NATIONAL RIDE A BIKE DAY UPDATES
Because What Else Can You Compare Something So Familiar You Can Do it Like You Used To than Riding A Bike????
-If you were watching the cable news last night, you would be under the impression that the country is about to dive into a wave of violent student protests the likes of which we haven’t seen since 1968 – and indeed, there were scenes of police forces moving in to college campuses to remove protestors, these involving the ongoing Israel-HAMAS War in Palestine. While most prime time cameras were focused on Columbia University in New York City, where dozens of protestors were removed without enormous incident, a bigger problem erupted on the UCLA campus, where 200 counterprotestors attacked a camp on campus using wood planks among other improvised weaponry, taking advantage of a lack of police presence for about two hours after the attacks began.
-With the attacks, waves of commentators have begun to compare these incidents to 1968 and the catastrophic Democratic National Convention in Chicago that year – and thereby drawing immediate connections to 2024 with a DNC also coming to Chicago in August. And to be clear, there absolutely are major concerns about security and the potential for escalations of protests driving an elective wedge between a critical bloc of Biden voters and the November elections – so much so that on last night’s Hannity show the wedge-potential of the protests were groggily jumped on by Ex-President Trump (R-apist) LXXXVIII (and expect more of that today when Trump gets a chance to neither be in court nor golfing by going to two ‘rallies’ in MI and WI) (not to mention much more from the Right-Wing Newz Media).
-But, AN OPINION FROM A SUBSTACK FROM A GUY NAMED JOE:
-Comparing 1968 and 2024 by using student occupations as the parallel is a bit lazy. For starters, the 1968 anti-war campus protests were building over two years’ worth of protests across the country of an increasingly futile and unpopular war that touched most communities vs. the 2024 protests that, aside from the occasional disruption (stopping traffic from entering O’Hare Airport weeks ago, for example), has not spread as far and as long. That, of course, is because there was also a draft in the 1960s – something that simply isn’t true in this case. Finally, while outside agitation was certainly an issue in the 60s (COINTELPRO, anyone?), both the Columbia and UCLA conflicts and damage were caused in large part by non-college outside organizations apparently intent on fueling physical violence of some sort. Student reporting from multiple colleges including Columbia, UCLA, and protests in the University of Texas at Austin confirm that.
-So while concerning – and NOT CONDONING either HAMAS terrorism or brutal Israeli military responses – anyone that writes about fears of 1968 redux because of these protests should, at least for the moment, breathe. (If they escalate in the weeks to come, this opinion will change and shift – because Evidence Matters.)
-If folks on the left want a legitimate thing to freak out about, you should actually pivot and look at, of all things, TIME Magazine. This week, in a black-and-white cover story, TIME reporter Eric Cortellessa sat down twice with Trump, who openly talked about what everyone who has been looking at him or read Project 2025 already knew: his desire to turn the Presidency into a violence-filled quasi-dictatorship to help install a pseudo-democratic apartheid state of the United States. Trump admitted a second term would feature imprisonment in camps of tens of millions of people he deemed to be unAmerican (read: don’t tell him how lovely he smells and how large and satisfying to women his penis is), monitoring of any women who somehow received an abortion (if the red states allow it, which is totally cool with Trump), fire any civil servant who did not call Trump their God and Savior, pardon everyone who tried to overturn the election Trump lost to Joe Biden in January 2021, and blithely allowed for the possibility of even more violence if Trump did not get more votes than Trump in 2024.
-If you are thinking “that’s exaggerating, isn’t it?” NO, no it is not – and the as-middle-of-the-road-as-you-can-get TIME Magazine confirms it. You can read the very long interview and then show it to anyone you think may need to understand Trump is not kidding when he says he wants king-like powers.
-If you still follow polling, it continues to generally favor Biden, GOP-leaning polls (Bloomberg) and clear outliers (CNN, whose six-point Trump lead is built in part on the on-its-face incredible finding that Biden is only one point ahead of Trump among women) aside – but assume nothing, keep working, and only look up to polls when they tell you things you like!
-MAGA Leader Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Z-Q-R, GA) announced today she is going through on her threat to attempt to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Jay-EE-Zuz!, LA), citing Johnson’s decision to allow aid to Ukraine to pass and arguing incorrectly that Americans do not support more aid to Ukraine. That’s bunk, of course, but it didn’t stop Marge from holding a news conference waiving a blue-and-yellow hat with MUGA on it. (For “Make Ukraine Great Again” – get it? GET IT?!?!) and claiming with zero logic that “thauzands will dah from feh-tuh-nil” because Ukraine is getting money or … something …
-Anyway, this time it is extremely likely Marge’s attempt will fail miserably, as House Democrats have already announced they will support Johnson against Marge’s Motion to Dismiss. House leadership have commented that, unlike previously ousted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Johnson has proved himself to be a trustworthy broker and negotiator. Also because Democratic numbers in the House are, at the moment, lower, due to a special election that was conducted yesterday in NY (which was won by Democrat Tim Kennedy (no relation) and did so overperforming, as has been the case for several years) and the death of another Democratic House Representative, New Jersey Rep. Donald M. Payne, Jr. (his district is considered safe Democratic).” Marge seems to know her effort is doomed as she has also been whining about “the Uniparty” – and some Democrats are still convinced the GOP one-vote majority could whittle down to more resignations and criminal indictments (glance towards Matt Gaetz).
-In Sportsball Media News, chairs and positions are moving around for your favorite (or at least tolerated) NFL pregame shows. On CBS, 1980s-era analysts Boomer Esiason and Phil Simms will be leaving the show (Esiason to stay on radio and Simms, for the moment, on the iconic INSIDE THE NFL on Max, I think) and will be replaced by the recently-retired Matt Ryan, to join James Brown, Nate Burleson, J.J. Watt and turncoat evil Yinzer jerkface Bill Cowher. Meanwhile, one of the bigger retired ‘gets’ was made by ESPN, who hired the recently retired Jason Kelce to join their Monday Night Football coverage, most likely replacing Robert Griffin III (though that has not been made official). And the biggest ‘name’ out there (note I said ‘name’ and not ‘talent’) Bill Belichick will apparently become a semi-regular on ESPN’s alternative Monday Night Football feed featuring Peyton and Eli Manning, if growly mumbly old guys are your jam. All that as NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell again floated an 18-week season that could start on Labor Day weekend and potentially culminate with Presidents’ Day becoming Super Bowl Weekends (it was just a proposal right now, y’all). Stay tuned!
-And to wrap today’s Update, we can welcome back a personality we may have already forgotten but likely will get a jolt out once you hear the reason why. Who are we welcoming back to the cultural firmament? None other than … drumroll …
-KITARA RAVACHE!
-Yes, indeedy, the drag identity of the ousted and indicted former MAGA Republican Congressman otherwise known as “George Santos” has announced that, after being “withheld” from public by “George,” KITARA IS BACK! And Kitara is back for hire – on Cameo, the web site where you can hire semi-celebrities a few bucks to wish people Happy Birthdays or Congratulations on your Wedding or other personal note. So, AN OPINION FROM A SUBSTACK FROM A GUY NAMED JOE: Kitara is right back to where she started from or probably should be – and aren’t we all here to self-actualize?
-Thought so!
-On this date in 1960, an American U-2 spy plane piloted by Francis Gary Powers was shot down by the Soviet Union while on a surveillance flight. On this date in 1991, Rickey Henderson broke Lou Brock’s stolen base record – at 1,406 bases, a record likely to last decades. On this date in 2004, seven former Soviet-dominated countries (as well as Cyprus and Malta) joined the European Union.
-Debuts on this date: THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO (1786), postage stamps (1840), the World Columbian Exposition (1893), iodized salt (1924), Mercedez-Benz (1924), the 40-hour work week (1926), the Empire State Building (1931), Batman (1939), CITIZEN KANE (1941), airliner hijacking (1961, a Miami-Key West flight detoured to Cuba), Amtrak (1971).
-Happy Birthday to King Kamehameha I, Calamity Jane, Kate Smith, Louis Nye, Glenn Ford, Jack Paar, Dan O’Herlihy, Joseph Heller, Art Fleming, Terry Southern, Chuck Bednarik, Scott Carpenter, Judy Collins, Max Robinson, Rita Coolidge, Joanna Lumley, John Woo, Paul Teutul, Sr., Dann Florek, Glen Ballard, Ray Parker Jr., Steve Cauthen, Tim McGraw, D’arcy Wretzky, Wes Anderson, Curtis Martin, Wes Welker, Jamie Dornan, Nicholas Braun, and Charli D’Amelio.
-Rest in Peace/Rest in Power to John Dryden, David Livingstone, Spike Jones, Ayrton Senna, Flipper, Eldridge Cleaver, Steve Reeves, Miss Elizabeth, Matt Keough, Olympia Dukakis, and Gordon Lightfoot.
-Feed the Worms: Rodney King Riot Mayor Richard Riordan entered Earth on this date. Joseph Goebbels offed himself on this date.