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GELFAND’S WORLD - The past couple of weeks have been remarkable for the scarcity of front-page news headlines about Donald Trump. He's been pushed off the page, first by the Biden-Harris news, and then by the Olympics. Perhaps American voters will take notice of how nice it has been to consider the brighter side of life, and not to have to deal with the perpetual Ragnarök that is the Trumpian world view.
The Olympics will continue through August 11 and will themselves be interrupted, if ever so briefly, by the big reveal of the Democratic Vice-Presidential pick. Then there will be about a week available for Republican mischief, followed by the August 19-22 Democratic National Convention.
I bring these dates up to point out how compressed things are going to get, considering that as of Monday, August 5, there will be exactly 3 months leading up to the November 5 elections.
And then there is one other date that many of us had forgotten, but which ought to be looming large in the minds of the Republican strategists. Depending on what one New York judge determines, Trump could come up for sentencing on his felony convictions as early as September 18, although Trump's lawyers are arguing that the charges be dismissed based on the U.S. Supreme Court decision on presidential immunity. Considering that the felonies took place before Trump became president, the legal arguments seem a bit weak.
And then there is that other pesky criminal case, this one in the federal court in the District of Columbia. It's the case about the attempt to sabotage the 2020 presidential election. It's basically impossible for this case to go to trial before the November election, but it is not only possible, but likely, that the judge will begin hearings over whether Trump's actions would be considered immune under the Supreme Court ruling. In other words, the actions that led up to the January 6, 2021 events will once again be presented to the American people. The video images of the storming of the Capitol will once again be shown on the nightly news.
The next 3 months will be both interesting and scary. We are going to witness the ultimate battle between the opposing sides to control the message that will be going out to the voters.
So what has Donald Trump been doing to control the message over these past couple of weeks? You can decide for yourselves whether you are impressed by these few things: The speeches by Vice-Presidential candidate J.D. Vance, the attempt by Trump to move towards the center on abortion and Project 2025, and lastly, his renunciation of his earlier agreement to debate on ABC in September.
What is Trump offering instead? In effect, Kamala Harris will be invited to attend a Trump rally and to be questioned by her sworn enemies. This description may sound a bit harsh, but if you look at the details, that's pretty much what it comes down to -- a "debate" held by Fox News, in a studio with an audience (presumably to be invited and controlled by Fox News) and with questioners to be provided by Fox News.
The Democratic responses pretty much write themselves. Trump will be called a cowardly crybaby who is afraid to face Harris directly. This won't last long before Trump trots out his own insults, and we can guess that the two sides will probably work out the details of a debate on ABC to be held on the originally agreed upon date.
Olympics
You can get all the news you want through the regular sources, but there was one great joke that bears repeating.
A local news crew was talking about the triathletes needing to swim through the polluted Seine River. One of the Channel 5 crew pointed out that the mayor of Paris had himself jumped into the Seine to show its safety. Weather reporter Vera Jimenez then asked ever so nicely, "Did he get an earache?" The rest of the crew started to crack up, whereupon she continued, "Well, there's always antibiotics."
One point for Vera. Zero for the mayor of Paris.
In women's soccer, the U.S. team won in the quarterfinals, where they beat Japan by 1-0. The U.S. will face Germany in the semifinal game on Tuesday morning (Pacific time). No guarantees, but it may be available for free on Telemundo on broadcast channel 52.1.
If the Americans win, they will go to the Gold Medal match and probably face Spain, the defending World Cup champions. This would be a dream match for the Americans, considering how badly they did in the last World Cup competition and how low their chances were estimated to be coming into these Olympics.
Track and field has only been going on for a few days but we've seen some interesting results, including a couple of sprints, the hammer throw, and the shot put. The 100-meter sprint was as close to an 8-way tie as it is possible to be. The announcers started to call the race for the Jamaican until the officials announced that the American had won.
And then there was swimming, which featured its last races over the weekend. The American television announcers have been flogging the rivalry between the U.S. and Australia, only to be caught flatfooted in the earlier races as Frenchman Leon Marchand won big. As the competition dragged on, the U.S. finally managed to pull to a 7-7 tie with Australia in the gold medal count. In the last race, a complicated sort of medley relay, the U.S. took the gold and edged out Australia in the gold by 8-7, a result that gave the American announcers something to talk about.
College football is now a fully professional sport
College football fans might want to learn the acronym NIL, which stands for name, image, and likeness. It's what a college player can now get paid for. Where does the money come from? The current practice is for schools to recruit collectives of wealthy donors, famous alumni, and sports boosters, because the new reality doesn't come cheap. The current going price for a highly regarded recruit is a quarter of a million dollars and up. Locally, the USC groups have been coalescing, presumably in order to build the kitty and to maintain some level of control. You can read a somewhat complicated article about the goings on here. The bad news for USC fans? Ohio State is well ahead in the NIL funding race so far.
(Bob Gelfand writes on science, culture, and politics for CityWatch. He can be reached at [email protected].)
