GLOBAL HANDWASHING DAY UPDATES
Don't Think Because Covid Is Not Dominant As It Once Was (It's Not Over), 20 Seconds Per Wash, Dangit!
-Approaching this update, my thought was that the primary focus would have been on the aftermath of the weekend event thrown by Republican Nominee Old Weird Convicted Felon Ex-President Trump (R-apist) in California in which thousands of attendees were stranded five miles away from where they parked their cars with no means to return to the lot because 20 buses that took them to the event (which was not on the Coachella concert grounds but a ways away in a former manure farm) (yes that's true) became one lone bus to take people back, and reports that the buses vanished because the Trump campaign did not pay their bills to the bus company (which tracks) or reports that MAGAts going to the rally physically and verbally abused several of the bus drivefs (which also tracks) or why Trump is wasting precious money and time on a state he will absolutely get dusted in ...
-... and even stories about yet another would-be assassin who was reportedly "arrested" before the event started, though unlike the first two such attempts this one had open oddities such as the alleged assassin being someone with press credentials, though like others having deep connections with far-right online communities upset about fears Trump may not be fascist enough for their tastes, not to mention said would-be assassin again being a one-time Trump voter ...
-...but all that took a back seat after the events of another Trump event, held last night in the Philadelphia suburb of Oaks, PA - because those events might ... juuuuust might ... throw the last three weeks of the campaign in a different frame ...
-The event started as many Trump events does, with the doddering nominee overmade up in some parts of his face and under-made-up in others, attempting to navigate a town hall. He started doing what he has done - taking a question about the economy and using it to prattle on about Chy-nuh and illegal aliens from "insane asylums" overrunning American communities and one of his favorite live subjects, Hannibal Lecter, instead. From there Trump implored his attendees to make sure to vote on "January 5," never mind that Election Day is actually NOVEMBER 5. So far, so normally weird.
-Then another element of several Trump rallies took place: two audience members fainted in the arena, which was small, overpacked to make it appear there was a teeming crowd of tens of thousands, and without air conditioning (perhaps because they couldn't afford the extra charge for it?). After the first fainting spell, Trump demanded moderator Kristi Noem (Dog MuRder, some Dakota) play "Ave Maria" while the audience member was tended to, then made Noem do it a second time for the second fainting spell ten minutes later. Weird and creepy.
-Then it went off the rails.
-After the second fainting spell, Trump testily looked at the rest of the audience and sympathetically asked, "Would anybody else like to faint? Please raise your hand. Let's do it now!" Trump then demanded "Ave Maria" be played a third time - "Nice and loud! Turn it up louder!" And THEN Trump ended the question part of the town hall by declaring, "Let's not do any more questions. Let's just listen to music. Let's make it into a music. Who the hell wants to hear questions, right?"
-When asked by Noem - in a slow and calming voice we have all heard when needing to defuse an emotional situation or talk to an agitated elderly person or tantruming toddler - what song he wanted to hear (having refereed to a specific song earlier) Trump simply stood up and demanded music from his personal playlist be played.
-And so Trump's playlist was played.
-Uninterrupted.
-For 39 minutes.
-THIRTY. NINE. MINUTES!
-And one would think Trump might at least approach the crowd, strike up a conversation or two, signal to the side, or even take a seat or leave the stage when the music was playing. Buuutt nnnOOOOO - Trump stood in one place for every part of that THIRTY NINE DAMN MINUTES! with occasional sways and half-hearted wee-tiny-fist-pump-masturbation "dance moves" throughout the ordeal, which left audience members confused, leaving, or sitting down - but did not create any kind of "dance party" of the kind being seen at Kamala Harris rallies. The event ended with a perfunctory "Go vote!" pitch to whoever was left - in front of a video board blaring TRUMP WAS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING.
-Trump retreated to social media taking potshots at Harris, insisting Harris take cognitive tests rather than Trump while insisting Harris is dodging interviews in the final days of the campaign. Naturally, the opposite is true - Trump backed out of the last debate, rejected a CNN town hall Harris will be doing on October 23, pulled out of a CNBC interview that was supposed to take place this afternoon, and is allegedly going to attend a woman-only town hall on his favorite binky, Fox News.
-The problem there is that his binky is being very, very bad to Donnie. Trump's town hall was announced after Kamala Harris scheduled her first-ever Fox News interview with afternoon anchor Bret Baier, to be recorded today and broadcast tomorrow (Wednesday the 16th). That interview followed Harris laying out an economic plan focusing on Black men in an 30-minute interview with Roland Martin, and may soon be followed with a foray into Trump's dudebro push by going on with one of the ultimate dudebros, Joe Rogan.
-As for Trump, while sanewashing is being continued by the New York No Story About BIDEN B OLD Is Too Ludicrous To Run So We Will Run Them Times, who decided Trump's apparent cognitive breakdown in Oaks, PA as nothing more than an "improvisational departure" along the lines of John Coltrane or Robin Williams, other outlets are paying attention to both the episode and the Trump campaign's clear shielding of Trump away from as many appearances as they can while nominally trying to campaign and get the election close enough to use vote-counting shenanigans and the courts to get him and JD Vance in power.
-It probably should not be lost that a story in Politico over the weekend that claimed a leaked internal MAGAGOP poll shows Trump is doing far worse than the public polling that makes it appear the race is very tight. It may very well be, but (STANDS ON SOAPBOX) Trump's behavior and the behavior of that campaign is not one that seems confident that they are actually ahead, nor are Harris' confident, measured moves indicating a campaign in "PANIC!" as a CNN news alert opined, indicates a campaign pha-REEK-ing out over movement towards Trump. (STEPS OFF SOAPBOX)
-Early voting continues to outpace the 2022 midterms in terms of raw numbers (though not the 2020 election, which because of Covid could be skewed), and Democratic ballots being returned are matching 2022's numbers (both around 58% of returned ballots being from Democratic voters). The first day of voting in Georgia will break the previous first-day early record by 1 pm, and Democrats are further buoyed by a state Judge ruling county election officials have to certify vote counts and not bend the law to favor one candidate over another (coughTRUMPcough) and by news that former President Jimmy Carter, 100, cast his vote for Harris, which was one of his last hopes in his long and distinguished life.
-Harris is also going hard at Trump as part of her closing argument. Besides the various continued targeted appearances, designed to both cut into Trump's margins and continue to trigger Trump's downward neurological spiral, the no-holds-barred approach seems to be designed to amp up turnout. At a rally in Erie, PA, Harris played a supercut of Trump's weekend appearances in which he openly embraced any number of true Fascist goals, be they using the military to attack anyone he thinks is a minority (read: anyone not white) to continuing to insist a tariff-based economy taken from the 19th century will bring prosperity (an overwhelming majority of analysts agree Trump's plans will make the post-Covid inflation rate look tiny by comparison).
-Almost as if a prosecutor is pushing the case against a convicted felon ...
-As this update is being completed, Trump is at The Economic Club of Chicago being taken to school by the moderator for Trump's asinine economic plans (Trump lashing out at the "bias" of moderator John Micklethwait of Bloomberg) and warning Trump that if he were a CEO and he mocked a fellow CEO - as Trump did by referring to CA Governor Gavin Newsom by his third-grade-schoolyard mock "NewSCUM!" - the CEO who mocked the other CEO would be fired. So, it's going well for Trump ...
-We haven't heard from Ukraine for a little while, and there is news in that new reporting indicates that Russian forces are getting re-enforcements courtesy of North Korea. Multiple reports claim North Korean troops are now on the front lines and are in training with Russian infantry - though there was at least one other Ukrainian report that 18 North Korean troops were seen fleeing after receiving heavy fire from Ukrainian forces. The reports from Trump boos Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-Un will excite him, but thus far there does not seem to be a decided military advantage being made by this new alliance. It bears watching as winter approaches and Russian attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure continues as Putin's primary victory strategy of a Trump victory does or does not play out ...
-SLAVA UKRAINI!
-As Israel continues to attack in Gaza and Lebanon, the AP reports the Biden White House is finally threatening that Israel will lose weapons funding if they do not resume sending humanitarian aid into Gaza. The actions are a bit contradictory, to be sure, but the violence continues while the world continues to cross its fingers that Iran does not further escalate its attacks after the deaths of multiple members of Hezbollah leadership. Another area to keep an eye on amid the craziness of the election.
-Finally, a quick note: there may be an interruption in the updates on Thursday or Friday. Life is a little busy this week, and I will do my darndest to do it - but if I don't, just breathe. Worst case scenario will be a whopper update for Sunday - but with the news breaking and Trump breaking down, we shall see!
-On this date in 1934, Chinese Communist began the 6,000 mile Long March, which culminated with the rise to power of Mao Zedong. On this date in 1955, Buddy Holly was discovered while opening a concert for Bill Haley and The Comets at a show in Lubbock, TX. On this date in 1965, the first national protests against the Vietnam War took place. On this date in 1991, Clarence Thomas overcame charges of sexual harassment with a race-based defense to be confirmed to the Supreme Court. On this date in 2003, China became the third country to launch humans into space. On this date in 2006, CBGB's closed. And on this date in 2017, the phrase "Me, Too" as a way to express sexual harassment or assault became viral thanks to a Tweet from Alyssa Milano - though the "Me, Too" phrase used in this context was first used by Tarana Burke in a MySpace post in 2006.
-Debuts on this date: THE GREAT DICTATOR (1940), I LOVE LUCY (1951), the Grand Ole Opry on television (1955), "Jolene" (1973).
-Happy Birthday to the Roman poet Virgil, Friedrich Nietzsche, John L. Sullivan, P.G. Wodehouse, John Kenneth Galbraith, Robert Trout, Yitzhak Shamir, Mario Puzo, Lee Iacocca, Michel Foucault, Linda Lavin, Fela Kuti, Penny Marshall, Jim Palmer, Richard Carpenter, Tanya Roberts, Roscoe Tanner, Joe Klecko, Larry Miller, Tito Jackson, Mira Nair, Emeril Lagasse, Todd Solondz, Didier Deschamps, Dominic West, Fred Hoiberg, and Ginuwine.
-Rest in Peace/Rest in Power to Mata Hari, Herbert Henry Dow, Cole Porter, Edie Adams, and Suzanne Somers.
-Feed the Worms: Hermann Goering and Carlo Gambino bought it on this date.