INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR THE FIGHT AGAINST ILLEGAL UNREPORTED AND UNREGULATED FISHING UPDATES

I Just Wanted To Get a Holiday That is Both Worthy and CRAZY LONG!

-Let's say (and why not?) that you are part of a political party whose presumptive nominee has just been convicted for several handfuls of felonies ... and let's also say for the sake of argument that even that is not enough for your party to decide that maybe that person should not be your nominee - so that means you have to defend said nominee in ridiculous yet dangerous ways, and you also have no choice but to unleash attacks on your opponents, no matter how tired or old, because despite being tired and old it is kind of helpful ... and let's say you need to do this because your presumptive convicted felon nominee continues to make outrageous statements in such a slurry and weird way that to rational people it may make the nominee look kind of unstable ... what do you do?

-First, you continue to have minions in the party declare that the problem with the felony convictions is the entire judicial system rather than being fair (which by every account it was) and demanding RETRIBUTION - from alternate Party Leader Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Z-Q-R, GA) calling for the defunding of New York state as punishment, to house MAGAts demanding full defunding of Merrick Garland's Department of Justice (the case in question was a New York state case with literally no federal connections to it whatsoever), to Trump minions (including racist ghoul Stephen Miller, human canker sore and hopefully-imminent-jailed-felon Steve Bannon, and torture memo author John Yoo) creating a hoped-for Trump Department of Justice-led initiative they are already calling "Fight Fire With Fire" that would prosecute all Democrats for doing things MAGAts deem traitorous (which would essentially be being Democrats and not worshiping their Dear Convicted Felon Leader) - which the convicted felon leader has also endorsed as wholeheartedly as he is verbally able to.

-Second, you keep that convicted felon gabbing and posting on social media to fuel said fires, which was done yesterday as well.

-Third, you get a media ally - say, the Wall Street Journal - and dust off unsourced except for now-Ex Speaker Ex-Representative Kevin McCarthy gossip - to blare a full front page story whose theme is ... ready for it? ... BIDEN B OLD!!!!!!! That story is already being taken apart by folks like Joe Scarborough and Aaron Rupar, but given polling that has shown that convictions actually do not help in the general polling, expect more of this in the days to come to at least stem the tide.

-Fourth, you continue to slow down or stop any other cases being made - and that continues, some with a wink-and-a-nod to said convicted felon (the still-not-issued SCOTUS case about giving Presidents God-like powers to do anything they wanted), some with suspected winks-and-nods (a new hearing in Florida to entertain a radical Federalist-society-inspired argument that Special Prosecutors don't count), some by happenstance (a hearing on whether to remove Fani Willis from the Fulton County GA case will be heard in early October), and some by nefarious design (an extensive ProPublica report revealing at least nine employees and aides getting sweet jobs and promotions - almost as if they were being paid not to testify against their boss!).

-Add it up, and it is all about circling the wagons and trying to control the fallout on behalf of Convicted Felon Ex-President Trump (R-apist), in case you weren't clear who all of the above was about ...

-As for President Biden - remember him? - he spent yesterday issuing executive orders on further tightening immigration along the Mexican border, doing so despite illegal immigration actually being lower now than it has been in the last several years and under not-unjustified criticism from Progressive Democrats that many of the provisions Biden is imposing, including strict restrictions on allowing asylum claims to be used, are from the reviled previous President. The actions, in large part, are actions from the bipartisan border control and immigration reform bill that was killed by Republicans on orders from their presumptive convicted felon leader in order to then claim Biden was not doing anything on a 'crisis' that is at least statistically overblown.

-After issuing the orders, Biden flew to France, where tomorrow he will attend ceremonies marking the 80th anniversary of D-Day - significant in that this is likely the last major anniversary in which survivors of the invasion will be able to attend, many of them now in their 90s and 100s. While in Europe, Biden will also meet with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy in Moldova. Biden will not be attending a peace summit later this month to discuss Ukraine, although Vice President Harris will.

-Speaking of Ukraine, the only Ukrainian serving in the United States Congress, Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-IN), is now the subject of an investigation by the House Ethics Committee over charges that her staff is subject to "abuse," "general toxicity" and "rage" from the Rep, according to a report from Politico. Reports also charge Spartz has responded to the complaints with pay cuts and an attempt to forbid staffers from discussing the charges in the press. Spartz is a Ukrainian immigrant - and, vomitously, one of the biggest supporters of Vladimir Putin and opponents to aid to Ukraine in Congress.

-SLAVA UKRAINI!

-(B***h ...)

-Oh, and as long as we're talking about misbehaving Congressional jerks, let's once again shout out Greene, who returned from a trip in a Central American resort whose rooms run up to $4,000 a night with cherry red sunburn, made a total spectacle of herself Monday during hearings "investigating" the role of Dr. Anthony Fauci in the 2020 Covid shutdown. That chestnut was dusted off by the MAGA House because of course, and Marge used her five minutes to denigrate Dr. Fauci, braying that "YEW OUGHTA BE IN PARIZON," and being admonished by her own chair because, in her own breath, "AHM NAHT CAWLING YEW A DOKTER BECAWSE YEW AREENT A DOKTER IN MAH BOOK!" No word on what that book could look like.

-In OTHER election news, by the way, the election results in India have proven to be a shocker. Most pundits and polling there expected Prime Minister Narendra Modi to win, and he did in a romp - but his party, the BJP, wound up with less than 50% of India's lower house of Parliament. It was expected the BJP would come close to a supermajority that could have allowed them to rewrite parts of the India Constitition (something that will be able to happen in Mexico, where new President Claudia Sheinbaum will have a supermajority) - instead, Modi will need to cut deals with one or more of the other parties in the House to come up with a governing majority. The unexpected rebuke on the local level of Modi and the BJP is being credited to a rejection of one party dominating the legislature and national politics - a full-throated rejection of authoritarianism.

-Huh.

-In sportsball news, the WNBA is now embroiled in one of its bigger (or at least loud) controversies in its history, and of course it revolves around the newly-arrived Caitlin Clark, whose first few games have shown Clark to be, well, a newly-arrived player learning the (vast) differences between college and professional ball. On Saturday, Clark - who has commented on how the physicality of the WNBA is something she "has to work through" - was hammered on a hard foul by Chicago Sky guard Chennedy Clark, and ever since the league and sports media has been awash in reports on whether the league is playing Clark dirty, whether the more veteran players in the WNBA are jealous of Clark's scrutiny and wealth, whether there is a racial element to all the attention that Clark is getting, to the actual basketball play in question (the resulting free throw allowed Clark's Indiana Fever to beat Chicago 71-70) and subsequent embracing of a "villain" role by fellow rookie and Chicago Sky star Angel Reese (who had several memorable games against Clark in the NCAA). In other words ... Clark's notoriety is getting the WNBA the same kind of coverage as any other league, right down to idiocy out of Stephen A. Smith's mouth.

-And with that, there's today's Update!

-On this date in 1944, Allied forces entered Rome. On this date in 1967, Israel launched a war that gave them control of Old Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in Six Days. And on this date in 1968, Robert F. Kennedy was shot after claiming victory in the California Democratic Primary (he died the following day).

-Debuts on this date: The Marshall Plan (1947), Elvis Presley on national television (1956 - on THE MILTON BERLE SHOW), AIDS (1981), SONGS IN A MINOR (2001).

-Happy Birthday to Pat Garrett, Pancho Villa, John Maynard Keynes, Federico Garcia Lorca, Salvatore Ferragamo, Richard Scarry, Marion Motley, Art Donovan, Christy Brown, Bill Moyers, Spalding Gray, Matthew Lesko, John Carlos, David Hare, Laurie Anderson, Ken Follett, Ellen Foley, Suze Orman, Kathleen Kennedy, Jeff Garlin, Bob Probert, Ron Livingston, Mark Wahlberg, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Pete Wentz, and Breonna Taylor.

-Rest in Peace/Rest in Power to Stephen Crane, O. Henry, Bill Tilden, Conway Twitty, Mel Torme, Dee Dee Ramone, Richard Jacobs, Ray Bradbury, Kate Spade, Kurt Thomas, and Alec John Such.

-Feed the Worms: Weirdo football team owner Robert Kraft and MAGAt Gov. Tate Reeves entered Earth on this date. Ronald Reagan, Tariq Aziz and Robert Hanssen bought it on this date.

-Kenny G. was born on this date. You decide if he gets a Happy Birthday or if he Feeds the Worms.