MAGA SQUARE GARDEN: In a six-hour rally yesterday at New York’s Madison Square Garden Donald Trump once again cast Democratic leaders as “the enemy within” and said, “They’re smart and they’re vicious, and we have to defeat them.” 

  Trump was backed by a lineup of right wingers including Rudy Giuliani, Tucker Carlson, and Hulk Hogan. The rally was often vulgar and racist without a single New York Republican running for office invited to speak.

  Trump promised that, “I will end inflation. I will stop the invasion of criminals coming into our country. And I will bring back the American dream, we need the American dream to come back home.” 

  He suggested that the country needs a law making it a crime to burn the American flag punishable by up to a year in jail. Flag burning is protected under the First Amendment. He reiterated his baseless claim that Kamala Harris never worked at McDonald’s while she was in college and called her “low IQ.”

  Trump’s childhood friend David Rem referred to Harris as “the Antichrist” and “the devil.” Businessman Grant Cardone told the crowd that Harris “and her pimp handlers will destroy our country.” And standup comic Tony Hinchcliffe called Puerto Rico “literally a floating island of garbage.” 

  The NY Times editorial board published an opinion piece saying you should take Trump at his word when he promises to prosecute his enemies and use the military to enforce his will. “Today he says he is ready to deploy the military against his political opponents,” the editorial says. “He says that he will instruct the Justice Department to prosecute critics. He says that he will mobilize the National Guard to deport immigrants, that he is ready to blow Iranian cities to smithereens, that he will allow vigilante violence as a solution to crime in America.

 Americans should believe him.”

CANCEL MY SUBSCRIPTION: Thousands of readers of both the Los Angeles Times and Washington Post have cancelled their subscriptions following the announcement by management of both papers that they will not endorse a candidate for president. Both papers were expected to endorse Democrat Kamala Harris.

  The Post’s former editor Marty Baron said in a post on Twitter/X, “This is cowardice, with democracy as its casualty,” 

  The suspicion is that the corporate owners of both papers fear retribution from Donald Trump should he win the election. Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, who owns the LA times, is a biotech billionaire with regulatory matters before the federal government. Jeff Bezos, who owns Amazon, has major contracts with the government including the US Postal Service for shipping. His space company, Blue Origin, has a $3.4  contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to build a lunar lander.

  However, Nika Soon-Shiong, 31, a progressive political activist and the daughter of the owner, said the decision at the LA Times was motivated by Harris’s continued support for Israel in its war in Gaza. “Our family made the joint decision not to endorse a Presidential candidate,” She said in a statement “As a citizen of a country openly financing genocide, and as a family that experienced South African Apartheid, the endorsement was an opportunity to repudiate justifications for the widespread targeting of journalists and ongoing war on children.”

  Her father denied that, saying,  “She does not have any role at The L.A. Times, nor does she participate in any decision or discussion with the editorial board, as has been made clear many times.” At the least, some family politics are at work.

  In an ideal world a newspaper is held as a public trust for fair and accurate reporting as well as editorial opinions in the public interest. But that’s often not the case. If the owners of the LA Times and Washington Post acted on personal political beliefs, it would not be the only time that’s happened at a newspaper. David Smith of the right wing Sinclair Broadcasting has turned the Baltimore Sun into a mouthpiece for his political beliefs and Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post is merely an extension of the pro-Trump Fox and News Corporations.  The Washington Post and LA Times appear to have joined them in having owners with interests other than the news.

THE BOYS OF SUMMER: The Los Angeles Dodgers are two games up in the World Series over The New York Yankees. Game three is in New York tonight.

  Game two ended in a 4-2 loss for the Yankees on the third out with bases loaded.

  The Dodgers’ Japanese superstar Shohei Ohtani is questionable but reported ready to play after partially dislocating his left shoulder sliding into second base on an attempted steal. 

ZIP IT: A Florida woman was convicted of second-degree murder last Friday for zipping her boyfriend into a suitcase and leaving him overnight to suffocate. 

  Sarah Boone, 47, had said she was drinking wine with her boyfriend, Jorge Torres Jr., 42, when he voluntarily put himself inside the blue rolling suitcase during a game of hide-and-seek. She also said Torres had physically abused her.

  Boone took video while Torres was inside the suitcase and you can hear him saying he couldn’t breathe. Boone is heard saying, “Yeah that’s what you do when you choke me.”

THE SPIN RACK: Israeli strikes on northern Gaza have killed at least 33 people, mostly women and children, Palestinian officials said yesterday. — McDonald’s said it will return to selling its Quarter Pounders following an E. coli outbreak the company attributes to its onion supply. At least 75 people became sick in 13 states and one died. — The price of oil slid six percent following Israel’s moderate retaliatory attack on Iran avoiding all-out war.

BELOW THE FOLD: Popular actor Timothée Chalamet made a surprise appearance at a Timothée Chalamet lookalike contest in New York and it was hard to pick the real Timothée Chalamet out of the crowd.

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