Taking questions after he announced his frivolous class action lawsuit against internet giants Google, Facebook and Twitter, Donald Trump responded to a question asking about what he attempted to do to quell the violence during the January 6th domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol by citing a non-existent Congressional report and claiming he knows who shot insurrectionist Ashli Babbitt.

“So that whole event, unfortunate event, just went through Congress and a report was issued, and my name wasn’t even mentioned,” Trump claimed, although Congress has not issued a report on the January 6th insurrectionist attack.  The House, however, did set up a bipartisan special committee to investigate the attack.

“The report came out, as you saw, two weeks ago.  My name wasn’t even mentioned.  That was an unfortunate event,” Trump rambled. 

“Trump’s Lawsuit uses the same legal argument my legal team used in 2018 when we sued the same companies. They are not private companies. They are state actors. If you recall, the reference of Packingham vs North Carolina was used as an argument in my lawsuit against these companies that was first to refer to them as state actors in violation of the First Amendment. The Supreme Court declined to hear my case. But like I said, Justice Thomas used my case to state that the court would eventually need to address this issue. Perhaps they will revisit it with Trump’s lawsuit that mirrors some of the legal arguments that were in my lawsuit. We shall see. The solution is to REPEAL 230. But that will never happen in an opposition government”

– Right wing psychopath and failed 2020 House Candidate Laura Loomer, via Telegram.

The Trump National Golf Club Colts Neck will pay a $400,000 fine to the State of New Jersey for overserving an obviously drunk golfer and dispensing alcoholic beverages other than beer from its portable beer carts, the Washington Post reports.

The fine stems from an incident on August 30, 2015 when then 34-year-old Andrew Halder flipped his car four miles from the Colts Neck club after drinking and golfing on the course.  The accident killed Halder’s father, Gary Halder.

An investigation found that club staffers served an obviously-intoxicated Andrew Halder while he was on the course, including providing shots of liquor to the golfers.

This is kind of a big dill: #Picklesburgh returns this summer! 🎉🥒

Join us August 20, 21, and 22 in Downtown Pittsburgh for the flying 35' Heinz pickle balloon, dill-ectable foods and drinks, live music, the popular Pickle Juice Drinking Contest, and more. pic.twitter.com/aUVq02mLOC

— Downtown Pittsburgh (@DowntownPitt) July 7, 2021

USA Today, the stalwart newspaper of travelers around the country, is updating its website to install a paywall for some stories that are exclusive to its site and the sites of 200 local outlets in the USA Today Network, according to a memo posted on the website.

The move follows a model of a number of other media outlets that either limit monthly pageviews for non-subscribers or includes exclusive content for people who pay a fee.  As the circulation of the print version of the newspaper falls, news outlets are increasingly reliant on revenue from their websites to support their business models.

“Much of the content on USA TODAY will still be free. But you’ll find a selection of stories each day marked ‘subscriber only,'” the outlet reports.  “These will be exclusive investigations,  sophisticated visual explainers, thought-provoking takes on the news and immersive storytelling.”

Read the complaint here.

Former president Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn mark their 75th wedding anniversary, celebrating a marriage that has been filled with public service and helping people in need, CNN reports.

Jimmy and Rosalynn’s families were acquainted when the pair started dating in 1945 while Jimmy was a midshipman at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.  They married about a year later.  Working on the Carter family peanut farm when Jimmy left the Navy in 1953, the Carters were involved in local church activity and dabbled in local politics.  Jimmy ran for a seat in the Georgia state senate in 1962.  Carter became governor of Georgia in 1971 and ascended to the presidency in 1977.  He was defeated in a reelection bid and returned to private life in 1981.

The Carters, who are currently both in their mid-90s, continue to be active in charitable causes including Habitat for Humanity.  While both have had successful bouts with cancer, Jimmy has made repeated recoveries in the past decade from different cancer diagnoses. 

“A man from Texas who had been indicted for breaching the Capitol on Jan. 6 passed away from a motorcycle accident last month. On June 12, Joseph Cable Barnes, 35, ran through a red light, crashed into a car, and died on the scene, according to a release by the Austin Police Department. The official complaint states that Barnes can be seen in a video shouting, ‘This is our house! This is our country! This is our country!’ during the Jan. 6 incident. Barnes was arrested in March by federal officers and charged with obstructing official proceedings. An online obituary gave a description of Barnes as ‘a patriot and loved our country and those who served to protect our freedom.’ ‘He was chivalrous, a defender of the underdog, and was intimidated by nothing or no one.’ It further states that he ‘lived life at full throttle,’ adding that he was a ‘true Renaissance Man; an avid painter who focused his artistic skill on painting flags'” – Epoch Times.

CNN: “A statue of Martin Luther King Jr. in Southern California was vandalized with a swastika and other ‘horrific’ graffiti that police are investigating as a hate crime, officials said. Officers from the Long Beach Police Department were called to King Park on Friday around 3:20 p.m. following reports the statue was vandalized with ‘hate/bias-motivated graffiti,’ police said. Officers discovered the graffiti covering the front of the statue, Long Beach police spokesman Richard Mejia said in a statement. Police did not share a photo of the graffiti but an image posted on Twitter showed a black swastika spray-painted on the statue’s chest and SS bolts on a leg.”

“The SS bolts are ‘a common white supremacist/neo-Nazi symbol derived from Schutzstaffel (SS) of Nazi Germany,’ according to the Anti-Defamation League. Swastikas are hate symbols associated with Nazis. The graffiti has since been removed and a hate crime investigation is underway, Mejia said. No information about a suspect was available. ‘The Long Beach Police Department takes all reports of hate or bias-motivated incidents seriously. We value the diversity of our Long Beach community and are actively investigating this incident to hold the individual responsible accountable for their actions,’ the department said. Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia condemned the vandalism in a statement posted on Twitter. ‘Over the holiday weekend our MLK statue at King Park was vandalized with horrific graffiti. The LBPD are investigating this as a hate crime and we are working to catch whoever committed this awful act,’ he said.”

From the performance art of Marjorie Taylor Greene:

“1.  Actually Jen, people should take some health advice from me. As a former gym owner, I’ve helped countless people lose weight, gain strength, and be healthy again. The number 1 risk factor for death from #COVID19 is OBESITY, at nearly 80%! … 

“2. All the Biden admin cares about is jabbing people with vaccines that have not been FDA approved and have many reports of serious side effects and deaths. None of you care about actually helping people solve the BIGGEST risk factor that will kill them, which is OBESITY. …

“Former President Donald Trump, who has complained about censorship by social media giants, plans to announce class action lawsuits today against Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, sources tell Axios. It’s the latest escalation in Trump’s yearslong battle with Twitter and Facebook over free speech and censorship. Trump is completely banned from Twitter and is banned from Facebook for [at least] another two years.”

“Trump is scheduled to make an announcement at a press conference today at 11 am. Trump’s legal effort is supported by the America First Policy Institute, a non-profit focused on perpetuating Trump’s policies. The group’s president and CEO and board chair, former Trump officials Linda McMahon and Brooke Rollins, will accompany him during the announcement. Class action lawsuits would enable him to sue the two tech CEOs on behalf of a broader group of people that he argues have been censored by biased policies. To date, Trump and other conservative critics have not presented any substantial evidence that either platform is biased against conservatives in its policies or implementation of them” Axios reports.

The complaint ought to be a friggin riot. Excited to see what kind of insane arguments the Orange Pharaoh is going to make in suing the two founders. I honestly thought he was smarter than this, that he never went past the threat of litigation against his enemies as to avoid being humiliated in court (obviously a huge exception to that is the maelstrom of failure that was November and December of 2020, but he had no other choice if he wanted to try and stay in office). Following this case will be quite entertaining to say the least.

Videos purportedly taken by neighbors of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse during the nighttime raid in which he was killed and his wife injured reveals the raid had at least some degree of sophistication and planning applied to it. One video, although too dark to make out any visual detail has an apparently white male Southern-accented voice, possibly Texan or Alabaman, shouting “DEA operation everybody stand down! DEA operation everybody back up and stand down!” into a megaphone, warning passersby to stay away. Another video shows heavily armed goons in tactical gear standing in the street outside, apparently ready to deal with any police response.

The Miami Herald reports the Haitian government does not actually suspect American law enforcement to have executed the attack. “These were mercenaries,” a “high-ranking Haitian gov official” told the Miami Herald’s Tom Philips. The DEA, for its part, has not commented regarding the assassination on social media yet. “Looking for activities to keep your kids drug free this summer? Check out these activities!” says the most recent tweet from the agency.

“The FBI has infiltrated a ‘Bible study’ group in Virginia that after the January 6 riot had members discussing surveilling the US Capitol and their wish for secession from the US, and investigators closely followed one member’s plans to build and test Molotov cocktails, according to recently unsealed court records. The startling new case, landing six months after the pro-Trump insurrection, adds to the more than 500 Capitol riot federal criminal cases already in court and fleshes out what’s known about the Justice Department’s understanding of the continued interests of right-wing extremists to allegedly interfere with the US government and discuss with each other how to do so. The new case highlights one group member’s apparent interest in a second civil war.”

“The newly disclosed criminal case against Virginia man Fi Duong – who also goes by ‘Monkey King’ and ‘Jim,’ according to the court record – arose after Duong interacted with undercover law enforcement officers several times on January 6 and into recent months, when the FBI ultimately gained access to his group in Virginia then accompanied him to an old jail as Duong allegedly pursued bomb-building. Law enforcement’s undercover interactions with Duong and his contacts since January are laid out in a 14-page statement from the FBI filed in court in recent days to support his arrest and initial charges. Duong was arrested last week, after the DOJ charged him with entering the restricted grounds of the Capitol and obstruction of an official proceeding related to his alleged participation in the siege on January 6, according to his court record” – CNN.

Politico: “Disgraced former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens is receiving a major boost for his 2022 Senate bid from one of the Republican Party’s biggest megadonors. Richard Uihlein, a billionaire shipping and industrial supply company executive, is donating $2.5 million to a newly formed, pro-Greitens super PAC. The cash infusion will give Greitens a financial lift as many of the party’s contributors shun the former governor, who resigned from office in 2018 amid allegations that he sexually assaulted his hairstylist. Uihlein is one of the party’s most sought-after givers.”

“During the 2020 election, Uihlein and his wife, Elizabeth, donated more than $4.7 million to outfits that backed former President Donald Trump’s reelection bid. Uihlein, who has a long history of bankrolling conservative causes, is a past donor to Greitens, giving more than $300,00 to his successful 2016 gubernatorial bid. The contribution to the pro-Greitens super PAC was confirmed by two people familiar with the matter. The organization, Team PAC, describes itself as ‘committed to electing proven conservatives and veterans to federal offices,’ a reference to the former governor’s service as a Navy SEAL. Greitens, who is running for the seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Roy Blunt, will need the money. The former governor could face an avalanche of attacks from Republican establishment-aligned groups amid concerns from party leaders that his nomination would jeopardize the party’s hold on what should be a safe seat and imperil their prospects of winning the Senate majority. In a sign of the possible bombardment to come, former George W. Bush adviser Karl Rove, who is deeply involved in the world of GOP outside groups, has openly savaged Greitens and warned that ‘Democrats, fair or unfair, are going to take him apart.'”

On Tuesday Vox’s Aaron Rupar spotted the item being sold on Sears.com and Kmart.com by a third-party vendor. Within a few hours Sears replied directly to Rupar saying “Thank you for bringing this product to our attention. This item is no longer available for purchase on Sears.com or Kmart.com,” which is actually kind of surprising for a retailer with a reputation for being run incompetently. Of course they shouldn’t have let it be sold in the first place, but sometimes these things slip through.

Amazon meanwhile lists an MP3 track titled “Her Name Was Ashli Babbitt” by acoustic artist “Hopalong Ginsberg”. We’re just going to forego describing the 30 second audio sample, and will neither encourage or discourage readers from opening the linked page and listening to it.

“Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated after a group of unidentified people attacked his private residence, the country’s interim prime minister said in a statement Wednesday. Moïse’s wife, First Lady Martine Moïse, is hospitalized, interim Premier Claude Joseph said. Joseph condemned what he called a ‘hateful, inhumane and barbaric act,’ adding that Haiti’s National Police and other authorities had the situation in the Caribbean country under control” – AP.

The Guardian: “On a visit to Europe to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of the first world war, Donald Trump insisted to his then chief of staff, John Kelly: ‘Well, Hitler did a lot of good things.’ The remark from the former US president on the 2018 trip, which reportedly ‘stunned’ Kelly, a retired US Marine Corps general, is reported in a new book by Michael Bender of the Wall Street Journal.”

“Frankly, We Did Win This Election has been widely trailed ahead of publication next week. The Guardian obtained a copy. Bender reports that Trump made the remark during an impromptu history lesson in which Kelly ‘reminded the president which countries were on which side during the conflict’ and ‘connected the dots from the first world war to the second world war and all of Hitler’s atrocities’. Bender is one of a number of authors to have interviewed Trump since he was ejected from power. He reports that Trump denied making the remark about Hitler. But Bender says unnamed sources reported that Kelly ‘told the president that he was wrong, but Trump was undeterred’, emphasizing German economic recovery under Hitler during the 1930s. ‘Kelly pushed back again,’ Bender writes, ‘and argued that the German people would have been better off poor than subjected to the Nazi genocide.’ Bender adds that Kelly told Trump that even if his claim about the German economy under the Nazis after 1933 were true, ‘you cannot ever say anything supportive of Adolf Hitler. You just can’t.'”

https://youtu.be/dv86nw6ZKLQ

When you accuse others of being obsessed with something, it’s usually a major case of projection.  (This is just from Tuesday night’s Fox News programming.)

There was the guy in the buffalo horns.  Another with his feet up on Nancy Pelosi’s desk.  Scores were military, ex-military, paramilitary, and military cosplayers–or police officers.  Some were past and present elected office holders on state and local levels.  They were overwhelmingly white and male.  Most were middle or upper-middle class.

They assaulted police officers from the Capitol Police and the DC Metropolitan Police, responsible for the death of one officer who was hospitalized after the attack, and two more who took their own lives in the wake of the attack.

About 520 have been arrested.  More than 250 remain in jail.  An estimated 13 have already pleaded guilty to their crimes; one has been sentenced.  A not-insignificant number were released to the custody of their mothers, with more having their mommies vouch for them in court.  Too few have disavowed their actions; too many have doubled-down on their self-declared status of untouchable folk heroes.

What they exemplify is a small but not insignificant portion of the GOP base who can easily be swayed by an unrelenting stream of disinformation to abandon their fealty to the nation and for some, even their sworn oaths, to show their loyalty to a defeated politician.