NATIONAL DONATE A BOOK DAY UPDATES
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-After Iran’s drone attack on Israel was largely repelled thanks to Israel’s Iron Dome (as well as help from American and British forces over Jordan), the world holds its breath to see whether Benjamin Netanyahu will order a retaliatory strike. Initial statements from Israel’s military indicated there would be one – but several reports claim President Biden called Netanyahu to “take the win” after Iran’s attack, which itself was retaliation for an attack by Israel in Syria that they claim killed seven military leaders. Thus far, there has been no further action by either country, and much time and tension will be spent watching whether there will be or not.
-The actions again proved, however, that the former American political adage of “politics ends at the water’s edge” is not true when Ex-President Trump (R-apist) LXXXVIII has brought out the GOP/MAGA authoritarian/evangelical/anti-intellectual side. Before a campaign appearance in PA that will be discussed in this update, Trump blarted that “THIS WOULD NEVER HAVE HAPPENED!” if he were President, of course ignorting that “this” – an Irani drone attack directed to Israel – did happen during his Presidency, in 2019. Other MAGAt leaders, including Speaker-for-now Mike Johnson (Jay-EE-zuz!, LA), Marjorie Taylor Greene (Z-Q-R, GA), Ronny Jackson (dRugsandBOOZE, TX) and Senators Marco Rubio (WateR, FL) and Rick Scott (SkeletoR, FL) all called Biden weak for not encouraging Netanyahu to wage all-out war against Iran with the U.S. bombing alongside – all of which would be both horrific to the world and only benefit their idol, Vladimir Putin, in his effort to get Trump re-installed in 2025.
-Which will make this week’s Congressional calendar rather interesting. Non-MAGAt Republicans are now joining Democrats in demanding the still-suspended-on-Trump’s-orders Israel funding bill be brought to the floor this week, along with the still-suspended-on-Trump’s-and-Putin’s-orders Ukraine aid bill (SLAVA UKRAINI!). Whether or not it will remains to be seen. One option is to break the two bills apart (recall in the Fall they were wedded together as a way to drag the time line, which was successful on that score), another (according to Trump, at least what can be clearly discerned from his slurring public pronouncements) would be to make Ukraine aid “loans” that could be “repaid,” a third is to continue to watch all of this unfold amid Johnson’s razor-edge one-vote majority teetering in the balance …
-… and also because, according to the announced Congressional legislative calendar for next week and appearances on right-wing/MAGA media, the MAGAts have a very, very packed agenda. Their primary focus this week, in fact, will be on a series of bills designed to … protect your appliances from scourges including wokeness and solar power.
-Think I’m kidding?
-A block of six – SIX – bills are on the docket for floor votes in the House, among them the Liberty in Laundry Act (HR 7645), the Refrigerator Freedom Act (HR 7637), the Stop Unaffordable Dishwasher Standards Act (HR 7700) and the king of them all, the Hands Off Our Home Appliances Act (HR 6192). All of these address one of Trump’s most persistently bizarre lines in his stump speeches: the lack of water pressure for everything from appliances to showers – things he rarely uses. Whether that ambitious agenda will be worked on amid those annoying Middle Eastern provocations that historically have had the fear of escalating into World War III remains to be seen – but if the war started, at least our underwear would be soft!
-For that we would have to say … Thanks, MAGAts?
-As events in the Middle East were playing out yesterday, Trump made an increasingly-rare public appearance in the swing state of PA, where recent polling (if it is to be believed) show the state is falling away from him significantly. It was up to the former President to work his old magic on the crowd to get them ready and roaring to stick it to everyone who hates them, and Trump … then talked. Or at least tried to.
-Amid promises to pick and choose what parts of the Constitution he will obey, continuing to vilify immigrants as having no worth in America (awaiting comment from Melania), bragging he won “every single primary” (he lost two and continues to significantly underperform in results) and insisting that “I’m really popular! I’m a popular guy!” (Trump is the only President in polling history to have never once had a 50% or more positive poll from his first primary to this moment), the glitching and slurring that has become commonplace returned in force.
-At yesterday’s speech, he began by referring to the Iran drone strikes happening because “we (the US, presumably) show great weak nicks,” then tried to refer to an article that apparently was published in Rolling Stone “magastine,” again stumbled on the phrase “illegal alien” (“Just last week it was reported that an illegal alinthin – and you look at thissss, what’s happening”), said that “United States Seal Corporation” might be sold to Japan (that story is true – broken watch and all that) and ended by lauding the Battle of Gettysburg (apparently close to where he spoke) as “an unbelievable – I mean, it was so much, and so interesting, and so vicious and horrible and so beautiful in so many different ways.”
-Polling continues to inch more positively towards Biden, and that can only mean one thing: the New York Times ready to do their part to dump on that momentum to keep the election close. With their poll showing a one-point ‘lead’ for Trump, the Times then ran a story on the continued strength in the economy … and warned that the economy may be so strong it will in the end be bad for Biden and his election. And as the leading candidates are set, the Times apparently still cannot let go of BOTHSIDERdom by running a story asking ten candidates if they are satisfied with the two major choices at hand – never mind that it does not matter anymore because, well, the choices have been made and, barring (admittedly always possible) medical/physical developments, the question is literally rather moot.
-Also, the major media outlets have asked both major candidates to commit to debates later this year, and while Trump has been boasting that he wants to do so, expect his campaign to not let him anywhere near a debate stage – between the continued verbal issues that only increase at every campaign appearance that is either not a friendly call-in or edited heavily by his campaign and all those legal matters, the danger of letting Trump say something incriminating and/or catastrophic to independents is likely too great. (At least in this random Substacker’s opinion.)
-I know there is something we have not yet mentioned in this update – and we’ll likely dedicate tomorrow’s update to what is, in all honesty, American history being made in a New York City courtroom: the first-ever criminal trial of a former President. For now, let’s cross our fingers that Israel and Iran are done for the moment, get outside (it will be a lovely afternoon here in Chicago), and be ready for the Stormy Daniels trial starting this week!
-BUT BEFORE THAT …
-On this date in 1865, John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln as Lincoln watched a play at the Ford Theatre in Washington, DC. On this date in 1965, the 173rd Airborne Brigade was ordered to deploy to South Vietnam. On this date in 1986, American air strikes in Libya, killing young children of Muammar Qaddafi but not Qaddafi himself. On this date in 2000, Metallica filed a lawsuit against the computer file sharing company Napster. On this date in 2003, the Human Genome Project ended its work of sequencing 99.99% of the human genome. And on this date in 2014, 276 girls in a boarding school in Nigeria were kidnapped by the Boko Haram terrorist group, triggering worldwide outrage (over 100 remain missing).
-Debuts on this date: AN AMERICAN DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE by Noah Webster (1828), Thomas Edison’s moving picture kinescope (1894), J.C. Penney’s (1902), aerial dogfighting (1918), THE GRAPES OF WRATH (1939), Ralph Ellison’s INVISIBLE MAN (1952), BYE BYE BIRDIE (1960), Motown Record Company (1960), the Academy Awards shown live worldwide (1969), LET’S DANCE (1983), IT TAKES A NATION OF MILLIONS TO HOLD US BACK (1988).
-Happy Birthday to Arnold J. Toynbee, John Gielgud, Marvin Miller, Rod Steiger, Bradford Dillman, Loretta Lynn, Frank Serpico, Kenneth Mars, Julie Christie, Ritchie Blackmore, Richard Jeni, Peter Capaldi, Brad Garrett, Robert Carlyle, David Justice, Greg Maddux, Anthony Michael Hall, Adrien Brody, Da Brat, Kyle Farnsworth, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Win Butler, Baker Mayfield, and Chase Young.
-Rest in Peace/Rest in Power to George Frideric Handel, Addie Joss, Cap Anson, Louis Sullivan, Rachel Carson, Fredric March, Pete Farndon, Simone de Beauvoir, Burl Ives, Anthony Newly, Bill Wendell, Ellen Corby, Don Ho, Jonathan Frid, Percy Sledge, Bibi Andersson, John MacLeod, and Mike Bossy.
-Feed the Worms: Notorious dictator Francois Duvalier entered Earth on this date. Mega-swindler Bernie Madoff bought it on this date.
-Baseball’s greatest hitter and inveterate gambler, Pete Rose, was born today. You decide if he gets a Happy Birthday or if he Feeds the Worms.
-The Number One Nonfiction Book In America on this date … in 2024, THE ANXIOUS GENERATION by Jonathan Haidt … in 2014, THRIVE by Arianna Huffington … in 2004, AGAINST ALL ENEMIES by Richard Clarke … in 1994, EMBRACED BY THE LIGHT by Betty J. Eadie with Curtis Taylor … in 1984, MAYOR by Edward I. Koch with William Rauch … and in 1974, PLAIN SPEAKING by Merle Miller.