Garden Tools

A Blight at the Garden, Obeying in Advance

The Garden was overflowing with manure this weekend as Trump and his MAGA cohort cosplayed a 1939 Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden (although even the actual Nazis wouldn't have featured a keynote from Hulk Hogan in character). The NYT(Gift Article), usually pretty reserved when describing Trump, called the evening as A Closing Carnival of Grievances, Misogyny and Racism. In The Atlantic (Gift Article) David A. Graham sums up some of the evenings lowlights. This Is Trump’s Message. Tony Hinchcliffe was the evening’s first speaker: "'These Latinos, they love making babies too. Just know that. They do. They do. There’s no pulling out. They don’t do that. They come inside,' he joked. 'Just like they did to our country.' A minute later: 'I don’t know if you guys know this, but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. Yeah, I think it’s called Puerto Rico.' It took a few more minutes before he got to the joke about Black people loving watermelons. Novel, edgy stuff—for a minstrel show in 1874.Other speakers were only somewhat better. A childhood pal of Donald Trump’s called Vice President Kamala Harris 'the anti-Christ' and 'the devil.' The radio host Sid Rosenberg called her husband, Doug Emhoff, 'a crappy Jew.' Tucker Carlson had a riff about Harris vying to be 'the first Samoan-Malaysian, low-IQ former California prosecutor ever to be elected president.' Stephen Miller went full blood-and-soil, declaring, 'America is for Americans and Americans only.' (In 1939, a Nazi rally at the old Madison Square Garden promised 'to restore America to the true Americans.'")

So what was the goal? This hardly expands the base. The point, it seems, is divisiveness, hate, and rage intended to stir up the base in the event of an election loss for Trump. One could argue that his MAGA MSG act made such a loss more likely. If nothing else, in a campaign built on lies, the night at the garden was a wholly honest look at what Trumpism is all about. It's what you'd call Garden variety fascism.

+ Heather Cox Richardson on the rally and one particularly notable aside from its headlines: "But Trump perhaps gave away the game with his inflammatory language and with an aside, seemingly aimed at House speaker Johnson. 'I think with our little secret we are gonna do really well with the House, right? Our little secret is having a big impact, he and I have a secret, we will tell you what it is when the race is over,' Trump said. It seems possible—probable, even—that Trump was alluding to putting in play the plan his people tried in 2020. That plan was to create enough chaos over the certification of electoral votes in the states to throw the election into the House of Representatives. There, each state delegation gets a single vote, so if the Republicans have control of more states than the Democrats, Trump could pull out a victory even if he had dramatically lost the popular vote. Since he has made virtually no effort to win votes in 2024, this seems his likely plan. But to do that, he needs at least a plausibly close election, or at least to convince his supporters that the election has been stolen from him. Tonight’s rally badly hurt that plan."

+ Even after all the incendiary remarks from very fine people on both sides to the enemy within, last night's jokes about Latinos marked the first time that a handful of Trump-allied candidates actually complained about his rally content. Why? Nearly a million Puerto Ricans live in swing states and other places where races are close. And many of them, from Geraldo Rivera to Bad Bunny are pissed. Bad Bunny boosts Harris as a Puerto Rico ‘joke’ backfires on Trump.

+ While the hate rally got Trump the attention he craves, the Harris campaign is focused on the two big issues: The danger Trump poses to democracy and women's reproductive rights. In Michigan, Michelle Obama gave the best speech I've seen this political season. It's worth sharing with people in your life who might still be undecided. It's also worth sharing with all of our daughters.

2

An Unsafe Safe Bet

The fallout from Jeff Bezos' decision to pull the Washington Post Kamala Harris for President endorsement continues. There's been widespread criticism, big name resignations, and a critical joint column by 17 reporters who are sticking around. It's important to note that Bezos is hardly the only big business player to be hedging their bets in case Trump wins. From WaPo (where at least the news section still gets published): Some billionaires, CEOs hedge bets as Trump vows retribution. "With the race tight, some business elites are toning down past criticism of the former president." While craven and unethical and basically sad, these moves do have logic behind them. Why? Billionaires know they can buy favorable treatment from Trump without risking retribution from Harris because he's corrupt and she’s not. That alone is reason enough to vote for Harris.

+ Historian Timothy Snyder on why this is so dangerous. Obeying in Advance: Media billionaires ask for tyranny.

3

Don't Pick a Crow with a Crow

"Over and over, the crows attacked Lisa Joyce as she ran screaming down a Vancouver street. They dive bombed, landing on her head and taking off again eight times by Ms. Joyce’s count. With hundreds of people gathered outdoors to watch fireworks that July evening, Ms. Joyce wondered why she had been singled out ... A Los Angeles resident, Neil Dave, described crows attacking his house, slamming their beaks against his glass door to the point where he was afraid it would shatter. Jim Ru, an artist in Brunswick, Maine, said crows destroyed the wiper blades of dozens of cars in the parking lot of his senior living apartment complex. Nothing seemed to dissuade them." NYT(Gift Article): If You Think You Can Hold a Grudge, Consider the Crow. "The brainy birds carry big chips on their shoulders, scientists say. And some people who become subjects of their ire may be victims of mistaken identity."

4

Tough Cheddar

"Mr. Holden said that he was initially flattered. A French chain wanted to buy that much British cheese? And Cheddar, such a quintessentially British variety? 'We’d been going around, proudly, saying: ‘Guess what, a French supermarket is buying our cheese,' Mr. Holden said, chuckling." That’s a Lot of Cheddar: Scammers Steal $390,000 of British Cheese.

+ British chef Jamie Oliver urges followers to help solve the ‘grate cheese robbery.'

5

Extra, Extra

Kim Jong Unbridled: "North Korea has sent about 10,000 troops to Russia to train and fight in Ukraine within 'the next several weeks,' the Pentagon said Monday, in a move that Western leaders say will intensify the almost three-year war and jolt relations in the Indo-Pacific region." (These international stories don't get much attention in our presidential election, but just imagine this story under a Trump administration. Two of his favorite dictators are teaming up against a NATO ally.)

+ On the Brink? Israel launched its much anticipated retaliation against Iran over the weekend. It was a limited series of effective strikes that met with almost no resistance. To those in the region, it's looking increasingly like Iran is a paper tiger. AP: Iran faces tough choices in deciding how to respond to Israeli strikes.

+ Citizen Joe: Tired of Trump's quest to be a king? Then this will be refreshing. Today, Joe Biden cast his 2024 ballot, after waiting in line for about 40 minutes.

+ A College Background: For High School Age TikTok Influencers, Online Fame Can Bring Real-Life Consequences. "Part of Morgan McGuire’s calculation as she’s deciding where to go to college is what will look good on TikTok."

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Bottom of the News

"When DeLorenzo reflects on the surreal moment later, he tells me he’d assumed at first that this guy—the actual Timothée Chalamet—was just another Timmy lookalike. Truthfully, it took all of us a second to realize what the hell was actually going on." The Agony and Ecstasy of a Timothée Chalamet Lookalike Contest.

+ Timothée Chalamet crashes his own look-alike contest after police shut down crowded event

+ Dwyane Wade was quite moved by his statue. Even if the status doesn't really look like Dwyane Wade.