NATIONAL CHERRY POPSICLE DAY UPDATES

You Will Appreciate It, and So Will Your Dog ... because it's also National Dog Day!

-The next potential shape-shifting event in the 2024 election is the September 10 debate, and whether it happens is now in some potential doubt now that the campaigns are discussing terms. The new Harris/Walz campaign is looking to make a change from the June debate with President Biden and allow the microphones of both candidates to stay open rather than off while the other candidate is speaking - a condition that may have blown up in Biden's face during that now-fateful debate. The bet that is apparently being made in the Harris camp that allowing Republican nominee Old Weird Convicted Felon Ex-President Trump (R-apist) to be heard will prove to be beneficial to them given Trump's increasingly undisciplined rantings, particularly against a prosecutor.

-One would presume Team Trump would be okay with this. Trump already has turncoat Tulsi Gabbard on his debate prep team, in theory because of their belief her questioning of Harris in a 2019 debate led to Harris leaving the 2020 race (in reality, polling showed voters didn't really notice, and Harris left for fundraising reasons instead), and Trump has openly bragged that his last debate performance may have been too good and led to Biden leaving the race "unfairly" (in reality, Trump's performance was very bad as well, and it was only the steady drumbeat of funders and reporters and subsequent polling weeks after the debate that seemed determinative). There are even reports from some Democrats that Harris' debates during the primaries are a prime area of concern, and that the potential for a face plant appearance is not at all unlikely. So one would think Trump would be itching to debate Harris.

-Except that, in social media postings today and an appearance this afternoon, instead of going along with the Harris suggestions of keeping the mikes open, Trump instead posted that he may not show up to debate Harris after all. Needless to say, Trump is attempting his lame projection on the situation, claiming that because Harris is "not a good debater" because "she's not a smart person," her insistence on the rule change on the "UNFAIR" ABC is Harris backing out and not Trump.

-With polling apparently continuing to favor Harris and a post-convention bounce still likely coming, the maneuvers are making the less conspiratorial among us are instead placing blame and question where it belongs - on Trump and his minions, but particularly Trump. If in fact the debate doesn't commence.

-Gird your loins ...

-Meanwhile, a CNN focus group of supposedly undecided voters set up post-debate to see if anyone was swayed by Harris acceptance speech last Thursday left some with more bitterness in their mouths. Of the nine who were in the panel, only one said after listening to Harris speak that he would vote for Trump (the others all said they were converted to Harris voters) - only to have other reporters discover the "voter" in question was actually a Trump supporter, particularly on his now-hidden social media feeds. The incident, which CNN argues was no big deal because the panelist, Bryant Roasado, really was "undecided" and so was not misrepresenting himself or any editorial bias on CNN's part, even after the liberal site Meidas Touch and longtime progressive magazine The New Republic found Rosado's 'credentials.'

-This incident also talks about another element of last week's Democratic National Convention that is likely to play out in the weeks to come: the clear conflict between the Harris/Walz campaign and major media outlets. The Harris camp, already still untrusting of the media after months of BIDEN B OLD stories that have not been balanced since Biden's exit with what it means that Trump is now the oldest man to ever be nominated for President (and the litany of behaviors and speeches that at the very least be comparable to the worst Biden ever behaved) and looking side-eyed at major media pundits starting to demand Harris "prove" her worth by doing more interviews and press conferences with them

-Instead, the Harris campaign invited 200 alternative media 'influencers' - bloggers and podcasters and the like - to the DNC and gave them deep access as a means of bypassing the New York Times, Washington Post, cable news outlets, and the like in order to tell their story in more direct ways (albeit also in a more protective way to Harris as well). This could be of interest as a Time editorial opines that "Trump Can Win on Character" with no hint of irony or satire. Watch this as the election continues, even involving what may or may not happen at the September 10 maybe debate and beyond.

-Overnight, Russia launched what reports in Ukraine are saying is the largest missile and drone attack against Ukraine since their invasion of 2022 and Ukraine's counteroffensive earlier this summer. Reports out of Kyiv say over 200 missiles and over 200 drones were launched throughout the country aimed at civilian infrastructure sites, forcing people across the country to get up in the middle of the night and go to bomb shelters until the onslaught ended. Seven people, including three connected with the Reuters news service, were killed and dozens were injured as much of the country became blacked out after the attacks. Ukrainian President Zelenskyy responded with a renewed pitch to Western countries to allow them to use weapons supplied by them to strike at Russian targets deeper in Russia, something NATO officials and the US have feared could provoke Vladimir Putin to hit NATO countries to escalate the battle. The aforementioned counteroffensive continues.

-SLAVA UKRAINI!

-THIS JUST IN: Special Prosecutor Jack Smith has filed an appeal with the 11th Circuit in response to the by-most-accounts-beyond-absurd ruling by Trump's Favoritest Judge, potential Supreme Court (if Trump reassumes power) and current 11th Circuit Judge Aileen "ofTrump" Cannon, that the Special Prosecutor is non-Constitutional, thereby negating the case involving Trump apparently stealing classified documents and transporting them to Mar-a-Lago bathrooms and band stages for every one to see. His filing is a direct response to Cannon's claims, but according to legal blogger Allison Gill, stops short of a full demand that Cannon be removed from the case should her decision (as is widely expected) be overturned, though should the case be remanded the option to remand to a judge other than Cannon is not out of the question. It is unclear when the 11th Circuit may rule.

-In other Jack Smith news, it appears he will NOT be asking for a so-called "mini-trial" in response to the Supreme Court's demand to do so as part of their ruling that the Constitution gives Trump mega-powers to commit crimes so long as he claims said crimes are "Presidential" (this is a broad paraphrase). Many were hoping that a trial that laid out the case involving Trump's actions in the January 6 insurrection would be laid out, but speculation is that doing so would open up Smith's case to appeals and overturning by The Trump Six on SCOTUS. It is believed instead that Smith may be reworking the indictments in such a way that they could bypass the demand and start the trial sooner, though probably not by November 5.

-In another court case, the Russian owner of the social media messaging site Telegram, Pavel Durov, was arrested in France on charges that his site aided and abetted crimes including child sex abuse, drug sales, and pornography by allowing for the open trading of cybercurrency for the purpose of funding the above-mentioned criminal activities. While Durov is claiming he is being persecuted for speech issues and is being backed by fellow social media billionaire weirdo Elon Musk, he unsurprisingly has an ally with Putin, another ally in former Fox News host Tucker Carlson - and also reportedly has connections with a new Bitcoin startup with links to Trump failsons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric "Eric" Trump. This could be also worth watching.

-In closing, someone else is going to be worth watching in the next few weeks: Aaron Judge. The New York Yankees slugger, who hit 62 home runs to break Roger Maris' record (and, to the best of our knowledge, without steroids) hit his 50th home run of the season in Colorado yesterday, putting him on a pace to set another record in the closing weeks of the regular season.

-Judge also became the fifth player to have three 50+ home run seasons, though three of those five - Mark McGwire, Alex Rodriguez and Sammy Sosa - all hit theirs as part of the Steroid Era, so at least in the eyes of this person, they don't count because steroids = cheating. Hopefully Judge is clean of that stain and he hits the homers while leading the Yankees to defeat at the hands of the franchise most deserving of a World Series victory, the Cleveland Guardians.

-GO GUARDIANS!!!!

-On this date in 1682, a comet was spotted by English observer Edmund Halley that continues to pass the Earth. On this date in 1883, the Krakatoa volcano erupted in Indonesia, killing over 36,000 people with the eruption and tsunami that followed. On this date in 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified and became law, thereby giving women the right to vote in the United States. On this date in 1968, the Democratic National Convention in Chicago opened as violence in and out of the convention hall erupted in the wake of the Vietnam War and Chicago Police rioting. And on this date in 2016, Colin Kaepernick sacrificed his football career by kneeling during the National Anthem during a pre-season NFL game as a protest against police brutality.

-Debuts on this date: Egypt (1936), televised baseball (1939), AN AMERICAN IN PARIS (1951), the Mini (1959), "Hey, Jude" (1968), Electric Lady Studios (1970).

-Happy Birthday to Peggy Guggenheim, Albert Sabin, Mother Teresa, Ben Bradlee, Irving R. Levine, Jay Pritzker, Geraldine Ferraro, Tom Heinsohn, Valerie Simpson, Bob Cowsill, Leon Redbone, Will Shortz, Branford Marsalis, Shirley Manson, Adrian Young, Melissa McCarthy, Jamal Lewis, Chris Pine, Macaulay Culkin, John Mulaney, James Harden, and Keke Palmer.

-Rest in Peace/Rest in Power to Lon Chaney, Charles Boyer, Tex Avery, Ted Knight, Laura Branigan, Dominick Dunne, Ellie Greenwich, Neil Simon, and Bob Barker.

-Roaring Twenties/pre-Depression Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon and anti-semite trailblazing pilot Charles Lindberg died on this date. You decide if they Rest in Peace or Feed the Worms.