No day of rest

Don't mess with the military.  Joe McCarthy was riding high until he tangled with the Army.  Trump forced the chairman of the Joint Chiefs to participate in his appalling photo-op.  Then he insisted that cadets assemble at West Point despite coronavirus concerns so he could read a speech to be used in campaign videos.  The Army retaliated by making him struggle down a ramp, which he described as "very long and steep, had no handrail, and most importantly, was very slippery."  Very funny, too.  I don't have much use for long-distance medical diagnoses -- I remember Senator-Doctor Bill Frist insisting that Terri Schiavo was just taking a long nap -- but at least one psychiatrist recommends a brain scan.  It can't hurt.

Anxious to get back into Trump's favor, Fox News is obsessed with the "anarchist takeover" of Seattle.  When they couldn't find suitable images of damaged buildings there, they slipped in one from Minneapolis.  When they alleged leadership problems in the CHAZ, some merry person posted a reference to "an anarcho-syndicalist commune" which Martha MacCallum read on the air, unaware that it was an allusion to Monty Python and the Holy Grail and a politically engaged peasant called Dennis (Michael Palin).  I believe this is known in the trade as "owning the right."

US Soccer has repealed a rule requiring players to stand for the national anthem, and consequently has lost a viewer.  NASCAR, the NFL and now this -- what will Trump switch over to during commercials on the Tucker Carlson show?  Maybe there won't be any.  Comcast is also unperturbed by the latest Official Presidential Threats intended to bring CNN and NBC to their knees.  The company survived Mike Huckabee comparing it unfavorably to the Mafia -- Huck is the Shecky Green of the GOP -- and they'll probably ride this out, too.

Another victory for Black Lives Matter:  Band-Aid chose this moment to announce its new line of skin-tone bandages.  About time.  Crayola stopped labeling its pinkish-white crayon as "flesh" at least fifty years ago, during the last civil rights movement.

Washington saw its largest specifically religious gathering since the death of George Floyd, as thousands of people marched from the National Museum of African American History and Culture to the White House.  Trump and Ivanka's Bible did not join them but he did not have them tear gassed either, because he was cowering in the bunker playing golf.  The organizers enforced social distancing and the wearing of masks, so there was no need to insist that participants sign waivers like the ones required next week in Tulsa.  Because Trump accepts responsibility for nothing, including the sickness and/or death of his own cult.

Some marchers may have been contemplating the death of Robert Fuller, a 24-year-old black man found hanging from a tree near city hall in Palmdale, California.  After ruling him a suicide, authorities decided to order an autopsy and "further investigation."

There may finally be action on the killing of Breonna Taylor now that Beyoncé has written to the attorney general of Kentucky.  I wish I were joking.

You should read today's column by Fintan O'Toole, who lived in New York City during the "Giuliani time."