INTERNATIONAL SNAIL PAPERS DAY UPDATES
Celebrate With A Beer - It's Also National Beer Day (but really, isn't every day National Beer Day?)!
-We begin with BREAKING NEWS: the Israeli Defense Forces announced a complete withdrawal of its forces in southern Gaza - a surprising development given their continued insistence, even in the announcement of the withdrawal, that a long-reported desire for a full-scale invasion of the area is supposedly still in the works. The military withdrawal comes after another series of actions taken after a call between Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu (the object of yet another massive protest against him in Israel over the weekend) and President Biden, in which Biden reportedly told Netanyahu that the humanitarian crisis in Palestine has to be addressed - or risk a 'fundamental' shift in policy and support by the United States towards Israel. While falling short of an end to sending weapons there, this withdrawal seems to indicate Netanyahu got the message for now.
-If Ex-President Trump (R-apist) LXXXVIII is to be believed - and, since this is a post about money, we all have the right to not do so - last night at a private donor's home located a short drive from Mar-a-Lago, the Trump campaign obliterated President Biden's record-breaking single-event campaign fundraising record. Trump's minions are boasting they raised over $50M last night, which is mathematically possible given that tickets started at $250,000 and maxed out at the legally-maximum-donation price of around $800,000 and that 117 mega-billionaires attended.
-The Biden campaign found a list of who attended, and they are a rogue's gallery of casino owners, subprime mortgage vultures, failed candidates, and even Melania Trump, making a rare and ALLEGEDLY contract-required appearance - also pointing out that, while the Trump amount was large, Biden's donors can continue to give throughout the campaign and be confident their donations will not be spent on Trump legal and personal fees, as new RNC Co-Chair and Failson Wife Lara Trump has openly promised.
-Also of some significance is the fact that Trump was not speaking last night. It marks yet another instance where, had this been 2016 or 2020, he would have blathered on and on and on, but with so many court cases pending and continued questions about his mental and physical state, he was not given the microphone.
-Not that Trump won't continue to say stupid things. The latest came in a social media post yesterday where Trump continued to dare NY Judge Juan Merchan to imprison him for breaking a gag order forbidding Trump from talking about members of the Judge's family or anyone else attached to the upcoming trial (still on for next Monday) involving Trump's payoff to porn star Stormy Daniels to suppress reporting on their ten-minute sexual encounter in the waning days of 2016. Trump used one of the three attack posts to all but call Merchan to imprison him, boasting that doing so would make Trump "like Nelson Mandela" - if Mandela were imprisoned for wanting to kill wives of Afrikaner leaders after swindling them for decades instead of being a revered social justice figure, that is.
-Douche ...
-GOP Shenanigans are afoot in two states in attempts to bend the Electoral College Trump's way. In Nebraska, Republicans are trying to change rules which allows the area around Omaha to tally its Electoral vote from the rest of the state, which could give one electoral vote to Biden as it did in 2020. The rule change would take that vote and place it in with the majority of the state, which would likely give it to Trump and which, under certain scenarios, create a 270-270 tie and force the House to decide the election in 2025. While the first vote to change the rule was defeated this week, indications are a second attempt may be on its way.
-And in Ohio, Republicans have found a loophole that it is considering using to keep Biden off the ballot in that state - a rule that says a Presidential candidate must be "declared" by early August, which is a potential issue because the Democratic National Convention will be held in late August. While Ohio has gone for Trump in 2016 and 2020 and there is one lone Democratic officer - Senator Sherrod Brown, up for re-election - the GOP/MAGA Senate nominee, Bernie Moreno, is an abortion abolitionist who wants to ban the procedure nationally. That runs smack into Ohio just voting to enshrine abortion rights into that state's Constitution and the state GOP's efforts to try to circumvent that vote, which took place last year in a failed attempt by Republicans to kill the ballot initiative, making abortion rights a large issue and leaving at least the potential for putting the state back in play (it did vote for Obama in 2008 and 2012). Watch that space, as they say ...
-And, back on social media, we have this weekend's episode of "What Are Liberals Pha-REEK-Ing Out About NOW?!" The answer may surprise you - it honestly did me: it is ... Dwayne Johnson, a.k.a. "The Rock."
-Recall last Friday I mentioned this is WrestleMania weekend, and Johnson is back in his "Rock" persona playing the bad guy - the 'heel.' Well, as part of the run-up to the weekend (which is in Philadelphia), Johnson did an interview on Fox News and was asked about politics, particularly Johnson's endorsement of Joe Biden in 2020 and whether he will endorse him again. Johnson responded that no, this year he is 'staying out of politics' - in part because his company is now actually part-owner of the WWE, in part (as noted on social media feeds) that there may have been some harassment of his family and him after the 2020 endorsement, so because of the "divisiveness" of such an endorsement ... or maybe also because, as the 'heel' in a blue city, it would play into his heel-ness? ... there were no plans to endorse Biden this cycle.
-WELL, judging by the intensity and fury and volume of WAY too many people on social media over the last 48 hours or so - including several experienced posters who really should know better (looking at YOU, John Fugelsang and Mehdi Hasan and Rude Pundit!) - you would have thought Johnson broke into the Oval Office, body slammed Biden so hard on the resolute desk that it was destroyed, laid Biden out with "The People's Elbow," and then whipped out a MAGA hat and announced he was going to become Trump's running mate.
-Poster after poster after poster after poster after poster decried Johnson/The Rock, called him a Fascist Sellout MAGA-Loving Jerkface, attacked anyone who tried to explain that the whole thing might be a "work" as "stupid" (okay, that may have been something hurled at ME), and insisted that WHO CARES ABOUT FAKE PHONY PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING WHEN WE ARE TRYING TO FIGHT FASCISM AND IF YOU ARE NOT FIGHTING FASCISM EVERY SECOND OF THE DAY YOU ARE FASCIST I HATE YOU ROCK BBBBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
-Point of Personal Privilege, if I may: I believe that it is not only entirely possible to fight against fascism and still have a life, even possibly like professional wrestling ... it is, I would argue, vitally important as part of the fight against fascism to take, accept, and experience joy and relaxation while doing so. The fight will not be wounded if you take a break, and one thing fascists like to do is suck joy out of societies they rule (since joy, y'know, doesn't really jibe with the whole the-world-is-doomed-and-I-am-your-protector vibe that Fascists need to literally impose their will on you and others).
-Also, I am pretty sure one person may not make the difference in Biden beating Trump - and if it is, that person is probably Taylor Swift or Beyonce ... possibly LeBron James or Patrick Mahomes ... but more than likely not The Rock.
-Finally, dare I say that not making a public endorsement is NOT the same thing as not voting for someone? There was a part of the interview where Johnson implied that the 2020 endorsement gave him a lot of grief and harassment, and so what he does in public is not the same as what he does in the booth. As my dad, a medic in World War II was fond of saying, he fought for the right for people to vote, and also for the right to not tell you who said person is or is not voting for. Maybe pha-REEK-ing out over The Rock is a pressure valve for folks - that makes sense, and of course there is always the important reminder that SOCIAL MEDIA IS NOT REAL LIFE - but man, y'all gotta try to relax over stuff like this.
-P.S.: Remember that in the world of professional wrestling, heels get their comeuppances when the 'babyface' good guy wins - as generally happens - and that can then set up a "face turn" by said heels to then become good guys. So, RELAX. The story is not over. If you smell what I'm trying to cook here ...
-ONWARD!
-On this date in 1805, Lewis and Clark embarked on their quest to map the Western part of America. On this date in 1922, a federal oil lease was signed by then-Interior Secretary Albert Fall in exchange for a cash bribe in a Wyoming territory called Teapot Dome. On this date in 1963, Jack Nicklaus won his first Masters Tournament. Also on this date in 1963, Josef Broz Tito became President of Yugoslavia. And on this date in 1994, the assassination of the Hutu Prime Minister in Rwanda triggered the start of a genocide in that country.
-Notable debuts on this date: the one-way videophone (1927), the World Health Organization (1948), SOUTH PACIFIC (1949), the Communist "domino theory" (1954), ARPANET (1969), "Super Freak" (1981).
-Happy Birthday to St. Francis Xavier, William Wordsworth, W.K. Kellogg, Marjorie Stoneman Douglas, Walter Winchell, Percy Faith, Billie Holiday, Ravi Shankar, Mongo Santamaria, Alan J. Pakula, James Garner, Daniel Ellsberg, Donald Barthelme, Wayne Rogers, Freddie Hubbard, Jerry Brown, David Frost, Francis Ford Coppola, Joel Robuchon, Florian Schneider, John Oates, Janis Ian, Jackie Chan, Tony Dorsett, Greg Reeves, James 'Buster' Douglas, Russell Crowe, MacKenzie Scott, Ronde and Tiki Barber, and Kaitlan Collins.
-Rest in Peace/Rest in Power to Jesus Christ (appx.), El Greco, P.T. Barnum, Henry Ford, Walter Huston, Theda Bara, Marian "Molly" Jordan, Kit Lambert, Ruth Page, Beatrice Straight, John Agar, Barry Nelson, Johnny Hart, Mike Wallace, Geoffrey Lewis, Stan Freberg, Tim Pigott-Smith, Seymour Cassel, John Prine, and Anne Beatts.
-Feed the Worms: mobster Joey Gallo entered Earth on this date ... and mobster Joey Gallo left Earth on this date in a different time.
-The Number One Novel in America on this date ... in 2024, THE WOMEN by Kristin Hannah ... in 2014, MISSING YOU by Harlan Coben ... in 2004, THE DA VINCI CODE by Dan Brown ... in 1994, THE CELESTINE PROPHECY by James Redfield ... in 1984, THE AQUITAINE PROGRESSION by Robert Ludlam ... and in 1974, BURR by Gore Vidal.