NATIONAL BOOK LOVERS DAY UPDATES

If You Need to Hug a Kindle, Okay - but Make Sure You Hug A Book Sometime Today!

-Faced with a campaign that went from hubristic belief of a landslide electoral triumph of the MAGA will into what can currently be potentially approaching death spiral territory, Republican nominee Weird Old Convicted Felon Ex-President Trump (R-apist) summoned press supplicants disguised as reporters into a gilded Mar-a-Lago 'lounge' to spew about crap for an hour and change yesterday. The sluggish, slurry performance was called "a press conference," though press conferences are predicated on questions being answered and reporters pressing for responses, neither of which really happened at the event.

-Instead, Trump's decayed cognitive abilities were in full view, in which Trump again said any Jewish voter who dared vote for "KuhMAAAAHLAAAH Harris" "need(s) to have their HEAD examined!," spewed a complete fantasy story involving being on a nearly-crashing helicopter ride with former CA House Speaker Willie Brown who "did! not! liKE!" "KuhMAAAHLAAAAH" (the helicopter ride in question involved former CA Governor JERRY Brown - who is white and not Black like Willie Brown was - and was a run-of-the-mill ride in 2018), described Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz as being "heavily into transgender" (for being a rock-ribbed LGBTQI ally), showed he was totally ignorant about a Florida abortion rights referendum that could drive Democratic turnout sky high in that state, and most absurdly claimed his January 6, 2021 insurrection speech (in which he insisted nobody died at - a lie) had a larger crowd than Martin Luther King's 1963 "I Have A Dream" speech (uh ... no).

-While there was righteous criticism over Trump's horrific performance, the staging of the event (reporters were not miked, leaving watchers to strain to hear the questions), and the utter lack of follow-ups and deference to the Trump Gish Gallop of lies (see Lawrence O'Donnell's 24-minute tear down of the event), the overall sense of the event was that of Trump publicly displaying what numerous stories are also reporting: that Trump's act is wearing very thin, that Trump himself is now looking thin and as old as he actually is, and that he is terrified that the campaign is rapidly slipping away from him.

-Certainly that is what the metrics seem to be showing. While again and always reminding people that polling has been creaky, several national polls have Harris opening up a 5-6% lead while a number of swing states that had been tilting Trump while Joe Biden was at the head of the ticket are now shifting towards Harris. Fundraising continues to be a juggernaut, with Harris announcing another $36 million raised in the 24 hours after Tim Walz became her running mate, and the campaign starting to hint at becoming the first billion-dollar Presidential campaign by Labor Day - while Trump fundraising is drying up, his campaign has yet to open regional offices nationally, and even rumblings that one reason he has not been setting up rallies is because he may not have the cash to do so. And the Trump campaign continues to be off the air, allowing Harris to create the 'happy warrior' personality of the campaign and (correctly) define Trump as the weird old fart he is.

-While Harris and Walz continues on their barnstorm (they will be in AZ and NV, two of the states that are starting to tilt Harris if you believe the polling), it leaves weird and increasingly dislikable Trump Veep candidate JD Vance to try, somewhat pathetically, to swing back. Vance literally follow-stalked the Harris campaign in WI (at an appearance that pushed triple digits while Harris rocked a rally with a line to attend stretching miles to park), at one point walking across the tarmac to Harris' plane to try to 'confront' the Democrats ... and failing, of course.

-Vance has also attempted to "swift boat" Walz by falsely claiming Walz bailed out of the Army National Guard to stay out of Iraq (in reality, Walz filed to retire months before the unit was deployed) and claimed a higher rank than he had (which Walz was confronted with during a campaign for Governor and acknowledged was a mistake and was corrected) - the "swift boating" not a surprise given one of Trump's campaign co-chairs (for the moment), Chris LaCevita, was the originator of the "swift boats" attack against John Kerry in 2004 (aided by funding from a guy named Harlan Crow, who is Clarence Thomas' lease agent).

-And Vance's rollout has only led to independents disliking him more than liking him by a -27% margin - which is making some in MAGALand get awfully antsy about Vance staying on the ballot, though thus far Trump does not appear like he wants to remove him (assuming Trump is aware of it, that is).

-Almost wants to make a guy fall asleep in a couch or something ...

-Another person who looks flat-footed right now is Vladimir Putin, who continues to be trying to find a way to respond to a surprise offensive Ukraine has unleased around the city of Kursk, located to the slightly northwest of the still-being-defended Ukrainian city of Kharkiv (a 3-hour drive, more or less). Some reports claim Russia is attempting to find troops to defend the country, though by most accounts the city is getting close to Ukrainian control. Military officials are still unsure of what Ukraine's ultimate strategy is in this offensive, particularly as Kharkiv remains an area of intense fighting and the arrival of F15 and F16 fighter jets may make a move to capture the disputed territory of Crimea likely. The offensive continues to be monitored, particuarly next moves ...

-SLAVA UKRAINI!

-In legal news, Special Prosecutor Jack Smith has been granted a three-week delay in submitting filings to Judge Tanya Chutkan that will allow her to set up an evidentiary hearing called for by the Supreme Court to determine how many "Presidential Acts" might have been used by Trump to hide the alleged crimes he perpetuated in connection with the January 6 insurrection. The move was a bit of a surprise, and legal analyst Andrew Weissman worries that the filing may reflect an internal battle between Smith and Attorney General Merrick Garland over whether that hearing would occur during the heat of the Presidential campaign (which it would), though most other observers do not see any further delays in that hearing despite Trump undoubtedly hoping it will be delayed long enough to allow SCOTUS to grant Trump-munity from any crimes he did and would commit if he were to regain power. Watch that space ...

-The Olympics hit the home stretch in Paris, as both American basketball teams are poised to battle for Gold - the Women cruising to an 85-64 victory against Australia, while the Men needed a heroic performance from Steph Curry to overcome a 17-point deficit against Nikola Jokic and Serbia, 95-91, to get to their Gold Medal game against Victor Wembanyama and France. Meanwhile, the first-ever breakdancing competition is taking place as we speak, and the Closing Ceremonies, which will feature (among others) French alt rock heroes Phoenix, Billie Eilish, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the suddenly omnipresent Snoop Dogg, and a pre-produced stunt involving Tom Cruise (the 2028 games will be in Los Angeles) among the expected highlights.

-INSERT COUNTRY HERE! INSERT COUNTRY HERE! INSERT COUNTRY HERE!

-On this date in 1173, the city of Pisa, Italy began construction of a tower that became famous when it started to lean slightly to the right (depending on where and how you look at it). On this date in 1945, the United States dropped a nuclear bomb on the Japanese city of Nagasaki. On this date in 1974, Gerald Ford became President after the resignation of Richard Nixon in the wake of the Watergate scandal. On this date in 1988, the Edmonton Oilers traded Canadian hero Wayne Gretzky to the Los Angeles Kings. And on this date in 2010, a disgruntled JetBlue airline steward quit his job by telling off his flight, deploying the emergency inflatable escape slide, and using it to leave the plane.

-Debuts on this date: WALDEN (1854), the diesel engine (1898), Betty Boop (1930), READY, STEADY, GO! (1963), Singapore (1965), PEE-WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE (1985).

-Happy Birthday to John Dryden, Jean Piaget, P.L. Travers, Ralph Houk, Marvin Minsky, Robert Shaw, Bob Cousy, Rod Laver, David Steinberg, Jack DeJohnette, Ken Norton, Sam Elliott, Jim Kiick, Chris Haney, John Cappeletti, Pete Thomas, Doug Williams, Melanie Griffith, Kurtis Blow, Michael Kors, Brad Gilbert, John "Hot Rod" Williams, Whitney Houston, Brett Hull, Hoda Kolb, Vinny Del Negro, Deion Sanders, Eric Bana, Gillian Anderson, McG, Divine Brown, Juanes, Derek Fisher, Adewale Ogunleye, Chamique Holdsclaw, Tyson Gay, Anna Kendrick, and JaMarcus Russell.

-Rest in Peace/Rest in Power to Herman Hesse, Joe Orton, Abigail Folger, Sharon Tate, Dmitri Shostakovich, Jerry Garcia, Gregory Hines, Judith Rossner, Bernie Mac, Michael Brown, Frank Gifford, and Robbie Robertson.

-Feed the Worms: Trump/MAGA toady Vivek Ramaswamy entered Earth on this date. Nazi war profiteer Hugo Boss bought it on this date.

-Shamed newscaster Chris Cuomo was born on this date. You decide if he gets a Happy Birthday or if he Feeds the Worms.