Asian Shares Mostly Higher Before Central Banks' Decisions

Look, we know that anything having to do with Trump is over the top, but even for Trump, this VP spectacle seems designed for the ultimate public debasement and humiliation for the participants. I guess that's the point. "I really need this job. I hope I get it!" Dance, monkeys, dance! Trump’s VP auditions are the reality TV show nobody asked for - Politicians out-pander each other to get a rose from Trump.

Canadian wildfires have roared back to life, sending harmful smoke into the northern United States — just like last summer’s historic fire season that also sent plumes of noxious haze southward. If you didn't have allergies at the start, you probably had them by the time the air finally cleared.

Here's some good news! United For Democracy is gearing up to launch a $10 million campaign centered on “the MAGA Supreme Court.” They plan to spend $1 million on ads in Arizona and Pennsylvania, as well as in the Washington, D. C., area. Via Rolling Stone: The United for Democracy coalition, which launched last year with a seven-figure ad buy, counts 140 member organizations, including major labor unions, reproductive rights advocates, environmental groups, and liberal think tanks. Stasha Rhodes, campaign director for United for Democracy, says the coalition’s latest campaign is about “talking to Americans across the country about the issues they care about, and how the Supreme Court is connected to either rolling back the progress or standing in the way of us being able to make progress on those issues.” The point, she says, “is taking this message outside of Washington, and directly to the American people.” Republicans’ outsized role in crafting a radically right-wing Supreme Court — one that treats mass shootings as constitutionally unavoidable, ushered in abortion bans or restrictions in 21 states, and affords anonymous donors virtually unchecked power to buy political candidates and judges — might seem painfully obvious to some political observers, but surveys show it’s not. read more

If you don't love Jasmine Crockett, well, I just don't know about you. She is a happy warrior, slicing & dicing Republicans--particularly those right in front of her like sad-sack-propagandist, Jim Jordan. In fact, she calls Jim Jordan a Russian propagandist in this video, RIGHT TO HIS FACE. She impugns the integrity and patriotism of Jim's GOP colleagues too--God, has this group of MAGA creeps earned it--and even calls Donald Trump the "C" word!! Yep, Jasmine, like Eric Swalwell, Stacey Plaskett, Gretchen Whitmer, Jamie Raskin, Ted Lieu, AOC, Gavin Newsom, Hakeem Jeffries, Adam Schiffand I could go on, are our future.

On this date in 1942 Aaron Copland's "Lincoln Portrait" premiered. Today it is being narrated by James Earl Jones, with Gerard Schwarz conducting the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. Infidel753, has a mighty link round-up for you. Mad Kane’s Political Madness: The Trials Of Trump (3-Verse Limerick.) The Committee to Protect Journalists: CPJ calls on FBI to release timeline for conclusion of Shireen Abu Akleh investigation. Attention space nerds!

During breaks with Donald Trump's criminal trial, the former President typically meets reporters off to the side to whine about how cold it is in the courtroom; then he reads snips of articles by people in his toxic right-wing media bubble. Monday was not a good day for Lumpy, so he read Fox News columns aloud as proof that he was innocent.