NATIONAL DAY OF ROCK AND ROLL UPDATES
This is not a time to be dismayed. This is Punk Rock time. This is what Joe Strummer trained you for. – Henry Rollins
-Following up on the blowhard lie-fest that was his “debate” performance last month, Convicted Felon Ex-President Trump (R-apist) posted on social media (likely through a surrogate given the message’s narrative coherence and minimal grammar issues) that he “had never heard of” Project 2025, for all intents and purposes the policy detail paper of the MAGAGOP 2024 Presidential race (to supplement its platform, which in its entirety is TRUMP FK YEAH!). The fact that Trump said it is de facto evidence enough that Trump knows as much as his decaying cognitive skills will allow them to, but as evidence, 24 of the 25 people listed as authors worked in the Trump White House, most of the organizations cited as supporters have fed Trump policies that his minions then attempted to implement, and the name “Trump” appears a mere 312 times in the Project 2025 text itself.
-Project 2025 is starting to gain some cultural traction, not because of anything the alleged news media has done (because we know the ONLY thing they’ve been obsessing about for the last week and a half) but thanks to a Congressional hearing spearheaded by House Democrats and a plea from actress Taraji P. Henson at the BET Awards ceremony last week to spread the word about its goals of allowing a President who might just have legal immunity to do anything he wants to destroy pretty much every bit of progressive progress and safeguards and replace it with a radical Catholic apartheid system of repressive minority rule if given the chance. That the Trump campaign team (such as it is) has concerns about Project 2025 becoming more widely known was confirmed by the Trump statement and reiterated by a similar video message from Trump’s right-hand ghoul, Stephen “Cancerous Gru” Miller released Friday.
-The Trump post marked what has been a shockingly quiet period for the publicity hog, especially given Biden’s admittedly bad debate performance. Given that the only thing Trump’s GOPMAGA wants is to OWN DA LIBZ!, the fact that Trump has not been on a triumphalist rampage is notable. Sure, some have claimed this is Trump being smart and allowing Democrats to Pha-REEK! Out on their own – but GOPMAGA has never been known to be tactically smart, so is there something else happening that is making Trump’s “handlers” hold him out of the spotlight?
-Well, the known ‘appearances’ Trump has made post-debate have not been good, even by Trump standards. His only live speech in VA was noteworthy for Trump’s blitheringly stupid claim (delivered with all the energy of a narcoleptic on sleep meds) that American fighter planes are now all-electric and thus may fall out of the sky when the sun goes down. Two other phone-in ‘interviews’ to a radio station in VA and a barely-wedged-in-his-suit Lou Dobbs (he’s still alive-ish) were less than 10 minutes long, featured Trump recycling his same tired talking points rather than refer to the debate, and were again so low energy listeners in VA were clearly disturbed by the mumbling. And a “tribute to the troops” on the 4thconsisted of a video message filmed at a distance with an overlarge cap obscuring Trump’s skull and face – and, again, was a trailing and fading mess.
-Even when Trump finally got to doing what he really wanted to do live (augmented by a vile post on the 4th), it was in the form of a “leaked” video from his golf course, in an almost reclining position that resembled a beached walrus, barely audible (with son Barron in the other seat if he recognized him) and trying to claim credit for Biden dropping out (Biden has not dropped out) (that may be bad news for some of my readers – not me) and “attacking” his “new opponent,” Vice President Harris, as being “terrrruble…” before puttering off to the omelet station.
-So there are some issues on the Trump physical side, and some issues on the Trump ‘policy’ side, and there is one other lurking issues that emerged next week that, if we are fortunate, will become a major issue if more revelations can be found and the news media can begin to let go of the Biden debate performance and insider-driven panic over his campaign (YEAH I SAID IT).
-The issue revealed itself in the release of files from a 2016 case that was to be brought against Trump by a woman who, when she was 12, was kidnapped by Jeffrey Epstein as part of everything he did. The case was dropped days before the trial after the woman reportedly received death threats if she continued with the case.
-The accusations, which – TRIGGER WARNING - includes other girls coerced into performing sexual acts for and at the behest of Epstein as well as a one-time maid at an Epstein compound, detail acts Trump was accused of being a part of. Those acts include Trump performing acts of pedophilia, including verbal and physical abuse and violence Trump himself committed on the woman when she was 12. The batch includes emails and testimony that was taken in preparation for the filing, which again never occurred when the woman reported receiving threats (from whom is unclear).
-The reports are profoundly disturbing, and there are outlets, Newsweek and the London Independent among them, that are starting to further discuss them. That Trump is aware of them was revealed in an interview last spring when he was asked what classified documents he would make public if he returned to power – and while Trump name-checked files connected to Roswell and the JFK assassination, he specifically said he would NOT make any Epstein filings public. When the political news media decides they are tired of the 4,537th BIDEN B OLD story, perhaps they will begin to see what else is in that case and who may now want to go on the record with what they know about that case.
-OKAY, OKAY, OKAY – if we HAVE to talk about The Great Biden Debate Media Panik of 2024, let’s talk about it a little bit …
-(STANDS ON SOAPBOX)
-Joe Biden is and will be the Democratic nominee. Nobody who has been demanding Biden step down has a name to replace him with, and the three that come up the most - Gavin Newsom and Gretchen Whitmer and Vice President Kamala Harris – are all continuing to campaign hard and eloquently for Biden. The logistics of replacing Biden alone (Biden has to refund his campaign money, MAGAGOP will challenge every attempt to put a new name on the ballot nationally, the effort will by its nature be insanely divisive) make replacing Biden a practical absurdity. And should something happen to Biden, WE HAVE SOMEONE IN PLACE. Her name is Kamala Harris. That’s the point of having a Vice President.
-Further, there is no public evidence that shows the Biden debate has been damaging to people who actually vote. Fundraising has been exploding for Biden, and the publicly released polling that has been released has shown the debate has not moved the needle. In fact, the latest batch of swing state polling released yesterday by Bloomberg showed that Biden has GAINED points since the debate, especially in the must-win-for-Trump swing states of MI and WI (though Bloomberg does show a surprisingly large-ish Trump lead in PA) (and, again, polling in this day and age and all that).
-That the wigging-out media is not showing their work about allegedly cratering debate numbers tells you all you need to know about the reality of the state of the race at this moment and where this story is and how it turned into this overheated orgy of garment-rendering among Democrats.
-Remember that when there is a holiday, the media sticks with the major stories of the weekend before and runs those stories on a loop to fill its hours, so when Biden did what he did (and make no mistake, the goal was to have positive spin heading into the 4th for Biden, and Lordy did that backfire) the will-Biden-leave-or-won’t-he over speculation kicked into whatever gear above overdrive is. So much of the heat has been part of that loop.
-So here we are. Biden has already made 10 live appearances since the debate. He has promised to shift his sleep schedule and not debate when he has a cold as best he can. He is a lifelong stutterer and he’s 81 and he’s been trying to get Israel and HAMAS together and doing the job of President. And he has signaled he is NOT dropping out barring a profound physical issue. And he has (IMHO) a more than capable backup in place. He’s going to be the nominee and the election is imminently winnable given the multiple issues Trump has (and his campaign sure seems to be aware of). GET OVER IT and get to work.
-(STEPS DOWN FROM SOAPBOX)
-BREAKING NEWS: The New York Times, facing withering criticism and possible loss of a significant number of subscribers because of its self-professed anti-Biden biased coverage of the Presidential campaign, has responded by leaving Threads, the Meta/Facebook social media platform created in response to the degradation of the site formerly known as Twitter. The Times and its ‘writers’ have been fending off that criticism on Threads for months. Too bad so sad …
-Back with more news, including the France elections and the reopening of Congress (hoo boy) tomorrow. BUT FIRST …
-On this date in 1865, four people convicted of involvement in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln were executed. On this date in 1893, Hawaii was annexed to the United States (no matter what MAGA says). On this date in 1930, construction began on the Hoover Dam. On this date in 1946, Frances Cabrini became the first American canonized as a Saint by the Vatican. On this date in 1968, the Yardbirds disband as Jimmy Page begins recruiting musicians to create what would become Led Zeppelin. On this date in 1981, Sandra Day O’Connor became the first woman to be nominated for the Supreme Court. And on this date in 2005, a coordinated terrorist attack on the London public transport system killed 52 and injured approximately 700.
-Debuts on this date: Pre-sliced bread (1928), programming created specifically for television (1936), DRAGNET (1949), “All You Need Is Love” (1967), women admitted to West Point (1976), The Three Tenors (1990), HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS, PART 2 (2011).
-Happy Birthday to Gustav Mahler, Marc Chagall, George Cukor, Vittorio DeSica, Ted “Double Duty” Radcliffe, Simone Beck, Satchel Paige (appx.), Robert A. Heinlein, Gian-Carlo Menotti, Lawrence O’Brien, William Kunstler, Ezzard Charles, Wally Phillips, Doc Severinsen, Joe Zawinul, David McCullough, Ringo Starr, Joel Siegel, Joe Spano, Shelley Duvall, Len Barker, Jessica Hahn, Ralph Sampson, Vonda Shepard, Jim Gaffigan, Lisa Leslie, and Michelle Kwan.
-Rest in Peace/Rest in Power to Henri Nestle, Johanna Spyri, Arthur Conan Doyle, Ub Iwerks, Veronica Lake, Ruffian, Vic Wertz, Bill Cullen, Syd Barrett, Dick Williams, Edward Shevardnadze, and Robert Downey, Sr..
-The Number One Album in the United States on this date … in 2024, THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT by Taylor Swift … in 2014, ULTRAVIOLENCE by Lana Del Rey … in 2004, TO THE 5 BOROUGHS by The Beastie Boys … in 1994, PURPLE by Stone Temple Pilots … in 1984, BORN IN THE USA by Bruce Springsteen … and in 1974, BAND ON THE RUN by Paul McCartney and Wings.