President Biden said Thursday at a news conference in Madrid he is in favor of an exeception to the Senate filibuster in order to restore abortion rights nationally, Bloomberg reports. “The most important thing to be clear about is I believe we have to codify Roe v. Wade in the law, and the way to do that is to make sure the Congress votes to do that. And if the filibuster gets in the way, it’s like voting rights, it should be we provide an exception for this, requiring an exception to the filibuster for this action to deal with the Supreme Court decision,” said Biden.

The Southern Poverty Law Center have dug up an arrest report from a 2021 incident in which two members of Patriot Front – the hardcore white supremacist MAGA hate group arrested en masse outside of a LGBTQ Pride event in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho earlier this month, accidentally torched a banner reading “Victory or Death Patriot Front US” they hanged on a Texas highway overpass.

On May 21, 2021 two Sanger, Texas police officers responded to a pedestrian bridge over I-35 after a caller said they “saw people on top of the cage of the pedestrian bridge” and “some kind of sign hanging from the bridge with flares on it.” The cops saw a red Chevy Equinox nearby and “had the driver exit the vehicle and asked for identification,” determining the driver was named Austin James Amato. The cops wrote Amato claimed to be waiting for friends but refused to share further details without a lawyer present. The cops then “observed there was a sign up on the pedestrian bridge,” and saw “the banner on the bridge begin to catch fire, and part of it fall onto the northbound lanes of traffic of I-35.” The officers were able to retrieve the unburned remains of the banner. Amato and fellow Patriot Fronter Tristan Yeager were arrested at the scene.

New Zealand authorities have designated American far right groups the Proud Boys and The Base as terrorist organizations, thereby making it illegal to fund, recruit or participate in the groups, the AP reports. Neither group is known to be active in New Zealand, but officials wanted to make a preemptive strike against MAGA terrorism before it takes root in Kiwi Land.

“As the full picture is coming into view with the January 6th Committee, it has become clear that the efforts oversaw and engaged in were even more chilling and threatening than we can imagine,” Wyoming Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney said at The Future of Republican Party seminar being held at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.

According to CNN, later in the speech, Cheney explicitly called out Trump and his lackeys in GOP leadership, calling them a threat to American democracy:  “We are confronting a domestic threat that we have never faced before – and that is a former President who is attempting to unravel the foundations of our constitutional Republic.  And he is aided by Republican leaders and elected officials who have made themselves willing hostages to this dangerous and irrational man.”

An exiled Republican in Washington because she’s participating in the House Select Committee investigating the domestic terrorist attack on Congress, Cheney gave a blunt opinion of Trump and his malfeasance, and she received a loud ovation from the largely-Republican crowd.

School teachers throughout Florida are being advised to remove things like rainbows and family photos from their classrooms as schools prepare for the enforcement of Republican Governor Ron DeSantis’s “Don’t Say Gay” law, WFTV ABC-9 Orlando reports.

Called the Parental Rights in Education law by Republicans, the law prohibits educators from discussing virtual anything relating to sex, gender identity, relationships or anything else conservatives find oogie.

As word spread to teachers that Orange County administrators were preparing for a push to enforce the law when it goes into effect July 1st, teachers were warned to remove anything that could be remotely construed to be gay-ish.

Two former employees of a family-owned North Carolina HVAC and roofing company have sued the company through the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, claiming the owner of the company fired them after they refused to participate in mandated prayer services at the start of the day, the Raleigh News & Observer reports.

The lawsuit alleges that a construction manager who is atheist and a customer service rep who is agnostic were forced by the owner of the company to participate in the prayer sessions, which could run from 15 minutes to a full hour.

During the sessions, the owner of Greensboro’s Aurora Pro Services would read Bible verses, lead the employees in prayers and hymns, and ask the group to pray to help God assist underperforming employees, who he would call out by name.

With Roe being struck down by a far-right Supreme Court majority, conservative activists and lawmakers in Republican-led states are crafting legislation that would make it illegal for the women in the state to travel to another state to get an abortion, the Washington Post reports.

Conservative pundits and politicians have downplayed the effect of the Alito-led Supreme Court overturning the nearly-50-year-old precedent, saying that women in states where abortions will be outlawed simply have to travel to a state where abortion is legal to get the medical procedure.  Not only is that a painfully tone-deaf dismissal of removing individual rights and a downplay of the inability of poor people to flit away for a few days, it’s also undermined by these movements.

The draft legislation is set up like the Texas abortion bounty law, which would allow anyone to sue someone who assisted a woman to travel out of state to get an abortion.  While this commercialization of law and punishment is legally questionable, it has yet to be addressed by the Supreme Court, so Republicans–who like to claim to be members of the Party of Law and Order (Insert “trum trum” sound here)–are implementing questionable laws that will be difficult to unravel after they get overturned. 

“Later that same month, on November 15th of last year, the Justice Department arrested one of the most prominent critics, that would be former Trump advisor Steve Bannon,” says Fox host on his 2022 Despots and Autocrats Tour Tucker Carlson.  “Now, what did Steve Bannon due wrong?  Did he commit a crime on January 6th?  No, he didn’t, and no one claims otherwise.  Instead, Bannon’s ‘crime’ is that he didn’t bend a knee to the January 6th Committee.  He cited executive privilege.  According to Nancy Pelosi, that means Steve Bannon belongs in jail.”

Let’s parse this, shall we?  On November 15, 2021, Bannon was, in fact, booked on criminal contempt of Congress charges after being indicted by a grand jury.  In other words, a grand jury of fellow citizens found enough credible evidence to charge him with two criminal acts.  And we’re not sure if Bannon committed any crimes on January 6th itself, but given he was in the Willard Hotel “war room,” it smells rather crime-y. 

A 34-year-old Colorado man was hospitalized Monday after an unidentified male Yellowstone National Park employee charged and gored him, CNN reports. The altercation occurred in the vicinity of the Old Faithful geyser when the employee became overly aggressive upon seeing the man and his family. The altercation may have been racially motivated as the man is a human being and the employee is a bison. Park management appeared reluctant to take any disciplinary action against the employee and instead warned customers to simply avoid certain staff members.

“Stay more than 25 yards away from all large animals – bison, elk, bighorn sheep, deer, moose, and coyotes – and at least 100 yards away from bears and wolves. If need be, turn around and go the other way to avoid interacting with a wild animal in proximity,” management warned.

The House January 6th Select Committee have subpoenaed former Trump White House counsel Pat Cipollone, NBC News reports. “The Select Committee’s investigation has revealed evidence that Mr. Cipollone repeatedly raised legal and other concerns about President Trump’s activities on January 6th and in the days that preceded,” Committee chair Bennie Thompson and vice chair Liz Cheney wrote in a statement. “Any concerns Mr. Cipollone has about the institutional prerogatives of the office he previously held are clearly outweighed by the need for his testimony.”

Family members of Emmett Till, a teenage boy from Chicago lynched in Mississippi in 1955 because he allegedly whistled at a white woman, have uncovered a warrant for the woman and are demanding she be arrested for her part in Till’s murder, the Associated Press reports.

The warrant for Carolyn Bryant Donham, currently a North Carolina resident in her late 80s, was issued because she told her husband and others that the boy had whistled at her while she worked in a store.  Her husband, Roy Bryant, and another man showed up at Till’s great-uncle’s house, where the boy was visiting on his trip from Chicago, and kidnapped Emmett at gunpoint.  Till’s body–grotesquely disfigured because of torture–was found later in the nearby Tallahatchie river.  His mother ordered his viewing to feature an open casket to exhibit the brutality of his racist murderers, and the image of his disfigured corpse became a rallying point for the civil rights movement.

Written out for “Mrs. Roy Bryant,” the warrant reportedly was not served because Bryant was a mother with two small children she had to care for, the Leflore County sheriff at the time said. 

Fat former President Trump announced Wednesday he will travel to Alaska for the first time maybe ever to rally for MAGA Senate candidate Kelly Tshikibalahblah and House candidate moron Sarah Palin. Color us surprised he would make the eight hour flight north from Florida.

Asked “Can you say, yes or no, did you ask for a pardon?” hooved-American formed in a peach tree dish Marjorie Taylor Greene (Q-GA) can’t vocalize either of those two words.  “I can say that our attorney general needs to enforce the laws,” Marge starts, apparently not thinking that means the laws she violated.  “And then why isn’t Nancy Pelosi and everybody calling for the National Guard over here.  These are the questions that need to be asked.”

After being asked about abortion–which she thinks should be banned nationally–Marge states that Edward Snowden and Jullian Assange should both be pardoned, and she’s again asked if she requested a pardon.  “You know what?  You’re a member of the press.  You should care about what I just said.  It really matters.”

No, Marge, your opinion really doesn’t.  Whether or not you requested a pardon because you believed you broke the law is what really matters.  Get a good lawyer.

The House January 6th Select Committee is likely to subpoena former Trump White House counsel Pat Cipollone if he does not voluntarily testify under oath soon, Punchbowl News reports.

Rapey pedophile R&B singer R Kelly was sentenced to 30 years in prison Wednesday, CNN’s Don Lemon reports. Kelly’s scumbaggery has been public knowledge for the better part of two decades, yet it was only within the last three years that he began to actually see some legal consequences for it – demonstrating that maybe, just maybe, there is the smallest kernel of a valid point about the rich and powerful getting away with sick sex crimes deep underneath all the insanity of QAnon.

Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock leads deeply dishonest fucking maniac Republican challenger Herschel Walker 54 to 44 in Quinnipiac University’s Wednesday Georgia poll. Republican Governor Brian Kemp and Dem challenger Stacey Abrams are tied at 48 apiece.

Fries > Walls

— Heinz US (@HeinzTweets) June 29, 2022

A Houston, Texas 2 year old was rescued Tuesday by another child – age and gender unknown – after the toddler fell in to a swimming pool while wandering around unattended, ABC 13 reports. Further details were unavailable and we maybe we should’ve waited until ABC 13 followed up, but fuck it. Might as well let it serve as a reminder to readers to be extra vigilant when toddlers are around swimming pools this summer AND be able to report a story like this having a happy ending.

Former spokesperson for the titular First Lady (in name only) Melania Trump, Stephanie Grisham, released the sole text exchange she had with the Third Mrs. Trump as domestic terrorists attacked Congress on January 6, 2021 as the Donald Trump-inspired mob attempted to undermine the Electoral College certification that named Joe Biden the 46th President of the United States.

Per HuffPost, just as her husband stopped efforts to defend the Capitol and Congress–reportedly reveling in the violence his Big Lie caused–Melania seems to tacitly support the attack.

Justice Breyer is retiring tomorrow.

Great! Another circus before midterms… https://t.co/fUJMQtwOsP

— Amy Kremer (@AmyKremer) June 29, 2022

Should anyone need to be disabused of this notion, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer’s replacement, Justice-designate Ketanji Brown Jackson, was confirmed by the Senate nearly 3 months ago, prior to his officially effected retirement on Thursday. Barring the sudden death or retirement of another justice this year, there won’t be “another circus before the midterms”.