NATIONAL WATER BALLOON DAY UPDATES
Perhaps the Only Legitimate Use of Balloons Left (Letting Them Fly is Not Good for Birds, Y’all!)
-If you needed a reminder that Joe Biden is still President, you got it yesterday with the largest release/swap of prisoners with Russia since the Cold War. The release, which included former marine Paul Whelan, Radio Free Europe correspondent Alsu Kurmasheva, and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, led to a swap of 24 prisoners from seven countries, in a negotiation that lasted months, included Vice President Kamala Harris in a prominent role working with Germany and Slovenia, and Biden finalizing the deal while sequestered with Covid – with the final piece to the settlement being put in place one hour before announcing he was withdrawing from the Presidential race. The release was formalized last night when Whelan, Kurmasheva and Gershkovich got off the plane to be greeted with embraces and handshakes by Biden and Harris.
-The release was met with almost universal praise and respect for Biden, Harris, and the diplomats involved – but I bet you will NEVER guess who was NOT impressed or even celebrated the release of the prisoners. You got it – the Republican Presidential nominee, Weird Old Convicted Felon Ex-President Trump (R-apist) sneered and whined about the agreement demanding to know “how much” America “gave up” for the deal while boasting that, had he made the negotiations, the United States would have given up “NOTHING!” Of course, this belies several prisoner swaps he made – including the release of highly-placed Taliban officials – when he was in power, but, well, y’know …
-The release is also yet another bad omen for a campaign which feels like it may be coming apart at the seams. Recall that Trump boasted he and only he could get Gershkovich released by talking to his BFF Vladimir Putin – but only if Trump was reinstalled as President first. That Putin decided to make the deal now not only is a total self-own of Trump, it may be a sign that Putin may be wondering whether Trump will be close enough to try to steal the election, much less win this November.
-Or perhaps Putin has other issues on his plate as well, as reports losses from his war against Ukraine are mounting again – and now the first set of F15 fighter jets have been seen flying around occupied Crimea. That development has been long-awaited and could give Ukraine an important battlefield edge, particularly if Putin’s primary method to win Ukraine – linger until Trump gets in power so Trump can screw Ukraine – looks less likely by the day.
-SLAVA UKRAINI!
-So how bad are things going with Trump in his campaign? So bad that Trump’s favorite polling house, Rasmussen, just released a national poll that has Harris up 47%-42% (with Robert F. “BrainWorms” Kennedy at 6%). So bad that the national polling average of both raw polling and the Electoral College now has Harris in front. So bad that overseas betting houses are now making Harris the favorite to win. And so bad that UltraMAGAt hero, murderous twerp Kyle Rittenhouse, just announce he will no longer vote for Trump this November and instead will write in Ron Paul (which has led to other UltraMAGAts to turn on Rittenhouse) (thoughts and prayers, jerk).
-Meanwhile, the surge for Harris also continues. Her official fundraising total for July – most of which came after her campaign was announce on July 21 – was an astounding $310 million, more than double Trump’s reported $135 million. Anticipation for her Vice Presidential pick (which now seems to be likely to come on Monday) is building as several potential candidates including Andy Beshear, Josh Shapiro and Tim Walz all cancelled appearances this weekend as Harris prepares to make her choice this weekend and a post-announcement campaign blitz through battleground states next week is being planned.
-And planning for the Democratic convention now pivots from what had been planned to be one full of filmed segments will now feature live speeches and events, with Biden tentatively scheduled for Monday night and others noting with excitement that Taylor Swift’s last European performance of The Eras Tour would open up Wednesday or Thursday for a potential appearance.
-Harris is now also benefitting from two other Trump rake stomps. This morning on Fox Bid-ness amid weird word salad rants about Bitcoin and trying to ignore the anvil that is J.D. Vance, Trump again admitted he is too cowardly and scared of Harris to debate her on September 10, trying to frame it as “people know who I am” (a scaredy-cat when it comes to saying bad things about powerful Black women to their faces). And Trump continues to play the Harris-is-not-Black card, with MAGAts like Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-aise Your Hands, CO) pushing the racist trope and known Muslim bigot Laura Loomer going even further by actually saying Trump’s sneakers, arrests, and being a “baby daddy” to multiple women actually makes Trump blacker than Harris.
-Yes she did.
-THIS JUST IN: The Supreme Court has officially remanded the January 6 DC case back to Judge Tanya Chutkan – part of their grotesque ruling that gives Trump a chance to be absolved of potential crimes committed on January 6, 2021, because of Trump-idential Immunity. Chutkan must now adjudicate how many of the charges in the trial might be covered under Trump-idential immunity – but to do so, it is believed Chutkan may order a “mini-trial” that would give Special Prosecutor Jack Smith the opportunity to present the evidence in a public setting during the run-up to November 5, followed by a ruling by Chutkan and inevitable appeal to SCOTUS. As scheduling and official word on how Chutkan intends to carry out the order, expect more judicial shenanigans, including Trump attempting to stop even that mini-trial using the ruling of Trump Fangirl Judge Aileen “ofTrump” Cannon that special prosecutors are non-constitutional … or something.
-We will finish with Most Excellent Entertainment News, as it was announced yesterday that Bill and Ted – also known as Alex Winter and Keanu Reaves, respectively – will be starring on Broadway in a revival of Samuel Becket’s WAITING FOR GODOT in the Fall of 2025. No word on exact dates or the theatre, but for those of you who know the play, Bill/Alex will be Estragon and Ted/Keanu will be Vladimir. The last Broadway revival of the show in 2014 featured lifelong friends Ian MacKellan and Patrick Stewart in the iconic roles.
-Waiting for tickets already? Yes. Ah … (CUE HEAVY METAL GUITAR RUN)
-On this date in 1776, the Declaration of Independence was officially signed. On this date in 1934, Adolph Hitler became dictator of Germany. On this date in 1943, the U.S. Navy torpedo boat PT-109 - under the command of John F. Kennedy Jr. - was sunk by a Japanese destroyer. On this date in 1962, Robert Zimmerman legally changed his name to Bob Dylan. On this date in 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait. And on this date in 2018, Apple became the first publicly held American company to be listed as having a value of $1 trillion dollars.
-Debuts on this date: the U.S. Census (1790), an American horse racing track (Saratoga, 1864), the Beatles at the Cavern Club (1961), IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT (1967), AMERICAN GRAFFITI (1973), “Lips Like Sugar” (1987).
-Happy Birthday to Pierre Charles L’Enfant, Jack L. Warner, Myrna Loy, Beatrice Straight, Shimon Peres, Carroll O’Connor, James Baldwin, Lamar Hunt, Peter O’Toole, Billy Cannon, Garth Hudson, Wes Craven, Isabel Allende, Max Wright, Jim Capaldi, Joanna Cassidy, James Fallows, Judge Lance Ito, Andrew Gold, Butch Patrick, Butch Vig, Mojo Nixon, Apollonia, David Yow, Mary-Louise Parker, Tim Wakefield, Kevin Smith, Tony Amonte, Sam Worthington, Edward Furlong, Grady Sizemore, Davey Boy Smith, Lily Gladstone, Charli XCX, Hallie Eisenberg, and Kristaps Porzingis.
-Rest in Peace/Rest in Power to Horace Mann, Wild Bill Hickok, Enrico Caruso, Alexander Graham Bell, Warren G. Harding, Fritz Lang, Totie Fields, Thurman Munson, Raymond Carver, Fela Kuti, William S. Burroughs, Shari Lewis, David Huddleston, Ara Parseghian, and Vin Scully.
-Feed the Worms: Weird MAGAt and barely-funny actress Victoria Jackson and Super-Weird Pseudo-Writer and Vice Presidential candidate J.D. Vance entered Earth on this date. Communist persecutor and mentor to Nixon and Trump, Roy Cohn, went to Hell on this date.