How could this happen? How?

 That was Mikhail Khodaryonok, described as a "seasoned military expert," wondering on Russian TV how Ukrainian forces managed to penetrate the Kursk region of Russia.  (Viewers are being advised to turn off their sets and avoid social media until the Kremlin figures out how to spin the first invasion of Russian territory since 1941.)  But it could just as well be Putin's onetime protege waking up in a cold sweat in Motel a Lago, the election he planned to CRUSH slipping through his fingers.

Convinced that it was TV coverage that drove the Harris-Walz campaign's success, Trump reluctantly put down the golf toys and called a "press conference," actually a chance to stand in front of some flags and deliver the usual warmed-over lies.  He knew the media would play along -- they've been doing it for nine years.  We're headed for a 1929 crash and another world war without him.  All the polls that show Harris ahead are fake.  Not only are his rallies bigger but the mob on January 6 (when a peaceful transfer of power took place) was much bigger than the crowd who heard Martin Luther King in 1963.  And so on.  He seemed especially obsessed with crowd size, but none of the "reporters" asked why he will be addressing a necessarily small group in Montana tonight.  Those who did venture actual questions were described as "stupid."  "I'm leading by a lot and I'm letting their convention go through." Was he planning to prevent it with another risible lawsuit? 

For those who struggle with economics, Trump offered a brief class:  "I had one percent inflation.  I had actually no inflation because if you look at the categories we had just about no inflation, but I had a very minor, I actually had a positive inflation, it was a perfect number 'cause you don't want zero.  I mean I'm not going to give you a whole course on economics."  I assume Steve Mnuchin drew the short straw and had to put on the hand puppets and explain inflation to him one long, rainy afternoon.  You did what you could, Mr. Secretary.  Positive inflation?  Isn't that...inflation?

The foundering SS Trump is seeing some of its most loyal rats depart.  Lev Parnas wrote of "major concerns within the Trump campaign about his mental health and decline."  Joe Rogan and Tim Pool, podcasters who evidently have large audiences, grabbed a breeches buoy to the equally unsound RFK, Jr.  (Pool got back on board after some MAGA sharks menaced him.)  Even Nick Fuentes, Trump's favorite Nazi, has threatened to jump ship unless the captain keel hauls "the consultants, lobbyists & donors he defeated in 2016."  It's the stupid HMS Bounty.

But if Fuentes makes good on his threat Trump still has plenty of ugly supporters.  Former actor Kevin Sorbo has challenged Kamala Harris to prove she is Black by having her "say the N word, let the people decide for themselves."  I don't know what he means either.  Ardent Trumpist Candace Owens thought this was the moment to share a 2022 tape of ardent Trumpist Kanye West holding forth on -- well, you tell me.  "The Jewish people, like how the Armenians worked in the meatpacking district, the Jewish people came into power in the 1980s -- truly you know when the divorces started happening -- because of Wall Street."  The rest of it makes even less sense.  

Trump is still enraged at Joe Biden for dropping out while displaying an uncanny ability to read Biden's mind.  "To just take it away from them [sic] like he was a child.  And he's a very angry man right now.  I can tell you that he's not happy with Obama and he's not happy with Nancy Pelosi.  Crazy Nancy, she is crazy too...He had fourteen million votes.  [Harris] got no votes, she got no votes, and I think she's crashing."  

Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are "crashing" in Arizona and Nevada today and every politician would love to crash like this.  People can't decide which one they like better.  It's a mirror image of Trump-Vance.  All the attacks on Walz's military record have failed, together with claims that crime is out of control in Minnesota.  Here's what they're left with:  Bill O'Reilly has "lost respect" for him because Walz referenced the Vance couch joke that everyone has heard and shared; however will he go on without Bill-o's respect?  Jesse Watters finished him off with a killer nickname ("Twitchy Tim") because he doesn't like the way Walz waves -- "Men should not move this way.  It's not the way we move."  Wait till he sees the video of Walz breaking off from a speech in Eau Claire to make sure an audience member in distress gets some help and water.  Weak!  This is how Trump responded when eleven people were hospitalized from the Arizona heat:  "That's an enthusiasm that Joe Biden will never see!"

And so we close the books on "Angel Martyr" Ashli Babbitt.