The Daily Escape:
Lupine, Crested Butte, CO – June 2024 photo by Lucian Manthey Photography
We just experienced Wrongo’s least favorite day of the year, the summer solstice. Now, the days grow shorter until December, and Wrongo will soon begin to mourn the loss of daylight. Adding to that, there’s the first presidential debate next Thursday, in which each candidate will try to make the election about which of the two of them is worse for the country.
We’re now entering the reality phase of the campaign. Over the next 10 weeks we will have 2 debates, the Trump sentencing, and the two presidential nominating conventions. Voters are beginning to check in now on how things are going. Wrongo expects that these unusually early presidential debates will draw large audiences that include a substantial swath of Americans who haven’t yet thought much about who to vote for in the upcoming election.
This is a group who can be significantly influenced by Biden’s performance.
Another thing for voters to note is that one donor, Timothy Mellon, heir to Andrew Mellon’s banking fortune, gave $50 million to the Trump campaign the day after Trump was found guilty of fraud in NY. Mellon had previously donated $25 million to super PACs for both RFK Jr. and Trump! That should prove to you that RFK Jr. is simply a stalking horse for the Trump campaign.
And think about what we had heard in the days after Trump was convicted: The media reported that Trump raised $52.8 million in the 24 hours after his guilty verdicts. But we now know that $50 million came from a single donor, meaning that Trump raised only $2.8 million from others in those early hours after the verdicts.
It’s hard to imagine that RFK Jr.’s candidacy would have be viable except for Mellon’s $25 million donation. In a sense, a single donor is keeping RFK Jr.’s campaign afloat. If anyone believed that RFK Jr. was a legitimate candidate, it is difficult to continue thinking that now after the revelation of Mellon’s funding.
Turning to the Supreme Court’s parsimonious trickle of decisions, on Friday, they upheld a gun control law intended to protect domestic violence victims. From Mark Sherman of the AP:
“The Supreme Court on Friday upheld a federal gun control law that is intended to protect victims of domestic violence…Justice Clarence Thomas, the author of the 2022 ruling, dissented….”
More from Mike Pesoli:
“In their first Second Amendment case since they expanded gun rights in 2022, the justices ruled 8-1 in favor of a 1994 ban on firearms for people under restraining orders to stay away from their spouses or partners.”
Michael J. Stern had the most appropriate comment:
“Of course Clarence Thomas wrote a dissent saying he supports the rights of domestic abusers to possess guns. The man is evil to the core.”
That’s enough to think about as we start the weekend. It’s time for our Saturday Soother, when we try mightily to leave the cascade of news behind and center ourselves for another rock ‘em sock ‘em week to come. Here at the Mansion of Wrong, we have two sets of guests visiting. One from Australia and the other from Pennsylvania. It has been sunny and very hot in Connecticut, but we’ve been able to get in some yard work in the early mornings, before it turns into heat stroke weather.
Let’s take a moment to remember the career of Donald Sutherland. At the risk of sounding like an old mossback, Sutherland was part of that heyday of films that relied on actors and stories instead of special effects. Catch some to the retrospectives that are sure to be televised in the coming days.
Now, brew up a mug of Comfort Zone Coffee from Sacramento’s Camellia Coffee Roasters, said to have flavors of semi-sweet chocolate and almonds ($18/12 oz.). Then grab a seat in an air-conditioned space, and watch and listen to “Nuages” (Clouds) from the “Nocturnes” by Claude Debussy.
Here it is performed by the Cleveland Orchestra, conducted by Pierre Boulez in 1993. The first complete performance of the Nocturnes was in Paris on 27 October 1901. There are three movements – “Nuages” (Clouds), “Fêtes” (Festivals), “Sirènes” (Sirens) and each presents a uniquely scored sound world. “Nuages” is the only cloudscape in Debussy’s music. Watch it and relax:
