Update: Shots were fired at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania. Trump appears to have been grazed near his ear, but he doesn’t seem to be seriously injured. There are no reports anyone else was shot. The shooter is, reportedly “down.”
Updates: One attendee was killed, and another seriously injured. Trump will be okay, according to all reports. Also the shooter is dead. The story now is that he was shooting from a rooftop outside the security perimeter. I’m surprised the Secret Service could get to him so quickly.
***
You may have seen some of this yesterday. Here’s the complete video of Biden’s rally in Detroit last night. Do watch at least some of it if you haven’t seen it already. They should just run bits of this rally as Biden campaign ads.
Bernie Sanders has an op ed in the New York Times endorsing Joe Biden for president. It has struck me that the MSNBC evening hosts have been supportive of Biden, even while cautiously holding a door open to the possibility of replacement. I’m sure there are exceptions, but from what I’ve seen the progressive wing is either behind Biden or sitting out the argument. Most of the naysayers appear to be centrists. One can understand how Democrats running for re-election in red and swing states are nervous about whether Biden on the top of the ticket will help or hurt them. And it’s the Usual Weenies at the New York Times and centrist pundits like Jonathan Chait who seem most certain Biden has to go.
I say anyone who is certain how Biden will do, or not, against Trump in November is blowing smoke. We are in new territory here. Old patterns may not fit. A lot can still happen that could push the contest in any direction. And now even People magazine is running articles on Project 2025 and tying it to Trump. Some awareness of it seems to be breaking through, finally.
With everything else going on I hadn’t realized that large parts of Houston lost power a few days ago, and lots of people are still waiting to get it back. Hurricane Beryl swept through on Monday, and 2.2 million people in Houston lost power. As far as I can tell, it’s still out for a few hundred thousand households. So no air conditioning. In Texas. In July. I understand people are sleeping in their cars. So far, only three heat-related deaths have been reported. I won’t be surprised if that number goes up.
And the power company’s tracking system failed and could not pinpoint where power was out. Houstonians figured out they could check where power might be by looking at their Whataburger apps, which showed which Whataburgers were in operation and which weren’t.
A lot of people do have backup generators, but they were having a hard time getting gas to power their generators. Solar panels with backup batteries, people. This should be a no-brainer in Texas. The solar panel industry people insist that the panels will survive hurricane force winds.
Note that this is the third time this year there has been a significant power outage in Houston. Hurricane season hasn’t peaked yet. So when will Texans get mad enough to vote in new politicians who will overhaul the energy system? Seems to me there’s no need for anyone to mess with Texas, since it does such a good job of screwing itself.