PUBLIC GARDENS DAY UPDATES
A Good Day For A Walk In A Park!
-"Do you think staying in your silo is going to make that person go away?" Anderson Cooper asked that question after over his workplace, CNN, absorbed a day's worth of well-deserved condemnation of Ex-President Trump's Wednesday evening Town Hall - an event that only made Trump, his campaign, and GOP Party Leader Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene positively gleeful.
-Why?
-The event has officially put the term "Gish Gallop" into the national vocabulary. The term "Gish Gallop" is a debate/rhetorical tactic wherein a speaker overwhelms his/her opponent with a barrage of high-speed and outrageous claims made with such fury that it swamps the opponent both factually (making it impossible to refute all the claims) and physically (the speaker simply does not allow his/her opponent so much as a simple sentence in response). The tactic is especially useful with an audience that supports the speaker, as Trump had in New Hampshire on Wednesday.
-Thus, when Trump repeatedly claimed the 2020 election was "RIGGED!" and "STOLEN!", host Kaitlin Collins could not and did not stop him with the truth - Trump lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden by over 7 million votes in what was one of the cleanest elections in American history.
-And, when Trump said he thought Republicans should allow the U.S. to default on its debts in order to force Democrats to "cave" and accept draconian budget cuts the overwhelming number of Americans do not want - 40% of which were created by Trump and the Republicans between 2017 and 2021 - the crowd cheered and prevented anyone from reminding people that not passing a clean debt ceiling bill will not only cause Americans massive economic pain, but the world as well, should the UltraMAGA Republicans stay united and the Democrats and White House not find a way to do it themselves if need be.
-And, when Trump resumed his slandering of E. Jean Carroll less than 24 hours after a jury found him liable for being a sexual predator by making jokes about Carroll's husband and again claiming he "never met" the woman, the crowd allegedly full of voters still thinking about who to vote for in 2024 laughed and whooped.
-In short, the Town Hall was a disaster that didn't even really achieve its goal of giving CNN a massive boost. While the Town Hall won its slot, it was estimated 3.1 million watched - a number that was far less than Trump's 2015-16 ratings heyday for cable news. For perspective, the testimony of former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson before the January 6 commission drew 13 million viewers.
-But, there were things that happened on Wednesday that could very well hurt Trump down the line. For examples, Carroll is now reportedly considering filing a new libel suit in response to Trump's comments about her on Wednesday (along with a video which, in direct contradiction to Trump claims he "never went" to the Bergdorf-Goodman store where his attack on Carroll likely took place, showed Trump boasting of how cool the store was - since it's ACROSS THE STREET FROM TRUMP TOWER). Multiple comments made by Trump about his handling of classified documents directly contradicted testimony Trump gave about them, potentially creating even more charges against him for that scandal. And the Biden campaign was quick to create web and social media ads in response to the Town Hall, simply asking "Do you want four more years of THAT?"
-As of today, there is no more COVID Emergency in the United States. This does not in the least mean COVID has gone away, of course, but what it does mean beyond no longer requiring masking is that the CDC and other agencies will no longer require daily reporting of infection or vaccination rates, that home tests will now need to be covered by private insurance or out of your own pocket, and that Title 42 has been lifted.
-Title 42 was the rule that prevented immigration on the Mexican border specifically for health-related reasons in which 2.7 million would-be immigrants were turned away from the Southern border. As 1500 National Guardsmen have been moved to the border to try to keep what is anticipated to be a new surge of would-be immigrants, the shift will mark a major challenge for the Biden Administration in the days and weeks to come.
-To close, two speakers who make their living discussing anti-Semitic conspiracy theories - including one that claims Abraham Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth was apparently Jewish (?!) - have been removed from something called a "ReAwaken America" tour, which just happens to be settling into Mar-a-Lago for the weekend. The removal of the speakers came after one of the Mar-a-Lago bookers, Eric "Eric" Trump, was OUTRAGED that MSNBC host Rachel Maddow highlighted those speakers among many other speakers and reported that the booking sure seems to show Eric likes hanging out with anti-Semites. Even though photos of Eric with the two speakers and several other right-wing anti-Semitic commentators are easy to find, Eric threatened to sue Maddow earlier in the week. No word on where those court filings are now with the change in program - so, stop thinking about what Rachel Maddow would have done in a court battle against the lesser Trump son.
-On this date in 1846, the Donner party left MO to try to move to CA - they made it as far as the Sierra Nevada mountains when ... things happened when they got stuck. (Look it up!) On this date in 1934, the first of a series of Dust Storms swept through the American Plains. On this date in 1937, King George VI took the throne in the United Kingdom after it was abdicated by Edward VIII. A big day for seminal rock albums - ARE YOU EXPERIENCED? was released on this date in 1967 and EXILE ON MAIN STREET was released on this date in 1972. And on this date in 1994, PULP FICTION premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, where it would win the Palme d'Or.
-Happy Birthday to Florence Nightingale, Henry Cabot Lodge, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Katherine Hepburn, Archibald Cox, Howard K. Smith, Yogi Berra, Burt Bacharach, Felipe Alou, Tom Snyder, George Carlin, Ron Ziegler, Norman Whitfield, Billy Swan, Ian Dury, Lindsay Crouse, Steve Winwood, Billy Squier, Bruce Boxleitner, Gabriel Byrne, Bernie Federko (no relation), Homer Simpson, Lou Whitaker, Ving Rhames, Bruce McCulloch, Emilio Estevez, Vanessa Williams, Stephen Baldwin, Tony Hawk, Kim Fields, Samantha Mathis, Jared Polis, Jason Biggs, Steve Smith, Rishi Sunak, Rami Malek, and Emily VanCamp.
-Rest in Peace/Rest in Power to Erich von Stroheim, Tor Johnson, Jean Dubuffet, Andrei Kirilenko, Robert Reed, Erik Erikson, Perry Como, Robert Rauschenberg, Julius LaRosa, Chuck Knox, and Gino Cappeletti.
-Feed the Worms: Julius Rosenberg entered Earth was born on this date. Iran-Contra conspirator Robert McFarlane expired on this date.