Buttermilk Sky

 We are witnessing the most unhinged political campaign of my life and it isn't even August. Trump has lost his last tenuous connection to reality.  At 2 am, when reasonable people were asleep, he hit CapLock and wrote:  "RUSSIA NEVER INVADED UKRAINE UNDER TRUMP!  IRAN NEVER INVADED ISRAEL UNDER TRUMP!  NOBODY INVADED ANYBODY UNDER TRUMP!  CHINA NEVER EVEN THOUGHT OF INVADING TAIWAN UNDER TRUMP!  BIGGEST EVER EMBARRASSMENT IN AFGHANISTAN WOULD NEVER HAVE HAPPENED UNDER TRUMP!  THERE WAS NO INFLATION UNDER TRUMP!  WHAT A DIFFERENT WORLD IT WOULD BE UNDER TRUMP!!!" Alarmed, I was about to search "Iran invades Israel" when I remembered -- it's Trump.  It's not supposed to make sense, any more than his surrogates do.   Like  Jesse Watters  on "The Five," disturbed at White Dudes for Harris and its 200,000 participants.  Watters can't wrap his head around men voting "Democrat" because "it's not the party of virtue."...

  "Kids are eating and having full bellies so they can go learn, and women are making their own healthcare decisions.  And we're a top five business state, and we also rank in the top three of happiness....Democratic governors across the country executed those policies, and quality of life is higher, the economies are better, all of those things.  Educational attainment is better.  So yes, my kids are going to eat here, and you're going to have a chance to go to college, and you're going to have an opportunity to live where we're working on reducing carbon emissions.  Oh and by the way, you're going to have personal incomes that are higher, and you're going to have health insurance.  So if that's where they want to label me, I'm more than happy to take the label." (Tim Walz, governor of Minnesota, questioned by Jake Tapper about the dreaded label  "ultra-liberal" ) Walz sounds more Minnesota State than Harvard but the message is the s...

 Learning new words is good.  Today I finally tracked down "brat," the one all the kids are using.  From the context I assumed some successor to "lit" and "woke," but it's more complicated.  According to one  Charli XCX  it means "to embrace your messiness and vulnerability."  Hey, I'm all about messiness.  (Vulnerability is another matter.)  A brat used to be an incorrigible child, so to call yourself brat is to commandeer a word that others use against you, like "queer."  Apparently Kamala is brat. "Brassic" is more obscure.  According to today's  Guardian  it means flat broke and then some.  The new UK chancellor Rachel Reeves has used it to describe the finances she inherited from the Conservatives.  Brassic comes from the colloquial pronunciation of "boracic lint," Cockney rhyming slang for "skint."  Who knew they were still creating Cockney rhyming slang?  Anyway, Britain is (to use a New ...

 Happy  Take Your Houseplants for a Walk  Day to those who celebrate.  It's a new one on me, but they say plants get bored sitting on the windowsill year after year and benefit from a change of scene.  So while you make lunch plans for that English ivy, let's examine some other vegetables. The Paris Olympics began last night with an opening ceremony that sounds absolutely  demented.   I didn't get to see it because the local NBC affiliate thought some silly tornado warning was more important (fortunately no twisters and only a few power outages from falling trees).  A boat parade, Edith Piaf songs, simulated headless women at the Conciergerie, a little arson, Lady Gaga, lasers on the Eiffel Tower, I guess we're not in Kansas anymore.  I hope it's on YouTube. There were drag performers re-creating The Last Supper.   I know because our valiant  culture warriors  lost their merde.   Elon Musk found it "extremely disrespectful...

 "Prepare for Kamala Camelot, prepare for the mythologized age of the Kennedys, the shining administration on the hill, prepare for Kamalot.  Kamalot is here and everyone needs to be prepared." I am prepared, (checks notes)  Kayleigh McEnany .  What a coincidence, you have the same name as one of Trump's press secretaries.  You are?  Well, fuck me.  Because I think you just gave the Harris campaign a new slogan.  Let's get Randy Rainbow to work on the song. That's how it's gone since the convention.  The Republicans can't stand up for falling down.  From the racist meltdown over Harmeet Dhillon's Sikh prayer to Hulk Hogan Night and Trump's crazy yet soporific acceptance speech, they might as well have stayed home.  Whatever momentum they had died when Old Joe pulled away the football and they fell on their asses like Charlie Brown. The Harris campaign is vetting a deep bench of possible running mates:  Tim Walz, popular Minneso...

 When is a rapist not a rapist?  We may be about to find out, at least according to Florida.   Judge Cecilia Altonaga  says Trump can go ahead and sue ABC News and George Stephanopoulos for referring to him as a rapist just because a New York jury found him liable for raping E. Jean Carroll.  This could be defamatory, in Florida.  Can Stephanopoulos sue Trump for wittily calling him "Slopadopolus"?  Stay tuned.  (Carroll is still waiting for the millions she won.) Was Trump struck by a bullet or shrapnel or did he scratch his ear with one of his polished fingernails?  FBI director  Christopher Wray  isn't sure.  Trump insists he "felt the bullet ripping through the skin" and that "much bleeding took place," though apparently not enough to require a transfusion.  The doctor(s) who applied the sanitary pad is not allowed to speak publicly and Trump is a pathological liar, so probably a fingernail.  Did he consult R...

  Praise the Lord, Trump was able to catch that bullet in his teeth and spit it out before diving under the lectern and shouting for someone to grab his shoes.  As you do in mortal danger. After trying for over a year to impeach anybody named Biden,  James Comer  had to settle for making Kimberly Cheatle resign as head of the Secret Service.  Even then, he needed the support of Jamie Raskin and the other Democrats on the Oversight Committee, who slapped Cheatle around over the poor job her agency did in protecting Chief Corey Comperatore and Trump.  To be fair, the Secret Service has been less than perfect for years, but last week its failings suddenly became urgent.  Not when the Obama White House was the subject of a drive-by shooting, or when a man with a knife  got inside, or when people tried to smash through its gates.  Wait for me, hypocrisy fans, I'm just getting warmed up. The Secret Service faces the same problem as every other law ...

 What's not to laugh?  Since President Biden announced the end of his candidacy on Sunday, Kamala Harris's campaign has reported donations of more than  a hundred million dollars  and she has secured the pledges of enough delegates to assure her the nomination and avoid the chaos of an "open convention."  (The DNC is meeting in Chicago and the media are slavering over the chance to air their grainy video of 1968, with police rioting and Mayor Daley yelling at Senator Ribicoff.)  Sorry, but the Democrats are very much not in disarray.  The Republicans, on the other hand... For someone who doesn't recognize  Seth Moulton  and can't remember where he parked Marine One, Joe Biden pulled off the greatest political move in memory, strengthening his party in the most crucial election since 1940 and earning his place in history as someone who put country ahead of ego.  He also left MAGA fumbling and fuming, deprived of their central issue, his a...

  The copy is a little faint but the signature is unmistakable.  Remember? On September 13, 2011, Donald J. Trump of 725 Fifth Avenue sent $5,000 to RE-ELECT ATTORNEY GENERAL KAMALA D. HARRIS 2014.  Even if he was still a registered Democrat then, why the interest in a California election?  Sean Hannity should ask him. The MAGA quarter of Blogenheim is buzzing with Nefarious Plots and Dark Conspiracies today.  Trump-supporting rich guy  Bill Ackman  seems to be urging China to invade Taiwan because it's clear that Biden is dead or incapacitated or at least being held hostage.  He, Bill Ackman, does not recognize Biden's signature on the letter posted yesterday.  No one is in charge!  Where's the photo op, the press conference with some Fox clown shouting questions, the Marine Band?  Why won't they answer the questions of Bill Ackman?  He's really rich and important. Check out this appalled Xweet from Erick Erickson: He's going ...

 Last March  American Samoa  held its Democratic Caucus and Jason Palmer, a 52-year-old Baltimore businessman, defeated Joe Biden 51-40.  His platform was "Washington, DC, is long overdue for a president who will be an advocate for American Samoa."  He now controls three of the territory's six delegates.  That's more than Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) and more than Vice President Kamala Harris.  All he needs now is a slogan.  "I'm calmer with Palmer"? It doesn't take much to change the political landscape of the United States and the world -- a mild case of covid or a luckier shot by a gun-happy but otherwise opaque man of twenty.  Of course, the president's covid was abetted by a panicky party which saw its big donors and celebrity supporters melting away.  Now ActBlue reports more than $50 million in small donations since yesterday, while MAGA has been reduced to making fun of Harris's laugh -- a technique they previously employed against ...

 There are operas that make more sense. At about the same time Trump was promising an "Iron Dome" over the United States because he thinks it sounds cool, an Iranian-built  Houthi drone  landed in Tel Aviv, killing one person and injuring at least ten.  Even the best systems fail, and Israel is smaller than Texas.  But reality wasn't much of a presence as the Chosen One rambled on before his less-than-riveted disciples. "Four more ears!  Four more ears!" they were heard to chant before dozing off, checking their phones and wondering if the flight back to Ordure Lake, North Carolina, would leave on time.   If that speech was actually on the Teleprompter, somebody is due a refund.  For an hour and a half Trump, still sporting his ludicrous BandAid, lied about everything from migrants importing  Fentanyl  to the "China virus" which stole the election from him.  The most nauseating moment, hands down, came when he finally decided t...

  This is  Harmeet Dhillon,  a Bay Area lawyer and MAGA devotee who has made over eight million dollars representing Trump and related causes.  All she asked was to deliver a Sikh prayer on Monday night at the RNC rodeo.  For this she received colorful abuse on a level not seen since the Obama days.  (It's hard to feel sorry -- like every other MAGA minority she should have known what to expect.) Nick Fuentes:  "This is blasphemy.  This is total blasphemy.  Oh, fuck off...Jesus saved Trump's life on Saturday and no one wants to give him credit at this convention." Stew Peters:  "Day 1 of the RNC was complete with satanic chants and multiple prayers to FALSE GODS." Lauren Witzke:  "How about you get deported instead, you pagan blasphemer.  God saves our president and the RNC mocks him with this witchcraft." Carol M. Swain:  "I'm just say...The God of Abraham, Issac [sic] and Jacob would oppose interfaith chapels and the ble...

  There's a festive atmosphere in Milwaukee, where gravely wounded felon Trump has come up with a scheme to unload more ugly shoes: His call for unity evaporated with a rant denouncing  Joe Biden's  proposal to introduce term limits and some kind of ethics to the most corrupt Supreme Court in history.  Naturally the felon sees this as an attempt to "destroy our Justice System by attacking their Political Opponent, ME, and our Honorable Supreme Court."  Suffering and blood loss have not improved his language skills.  His fellow felon  Peter Navarro  is rushing to Milwaukee, still in his prison jump suit, to harangue the mob  delegates. Lots of police at the RNC and of course they brought their guns.  That's how five  Columbus, Ohio,  cops were able to break up a knife fight by killing a homeless man named Jehovah, for which they were commended by the Columbus police union.  No comment from the Milwaukee PD, who would normal...