BRING YOUR MANNERS TO WORK DAY UPDATES
YES - Even If You Work At Home!
-One of the issues when these updates shift from the morning to the afternoon is that occasionally one outrage rolls into a new outrage, making this update a bit easy if a bit difficult with time management. Such is the case today, and you know damn well who I am writing about, so let's get right to it ...
-Let's start with yesterday's jaw-dropper. While speaking as if he was a normal Presidential candidate before the Economic Club of New York, Republican Nominee Old Weird Convicted Felon Ex-President Trump (R-apist) was asked what he would do as President to confront the issue of child care and how Trump would make that more affordable. Trump began his response thusly - and this is a word-for-word transcription of his response ...
-TRUMP: “Well, I would do that, and we’re sitting down — you know, I was, somebody, we had Sen. Marco Rubio, and my daughter Ivanka was so impactful on that issue,” Trump’s 368-word answer began. “It’s a very important issue. But I think when you talk about the kind of numbers that I’m talking about, that - because, look, child care is child care. It’s, couldn’t, you know, there’s something, you have to have it - in this country, you have to have it. But when you talk about those numbers compared to the kind of numbers that I’m talking about, by taxing foreign nations at levels that they’re not used to - but they’ll get used to it very quickly - and it’s not gonna stop them from doing business with us. But they’ll have a very substantial tax when they send product into our country. Those numbers are so much bigger than any numbers that we’re talking about, including child care, that it’s going to take care. We’re gonna have - I look forward to having no deficits within a fairly short period of time, coupled with the reductions that I told you about on waste and fraud and all of the other things that are going on in our country, because I have to stay with child care."
-Trump droned on and on and ON after that for a total of two minutes, with people who witnessed it and non-traditional media demanding to not only know what the F*CK Trump was even trying to say, but again wondering how this among several dozen such appearances since he became the oldest Presidential candidate in history has not triggered the dozens of questions about age and cognition and sanity that appearances with 1/100th of the errors generated an entire industry of BIDEN B OLD stories. Not only are those stories not being generated after this appearance, but the ever-dependably-suckups at Politico characterized the "trade" talk in that sludge as being "the most pro-trade candidate in the race."
-For his part, Trump clearly had no problem with the response, as in an earlier appearance this week he sloughed off such bilge above as "The Weave" - a beyond-genius way with words where Trump bragged about his ability to weave and bob and "tie together" stories in a way that, at least according to Trump, "literature professors" he "knows" marvel at Trump's rhetorical, uh, skills.
-As if that outrage wasn't enough, there is a super-fresh one that popped up this morning with Trump in New York, this involving a hearing in which Trump was attempting to overturn the civil verdict made against him on behalf of E. Jean Carroll after a judge determined Carroll was raped and Trump was responsible to the tune of over $83 million. Trump attended this hearing, then after returning to Trump Tower proceeded to go off on Carroll and again denying Trump ever so much as touched her. As Trump ranted, he proceeded without provocation to talk about a second incident on an airline flight that certainly sounded like another sexual assault - particularly as he ended both the description of the airline attack and the Carroll assault by claiming neither woman was, in his words, a "chosen one" that he apparently would have been ... enthusiastic? ... about assaulting and/or raping.
-Ah, well, he did get one relatively good piece of news - THIS JUST IN: Judge Juan Merchan announced a delay in the sentencing of Trump for the scheme to catch and kill the release of his affair with Stormy Daniels in 2015. The sentencing, previously scheduled for September 18, will be moved until after the election on November 26 - a sign most observers believe may be that while the sentencing is not imminent, it is likely to involve prison time, and thus Merchan deciding an imprisoned Presidential candidate in the home stretch of a race is not something he wants to deal with.
-All of THAT came the day after the first hearing since the Supreme Court granted at least partial Trump-munity for his role in the January 6, 2021 insurrection, where at least Judge Tanya Chutkan will set a relatively quick time to review the revised indictments against Trump - at least until the all-but-certain appeal back to SCOTUS. The particular question of the new indictments will appear to be centered around the question of whether Trump's attempts to coerce then Vice President Mike Pence to delay the Electoral College vote count and replace Trump allies in states where Trump lost to Joe Biden constitute "official Presidential acts" (as Trump argues, naturally) or the actions of a Presidential candidate that would therefore fall outside of the Trump-munity granted by The Trump Six (as Special Prosecutor Jack Smith argues). The hearing featured several moments of self-references and even an implication of back-channel communications between Trump and "Justice" Clarence Thomas.
-A page and a half of legal wrangling and Trump cognitive breakdowns - and no word on the campaign of Kamala Harris, which continues to run strong ahead of the September 10 "debate" between her and Trump amid the official notice that her campaign raised a staggering $546 million in the month of August - approaching triple the $190M that Team Trump scrounged.
-In another development worth watching, the Department of Justice move to bounce 32 web sites off of the Internet because of suspected links to Russian election disinformation was not even the most controversial part of their actions. In addition to those sites, DoJ also charged two commentators with ties to the Russian-financed Russia Today with covertly funding at least four MAGA-affiliated right-wing YouTube podcasters (Benny Johnson, Tim Pool, Dave Rubin and Laruen Southern) with links to another right-wing network, Tenet Media. Those four hosts, among others, have been obnoxious about their support of Russia's invasion of Ukraine (SLAVA UKRAINI!), right-wing autocrats like Vladimir Putin and Viktor Orban, and their support of Donald Trump (including appearances on various shows by Trump and failsons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric "Eric" Trump).
-Hysterically, several of the podcasters named are claiming that they had "NO IDE-ER!" where the possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars they were receiving to discuss Putin talking points came from, that they were just kind of naive and dumb about the whole thing. It may be interesting to see if other such funders and media influencers may be named in the days and weeks to come, and if any of the publicly named influencers flip on others ...
-That was quite a burst of news, eh? Let's breathe and head to the weekend with a Sportsball story celebrating that most American of symbols of the fall, FOOTBALL! College ball and its byzantine reorganizations and looming 12-team playoff format launched last week, and last night the NFL began with a corker, as Kansas City launched its bid to be the first NFL team to three-peat since the Vince Lombardi-led Packers of the 1960s with a 27-20 win over the AFC Championship runners-up, the Baltimore Ratbirds.
-The game was further illustration of the main difference between the teams, as Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes adapted to two new receivers with two touchdown throws while Ratbird QB Lamar Jackson again proved to be a regular season only QB, running for over 100 yards but whiffing on two potential tying touchdown throws - one wildly wide of a completely wide-open receiver - before a third found a receiver's toe hitting the back of the end zone, negating a TD pass with the game ending. A good night was had by KC and, of course, Jason Kelce and Taylor Swift, who attended the game with Kelce's dad.
-If that's an indication, it's gonna be a good season!
-LETS! GO! BROWNS!!!!!
-On this date in 1901, Leon Czolgosz shot President William McKinley during the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, NY (McKinley died eight days later). On this date in 1975, Martina Navratilova asked for political asylum in the United States (she received it). And on this date in 1995, Cal Ripken, Jr. broke Lou Gehrig's record by playing in his 2,131st consecutive game - aa game marked by Joan Jett singing the National Anthem.
-Debuts on this date: first Cricket Test match (1880), the V-2 missile (1944), LA STRADA (1954), STRANGER THAN FICTION (1994).
-Happy Birthday to Marquis de Lafayette, Jane Addams, Max Schreck, Billy Rose, Vince DiMaggio, Robert M. Pirsig, Jo Anne Worley, David Allan Coe, Roger Waters, Swoosie Kurtz, Jane Curtin, Sylvester James Jr., Carly Fiorina, Buster Bloodvessel, Jeff Foxworthy, Michael Winslow, Elizabeth Vargas, Rosie Perez, Macy Gray, CeCe Peniston, DJ Spooky, Dolores O'Riordan, Eric Zeier, Idris Elba, Derrek Lee, Braun Stroman, and John Wall.
-Rest in Peace/Rest in Power to Gertrude Lawrence, Margaret Sanger, Christy Brown, Ernest Tubb, Tom Fogerty, Nicky Hopkins, Akira Kurosawa, Luciano Pavarotti, Madeline L'Engle, Martin Milner, Burt Reynolds, Kevin Dobson, Lou Brock, Adlai Stevenson III, and Jean-Paul Belmondo.
-Feed the Worms: Art Modell and Richard DeVos entered Hell on this date.
-Joseph P. Kennedy and Chris Christie were born on this date. You decide if they get Happy Birthdays or if they Feed the Worms.