Hunter paintings can be bought anonymously for $500,000 and up!

This can only happen in a country where most of the media is corrupt.

I will not be silent.

— Rudy W. Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) July 10, 2021

“A Confederate monument that helped spark a violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, has been hoisted off its stone pedestal. Work to remove the statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee began early Saturday morning. Crews were also expected to take down a second Confederate monument,” reports the AP.

“Stewart Rhodes, the founder and leader of right-wing militia group the Oath Keepers, was spotted by a Salon reporter Friday evening strolling the halls of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Dallas, Texas,” Salon reports. The Oathkeepers were involved in planning and execution of the January 6th insurrection, and although Rhodes did not personally enter the Capitol, he was involved in arranging transport to and lodging in DC for individuals who did. Rhodes is known for being a totally bat-shit crazy wing-nut who spouts conspiracy theories so ridiculous they even make Alex Jones blush.

Not clear at this point what it was exactly that did him in, but does it really matter? I’m honestly surprised the white nationalist punk lasted as long as he did.

• Sneaking suspicion that the Trump class action suit will end up as a money-making scheme for Trump to bilk his followers:  “Send $29.95 to Mr. Trump and get this certificate that YOU and Mr. Trump are together suing the pants off the social media monsters, personally signed by Mr. Trump’s laser printer.  And don’t uncheck the box to make it a weekly contribution.”
• Fresh watermelon is Nature’s antidepressant.
• One of the most underrated protest songs of all time is Peter Gabriel’s “Biko” from 1980, a haunting musical eulogy to South African anti-apartheid activist Stephen Biko.  It was perhaps the first song that brought the horrors of apartheid to the minds of American youth, who years later would be instrumental in pushing US policy to boycott South Africa.  
• The three major stock indices each ended the week at all-time high closings, and there was not one self-congratulatory tweet from the White House, nor was there a contortionistic back-patting media appearance.  

Haiti’s interim prime minister has made a formal request to the United States to have American troops on the ground on the island to protect Haiti’s infrastructure in the wake of the assassination of the country’s president.

“We definitely need assistance and we’ve asked our international partners for help,” Interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph told The Associated Press in an interview, declining to provide further details. “We believe our partners can assist the national police in resolving the situation.”

Seventeen suspects have been detained in the wake of the investigation of President Jovenel Moïse, who was shot in his house Thursday morning.  His wife was wounded and later medivac’ed to Florida for medical treatment. 

“What I’m finding is that, by and large, these agencies are populated by people who support the Democrat [sic] cause.  Democrats are more than happy to support these agencies, these intelligence community [sic]” Senator Ron Johnson (Q-Wisc.) told fellow martyr Tucker Carlson tonight.  “Y’know, Tucker, I’ve had intelligence operations performed against me.  False intelligence products, classified and then leaked.”

That might be because RedRon was targeted by Russian intelligence to be an asset after spending the Fourth of July in Moscow.

Grab a tissue, folks.

“I write this response with no guarantee they will run it but with full assurance that, if they do, they will publish an accompanying smear in response,” Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson laments in an editorial published by the USA Today network.  The op/ed goes on to whine about how the media has been covering his anti-vaccination statement made in the past two weeks, and how his statements jeopardized people’s lives.

Johnson, however, doesn’t see it that way.  He sees himself as the victim of a biased media that quoted him accurately when he said that the coronavirus vaccines caused thousands of deaths.  (There’s no evidence that the vaccine has caused a single death.)  His attempted defense devolved into bitching about the media.

“Mainstream media have abused the trust vested in them by the public. This breach of trust has exacerbated the political divide. Those on the liberal end of the political spectrum can be confident that media will reinforce and promote their beliefs while denigrating and working to marginalize the viewpoint of conservatives,” Johnson wrote.  “Knowing their views will not be presented fairly, conservatives become increasingly frustrated and support candidates who fight back.”

Junior needs to take some time for a bit of self-reflection.

“I say that and people go, ‘Oh, you’re making fun of people with addiction’,” Junior says with a complete lack of introspection.  “I totally understand addiction.  It’s terrible.  We all know people that’s suffered from it.  It doesn’t absolve you from being a total piece of garbage in every other aspect of your life.

“President Joe Biden on Friday fired Social Security Commissioner Andrew Saul [a holdout appointed by the “Former Guy”] after he refused to submit his resignation as the President had requested, a White House official told CNN. Biden had asked for the top two officials at the Social Security Administration to submit their resignations, the White House official told CNN, but only Saul refused. Deputy Commissioner David Black agreed to submit his resignation, the official said, and it was accepted.”

Sent to Forbes political correspondent Andrew Solender by an attendee at the CPAC in Dallas on Friday. The URL on the card redirects to a PDF with much more crying for help.

Marjorie Taylor Greene can’t demonstrate to people she’s transphobic enough for her tastes.  She’s continued a feud with Democratic Congresswoman Marie Newman of Illinois, who has a trans daughter and has an office across the hall from Greene, in which Greene repeatedly insults and denigrates trans people.

This time, according to USA Today, the Georgia Republican took her show of hatred to a fundraiser for another Illinois Congresswoman, Mary Miller, where she said, “(Newman’s) so-called daughter is a trans, biological adult son, approximately close to the same age as my two, very much biological real girls – daughters.”

Greene added Thursday that she’s taken to calling Newman “Newperson,’ ‘cause she doesn’t believe in gender.  I don’t want to offend her, so I changed her name from Newman to Newperson…She is very confused.  As a matter of fact, so is her son.”

Madge the Insult Congress Dog is apparently a hit in congressional races where Republicans need to raise money from the far right radicals.  She has spent the last week doling out faulty medical advise, wrong legal information and incorrect history lessons.  Now, she apparently wants to add “asinine biologist” to the list.

“Days before a hearing to decide whether ‘Kraken’ lawyers Sidney Powell, Lin Wood, and their co-counsel should face heavy sanctions, a federal judge denied an old motion to keep three of the supposed witnesses’ identities under seal. Two of the once-secret witnesses in that litigation have been revealed via public reporting late last year. The ‘Kraken’ is the name Powell gave to her legal team’s multi-armed effort to overturn President Joe Biden’s victories in Michigan, Arizona, Wisconsin, and Georgia following the 2020 election. After all four efforts failed, the state of Michigan and the city of Detroit gunned for punishment against the team of lawyers which filed the case in the Wolverine State. The state filed complaints directly with the bar, and Detroit asked a federal judge to refer every ‘Kraken’ lawyer who appeared in the Michigan prong of the legal offensive for disbarment proceedings. That sanctions hearing is currently scheduled for Monday morning, but U.S. District Judge Linda Parker, who will determine the lawyers’ fate, resolved some unfinished business first on Friday. Among other points of a four-page ruling, Judge Parker rejected Powell’s request to seal the names of three supposed ‘witnesses’ she claimed would suffer ‘grave risk of harm’ should their identities be disclosed. Unimpressed with the request, Parker noted: ‘Courts have long recognized a ‘strong presumption in favor of openness’ regarding court records.'”

“Though precedent mandates only the ‘most compelling reasons’ can justify secrecy, Parker ruled that Powell offered only ‘mere speculation and conclusory statements of possible harm’ to unidentified people. As the Washington Post reported, at least two of the once-secret ‘Kraken’ witnesses had inflated their credentials, did not disclose their checkered pasts, and appeared to make false statements on sworn affidavits. One such witness, alternately code-named ‘Spider’ and ‘Spyder,’ was revealed by the paper to be Joshua Merritt, who was touted as a ‘military intelligence expert’ but was actually an army vehicle mechanic – and reportedly never worked in military intelligence. Another witness, Terpsichore ‘Tore’ Maras-Lindeman, was billed as a secret intelligence contractor but was depicted by the Post as a small-town fraudster because of her civil prosecution in North Dakota that led to more than $25,000 in penalties and attorneys’ fees for allegedly duping donors a supposed Christmas fundraiser. A pro-Trump podcaster, her Navy experience reportedly lasted less than a year” – Law and Crime.

NPR: “The statue of Robert E. Lee that sparked the deadly Unite the Right rally four years ago in Charlottesville, Va., will be removed Saturday, the city council announced Friday. Along with it, another statue of Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson that sits nearby will also be removed, though the stone bases of both statues will remain for now. Fencing around both monuments was set up Friday afternoon. What will happen to the statues after they are removed is still unknown.”

“‘City Council has the sole authority to determine the ultimate, final disposition of the statues,’ the city said in a statement. ‘The City Manager is not authorized to destroy the statues or to sell them without further action by City Council.’ The two statues will be stored in a secure location on city property until the council makes a final decision, it said. The city said it has asked museums, historical societies and battlefields about acquiring the statues for relocation. It said it has received interest from 10 groups – four of them in Virginia. The debate over what to do with the Confederate statues in Charlottesville started in 2016 and led to neo-Nazis gathering in the city for what turned into a deadly rally. Protester Heather Heyer was killed and dozens of other people were injured.”

North Carolina Republican Congressman Madison Cawthorn, a guy who beats the shit out of dead trees and regularly introduces troll legislation, just casually throws out accusation that the Biden Administration’s planned corps of vaccine evangelists will be cross-trained to confiscate guns and Bibles from the homes they’re visiting. His implication that there’s a lot of overlap between gun owners, Bible fans, and the unvaccinated is probably on the mark, however.

The Biden Administration will send agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security to Haiti at the request of that nation’s government in the aftermath of the assassination of Haiti’s president, CNN reports.

Haiti’s President Jovenel Moise was assassinated at the presidential residence early Wednesday morning.  At least 17 people, including two Haitian-American men, suspected to be involved in the attack have been detained by police.  Eight additional suspects are still at large.

The Haitian National Police requested investigatory assistance from the United States, the US State Department confirmed Friday.  The administration has also extended temporary protective status for Haitian migrants in the US for an additional 18 months.

President Joe Biden signed an executive order that would open up competition for employees among businesses and cut back on onerous restrictions on consumer products to minimize the grip major corporations have on their employees and products, ABC News reports.

The order asks the Federal Trade Commission to review regulations governing non-compete clauses that would allow workers to leave an employer for a higher-paying job without fearing retaliation.  That change could impact 30- to 60-million American workers, from fast food cooks to C-suite executives.

Biden’s order also provides the owners of electronics and appliances to do repairs on the item or have repairs done on it without violating its manufacturer’s warranty.  This would apply to things from iPhones to refrigerators.

Agents for the US Customs and Border Patrol stopped a major shipment of illegal goods being shipped into the airport in New Orleans, Louisiana:  an eye-popping 3,000 pairs of false eyelashes.

The Associated Press reports that the 3,000 boxes were ordered by a local beauty supply company from a Chinese manufacturer, but the product hadn’t been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration.

“There’s no telling what’s on these eyelashes,” agency spokesperson Matthew Dyman said.  He noted that the packaging could contain an unknown bacteria or virus; that they could have an unknown insect infestation; or that they were stored properly so that the adhesive was safe.

“Rupert Murdoch personally gave final approval to Fox News’s decision to call Arizona for Joe Biden during the 2020 presidential election, according to Michael Wolff’s new book on Donald Trump. The episode features in ‘Landslide: The Final Days of the Trump Presidency,’ an early copy of which was obtained by Insider. Wolff wrote that Murdoch’s son Lachlan, the CEO of Fox Corporation, got a call from the network’s election-data operation shortly after 11 p.m. ET on election night saying it was ready to declare Arizona for Biden. The book noted that the Murdochs – who spearhead a vast right-wing media empire – had ‘every reason’ to delay calling Arizona at the time, given Fox’s steadfast allegiance to Trump and the fact that no other network had made the call yet. ‘Lachlan got his father on the phone to ask if he wanted to make the early call. His father, with signature grunt, assented, adding, ‘Fuck him,” Wolff wrote.”

“The book said that Fox News anchor Bill Hemmer then called Trump’s lead social-media strategist, Jason Miller, to let him know the network was going to call Arizona for Biden. ‘Miller involuntarily rose from his seat. ‘What the fuck?’ he said out loud, looking around and seeing the still-merry and untroubled faces in the Map Room’ of Trump campaign staffers and insiders who believed they were on the fast-track to reelection, Wolff wrote. Hemmer reportedly replied: ‘That’s what they’re doing. That’s what they’re going with.’ ‘Who?’ Miller asked. ‘The election desk,’ Hemmer said, adding that the network’s decision was going to be aired imminently” – Business Insider.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton had Hervis Rogers arrested for allegedly voting illegally during the March 2020 “Super Tuesday” primary because Rogers was still on parole, Houston Public Media reports.  Paxton is having him held in jail with bail set at $100,000.

Rogers became something of a folk hero after he waited more than six hours to vote at Texas Southern University at 1 a.m., becoming the last Texas voter to cast a ballot in the primary.  In 1995, Rogers was convicted of burglary and intent to commit theft, and he was sentenced to 25 years in prison.  He was paroled in 2004, with his parole scheduled to end in May 2020.

Although Rogers voted in Harris County, lives in Harris County and was arrested in Harris County–Harris County is home to the city of Houston, a Democratic stronghold–Paxton is prosecuting Rogers in Montgomery County, a suburb of Houston that has an 83% white population in which more than 70% of voters went to Donald Trump.