Sun - I Am the God of Hellfire and I Bring You ... FIRE!!

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Today's Worst Joke in the World

The love triangle soon turned into a wrecktangle.


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Today's Worst Person in the World Nominees

Three Little Words.

It’s not just that US Supreme Court majorities upheld Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban and overturned Roe v. Wade. The opinion also skewed the crux of the conversation going forward – with just three words.

“Unborn human being” is the term Associate Justice Samuel Alito adopted from the Mississippi statute, thereby replacing the key phrase in the landmark 1973 Roe ruling that spelled out a constitutional right to abortion: “potential life.”

It may seem like a semantic argument. Experts say it’s anything but.

Alito didn’t write God or Christianity or Bible anywhere in the opinion, but his justification is a veiled “religious narrative,” said Rebecca Todd Peters, a religious studies professor at Elon University. By co-opting the language in Mississippi’s law in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the majority opinion gives credence to the notion – embraced largely by the religious right – that life begins at fertilization, she said. The ruling has already emboldened several states to ban and criminalize the medical procedure in almost all circumstances.

“That is an enormous shift,” Peters said. “It erases whole groups of people who have different religious beliefs.”

Peters, who is ordained in the Presbyterian Church, isn’t merely speaking about Christians. When a zygote, embryo or fetus becomes a human being is far from an objective determination within or across any religions. There is no scientific gauge: Doctors tend to focus on viability, which experts believe to be around 23 weeks, though health outcomes improve the longer the gestational period. Various religions have relied on a range of wayposts, including fertilization, quickening (when the mother feels the fetus moving), when the embryo develops a heartbeat, ensoulment and birth.

Confounding matters is that, just like in Christian sects, there are chasms of disagreement among other religions – not only regarding personhood but also a woman’s bodily autonomy – making holy texts a troublesome barometer for whether abortion should be outlawed. Worse, said Peters, is that by co-opting the term, “unborn human being,” it signals “which religious voices get authority and power in our country.”

Who Was Advising Previous Guy on Dec 18th?  How Many Ties to Russia?

Take a moment to think about the staggering counterintelligence issues in the crazy Dec 18, 2020 WH meeting. A thread.

In the Oval Office, people advocated Trump illegitimately hold on to power, including using the military to seize voting machines.

That group included: (/1)

Mike Flynn, who who was paid by an organ of Russian state media to travel to Moscow to attend a dinner where he was seated next to Putin.

Flynn later plead guilty to lying to the FBI about conversations he had with the Russian Ambassador about election interference. (/2)

Patrick Byrne, one of several men once in an intimate relationship with convicted Russian agent Marina Butina.

Byrne gave money to Butina after her return to Russia, where she ran for the Duma, hounded Navalny, and supported the invasion of Ukraine. (/3)

Patrick Byrne, the pro-Trump former Overstock CEO admits funneling cash to his ex-lover Maria Butina, the glamorous spy expected to be elected to Russia's parliament

Maria Butina, a spy jailed and deported by the US, is standing for the Russia's parliament. Insider spoke to Patrick Byrne about their relationship.

Rudy Giuliani, who repeatedly met with and took info from sanctioned Russian agents like Andrii Derkach, despite USIC warnings to the White House in 2019 that Trump’s personal lawyer “was the target of an influence operation by Russian intelligence” 

Full Thread

Recruiting Teen Nazis

The data offers a rare peek into a burgeoning network of neo-Nazis threatening to kill politicians and journalists, providing instruction on how to build bombs and weapons with 3D printers, and encouraging each other to attack houses of worship, the gay community and people of color. It’s what extremism researchers call “militant accelerationism” — a movement to spark a war for white power.

There are dozens of these groups on both sides of the Atlantic with martial names drawn from Nazi propaganda. Many followers have been influenced by the writings of James Mason, the 69-year-old Coloradan who joined an American Nazi party at age 14 and whose books and newsletter are considered modern-day Mein Kampfs for adherents.

Full Story

Do We Have Kindergarteners in Congress?

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) speculated on a right-wing talk show Saturday that Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) avoids her because she intimidates him.

That’s definitely not it, Swalwell slapped back on Twitter.

He just doesn’t like her.

Boebert packed in as many insults as she could against Swalwell in an interview with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee on his TBN talk show.

Boebert called Swalwell — a la kindergarten — “Eric Smells Not So Well.”


“I’ve actually tried to have conversations with Eric Smells Not So Well,” she explained. “It doesn’t really work out. He bee-lines away from me. And so maybe I’m intimidating.”


I Am Sure All Texans Want Guys With AK-47s In Their Local Mall.

A Texas man who was tackled in a Houston mall in February while carrying a rifle and 120 rounds of ammunition near a children’s event was sentenced to six months in prison for the incident ― which was only charged as a misdemeanor because he never fired his weapon.

Surveillance video from the Feb. 5 incident showed the suspect ― identified as Guido Herrera ― within just a few feet of hundreds of children participating in a dance competition at the Galleria mall. Herrera was wearing a leather mask with spikes and a shirt with the Punisher logo on it. He carried a rifle in one hand and a Bible in the other.

That was when Kendrick Simpo (another hero)― an off-duty police sergeant who was working his second job as a security guard ― rushed Herrera and pinned him against a wall.

“I quickly bum rushed, tackled him,” Simpo told local station ABC 13. “And my first reaction was to make sure that I get a hold of the rifle. No matter what I grabbed, make sure I grabbed that rifle. I had in my mind [that] I was going to get shot. I just had to bear the pain, I knew it was going to hurt, and I was like, ‘Whatever I do, I cannot let go of this rifle.’”

Simpo was able to hold Herrera until backup arrived and an arrest was made. Police also found 120 rounds of ammunition and another handgun. But under Texas law, because Herrera never fired a shot, he was only slapped with a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge.

Herrera was also charged for a separate incident a month later, on March 18, when authorities say he showed up at the FBI headquarters in Houston demanding to speak to the agency’s director. Authorities say they found a gun in his car, but again, were only able to charge him with the misdemeanor of unlawfully carrying a weapon, according to the Houston Chronicle.

“His circumstance kind of fell in the gaps,” prosecutor Barbara Mousset said at Herrera’s sentencing Thursday, according to the Chronicle. “He took advantage of some technicalities in the law — he had the right to have that firearm and ultimately this was the only charge that we could get him on.”

Defense attorney Armen Merjanian called Herrera a “gun-loving Texan” who had a right to possess the weapons.

Herrera was sentenced to an additional year on the possession charge, bringing his total sentence to 18 months, with credit for time served.

The Lies, The Whole Lies, and Nothing But the Lies

Uvalde officials presented the Texas Department of Public Safety with a document labeled "narrative" during a closed-door meeting days after the May 24 shooting.

According to the The New York Times,the document put together a timeline of events from interviews with police officers who responded to the May 24 Robb Elementary shooting, which resulted in the deaths of 19 fourth-graders and 2 teachers.

"There was zero hesitation on any of these officers' part, they moved directly toward the gunfire," the document said, according to the Times.

Another section of the document called the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District police force and Uvalde Police Department officers "heroes."

"The total number of persons saved by the heroes that are local law enforcement and the other assisting agencies is over 500 per U.C.I.S.D.," the document said, according to the Times. "But for U.P.D. and U.C.I.S.D. being on scene IMMEDIATELY, that shooter would have had free range on the school."

The QOP Promises to Focus on the Issues Americans Care About:  The Wuhan Lab and Hunter Biden

"Trump's fiercest acolytes have started to publicly push for hearings and probes into his baseless claims of fraud in the 2020 election -- even as the select committee reveals an avalanche of testimony about how those lies incited a violent mob to attack the Capitol." 


"Aside from possible election-related inquiries, some of the GOP's potential investigative targets include the origins of the novel coronavirus, particularly the laboratory leak theory that has gained steam in Republican circles; the bureaucratic decision-making behind Covid-related school closures and vaccine mandates; any business dealings involving President Joe Biden's son, Hunter; the chaotic pullout from Afghanistan; and the border policies being overseen by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. [...] there's also been growing calls on the right for the GOP to use its firepower to rewrite the narrative on January 6."
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Today's Best Person in the World Nominees

They Don't Ever Duck Work or Send a Bill

South Africa's viniculture industry employs around 270,000 people, producing some of the world's most sought-after wines. But not all jobs are best left to humans. In some cases, it's better to get your ducks in a row -- and then put them to work.

Outside Cape Town on the banks of the Eerste river, Vergenoegd Löw The Wine Estate has repurposed a centuries-old practice by marshaling a battalion of ducks to keep its vineyard free of pests.

Inspired by ducks used to remove pests from rice paddies in Asia, the winery calls on the services of some 1,600 ducks as part of its effort to make wine production more sustainable.

"I call our ducks the soldiers of our vineyards," says managing director Corius Visser. "They will eat aphids, they will eat snails, they will eat small worms -- they keep (it) completely pest-free."

Ducks have patrolled Vergenoegd Löw The Wine Estate since the 1980s in a fowl feeding frenzy. No pest has been safe.

The species, the Indian runner duck, is flightless, with a peculiarly upright stance and highly developed sense of smell. The duck troops are cajoled on a 14-day circuit through the vineyard, eating and fertilizing the ground as they go.

The ducks' "annual leave" takes place during the harvest (they'd eat the grapes). During this time they forage on open farm pasture, swim in a nearby lake and undergo selective breeding, says Visser.

Duck eggs are consumed in the vineyard restaurant, but never the ducks themselves -- "that would be like eating a colleague," Gavin Moyes, the estate's tasting room manager, said in a 2020 interview.



Today's Biggest Hero in the World

Allow me to introduce a patriot.

A Russian patriot, a citizen of the world patriot.

His name is Vitaly Tsitsurov, and he lives in Smolensk, a city in Western Russia that was founded in 863AD.

Vitaly has always been a quiet soft spoken man, but that hasn’t stopped him from constantly speaking truth and keeping it real, in a country where if you do, you will be beaten, detained and jailed, and often.

Which is what Vitaly has been going through, day after day after day, week after week.

For over four months.

He got arrested the very first day he took to the street, the day after the invasion.

He’s been arrested seven times.

He has been physically attacked two dozen times, which nine of those times were very violent, breaking his jaw and his nose.

As we are aware, calling Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine a ‘war’ is a criminal offense.

What’s an anti war protestor to do?

He stands by himself with a small sign that says simply, ‘No *ar’, and quietly engages both supporters which there are many, and detractors, which there are also many.

Trying to convince a populace that is being spoon fed propaganda and with no allowance for a dissenting opinion, that the war is wrong.

And that it indeed is a ‘war’, and not a ‘military operation’.

“I will not accept what Moscow is saying, that there are Nazi’s in Ukraine. It’s obvious to me that it’s not true. No one will force me to believe that we must defend the people of Ukraine from themselves.

A protester should show the people around them that they are not alone in their dissent.

Besides, a protester should motivate dissidents to publicly express their position in a peaceful manner.”

Indeed.

Finally!! Mexico Is Going to Pay For Border Security

In regards to security at the southern border, President Joe Biden and Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the president of Mexico, coalesced around a plan for increased border security. And you know what? Mexico has committed to paying 1.5 billion dollars for border infrastructure, the type of commitment Donald Trump was unable to exact from the Mexican president
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Invasions Have Consequences

Day 144


Russia doesn’t have twice the trucks.


The Russian Ministry of Defense announced the cessation of the operational pause, confirming ISW’s July 15 assessment that Russian forces are likely resuming ground attacks along multiple axes of advance. The cessation of the operational pause is unlikely to lead to a massive increase in ground attacks across Ukraine but will rather likely be characterized by continued limited ground assaults focused on the Slovyansk-Siversk-Bakhmut salient.

The Kremlin may have ordered Russian forces to take control of the entirety of Kharkiv Oblast, despite the extraordinary low likelihood of Russian success in such an effort.

Russian forces conducted limited ground assaults around Siversk and Bakhmut and otherwise fired on Ukrainian military and civilian infrastructure across Eastern Ukraine.

Russian occupation authorities likely are responding to the perceived threat of Ukrainian partisan activities by strengthening administrative regimes in occupied areas.




Why Go to Iran?


Everyone Knows Where the Big Battle Is Going to Be

Russia reinforces defensive positions in occupied southern Ukraine

Russia is reinforcing its defensive positions across the areas it occupies in southern Ukraine, the British Ministry of Defence has said.

The reinforcements include movement of manpower and equipment, defensive stores between Mariupol and Zaporizhzhia, and in Kherson, while Russian forces in Melitopol are also increasing security measures, the ministry wrote on Twitter in a regular bulletin.

Because Kids Learn Better When They Are Not Hungry

On July 9, 2021, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law the Free School Meals for All Act, which pledges $650 million in ongoing funding to give about 6 million public school children in grades K-12 the option of receiving both a free breakfast and lunch every school day starting at the beginning of school year 2022-23. The bill was originally proposed by state Sen. Nancy Skinner and backed by a coalition of over 200 organizations.



The decision to implement universal free school meals is historic. Under the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), students must qualify for free or reduced-price lunch based on household income level. The new bill, however, allows all children—regardless of eligibility—to receive food.
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I Am the God of Hellfire and I Bring You ...


In the U.K., an emergency Cabinet meeting was called Saturday to discuss Britain’s first-ever “Extreme Red” heat warning. In France, one lawmaker described the sweltering weather as “hell.” In Portugal, the prime minister is monitoring dangerous forest fires.

With temperatures in Western Europe set to soar beyond 40 degrees Celsius (104 farenheit) next week, Southern Europe is already fighting the effects of more blistering summer heat, which scientists say is a result of the world’s changing climate.

Across the Mediterranean, firefighters have struggled to contain blazes, rivers have run dry and thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes. So far, more than 230 people have died from heat-related effects in Spain and 238 in Portugal, according to local media reports.

The temperatures — the result of a slow-moving high-pressure area, bringing scorching air up from North Africa — are expected to continue this week and move north and eastward toward France, Germany, Belgium and the U.K.



As dozens of cities in eastern and southern China issued heat alerts on Tuesday, with some temperature forecasts exceeding 104 degrees over the next 24 hours, health workers conducted outdoor coronavirus tests with packets of frozen snacks strapped to their white hazmat suits. Roofs melted, roads cracked and some residents sought relief in underground air-raid shelters.

The heat wave is forecast to persist for at least two weeks.

The scorching heat reflects a global trend of increasingly frequent episodes of extreme weather driven by climate change. In June, weeks of heat waves plagued northern China, at the same time that floods displaced millions of people in the central and southwestern parts of the country.

A museum in Chongqing displaying imperial relics from the Palace Museum closed for repairs after sections of its tiled roof melted, according to a notice on Monday. In a town in southern Jiangxi Province, state TV showed a heat-damaged section of a road arched up at least six inches, according to the Reuters news service.


We Aren't Being Left Out


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Who Won the Week?

Minnesota Judge Thomas Gilligan, for permanently striking down several state laws restricting access to abortions because they violate the state constitution

California's government, for plans to cap the price of insulin at $30 a month by producing it in-state, and allow residents to sue firearm makers and sellers for the harm done by their guns

The nerds at NASA for wowing us Earthlings with the first photos from the James Webb Telescope that provide the most-detailed images yet of the universe

House Democrats, for passing the Women’s Health Protection Act and an amendment to root out white supremacist/Nazi activity in the police/military

The Guardian, for publishing the "Uber Files," showing the ride-hailing company employed, in 40 countries, illegal and immoral tactics in the mad pursuit of market share

The House Jan. 6 committee, for more riveting testimony and video footage…and alleged Trump witness tampering thrown in at no extra charge

Bill Gates, for earmarking $20 billion for innovations that "prevent pandemics, reduce childhood deaths, eradicate diseases, tackle climate change, and achieve gender equality"

The gun-control group Change the Refs, for launching their Yellow Bus Project, a mile-long caravan of buses to increase awareness of mass shootings and the evil of the NRA

Colorado's culinary scene, as Lauren Boebert's shitty restaurant goes belly-up
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Today's Bad Taste Award


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