NATIONAL SCHOOL PICTURE DAY UPDATES
Ah, The Days of That Weird Dirty Chalkboard Background ...
-In case you were thinking the Biden "impeachment" proceedings are happening because of actual evidence or concerns about anything Biden has done while he was President, think again. Multiple news sources including the New York Times reports that the entire effort is being generated by exactly who you would think would be - Ex-President Trump XCI. Trump, following his ghost-written book in which he claims that "when they hit you, you hit them back ten times harder!", is of course getting others - specifically UltraMAGAts Reps. Elise Stefanik (PA) and party leader Marjorie Taylor Greene (Z-Q-R, who dined with Trump this past weekend) - to generate and execute the proceedings in order to make it appear bothsides are bad at Presidenting and bothsides should therefore be impeached. Just in time for the 2024 election.
-If you're thinking this all sounds just like the first Trump impeachment involving holding up military aid to Ukraine for "dirt" on Biden and trying to manipulate official proceedings to ... oh, what's the word ... INTERFERE ... with an election ... well, congratulations, you do know how to think!
-Now, how is the effort going? Well, the person who has to get these impeachments done is Kevin McCarthy (SINO-R, CA), so you can probably guess. Poor Kev, who does not have the votes to even formally introduce an impeachment inquiry (a rule installed by William Barr when Trump was in office) (HA HA!), is nonetheless getting attacked by other UltraMAGAts (led by Matt Gaetz) (ick) openly threatening to remove him from the Speakership if he does not bring the vote up and allow full-bore hearings despite Republicans themselves admitting there is no evidence of impropriety whatsoever against Biden.
-On top of that, there is the small matter of trying to pass appropriations and budgets ahead of a September 30 deadline that, if not passed, will shut down the government and potentially walk on the economic progress made by Biden (with GOP footprints all over it). The problem is, there are apparently zero negotiations going on to try to forestall the shutdown. Not only that, but yesterday a defense appropriations bill - a bill that normally passed with universal bipartisan support - had to be pulled from a vote because of GOP infighting to include poison pills that Democrats would never vote for either which would have resulted in that appropriations failing on the House floor. Chaos is in order in the House and in the GOP.
-On the other hand, did you hear how old Joe Biden is?
-SEE? BotHSIdeS!
-THIS JUST IN: A judge in GA has ruled that the RICO trials of Ken Chesebro and Sidney Powell will take place separate from the other 17 defendants (including Trump) in the case involving the attempt to steal GA's 2020 electoral votes from the winner, Joe Biden.
-In Ukraine news, yesterday an apparently desperate Vladimir Putin traveled to a space port deep in Russian territory to have a meeting with the always weird and paranoid Kim Jong Un (traveling on a train that cannot travel faster than 37 MPH because of Lil' Kim's fear that flying in a plane would result in the plane being shot down because of how universally loved he is) to forge an alliance that could result in Russia getting munitions from North Korea. In the process, Putin also gave much-needed support to Trump, re-enforcing GOP messaging (or IS IT GOP messaging?!) that the multiplicity of legal proceedings against Trump are nothing more than persecution of poor poor innocent Donald Trump.
-And yes, you read that right - Russia needs NORTH KOREAN MANUFACTURING to try to continue their shakier-than-the-media-wants-you-to-know-about invasion of Ukraine. (SLAVA UKRAINI!)
-Speaking of Trump legal proceedings, Trump got a ruling against him from his favorite of all the judges presiding over his cases, the Trump-appointed Judge Aileen Cannon, who refused Trump's demand that a SCIF be built in Mar-a-Lago to allow him to review the classified documents that case centers around. That said, observers note that the request was absurd on its face, and Cannon taking over three months to make the decision helps Trump's delay-and-delay-some-more legal strategy for a case Special Counsel Jack Smith said would take days to present.
-In strike news, talk shows are the first area where cracks and scabs are starting to appear in the ongoing Writers Guild and SAG/AFTRA actors' strikes. Drew Barrymore first announced she would bring her show back on the air without writers (though presumably she is SAG/AFTRA), prompting pickets at her studio and the cancellation of a speakers appearance at a trade conference she was booked for. That announcement was then followed by THE TALK, Jennifer Hudson and Kelly Clarkson also announcing premieres (with pickets to follow). And last night Bill Maher, who has called the Writers Guild demands "kooky," announced his show will also return "without writers," as if anyone who has seen his increasingly right wing/libertarian show gotten any actual laughs in the last few years ...
-We need to end on a fun note, and who better to give us that note than Rocky Mountain Palin, Rep. Lauren Boebert (N-R-A, CO)? Over the weekend the strident UltraMAGAt - who still doesn't return calls from Marge Green, that WITCH! - decided to support the Denver theatre scene by attending a performance of the musical BEETLEJUICE, which apparently exists in the world. Anyway, Boebs and her new boyfriend - one that theoretically doesn't waive his wang around like her soon-to-be-ex did when she first met HIM - were doing what you all do when going to a live show: vaping next to a pregnant woman, talking loudly, and recording the show on her phone for social media. (Because actors in a live show LOVE it when you do THAT!) The pregnant patron was not happy and summoned the theatre manager, who asked Boebert to stop all of the above. WELL, you DON'T do THAT to the Boebs, and she told the theatre manager to call the police if he wanted her to stop. He did. The police came and proceeded to remove Boebert and her boy toy - but not without Boebert asserting The Douche Motto for all to hear: "DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM!?!?!?!?!?!"
-Told you you'd feel better!
-On this date in 1814, THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER was written. On this date in 1901, Theodore Roosevelt became President (see below for why). On this date in 1960, OPEC was formed. On this date in 1985, THE GOLDEN GIRLS premiered. And on this date in 1994, a labor dispute caused the cancellation of baseball's World Series.
-Happy Birthday to Margaret Sanger, Clayton Moore, Robert McCloskey, Eric Bentley, Allan Bloom, Walter Koenig, Larry Brown, Joey Heatherton, Jon "Bowzer" Bowman, Sam Neill, Fred "Sonic" Smith, Mary Crosby, Melissa Leo, Mike Cooley, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, Nas, Amy Winehouse, and Jimmy Butler.
-Rest in Peace/Rest in Power to Dante, Dom Perignon, James Fenimore Cooper, William McKinley (see Theodore Roosevelt, above), Isadora Duncan, Irving Thalberg, Grace Kelly, Juliet Prowse, LaWanda Page, Robert Wise, Henry Gibson, Jody Powell, Patrick Swayze, and Norm MacDonald.
-Feed the Worms: Putin puppet Dmitry Medvedev and flopping swamp autocrat Ron DeSantis entered Earth on this date. Aaron Burr bought it on this date.
-So-called "King of Wall Street" John Gutfreund and quarterback/massage therapist fetishist DeShaun Watson were born on this date. You decide if they get a Happy Birthday or if they Feed the Worms.