WORLD FOOD SAFETY DAY UPDATES
Celebrate by Eating Two Safe Foods – Donuts and Chocolate Ice Cream. (It’s Their Holidays Today, Too!)
-The campaign to discredit any legal system that would dare convict a criminal who happens to also be running for political office continued for said criminal, Convicted Felon Ex-President Trump (R-apist). Building on a series of safe-space interviews (with, among others, longtime ally Sean Hannity and odd newcomer Dr. Phil McGraw), Trump also continued a new ‘promise’ to imprison all political opponents for the crime of opposing Trump. Trump also decided to venture out to a rally in the battleground state of Arizona, which Trump held in 108 degree heat to both protect him from potential malaprops and to attend a megafundraiser later in the day, and praised the 11 people who were taken away with heat stroke for attending the rally.
-While the press continues to pretty much ignore Trump’s increasingly desperate yet blaringly loud calls for fascism, the political pundit press continues to try to act like Trump is just another candidate, releasing a “short list” which actually consists of eight names Trump is reportedly considering to be his Vice Presidential running mate. Trump will attempt to milk the ‘decision’ until next month’s Republican National Convention in Milwaukee – where he will likely not be happy to learn that one of the previously announced convention sponsors, Kohl’s, pulled their support because they seem to believe Trump being a convicted felon and wannabe dictator is something they do not want to be a part of.
-Huh.
-It has also been a bad week for being a loud, obnoxious, overweight quasi-media supporter of Trump. After melting down in a drunken rage over the last several days, rancid boil Alex Jones has announced that both his home and his home studio will begin to be liquidated in an effort to begin paying off hundreds of millions of dollars in judgments he owes to parents of the Sandy Hook gun massacre for slandering them (though it is unclear whether he will continue his hate-cast using other technologies). And the impact of the order for human canker sore Steve Bannon to serve his four-month prison sentence for defying a congressional subpoena is even sweeter when one realizes he will start his sentence on July 1 and end just before Election Day, all but missing the run-up to the 2024 Presidential campaign and his blowhard ranting about overtaking the government for the master race or whatever he blarts through his three shirts.
-Those aren’t the only pro-Convicted Felon media outlets that are going through some things. The super-pro-Trump Epoch Times and its Chief Financial Officer (who was placed under arrest) were charged earlier this week of being a cryptocurrency money-laundering front to the tune of $67 million dollars. The site, which began as an outlet of the Falun Gong movement but turned into an Covid-denial misinformation factory that was of course embraced by Trump and allies including currently-incarcerated felon Peter Navarro, known Nazi Sebastian Gorka, and MAGA Rep. Paul Gosar at the height of Trump’s rule. For the moment, the newsletter and affiliate outlets continue to produce product, though the indictment says “others” within the organization are involved in the scheme as well.
-Then there’s the actual news, which shows a clear erosion of Trump polling numbers nationally and in battleground states (as far as those can be believed) as well as yet another stunning jobs report (272,000 positions added in May), as well as President Biden making an appearance at D-Day ceremonies yesterday. Biden also publicly apologized to Ukrainian President Zelenskyy for the delay caused by Trump and Vladimir Putin allies delaying military aid to Ukraine, allowing for Russian forces to make the biggest gains it has since invading in 2022 (SLAVA UKRAINI!).
-The one area where Team Trump and Team MAGA is hopeful is in the ongoing trial of Hunter Biden (dumdumdum) for three felony counts of purchasing a weapon while addicted to drugs (crack to be specific) and lying about that detail on the background form. Prosecutors are expected to end their case today with the defense noting they will have ‘very few’ witnesses (it is unclear whether Biden will testify), and the hope is clearly to get a conviction in order for right-wing media to bothside a potential Hunter Biden conviction with Trump’s. One major difference: while Trump continues to claim he will pardon everyone involved in the January 6 insurrection (he could have done so before leaving the White House in 2021 but didn’t) (just saying), President Biden told ABC News yesterday that he would not pardon his son if he were to be convicted. (Also, the Hunter Biden trial IS a Federal trial – the Trump conviction was in New York State).
-The Washington Post continues from a leadership shakeup that appears to have been motivated by an extremely sketchy set of circumstances. Last Sunday, News Editor Sally Buzbee abruptly resigned and was immediately replaced by former Wall Street Journal news editor Rob Winnett. Winnet is British and an ally of new Post CEO Will Lewis, also British and also with ties to Rupert Murdoch and other right-wing figures. Since then, it was revealed in an NPR story that Buzbee and the Post was about to publish a story about Lewis’ involvement in a British scandal involving using cell phone hacks to steal voice mails of celebrities that Lewis objected to. While the story was published (apparently in part by NPR), the resignation was still accepted, and the ties to conservative media – led by a cover story in this weeks WSJ using unnamed sources to once again reveal the fact that BIDEN B OLD! – highlights yet another area of potential pro-Trump and anti-Biden coverage as the general election heats up.
-A potential Trump Veep candidate has been trying to mop up – read: deny – stepping in it this week in a way that could be problematic even for Trump. FL (man) Rep. Byron Donalds appeared in PA as part of an outreach program to get more black voters to vote for Trump, and at that appearance Donalds made a rather interesting claim. QUOTING DIRECTLY FROM DONALDS, “You see, during Jim Crow, the Black family was together. During Jim Crow, more Black people were not just conservative – Black people have always been conservative-minded – but more Black people voted conservatively.” That comment has become viral, and led to Donalds doing something that usually signals there is trouble: appeared with MSNBC host Joy Reid to try to deny he said what he said – and to be show WITH A RECORDING by Reid that no, he said what he said and sure as shooting sounded like the Black Conservative was defending Jim Crow. Whether this will move Donalds up in the Veep list remains to be seen.
-In sportsball news, an upset of historic proportions involving the United States occurred yesterday – and because of the sport, you clearly had no idea. The sport: cricket! The upset: the United States T20 team defeated Pakistan, one of the absolute worldwide cricket powers, yesterday in a match in Texas (?!). Cricket-watchers liken the upset to a AA baseball team beating the New York Yankees, and as is often the case with obscure sports, cricket aficionados in the United States hope that the prospect of USA! USA! May allow for an expansion of a sport that of course was the basis of America’s own baseball. We shall see …
-We close today’s update by marking the end of an era. Today, the final WHEEL OF FORTUNE episode hosted by Pat Sajak will air, ending Sajak’s 42 years of hosting the show. He was not the first host – that was Chuck Woolery – but after over 8,000 episodes, he will end his run today. Ryan Seacrest will be Sajack’s replacement, and at least in the short-term he will have Vanna White as the letter-turner (White joined Sajak in 1984), but you will still be able to play the fancy version of Hangman for years to come!
-On this date in 1955, Dwight Eisenhower became the first President to appear on color television. On this date in 1965, the Supreme Court ruled that married people had the right to use birth control (that has been targeted by Republicans under their Project 2025 plan). On this date in 1975, Elton John’s CAPTAIN FANTASTIC AND THE BROWN DIRT COWBOY became the first album to debut at Number One on the Billboard charts. On this date in 1979, Texas became the first state to make Juneteenth a holiday. (Sigh …) And on this date in 1982, Elvis Presley’s Graceland was reopened as a museum.
-Debuts on this date: The British Museum (1753), Vatican City (1929), THE $64,000 QUESTION (1955), Blind Faith (1969), GREASE (1972), the Betamax videocassette recorder (1975).
-Happy Birthday to Beau Brummell, Paul Gauguin, Jessica Tandy, Peter Rodino, Dean Martin, Gwendolyn Brooks, Charles Strouse, James Ivory, Herb Score, Bert Sugar, Tom Jones, Nikki Giovanni, Jenny Jones, Thurman Munson, Howard Finkel, Liam Neeson, Johnny Clegg, Luise Erdrich, William Forsythe, Prince, Lance Reddick, Gordon Gano, Mick Foley, Dave Navarro, Bear Grylls, Allen Iverson, Bill Hader, Anna Kournikova, Michael Cera, and Iggy Azalea.
-Rest in Peace/Rest in Power to Robert the Bruce, Edwin Booth, Jean Harlow, Alan Turing, Judy Holliday, Dorothy Parker, E.M. Forster, Henry Miller, Drazen Petrovic, Dennis Potter, Max Factor, Jim McKay, Bob Welch, Christopher Lee, Jim Fassel, and The Iron Sheikh.
-Feed the Worms: Muammar Gaddafi and Mike Pence entered Earth on this date.