lawrence Taylor and Mike Tyson as three), claiming they would NEVER be friends with Trump if Trump were actually racist! This comes after Trump insisting that his 34 felony convictions and mug shot make him more relatable to the black community.
-With all of this happening, the New York Times assessed all the Trump news and responded with ... a new editorial asking that Biden step aside and not run for President because, and this is something you may not have heard, BIDEN B OLD!!
-Sigh …
-THIS JUST IN: By a 6-3 margin, the Supreme Court embraced more mass killings in the United States by ruling that a ban on bump stocks - the device used to help a mass shooter kill 57 people in Las Vegas - impinges on the rights of gun and bullet manufacturers to make more profits on the bodies of victims. They continue to put off the decision on Trump's claim of Ultimate and Total Immunity to Do Anything He Wants in their attempt to delay the trial long enough for him to regain power in some way and pardon himself.
-Biden may be old, but right now he is in Italy for the G7 Economic Summit where he successfully brokered another $50 billion in military aid to Ukraine from most of the participating countries, leveraging the aid by taking loans out on now-frozen Russian oligarch assets. That aid, on top of the $60 billion finally passed by the U.S. to overcome interference from Putin allies in the MAGA GOP, has already resulted in a slowing, if not stopping, of a Russian attempt to regain territory it had lost after its initial invasion in 2022, with one report of an area near Kherson that NATO sources claimed resulted in Russia losing 1,000 troops a day over at least a two-week period, bringing total Russian casualties suffered to over 500,000.
-In response, Vladimir Putin appeared in public and asked that "peace talks" begin in which Ukraine allow Russia to occupy the territories it attempted and failed to hold since 2022 in apparent exchange for Putin allowing troops to remain in Ukraine as they wished. (A fair exchange in his eyes.) Putin also sent a nuclear submarine to Cuba, newsworthy only insofar as the ship apparently made it without leaking or rusting unlike most of the materiel in the rest of his armed forces, which Ukraine has exposed in the conflict. Putin is also reportedly heading to North Korea to get more fine war technology from Kim Jong-Un.
-SLAVA UKRAINI!
-While we're in Europe, the snap election in France is beginning to take shape - one in which incumbent President Emmanuel Macron is looking to stop a very strong showing from the far-right National Front. For about a day it appeared Marine LePen's party had gotten what could have been a stunning alliance with a traditional conservative party, also called Republicans. The problem was that the rest of the French Republican Party heard about it and, within a day, ousted its leader and refused to help LePen and Jordan Bardella. The first round of elections will be on June 30 with the runoffs a week later.
-Also while we're in Europe, let's catch up with the aforementioned Swift, taking the continent by storm with The Eras Tour, which not only sells out everywhere but, at a concert in Scotland, unleashed a cheer so loud it triggered seismic activity around Edinburgh. Swift did announce in today's show in Liverpool that The Eras Tour will end in December in Vancouver after one final swing through the United States, with multi-date shows set up for Toronto and Indianapolis, among others. Get your tickets NOW!
-In other music news, an impromptu reunion took place last night at the Songwriters Hall of Fame ceremony in New York. There, Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, and Michael Stipe - REM, of course - hopped on stage after receiving their awards and jumped into a version of "Losing My Religion," making it the first time since 2009 they performed together. The performance was all the more surprising because earlier in the day, the band agreed in an interview with CBS that they would never perform or tour together, because as Berry put it, "It just wouldn't be as good." Audience videos of the performance are out on the Interwebs as you see them in the corner and in the spotlight ...
-Still time to get that Father's Day gift - and remember, make sure Dad has the BIG piece of chicken!
-On this date in 1877, the first graduates from West Point matriculated. On this date in 1965, "Yesterday" was recorded. On this date in 1982, Argentina surrendered garrisons it held at the Falkland Islands to Great Britain, giving Margaret Thatcher one of the cheapest military wins in British history. And on this date in 1998, Michael Jordan won his sixth and last NBA Championship with an iconic jump shot against the Utah Jazz.
-Debuts on this date: The U.S. Army (1775), the Stars and Stripes American flag (1777), Flag Day (1917), the Auschwitz camp (1940), the UNIVAC Computer (1951), Derek and the Dominoes (1970), THE BOURNE IDENTITY (2002).
-Happy Birthday to Harriet Beecher Stowe, Robert LaFollette, Alois Alzheimer, Margaret Bourke-White, Burl Ives, Dorothy McGuire, Sam Wanamaker, Pierre Salinger, Don Newcombe, Cy Coleman, Junior Walker, Marla Gibbs, Jerzy Kosinski, Steny Hoyer, Tom Matte, Ben Davidson, Spooner Oldham, Rod Argent, Alan White, Eddie Mekka, Pat Summitt, Vince Evans, Eric Heiden, Boy George, Sam Perkins, Yasmine Bleeth, Steffi Graf, and Diablo Cody.
-Rest in Peace/Rest in Power to Alan Jay Lerner, Jorge Luis Borges, Marlin Perkins, Henry Mancini, Rory Gallagher, Richard Jaeckel, Kurt Waldheim, and Homer Jones.
-Feed the Worms: The cockwombling shitgibbon himself, Convicted Felon Ex-President Donald Trump (R-apist), entered Earth on this date. Racist "Judge" and Trump bud Joe Arpaio also entered Earth on this date. Benedict Arnold bought it on this date.
-Che Guevara was born on this date. You decide if he gets a Happy Birthday or if he Feeds the Worms.