NO PET STORE PUPPIES DAY UPDATES
Adopt. Adopt, Adopt, Adopt! That is All!
-Following up on the news of a trial date being set for the classified documents trial of Twice-Indicted (so far) Ex-President (TIsfEP) Trump, as a DC grand jury has reconvened to hear witnesses and contemplate charges against Trump (and others??) in connection with any number of events leading up to the January 6, 2021 insurrection (including the eyebrow-raising note that one of the charges listed on Trump's target letter involves civil rights violations), the Guardian reports the upcoming potential indictments in GA will likely include federal racketeering charges (aka "RICO" charges) as well. All THAT news comes on top of the rejection of a NY judge to move the trial involving Trump's payoffs to Stormy Daniels into Federal court, AND the ruling that the follow-up to the E. Jean Carroll trial will continue in January!
-If that seems like a stacked docket, it is - and that is emerging as somewhat problematic given all the trial juggling and attorney-securing Team Trump will need to do. Fulton County DA Fani Wills has already announced, for example, that any federal trial would force her to defer any trials she would be involved in (as her crimes are 'local'), as has Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg.
-Then there's Trump himself, whose response on social media to all these motions and all the losing being done on his end was a clip of an interview he did with a once-prominent right-wing talk show host named Lin Baughrush (or something like that) talking about Ukraine that became a black-and-white "threat," with Trump intoning "If you f**k around with us, if you do something bad to us, we are going to do things to you that have never been done before."
-On that basis, we should all probably stock up on ketchup and Depends (for those who use - no judgment).
-There is also the demand Trump has made to Kevin McCarthy (SINO-R, CA): a vote by the end of next week (when Congress takes its summer break) that would "expunge" the two impeachments from the record. It is annoying A.F. to have to write it, but I guess it has to be done: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS EXPUNGING AN IMPEACHMENT. That the UltraMAGAts have set that as their legislative priority for the last week of summer kind of just piles on what we already knew about them ...
-And speaking of UltraMAGAts, it has to be grudgingly admitted that GOP Leader Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Z-Q-R, GA) is an innovator. This past Wednesday, for example, in a hearing centering around UltraMAGA/GOP priority Hunter Biden, Greene became the first House member in The World's Greatest Legislative Body to openly display what in other venues would be called revenge porn - photos of Hunter's penis, and photos of Hunter with women alleged (by Greene, without evidence) to be hookers, that were also "found" on "Hunter's" "laptop" in an effort to claim Hunter was in violation of the Mann Act (not on the list of crimes the GOP have been caterwauling about). Greene then sent that same video on her Congressional email account to everyone on her email list, with only a warning label on the video, making some observers wonder if Greene could be legitimately charged with dissemination of pornography - or at the very least, defamation suits against her by Hunter. Be proud, GA-14!
-But Greene is not just innovative with her party - she also helped the Biden campaign with an innovation! See, in her ongoing attempt to impeach Joe Biden for Lord knows what, she filmed a speech at the Turning Point Action Conference in which she whined that Biden "had the largest public investment in social infrastructure and environmental programs, that is actually finishing what FDR started, that LBJ expanded on, and Joe Biden is attempting to complete." The Biden Re-Election Team grabbed that snippet and turned it into an internet ad in which Greene also said Biden was promoting "programs to address education, medical care, urban problems, rural poverty, transportation, Medicare, Medicaid, labor unions, and he is still working on it!" and ended with Biden happily approving the message. The result? One of the most widely-seen and shared viral political videos in years, with at least 45 million views of the ad since its release on Tuesday making it look like Greene was endorsing Biden.
-All Hail Dark Brandon - AGAIN!
-We close with what anyone who has not been in a bunker the last few months knows: this weekend, amid the bitter writers' and actors' strikes that have mostly shut down Hollywood and a slew of summer movie releases in which older franchises have vastly underperformed at the box office, two of the more divergent movies open: the Great Gerwig/Margot Robbie glowing-pink comedy BARBIE, and the Christopher Nolan-directed epic OPPENHEIMER. Reviews for both movies have been rapturous, and the openings look to be strong - an estimated $140M for BARBIE and $60M for OPPENHEIMER, opening on fewer screens and running at three hours, with potential long-term viewing and Oscar buzz already building for both. (Me, I want to see both, though I'm not sure in what order and not on the same day ...).
-On this date in 1925, John Scopes was convicted in TN of teaching evolution. On this date in 1983, the lowest recorded temperature on Earth (-128.6 F/-89.2 C) was registered in Antarctica. On this date in 1996, THE DAILY SHOW premiered on Comedy Central with Craig Kilborn as its first host. And on this date in 2011, the 135th and final U.S. space shuttle mission ended as Atlantis landed in FL.
-Happy Birthday to Frances Cleveland, Johnny Evers, Sara Carter, Ernest Hemingway, Hart Crane, Marshall McLuhan, Isaac Stern, Kay Starr, Don Knotts, Norman Jewison, Moe Drabowsky, Janet Reno, Kim Fowley, Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC), Edward Hermann, Paul Wellstone, Ramsi Yusef/Cat Stevens, Garry Trudeau, John Hart, Al Hrabosky, Robin Williams, Jon Lovitz, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Ali Landry, Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), Josh Hartnett, David Carr, Tamika Catchings, C.C. Sabathia, Betty Gilpin, DeAndre Jordan, Rory Caulkin, and Erling Haaland.
-Rest in Peace/Rest in Power to "Auld Lang Syne" writer Robert Burns, Basil Rathbone, Jimmie Foxx, Dave Garroway, Alan Shepard, David Ogilvy, Jerry Goldsmith, Long John Baldry, Lord Alfred Hayes, Mako, Ralph Houk, E.L. Doctorow, Theodore Bikel, John Heard, and Taurean Blacque.
-Feed the Worms: Moral scold and amoral University President Ken Starr and Fox News legacy hire/Jen Psaki-owned Peter Doocy entered Earth on this date. Real-life abusive TV Dad and Doctor Robert Young bought it on this date.