Category: Uncategorized

The Department of Justice asked a federal judge to order Republican Texas Governor Gregg Abbott to take down the barriers he ordered placed in the Rio Grande to dissuade migrants from crossing the river, NBC News reports.

Saying that the barriers are causing irreparable harm to foreign relations, public safety and navigation, the Justice Department argues that Texas committed a “straightforward violation” of the Rivers and Harbors Act and Abbott did not have the authority to construct the barrier because, among other things, it did not get approval from the US Army Corps of Engineers, the federal authority for such things.

“No relief granted at the end of this case would make up for the continuing threat to navigation and public safety that the Floating Barrier will impose while the parties litigate the merits,” prosecutors wrote.

NBC News reports Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell had experienced a number of physical stumbles prior to the lengthy zombie-like pause during an afternoon press briefing Wednesday, including a previously unreported one earlier this month at Reagan National Airport in which he “face planted” while disembarking from a plane.

The 81-year-old McConnell, who survived contracting polio as a two-year-old and has always been particularly careful negotiating stairs, fell at a fundraiser held at a DC hotel in March which resulted in a concussion that led to a month of hospitalization and rehab.  He has been using a wheelchair when moving through crowded airports as a precautionary measure.  On July 14th, McConnell was exiting a flight that had been delayed after everyone had boarded and according to another passenger on the flight, McConnell had a “face plant” on the jetway while deplaning.

McConnell stopped by a gaggle of reporters later Wednesday evening, commenting that President Biden called to check on him.  When asked how he felt, McConnell replied, “I’m fine.”  When asked if he knew what happened, McConnell replied, “I’m fine.”

From NBC News Garrett Hakke, read by Lawrence O’Donnell:  “Trump legal and political teams are preparing for the possibility that the federal grand jury will vote on charges against the former president as early as tomorrow according to three sources familiar with the thinking of Trump’s inner circle.  None of these sources know of any direct notification from the Justice Department officials that charges are coming tomorrow, but given Trump’s receipt of a target letter a week ago and public reporting that the grand jury is scheduled to meet tomorrow, they are taking prudent steps to prepare.”

“Joining us know with more is one of the leaders of this hearing, Tennessee Congressman Tom Burchett,” Trump advisor Sean Hannity declares to his live studio audience who dutifully erupts in applause.”

“Tim.  It… it’s Tim,” responds Tim Burchett, the Republican Congressman from the 2nd District of Tennessee.

In a potential blow to cannabis smokers around the country, Mastercard has instructed banks that use its branded products as debit cards to bar their use at pot dispensaries because, the company claims, it violates federal law.

The BBC reports the credit card company sent notices to banks to cut off dispensaries that accept debit cards from running transactions.  Marijuana is legal to some degree in 40 states, but the federal government still considers it a banned drug, so transactions cannot use the federal banking system.  Most states get around this by limiting cannabis transactions to cash.

“As we were made aware of this matter, we quickly investigated it. In accordance with our policies, we instructed the financial institutions that offer payment services to cannabis merchants and connects them to Mastercard to terminate the activity,” Mastercard said in a statement on Wednesday.  “The federal government considers cannabis sales illegal, so these purchases are not allowed on our systems.”

Hot tub-level ocean water temperatures off the Florida Keys caused massive bleaching of the region’s coral reef network, the third largest in the world, worrying scientists that the ongoing heatwave could cause catastrophic damage to the fragile ecosystem, the Washington Post reports.

“This is definitely the worst bleaching event that Florida has ever seen,” said Andrew Baker, director of the University of Miami the Coral Reef Futures Lab, about the damage done to the 360-mile-long reef. “We knew something like this was going to happen at some point, we just didn’t know when. We still managed to be surprised by the magnitude of this event and how early it came in the season.”

Mediocre political news website National Zero on Wednesday made a half-assed attempt to drive traffic from QAnon fans by posting a story with a headline purposely omitting key details of a so-far successful coup aimed at removing a democratically elected president from power.

“Might as well pretend to yank the chains of those fucking freaks with what’s actually a cloying meta-joke directed at our own audience,” National Zero’s founding editor “Spartan” revealed before explaining that the coup is actually happening in the West African nation of Niger and it’s their President Mohamed Bazoum who’s been arrested by a group of rogue soldiers. “We still hope douchebags like Kash Patel and Mike Flynn somehow end up reading this,” Spartan added.

In the actual story sourced from Reuters, the Nigerien colonel who led the coup said his new junta aims to “put an end to the regime that you know due to the deteriorating security situation and bad governance” and ordered all borders closed which, lol, is exactly the kind of shit the fanboys dream of in their fantasies of Biden being overthrown by “patriots” in the US military.

Republican former Alabama Congressman Mo Brooks on Wednesday told NBC News he’s “mildly surprised” that Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith hasn’t reached out to him to talk about Brooks’s role in and knowledge of disgraced former President Trump’s post-2020 election coup attempt, something he says he’s ready and willing to “explain what I know about it. Whether it’s relevant or material, I’m not sure… I was shocked [Trump] was so blatant about it – illegal conduct.”

Brooks, whose failed 2022 Senate campaign was just an endless string of humiliations at the tiny hands of the Orange God Emperor, not least of which was being undorsed by Trump in the primary for being too “woke” on the subject of whether Brooks could get the House to pass legislation that would reinstate Trump to the presidency, seems more than a little eager to help settle the score.

“Donald Trump wanted me to do four things: Advocate rescinding the election, advocate physically removing Joe Biden from the White House, advocate reinstating Donald Trump as president of the United States and advocate a new special election for president of the United States – all of which violate the US Constitution and federal law,” Brooks told NBC, adding “And after I got done explaining that to him, he withdrew his endorsement and endorsed my opponent. So I’m mildly surprised none of these people have made inquiries about the details of this, but it is what it is.”

It’s not clear why Brooks, a former prosecutor, had to do this publicly in the media rather than simply reaching out to Smith’s team privately… unless he wanted to rattle Trump’s cage simply for the fun of it before he picks up the phone and schedules an appointment with the special counsel.

A Kentucky man who used a flag pole holding a Trump flag to try to break through the window of a door leading to the Speaker’s Lobby in the Capitol, feet from where Ashlii Babbitt was shot crawling through a window during the January 6th Republican-led domestic terrorist attack on Congress, was convicted on nine counts including two felonies, WUSA CBS-9 in Washington reports.

Forty-five-year-old Chad Barrett Jones of Mount Washington was convicted of felony counts of civil disorder and obstruction of an official proceeding.  He’s seen in the video of the storming of the Speaker’s Lobby on the left side of the set of doors, striking a window with a flagpole, as Ashlii Babbitt climbed through the window on the right as armed officers stood on the other side.

House Oversight dipshit James Comer on Wednesday told Fox News his tireless efforts to fail to prove any criminality by Hunter Biden were the real reason why the irresponsible crackhead’s plea deal on tax and gun charges was postponed – rather than the actual reality that both the judge and defense balked at the ambiguous language regarding potential future prosecutions.

“What we’re seeing today is that the Biden family is under a whole lot more investigative scrutiny than what the media has reported. I think that you’re seeing our investigation that’s shined a light on the many wrongdoings of the Biden family has picked up a lot of credibility today, because now we see that there are a lot of crimes that this family’s committed and that played out in court today,” said Comer, adding he hopes his probes now gain “a lot more credibility with a skeptical media.”

In a move that will set off Trump and his MAGA minions, President Joe Biden has approved US cooperation with the International Criminal Court’s investigation into Russian war crimes in Ukraine, CNN reports.

Biden authorized the sharing of intelligence and other evidence gathered through US military, diplomatic and military channels pointing to war crimes to be shared with the ICC.  The administration had been slow to provide the documentation, fearful that it would set a precedent that could be used against the United States in future conflicts.

Going against Putin and assisting the international community are two things Trump hates, so watch for a flurry of posts on his social media platform denouncing Biden as a puppet of the international socialists hellbent on destroying Russi–I mean, America.

Disgraced former Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows wasn’t feeling chatty when approached by NBC’s Frank Thorp in DC on Wednesday. Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, also a former federal prosecutor, later told NBC that Meadows isn’t bound by any secrecy rules if he were merely testifying as a witness, but not if he’s entered into a cooperation agreement.

“The only time you can’t do it is when the government has a cooperation agreement with you and they say, ‘No talking about this; the only time we want to hear you talking is when you’re on the witness stand,'” said Christie. “And that, to me, Mark Meadows looks to me like a federal witness under a cooperation agreement and I, my guess is that’s what we’re going to find out he is.”

Meadows’ appearance in DC comes just days after flight records indicated his fat former boss may or may not have secretly confronted him in person in western North Carolina.

NASA and DARPA, the Pentagon’s semi-secret experimental technology agency, awarded a joint contract to Lockheed Martin to produce the first nuclear thermal rocket engine that could power a manmade craft between planets, the Washington Post reports.

A nuclear thermal engine uses nuclear fission to heat hydrogen, which is then shot through nozzles to propel the craft.  The power system has significant benefits over traditional liquid-fuel or chemical rockets, such as having a longer operational time as well as the potential to develop higher velocities.  For safety, the reactor would not be initiated until the craft was in space.

A craft powered by such an engine could be used for repeated interplanetary trips over years using an orbiting platform, like the International Space Station, as a base because it would not require refueling on the ground.  The half-billion dollar contract requires a first flight of the engine by 2027, which DARPA notes will allow for “larger payloads into farther locations in cislunar space — the volume of space between the Earth and the moon.”

After catching a question about why a popular rightwing character’s Twitter X account was suspended, petulant oligarch Elon Musk “x’ed” that the account was blocked because it was posting images of child porn moments before reporting that the X team had erased the images and the account had been restored.

The account of QAnon influencer Dom Lucre, the self-declared “breaker of narratives,” was identified as one “posting child exploitation pictures associated with the criminal conviction of an Australian man in the Philippines,” Musk posted.  Three minutes later, Musk replied to his own post, “Only people on our CSE team have seen the pictures.  For now, we will delete those posts and reinstate this account.”  Apparently, there’s no punishment on the new X if you’re caught spreading child porn; it just gets erased and the crime forgotten.

Hidden in the announcement of a quarter-point increase in interest rates, the chair of the Federal Reserve said today that the Fed’s staff economists have backed off their prediction that the US economy will slip into a recession, Forbes reports.

In April, Fed staff predicted a “mild recession” that would be “neither deep nor prolonged.”  However, continued “resiliency in the economy” lead Fed economists to revise their previous skepticism about American growth.  Jerome Powell also noted that he’s seen signs of “disinflation” although that has not impacted key indicators like job creation up to this point.

“Y’know when I first heard about [the Fed decision to] increase in the, in the 25 basic point [sic] increase, I thought, aw, the market is not going to like this, but if Powell is saying we might be done, that is something to look forward to,” Fox daytime host John Roberts asserts in Fox’s fact-free manner.  “It’s interesting, too, when you look at the value of the Dow and the overall–35,633–that’s getting close to what it was prior to Covid, so, ah, maybe we’re slowly cr– y’know, clawing our way back grchhr [sic] here and people’s 401(k)s are, ah, are gaining in value which is good for their retirements.”

Roberts is a bit off.  On January 2nd, 2020, just before Covid exploded in the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 28,868.80.  It topped 30,000 at the end of November 2020, and it first topped 35,000 in July 2021.  Whether Roberts’ error was intentional to downplay stock gains under Biden or Fox’s characteristic sloppiness is unknown.

The oldest and largest Black fraternity in the United States, Alpha Phi Alpha, announced Wednesday it will move its biannual conference from its 2025 planned site of Orlando because of the bigoted policies of Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, who continues to defend his state’s new requirements that promote pro-slavery policies.

After DeSantis required schools to teach students that Black slaves in America learned valuable life skills that helped them later in life–without acknowledging that generations of slaves never tasted freedom, living their entire lives as property of slave masters–Alpha Phi Alpha started looking for new locations.

“Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. has an unmatched legacy of social justice, advocacy, and leadership for the Black community,” said the fraternity’s General President, Dr. Willis L. Lonzer, III. “In this environment of manufactured division and attacks on the Black community, Alpha Phi Alpha refuses to direct a projected $4.6 million convention economic impact to a place hostile to the communities we serve. Although we are moving our convention from Florida, Alpha Phi Alpha will continue to support the strong advocacy of Alpha Brothers and other advocates fighting against the continued assault on our communities in Florida by Governor Ron DeSantis.”

After addressing the media for about a minute during his weekly press briefing, Senate Minority Leaders Mitch McConnell suddenly stopped talking and stood motionless at the podium before colleagues directed him to the side, helping him stand as he shuffled his feet.  The 81-year-old McConnell was hospitalized in March for a concussion after falling at a fundraising dinner at a DC hotel.

Hunter Biden entered a temporary plea of not guilty for two misdemeanor charges of failure to pay taxes after the judge in the case was uncertain about the conditions of the plea agreement Biden’s lawyers and prosecutors agreed to, NBC News reports.

The deal reportedly fell apart when Biden said he would not agree to the conditions after prosecutors told the court that the deal did not shield Biden from future charges related to his tax issues and the outstanding charge of lying on a gun purchase form.  Judge Maryellen Noreika reportedly stated she did not understand why the court was involved in monitoring the terms of the deal between Biden and the Justice Department which would enroll Biden in a deferment program that would ultimately expunge the charge from his record.

Noreika ordered counsel for both sides to submit briefs on the applicability of the agreement and its conformance with law before she approves the deal.  Noreika wants to make sure she is satisfied Hunter Biden thoroughly understands the terms of the agreement, something the two sides did not seem to agree on in the Wednesday session.  Biden’s lawyers said it would take about two weeks to insert language clarifying what the deal covers and what the court’s role in monitoring the arrangements regarding the Biden’s participation in the diversionary gun program.

The city of Philadelphia announced it has filed civil lawsuits against three local gun shops for facilitating illegal strawman purchases that put 1,300 guns on the streets that were used in crimes in the city, the WPVI ABC-6 in Philly reports.

The lawsuit specifically cites the sales of at least 158 guns to at least 32 straw purchasers between March 2018 and March 2022.  The city was joined in the suit by counsel from law firm Kramer Levin and Everytown Law, the legal side of a gun control advocacy group.  The city seeks unspecified damages from Tanner’s Sports Center in Jamison in neighboring Bucks County’ Delia’s Gun Shop in the Wissinoming neighborhood; and Franks Gun Shop in the Holmesburg neighborhood.