NATIONAL POTATO DAY UPDATES
Baked! Fried! Boiled! Mashed! Smashed! Or All Sorts of Combinations of All of the Above - and That's Before You Put Things In or On or Over Them! YAY POTATOES!!
-National Democrats have settled into Chicago for their National Convention, and as would be appropriate for a campaign that was settled then thrown into chaos then reorganized once again, the plans and schedule have continued to evolve. The DNC announced each evening will feature a celebrity host - Tony Goldwyn tonight, Ana Navarro tomorrow, Mindy Kaling on Wednesday and Kerry Washington on Thursday - and the roll call of the states to allow the convention to nominate Kamala Harris and Tim Walz will be a celebratory affair featuring music and a DJ and take place tomorrow (Tuesday). The DNC also announced Never Trumper Adam Kinzinger and James Carter, son of President Jimmy Carter, will be on the speakers' schedule on Thursday. The four days are all designed to roll out Harris and continue to build on the momentum she has had since first announcing her candidacy about an hour after President Joe Biden left the race.
-As delegates enter the United Center, they will likely pass Union Park, which is where most of the scheduled protests will also be staging from. Activists who are now demanding Biden (and presumably Harris) support Palestine by ending all arms shipments to Israel began with a march last night in the Loop, and after getting a court order allowing them to set up a speaker system at the park, the plan is to march "within earshot" of convention-goers throughout the week. There are concerns about potential conflicts with Chicago police, who at least last night outnumbered protestors and will be aided by Milwaukee police officers and, if needed, the Illinois National Guard.
-Harris and Walz, sporting two new campaign buses, plan to hold a rally in Wisconsin at the same arena where Republican nominee Old Weird Convicted Felon Ex-President Trump (R-apist) accepted the nomination last month, where if past precedent holds will be larger than Trump's crowds, in the build to her acceptance speech on Thursday.
-And speaking of Trump ... HOO DOGGIE is he still flailing at the turn of events in the race! His campaign has scheduled counter-events to the DNC in the still-swing states of PA and MI and teh now-swing-states of NC and AZ. Harris' surge in the Sun Belt states of AZ-GA-NC-NV means she has two paths to winning 270 votes - those states OR the "Rust Belt" states of MI-PA-WI (and the bonus NE delegate) - whereas Trump needs both to eke out a win. Current polling clearly shows Harris has wiped out alleged Trump advantages in all of those states, and with continued reports of a lack of funds and national offices with Labor Day just two weeks away (the traditional start of the fall campaign), time to find a counterargument to Harris may be running out ...
-... because I don't know about what appears to be Trump's latest apparent angle of attack against Harris. Trying to seize on Harris' economic plans that focus on working to end price gauging that build on programs that exist in 2/3 of the states (for products ranging from fuel to meat), Trump took last weekend's PA speech to continuously label Harris ... a Communist. Further, taking the kinds of branding skills that put Trump Steaks in our freezer and Trump Vodka in our home bars, Trump is now also attempting to brand "KuhMAAAHluh" with the oh-so-with-it nickname "Comrade Kamala!" Such name-calling is attempting to restore the same sizzle Trump had in 2016 ("Liddle Marco?" "Crooked Hillary?") while riding the never-ending 80s nostalgia wave, but it appears "Comrade Kamala" may wind up limp and tiny, even if he raised his wee tiny fistie and yelled "WOLVERINES!" at the same time.
-There's still more icky weirdness Trump is displaying towards Kamala. Again returning to that PA rally, Trump returned to another one of his obsessions: TIME magazine covers. Clearly upset at the portrait of Harris on its last cover, Trump veered away from what was supposed to be a discussion of the economy to obsess over Harris' sketch. After earlier in the week openly musing about how "beautiful" he thought Harris was (ICK ICK ICK ICK), Trump instead pivoted to get cheap cheers from his followers (at least the ones that were still at the Wilkes-Barre rally, with many leaving the longer Trump droned) by declaring to his crowd that, "I AM A BETTER-LOOKING PERSON THAN KAHMAAAAHLAHH!" (OK, give me the car keys, Gramps ...).
-Then again, Trump may very well be poised to make a comeback, as on his social media site he accepted the endorsement of the one and only Taylor Swift!
-Well ... actually ... what Trump "accepted" was a series of clear CGI-generated images from many of Trump's followers (or unidentified troll farms somewhere in the Russian tundra) of alleged Swifties suddenly publicly announcing they were Trump supporters, and a CGI-poster of Swift in an Uncle Sam hat saying I WANT YOU TO VOTE FOR TRUMP. Whether Swift will choose to sue Trump for unauthorized use of her images (as the family of Isaac Hayes did last week to try to stop Trump from using Hayes' "Hold On, I'm Coming" as his rally exit music after years of trying to stop him) or simply show up at Chicago to endorse Harris (possibly with Beyonce - yes rumors of either or both appearing at the DNC are flying!) remains to be seen.
-And then there's today's episode of How Is J.D. Vance Embarrassing The Campaign NOW? Today's answer is particularly vomitous and not a little cruel. Also on social media, Vance supporters have decided it was time to attack Democrats for their support of in vitro fertilization, which would be banned under Project 2025 (which is the Trump blueprint for his next term, make no mistake) (and which Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz discusses as his children were conceived and born thanks to IVF.) So what few audiences come to hear Vance are now showing up with cups that are meant to depict containers with semen as a way to mock Walz and subtly support Vance's ridiculously anti-woman and anti-abortion policies.
-It's hard to see how the Trump/Vance ticket is struggling with all of that, isn't it?
-Back to the Palestine/Israel protests, where negotiations for a cease-fire continue and Secretary of State Antony Blinken insists are continuing despite both Benjamin Netanyahu and HAMAS rejecting different parts of the proposal, prompting fears that the warring factions are the ones who are most opposed to finding any kind of peace - a question that could perhaps be raised by marchers in Chicago, along with questions about whether pressuring Biden or Harris could sway Israel or HAMAS to relent in their conflict that puts most innocent Palestinians in the middle of the literal crossfire.
-More Russian territory was captured as part of Ukraine's surprise incursion into the Kursk region - this as Russia claims it captured what it claims is a critical town inside of the Donbas region of Ukraine. Military observers are noting both armies and tactics are proceeding to the point where each will need to see a countermove to determine which strategy will shift the tide in the conflict. Vladimir Putin continues to visit allies to re-enforce their bonds, and Belarus puppet - er, "leader" Alexandr Lukashenko has been particularly verbal in his vague threats towards Ukraine and defense of Putin, though many of his statements are reportedly accompanied by glancing over his shoulders to see if there are any windows near him ...
-SLAVA UKRAINI!
-It's always good to close on a funny note, and that has been reliably provided by the MAGAGOP's own Inspector Javert, KY Rep. James Comer (HunteR!!). Over the weekend, his Investigatory Subcommittee To Persecute Joe Biden by Investigating The Worst Person That Ever Lived If You Forgot, Hunter Biden (DUMdumDUMMM!), released a report insisting that President Biden must be IMPEACHED! for ... reasons ... related to ... well, Comer and his loyal sidekick, Rep. Jim "Gym" Jordan (OtheR Way, OH), promise those reasons exist! Of course, with Biden no longer running and his exit from the White House set, you may be poised to play the sad trombone for all that wasted time ...
-BUT WAIT! Now that the Biden investimagation is over, Comer and Gym are ready to focus their magnifying glasses on ... wait for it ... TIM WALZ for what they are sure are criming crimes against justice connected to some trade trips Walz made to China - or, as Comer and Gym's Dear Leader calls it, "CHY-nuh!"
-DUUUM! DUUUUUMMM! DUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHHHHHMB!
-On this date in 1812, the USS Constitution sunk the British frigate HMS Guerriere - a pivotal battle in the War of 1812 and giving the USS Constitution the nickname "Old Ironsides." On this date in 1953, the government of Iran was overthrown with help from the CIA. On this date in 1960, US pilot Frances Gary Powers was sentenced to 10 years in a Soviet prison after his U2 spy plane was shot down in Soviet air space. On this date in 1964, the Beatles opened their first U.S. tour in San Francisco. And on this date in 1991, a Jewish youth was killed by a mob in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, hours after a 7-year-old child was hit by a car and killed in the neighborhood, sparking several days of unrest.
-Debuts on this date: a photograph (or daguerreotype) (1839), the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (1909), Saturday morning children's television programming (1950), a gold rap single (Kurtis Blow's "The Breaks" (1980), THE FAME (2008).
-Happy Birthday to Charles E. Hires, Charles Comiskey, Orville Wright, Coco Chanel, Ogden Nash, Philo Farnsworth, Ring Lardner Jr., Gene Roddenberry, Frank McCourt, Bill Shoemaker, Renee Richards, Diana Muldaur, Ginger Baker, Jill St. John, Johnny Nash, Christopher Cerf, Fred Thompson, Buzz Kilman, Ian Gillan, Bill Clinton, Gerald McRaney, Tipper Gore, Toshio Suzuki, Jonathan Frakes, Ned Yost, Adam Arkin, Darryl Sutter, Ivan Neville, Morten Andersen, Ron Darling, John Stamos, Kyra Sedgwick, Lee Ann Womack, Lillian Garcia, Tabitha Soren, Kirk Herbstreit, Matthew Perry, Nate Dogg, Fat Joe, Mary Joe Fernandez, T.J. Holmes, and Stipe Miocic.
-Rest in Peace/Rest in Power to Augustus Caesar, Blaise Pascal, Federico Garcia Lorca, Alastair Sim, Groucho Marx, Hermione Baddeley, Linus Pauling, Don Hewitt, Michael Been, Jack Riley, Dick Gregory, Chuck Close, and today, Phil Donahue.
-Feed the Worms: John Wesley Hardin bought it on this date.
-Malcolm Forbes and Mary Matalin were born on this date. You decide if they get Happy Birthdays or if they Feed the Worms.