Donald, Kamala & Joe-Oh My!: The July Month in Review

What a crazy, historic month July was. We’ve seen things fiction writers never could have imagined. Let's get to the news:

At a rally in Pennsylvania, someone tried to assassinate Donald Trump. He escaped with only a grazing blow to his ear—at least that’s what former White House doctor Ronny Jackson confirmed. I know when I need a medical expert, I go to someone who lost their medical license. The good news is Trump is fine—at least physically.

You would think that would be the number one story of the month, but then Joe Biden finally decided to drop out of the race for President—something we’ve never seen an incumbent do before. Many Democrats have been begging Joe to drop out ever since his dismal performance at the debate and they finally got their wish. It wasn't exactly a selfless wish on their behalf. They felt he would take everyone in the House and the Senate down with him. Joe's retirement saved all their jobs, maybe.

When Biden left the race, he immediately endorsed his Vice-President Kamala Harris. Surprisingly, all the Democrats quickly jumped on board to back her candidacy. I say surprisingly because her last presidential run ended in disaster and quickly. It’s hard to say whether her colleagues love her or just hate the thought of Trump returning to the White House—probably both. We’ll see if the Kamala love fest lasts for the next one hundred days.

It didn't take long for the opposition to start the sexism/racism. We immediately heard comments about how she isn't black to how she achieved everything because of DEI and her dating life. The bizarre thing is you've seen plenty of talk about how her sexual history is fair game while they continue to give a pass to the sexual history of the former president. Hmmm—should we compare dating Willie Brown to hanging out with Jeff Epstein and five minutes with Stormy Daniels?

Talking about Stormy Daniels, she did an interview with Rachel Maddow on MSNBC. At the end of the hour, they talked about how broke Stormy was because of the aftermath of her “relationship” with Donald Trump. Since the interview, her GoFundMe site has now raised more than one million dollars. Would it be cynical to think that the reason to have the interview was to raise money?

Back to the Trump/Harris show: in what alternative universe would Donald Trump take questions, in Chicago, at the National Association of Black Journalists conference while there would be a Zoom rally called “White Dudes for Harris?” But, this is 2024 and both occurred this week. The Zoom event attracted more than 180,000 participants and raised close to four million dollars. The Trump Q&A went as you would expect. He played the “Kamala is a Black newbie” card while telling one of the moderators, Rachel Scott of ABC News, that she was rude and nasty. It’s hard to say what Chicago event went worse for the Donald—this one or is canceled rally at UI-C in 2016. Maybe he should keep out of the city—maybe.

Talking about commentators, on Twitter/X, there was the picture you see at the top of Trump with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham. That led to a response from her brother Curtis, “Looks like a convicted felon, insurrectionist, rapist, tax and draft dodger are qualities my sister admires in a leader.” Families sure are complicated. Thanksgiving at the Ingrahams will be exciting this year.

If you’re Jewish and felt left out because Trump hadn’t said anything about you, how about this: In a WABC Radio interview Trump claimed Harris looked uncomfortable while meeting with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: “You can see the disdain. No. 1, she doesn’t like Israel. No. 2, she doesn’t like Jewish people. You know it, I know it and everybody knows it and nobody wants to say it.”

Next, he doubled down while talking about Harris’s husband Doug Inhoff. Here’s the exchange with host Sid Rosenberg: "He's Jewish like Bernie Sanders is Jewish. Are you kidding me? He's a crappy Jew," Rosenberg declared. “Yeah”, Trump said.

Finally, Trump reiterated his criticism of Jewish voters who support Democrats declaring that they "should have their head examined" and labeling them "fools" for their political choices.

Hey Don—between calling Jews “fools” and that Charlottesville thing from a few years ago when referring to Nazi sympathizers you said, “There are good people on both sides”, it’s pretty hard to get their votes after that. Good luck with your continued attacks. I’m sure it will work out well for you.

Back to Trump attacking Harris: In a tweet, he called her “dumb as rocks” and then said, “She has bad poles.” I guess the bullet that barely touched his ear affected the part of his brain that controls homonyms and spelling.

And Donald wasn’t the only member of the Trump family to make news. Melania announced that she will be publishing her memoirs. The advanced purchase price is $150. For that amount of money, there better be photos of her nude modeling career. Oh nevermind—the world has already seen those.

My favorite story of the month belongs to South Carolina House Representative Nancy Mace. At a House hearing concerning the assassination attempt on Trump, Nancy didn’t like an answer given by Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheadle. Mace’s response, “You’re full of shit.” You could hear the shock in the voices of the House members because you rarely hear that word said on the floor of Congress—at least not publicly. Mace said later, “I just said what everybody thought.” By the way, Cheadle resigned her position the next day.

Let’s wrap this up with tributes to a couple of legends who passed on in July:

Dr. Ruth Westheimer died at age ninety-six. Back in her heyday, it was sort of shocking, but also refreshing to hear her talk about sex the way she did. She helped bring sex chat into the mainstream. On a personal note, I met her last summer at a wedding. She was very personable and gracious. She made time for everyone who wanted to talk with her or take a picture. But damn, I never once heard the words clitoris or orgasm pop out of her mouth.

Bob Newhart died at age ninety-four. How someone working as an accountant could become a comedy legend is a truth is stranger than fiction story. Bob had two hit television shows in the 1970s and 80s. “The Bob Newhart Show” was a mainstay in the CBS powerhouse Saturday night lineup. He followed that with “Newhart”, which concluded with what is considered the one of the greatest ending of any television show. Last year there was a documentary called “Bob and Don”, which detailed his long friendship with Don Rickles. It’s only twenty minutes long so check it out on YouTube--or better yet, find the finale of Newhart. You’ll laugh for a long time.

Wow!! What a month! August can’t be any stranger, can it. Of course, it can. We’ll see for sure in twenty-nine days.