FRESH SPINACH DAY UPDATES
Seems Healthier than National Corn Fritters Day - Which It Also Is!
-WELL, I picked quite a weekend to go off the grid to visit family, didn't I?! Now that I'm back, though, I need to pull my thoughts together about most of the political doings, so let me start from last Friday and work forward ...
-FRIDAY: The Democratic Party PHA-REEK!-OUT over President Biden's debate performance two weeks before - which, truth be told, had an element of emotional truth to it in that so many of us who have been fighting so hard against Convicted Felon Ex-President Trump (R-apist) for so long that a moment where we had to confront the terror that he might actually win would send everyone with a soul off the deep end, which it did - truly did seem to calm down, at long last.
-Recall on Friday that the number of Democratic House members that announced they wanted Biden to step down bumped up to 18 - but so did a story that a group of alleged Democratic donors were kicking donations to House members who did so. An analysis also revealed the bulk of Dem House members making such demands were more conservative and came from generally safe districts. Finally came a 'threat' from big-time Dem donors threatening to withhold $90M in donations unless Biden stepped aside, which sounds scary until you realize that to go through on the threat they would have to not donate to Democrats altogether and make the party weaker come November. In short, the threat was empty and the list of Dems making such a proclamation stopped.
-Biden himself also has, in an objective way, stepped up his game. The Thursday post-NATO press conference was generally well-received minus a few verbal missteps (swapping Trump's name with Kamala Harris once) and was followed by a barn-burner of a speech in Detroit featuring a big and enthusiastic crowd chanting "DON'T YOU QUIT!" and Biden reassuring them he wasn't. He then made a series of appearances over the weekend after the assassination attempt on Trump, doing so with dignity and grace, and ending last night with an interview in which he turned the tables on NBC's Lester Holt, challenging Holt's 4,647th question about Biden stepping down and asking why Holt and his media buddies question Trump and his cognitive skills and plans - and, y'know, policy questions.
-Polling has not shown the kind of "implosion" in Biden's numbers that have been feared or implied by reporters and whomever they speak to. In fact, Biden's numbers continue to inch forward, both nationally and in states like AZ, MI, NC and WI. While it has not led the media to continue asking the resignation question (CNN had such a story last night), it is increasingly clear that, at a minimum, there will not be an attempt to create a "blitz primary" to let Biden step down, and attacks on Biden by the news media (even my Trump-but-not-MAGA sister noted that "(reporters) have it in for Biden" are instead making Democrats come home with increased enthusiasm (the only numbers that are "imploding" are ratings for CNN and MSNBC (with the exception of Lawrence O'Donnell)), and last night Politico noted most Democrats now feel it is important for the party to unify given the new state of the political world.
-That new state of the political world, of course, was created Saturday evening when a 20-year-old Trump supporter with some reported incel roots (I will not repeat his name) went up a rooftop in Butler, PA with an AR-15 assault rifle and tried to kill Trump at the start of a rally for Trump. As we all know, the shot either grazed Trump's ear or shattered a TelePrompTer screen whose shards hit his ear - but the gunman did kill a 50-year-old fireman attending the rally with family and injured two others before snipers took him out.
-So much to sort out, beginning with how a gunman who was seen by several rallygoers with the gun and was confronted by a local policeman at the roof line who retreated when the gunman reportedly pointed his rifle at him was able to get such a clean shot so close to where the speech took place. Certainly, Secret Service has some responsibility and is getting much of the heat, but there is also much to question about the Trump advance teams who decided such a location was a good place for a former President to speak. Trump rallies occur at far-flung locations these days due to a combination of dwindling crowd sizes and the Trump reputation for not paying bills before or after to towns for them to supply, among other logistics, police protection, so ...
-Too much (IMHO) has also been made of Trump thrusting his wee tiny little fistie up in the air and yelling "FIGHT!" while Secret Service agents were trying to get him to duck his head so as not to make himself a target for a potential second shooter - and the photo that was taken at the moment, which (of course) was used by the RNC to fundraise hours after the incident. Adrenaline and shock can do many things, including reactions like we saw, but such moments do not conspiracies make real. It was Trump-ish to be sure, but let's not use that to "prove" there was a scheme created just so Trump could get that photo.
-Besides, bravado aside, while the now-in-session Republican National Convention has already gone overtime and over-the-top cringy to mythologize the incident (one breathless speaker compared Trump to BRAVEHEART's William Wallace, apparently either forgetting how that ended or showing he never saw the movie), that myth-making is undercut severely by the reality that the first thing discovered about the shooter was that he was a registered Republican.
-There are rumors about incel ties (the shooter has a remarkably small social media footprint) which raises the specter of a potential motive being close to ultra-far-right forces who - believe it or not - don't see Trump as being MAGA enough, and while many MAGAts inevitably tried to tie the attempt to Biden (even using some of the female Social Security agents on duty as a tie-in to DEI and LGBTQI and oh who cares what else as ‘proof’), for someone as deeply paranoid and megalomaniacal as Trump, the idea that a section of his followers are using his well-known violent rhetoric against him will undoubtedly eat into whatever is left in his skull as his campaign plods along.
-Even funnier were stories floated yesterday that some in the media hilariously echoed a clearly-not-written-by-Trump post would pivot to "peace and love" after Trump was "SAVED BY GOD!" as a few speakers and pundits noted. Any hint of peace and love out of Trump’s anus mouth (nope, not too soon anymore!) were flipped after Trump went to the social medias to crow about his pet Florida Judge Aileen "ofTrump" Cannon temporarily throwing his classified documents case out of court on utterly insane and hilariously banal (and legally wrong) reasons, crowing again about all the other cases against him and painting himself as The Last and Only True Honest Man In America. The Trump Pivot Ain't. Gonna. Happen.
-Not that you need further proof of that, but Trump has helpfully provided it. Post-shooting, he spent Sunday golfing with no bandage on his ear. Entering the arena in Milwaukee yesterday for Day One of the RNC TrumpFest, he also had no bandage on his ear. But when he made a WWE-style entrance to receive his accolades from his minions, Trump plodded into his box slowly, wearing a GINORMOUS bandage on the top of the ear that made it look like he was trying to sew wings or Spock points on the ear. Trump then plopped onto his chair and proceeded to doze off listening to speakers weave encomiums at him. (Which candidate is old and displaying physical symptoms of aging, and where is the breathless coverage of THAT, medias?!?).
-Then there is Corey Comperatore, the 50-year-old fireman who was killed at Trump's event while shielding his family from the bullets being fired towards Trump. Multiple news sources reported that President Biden reached out to his widow to offer condolences, which Comperatore's widow politely declined since she felt her husband would not have approved as the hardcore Trump supporter of the family. However, as of this morning, the Comperatore family had not yet heard from Trump or anyone in his family or campaign about the incident, showing that while Trump has already begun using the incident for self-inflation, he cannot be bothered to do the human thing of reaching out to someone who died while seeing him - which is kind of par for Trump's course.
-That kind of gets us to Monday and, first, the Cannon ruling, which was made with yet another Heritage Foundation-esque bench legislation that throws decades of precedent out the window in the name of an Imperial Presidency and its would-be first King, Donald. In a 93-page pile of scribbles claiming to be a decision, Cannon essentially decides on her own, using spurious legal theory and the concurrence to the Trump immunity decision written by Clarence "More Caviar, Mister Crow!" Thomas, to declare that Special Counsels are unconstitutional because Reasons. And, Trump. (And, "Supreme Court Justice Aileen ofTrump?")
-Never mind that this question has been litigated and ruled to be idiocy even by this SCOTUS as recently as the Mueller investigation (that's Impeachment One on your scorecard), or that hundreds if not thousands of adjudicated cases ranging from Iran-Contra to Hunter Biden (DUMdumDUMMMM!) would be overthrown if upheld - Cannon's move was received happily by Trump, and that is all that matters. Well, that and assurance that an appeal that would likely lead to Cannon's removal from the case and an appeal that would take the case far away from November has been assured, which is another victory for Team Trump and their strategy of stalling until anointed and Trump can achieve the God-like powers he has always thought he has had.
-Anyway, the final event of the last few days was Trump's selection of a running mate for another potential gallows - and the winning 'sucker' is Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, the fiction writer whose misclassified memoir HILLBILLY ELEGY caught the attention of hard-right tech bro Peter Thiel and led Vance to win the aforementioned Senate seat and the attention of Trump and failson Donald Trump, Jr., whose urging allegedly was the final step to Vance getting the gig.
-The announcement has not been received well, with political watchers unsure about what new voters Vance would bring (hot tip: not many at all), opposition researchers finding rich veins of anti-woman, anti-LGBTQI, anti-brain and (oopsie!) anti-Trump fodder that will undoubtedly be used to pillory Vance (boo hoo), Democrats poised to hang Project 2025 even harder on Vance and Trump, and a public disposition and personality that led the indispensable Wonkette to charmingly call Vance "An unlikeable pile of human butt hair."
-Which begs the question of what a likeable pile of human butt hair looks like ...
-PHEW! That's plenty for one day. Back at the regular cycle tomorrow - thanks for the eyeballs, hope you get a break from everything as well (we all need it every once in a while), and we have half the summer just laying out in front of us!
-On this date in 1790, Congress designated a site near the Potomac River as the location for America's capital. On this date in 1941, Joe DiMaggio got a hit for the 56th consecutive game (the last in the streak, still a record). On this date in 1945, the first man-made nuclear explosion took place at Almogordo, NM. On this date in 1969, Apollo 11 lifted off. On this date in 1973, Alexander Butterfield testified in the Watergate hearings that secret recordings of conversations made in the Oval Office existed. On this date in 1979, Saddam Hussein became President of Iraq. On this date in 2002, what would become the Department of Homeland Security was proposed by President George W. Bush. And on this date in 2017, Jodie Whittaker became the first female Doctor Who.
-Debuts on this date: RCA Victor's "His Master's Voice" logo (1900), Parking meters (1935), THE CATCHER IN THE RYE (1951), Cream (1966), Millenium Park (2004).
-Happy Birthday to Ida B. Wells, Roald Amundsen, Shoeless Joe Jackson, Barbara Stanwyck, Orville Redenbacher, Ginger Rogers, Bess Myerson, Anita Brookner, George Perles, Desmond Dekker, Margaret Smith Court, Jimmy Johnson, Rep. Barbara Lee, Pinchas Zukerman, Ruben Blades, Cyndy Garvey, Stewart Copeland, Tony Kushner, Michael Flatley, Phoebe Cates, Miguel Indurain, Charles Smith, Will Ferrell, Barry Sanders, Rain Pryor, Corey Feldman, Ed Kowalczyk, Tim Ryan, Bobby Lashley, Chris Mihm, and Gareth Bale.
-Rest in Peace/Rest in Power to Thomas Kyd, Mary Todd Lincoln, Harry Chapin, Frank Rizzo, Buck Buchanan, Juan Manuel Fangio, John Panozzo, John F. Kennedy Jr., Terry Gordy, Celia Cruz, Cowboy Bob Orton, Kitty Wells, Johnny Winter, Alan Vega, Nate Thurmond, George A. Romero, Justice John Paul Stevens, Pat Bowlen, Biz Markie, and Jane Birkin.
-The Number One Fiction Book in America On This Date ... in 2024, THE WOMEN by Kristin Hannah ... in 2014, INVISIBLE by James Patterson ... in 2004, SAM'S LETTER TO JENNIFER by James Patterson ... in 1994, THE CHAMBER by John Grisham ... in 1984, "...AND LADIES OF THE CLUB" by Helen Hoover Santmyer ... and in 1974, WATERSHIP DOWN by Richard Adams.