Editor’s Note: “Nihilistic violent extremism” (NVE) is a term used to bring together an array of hateful actors who, working online, try to convince people to kill themselves, produce child sexual abuse material, and other hateful actions. Bennett Clifford, a senior threat intelligence analyst at Insikt Group, argues that the term confuses more than it helps—NVE is too vague a concept and encompasses too wide a range of behavior, leading to misunderstanding, poor analysis, and potential response mistakes. – Daniel Byman
Bennett Clifford
It is past time to retire the concept of “nihilistic violent extremism” (NVE). The term was introduced in a U.S. Department of Justice court filing in 2025 and has since been adopted by the international counterterrorism community. But from its inception, it has been analytically suspect, based on a faulty definition, a contradiction in terms, a category error, and several fallacies about the nature of the modern threat actor networks to which “NVE” was intended to pertain. Defining and categorizing violent extremist threat actors is an arduous task—particularly in an era of ideologically fluid threat actors—but the concept of NVE is not doing the counterterrorism community any favors in its efforts to analyze and address ongoing threats.
In the spring of 2025, U.S. federal law enforcement filed court documents that introduced “NVE” into the lexicon of violent extremism-related terminology. The definition presented by the FBI was:
individuals who engage in criminal conduct within the United States and abroad, in furtherance of political, social, or religious goals that derive primarily from a hatred of society at large and a desire to bring about its collapse by sowing indiscriminate chaos, destruction, and social instability.
You can’t tell me this isn’t a ridiculous fossil fueled country. The temperature now at ~3:26pm in northern scarizona is 115 degrees Fahrenheit in the shade!
All I can hear is the Animals from 1965 singing: ‘We’ve gotta get outta this place, if it’s the last thing we ever do’
@1 Reginald Selkirk wrote about an article on “nihilistic violent extremism” (NVE).
I must posit that individuals that allegedly commit “nihilistic violent extremist” acts are not the big problem. They are ‘small fish’ encouraged and facilitated by the current administration, their cockroach followers, the xtian nationalists and warmongering hateful actors who are the REAL problem.
…
Hybrid seed companies plant fields of experimental seeds modified for specific characteristics, growing the corn each year to determine how the seed will perform. A single tassel can contain millions of grains of pollen which, even in a slight breeze, can fertilize plants a half mile away, ruining an entire field. Removing the tassel eliminates unwanted random cross-breeding. For decades, nearly all corn was detasseled by hand. Precision machines introduced in the last few years now detassel 80% of the corn. The other 20% is still done by people – mostly kids.
…
Detasseling corn was a summer job when i was a teenager. The above is mostly a personal experience article, the technical description isn’t especially good. To get the desired hybrid, the seed companies plant 6 or so rows of the “female” corn and two rows of the “male” corn. The “female” rows must all be detasseled so that they are only pollinated by the corn in the “male” rows.
Reginald Selkirksays
@5
Maybe I assumed too much of the reader. All corn is both male and female, but they are on different parts of the plant. The male flowers are the tassels, at the top of the plant. The female flowers are the ears, which grow lower along the stalk. Wikipedia: corn (Zea mays) plants
In the UK and Europe, corn may mean the predominant crop of the region, but In the USA, corn is synonymous with maize.
The producer wants to cross-breed two varieties of corn to create seed that has some of the best qualities of each variety. But Purdue agronomist Bob Nielsen notes that a corn plant left to grow on its own will pollinate itself. That’s because each plant has a tassel, which contains the male flower that disperses pollen, and the thread-like silks, which contain the female flowers that “catch” the pollen and produce a corn kernel.
The seed corn producer doesn’t want the plants to self-pollinate; he wants to ensure cross-pollination between the two varieties of corn in his field. He hires detasselers because the only way for a detasseled plant to be pollinated is by another corn plant that has a tassel.
Nielsen says designated male plants of one variety and female corn plants of a second variety are usually arranged in a pattern throughout the seed production field of about six female rows (detasseled) and two male rows (pollen providers)…
Early in the morning, my mom or dad would drive my brothers and me out to a weedy soybean field. With a hoe in hand, we’d walk the half-mile long rows removing any plants in the field that were not soybeans. Buttonweed, milkweed, sunflower, morning glory, fox tail, and cockle bur plants are common weeds in Iowa soybean fields. These weeds compete with soybean plants for valuable moisture and nutrients. If they are not removed, soybean yield can decrease, the plants go to seed resulting in a weedier field next year, and the field will look unkempt. A farmer’s tolerance for weeds varies just as much as a person’s acceptance of a messy desk. Some are okay with a few weeds, while others prefer a pristine field…
That’s about how I did it – unless I was working for my aunt. Then we didn’t get a hoe; we wore gloves and we pulled the weeds out to be sure we got the roots.
Even back then, walking beans was very regional. It was common in the area where I grew up, but if you drove through other parts of the state, you would see the taller weeds sticking up out of the soybean fields. The farmers there didn’t do the manual weeding, they just used a combination of herbicides and cultivation (plowing between the soybean rows with a disc plow).
Here’s a tip from my father: if you chop thistles off an inch below the soil level they won’t grow back.
lotharloosays
Finally some fucking good news. You all know what I mean. 🎉
US senator Lindsey Graham, a key Republican who went from a vocal critic of Donald Trump to one of his most loyal allies after Mr Trump became president, has died at age 71.
The South Carolina lawmaker passed away after a “brief and sudden illness,” his office posted on X early on Sunday.
NBC News said emergency personnel had responded to a call about a cardiac arrest at his Capitol Hill home on Saturday night.
An Indian judge has become the target of online abuse and death threats days after she sentenced 14 men to life imprisonment for lynching a man to death.
On 12 June, the additional district and sessions judge of a court in Madhya Pradesh state, Tabassum Khan, found the men guilty of offences including murder, attempt to murder, rioting and wrongful restraint.
The crime took place in 2022, when 50-year-old Nazir Ahmad was transporting cattle at night and was intercepted by a group of self-styled “gau rakshaks” (cow protectors), armed with sticks and rods. Hindus consider cows sacred and killing them is illegal in many states.
The men dragged Ahmad and his two companions out of the vehicle and brutally assaulted them on suspicion of smuggling cows. Ahmad later succumbed to his injuries while his companions survived to tell the court what happened.
In her judgement, Khan noted that the crime was a clear case of mob lynching.
But the verdict has made her the target of religious hate. In the days following the judgement, numerous videos abusing and threatening Khan, a Muslim, surfaced online. The videos implied that Khan had acted against the men because they were Hindu…
The Israeli Spy Behind PragerU’s Plan to Rewrite American Education To Indoctrinate Children
2026 07 12
Alan Macleod MintPress News
PragerU is trying to take over American schools. The right-wing, pseudo-educational group is now an official educational partner in at least ten states, and blitzes children with highly questionable messaging on race, history, and politics. Even more concerning, PragerU is led by former Israeli spy, Marissa Streit, who has stated she uses the tactics and techniques honed by IDF military intelligence on the American people. https://scheerpost.com/2026/07/12/the-israeli-spy-behind-pragerus-plan-to-rewrite-american-education-to-indoctrinate-children/
birgerjohanssonsays
At the moment, Count Binface beats Farage in national polls…
Senator Lindsey Graham died unexpectedly on Saturday, a spokeswoman for the South Carolina Republican confirmed to MS NOW. Graham had just returned from a trip to Ukraine, where he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
[…] In a social media post, President Donald Trump called Graham “one of the greatest people and Senators” he has ever known and “a true American Patriot.”
Trump told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that he spoke to Graham on Saturday around 7 p.m. about the so-called Save America Act, the GOP’s election overhaul bill. The president said there were no signs the senator was not well. “He was like a member of the family to me. It’s very tough, actually,” Trump said.
“I think America has lost a great patriot. Israel has lost a great champion of the American-Israeli alliance,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told NBC. “And frankly, I’ve lost a beloved friend I’ve had for many decades.”
Emergency medical workers responded to a call for “cardiac arrest” at Graham’s home on Capitol Hill Saturday night, according to police scanner audio obtained by MS NOW.
[I snipped comments from other Republican politicians.]
Graham was elected to the Senate in 2002 and was seeking a fifth Senate term in November, after fending off multiple primary challengers. Chair of the Senate Budget Committee, he was a powerful figure in conservative South Carolina politics and a national GOP leader in defense policy and foreign affairs.
[…] McMaster [South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster] will appoint a temporary replacement to fill Graham’s seat until January 2027. South Carolina Republicans will have to hold a primary later this summer to choose a new candidate to replace Graham on the ballot to face Democrat Annie Andrews in November.
[I snipped more comments from Republican politicians.]
Zelenskyy, who met with Graham just on Friday, a day before he died, said on X, “We remained in constant dialogue, and I will miss our conversations. We met twice in just the past week.”
[…] He was one of the so-called “Republican revolutionaries” of 1994, a class of newly elected conservatives who swept Democrats out of power for the first time in 40 years. He eventually became a member of the House Judiciary Committee and served as one of 13 managers prosecuting President Bill Clinton’s impeachment in 1998.
[…] In the 1980s, Graham served as a member of the Judge Advocate General’s Corps in the U.S. Air Force for six years and later served in the Air Force Reserve while in Congress. Graham’s military service helped inform his foreign policy views, and he remained one of the more hawkish members of the GOP when it came to international conflicts, including the war with Iran. In 2014, he was awarded a Bronze Star Medal for meritorious service.
The white supremacist group Patriot Front brazenly marched in Washington, D.C., on Independence Day. Their faces covered in white ski masks and their eyes obscured by sunglasses, the identically dressed group of men celebrated our country’s 250th anniversary by waving the pro-slavery Confederate flag, chanting about wanting to “reclaim America,” and carrying signs and banners promoting their pro-white racist ideology.
Even in an era where President Donald Trump regularly spouts racist rants from his position as the head of the U.S. government, the Patriot Front display was shocking to millions.
In a television appearance on CNN the next day, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum steadfastly refused to condemn the Patriot Front when anchor Dana Bash questioned him about the racist display.
“I think what they stand for is nothing that I could possibly agree with, but one of the foundational principles of the United States that makes democracy messy is free speech,” Burgum said.
At best, Burgum’s statement was a tepid signal at disagreement. But it was far from a full-throated repudiation of the group’s white supremacy.
Prominent conservative media figures went in an even more absurd direction.
Fox News host Laura Ingraham said the protest was “fake” [oh FFS] and “looks more like Antifa in costume.” Ingraham even added, “No one should be allowed to cover their faces.”
That position is at odds with the tactics being employed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents currently detaining and abducting immigrant families—part of the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant agenda that she supports.
Radio show host Joe Rogan has argued that the Patriot Front protesters are “feds” and not a real right-wing protest.
In reality, the Patriot Front is deeply intertwined with the bigoted sentiment that has led Trump to become the leader of the Republican Party and the most prominent conservative figure in America.
The group reportedly launched around 2015, right as the mainstream right and the Republican Party were in the full throes of a racist reaction to the election and subsequent reelection of President Barack Obama, the first Black president in American history.
Patriot Front was among the white supremacists who marched in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 as part of the “Unite the Right” rally meant to reclaim white dominance in America. They were a part of the pro-Confederate, pro-Nazi crowd that Trump infamously referred to as “very fine people.”
To be sure, racism and nativism certainly didn’t pop up out of nowhere in the 2015-2017 era. In addition to the racism intertwined in U.S. history, the modern conservative movement has backed leaders like former President Ronald Reagan, who promoted anti-Black myths about “welfare queens” for years. Before Reagan, there were notorious figures like radio host Father Charles Coughlin, who laced his broadcasts with odious antisemitism.
But the mainstream right preferred to court the support of bigots while also going to great lengths to keep their noxious rhetoric off of the main stage. Republicans were happy to use coded language about welfare and “traditional families,” but full-throated bigotry was usually kept behind closed doors.
After Obama won in 2008, the mask was ripped off. Trump transitioned from the host of a fading reality TV show to a prominent political commentator by pushing the racist and false “birther” conspiracy theory that Obama was not born in the United States, and therefore ineligible to be president. He launched his presidential campaign by smearing Mexican people as “rapists.”
Instead of rejecting Trump and denouncing his positions, Republicans and mainstream conservatism embraced him. […]
By the time he was running for reelection in 2020, Trump put the full backing of the American presidency behind the racist extremist group Proud Boys. In his debate with soon-to-be President Joe Biden, he told the group to “stand back and stand by.”
Now in his second term, Trump gave the group even more support. Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was convicted of seditious conspiracy for his role in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, part of a plan to keep Trump in office after he lost the November 2020 election to Biden. Then in January 2025, Trump pardoned him—along with hundreds of other Jan. 6 rioters. […]
Even if Trump’s presidency totally collapses, the fates of the Patriot Front, the Republican Party, and the neo-Nazi/neo-Confederate movements are linked. They are all banding together in infecting the American system of government—and that’s why they marched unimpeded in America’s capital city on the Fourth of July.
It was not the dead senator announcement we expected this morning, but Lindsey Graham, the US senator from South Carolina who went from warning in 2016 that “If [Republicans] nominate Trump, we will get destroyed … and we will deserve it” to being one of Donald Trump’s most loyal lap dogs, died Saturday night at the age of 71 after what his office said was “a brief and sudden illness.” We doubt it was a sudden attack of conscience for his career of demanding the US bomb every adversary at every opportunity, or for his epic toadying to Trump.
NBC News reports that a top Graham staffer said there hadn’t been any signs that Graham had been feeling sick before his death. He had been scheduled to appear Sunday on NBC News’s Meet the Press, and if producers hurry they can probably cobble together an AI version of Graham from his 63 previous appearances on the show.
Graham died just a day after visiting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv, where Graham told Zelenskyy that Congress was working on toughening sanctions against Russia and Zelenskyy said it would sure be nice if the US could help Ukraine defend itself from Russian missile attacks. (Being Tuff on Russia vis a vis its invasion of its neighbor Ukraine is one of the only times we can think of where Graham’s [warmongering] was warranted.)
At last week’s NATO summit, Trump agreed to allow Ukraine to build Patriot missile interceptors under license. Graham has been one of Ukraine’s more vocal supporters even as Trump has wavered between half-hearted support and willingness to let Russia win so Trump can say he gets a Nobel Peace Prize.
In a statement on Graham’s death, Zelenskyy said, “Lindsey was a true defender of freedom and of the values that make our world safer.” That was a lot nicer than in March 2025 when Graham called for Zelenskyy to resign after Trump insulted the Ukrainian president for not wearing a suit to that disastrous Oval Office meeting. At the time, Zelenskyy offered to grant Graham Ukrainian citizenship so his opinion might at least carry a little weight.
Graham’s weirdly flexible sycophancy toward Trump was a hallmark of his last years in office, what with his apparently clear-eyed 2016 assessment of the danger Trump posed, and his insistence after the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by Trump’s mob, which led Graham to declare — for five minutes — that he was breaking up with Trump, insisting, “All I can say is a count me out. Enough is enough.” Soon enough, enough was not enough, and he was right back insisting that Trump shouldn’t be impeached, and that his prosecution was a witch hunt.
[…] Over time, it became clear that it wasn’t so much that Trump and Vladimir Putin were blackmailing Graham to keep him in line; instead, Lindsey Graham stayed true to his most deeply held moral principle: Keeping himself in the news and doing whatever he thought would be good for Lindsey Graham.
Now Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnell (probably? we are pretty sure?) are dead […]
“Survivors of Iranian attack that killed 6 U.S. troops say generals ignored warnings”
“The drone strike on Port Shuaiba in Kuwait occurred on the second day of the war. Those who were there say they fear no one will be held accountable.”
Seconds after an Iranian drone struck his unit’s operations center in Kuwait, an Army general responsible for the troops inside got up from the floor, grabbed his protective vest and helmet, and shouted an order to a soldier beside him: “Get out!”
It was March 1, barely a day into the U.S. war against Iran. The drone hit in the center of the building at Port Shuaiba, its concussive blast hurling troops into walls and igniting a deadly fire, survivors of the strike told The Washington Post.
Brig. Gen. Clint Barnes ran for the emergency exit and to a nearby protective bunker, even as dozens of men and women under his command remained behind, said the soldier ordered to flee with him.
“We shouldn’t have run out of the f—ing building,” the soldier added, his voice trembling as he recounted how, once the bunker’s steel doors were reopened, he’d tried to head back to the building to help, but Barnes told him to stay put. “I can’t just, like, watch this happen,” he recalled thinking.
At the urging of another officer who was running toward the fire, the soldier said, he went back to the operations center and began calling out through the smoke hoping to find survivors.
The general, the soldier said, did not.
Barnes’s decision-making following the drone strike is one of several episodes that have left those sent to Port Shuaiba embittered toward their leadership, according to this soldier and many others who spoke with The Post as senior military officials finalized the internal investigation of the incident.
Six soldiers with the Army’s 103rd Sustainment Command died as a result of the strike and dozens more were wounded, some seriously. The attack stands as one of the Iran war’s costliest for U.S. personnel and the Trump administration, souring many Americans on the president’s decision to start the conflict and raising questions about the precautions taken ahead of time to protect those put in harm’s way.
This account is based on interviews with 17 people, including soldiers who survived the strike and other firsthand witnesses, as well as people with knowledge of the military’s investigation. Most spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing a fear of reprisal or to discuss details of the military’s examination of the incident.
The Port Shuaiba attack has left those most directly involved with complex feelings of guilt and betrayal, several soldiers explained.
Some said they have questioned whether they did enough to help those who died.
Soldiers who were wounded said the military’s medical system failed them.
Many expressed anger toward Barnes and the commander above him, Maj. Gen. John Hinson, alleging that both leaders ignored intelligence warnings that Port Shuaiba was a probable Iranian target. They are angry that the generals sent troops there despite internal assessments that advised against the move, in part because the facility lacked adequate defenses against drones […]
Several soldiers interviewed for this report said they doubt that the military’s investigation, which was shared with the families of the deceased last week, will hold anyone accountable for moving troops to Port Shuaiba despite known vulnerabilities, or for the lack of medical care some soldiers said they experienced after the attack. […]
As Trump publicly threatened military action, Barnes and Hinson were warned that if Iran’s leadership was eliminated, “all locations where U.S. forces might be located would be targeted, not just military bases,” one of the soldiers said.
“We’ve got to change our plan,” another soldier said he told Barnes months before the attack. “This is dangerous.”
[…] The unit also deployed to Shuaiba without their weapons, two soldiers said. “No one even had a weapon,” one of the soldiers said. “No crew-served weapons, no automatic weapons. We left all of that in the arms room at Arifjan.”
In the days before the strike, multiple soldiers reported seeing quadcopter drones at Port Shuaiba, possibly surveilling them, three soldiers told The Post.
[…] when they arrived in Germany, military medical teams “had no clue we had injured [personnel] on the flight,” said one of the soldiers.
Doctors told them that because the soldiers weren’t recorded on the flight’s manifest as medical evacuees, or listed in the military’s casualty-processing database as seriously injured, the hospital could not admit them, several soldiers said.
They did have their wounds dressed and received some treatment in the ER, but only as outpatients. They were then sent to nearby barracks to wait for a flight to the United States.
[…] After a week in Germany, the wounded troops departed for the United States. Before boarding their flight, each soldier and their belongings had to be weighed on a large scale.
“I told them ‘We have a lot of extra bags’ because we had carried the fallen’s stuff, and the wounded’s stuff,” one soldier said.
When crews weighing their luggage saw the large pile of gear, “you could see it in their faces,” the soldier continued. “Two of them started to cry.”
Grassley is one of the longest-serving elected politicians in U.S. history, having consistently held elected office since [January] 1959. At 92 years, 9 months and 25 days old, he is the oldest sitting United States senator, the longest-serving Republican in congressional history, and the sixth-longest-serving U.S. senator in history.
/Hehe, Wikipedia has markup that dynamically updates that tally.
Eric Columbus: “Chuck Grassley has been in office continuously since before Mike Pence was born.” [June 1959]
Steven Dennis (Bloomberg): “If Grassley wins reelection again, he could be the first lawmaker to serve in 9 separate decades: 50s 60s 70s 80s 90s 00s 10s 20s 30s.”
The city’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, welcomed what he called “overwhelming evidence” that his ultra-low emission zone was saving lives. […] an estimated 6,400-8,000 premature deaths in 2019, falling to 3,800-5,100 in 2024. […] The Ulez was launched in 2019 in central London and widened across inner boroughs in 2021. Vehicles that fail to comply with emission standards—typically those with diesel engines from before 2015 or petrol from before 2004—have to pay a daily charge, starting from £12.50 for cars. The overwhelming majority of vehicles driving in the zone, about 97%, are now compliant.
“Voice of America’s exiled journalists find meaning in work outside the newsroom”
“At Trader Joe’s, a coffee shop, a military hospital and a real estate firm, top international broadcasters are embracing second acts they never asked for.”
Danila Galperovich loves everything about working at Trader Joe’s. Well, he used to make much more money as an international broadcaster, but by every other metric, he loves it.
Galperovich adores the customers who come into the store in Arlington, Virginia. He regales them with his knowledge of French wine and learns their stories. He cherishes his co-workers — a former CNN sound engineer, a former police computer specialist, a guy on his third self-published book. And, he says, Trader Joe’s health insurance beats anything the U.S. government provides.
When President Donald Trump took office for a second term last year, Galperovich wasn’t stocking shelves, bagging groceries or dishing out advice on cabernet sauvignon. He was working as a reporter for the Russian service of Voice of America, the U.S. government-run broadcaster tasked with bringing free, fair and impartial journalism into countries where that’s either hard to come by or a dangerous act of resistance.
[…] when Trump signed an executive order in March 2025 ordering VOA’s parent organization, the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), to be scaled back to “the minimum presence and function required by law,” VOA — under Trump official Kari Lake — put full-time employees on administrative leave. Contractors like Galperovich were immediately cut without any severance, despite doing effectively the same job as the full-timers.
Galperovich, who has a heart condition that requires expensive medication, needed a job quickly.
Galperovich isn’t alone in having scrambled for work. While hundreds of VOA journalists remain on paid administrative leave, where they’ve lingered since March 2025 while litigation against the government continues, hundreds more contractors — including Galperovich — had to reinvent their careers almost overnight, often leaving journalism behind entirely.
Voice of America was started in 1942 to counter Nazi propaganda, broadcasting accurate news into occupied Europe to build credibility with its audience. It became a crucial diplomatic tool during the Cold War along with sister organization Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, often the only news sources to break through the Iron Curtain […]
Ksenia Turkova knows the feeling of watching a newsroom vanish overnight better than most. A TV host and reporter in Moscow in the early 2000s, she worked at NTV — once Russia’s premier independent news channel — until it was taken over by the state-controlled gas giant Gazprom. She helped start a channel, but it was shut down overnight. And another — same result. When VOA collapsed last year, old NTV colleagues she hadn’t heard from in years reached out, telling her they couldn’t believe something like this was happening to her yet again — and in the United States this time.
She now works as a Ukrainian medical interpreter at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, helping wounded Ukrainian soldiers navigate treatment through a nonprofit called United Help Ukraine. She also teaches Russian privately and takes on occasional freelance journalism projects.
[I snipped other personal stories.]
[…] But Galperovich isn’t ready to call his 35-year career in journalism over. He still considers it the best profession in the world and says he would take a Russian-language reporting job again in a heartbeat if VOA ever came back in a recognizable way. […]
“The new Trump accounts for kids aren’t the financial boon the president claims”
Free cash aside, the much-touted “Trump accounts” are supposed to give the next generation a huge financial head start in life. But by age 18, the reality looks less like a fortune and more like a down payment on a new car.
[…] Trump has repeatedly used his characteristic hyperbole to describe the wealth-building potential of the child investment accounts created under the One Big Beautiful Bill. Parents, guardians and other authorized individuals can establish a new type of individual retirement account for their children under 18. Children born between Jan. 1, 2025, and Dec. 31, 2028, are also eligible for a one-time $1,000 payment.
During an Oval Office launch event last week, Trump said that infants “who come into the world essentially with no money” will “at a very young age be very rich.” [Trump exaggerates wildly.]
The administration’s own estimate shows that by the time a child turns 18 and can start to withdraw the money, they will have about $6,000.
Except for the $1,000 government seed, this endeavor is a yawn for me.
Any parent, grandparent, auntie or uncle with extra cash to spare already has access to other investment vehicles designed to do what the Trump accounts do.
They could open a custodial investment account, which allows adults to invest in stocks, bonds and mutual funds on behalf of a minor until they reach adulthood.
Alternatively, they could utilize 529 college savings plans, which are tax-advantaged accounts specifically structured to fund qualified education expenses.
Yet, despite the clear, compounding benefits of early investing, only a small fraction of American families — disproportionately those with higher incomes — actually set up 529 plans or custodial accounts.
According to data from the Education Data Initiative, only 32 percent of families use dedicated college savings plans, primarily because 54 percent of parents are unaware these programs exist.
A lot of people have asked me for my take on the Trump account. Strip away the political hype, and here are six reasons this plan won’t create true legacy wealth for low- and middle-income families.
– Some people flat-out hate the name: In discussing the accounts’ launch, Trump claimed, “They said it would sell better if your name is on it.” [I snipped examples]
– Many people said they would open the account just to get the $1,000 but then not make any additional contributions. “We signed our two kids (6 and 4) up when we did our taxes,” another user on r/daddit wrote. “It’s hard to turn down a free investment of any amount for your kids … but my main hesitation now is that I got an email saying that in order to finish setting up the accounts I will need to install the ‘Trump Accounts App’ on my phone … I already don’t trust the administration and I’m very skeptical about installing any app on my phone that has the name Trump on it.” In the case of these accounts, you sign up by going through TrumpAccounts.gov, through your IRS online account under the “Forms” tab or by filling out IRS Form 4547, which, again, is all about Trump — the 45th and 47th president.
– A limited one-time payment isn’t enough. You cannot save money you do not have.
For low- to middle-income families who cannot afford to add even a single dollar to the initial $1,000 seed, the account is projected to grow to about $6,000 by age 18, depending on market performance. That’s a helpful cushion, but it’s a far cry from Trump’s proclamations that kids will get rich. If you’re a family living paycheck to paycheck, finding an extra $400 a month to lock away is a fantasy. […] By relying on families to invest up to $5,000 annually to see meaningful growth, Trump accounts do not solve the fundamental problem of poverty. [!]
– Financial aid bite
At age 18, the account hands control over to the child and morphs into a traditional IRA. This could make a huge difference when filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Unless there is a rule change, pulling money out of the account to pay for tuition is treated as student income, which the FAFSA penalizes heavily. This can slash financial aid eligibility by up to 50 percent of the withdrawn amount. Parent-held assets such as a 529 plan are only assessed at a maximum rate of 5.64 percent.
– An 18-year-old gets total control of the cash.
– The money is trapped for years: Lower-income families tend to experience a lot of financial emergencies. Expensive auto repairs, surprise medical bills and rent hikes can create a sudden gaping hole in a family’s budget.
The cash in the account is untouchable until the kid hits 18, and, even then, tapping it before age 59½ for anything outside of some exceptions — qualified higher education or medical expenses or first-home purchases — triggers a painful 10 percent IRS penalty on top of standard income taxes. [!] Working families can’t afford to lock away their thin margin of safety in a financial vault they can’t access when a crisis hits.
Sure, take the free money, but don’t expect great riches from setting up this account.
“An O.M.B. Plan to Defund Science—and Anything Trump Doesn’t Like”
“Under a new proposal, Administration officials could deny government grants to any group or project on the ground that it didn’t fit the President’s agenda.” By Elizabeth Kolbert
The list of tactics the Trump White House has used against its perceived enemies is nasty and brutish but certainly not short. It includes indicting them (James Comey, John Bolton), investigating them (Jerome Powell, Lisa Cook, Gavin Newsom), threatening to investigate them (Chris Christie, Bruce Springsteen), and threatening to prosecute them (top election officials in all fifty states). The Administration has dispatched troops to cities the President doesn’t care for (Chicago, Los Angeles, Portland); sued universities that ticked him off (Harvard, U.C.L.A.); and withheld billions of dollars’ worth of funding from groups and projects that it deems “woke” or wasteful or not in line with Donald Trump’s priorities, whatever those at the moment happen to be.
Recently, the White House announced plans to codify its campaign of retribution. The proposal, which would dramatically increase the President’s power over how federal funds are given out, would hand Trump a “new cudgel” to “advance his partisan agenda and punish political rivals,” a letter signed by all the Democrats in the Senate charged. “The stakes could not be higher” is how the legal website Lexology put it.
The proposal in question comes, not surprisingly, out of the Office of Management and Budget, headed by Russell Vought, the architect of Project 2025. Titled, innocuously enough, “Regulation for Federal Financial Assistance,” it would replace the current guidance for signing off on government grants, which generally leaves the task to civil servants and peer-review panels. Instead, the final say would go to political appointees. All discretionary awards from the federal government would have to be assessed by senior Administration officials, who could deny them on the ground that they didn’t fit the President’s agenda. Grants could also be terminated at any time for the same reason. [Yes, that is really bad.]
The rules would affect hundreds of billions of dollars in funding disbursed by agencies ranging from the National Endowment for the Arts to the Transportation Department, […] local dance performances to massive infrastructure projects. As Elizabeth Ginexi, a former program director at the National Institutes of Health, noted in a recent Substack post, “Federal grants are not peripheral to how states and communities function. They represent, on average, 36 cents of every dollar a state spends.” […]
The O.M.B.’s stated rationale for the new rules is to “improve transparency, accountability and oversight for Federal awards.” But no one—and this includes Trump appointees—seems to be buying it. Trump’s nominee to be the O.M.B.’s deputy director, Hal Duncan, noted at his confirmation hearing last month that the proposal would enable the Administration to prevent federal money from supporting “divisive D.E.I. ideologies.” […]
Research organizations have been particularly outspoken in their opposition to the O.M.B. proposal. “This latest move is a brazen power grab by the Director of the Office of Management and Budget to buck the will of Congress and the American people and will make future discoveries less likely,” Sudip Parikh, the head of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, wrote recently. Among the proposed rules’ many provisions is one that would prohibit federal money from being used to support collaborations between researchers in the United States and their colleagues in many other countries. [!!] “By this guidance, America would not be allowed to be included in the International Space Station,” Colette Delawalla, who founded and heads the group Stand Up for Science, said in an interview. “The same goes for every type of weather monitoring and pandemic monitoring.” [!]
[I snipped text describing how the White House found other ways to undermine science prior to this latest effort.]
The O.M.B. is aiming to finalize the new regulations by October 1st. (This is the case even though the office has already received more than ninety thousand comments on them and, under the law, is supposed to respond to all significant points before they can take effect.) It’s no accident that Vought wants the proposal enacted before the midterms; this would allow the Administration to continue to terrorize grant recipients even if Democrats gain control of Congress and start to exercise real oversight. As the late Donella Meadows, a professor at Dartmouth and the author of “Thinking in Systems,” once observed, “Power over the rules is real power.”
As tick populations aggressively advance in Canada, more Nova Scotians are looking for ways to protect their backyards — and they are turning to a loud, quirky bird for help.
Guinea fowl, which are large, speckled birds related to chickens and turkeys, are known for their voracious appetite for insects and are increasingly being deployed as natural exterminators…
Sen. Mitch McConnell released a statement on his health on Sunday along with a photo of himself and his wife, Elaine Chao, after questions swirled about his condition. McConnell said he was “briefly unconscious” after he took a fall last month and he had been dealing with a “mild case of pneumonia.”
The Republican said his medical team has not cleared him to return to the Senate floor to vote, but he assured that he has been working with his staff and Senate colleagues. Senate GOP leaders said earlier this week that they spoke with McConnell over the phone.
So apparently still alive but in so weak he can’t go back to the Senate. His story is a little thin but I will buy that he is alive and determined to hold onto his seat in the Senate until it’s clawed from his cold dead fingers.
Guinness World Records [said on Jul 6]: “We can confirm that Guinness World Records has received an application for this title, and it is currently being reviewed […] At this stage, we are not able to confirm whether the record has been achieved. We will only be able to do so once the evidence has been submitted and fully reviewed by our Records team.
[…]
it is unclear how many fireworks were actually launched […] Guinness records are not automatically awarded based on an organizer’s estimate. Record attempts typically undergo an independent verification process, which can include documentation reviews and confirmation that all record requirements were met. Certification can take days or weeks.
[…]
Another distinction is that Freedom 250 referred to “pyrotechnic effects,” while Guinness measures the number of fireworks successfully detonated during a public display. Without official verification, it remains unclear whether the organizer’s figure corresponds directly to the Guinness record category.
what is an official from Guinness World Records doing in one of the most repressive countries on Earth certifying records for an autocrat? […] in the last few years, a big chunk of Guinness World Records’ income now comes from helping companies and other clients invent and break new records to get publicity. […] For a full-service event, they reportedly charge anywhere from $12,000 to over $500,000. […] Authoritarians love getting Guinness World Records. […] They reinforce a cult of personality and confer a sense of legitimacy on a global stage.
I can imagine Trump’s people stiffing Guinness, or failing to submit proof. He would just assert he got the record regardless.
microraptorsays
birgerjohansson @30: A lot of people online are claiming that the newspaper seen in McConnell’s photo in that article appears to be an AI-generated image. And as I said in the other thread, Mitch is looking far healthier in that picture than he’s looked in years. Very suspicious until an independent source can actually see him directly instead of relying on press releases from a thoroughly dishonest group.
whheydtsays
Re: microraptor @ #32…
What struck me about the picture is the shirt he’s wearing. That’s not a style of upper garment I’ve ever seen in a hospital.
whheydtsays
Re: whheydt @ #33…
More on the clip of McConnell…. I don’t any sign of an IV. Pretty much the very first thing that happens when you’re admitted is that they start an IV, even if there is no immediate need for it. That IV stays (it may be re-done periodically) until they’re ready to discharge you.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
microraptor @32:
people online are claiming that the newspaper seen in McConnell’s photo in that article appears to be an AI-generated image.
a photo of himself in […] a hospital bed beside his wife, Elaine Chao […] McConnell appears to be sitting on incontinence pads and to have a bruised left hand. He is holding Sunday’s print edition of The Washington Post.
StevoRsays
Israelis will head to the polls on the last Tuesday in October for an election that will serve as a referendum on the legacy of the country’s longest-serving prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
Current polling suggests Mr Netanyahu could be in trouble, with data in recent weeks showing support for his Likud party slipping to a point where it is not guaranteed to be the largest in the Israeli parliament.
The October 27 polling date is the last possible moment for an election to be held, after the Knesset’s four-year term expires this coming Friday.
Actor Sam Neill, who starred in My Brilliant Career and Jurassic Park, has died aged 78.
A post made to his social media account on Monday afternoon said he had died in Sydney “surrounded by his family”.
“The loss was sudden and unexpected but blessed by the fact that Sam remained cancer free,” the statement, posted to Instagram, said.
Neill first rose to fame in the 1977 film Sleeping Dogs, before going on to star in My Brilliant Career, Jurassic Park, The Piano, The Dish and Possession among other films.
Sam Neill 1947-2026
Fifty years as an actor and never a hint of scandal or nastiness. He seems to have been a genuinely nice person. BTW he had beat cancer, only for some other (not disclosed) disease to take him.
birgerjohanssonsays
The recently deceased actor Sam Neill on a video where he is greeting Sweden 2022 , as Sweden has made it a tradition to watch the 1989 version of ‘Ivanhoe’ (where SN had a major role) ever New Year
“Scientists decipher how a psychedelic substance is created, then engineer a plant to produce several at once”
Obviously, society wants people to consume less psychedelics, not more but this can be a gateway to producing therapeutic psychedelics in edible plants, so the substances could be consumed in carefully regulated doses.
Brown University chemists have provided direct evidence that upends the textbook explanation of how triple chemical bonds work in heavy elements.
In a study published in Science, the researchers show evidence that when atomic nuclei are sufficiently heavy, the principles described in Einstein’s theory of relativity change the structure of triple bonds — blurring the lines between the two separate types of bonds involved in textbook triple bonding. Using a technique called photoelectron spectroscopy, the Brown team showed bonds created by carbon and the heavy element bismuth have the telltale signature of relativistic bonds…
…
A British Overseas Territory of around 40,000 inhabitants, Gibraltar has a border control for those entering and leaving.
That means that during the morning and afternoon rush hours, when around 15,000 Spaniards who work in the territory cross the frontier, there can be long, time-consuming queues.
…
But from 15 July, it is scheduled to see a new development – the removal of the border, allowing freedom of movement between Spain and Gibraltar.
This is part of a carefully negotiated agreement between the European Union and the UK following the latter’s exit from the bloc. Sharing a land border with the EU meant that Gibraltar posed a particular challenge in the post-Brexit era…
A New Jersey man says his t-shirt nearly got him kicked off a United Airlines flight.
Sam Saadeh, of Linden, was on a flight traveling from Atlanta to Newark Liberty International Airport on June 4 while wearing a t-shirt that said, “Bombing kids is not self defense.”
Saadeh, who is of Palestinian descent, said the t-shirt holds a deeper meaning and advocates for children.
…
Saadeh told CBS News New York he was “very confused” when a supervisor pulled him off the plane just after boarding.
“He was like, ‘Hey, the flight attendant finds your shirt offensive,’ and I was like, ‘Why?'” Saadeh said. “He goes, ‘Here are the choices. Either you change your shirt or you can’t get on this flight.'”
Both upset and humiliated, Saadeh says he opted to change, but claims he couldn’t get specific answers, even when he landed in Newark, where he spoke to airline personnel.
“She kept saying, like, ‘You could see how the shirt is offensive.’ I was like, ‘I can’t see how the shirt is offensive,'” Saadeh said. “She was like, ‘It’s 2026.’ I was like, ‘I know what year it is.'”
He added, ” ‘Do you think kids shouldn’t be bombed, or kids should be bombed? Like, what are you offended by?'”
…
birgerjohanssonsays
Two podcasters discuss the issues where Trump has alienated his own followers.
“It hardly seems like a coincidence that the president has meltdowns when reporters raise concerns about secrecy surrounding his health.”
The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman appeared on MS NOW’s “The Weekend” on Saturday morning, and when host Jonathan Capehart asked the reporter about President Donald Trump’s “mental acuity,” she offered an interesting answer.
“His health is like a black box inside that administration much more than almost any other issue,” Haberman replied. “And if there is an area of failure in the reporting for us, it was this, and trying to ― not mental, per se, but just his health, how he is, why he has gone to [Walter Reed Medical Center] several times and they have released less and less information.”
I have a hunch the president was watching. Shortly after the MS NOW interview, Trump published a 210-word rant to his social media platform, which included, among other things, a veiled threat directed at Haberman, whose name the president continues to deliberately misspell. The missive read in part:
Maggot Hagerman has covered me incorrectly for ten years. Her book is a joke! 90% of it is Fake News. She has made a living off her bad reporting, and will pay the price when our Multi Billion Dollar Lawsuit against The Failing New York Times gets to Court, which should not be that long.
Trump proceeded to accuse Haberman of participating in a secret plot to undermine him politically, before boasting once again about having “just finished a perfect physical at Walter Reed,” where he “requested another Cognitive Test, the only President to do so, three times, and I aced them all — Got every question right.” [Reeks of desperation.]
He concluded, “Few people in Washington, D.C., could do so, including Maggot and her flunky associate, Jonathan Swan. I would be willing to bet they couldn’t get 50% of the questions right.” (He was referring to exams used to identify dementia, mental deterioration and neurodegenerative diseases.)
A few hours later, Trump published an even longer, 448-word follow-up, in which he argued that he feels entitled to positive news coverage by virtue of his narrow 2024 victory, before he condemned “Maggot Hagerman” as “one of the most unattractive people in the News ‘Business.’”
The president wrote that he would prefer journalists at major news organizations to tell the public, “Gee, he won, he did a great job!” and “Congratulations, we wish you Great Success for our Country!” Following some election conspiracy theories and assorted whining about various media outlets (including my employer, MS NOW), he concluded that he would also like reporters to say, “TRUMP IS THE BEST POLITICAL ATHLETE OF ALL TIME! CONGRATULATIONS, MR. PRESIDENT. YOU HAVE BEATEN US FOR 10 YEARS, AND WE ARE NOT GOING TO WASTE OUR TIME FIGHTING YOU ANY LONGER. WE CAN’T WIN. DO A GREAT JOB, SIR, RUNNING OUR COUNTRY. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
There’s obviously no point in trying to fact-check every hysterical falsehood in these online tirades, but I am struck by what appears to have triggered Trump in the first place.
Last fall, after The New York Times ran an article about the president’s faltering stamina, he threw quite a tantrum, which concluded with the Republican saying the reporter who wrote the article “is ugly, both inside and out.” It was one of several examples of Trump targeting women in media with misogyny and disrespect.
Nine months later, after Haberman told MS NOW’s audience about the president’s health resembling “a black box,” Trump had another meltdown. […]
Just 18 months into Trump II, the president [demanded] that grand jury subpoenas be served immediately upon the nation’s leading newspaper for reporting that his beloved new Qatari-gifted Air Force One doesn’t haven the same defensive capabilities as the older models.
In a striking move to intimidate and coerce a free press, FBI agents were at the homes of New York Times reporters with the grand jury subpoenas Friday night, only a day after newspaper’s second big scoop of the week on the airplane’s deficiencies. But as stark as it was an overreach of government power, it was also a fit of personal pique from a thin-skinned president who pushed hard to rush the aircraft into service even if meant reduced capabilities.
One of the ironies of the story is that initial reports were that FBI Director Kash Patel was summoned to the White House Friday because of irritation that he was planning to use a government plane that day yet again to fly to go see his country music singer girlfriend perform, this time in Chicago. Subsequent reporting from the NYT itself revealed that the White House put the screws to Patel in that meeting to investigate the leaks that produced the NYT’s scoops:
Mr. Patel scuttled a planned trip to Chicago and spent roughly eight hours at the White House on Friday, running the investigation from there rather than F.B.I. headquarters [!] — a major departure from historical practice. Mr. Patel also briefed senior administration officials on the investigation, two people said. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive internal discussions.
Of course, both versions of why Patel was summoned to the White House can be true — and given Trump’s way of doing business they plausibly are both true. The eager-to-please Patel — under the gun for his travels to the point that Republican senators are becoming irritated — was an easy mark for Trump to strong-arm into launching a leak investigation and targeting his nemesis, the NYT.
The speed of the subpoenas to the NYT was breathtaking and undermined DOJ claims that the leakers were the target, not the NYT. The earliest the investigation could have started was Wednesday, after the first NYT story on Trump taking the old Air Force One back from the NATO summit in Turkey, before transferring to the new one in the U.K. (pictured above) for the transatlantic flight home. The subpoenas call for the reporters — Julian E. Barnes, Eric Lipton, Tyler Pager and Eric Schmitt — to appear before a grand jury in Manhattan this Wednesday.
To ramp up an investigation up that quickly and begin serving subpoenas stretches the bounds of the space-time continuum under which the Justice Department has historically operated in almost any circumstance. It was especially striking given long-standing DOJ policies, since dispensed with under Trump II, that made seeking evidence from journalists an investigative avenue of last resort.
While there are no substantial legal impediments to the feds subpoenaing journalists, coercing testimony from reporters was typically treated gingerly, researched thoroughly, came after other investigative techniques proved fruitless, and was made at the highest levels of the DOJ, not the White House. The abbreviated time frame between the first NYT story and Friday’s subpoenas suggests the Trump DOJ is starting the investigation by coercing reporters to testify.
The contrast isn’t just a stark sign of how much has changed or pearl-clutching over norms. The facts give away the game: The NYT is a Trump target here. It is not merely incidental to the leak investigation.
At a minimum, targeting the NYT gives Trump a chance to take some of the political heat off by flexing his executive powers and avoiding the appearance of being on the defensive over having undermined national security and the continuity of government by using an inferior aircraft. […]
I don’t know how to say it any more clearly: The president of the United States is ordering investigations, being run from the White House, of the nation’s leading newspaper in order to intimidate it into ceasing to publish stories that are personally and politically embarrassing to him.
This is all of the worst fears of a Trump II presidency coming home to roost.
Down a dirt road in northwest Oklahoma, only a few hundred yards from where the city of Enid draws its drinking water, a company injects the toxic byproduct of oil production deep underground.
That close proximity violates a state rule meant to protect public groundwater supplies from oil field wastewater, which can be saltier than the sea and laden with toxic metals. Injection operations are banned within a half-mile of public water wells unless regulators hold a hearing to ensure that such activity will not pollute the water.
But in 2018, without a hearing, state regulators approved this injection well, an apparatus that applies pressure to dispose of wastewater down a steel tube. And in the years since, the well, named the Flying Monkey, has repeatedly failed structural integrity tests, signaling a potential leak.
The Frontier and ProPublica mapped every injection well in the state to determine how close they are to public water wells. We identified at least 114 injection wells in communities across Oklahoma — including the Flying Monkey and two others in Enid — that are located within a half-mile of a public water supply well. More than 300,000 Oklahomans live in communities that rely on these water wells, according to our analysis.
The city of Enid has complained to the state about the threat to its water. In Oklahoma and beyond, toxic oil field fluid has spread underground and threatened municipal supplies. Midland, Texas, is still cleaning up groundwater polluted by a leaking injection well more than two decades ago. [!]
But Enid officials are powerless under state law to pass their own rules governing these wells. And so they are appealing to the same Oklahoma agency that had approved the Flying Monkey to now revoke the permit that allows the well to inject wastewater. The city is also asking the state to impose stronger protections against pollution from injection, as more oil and gas companies seek permission to drill wells that dispose of their wastewater nearby. It’s a rare example of pushback against one of Oklahoma’s most powerful industries.
[…] The agency has repeatedly declined to punish oil and gas companies for causing widespread pollution […]
Enid’s case will be heard in the agency’s administrative law court later this year. […]
Ben Ezzell, a former Enid city commissioner, said he hopes the state recognizes that the community is asking for “reasonable” protections against catastrophic long-term damage to its water supplies.
“It’s ultimately all one big aquifer,” he said. “You can’t just pee in part of the pool. If any of the aquifer is tainted, all of the aquifer will be tainted.” [!]
[…] in the heart of downtown, a large art deco building gestures at one of Enid’s other vital, long-standing industries: It was once the office for Continental Resources, now the world’s largest private oil company.
Although Continental outgrew Enid more than a decade ago, pumpjacks pulling up oil still seesaw up and down near town. Oil production inevitably means wastewater. And dozens of injection wells west of Enid blast the industry’s byproduct underground in the same area where many of the city’s water wells are located.
The nation’s bedrock water protection law — the Safe Drinking Water Act — singles out oil and gas injection of wastewater as a particularly urgent threat to drinking water. And it requires oil states to draft specific regulations to protect public water wells.
Oklahoma, however, has not always followed its own rules. In 2018, a small company called Hinkle Oil & Gas applied for a permit for an injection well — the Flying Monkey — less than a quarter-mile from two of the city’s water wells […]
the company had checked a box attesting that the injection well was not within a half-mile of a public water supply well — the distance that, under state rules, should have triggered a hearing to evaluate the Flying Monkey’s pollution threat. “This was demonstrably false,” [!\ Enid’s lawyers wrote in a September 2025 court filing.
The commission approved Hinkle’s application for the well without a hearing, giving the company the green light to inject more than 800,000 gallons of wastewater into the earth each day. [!] […]
Later in 2018, Hinkle transferred the well to another small company, which applied for a new permit to convert the Flying Monkey to a commercial well to dispose of the wastewater produced by other oil companies, too. [!] By approving the permit, the city contends, regulators allowed the company to violate another state rule meant to protect public water wells from commercial disposal sites. […] The company has since filed for bankruptcy.
[…] In the last five years, the state has shut down the Flying Monkey repeatedly — for months at a time — for failing mechanical tests required by the state that evaluate the well’s structural integrity. […]
In the court filing last fall, Enid’s lawyers described this pattern of violations as “a significant compliance red flag, especially given the well’s immediate proximity to Enid’s public supply well.” The city wants the state to terminate the Flying Monkey’s permit. After a period of inactivity last year, the well began injecting wastewater again last summer, only to be shut down again this March. State records indicate that the Flying Monkey’s operator, BCE-Mach III Midstream Holdings, repaired the tubing leak in April, and the well’s status is listed as active […]
[…] Close by the Flying Monkey, another wastewater injection well — Estill #8 —sits roughly a quarter-mile from three of Enid’s water wells.
In its application, submitted in August 2012, an affiliate of the U.S. Energy Development Corp. acknowledged the proposed injection well’s proximity to the city’s water supply but subsequently urged state regulators to approve an emergency order to allow the well to begin injecting wastewater immediately. Waiting for the required hearing, the company wrote, would result in “irreparable financial harm” because any delay would deprive it of a way to get rid of the wastewater generated by its nearby oil wells. In general, oil companies want their wastewater disposal sites to be as close as possible to their producing wells to reduce the cost of transporting the fluid. The commission approved the emergency order on a temporary basis while it considered whether to issue a permanent permit, and the well began injecting wastewater in November 2012.
In February of the following year, the company returned to the commission to renew its request to continue injecting without a standard hearing. The commission approved the second request in March and two weeks later authorized the well’s official permit without a hearing. […]
The well has been operating ever since [!], injecting more than 12 million gallons of wastewater into the earth last year. […] [Illustration showing location of injection wells.]
[…] In this arid part of Oklahoma, where surface water is scarce, Enid has become a vital source of drinking water for a dozen smaller, more rural communities as well as Vance Air Force Base. Even after the recent completion of a 70-mile, $400 million pipeline to bring water from Kaw Lake, Enid will continue to rely heavily on its groundwater wells.
“In the 21st century, water is going to be the new gold,” Frank Baker, an Enid city commissioner, said in an interview.
[…] The issue hasn’t previously been covered in the media. The City Council hasn’t discussed it in public meetings. And few follow the obscure quasi-judicial system of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission.
[…] Enid is asking regulators to impose a ban on oil and gas wastewater injection within a half-mile of its water wells, with no possibility of exceptions. It also wants the state to require additional testing, pollution monitoring and mechanical safety measures for wells within 1 mile of an Enid water well, according to its application to state regulators. […]
Pollution from high-pressure wastewater injection can radiate much farther than a mile [!]. Oil companies have acknowledged that their injection wells can impact one another’s operations that were 3 miles apart […] The Frontier and ProPublica identified more than 400 wastewater injection wells across Oklahoma that are within 1 mile of a public water supply well.
Regulations for this issue vary widely among oil states. Colorado and Ohio set a minimum buffer of 1,000 feet between injection wells and public water supplies. Many states do not have fixed setbacks, instead relying on belowground geological evaluations to ensure that injected fluid does not contaminate aquifers.
[…] Five companies have formally opposed the city’s request for stronger rules to protect its groundwater. Those include Flying Monkey owner BCE-Mach III Midstream Holdings, Estill #8 owner U.S. Energy Development Corp. and two others — D&B Operating and Royalty Energy Development LLC — that have pending applications for new injection wells near Enid. […]
Matthew Allen, an attorney representing U.S. Energy Development Corp., argued in a May procedural hearing that the city’s proposed changes would “significantly increase the regulatory burden” and costs to companies. He also said that the administrative court was the incorrect venue for the city to pursue such a significant change. […]
Kaylee Davis-Maddy, Enid’s attorney, emphasized during the hearing that the city was not trying to establish a statewide rule. Rather, she said, Enid wants the rules to apply within a geographic boundary to protect its freshwater.
[…] Enid has to bring its appeal to the state agency in large part due to a 2015 law that forbids cities and counties from establishing their own regulations on oil and gas operations.
That matters because even if the administrative law judge sides with Enid, such a decision must be approved by the regulatory agency’s three elected commissioners. Right now, two of them are former state legislators who in the past have opposed efforts by Oklahoma municipalities to restrict oil and gas operations. [The system is rigged in favor of oil and gas operations.]
[…] All three commissioners were elected with significant financial support from the oil and gas industry. […]
At the time the preemption law passed, several local governments were considering restrictions on hydraulic fracturing amid a wave of earthquakes caused by oil and gas injection. […]
The state Supreme Court upheld the law in its 2022 decision nullifying a requirement by the city of Norman, about 20 miles south of Oklahoma City, that oil and gas companies maintain extra liability insurance.
“Municipalities no longer possess a broad police power to regulate oil and gas,” the court wrote in its unanimous decision.
More at the link, including embedded links to additional sources.
birgerjohanssonsays
An animal sanctuary where if you look out from the bathroom in the morning you see a peacock staring down at you.
“We Rescued a Peacock… Now He Runs the Place”
Trump proceeded to accuse Haberman of participating in a secret plot to undermine him politically, before boasting once again about having “just finished a perfect physical at Walter Reed,” where he “requested another Cognitive Test, the only President to do so, three times, and I aced them all — Got every question right.” [Reeks of desperation.]
He concluded, “Few people in Washington, D.C., could do so, including Maggot and her flunky associate, Jonathan Swan. I would be willing to bet they couldn’t get 50% of the questions right.” (He was referring to exams used to identify dementia, mental deterioration and neurodegenerative diseases.)
I would be willing to bet that a random 12 year-old could pass with flying colors. He is so deluded that it is a difficult test.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
birgerjohansson @43:
producing therapeutic psychedelics in edible plants, so the substances could be consumed in carefully regulated doses.
For a while, I had some pretty jimsonweeds growing nearby… until I googled em.
All Datura plants contain tropane alkaloids such as scopolamine and atropine, primarily in their seeds and flowers, as well as the roots of certain species […] A given plant’s toxicity depends on its age, where it is growing, and the local weather conditions. These variations make Datura exceptionally hazardous as a drug. […] the traditional mnemonic: “Blind as a bat, mad as a hatter, red as a beet, hot as a hare, dry as a bone, the bowel and bladder lose their tone, and the heart runs alone” […] In some parts of Europe and India, Datura has been a popular poison for suicide and murder. […] Datura intoxication typically produces the effects of anticholinergic delirium (usually involving a complete or relative inability to differentiate reality from fantasy) […] The overwhelming majority of those who describe their use of Datura find their experiences extremely unpleasant—both mentally and often physically.
To be fair Datura are exceptionally uncooperative for use in herbal medicine or recreation. Hopefully the engineered plants do their chemistry reliably outside a lab.
johnson catman @54: “I would be willing to bet that a random 12 year-old could pass with flying colors. He [Trump] is so deluded that it is a difficult test.”
Yep. Even considering the usual trumpian levels of delusion and/or ignorance, it is hard to believe that Trump thinks that test is difficult … and that other people couldn’t pass it
And, of course, Trump continues to repeat his nonsense about the test. His fits of braggadocio remind us that he stupid, that his brain doesn’t work properly, and that he will raise the flag of his ignorance as if it were a virtue at every opportunity.
“Trump announced a spectacularly radical scheme that, among other things, legitimizes the idea of charging fees for passage through the Strait of Hormuz.”
About a month ago, Donald Trump spoke at some length with The New York Times about the war in Iran and the tentative deal his administration had reached with officials in Tehran. At the time, the American president boasted that the agreement would ensure that the Strait of Hormuz was “permanently toll-free,” before turning his attention to the next round of diplomatic talks.
In fact, the Republican went on to tell the Times that if the next round of negotiations fell through, he was prepared to either renew the U.S. military offensive in Iran or make the United States “the guardian of the Middle East” in return for 20% of the region’s revenues.
It was a bizarre comment. What’s more, it was unclear whether he had just shared a passing thought or was articulating an actual policy idea. The Times report added at the time, “Mr. Trump’s assertion that the United States would, if necessary, become a paid police force for the Middle East would be a striking, if very Trumpian, departure. The president would, in effect, be turning American protection of the region — and the U.S. nuclear umbrella — into a mercenary force, there in return for profit. The arrangement would essentially reject the post-World War II American tradition, in which the United States used its power to assure global peace and prosperity.”
A month later, the U.S.-Iran deal has effectively collapsed; Trump has declared the ceasefire “over”; both countries have renewed their military strikes; and the American president, who had said basically nothing about his “guardian” idea since mentioning it to the Times on June 14, has rediscovered the threat — and made it worse. [video]
“We’re going to keep the strait, and we’ll probably run it,” Trump told Fox News on Monday morning. “We’ll become ‘the guardian of the strait.’ Maybe we’ll call it ‘the guardian angel of the strait.’ And we should be reimbursed for that. When we do that, we’re going to be reimbursed. … We can’t be expected to do that for nothing. … We’re going to get paid for guarding it.”
Nearly two hours later, the president elaborated on this in writing, publishing his latest weird statement to his social media platform, which read in its entirety:
The Hormuz Strait is OPEN, and will remain OPEN, with or without Iran. We are reinstating the THE IRANIAN BLOCKADE, so named because it is only stopping Iran’s ships or customers from entering or leaving. All other countries will have fair and open use of the Strait. The U.S.A. will be, from this point forward, known as “THE GUARDIAN OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT,” but as such, and as a matter of FAIRNESS, will be reimbursed, at the rate of 20% on all cargo shipped, for any and all costs necessary to do the job of providing safety and security to this very volatile section of the World. The process and formation will begin immediately. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
Last month, Trump’s Secretary of State Marco Rubio said of the Strait of Hormuz, “It’s an international waterway. … No country is allowed to charge tolls or fees on an international waterway. That’s existing international law.”
His boss, however, just announced plans to position the U.S. as a mercenary force: Our military will apparently guard the Strait of Hormuz and, for our troubles, we intend to charge tolls that the Trump administration recently characterized as illegal and impermissible.
Again, it’s difficult to say with confidence whether the president’s declarations are just random words spouted by a man who often peddles nonsense that he doesn’t mean. In fact, it’s entirely plausible that in the hours and days that follow, Trump will simply pretend that he never said or wrote what we’ve already seen and heard.
But for now, Trump has just announced a spectacularly radical scheme that, among other things, legitimizes the idea of charging fees for passage through the Strait of Hormuz — which is a development that probably didn’t go unnoticed in Tehran.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
Trump promised America First non-intervention. Also, he wants dominance over the the western hemisphere. And Gaza. And Hormuz. Just abandoned doctrinal justification altogether for the Iran war.
By now, Donald Trump has probably grown accustomed to legal setbacks in court, though his case against the IRS has started to backfire in ways the president didn’t see coming. The Associated Press reported:
A federal judge said Monday that President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS over his leaked tax returns was filed for an “improper purpose” as she referred attorneys for disciplinary actions.
The ruling from U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams amounts to a stinging rebuke of the Republican president’s lawsuit, characterizing it as an exercise in self-dealing in which he sued an entity that is effectively under his control.
The basic details of Trump’s IRS lawsuit are likely familiar: During his first term, a contractor leaked his tax returns, and six years later, the president has filed suit against the tax agency, saying he’s entitled to $10 billion in taxpayer funds.
In May, he voluntarily withdrew his own litigation, and soon afterward, the administration unveiled his reward for having done so: a compensation fund worth $1.766 billion, which was quickly condemned by members of both parties as a “slush fund” that would be used to benefit the White House’s political allies.
That bipartisan pushback appears to have forced the president to back off his plans for the fund. And at that point, the case appeared to have run its course: Trump filed a rather preposterous $10 billion lawsuit against his own administration; he then abandoned that case before it could be fully adjudicated; and that was that.
Except, it wasn’t quite that simple, and one of the underlying legal problems persisted: The federal judge in the case, responding to a request filed by 35 former federal judges calling on her to reopen the case, raised serious concerns in late May, ordering Trump and his lawyers to address allegations that he committed fraud on the court.
In a four-page order, Williams said she intended to investigate “grievous allegations” that the hasty deal to resolve the dubious case was “premised on deception.” (This same judge, as recently as late April, expressed skepticism about the propriety of the case, since it appeared the president was, for all intents and purposes, both the plaintiff and the defendant.)
More than a month later, she apparently did not like what she discovered, concluding that Trump and his lawyers acted “in bad faith” and filed a civil suit “for an improper purpose.”
“The nature of the suit itself and the conduct of the Parties and counsel from its filing make plain that this was an attempt to use the Court to provide some legitimacy to an agreement to confer immunity to people and entities affiliated with the President and to earmark billions of dollars from American taxpayers to redress grievances not defined in the law,” Williams wrote. [Yep. The judge is correct. Well said.]
The judge also prohibited the parties from even referring to it as a “settlement.” [LOL]
Just as notably, as CNBC reported, Williams “referred Trump’s lawyer in the lawsuit, Alejandro Brito, to the Florida bar for consideration on whether Brito should be disciplined in light of the findings in the new order.” The judge also “ordered that a copy of her ruling be mailed to the State Bar of New York, of which Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is a member, as well as to the District of Columbia Bar, of which Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward is a member.”
The developments come just two days before Blanche, Trump’s choice to serve as attorney general, is scheduled to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee for a confirmation hearing.
A spokesperson for [Trump’s] legal team said in a written statement, “The IRS wrongly allowed a rogue, politically-motivated employee to leak private and confidential information about President Trump, his family, and the Trump Organization to the New York Times, ProPublica and other left-wing news outlets, which was then illegally released to millions of people. President Trump continues to hold those who wrong America and Americans accountable.”
The statement made no effort to address allegations of professional misconduct or the fact that Trump’s lawyers just received a brutal smackdown in court.
“It’s not a real convention,” a Republican consultant conceded. “It’s just this grifter free-for-all.”
When delegates to the major party nominating conventions gather every four years, they don’t have a whole lot to do. Before the modern primary system, these conventions were often raucous and contentious gatherings where real work was done choosing candidates for national office. But in recent decades, they have been commonly panned as “infomercials” and devoid of important work.
That said, it’d be an exaggeration to say these quadrennial conventions are completely pointless affairs. If nothing else, nominating conventions feature delegates from across the country who, if nothing else, approve a party platform and formally nominate candidates to lead the national ticket.
Republicans’ plans for a midterm convention, however, are a very different story.
The Republican National Committee recently announced plans for a national convention, to be held in Dallas on Sept. 9-10, reviving a practice Democrats abandoned decades ago. The move comes with significant risks: One of the underlying points of a national convention is nationalizing an election cycle — and given how very unpopular the incumbent Republican president is, the party should be going out of its way to localize the midterms.
Despite common sense, the RNC appears to be eager to lean into the risk, with party chairman Joe Gruters telling Fox News two weeks ago that the gathering in Dallas will be a “Trumpapalooza,” designed to motivate his followers. [“Trumpapalooza” … OMFG]
[…] there’s another element to the story that’s starting to come into focus. Politico reported:
An invitation from the Denton County Republican Party outside of Dallas offers attendees at the GOP’s midterm convention a chance to be “honorary delegates” for a cool $20,000.
And in California, a $250,000 “golden VIP member” ticket to the convention buys four floor badges, four hotel rooms, hotel transfers, gifts – and concierge services for the weekend.
A related HuffPost report noted that the Texas GOP is charging $20,000 for an “honorary delegate” credential, which includes a two-night hotel stay and a “Texas Shirt and Cowboy Hat.”
The Politico report […] added that the Republican National Committee has encouraged state parties to use the midterm convention as a “fundraiser” for their own candidates.
It’s a plan that opens the door to an obvious line of criticism: This isn’t a major-party convention; it’s a fundraising grift masquerading as a pep rally. No work will be done, and nothing of substance will be accomplished. The party is throwing a two-day soiree for itself and encouraging people to pony up thousands of dollars for the privilege of hanging out with GOP officials and candidates.
HuffPost spoke with a Republican consultant who conceded, “It’s not a real convention. … It’s just this grifter free-for-all.”
A coalition of 12 states filed an antitrust lawsuit on Monday to block the merger of Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros., defying the Department of Justice, which approved the deal last month.
The coalition, led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, alleges that the $111 billion transaction violates the Clayton Act by lessening competition in three distinct markets: wide-release theatrical distribution, “top-grossing” theatrical distribution, and basic cable licensing.
“The unlawful merger of these two entertainment behemoths would lead to higher prices, lower quality, and less content for film and television, harming movie theaters, basic cable distributors, and ultimately, audiences on every sofa and movie theater seat in the U.S.,” Bonta said in a statement on Monday…
Wide-legged pants? Trendy. Falling on your face while wearing said pants? Trending.
Technically, the Zara pants at the centre of a new internet phenomenon are called “flowy wide leg pants,” which cost $45.90, are made of polyester, and boast an elastic waistband and front pockets.
But on social media, they’re better known as “lethal trousers,” or “deadly trousers” or the “Zara death pants” because people keep tripping on them and hurting themselves…
Cyclosporiasis, an explosive-diarrhea-causing illness, is sickening people in 31 states, although the exact number of cases is likely underestimated. Surveillance at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is not as robust as it once was, and some people don’t get medical attention when they have a diarrheal illness.
The exact source of the current cyclosporiasis outbreaks is unknown, but the parasite (known as Cyclospora cayetanensis) that causes the illness has historically been found on certain fresh fruits, vegetables and herbs, and is most seen in the summer months.
According to Dr. Michael Cappello, a professor and chair of the Department of Epidemiology (Microbial Diseases) at the Yale School of Public Health, “you typically see the parasite in people who have ingested various fruits and vegetables. … Typically, they have been contaminated with human sewage or waste is sort of the generally accepted route of transmission.”
…
The produce that’s making people ill this summer hasn’t been identified, but certain fruits and veggies have been the cause of outbreaks in the past.
“The one that we are most familiar with is raspberries, but there have also been outbreaks going back in the last decade or two that were traced to basil, cilantro, lettuce and especially some of the lettuce mixes that have been produced that come prepackaged,” Cappello explained.
Horney added that parsley, snow peas and green onions have also been the source of the infection in the past…
another 60-day clock to use the military in the region without congressional approval.
[…]
Trump had previously notified lawmakers in May that the war launched in February had “terminated,” […] The ceasefire that went into effect in early April at that time had been indefinitely extended. The White House had argued that the move stopped the war powers clock.
Opponents of the war on Capitol Hill, however, contended that […] the U.S. Navy was still engaging in a blockade meant to force Tehran’s hand, even if major combat operations had halted.
johnson catmansays
re CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain@65: Meet the new war, same as the old war.
President Donald Trump plans to use newly declassified intelligence in a primetime speech Thursday night to revive his long-running claim that a foreign nation interfered in the 2020 election, according to MS NOW.
In 2010, archaeologist David Stuart and colleagues ran into a painted chamber at Xultun, a Maya relic in modern-day Guatemala. Then the team noticed that the many mathematical and astronomical formulas appeared to be attributed to someone—an individual whose name has now been identified.
In a paper published today in Antiquity, the research team reports the first-ever known Maya mathematician-astronomer, Saktahnwaax (“White-Chested Fox”), who likely lived around 800 CE. According to the paper, an inscription on the chamber’s wall read “so says Saktahnwaax,” which suggests that either the person themselves or someone else “signed” the work, attributing the formulas to Saktahnwaax. In addition to the purported scientist’s name, the team also shared a never-before-seen formula demonstrating the Maya’s “unique and elegant” understanding of time and astronomy, Stuart, of the University of Texas in Austin, told Gizmodo…
A dozen state attorneys general sued Monday to block Paramount Skydance’s $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, citing the harm the megamerger could pose to competition in Hollywood.
The deal would consolidate two powerhouse movie studios, several popular streaming services and the national news networks CBS and CNN into a single company under the purview of the billionaire Trump-aligned Ellison family. […]
John Rich is taking on a prestigious role within President Donald Trump’s administration. On Monday, the country star took to social media to announce his latest endeavor. ‘President Trump has afforded me the great honor to serve in his administration as the ‘Special Envoy for American Landowners,’ he wrote on X.
Nordone has worked as an optician and at various state agencies, including the South Carolina Commission for the Blind and the Department of Employment and Workforce. She lives in Lexington, is a graduate of the College of Charleston and has a master’s degree in rehabilitation counseling.
“The hapless defense secretary cares a great deal about beards, but he’s far less concerned about service members and safety standards.”
Related video at the link.
Over the past year and a half, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has repeatedly talked about his obsessive interest in “lethality.” But looking at his record rather than his rhetoric reveals a man who can’t shake his preoccupation with priorities that have nothing to do with restoring a “warriors’ ethos.”
Take his interest in facial hair, for example.
The former Fox News host faced ridicule last year after delivering his infamous “beardo” speech, but Hegseth has continued to express concern about service members whose beards do not meet his grooming standards. To that end, Stars and Stripes reported the military is cracking down on facial hair, with the Navy abandoning waivers to sailors who suffer from skin conditions caused by shaving.
This includes pseudofolliculitis barbae, a condition that can cause painful inflammation after shaving. The Stars and Stripes report noted that the condition “disproportionately affects Black men,” and given Hegseth’s broader record on matters related to race, it’s hardly unreasonable to think the Pentagon should answer questions about possible racial motivations behind the policy.
[…] The Washington Post reported:
The Pentagon said Friday that the military has lifted the suspensions of all helicopter pilots involved in a July 4 beach flyover in South Carolina that triggered scrutiny […]
Sean Parnell, a Pentagon spokesman, indicated in a social media post that the pilots, members of the South Carolina National Guard, were no longer grounded “effective immediately.”
By way of social media, Hegseth assured various conservatives that he’d “fix this,” referring to the investigation. Hours later, his spokesperson published a post of his own, writing, in an apparent message to the suspended crew members, “Carry on Patriots.”
Local videos from the South Carolina event showed Apache helicopters flying at surprisingly low altitudes, and after they landed, officers were immediately notified of their suspensions, pending an investigation into possible safety violations. […]
[I snipped details of past incidents, including one involving Kid Rock]
Hegseth nevertheless took it upon himself to reverse the suspension and scrap the investigation.
The New York Times noted the moves represented […] “another indication of his [Hegseth’s] contempt for legal guardrails in the military.” […]
The message to service members couldn’t be clearer: Those who engage in politically motivated stunts don’t have to worry too much about military safety standards, just so long as they’re clean-shaven.
Speaking in May at a conference in Washington, DC, Gregg Roman, executive director of the American right-wing Middle East Forum (MEF), took stock of the work his organisation has been doing over the past year in support of efforts aimed at the eventual overthrow of the current Iranian regime.
“[US military operation Epic Fury] was the doctrine we advocated in practice. For the first time in 10 years, we saw it live. 39 days of fire,” he said to a room of 150 donors and pro-war policy makers, which included the Israeli ambassador to the US, Yechial Leiter. The conference appeared to serve as an opportunity to seek funding for additional MEF initiatives directed at challenging Iran’s current government.
…(Snip)…
.. The project, dubbed the “Iranian Civil Society Vulnerability Assessment”, was to gather information from Farsi-language open-source intelligence and social networks and build a “comprehensive heat map that provides actionable information on key pressure points” in ten of Iran’s most ethnically diverse provinces. The proposal identified INSS’s top Iran expert, Raz Zimmt, as the intended project lead.
The leaked documents do not explain how any resulting research would have been operationalised, nor do they establish that it was subsequently used in military planning or intelligence operations.
From one of my fb friends and actually written by her :
Where are the tornado warning sirens? The USA is rocketing towards becoming the authoritarian hellscape from which it has spent almost a century pretending to be the refuge. Citizens are being shot in the street. People in a book club are being sentenced to decades in prison for wrongthink. Trump is trying to push through electoral changes that mean this regime will “not lose an election for 100 years.” And it’s all being done in the name of fighting imaginary totalitarian communist leftists. Why isn’t there more outrage?
Donald Trump whined to his audience that a “communist menace” was destroying America from within at his July 4th speech on stolen Lakota land. The land had been granted officially to the Great Sioux Nation “in perpetuity” by the US government in1868. In the 1870s, gold was found. Perpetuity turned out to be short-lived. The right to redistribute wealth belongs not to Zohran Mamdani taxing billionaires’ condos. It belongs to any white man who can take what lies under someone’s feet. Preferably someone non-White.
Trump promised to “exile” communists. “Communism,” he asserted “is the exact opposite of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It’s death, tyranny and the pursuit of evil.” It’s a “cancer,” he declared. It must be “cut out fast.” Of course, Democratic Socialist Muslim mayors are a “cancer” if one is a tycoon with billions in property to defend from a mite of taxation. Apparently, no plutocrat needs a servant class that can afford to live within two hours of its workplaces.
Trump’s unsubtle code marked true America as White and Western. The enemy, “the communist party,” he contrasted “is made up of illegal immigrants, criminals and everybody that doesn’t want to work.” … (Snip – there’s a lot more there.)…
Israel is in talks with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) over new restrictions on prison visits to Palestinian detainees, the organisation has told The New Arab, after Israeli authorities introduced sweeping new rules that rights groups warn will shield abuses from independent scrutiny.
The measures, introduced last week by Israel Prison Service (IPS) Commissioner Kobi Yaakobi, sharply limit how and when ICRC delegates can visit Palestinian detainees despite an Israeli High Court ruling that the blanket suspension of visits imposed after October 2023 was unlawful.
The policy, adopted without consultation with Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, comes amid mounting international criticism of Israel’s treatment of Palestinian prisoners. Rights groups have documented allegations of torture, starvation, medical neglect and sexual abuse inside Israeli detention facilities, while humanitarian organisations have repeatedly called for independent monitoring to resume.
The territory Israel has occupied in southern Lebanon since 2 March includes several Christian villages. Additional Christian villages within the security zone declared by Israel have been eradicated through deliberate demolitions. Since the war began, these surviving Christian villages have been under siege. They have endured Israeli shelling, airstrikes, displacement, and infrastructure damage, yet most have remained inhabited despite numerous Israeli evacuation orders.
Many residents chose to stay in their villages to protect their homes, churches, and farmland, despite harsh conditions. They are barred from leaving to seek treatment or obtain essential supplies without prior approval from “the Mechanism Committee,” the supervisory body established after the war ended in 2024. Essentially, they must obtain authorisation from the Israeli army before they can do anything.
…(Snip)…
..when the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, claimed a few days ago that some Christian villages in Lebanon had asked to be annexed by Israel, it came as a huge shock to all the Lebanese and especially to the inhabitants of these Christian villages, who expressed outrage.
In his statement, Netanyahu said: “There are Christian villages in Lebanon, some of which have actually asked to be annexed to Israel because we are protecting them from Hezbollah fanatics who want to kill them, and we are doing the same for Christians everywhere.” He added that not only Christians but also Druze, Sunni Muslims, and some Shiites seek his protection.
Netanyahu’s declarations are being viewed in Lebanon as false and provocative. Not only has Hezbollah never attacked any Christian village, but after Netanyahu’s remarks, several Christian villages issued statements refuting his claims and insisting that their future lies solely with the Lebanese state. They dismissed his comments as untrue.
Israel’s refusal to renew a key water supply agreement with Jordan reflects a growing “weaponisation” of water in the region, experts have told The New Arab, after Israeli officials linked future supplies to warmer diplomatic relations with Amman.
The warning comes after Israeli media reported that Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has refused to extend a 2021 agreement supplying Jordan with an additional 50 million cubic metres (MCM) of water annually, amid tensions over Jordan’s criticism of Israel’s war on Gaza and its opposition to Israeli policies in the occupied West Bank.
Israeli media also reported that the UAE was seeking to broker a trilateral summit in Abu Dhabi involving Israel, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates in an attempt to resolve the dispute.
… (Snip)..
Speaking to The New Arab, Oakey said Jordan was particularly vulnerable because it is “one of the most water-scarce countries in the world”, with just 61 cubic metres of renewable water available per person each year, compared with the UN water scarcity threshold of 500 cubic metres.
She said the crisis is being driven by a combination of severe network losses, rapid population growth, successive refugee influxes, heavy agricultural demand and climate change, which is reducing rainfall while increasing water demand during hotter summers.
Jordan is attempting to address the crisis through a planned 300 MCM desalination plant in Aqaba, but Oakey warned that water would increasingly become a geopolitical tool across the region.
“On a military base in West Texas, where the government has built a sprawling tent complex to hold thousands of immigrants, deprivation and dire conditions are part of the design.” By Jonathan Blitzer
[I snipped the introductory material that explains how “Rey,” a Cuban Rey, in his mid-fifties came to the U.S. in 1994; and how he was recently detained when he was trying to comply with a program called Intensive Supervision Appearance Program. ISAP is an initiative of Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE]—an alternative to detention which allows immigrants with open or unresolved legal cases to live freely while checking in with officials a few times a year. It began, in 2004, with a simple premise: the federal government cannot jail everyone it might want to deport.]
[…] A few hours later, Rey and more than a dozen other detainees were driven ten minutes east, to a facility where he would spend the next six weeks. It was down a long, barren drive, almost a mile from the main road, and sealed off behind a metal gate. Four large white tents stood in an imposing line, flanked by a few small buildings. The desolate surroundings scared some of the others, but Rey, whose pizzeria was nearby, recognized where they were—at a military base called Fort Bliss.
Last summer, the Trump Administration picked Fort Bliss to be the site of the largest immigrant-detention center in the country.ICE was ramping up arrests nationwide, and the government, in search of more space to hold people, opted to erect tents—known in government parlance as “soft-sided facilities”—at military installations and close to existing ICE jails. “The idea seemed to be: How can we do this as cheaply and brutally as possible?” Claire Trickler-McNulty, a former senior ice official, told me. Fort Bliss’s proximity to the U.S.-Mexico border, and its considerable size, made it an obvious place to start. (It also has a loaded history: during the Second World War, fifty-six U.S. citizens and residents of Japanese, German, and Italian descent were interned on the premises as “enemy aliens.”) ICE already had a detention center nearby, on Montana Avenue. The agency called the new installation, a sprawling tent complex that could hold up to five thousand people, Camp East Montana.
[…] The contract for running Camp East Montana was worth more than a billion dollars. […] the contract went [to] a Virginia-based firm called Acquisition Logistics, which had no prior detention experience. […] the firm’s official address was a modest gray house with red shutters in the suburbs of Richmond, which belonged to the company’s founder and C.E.O., Kenneth Wagner, a seventy-eight-year-old Navy veteran.
Wagner’s sixty-page bid offered little more than a rhetorical embrace of the Administration’s immigration policies. […] [I snipped text describing other irregularities and mishaps.]
[…] The first detainees who were taken to Camp East Montana, in early August, arrived at an active construction site. They were kept awake at night by the sounds of trucks and jackhammers. During the day, plumes of dust blanketed the facility. “This place does not seem to be designed for humans to be here,” a Venezuelan father of two from Dallas told the American Civil Liberties Union in a sworn declaration.
[…] Toilets wouldn’t flush. Running water came sporadically. The detainees ate and slept next to the bathrooms; fetid water leaked into the dining area and under the beds. […] Fifteen days passed before the men were allowed to leave the tent, and then only at night. […]
The outdoor spaces hadn’t been finished. Neither had the areas for visitation. Phone booths for making calls weren’t yet set up, and tablets that detainees were given to call their lawyers didn’t work. Most of the people inside had been transferred from the South Florida Detention Facility, another tent complex, which the government proudly called Alligator Alcatraz. But, for most of August, they were effectively off the grid. ice’s detainee locator, which allows family members and lawyers to see where someone is being held, issued an error message for those who were now at Camp East Montana. This was seemingly by design, the Administration official told me. The system was generally supposed to show where a person was being held within seventy-two hours of his arrival at a new facility. Someone at ice, the official said, “went in and changed the settings and made it say, ‘Call ice for details.’ ”
[…]ICE hadn’t inspected the facility before it started sending detainees there. […]
[I snipped details of Rey’s past as a “survivor” as a protector of other refugees. I also snipped details describing how Rey’s wife had difficulty finding out where ICE has taken him.]
[…] As a former internee at Guantánamo and a onetime federal inmate, Rey had enough experience to be immediately alarmed by the chaos at Camp East Montana. There was no formal intake process for new arrivals and no orientation to explain how things worked. When the guards took Rey’s cash, he asked them for an official receipt listing the amount. They told him not to worry. “Of course I’m worried,” he said. “It’s two thousand dollars.”
[…] Without his medication, Rey often felt dizzy and weak. The guards told him to submit a formal request to see a doctor. He did so, but days passed without a response. [I snipped details describing Rey’s deteriorating health.]
[I snipped details describing the detention of Antonio Ascón Frometa; and of the detention and death of Lunas Campos. Concerning the death of Campos, “The Government Accountability Office later found that “evidence associated with the incident was missing or destroyed.” “To date, at least five other witnesses have contradicted the government’s version of events.” “Lunas Campos’s death was the second of three that occurred at the facility between December 3, 2025, and January 14, 2026.”]
[…] What would happen, Rey asked Sara [his wife], if his blood pressure dropped and he needed to be hospitalized? Would the same people who refused to give him medicine call an ambulance? “I could last a couple of weeks without medicine,” he said. “But I don’t want to die here.”
Afterward, he told the guard that he was ready to sign the papers. “In less than seventy-two hours, I was already in Mexico,” he told me. “You realize that, when they want to do something quickly, they do it.” [I snipped details describing how detainees are pressured on a daily basis to sign papers saying they want to be deported.]
[…] The Trump Administration’s mass-detention campaign is unprecedented by virtually every official metric. Today, there are more than sixty thousand people in ice jails across the country, up from thirty-nine thousand in January, 2025. Seventy per cent of them have no criminal record. At least fifty-two people have died while in custody since the start of the President’s second term, and, according to an A.P. investigation, nearly a fifth of those deaths have been suicides.
When Trump returned to office, last year, the government had a hundred and thirty-four immigrant-detention centers nationwide; it now runs two hundred and thirty-nine. At facilities across the country, there have been hunger strikes and protests over inhumane conditions, including rotten and inedible food, physical abuse by guards, and insufficient medical care. Human Rights Watch found that, in the past year, migrants at detention centers in New York and New Jersey—including Delaney Hall, in Newark, the first immigration jail to open under the current Administration—were a thousand times more likely to agree to be deported compared with an equivalent period in 2024. The Administration’s goal, Trickler-McNulty, the former ice official, told me, “is to make detention look and feel so bad that people leave.”
… NBC News/Today’s tally of state reports found more than 4,000 reported cases nationwide as of July 13, 2026, although those figures are not directly comparable to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s confirmed national surveillance count. Michigan has officially reported 2,640 cases to date. According to the CDC, there have been no deaths reported as of July 9…
President Trump called on the Senate to pass a cryptocurrency regulation bill Monday in honor of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who unexpectedly died over the weekend.
The 71-year-old senator did not serve on the two committees involved in drafting the crypto legislation and was primarily focused on foreign policy issues, such as a new Russian sanctions package and the war in Iran, before his passing.
The Clarity Act, however, is a top legislative priority for Trump and the GOP ahead of the midterm elections. It appears poised to come up for a vote on the Senate floor in the coming weeks, before Congress departs for its August recess.
There no particular connection between the bill and Graham except Graham supported everything Trump told him to support. It’s funny really because it’s so shallow and will do nothing. An emotional appeal from Trump isn’t going to move anybody in Congress and the issue is too narrow and technical for it to have popular support. I wonder who suggested this to Trump, it’s not something he would do on his own.
The researcher who exposed Grok Build uploading users’ entire repositories to cloud storage says the transfers have stopped after a server-side change. Elon Musk has separately promised that all previously uploaded user data will be deleted.
AI safety researcher Cereblab published a report on Sunday about their investigation into Grok Build, SpaceXAI’s command-line interface (CLI), and the data exchanged between the CLI and SpaceXAI’s servers.
Cereblab found that when Grok Build reads or processes a file, the contents of that file are transmitted without redaction to a Google Cloud Storage bucket used by SpaceXAI. Further, they claimed that Grok Build packages entire repos and uploads them as Git bundles, instead of just uploading the files required to answer a user’s prompt…
Officials confirm an ICE agent shot and killed a 26-year-old father in Biddeford, Maine, the second fatal shooting of a motorist by ICE in less than a week. Rep. Chellie Pingree joins to discuss the latest.
“Graham wasn’t a victim, or a mark. He wasn’t weak. He didn’t flip flop. No, he was a man who had his own project he was pursuing, and he viewed Trump as crucial to that project,” says Chris Hayes on the late Sen. Lindsey Graham.
Lettuce and salad greens have become the prime suspects in an explosive outbreak of the diarrheal parasite Cyclospora, which is surging nationwide but erupting to extraordinary heights in Michigan.
…
Based on interviews with more than 1,000 people sickened in Michigan, the latest data is pointing to leafy greens as the source, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS).
…
Separately, The Washington Post reported that state and federal officials are looking into whether Taco Bell restaurants may have been a source of food contaminated with the single-cell parasite.
According to local media sources in the Detroit area, Taco Bell restaurants put up signs reading, “We are currently unable to sell Lettuce, Cilantro, Onion, Pico de Gallo, and Guacamole due to a nationwide recall.”
It’s unclear what recall the restaurant is referring to; no nationwide recalls have been announced by Michigan or federal authorities related to cyclosporiasis cases. The Post reported that Taco Bell did not respond to multiple requests for comment on the signs or the decision to pull certain produce.
A source familiar with the investigation told the outlet that some sickened people interviewed reported having eaten at Taco Bells, while others did not, suggesting that there could be multiple sources of the contaminated food item…
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—In a brutal defeat for Donald J. Trump, Senator Mitch McConnell handily trounced him on a cognitive test administered to both men on Tuesday.
According to an attending neurologist who spoke on condition of anonymity, “When asked the test questions, Senator McConnell was totally unresponsive, as opposed to President Trump, who got every one wrong.”
Trump took to Truth Social to claim that the cognitive test was “rigged,” ending his rant with a perplexing, “Bamp you for your babention to this butter.”
The loss to McConnell is just Trump’s latest poor result on a cognitive exam, having been soundly thumped last week by a single-celled alga.
As this week got underway, Donald Trump announced by way of his social media platform that he would deliver “a Speech to the Nation” on Thursday night, though the president initially didn’t say a word about why or what he intended to say. Hours later, however, he spoke via phone to Newsmax and shed some light on what the public can expect to hear. [Video]
“Our elections are crooked and we’ve got to straighten them out,” Trump said, peddling familiar, tiresome nonsense. “We’ve got to have voter ID; we’ve got to have proof of citizenship; and we have got to do something about the mail-in ballots, which are just corrupt, crooked and should not be allowed.”
In other words, the president remains focused on his voter suppression proposal, which the White House has labeled the Save America Act and which congressional Republicans have already conceded they can’t pass.
[…] MS NOW, citing comments from two White House officials granted anonymity to discuss internal plans, reported on Monday afternoon that Trump plans to address newly declassified intelligence reports that the White House asserts reveal plans by foreign nations to interfere in the 2020 election.
One obviously can’t fact-check claims that have yet to be made, but if the president and his team follow through on these plans, there are a few things the public should keep in mind.
First, there is some irony to the idea that Trump, of all people, would voice concerns along these lines: In 2016, Russia launched a military intelligence operation that targeted the American presidential election for the express purpose of putting Trump in power. Confronted with overwhelming evidence of that effort, Trump falsely dismissed the evidence as a “hoax” and ultimately said he trusted Russian President Vladimir Putin more than his own country’s intelligence agencies. [All true.]
Second, if the president really wants to talk about foreign interference in the 2020 election, the White House should probably expect a few questions about that time Trump explicitly said he would welcome foreign election interference in the 2020 election. [Links to that and other sources are available at the main link.]
Third, ahead of Election Day 2020, congressional Democrats pushed a variety of measures intended to discourage foreign election interference. Republicans rejected all of those proposals.
And finally, let’s not forget that when U.S. intelligence again showed that Russia was targeting the 2020 election to help Trump stay in power, the Trump administration responded by announcing that it would no longer provide briefings to Congress about foreign interference in the 2020 election. [All true.]
In other words, if the president wants to renew a public conversation about foreign election interference six years ago, he might not like where the conversation ends up.
German police were puzzling on Tuesday over how 20 tons of Emmental cheese could go missing en route between Bavaria and its destination in France.
A transport company commissioned another firm to take care of the delivery, and a truck duly arrived at the cheesemakers in the Bavarian city of Bayreuth to collect the consignment, the police report said.
It did not arrive at its destination. The cheese is reported to be worth some €80,000 ($91,000).
“When administration officials can’t keep their story straight about dubious details, it’s a big hint that they’re probably making stuff up.”
It’s been tough to keep up with the precise number of instances in which the Reflecting Pool has been drained lately, but as this week got underway, Donald Trump used his social media platform to announce the latest in a series of such efforts.
There was one element of the president’s statement, however, that stood out for me:
We drained the beautiful “Reflecting Pool” today in order to fix the scars and damage that was done by the Vandals two weeks ago. We wanted to wait until after the July 4th Weekend. The slashes were 300 yards long, and the floor of the pool was cut and then pulled upward, with great force, by these thugs. The Parks Department had to empty the water in order to fix the water tight basin. It will be refilled and put back into service soon. These Country hating sleazebags should pay a big price for the damage done. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
There’s no point in rehashing the questions about whether these alleged “vandals” and “thugs” actually exist outside of the president’s overactive imagination. We can also put aside, for now, his highly dubious assertions about unnamed individuals somehow attacking the Reflecting Pool “with great force.”
What caught my attention was Trump’s claim that there are “slashes” in the pool’s surface that are “300 yards long.”
Though Trump recently boasted that the bottom of the pool would be impervious to damage from blades, he said a few weeks ago that unidentified criminals were responsible for a 250-foot gash. Two days later, he said it was 300 feet, and soon after, it was 350 feet.
Early last week, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told ABC News there wasn’t a single 350-foot gash but rather “multiple gashes” that added up to 350 feet.
Eight days later, however, the president decided to increase the size of the alleged gash once again: Now, evidently, we’re supposed to believe it’s 900 feet. [Oh FFS!]
NBC News reported Monday afternoon that it sent a reporter to the Reflecting Pool, who “found no evidence that matches up with Trump’s claims of a 350-foot gash, a 290-foot gash or even a 250-foot gash.”
Presumably, if there had been a 900-foot gash, the reporter would’ve noticed it, too.
During an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash last week, Burgum was asked about possible photographic evidence of an alleged gash in the Reflecting Pool. The Cabinet secretary replied, “Dana, I’m not sure why you keep questioning it.”
Maybe because the administration keeps changing its story, with details that appear to have been concocted out of whole cloth?
Trump refuses to accept that he is responsible, at least in part, for the failure of the MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) between the USA and Iran.
[…] “It [the MOU] was built to test. It was a test,” Trump replied. “We didn’t know. It didn’t, look, memorandum of understanding, when you’re dealing with sleazebags, don’t mean much. And they don’t mean much when you’re dealing with honorable people, too, because it’s memorandum of understanding. It doesn’t mean much.”
The president went on to say that Iran “didn’t honor the test,” before suggesting that he had predicted from the outset that officials in Tehran would cause the agreement to collapse through noncompliance. “I said, ‘Watch, I guarantee. Watch.’ And they never, they never followed it.”
The apparent point of the on-air comments wasn’t merely to blame Iran for the unravelling deal, it was also to convey the suggestion that Trump knew all along Iran would cause the framework to collapse.
The trouble is, very recent history proves otherwise.
It was exactly one month ago when the president published a statement to his social media platform, announcing, “The Deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete. Congratulations to all!” About an hour later, seemingly eager to pat himself on the back, he added, “This Great Deal will bring Peace and Security to the whole Region. Many presidents have tried to make Peace with Iran, and all have failed before me. The Leaders of the Region have, for the first time, found a President who can help them achieve real Peace.” [Scoff]
In the days that followed, not only did Trump continue to celebrate his alleged triumph, but the White House invested an enormous amount of time and effort in touting the deal, all while Vice President JD Vance went on a media tour, doing his best to defend the policy on the merits.
There was nothing about this being a “test.” Not a word was uttered about the idea that the deal “doesn’t mean much.” [True]
If the president expects his post hoc rationalization of this failure to persuade anyone, he’s probably going to be disappointed.
The first hints that the Trump administration might be softening its position of refusing to cooperate with Minnesota’s investigations into the three shootings by federal agents during Operation Metro Surge emerged on June 22.
In its unusual lawsuit against DOJ and DHS in federal court in D.C. seeking to obtain evidence that the feds refused to share, the state of Minnesota asked for filing deadlines in the case to be pushed back 11 days until July 6 because state and federal law enforcement agencies had “recently reengaged in discussions about the prospect of mutual information sharing.”
Then on June 30, both sides jointly asked for another much larger extension of 45 days, until Aug. 20, “in light of ongoing discussions … about the prospect of mutual information sharing” between state and federal law enforcement.
We now know that sometime in the past two weeks the Trump administration finally relented and coughed up what state prosecutors are suggesting was the whole enchilada of evidence gathered by the feds in the shootings of Renee Good, Alex Pretti, and Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis.
The evidence includes the car Good was driving when she was shot and killed by ICE agent Jonathan Ross. It also includes body cam footage and statements by federal agents across all three cases.
“The wonderful thing is now we have all the evidence,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said in a press conference in Minneapolis yesterday announcing the breakthrough: [video]
As part of the information sharing, Minnesota law enforcement reciprocated by sharing with federal law enforcement the evidence it had independently gathered in the three cases.
[…] It took a virtually unprecedented lawsuit by a state against the federal government to puncture what had effectively been a cover-up of the shootings — which given everything we know about the Trump administration would have been directed from and by the White House. […]
While this breakthrough is huge and gives state prosecutors a fighting chance to complete full investigations and make sound charging decisions, a lot has already been lost that could come back to bite any attempted prosecutions of federal agents.
There’s little indication that federal law enforcement fully investigated the three shootings so while the evidence the feds do have is critical it may be incomplete. [!] In addition, time was wasted. Leads that might have been followed if the evidence was available may be harder to follow now.
If any federal agents are eventually charged, they may use the fact of the contested investigation in their defense, raising questions about the delays, the chain of custody of the evidence, and other anomalies that wouldn’t have occurred if the feds hadn’t circled the wagons and refused to cooperate. […]
For Your Radar …
In a notable departure from recent ICE shootings, DHS said the agent in the fatal shooting of Joan Sebastian Guerrero, 26, in Maine yesterday fired after “fearing for public safety” — rather than fearing for his own life.
I’m not sure what to make of this exactly, especially given that DHS provided a separate explanation to Congress saying the driver had “weaponized his vehicle toward law enforcement. […]
Quote of the Day
“I heard agony. I heard a howl that came from your soul, that your whole life had just changed and it was never going to be the same.”—Mary Hayes, a witness to the fatal ICE shooting in Maine, who described seeing a screaming woman on her knees, next to a young girl.
ICYMI …
This story last week from Bolt is newly relevant: “Maine Lawsuit is Testing the Boundaries of Suing Federal Immigration Agents”
“E. Jean Carroll Receives $5.6 Million Payment From Trump in Civil Case”
President Trump has paid the writer E. Jean Carroll $5.6 million that was owed to her as a result of a jury’s finding that he was liable for sexually assaulting her in a Manhattan department store in the 1990s and then defaming her, federal court records show.
The money, which had been held in escrow while Mr. Trump appealed the 2023 jury award, was disbursed to Ms. Carroll last week, according to a note added to the online court docket in the case on Tuesday.
The payment came after the U.S. Supreme Court declined the president’s latest attempt to appeal the verdict, which prompted the judge overseeing the case to order that the money be released to Ms. Carroll.
Ms. Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, said in a statement that she and her client were “pleased to report that she has received the damages payment the jury awarded her as a result of that verdict.” […]
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
Reginald Selkirk @80: The shades-of-brown map was a cute idea, but I found it difficult to distinguish all 5 gradations. The caption’s CDC link has a better map: shades of blue (same issue) but hovering over a state gives clear case counts.
The government’s latest report on inflation, released on Tuesday, shows that food prices rose even as overall inflation slightly decreased. But even that drop in inflation appears to be temporary since President Donald Trump has chosen to renew military actions against Iran.
[…] The report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics noted that “four of the six major grocery store food group indexes increased in June,” and that the overall measure of food prices in the survey’s index increased 0.2% in June, mirroring the 0.2% rise in May.
Prices for goods like meat, poultry, fish, eggs, dairy products were up, along with costs for cereals and bakery products.
The official government data echoes a report from the group Numerator released on Monday that consumer prices for everyday goods have gone up for three months in a row.
Rising grocery prices are a reminder that one of Trump’s key promises during his 2024 presidential campaign remains unfulfilled. He repeatedly asserted that grocery prices, which spiked as the country dealt with the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, would go down on “Day 1.” [Yes, Trump is a liar … and he is incompetent.]
Republican Sen. Susan Collins on Monday called for an investigation after a Colombian immigrant legally authorized to work in the U.S. was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Collins’ home state of Maine.
“The shooting in Biddeford requires a full and impartial investigation of what happened,” Collins wrote in a post. “It is my understanding that the Biddeford police have secured the site and that the FBI is investigating.”
Collins’ dispassionate call for a probe into ICE’s latest killing—the second time ICE shot and killed someone in as many weeks—is unlikely to mollify Mainers, a majority of whom disapprove of how the immigration enforcement agency is doing its job. And she did not condemn ICE’s actions, nor did she express sympathy for the 26-year-old man whose life was snuffed out by President Donald Trump’s immigration goons.
Indeed, the latest of ICE’s killings can be tied back to Collins’ own refusal to rein in the marauding band of murderous goons.
[…] she will have to answer for why she hasn’t backed changes to ICE to prevent killings like the senseless one that occurred in Maine on Monday.
“Senator Collins voted for the Republican bill to give ICE another $70 billion to terrorize our communities with no accountability,” Nirav Shah, one of the Democrats now seeking the Senate nomination, wrote in response to Collins’ statement. “Maybe sit this one out.” […]
Surprisingly this did not make a big splash in the news today. But as of today, July 13, 2026, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast is reported to be completely cleared of Russian forces. Nevertheless, the importance of this news cannot be overstated in terms of what it means to Russia’s increasingly tenuous hold on the so-called TOTs (The Occupied Territories) in light of Ukraine’s lethal “mid-range” access and logistics denial campaign. Crimea is almost inhospitable for the Russian occupanty. Now Dnipropetrovsk is cleared of Russians.
[…] Special kudos to Ukraine’s Skelia Regiment for their accomplishment in making this final push to clear out the Russians. They did it without their regimental commander whose pre-war nick name, Skala(or “rock” for his imposing physique) the regiment still carries. The 425th Skelia Assault Regiment of the Ukrainian Armed Forces has reportedly liberated the final six settlements in Dnipropetrovsk oblast —Ternove, Zaporizke, Novoheorhiivka, Vorone, Sichneve, and Maliivka—advancing 25 kilometers into previously occupied territory. Lt. Col. Yurii “Skala” Harkavyi is currently suspended and under investigation for potential abuse and mistreatment of some of the regiment’s soldiers (reportedly 26 non-combat deaths among recruits) […]
Pilots of the 155th brigade bombed the hideout of the Russians. Aerial reconnaissance found a hidden position of the occupiers […] heavy bombers immediately sent […] FPV drones of the 155th OMBr began hunting Russians who survived the bombing. […]
The operation, which inflicted critical losses on Russia’s 120th Naval Infantry Division and 68th Army Corps, the main Russian formations in Dnipropetrovsk, marks the completion of a counteroffensive that began in late January 2026 and reclaimed over 400 square kilometers of land, reversing nearly all Russian gains made in the region since August 2025.
It also puts paid to Russia’s earlier stated intent to occupy all of Donbas and parts of Southern Ukraine, including Dnipropetrovsk, in order to establish a “buffer zone”. […]
“Trump To Show Nation Proof 2020 Election Stolen By Venezuelan Space Lasers Obama China RIGGED STOLLEN Biden Thermostat LAPTOP”
Stop us if you’ve heard this one before:
OBAMA PALLETS OF CASH ITALY SWITZERLAND SATELLITES HACK VOTING MACHINES CHINA DEEP STATE JEWISH SPACE LASERS VENEZUELA RIGGED AND STOLLEN BIDEN PUPPET THERMOSTAT!
Oh, you have heard that one before? Well it may be time to get ready to hear it again, because Donald Trump is going to address the nation on Thursday night […] and here is what he is going to tell us: [social media post from Aaron Rupar]
[…] from Trump’s perspective, one of the worst things about January 6, 2021, the day of the terrorist attack he incited against the United States, was the glimmer of joy and goodness that shone through as Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock were declared the winners in their races. People forget that was happening at the same time.
Not only had Trump lost his race in Georgia, and not only was his coup to overthrow the government to keep him in office not working, but that was the day Georgia started turning the tide to become a purple State. Now it’s rapidly becoming just a plain old blue state.
This is why Traitor Tulsi Gabbard was in Fulton County with Krimesolver Kash’s FBI, raiding the election office. To find the 11,780 votes everybody else (Republicans even!) refused to manufacture for Trump when he was demanding Georgia help him steal the election. Make no mistake: Tulsi’s former job, and now the job of […] Bill Pulte, the degenerate Trump just installed to take Tulsi’s place at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), is to manufacture and/or pretend to find “evidence” of “fraud” in the two 2020 Georgia Senate races and elsewhere. Something, literally anything, to overturn reality and help them steal the midterms, which are shaping up to be mighty embarrassing for them.
MS NOW is reporting that Trump’s White House task force on how to steal elections and get away with it this time is going to start releasing super-secret classified documents that show, well, nothing, but they’re going to yell real loud and say otherwise. Fox News will probably also yell real loud and say otherwise, having learned nothing from all those billions it had to pay out for its election lies last time. This will work on their base that already believes any voting conducted by people who aren’t white supremacist MAGA is inherently illegal […]
Trump’s mini-me Pulte will be right at the center of it. […]
Will the revelations include any lies told by kidnapped Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, perhaps in exchange for his freedom, about how Venezuela DEFINATIVAMENTE rigged the 2020 election with Italian Jewish Space Lasers made of thermostats and pizza? [social media post about that rumor]
But whatever Trump announces, we can be sure it’ll be some lying traitor bullshit, that he’s trying to rewrite the history of his humiliating, […] losses and use that to somehow steal the midterms. […] any journalist who is tempted to view this as legitimate should read all the links in this post, as they were written by Wonkette professionals who have been covering the electoral fraud hallucinations that emanate from Donald Trump […] for years.
Here are some! [The list of articles and the embedded links are available at the main link.]
Some version of all this is why Trump is going to “address the nation” on Thursday night, like a real president who isn’t loathed by the majority of the population. […]
Before you let this stress you out, though remember what buffoons these people are, and remember how comically every one of these plays backfires in their dumbass faces.
Just mock the shit out of them instead. We sure will.
Reginald Selkirksays
@93 CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain
Thanks, that map is improved in some ways, but it could be still better.
1) Hovering over a state doesn’t give a clear singular number, it gives a range. Michigan, for example, is “501 to 900.” New York is “161 to 300.”
Michigan, the hardest-hit state, reported a total of 3,309 cyclosporiasis cases in the outbreak as of Tuesday, with 44 individuals hospitalized—an increase of nearly 700 cases since Monday, when the state reported 2,640 illnesses.
…
Ohio has reported 434 cases since July 1, CNN reported, including 28 hospitalizations, while New York has reported 470 cases as of Friday, CBS News reported…
…
Geologists working with the crew of the Research Vessel (R/V) Shinsei Maru have uncovered an unusually potent deposit of actual elemental gold deeply interlaced within pyrite, commonly known as “fool’s gold,” in record-breaking concentrations as high as 1.9% by weight. Yes, that’s right—they found actual gold within fool’s gold, the latter of which is famous for resembling the precious metal despite having little intrinsic value. The bona fide gold was found locked within the crystalline structure of these pyrite deposits along the volcanic caldera roughly 2,300 feet (700 meters) below sea level…
xAI has installed 59 natural gas turbines for its Colossus 2 data center project in Tennessee without securing federal clean air permits […] about double what xAI has publicly acknowledged. […] The company previously said it was running 27 unpermitted turbines […] and has argued the permits are not required. At least 57 of the 59 turbines are located in Mississippi, just over the state line from Tennessee where the data center is located.
The xAI turbines are among scores of off-grid power plants for data centers proposed or under construction around the country. Local authorities often fast-track approvals in just weeks or months, without the years of environmental studies and public hearings typically required for such power generation projects that connect to the grid
[…]
records show the company has also installed two other unpermitted turbines for the project on a different site. Reuters could not determine the location.
An unfathomable clean air act violation. I worked in this exact field for years, including in oil and gas, and I still can’t get over how wanton and obvious this crime is. Just stunning. [Screenshot: The article’s bar graph of emissions FAR beyond permit thresholds]
the largest single source of emissions in mississippi. And it’s located right in the middle of a suburb.
[…]
A minor quibble here is that there *are* cross state line regulations regarding [National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS)], but are enforced primarily through, you guessed it… major source permitting.
It’s worth stopping & noticing that Nazi fan boy Elon Musk is deliberately gassing black people. Literally gassing them. That’s actually happening. That’s a real thing. The richest man in the world doesn’t care about cheap energy, but gassing black people is something he’s interested in.
Historically genocide most often takes place under the guise of “nature taking its course”. We think about open pits and firing squads, but it’s more often about letting people die of flu or starvation or “unavoidable environmental conditions”.
hyperscale data centers can’t set up shop in New York for up to a year now that Governor Kathy Hochul (D) has signed the nation’s first statewide moratorium. But a bill passed by the state legislature that could restrict even more developments still awaits her signature.
[…] the governor’s office says will give the state time to come up with the regulations needed to protect residents from rising energy prices and environmental impact. […] the [power consumption] threshold is meant to prevent disruption to smaller data centers used by institutions like hospitals.
For the second time in the past decade, two Utah national monuments have had their protections dramatically reduced by the Trump administration.
Flanked by Utah’s full delegation, the governor and the state’s Speaker of the House, President Donald Trump signed two proclamations to shrink Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument by around 90%, and Bears Ears National Monument by 91%.
The president framed it as a win for local control.
…
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox called the change “right-sizing,” saying the intention of monuments is to manage the smallest area possible to protect antiquities.
“This does not remove the other protections that already exist in those areas, just making the monuments more manageable so that we have the resources necessary to continue to protect these antiquities,” Cox said.
The orders aren’t a surprise. Trump reduced the monuments’ boundaries during his first term in 2017. At that time, he halved Grand Staircase’s size and cut Bears Ears’ by 83%. Both monuments were then restored in 2021 by former President Joe Biden.
Conservation groups immediately condemned Trump’s latest move as unlawful and have vowed to take legal action against it.
The change could have real impacts on everything from native plants and wildlife to dark skies, said Jackie Grant, who directs Grand Staircase Escalante Partners. She’s especially concerned about the monument’s wilderness study areas, which are undeveloped…
What happened to our sunny, hot and humid Tuesday? And, why is the sky yellow? It’s just another case of Mother Nature keeping us New Englanders on our toes, as a large plume of smoke from Canadian wildfires unexpectedly poured into the Boston area on Tuesday.
As morning turned to afternoon, the skies morphed from a milky white to an ominous brown/yellow.
Currently there are more than 800 wildfires across Canada, including a growing cluster just north of the U.S. border near Minnesota.
The winds at upper levels of the atmosphere aligned nearly perfectly to carry the smoke plume more than 1,000 miles, first through southern Canada and then taking a right hand turn directly into New England. ..
Chipotle Mexican Grill is set to open its first restaurant in Mexico this week, testing its appeal in the country that inspired its menu.
The chain, which has more than 4,100 outlets worldwide, said on Monday that the move is a “significant milestone” for the firm – known for its customisable burritos, tacos and bowls…
Amateur astronomer Joël Lapointe stumbled upon what he thought looked like a suspicious pit in Quebec’s Côte-Nord region while he was wandering with his Google Maps cursor in 2024.
He was simply trying to plan his camping vacation when he spotted something unexpected on his screen — what researchers recently confirmed is a previously unidentified, 390-million-year-old meteor crater.
“It was quite an exciting discovery,” said Gordon Osinski, a planetary geology professor at Western University, who was among the four-person team that confirmed the crater by travelling to the site in 2025.
…
Following Lapointe’s discovery which made headlines across the province in 2024, Osinski and Jérôme Gattacceca, a geologist at the European Centre for Research and Teaching in Environmental Geosciences, set out for the crater.
Over five days, the team gathered photos and samples to bring back to labs in both France and Ontario, for study.
…
The terrain was rugged and overgrown, he said. And the float plane bringing them in had to leave the team 50 metres offshore — forcing them to wade to land with their gear, said Osinski with a laugh.
…
On the trip, the team found big cliffs of what Osinski said is impact melt rock – created from the temperature and pressure of an impact…
Another goal of the expedition was to identify shatter cones — traces left in the rock by shock waves that are found exclusively in impact craters or at nuclear bomb test sites, as explained by Jérôme Gattacceca in an interview with Radio-Canada.
The geologist found them on the second day of the group’s mission…
President Trump is spending taxpayer funds worth thousands of dollars to make and hang more large banners with his face on them all over federal buildings in Washington, D.C.
Democratic Senator Adam Schiff shared newly discovered federal contracts with MeidasTouch News that show government agencies putting their own budgets toward “America First” banners, which include ones of the president’s face.
Commentary:
[…] According to records that the California senator shared with the public, the existing banners have already cost taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars, with more on the way. The Federal Aviation Administration apparently spent roughly $114,000 for its Trump banner. [!]
Some observers may see such sums as relatively modest, given the overall size of the federal budget, but that’s not really the point. Federal law prohibits the use of taxpayer money for political propaganda, which makes the banners glorifying the incumbent president tough to defend on their face (so to speak).
“The Trump administration is spending hundreds of thousands of your tax dollars to glorify and pay tribute to a sitting U.S. President and his political agenda,” Schiff said in a statement. “Not only is this a terrible waste of Americans’ hard-earned money, it is clearly against the law. Congress has long outlawed spending tax dollars on propaganda and self-aggrandizement and an eight-story high Donald Trump head certainly qualifies as propaganda.”
[…] These banners don’t signal Trump’s strength, they reflect his desperation.
A failing president wants to convey authority, so he and his team scramble to impose symbols like these on the public square. They appear intended to convey questions Trump seems reluctant to ask out loud: “Don’t I appear imposing? Isn’t it clear how powerful I am? Shouldn’t my opponents feel an overwhelming sense of fear?”
The answer to the questions, however, is no. In fact, members of Team Trump have it backward: By trying too hard, their posturing delivers the opposite of the intended message. The banners don’t show a commanding figure, they show a flailing politician struggling to convey confidence.
World Cup semi-final #1. Ain’t sports wonderfully unpredictable? Before this, Spain looked good, but France looked unbeatable. Spain 2 France 0, with Spain dominating throughout. I don’t think France had a shot on goal, and Spain had two. All Spanish players were brilliant, but for me, Olmo and Cucurella stood out.
If England beat Argentina tomorrow (I reckon it’s about 50-50), the final will be edge-of-seat-nailbiting-pants-pissing time. I’m too old for this shit (I was 11 when England won). Go England!
Identical twins share nearly every gene, so differences in health are often related to outside factors. By focusing on twins where only one sibling had MS, the researchers stripped away much genetic noise.
Detailed DNA tracking of gut samples revealed 51 microbial candidates whose numbers diverged between affected and unaffected siblings.
Two species of bacteria kept resurfacing with the highest odds ratios, putting them at the top of the watch list…
A Pentagon watchdog report found that in the roughly two years since it was built, an ammunition plant in Mesquite, Texas, has not produced any parts for 155mm artillery rounds, hindering the Army’s goal to help backfill stocks of ammunition provided to Ukraine after Russia invaded in 2022.
In a report released Monday, the Defense Department inspector general found that as of March 2026, the plant had not produced any metal projectile parts that met the specifications laid out in the contract and the “the Army’s expenditure of $469 million to establish the Mesquite facility could have been used to address other Army or [Department of Defense] priorities.”
It opened March 2024, since then it has produced nothing instead of the 30,000 parts a month it was supposed to produce. The company operating the facility is General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems, another branch of the military industrial behemoth General Dynamics.
The gap, the report concluded, occurred because Army officials “accepted the risk” with the contractor’s plan to procure equipment which had not been tested. According to a timeline in the report, the Army contracting office requested the plant stop work in Aug. 2025 while the government evaluated if it could meet its obligations and work to resolve the production issues.
The problem is partially the Army’s fault. It looks like they agreed to a plan where the contractor bought untested equipment and it didn’t work out. Why it’s taken so long to evaluate and fix the problem is it’s own issue.
BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First) — A protective order states that Central pastor Tony Spell is to stay 50 yards from his neighbor’s home after he was arrested on a battery charge in June.
According to the document filed in the 19th Judicial District Court, the only exception to the order is to check the mailbox.
Spell, 48, allegedly left a person with several injuries after a beating, including a possible broken orbital bone around his eye. According to Spell, he was protecting his family after the individual allegedly threatened harm and death.
“You’re not going to rape my grandchildren, and me live with the cloud over my head that if I leave, my children and wife are unprotected. I have a duty and an obligation to do what I did,” Spell said in a press conference after his arrest.
Central Police Department Police Chief Roger Corcoran stated that Spell’s allegations that the police department failed to investigate complaints regarding neighbors were untrue.
Want to guess whether he has evidence of those alleged threats? My guess is no.
…
The list of stars who have abandoned their relationship with the Church of Scientology includes Laura Prepon, Leah Remini, Jason Beghe, and Danny Masterson’s ex-wife, Bijou Phillips…
[Highway Patrol said, “]an encounter between HSI and ICE agents occurred in the parking lot of a local gas station/convenience store,” […] four people ran off and one was hit by a tractor-trailer […] The immigration status of the victim is unclear, as is the reason immigration agents were involved. […] [Highway Patrol] referred questions about the encounter to ICE. Neither ICE nor [DHS] immediately confirmed that the incident had taken place or responded
[…]
This is the third person to have died in an incident involving ICE since July 7. At least three other people have been hit by cars and killed while fleeing immigration authorities since August 2025.
Rachel Maddow explains the New York Times’ reporting about Donald Trump’s new Qatari plane missing some key defensive security features, and Trump’s apoplexy over the idea that the Times report was bolstered by sources leaking information. Renowned First Amendment attorney Theodore J. Boutrous Jr. joins Rachel to discuss Trump’s demand that the New York Times reveal its sources.
Rachel Maddow notes that Donald Trump’s news cycle seems to be stuck in a loop with the same basic headlines repeating, but with each cycle Trump becomes more desperate to achieve his ends, and more reckless in his efforts as his opposition gets stronger and wiser to his schemes.
Video is 9:14 minutes
birgerjohanssonsays
In Range TV: The Schofield Gun of Pancho Villa’s Assassin
On personnel matters, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth hasn’t exactly earned the benefit of the doubt. Last year, for example, the beleaguered Pentagon chief replaced so many women in military leadership roles that The Atlantic’s Tom Nichols noted, At this point, women have been cleared out of all of the military’s top jobs. … Some observers might see a pattern here. Discerning this pattern does not exactly require Columbo-level sleuthing.”
In the months that followed, the pattern persisted. In fact, just last month, the former Fox News host personally blocked the promotions of nine Navy officers, in a move that disproportionately targeted women and minority officers.
This week, it happened yet again. The New York Times reported that a Navy promotion board made up of senior admirals chose 22 officers. Hegseth took issue with some of them. From the article:
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently blocked the promotions of seven senior Navy officers, five of whom are women or people of color, to two-star admiral rank, current and former defense officials said.
The highly unusual move means that for the first time in more than a decade, no female active-duty naval officers are likely to be promoted to admiral this year, officials said.
[…] among those Hegseth removed from the list was Rear Adm. Amy Bauernschmidt, the first woman to command a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.
This comes up every time Hegseth intervenes in promotion lists, but it’s worth emphasizing that under existing Pentagon policy, the defense secretary is only supposed to block officers for moral, mental, physical or professional failings. Hegseth keeps disregarding the policy.
Indeed, among the most striking elements of the secretary’s tactics is his apparent indifference. After months of controversy and congressional pushback, Hegseth must realize his actions are under the microscope. It stands to reason that he also recognizes that every time he blocks promotions for women or minority officers, it will generate a new round of questions about his apparent hostility to diversity in military leadership.
And yet Hegseth keeps doing it anyway, seemingly confident that he can do as he pleases because the White House agrees.
A separate recent Times report noted that the secretary’s approach “has made it harder for Black and female officers to get promoted to senior ranks, even when their records are exemplary.” If recent history is any guide, this pattern won’t end anytime soon.
Kenya’s High Court has dismissed a bid by a Rastafarian group seeking to legalise the use of cannabis for religious purposes.
The Rastafarian community had argued that the ban on smoking cannabis infringed on their rights to freedom of religion and belief guaranteed under the constitution.
In a landmark judgement, Justice Bahati Mwamuye said the community had failed to prove drug laws violated their constitutional rights, but acknowledged the need for a broader national debate on cannabis…
birgerjohanssonsays
(I like to include some feel-good tidbits along with the horror)
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Donkeys can be tremendiously affectionate.
“On Tuesday, the administration took steps to back off ICE vehicle stops. On Wednesday, the president personally rejected the change.”
Related video at the link.
After months of controversy surrounding Immigration and Customs Enforcement and its tactics, things took a brutal turn for the worse this week in Maine, where an ICE officer fatally shot Johan Sebastián Guerrero, a Colombian man authorized to work in the U.S. who was also father of a 3-year-old girl. The developments came just a week after a different ICE officer fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo during a traffic stop in Houston.
The deadly violence in Maine has led to a series of local protests. The political backlash has also been directed against Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican facing a tough re-election fight, who recently voted to approve tens of billions in additional funds for ICE with no strings attached.
The day after the shooting, the GOP incumbent said she had urged Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to “cease all non-urgent vehicle stops.” Soon after, Collins appeared to get her way: The New York Times reported that the Trump administration ordered ICE officers “to halt most vehicle stops while carrying out operations across the country.”
[…] Just as important was how long the new policy would remain in place.
The answer, evidently, was less than a day. On Wednesday morning, President Donald Trump published an unexpected statement to his social media platform that read, in part:
[W]e must be strong, tough, and smart, and we CANNOT give up one of I.C.E.’s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP! Once we do, we are playing right into the criminal’s hands. The Radical Left Dumocrats would like to see this done, but it won’t happen on my watch.
Right off the bat, the idea that ICE traffic stops are one of the administration’s “most important and effective Crime Fighting tools” is highly dubious, and if the White House has evidence to support the claim, it has kept the proof well hidden.
[…] it’s not just “radical” leftists who have supported swift changes to ICE enforcement tactics.
But just as jarring is that Trump is now contradicting his own administration, raising questions about who is whispering in the president’s ear, and why in the current executive branch the right hand too often doesn’t seem to know what the even-further-to-the-right hand is doing. [!!]
“New reporting suggests the cost of the conflict could be more than triple the most recent estimate from the Trump administration.”
For the first two months of the war with Iran, the White House faced plenty of questions about just how much the conflict was costing American taxpayers. Trump administration officials insisted they didn’t want to talk about the price tag and refused to offer even vague answers.
In late April, however, the Pentagon shifted gears. Jules Hurst III, the Defense Department’s chief financial officer, told lawmakers that the military offensive had, as of April 30, cost the United States “about $25 billion.” Two weeks later, that same official offered a revised total, telling lawmakers that the price tag for the conflict was “closer to $29 billion.”
It was tempting to be pleased with any kind of budget figure from the administration, especially after months of silence and stonewalling, but a different kind of problem soon emerged: Many Democrats said the cost estimates were suspiciously and unrealistically low.
There’s fresh reason to believe that their skepticism was warranted. NBC News reported:
The cost of the war with Iran could be more than triple the most recent estimate of roughly $30 billion, according to three U.S. officials and three people familiar with the internal cost estimates.
The Defense Department’s internal overall cost estimate is $80 billion to $100 billion when the costs of repairing damaged U.S. bases, replacing destroyed aircraft and fully replenishing expended American weaponry are factored in, according to the sources.
The report […] was published just hours after the Pentagon’s acting comptroller, Jay Hurst, said at a Senate confirmation hearing that he didn’t have an updated cost estimate for the conflict.
The comments were not well received. Sen. Angus King of Maine, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, said Hurst should have the latest data.
“I’m unpersuaded by your professions of ignorance about the cost of the war,” the senator said, adding, “I think it’s very frustrating to the American people that we can’t get a straight answer on what this war is costing, not to mention what it’s costing and has cost the American people at the gas pump and in other costs.”
What’s more, there’s no reason to assume that NBC News’ report will be the final word on the subject. Not only is the war ongoing, but as MS NOW reported a few weeks ago, the long-term price tag further complicates matters.
Linda Bilmes, a public finance expert at Harvard’s Kennedy School, told MS NOW that the Pentagon’s estimates left out veterans’ healthcare and disability benefits entirely.
“The amount of disability benefits — just disability benefits — that we owe to veterans from the Iraq, Afghanistan, Gulf and Vietnam wars was $7.3 trillion. That doesn’t count healthcare,” Bilmes said. “So these things are really expensive. We expect that at least half of those who are serving now and who are continued to be deployed will qualify automatically for benefits.”
Bilmes added in her MS NOW interview that no full accounting of the war’s cost can ignore its ripple effects on American consumers — particularly through rising oil prices.
President Donald Trump is making up an election in Iraq that never happened.
Speaking to reporters in the White House Tuesday, Trump made the bizarre reference while introducing new Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Faleh Kadhim al-Zaidi, who was making his first visit to Washington.
“We have a fantastic champion, a new champion, and he won the election very soundly, very conclusively—and he wasn’t favored,” Trump said. “But by the time they got to know him, he ended up winning.” [video]
The most recent election in Iraq was in November 2025, when then-Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani’s party won the most seats and al-Zaidi was not a candidate.
Al-Zaidi did not become prime minister until April of this year, when the Coordination Framework—a coalition of parties associated with the Shiite branch of Islam—selected him. He was a compromise selection and did not face an election—and certainly not one that he won “soundly” and “conclusively.”
Ironically, he was selected after the Trump administration voiced opposition to former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who they claimed was too close to Iran.
Trump’s reference to an imaginary election comes less than a week after he confused Iran with the “Islamic Republic of Japan”—a nonexistent country distinct from the Islamic Republic of Iran, which Trump has been bombing for months.
During a NATO summit in Turkey that same day, Trump referred to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as “President Putin,” […] [video]
[…] Trump is a serial liar and fabulist who makes up tall tales, like the falsehood that he has ended at least eight wars.
But there have also been consistent, unanswered questions about Trump’s mental health and concerns that he’s experiencing cognitive decline. […]
“Is It Illegal To Try To Influence An Election By Giving People A Million Dollars? Elon Musk Is About To Find Out!”
Last year, Elon Musk spent over $20 million on a Wisconsin state Supreme Court election, in hopes of getting conservative Brad Schimel on the bench — as he believed Schimel was the key to ratfucking the state’s elections in favor of Republicans. Musk was on a bit of a power trip after more or less buying the 2024 presidential election for Donald Trump (in part by buying Twitter and turning it into a MAGA propaganda outlet) and figured that comparatively, Wisconsin would be small cheesy potatoes.
He even went so far as to give out $1 million checks to a few people for voting in the Wisconsin election until he found out that that was pretty illegal, and subsequently claimed he was giving them out to people who signed a petition saying they would oppose “activist judges.” [….]
He felt very intensely about the election, crying that “This Wisconsin Supreme Court race might decide the future of America and Western Civilization!”
Alas, it didn’t work out for him. Liberal candidate Susan Crawford ended up beating Schimel’s ass by 10 points, and the defeat stung enough that Musk hasn’t really tried to influence any elections since, at least not to that degree and with that amount of money. […]
Since then, Wisconsin’s highest court has done all kinds of good stuff that Musk would not be happy about — including striking down the state’s 1849 ban on abortion, blocking a conservative activist from obtaining voting records to see if people who were ineligible to vote due to someone having guardianship over them were secretly voting somehow, and accepting two appeals that will likely lead to the state’s very-gerrymandered-in-favor-of-Republicans congressional map getting redrawn in a way that is much more fair. The latter, of course, was part of what Musk was afraid of.
You know who else wasn’t very happy about Musk’s attempts to buy a Wisconsin election? The Wisconsin Elections Commission, which on Tuesday found in a 5-1 bipartisan decision that what Musk did most likely violated the state’s election laws by offering the $1 million sweepstakes and by paying out $100 to people who signed his petition against “activist judges.” Whoops! Who knew bribery was illegal?
The Commission sent out a letter to Musk and the Wisconsin residents who initially filed the complaint against him stating:
Having considered Rachel Maes v. Elon Musk (EL 25-37) and Benjamin Ehler v. Elon Musk (EL 25-45), the Wisconsin Elections Commission finds probable cause that Elon Musk violated Wis. Stat. § 12.11(1m)(a)2. by making a social media post that offered one million dollars to individuals who voted in the 2025 Wisconsin Supreme Court Election in order to induce them to vote in that election. The Commission hereby refers the complaint to the District Attorney of Brown County.
[…] The thing is, it’s not just illegal to bribe people to vote for a particular candidate, it’s also illegal to bribe people to vote or not vote at all. Technically it’s also illegal on a federal level, but I think we can be relatively certain that the current Department of Justice has no interest in pursuing charges against Musk for any reason.[ …]
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday announced a new effort to annually screen service members’ testosterone levels and offer testosterone replacement therapy (TRT), framing it as a way to keep troops on the “leading edge of lethality.”
I assumed this was some humor site when I first read the headline but no.
“While we invest heavily in our weapon systems, platforms and gear, our most decisive tactical advantage will always be the individual warfighter,” Hegseth said. “We have a sacred duty to maintain that advantage, which is why we must constantly look for new ways to optimize your performance, your resilience and your long-term health.”
There is a lot to unpack there, Hegseth has fit a lot of garbage in a small space. “sacred duty” is not something the US military has. Individual soldiers are not always the most important tactical contributor and since machine guns have generally been secondary to something else. He talks like the money spent on this will come close to what is spent on weapon systems.
At the end he implies a soldier’s military performance is more important then their health but that has always been true of the DOD, can’t blame that one on Hegseth.
birgerjohanssonsays
Jesse Dollemore: “Accusations Against Lindsey Graham Revealed”
.
While we only have one person’s testimony (so far) it follows the usual script of hypocrasy and bigotry so closely I give it something like 99% credibiliy. The part of him wearing red lingerie while paying a college student for sex may or may not be an embellishment, I don’t know how much Republicans are into weird fetishes. Maybe that part has an 80% probability.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Krebs on Security:
Microsoft today released software updates to plug at least 570 security holes in its Windows operating systems and other software, almost triple the number of vulnerabilities the software giant fixed in its record-smashing Patch Tuesday release last month. Microsoft attributed the burgeoning patch counts to vulnerability discoveries aided by artificial intelligence. Nearly 60 of the bugs quashed in July’s Patch Tuesday earned a “critical” severity rating, meaning miscreants or malware could use them to seize remote control over a Windows device with little or no help from the user. Microsoft also addressed three zero-day flaws, including two that are already being exploited in the wild…
What was supposed to be the start of Premier Tim Houston’s speaking tour to chambers of commerce across Nova Scotia ended up with him requiring a police escort.
Houston was in Wolfville, N.S., on Wednesday where he was addressing the Annapolis Valley Chamber of Commerce at Acadia University about his vision for the province’s economy.
When Houston first arrived at the university, about 50 peaceful protesters were standing outside, mostly looking to draw attention to concerns about the potential closure of five libraries in the Annapolis Valley.
However, throughout Houston’s speech, the crowd outside grew louder with an increasing number of people protesting about a variety of issues.
At one point, people climbed on top of it, halting the vehicle. Houston remained inside for several minutes until police ultimately escorted him out of the car and back into the building. Protesters also smashed the windshield.
Houston left the campus in a marked RCMP vehicle.
…
Dr. Erica Schwartz faced questions from senators on vaccines and running agencies independently during her confirmation hearing to be the next director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Wednesday.
Ranking Member Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., asked Schwartz if she would remove a webpage updated last November on the CDC’s website on autism and vaccines. The webpage states that a link between the two has been ignored despite many studies finding no such link.
Schwartz said she accepted there is “overwhelming evidence” vaccines don’t cause autism, but did not commit to removing the webpage.
…
Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., asked Schwartz if she would stop the CDC from promoting the flu vaccine during a bad flu season if asked to do so by Kennedy. Schwartz dodged the question, saying she didn’t speak in hypotheticals…
…More than two years after Cameroon became the first country to incorporate the RTS,S malaria vaccine into its routine immunization program, health workers say it is reducing severe illness.
But they worry that too few children return for the fourth and final shot, or booster dose, that the World Health Organization says is essential to prolong immunity, as it is given months after the other doses.
…
In a malaria vaccine pilot program across 158 districts in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi, coverage, or the share of children eligible for each dose, reached about 80% for the first shot, given at around six months of age. But it dropped to 46% for the fourth dose, administered between 22 and 24 months, according to a study published last year in the peer-reviewed Malaria Journal.
…
However, some have cautioned against attributing the decline solely to the vaccine.
“Isolating the specific impact of malaria interventions requires modeling, and we do not yet have a model to quantify the vaccine’s sole contribution,” said Dr. Bomba Amougou, head of prevention at the National Malaria Control Program. “Therefore, it is accurate to say that the vaccine has contributed to the reduction in cases and deaths, rather than being the exclusive cause.”
The WHO recommended the RTS,S vaccine for wider use in 2021 after the pilot studies in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi found it reduced deaths among eligible children by 13%. In separate clinical trials in several African countries, both RTS,S and the newer R21 vaccine reduced clinical malaria cases by more than 50% during the first year after three doses.
Over 52 million doses have since reached 25 high-risk African countries with support from Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. However, the organization has said the rollout faces a “stark constraint” after sweeping foreign aid cuts by the Trump administration and others. Gavi says it is guaranteeing the supply of vaccines to cover up to 70% of eligible children in the lowest-income countries…
Locally owned feminist hot sauce brand, Female Rage, is slinging hot sauce and hot dogs on Thursday* night at Garden District to raise money for DC Abortion Fund. The event is the latest in a long string of creative and collaborative local fundraisers for DCAF, including the annual My Body, My Festival music event and recurring Punk Rock Karaoke at the Black Cat. But Thursday ’s event might be the spiciest yet…
* That’s July 16!
Pierce R. Butlersays
Lynna @ # 123 & JM @ # 133 – Obviously, the lady admirals-to-be failed their testosterone-level tests!
When will Hegseth announce the excess-melanin test standards, and how will he protect us against the adequate-testosterone gays?
“State Rep. James Talarico said the state attorney general owns 11 homes. According to public documents, that’s accurate”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s long list of scandals has caused unease among some Senate Republicans. Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, for example, said in May that Paxton “could reasonably be indicted for a felony.” Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina added, “To call Paxton ethically challenged is to call Jeffrey Dahmer suffering from an eating disorder.”
Complicating matters for the Texan is that his list of controversies continues to grow. Last week, ProPublica and The Texas Tribune reported that Paxton appears to have used an address where he did not live “while voting in six elections in the past two years.” (A spokesperson for the Republican called the story “a baseless, lie-filled tabloid story” but offered nothing of substance to challenge its accuracy.)
This might not seem especially notable, were it not for the fact that Paxton, just months earlier, reminded Texans that under state law, “you must register to vote using the address where you reside.”
This dovetailed with related questions about why the state attorney general and his now-estranged wife declared three separate homes as their primary residence in mortgage documents, a practice his party has, in other situations, characterized as an outrageous abuse.[good point]
Stepping back, however, the reporting sparked a related question: Just how many homes does Paxton own?
His 2026 opponent, Democratic state Rep. James Talarico, recently sat down with MS NOW’s Jen Psaki and offered an answer: “Since taking office, Ken Paxton has now become a multimillionaire, while our pay has remained stagnant for years, for decades. He now owns 11 homes, while most Texans can’t afford one,” he said.
Talarico has said this before — as Texans probably know, it’s become a standard line in his stump speech — but it got me wondering: Is that correct?
According to publicly available documents, including financial disclosure filings, the answer is yes. Paxton, either in his personal capacity or through the trust that oversees his assets, owns five homes in Texas, three in Florida, two in Utah and one in Oklahoma. (Those same publicly available materials also point to a lot in Hawaii, although there does not appear to be any structure on the property.)
The Wall Street Journal similarly reported last fall, “The Paxtons now own at least 11 residential properties around the U.S. with an assessed value of $7.5 million.”
To date, Paxton has not made any public effort to contest Talarico’s talking point.
[…] the circumstances brought to mind a related story from the recent past.
By mid-August 2008, the Great Recession was starting to take a brutal toll on the economy. In that month alone, the U.S. job market hemorrhaged 286,000 jobs, and with just 10 weeks remaining before Election Day, Americans’ focus turned to the ongoing economic crisis.
It was against this backdrop that a Politico reporter asked then-Sen. John McCain, the Republican Party’s presidential nominee, how many homes he owned.
“I think — I’ll have my staff get to you,” McCain said.
Then-Sen. Barack Obama, his Democratic rival, wasted little time seizing on the quote. Literally the same day that McCain made the comment, the Obama campaign launched a campaign ad hammering the Republican’s uncertainty over this basic fact, driving home the argument that McCain couldn’t relate to the hardships of regular people because he couldn’t even keep track of his vast collection of properties.
The name of the ad was “Seven,” a reference to the seven different homes McCain and his wife owned in locations across the country.
Roughly 18 years later, a similar story is unfolding in one of the nation’s most closely watched Senate races.
birgerjohanssonsays
Argentina will meet Spain at football world cup after victory over England.
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Primordial life, engineering
“The president is getting the guidance he wants from John Solomon, who’s inclined to tell him what he wants to hear.”
The real question is: Why is Trump so vulnerable to being “steered” by conspiracy mongering doofuses?
In late May, a conservative media figure named John Solomon acknowledged that he was poised for a brief career change: Instead of publishing reports favored by the Trump White House, Solomon was being vetted for a short-term job in the Trump White House.
For those familiar with his work, this was not an encouraging development: Solomon is perhaps best known for trying to undermine the validity of the Trump-Russia scandal.
Nevertheless, the vetting apparently worked out well, and Solomon joined Donald Trump’s operation soon after. Whether he’s serving the president well is another matter entirely.
Ahead of the primetime address on Thursday, in which Trump is expected to peddle a new round of election conspiracy theories, The Washington Post reported:
Trump is making the prime-time announcement at the urging of advisers including Bill Pulte, the acting director of national intelligence, and John Solomon, a former conservative journalist who temporarily joined the White House to help review government records for release. Solomon has long questioned investigations surrounding Trump and has pushed for the release of FBI investigatory files related to alleged election interference.
Solomon’s role in steering the president in these conspiratorial directions is problematic on its face, but just as notable is that even some in the White House aren’t impressed.
MS NOW spoke this week with an administration official familiar with deliberations over the intelligence community’s material. Referring specifically to Pulte and Solomon, the official told MS NOW, “It’s that network [of people] that is the real f–––ing problem. They try to put bits and pieces together and then make these conclusions. Everything I have seen, it’s not what’s there.”
The same official said, in reference to claims from Pulte and Solomon, “The intelligence just doesn’t say what you want it to say. I’m sorry.”
The trouble, of course, is that the president is apparently inclined to believe what Pulte and Solomon have to say, whether they’re right or not. […]
Pierce @140: “Obviously, the lady admirals-to-be failed their testosterone-level tests!”
LOL.
In other “Was Department” news, as reported by the New York Times:
The United States attacked new Iranian military sites on Wednesday in the fifth consecutive day of strikes between the two countries, with neither side showing a willingness to back down as the war entered a new phase focused on the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. strikes, which the Pentagon said targeted Iran’s ability to threaten vessels in the strait, followed Iranian attacks on American military facilities in the region.
Nearly half of House Democrats voted to cut off aid to Israel Wednesday, underscoring a seismic shift in political support for the longtime U.S. ally.
The amendment to a State Department spending bill would have eliminated $3.3 billion in funding, and thanks to strong Republican support for the Jewish state, it failed 314-104 . But the vote served as a moment of reckoning for House Democrats who have had to confront years of voter outrage about Israel’s handling of the war in Gaza…
The chief engineer at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has been killed by a Ukrainian drone near the station, Russian authorities have said.
Alexei Likhachev, the head of Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom said in a statement that a Ukrainian drone had struck a service car between the plant’s site and the town of Enerhodar, killing the engineer, Alexander Yakovlev, and the driver on Wednesday…
France’s National Assembly gave final approval Wednesday to a bill allowing adults with incurable illnesses to receive lethal medication, the culmination of years of debate over end-of-life care.
But the 291-241 vote in the lower house of parliament doesn’t mean the bill immediately becomes law. There will be a review to determine if it complies with the French Constitution…
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed Mykhailo Fedorov as defence minister as part of his latest government reshuffle, Fedorov confirmed on Wednesday.
…
Fedorov then listed what he considers his team’s main achievements and failures during his six-month tenure.
Fedorov included the shutdown of Starlink systems for Russian forces, the campaign against Russian logistics in occupied Crimea, and “an unpopular but extremely important” military reform initiative.
…
Fedorov is expected to be replaced by Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko.
General Klymenko led the National Police from 2019 until 2023 and was appointed interior minister following the death of his predecessor, Denys Monastyrsky.
Ukrainian parliament should support his nomination…
Ukraine’s current strategy seems to be working well. Seems an odd time for a switch.
Who knew that making a deal with President Donald Trump would turn out poorly?
Everyone. Everyone knew this.
Well, except for the fanciest lawyers at the fanciest firms, who are now finding out that it was perhaps a less-than-optimal idea to bend the knee to Trump as the wheels come off.
Yes, these master dealmakers somehow thought that giving Trump tens of millions of dollars in “services” would somehow stave off his attacks—because Trump always honors his word, right?
Since this is the Trump administration, things have fallen apart in the most idiotic, craven way—thanks to the fact that Trump surrounds himself with corrupt cronies.
Last year, the American Bar Association sued the administration over Trump’s issuance of executive orders threatening to sanction big law firms who had committed the terrible misdeed of hiring or representing people Trump doesn’t like. [Trump’s actions violated the First Amendment.]
The administration tried to make it go away, but in April, a federal judge ruled that the lawsuit could move forward.
The ABA’s discovery requests, which the Trump administration has mightily tried to ignore, include requests for internal communications between former White House strategist Steve Bannon and Boris Epshteyn, one of Trump’s personal attorneys.
Epshteyn allegedly had a role in connecting two of the firms that buckled—Kirkland & Ellis and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom—to work with the Commerce Department on trade negotiations, a totally normal thing for the government to have external law firms do for free.
Bannon went on his podcast to chest-beat that Trump was doing exactly what everyone pretended he was NOT doing.
“Let me repeat this: There’s major law firms in Washington, D.C. What we are trying to do is put you out of business and bankrupt you,” he said. [!]
To stave this off, the administration tried its usual argument, claiming that it somehow violates the separation of powers not only for it to be held to any rule of law but even for it to have to reveal anything.
But once it became obvious that the administration couldn’t easily brush this aside, the Justice Department decided that the best thing to do was to attack the very people who cut the deals.
Wait, what?
Yes, since the administration does not want to give up any information on Bannon or Epshteyn’s roles, they’ve gone on the offensive and subpoenaed nine law firms that cut deals with Trump, along with the four firms that didn’t and who keep beating him in court.
It’s also demanding that the heads of those firms sit for depositions.
Wait, why?
The logic seems to be that leaning on the law firms is the same sort of pressure being brought to bear on Epshteyn, demanding they provide all communications with Epshteyn and anything about the corrupt bargain with Trump.
Again—wait, why?
Nobody really knows! Some lawyers representing those firms think it might be that the DOJ believes that leaning on the firms will cause them to lean on the ABA, which will then drop its lawsuit.
The problem that the administration doesn’t quite seem to have fully thought through is that there’s no world where all of these firms come forward with this information and it somehow reflects well on Trump or his lackeys. Nor is there a world where all of this discovery would somehow remain sealed forever.
But the Trump administration isn’t really interested in long-term solutions, now is it? It’s just one Rube Goldberg contraption after another, forever trying to prop up and obscure the last mistake.
… Now, Ukraine is increasingly transforming its drone boats into drone motherships. These vessels can set attack drones loose on enemy defenders or launch interceptors for a new kind of coastal air defense. The approach allows Ukraine to strike or defend from farther away, from less predictable directions, and with cheaper systems than traditional weaponry….
The emergence of drone motherships marks a distinct shift in how the drone war is being fought. Small drones make precision attacks cheap and widely available, but they still face limits in range, endurance, resistance to enemy jamming, and operator exposure.
By turning boats, aircraft, and vehicles into mobile launch platforms, Ukrainian forces can push smaller systems much deeper into the battlespace in unexpected ways.
…
Conflict analysts at the Institute for the Study of War, a US-based think tank, said in October that Russian forces had been using motherships since at least August 2025 to target Ukrainian logistics routes and positions in the near rear. They said the systems were based on variants of Russia’s fixed-wing Orlan and Molniya drones.
…
While motherships began as fixed-wing drones carrying FPVs into battle, they have since expanded to all types of drones, including ground and naval systems.
…
Motherships are not limited to uncrewed systems. Ukraine is also using crewed aircraft as launch platforms for smaller drones.
…
“It moves us away from the tactic where the interceptor launches from the ground,” he told Business Insider. “Instead, we can use some kind of carrier that can stay in the air longer and even fly closer to the target, reducing the distance the interceptor itself has to cover.” …
President Donald Trump was skewered on social media Tuesday after posting an AI image showing him talking to world leaders in front of a map indicating that the United States annexed Canada, Venezuela and Greenland.
The image, which Trump had used before to troll the territories, appeared on Trump’s Truth Social account Tuesday afternoon…
Demented narcissistic fuckwit.
The one similar idea I might go along with is renaming the Strait of Hormuz for him.
On fb & shared by oneof my friends there referring to E Jean Carroll :
Fun fact : The President of the goddamn United States paid nearly 6 million in damages today to a woman he raped. Once upon a time, this would have been the only news you heard.
Jeff Timmer.
Once it would have meant that President resigned in disgrace or was impeached too.
“Senate Democrats Act Like An Opposition Party, Block $1 Trillion Defense Bill”
Democrats in the Senate yesterday protested Donald Trump’s ongoing war against Iran by blocking the annual Defense Department funding bill from moving forward. The vote came days after Trump notified Congress that his phony cease-fire with Iran had somehow not held together and that the US was once again bombing Iran for peace.
Most years, the defense bill, formally called the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), is fairly easy to pass […]
But this year’s NDAA faced some atypical obstacles. For starters, it would throw far more money at the military than usual, with a price tag of $1.14 trillion, the first time a Pentagon funding bill has crossed the trillion-dollar threshold. It’s a bit short of the $1.5 trillion Trump asked for, but a fuckton more than last year’s $900 billion. (That said, Republicans did come along and add another $150 billion in war cash in last summer’s Big Ugly Bill.) A number of Democrats also opposed funding the Pentagon without placing limits on Trump’s deployments of National Guard and active-duty troops to cities.
But the real sticking point was Trump’s pointless war on Iran […]
“The NDAA cannot become a permission slip for that recklessness that we see occurring in Iran,” [Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said.]
[…] “Donald Trump does not get to drag the American people deeper into a war he cannot explain and does not know how to end — and then demand that Congress look the other way.”
Hell yes, more of that, please. The NDAA failed to get the 60 votes it needed to advance to debate, on a largely party-line vote of 50 to 46.
Putting the kibosh on the NDAA was also one of the most concrete actions Democrats could take […] more than 10 votes on war powers resolutions aimed at forcing Trump to stop his war [did not succeed].
[…] Wonkette fave Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-Illinois), who piloted a helicopter in our previous Forever War in Iraq and now serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement that hell no she won’t support the largest-ever defense bill if it’s simply going to be a slush fund “for Donald Trump to continue his illegal and disastrous war that Americans do not want.”
[…] Quite a few Republicans don’t like the stupid war either, but they’re afraid of angering Dear Leader.
Instead, Republicans in Congress will try to cram through their third reconciliation bill this year so they can get something passed without needing Democratic votes in the Senate. It wouldn’t be the full NDAA or anything like it, but it would give the Pentagon an additional $67 billion, as well as providing $20 billion to pay off farmers fucked over by Trump’s tariffs. It would also squeeze in some elements of Trump’s beloved voter-suppression bill, the SAVE America Act, as long as they can be dressed up as “budget” items to conform with the limits of the reconciliation process. […]
“Wildfire Smoke Spreads Across the Northeast as Temperatures Spike”
“A heat dome is responsible for miserably high temperatures, and it’s also helping to push smoke from wildfires to the east.”
New York City on Wednesday night smelled of smoke and the sky turned a faint orange as air polluted by wildfires from Canada and the Great Lakes slipped across the Northeast, prompting alerts about poor air quality.
The haze is expected to continue through the night, and even to worsen in some places, as the same heat dome that is pushing temperatures close to 100 degrees across much of eastern Canada and the United States traps the smoke from faraway wildfires close to the ground.
In New York, city officials warned of “the possibility of deteriorating air quality” throughout the day Wednesday, but noted that even the most severe forecasts did not approach the levels seen in 2023, when the Canadian wildfire smoke sent the city’s air quality index surging to dangerous levels. Still, they said, echoing the warnings of officials across the region, people with health conditions that make them sensitive to polluted air should take caution. […]
More at the link, including maps and photos.
birgerjohanssonsays
16 July 1969 is when Apollo 11 started on its journey to the moon.
I recall the countdown.
birgerjohanssonsays
Trump just endorsed the My Pillow guy for governor of Minnesota!
whheydtsays
Re; birgerjohansson @ #1`59…
I got a paid day off work for the landing. Only good thing Richard Nixon ever did for me.
Nixon was not a conservationist at heart, and the tapes prove it. But the laws he signed reshaped the relationship between Americans and their environment more than anything since the New Deal.
Militant Agnosticsays
The bigger question is not “Can NATO exist without the Unite States?”, the bigger question is “How long before NATO cuts out the weakest link in the chain?”
The Trump administration said Wednesday it will impose an additional 25% tariff on many Brazilian goods, escalating a trade fight it says is rooted in Brazil’s treatment of U.S. companies…
China’s first national framework for emotionally interactive AI took effect today, July 15, 2026, triggering the simultaneous shutdown of personalized AI companion features on ByteDance’s Doubao and Alibaba’s Qwen — two of the country’s most widely used AI applications, as South China Morning Post first reported. The event is more than a compliance deadline: it reveals that no platform anywhere in the world has yet built AI companion architecture that can pass a regulator’s addiction-safety test, because the features that make a companion feel personal are the same ones that make it impossible to regulate.
…
The regulation at the center of today’s shutdowns is the Interim Measures for the Administration of AI Anthropomorphic Interactive Services, co-issued on April 10, 2026, by the Cyberspace Administration of China and four partner agencies: the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security, and the State Administration for Market Regulation. It entered a three-month grace period before taking legal effect today.
Reading the rule quickly, it might appear that Beijing just turned off AI agents. It did not. The measures draw a precise line between the agent that keeps you company and the one that does your work. Customer service bots, knowledge Q&A systems, workplace productivity assistants, and educational tools all remain explicitly permitted — provided they avoid sustained emotional engagement. What the law targets is the narrower category of AI services designed to simulate “the personality traits, thinking patterns, and communication styles of natural persons” to provide “continuous emotional interaction.”
Platforms falling within scope must implement anti-addiction systems, issue mandatory notifications to users who engage for more than two consecutive hours reminding them they are interacting with a machine, and offer instant-exit mechanisms. They must also detect signs of unhealthy emotional dependence in real time. For users under 14, parental or guardian consent is required for any anthropomorphic AI interaction. Virtual intimate relationships — virtual partners, virtual family members — are prohibited entirely for anyone under 18. A tiered security assessment and algorithm-filing requirement applies to any service that launches new anthropomorphic features, or reaches one million registered users or 100,000 monthly active users.
The law also prohibits seven categories of content, including material that encourages self-harm or suicide, content that induces emotional dependence or addiction in ways that damage real-world relationships, and emotional manipulation designed to steer users into unreasonable decisions…
Protests have been taking place in several Ukrainian cities against President Volodymyr Zelensky’s surprise dismissal of popular Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov.
A crowd of people – mostly young – gathered in Kyiv, holding up signs reading “Hands off Fedorov” and “Stop sabotaging victory!” and chanting “Shame!”.
Zelensky has not yet explained his decision, which is causing significant upset among commentators and the military as well as parts of civil society.
Fedorov, 35, was appointed only in January but has been credited with energising the ministry, heading a drive against corruption and using data to analyse and try to improve performance on the front line.
MPs were due to vote on Thursday on the proposed replacement as defence minister, Ihor Klymenko, who currently heads the interior ministry…
Scientists at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign have uncovered evidence that could reshape how researchers think about both the brain and artificial intelligence. Their findings suggest that decision making begins much earlier in the brain than traditional theories propose, offering fresh ideas for designing future AI systems that are more capable and far more energy efficient.
Led by electrical and computer engineering professor Yurii Vlasov at The Grainger College of Engineering, the research was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS). The study points to an unexpected role for early sensory brain regions in decision making, challenging the long accepted view that decisions emerge only after information moves through a strict hierarchy of brain regions…
New navigation satellites in low-Earth orbit could provide 100 times stronger signal strength compared to GPS and other global navigation satellite systems operating from higher orbital altitudes—enabling greater location accuracy within dense cities, under thick foliage, and even inside buildings. Such signals would also likely prove more resilient to interference at a time when commercial flights, maritime shipping, and even various smartphone apps face increasingly widespread disruption from GPS jamming.
That vision may start to take shape when the first six production satellites of California-based Xona Space Systems are scheduled to launch in October 2026, with early service starting in 2027. Once the full constellation of 258 Pulsar satellites has been launched in the following years, Xona claims that customers will be able to accurately pinpoint their locations anywhere on Earth to within several centimeters…
The legislative proposal seeks to create a new section of federal law allowing the defense secretary to exempt certain “controlled unclassified information,” or CUI, from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act if the U.S. military determines the records concern national defense vulnerabilities and concludes that the harm from disclosure outweighs the public interest.
Hegseth wants the ability to further control what information the public gets about the DOD. CUI covers a lot so can’t be sure what Hegseth is targeting. It’s very possible that Hegseth is just working towards blocking everything not released by the DOD press department.
Two boats carrying more than 500 people are feared to have capsized off the coast of Myanmar in recent days, United Nations agencies have said.
According to preliminary information reported on Thursday by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), the two vessels departed from Myanmar’s Rakhine State in late June carrying mostly Rohingya passengers.
One boat, believed to have been carrying about 250 people, lost contact shortly after departure. A second boat, reportedly carrying some 280 people, is believed to have sunk off Myanmar’s Ayeyarwady coast on July 8, they said…
According to MS NOW’s exclusive reporting, Secret Service agents assigned to JD Vance’s family are “fed up” with costly, last-minute travel demands—including a helicopter trip to take his young son to a golf lesson across town. Carol Leonnig joins to discuss her reporting.
Jacob Soboroff hosts. Carol Leaning is a knowledgeable guest. The Marine Two ride to a child’s golf lesson is not the only example.
Video is 8:35 minutes
Perhaps never before has a nominee for attorney general come before the Senate with as clear of a track record already doing the job as Todd Blanche.
But it turns out that GOP senators — the only ones who can block Blanche’s confirmation — don’t need to look that far back to assess his work.
An unpredicted confluence of events Wednesday produced an extraordinary split screen, with the Justice Department continuing to operate as a rogue federal law enforcement apparatus even as Blanche spent most of the day testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Each of these developments was significant news in their own right, but the timing was remarkable and accentuated the whistling-past-the graveyard approach of GOP senators to Blanche’s confirmation:
Scheming to Avoid Senate Confirmation of U.S. Attorneys
In Washington state, Blanche immediately fired the interim U.S. attorney who had just been unanimously appointed by the federal judges there less than an hour earlier. [!]
[…] For months, there have been rumblings that the federal judges in Seattle were looking for an appointee who would be willing to file suit if fired and had gone as far as formally asking candidates about their willingness to do so. Rogoff has retained an employment law firm, and in interviews after he was fired indicated he was considering challenging his termination.
“The president gets to choose his US attorney, but only with the advice and consent of the Senate,” Rogoff told Bloomberg. “We have a situation that is untenable, not constitutional, and not legal.”
Separately, in the Eastern District of Virginia, where Blanche had previously fired a court-appointed interim U.S. attorney, he named a local attorney Theo Stamos as the new first assistant U.S. attorney, which effectively makes her the top federal prosecutor there because the U.S. attorney position remains vacant. Stamos […] has no prior federal prosecution experience.
All of this scheming is part of the Trump administration’s effort to bypass Senate confirmation of U.S. attorneys in mostly blue states [Unfortunately, that is correct!], where the Senate’s blue slip tradition gives home state senators of the opposing party an effective veto over U.S. attorney nominees. Historically, that has led to accommodations by both sides to find consensus candidates, but President Trump prizes loyalty above comity.
Running Air Force One Leak Probe Out of White House
President Trump’s freakout over the New York Times’ reports on the inadequacies of his beloved new Qatari-gifted Air Force One has inadvertently revealed the extent to which Blanche is content to let the White House run DOJ. [!]
Not only was FBI Director Kash Patel running the investigation from the White House last Friday, as previously reported, he was doing so alongside Trump Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, [!]
[…] As part of the investigation, some officials were asked to turn over their phones to investigators on White House grounds, CNN reports. Investigators have even sought out Secret Service agents who accompanied Trump on the trip to the NATO summit in Turkey that exposed the aircraft’s lack of missile defense capabilities compared to its predecessors, per the NYT.
The NYT report mirrors CNN’s account in making the unprecedented revelation that Wiles is “personally” leading the investigation with Patel.
One of the first investigative steps — which Blanche personally approved [!], he testified at his confirmation hearing — was to subpoena four NYT reporters over two stories about the deficiencies of the aircraft. The NYT moved yesterday to quash those subpoenas in filings that remain under seal.
Blanche Direct Report and Top ‘Antifa’ Prosecutor Is a Jan. 6er
In an exclusive report, TPM’s Josh Kovensky revealed for the first time — more than five years after the fact — that an assistant U.S. attorney in a Trump 2020 baseball cap with a star-spangled face mask marched on the Capitol on Jan. 6. [!]
The Trump DOJ confirmed that Brian W. Lynch “was present but never entered the capitol, left the grounds after a brief period, and did not commit and was never accused of any violation of law.”
One photo obtained by TPM shows Lynch in what Michael Romano, who was a deputy chief in the DOJ’s since-disbanded Capitol Siege Section, says was a restricted area around the Capitol: [video]
Lynch was appointed earlier this year to co-lead Joint Task Force Vanguard, which is taking the lead at DOJ in targeting left-wing opponents of Trump in a sweeping administration-wide effort to inflate the threat of “antifa” and categorize political opposition, protest, and civil disobedience as “domestic terrorism.” […]
Lynch reports directly to Blanche.
Combined with the FBI’s apparent attempt to muddy the water in the fatal ICE shooting in Houston last week, the series of developments yesterday made the Blanche confirmation hearing seem almost surreal, with Blanche assuring senators he would continue to always do the right thing even as wrongdoing was on full display outside of the committee room. [!]
[graph showing false or misleading claims made by Donald Trump]
The networks are facing a dilemma. To be complicit with trump’s attempted coup or face a backlash from the white nationalists.
Trump wants national coverage for his “really, really big news” Thursday night but as of Thursday morning ABC News, CBS News, and NBC News, as well as cable networks such as Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC, have not complied and have regularly scheduled programing according to The Daily Beast.
MS NOW first reported that the president is planning to speak about voting machine security and announce apparent declassified intelligence reports that the White House claims reveal plans by other countries to interfere in the 2020 election. […]
“Trump administration’s new rule will limit foreign students to four-year stays”
“International students and exchange visitors may struggle to finish their degrees without visa extensions under a new DHS rule.”
The Trump administration finalized a rule Thursday barring most foreign students and exchange visitors from staying in the United States longer than four years without an extension from the federal government.
The Department of Homeland Security acknowledged concerns that students might have trouble finishing their degrees. On average, students take a little over four years to obtain a bachelor’s and even longer to finish a doctorate. But the federal government said it needed a better process to stop students from overstaying their visas.
“For nearly half a century, the outdated ‘duration of status’ system has compromised national security and created an environment ripe for immigration fraud,” Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said. [Loads of bullshit from Mullin and the Trump administration in general.]
“DHS’ decision to end Duration of Status is a misguided and unnecessary policy shift that injects uncertainty, bureaucracy, and fear into a system that has long worked effectively,” said Fanta Aw, executive director of NAFSA: Association of International Educators. [Correct.]
Even without the regulation, many colleges have struggled recently to recruit foreign students because of other visa restrictions, including bans on visitors from certain countries. That in turn has forced some schools to eliminate programs or cut staff.
The new time restrictions will affect both F-1 students and J-1 exchange visitors. Previously, such students generally were admitted for the duration of their programs, plus a grace period, as long as they complied with visa requirements. [!]
We will be unplugging the television tonight to prevent it being infected by tRUMP LIES and DEMENTIA. Yes, I know that it is unlikely that such deadly infection could spread through electrons. But, given all the diseases being spread everywhere with no gov. agencies left to help, we don’t want to take any chances.
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
shermanj @179: “re-naming cesspools and toxic waste dumps after tRUMP.”
We probably shouldn’t draw his attention to more pots of money he might defraud.
Approximately 70% of Superfund cleanup activities historically have been paid for by the potentially responsible parties (PRPs), reflecting the polluter pays principle. However, 30% of the time, the responsible party either cannot be found or is unable to pay for the cleanup. In these circumstances, taxpayers had been paying for the cleanup operations. Through the 1980s, most of the funding came from an excise tax on petroleum and chemical manufacturers. However, in 1995, Congress chose not to renew this tax and the burden of the cost was shifted to taxpayers in the general public. […] Despite its name, the program suffered from under-funding, and by 2014 Superfund NPL cleanups had decreased to only 8 sites, out of over 1,200. In November 2021, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act reauthorized an excise tax on chemical manufacturers, for ten years starting in July 2022.
Electrical interconnects may very well be the unsung heroes of modern microchips.
These tiny wires – typically made of copper due to its high conductivity – string together the billions of transistors that drive our computers and electronic devices. But as the technology advances and additional transistors are piled on, the components must shrink to the nanoscale. And that’s when copper begins to fail.
Cornell researchers have developed a potential replacement for copper interconnects: single-crystal nanowires of niobium arsenide. This topological semimetal paradoxically becomes a better conductor the thinner it gets, boosting electronic performance.
The findings were reported July 16 in Science.
…
“Electrons that are flowing on the surface of the material travel really fast, and they do not scatter off as easily as electrons in the bulk. That’s the reason why copper is suffering, because copper only has electrons flowing in the bulk,” Cha said. “As you make them small, these electrons inside the copper wire start to see the surfaces and are constantly getting scattered off to different directions. That’s why it becomes electrically very resistive.”
…
So in order to develop these superior alternatives to copper, the researchers employed a very specific process: thermomechanical nanomolding.
…
A White House teleprompter operator is being investigated over allegedly using inside information to place bets and make nearly $100,000 on US President Donald Trump’s speeches.
Gabriel Perez, who had worked at the White House since 2016, is accused of placing bets on words the president would use during major public addresses, including the State of the Union speech.
The trades were made on Kalshi, a prediction markets platform where users can bet on real-world events. The firm confirmed it reported the activity to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which regulates the platform..
Prime Minister Mark Carney said Thursday that any money made from tolls on the Gordie Howe International Bridge won’t be split with the United States until all Canadian investment in the project is repaid.
At an event Thursday in London, Ont., Carney was asked whether the $6.4 billion of investment made by Canada would be collected before profits from the bridge would be split with the U.S. side.
“It’s not splitting the tolls of the bridge,” Carney told journalists. “It is an agreement for 15 years to split net revenues.
“Any sharing of the toll revenue won’t happen until all the debt, all of the debt, is repaid.” …
Facing mounting pressure to acknowledge that Grok can still be used to generate non-consensual sexualized images of adults and minors, xAI filed a lawsuit Tuesday, suing the first user that Elon Musk’s firm has accused of using its chatbot to create illegal content.
The complaint targets Terry Wayne Harwood, who was arrested earlier this year for possession and distribution of child sexual abuse materials (CSAM), the South Carolina attorney’s office announced…
Imagine a gun manufacturer suing someone who used their product in a robbery.
the report—which came only days after the Supreme Court upheld laws banning trans women from women’s sports—takes aim at Title IX, the federal civil rights law that bars sex discrimination in schools receiving federal funds and was directly responsible for the creation of women’s sports programs in K-12 schools.
[…]
according to Yenor, the discrimination lies in giving women equality, as Title IX’s mandates of equal spending and parity in competitive opportunity meant “colleges […] cutting men’s non-revenue programs rather than adding women’s teams or controlling costs in football and men’s basketball.”
Interestingly, his entire argument essentially reverses the rhetoric that Republicans have employed when banning trans athletes. There, they argue that trans athletes should get fewer opportunities because they are more competitive and aggressive and that every trans woman who wants to compete is unfairly taking an opportunity away from a cis woman. But here, it’s now cis women who should get fewer opportunities for being less competitive and aggressive and that every cis woman who wants to compete is unfairly taking an opportunity away from a man.
[…]
Yenor proposes that Title IX should instead ‘accommodate nature’ by doing away with many competitive women’s sporting programs […] repeated references to the idea that competitive sports make women “less oriented towards motherhood” […] are present throughout the report.
Reginald Selkirksays
@187
If they are so concerned with “assisting fertility,” they could donate protective cups for amateur male athletes.
After pushing anti-trans laws to ‘protect women’s sports’, Project 2025’s Heritage Foundation now wants women’s sports gone to ‘assist fertility’
[…] every cis woman who wants to compete is unfairly taking an opportunity away from a man. […]
FFS. Sound like retrograde religious crapola to me.
StevoRsays
@159. birgerjohansson : “16 July 1969 is when Apollo 11 started on its journey to the moon.
I recall the countdown.”
15th July Aussie time – the day before in USoA time – was the New Horizons fly by of Pluto when we got our first close up look at that wonderful, dynamic, surprising little planet.
whheydtsays
Re: SteveR @ #192…
When I was a regional officer with a volunteer educational non-profit and Australia was part of my region, the rule of thumb, if one needed to ‘phone there, was “6 hours ago, tomorrow.”
StevoRsays
Thinking of which :
A groundbreaking mission that explored Pluto and distant solar system objects in unprecedented detail has awakened from its longest sleep ever — and it’s 5.9 billion miles (9.5 billion kilometers) from Earth.
NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft went into a planned hibernation mode on August 7, 2025, and woke up on June 23 using commands stored on its main computer.
The mission’s flight controllers at the Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, confirmed that New Horizons is in great shape and ready to transmit a stream of science data gathered during hibernation from its location in the region of icy objects known as the Kuiper Belt.
..(Snip)..
“There seems to be more paired, snowman-shaped bodies, like Arrokoth, out there than anyone expected,” Brandt wrote in an email. “Are such binaries the most common planetesimal and is this how larger planets have been built in our own and other stellar systems? These are very deep questions that New Horizons can help answer.”
..(Snip)..
Another instrument, the Venetia Burney Student Dust Counter, has collected data that has thrown New Horizon’s team a curveball, Brandt said. The team expected dust abundance to be high within the Kuiper Belt due to the significant presence of small objects. But New Horizons has traveled beyond the known boundary of the Kuiper Belt — and it’s still in a dusty environment. …
US Vice-President JD Vance has accused some members of the Israeli government of trying to influence Americans’ opinions to prolong the Iran war.
In an interview published on Wednesday, Vance told conservative podcaster Joe Rogan that while he trusts some people within the Israeli government, there are others “who are manipulating and trying to change American public opinion to keep the war going on indefinitely”…
Is manipulating public opinion in some other country a bad thing? (cough cough Orban)
robrosays
We may have found the vandals that damaged the Reflecting Pool: On May 7th, after the pool was painted and sealed, but not filled, Trump’s motorcade drove through the pool. There were at least 10 SUVs in the motorcade.
There will be no federal funds for bulletproof vests for cops in Santa Cruz, California, the city alleged in a lawsuit. No ambulances for paramedics in Beaverton, Oregon. And now, no money for police departments to process rape kits in Fresno, as the administration threatens to withhold federal grants for critical services from cities that won’t sign deals to work with ICE.
Cities face a hard choice: give up the federal money, sign the ICE agreements, or fight the Department of Justice in court. […] Fresno has already gone to court over other grants tied up due to the administration’s campaign against diversity, equity and inclusion. […] Los Angeles County said it is forgoing many federal grant opportunities. Miami is facing backlash from residents after city leaders signed on to ICE’s program. And other cities, from Seattle to San Diego, are launching their own court battles.
In October, the DOJ named 12 states, 18 cities, and three counties that it said “materially impede enforcement of federal immigration statutes.” In general, many of those locations refuse to share information with ICE, hold individuals for ICE, or allow agents into their jails.
A California federal judge dealt a blow to the Trump administration on July 9 when he ruled the federal government couldn’t withhold public safety grants to Oregon and California cities. Another battle is brewing over the sexual assault evidence kits. […] The same judge ruled last year that Trump couldn’t deny funding to Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles—and 30 other cities—over the lack of immigration enforcement cooperation. He did the same in 2017 during Trump’s first term.
[…]
More than 21 locales that initially received grants to test rape kits are now deemed “sanctuary jurisdictions.” […] DOJ grant administrators sent Fresno a note in June, noting that the city had not signed a certification saying it would cooperate with [DHS] and ICE or risk losing the money. […] the situation puts the city in a bind: State law prohibits sharing that type of information, and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the constitutionality of the law.
[…]
“Denying a city funding to test rape kits is wrong-headed when your stated goal is taking dangerous offenders off the streets,”
Militant Agnosticsays
Denying a city funding to test rape kits is wrong-headed when your stated goal is taking dangerous offenders off the streets,
Makes perfect sense for someone who is pro-rape.
Militant Agnosticsays
The personal and professional bank accounts of lawyer Jeff Rath, one of the leaders of Alberta’s separatist movement, were temporarily frozen as part of a legal dispute over millions of dollars in trust funds that a First Nation alleges were misappropriated.
The company is launching a new data feed, known as an application programming interface (API), that gives paying customers “licensed, real-time access” to Truth Social posts from the president and other top accounts, receiving them in “milliseconds,” according to the statement.
The announcement is a bit vague, no pricing and what “real-time” means in this context is not explained. Depending on how much of an advantage this service gets in speed it could be a serious issue or just contemptible. The point however is clear, they are explicitly selling this to Wall Street as getting early access to Trump’s announcements. Since Trump often makes announcements of new tariffs, deals or government policy this way it’s all important to stock traders.
They don’t state which dynasty but if it was 4000 years ago it should be the Middle Kingdom period. The Old Kingdom was in the copper-stone age so they could not produce daggers like this.
StevoRsays
BBC has live coverage of the new British PM-to-be’s speech on taking up party leadership here – happening right now :
A lettuce supplier to fast-food giant Taco Bell is being investigated as a possible source for a nationwide cyclosporiasis outbreak that has sickened thousands of people, a source familiar with the investigation told CBS News on Thursday.
The source said a traceback investigation by the Food and Drug Administration identified a single supplier of iceberg lettuce from Mexico, Taylor Farms, that was used by Taco Bell locations in five states where people who contracted cyclosporiasis ate. The FDA is investigating, the source said…
“is being investigated”? It all sounds so tentative, as though they were giving in to public pressure to provide answers when they haven’t completed their homework yet.
Two boats carrying an estimated 530 Rohingya asylum seekers left Myanmar’s Rakhine state on 29 June, and have not been heard from since. The equivalent of a jumbo jet full of people has vanished.
It is very likely that they both capsized. The monsoon has started, the seas are rough, and the boats – usually old fishing trawlers converted to carry as many people as possible – are barely sea-worthy with unreliable engines. It is also very likely that there were few, or no survivors. Half of them may have been women and children. But we will never know for certain.
Moira Deeming’s political career as a Liberal is over after the party’s state executive voted to revoke the MP’s candidacy for the November state election. The Liberal Party disendorsed Mrs Deeming on Friday night in a unanimous decision that only took 13 minutes.
.. (snip)..
.. Mrs Deeming has separately flagged the possibility of facing bankruptcy, the ABC revealed on Thursday.
Writing to the Liberal state executive, Mrs Deeming wrote she was “facing bankruptcy over $1.55 million in legal costs that a former Liberal leader was ordered by the Federal Court to pay me”.
A declaration of bankruptcy would force her removal from parliament.
NSW businessman Hilton Grugeon is seeking to be repaid for funding Mrs Deeming’s successful defamation action against former opposition leader John Pesutto earlier this term. Mrs Deeming has been unable to repay Mr Grugeon while a Liberal Party loan to Mr Pesutto, who was ordered to pay her legal costs, remains before the courts.
Deeming is known for her views on transgender people. On 18 March 2023, she spoke at an anti-trans rally, which she helped organise, outside of the Victorian Parliament. The rally was attended by a neo-Nazi group who repeatedly performed Nazi salutes from the steps of Parliament.
Ukraine has destroyed a strategic Tu-95 bomber in Russia’s Engels air base, about 800 km from the Ukrainian border, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
..(snip)…
The Ukrainian forces also struck facilities belonging to Russia’s oil industry, Mr Zeleknskyy added. “We are increasing the price Russia pays for its aggression against our country and our people,” he said.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who shot a Colombian man in Maine this week is an Army veteran who has struggled with serious mental health issues since early childhood and never should have been given a badge and gun to patrol American streets, several of his close relatives told The Associated Press.
David Brouillette has a history of terrifying and violent behavior, according to those relatives. They accuse him of attacking women in his life over the years, and one shared a voicemail with the AP from last winter in which he told her that he thought someone should slit her throat.
His history is just a list of red flags. He had serious mental problems and was violent from a young age. Both of his ex wives had restraining orders against him for violence, stalking and other behavior. He served in Afghanistan and had PTSD.
If he had actually been vetted properly he should have been automatically rejected. It isn’t clear if ICE has lowered it’s standards so low he passed or if he wasn’t vetted properly at all.
Trump’s longtime teleprompter operator made more than $90,000 betting on Kalshi about what the president would say in speeches on, the prediction market company said on Thursday..\
According to Politico, Trump’s fellow Republicans are terrified of what he will say during his primetime speech. One former Trump administration official reportedly said, “The people I talk to are scared shitless.”
“Even as the president attacked our system of elections, he offered nothing to refute the simple fact that Joe Biden won the 2020 election.”
Related video at the link.
The White House billed President Donald Trump’s address to the nation Thursday night as presenting new information on the nation’s election security, but there was almost nothing the public had not heard or seen before. Instead, the rambling and disjointed speech from an aging president […]
After speeding through his stump speech, Trump dove deep into gutter politics. He claimed China engaged in a yearslong effort to meddle in U.S. elections, including the 2020 election. He also alleged a Deep State conspiracy involving intelligence agencies to conceal Beijing’s interference. [FFS]
A seemingly tired president appeared to struggle to read the speech, which aides had previewed as a “potpourri” of topics, but was more accurately a mishmash of MAGA buzzwords. [That’s an accurate description.]
He managed to name-check Biden, Barack Obama, Venezuela and the Los Angeles mayoral election. He spotlighted a fraudulent effort to register voters in Michigan — without mentioning that effort was caught before the election. He made hysterical claims about foreigners and dead people voting. And for good measure, he threw in a preposterous claim that the free press was paid to malign him.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said earlier that the speech would be shocking. True, but not in the way she meant. While the president’s goal may have been to destroy faith in our elections, it may have succeeded in destroying whatever faith is [left] in the president.
Since Trump lost in 2020, there have been myriad illogical statements about a stolen election. The president and his team in the past have oscillated between blaming immigrants, antifa, Venezuela, Iran, Democrats and the laughable “2000 mules.”
Now, the White House apparently focused on China and is publishing supposed suppressed information about China’s previous influence and interference. One could only hope this document dump will be more transparent than the disclosure of the Epstein files, which even Vice President JD Vance now admits was handled poorly.
And even as the president made incredible allegations about our elections, he did not allege voter manipulation or altering of any ballot boxes or machines. Nor did he provide evidence of any hacking or tampering of election vote totals. Despite the extraordinary claims about China, Trump’s red-carpet invitation to Chinese President Xi Jinping, welcoming him to the White House in late September, seemingly remains in place.
There were no charges announced. No arrests made. Nothing that would refute the simple fact that Joe Biden won the 2020 election. The election of 2020 remains as controversial as the sky being blue and water being wet.
This was not a presidential address; this was a presidential mess. Republicans running for office have nothing to celebrate ahead of the midterms. Instead they will […] be forced to address the incoherent and paranoid statements and the competence of the president.
While this may have been expected from the president, questions must be asked about his inner circle that allowed him to proceed with this speech and his worst instincts. This speech reveals that as the president struggles to remedy the ills of the nation and public on the domestic and international front, he is apparently growing more paranoid about the past and unable to focus on the future. A president clearly trapped in his own mind is grasping for any excuse to escape reality.
Things got really weird during President Donald Trump’s big speech on “election security” Thursday night.
The centerpiece of the event was a document dump that was posted to the White House website, which Trump claimed to summarize during his televised primetime address. The supposed evidence contained in the reams of pdfs included a wild anecdote about the iconic 1990s computer shooter game “Doom” that underscored just how far the president was reaching as he tried to substantiate his theories.
[…] Trump reiterated his thoroughly debunked claims about the integrity of the American election system. Trump’s latest case centered on questionable intelligence related to supposed Chinese interference in voting and one of the GOP’s favorite false conspiracy theories: the non-existent bogeyman of non-citizen voting. The president used these paranoid fantasies to argue for his administration’s push to obtain voter data from Democratic states and for the passage of the SAVE America Act, legislation that would impose draconian voter suppression measures designed to help Republicans win the midterms.
[…] However, nothing the president pointed to showed any level of decisive or unprecedented foreign influence in American elections. He also suggested one of his favorite targets, “deep state” forces within the U.S. government, had covered up China’s plotting and withheld information about it in his first term.
[…] We will be poring over this stuff for some time, but even at first glance, the documents clearly show how questionable Trump’s purported claims about election interference, high-level conspiracies, and vulnerable machinery are. One initial example we spotted is a crazy incident involving “Doom” that was seemingly initially shared by an anonymous Twitter user who attended a hacking conference. It was presented as solid proof of U.S. elections’ insecurity. [!]
The trove of files released by the White House on Thursday include emails from Trump’s first term that show intelligence officials arguing over the idea China was “engaged in election influence.” This view was described as a “minority” perspective within the intelligence community. In spite of this disagreement, this viewpoint was allowed to be presented in certain reports that were also included in Trump’s trove.
One January 2020 memorandum from the National Intelligence Council that was contained in the document dump outlined supposed “Vulnerabilities In US 2020 Election Infrastructure.” That memo, which was declassified by Trump’s conspiracy-minded former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and approved for release by the president earlier this month, featured a “Pollbook Hacking Example” involving “Doom.”
This supposed proof of serious vulnerability was simply a photo of a “pollbook” that was described as having been “modified at the 2019 Defcon Voting Machine Hacking Village to run the popular video game ‘Doom.’” The memorandum noted this claim was solely “according to press reporting” from the hacking event. [Screenshot of Pollbook Hacking Example]
This picture, which was treated as a serious example of threats to election infrastructure, seemingly came from a tweet posted by someone with the username “l33tLumberjack” that was included in a Washington Post article about the 2019 Def Con hacking conference.
“Doom on a electronic pollbook? Yes please!” l33tLumberjack said.
“Doom,” a sci-fi shooter that was originally released in 1993 and revolutionized the gaming industry, is a relatively simple piece of software and porting it onto various devices has become something of a tradition for hackers eager to demonstrate their prowess or expose security vulnerabilities.
While the Post reported that hackers at Def Con 2019 were able to easily break into devices including election poll books and ballot printers, the article also pointed out that the National Association of Secretaries of State described a prior version of the demonstration as “unrealistic” since it does not match the actual conditions under which these devices are used. Many key election systems are never connected to the internet and multiple states that use electronic systems also have paper records. Election officials at every level of government — including members of Trump’s first administration — have rejected the notion of widespread fraud in the 2020 race despite the president’s persistent claims.
Of course, expert consensus and consistent debunking has never stopped Trump from seeking out fringe theories and questionable evidence to deny his loss in the 2020 election and try to restrict voting in future races. In his speech, along with revealing the document dump, Trump encouraged his supporters to call lawmakers and press Congress to pass the SAVE America Act. He also announced that he directed the Department of Homeland Security to order states to remove non-citizens from the voting rolls. Ahead of the speech, Politico reported DHS is set to announce it identified tens of thousands of ineligible voters, though it is not clear how it reached its conclusions, nor whether the agency has evidence any of these people ever actually cast a ballot. [!]
Trump’s document dump and associated remarks may have lacked substance and seriousness. However, they prove he is not letting go of his conspiracy theories about voting or giving up on attempts to interfere with it in the future. In that way, Trump’s remarks envisioned a doom far realer than any sci-fi shooting game. […]
[…] Trump’s address was so insane that even Fox News sycophants didn’t cheer the speech, with host Sean Hannity saying only that, “I’m sure anybody that cares about truth will want to do a deep dive into all of this.” Guess even Hannity is jittery after Fox News was forced to pay a $787 million settlement for spreading Trump’s voting machine lies after the 2020 contest. […]
And Tony Dokoupil, the anchor of CBS’ evening news that has been coopted by right-wing Trump supporters, used his airtime after the speech to question why Trump would deliver this address at all.
“So much is going on in the country, with prices, with war in Iran, with wildfire smoke—people can hardly breathe across multiple states at this hour—and the president is drawing the nation’s attention once again to this subject. Why?” Dokoupil said.
The “why” is because Trump cannot accept that he lost, and is laying the groundwork to question the validity of the 2026 midterms—which Republicans are likely to lose in a landslide. […]
“Trump Confirms ‘This Russhur Thing With Trump And Russhur’ 100% True, What A Dumbass”
Also ‘They wanted to make you shound like your preshident washn’t sho hot,’ explained Trump, accusing China directly of wanting to make you shound like your preshident washn’t sho hot.
We would like to direct your attention to something we wrote Tuesday about Donald Trump’s much-hyped (by himself and his regime) address to the nation, which, we were assured, would CHANGE EVERYTHING:
Before you let this stress you out, though remember what buffoons these people are, and remember how comically every one of these plays backfires in their dumbass faces.
Just mock the shit out of them instead. We sure will.
Well kids, nothing to retract there.
Last night, Trump, who is notoriously bad at reading and notoriously bad at being coherent after dark, attempted to give a primetime address to the nation on election security. What kinds of dumbfuck conspiracy theories was he going to advance? What kind of bald-faced lies about the 2020 election being stolen from him? Uhhhhh, well, none of that, really. Like Pete Hegseth summoning generals from around the world to priss at them about hairstyles, Trump decided to My Fellow Americans us last night to accuse China of sometimes looking at American elections funny, but didn’t really accuse them of doing anything of value.
Go directly to the transcript [embedded links are available at the main link] and find a real accusation he made. We’ll wait.
[…] Once Trump got to the fucking point last night, he didn’t actually really get to the point. He claimed he was releasing/declassifying a bunch of documents he clearly didn’t/can’t read (more hilariousness on that in a second) that showed “shocking vulnerabilities in our election infrastructure.”
“‘Vulnerabilities’ are different than evidence of interference,” CNN’s annotated version of the transcript helpfully explains.
Trump did accuse China of the “illicit acquisition of 220 million voter files,” though it appears he may have been talking about the publicly available voter files. Indeed, as the BBC points out, “A lot of voter data is publicly available and Trump did not in his speech present any evidence that China had used this information to alter voting systems or to influence election outcomes.” Trump said China had “bought, stolen or hacked” tons of voter data. CNN’s factcheck quips that “It would be important to know how much was bought versus stolen or hacked.”
Trump baselessly accused China of wanting to alter the results of the 2020 election, but notably did not accuse them of actually doing it. […]
[…] He accused the Deep State — “a very, very famous group of people, in many cases” hahahahaha fucking what […]? — of hiding and keeping secret that China was doing all these things, even hiding/keeping it secret from him! “Everything was kept out” of his Presidential Daily Briefing “that was of importance,” and we know how he reads those with a fine-toothed comb […]
Check out this passage about burn bags:
Other officials who witnessed such efforts perceived the motivations to be blatantly political. Recently, we found significant numbers of burn bags information, and this is a group of bags that were used to destroy information, given by President Barack Hussein Obama to be burned, it was supposed to be burned.
These bags were supposed to be at a different level by different people, incinerated and checked, but it never happened. Maybe we got lucky. We believe this was not done on purpose, but rather through gross incompetence of the people that were supposed to burn the bags. But the findings are stunning.
Bags! Of Burn! Significant numbers of burn bags information! A group of bags! Obama bags! HUSSEIN Obama bags! To be burned! The findings are stunning!
[…] Trump’s speech [accused] China of doing things that official US assessments say Russia did, not China.
That being said, Trump did accidentally release some documents last night that prove that Russia, not China, attacked the 2020 election on his behalf, in order to help him win: [Screenshot]
Here, take a closer look at that, where it explains that Russia was working to “orchestrate a high-profile corruption scandal implicating former Vice President Biden and the Democratic Party at the peak of the 2020 presidential campaign. Their aim is to defeat the former Vice President and ensure [Trump’s] victory. Some of these proxy actors anticipate that Ukraine-themed narratives about Democratic corruption will play a decisive role in the election and that US persons are key to propagating these narratives.”
Also: “President Putin and senior Russian officials are overseeing efforts by proxies — [REDACTED] — to spread claims about former Vice President Biden as well as Ukrainian politicians and alleged Ukrainian influence in the 2016 US election. These claims include that when the former Vice President was in office, he engaged in criminal activity in his dealings with Ukraine and individuals tied to Ukrainian energy firm Burisma.” [Screenshots]
Hey wait, Ukraine is the real Russia? Burisma? HUNTER BIDEN?
What exactly was Donald Trump impeached for the first time again?
[…] Zoom in on that text:
[REDACTED] We assess that Russia is using a range of measures primarily to denigrate former Vice President Bidena and what it sees as an anti-Russia establishment. For example, it is directing or encouraging proxies to spread claims about Vice President Biden. Some Kremlin-linked actors are also seeking to boost President Trump’s candidacy on social media. More broadly, Moscow’s efforts seek to amplify social discord in the US and undermine Washington’s global standing.
[REDACTED] We assess that China prefers that President Trump be defeated; in the past few months it has stepped up public rhetoric criticizing his Administration, which it recognizes may affect the election. Although [REDACTED] Beijing did not intend to try to affect the election.
That’s rough. You’d think if he was going to do a bombshell speech alleging a nefarious Chinese plot to steal all elections past, present and future from him, he’d release some documents that help his case, instead of just confirming that “this Russhur thing with Trump and Russhur” is not actually a “made-up story,” but just a historical fact.
[…] And how does John Solomon — fake clown right-wing conspiracy theorist “reporter” who now works in the White House and was instrumental in manufacturing all the Ukrainium One lies that underpinned the conspiracy theories that became the linchpin of the Trump/Russia collusion to steal the 2020 election — feel about all this?
Turns out we have an answer, and it is that the slimy dumpy uggo ran away when confronted by what a fucking dud this was:
John Solomon, the conspiracy theorist “reporter” Trump hired to investigate the 2020 election, admitted no votes were changed. When asked if there’s any intelligence showing Trump actually won, he answered, “Not yet,” before quickly fleeing the scene Lol
[Trump’s speech] was the stupidest, most cringe thing we have ever seen, and we are never going to stop making fun of it. […]
Your AWS billing estimate might look just a little inflated right now. If you woke up to find an email from Amazon Web Services this morning telling you that you’d gone over your billing threshold by a few hundred million dollars, don’t panic: Something’s gone wrong in the AWS Billing Console, the company admitted.
An open issue on the AWS Health Dashboard (archived copy at the time of writing) popped up at 1:33 am Pacific time on Friday informing users that Cost Explorer was “reflecting inaccurate estimated billing data.” As of writing, the issue is still unresolved despite AWS trying several different things to get it fixed…
Wind turbines can confuse radar systems on ships and aircraft. Their massive rotating blades create a “blade flash” on radar screens, while their steel bases reflect electromagnetic waves, making it difficult to distinguish the turbines from aircraft or other objects. That’s a problem for the military, which relies on radar for threat detection and navigation. For over a decade, the Pentagon has used a permitting program to review proposed projects and mitigate the effects on radar. Wind developers are required to submit project proposals, address military requests, and in some cases pay to upgrade radar systems to tune out the turbines.
But now, in a world where small, deadly drones can zip through wind farms, the Pentagon says those upgrades may not be sufficient.
For almost a year, the Pentagon has effectively frozen the permitting process for at least 155 new wind projects in 24 states, citing drone concerns, according to research from the American Clean Power Association, an industry advocacy organization. As long as the freeze persists, developers say, no new wind projects can begin construction. The Pentagon has not revealed when or if it will resume approving new projects…
I expect next they will be screening wind turbines for testosterone levels.
birgerjohanssonsays
JM @ 216
In a real law enforcement agency -like, being hired by sheriff Bubba- there would be a vetting process involved. The killer is probably not a rare ‘rotten apple’ and that is why ICE should be disbanded (after you get rid of Chuck Shumer).
“Jesse Watters [Fox News host] Can’t Stop Giggling Over Prospect Of ‘High T’ Soldiers Going On Rape Sprees’
Earlier this week, Secretary of WAR Pete Hegseth announced that the United States military was about to start testing all servicemembers over 30 for “low testosterone,” and not because they are concerned about bone density. […] Hegseth and friends have got it into their heads that high testosterone men are super bad ass, musclebound and macho, while “Low T” men are wimpy girlymen who care about things like basic human rights and vote for Democrats and what have you.
For what it’s worth, “High T” is not actually a good thing. Not only can it result in acne, testicular shrinking (and at a time where all of these same weirdos are into ballmaxxing!), and infertility but also, rather ironically, excess testosterone actually converts into estrogen, which can cause gynecomastia, otherwise known as “manboobs.”
But hey, that’s the kind of thing you’d only know if you were intellectually capable of getting your medical information from places other than X the Everything App.
As you might imagine, the Fox News talking heads are very excited about this — Jesse Watters in particular, who could not stop smiling from ear-to-ear talking about how guys who don’t have “Low T” will take it anyway and ostensibly become rapists. [video]
“You know what’s going to happen? The guys that don’t need it are gonna take it — triple boost. And then they’re going to get out there and women on base, you better be careful,” Waters said. “Port calls, women in Asia, you better be careful. Because these guys are going to be wild animals and you better watch out.”[OMG, how disgusting!]
I agree they should be careful, given that women in the military are not only more likely to be raped by their fellow American soldiers than killed in combat, but they are also more likely to be killed by their fellow American soldiers than killed in combat, frequently as a result of being in a romantic relationship with them.
Of course, it very likely does not register to Jesse Watters that he is insinuating that the testosterone injection will cause these men to become rapists, because he probably just thinks of it as some kind of “Well, boys pumped up on testosterone will be boys pumped up on testosterone!” type thing. That it doesn’t count as rape […] They’re just being cheeky, having a little fun […]
This comes after several right-wing pundits have, weirdly, come out in defense of Graham Platner amid the accusations of sexual assault from his ex-girlfriend. Adam Carolla, always a charmer, claimed that what Platner did was “basic drunken blue collar dude behavior.”
“People get weird with this stuff,” he asserted, “but I would say most every guy I know did what he’s being accused of at one point or another with their girlfriend at some point after a night of drinking.” [OMG, also disgusting!]
[…] “It’s basically like: I’m drunk, I’m horny, I weigh 50 pounds more than you, we’re gonna have sex, it’s not really rape because we sleep in the same bed and I’m just gonna pass out and then the next day I won’t really remember what happened but I’ll buy you some flowers. It’s a basic drunken dude thing,” he said, describing what is, in fact, “really rape” (unless the woman consented, which does not appear to factor into this for Carolla).
For the record, however, having sex with a person without their consent is rape. […]
What’s actually kind of sad is that it appears as though Carolla actually once knew what rape was, as at one point during his tenure on Loveline he said, “Rape is not a sexual crime. It is not sexual. Rape is a violent crime … it’s a violent crime, […]
It also doesn’t matter, by the way, if they are “horny” at the time. […] The thing is, these guys just know their audience. They know they have an audience full of men who don’t want to be told that sexual assault is a problem, who don’t want to be told that they can’t have sex with a woman just because she doesn’t want to have sex with them. They don’t want to be told that they are “bad guys.”
Unfortunately for said audience, if they are a soldier who takes a bunch of extra testosterone and goes out on a rape spree or a “drunk guy” who comes home and rapes his girlfriend, they can still go to prison regardless of what their favorite pundits have told them.
Pierce R. Butlersays
Lynna @ # 227, quoting Wonkette quoting Watters: … these guys are going to be wild animals …
I think he’s implying that the Mexican men crossing the border, per Hegseth’s boss 10 years ago, were/are exemplary high-T cases.
By his own logic, he should be doing everything possible to recruit them into the US military.
…
Now, Trump is threatening more tariffs – this time in response to wildfire smoke that is drifting from blazes burning in northern Ontario into the US.
Carney has not yet responded to the latest from Trump, but he did say yesterday that he believed fighting climate change is the responsibility of all countries, including the US.
Meanwhile, Ontario Premier Doug Ford noted earlier today that Canada has helped the US fight wildfires in California, and that it would welcome similar help in return…
FFS, Canada should refuse to pay the tariff on wildfire smoke and demand that that US turn back the smoke at the border.
President Trump threatened on Friday to impose additional tariffs on Canada, accusing the country’s government of “willful negligence” in its handling of massive wildfires that have wafted heavy smoke and worsened air quality in parts of the Midwest and East Coast.
“We are holding Canada responsible for the fact that they are not properly maintaining their Forests, and Brush therein, and the United States is being unnecessarily invaded by filthy, polluted, and unhealthy air, the quality of which is dangerous, and totally unacceptable!” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
More than a dozen U.S. states are under air quality alerts as wildfires continue to burn across Canada and in northern Minnesota, with officials urging residents in some major U.S. cities, such as Chicago and Washington, D.C., to stay indoors or wear masks to protect against potentially hazardous air pollution.
The Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, a fire protection service based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, reported 897 active fires as of Friday, with Ontario, Quebec and the Northwest Territories seeing the most activity. Fewer than 100 of those fires are considered “under control.”
Trump said he planned to call Prime Minister Mark Carney on Friday to “find out what they are going to do about it,” accusing the Canadian government of refusing to engage in “basic Forest Management” and debris removal.
“This is Willful Negligence, and becoming a yearly occurrence, costing the United States Billions of Dollars, which cost of this pollution must of necessity be added to the TARIFFS Canada is currently paying,” the president added.
Carney brushed off the criticism during a news conference in London, Ontario, Thursday, while also taking a subtle jab at the Trump administration’s environmental and energy policies.
“Fighting climate change is the responsibility of all countries, including the United States,” Carney told reporters in French, according to The Canadian Press. […]
Smoke from wildfires burning out of control in Canada’s northern forests is causing dangerously bad air quality across much of eastern Canada and the US, which you’ve probably noticed if you’re in that part of North America and have lungs. It’s bad already, even though the fires in Canada — and the smoke reaching the US — haven’t yet reached the terrible scale they did in 2023.
In Detroit, Michigan, the air quality Thursday and Friday was the worst of any major city in the world, according to IQAir, a Swiss air quality technology company. But Chicago, Washington DC, and Toronto didn’t feel left out, since they had, respectively, the second-through-fourth worst air in the world. AirNow, a US government air quality reporting site, forecasts “Very Unhealthy” to “Hazardous” air quality today across the entire state of Michigan. You can check your own area’s forecast here.
As this brief but sobering piece in the Atlantic explains (gift link [available at the main link]), the fires in Canada’s boreal forests simply can’t be stopped in many cases. It’s too big a region, too remote from firefighting resources. The entire Canadian boreal zone — between “the treeless tundra of the arctic zone in northern Canada and the temperate zone in southern Canada” is part of a global greenbelt in the northern hemisphere, and it’s yet another region that’s being disastrously affected as the Earth heats up due to humans burning fossil fuels.
Wood-boring pests that flourish in milder climates have swept north and east, through tens of millions of acres. Droughts and dwindling snowpack have stressed the trees. They are ready to burn.
And as this map from Natural Resources Canada indicates, a lot of the zone is burning right now. [map, Yikes!]
The big red dots are fires that are “out of control” and not being contained by firefighting efforts, and the big purple dots are also burning out of control, but they’re just being monitored, without any effort yet to try to contain them, because they’re too remote, and besides, fire is an essential part of the forests’ life cycle.
As University of Calgary environmental science professor Jed Kaplan told the Atlantic, “You can’t control these fires. You cannot put personnel, fire engines, over an area that is the size of the entire American South, or something like that. It’s just way too big of an area.”
It’s also far too large an area to rake, in case any American politicians were wondering. [LOL]
In what seems to be turning into an annual ritual of stupidity, a group of Republican members of Congress have sent a very testy letter to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney demanding “immediate action from the Canadian government” to stop the basically unstoppable wildfires, complaining that “American lungs are paying the price for Canadian inaction, year after year.”
The group of elected representatives from the country responsible for the most carbon emissions in history* complained that “Sovereignty comes with responsibility, and the responsibility to prevent a foreseeable disaster from crossing into another country’s airspace has not been met.”
Yes, that “sovereignty” stuff is a reference to Donald Trump’s weird wet dream of annexing Canada. Needless to say, America’s greenhouse gas emissions have harmed the world beyond our borders, but they don’t count because Republicans don’t think science is real. Besides, you can see smoke, while CO2 is invisible, so it’s not actually pollution.
Last year, another group of Republicans similarly complained to Canada’s ambassador to the US, with similar cluelessness to the effects on other countries caused by American climate pollution. Needless to say, the idiots don’t acknowledge that humans cause climate change, and they also pretend that Canada’s wildfires are the result of “poor forest management” and of course scary antifa arsonists.
Also, here’s MAGA influencer and bestselling idiot Eric Metaxas complaining that air quality advisories are tyranny, because how dare you tell me not to go out and gulp down all the particulates I want to: [video]
Here’s the thing: As the climate warms, we’re going to see more drought, more invasive insects killing trees, and more loss of the snowpack that’s necessary for keeping forests healthy. As the Atlantic piece points out, increasingly common wildfires are themselves becoming a substantial source of carbon emissions, too. The 2023 fires in Canada “generated more emissions than the burning of fossil fuels in all but the three most-polluting countries.”
Wildfire smoke is even darkening North American glaciers, causing them to absorb more sunlight and melt faster, contributing to drought and, yes, more wildfires.
Might be time to switch faster to cleaner energy, which, happily, is becoming cheaper and more plentiful every year. There’s your silver lining, if you can see it through the smoke.
*China now exceeds the US in total annual emissions, but in greenhouse emissions per capita, we’re still Number One.
Here’s something that probably wasn’t on your 2026 bingo card: William Shatner has a new heavy metal band, and they’re releasing an album that he plans to debut this summer at a music festival in Chicago.
It seems the 95-year-old Canadian Star Trek actor who has defied many expectations throughout his long career still hasn’t reached that final frontier…
Festival organizers have also apparently been on a years-long letter-writing campaign trying to convince the former Star Trek actor to perform.
…
A statement on Shatner’s Instagram says his heavy metal band is called The *uckers. Its members include:
Phil Soussan, formerly of Ozzy Osbourne and Billy Idol’s band, on bass
Marcus Nand, a flamenco guitarist, on guitar and serving as musical director
Britt Lightning,of the glam-metal band Vixen, on guitar
Fred Aching, a touring musician and member of Powerflo, on drums
Together, they will reimagine songs from Shatner’s back catalogue and preview new material from their upcoming heavy metal album.
…
But before that, Shatner has some conditions that will need to be met — you should see the long list of demands he sent to Riot Fest organizers…
Two U.S. Forest Service workers were safe and free Friday after being held for hours by an armed man inside a Northern California forest, authorities said.
The situation began around 10:55 a.m. Thursday when the U.S. Forest Service called Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office about a man taking two of their members hostage within a remote area of Shasta-Trinity National Forest, Jeremiah LaRue, the Siskiyou County sheriff, said Friday at a news conference.
The suspect, later identified as Joseph Henrichsen, 49, allegedly zip-tied the two Forest Service members and held them at gunpoint in a trailer near Gumboot Lake, LaRue told reporters. Drones were used to find the trailer, according to the sheriff.
Henrichsen allegedly wanted to speak to the FBI and began a standoff with authorities, according to LaRue.
Multiple law enforcement agencies, including the FBI Hostage Rescue Team from Quantico, Virginia, arrived on the scene and began engaging with the suspect at about 4:20 p.m., LaRue said.
“There was a lot that transpired,” he added.
Around 1:50 a.m. Friday, the two hostages were released safely and they later returned home, according to LaRue.
Henrichsen and his adult son came out of the trailer and were arrested at around 2:30 a.m., LaRue said.
…
Henrichsen will be charged with kidnapping a federal employee, investigators said.
Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease has killed countless coral across Florida and the Caribbean since it was discovered off Miami in 2014.
Now, researchers at Sarasota’s Mote Marine Laboratory have identified some disease-resistant coral. Research scientist Sara Williams said it could help repopulate the reef with hardier coral.
“What we can do is take the results from this study to inform which corals we put on the reef,” she said. “So that way if we put more resistant corals out, hopefully, those corals are going to survive the next disease wave and continue to grow and build more resilient reefs.”
The study was published this month in Scientific Reports. Mote researchers evaluated 154 genetically distinct mountainous star coral. They conducted four experiments to determine how individual corals responded after exposure to stony coral disease, which is one of the most destructive coral diseases ever documented.
“We would take healthy fragments of 154 genotypes, and we would take those healthy fragments and stick them right along the disease lesion of those diseased fragments,” Williams said. “And then we would just wait and see when those healthy fragments got the disease. So how quickly did they get the disease, and then after that, how quickly did it take for them to die.”
She said they discovered a whole range of resistance to the disease.
“Some of them stayed healthy the entire time, or if they did get the disease, they didn’t get it as quickly as the other corals in the experiments, or it took longer for them to die,” she said.
By breeding and transplanting more of these naturally resistant corals, they hope to build healthier, more resilient reefs in the future…
“Kenneth Kies appears to be the second higher-up at the IRS to be pushed out after bristling at the administration’s efforts to politicize the tax system.”
Aside from promoting right-wing extremism and enriching himself, weaponizing the IRS in ways favorable to Donald Trump seems to be a top priority for the president and members of his administration.
Earlier this week, a federal judge condemned Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit and eventual “settlement” with the IRS as a case brought “in bad faith” — effectively, one filed against his own administration — and designed to “confer immunity to people and entities affiliated with the President.”
And just days later, there’s reporting on the Trump regime pushing out the top tax official at the Treasury Department. The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, reported that Kenneth Kies, an assistant treasury secretary and the acting chief counsel of the IRS, was “forced out” after he warned that the White House was at risk of violating a law barring officials from intervening in IRS audits.
According to the report:
Kies at times clashed behind the scenes with White House officials, the people said. That included a recent meeting in which he contended that a potential White House request would violate Section 7217 of the Internal Revenue Code, one of the people said. That law prohibits the president, vice president, White House staff and certain agency heads from directly or indirectly requesting that the IRS conduct or terminate an audit or investigation of any particular taxpayer.
The Journal also included some important historical context:
Violations are punishable with up to five years in prison and up to $5,000 in fines, and IRS officials have long seen the prohibition as an important shield against the kind of political interference that President Richard Nixon tried to impose on the tax agency.
[…] Vice President JD Vance’s disturbing defense of Richard Nixon and downplaying of the Watergate scandal, along with the MAGA movement’s general infatuation with Nixon, seem all the more relevant now. This is a movement that relishes the misuse of government to shield allies and attack perceived enemies […]
Last year, Billy Long’s two-month stint as IRS commissioner ended after the agency reportedly refused to give the Department of Homeland Security tax information for some of the people targeted in Trump’s racist anti-immigrant crackdown.
[…] Trump has pardoned numerous fraudsters, effectively shielding them from accountability. And at the same time, he has launched racist attacks portraying Somali communities as fraudulent criminals, while also using bogus allegations of fraud to sic his Justice Department on officials, such as Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook, and organizations, including the anti-racist Southern Poverty Law Center, that he sees as impediments to his power grabs.
The Trump regime’s use of fraud claims and tax information to target its adversaries is reminiscent of attacks the federal government launched against civil rights activists in the 1960s. [!] And the reported ouster of Kies seems to show how desperate the president’s allies are to wield influence over the audit process.
Laceyville, Pa. — A Laceyville man is facing charges after he got drunk and chased family members with a shovel, threatened to kill them, and damaged two vehicles and a bedroom door, state police say.
…
The brother told police he then went outside to take a video of Bradish, who was “acting violent.” The video, which he showed to Kopec, allegedly showed Bradish pacing with the shovel between two vehicles parked at the residence and striking the shovel against the pavement and retaining blocks, according to the affidavit.
Bradish was then seen walking toward his brother with the shovel, stating he was “going to bash his brains in” and that he was “going to kill him,” police wrote.
…
While being transported to PSP Towanda, Bradish allegedly told the trooper he would shoot him in the head if he had a gun, and once at the barracks, he said he would fight troopers if he were not handcuffed…
A former loyalist blogger turned fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin has been detained and accused of spreading false information about the armed forces, state media reported Friday.
The news came just as a court hearing was being held for another Kremlin critic and opposition politician, Boris Nadezhdin, in a sign of an intensified response to mounting internal dissent over the war in Ukraine and its impact on Russian life.
The blogger, Ilya Remeslo, stunned many in Russia when he published a scathing manifesto against the Russian leader that went viral in March.
He was detained in St. Petersburg early Friday and could face up to 10 years in prison, state news agency Tass reported, citing law enforcement sources.
…
After years of pro-Kremlin activism, Remeslo published a long post on Telegram, titled “Five reasons why I stopped supporting Vladimir Putin.” …
Japan’s upper house of parliament has voted to pass controversial revisions to a law governing who can inherit the throne in the world’s oldest continuous hereditary monarchy, just days after the lower house of parliament voted it through.
The revision’s stated aim is to secure the number of imperial family members, and maintain their public duties and activities, as the family’s ranks dwindle and age.
But to critics, the revision has another “very clear objective: to prevent the future emergence of a female emperor,” says Seiichiro Noboru, a former Japanese diplomat with ties to the imperial family.
The revisions allow princesses to remain in the imperial family after they marry a commoner. It also allows the imperial family to adopt male-line descendants from former branches of the imperial family.
Princesses would be allowed to remain the royal family after marriage, but would have to perform royal duties without any chance of inheriting the throne.
The adopted men—having been born as commoners—could not inherit the throne either, but any of their future male offspring would be eligible.
The imperial family is down to its last young heir, 19-year-old Prince Hisahito, the nephew of Emperor Naruhito, who is 66.
This has led to a public sense of crisis about the future of the imperial family.
“The crucial point is that if a female emperor were recognized, we wouldn’t need to resort to such a complex adoption line,” argues Noboru…
Japan’s parliament has enacted a controversial law introducing criminal penalties for desecrating the national flag.
The passage of the legislation on Friday is part of an ongoing drive by staunchly conservative Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi to promote traditional patriotism and correct what her supporters call a “wrong” legal double standard.
Under existing laws, Japan penalises the desecration of foreign flags to prevent diplomatic disputes, but previously lacked equivalent protections for its own flag, the Hinomaru.
Under the newly enacted law, violators who publicly damage, remove or defile the national flag in a manner that causes others “extreme discomfort or disgust” face up to two years in prison or a fine of up to 200,000 yen ($1,250).
According to Japanese broadcaster Kyodo News, the law covers physical acts of vandalism such as stomping, burning, or throwing mud in public spaces, as well as livestreaming such acts.
The law drafting committee, led by former Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, carved out highly specific legal exemptions.
The ruling party clarified that the new law completely exempts physical paintings, digital media including anime, manga, video games, and generative AI, and even the miniature paper flags famously used to decorate children’s restaurant meals…
Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez said Friday that she was dropping out of the governor’s race, just days after her campaign discovered major inaccuracies related to its financial reporting.
“As we have continued to dig into our financial reports, it has become clear that there are issues that would be an ongoing distraction, not just for this campaign, but for the primary and for Wisconsin. This race is too important to let that happen,” Rodriguez, a Democrat, said in a video posted to X.
…
The decision from Rodriguez, who had been among the front-runners in the Democratic primary, roils a wide-open race for governor in the perennial battleground state.
…
A man who works for the GEO Group allegedly shot a woman protesting near the ICE Processing Center in Aurora (Colorado, USA) on Thursday night, according to a press release from the Aurora Police Department on Friday afternoon.
The man, identified as 42-year-old Brandon Booth, was arrested after fleeing the scene in his vehicle.
…
Investigators said that an initial investigation revealed that the women were part of a protest taking place near the Aurora ICE Processing Center that evening.
Booth was waiting in his vehicle alongside several other employees to gain access to the facility to start their shifts, but the protest was reportedly impeding their paths. Investigators said that the two women initiated a verbal confrontation with the employees before taking a picture of their vehicles and walking away.
At this point, investigators said that Booth grabbed his personally owned pistol and fired a single shot in the direction of the women, hitting one of them in the lower body. He then got into his vehicle and drove away before he could be detained…
StevoRsays
@230. Reginald Selkirk : “Did Betteridge write a Law of Headlines?”
Ironically yes. Also I see what you did there.
Betteridge’s law of headlines is an adage that states: “Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no.” It is based on the assumption that if the publishers were confident that the answer was yes, they would have presented it as an assertion; by presenting it as a question, they are not accountable for whether it is correct or not.
The law is named after Ian Betteridge, a British technology journalist who wrote about it in 2009.
@206. StevoR : “Around a red dwarf sadly so quite probly not so habitable but still Atmosphere discovered on (ed not really veryearth-like at all) “Earth-like” exoplanet in our ‘galactic backyard’ specifically LHS 1140 b..
Its wikipage ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LHS_1140_b ) notes that LHS 1140b is also an ocean planet (maybe a Hycean one?) too so yeah NOT actually really “Earth-like” although still fascinating discovery and intresting potential perhaps?
Caitlin Clark delivered the first 40-point, 10-assist performance in WNBA history as the Indiana Fever defeated the Seattle Storm 110-107 on Friday night in Indianapolis.
On top of her career-high 45 points, Clark set career bests in free throws made (17) and attempted (19) in 29 minutes of playing time as she remains on a minutes restriction. With 10 assists, she recorded her fifth double-double of the season, with her last coming over a month ago on June 16.
…
A micro-drone designed to locate and eradicate mosquitoes has passed an important milestone. Tornyol Systems shared a video where the eponymous autonomous drone chalked up its first live air-to-air kill. For some reason (perhaps demonstration visibility), the 40g (1.4 ounce) drone’s first confirmed kill on video features a moth. Tornyol boldly claims that the demo shows a significant stride has been made “towards completely eradicating mosquitoes.”
…
Since those initial presentations, it looks like the tech has been significantly refined and miniaturized. Currently, the platform is dependent on the LeSonar2 phased array sonar base station with 380 smartphone microphones and an Artix-7 FPGA to map the world in 3D.
This feeds the drone enough information to measure 0.1 mm movements and identify mosquitoes through their unique wingbeat signature. The micro-drone is sent commands by a PC, which also leverages “car park assist sensors, and some clever DSP” to seek and kill mozzies up to 8m (~26 feet) away.
We’ve previously reported on ground-based AI-enhanced mosquito zappers, but this is the first time we’ve seen an air-to-air solution. Tornyol says that it is rolling out deployment on embedded hardware “in the next few weeks.” I guess that’s removing the need for a PC…
So they demoed killing a moth rather than an actual mosquito, but think they are ready to release a product?
… While the concept isn’t new, the approach—outlined in a paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences earlier this month—improves upon conventional methods significantly. Called “ATT,” short for alkaline thermal treatment, the reaction produces high-purity hydrogen at much lower temperatures without requiring extensive waste sorting. Plus, it doesn’t directly generate greenhouse gas emissions.
…
In the lab, Kim, Park, and their colleagues used the modified ATT to convert the three most common plastics—polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyethylene (PE), and polypropylene (PP)—into high-purity hydrogen. ATT breaks down plastic by mixing it with sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and heating it. Thanks to the alkaline conditions provided by NaOH, it doesn’t require nearly as much heat as gasification.
At first, the process yielded significantly more hydrogen from PET than PE or PP. Those two plastics consist entirely of carbon-hydrogen bonds,
As well as carbon-carbon bonds.
so they are chemically inert under alkaline conditions. To solve that problem, the researchers briefly exposed PE and PP to mild heat and oxygen before the main reaction. This pre-treatment allowed all three plastics to decompose efficiently.
With this approach, the researchers produced hydrogen yields of 43.7, 51.9, and 30.2 millimoles of hydrogen gas per gram of PET, PE, and PP, respectively—yields that are comparable to those achieved by pyrolysis and gasification. What’s more, their post-reaction analysis showed that the reaction’s carbon emissions were negligible…
“The Trump administration has lost or abandoned hundreds of criminal cases against protesters and immigrants, a Times investigation found.”
In its nationwide immigration crackdown, the Trump administration has charged hundreds of people with assaulting or impeding federal agents. President Trump has branded them “insurrectionists,” “animals” and “thugs,” part of a broader effort by his administration to cast protesters and immigrants as violent criminals.
But a close examination of those cases reveals that in its rush to meet White House demands for deportations, federal law enforcement has engaged in extensive misconduct — ranging from attacking protesters to destroying evidence and misrepresenting facts in court.
The New York Times found that the Trump administration has filed assault charges against more than 550 people who were caught in its immigration dragnet — far more than previously known. Of the more than 400 cases resolved so far, nearly half have unraveled: Juries acquitted defendants, judges threw out charges, or prosecutors withdrew them.
The record is abysmal by the typical standards of federal prosecutions […]
The review, the most comprehensive to date, suggests that the administration’s use of the law has often been less about protecting federal agents than about providing legal cover to cow protesters and immigrants into submission.
[…] Earlier this year, the Trump administration dialed back some of its most confrontational tactics, leading to fewer assault charges. But it recently began an aggressive new wave of enforcement, with agents killing two immigrants in Texas and Maine. […]
In the half of assault cases that ended in the government’s favor, almost all were guilty pleas. The Times’s analysis of the 213 cases that the government has lost or abandoned found that:
– In dozens of cases, court records and videos show that federal agents were the first to get physical — including shoving, tackling or pepper-spraying defendants. Many defendants successfully argued that the assaults they were accused of were actually acts of self-defense.
– Judges repeatedly chastised prosecutors and immigration agents for misconduct including distorting facts and withholding evidence. Two judges found that agents purposely destroyed evidence, including ordering a defendant to delete cellphone photos.
[…] – In more than 100 cases, prosecutors did not claim that any agents were injured. In at least seven other cases, officers’ injuries were caused by their or their colleagues’ actions. For example, a judge last fall dismissed assault charges against an immigrant, ruling that the agent involved had been cut by shards of glass from a car window he himself had smashed.
– Sixty-five times, prosecutors abandoned or downgraded charges before hitting a deadline to present evidence to a grand jury or judge. Former prosecutors said that this pattern of rapid retreat was unusual and signaled that the cases should never have been brought. [Chart]
The Trump administration’s strategy hinges on a once-obscure statute, 18 U.S.C. 111, that makes it a federal crime to assault or forcibly impede a government officer. Punishments range from a fine to 20 years in prison.
[…] As the Trump administration’s efforts to round up undocumented immigrants encountered resistance last year, officials embraced an expansive reading of the assault statute as a way to arrest and prosecute people who got in the way of ICE and Border Patrol agents. The government’s reliance on the statute became so great that agents at times called out “18 U.S.C. 111” as they got into scuffles and made arrests.
[…] [I snipped comments from Justice Department and DHS spokespersons.]
Gregory Bovino, the former Border Patrol “commander at large” who championed the use of smashmouth tactics against protesters and immigrants, was blunter. He said in an interview that too many “worthless” federal prosecutors chickened out by abandoning assault cases. And he thought more protesters and immigrants should have been prosecuted. […]
On occasion, officers were seriously hurt by protesters or immigrants, The Times found. Last June, Roberto Carlos Muñoz-Guatemala, a sex offender in the United States illegally, drove away while a federal agent had an arm inside the car window. The agent — who months later would kill the protester Renee Good in Minnesota — was dragged about 100 yards.
Mr. Muñoz-Guatemala is one of only four people in the Times analysis who was convicted by a jury. The other 22 who faced jury trials were acquitted. Nearly 200 others had the charges dismissed — including two mothers from Charlotte, N.C.
‘We Need Help Right Now’
Tatyana Reisini and her friend Kristen Roos were cornered. A group of armed men, some wearing masks, had surrounded their car on a dead-end street. The women screamed to a 911 operator for help.
Earlier that November morning, the two young mothers had been on their way to a Christmas market in Charlotte. They saw a car filled with immigration agents pulling into the parking lot of an outdoor shopping mall.
Operation Charlotte’s Web, as the immigration sweep in the city was known, followed a bloody and high-profile operation in Chicago. Ms. Reisini, 36, and Ms. Roos, 33, were wary of what might happen in North Carolina.
Ms. Reisini, an American citizen of Ecuadorean descent, and Ms. Roos had been organizing with other local mothers to be on the lookout for immigration agents. So they steered into the parking lot, stopping about 20 yards from the government vehicles. Other protesters were already gathered. They all began yelling at the agents.
After a few minutes, the agents moved their vehicles in front of and behind Ms. Reisini’s Acura S.U.V., she said. Several agents stepped out. Ms. Roos remembered them shouting at her and Ms. Reisini to leave and “trying to scare us.” The women drove to another part of the parking lot and watched as the agents pinned in another protester’s car.
The agents eventually drove off, and Ms. Reisini and Ms. Roos resumed their trip to the Christmas market, at one point stopping to alert a resident that federal officers were nearby.
Soon the women realized they were being followed by two unmarked cars. They called 911. An operator told them to find the nearest gas or police station, but they didn’t know where one was. [Screenshot from the 911 call transcript]
Instead they wound up on the dead-end street. They turned into a driveway in a housing development. The unmarked cars blocked them in.
“We need help right now,” Ms. Reisini exclaimed to the 911 operator. “They’re going to [expletive] hurt us!”
Just then, an agent began smashing the driver’s side window — with the barrel of his rifle, which was pointed toward Ms. Reisini, according to footage recorded by a nearby resident. [video]
The women were terrified; their shrieks can be heard on the 911 recording. [Screenshot from 911 call transcript.]
“We didn’t do anything,” Ms. Reisini said.
“Yes, you did,” an agent responded. “You impeded. 18 U.S.C. 111. Driving erratic.”
Lawyers said that was a misreading of the statute, which specifies that it applies when people use or threaten force. “It’s not enough to show that they might have been interfering with what was happening,” said Carissa Hessick, a University of North Carolina law professor. […]
The women were taken to the local F.B.I. building, where they spent several hours in confinement and eventually received tickets accusing them of violating 18 U.S.C. 111. [photo of the victims]
Mr. Bovino, who was running the Charlotte operation, shared a social media post from a far-right account that called the women “liberal terrorists,” and he praised what he called “excellent arrests for assault.” Yet the charges were so weak that the U.S. attorney’s office in Charlotte eventually withdrew them.
Asked about the agent’s use of a rifle muzzle to smash Ms. Reisini’s window, Mr. Bovino said he wasn’t concerned about the risk to the car’s occupants. “I’m more worried about the officer getting hurt or killed or the public getting hurt or killed, not necessarily the suspect,” he said.
Shoved by Bovino
Mr. Bovino’s crackdown soon moved to Minneapolis.
On Jan. 7, hours after Ms. Good was killed, Quentin Williams, a special education assistant at a high school about three miles away, was helping direct students to their rides after school. [I snipped the details describing the incident.]
[…] The Times identified numerous other cases in which people were charged with assault even though officers were the ones who appeared to have used physical force first.
One involved Jaime Diaz, an undocumented Honduran man who was arrested last July during a traffic stop in Laredo, Texas. Prosecutors charged him with assault, saying he had struck a Border Patrol officer “two to three times.” But during his trial, body-camera video showed Mr. Diaz, who is slightly built and under five feet tall, being grabbed by the neck, forced to the ground and punched by the much larger officer as he tried to handcuff him. [I snipped other details related to this incident.]
A federal jury acquitted Mr. Diaz in November. He was then scheduled for deportation. […]
Last May, Josefina Gabriel-Lopez, a Guatemalan immigrant, was pulling into her driveway in Biloxi, Miss., when federal agents suddenly approached and ordered her out of the car.
Ms. Gabriel-Lopez, who doesn’t speak English, didn’t immediately comply. An officer reached through the partly opened window to try to unlock the door, and the window closed on her arm. The agents blamed Ms. Gabriel-Lopez, but she said the officer had accidentally shut the window on herself as she pushed buttons inside the car.
After officers wrenched open the car door, Ms. Gabriel-Lopez struggled against an agent who climbed inside and twisted her arm and wrist before dragging her out. Her 18-year-old daughter ran out of the house barefoot and tugged on an agent’s protective vest. [video]
Both women were arrested and charged with assault. When the case went to trial in September, they argued that they had acted in self-defense.
“I wasn’t resisting,” Ms. Gabriel-Lopez told jurors through an interpreter. She added, “I keep telling him it was painful, it was painful. He did not listen to me.”
The jury found the women not guilty. Ms. Gabriel-Lopez, who had entered the United States illegally in 2005, was later deported.
Scolded by the Court
The Times identified more than 30 instances of judges criticizing prosecutors or federal agents for conduct such as destroying or withholding evidence, violating rules about communications with jurors and making false or exaggerated claims, including some disproved by videos.
Judges have denounced the government’s actions as “flagrant,” in “bad faith” and “shocking to the universal sense of justice.”
One case of evidence being destroyed took place last September in San Bernardino, Calif. Federal agents were following a Nicaraguan man, Joseph Blandon-Saavedra, who was driving to work in a Toyota Corolla. At an intersection, the agents boxed him in with their two cars, smashed his window and arrested him. [I snipped the rest of the descriptive details.]
[…] In April, a federal judge in Los Angeles threw out assault charges against two protesters, in the middle of a trial, after finding that prosecutors had failed to turn over internal “use-of-force” reports that could have been helpful to the defense. A month later, the government dropped charges against six protesters in Chicago after a judge criticized prosecutors for having mishandled a grand jury, partly by speaking to jurors outside the courtroom.
In Laredo, Ariana Guadalupe Garcia, a 19-year-old American, arrived at a border crossing last July to meet her young niece. Ms. Garcia, who had come from the U.S. side, had clothes for the girl to bring back to a relative in Mexico to sell, a common exchange at border crossings. [I snipped the rest of the details pertaining to this incident.]
The case against Ms. Garcia began to fall apart when the judge asked how prosecutors intended to prove she had hit anyone — especially since security footage from right before the alleged incident showed no sign of her acting violently toward the four male officers.
The deleted photos were the final straw.
“The government acted in bad faith in destroying the evidence,” the judge wrote, “further demonstrating that Ms. Garcia’s constitutional rights have been violated.”
“Authorities say the death toll from the powerful June 24 earthquakes has climbed above 5,000 as recovery crews continue clearing debris.”
The death toll from the two powerful earthquakes that shook Venezuela last month rose to 5,069 late on Friday, local authorities said.
The interim government of President Delcy Rodriguez added in a statement that the number of injured remains unchanged at 16,740, as in the past 11 days.
Ongoing recovery and debris-clearing operations have led to the increase in the death toll, particularly in the coastal state of La Guaira, the hardest hit by the quakes close to the Caribbean Sea. A total of 1,331 aftershocks had been recorded by Friday.
Venezuela’s government says 856 buildings are damaged and 190 collapsed completely since the 7.2 and 7.5 quakes on June 24. Hundreds of other types of structures, such as bridges and roads, were also affected.
“The life and death of May Pollard, 16, provides a window into the tragic effect that legislation and political rhetoric have had on trans people in America.”
BOISE, Idaho — After May Pollard died on a late-January morning, a detective asked her parents a question: Had anyone wanted to hurt her?
“A lot of America,” her mother answered.
Less than an hour earlier, Elyse Thorpe had found her daughter’s body inside their home, called 911 and sobbed as she tried to revive her. May, an avid poet and gamer, had been struggling and increasingly withdrawn.
Now, at 16, she was gone. And the detective, from the Boise Police Department, wanted to know what Elyse meant.
May’s father answered instead.
“There is a huge amount of animosity, every single day, thrown at trans kids,” Joseph Pollard replied, voice rising. “The whole f—–g country. The whole f—–g administration, every single f—–g day.”
His raw fury came from the years of pain he and Elyse watched May endure since she came out as a transgender girl. She avoided eating or drinking at school for fear that she would need to go to the bathroom — and she panicked when she had to use the one for boys. She talked of hurting herself if she couldn’t start taking estrogen. She hated how state laws highlighted the only way she was different when she longed to fit in.
It was more than what any kid should have to go through.
“You worry about that hatred being internalized, and that’s what happened to my kid,” Elyse told NBC News. “It got inside.”
Suicide is complex. It stems from a combination of causes, such as mental health conditions, and cannot be attributed to any one factor. But May’s life and death provide a glimpse into the tremendous and tragic effect that anti-trans laws and political rhetoric have had on trans people across America — especially kids. As May navigated the already overwhelming emotions most teenagers feel, dozens of conservative states and the Trump administration enacted measures defining sex as something that’s unchangeable and determined at birth, limiting transition-related care for minors as well as some adults, and barring trans girls and women from playing on female sports teams.
In Idaho alone, within the last few years of May’s life, state legislators proposed more than four dozen bills aimed at LGBTQ rights [!!], and Gov. Brad Little signed 15 into law, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. Many targeted youth, banning trans minors from getting treatments like puberty blockers and hormone therapy and prohibiting classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in public K-12 schools.
[…] “We need to stop sterilizing and mutilating children under the age of 18,” state Rep. Bruce Skaug, a Republican who sponsored the state’s transition care ban […]
May had been aware of what was happening. She wrote poetry that she shared with friends about not fitting in and self-harm. […]
Last summer, she joined a lawsuit under the pseudonym Jane Doe to challenge a state law that banned trans students in K-12 schools from using bathrooms or locker rooms aligning with their gender identities. The law had forced her to use gender-neutral bathrooms at school, effectively outing her.
“I don’t want people to know I am transgender without my consent — even students who might be friendly,” May said in a case filing last fall. “I find being forced to use a separate restroom ostracizing […].”
Throughout the last few years, advocates and doctors have camped outside of state representatives’ offices and stayed late at capitol buildings, including in Idaho, to oppose anti-trans bills, sharing stories of trans friends and loved ones who attempted or died by suicide. Research has shown, they told lawmakers, that trans youth are at increased risk of self-harm, especially when they don’t have access to treatment like hormone therapy. Being transgender, they stressed, does not make a person inherently more prone to suicide, but the climate they face can pose a threat to mental health.
[I snipped details describing May’s life as a young child.]
May came out to her dad during her eighth grade year. She texted him one day, out of the blue, explaining that she identified as a girl and hoped he would support her.
He texted back immediately.
“I support you, 100%,” he remembers telling her. “I want you to be who you are, and it’s not a problem with me.”
Over the course of several months, May slowly came out to her mom over a series of evening conversations in her bedroom.
One night, she reclined against a pillow on her twin bed, Pokemon stuffies decorating the surrounding shelves, and told her mom that she had a decision to make.
Elyse, sitting cross-legged on the floor, listened.
May talked about her gender but also what sounded like contemplations of self-harm.
“What she knew was that her body was unlivable,” Elyse said, “and she wasn’t sure what we could do about that.”
Her parents supported her switching schools, starting therapy, changing her name […]
She made a tradition of attending PAX West, an annual gaming conference in Seattle, with her dad. May would shed her quiet and reserved manner, teaming up with strangers for tournaments. Last year, she went in cosplay as a character from one of her favorite games, posing for selfies when, at home, she wouldn’t allow her family to take photos of her.
“She would always come home from that conference with so much confidence,” Joseph said.
May tried to settle into herself but found living in Idaho made it harder. In ninth grade, May confided in her dad that she was struggling with suicidal thoughts and made a plan to harm herself. She said she needed to medically transition, but she knew she couldn’t under state law until she turned 18. She asked her dad if he could use her Christmas money to buy hormones online.
Her parents recognized her increasing need for treatment. Elyse took May to her pediatrician, who wrote her a referral to receive care in Oregon. After spending several months on a waitlist, May and Elyse flew to Portland in the fall of May’s sophomore year, when she was 15, so she could start estrogen.
She had to visit the doctor every six months. Once Trump took office and began a federal crackdown on gender-affirming treatment for young people, Elyse drove more than 13 hours round trip for the visits because she worried about creating a federal record of flying for transition care.
The treatment brightened May. Her mom said it seemed like, for the first time in a long time, May wanted to live. But anytime there was even a small delay in filling her prescription, she would become more anxious and withdrawn.
Elyse looked to find her additional outlets, and early last year, they joined a monthly support group for trans kids and parents through the Boise Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. After hearing during the meetings that May was struggling, Emi Erwin, another trans girl, reached out, and they quickly became best friends.
[…] When the bathroom law took effect in July 2023, it faced an immediate challenge. Lambda Legal, an LGBTQ legal advocacy organization, sued on behalf of a handful of students, claiming the measure was unconstitutional and asking a judge to block it.
The federal district court declined to do so, but the students appealed, and a 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel blocked the law that fall while judges considered the case. […]
But the reprieve didn’t last. A second panel of 9th Circuit judges reversed the decision in spring 2025, siding with the state’s argument that it was justified in treating trans students differently in the interest of protecting student privacy in bathrooms and locker rooms.
The judges determined that locker rooms, where showers may not have curtains or stalls, posed the biggest privacy concern. The state had an interest, they wrote, in protecting students from being exposed to the naked bodies of other students of the opposite sex or from having to expose their own bodies.
[…] May was allowed to use two bathrooms at Boise High School: one in the nurse’s office and another across campus in a separate building.
May found the options stigmatizing.
She was tired of feeling starved and parched by the time her afternoon classes rolled around. […]
May wanted gender-affirming surgery, but the closest surgeons her doctors referred her to were in Portland or Denver. During her recovery, she and her mom would need to live in one of the cities for three months.
To save for the expense, Elyse picked up a second job working evenings as a grocery store cashier.
May dreamed of moving to Oregon and leaving Idaho for good. She’d run away once before but only made it a few miles from home before her dad found her.
She turned to poetry, emptying pain through her keyboard. Across several poems, she wrote of fatigue, feeling out of place and death. [Examples of May’s poetry are available at the link.]
[…] on Jan. 27, Elyse woke up early and made May breakfast, fried eggs and veggie bacon, like she always did. She took it upstairs to May’s room, only to find it empty.
She screamed, saw that May had left a note on her desk and hoped that she had just run away again. She called 911 to report May missing, while her partner dialed May’s dad.
[…] Elyse tore through the house, looking for May, before she found her, lifeless, in a downstairs bedroom. She called 911 again and dispatch instructed her to begin CPR.
But it was too late.
[…] In the weeks after May’s death, her parents faced overwhelming tasks. Handling cremation services. Planning a funeral. Figuring out how to continue life without their youngest child.
And Elyse had another matter to resolve: her daughter’s pending lawsuit.
[…] The bathroom law, she wrote, was part of that struggle.
May had been one of only two remaining plaintiffs in the lawsuit, because students can no longer participate once they graduate. The other anonymous plaintiff in the suit graduated in the spring.
As a result, May’s lawyers moved to dismiss the case in May.
Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador declared victory in a press release.
“From the district court to the Ninth Circuit, we defended Idaho’s right to protect students’ privacy in bathrooms and locker rooms,” Labrador said. “Idaho families can be confident that this law is fully in effect and will remain so.”
The press release didn’t acknowledge May’s death.
[…]
Emi said her emotions since her friend’s death change every day. “Sadness, confusion, despair, anger — anger is very prevalent, both at the Legislature and kind of the culture here in Idaho, but also at myself,” she said. “A lot of regret.”
“She had a lot to give to this world,” Joseph said. “Whether she was trans or not, this world — not just my world — this world would have been a better place with her in it.”
In her grief, Elyse has continued her advocacy, pushing back against the laws that weighed on her daughter and will continue to weigh on others.
On March 31, which is Transgender Day of Visibility, the governor signed a law making it a crime for trans people to use restrooms in line with their gender identities in government-owned buildings and private businesses across Idaho.
[…] If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or chat live at 988lifeline.org. You can also visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for additional support.
If you are an LGBTQ young person in crisis, feeling suicidal or in need of a safe and judgment-free place to talk, call the Trevor Project now at 1-866-488-7386.
Freedom 250 and a Trump-tied event management company […] installed temporary lighting while setting up the Great American State Fair […] Then, on May 20, fuel lines on the lighting equipment spilled at least 30 gallons of fuel onto the mall. The fuel seeped underground, contaminating rainwater repositories used to irrigate the mall. And another spill of an unknown quantity came soon after.
The government awarded a “rushed, no-bid contract” of $1.8 million for the cleanup […] It took two months for the contract […] to be posted publicly. Officials told Kramer that was due to the “emergency nature of the situation.” Government records reported in May by The New York Times suggest the spill was due to negligence, originating “from event-related equipment that lacked required secondary and tertiary containment measures.” […] The administration alleged that vandals slashed the fuel lines.
The government does not ordinarily foot the bill for such cleanup jobs. Permit holders are typically held “liable for the environmental mitigation after a spill of such magnitude,” NBC News reported last month. […] The $1.8 million price tag is also markedly higher than initially estimated.
JMsays
@249 Lynna, OM: I’m pretty sure the Trump administration didn’t expect to win all of these cases. Some of these cases are being brought just because prosecution is itself a heavy punishment for an average persons. The cost and time of defending yourself from a serious federal charge is huge.
I also get the impression that in some cases they Trump appointed federal prosecutor has worked themselves into a bad situation. They make some big threat of prosecution, the case makes the news, and then the prosecutor feels trapped. One thing that is not acceptable to the Trump administration is a big public retreat by officials, having blustered their way into a corner they feel the only way forward is to bring big charges they know will probably get thrown eventually. When that happens they can blame the judge rather then it looking like their fault.
White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller said President Donald Trump’s administration will be pushing to de-bank illegal immigrants — a move he said will be a “major driver of self-deportation.”
Miller talked about the plan during a Friday radio interview on Clay Travis and Buck Sexton’s show.
“Contrary to popular perception, you know this stupid phrase that ‘illegal aliens live in the shadows’ — illegal aliens don’t live in the shadows,” Miller said. “Illegal aliens have credit cards, they have bank accounts, and they’re paid with direct deposits. So illegal aliens fully participate in the commercial system, the financial systems of America.”
This is the sort of thing Trump loves. It sounds sensible when you first hear it but when you think through how it will really work it’s a bad idea. It will take money out of the US banking system and put it in the hands of the human smugglers and drug dealers who will get to act as illegal banks also. It will help money laundering for the drug networks, as they get a large group of people who need to operate in cash.
birgerjohanssonsays
More durable than the buildings created by a certain sh*thouse president?
Two US service members were killed and one remains missing after Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks in Jordan on Friday, military officials said.
The US Central Command (Centcom) said four US service members were medically evacuated to hospitals in Jordan but have since been discharged. Others who suffered minor injuries have returned to duty.
Jordan’s military earlier said it had intercepted 10 Iranian missiles fired into its airspace overnight, without reporting any damage…
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
Yesterday.
Elia Ayoub (Journalist, Lebanese diasporan): “Desalination plants are being targeted again. Iran hit one in Kuwait hours ago.”
Today.
Al Jazeera: “The US has bombed bridges and energy infrastructure in the seventh straight night of attacks on Iran. Officials in Hormuzgan said one strike cut water to several towns. Iran has responded with attacks on US bases in Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan.”
Al Jazeera: “Kuwait’s civilian infrastructure is certainly being hit hard by the IRGC. A power and desalination plant was hit for a second day. […] The country doesn’t have permanent lakes or rivers. It has very little rain. So, 90 percent of its drinking water comes from seawater desalination. Two plants have been attacked over the past few days, out of nine major desalination plants in the country, according to Kuwaiti figures.”
Al Jazeera: “‘Some 10,000 people across 20 Iranian villages’ without water after US attack. The US attack that hit water desalination pumps in the coastal Bunji village, in Iran’s Jask county […] a pumping station […] and a power transformer at the […] plant were ‘completely destroyed’.”
More war crimes: In its fourth strike on water infrastructure, the US has destroyed two water tanks in Sirik, Iran [Jask county], completely cutting off water distribution in all villages of the Bemani district and the city of Kohstak, the Hormozgan Water and Sanitation Authority says.
Iran has hit vital oil sector facilities, the Kuwait Petroleum Company says. Iranian missiles have hit the Kuwaiti Academy of Security. It’s on fire.
Iran has suspended the Memorandum of Understanding, accusing the US of violations, Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said. He added: “We are busy defending our country.”
Everything back to square one. Trump has nothing to show for the misery he’s inflicted on the world.
Two US soldiers were killed and one is missing after Iranian ballistic missiles hit Jordan yesterday, Fox reports. The missiles hit an airbase. Four other US soldiers have been injured and medically evacuated, CENTCOM confirms. Now 16 US service members dead—that have been confirmed—in an unnecessary, illegal war that Trump started to boost his legacy.
If they start targeting each other’s water desalination plants, the region may end up with tens of millions of thirsty refugees. Trump is playing a game of Mutual Assured Destruction with a culture that glorifies martyrdom. What could possibly go wrong?
[…]
Riyadh [Saudi Arabia] gets 90% of its fresh water from one desalination plant. About 85% of Israel’s domestic fresh water consumption comes from five major desalination plants. Teheran is already in severe drought. […] A water war would be absolutely catastrophic.
[…] “In briefings for members of Congress on Tuesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told lawmakers that the U.S. will not be able to intercept many of the incoming UAVs, especially the Shaheds.”
[…]
[Al Jazeera (Mar 8)]: “Bahrain said an Iranian drone attacked a water desalination plant, marking the first time an Arab country has reported Iran targeting any such facility during the 8 days of the war. This comes after Iranian authorities said the US targeted Iran’s desalination plant on the island of Qeshm.”
because of the president’s public statements in advance […] there would be little question of satisfying the requisite mens rea to make out a war crimes prosecution.
Although the legal consequences of Trump’s threatened campaign of war crimes may not worry him or Defense Secretary Hegseth, they should worry the service members throughout the chain of command. The people responsible for planning and executing attacks against all of Iran’s bridges and power plants would be exposed to potential prosecution […] the president’s pardon power stops at the water’s edge, and—as established at Nuremberg—his orders provide no immunity for those who follow them.
Nicholas Grossman (Intl rels prof): “Preventing some Iranian villagers from getting drinking water does nothing to prevent the IRGC from firing missiles and drones.”
Rando: “JFC. It’s the middle of goddamn summer you evil fuckers!”
Rubio invoked images of US border patrol agents and elected leaders being “dragged before an international court” and tried by judges from around the world in a lengthy op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal […] The state department plan to “dismantle” the ICC will involve pressuring other nations to abandon the court […]
“Nations that refuse to reject the ICC’s false authority while relying on US assistance are likely to come under increased scrutiny,” an official told the outlet, adding that possible punishments could involve sanctions, travel bans and visa revocations.
But three international legal experts described Rubio’s remarks as a mischaracterization of the tribunal’s powers.
“The ICC is not claiming jurisdiction over conduct in the United States,” said Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch. “Rubio is dressing up his quest for impunity for American war crimes under the label of national sovereignty, which ignores the sovereign right of other nations to invoke the ICC for crimes committed on their territory.” The international court […] can only investigate crimes committed in states that are party to the Rome statute, the 2002 treaty that established the ICC. The United States has not ratified the treaty, nor has the court opened investigations into crimes committed on American soil.
“Trump wants to be able to commit war crimes on the territory of countries that have accepted the court’s jurisdiction—that’s what this is about,” Roth said.
birgerjohanssonsays
META In Damage Control, Deadly Germ Released From Data Center
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=Jc4GWA-EY6o
Behold Cupriavidus gilardii, a rare, multidrug-resistant bacterium with a mortality rate of 31%. No one has died yet, but the release was only caught by accident. Thank you, techbros.
Many people are familiar with at least one argument for the existence of God, whether it be scientific, philosophical, or theological. Michel-Yves Bolloré and Olivier Bonnassies’ thoroughly researched and reviewed book God, the Science, the Evidence, however, presents many arguments, from multiple different fields of study, all of which point to the reality of a Creator.
… After presenting these arguments, it is the reader, Bolloré says, that has a decision to make. Are the arguments convincing or not?
No, but thanks for asking.
If God doesn’t exist, we are only matter, we are particles. We are just particles arranged by chance. When we die, the particles will go away — there is no real difference between us and a rabbit or a mosquito. We are just a little bit larger and more intelligent. If we are just intelligent mosquitos — we should just eat, drink, dance (or whatever). If there is a Creator God — if there is really eternal life — everything is important, everything counts.
Au contraire. If God (which you haven’t defined) exists, then it’s all about Him. Your wishes and desires are meaningless. You only exist to serve His needs.
Many chapters are devoted to the origins of the universe, considering events such as thermal death of the universe and, of course, the Big Bang model. Other topics include the idea of a multiverse, beliefs of various scientists such as Einstein, and what Bolloré personally considers to be a particularly convincing argument — “the incredible leap from inert to living matter.”
The authors do not limit themselves to science, and instead delve into the assertions of the Bible, the identity of Jesus, the destiny of Jewish people, the miracles at Fatima, philosophical proofs, and much more…
They are putting Catholic miracle tales in with the Big Bang? roll-eyes
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
Mark Chadbourn: “Here, in the dumbest timeline, Hegseth’s response [to dead US service members]: ‘Godspeed, heroes. Their sacrifice only stiffens our resolve.'”
I think we should all agree that Ben Shapiro is very stupid.
1) That is a fallacious appeal to consequences. Even if true (which is unproven), it does not support his conclusion.
2) Am I supposed to ignore the evidence of my perceptions that civilization may in fact be collapsing? And that Ben Shapiro is on the side of collapse?
[…] Government records reported in May by The New York Times suggest the [oil] spill was due to negligence, originating “from event-related equipment that lacked required secondary and tertiary containment measures.” […] The administration alleged that vandals slashed the fuel lines.
The government does not ordinarily foot the bill for such cleanup jobs. Permit holders are typically held “liable for the environmental mitigation after a spill of such magnitude,” NBC News reported last month. […] The $1.8 million price tag is also markedly higher than initially estimated.
JFC. Yet another Trump administration fiasco that damages the environment, is falsly blamed on vandals, and that was caused by a project than ran over budget.
I am so sick of seeing this kind of incompetence, stupidity, and failure to abide by regulations.
JM @258: “The cost and time of defending yourself from a serious federal charge is huge.”
That’s so true. And, of course, the Trump Department of Justice brings cases to court that they can’t win because it discourages other protestors. And … just bringing the cases to court seems to please Trump.
… Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the attacks had struck “major logistics facilities” which had been used to “supply sanctioned components for drone production and navigation equipment”.
He added that Ukraine had also struck targets in the Sea of Azov, the Black Sea, and Russian-annexed Crimea…
Great Britain’s Josh Kerr smashed the long-standing men’s mile world record with a spectacular performance at the London Diamond League.
Having announced his intention back in March to break Hicham El Guerrouj’s 27-year mark on home soil, Kerr delivered in emphatic fashion as he crossed the line in three minutes 42.66 seconds…
[…] “Trump wants to be able to commit war crimes on the territory of countries that have accepted the court’s [the international criminal court’s] jurisdiction—that’s what this is about,” Roth said.
That strikes me as an accurate assessment.
And, now, the Trump administration is destroying water supplies in Iran … yet another way to kill civilians.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei on Saturday accused the U.S. of repeatedly breaching its ceasefire agreement with Tehran, calling President Trump’s signature on the memorandum of understanding “utterly worthless and devoid of credibility.”
Khamenei said in written statements shared on the social platform X that days of renewed U.S. strikes demonstrated “yet another indisputable testament to the US’s dishonesty, irrationality, unreliability, and malicious nature,” warning of further Iranian retaliation.
[…] One of the Ayatollah’s senior advisers threatened on Friday to resume “full-scale offensive operations” against U.S. forces and allies in the Middle East after the U.S. launched its seventh consecutive night of strikes.
Major-General Mohsen Rezaei declared that “no political border will be safe” unless the U.S. military operation ceases.
U.S. Central Command (Centcom) said late Friday night that American forces had hit “surveillance sites, military logistics infrastructure, underground weapons storage, and maritime capabilities” and a naval blockade in the Strait of Hormuz was again being fully enforced.
[Yep, full-on war … again — all thanks to Trump’s bellicose and ignorant prosecution of an illegal attack. My assessment is that Trump thinks of bombing Iran as yet one more his self-aggrandizement projects. You have probably noticed that Centcom does not highlight the fact that U.S. strikes are damaging water treatment facilities.]
“In the breadbasket of the world, people on the front lines can’t access food without the help of U.N. convoys outrunning Russian drones.”
Ukraine’s farms grew some 60 million metric tons of grain this year, enough to help feed hundreds of millions of people abroad. Yet along the country’s own front line, 700,000 Ukrainians depend for their next meal on U.N. convoys that barely stop moving.
The trucks roll through whole cities draped in anti-drone netting, mesh strung over roads and rooftops like the covers on fruit trees. They pause just long enough for families to hurry out and grab a box, then move on.
They cannot linger, because Russian drones now strike vehicles and people across a “killing zone” that reaches 50 kilometers from the front. That’s up from 10 to 15 kilometers not long ago, according to the World Food Programme’s acting chief Carl Skau, speaking to POLITICO in Brussels after a week visiting front-line operations from Kharkiv to Odesa.
On one day he spent in the Donetsk region, authorities logged 1,400 drone incidents.
The widening zone is emptying towns and villages, as thousands of people flee every month. June was the deadliest month for Ukrainian civilians since April 2022, the U.N. human rights monitors said this week, with at least 293 killed and 1,990 injured. Casualties from short-range drones near the front reached their highest level of the entire war. Those fleeing front-line communities described to U.N. staff “feeling hunted” by drones while shopping for food or walking their dogs.
At a transit center near Sloviansk, where evacuees stopped to register and collect cash and food, Skau met a 90-year-old woman and her daughter, dug out of the rubble of their house the day before. The mother, deaf and blind, had refused to leave for years. Nearby, a man showed a video on his phone to everyone who passed by. He had been filming his neighbor’s burning house when a blast hit his own, so he turned the camera and kept filming.
“These are people who have been determined to hold on and to stay,” Skau said. That they’re leaving, he said, shows how much worse things have become.
Food is the one thing Ukraine does not lack. Even with Russia occupying about a fifth of its farmland, Ukraine remains one of the world’s largest agrifood producers, and its exports flow to Africa, the Middle East and Asia through the Black Sea.
But near the front, the chain between the field and table has snapped. In some areas, no shops function, so WFP delivers food. Elsewhere, shops are still open, but retirees especially cannot afford the prices, and often cannot withdraw their pensions because bank machines no longer work — so the agency hands out cash. Increasingly, it does both because alone neither is enough.
Much of what it hands out is grown close by. The agency buys from farmers near the front, and their harvests become school meals for children in bunker classrooms, including some 20,000 attending classes in Kharkiv’s metro.
Delivering it is the dangerous part. The WFP has recorded as many attacks and near-misses on its operations in the first months of this year as in all of 2025. Two weeks ago, a drone got through the netting and hit one of its vehicles. In May, a precision-guided missile hit WFP’s main warehouse in Dnipro, even though the building was marked as humanitarian, including on its roof.
[…] Money is the other threat. Shrinking donor funding has cut the number of people WFP feeds in Ukraine from more than 1 million to 700,000, and it may drop to 600,000. “The 350,000 people that we’ve cut off, it’s not like they were well off,” Skau said. The agency says it needs $234 million through October to sustain the operations.
It is not a job the agency ever wanted here. Before 2022, WFP’s presence in Ukraine was as a customer, buying grain in bulk and shipping it through Black Sea ports for its operations abroad. The sooner it can be just a buyer again, Skau said, the better.
birgerjohanssonsays
Ann Droid review – Diane Morgan and Sue Johnston’s fresh, funny robot comedy is just wonderful | Television | The Guardian .https://share.google/kqWOjnEP5gqZs6IgO
onlookers stopped and can be heard on video questioning the ICE agents. As more travelers stopped, a uniformed [TSA] officer stood in front of the agents and the man, creating a makeshift perimeter […] Shortly after, the ICE agents walked away, leaving the man and saying nothing to the TSA officer attempting to control the crowd or the onlookers. Some of the travelers briefly followed the agents, asking who they were.
[…]
Police officers removed the handcuffs from the man’s wrist and notified ICE after a records check found no outstanding warrants on him […] The man, Phu Nguyen, a 57-year-old citizen of Australia who was born in Vietnam, was taken into custody the following day at Los Angeles International Airport[. DHS] said Nguyen had a visa effective for two years but it expired in 2015.
[…]
A passenger who was waiting to board a flight at the Las Vegas airport saw the incident […] “I thought that he was going to leave on the stretcher because it looked like he had pretty significant injuries, but he didn’t leave on a stretcher,”
the Alien Terrorist Removal Court […] dormant since it was established by law in 1996 […] details of the July 15 application are sealed and an accompanying cover sheet indicates that the substance is classified.
The chief judge of the court, U.S. District Judge Joan Ericksen, held a sealed hearing on the matter Thursday and subsequently issued an order asking the government to make a more “thoughtful” application. […] She noted that she had lingering questions about the actions taken by the Justice Department target and how they connect to the laws providing for the removal of “alien terrorists.”
[…]
If a judge approves the Justice Department’s application, the target is then afforded a public hearing to challenge the determination. And any appeal of the ruling would go to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Many legal scholars have speculated that the anti-terrorism court has never been used because of questions about whether its procedures allowing for the use of secret evidence that deportation targets would never see provide enough due process to conform with the Constitution.
[…]
The judges currently on the court include [three W Bush appointees and a Trump appointee, picked by SCOTUS Chief Justice Roberts]
Rando: “I’m kinda fascinated that this court has existed for 30 years without ever hearing a single case.”
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick: “It comes as the Trump admin has reclassified many gangs as ‘terrorists,’ and accused some innocent people of being gang members. […] These cases will be heard in front of actual federal judges who tend to be a lot harder to get one over than an immigration judge.”
Evan Bernick (Law prof): “the article should have mentioned that judges get to determine whether there’s probable cause. […] judges have a bunch of space here to push back on that. PC that this is the person AND that they’re a terrorist.”
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick: “To me the significantly more concerning aspect is the fact that this can be applied to family members of people who are accused terrorists”
Social media influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate were taken into custody by federal law enforcement officials in Miami on Saturday, the U.S. Marshals Service said, in what British authorities said was related to additional charges of rape.
“We can confirm the arrest of the Tate brothers today in Miami,” it stated. “The warrant was sealed so we are unable to confirm the charges.”
The U.K.’s Crown Prosecution Service said Andrew, 39, and Tristan, 38, are being subjected to additional charges of rape under ongoing cases against the brothers in that nation. The agency said the brothers are awaiting extradition to the U.K.
Andrew Tate faces seven additional counts of rape, three counts of arranging or facilitating trafficking for sexual exploitation, three counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and 19 additional charges relating to illegal child images and pornography, the service said.
Tristan Tate faces one count of sexual assault, two counts of rape and three counts of arranging or facilitating trafficking for sexual exploitation, it said.
…
Malcolm McHaffie, head of the Special Crime Division at the Crown Prosecution Service, said in a statement that the charges come after the agency received a new file of evidence from Bedfordshire Police…
Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., announced Saturday that he plans to run in the special primary election to replace the late GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham on the ballot in November, just one day after President Donald Trump backed Graham’s sister in the election.
“I’ll be throwing my hat in the ring, and you know, day one … I will be laser-focused on passing President Trump’s America First, and it starts with the SAVE America Act. We’ll nuke the filibuster, and I will be a vocal, a vocal vote and a supporter to make this happen,” Norman told Fox News…
France is doubling down on preventative measures for its citizens trying to access Polymarket. The Autorité Nationale Des Jeux (ANJ), the country’s independent regulatory authority in charge of licensed gambling and betting games, announced this week that it ordered internet service providers to block access to Polymarket…
Rando: Husband just came in to tell me that since the assassination of Abraham Lincoln every American president has been alive at the same time as Herbert Hoover. Oh wow. He came back and told me Kamala Harris was born on the day Herbert Hoover died (October 20, 1964).
[Chart] Visualized. […] Oh, I also highlighted Fillmore’s name because he almost overlapped with Hoover, too.
Commentary
Jesus, even Obama.
This is because except Obama we haven’t elected anyone born after 1946.
Hoover died in 1964, which means we could theoretically have several more.
FDR and JFK were *only* alive during Hoover’s lifetime.
I am now a single issue voter, and that issue is fielding candidates not in the Hoover Zone.
John Tyler, 10th President, born in 1790, was the first President born after the adoption of the Constitution in 1789. His grandson died last year.
John Tyler was born during George Washington’s presidency and died during Lincoln’s. So between Tyler and Hoover, that’s every president’s lifespan covered, and Carter will see us well into the future!
The last Civil War pension recipient just died in 2020 [Irene Triplett].
Robert Todd Lincoln, son of Abraham Lincoln, was present at the first, second, and third successful Presidential assassinations. [Article]
Robert Lincoln’s last public appearance was on May 30, 1922, when he attended the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial […] President Warren G. Harding presided over that dedication. Harding, of course, died in office just fourteen months later. Since he was not assassinated, however, it does not appear that anyone tried very hard to attribute his death to having shared a platform with Robert Lincoln just over a year earlier.
I cant believe Robert Todd Lincoln killed all those dudes, AND GOT AWAY WITH IT.
birgerjohanssonsays
Glad to hear about the Tate brothers.
.
Also, the English will go crazy now that they have secured at least third place in the World Cup.
Trump will attend Sunday’s World Cup final between Spain and Argentina, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday. […] Fifa president Gianni Infantino has said that Trump will hand the World Cup trophy to the winners […] Infantino re-iterated those plans in an interview […] “That’s always been the plan, and that’s how it’s always been done in the past—the president of the country where the final is held presents the trophy together with the Fifa president.”
“JD Vance is taking the vice presidency in a strange new direction”
“The vice president is walking a delicate line between validating a paranoid worldview and praising his boss.”
“[A] lot of the people who are going and getting four-year degrees, they’re not like engineers and doctors. They have effectively fake jobs,” Vice President JD Vance told podcast host Mike Rowe last week. This is ironic, given that the Constitution doesn’t even give the vice president a full-time job. The position carries just two responsibilities: breaking ties in the Senate and not dying. Every vice president has to decide how to fill the rest of their time. Al Gore championed emerging technologies and the environment. Dick Cheney massively expanded the surveillance state. Vance goes on podcasts to spread conspiracy theories.
In his 2016 memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” Vance denounces conspiracy theorists as “fringe lunatics.” But once a paranoid ethos became nonnegotiable for an ambitious Republican, he changed his tune. Now, Vance appears to be the administration’s chief conspiracy communicator. This week, Vance went on Joe Rogan’s podcast to discuss the big lie of voter fraud, aliens, the deep state, Jeffrey Epstein and why so many people have accused him of being an antisemite.
Vance’s mission is to keep low-propensity male voters and their idols, like Rogan, in the MAGA fold despite Trump hiding the Epstein files, breaking his promise of no new wars and failing to release any juicy details about extraterrestrials or the Kennedy assassination. That means walking a delicate line between validating the paranoids’ worldview and praising his boss.
“What is it like being the vice president?,” Rogan asked, hard-hitting as ever, “Like how much access do you have to information?
“So I have, like, effectively unlimited access to information,” Vance boasted. But there’s a catch.
“I’ve said that I am going to look into the UFO thing,” Vance explained. “And I’ve been saying that for a year and a half and I haven’t done it yet because I haven’t had the time.”
Vance insisted that he had been too busy trying to make Trump’s war with Iran as successful as possible and calling senators about the housing bill. [video]
The vice president also agreed with his host that the Los Angeles mayoral race was “super sus.” The two men traded insinuations about Democrats recruiting homeless people to vote in the primary — without providing supporting evidence. (Even if that were true, homeless people don’t lose their voting rights, and it’s fair to assume those who did vote weren’t fans of Pratt, whose platform was putting the homeless in camps.) But proof was beside the point. This was an opportunity for Vance to champion the SAVE Act, Trump’s doomed voter ID legislation, and fume about how counting immigrants on the Census, as the Constitution requires, is stealing congressional representation from states with low immigration rates.
No conspiracy theory presented a more challenging balancing act for Vance than Epstein. Vance campaigned on releasing the Epstein files, only for Trump to try to cover them up.
“Most people seem to think [Epstein] was Mossad,” Rogan said.
“Yeah,” Vance replied, “Mossad or CIA or some other deep state.”
Epstein was indeed a close friend of former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak (who has not been implicated in any crimes and now says he regrets their association).
If Epstein were a potential Israeli spy, however, you might think that the Trump Justice Department would have been more interested in finding out how he might have compromised high-level American officials, corporate leaders and celebrities. But apparently not. Vance did not elaborate on the reasons for this apparent disconnect, though he assured the audience, “I’ve asked were there, like, were there documents connecting Jeffrey Epstein directly to our intelligence agencies or anybody else’s? And the answer is, ‘No, but if that existed, it wouldn’t exist in 2026.’”
The job of vice president may be fake, but the benefits are real. MS NOW’s Carol Leonig and Vaughn Hillyard recently revealed that Vance’s Secret Service detail is “fed up” with the travel demands of Vance and his family. Had it not been for a thunderstorm, the Secret Service would have ferried Vance and his son to his son’s golf lesson by helicopter.. Vance should probably enjoy the perks of office while he can. He’s not delivering for the conspiracist base that he hopes will preserve his political longevity.
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick: “To me the significantly more concerning aspect is the fact that this can be applied to family members of people who are accused terrorists”
Well, that is terrifying. Trump must love it. Ditto for Stephen Miller.
As private schools proliferate, states are taking a hands-off approach to regulating them. School founders — in one case, a woman prosecuted for sexual abuse — often aren’t screened. Some states can’t even say how many of these schools exist.
A decade ago, the state of Florida stripped a teacher of her license for sexual abuse of a 16-year-old boy. Last year, she opened a private school there with ease. [!]
Her name and photo were on her new school’s website and details of her case were easy to find with an online search.
The state also knew that a transplanted Midwesterner had been fired from her Cincinnati charter school, following felony charges related to misuse of public funds, and had been banned from teaching or running schools in Ohio. Yet Florida did not stop her from starting a private school and collecting public money. [!]
[…] The backgrounds of school founders and employees often simply don’t matter. In Arizona, for example, “state law prohibits our department from a role overseeing private schools,” a spokesperson for the state Department of Education told ProPublica.
In 2024, Arizona’s top education official lauded Mike Tyson, the heavyweight boxer who served time in prison for rape, for his involvement in launching a private school that bore his name, calling Tyson “a champion of education.”
[…] ProPublica analyzed data from 13 states of varying sizes that do publish private school directories and offer public funding to these types of schools, and found that at least 1,500 more are listed today than were five years ago — bringing the total to more than 9,600. The numbers provide a rare look into the growth catalyzed by friendly legislatures and government money, while public school districts are losing students and closing schools.
[…] In several states, all or nearly all students at some private schools pay tuition with public dollars. For instance, public funds subsidized 99% of all private school students in Iowa this past school year […]
An average of 100 new private schools have launched in Florida each of the last five school years. West Virginia, a state with fewer school-age students than are enrolled in Chicago Public Schools, has gained about 40 new private schools.
And in the three years since Arkansas began allowing students to get about $7,000 annually toward tuition, about 120 new private schools opened. ProPublica detailed the consequences of the rapid growth and meager oversight in Arkansas in a previous story, spotlighting a school where students were subjected to menial labor and violence. [!] […] the school remains eligible to receive state money after a temporary stop.
It has been a conservative goal for decades to diminish the role of public schools and privatize American education. […] a federal tax-credit program signed into law by President Donald Trump provides the first-ever federal plan to fund K-12 private schools. [Graph]
The vouchers have allowed some students to access private or religious schools they previously could not afford. But others — often students with disabilities — are finding that they’re excluded from private schools, which, unlike public schools, do not have to admit them. So they’re unable to exercise the educational freedom politicians have touted.
Even when every single student in a private school pays tuition with public money, that school still operates without the same accountability applied to public schools [!]
[…] So when things go badly inside the opaque world of many private schools, it can be left to parents, police, journalists and amateur sleuths to find and expose wrongdoing. With state officials lacking oversight authority in Florida, for instance, concerned parents and citizens in Citrus County began posting online about the prior sexual misconduct of the founder of Crystal River Learning Academy. […]
Barns, Go-Karts and Mike Tyson
For many, private school evokes images of elite academies, manicured campuses and plaid Catholic-school uniforms.
[…] private schools have opened in barns, addiction treatment centers, co-working spaces, people’s homes and parks […] A West Virginia family opened a school at the family fun center they operate. It’s next to the waterpark, mini golf course and go-kart track.
One Michigan-based company that launched last year to encourage churches to tap into public funds refers to these programs in its promotional videos as “God’s new gold mine.” [!!]
In Phoenix, the Mike Tyson-branded Tyson Transformational Technologies Academy, operating in a strip mall, was opened as part of a chain of schools for foster children, unhoused or expelled students created by former MMA fighter and WWE wrestler Daniel Puder.
Tyson lent his name to the academy for $1 a year […] [video] The state of Arizona paid the school $231,973 in fiscal year 2025 […]
[…] In addition to the Tyson academy, Puder now has eight schools in Florida and one in West Virginia, according to the website for ELEV8 School, the umbrella company under which the academies operate.
After a recent rebranding, the Phoenix school Tyson helped launch is now simply called ELEV8. Puder told ProPublica that Tyson is never left alone with students. […]
In West Virginia, ELEV8’s school advertises that tuition is “completely covered” by the Hope Scholarship, the state’s Education Savings Account program that provides each family with about $5,400 a year in public funds that can be spent on tuition, tutoring or homeschooling supplies. […]
Up until five years ago, states provided an opportunity for only a small segment of students — such as those who have disabilities, come from low-income families or would otherwise attend poorly performing public schools — to tap into public money for private school tuition. West Virginia adopted the nation’s first program to make those funds universally available in 2021 and today, 18 states are inviting any student to partake, regardless of family income or existing private school enrollment.
Once schools are open and accepting tax funds, few states then regulate what is taught, what qualifications employees should have or what funds may be spent on. They also are free to adopt policies — such as discriminatory admissions — that public schools cannot. [!!]
Several private schools in Ohio and Virginia permit paddling as discipline even though those states outlaw corporal punishment in public schools. As a condition of being tax-exempt, nonprofit private schools must attest that they won’t discriminate based on race, color, or national or ethnic origin. But they’re free to refuse admission to students for a range of other reasons.
It’s common, for example, for both new and established religious schools to refuse to admit (or to expel) students who say they’re gay, who condone homosexuality or whose parents are gay. One school noted on its website that it is “permitted to discriminate on the basis of religion in accordance with our Statement of Faith.” Many schools decline to enroll students with disabilities. An Alabama school that opened this past fall says it will expel students who have HIV, gonorrhea or syphilis. [!!]
[…] A Conviction, Then a Fresh Start
The lack of private-school oversight is built straight into the law in most of the states ProPublica studied.
Florida, for example, advertises: “The Florida Department of Education does not have jurisdiction over private schools. Legislative intent not to regulate, control, approve, or accredit private educational institutions, churches, their ministries, religious instruction, freedoms, or rites, is explicit.”
As a result, the state takes few steps to protect students from private school educators with troubled pasts.[…]
In conducting background research on private schools in Florida, ProPublica discovered that a woman named Lisa Helton running a private school in Tampa was once named Lisa Hamm — the former superintendent of Cincinnati College Preparatory Academy charter school in Ohio.
State audits alleged that Hamm misspent public funds in Ohio for years, using school funds for extravagant staff development trips, arena suites for students to attend Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber concerts and a Cirque du Soleil show, Nutrisystem weight loss meals for staff lunches, theater tickets and dry cleaning.
[…] After she was sentenced in 2014, then-Ohio Auditor Dave Yost, whose office had investigated Hamm’s spending practices, issued a statement: “This was a looting that would make even a pirate blush, with children and taxpayers as victims. […] the court’s decision will prevent her from ever stealing from students again.”
The state permanently revoked her educator license. Hamm moved to Tampa, Florida, changed her name to Helton […]
Helton founded American Education International in 2022 and registered it as a private school with Florida. She said she planned to enroll international students who want to learn English online and earn an American high school diploma. […] also offer in-person teaching two days a week for homeschool students out of a coworking space.
She applied for her school to participate in Florida’s voucher-like program as a tutoring service and was approved. […]
The Teacher, the Teen and the Detective
About 80 miles north in Crystal River, Florida, the stir over the local educator who’d lost her license over sexual abuse began in March after a retired detective named Kat Powers posted online — at first, just to her Facebook friends. […]
She had recognized the name of a woman who’d just opened her own private school in the fall of 2025: Tara Salute.
[…] A 40-year-old vice president of the local Little League at the time, Salute in 2012 had been charged with unlawful sexual activity with a minor after a drunken night at her home with her son’s friend, a sophomore in the district where she recently had taught elementary school. After intercourse, the teenager had snapped photos of her naked body on a futon as evidence.
Salute pleaded no contest to a lesser charge of felony child abuse, the state took her educator license, and she served about a year and a half of probation. The judge “withheld” a formal conviction, a form of leniency in Florida. […]
The Florida Department of Education found that Crystal River had qualified for scholarship money despite not registering with the state as a private school and after Salute had uploaded someone else’s teaching certificate for her application. It called the use of the license “fraud.”
[…] Crystal River still is providing information on the Step Up scholarship for parents while inviting students to enroll for next school year. Tuition for middle and high school students will be $12,000.
In May, Crystal River’s Facebook page posted a photo of Salute posing between two teens at a local high school graduation ceremony.
“CRLA is incredibly proud to have been part of your journey,” the congratulatory message read.
KGsays
Reginald Selkirk@276,
I’ll be mightily surprised if Trump doesn’t interfere to prevent the Tate brothers’ extradition to the UK.
Along with other psychological propensities of many politicians (and so many, like these, are very disturbing), we have been studying the professed relationships of the men of the magat administration. We see tRUMP, pigseth and others make statements about other men that are definitely homoerotic, clearly expressing a desire for a sexual relationship.
However, their hypocrisy and confusion is obvious, since their policies are clearly, consistently homophobic.
tRUMP on Kim Jong Un, ‘we fell in love’.
He calls pm Modi ‘most beautiful-looking man’. https://www.thedailybeast.com/fawning-trump-80-thirsting-over-men-on-world-stage/
“He was in a hotel and I met him. We fell in love, deeply in love,” he said of el-Sisi, who Trump once famously referred to as his “favorite dictator.” “We didn’t know each other before that. We had great chemistry, and I stayed twice as long as I was supposed to.”
Pointing out a male (coast guard) graduate who earned a perfect score on every fitness test, Trump mused: “This guy must be something. I think we’ll have to invite him up… I want to check him out.” https://www.salon.com/2026/07/17/pete-hegseth-wants-to-measure-your-manhood/
20260717 Pete Hegseth wants to measure your manhood The defense secretary’s obsession with high testosterone levels can’t hide MAGA insecurity https://www.advocate.com/voices/opinion-hegseth-johnson-gay-men
Pete Hegseth is another Republican obsessed with gay sex
Aug 12, 2025 This man is so obsessed with his own looks, his tattoos, his gym body, and his rugged, camera-ready image.
and later we found this, confirming our assessment:
Democratic Congresswoman Calls Out Pete Hegseth’s ‘Homoerotic’ Politics
2 days ago Rep. Becca Balint criticized Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s new military testosterone screening policy, calling it hypocritical.
Scott MacFarlane @MacFarlaneNews About Pete Hegseth’s talk about testosterone for service members …
Rep Becca Balint (D-VT):
“There are so many people in this Administration that have some weird, intense homoerotic feelings toward men, while also being homophobic”…
8:16 AM · Jul 16, 2026
“Trump immigration officials seek to mend frayed ties with business as arrests spike”
“Under new DHS chief Markwayne Mullin, officials met for the first time with trade groups concerned about losing workers to the president’s deportation campaign.”
The Department of Homeland Security under Secretary Markwayne Mullin is cultivating a relationship with business groups whose concerns about losing workers to aggressive immigration enforcement had been rebuffed by former secretary Kristi L. Noem.
Earlier this month, DHS officials met at the agency’s Washington headquarters with the Essential Worker Immigration Coalition, which represents the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and major trade associations that depend on immigrant labor, according to several people with knowledge of the meeting, which has not been previously reported.
It was the first such meeting to be reported since President Donald Trump reentered the White House. Business groups say they have been trying to gain a foothold at the agency since Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests began to spike last year.
Mullin did not attend the early July meeting — which included officials from ICE and Customs and Border Protection, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly — and the gathering did not produce an immediate change in policies. But two of the people said DHS officials said they want to meet regularly with the group to assess the impact of Trump’s mass deportation campaign and business needs.
[…] Immigration arrests have more than quadrupled since Trump took office […] As a result, industries including agriculture, manufacturing, construction, health care and elder care say they are reeling from shortages in jobs critical to the economy. [!]
[…] Mullin brought Senate staffers with ties to the business community to DHS, business lobbyists said, and his staff quickly set about trying to mend relations. […]
DHS officials declined to acknowledge a shift in approach but said they are trying to keep an open line to business and other moderate wings of the GOP.
[…] spokesperson said, “Worksite enforcement remains a cornerstone of our efforts to protect public safety, national security, and economic stability while rescuing individuals who may be victims of labor trafficking or exploitation.”
[…] ICE agents shot and killed two people in less than a week — a 52-year-old Mexican man in Houston and a young Colombian man in Maine. Outrage over the shootings, […] led Mullin to pause traffic-stop arrests last week, a decision Trump swiftly overrode the following day.
Mullin now faces the challenge of proving that he can deliver on Trump’s core campaign pledge to deport a million people a year while avoiding widespread [Mullin’s approach is not working so far.]
In recent weeks, DHS has sought to appease business groups even as it has dramatically ramped up arrests. Through the first 12 days of July, ICE is on pace to arrest the most people in a single month since Trump reentered the White House, with an average of more than 1,400 people a day. Meanwhile, the agency has agreed to partially walk back a plan to force green-card applicants to return to their countries of origin, which tech leaders said would severely impact their workforce. And it has agreed to open a guest-worker visa program to the dairy industry. Both actions followed intense lobbying by industry groups.
This month, the Trump administration also extended the timeline for canceling work permits for hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Haiti and six other countries who are losing long-standing humanitarian protections after a Supreme Court ruling. Business groups — which had swamped the Trump administration with calls, letters and other outreach warning of the potential fallout of the ruling on nursing homes and hospitals — rushed to take credit for that decision as well.
[…] hile certain industries [farms, restaurants and hotels]have been shielded from workplace raids, other are being pummeled. In South Texas, raids on construction sites have mushroomed since Mullin replaced Noem, builders say.
[…] Goals of the business community include expanding guest-worker visas and restoring protections for Haitians — demands that are staunchly opposed by much of Trump’s political base [and by many members of the Trump administration].
Business leaders also ardently desire a path to legal status for the nation’s estimated 8 million undocumented workers […]
While “I turn down the temperature with you guys,” Mullin told reporters, “we’re turning up the heat on the streets.”
Troy Jackson has effectively secured the Democratic nomination in the crucial Maine Senate race, winning the support of a majority of the state delegates who will officially nominate a candidate next weekend.
While they are not legally bound to support him, nearly two-thirds of the 601 delegates have committed to voting for Jackson at that statewide convention. Jackson dominated the county-level meetings this weekend that selected those delegates, with two rivals falling far behind — and one of them, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, dropping out of the race partway through the process Sunday…
“Spain, scoring late, tops Argentina, 1-0, to win 2026 World Cup”
[…] “Spain beating Argentina, 1-0, in extra time.”
[…] Ferran Torres, Spain’s flashy 26-year-old forward, put the ball high into the net in the 106th minute of Sunday’s World Cup final, breaking a scoreless tie and sending all of Spain into delirium.
And with that, a tournament that began as a grand experiment across three countries ended with a finish worthy of all its sprawl: Spain beating Argentina, 1-0, in extra time to win its first World Cup title since 2010 and deny Lionel Messi one more implausible addition to his legend.
[…] For Messi and Argentina, Sunday’s loss closed off a historic possibility. Messi had been trying to stretch his final act into something beyond even his own standards — a second straight title, four years after he had lifted the trophy in Qatar. Across six weeks, he had played less like a fading legend than a grand conductor: walking, scanning, waiting and then summoning the game to him at precisely the moment Argentina needed him.
[…] three minutes into extra time, the match seemed to finally crack open. Argentina midfielder Enzo Fernández sent Pau Cubarsí flipping head over heels and was shown a red card, forcing Argentina to play the rest of the final a man down. A match that had been slow and methodical suddenly became urgent and uneven.
Spain nearly pulled ahead early in the extra period, when Nico Williams rolled a shot into the net. But it was quickly waved off for a foul, and Argentina survived yet another scare.
[…] President Donald Trump attended his first World Cup match of the tournament and planned to take part in the trophy ceremony, after having already stirred controversy by pressing FIFA President Gianni Infantino to review an American red card earlier in the tournament. Post Malone performed before the game, and a halftime show featuring Madonna, Shakira and Justin Bieber gave the night a Super Bowl sheen.
Yet the field remained the center of gravity. That was the trick of this World Cup. It was too big, too complicated and too commercial to be romanticized too easily. But again and again, it found its way back to the simplest things the sport has to offer.
birgerjohanssonsays
“42” is a number loaded with symbolic meaning.
This year, it is 42 years since Beverly Hills Cop.
This must be wrong, it is maybe twenty years, max!
The United States military has announced the death of another soldier, saying he was killed in northern Iraq “during a controlled detonation of unexploded ordnance” from a downed Iranian drone.
In a statement on Sunday, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said the soldier died on July 18 and that a second service member suffered mild injuries during the detonation…
The death on Saturday brought the number of US service members killed since the US and Israel launched their war on Iran to 17. The war began on February 28…
seachangesays
I could not find any description on how the drone is supposed to kill the mosquito. Does it drive the hapless insect in between its blades? Does it zap them like a bug zapper?
Perfectly legal residents of the US already don’t trust banks and do everything with cash anyhow. I guess they’re planning on stealing their cash when they gratuitously beat, kill, and arrest them?
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
seachange @294. PopSci: “it deals the final blow by ripping the insects apart with its propellers—a process that presumably causes some wear and tear on the hardware itself.”
Reginald Selkirksays
@294
I could not find any description on how the drone is supposed to kill the mosquito. Does it drive the hapless insect in between its blades?…
Mimicking a bat, the drone uses ultrasonic sonar to identify mosquitoes based on their unique wingbeat frequency. It then locks on the target and barrels toward them at high speed to deal a killing blow. Though the drone relies on modern smartphone tech and software to “see” the world around it, its execution method is decidedly old-fashioned: it simply shreds the mosquitoes into bug bits using its propellers…
Although an investigation by the [CDC] tied the parasite to lettuce that Taylor Farms shipped to Taco Bell in five states, the company’s recall notice suggests far broader distribution […]
The recall may not end the current problems […] the [FDA] said a sample of iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms de Mexico tested positive for cyclospora during “targeted import surveillance.” The agency said that Taylor Farms had confirmed that the positive product was not part of the current recall, and that the company was trying to identify whether the new implicated lot had made it to restaurants or consumers’ homes. […] on Friday said it had “suspended distribution of iceberg lettuce from Central Mexico.”
The recalled products were shipped starting June 29 through as recently as Thursday and have expiration dates through Aug. 3. Taylor Farms said […] none of its own Taylor Farms-branded salad kits were associated with the outbreak. Instead, much of the product being recalled was sold in larger bags to food service operations like restaurants. Many of the bags were blended with romaine. […] it is unclear if Taylor Farms supplied lettuce to companies in states affected by the recall and then those companies distributed the lettuce widely.
The size and scale of the outbreak—possibly affecting more than 5,000 individuals in at least 34 states—resulted in widespread panic […] But consumer confusion around where their lettuce comes from is also a consequence of a nontransparent food system. Taylor Farms—like other food producers—does not disclose which grocery stores or restaurants it distributes leafy greens or other vegetables to. Even the company’s recall notice was vague. Rather than provide the names of the distributors or stores that had received the lettuce being recalled, Taylor Farms used codes.
[…]
the F.D.A. said on its website that Taylor Farms “has not publicly provided distribution information or a list of customers who received the product that was voluntarily removed from the market.”
F.D.A. regulations do not require the company to do so, a source of frustration for food safety leaders. […] “The whole point is to quickly identify the product and make sure no one else eats it.”
[…] the C.D.C. has officially confirmed that at least 1,645 people have fallen ill and 141 have been hospitalized, most of them after consuming the lettuce sent to Taco Bell. The C.D.C. made that determination through scientific detective work, starting with case reports about people who fell ill and tracking back to a common food source. […] The United States is on track to have more cyclospora cases in 2026 than in any previous year.
[…]
Taylor Farms executives met with the White House and the [FDA] to try to distance the company from the outbreak and air concerns about the official investigations into the outbreak. […] The F.D.A. is planning to inspect the Guanajuato facility in coming days to determine how the cyclospora parasite got on the lettuce and track it through the supply chain.
Plants in the genus Glycyrrhiza (Fabaceae) are an important biological resource and one of the bulk of traditional Chinese medicinal materials. Its medicinal functions have been known in many countries in Asia, Africa, and Europe since ancient times. The medicinal licorice species of this genus contain a variety of secondary metabolites, among which glycyrrhizic acid and liquiritin, which have the effects of eliminating phlegm and relieving cough. Glycyrrhiza and Glycyrrhizopsis make up the tribe Glycyrrhizeae. At present, the classification of this tribe is controversial, which affects its application to a certain extent.
In a newly published study, researchers extracted low-copy nuclear genes from genome shallow sequencing data, built trees together with chloroplast genome and ribosomal DNA, and combined morphological and specimen image recognition technologies for classification and phylogenetic research. The study found that the genus Meristotropis endemic to Central Asia should be merged into the genus Glycyrrhiza, so the genus contains 13 species; while its sister group Glycyrrhizopsis is endemic to the West Anatolian Plateau and only contains two species…
JMsays
Youtube: Stewart Hicks
and JB Pritzker: Why We Can’t Build Apartments Like This Anymore
Short video explaining one of the housing pricing problems. A safety regulation that requires most apartment buildings to have two staircases had a side effect of making a whole class of mid sized buildings unprofitable. Apartment buildings had to either be only a few floors to fit under the limit or they had to be tall so they covered the cost of the space loss.
Several states are now removing that from the housing code by law. Mostly to remove the price problem, they justify it because safety in general is much better and that rule outdated. Time will tell if it’s a good idea or not.
After Medicaid officials improperly shared data about millions of people in January with immigration officials, ICE then shared that data with the data analytics firm Palantir, according to new court filings. Palantir operates an app called ELITE that is used by ICE agents to show the addresses of noncitizens who may be subject to deportation.
[…]
U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria in California ruled in December that health officials could share with ICE certain details from Medicaid data about immigrants without lawful status from the states that had sued […] Chhabria […] then temporarily paused data sharing between CMS and ICE for immigration enforcement purposes in late May after federal officials admitted CMS had shared data with ICE in January that went beyond what the court order allowed. One dataset of refugees in Minnesota included U.S. citizens, and another that was transferred on Jan. 7 contained data of millions of people, including those in the country legally.
ICE was supposed to delete the improperly shared data. […] But in recent days, federal officials have admitted to additional instances of improper data sharing.
[*snip*]
In an April 30 hearing, Chhabria had warned the federal government would not be able to continue using Medicaid data for deportation efforts if it continued improperly sharing the data of citizens and legal immigrants.
“Ambient crowd noise was about 78 decibels” before Trump walked onto the field. “Booing brought it to 84,” which is the equivalent of a passing diesel truck and the point where prolonged exposure can result in gradual hearing loss. The boos were so loud at times that they overpowered the background music being played.
[…]
After his walk of shame to present the trophy to the winning team, Trump had another cringe moment when he stood next to Spain’s team as they celebrated […] That led Infantino to dart across the stage toward Trump, appearing to try to escort him away
Seven Rasmussen: “Physicist here. That actually means the booing was four times as intense as the ambient noise.”
Rando: “Watching at a bar, the whole bar also booed Trump.”
Elia Ayoub: “Infantino tried to get Trump to move [Video clip]”
Brutal photo caption from The Guardian: “Gianni Infantino carefully explains to Donald Trump that he is not part of the Spanish national team.”
I visited Russia with friends for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, and it was one of the great trips of my life. […] A political scientist might describe my fond memories […] as a perfect example of the efficacy of sportswashing—that is, governments staging sports events to launder their reputation and divert attention from their misdeeds.
[…]
Trump achieved the opposite of sportswashing. His policies were hostile to visitors, he injected politics into the tournament, and he even brazenly meddled with what was happening on the pitch. […] during the most widely watched cultural event in the world.
Ask Claude to make a pamphlet critical of President Donald Trump or Britain’s King Charles III, and Anthropic’s chatbot would oblige. Prompted to do the same for Thailand’s king, Saudi Arabia’s crown prince or China’s leader, and the artificial intelligence model declined.
It is a key finding from a Meta Oversight Board study released Thursday, showing that major AI systems, including those built in the U.S., are more likely to refuse to criticize restrictive leaders or governments. It raises concerns that the large language models powering chatbots and AI agents could be regurgitating and spreading government influence over online speech as the technology is increasingly adopted worldwide…
The storm system now known as Tropical Depression Two is expected to become Tropical Storm Bertha later Monday, July 20, off the coast of Florida, according to the 7 a,.m. CT update from the National Hurricane Center. An Air Force Hurricane Hunter aircraft is currently investigating, the NHC said.
Heavy rain and thunderstorms are expected across portions of the state’s west coast and Panhandle, with widespread rainfall in the rest of the state.
The tropical depression is expected to produce up to 2 to 4 inches of rainfall through Friday along the Gulf Coast and adjacent inland locations from western Florida to the Middle Texas Coast, including southern portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, reaching up to 6 inches in some areas, according to the National Hurricane Center…
“The departments of Justice and Homeland security called the report ‘false,’ as Democrats continue to sound the alarm.”
After months of controversy surrounding Immigration and Customs Enforcement and its tactics, things took another brutal turn for the worse last week in Maine, where an ICE officer fatally shot Johan Sebastián Guerrero, a Colombian man authorized to work in the U.S. who was also father of a 3-year-old girl. The developments came just a week after a different ICE officer fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo during a traffic stop in Houston, despite the fact that Araujo wasn’t even the target of the ICE operation.
The day after the Guerrero was killed, there was another incident in Florida in which a 28-year-old Mexican man fled immigration enforcement agents and died after getting hit by a truck.
In theory, it stands to reason that FBI officials might play a key role in investigating deadly incidents like these that involve other federal agents. In practice, there’s fresh reason to believe that won’t happen. The New York Times reported:
Federal agents around the country were told in recent days that the F.B.I. would no longer investigate confrontations with immigration agents — cases that sometimes yield evidence that could be used to prosecute Department of Homeland Security agents implicated in violent encounters, according to people briefed on the decision.
If enacted, such a change would sharply limit law enforcement scrutiny of immigration agents, as the Trump administration draws mounting criticism over killings at the hands of federal officers.
The Times report […] added that FBI managers nationwide were notified in writing of the change last week, as were ICE agents.
The article added, “Even though such investigations are intended to determine whether the officers were in fact attacked, they can provide a crucial means of gathering evidence implicating the agents themselves.”
It’s important to emphasize that the DHS and Justice Department issued a joint statement that said of the Times’ reporting, “This is false. The relationship between DHS and DOJ in investigating assault on federal officer cases has not changed, and FBI will continue to investigate in accordance with agency policy.”
The trouble is, Trump administration officials have spent a year and a half denying all sorts of reports, many of which were accurate, making it difficult to accept the departments’ denials at face value.
Indeed, the joint denial from the DOJ and the Department of Homeland Security didn’t stop Ken Martin, the chair of the Democratic National Committee, from saying in a statement, “Accountability isn’t optional in a democracy. The FBI has just issued a license to kill to Trump’s goons who can now murder whoever they want with no consequence. Our constitutional right and freedoms under assault by the very people sworn to uphold and protect them.”
[…] The apparent answer makes the broader problem worse, not better. “Under the change,” the Times article added, “responsibility for investigating cases involving federal immigration officers would likely fall to Homeland Security Investigations, an arm of ICE, effectively leaving the agency to investigate itself, according to guidance circulated among F.B.I. and ICE agents.”
The Trump administration often embraces the idea of allowing foxes to guard henhouses, and I have a hunch we haven’t heard the last of this one.
The Food and Drug Administration on Sunday announced that the agency screwed up when it broadcast that the parasite sweeping across the United States was caused by lettuce from a producer in Mexico, saying that they actually are still unsure of where the Cyclospora bacteria that causes explosive diarrhea is coming from.
The FDA had announced on Friday that the outbreak of cyclosporiasis—which according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention causes “watery diarrhea with frequent and sometimes explosive bowel movements” that can last for as long as a month—was caused by lettuce produced by Taylor Farms de Mexico.
However, on Sunday the FDA said in a statement that the lettuce produced a false positive.
“Due to the complexity in detection of Cyclospora, FDA laboratory experts re-reviewed the sample results and have concluded that the finding does not represent true amplification and should be considered a false positive,” the FDA said in a statement, adding that, “As of July 19, 2026, there are no confirmed positive sample results for product testing for Cyclospora.”
Taylor Farms said that the FDA has apologized to them for the false information. But the apology doesn’t do much for businesses like Taco Bell, which are facing monetary losses after being accused of spreading the diarrhea parasite because they purchase their lettuce from Taylor Farms.
The FDA’s apparent inability to pinpoint the source of the outbreak—which has thus far sickened at least 1,645 people in the U.S., with thousands more cases being assessed—comes after President Donald Trump and Elon Musk slashed staff at both the FDA and the CDC, both of which are responsible for trying to prevent the spread of foodborne illnesses like cyclosporiasis.
DOGE made cuts to the Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network—better known as FoodNet—which is a federal-state monitoring program between the CDC, FDA, Department of Agriculture, and state health agencies in 10 major states. And that left FoodNet only able to monitor two foodborne pathogens: Salmonella and E. coli.
Six other pathogens—including Cyclospora—were cut from the monitoring list, NBC News reported last August. […]
Turns out, those cuts did reduce FoodNet’s testing quality.
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Senator Susan Collins said on Monday that she is “deeply concerned” that voters in Maine might remember things she has done in office.
“Maine voters are profoundly concerned about my record as their senator,” she said. “I want them to know that I’m concerned that they’re concerned.”
“If, for example, they remember that I voted to confirm Brett Kavanaugh, which led to the overturning of Roe v. Wade—well, there’s only one word for how that would impact my reelection chances,” she said. “Concerning.”
Collins said she hoped that, instead of focusing on her actions that are a cause for concern, voters would take into account her “entire career” in the Senate, stressing, “No one has furrowed her brow harder or wrung her hands more.”
“James Talarico accused his Republican rival of owning 11 homes. As it turns out, he was understating matters.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s real estate holdings were already a political mess. Not only has the Republican been accused of using an address where he did not live while voting in recent elections, he also has faced allegations that he and his estranged wife declared three separate homes as their primary residence in mortgage documents — a practice that his party has, in other situations, characterized as an outrageous abuse.
These controversies generated a broader question about just how many homes Paxton, the GOP’s Senate nominee in Texas this year, currently owns.
His 2026 opponent, Democratic state Rep. James Talarico, recently told MS NOW’s Jen Psaki, “Since taking office, Ken Paxton has now become a multimillionaire, while our pay has remained stagnant for years, for decades. He now owns 11 homes, while most Texans can’t afford one.” MaddowBlog published a fact-check report last week that largely confirmed Talarico’s claim: Paxton, either in his personal capacity or through the trust that oversees his assets, owns five homes in Texas, three in Florida, two in Utah and one in Oklahoma. (Publicly available materials also point to a Paxton-owned lot in Hawaii, although there does not appear to be any structure on the property.)
Although it seems hard to believe, it now appears that Talarico understated matters.
The New York Times’ latest reporting advanced the story, noting the apparent fact that the Republican Senate hopeful, despite making $153,000 a year as attorney general, “recently bought three condominiums at a luxury resort in Utah.” From the article:Mr. Paxton, 63, purchased the condos, worth a total of $1.6 million, in February, according to local property records, and transferred them to his blind trust. On the deeds, Mr. Paxton listed his address as a Dallas-area home. Police records indicate a woman who is not his wife lives there. […]
Public records reviewed by The Times show Mr. Paxton, his blind trust and another family trust now own at least 15 properties worth around $9 million.
[…] Paxton and his team made little effort to push back against its details. Instead, a spokesperson for the scandal-plagued Texan told the newspaper, “Every time a fighter like Donald Trump and Ken Paxton stand up to the political elite, the same playbook comes out: dig through a man’s private life, string together puzzle pieces to draw the most damning conclusion.”
At no point has Paxton or his team denied, or taken any steps to explain, his many home purchases. The state attorney general’s campaign has not responded to multiple requests for comment from MaddowBlog.
The Department of Defense withheld reporting dozens of injuries to military personnel involved in the Iran war [!], according to The New York Times. The newly revealed deception is part of a pattern of misinformation from President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth connected to the war.
The Times on Monday reported that the Pentagon did not disclose injuries suffered by U.S. service members during an Iranian attack in Jordan. In fact, the attack itself was not revealed to the American public. Instead, the Times said it was made aware of the information via multiple U.S. officials speaking anonymously to the outlet. [!]
The attack on Jordan was also not referenced by U.S. Central Command when the decision to launch strikes against Iran in retaliation for attacking ships in the Strait of Hormuz was revealed in a press statement.
The Pentagon has not formally briefed the press on the war since May, [unlike] a series of triumphalist press conferences that Hegseth conducted earlier in the conflict.
[…] Last week, Trump announced that a new round of hostilities had begun, proclaiming that America would be designated as “guardian of the Strait [of Hormuz]” after his ceasefire deal fell apart. Despite the purported ceasefire, the last few weeks have seen the U.S. and Iran regularly exchanging blows in the conflict.
Trump has a pattern of misleading the public over his war in Iran. Since early in the conflict, he and Hegseth have insisted that Iran’s military capabilities have been decimated, but leaks of government intelligence have shown that the nation retains significant capacity to wage war.
Back in 2025, Trump insisted that Iran’s military had been “decimated”—while the subsequent violent conflict that has killed both Americans and Iranians has shown that to be a lie.
Trump has even gone so far as to invent conversations with a “former president” to justify his actions, while he and his team have struggled to even explain the cause of the conflict. The administration has offered up an array of justifications, including regime change and limiting Iran’s nuclear capability, without sticking to a definitive reason.
In tandem with the falsehoods and resulting deaths and injuries, the war has continued to be an ongoing drag on the domestic and international economy. There appears to be no end in sight to the deceptions.
johnson catmansays
re Reginald Selkirk@310: Maybe if the artist had made the sculpture an “after the shot” representation, someone may have wanted to buy it.
johnson catmansays
re Lynna@311:
There appears to be no end in sight to the deceptions.
Steve Benen summarized news reported by the Minneapolis Star Tribune:
[…] just when it seemed Mike Lindell’s Republican gubernatorial candidacy in Minnesota couldn’t get more farcical, the conspiratorial pillow salesman conceded that he isn’t even registered to vote in the state he hopes to lead. Lindell, who last week received Trump’s endorsement, has vowed to change registration from Texas and intends to vote for himself. Primary day in Minnesota is Aug. 11.
“Trump acknowledged the reality in a Truth Social post that appeared to be a signal to his far-right supporters in the House to help pass the budget blueprint — even though it won’t include all of his demands.”
[…] Trump posted on his favorite social media platform Monday morning, seemingly acknowledging that the entire SAVE America Act — the voter suppression bill he and his MAGA allies have been pushing Congress to pass — will not be in the third budget reconciliation bill Republicans are hoping to pass.
“Thank you to our Great Speaker, Mike Johnson, the House Budget Chairman, Jodey Arrington, and the members of the House Budget Committee … for launching an effort to get AS MUCH of THE SAVE AMERICA ACT as possible in a Budget Bill,” Trump posted on Truth Social Monday morning.
Trump’s post comes as House Republican leadership is gearing up for a floor vote this week on the budget resolution the House Budget Committee released and quickly advanced out of committee last week.
Because Senate Republican leadership has refused to cave to Trump’s demands around the SAVE America Act — he’s both directed Senate Republicans to change filibuster rules in order to pass the bill and suggested Senate Republicans should fire the Senate Parliamentarian — Republicans have, for months, been weighing whether to try to stuff some provisions of the voter suppression bill into another reconciliation package to appease him.
Fueled by Trump and his far-right MAGA allies’ singular obsession with passing the SAVE America Act ahead of the midterms, the budget blueprint includes instructions to put $10 billion towards election-related matters, among other things. That is not equal to the House-passed SAVE America Act or the beefed up version Trump has been pushing for that would implement a near total ban on mail-in ballots. The budget reconciliation simply does not allow Republicans to include anything in a reconciliation bill that is not related to the budget. Forcing states to change election administration rules mandating voters show proof of citizenship and photo ID in order to cast a ballot, just a few months out from the midterms, of course, has nothing to do with the budget. [All good, and important points.]
So, House Republicans are hoping to include the next best thing in their upcoming party-line bill: create budget-related incentives using that $10 billion to try and encourage states to adapt their restrictive rules voluntarily. One option would involve including language in the bill that would effectively offer states federal grants to help them voluntarily implement their own restrictive rules.
Democrat-led states may opt out of those grants and avoid implementing those voter suppression rules Republicans are pushing for — making it impossible for the Trump administration to force the sweeping restrictions all across the U.S.
As Trump acknowledges the reality of what I described as SAVE America Lite over the weekend, it remains to be seen whether congressional Republicans can come together to even pass the budget resolution — the first step to starting the party-line budget reconciliation process. […]
Meanwhile, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) wants the Senate to pass it on their end before their August recess. [Another recess? Those congress critters are almost never at work.]
That’d be news to me,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said Thursday when asked about Johnson’s timeline.
On top of that, a host of Senate Republicans and leadership sources reportedly told Politico the House’s plan is “half-baked,” “not a serious attempt” and ultimately “not viable.”
Though they don’t seem to be on the same page, Republicans in the upper and lower chamber will have to come together at some point if they want to start writing their budget reconciliation bill. The budget resolution will have to be adapted by both chambers for committees to write their instructions for a budget reconciliation bill using that blueprint.
A hacker reportedly wiped Romania’s entire land registry database after a failed extortion attempt, halting property transactions across the country and preventing notaries from issuing land extracts, authenticating sales, or registering mortgages. “On the dark web, the hacker also boasted to have begun backup copies of stolen data in an attempt to prevent it from being restored,” reports Cybernews. “However, Romanian officials have managed to at least restore the ANCPI’s website and post a message saying they were rebuilding the agency’s entire network from scratch. It appears that the agency has an offline copy of the wiped data.” From the report: …
Hey kids, it’s the President Donald Trump and Justice Clarence Thomas corruption crossover event you’ve been waiting for!
Look, we were just joking around when we speculated that Trump’s tacky Rose Garden statues of Benjamin Franklin and Alexander Hamilton that appeared in the dead of night were inspired by Justice Thomas’s billionaire benefactor Harlan Crow’s unhinged “Garden of Evil” statue display chock full of dead dictators.
But it turns out that we were hilariously, stupidly, right all along.
More right than we knew, as it turns out that Crow actually owns the Franklin and Hamilton statutes, and loaned them to Trump so they could sit awkwardly atop the paved-over Rose Garden. Crow also loaned Trump something called “Freedom’s Charge,” depicting Revolutionary War soldiers. There’s also a new bronze monstrosity of Thomas Jefferson, but apparently that one isn’t from Crow.
[…] Man, we used to be a proper country. One where the Rose Garden had roses, and was a garden.
We learned about Crow’s weird dictator statue fixation when it came to light that he was best bribe buds with Clarence Thomas, propping up the Supreme Court justice with literal millions in lavish gifts. […] maybe get Crow to loan out his statues of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu and Yugoslav dictator Josip Broz Tito.
his is the first we’ve learned as to who is behind these statues, with the White House previously only saying they were on loan from “generous private American patriots.” But now we know it’s just another billionaire bribing Trump.
[…] In any other era, learning that the billionaire who is buying favorable treatment from the Supreme Court is also secretly buying favorable treatment from Trump would be a five-alarm fire, but Trump’s corruption is so vast that this is honestly sorta small potatoes.
We regret to remind you that Trump is planning on doing 250 of these heinous tacky things for his “National Garden of American Heroes” as part of his wrecking of West Potomac Park in D.C. […]
Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis said on Monday they were imposing a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia, a move that threatens to escalate the conflict in the region and disrupt global energy supply and trade beyond the Gulf.
…
The full closure of the Bab el-Mandeb strait, the southern gateway to the Red Sea, would halt Saudi oil exports to Asia and could reduce global oil supply by 7%…
birgerjohanssonsays
A peaceful rural scene.
Paisley bottle-fed Rufus the bull since he was a tiny calf, so she is the only human that is safe inside the fence. Here she is greeting the cow Roxanne.
“Rufus protects his girls”
.https://youtube.com/shorts/MNkCDbKFzWM
AI is increasingly used in hiring processes, even though critics worry that existing biases may be baked into their algorithms. Now, researchers claim that even in the absence of pre-existing biases, AI models can develop brand new social biases.
In a recently published study, a group of researchers from Princeton University and the University of Chicago had a bunch of LLMs complete a hiring game that was previously run with human participants. In the hiring task, participants were asked to assign candidates to specific roles and then received feedback on whether their decision was a successful hire. The candidates were all equally likely to succeed in any given job, but they all belonged to one of four made-up ethnic groups: the Tufa, Aima, Reku, or Weki. When human participants went through this task, the feedback they received caused them to create certain biases against each made-up ethnic group. For example, if they hired a Tufa as a doctor and received negative feedback, they were unlikely to hire another Tufa as a doctor again. The participants even ended up retaining these biases against the made-up ethnic group well after the game ended. When the researchers had LLMs complete this task instead of humans, they found that the bias rates were much higher…
Some 10,000 years ago, humans first migrated into the mountains of modern-day Norway. Steep waterfalls left behind by the last Ice Age should have prevented fish from traveling upstream, making seafood an unlikely item on the Neolithic menu. But archaeological evidence seems to suggest otherwise.
In 2022, archaeologists spotted what looked like fish traps at the lakebed of Lake Tesse in Norway. Subsequent dating and analysis of five excavated traps and associated wooden fragments revealed that the artifacts were between 5,000 and 7,000 years old. The results, published today in Antiquity, represent the first known evidence that prehistoric humans introduced freshwater fish to upstream lakes and rivers—an old hypothesis bolstered by new evidence…
Navigating the complexities of hostile drone swarms on battlefields with cost-efficient munitions now anchors nearly every discussion on the future of defense.
Such has been the case at London’s 2026 Farnborough Airshow, where Lockheed Martin on Monday introduced what it hopes will be a low cost per kill solution to the ever-evolving unmanned threat.
The Morfius X-Rotor is a ground-launched “one-to-many” airborne high power microwave, or HPM, counter-UAS system the company says can “neutralize more than 50 enemy drones in a single flight.”
Built, notably, to be recovered and reused, the Morfius is capable of using any command and control system and does not rely on any unique sensor or fire control radars, the company announced…
Lockheed Martin on Monday introduced a cheaper Patriot interceptor as the U.S. and partner nations grapple with the exorbitant costs of shooting down cheap drones and missiles.
The PAC-3 Adapted Capability Effector, or ACE, will cost less than half of what a PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement, or MSE, interceptor costs, the defense firm said, and can be used with legacy equipment.
…
The PAC-3 interceptors cost an estimated $4 million, far more than the $35,000 typical price tag of an Iranian Shahed drone. ..
The PAC-3 ACE is designed to combat airbreathing threats — weapons that rely on oxygen for propulsion — cruise missiles and close- and short-range ballistic missiles.
Lockheed Martin said the new interceptor will still be compatible with the Patriot weapon system and Integrated Battle Command System, which enables the company to speed up development, an effort it says will be coordinated jointly with American and European partners…
Nicaragua’s long-serving president Daniel Ortega said the Central American country will no longer hold elections, eliminating the possibility of an electoral challenge when his term ends next year and further entrenching the rule he shares with his wife.
Ortega, who has continuously held power since 2007 following an earlier presidential term in the 1980s, said the move will close off any path to the opposition, although he did not provide details about carrying out the measure…
The 90-day deadline for Trump to obtain congressional approval has long since passed. But most Republicans are accepting the administration’s argument that a weekslong ceasefire reset the clock by creating a new conflict — a position that Democrats say is little more than an attempt to sidestep Congress.
One prominent Republican, Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, put it succinctly: Republicans are just trying to give Trump “flexibility” right now. ..
Sausalito City Manager Elaine Forbes was arrested Saturday morning on suspicion of felony burglary after authorities said she attempted to steal a boat at a Sausalito dock.
Forbes, the city’s top administrator and former executive director of the Port of San Francisco, was arrested shortly before 7 a.m., according to the Marin County Sheriff’s Office.
…
Witnesses told ABC7 News that Forbes was on at least two boats, including the Lisa Marie, which was docked near The Spinnaker restaurant.
The Marin County Sheriff’s Office said it appeared Forbes tried to start one of the boats by “manipulating levers and switches in an attempt to steal the boat.”
Authorities also said bottles of alcohol on the boats appeared to have been either consumed or poured out.
…
In a statement, Forbes’ family said she is experiencing a mental health crisis. As of late Sunday, she remained in custody…
CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captainsays
This is a very long article. The synthetic audio narration is 65 mins. Despite the title, it covers lots of the Biden admin’s (inadequate) attempts and (aborted) plans to rein in Israel. While Netanyahu kept stringing them along.
Some former senior officials in the Biden Administration told me that, in certain ways, the war in Iran was an extension of the Gaza conflict. Iran had been central to Biden’s thinking about the Middle East, several top advisers said. He’d feared that any public pressure the U.S. put on Israel—any “daylight” between the allies—could invite attacks by Iran or its Lebanese client, Hezbollah. The U.S. would then be compelled to defend Israel in a regional conflagration. […]
At the same time, the Biden Administration’s staunch public backing […] had invited the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to try to expand the battle into a regional one. Even though Biden and his advisers privately told Netanyahu many times not to provoke Iran, the Israelis repeatedly blindsided the Americans by doing exactly that […] Yet the White House never publicly criticized Israel for acting unilaterally […] “We could advise them very firmly—and Biden did that with Bibi repeatedly—’Goddammit, take the win and don’t drag us into a further war.’ But the Israelis knew we were going to defend them.” Lloyd Austin, Biden’s Secretary of Defense, reportedly likened Netanyahu to a gambler “playing with house money.”
[…]
Netanyahu agreed to let in only a small amount of supplies […] he also asked that this minor concession remain secret. He feared a domestic backlash for not starving Gaza’s women, children, and other civilians. Biden made his visit, and as he left Netanyahu bragged publicly that he’d defied the President. He declared that Israel “will not allow humanitarian assistance” […] virtually every day during the conflict, Blinken and Sullivan had to spend part of their limited time with Israeli officials haggling
[…]
Before Roosevelt sent U.S. troops to defend Britain from Hitler, he’d required Winston Churchill to sign the Atlantic Charter, which clarified that the Allies were fighting to liberate Europe, not to preserve Britain’s colonial empire in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. […] Blinken unveiled a wish list of “key elements” that the U.S. sought in postwar Gaza, including “no forcible displacement of Palestinians,” “no re-occupation of Gaza,” “no reduction of territory in Gaza,” and “Gaza unified with the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority” […] Netanyahu refused to spell out a more feasible objective of the military operation. In fact, he expanded his stated goal to “total victory”—whatever that meant. And Biden and his advisers all but gave up on pinning him down. […] Netanyahu feared that declaring specific end goals in Gaza would set off disputes in his Cabinet and fracture his fragile coalition.
In any case, the Biden Administration’s grudging acquiescence now looks like the beginning of a pattern of credulous capitulation. Even as Blinken outlined America’s vision for postwar Gaza, Netanyahu was already defying it. […] Biden went around Congress to authorize the emergency sale of millions of dollars’ worth of weapons to Israel. Soon after, he pushed Congress […] About seventy per cent of Israel’s weapons, including nearly all its missiles, aircraft, and bombs, came from the U.S. Finding an alternative supply during a war would have been almost unthinkable.
[…]
The Biden Administration’s ban on the transfer of weapons likely to be used in war crimes appeared to provide a [clear] standard. Yet lawyers involved told me that Administration policymakers seemed to want specific proof of a war crime, and since the State Department doesn’t run courts to weigh evidence, the lawyers couldn’t prove anything. The U.S. lawyer explained, “The subtlety of the language—things like ‘We don’t have definitive proof, but we are very concerned that Israel is committing war crimes’—seemed to be understood by the most senior people to mean, in effect, ‘We’re all good!'” […] Another White House official said that, if the Administration had found Israeli war crimes to be more likely than not, then “the Republicans in Congress would have screamed, ‘Show me the evidence!,’ and we would have had lawyers on their side saying, ‘Bullshit, this is inconclusive!'”
[…]
the Israel portion of the report required by Biden’s memorandum quickly devolved into an almost unreadable mishmash of conflicting edits and comments. […] a line-by-line battle ensued over almost every sentence. […] demonstrating the extent to which the Biden Administration was contorting itself. Philip Gordon, the Kamala Harris adviser, told me that National Security Memorandum 20 “could have been, and should have been, the tool that we used to get the Israelis to do things differently.” But, after the final report, “they knew that we wouldn’t.”
[…]
“Starting now and within 30 days,” the letter said, Israel needed to comply […] the letter appeared to prompt Israel to once again dramatically increase the amount of aid entering Gaza. Israel also scheduled a bilateral meeting in November to cooperate […] A few weeks later, though, Trump won the election. The next day, Israel called off the meeting. By April, 2025, Israel had reduced the flow of humanitarian aid more than ever before; by August, there was a full-blown famine.
“Rodney Mims Cook, Jr., a Presidential sidekick from Atlanta and a triumphal-arch enthusiast, is just back from Russia, where he hung out with Putin and Steven Seagal.”
Rodney Mims Cook, Jr., chairman of the United States Commission of Fine Arts, old Atlantan, chum of King Charles, and unapologetic Russophile, recently gathered fifty guests inside a replica Roman triumphal arch, in downtown Atlanta, for an intimate performance by Mikhail Simonyan, a Russian violinist and a Deputy Minister of Culture. […]
Cook, a ruddy-faced seventy-year-old, whose reading glasses teetered on the tip of his nose, directed Simonyan, whom he called “one of the greatest talents in the world,” to the first floor. Cook built the arch two decades ago, when resurrecting classical architecture in America was an eccentric idea. Now it’s an official plan. Empowered by his friend Donald Trump […] he’s focussing on the nation’s capital […] It was Cook’s commission that green-lighted the plan for a ninety-thousand-square-foot White House ballroom that one prominent architecture critic described, in the Times, as a “huge, dumb box.”
[Cook said] “Trump is fixing it, and I’m helping.” He added, “I assure you, you can paint things gold left and right, but you can also tone that down later. As long as the proportions are right—which they are—this man is going to leave us a legacy of such astonishing beauty!”
Another thing Cook considers beautiful is classical Russian architecture. He built a large turreted dacha in North Atlanta, “in the Russian wooden vernacular,” he said. In June, he showed photographs of the place at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, a gathering known as Putin’s Davos, which he said he’d attended as, “essentially, the Minister of Culture for the United States.” During a Senate hearing, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that he was “unaware” of an American delegation at the forum; none had attended in nearly a decade. Cook, however, insisted that “State pushed me to go. It was entirely designed around me.” His mission, he indicated, was soft diplomacy. He recalled a State Department official telling him,“Many guys in your position would say, ‘This is quite dangerous.’ ” The actor Steven Seagal, who has had Russian citizenship for ten years, attended, as did the far-right podcaster Candace Owens, although their seats weren’t as good as Cook’s. […]
At a filmed Q. & A., Cook rose to address Putin. “I appreciate all of the hospitality that has been afforded to me on my return to St. Petersburg,” he said. “I love this city, and I think you’re aware of that.”
“Hooray, I also love St. Petersburg,” Putin, looking amused, responded, through a translator. […]
Andy Burnham became the United Kingdom’s prime minister on Monday following the resignation of his predecessor, Keir Starmer. As is tradition, King Charles III invited Burnham to form a new government. The two had a meeting at Buckingham Palace on Monday, during which Burnham became the new prime minister.
Russia bombarded Ukraine’s capital with one of the largest ballistic missile assaults of the war before dawn on Sunday, Ukrainian officials said, the third major attack on the capital, Kyiv, in the past 35 days. As smoke still hung over the city and rescue teams raced to strike locations, city officials said one person had been killed and more than 15 had been injured.
Steve Benen, who writes for The Maddow Blog, noted the this was “Just days after Trump said Putin wanted to end the war.”
Citizens Bank no longer funds two private-prison companies that house people detained by federal immigration services, the company said in a statement on its investor page Friday.
‘The DHS secretary effectively positioned himself as a parrot for Iranian operatives who created disinformation. Shouldn’t resignation chatter soon follow?”
As last week came to an end, one day after Donald Trump’s embarrassing national address about his election conspiracy theories, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said at an odd press conference that he wanted to “dig in just a little bit deeper” than the president did in his primetime address. It quickly became apparent, however, that this wasn’t a good idea.
The obvious problem with the Oklahoma Republican’s pitch was his willingness to threaten local election administration officials with prison time unless they obeyed the White House’s demands related to election policies. He similarly peddled familiar, unsubstantiated and tiresome claims about undocumented immigrants casting ballots, and raised concerns about election security, even as the Trump administration takes steps to undermine election security.
But that wasn’t the interesting part. Rather, the one thing Mullin said and did that stood out as especially notable was his willingness to pretend that Iranian propaganda was real — because it suited his political agenda. The New York Times reported:
Most egregiously, Mr. Mullin said Iran had hacked state voter files in an attempt to “compromise, is the best word I can use,” a system that allows members of the military as well as civilians to vote when stationed or living overseas.
Mr. Mullin was referring to activity that occurred and was made public in 2020, in which Iran-linked hackers gained access to a voter registration database in Alaska and then created a video purporting to show hackers using that data to fraudulently cast overseas ballots. The voting seen in the video was faked and never actually took place, according to Trump administration officials at the time and a Justice Department indictment of two Iranians connected to the scheme
In other words, Iran created disinformation videos filled with false claims, which were intended to undermine public confidence in the American elections ahead of 2020. The secretary of homeland security not only believed the propaganda, he decided to amplify and promote Iranian nonsense as if it were real. [!]
The Times’ report added that Mullin “also claimed that information related to the incident was withheld from Mr. Trump during his first term, as well as from Mr. Biden when he was in office.” [WTF?]
That was absurd. In fact, then-Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe was not only aware of this in 2020, the Trump administration’s DNI also specifically told the public at the time that Iran was trying to meddle in the American election. Ratcliffe, who now leads the CIA, told voters that this specific video was “not true.”
I guess Mullin, a member of the U.S. House at the time, wasn’t watching.
In case this isn’t obvious, Iranian operatives create disinformation in the hopes that it will be seen and fool their intended audience. In their wildest dreams, Iranian operatives probably never thought they’d get help from Trump’s own director of homeland security, who told the American public that Iran’s made-up claims are real, positioning Mullin as a parrot for Tehran. [!]
In the not-too-distant past, this is the sort of development that would spark speculation about whether a Cabinet secretary would have to resign in humiliation. In 2026, however, the White House doesn’t appear to care much about staggering mistakes such as Mullin’s.
KGsays
The Biden Administration’s ban on the transfer of weapons likely to be used in war crimes appeared to provide a [clear] standard. – SkyCaptian@328, quoting David D. Kirkpatrick@The New Yorker
If that had actually been applied, the USA would not have supplied Israel with so much as a water-pistol.
KGsays
Lynna, OM@330,
Burnham has cleared out many of Starmer’s ministers, but appointments to the “three great offices of state” (Chancellor, Home Secretary, Foreign Secretary) confirm that policy changes from Starmer’s time are likely to be minimal.
The only one of Starmer’s senior ministers to stay in the same job is the socially conservative right-winger Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, and author of the cruel and stupid Immigration and Asylum Bill currently going through Parliament (if you can find an immigrant or child of immigrants to front your attack on immigrants, that’s obviously advantageous), which will impose onerous conditions on immigrants and especially refugees. Bringing in family members will be made harder, and the qualifying time for “Indefinite Leave to Remain” (the step before naturalisation) will be increased from 5 to 10 years, and for asylum seekers, 20 years. The latter will also have to re-apply every 3 years (I think, might be 30 months), and will be expelled back to the country they fled if it is now judged safe. You can imagine the fear that will create, and can only surmise that this is exactly the point. One of the main complaints about immigrants is that they “fail to integrate” – making it impossible for them to feel secure or make long-term plans will obviously not encourage them to do so.
The new Foreign Secretary is Ed Miliband, regarded as somewhat to the left of the party, formerly Secretary for Energy and Climate Change. While this is a promotion, and Miliband is likely to take a somewhat less obsequious attitude to Israel (which Burnham has also signalled), it also gets him out of the way (he is serious about climate and environmental issues) so Burnham can allow more drilling for oil and gas in the North Sea, as he has signalled he intends. This will produce too little to have any effect on energy prices, or provide more than a few jobs, but is an obvious retreat from treating the climate crisis seriously.
Both Miliband and Mahmood were supposedly in the running for Chancellor, the most important of the three posts (Miliband has a background in economics, Mahmood has none and appointing her would have been absurd), but this has been given to John Healey, who resigned as Defence Secretary during Starmer’s final days in office, complaining that too little money was being allocated to preparing for possible war with Russia. I imagine Burnham has appointed him to, in effect, tell him: “OK, you find the extra money, then.”
KGsays
Reginald Selkirk@310,
Very amusing! It’s remarkable how quickly mention of Kirk and his “Turning Point USA” have faded from far-right propaganda. One might indeed think his assassination has turned out to be a net positive for opponents of fascism, despite all the warnings that such violent acts always make things worse. I understand some of his followers have gravitated to Nick Fuentes and his “groypers”, but Fuentes’s open antisemitism and neo-Nazism make him less useful politically to the far right. (BTW, has no-one around Fuentes noticed how close this name for his acolytes is to “gropers”? But maybe that doesn’t have the meaning of “sexual assaulters” in the USA.)
StevoRsays
Yeesh Albo! Yuk.
Anthony Albanese has distanced himself from his left-wing roots, praised former Liberal prime minister John Howard and says he got some things about immigration policy wrong early in his career.
The prime minister acknowledged that if he encountered his younger self today the pair would be “having a disagreement … no question about that”.
…(Snip)…
..Albanese’s Labor government now embraces the strict border measures he argued against in the 2000s, and as recently as 2015.
“If you want to run a migration system that’s respectful of the contribution that migrants make, it has to be orderly,” the prime minister told the ABC’s Kitchen Cabinet with Annabel Crabb.
Hackers are breaking into websites that run vulnerable versions of the popular blogging software WordPress, according to several cybersecurity firms. One estimate puts the number of vulnerable WordPress websites at tens of millions as of Monday.
Last week, WordPress patched two critical security flaws, urging people who run its software on their websites to update it “immediately.” The vulnerabilities are so severe that WordPress enabled forced updates where possible. Since then, cybersecurity companies Patchstack, Hexastrike, and WatchTowr have all warned that hackers are exploiting the vulnerabilities in the wild, meaning they are taking over websites that are still running susceptible versions of WordPress…
Silentbobsays
@ 336
But maybe that doesn’t have the meaning of “sexual assaulters” in the USA
Of course it does. That’s a feature not a bug as the kids say.
he X-Bat strike aircraft just reached a major milestone with the successful integration of its exhaust system, setting it up for a vertical takeoff planned for later this year.
Shield AI and GE Aerospace completed critical ground testing of the Axisymmetric Vectoring Exhaust Nozzle (AVEN) for X-Bat, which allows the fighter jet to launch and recover from anywhere without the need for traditional runways. The X-Bat uses Shield AI’s Hivemind software, operating autonomously and collaborating with crewed aircraft during combat missions.
…
“X-BAT is designed to take off and land vertically from anywhere—no airbase, no runway—and that capability lives or dies with propulsion,” Armor Harris, senior vice president of aircraft engineering at Shield AI, said in a statement.
AVEN is a 3D thrust-vectoring system that was originally developed in the 1990s for experimental F-16 fighter jets. The nozzle pivots engine exhaust in three dimensions to allow for more precise directional control, and it also allows aircraft to balance on their tailpipes for vertical takeoff and landing.
…
… As the New York Times points out in a fresh report, Google results are directing more and more people to…Google, and that’s it. Generally, there’s an AI Overview at the top of a results page for any given informational search, and perhaps that’s enough for many queries. But a study from Growth Memo referenced by the Times says 75% of people who find themselves using AI Mode, stay in AI mode rather than switching to the web. And if you’re in AI Mode, that means you’re just hanging out chatting with the bot while Google’s AI agents flit around trying to answer your question.
But the point is that whether users tend to stop at the AI Overview, or engage with it and end up in AI Mode, “more than 50% of traffic on the Internet is now non-human,” a Cloudflare report from earlier this month says. As less and less human traffic comes from Google Search, and more and more ads are being shown to bots, the danger is that the business model of a free and open web will become unsustainable.
After all, a study from earlier this year found that over 35% of new websites were AI generated. It turns out they’re also, apparently, more than 50% AI-consumed…
Gad; what if I’m an AI bot and don’t even know it?
Deep beneath the French-Swiss border, the world’s largest scientific instrument has fallen silent. After years of smashing proton particles together at nearly the speed of light, Cern’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has stopped operations and entered a long shutdown.
While no particle collisions are taking place at the LHC, thousands of scientists, engineers, and technicians are dismantling parts of the machine, installing new technologies, and preparing one of the most ambitious upgrades ever attempted in experimental physics.
When it switches on again, around 2030, it will become the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC), capable of delivering roughly seven times more data than the collider that discovered the Higgs boson.
…
One example is the decay of the Higgs boson into two muons (a muon is an unstable, subatomic particle). This decay is a rare process that tests whether the Higgs couples to second-generation lepton particles. Another is the decay of the Higgs into charm quark particles. This is one of the most difficult Higgs measurements because it must be extracted from an overwhelming background of ordinary particle collisions.
These processes test one of the Higgs boson’s most fundamental properties: whether it interacts with lighter particles exactly as predicted by the standard model. Any deviation from those predictions, even a small one, could be evidence that new particles or forces are influencing the Higgs behind the scenes.
And perhaps the most ambitious goal of all is observing Higgs boson pairs, which would allow us to measure, for the first time, the Higgs self-coupling—the strength with which the Higgs field interacts with itself.
…
At the High Luminosity LHC, every crossing of the proton beams will produce up to 200 simultaneous proton-proton interactions, several times more than today. Untangling this dense web of particles demands detectors that are faster, more precise, and far more resistant to radiation than anything built before.
At the heart of the Atlas and CMS experiments, entirely new silicon tracking detectors are replacing the existing ones. They must survive radiation levels that would quickly destroy previous generations of sensors while measuring particle trajectories with extraordinary precision. Achieving this has required years of advances in silicon sensor technology, ultra-fast electronics, cooling systems, and lightweight mechanical structures.
One of the most innovative features of the upgraded detectors is the addition of precision timing. New timing detectors—the High Granularity Timing Detector in Atlas and a similar system in CMS—will measure the arrival time of particles with a precision of only a few tens of trillionths of a second. Although hundreds of collisions occur almost simultaneously, they do not happen at exactly the same instant.
By adding time as a fourth dimension to particle tracking, these detectors will allow physicists to associate each particle with the correct collision, making it possible to reconstruct rare Higgs events hidden within an enormous background of overlapping interactions…
Voters will go to the polls on Tuesday in Arizona to choose Republican and Democratic nominees for the U.S. Congress and governor, with races that will set the tone for November’s midterm elections in a state known for its competitive elections and politically independent streak.
Registered Republicans outnumber registered Democrats in Arizona, but the large number of independents makes for a state that is considered closely divided…
Scientists believe nearly all massive stars destined to explode as supernovae exist in binary or multi-star systems. Despite this, no one had ever detected a binary pair of supernovae—until now, perhaps.
According to new research, one of the best-studied supernova remnants in our galaxy—IC 443, also known as the Jellyfish Nebula—may have been hiding a sibling this whole time. The findings, published today in the journal Nature Communications, describe supernova remnant G189.6+3.3, which has long been obscured by the glare of IC 443. Using 16 years of observations from NASA’s Fermi Large Area Telescope combined with X-ray and multiwavelength data, the researchers uncovered G189.6+3.3 and determined that it and IC 443 are likely the ghosts of a binary star system…
JMsays
Legal AF: Trump ORDERS Blanche Not to Testify in Katie Phang Epstein Files Case!?!
Michael Popok talks about the current state of Katie Phang’s court request that the DOJ comply with the Epstein act. The ultimate point being why nothing seems to be happening. The DOJ is slow walking the case, making pointless requests of the court just to take more time. The DOJ really wants to stall until Blanche’s confirmation is done because anything that happens now is going to make him look bad.
“To save lives, Homan effectively argued, ICE’s detractors should simply say what he wants them to say. That won’t work.”
The national controversy surrounding Immigration and Customs Enforcement and its tactics has reached new levels in recent weeks, following incidents in which ICE officers fatally shot Johan Sebastián Guerrero in Maine and Lorenzo Salgado Araujo a week earlier in Texas. With this in mind, White House border czar Tom Homan apparently thought it would be a good idea to field some questions from reporters as this week got underway.
It did not go especially well.
During a brief Q&A, Homan covered quite a bit of ground, downplaying federal immigration agents’ “mistakes” in Minnesota, dodging questions about ICE agents’ vetting and qualifications, and struggling to explain the administration’s decision to roll back policies related to body cameras on immigration officers.
But of particular interest was Homan’s perspective on the public discourse. [video]
“I said this a year ago,” the border told reporters. “If the hateful rhetoric doesn’t stop, there will be bloodshed. And unfortunately, I was right. And I’ll tell you something else: It’s not over yet.”
As part of the same comments, Homan accused unnamed critics of “miscommunicating what ICE does every day,” adding, “I’m afraid that we’re going to bury an ICE agent. I’m afraid that I’m going to hand another folded flag to a spouse or child of an ICE agent for simply doing his job.”
He concluded with a condemnation of unnamed members of Congress who call ICE agents “fascists and Nazis.”
At this point, we could talk about the fact that Homan had no similar concerns when it was Donald Trump who compared federal agents to fascists and Nazis. We could also talk about Homan using violent rhetoric of his own against his political opponents. [Embedded links are available at the main link.]
But as relevant as those angles are, perhaps most notable is the fact that the public keeps seeing a prominent and influential White House official trying to address a serious policy problem by stifling dissent. Indeed, at the heart of Homan’s argument was the idea that everything would be fine just so long as ICE’s critics shut up.
[…] To save lives, Homan effectively argued, ICE’s detractors should simply say what he wants them to say.
I have a hunch this won’t work — in part because ICE’s critics don’t care about Homan’s opposition to dissent, and in part because that’s not how the public discourse works in the United States.
The Trump administration’s Air Force One leak investigation targeting the New York Times is encountering severe turbulence already.
In an overnight filing, the Trump DOJ admitted to serious errors in how it has handled the case so far — and in a huge concession that it attempts to mask as reasonableness it has put on hold for two weeks all of the subpoenas aimed at NYT reporters.
The major errors by federal prosecutors in Manhattan are largely of their own making, a result of a rushed investigation intended to appease an outraged President Trump, embarrassed that the NYT exposed his Qatari-gifted 747 as having subpar missile defense capabilities compared to the existing fleet of Air Force One aircraft.
Now that the case has been unsealed, we have a much clearer picture of what happened. Let’s break it down:
New Subpoenas Revealed
This all kicked off when a total of five grand jury subpoenas were issued to NYT reporters. The feds successfully served three of them on reporters Julian E. Barnes, Eric Lipton and Eric Schmitt. They were unable to serve subpoenas on reporters Tyler Pager and Adam Goldman.
But we learned yesterday that in addition to the grand jury subpoenas, the feds had also subpoenaed the phone records of the reporters from their phone providers. Or to put it more precisely, they sought toll records and subscriber data for the phone numbers they believed to be associated with the reporters.
Feds Go After Reporters’ Families
[…] including:
– the mother of a reporter who is “a mental health professional with confidential client relationships.”
– the spouse of a reporter who is “the general counsel of a major law firm.”
– another spouse of a reporter.
In response, prosecutors vaguely waved at a “law enforcement database”: […]
More on the phone records subpoenas below.
Big Screwup #1
Second Circuit Court of Appeals precedent, which covers New York, establishes a reporter’s privilege and requires the government to meet certain elements to overcome that privilege, one of which is to show that the information it seeks from the reporter cannot be obtained from any other source.
The government appears to have not considered that precedent in this case, the NYT alleges, citing correspondence from the government:
The Government’s letter itself confirms that the Government did not even consider this Second Circuit precedent when it should have done so: before it issued the subpoenas. Instead, the Government apparently began evaluating the legality of the subpoenas after it began preparing its response to the Motion to Quash.
But don’t take the NYT’s word for it. Prosecutors essentially conceded the point last night when they told the judge that they’re going to hold off enforcing any of the subpoenas for two weeks. It’s a remarkable concession, given the stakes of the case:
[T]here are particular investigative steps that the Government is seeking to take in the near term that the Government anticipates will be material to this Court’s assessment of application of any qualified reporter’s privilege here.
Translation: Judge, we’re going to go do some more investigating to see if we can obtain elsewhere the information that we had hoped to obtain from the reporters because you’re going to ask us about whether we tried to get it elsewhere and we don’t have a good answer for you on that.
It would be a mistake, however, to read this as merely incompetence. This kind of rushed investigation, without even basic research on the legal terrain prosecutors are venturing into, reinforces what was obvious from the get-go: This isn’t about nabbing leakers (or not solely about that); it’s about retaliating against the NYT.
Big Screwup #2
The NYT alleges that prosecutors misled it and the court by failing to disclose the existence of the phone record subpoenas even as the litigation over the testimonial subpoenas was getting underway. Prosecutors deny that allegation and contest the timeline of events that the NYT offers. But regardless of the tussle over the exact timing and who knew what when, prosecutors now essentially concede that they erred on the law:
Although Department policy authorized non-disclosure of the subpoenas, in light of additional caselaw that the Government identified after the issuance of the subpoenas, the Government determined on July 17 that it was appropriate to alert counsel to those subpoenas so that counsel could advance any arguments—regardless of merit—in furtherance of their motion.
As you can see, it’s a total clusterfuck. Marcy Wheeler aptly headlined her post on this mess: “SDNY Asks for Two Weeks to Unfuck the Leak Investigation It Fucked Up in Rush to Please Trump” [LOL. So accurate.]
Where Does That Leave Us?
While there’s a schadenfreude in the Trump DOJ being exposed in public for having botched the case, this isn’t simply a matter of making errors or bumbling or being in over their heads. Rather, these kinds of errors, mistakes, irregularities, overreaches, improprieties, and abuses are a prerequisite for President Trump to be able to use the Justice Department as a sword against the disfavored and shield for the favored. [True!]
Following the law, abiding by precedent, adhering to internal procedures, demonstrating candor to the court, conducting oneself with professionalism — all of those things get in the way when you’re using DOJ for your retribution.
Followup to Reginald @103 and 229; Lynna @158 and 231.
President Donald Trump on Monday announced that he is implementing another round of retributive tariffs, this time an obscene 50% levy on certain goods from Canada.
[…] The claim that Canada unfairly treats American imports is clearly a smoke screen—pun intended—to get around the Supreme Court ruling that most of Trump’s retributive tariffs from 2025 were illegal.
The new tariffs on Canada come on top of 25% tariffs Trump imposed this month on thousands of Brazilian imports. And Trump is reportedly set to announce more tariffs on other countries “as soon as this week,” the Financial Times reported.
[…] despite Trump’s assertions about foreign governments paying the tariffs, it is American consumers who end up paying the import taxes through price hikes on goods and services.
[…] Trump, ever the egomaniac, couldn’t handle his pet project being taken from him, and now he is bringing his unpopular and disastrous trade policy back to the forefront as the midterm elections near.
It’s political malpractice, and yet another way Trump is working to screw his own party.
You know what Trump always says, Republicans: You knew he was a snake before you let him in.
Maryam Aminu was hardly surprised when the last of her six children was diagnosed with malnutrition in April for a second time. She was barely feeding the 18-month-old regularly, let alone with nutritious foods.
Although the family in northwest Nigeria has struggled with economic hardship, their situation deteriorated after February, when her husband, Shehu Aminu, lost his job as a taxi driver due to a spike in the retail price of petrol caused by the war in Iran. […]
Children relapsing into malnutrition has become an increasingly common occurrence in the state and across northern Nigeria, according to local health and aid workers, who cite knock-on effects from the Iran war.
Northern Nigeria, one of the world’s poorest regions, is already under pressure from an insurgency crisis. Now, the conflict in the Middle East has worsened food security for millions of people living in poverty, especially children.
[…] If the war in the Middle East continues, up to 23.4 million additional children could fall into monetary poverty — meaning a lack of income or consumption — by the end of the year, the United Nations children’s agency UNICEF said in a report this week. It warned that at least 80% would be in Africa and Asia.
“Children are paying the price for the escalating conflict in the Middle East, including children far beyond the region,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. “The longer this continues, the worse the consequences will be.”
[…] At a hospital in Sokoto, records shared with AP show nearly 40 children previously treated for malnutrition since February are currently under treatment again, in addition to those not documented.
[…] children in poor households are more likely to be stunted in the long term, UNICEF’s Russell said in an interview with the AP as she was visiting Sokoto this week.
“Their development will be compromised. They are less likely to stay in school because their parents are under so much financial stress. So the long-term implications for children are absolutely terrible,” said Russell.
The war has also affected fertilizer supplies and prices, threatening the planting season and worsening the fate of mostly farming communities in northern Nigeria who have struggled to access their farmlands amid a deadly conflict with armed groups. […]
Sen. Warnock’s ban on private equity firms buying single-family homes becomes federal law.
This is one of the best things in the legislation that became law after the BLOAT’s failure to either sign it or veto it.
From CBS News:
One of Sen. Raphael Warnock’s highest-profile housing proposals has officially become federal law, marking a significant policy change aimed at slowing corporate ownership of single-family homes in Georgia and across the country.
Warnock announced Saturday that his provision prohibiting large private equity firms from purchasing additional single-family homes took effect after the broader bipartisan housing package became law without President Donald Trump’s signature.
Under the Constitution, legislation passed by Congress can become law if the president neither signs nor vetoes it within the required 10-day window while Congress remains in session.
The legislation also incorporates Warnock’s Appraisal Modernization Act, which supporters say is intended to improve fairness in the home appraisal process.
One of strictest US abortion bans could be overturned in November’s election
Idahoans are pretty fierce about personal freedom, so I think this ballot measure has a good chance of passing. The Rs who put this ban in place are notoriously bad at reading the room.
From The Guardian:
One of the strictest abortion bans in the country will be on the ballot this November after Idaho’s secretary of state certified a ballot measure on Monday that would reverse the state’s abortion ban that prohibits the procedure at all stages of pregnancy.
The ballot initiative was headed by a volunteer-run group called Idahoans United for Women & Families, which ran a petition drive to get the measure in front of voters this fall. They gathered more than 100,000 signatures, surpassing the required 70,725 to get on the ballot.
f approved by voters, the measure would create a law for “reproductive freedom”, rather than serve as an amendment to the state constitution.
The change would make Idaho’s law similar to what it was before the supreme court ruled to overturn Roe v Wade in 2022, allowing states to ban abortion. Idaho’s new law would allow abortion until fetal viability, which is generally considered to be after about 21 weeks into a pregnancy. It would also allow people to make their own choices for abortion, contraception and fertility treatment.
Oregon approves PGE’s 29.7% rate hike for data centers under landmark law
This needs to happen everywhere data centers already exist. And, of course, we need to stop all new ones from being built.
From Oregon Public Broadcasting:
Portland General Electric’s large energy users like data centers [saw] substantial rate hikes starting [July 8th].
The Oregon Public Utility Commission on [July 7th] unanimously approved PGE’s 29.7% rate increase for data centers, cryptocurrency companies and large industrial energy users.
This is the first time the Public Utility Commission has significantly increased energy rates for these customers under the state’s POWER Act. That law, passed in 2025, creates a new rate class for these large energy users, requiring them to pay for their share of electricity usage. It kicks in for projects that use more than 20 megawatts of power. That’s the equivalent of what a large paper mill might use in energy.
“These changes ensure that costs created by data centers in PGE’s territory are more accurately reflected in their rates,” Commission Chair Letha Tawney said in a statement. “By putting this structure in place now, we are getting ahead of a bigger issue, enabling responsible data centers to pay their own way, and protecting customers from higher costs in the future.”
These Maine librarians are helping patrons resist AI and Big Tech
What a wonderful public service! I wish my local library offered it. And I love the final quote: “Generative AI doesn’t generate information, it generates words.”
In recent months, the Searsmont Town Library has added a new service for patrons: Help in removing AI from their phones and other devices. …Library Director Steven Brown…helps patrons disable AI-powered assistants like Siri or so-called smart features in email and switch from using Google, which doesn’t offer an option to search without AI overviews, to a browser that does.
A big part of his job as a librarian has been helping people with information technology, he said. He sees helping people think critically about technology and AI as a natural extension of this work.
[…] Commonly used tools like Gmail and Chat GPT are not neutral, she said. “These are products created by giant corporations who want your information and want your attention,” she said. “And that has real impacts on our lives.”
The most popular class Cyrus has taught is called Avoiding AI, which explains what Generative AI is, some of the concerns around it, and how to disable it and find alternatives.
The first time she taught the class in fall of 2025 more than 70 people enrolled. She taught it again this spring, and Brown was one of 20 Maine librarians to enroll.
One of the big messages that Cyrus and Brown try to impart is that AI is not a reliable source of information — it’s only as reliable as the material it draws from. “Generative AI doesn’t generate information,” Cyrus said. “It generates words.”
More good news excerpts are available at the main link.
Swedish VPN vendor Mullvad is facing a backlash from some customers after co-founder Daniel Berntsson personally donated SEK 5 million (£385,000, $519,000) to the controversial populist Örebropartiet, which is running in Sweden’s national elections for the first time.
Berntsson has this week published a blog post explaining the donation, alongside posts titled “Immigration,” “Political individualism,” and “Moral individualism.” Before that, he had not posted since 2019.
The flurry of posts follows weeks of customer criticism over the donation – for example, Finnish blog Moonwriting’s post “I’m done with Mullvad.” Another blog, Unutterable, is more direct: “Mullvad funding the far-right and the problem with tech company ownership.” The Hacker News discussion thread about the donations has reached a remarkable 1,784 comments so far…
German authorities say they have neutralized the main infrastructure supporting the Kratos phishing-as-a-service (PhaaS) kit following an operation supported by the US and Indonesia.
Officers from Frankfurt am Main’s Central Office for Combating Internet Crime (ZIT) and the Federal Criminal Police (BKA) described Kratos as one of the most widespread and dangerous PhaaS kits on the market.
In Indonesia, authorities said they arrested the Kratos kit’s alleged “developer and technical administrator.” The announcement of Kratos’s takedown did not mention whether any other individuals are being pursued.
According to the ZIT and BKA, Kratos allowed low-skill cybercrims to harvest credentials, including passwords and session cookies, to bypass MFA by providing them with convincing Microsoft-themed phishing pages.
Criminals using Kratos phishing pages targeted hundreds of thousands of victims across more than 30 countries, while the operation behind the kit allegedly earned more than €300,000 ($342,000) since 2024.
More than 1,800 criminal enterprises are estimated to have used Kratos, which was responsible for around 15,000 phishing campaigns per month…
a giant earthen barrier separating the over 50% of the Gaza Strip it controls […] More than 23 kilometers (14 miles) have been constructed […] in the area of the so-called yellow line, the boundary to which Israeli troops withdrew under the October ceasefire deal […] it appears Israel is digging in, heightening Palestinian fears that the line is morphing into a border. […] [The military] said the barrier aimed to prevent infiltration and protect Israeli troops and Israeli communities near Gaza. […] The height of the berms in each place remains unclear.
[…]
Gaza’s population has been crowded into the coastal area west of the yellow line, most living in squalid tent camps and dependent on aid. On the other side of the line, satellite imagery shows that Israeli forces have leveled the vast majority of buildings using bulldozers and explosives, virtually erasing several towns […] Israeli forces have killed Palestinians who came close to the line or crossed it.
Republican officials across North Carolina are trying to move early voting sites off college campuses and reduce Sunday voting. There’s no great mystery as to why: As The New York Times reported, officials in both parties have called the moves “a blatant attempt to make it harder for students and Black voters to cast ballots.”
Bad news.
In other political news, Benen reports that:
[…] Democratic Sen. John Fetterman’s approval rating among Pennsylvania Democrats is down to just 19%, which is extraordinarily weak support for an incumbent lawmaker
That’s good news, since Fetterman has been adopting Republican positions lately.
At an otherwise formal meeting of the Electrostatics Society of America, electrical engineer Joshua Méndez Harper pulled out a jar of pickles, a power strip and some electrodes. “I’m hoping we will not have the fire alarm go off,” he said.
He skewered each end of a pickle with an electrode and flipped the switch. The pickle sizzled in protest, then glowed bright orange at one end. As an aroma of singed pickle wafted over the audience, he shut off the power. It’s a decades-old scientific parlor trick, and now Méndez Harper’s group at Portland State University in Oregon may have figured out what the dill is…
“The Fake Influencers Selling Wellness on Your Feed”
“The New York Times found hundreds of A.I.-generated doctors, healers and wellness influencers on social media touting the health benefits of supplements to American consumers. Many of these hyperrealistic looking ads promise medical miracles, and appear to be targeting older women, while making misleading health claims for a profit.”
“This is what we look like on Day 1 of taking beetroot every day. This is Day 50.” They look like the kind of wellness influencers you see every day on social media. “This is Day 77, girl.” But none of them are real. They are A.I.- generated and designed to sell health supplements on social media.
The Times reviewed hundreds of these ads to understand how A.I. video tools are helping a loosely regulated industry target American consumers and profit off of disinformation about their health.
“They’re targeting us people that have health issues.” Pamela Wundrow is 71. She’s a retired truck driver with a series of health issues related to autoimmune disease. “I’ve always had the joint problems and the inflammation and the fatigue, so I basically wanted something that was going to help me with all that.” After seeing Facebook ads touting the health effects of moringa, she placed an order for a popular online supplement brand called Rosabella. “They’re pretty good at advertising this stuff. I do foraging, so I’m always into the plant stuff.” After months of taking her daily dose, she found out some of her pills were contaminated.
“It says urgent recall.” In February, the F.D.A. and C.D.C. announced that Rosabella’s moringa supplement was making people sick with salmonella.
Wundrow says she didn’t experience any symptoms of salmonella, but says her health issues got worse while taking the supplement. “When you already have a health problem before this, and then you take this and then all of a sudden you got worse.
[…] over the past three years, the company has had hundreds of complaints with the Better Business Bureau. “In Chinese medicine, we have known exactly how to bring this down for generations.”
So how can we tell if these ads are A.I.-generated? From American flags to idyllic suburban backgrounds, the imagery is repeated over and over and is designed to make the ads seem familiar. Creators also go to great lengths to make their avatars look credible, presenting them as doctors or Eastern medical gurus with fake diplomas on the walls of their fake offices.
In some cases, the ads make dangerous health claims like this one, claiming an herbal supplement helped treat kidney disease better than medication. “We gave 100 people with Stage 3 kidney disease one bottle of Sculptique and told them —”
Ads like these would be illegal on U.S. television, but on the internet, they face little enforcement. Meanwhile, creators around the world are cashing in on A.I. avatars. “Share a link to an Amazon product and get paid commission.” “Women over 40 need to hear this.” “The people who figured this out are printing money behind the scenes.”
In China, A.I. advertising has exploded, as companies seek a quick and easy way to reach the U.S. market. This Chinese agency has been using A.I. to sell brands on TikTok Shop for the past year. From supplements to toys to electronics, the ads are tailor-made to look American. “Watch and learn, bro.”
With 40 employees and hundreds of accounts, the company says it produces around 1,200 A.I. videos like this per day, at a cost of about $10 each. “Best gift ever.”
[…] TikTok says it has been banning accounts that make misleading health claims, and Meta says it labels A.I.-generated content on Facebook and Instagram. But we shared several examples that were still live on these platforms, which the companies later removed.
For now, the technology is moving faster than anyone can keep up with. Many of these online-only brands are operated by anonymous L.L.C.s. And there is no federal law limiting the use of synthetic people in advertising. Meanwhile, these fake wellness influencers are multiplying across our social feeds, taking advantage of people who can no longer tell what’s real. “You want real truth in advertising. You don’t want this fake person. Anybody can be scammed.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has sacked the country’s commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi.
His dismissal comes just days after the removal of popular Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov – a move that triggered street protests across the country.
Initial rumours that the end of Fedorov’s tenure was related to a conflict between him and Syrskyi were soon confirmed.
Fedorov, 35, has been widely praised for energising the ministry and transforming the armed forces, as well as leading a drive against corruption.
Syrskyi, 60, is seen by many in Ukraine as a Soviet-school commander reluctant to implement radical changes in the army…
‘Nihilistic Violent Extremism’ Isn’t a Thing, and I’m Tired of Pretending It Is
You can’t tell me this isn’t a ridiculous fossil fueled country. The temperature now at ~3:26pm in northern scarizona is 115 degrees Fahrenheit in the shade!
All I can hear is the Animals from 1965 singing: ‘We’ve gotta get outta this place, if it’s the last thing we ever do’
Eastern front losses mapped
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=cD2XpNWjjyo
Each dot marks 10.000 soldiers killed, captured or missing.
@1 Reginald Selkirk wrote about an article on “nihilistic violent extremism” (NVE).
I must posit that individuals that allegedly commit “nihilistic violent extremist” acts are not the big problem. They are ‘small fish’ encouraged and facilitated by the current administration, their cockroach followers, the xtian nationalists and warmongering hateful actors who are the REAL problem.
Detasseling Corn – Less Fun Than it Sounds
Detasseling corn was a summer job when i was a teenager. The above is mostly a personal experience article, the technical description isn’t especially good. To get the desired hybrid, the seed companies plant 6 or so rows of the “female” corn and two rows of the “male” corn. The “female” rows must all be detasseled so that they are only pollinated by the corn in the “male” rows.
@5
Maybe I assumed too much of the reader. All corn is both male and female, but they are on different parts of the plant. The male flowers are the tassels, at the top of the plant. The female flowers are the ears, which grow lower along the stalk.
Wikipedia: corn (Zea mays) plants
In the UK and Europe, corn may mean the predominant crop of the region, but In the USA, corn is synonymous with maize.
@5
Here’s a better technical description
Busload of grubby, sweaty teens is probably detasselers
My other teen ag job: walking beans
That’s about how I did it – unless I was working for my aunt. Then we didn’t get a hoe; we wore gloves and we pulled the weeds out to be sure we got the roots.
Even back then, walking beans was very regional. It was common in the area where I grew up, but if you drove through other parts of the state, you would see the taller weeds sticking up out of the soybean fields. The farmers there didn’t do the manual weeding, they just used a combination of herbicides and cultivation (plowing between the soybean rows with a disc plow).
Here’s a tip from my father: if you chop thistles off an inch below the soil level they won’t grow back.
Finally some fucking good news. You all know what I mean. 🎉
Satan has called Lindsey Graham home.
Alan Greenspan treated worker wage raises as a threat against the economy. He was proven wrong.
.https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1EWk1gGSxP/
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-12/lindsey-graham-dies/106907306
Now w e waiut for Micth to eb confirmed rigour tortoiose..
Muslim judge in India faces death threats after convicting ‘cow vigilantes’
The Israeli Spy Behind PragerU’s Plan to Rewrite American Education To Indoctrinate Children
2026 07 12
Alan Macleod MintPress News
PragerU is trying to take over American schools. The right-wing, pseudo-educational group is now an official educational partner in at least ten states, and blitzes children with highly questionable messaging on race, history, and politics. Even more concerning, PragerU is led by former Israeli spy, Marissa Streit, who has stated she uses the tactics and techniques honed by IDF military intelligence on the American people.
https://scheerpost.com/2026/07/12/the-israeli-spy-behind-pragerus-plan-to-rewrite-american-education-to-indoctrinate-children/
At the moment, Count Binface beats Farage in national polls…
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=hvVvc27C4pU
Sen. Lindsey Graham dies at 71 after ‘brief and sudden illness’
Related video at the link.
For the convenience of readers, here are some links back to the previous set of 500 comments on The Infinite Thread.
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2026/06/28/infinite-thread-xxxx/comment-page-1/#comment-2306038
With the white nationalist group Patriot Front, what you see is not what you get
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2026/06/28/infinite-thread-xxxx/comment-page-1/#comment-2306030
Here is some good news.
James Talarico raises over $30 million in second quarter, campaign says, more than triple Ken Paxton’s sum
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2026/06/28/infinite-thread-xxxx/comment-page-1/#comment-2306026
He’s suspected of hiring a Venezuelan gang for a political killing. Trump officials still work with him. By ProPublica
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2026/06/28/infinite-thread-xxxx/comment-page-1/#comment-2306017
New York Times reporters are subpoenaed after Air Force One stories, raising press freedom concerns
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2026/06/28/infinite-thread-xxxx/comment-page-1/#comment-2306016
“An Inconvenient Moment for an Extreme Global Heat Wave,” by Bill McKibben
How Republicans paved the way for white nationalists to invade DC
https://www.wonkette.com/p/lindsey-graham-is-an-ex-parrot
Washington Post EXCLUSIVE
“Survivors of Iranian attack that killed 6 U.S. troops say generals ignored warnings”
“The drone strike on Port Shuaiba in Kuwait occurred on the second day of the war. Those who were there say they fear no one will be held accountable.”
More at the link.
Wikipedia – Chuck Grassley
/Hehe, Wikipedia has markup that dynamically updates that tally.
Eric Columbus: “Chuck Grassley has been in office continuously since before Mike Pence was born.” [June 1959]
Steven Dennis (Bloomberg): “If Grassley wins reelection again, he could be the first lawmaker to serve in 9 separate decades: 50s 60s 70s 80s 90s 00s 10s 20s 30s.”
The Guardian – Deaths linked to London air pollution have fallen 40% since 2019
Sky Captain @22, that’s good news. Glad to see that.
In other news, the Washington post reports:
Washington Post link
“The new Trump accounts for kids aren’t the financial boon the president claims”
New Yorker link
“An O.M.B. Plan to Defund Science—and Anything Trump Doesn’t Like”
“Under a new proposal, Administration officials could deny government grants to any group or project on the ground that it didn’t fit the President’s agenda.” By Elizabeth Kolbert
Guinea fowl sales spike in N.S. as homeowners look for natural tick control
CBS News: Sen. Mitch McConnell says he was “briefly unconscious,” had pneumonia in latest health update
So apparently still alive but in so weak he can’t go back to the Senate. His story is a little thin but I will buy that he is alive and determined to hold onto his seat in the Senate until it’s clawed from his cold dead fingers.
Ireland’s data centers consumed nearly as much electricity as every home in the country combined in 2025 — server farms gulped 23% of national power despite years of grid restrictions
Wai Ching Ho, ‘Daredevil’ and ‘Iron Fist’ Actress, Dies at 82
Dang! Moscow Mitch is still alive!
(Crossposted with the Lindsey Graham thread)
“Mitch McConnell reveals fall led to hospitalization after weeks of silence” | Mitch McConnell | The Guardian .https://share.google/zxf1ERhsVVjHgwPiM
Newsweek – Did Trump’s July 4 fireworks set a world record? (Jul 6)
Last Week Tonight – Turkmenistan Prez Berdimuhamedov (2019, 12:40 to 20:30)
I can imagine Trump’s people stiffing Guinness, or failing to submit proof. He would just assert he got the record regardless.
birgerjohansson @30: A lot of people online are claiming that the newspaper seen in McConnell’s photo in that article appears to be an AI-generated image. And as I said in the other thread, Mitch is looking far healthier in that picture than he’s looked in years. Very suspicious until an independent source can actually see him directly instead of relying on press releases from a thoroughly dishonest group.
Re: microraptor @ #32…
What struck me about the picture is the shirt he’s wearing. That’s not a style of upper garment I’ve ever seen in a hospital.
Re: whheydt @ #33…
More on the clip of McConnell…. I don’t any sign of an IV. Pretty much the very first thing that happens when you’re admitted is that they start an IV, even if there is no immediate need for it. That IV stays (it may be re-done periodically) until they’re ready to discharge you.
microraptor @32:
Daily Beast
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-13/israel-election-date-likely-to-be-in-october/106909014
Sadly, whilst in currently in trouble I wouldnt ount the genocidaire Netanyahu out yet.
Fix : … wouldn’t count out the genoicidaiure Netanyahu yet.
Vale Sam Neill. Wonderful actor and truly good human being from all I’ve heard about him :
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-13/sam-neill-remembered-obituary-honorary-australian/102963260
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-13/sam-neill-dies-jurassic-park-actor/103425588
Sam Neill 1947-2026
Fifty years as an actor and never a hint of scandal or nastiness. He seems to have been a genuinely nice person. BTW he had beat cancer, only for some other (not disclosed) disease to take him.
The recently deceased actor Sam Neill on a video where he is greeting Sweden 2022 , as Sweden has made it a tradition to watch the 1989 version of ‘Ivanhoe’ (where SN had a major role) ever New Year
.https://share.google/rlmadONNAqExZXL67
Dr Ben Miles
“This Battery [allegedly] Lasts for 30 Years And China Just Put It on the Grid”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=J091Zl9kXzg
“Scientists decipher how a psychedelic substance is created, then engineer a plant to produce several at once”
Obviously, society wants people to consume less psychedelics, not more but this can be a gateway to producing therapeutic psychedelics in edible plants, so the substances could be consumed in carefully regulated doses.
.https://phys.org/news/2026-07-scientists-decipher-psychedelic-substance.html
Einstein’s relativity rules chemical bonds in heavy elements, new research shows
New era for Gibraltar with removal of 118-year-old border controls with Spain
Wildfire raging south of Paris could have been set deliberately, says minister
N.J. man says he was almost kicked off plane after flight attendant found shirt offensive
Two podcasters discuss the issues where Trump has alienated his own followers.
“New Poll Shocks Trump, Spells Disaster For MAGA”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=HlIwF6OZBSk
Astronomers Detect Sugar in Interstellar Space for the First Time
Trump warns a reporter ‘will pay the price’ for coverage he doesn’t like
“It hardly seems like a coincidence that the president has meltdowns when reporters raise concerns about secrecy surrounding his health.”
Link
To protect its drinking water, this city has to appeal to the oil regulators that put it at risk. By ProPublica
More at the link, including embedded links to additional sources.
An animal sanctuary where if you look out from the bathroom in the morning you see a peacock staring down at you.
“We Rescued a Peacock… Now He Runs the Place”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=e5G4LCLwHvw
re Lynna@50:
I would be willing to bet that a random 12 year-old could pass with flying colors. He is so deluded that it is a difficult test.
birgerjohansson @43:
For a while, I had some pretty jimsonweeds growing nearby… until I googled em.
Wikipedia – Datura
To be fair Datura are exceptionally uncooperative for use in herbal medicine or recreation. Hopefully the engineered plants do their chemistry reliably outside a lab.
johnson catman @54: “I would be willing to bet that a random 12 year-old could pass with flying colors. He [Trump] is so deluded that it is a difficult test.”
Yep. Even considering the usual trumpian levels of delusion and/or ignorance, it is hard to believe that Trump thinks that test is difficult … and that other people couldn’t pass it
And, of course, Trump continues to repeat his nonsense about the test. His fits of braggadocio remind us that he stupid, that his brain doesn’t work properly, and that he will raise the flag of his ignorance as if it were a virtue at every opportunity.
Oh FFS!
Trump eyes radical new plan: U.S. to be ‘guardian of the Hormuz Strait,’ charge tolls
“Trump announced a spectacularly radical scheme that, among other things, legitimizes the idea of charging fees for passage through the Strait of Hormuz.”
Trump promised America First non-intervention. Also, he wants dominance over the the western hemisphere. And Gaza. And Hormuz. Just abandoned doctrinal justification altogether for the Iran war.
Judge slams Trump-IRS ‘settlement,’ refers attorney for possible disciplinary actions
Good. They needed to be smacked down.
Tickets for the Republicans’ midterm convention cost as much as $20,000
“It’s not a real convention,” a Republican consultant conceded. “It’s just this grifter free-for-all.”
States Sue to Block Paramount-Warner Bros. Merger, Defying DOJ
Zara’s ‘death pants’ are trending because people keep tripping on them
Cyclosporiasis cases in Michigan surpass 2,600, health officials say
These Fruits And Veggies Might Be The Cause Of Cyclosporiasis, The Summer’s Explosive Diarrhea Illness
Politico – Trump notifies Congress of new war against Iran
re CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain@65: Meet the new war, same as the old war.
Raw story: Mystery as Trump announces prime time address to nation
Trump is going to give a speech 9 pm Eastern time. No official word in the announcement but apparently it’s going to be something about the 2020 elections.
Trump to revive 2020 conspiracy with declassified intel in ‘speech to the nation’: report
Archaeologists Just Found the Earliest Known Named Scientist in the Ancient Americas
Coalition of states sues to stop Paramount-Warner megamerger
Fox News:
WTF?
Darline Graham Nordone, sister of Lindsey Graham, chosen to fulfill remainder of his US Senate term
Hegseth intervenes in yet another investigation, shrugs off safety standards
“The hapless defense secretary cares a great deal about beards, but he’s far less concerned about service members and safety standards.”
Related video at the link.
Kyplanet has a new almost 15 mins long video here – on
Why the Grand Tack Hypothesis is Probably Wrong.
Source : https://www.newarab.com/analysis/secret-us-israel-project-mapped-irans-civilian-pressure-points
From one of my fb friends and actually written by her :
Source : https://theshot.net.au/uncategorized/this-independence-day-free-speech-comes-with-decades-long-jail-sentences/
Source : https://www.newarab.com/news/network-torture-camps-what-israels-new-prison-rules-mean
Source : https://www.newarab.com/opinion/how-dare-you-bibi-netanyahu-speak-us-lebanese-christians
One more via The New Arab website here :
Source : https://www.newarab.com/news/israel-weaponising-water-parched-jordan-fights-supply
New Yorker link
“On a military base in West Texas, where the government has built a sprawling tent complex to hold thousands of immigrants, deprivation and dire conditions are part of the design.” By Jonathan Blitzer
Much more at the link.
Latest updated map tracking ‘explosive diarrhea’ cases in the US
The Hill: Trump urges Senate to pass crypto bill in honor of Graham
There no particular connection between the bill and Graham except Graham supported everything Trump told him to support. It’s funny really because it’s so shallow and will do nothing. An emotional appeal from Trump isn’t going to move anybody in Congress and the issue is too narrow and technical for it to have popular support. I wonder who suggested this to Trump, it’s not something he would do on his own.
Musk promises purge after Grok Build caught sending entire repos to the cloud
ALL IN WITH CHRIS HAYES: ‘Beyond horrendous’: ICE fatally shoots 26-year-old father in Maine
Video is 8:30 minutes
ALL IN WITH CHRIS HAYES:‘He wasn’t a victim’: Hayes on Lindsey Graham’s bargain with Trump
Video is 9:01 minutes
Taco Bell eyed in explosive diarrheal outbreak; leafy greens suspected
Does not sound entirely conclusive at this point.
https://www.borowitzreport.com/p/mitch-mcconnell-trounces-trump-on
About that primetime address Trump plans to give:
Link
National Mac & Cheese Day 2026
20 tons of Emmental cheese goes missing between Bavaria and France
Trump keeps changing his story about the alleged ‘gash’ in the Reflecting Pool
“When administration officials can’t keep their story straight about dubious details, it’s a big hint that they’re probably making stuff up.”
Trump refuses to accept that he is responsible, at least in part, for the failure of the MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) between the USA and Iran.
Link
Video at the link.
The Federal Cover-Up of Three Minnesota Shootings Finally Unravels
New York Times link
“E. Jean Carroll Receives $5.6 Million Payment From Trump in Civil Case”
Reginald Selkirk @80: The shades-of-brown map was a cute idea, but I found it difficult to distinguish all 5 gradations. The caption’s CDC link has a better map: shades of blue (same issue) but hovering over a state gives clear case counts.
Food prices went up.
Link for text quoted in comment 94.
In other news: Susan Collins mildly concerned after ICE executes immigrant in her state
Link
https://www.wonkette.com/p/trump-to-show-nation-proof-2020-election
“Trump To Show Nation Proof 2020 Election Stolen By Venezuelan Space Lasers Obama China RIGGED STOLLEN Biden Thermostat LAPTOP”
@93 CompulsoryAccount7746, Sky Captain
Thanks, that map is improved in some ways, but it could be still better.
1) Hovering over a state doesn’t give a clear singular number, it gives a range. Michigan, for example, is “501 to 900.” New York is “161 to 300.”
2) The numbers don’t seem up to date. The CDC map claims “1,645 people with cyclosporiasis acquired in the United States since May 1, 2026” whereas a recent link (#63) claims over 2600 cases in Michigan alone. And I just found this:
Michigan’s Cyclosporiasis Case Count Has Doubled Since Friday: More Than 3,300 Infections Confirmed
Scientists Found Gold in the Most Ironic Place Possible
Reuters – Pollution from Musk’s unpermitted xAI power project hits hardest in Black communities
Rude Law Dog:
Neal Romanek (Journalist):
Rando: “Bond villains are more subtle than this.”
The Verge – New York becomes the first state to enact a data center moratorium
TACO Tuesday
U.S.-Iran War Latest: Trump reverses course on 20% fee for Strait of Hormuz cargo, citing trade deals
Trump slashes Utah’s Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante by 90%
Boston area sky turns yellow as wildfire smoke blocks sun; air quality could be worse on Wednesday
‘Unhealthy’ air quality expected across Minnesota as wildfire smoke spreads
Wisconsin air quality advisory issued statewide as wildfire smoke moves in
etc.
Hungary parliament votes to remove president from office
US burrito giant Chipotle opening first outlet in Mexico
He saw a pit on Google Maps. It turned out to be a 390-million-year-old meteor crater
Reporting from The New Republic:
Commentary:
Link
Cartoon: Timing is everything, by Drew Sheneman
Visiting Earth 385 Million Years Ago (recommended)
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=G4U_QkMR8og
Visiting Earth 3.5 Billion Years Ago
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=jufR6BR2pgg
World Cup semi-final #1. Ain’t sports wonderfully unpredictable? Before this, Spain looked good, but France looked unbeatable. Spain 2 France 0, with Spain dominating throughout. I don’t think France had a shot on goal, and Spain had two. All Spanish players were brilliant, but for me, Olmo and Cucurella stood out.
If England beat Argentina tomorrow (I reckon it’s about 50-50), the final will be edge-of-seat-nailbiting-pants-pissing time. I’m too old for this shit (I was 11 when England won). Go England!
Scientists think they found two key bacteria that cause multiple sclerosis
Dinosaurs on Noah’s ark? A MAGA theme park clings to creationism
CBS News via Yahoo News: DoD watchdog finds 155mm artillery plant built 2 years ago has produced nothing
It opened March 2024, since then it has produced nothing instead of the 30,000 parts a month it was supposed to produce. The company operating the facility is General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems, another branch of the military industrial behemoth General Dynamics.
The problem is partially the Army’s fault. It looks like they agreed to a plan where the contractor bought untested equipment and it didn’t work out. Why it’s taken so long to evaluate and fix the problem is it’s own issue.
Central pastor arrested on battery charge ordered to stay 50 yards from neighbor
Want to guess whether he has evidence of those alleged threats? My guess is no.
Inside The Dark Side Of Scientology As Hollywood Stars Abandon The Faith
(video)
Lindsey Graham Allegedly Connected To Trans Author
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=HSnVqoUsTJo
Miami Herald – 28yo man killed by truck as he fled immigration agents in St. Augustine, Florida
Texas Hispanics swung hard to Trump. A new poll shows they’re furious at his deportations.
Leopards. Faces.
RACHEL MADDOW: Trump embarrassed by another leak, freaks out on New York Times for sources
Video is 7:53 minutes
RACHEL MADDOW: Maddow: Trump caught in desperation spiral as his opposition grows
Video is 9:14 minutes
In Range TV: The Schofield Gun of Pancho Villa’s Assassin
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=WhTVGh6yxjc
The TEC Show brings some good news.
“Democrats’ Maine Senate Odds SURGE After Platner Drops Out”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=2JVcHivDybE
The 5 Smallest Airplanes Ever Built:
.https://youtube.com/shorts/cNjYuYsGAw0
Hegseth isn’t done blocking promotions for women in military leadership roles
Rastafarians in Kenya fail in bid to get cannabis legalised for religious purposes
(I like to include some feel-good tidbits along with the horror)
.
Donkeys can be tremendiously affectionate.
“Tiny Donkey Thinks He’s Actually A Dog”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=MIQKlHSD89E
WTF?
Trump demands additional ICE traffic stops, despite his own administration’s new policy
“On Tuesday, the administration took steps to back off ICE vehicle stops. On Wednesday, the president personally rejected the change.”
Related video at the link.
President Donald Trump endorses Mike Lindell for Minnesota governor
Reported price tag for war with Iran keeps climbing, discrediting Team Trump estimates
“New reporting suggests the cost of the conflict could be more than triple the most recent estimate from the Trump administration.”
Cartoon: Selling the sun by Jen Sorensen
Trump screws up another meeting with a foreign leader
“Goodbye Lindsey Graham”
Stand Up Comedy
Sammy Obeid
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=X43I3vrA8IU
https://www.wonkette.com/p/is-it-illegal-to-try-to-influence
“Is It Illegal To Try To Influence An Election By Giving People A Million Dollars? Elon Musk Is About To Find Out!”
The Hill: Hegseth announces annual testosterone screenings for service members
I assumed this was some humor site when I first read the headline but no.
There is a lot to unpack there, Hegseth has fit a lot of garbage in a small space. “sacred duty” is not something the US military has. Individual soldiers are not always the most important tactical contributor and since machine guns have generally been secondary to something else. He talks like the money spent on this will come close to what is spent on weapon systems.
At the end he implies a soldier’s military performance is more important then their health but that has always been true of the DOD, can’t blame that one on Hegseth.
Jesse Dollemore: “Accusations Against Lindsey Graham Revealed”
.
While we only have one person’s testimony (so far) it follows the usual script of hypocrasy and bigotry so closely I give it something like 99% credibiliy. The part of him wearing red lingerie while paying a college student for sex may or may not be an embellishment, I don’t know how much Republicans are into weird fetishes. Maybe that part has an 80% probability.
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=83BXUmXL6oA
Microsoft Patches a Record 570 Security Flaws
Protesters surround Tim Houston’s car, smash glass after speech
Dr. Erica Schwartz faces questions about vaccines at CDC director confirmation hearing
The new malaria vaccine helps in Africa but faces dosing test
Eat a Hot Dog, Fund Abortion
* That’s July 16!
Lynna @ # 123 & JM @ # 133 – Obviously, the lady admirals-to-be failed their testosterone-level tests!
When will Hegseth announce the excess-melanin test standards, and how will he protect us against the adequate-testosterone gays?
Ken Paxton’s many real estate holdings become an issue in Texas Senate race
“State Rep. James Talarico said the state attorney general owns 11 homes. According to public documents, that’s accurate”
Argentina will meet Spain at football world cup after victory over England.
.
Primordial life, engineering
Zirconium tweak unlocks stronger cast aluminum alloy with ductility boost
.https://phys.org/news/2026-07-zirconium-tweak-stronger-aluminum-alloy.html
.
RNA-only repair enzyme reveals how primordial life could have protected genomes
.https://phys.org/news/2026-07-rna-enzyme-reveals-primordial-life.html
Conservative media figure joins White House team, steers Trump in unfortunate direction
“The president is getting the guidance he wants from John Solomon, who’s inclined to tell him what he wants to hear.”
The real question is: Why is Trump so vulnerable to being “steered” by conspiracy mongering doofuses?
Pierce @140: “Obviously, the lady admirals-to-be failed their testosterone-level tests!”
LOL.
In other “Was Department” news, as reported by the New York Times:
Physical pressure could make EV batteries last twice as long and reduce environmental impact
.https://techxplore.com/news/2026-06-physical-pressure-ev-batteries-environmental.html
Everyone Knows It’s Lindsey (song parody)
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=Qg6NWaPhIWU
In seismic shift, more than 100 House Democrats vote to end Israel aid
Ukraine-Russia war latest: Chief engineer at Europe’s biggest nuclear reactor killed in drone attack, says the Kremlin
France’s National Assembly gives final approval to assisted-dying bill after years of debate
Zelenskyy dismisses Ukraine’s popular Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov
Ukraine’s current strategy seems to be working well. Seems an odd time for a switch.
The TEC Show:
The 2026 Senate Map Southern Battleground States Based On The Newest Data.
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=_55BrZi3H18
Big law firms caved to Trump. Now he’s screwing them over.
Ukraine’s war drones are catching new rides into battle
Donald Trump trolls 3 countries with AI map showing America annexing territories
Demented narcissistic fuckwit.
The one similar idea I might go along with is renaming the Strait of Hormuz for him.
Victor Davis Hanson: The World Is Becoming More Pro-American Than It Has Been in Years
Sure, Jan.
More people around the world now favour China over the US, Pew study suggests
On fb & shared by oneof my friends there referring to E Jean Carroll :
Once it would have meant that President resigned in disgrace or was impeached too.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/senate-democrats-act-like-an-opposition
“Senate Democrats Act Like An Opposition Party, Block $1 Trillion Defense Bill”
New York Times link
“Wildfire Smoke Spreads Across the Northeast as Temperatures Spike”
“A heat dome is responsible for miserably high temperatures, and it’s also helping to push smoke from wildfires to the east.”
More at the link, including maps and photos.
16 July 1969 is when Apollo 11 started on its journey to the moon.
I recall the countdown.
Trump just endorsed the My Pillow guy for governor of Minnesota!
Re; birgerjohansson @ #1`59…
I got a paid day off work for the landing. Only good thing Richard Nixon ever did for me.
whheydt @161:
Richard Nixon: The Accidental Conservation President
Professor Poutine says NATO can exist without the U.S.
The mount of money America spends on NATO is only 16% of NATO’s budget.
Russia is running out of air defence systems. They are losing the war of attrition.
“Satellite Imagery Just Confirmed Putin’s Worst Nightmare”
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=Z2gNuTt4DhA
Trump imposes 25% tariffs on Brazilian goods
China AI Companion Law Takes Effect: Doubao and Qwen Shut Down, Millions Lose Chat Data
‘Scared s–tless’: Republicans brace for Trump’s primetime speech
Welcome to ‘Murica! We can have secret police roaming the streets murdering people, but we can’t have shit in our headlines.
@150
Protests in Ukraine’s cities against Zelensky’s removal of defence minister
Scientists discovered the brain doesn’t make decisions the way we thought
Move over, GPS: Navigation satellites in low-Earth orbit are making a comeback
CBS News: Pentagon proposes new secrecy power to withhold unclassified records from public-access laws
Hegseth wants the ability to further control what information the public gets about the DOD. CUI covers a lot so can’t be sure what Hegseth is targeting. It’s very possible that Hegseth is just working towards blocking everything not released by the DOD press department.
Stanzi Potenza offers useful suggestions for where to meet men. Not all of them are 100% legal.
.https://youtube.com/shorts/J_RSDrgfA1M
More than 500 feared dead after reports of boats capsizing off Myanmar
ALL IN WITH CHRIS HAYES: Trump reverses ICE decision to suspend traffic stops despite two killings
Jacob Soboroff hosts this excellent coverage.
Vdeo is 8:27 minutes
Exclusive reporting: ALL IN WITH CHRIS HAYES: Secret Service balks as Vance seeks helicopter for son’s golf lessons
Jacob Soboroff hosts. Carol Leaning is a knowledgeable guest. The Marine Two ride to a child’s golf lesson is not the only example.
Video is 8:35 minutes
What Happened Outside the Blanche Hearing Was More Important Than What Happened Inside
Cartoon:Tom the Dancing Bug: MAGA does its own scientific research
Followup to comments 67 (JM) and 86 (me).
No Major Networks are Airing Trump’s Speech Thursday Night
Washington Post link
“Trump administration’s new rule will limit foreign students to four-year stays”
“International students and exchange visitors may struggle to finish their degrees without visa extensions under a new DHS rule.”
Now, a gold coin!?!? He wants his name on everything. Let’s indulge him: let’s start re-naming cesspools and toxic waste dumps after tRUMP.
We will be unplugging the television tonight to prevent it being infected by tRUMP LIES and DEMENTIA. Yes, I know that it is unlikely that such deadly infection could spread through electrons. But, given all the diseases being spread everywhere with no gov. agencies left to help, we don’t want to take any chances.
shermanj @179: “re-naming cesspools and toxic waste dumps after tRUMP.”
We probably shouldn’t draw his attention to more pots of money he might defraud.
Wikipedia – Superfund
Too thin to fail: an alternative to copper microchip interconnects
White House teleprompter operator accused of making $100k off Trump speech bets
Canada’s PM Carney says Gordie Howe bridge tolls won’t be split with U.S. until the $6.4B of debt is repaid
CNBC’s ‘worst states to live’ list sparks backlash after red-state sweep
Fascism is bad. Deal with it.
xAI can’t deny Grok makes CSAM anymore. So it’s suing users.
Imagine a gun manufacturer suing someone who used their product in a robbery.
After pushing anti-trans laws to ‘protect women’s sports’, Project 2025’s Heritage Foundation now wants women’s sports gone to ‘assist fertility’
@187
If they are so concerned with “assisting fertility,” they could donate protective cups for amateur male athletes.
Unconventional 2026 wedding 🐍
.https://youtube.com/shorts/uM7SHHPPOKE
Unconventional 2026 wedding 🐍
.https://youtube.com/shorts/uM7SHHPPOKE
From text quoted by Sky Captain @187:
FFS. Sound like retrograde religious crapola to me.
@159. birgerjohansson : “16 July 1969 is when Apollo 11 started on its journey to the moon.
I recall the countdown.”
15th July Aussie time – the day before in USoA time – was the New Horizons fly by of Pluto when we got our first close up look at that wonderful, dynamic, surprising little planet.
Re: SteveR @ #192…
When I was a regional officer with a volunteer educational non-profit and Australia was part of my region, the rule of thumb, if one needed to ‘phone there, was “6 hours ago, tomorrow.”
Thinking of which :
Source : https://edition.cnn.com/2026/07/16/science/new-horizons-hibernation-wake-up
JD Vance accuses Israel of ‘manipulating’ US public opinion to prolong Iran war
Is manipulating public opinion in some other country a bad thing? (cough cough Orban)
We may have found the vandals that damaged the Reflecting Pool: On May 7th, after the pool was painted and sealed, but not filled, Trump’s motorcade drove through the pool. There were at least 10 SUVs in the motorcade.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/trumps-motorcade-driving-across-the-lincoln-memorial-reflecting-pool-may-have-contributed-to-damage/ar-AA26o2Ro
USA Today – Cities that block ICE could lose police, rape kit funding, DOJ says
Makes perfect sense for someone who is pro-rape.
Link to CBC
MSN: Trump quietly rolls out new Truth Social grift
The announcement is a bit vague, no pricing and what “real-time” means in this context is not explained. Depending on how much of an advantage this service gets in speed it could be a serious issue or just contemptible. The point however is clear, they are explicitly selling this to Wall Street as getting early access to Trump’s announcements. Since Trump often makes announcements of new tariffs, deals or government policy this way it’s all important to stock traders.
The trolley problem has been solved.
.https://youtube.com/shorts/7oRsKqsobys
By Stanzi Potenza
Cat vs. Deer (Without Music)
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=w8fxabvGV5Q
At the end you have a herd of deer literally following a cat.
Bones reveal ancient Egyptian princesses born 4,000 years ago used weapons
.https://phys.org/news/2026-07-bones-reveal-ancient-egyptian-princesses.html
They don’t state which dynasty but if it was 4000 years ago it should be the Middle Kingdom period. The Old Kingdom was in the copper-stone age so they could not produce daggers like this.
BBC has live coverage of the new British PM-to-be’s speech on taking up party leadership here – happening right now :
https://www.bbc.com/news/live/clywy2n7g4dt
Trump alleges China meddled in 2020 election and
questions voting security ahead of midtermsproposes a scapegoat for his upcoming historical midterm lossesFTFY
Aroudn a red dwarf sadly so quite probly not so habitable but still Atmosphere discovered on Earth-like exoplanet in our ‘galactic backyard’ specifically LHS 1140 b and 5 mins long video hyperlinked,n
Burnham’s speech finished now BTW.
Zeteo’s analysis here – Trump’s Big Speech Was ‘Gibberish,’ ‘Drivel,’ ‘Horseshit’ Bit over 40 minutes long
StevoR @ 207
The Very Hungry…Catapulter???
Seth Meyers on Trump’s speech:
Trump Has “Really Big News” on Election Security
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=MY4v2TefV4g
Cyclosporiasis outbreak possibly traced to lettuce from Mexico used by Taco Bell, source says
“Possibly”?
“is being investigated”? It all sounds so tentative, as though they were giving in to public pressure to provide answers when they haven’t completed their homework yet.
Emergence of phase coherence in a magnon Bose-Einstein condensate
Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cr59n096mrmo
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-17/moira-deeming-liberal-party-decision-preselection/106928954
For those who haven’t forgotten or don’t know :
Source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moira_Deeming
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-17/ukraine-destroys-tu-95-bomber-in-russia/106930412
Good.
18 mins long clip by Scott Manley noting It’s Official, There Are Too Many Satellites!
AP Exclusive: ICE officer in Maine shooting has history of violent behavior, family and records say
His history is just a list of red flags. He had serious mental problems and was violent from a young age. Both of his ex wives had restraining orders against him for violence, stalking and other behavior. He served in Afghanistan and had PTSD.
If he had actually been vetted properly he should have been automatically rejected. It isn’t clear if ICE has lowered it’s standards so low he passed or if he wasn’t vetted properly at all.
ALL IN WITH CHRIS HAYES: Trump teleprompter operator made over $90K betting on speeches, Kalshi says
Video is 6:59 Minutes
ALL IN WITH CHRIS HAYES: ‘Scared s**tless’: Trump’s 2020 obsession reportedly terrifies Republicans
Video is 8:35 minutes
The omissions from Trump’s primetime address tell their own story
“Even as the president attacked our system of elections, he offered nothing to refute the simple fact that Joe Biden won the 2020 election.”
Related video at the link.
The ‘Doom’ Computer Game Was Part Of Trump’s Wild And Baseless ‘Election Security Nightmare’
Link
YouTube link to Chris Hayes and Jen Psaki discussing Trump’s speech.
An instant reaction to the speech. it’s a scathing appraisal.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/trump-confirms-this-russhur-thing
“Trump Confirms ‘This Russhur Thing With Trump And Russhur’ 100% True, What A Dumbass”
Also ‘They wanted to make you shound like your preshident washn’t sho hot,’ explained Trump, accusing China directly of wanting to make you shound like your preshident washn’t sho hot.
Billing software error sends billion-dollar AWS estimates
Erika Kirk planning your husband’s funeral
.https://youtube.com/shorts/w8VBUsRjhXI
Pentagon Says Drones Can Hide in Wind Farms, Freezing 155 Wind Projects
I expect next they will be screening wind turbines for testosterone levels.
JM @ 216
In a real law enforcement agency -like, being hired by sheriff Bubba- there would be a vetting process involved. The killer is probably not a rare ‘rotten apple’ and that is why ICE should be disbanded (after you get rid of Chuck Shumer).
https://www.wonkette.com/p/jesse-watters-cant-stop-giggling
“Jesse Watters [Fox News host] Can’t Stop Giggling Over Prospect Of ‘High T’ Soldiers Going On Rape Sprees’
Lynna @ # 227, quoting Wonkette quoting Watters: … these guys are going to be wild animals …
I think he’s implying that the Mexican men crossing the border, per Hegseth’s boss 10 years ago, were/are exemplary high-T cases.
By his own logic, he should be doing everything possible to recruit them into the US military.
Trump says US being ‘invaded by filthy air’ as he threatens Canada with tariffs over wildfires
FFS, Canada should refuse to pay the tariff on wildfire smoke and demand that that US turn back the smoke at the border.
Do declassified files support Trump’s election security claims?
Did Betteridge write a Law of Headlines?
Pierce @228, good points. LOL. Of course, Hegseth is not big on logic. Neither is Trump.
Cartoons and other news.
Cartoon:If real life encounters were like social media
Cartoon: It’s a bird … it’s a plane
Other news: Trump says Canada will face tariffs over wildfire smoke, claiming ‘willful negligence’
Republicans Blaming Canada For Climate Change
https://www.wonkette.com/p/republicans-blaming-canada-for-climate
William Shatner is boldly going to Riot Fest with his heavy metal band
US Forest Service workers held hostage at gunpoint in California forest for hours: Authorities
Disease-resistant coral found that could help restore Florida’s reef
IRS’ top tax official reportedly ousted after warning of White House interference
“Kenneth Kies appears to be the second higher-up at the IRS to be pushed out after bristling at the administration’s efforts to politicize the tax system.”
Man allegedly chases family with shovel, threatens to kill them
Pro-Kremlin blogger who turned on Putin is arrested as Russia steps up crackdown
Japan revises law on royals, keeps blocking women from throne
Japan passes legislation banning violation of national flag
Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez drops out of the governor’s race
ICE facility employee shoots protester near facility: APD
@230. Reginald Selkirk : “Did Betteridge write a Law of Headlines?”
Ironically yes. Also I see what you did there.
Source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headlines
@206. StevoR : “Around a red dwarf sadly so quite probly not so habitable but still Atmosphere discovered on (ed not really veryearth-like at all) “Earth-like” exoplanet in our ‘galactic backyard’ specifically LHS 1140 b..
Its wikipage ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LHS_1140_b ) notes that LHS 1140b is also an ocean planet (maybe a Hycean one?) too so yeah NOT actually really “Earth-like” although still fascinating discovery and intresting potential perhaps?
Caitlin Clark makes history, scores career-high 45 as Fever beat Storm
Autonomous micro-drone achieves first air-to-air insect kill on the way ‘towards completely eradicating mosquitoes’ — 40-gram unit uses car parking sensors, can eliminate insects at up to 26 feet
So they demoed killing a moth rather than an actual mosquito, but think they are ready to release a product?
We Went to a Yacht Party for the Most Pro-Deportation People in DC
Nothing like a yacht party to establish that you represent the majority of the people.
This New Process Turns Plastic Trash Into Clean Fuel Instead of Pollution
As well as carbon-carbon bonds.
A peaceful nature video.
“Maine Coon Louis Jr. Just Boarded a Boat Like a Pirate!” 🏴☠️🐾
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=L2FAcstpLjE
In the background, you may hear Die Toten Hosen playing at the Berlin Olympiastadion.
New York Times link
“The Trump administration has lost or abandoned hundreds of criminal cases against protesters and immigrants, a Times investigation found.”
Venezuela earthquakes death toll surpasses 5,000
“Authorities say the death toll from the powerful June 24 earthquakes has climbed above 5,000 as recovery crews continue clearing debris.”
NBC NEWS EXCLUSIVE
Idaho pushed anti-trans laws for years. Then a teen died.
“The life and death of May Pollard, 16, provides a window into the tragic effect that legislation and political rhetoric have had on trans people in America.”
Photos at the link.
TheNewRepublic – Trump caused millions in damage after Freedom 250 diesel spill
@249 Lynna, OM: I’m pretty sure the Trump administration didn’t expect to win all of these cases. Some of these cases are being brought just because prosecution is itself a heavy punishment for an average persons. The cost and time of defending yourself from a serious federal charge is huge.
I also get the impression that in some cases they Trump appointed federal prosecutor has worked themselves into a bad situation. They make some big threat of prosecution, the case makes the news, and then the prosecutor feels trapped. One thing that is not acceptable to the Trump administration is a big public retreat by officials, having blustered their way into a corner they feel the only way forward is to bring big charges they know will probably get thrown eventually. When that happens they can blame the judge rather then it looking like their fault.
Mediaite: Stephen Miller Declares Trump Admin Pushing to De-Bank Illegal Immigrants
This is the sort of thing Trump loves. It sounds sensible when you first hear it but when you think through how it will really work it’s a bad idea. It will take money out of the US banking system and put it in the hands of the human smugglers and drug dealers who will get to act as illegal banks also. It will help money laundering for the drug networks, as they get a large group of people who need to operate in cash.
More durable than the buildings created by a certain sh*thouse president?
“What one of Emperor Hadrian’s latrines is telling us about the durability of Roman concrete”
.https://phys.org/news/2026-07-emperor-hadrian-latrines-durability-roman.html
More Trump casualties:
Two US troops killed and one missing after Iranian attack in Jordan
Yesterday.
Elia Ayoub (Journalist, Lebanese diasporan): “Desalination plants are being targeted again. Iran hit one in Kuwait hours ago.”
Today.
Al Jazeera: “The US has bombed bridges and energy infrastructure in the seventh straight night of attacks on Iran. Officials in Hormuzgan said one strike cut water to several towns. Iran has responded with attacks on US bases in Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan.”
Al Jazeera: “Kuwait’s civilian infrastructure is certainly being hit hard by the IRGC. A power and desalination plant was hit for a second day. […] The country doesn’t have permanent lakes or rivers. It has very little rain. So, 90 percent of its drinking water comes from seawater desalination. Two plants have been attacked over the past few days, out of nine major desalination plants in the country, according to Kuwaiti figures.”
Al Jazeera: “‘Some 10,000 people across 20 Iranian villages’ without water after US attack. The US attack that hit water desalination pumps in the coastal Bunji village, in Iran’s Jask county […] a pumping station […] and a power transformer at the […] plant were ‘completely destroyed’.”
Mark Chadbourn (Journalist):
Previously…
Sanho Tree, on March 5-8:
ForeignPolicy – Understanding the Illegality of Trump’s Iran Threats (Apr 14)
Nicholas Grossman (Intl rels prof): “Preventing some Iranian villagers from getting drinking water does nothing to prevent the IRGC from firing missiles and drones.”
Rando: “JFC. It’s the middle of goddamn summer you evil fuckers!”
The Guardian – Marco Rubio launches campaign to dismantle international criminal court
META In Damage Control, Deadly Germ Released From Data Center
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=Jc4GWA-EY6o
Behold Cupriavidus gilardii, a rare, multidrug-resistant bacterium with a mortality rate of 31%. No one has died yet, but the release was only caught by accident. Thank you, techbros.
‘God, the Science, the Evidence’ written for believers and atheists
No, but thanks for asking.
Au contraire. If God (which you haven’t defined) exists, then it’s all about Him. Your wishes and desires are meaningless. You only exist to serve His needs.
They are putting Catholic miracle tales in with the Big Bang? roll-eyes
Mark Chadbourn: “Here, in the dumbest timeline, Hegseth’s response [to dead US service members]: ‘Godspeed, heroes. Their sacrifice only stiffens our resolve.'”
Ben Shapiro takes on an atheism question at University of Utah. His argument: without belief in free will and purpose, civilization itself collapses. Do you agree?
I think we should all agree that Ben Shapiro is very stupid.
1) That is a fallacious appeal to consequences. Even if true (which is unproven), it does not support his conclusion.
2) Am I supposed to ignore the evidence of my perceptions that civilization may in fact be collapsing? And that Ben Shapiro is on the side of collapse?
From text quoted by Sky Captain @252:
JFC. Yet another Trump administration fiasco that damages the environment, is falsly blamed on vandals, and that was caused by a project than ran over budget.
I am so sick of seeing this kind of incompetence, stupidity, and failure to abide by regulations.
JM @258: “The cost and time of defending yourself from a serious federal charge is huge.”
That’s so true. And, of course, the Trump Department of Justice brings cases to court that they can’t win because it discourages other protestors. And … just bringing the cases to court seems to please Trump.
What are the 400 uses of dental floss?
Russian online retail warehouses hit by deadly Ukrainian strikes
Britain’s Kerr breaks 27-year mile world record in London
“Satan handles Trump and Elon ”
.https://youtube.com/shorts/VAqHh0WWggA
Text quoted by Sky Captain @258:
That strikes me as an accurate assessment.
And, now, the Trump administration is destroying water supplies in Iran … yet another way to kill civilians.
Follow up to comment 257 from Sky Captain.
Link
How food delivery works in Ukraine’s ‘killing zone’
“In the breadbasket of the world, people on the front lines can’t access food without the help of U.N. convoys outrunning Russian drones.”
Ann Droid review – Diane Morgan and Sue Johnston’s fresh, funny robot comedy is just wonderful | Television | The Guardian .https://share.google/kqWOjnEP5gqZs6IgO
@127
Mike Lindell, Trump’s pick for governor, isn’t registered to vote in Minnesota
CNN – Plainclothes ICE agents left man partially handcuffed at Las Vegas airport after being confronted by onlookers
Politico – Trump admin activates never-before-used ‘alien terrorist’ deportation court
Rando: “I’m kinda fascinated that this court has existed for 30 years without ever hearing a single case.”
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick: “It comes as the Trump admin has reclassified many gangs as ‘terrorists,’ and accused some innocent people of being gang members. […] These cases will be heard in front of actual federal judges who tend to be a lot harder to get one over than an immigration judge.”
Evan Bernick (Law prof): “the article should have mentioned that judges get to determine whether there’s probable cause. […] judges have a bunch of space here to push back on that. PC that this is the person AND that they’re a terrorist.”
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick: “To me the significantly more concerning aspect is the fact that this can be applied to family members of people who are accused terrorists”
Tate brothers arrested by U.S. authorities, face additional rape charges in the U.K.
Rep. Ralph Norman launches campaign to replace Lindsey Graham in Senate race
France doubles down on restricting access to Polymarket
Philip Bump (Data editor, Journalist):
Commentary
Glad to hear about the Tate brothers.
.
Also, the English will go crazy now that they have secured at least third place in the World Cup.
The Guardian – White House says Donald Trump will attend World Cup final
Lynna previously covered Trump’s hate for Spain.
Julian Sanchez: “Really enjoying the increasingly probable prospect of Trump having to present the World Cup trophy to Spain. Odds he tantrums out?”
Seven Days of Science latest video here taking 11mins to watch plus 15 seconds and covering much more than just the title story.
https://www.ms.now/opinion/jd-vance-joe-rogan-epstein
“JD Vance is taking the vice presidency in a strange new direction”
“The vice president is walking a delicate line between validating a paranoid worldview and praising his boss.”
Sky Captain @275:
Well, that is terrifying. Trump must love it. Ditto for Stephen Miller.
Barns, go-karts and strip malls: The wild west of private schools that collect taxpayer dollars, by ProPublica
Reginald Selkirk@276,
I’ll be mightily surprised if Trump doesn’t interfere to prevent the Tate brothers’ extradition to the UK.
Along with other psychological propensities of many politicians (and so many, like these, are very disturbing), we have been studying the professed relationships of the men of the magat administration. We see tRUMP, pigseth and others make statements about other men that are definitely homoerotic, clearly expressing a desire for a sexual relationship.
However, their hypocrisy and confusion is obvious, since their policies are clearly, consistently homophobic.
tRUMP on Kim Jong Un, ‘we fell in love’.
He calls pm Modi ‘most beautiful-looking man’.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/fawning-trump-80-thirsting-over-men-on-world-stage/
“He was in a hotel and I met him. We fell in love, deeply in love,” he said of el-Sisi, who Trump once famously referred to as his “favorite dictator.” “We didn’t know each other before that. We had great chemistry, and I stayed twice as long as I was supposed to.”
Pointing out a male (coast guard) graduate who earned a perfect score on every fitness test, Trump mused: “This guy must be something. I think we’ll have to invite him up… I want to check him out.”
https://www.salon.com/2026/07/17/pete-hegseth-wants-to-measure-your-manhood/
20260717 Pete Hegseth wants to measure your manhood The defense secretary’s obsession with high testosterone levels can’t hide MAGA insecurity
https://www.advocate.com/voices/opinion-hegseth-johnson-gay-men
Pete Hegseth is another Republican obsessed with gay sex
Aug 12, 2025 This man is so obsessed with his own looks, his tattoos, his gym body, and his rugged, camera-ready image.
and later we found this, confirming our assessment:
Democratic Congresswoman Calls Out Pete Hegseth’s ‘Homoerotic’ Politics
2 days ago Rep. Becca Balint criticized Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s new military testosterone screening policy, calling it hypocritical.
Scott MacFarlane @MacFarlaneNews About Pete Hegseth’s talk about testosterone for service members …
Rep Becca Balint (D-VT):
“There are so many people in this Administration that have some weird, intense homoerotic feelings toward men, while also being homophobic”…
8:16 AM · Jul 16, 2026
Washington Post EXCLUSIVE
“Trump immigration officials seek to mend frayed ties with business as arrests spike”
“Under new DHS chief Markwayne Mullin, officials met for the first time with trade groups concerned about losing workers to the president’s deportation campaign.”
Troy Jackson has effectively secured the Maine Senate Democratic nomination
Short video
“Scientists Cure Cancer By Injecting Frog Bacteria”
.https://youtube.com/shorts/VGvuEc_tLQY
Washington Post link
“Spain, scoring late, tops Argentina, 1-0, to win 2026 World Cup”
[…] “Spain beating Argentina, 1-0, in extra time.”
“42” is a number loaded with symbolic meaning.
This year, it is 42 years since Beverly Hills Cop.
This must be wrong, it is maybe twenty years, max!
US soldier killed in Iraq during ‘controlled detonation’ of Iranian drone
I could not find any description on how the drone is supposed to kill the mosquito. Does it drive the hapless insect in between its blades? Does it zap them like a bug zapper?
Perfectly legal residents of the US already don’t trust banks and do everything with cash anyhow. I guess they’re planning on stealing their cash when they gratuitously beat, kill, and arrest them?
seachange @294.
PopSci: “it deals the final blow by ripping the insects apart with its propellers—a process that presumably causes some wear and tear on the hardware itself.”
@294
Yes.
Another version of the story
NYT – Retailers remove more Taylor Farms lettuce after recall in 27 states
Progress in taxonomy and evolution of the licorice family
Youtube: Stewart Hicks
and JB Pritzker: Why We Can’t Build Apartments Like This Anymore
Short video explaining one of the housing pricing problems. A safety regulation that requires most apartment buildings to have two staircases had a side effect of making a whole class of mid sized buildings unprofitable. Apartment buildings had to either be only a few floors to fit under the limit or they had to be tall so they covered the cost of the space loss.
Several states are now removing that from the housing code by law. Mostly to remove the price problem, they justify it because safety in general is much better and that rule outdated. Time will tell if it’s a good idea or not.
Smoke from U.S. wildfires affecting air quality in British Columbia
Oh no! Now Canadian senators will send us a strongly worded memo blaming us for not putting out our fires!
NPR – ICE shared Medicaid data it wasn’t supposed to have with Palantir
DailyBeast – Trump Faces Deafening Jeers at World Cup Trophy Ceremony
Seven Rasmussen: “Physicist here. That actually means the booing was four times as intense as the ambient noise.”
Rando: “Watching at a bar, the whole bar also booed Trump.”
Elia Ayoub: “Infantino tried to get Trump to move [Video clip]”
Brutal photo caption from The Guardian: “Gianni Infantino carefully explains to Donald Trump that he is not part of the Spanish national team.”
MSNOW – Trump made the World Cup another stage for his cruelty and corruption
AI chatbots are at risk of spreading government restrictions on online speech, a new study says
Tropical Storm Bertha expected to form Monday off Florida coast
FBI reportedly directed to stop investigating confrontations with immigration agents
“The departments of Justice and Homeland security called the report ‘false,’ as Democrats continue to sound the alarm.”
Wealth gap lesson #1, cartoon by David Horsey.
Well, sh-t: Trump’s gutted FDA can’t find source of diarrhea parasite
https://www.borowitzreport.com/p/susan-collins-concerned-that-maine
The list of homes owned by Texas’ Ken Paxton grows, adding to his political problems
“James Talarico accused his Republican rival of owning 11 homes. As it turns out, he was understating matters.”
[…] Paxton and his team made little effort to push back against its details. Instead, a spokesperson for the scandal-plagued Texan told the newspaper, “Every time a fighter like Donald Trump and Ken Paxton stand up to the political elite, the same playbook comes out: dig through a man’s private life, string together puzzle pieces to draw the most damning conclusion.”
At no point has Paxton or his team denied, or taken any steps to explain, his many home purchases. The state attorney general’s campaign has not responded to multiple requests for comment from MaddowBlog.
New York sculptor spent $100,000 to make a Charlie Kirk statue no one wants to buy
Trump caught hiding true carnage of Iran war
re Reginald Selkirk@310: Maybe if the artist had made the sculpture an “after the shot” representation, someone may have wanted to buy it.
re Lynna@311:
Maybe January 21, 2029?
Steve Benen summarized news reported by the Minneapolis Star Tribune:
Trump Comes to Terms With the Fact That the Entire SAVE Act Can’t Be Stuffed in Budget Bill
“Trump acknowledged the reality in a Truth Social post that appeared to be a signal to his far-right supporters in the House to help pass the budget blueprint — even though it won’t include all of his demands.”
Hacker Wipes Romania’s Entire Land Registry Database
How a notorious billionaire is behind Trump’s Rose Garden statue spree
Yemen’s Houthis declare naval blockade against Saudi Arabia
A peaceful rural scene.
Paisley bottle-fed Rufus the bull since he was a tiny calf, so she is the only human that is safe inside the fence. Here she is greeting the cow Roxanne.
“Rufus protects his girls”
.https://youtube.com/shorts/MNkCDbKFzWM
AI Tends to Develop New Stereotypes to Base Hiring Decisions On, Study Says
These Mountain Lakes Should Never Have Had Trout. New Evidence Points to Prehistoric Humans
Lockheed Martin’s Morfius X-Rotor built to fry 50 enemy drones in one flight
Lockheed Martin announces cheaper Patriot interceptor missile
Ortega says Nicaragua will no longer hold elections
Trump imposes 50% tariffs on Canadian goods, citing disputes over autos, alcohol and cheese
No mention of wildfire smoke.
Republicans back Trump’s legal theory to continue the Iran war without congressional approval
Sausalito city manager arrested 3 weeks after starting job, accused of trying to steal boat
This is a very long article. The synthetic audio narration is 65 mins. Despite the title, it covers lots of the Biden admin’s (inadequate) attempts and (aborted) plans to rein in Israel. While Netanyahu kept stringing them along.
New Yorker – How Biden enabled Israel’s aggression toward Gaza—and Iran
New Yorker link
“The Man Who Green-Lighted Trump’s Ballroom”
“Rodney Mims Cook, Jr., a Presidential sidekick from Atlanta and a triumphal-arch enthusiast, is just back from Russia, where he hung out with Putin and Steven Seagal.”
MS NOW:
New York Times:
Steve Benen, who writes for The Maddow Blog, noted the this was “Just days after Trump said Putin wanted to end the war.”
Philadelphia Inquirer:
Why Markwayne Mullin decided to amplify Iranian propaganda as if it were real
‘The DHS secretary effectively positioned himself as a parrot for Iranian operatives who created disinformation. Shouldn’t resignation chatter soon follow?”
If that had actually been applied, the USA would not have supplied Israel with so much as a water-pistol.
Lynna, OM@330,
Burnham has cleared out many of Starmer’s ministers, but appointments to the “three great offices of state” (Chancellor, Home Secretary, Foreign Secretary) confirm that policy changes from Starmer’s time are likely to be minimal.
The only one of Starmer’s senior ministers to stay in the same job is the socially conservative right-winger Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, and author of the cruel and stupid Immigration and Asylum Bill currently going through Parliament (if you can find an immigrant or child of immigrants to front your attack on immigrants, that’s obviously advantageous), which will impose onerous conditions on immigrants and especially refugees. Bringing in family members will be made harder, and the qualifying time for “Indefinite Leave to Remain” (the step before naturalisation) will be increased from 5 to 10 years, and for asylum seekers, 20 years. The latter will also have to re-apply every 3 years (I think, might be 30 months), and will be expelled back to the country they fled if it is now judged safe. You can imagine the fear that will create, and can only surmise that this is exactly the point. One of the main complaints about immigrants is that they “fail to integrate” – making it impossible for them to feel secure or make long-term plans will obviously not encourage them to do so.
The new Foreign Secretary is Ed Miliband, regarded as somewhat to the left of the party, formerly Secretary for Energy and Climate Change. While this is a promotion, and Miliband is likely to take a somewhat less obsequious attitude to Israel (which Burnham has also signalled), it also gets him out of the way (he is serious about climate and environmental issues) so Burnham can allow more drilling for oil and gas in the North Sea, as he has signalled he intends. This will produce too little to have any effect on energy prices, or provide more than a few jobs, but is an obvious retreat from treating the climate crisis seriously.
Both Miliband and Mahmood were supposedly in the running for Chancellor, the most important of the three posts (Miliband has a background in economics, Mahmood has none and appointing her would have been absurd), but this has been given to John Healey, who resigned as Defence Secretary during Starmer’s final days in office, complaining that too little money was being allocated to preparing for possible war with Russia. I imagine Burnham has appointed him to, in effect, tell him: “OK, you find the extra money, then.”
Reginald Selkirk@310,
Very amusing! It’s remarkable how quickly mention of Kirk and his “Turning Point USA” have faded from far-right propaganda. One might indeed think his assassination has turned out to be a net positive for opponents of fascism, despite all the warnings that such violent acts always make things worse. I understand some of his followers have gravitated to Nick Fuentes and his “groypers”, but Fuentes’s open antisemitism and neo-Nazism make him less useful politically to the far right. (BTW, has no-one around Fuentes noticed how close this name for his acolytes is to “gropers”? But maybe that doesn’t have the meaning of “sexual assaulters” in the USA.)
Yeesh Albo! Yuk.
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-21/anthony-albanese-30-years-parliament-kitchen-cabinet/106883904
So very disappointing and sad especially coming from a formerly left wing ALP PM..
Hackers are exploiting recently patched WordPress bugs, putting millions of websites at risk
@ 336
Of course it does. That’s a feature not a bug as the kids say.
A Fighter Jet That Takes Off Without a Runway Is One Step Closer to Vertical Takeoff
If You’re Reading This, You’re Probably an AI Bot
Gad; what if I’m an AI bot and don’t even know it?
The Large Hadron Collider Is Getting Its Biggest Upgrade Yet. What Comes Next Could Change Physics
Democrats bank on Republicans nominating far-right primary candidates in swing state Arizona
Astronomers May Have Found the First Pair of Stars to Explode Together
Legal AF: Trump ORDERS Blanche Not to Testify in Katie Phang Epstein Files Case!?!
Michael Popok talks about the current state of Katie Phang’s court request that the DOJ comply with the Epstein act. The ultimate point being why nothing seems to be happening. The DOJ is slow walking the case, making pointless requests of the court just to take more time. The DOJ really wants to stall until Blanche’s confirmation is done because anything that happens now is going to make him look bad.
As ICE controversies intensify, White House border czar Tom Homan takes aim at dissent
“To save lives, Homan effectively argued, ICE’s detractors should simply say what he wants them to say. That won’t work.”
Link
Followup to Reginald @103 and 229; Lynna @158 and 231.
Link
Nigerian children pay the price for the Iran war as malnutrition and poverty surge, by Associated Press
Cartoon: So much greatness, by Tom Tomorrow
Good news.
Link
Sen. Warnock’s ban on private equity firms buying single-family homes becomes federal law.
One of strictest US abortion bans could be overturned in November’s election
Oregon approves PGE’s 29.7% rate hike for data centers under landmark law
These Maine librarians are helping patrons resist AI and Big Tech
More good news excerpts are available at the main link.
Some Mullvad VPN customers tunnel for exit after co-founder donates millions to populist party
Kratos phishing-as-a-service kit loses its battle with international law enforcement
AP – Israel is building a miles-long earthen barrier inside Gaza
Steve Benen summarized a New York Times report :
Bad news.
In other political news, Benen reports that:
That’s good news, since Fetterman has been adopting Republican positions lately.
Pickles glow when you plug them in. Science explains why
New York Times link
“The Fake Influencers Selling Wellness on Your Feed”
“The New York Times found hundreds of A.I.-generated doctors, healers and wellness influencers on social media touting the health benefits of supplements to American consumers. Many of these hyperrealistic looking ads promise medical miracles, and appear to be targeting older women, while making misleading health claims for a profit.”
Picklesburgh is getting rowdy and we’re releasing the “Pickle Bull!”
Amazon data center in Bahrain struck and destroyed by Iranian cruise missiles, state media claims — attacks launched against AWS site in response to alleged US strikes on an under-construction nuclear plant
Zelensky sacks Ukraine’s top army commander after days of protests