A British court on Thursday tossed Jeffrey Epstein chap and former Barclay’s CEO Jes Staley’s appeal of his case against the country’s top regulator over a 2023 ban from the entire industry for being a Jeffrey Epstein chap, the AP reports. The American exec was rather chuffed over the ban from the banking industry over his shagging of young lasses supplied by Epstein.

Cops in Switzerland have completed their investigation into the death of 24 year-old Scottish wingsuiter Liam Byrne in the Alps last weekend, concluding that the aerial adventurer had “deviated from his intended course shortly after take-off for reasons still unknown and crashed into a rocky outcrop at approximately 2,100 metres above sea level,” People Magazine reports.

Now this is not to mock Byrne’s demise so much as the language that Swiss cops used to describe what happened, like they were purposely seeing if they could be as obliquely and painfully euphemistic as stupid SpaceX with that silly “Rapid unscheduled disassembly” line every time the fuck up a rocket launch. It’s borderline trolling that cannot be the product of a shaky translation job.

If you can’t make a profit without breaking the law, you should close up shop. https://t.co/tUtsxaMPev

— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) June 26, 2025

Asked by the Washington Examiner’s David Sivak if he’d consider overruling the parliamentarian after she massacred a shit ton of provisions in the Big Beautiful Bill, Senate Majority Leader John Thune on Thursday said “That would not be a good outcome for getting a bill done,” and that a Friday vote on the bill probably isn’t going to happen, given the fucking mess on his hands.

Thune later added the only way to make the Medicaid provider tax whatever the hell it is happen is to go back to the drawing board and resubmit it to for “Byrd Bath” (they really need to come up with a better name for this fucking process). “There are things that we can do. There are other ways of getting to that same outcome,” the majority leader said, adding “I mean, we may not have everything that we wanted in terms of the provider tax reforms, but if we can get most of the reforms there, get the savings that come with it, I mean, this is all about saving the taxpayers [wealth donors] money.”

“FAKE NEWS REPORTERS FROM CNN AND THE NEW YORK TIMES SHOULD BE FIRED, IMMEDIATELY!!! BAD PEOPLE WITH EVIL INTENTIONS!!!” posted angry Orange Grandpa on Thursday, following up on an earlier cry for help asserting that “Rumor is that the Failing New York Times and Fake News CNN will be firing the reporters who made up the FAKE stories on the Iran Nuclear sites because they got it so wrong. Lets see what happens?” The change from “will be firing” to “SHOULD BE FIRED” could be a sign that he got information on what’s happening and the Times and CNN will not be firing the reporters who covered the non-obliteration story.

“The cars and small trucks at the site were those of concrete workers trying to cover up the top of the shafts. Nothing was taken out of facility. Would take too long, too dangerous, and very heavy and hard to move!” the President of the United States wrote in a prior post, applying his expertise in handling of nuclear materials to refute intelligence on Iranian movements prior to the strikes.

Before that he praised the combative and caustic performance of deeply hungover Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at the 8 AM EDT press conference, writing “One of the greatest, most professional, and most ‘confirming’ News Conferences I have ever seen! The Fake News should fire everyone involved in this Witch Hunt, and apologize to our great warriors, and everyone else!”

The US Supreme Court on Thursday dropped a 6-3 decision in Gutierrez v Saenz, ruling that Texas death row inmate Ruben Gutierrez has standing to sue to challenge state law blocking him from obtaining potentially exculpatory DNA evidence after his conviction. Far right Justices Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch dissented, probably because they want Gutierrez to die from lethal injection.

The bad news for Congressional Republicans came this morning in the form of a long string of rulings from the Senate Parliamentarian absolutely gutting the Medicaid provisions in the Big Beautiful Bill, including “Prohibiting federal financial participation under Medicaid and CHIP for individuals without verified citizenship, nationality or satisfactory immigration status. This section prohibits federal financial participation in Medicaid for adults and kids whose citizenship, nationality, or immigration status cannot be immediately verified, overriding the existing 90-day reasonable opportunity period that currently exists for states to provide coverage as they verify individuals’ immigration status under threat of withholding federal funds. (Section 71109)”

Then “Immigrant Medicaid Eligibility. This section denies federal funding to states for Medicaid coverage for certain immigrants who are not citizens. (Section 71110) Expansion of FMAP for certain states providing payments for health care furnished to certain individuals. This section lowers the Medicaid expansion federal medical assistance percentage from 90 percent to 80 percent for states that choose to provide coverage to people who are undocumented using the state’s own funds. (Section 71111). Prohibiting Federal Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) Funding for Gender Affirming Care. This section prohibits federal Medicaid and CHIP funding for gender-affirming medical care. (Section 71117),” as in a whole shit ton of MAGA culture war priorities on immigration and transgender-relevant healthcare policy.

And the big one: “Provider Taxes. This provision prohibits non-expansion states from increasing the rate of current provider taxes or increasing the base of the tax to a class or items of services that the tax did not previously apply. Beginning in 2027, the hold harmless threshold in expansion states for provider classes other than nursing or intermediate care facilities would be reduced by 0.5 percent annually until the maximum hold harmless threshold reaches 3.5 percent in 2031. Ending states’ ability to tax health care providers would severely limit states’ ability to provide health care to millions of Americans who depend upon Medicaid for their care. (Section 71120),” which is not cultural per se so much as an absolute bunker buster attack on rural healthcare systems for reasons hardcore policy eggheads can explain. The TLDR of it is “Well, we are all going to die.”

Bitching about New York City near-Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani on Thursday, Matt Gaetz-replacement Florida MAGA Congressman Jimmy Patronis – whose claim to fame in his previous job as state comptroller was to propose using taxpayer funds to pay for convicted felon President Trump’s legal bills – told idiot Maria Bartiromo that he “cannot believe that New York is about to elect Adam Sandler the hair-dresser as mayor of one of the world’s greatest cities.” The play on the similarity in name to a really shitty “comedy” movie from 17 years ago, You Don’t Mess With The Zohan, starring Sandler as a former Israeli commando named Zohan who fakes his death and retires to become a hairdresser in Manhattan is… Does anyone actually even need to be made aware of the irony of this stupid dipshit using “Zohan” as to score points on an insurgent leftist politician billed by MAGA media as the antisemitic harbinger of the “global intifada”? Holy fuck what a moron who no one should be particularly surprised that he appears to be a fan of Adam Sandler movies.

Like he definitely has Click on DVD. Or did before he gave it away and got then got the Blu-ray UHD.

Almost as funny is how it came just seconds after Patronis bitched about SALT deductions in the Big Beautiful Bill, saying “The economies just need to change leadership at the top of those governments in those big blue states,” as if that isn’t exactly what’s happening in New York City.

A new survey of Texas GOP voters by Pulse Decision Science finds corrupt, Picasso-faced Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton leading incumbent “RINO” Senator John Cornhole Cornyn by 57 to 38 percent in next March’s primary election for Cornyn’s seat. While this poll was sponsored by a pro-Paxton Super PAC the numbers are pretty goddamned consistent with the Paxton 56 – Cornyn 38 that the establishment McConnell-Thune PAC Senate Leadership Funds’s pollster found last month.

Like that first poll, the still-unlaunched campaign from two-term MAGA Congressman Wesley Hunt would not meaningfully change the state of the race – other than make it more likely for Paxton and Cornyn to have to piss away a shit ton more of their money on a runoff – as the test with Hunt added puts him in third at 13 percent to Pax’s 49 percent and Cornyn’s 32 percent. Worse yet, Picasso-face gets higher name ID numbers than Cornhole among respondents at 94 to 89 percent and higher net favorability where Paxton’s at 52 percent to Cornyn’s 23 percent. Paging Dr Feelgood, lol.

Apparently testing “Rumor is that” to serve as a replacement for “People are saying” convicted felon President Trump on Thursday posted “Rumor is that the Failing New York Times and Fake News CNN will be firing the reporters who made up the FAKE stories on the Iran Nuclear sites because they got it so wrong. Lets see what happens?” The oddly-placed question mark may be an indication that the president isn’t sure whether if he even believes his own bullshit about this.

White nationalist former Fox News host Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth was roused of the couch Thursday and given an extra stiff 32oz Bloody Mary so he could stand long enough at the ungodly hour of 8 AM to rage at the press for reporting that the Iranian nuclear program was not actually completely destroyed in the airstrikes convicted felon President Trump ordered last weekend.

In a Thursday article headlined “5 killed after train hits vehicle that allegedly attempted to go around crossing gate” ABC News was sure to include the apparently crucial secondary detail “It appears the train may have also been damaged in the crash” prominently in the subhed of the tragic story of a no doubt horrifying collision in Gary, Indiana, sourced from ABC’s metro Chicago affiliate WLS.

Further down the article reiterated the subhed verbatim with “It appears the train may have also been damaged in the crash.” In fairness this is after what those in the news business might call “the human side of the story” specifically that the five people were killed when their vehicle drove around the closed grade crossing gate near Highway 20 and Utah Street in the city. “This is a developing story. Please check back for updates,” the story concludes, emphasis ABC’s, which could be read as urging those whose reaction to the report was “Oh my God, I hope the train isn’t in too bad of shape” to “stay tuned” for the latest on the train’s condition after it plowed into a passenger vehicle.

Sources tell the Wall Street Journal that convicted felon President Trump is looking at announcing a pick to replace outgoing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, whose term expires next May, in September, October, or maybe even earlier than that – well ahead of the traditional January February window – in a bid to undermine Powell’s authority given the fat fuck’s tantrums over interest rates. Rates that would’ve been lowered if not for uncertainty over Trump’s stupid tariffs.

Newsom's office ripped for mocking Sec. McMahon's trans athlete warning with WWE bodyslam clip https://t.co/f0u07zmjxS

— Fox News (@FoxNews) June 26, 2025

“I offer my congratulations on the victory over the fallacious Zionist regime. With all that commotion and all those claims, the Zionist regime was practically knocked out and crushed under the blows of the Islamic Republic. My congratulations on our dear Iran’s victory over the US regime. The US regime entered the war directly because it felt that if it didn’t, the Zionist regime would be completely destroyed. It entered the war in an effort to save that regime but achieved nothing.”

“The Islamic Republic delivered a heavy slap to the US’s face. It attacked and inflicted damage on the Al-Udeid Air Base, which is one of the key US bases in the region,” wrote Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei in a series of tweets on Thursday, plainly aimed at annoying a certain someone in the White House but not saying anything at all about the current state of their uranium.

Trump 2020 campaign manager Bill Stepien tells the New York Times that the MAGA party might want to be a little careful about what they wish for in the rise of Zohran Mamdani in New York City.

“Most Republicans this morning were probably high-fiving and backslapping each other over last night’s result. I’d urge Republicans to be a little more nervous about this guy,” said Stepien. “He dresses nicely, he presents well, and he looks like someone who could actually be mayor. Any time someone can make dangerous policies sound reasonable, Republicans should be concerned.”

“He has more value as a turnout mechanism for Democrats than as a boogeyman for Republicans.”

Original, worse logo.

Same site. Different logo. Same president. Same fucked up political situation. Arguably worse actually. Same grind. It’s that grind that drives me, that pathological obsession with this day-to-day nonsense even if it sucks and is very often so depressing and rage-inducing.

And yeah, this should be longer and less, um, perfunctory but it’s not a time for celebration of the accomplishments of this site. There’s only the work ahead… and also the humble gratitude to readers for their generosity in powering this machine. It still needs your help, maybe even a little extra help given circumstances outside of the news cycle on this end of the keyboard. You make the all work worth it, even the ones of you who don’t donate, even the ones that don’t donate and complain and bitch all the time in the comments. You’re not worth as much as the donors though.

This site will be very, very upbeat and celebratory on a National Zero-mas in the future. Not this one.

The Trump boys have quietly made some changes to the marketing bullshit for the Trump T1 phone, mainly that they dropped the lie that it’s made in the US, replacing it with a vague “Premium Performance. Proudly American” tagline, that it’s “designed with American values in mind” with “American hands behind every device,” The Verge reports on Team Never Back Down backing down.

They also changed some of the specs and the “ships in September” to “later this year,” lol.

Drug-abusing far right Texas Congressman Ronny “Dr Feelgood” Jackson is considering a Senate bid amid doubts that Ken Paxton can win a general election, freelancer Juliegrace Brufke reports.

Hmmm… If there’s anyone who could get Trump’s endorsement over Picasso-face – or at least a dual endorsement – then maaaaybe it’s Ronny, but the crazy asshole has won a grand total of three essentially unopposed elections in some rural district while Paxton’s won three statewide generals, two of them while facing indictment for insider trading. Might be kind of a stretch.