the DON JONES INDEX…
		GAINS POSTED in GREEN LOSSES POSTED in RED 7/29/24... 14,812.58 7/22/24... 14,799.08
	6/27/13… 15,000.00
(THE DOW JONES INDEX: 7/29/24... 40,584.34; 7/22/24... 40,287.53; 6/27/13… 15,000.00)

LESSON for JULY TWENTY NINE, 2024

“FICKLE FORTUNE’S FORTNITE FOLLIES”

Sixteen days ago, the Republican National Convention started with a bang... literally... as we reported in last week’s Lesson: “a mass mystery gunman shot former President and current candidate Donald J. Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.” He took off, as Johnny Cash recounts the boy named Sue doing, “a piece of his ear” but Trump arose, pumping his fist and shouting “Fight! Fight! Fight!” and returned to Milwaukee, amidst security, to secure, amidst thunderous applause, the Republican nomination.

As delegates were going home – some lingering until Sunday due to overcelebration or the Crowdstrike computer glitch that disrupted air traffic – there came another BANG! Democratic President Joe Biden, much deride and lobbied after his disasterous debate with Trump and subsequent gaffes and blunders on the campaign trail and in television studios, doing interviews, finally saw the light and declared that he would not seek re-election in November.

Attention immediately shifted to his replacement nominee, and just as quickly settled upon Vice President Kamala Harris (despite her own polling being underwater) and, while vetters vetted potential new Vices, whom Republican VP aspirant Vance would have to deal with and while former (and, perhaps, future) President Donald Trump dealt with a new reality that he, and others, seemed to find less stellar than the anticipated debate with Old, Sick Joe, political insiders and outsiders, world leaders of sympathetic or malign intent and the voters of America blinked and shook their heads and wondered “What comes next?”

That question will be answered in one hundred days, perhaps sooner, but let’s look back at the highs and lows and follies of fortnight past... beginning with the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, only days after Trump nearly was assassinated during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, north of Pittsburg and a crucial purple (or “swing”) state – by which time, the Biden-Harris team was swinging in the wind.

CONVENTION WEEK BEGINS...

MONDAY, JULY 15th

Our previous issue’s formidable fortnight began when Trump appeared with a bandage covering his ear at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where he was greeted by a crowd chanting “Fight” — the word he mouthed after surviving the shooting. Talking heads compared him to Ronald Reagan, who survived the assassin’s bullet – one even compare him to “Braveheart” (who did not survive). See CNN (Attachment Twenty Two in last week’s Lesson), which covered the shooting along with many, many others across the nation and the world, and then proceeded to the Convention through Sunday afternoon at 1:45 PM (some sources say 1:42 PM, others as late as 1:47) when President Joe uttered his fateful words of resignation, retirement if you will, or. as the realists would have it, a response to reason given the incoming coming in at him from all quarters and all directions.

TUESDAY, JULY 16th

If Monday's theme had been "Make America Wealthy Once Again" (and, after Trump returned triumphantly, the donations poured in), Tuesday's was ironically entitled: "Make America Safe Once Again."

Surrounded by a beautiful wall of police, secret service and government agents (who would be at each others’ throats once the convention concluded) Trump’s primary adversaries... Ron deSanctimonious, Vivek Ramasawy and, notably, Nikki Haley, genuflected and kissed the nominee’s... uh... ring?

WEDNESDAY, JULY 17th

The theme being "Make America Strong Once Again", focus naturally focused upon foreign affairs and immigration. And the world got its first look and listen to Vice Presidential nominee Vance – whose definition of “strength” did not include America’s shaky alliance with NATO, nor support for Ukraine... although the Red Elephants did proclaim solidarity with Israel, despite the carpings of some wealthy, neo-Nazi college students outside Fiserv Forum.

Vance, the talking heads presumed, would help Trump in the declining Rust Belt states, who could swing one way of another based on only a few thousands votes. And as a growing number of foreign elections augured, “voters are fed up with incumbents”.

THURSDAY, JULY 18th

On the final night of the convention, the theme – "Make America Great (Once) Again" – was grist for the Once and Future’s acceptance speech (see Attachment “A” in last week’s Lesson, with a fact check as Attachment “B”... Vance’s verbiage reproduced as Attachment “C”).

FRIDAY, JULY 19th

Many Republicans lingered in Milwaukee – some choosing to sample their brew of choice (but not the pro-sodomy Bud Light) or maybe take a side trip to the Windy City.

Promises and promotions of post-assassination civility out the window, Trump called President Joe worse than any of the “ten worst presidents in the history of the United States” while Biden cowered in the White House basement... now besieged by former friends as well as erstwhile enemies, as well as by a resurgence of Covid.

THE WEEKEND – JULY 20^th/21^st

Tired but happy, as we reported last Lesson, “the delegates began trekking home (if not stranded by the Crowdstrike computer glitch that grounded thousands of flights). They had paid lip service to civility and common sense but, in the end, the moderate pink elephants had turned a deep, dark red.

“Sunday arrived. The godly went to church to pray for Trump and the ungodly prayed for the beginning of the NFL season next month.

“AND, at 1:42 PM (or maybe as late as 1:45 PM)... Old, Sick Joe gave up the ghost – facing up to The Truth and accepting The Consequences...

THE TRUTH...

...Joe Goes!”

Under fire from friend and foe alike, Joe threw in the bloody towel on re-election (but, disappointing some, did not step down from the Presidency itself).

“The great thing about America is,” Biden’s resignation oration concluded... “here, kings and dictators do not rule — the people do. History is in your hands. The power’s in your hands. The idea of America lies in your hands. You just have to keep faith — keep the faith — and remember who we are. We are the United States of America, and there are simply nothing, nothing beyond our capacity when we do it together. (See transcript below as Attachment One)

...and THE CONSEQUENCES...

Quick as a lizard, Kamala stuck out her tongue and, while the hands of the people were applauding Joe’s selflessness and punching his ticket back to Delaware, zapped supporters and cynics alike, all but wrapping up her nomination by acclamation by the close of the day to usher in the second half of the fantastic fortnight... which concluded, by this morning, not only with the Presidency, but control of the House, Senate, Governorships and thousands of down-ballot races all up in the air. (New York Times, July 29^th, Attachment Two)

ABDICATION WEEK BEGINS... the Timeline

SUNDAY NIGHT/MONDAY, JULY 21st and 22^nd

Late Sunday night, Time overTimer Brian Bennett followed (Attachment Three) the final hours of the Biden campaign with a handful of die-hard staffers braving the infectious beach house in Delaware to attend the death watch.

For his Saturday Night Flight, the President gathered together in his beach house “his deputy chief of staff Annie Tomasini, his Congress whisperer Steve Ricchetti, and the keeper of his political voice, Mike Donilon, as well as First Lady Jill Biden and her senior advisor Anthony Bernal,” and said that he had come to the historic decision to step out of the race less than four months before Election Day.”

With the resignation eliciting resignation (but also, howsoever silently, relief) from Team Joe, the posse went to sleep and, on Sunday, Biden called Vice President Kamala Harris to tell her he intended to leave the top of the ticket and endorse her. “He soon read in (Jeff) Zients, his Chief of Staff, and then broke the news to Jen O'Malley Dillon, his campaign chair, who had spent the past several days assuring donors, senators, members of Congress, the press, and the President’s allies that Biden wasn’t going anywhere.

“She was wrong.”

NBC, following the Republican reaction to Joe’s resignation (Attachment Four) reported that Vance, holding a rally in Middletown, Ohio, accused accused Barack Obama, George Soros and other "elite" Democrats of conspiring to throw Joe Biden overboard.

J.D.’s warm up act, Ohio State Sen. George Lang, a Republican who was one of the speakers at Vance’s event in Middletown, Ohio, suggested the U.S. might need to have a civil war if Trump and Vance lose this fall.

“Donald Trump and Butler County’s JD Vance are the last chance to save our country, politically,” Lang told the (presumably well-armed, but well-secured crowd at Middletown High School. “I’m afraid if we lose this one, it’s going to take a civil war to save this country, and it will be saved.”

If not civil war, then perhaps litigation... as House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana told ABC News that the move by Democrats to replace President Biden as the party's nominee would be "I think unlawful.” Old Sick Joe’s battle with the Plague still raging, Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Co, posted on X that she "... demanded proof of life from Joe Biden.”

Doctors, responding that no body bags had been thrown into the Potomic by Deep Staters, then reported that Joe was well on his way to recovery.

Vance, his square shot at Harris unsettled and his new opponent unknown, told his Ohio MAGAzoids that, learning that now “President Trump's gonna get to debate her," he added: "I'm kind of pissed off about that."

Fox News was also pissed off at the asses having denied Whoopi Goldberg’s plea to let them let Joe stay the course (Attachment Six), but published a podcasted warning by Sen. Ted Cruz (D-Tx) not to underestimate Harris... despite warning that the switcheroo had thrown Democrats “into chaos” but... as contended Washington’s youngest Congressman (Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla)... “This will probably boil down to Donald Trump, who is (now) the oldest nominee in history, against Kamala Harris."

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Oh, told his Red Elephants to just move on. "In three and a half years we've literally went from a secure border to no border, safe streets to record crime, $2 gas to $4 gas, and we went from stable prices to record inflation," the congressman said. "Those facts aren't going to change no matter who the Democrats try to run. So I'm focused on making sure President Trump and JD Vance are our next president and vice president. We win the Senate and keep the House. That's what we gotta do so we can deliver for the American people."

Polls also confirmed that there was little change in the preferences of voters shortly after the switcheroo.

The Fox also solicited and received confirmation from Sen. Joe Manchin (I-W.V.) who said he would not run either for the Vice Presidency or for the top dog job as an Independent. Applauding President Joe Biden's "legacy" during an appearance on CNN Monday, the also-geriatric Manchin declaimed (without specifically saying he would endorse Harris) that: “It’s a new generation, you don’t want a 76-year-old vice president right now."

No mention of an 82-year-old President – which Djonald UnCivil would be if victorious in November over a rival as bad as... maybe more evil than... Joe Biden.

“There are two words to describe Kamala Harris: vicious and dumb. It’s a bad combination,” the 78-year-old Republican presidential nominee told the MAGAlicious New York Post on Monday afternoon (see below) while Kamala, and First Lady Jill now played down incidents of Bidenesque “unwanted kissing” as arose during the 2020 primaries.

Denounced as “Laffin’ Kamala” for her diction as well as for her leniency as Biden’s “border czar” for the past three years, campaign spokesman Ammar Moussa replied that: “Vice President Kamala Harris has held criminals accountable her entire career — and Donald Trump will be no different,” as politicians, parasites, pop idols and plain old (and young) people all across the America hastened to proclaim their loyalty.

Seeing the trend trending and the memes meeming, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi backtracked, later on Monday issuing a statement endorsing Harris, after initially declining to do (so).

Monday also saw the beginnings of issue-oriented campaigns such as Democrats advocate and Republicans hope will not be overshadowed and overspoken by the noise.

TUESDAY, JULY 23^rd

Some party leaders, cautiously, like former President Barack Obama praised Biden’s decision to step out of the race but stopped short of endorsing Harris. It’s unclear, Yahoo reported, “if she will face any challengers for the nomination ahead of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next month.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries praised both President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris but, for now, also stopped short of endorsing her for president.

"President Biden is a heroic, patriotic, transformational leader who will go down in American history as one of the greatest public servants of all time," Jeffries said.

Jeffries also said he and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer were scheduled to meet with Harris "shortly."

Vance, his square shot at Harris unsettled and his new opponent unknown, had told his Ohio MAGAzoids that, learning that now “President Trump's gonna get to debate her," adding: "I'm kind of pissed off about that."

Fox News was also pissed off at the asses having denied Whoopi Goldberg’s plea to let them let Joe stay the course (Attachment Five), but published a podcasted warning by Sen. Ted Cruz (D-Tx) not to underestimate Harris... despite warning that the switcheroo had thrown Democrats “into chaos” but... as contended Washington’s youngest Congressman (Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla)... “This will probably boil down to Donald Trump, who is (now) the oldest nominee in history, against Kamala Harris."

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Oh, told his Red Elephants to just move on. "In three and a half years we've literally went from a secure border to no border, safe streets to record crime, $2 gas to $4 gas, and we went from stable prices to record inflation," the congressman said. "Those facts aren't going to change no matter who the Democrats try to run. So I'm focused on making sure President Trump and JD Vance are our next president and vice president. We win the Senate and keep the House. That's what we gotta do so we can deliver for the American people."

Polls also confirmed that there was little change in the preferences of voters shortly after the switcheroo.

The Fox also solicited and received confirmation from Sen. Joe Manchin (I-W.V.) who said he would not run either for the Vice Presidency or for the top dog job as an Independent. Applauding President Joe Biden's "legacy" during an appearance on CNN Monday, the also-geriatric Manchin declaimed (without specifically saying he would endorse Harris) that: “It’s a new generation, you don’t want a 76-year-old vice president right now."

No mention of an 82-year-old President – which Djonald UnCivil would be if victorious in November over a rival as bad as... maybe more evil than... Joe Biden.

While Republicans loading up on money, guns and lawyers to prepare for a Purge, Democrats were opening their wallets. Within hours of receiving Biden’s backing, Harris raked in $49.6 million in grassroots donations, according to a spokesperson for her campaign. (Yahoo News, Attachment Six)

With plaudits, the pledges and plunder (“888,000 grassroots donors” making donations in the first 24 hours of the new campaign) were pouring in, Harris was assembling her own Team Kamalama. Former Attorney General Eric Holder has been put in charge of vetting possible running mates for Harris, Reuters reported.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 24^th

Unfortuately for the Red Elephants, Wednesday saw what the admittedly liberal New Republic (Attachment Seven) reported as an undeniably “idiotic Hail Mary”... filing articles of impeachment against still-Vice President Kamala.

Representative Andy Ogles formally introduced articles of impeachment for “high crimes and misdemeanors” over Harris allegedly mishandling the southern U.S. border.

And at least six more bills were submitted in the House of Representatives Tuesday, either calling to “impeach” or “condemn” Harris or calling on Harris to invoke the Twenty-Fifth Amendment to the Constitution and Biden from office with a Cabinet vote.

“None of these bills stand a chance of going anywhere, so their main purpose appears to be performative efforts to stir up the Republican base and make Harris look weaker,” wrote New Republican Hafiz Rashid.

Harris’s popularity has skyrocketed in the last two days, netting a record fundraising haul for Democrats and causing Republicans to panic. Republicans have come up with weak talking points, as Trump is trying to weasel out of debating her and/or argue “that Harris was part of a conspiracy to kill him” (in which case, if unindicted and unconvicted, America and J.D. would get what they would have gotten had Joe stayed the course... a Harris/Vance snarlfest.

Predictably, the New Republic then called the real Republicans racists.

See documents and photos at: https://x.com/Olivia_Beavers/status/1815839150949687533, and at: https://x.com/MacFarlaneNews/status/1815841590964892159

Wednesday’s first post-quit poll... from Reuters/Ipsos... showed that the coming change at the top had only slightly influence the electorate – but in a close election, a slight change in sympathies may make all the difference.

“Vice President Kamala Harris opened up a marginal two-percentage-point lead over Republican Donald Trump after President Joe Biden ended his re-election campaign and passed the torch to her,” the Reuters/Ipsos poll found, compared with a marginal two-point deficit Biden faced against Trump in last week's poll before his Sunday exit from the race.

In poll particulars, 56% of registered voters agreed with a statement that Harris, 59, was "mentally sharp and able to deal with challenges," compared to 49% who said the same of Trump, 78. Only 22% of voters assessed Biden that way.

“Some 80% of Democratic voters said they viewed Biden favorably, compared to 91% who said the same of Harris. Three quarters of Democratic voters said they agreed with a statement that the party and voters should get behind Harris now, with only a quarter saying multiple candidates should compete for the party's nomination.”

The poll also found that...

RFK Junior drained off more support from Trump than from Biden – giving Harris a four point lead in those states in which brainworm boy has qualified as ballot boy...

TranSec Pete Buttigieg, had the highest favorability rating - 37% - of potential Harris running mates in the poll, tho’ a quarter of the registered voters have never heard of him.

One in three had not heard of California Governor Gavin Newsom, who polled about the same and further down the recognition derby, half of registered voters in the poll had never heard of Arizona Senator Mark Kelly and two thirds knew nothing of Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear.

No figures were reported for Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, who many believe to be front-runner in the Veepstakes.

THURSDAY, JULY 22nd

As to the “idiotic Hail Mary” ploy and a perhaps more serious attempt to prevent Biden’s handover of his campaign treasury to Harris, Harvard Law elections expert Nicholas Stephanopoulos would prevail in the event of a challenge, even despite the pro-Trump leanings of the courts.

“Harris has the keys to the account right now and any complaint about that is not going to be resolved by the Federal Elections Commission before the election,” Steph (apparently unrelated to George) said in an interview with Harvard Law Today (Attachment Nine).

Stephanopoulos explained how the party nomination process will work, why Harris should have no trouble accessing campaign funds, and why other legal challenges to Biden’s replacement as candidate will likely fail – citing the difference between funds that are raised by the official Biden-Harris campaign and those raised by supporting organizations, the glacial processing pace of the FEC and the roll call vote of all the different state delegations on August 7. As a legal matter, that roll call on August 7 is going to make Harris the official nominee for the party.”

He also said that the contention by Elon Musk that he was donating $45 million per month to a Trump Super Pac was probably legal. (Musk, however, has now withdrawn his largesse... although he has provided MAGA with a doctored deepfake AI video of the new nominee).

FRIDAY, JULY 22nd

Billionaire Bill Gates stuck his knife (and perhaps ahead, his billfold) into The Donald, opining to France 24 that it would be nice to have a younger candidate in the race. (Attachment Ten)

He didn’t mean Vance.

THE WEEKEND

Time (Attachment Eleven, updated Monday) kept a running score of Harris fundraisers while Trump and Vance perhaps hurt their cause by raising the one issue that would drive purple women blue... reproductive choice.

“Vance was echoing Trump, who in a campaign appearance with Vance in St. Cloud, Minnesota on Saturday, called Harris a “crazy liberal,” accused her of wanting to “defund the police” and said she was an "absolute radical” on abortion. The vice president, a vocal proponent of abortion rights, has made clear that she will make Republican-backed efforts to restrict reproductive rights a key plank in her campaign.”

The Hill reported another IPSOS poll... this time partnering with ABC... that showed that 43 percent of Americans say they have a favorable view of Harris — an 8-point jump from last week’s 35-percent favorability rating. (Attachment Twelve)

“Harris’s unfavorability rating also improved since last week’s poll — with 42 percent of Americans now holding an unfavorable opinion of the vice president, down 4 points from last week’s 46 percent.

“With a positive 1-point net favorability rating, Harris outperforms Biden, who has a negative 13-point favorability rating, and Trump, who has a negative 16-point approval rating.”

Trump’s favorability rating, meanwhile, “has cooled off slightly since it received a 9-point bump last week, from 31 percent to 40 percent, after the assassination attempt. This week his favorability rating is 36 percent, and his unfavorability rating is 52 percent.”

And as CNN counted down the days to a precious One Hundred of “one of the fastest-moving and least predictable campaign seasons in memory, after a historic month upended the 2024 presidential race,” (Attachment Thirteen) the one obvious loser was civility.

Trump’s campaign had focused on inflation, border security and crime – and the former president is now arguing that Harris bears just as much blame as Biden on those issues and that she is more liberal than her boss.

“However, Trump has also escalated his attacks on Harris, criticizing her in deeply personal terms at campaign events Friday and Saturday.”

At a conservative Christian gathering in Florida on Friday, he said that Harris had been “a bum three weeks ago” before her ascension to the top of the Democratic ticket and dubbed her “the most incompetent, unpopular and far-left vice president in American history.” 

A Harris spokeswoman responded to Trump’s Minnesota speech by slamming the GOP nominee as a “bitter, unhinged, 78-year-old convicted felon.”

CNN further reported that, whereas Biden and Trump had agreed to another debate – one that would take place on September 10, hosted by ABC – The Donald changed his mind (Attachment Fourteen)... releasing a statement that he wouldn’t commit to any future debates until the Democratic nominee is formally selected.

“Given the continued political chaos surrounding Crooked Joe Biden and the Democrat Party, general election debate details cannot be finalized until Democrats formally decide on their nominee,” campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said on Thursday.

That prompted Harris to reply on social media: “What happened to ‘any time, any place?’”

ABDICATION WEEK... the Issues

Once Vice President Kamala Harris cemented her status as frontrunner in the race to succeed President Joe Biden as the Democratic Party’s nominee for the November presidential election, interested parties expressed interest upon the question of whether she would be a clone of Biden, a flunkey or, perhaps, a different and independent voice upon critical questions of foreign and domestic policy.

So... “what has Harris’s stance been on major foreign policy matters and countries?” asked Al Jazeera, the Qatari-based medium with perhaps an especial interest in some of these questions. (Attachment Fifteen)

Upon the all-important (to the Jazzies) MidEast policy question, “analysts expect Harris, if elected, to largely continue Biden’s approach to the Gaza war: She has repeatedly pledged support for Israel’s security and self-defence, while expressing sympathy for Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

“Harris has defended Israel’s right to self-defence. In December 2023, she said during a briefing “Israel has a right to defend itself. And we [Biden and Harris] will remain steadfast in that conviction” and “we support Israel’s legitimate military objectives to eliminate the threat of Hamas”.

On March 4, Harris called for an immediate truce in Gaza, adding that Israel needs to improve the flow of humanitarian aid in the enclave. A month later, after Iran... a Shiite theocracy hostile to the Sunnis of Saudi Arabia, Qater and other Gulf States... fired rockets into Israel, she called her support “ironclad/”

Similarly, she reiterated support for Ukraine and for NATO – meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the Summit on Peace in Ukraine in Switzerland.

She has also expressed support for containing China’s imperialistic ambitions at a September summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Indonesia’s capital Jakarta, but also criticised former President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Chinese imports, “accusing the Republican of losing a trade war with China and as a result, losing hundreds of thousands of jobs.”

Time and time again, the daughter of an Indian-born mother and a Jamaican-born father has mentioned her Indian heritage and how important the country is to her. (Today, Trump opined that, having no black or Jamaican blood, she was scamming African-American voters.)

But she has also questioned Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalism while supporting President Biden’s cultivation of a “strategic partner” against the Chinese.

Her domestic policy mirrors Biden’s insofar as supporting unionization goes... vowed to empower labor and prevent school book bans while addressing a powerful teachers' union. (Reuters, Attachment Sixteen)

"Today we face a choice between two very different visions of our nation, one focused on the future and the other focused on the past, and we are fighting for the future," she said. "Donald Trump and his extreme allies want to take our nation back to failed trickle-down economic policies, back to union-busting, back to tax breaks for billionaires."

But Axios (Attachment Seventeen) accuses the Vice President of “border confusion.”

Driving the news: “In the past few days, the Trump campaign and Republicans have tagged Harris repeatedly with the "border czar" title — which she never actually had.”

"Harris was appointed 'border czar' in March of 2021, and since that time, millions and millions of illegal aliens have invaded our country and countless Americans have been killed by migrant crime because of her willful demolition of American borders and laws," Trump told reporters recently.

Supporters have rushed to her defense. "She assumed the role that Vice President Biden had during the Obama administration, which is diplomacy with Central America," former DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson told Fox News on Tuesday. "She is not the border czar."

"This administration's executive actions have brought unauthorized crossings to a lower level than when Trump left office. President Biden and Vice President Harris are leading on border security, while congressional Republicans sabotage it," White House spokesperson Andrew Bates also defended her... citing the House rejection of a bipartisan border bill, allegedly at the command of Ol’ 45, who, also allegedly, prefers chaos at the border as politically helpful.

The liberal Huffington Post, in fact, reported on Trump’s fear and loathing after Old Sick Joe passed the torch... reprinting Truth Social posts complaining that: “It’s not over! Tomorrow Crooked Joe Biden’s going to wake up and forget that he dropped out of the race today!”

Trump’s meltdown arrived hours after Biden’s historic announcement and endorsement of Vice President Harris - a move that the Huffers contend, has “already sparked attacks from Republicans including at least one who compared it to a “coup.”

At his first rally since Joe’s abdication, Trump repeatedly linked the Veep to the Prez. "Just like crooked Joe Biden, Kamala Harris is unfit to lead. She's unfit to lead, she'll destroy our country in a year, this country will be destroyed," Trump said at his rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Wednesday. (ABC, Attachment Nineteen)

"As you know, three days ago, we officially defeated the worst president in the history of our country, Crooked Joe Biden," Trump said. "So now we have a new victim to defeat. Lyin' Kamala Harris – Lyin', apostrophe – the most incompetent and far left vice president in American history," Trump said.

The Harris campaign declared that Trump's attacks on Harris signaled his message of unity following his assassination attempt.

"Unity is over for Donald Trump – he is back with an unhinged, weird, and rambling speech," Harris for President spokesperson Ammar Moussa said in a statement. "But the American people won't be fooled or distracted."

Trump, like Harris and Biden, met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Palm Beach, Fla., (Washington Post, July 26^th, Attachment Twenty) in which he called her “disrespectful” to Israel.

And, as noted above, the New York Post reported that he had called Kamala “vicious and dumb” after all-but-secured the nomination following The Big Quit. (Attachment Twenty One) The Post, reaching out to the skeptical Left, recycled old Harris accusations that “brutally attacked Biden at the time for once opposing interracial school busing and also making some women uncomfortable during interactions with them” and even older charges that, as San Francisco D.A. between 2004 and 2011, she supervised 1900 marijuana convictions.

Subsequently, the Vice replied that she “had smoked pot in college while listening to Tupac and Snoop Dogg.”

On Monday, her stepdaughter Ella Emhoff and husband Doug’s ex-wife took issue with J.D.’s attack on “childless cat ladies”. Ella and her brother Cole reportedly refer refer to the vice president as “Momala.” (NBC News, Attachment Twenty Two)

The Peacock did not report whether or not Kammie owns a kitty. Distractify says that she does not. Trump may or may not be gratified – but he certainly took issue with her purported animal-libber tendencies (see below) such as supporting California’s ban on foie gras and even extending to an eventual prohibition on meat and milk.

“What would happen to the cows?” the Ex asked.

Speaking of Harris and the other white meat... most of her leadinv Vice Presidential aspirants... Politico (July 21^st, Attachment Twenty Three) began with nine of the most talked-about Vice Vices... which placed the uber-Kosher Shapiro at the top of her list.

Posting a “snapshot” of the Nefarious Nine, most were already on this or that wish list (or hate list) with only Gretchen Whitmer (female) and Gov. Wes Moore (black) outside the profile.

As suddenly docile donkeys, labor leaders, LGBTQ+ activists, sorority sisters at Zeta Phi Beta (part of the "Divine Nine" -- a collection of nine historically black fraternities and sororities, Hillary Clinton (who said that Harris was "chronically underestimated”) lined up behind Harris, VEEPSTAKES contenders were pitching their pitches... but humbly.

Kelly, the astronaut, dodged questions from an ABC News reporter Tuesday about whether he received vetting materials for a potential vice presidential ticket.

"This is not about me," he said. "I'm going to be focused on doing everything I can to make sure she is elected because we cannot have a repeat of what we saw between 2016 and 2020."

(ABC, Attachment Twenty Four)

USA then cut the laundry list to Lucky seven (Attachment Twenty Five). Out went Governors Cooper and Beshear (because their replacements would likely be Republicans). Back on the list went Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz who, during an appearance Tuesday on "Morning Joe," took direct swings at Vance, who is thought to be a lunch pail messenger to working class voters.

"What I know is people like JD Vance know nothing about small-town America," Walz said.

"He gets it all wrong, it's not about hate, it's not about collapsing in," he added. "The golden rule there is mind your own damn business. Their policies are what destroyed rural America. They've divided us. They're in our exam rooms. They're telling us what books to read."

Like “Hillbilly Elegy”?

Day by day, the media added, restored and, ultimately, dropped potential Veeps from Kamala’s list... nine, to seven, to four and then (as proposed the Independent U.K.) just two... Shapiro and Kelly

Both men are from key battleground states in the 2024 presidential race and have a history of defeating candidates endorsed by Donald Trump at the ballot box. (Attachment Twenty Six)

“Some may see Shapiro as a good candidate for the ticket, as a fellow state attorney general. The 51-year-old is highly popular as the governor of Pennsylvania and enjoys the support of plenty of Republicans as well as Democrats.”

In 2022, “he beat the ultra-MAGA Doug Mastriano, whom Trump had endorsed. He has received high marks for his handling of multiple crises, including the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, which borders Pennsylvania, and, more recently, the attempted assassination of Trump at a rally in the town of Butler.”

As the state attorney general (which gives him a point in common with Harris), Shapiro focused heavily on combating crime in Pennsylvania, “which has at times rankled progressives in the way Harris’ record as a prosecutor has. In addition, when Trump sued Pennsylvania to challenge the 2020 election results, Shapiro beat him back in lawsuits.”

On the other hand, Kelly a 60-year-old former astronaut and Navy combat pilot won his seat in 2022, roundly defeating Republican challenger Blake Masters – another Trump-backed ultra-MAGA, who, like JD Vance, is a disciple of venture capitalist Peter Thiel.

“Kelly stepped into politics after his wife, former congresswoman Gabby Giffords, was shot in the head and was forced to retire in 2011. Since then, he’s become an outspoken advocate for ending gun violence – an issue that will almost certainly be key on Harris’ agenda.

A border-state Democrat, Kelly could push back on criticisms from Republicans that Trump would be better at handling immigration.

“As a veteran, he has taken up late Senator John McCain’s mantle as an ardent defender of Ukraine, which would contrast with Vance’s opposition to supporting the country against Putin’s aggression. However, his record in Arizona might lead Democrats to want to keep him in the Senate.”

What appears to be a minority opinion... that Harris should pick Whitmer and run on an all-female ticket,,, was endorsed by David... yes, David... Faris in the July 25^th edition of the liberal Slate. (Attachment Twenty Seven)

This reading of the politics of the moment is grounded in a misunderstanding of recent American history.

“Because one woman was defeated in a general election—Hillary Clinton in 2016—many people have concluded that any woman would do worse than a similarly positioned man. In Democratic circles, this isn’t even subtext. Even Black Democrats are worried that, because Harris is not just a woman but a Black woman, the balance the ticket needs is a white man—especially given that as the race gets underway in earnest, Harris may in fact still be running slightly behind Republican nominee and former President Donald Trump.

“But it strains credibility on a basic level to assume that Americans would vote for one but not two women. And the idea that women are somehow uniquely badly positioned to win the presidency is difficult to sustain. For one thing, Clinton won 2.7 million more votes nationally than Trump, just in the “wrong” places, according to our nonsensical electoral system. She also bested several men in the Democratic primaries and caucuses that year.”

And, exclaims Mister Faris, you don’t have to look very far back in history to see a woman of color doing not only just fine in public opinion polling but much better than her male rivals. That would be former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who was absolutely mopping the floor with Biden in head-to-head opinion polls before she dropped out of the race, leading him by an average of 4.4 points as of March 5.

NBC, however, has picked their man... and it’s Shapiro (July 25^th, Attachment Twenty Eight). Their rationale was in the roster of Republicans who all expressed public fear that the Pennsylvania Governor would strengthen the Harris ticket (and perhaps even private hope that four more years of Democrats would, at least, lay rest Trump... his vengefulness, his weirdness and his ghosts).

One told the Peacock that Shapiro has avoided blistering attacks from Republican counterparts “because he’s actually pretty moderate,” adding that the governor, an observant Jew, could speak to disaffected voters of faith who years ago voted for Democrats but now feel detached from the party — and might even be a stronger candidate than Harris.

“Shapiro creates a super interesting dynamic,” this person added.

A second Trump ally said that while they did not view Shapiro as a moderate, they saw his “really nonthreatening” persona as having boosted his credibility with independents and Republicans. This person added that Shapiro is “the one that does the most to help her.”

“He’s the obvious one,” this person added. “So if it’s not him, there’s a reason that’s not him in my mind. Whether that is in the vetting or a personality clash. He’s the one that jumps out off the page as, ‘Why wouldn’t you pick that person?’”

Most prominently, Erin McClelland, the Democratic nominee for Pennsylvania state treasurer tweeted that she wants “a VP pick that’s secure enough to be second under a woman, is content to be VP & won’t undermine the President to maneuver his own election & doesn’t sweep sexual harassment under the rug.”

So, there’s no shortage of competent, competitive (and sane) options for Harris now that President Joe has declared himself President No (at least after January, 2025). “The best time for Biden to have dropped out of the presidential race would have been several weeks ago, in the panicked days” after the American public saw on that dreadful debate stage “a man incapable of prosecuting a vigorous campaign against Donald Trump, a would-be dictator,” the liberal Guardian U.K. reminds us, and “who was either unable or unwilling to make a reasoned, principled defense of abortion rights, the Democrats’ strongest issue.”

“The second best time is now,” GUK declaimed last week (Attachment Twenty Nine) By Saturday, another GUKpinionator celebrated “a generational shift in US politics, a symbolic passing of the torch from parent to progeny. (Attachment Thirty)

And the Veep will have a posse at her back amidst the ranks of the Hollywood power brokers... actors, directors, producers – none more visible than George Clooney who, having accomplished one mission in getting tired old Joe to step down and preserve his legacy, now has to deliver the votes, the money and the celebrity enthusiasm to Harris or risk losing his legacy. (Los Angeles Times, Attachment Thirty One)

Clooney, having written a “blistering” Op-Ed for the New York Times, saying, “The Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fundraiser was not the Joe ‘big F-ing deal’ Biden of 2010” (but) the same man we all witnessed at the debate.”

Clooney’s public excoriation proved to be a tipping point, creating a public relations disaster for the Biden campaign and emboldened others to echo: “Go away, Joe!”

Barely a month ago, a veritable who’s who of Hollywood A-listers had turned out for President Joe. The event, organized by former DreamWorks Animation Chief Executive Jeffrey Katzenberg, drew George Clooney, Barbra Streisand and Julia Roberts.

Latenite Komik Kritik Jimmy Kimmel moderated an interview with Biden and former President Barack Obama at the gathering in downtown Los Angeles’ Peacock Theater. Sheryl Lee Ralph sang and Jack Black entertained the star-studded crowd wearing a pair of American flag overalls.

“The evening raised more than $30 million, the largest one-night campaign haul in Democratic history.

“But behind the fawning praise and laughs, cracks began to appear in the public façade,” wrote three Coastly Timers.

Dazillionaire donkey donors like Katzenberg, Abigail Disney, Barry Diller; performers like John Legend, Ariana Grande and Beyonce who had closed their checkbooks as Covid joined Biden’s presumed dementia sprang back to life.

“There is an increased excitement — the feeing is palpable,” said Legend. “There is an optimism that people are feeling now that they were not feeling before that we can ride this moment to victory.”

“An election that was previously characterized by dread and grim resignation is now characterized by the excitement of possibility,” “Lost” co-creator Damon Lindelof wrote in an email to The Times, adding that he has been a “huge fan” of Harris since she first ran for California attorney general in 2010. “I have yet to speak to a single person who hasn’t been deeply impressed by everything she has said ... during this emotionally intense and complicated time. We’re wildly inspired by this potential ticket and we’ll give accordingly.’

As the praise and endorsements rolled in, so has the money.

Spahn, the political consultant, noted that Harris raised $81 million in the first 24 hours after Biden announced he would not seek reelection, a record-breaking haul. “More to come,” Spahn said.

Nikki Haley’s “more” was more groveling and fawning as a supporting act in the RNC lackeys’ low comedy club... claiming to support Trump because , “didn’t do anything to fight what’s happening at the border.” (WashPost, Attachment Thirty Two) She also predicted (after the fact) that Sick Old Joe would be wheeled out on a gurney and transported to a Home, an Other Home.

"I wasn't surprised, and I didn't take happiness in it. I mean, I think through the whole campaign, I fought for mental competency tests. I wasn't doing it to be disrespectful. I wasn't doing it to be mean. I was doing it because I think it's not just Joe Biden," Haley gloated (albeit humbly). (Attachment Thirty Three, on Friday)

She continued, "There is an issue that we have in D.C. where people will go into office and they won't let go, and then their staffers and their family keep propping them up. And it's a problem for the American people.

“Forty-eight hours is an aeon in American politics, especially if you are Joe Biden and the party that you lead, and a relentlessly growing number of your closest allies within it, are turning inexorably against you,” GUK’s Ed Pilkington began his autopsy a week ago. (Attachment Thirty Four)

Over the weekend, prominent Democratic donors and celebrities, down-balloteers worried about the weakness at the top and the roughly have of America still un-MAGAgated called on Biden to end his campaign. Adding her name to that of Adam Schiff, Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren told Biden bluntly that his candidacy was “on a trajectory to lose the White House and potentially impact crucial House and Senate races down ballot” while the “rot” deepened and the “stamp of Pelosi, and other leading Democrats who had been pushing Biden to quit from behind the scenes, was beginning to tell.

“As Biden continued to self-isolate in his house in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, with the first lady, Jill Biden, only able to support him from a separate room, the president could sit and stew over the many of his supposed political friends who were abandoning him.”

And with the walls closing in, “it couldn’t have helped Biden’s mood that Trump was delighting in his misery.”

So, late on Saturday, he called two of his closest advisers, Mike Donilon and Steve Ricchetti, to the vacation home and together “far into the night” they wrote the announcement letter, according to the New York Times.

As he said in it, the presidency had been “the greatest honor” of his life, and now he was kissing it goodbye.

“But that was then,” GUK concluded. “The 48 hours were now done. A new era begins.”

And what might that new era look like. Perhaps Iran, if Trump’s sermon to a gathering of conservative Christians, “Let’s get out and vote, just this time. You won’t have to do it anymore. Four more years, you know what? It’ll be fixed. It’ll be fine. You won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians.” (CNN, Attachment Thirty Five)

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ar) hastened to declare that Trump’s comments were “obviously a joke,” but he could not shrug off VP Vance’s promise that a new administration would use Federal power to prevent women from leaving states where abortion is restricted to seek abortions elsewhere.

“What JD is saying – or what JD has said since he became the vice-presidential nominee, it’s the same thing that President Trump has said. He is pro-life,” said Cotton, who did not specify whether those women who tried to escape to other countries would be extradited to face years behind bars.

If not Iran, then, how about Cuba... or electionish-embroiled Venezuela?

FOX Business host Larry Kudlow called Kamala Harris is a 'big government, California socialist'.

And ubiquitous TV ambulance-chasing attorney John Morgan said that Democrats had enough money without more of his.

"Harris brings a lot of great things to the table. Women, she'd be the best speaker on abortion, her heritage... Very good things. But is she the best messenger or is she the best person? [Are] her ways the best ways to go forward? And for me, I don't think so," he said.

The Fox, also reporting on Oogly Ogles’ “idiotic Hail Mary” (impeaching VP Harris before the election – see Attachment Seven, above)

"Kamala Devi Harris has demonstrated extraordinary incompetence in the execution of her duties and responsibilities, a stark refusal to uphold the existing immigration law, and a palpable indifference to people of the United States suffering as a result of the ongoing southern border crisis in the United States," the impeachment articles state.

"During her tenure as the designated border czar, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency ‘encountered' nearly 302,000 illegal aliens at the southwest border in December 2023, the highest monthly total ever recorded and representing 4 consecutive months of over 240,000 illegal alien ‘encounters.'"

Nonetheless, the money has kept flowing in like the illegal Mexicans, Hondurans and... Republicans whisper or shout... terrorists from Russia, China or the MidEast.

Axios reported that Harris brought in $200 million during the first week of her presidential campaign, with 66% of all donations coming from first-time donors, according to the campaign. (Attachment Thirty Eight) More than 170,000 new volunteers have joined the Harris campaign in the week since Biden dropped out and endorsed her as the nominee, also per the campaign.

"The momentum and energy for Vice President Harris is real — and so are the fundamentals of this race: this election will be very close and decided by a small number of voters in just a few states," Michael Tyler, the campaign's communications director, wrote in the campaign memo.

Consequently, Democrats have new hope (now that President Biden has stepped aside from his reelection campaign and Vice President Harris has the nomination within her grasp) that the battleground states, which had been leaning heavily towards Trump, are back in play.

Niall Stanage of the Hill scrutinized some of these on Thursday (Attachment Thirty Nine) and reported that...

Arizona

Trump leads Harris by a sizable 7.2 points in The Hill/DDHQ average in Arizona. That’s a slightly wider lead than the former president enjoyed over Biden, though all the polls predated his exit. The state’s low black population is cited, but if Harris chooses Sen. Kelly, then prospects might improve.

Georgia

The Hill/DDHQ average, which includes polls from before Biden decided to step aside, shows Trump leading Harris by 4.6 points in Georgia. He had led Biden by 3.7 points. The only poll to appear since Biden’s shock announcement showed a closer race — Trump was up by just 1 point in the survey, from Landmark Communications.

Michigan

Trump leads Harris by 2.2 points in the Wolverine State, exactly the same margin as Biden. There have, however, been no major Michigan polls since Harris effectively claimed the nomination.

Nevada

In the DDHQ polling average, Trump leads Harris by more than 8 points here. But, again, no significant polling has emerged from the Silver State since she became the de facto nominee. And Kelly might be able to cut into or even wipe out that deficit too.

Pennsylvania

The biggest of all the swing states, with 19 electoral votes up for grabs. Trump holds an edge of about 4 points on Harris, just as he had on Biden. Here, Shapiro could work in the Democrats’ favor.

Wisconsin

Harris’s first full-blown campaign event after Biden pulled out was in the Milwaukee area. The city will be crucial to her hopes of holding onto a state that Biden won by just six-tenths of a percentage point in 2020. The Hill/DDHQ average has Trump leading Harris by less than 2 points in the state, essentially the same as his margin over Biden.

Politico, however, expressed the view that a “white-knuckle ride through the Rust Belt isn’t Kamala Harris’ only option,” (Attachment Forty) positing a sort of Southern and Sunbelt strategy that “begins somewhat implausibly in rapidly growing North Carolina, a state that has voted almost exclusively Republican in presidential races over the past half-century” but “by just 75,000 votes out of more than 5.5 million cast in 2020, a considerably smaller winning margin than in 2016.”

“In both Arizona and Nevada, Harris might have additional tailwinds that were unavailable to Biden. Arizona could have an abortion rights initiative on the ballot; polls suggest it has majority support. If so, it could spark turnout that would bolster Harris, who has spearheaded the Democratic Party’s post-Dobbs messaging.

“In Nevada, which Trump has lost twice, Harris begins with a degree of familiarity unavailable to most presidential nominees. Being a Californian isn’t an unalloyed asset in its neighboring state, but over the past six years, Harris has spent an inordinate amount of time establishing relationships and courting local voters, dating back to the run-up to her unsuccessful 2020 presidential primary bid.”

The campaign will have to concentrate its firepower at some point. Hard decisions will need to be made about which states to pour resources into and which states to cut loose — a standard practice in every presidential campaign. But for the moment, “the mere prospect of the electoral map opening up, rather than shrinking, is a promising development for Democrats after an unrelenting run of bad news in the presidential race.”

The Hill... deemed and esteemed as among the most influential and prescient political journals alongside Politico and Axios stood out as to a potential Democratic roadblock – a partisan decision by Sean Cooksey, the Trump-appointed chair of the Federal Election Commission (FEC), suggesting last Monday that Vice President Harris “may not be able to access the millions of dollars remaining from President Biden’s campaign, which many campaign finance lawyers say is rightfully hers.” (Attachment Forty One)

“I think it’s really complicated, is the short answer,” Cooksey told “Morning Edition” on NPR. “What (Biden’s) attempting to do is to give his entire committee, the cash and all the assets, over to another person.”

“I think it’s gonna have to go through a process, through the FEC,” Cooksey added. “I expect, there’s probably going to be challenges to that at the agency, and probably in the courts as well.”

Meaning that delays and obfuscation could vitiate the transfer of funds (in which case they may be transferred to the Democratic National Committee or to a super PAC supporting the nominee).

If the money transfer bureaucracy is harassing Harris, the liberal New Republic reported that Trump is having a “tantrum” over the replacement of weak old Joe with a younger, more energetic Kamala.

In response to Biden’s announcement that he would address the country at 8:00 p.m.* on Wednesday to discuss “what lies ahead, and how I will finish the job for the American people,” the Trump campaign’s general counsel David Warrington sent letters to ABC, NBC, and CBS demanding that the former president be granted equal airtime, according to The New York Times. (Attachment Forty Two)

Warrington also joined in litigation against the treasury transrer.

While Harris, Trump and their aides and attorneys fight over the $91.5M war chest, Biden is fighting for his legacy, according to the Associated Press (Attachment Forty Three).

“If (Harris) wins, then it will be confirmation that he did the right thing to fight against the threat that is Trump, and he will be seen as a legend on behalf of democracy,” said presidential historian Lindsay Chervinsky, executive director of the George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon. “If she loses, I think there will be questions about, did he step down too late? Would the Democratic Party have been more effective if he had said he was not going to run?”

Biden this week promised the staffers of his former campaign that he was still “going to be on the road” as he handed off the reins of the organization to Harris, adding, “I’m not going anywhere.”

“His advisers say he intends to hold campaign events and fundraisers benefiting Harris, albeit at a far slower pace than had he remained on the ballot himself.

“Harris advisers will ultimately have to decide how to deploy the president, whose popularity sagged as voters in both parties questioned his fitness for office.”

The president’s allies insist that no matter what, Biden’s place in the history books is intact – if only because he prevented a Trump second term.

For four years?

“If the Republicans get dual majorities, they’re going to claw back as much as they can,” predicted Matt Bennett, co-founder of the center-left think tank Third Way. “They’re going to undo as much as they can and not only will that be a disaster for America and the world, it’ll be really bad for the Biden legacy.”

On the partisan media battleground, the Huffington Post reveled in the Fox News “meltdown” (Attachment Forty Four)

What some Foxes said...

Kellyanne Conway ― who served in the Trump White House ― said Harris “does not speak well” and “does not work hard.”

“Take Biden’s family of grifters back to Delaware,” Sean Hannity said.

Jesse Watters claimed “the entire Biden presidency has been a lie” and that it was “ending in disgrace.”

Over on Laura Ingraham’s show, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) delivered conspiracy theories about how “they” haven’t decided who will replace Biden, and said it would be a “suicide mission” to run against Trump anyway.

Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) claimed the party is “pushing” Harris “to see if she collapses really soon” so they can then replace her as well.

And another Fox News host, Harris Faulkner, delivered some conspiracy theories of her own, saying democracy is being “upended” by Biden’s withdrawal from the race, that Democrats are a “threat” to democracy, and then declared that Harris may not be the nominee after all.

The pro-Trump New York Post voiced a conspiracy theory that “...(o)peratives at the very highest levels of the Democratic Party threatened Joe Biden with forcibly removing him from office unless he stepped down.”

Operatives above Joe?

Oprahtives?

Maybe. These sinister, shadowy asses promulgated an “elaborate” strategy to purge Biden from the race by allowing the “confused, slack-jawed and froze(n)” President to debate Republican candidate Donald Trump last month on live TV in Atlanta.

“As calls for him to bow out mounted, Biden insisted he would continue, but (anonymous) party bigwigs threatened to invoke the 25th Amendment to the US Constitution.”

And, inevitably, Hunter Biden “suddenly became more involved in his father’s day-to-day business and insisted upon attending every official and unofficial meeting,” a “source” said.

Another mystery “source” said that Democratic Party insiders have also known for at least two years how Biden was in decline. “When I saw him a couple of years ago, it was frightening,” said the source. “He was just repeating slogans and had no idea who I was.”

If Trump is panicking over Biden’s replacement, consider poor old Putin.

The news that President Joe Biden would not run for re-election caused a stir not only in America, but also in Russia, “where pro-Kremlin propagandists are kicking up a fuss about what it would mean for their beloved Donald Trump,” according to the Daily Beast (Attachment Forty Six)

State Duma member Oleg Matveychev angrily described Harris as “distilled evil.”

“In her, you have the devil in its purest form,” he said. “He (or she) always appears to be laughing and positive. The devil doesn’t have horns and hooves, (she) says that everything is ok and flashes a white-toothed grin.”

Moscow’s premier propagandist Vladimir Solovyov predicted that the situation in America would be “pure hell” for the next four months. Andrey Bezrukov, a former KGB sleeper agent, described it as the minefield for Trump and Republicans, while pundit Vladimir Kornilov said: “I already know what the new message of this campaign will be: look at how old Trump is!” He surmised, “This will be a serious problem for Trump from the standpoint of the campaign of the Democrats.”

Americanist Dmitry Drobnitsky described the Biden administration as a failure. “This administration failed at everything!” he said. “Name one project where they’ve succeeded. There aren’t any. They couldn’t even kill or imprison Trump,” lamented the Beast.

“The unspoken truth that could be read between the lines is that Russian President Vladimir Putin never failed to imprison and/or kill his opponents (Navalny, Prighozhin) —and his propagandists apparently consider it to be one of his virtues.

Solovyov described Trump’s delivery to that of a televangelist and said that according to his friend Steven Seagal, Trump “no longer considers himself God’s messenger, but believes he is God himself.”

Russians, Reuters riposted, are probably taking a more cautious view of the handover as to how it affects what Bad Vlad calls the “special military operation” in Ukraine. Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

"In recent years, what has been happening in the United States has taught us not to be surprised by anything," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call.

"We were not very surprised." (Attachment Forty Seven)

"What does it matter to us whether it is Harris, Trump, Biden or (George) Bush?" Andrei Popkov, a 52-year-old programmer, told Reuters in the shadow of the Bolshoi Theatre in central Moscow.

"Did we ever have anything good other than chicken legs?" he said. The so called "nozhki Busha", or "Bush legs", were supplied to Russia after a deal between Mikhail Gorbachev and George H.W. Bush.

And now, GUK asks whether Biden... post-abdication... will be a legacy maker or “a lame duck” without even the frisson of tasty legs until he becomes a dead duck, one way or another (or another) in 2025,

Joe Biden still has six months left as the US president and commander-in-chief, and foreign leaders could have been expected to write off the American president as a lame duck. Many were preparing “for a sea change in US policy under a potential Donald Trump administration, guided by his America First views that are broadly skeptical of Europe, unsympathetic toward Ukraine, hawkish on China and pro-Israel.

“But by abandoning a losing campaign that seemed destined to throw the election to Trump, Biden may have a chance to pass on his legacy to a next (presumably Kamalan) Democratic administration.

“I think until today decision making in Jerusalem, Moscow, Beijing or Tehran rested on the confident assumption that the next US president would be called Trump,” Dr Constanze Stelzenmüller, director of the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution told the Guardian after the Big Quit. (Attachment Forty Eight)

Dr Liana Fix, a fellow for Europe at the Council on Foreign Relations, said Biden himself would be seen as a “lame duck”, adding: “Foreign leaders will perceive him as on his way out: it will make little sense to try and advance any policy issues with him now.”

“The question is whether US adversaries such as Iran and Russia will try to test the strength and leadership of the US in this transition period, by stepping up escalation in Ukraine or through the Houthis, for example,” she said.

So far, the answer has been that the Israelis are doing the step-up.

The liberal New Republic... anticipating PM Netanyahu’s coming to America to meet and greet Biden (and Harris) and then fly down to Mar-a-Lago to talk (and maybe play golf) with Trump.

It’s no secret that Netanyahu prefers Trump, they wrote (Attachment  Forty Nine) and “would like to see him return to the White House in November. It’s also no secret that Israel’s brutal war has killed more than 39,000 Palestinians in Gaza, including over 15,000 children. Netanyahu has ignored calls for a cease-fire, helping contribute to Biden’s drop in popularity among young people” (including the wealthy, Ivy-educated neo-Nazis) and communities of color. U.S. support for the war has even caused a backlash among labor unions, who on Tuesday joined forces to demand an end to weapons aid to Israel.

Calling their gabfest a private meeting of the “two worst people you know”, the newly Islamacist New Republic opined that the Israeli prime minister is probably hoping for his U.S. visit to shore up support for the war and make sure November’s election doesn’t change the blank check Israel is receiving. “What should happen is that American politicians find some courage, listen to unions, and end weapons shipments to Israel.”

And replace all those racist, imperialist American flags across America with Hamasist, Hezbollan or... at a minimum... Iranian banners.

While Team Trump is gearing up to denounce Harris as a San Francisco liberal, probably a Communist, the real Communists at Jacobin have some reservations of their own. (Attachment Fifty)

Harris, who famously spent her 2020 presidential run flip-flopping on Medicare for All and busing to end racial segregation, “has not often marked herself as a politician with the courage of her convictions, or of someone willing to take meaningful steps to challenge the structures that bedevil working Americans.” contends Jacobin’s resident paleo-Red Branko Marcetic.

While she has “notched notable progressive victories, like bringing successful legal action against rapacious corporate profiteers and advancing some policing reforms,” there remains plenty of reason for disquiet about Harris’s career, not least of all over her time as a prosecutor, the bulk of her career and which she now reportedly plans to lean on as she prepares to take the fight against Donald Trump.

“Harris has been a frequent critic of the criminal-justice system, an encouraging sign. She outlined her philosophy in her 2009 book, Smart on Crime: A Career Prosecutor’s Plan to Make Us Safe, the title of which became a common refrain for Harris...” has had a “respectable” record of standing up to corporate malfeasance, “bamlsters” and polluters. She attacked her rival for Barbara Boxer’s Senate seat for helping “fuel America’s mass incarceration crisis by voting to send more kids to prison, build more prisons and ratchet up mandatory minimums for nonviolent crimes.”

But she also endorsed and enforced the “three strikes law” mandate life imprisonment for minor crimes such as that of a burglar who, confronted by police, threw his knife under a car, and championed a statewide version of an anti-truancy law she had put in place in San Francisco that threatened parents of chronically truant children with as much as a $2,000 fine and a year in jail. “By October 2012, two mothers had been imprisoned under the law.”

She opted not to join in other states’ attempts to take marijuana off the Drug Enforcement Agency’s list of most dangerous substances and, when asked about “legalizing recreational marijuana in 2012,” Harris laughed.

In many, many other instances cited by Jacobin, the now-almost-nominee has come down for or against those whom the left call “working Americans.”

As Marcetic titled his essay: “Which Kamala Harris are we Getting?”

Politico, appropriately, compared Biden’s Presidential record with Harris’... such as it is known... on issues ranging from “Abortion” (both favor restoration of Roe v. Wade) to “Animal Rights” (no foie gras for the rich says Harris... Republicans say she’ll proceed to banning burgers and milkshakes). (Attachment Fifty One)

And finally, Rolling Stone reprinted some of Trump’s rantier rants on Truth Social including... as ever... the 2020 election steal.

And a few nuggets from supporters like Fox News host Hannity, who was literally grasping at straws in his reaction to the news, accusing Vice President Harris of wanting to “ban plastic straws.”

“I love my plastic straws. I hate paper straws,” Hannity told viewers. The host also suggested that the reason voters “detest” Harris is because of her laugh. (Attachment Fifty Two)

“We are witnessing a third-world-style coup engineered by oligarchs as we speak, and it isn’t going to be pretty. Stay calm, folks. It’s about to get crazy,” Harmeet Dhillon, the California Republican National Committeewoman and prominent Trump ally, wrote on X.

As noted in Attachment Ten, above, Bill Gates further opined that: "I think it's great to have somebody who's younger, who can think about things like AI and how we shape that in the right way and I certainly offer up my opinions to the politicians who are interested. So it's going to be an interesting election."

AFTERMATH and off to France...

Today, the morning’s New York Times published a study of the down-ballot races and the chances of either party capturing the House and/or Senate in light of the fantastic fortnight... from assassination to abdication.

Out of the race, but not out of office and certainly not out of gaffes... President Joe unloosed a howler: a revival of the court-packing scheme that almost derailed FDR’s administration before he could even begin to deal with the Depression and World War II. Kamala, still very very Vice-ish and deferential, quietly agreed to this fountain of failed flummoxry.

Former President Trump then reciprocated with a statement of his own, promising the religious far far right that if they elected him in 2024 they would never have to endure another election. It sounded like, was, and is an invitation to a coup... a dictatorial grab by the now oldest candidate ever. Presumably a Veep Vance who succeeded him in the event of death or dementia would sieze the opportunity to wage war against the childless cat ladies of America. And. also, THEM... inasmuch as right-thinking Americans know who they are.

	Our Lesson: July Twenty Second through Twenty Eighth, 2024
Monday, July 22, 2024 Dow: 40443.73	It’s the Morning After... Republicans, outraged... some even surprised (most not)... respond to the loss of their sick, old enemy with conspiring to file a motion to have the resignation un-resigned (in effect, forcing Old Sick Joe to serve through November, campaign and, if he wins, remain as President until 2029 (or until death or demonstrable dementia elevates Kamala to the top job, as now appears to be the case. Speaker Mike, recognizing reality, quickly pivots and says Harris “owns” the Biden record of crimes, gaffes and atrocities; the media admits that Joe remained the leader of a party that didn’t want him anymore. Naturally, all the sweating donkeys and most Republicans heap praises on the quitter, whether in Twitter (or “X”) or on print, broadcast or social media. Trump pretends surprise, expresses disappointment... maybe even a little fear, now that he is the oldest Presidential candate ever (Harold Stassen excepted); “... now we have to start all over!” he snarls. Investigators from the Secret Service, DHS, FBI, DoD and many, many other persons and parties of interest continue investigating Thomas Matthew Crooks while Congress begins investigating the investigators. Secret Service Director Cheadle is in the crosshairs and duly quits on Wednesday. In the real world, wild and wicked weather continues to prowl and pounce... the flooding in the East, the Western wildfires and, in the middle of the country, more deadly twisters. In the reel world, “Twister” the movie, beats out all the cartoons to reign as King of the Box Office.
Tuesday, July 23, 2024 Dow: 40358.09	An “avalanche” of support for Retiring Joe continues to roll down the mountains of Washington (the city) as Democrats quickly line up behind Harris amidst “a fountain of developments.” She raises a record $81M in just 24 hours, $100M over the weekend, and tells American Youth: “Did you just fall out of a coconut tree?” Dems “close ranks” around the Coronated One while J.D. Vance, after a strange discourse on “cat ladies without children” complains that she was selected in “a smoke-filled room”. As Vice Presidential speculation manifests (this time on the left), Harris follows the tracks of the Trump into Milwaukee with the polls still showing no motion – a dead heat, as the media merry-go-round goes around and around. As sports fans look forward to the Paris Olympics and parents combing “Back to School” sales on clothes and supplies, Boeing Starliner astronauts are still Stuck In Space, thousands of Delta travelers stranded at airports in the aftermath of Crowdstrike. Weatherpeople say that, in addition to the epic Biden quit, Sunday was the hottest day on Earth – ever. Ever? Ichtheologists in Brazil report that sharks are dying off, those who wash up on the fabled beaches said to have massive amounts of cocaine in their systems. Up in and around Liberty Island, New York, there is a population explosion of baby sharks.
Wednesday, July 24, 2024 Dow: 39,853.37	Speculations now center on whom Kamalala will choose to be her Vice. From a field of dozens, seven finally emerged, then five, four and it now seems down to two... (Jewish) Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and Arizona Senator (and former astronaut) Mark Kelly. The Dow goes way up on glittering economic reports, then crashes as Tesla stock craters. Elon Musk, the rabid Republican rebel rouser is said to have lost $6 billion and his Number One Rich Man slot after fish fall out of the sky upon one vehicle, prompting the owner to declaim that God did it. Rudy G., his appeals dismissed, now said to owe $150M to creditors and attorneys, Sen. Menendez finally sees the light and resigns. Police and rangers blame the largest Western wildfire outside of Chico, CA on an arsonist. Bad Mom in Houston throws her fetus in a WalMart dumpster, bad Fed Ex driver steals a $5,000 French bulldog and then lets it die in his hot truck and Miss Kansas uses her coronation to call out her domestic violence abuser lurking at the pageant.
Thursday, July 25, 2024 Dow: 39,935.07	President Joe’s “I quit” speech draws tears, jeers, cheers and (mostly) yawns. Next, it’s back to his day job and a meeting with Israel’s Netanyahu who nixes talk of a deal while five more hostages are reported killed and rich, educated young Hitler Youth protest in the streets – buring American and Israeli flags and spraypainting pro-Hamas graffiti on DC landmarks. Next, Bibi will confer with Harris and then down to Mar-a-Lago to talk things over with Trump. Aside from Kamala’s VeepStakes, Don Jones is turning to more mundane matters... back to school shopping, the start of NFL training camp and tomorrow’s Olympics. Celine Dion said to perform and might be joined by Lady Gaga. Snoop Dog is chosen to be one of the torchbearers. French police, on high alert, uncover a Russian plot to torch the ceremonies, and NORAD chases two Chinese and two Russian bombers that are buzzing the coast of Alaska. Billy Joel plays his 150^th and last concert at Madison Square Garden. And Mattel introduces its latest doll – a blind Barbie. (No word yet on the movie sequel.)
Friday, July 26, 2024 Dow: 40,589.34	The Olympics commence. Mystery terrorists sabotage the French railways, incompentent airlines grounded by CrowdStrike security “glitch” and the Seine that the flagbearers float on is filthy, but... hey... it’s the Olympics! (ask Snoop Dogg) In America, assassination and abdication aftershocks continue. Kamala Harris seeks endorsement, gets two from Barak and Michelle Obama. Surprise, surprise, surprise! J.D. doubles down on his childless cat lady meme and asks for a tax on moms who choose not to go barefoot and pregnant. Funding for childcare? We’ll see. Homeowners who lost everything in the Paradise fire and rebuilt lose everything again as Chico, California (it’s Velveea and agriculture) burning to the ground as the Park Fire, at 195.000 acres scorched, overtakes the Camp Fire to become Number One. But America, with only a piddlin’ 200 wildfires, is a pussy compared to the Canadians with 900 – although the smoke drifting south does render Denver’s air quality “unhealthy”. The good news is that Sahara Dust, blowing across the humid, flooded East, prevents more hurricanes from forming. With Trump out of office, doctors and researchers are working hard. Some are developing an artificial heart transplant doohickey made out of titanium. Others contend that the vaxxing that fights shingles can also be used to fight dementia. (Of course, the anti-vaxxers want more demented, gullible Americans.)
Saturday, July 27, 2024 Dow: Closed	Olympics opening night opens with Lady Gaga, Celine Dion and lots of Eurostars. Les Flics erect barricades to combat Les Terroristes. While Kamala vacillates on her vice, Vance and Trump accuse her of running a Shadow Government with a Shadow Cabinet from, of course, the Shadows. Trump goes on the offense, showering praises and promises on a convention of Crypto-crooks because, after all, criminals help each other out. And street crime is everywhere and always. Illinois hot water killer cop Sean Grayson goes to court and pleads not guilty for murdering a black woman in her kitchen. Fed Ex driver steals a $5,000 French bulldog and then leaves it to die in his hot truck. Bad Mom is arrested for throwing her fetus into a WalMart dumpster. Rich, white Neo-Nazi protesters burn American and Israeli flags and spraypaint graffiti calling for Hamas to conquer America. While Celine and Lady G. flounce round France, Billy Joel concludes his final concert at Madison Square Garden.
Sunday, July 28, 2024 Dow: Closed	Talking heads sum up the fantastic, sometimes fatal, fortnite as Kamala raises $200M and, for the first time in many years, a Democrats holds a narrow favorable/unfavorable poll count, 43 to 42%. Trump, despite his “Braveheart” survival, remains mired at 36% pro, 52% con with gaff-alicious Vance even worse. Donkey Guv’nor Wes Moore of Maryland brays his support of her ascension (and Old Sick Joe’s retrat), telling The Week that the more people learn about the Veep, “the more they will like her.” Maybe. He adds that 2024 will not only be about democracy, but about “values”. Fellow ass hauling Kamala’s wagon (and fellow VP aspirant) billionaire Gov. Pritzker (D-Il) says Trump, on the other hand, seeks power only for his personal game. The Republican responder, NH Gov. Sununu, says voters care about crime, the economy and immigration, not race or “energy” (Mr. Crooks was very energetic) while hating “liberalism and elitism.” On “Face the Nation”, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) defends not shaking hands with Israeli PM Netanyahu and, thus, supporting neo-Nazi pro-Hamas student protesters. Bibi, unfazed, meets with Joe and Kamala and then flies down to Mar-a-Lago to confer with Trump... all three agree with his “win the war” policy (with the usual concern for civilian murders). Then, Hezbollah launches rockets into Israeli soccer field, killing twelve children and furthering the cause of war extending to Syria and Lebanon (and, perhaps, Iran). And in the American outdoors, the Park wildfire reburning Paradise (Ca.) spreads to 100,000 acres; all told, the hundred-plus conflagrations have been 2000X more destructive than in 2023, but still pale in comparison to the nine hundred blazes in Canada, where Jasper, Alb. is latest city to be destroyed, sending toxic smoke south and east to Denver. Reflects ABC weekend talking headmistress: “Things have happened quickly.”
The Dow bounces up and down – up as a consequence of higher unemployment, which rich investors like, and a higher GNP... down as a result of the Crowdstrike hack on airlines, hospitals and tech and Elon Musk losing $6B and his title as World’s Richest to Jeff Bezos, now owning $200M (while states start beating, arresting and evicting the homeless from their encampments following a 6-3 Trump Court greenlighting. The Don finally broke a long losing streak, with several negative trending indices finally showing gains. (President Joe has to be mortified that his resignation would be viewed so positively, but them’s the facts!)

THE DON JONES INDEX

CHART of CATEGORIES w/VALUE ADDED to EQUAL BASELINE of 15,000

(REFLECTING… approximately… DOW JONES INDEX of June 27, 2013)

Gains in indices as improved are noted in GREEN. Negative/harmful indices in RED as are their designation. (Note – some of the indices where the total went up created a realm where their value went down... and vice versa.) See a further explanation of categories here…

ECONOMIC INDICES		(60%)
CATEGORY	VALUE	BASE	RESULTS by PERCENTAGE			SCORE		OUR SOURCES and COMMENTS
INCOME	(24%)	6/17/13 revised 1/1/22	LAST	CHANGE	NEXT	LAST WEEK	THIS WEEK	THE WEEK’S CLOSING STATS...
Wages (hrly. Per cap)	9%	1350 points	7/22/24	+0.54%	8/24	1,520.14	1,520.14	https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/wages 29.83 .99
Median Inc. (yearly)	4%	600	7/22/24	+0.028%	8/5/24	672.75	672.94	http://www.usdebtclock.org/   39,577 611 620 631
Unempl. (BLS – in mi)	4%	600	7/22/24	+2.44%	8/24	556.38	556.38	http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000/  4.1
Official (DC – in mi)	2%	300	7/22/24	+0.024%	8/5/24	232.28	232.22	http://www.usdebtclock.org/      6,638 655 859 875
Unofficl. (DC – in mi)	2%	300	7/22/24	+0.124%	8/5/24	245.35	244.90	http://www.usdebtclock.org/     11,702 715 3,011 035
Workforce Participation Number Percent	2%	300	7/22/24	+0.002% -0.64%	8/5/24	301.45	299.53	In 161,617 631 211 214 Out 100,143 150 466 478 Total: 261,760 781 677 692 http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 61.74243 .62 616