NO JOKE: Donald Trump faces major backlash following the racist joke about Puerto Rico told at Sunday’s rally in Madison Square Garden. Puerto Rican citizens and Hispanics all over the country are outraged. Trump was reduced yesterday to saying, “I’m not a Nazi” just one week before the election. 

He scheduled a press conference for 10 this morning in Florida.

  Vice President Kamala Harris is calling out the Trump campaign following the former president’s often bigoted, misogynistic, and just plain stupid rally  at the Garden. 

  Harris said her supporters wanted “a president of the United States who is about uplifting the people, and not berating, not calling America a garbage can.”

  That last was a reference to comedian Tony Hinchcliffe calling Puerto Rico “literally a floating island of garbage.”  A Trump representative said in a statement that the Puerto Rico joke “does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign.” He didn’t object at the time.

  But that’s not all. One speaker referred to Harris’s advisers as “pimp handlers.” Conservative media host Tucker Carlson referred to Harris as “Samoan/Malaysian low IQ.” Radio host Sid Rosenberg described the Democrats, “the whole fucking party” as “a bunch of degenerates, low-lives, Jew haters and low-lives.”

ELECTION MEDDLING:  Hundreds of early ballots were damaged or destroyed overnight yesterday when someone used incendiary devices on two ballot drop boxes in the Portland, Oregon area. One box was set on fire in Portland and another across the Columbia River in Vancouver, Washington.

  “It appears that a device was attached to the outside of the ballot drop box that resulted in the ballots being ignited,” Clark County auditor Greg Kimsey told Oregon Live. A spokesman for the Portland Police said that a “suspect vehicle” had been identified from surveillance footage. The FBI is involved.

  Firefighters put out both fires and officials were determining whether ballots could be saved or would require replacement. The box in Portland was equipped with fire suppressing devices and only three ballots were reported damaged.

  This follows an incident last week in Phoenix in which fire in a postal collection box damaged about 20 ballots.

DEMOCRACY AND DARKNESS: Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos last night published an essay explaining his reasons for blocking the paper’s endorsement of a presidential candidate saying it’s a matter of trust and perceived bias in the news industry. More than 200,000 readers cancelled their subscriptions following the announcement of no endorsement.

  “Most people believe the media is biased,” wrote Bezos, the founder of Amazon. “Anyone who doesn’t see this is paying scant attention to reality, and those who fight reality lose.”

  Decisions to not make endorsements at the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post have led to resignations and loss of subscribers at both papers.

“Presidential endorsements do nothing to tip the scales of an election,” Bezos said and “What presidential endorsements actually do is create a perception of bias.”

  While admitting that his many business interests with government agencies create a web of conflicts, Bezos said, “I assure you that my views here are, in fact, principled, and I believe my track record as owner of The Post since 2013 backs this up.”

  Bezos said, “Many of the finest journalists you’ll find anywhere work at The Washington Post, and they work painstakingly every day to get to the truth. They deserve to be believed.” 

 THE WAR ROOM: North Korea has sent as many as 10,000 troops to Russia to train alongside Russian soldiers and possibly join the fight in Ukraine, the Pentagon announced yesterday. Some of the North Koreans have already moved close to where Ukraine has taken a chunk of Russian territory.

  Officials in the US and other countries say the presence of the North Koreans is a “dangerous escalation” of the war. “If we see DPRK troops moving in towards the front lines, they are co-belligerents in the war,” said Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh, using the acronym for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. “This is a calculation that North Korea has to make,” she said.

 THE BOYS OF SUMMER:  The Dodgers beat the Yankees 4-2 in New York last night to come within one game of winning the World Series. 

  Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman, who hit a winning grand slam in Game One, also hit a two-run homer last night. “You couldn’t ask for a better start in these three games,” Freeman said. Game Four is tonight in New York.

RICH MAN, POOR MAN: Former New York Mayor and Trump adviser Rudy Giuliani is expected today to surrender his 10-room apartment in Manhattan, a vintage Mercdes once owned by Lauren Bacall, Joe DiMaggio’s signed and framed No. 5 Yankees, and a collection of valuable watches. All of it goes to two Georgia election workers he slandered with accusations that they had switched votes for Joe Biden.

  In a fund raising letter Giuliani whined, “They want my home, my belongings, even all of the nostalgic keepsakes that I’ve collected throughout my 80 years of life.” 

  Still a question is whether he will have to give up his Florida condominium and his four World Series rings, one of which he wears. Giuliani claims he gave the rings to his son, Andrew, although he needs to prove that to the court. He also says the Florida condo is now his primary residence, although he has not established that with the court either.

THE SPIN RACK: Podcaster and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon was released from prison after serving time for defying a subpoena to appear before the House January 6^th investigating committee. — The Israeli parliament voted to ban UNRWA the 80-year United Nations agency that provides essential services for Palestinian refugees. Members of the government claim the agency has been infiltrated by Hamas militants.

BELOW THE FOLD:  Comedian Jon Stewart, who has savaged Donald Trump, said last night, “I only have one week left to decide who I’m going to vote for.”

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