A conflagration dubbed the “Lava Fire” has consumed at least 2,493 acres and prompted evacuations across Gem County, Idaho, KTVB reports on just one of several infernos raging across the Potato State but one whose name possibly implies a greater danger than a simple wildfire.

We don’t have information just yet specifically on why it’s called the Lava Fire, but based on the ad hoc system used in the United States – as detailed in this blog post by firefighting command management software vendor RedZone – the naming typically comes on the fly by a dispatcher and is drawn from a nearby geographic feature. So we’ll hazard that, Idaho being a state with numerous active/dormant volcanic features, the “lava” refers to the site of an ancient eruption near where the fire started rather than it having been ignited by actual molten lava pouring out of a fissure.

It certainly works better than the “Camp Fire,” the now-second deadliest inferno of the 21st century that laid waste to the city of Paradise, California in 2018, killing 85 people trapped by the wind-driven flames. Truth be told very few if any had to be aware of the name at the time but it still kind of sounds like people roasting marshmallows and telling ghost stories than a killer fire. The name simply came from the dirt path nearest to where it started: Camp Creek Road in Pulga, California.

The other active fires listed on KTVB’s live blog page include the Boulder, Snag, Dollar, Table, Red Rock, Black Eagle, and Goat Fires, the last one sounding kind of vaguely unthreatening too.

Notorious invertebrate Nikki Haley on Monday told Fox and Friends that she “respects” Liz Cheney calling ripping her a new asshole for being such a worm and trying to sell voters on making it a “substance not style” thing. And then Haley continued lamenting Trump and Jaydee’s misogyny.

“Hvaldimir,” the white Beluga whale suspected of being a Russian-trained spy – on account of being strapped with a camera-mounted harness that said “Equipment St Petersburg” in Cyrillic – probably died from choking on a stick rather than any foul play, Norwegian cops have determined after examining the marine mammal’s corpse that turned up in a fjord last week, Reuters reports.

“The autopsy showed that its stomach was empty. In addition, most organs had broken down. There is nothing in the investigations that have been carried out to establish that it is human activity that has directly led to Hvaldimir’s death,” police said, adding the stick they found in his mouth was 14 inches long by about 1.2 inches wide and that the whale’s stomach was empty. They’re not 100 percent sure Hvaldimir died from the stick or what but since they ruled out any human cause there’s no crime and thus they won’t be investigating further, leaving it to marine biologists to figure it out.

Sources inside North Carolina’s Republican establishment tell NOTUS they’ve all but given up on MAGA psychopath Lt Gov Mark Robinson’s gubernatorial bid over weak polling numbers and a constant stream of bad press about his degenerate ways. “For Robinson to win, he will need to be on offense for a consistent period or for Trump to considerably overperform his 2016 margin,” said Republican strategist Doug Heye, who long warned that Robinson would be toxic in a general election. “Not impossible, but neither of those seem likely,” Heye continued, with his assessment of the race against Dem Attorney General Josh Stein, who holds a massive cash advantage.

“I said this would happen over and over again, and so I don’t know why it’s a surprise to people. He can’t moderate his positions now because, at this point, the average voter has a decidedly set opinion about him. And the hits keep coming,” said 2024 GOP gov primary loser Bill Graham.

“As far as for swing voters, there was little to no definition for Mark Robinson coming out of the primary, and the Josh Stein campaign has done a very effective job of defining him to that universal swing voter first,” said Republican strategist Paul Shumaker, who backed Graham’s bid.

Robinson himself seemed to acknowledge the predicament two weeks ago, saying “if nothing changes on the fundraising front, not only do we risk losing this race, but the White House too,” in an acknowledgement that the mythical “reverse coattails” effect could come true in the Tar Heel state.

👀👀👀 https://t.co/WzBLRGO7y1

— Jason Miller (@JasonMillerinDC) September 9, 2024

Not sure if milkshake abortion guy propagating this story about Haitian invaders eating people’s ducks in Ohio really resonates if he can’t specify the colors of the ducks’ feathers. Like if they were white then it’s a serious problem and would absolutely galvanize Caucasian voters into fearing that they too could have their heads cut off and their fatty flesh consumed in a honey soy and ginger sauce. If the ducks are the more common mix of darker, natural colors like the sexually dimorphous mallards encountered far more frequently in the wild then it probably won’t land so well. That’s probably why this “EndWokeness” dickbag didn’t show any footage of the ducks getting killed.

“Less than two months until the election, 72 percent of Jewish voters back Kamala Harris, while only 25 percent support Donald Trump. Nearly all – 91 percent – of Jewish voters are concerned about antisemitism in the United States, and Jewish voters trust Kamala Harris more than Donald Trump to fight antisemitism by nearly a three- to-one margin (60 percent-23 percent). Harris’s lead over Trump by a 47-point margin (72 percent – 25 percent) is an improvement from Biden’s 41-point margin among Jewish voters in April (67 percent -26 percent) when compared to an April poll of Jewish voters conducted by the Jewish Electorate Institute (JEI),” says a press release from the Jewish Democratic Council of America via the Forward’s Jake Kornbluh. So it’s technically a partisan poll but it’s also not far off from the 77 percent of Jewish voters Joe Biden got in 2020.

Per Kornbluh, the survey also found Israel ranking as only the 9th most important issue, 87 percent of respondents support the Biden admin’s efforts to reach a hostage-ceasefire deal, and that Israeli dictator Benjamin Netanyahu has a 30 percent job approval rating among American Jews.

In a development not surprising or shocking so much as noteworthy because it makes MAGA world’s exemplar of strong leadership look weak and cowardly since a willingness to sit for hostile interviews is one of their measures, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov on Monday told reporters that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin won’t grant the Wall Street Journal’s Evan Gershkovich’s request for a chat as he had written on his release papers last month after over a year in detention, Reuters reports.

“We are not interested in such an interview. In order for there to be an interview with foreign media, and a specific one at that, we need to have an occasion. So far we don’t see such an occasion,” said Peskov. Christ that’s a fucking lame excuse, one that will be ignored by the fanboys still seething over Vice President Kamala Harris’s sitdown with CNN’s Dana Bash as not being hostile enough.

Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign is out with a new ad ripping convicted felon former President Trump’s tendency to alienate pretty much every public official who ever worked for him.

Finally sharing the crosstabs from last week’s survey finding Vice President Kamala Harris with a 51 to 46 percent lead over convicted felon former President Trump among likely voters nationally, ABC News on Monday reports that the same sample found Harris up 93 to 7 percent among Black respondents – her target given Joe Biden won Black voters 92 to 8 percent in 2020, 72 to 24 percent among women under 40, and 64 to 33 percent among all under 40 voters.

“Instead of working across the aisle to do their most basic job and deliver for the American people by keeping the government open and providing emergency funding for disasters, House Republicans are yet again wasting time with extreme policies and a potentially harmful long-term continuing resolution (CR). The House Republicans’ long-term CR abdicates their responsibility to the American people. It would erode our national defense, impede our efforts to outcompete China, fail our veterans and seniors, abandon communities struck by disasters, and undermine programs that support small businesses while making wealthy tax cheats pay what they owe. Finally, it would move us closer to devastating across-the-board cuts to education and Head Start programs; our veterans, the military, and border agents; food assistance for mothers, babies, and low-income families; food and air safety; and more,” says the White House in a Monday statement.

The Harris-Walz 2024 Campaign website on Sunday launched a policy page outlining her stance on current issues in an election that we all know isn’t going to be won or lost on the issues.

“Vice President Harris and Governor Walz are fighting for a New Way Forward that protects our fundamental freedoms, strengthens our democracy, and ensures every person has the opportunity to not just get by, but to get ahead. As a prosecutor, Attorney General, Senator, and now Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris always stood up for the people against predators, scammers, and powerful interests. She promises to be a president for all Americans, a president who unites us around our highest aspirations, and a president who always fights for the American people. From the courthouse to the White House, that has been her life’s work,” says the intro.

Parental rights group leader warns America's parents about Harris/Walz presidency: ‘Worse than weird’ https://t.co/CdkMJUZxN0

— Fox News (@FoxNews) September 9, 2024

A new report from the GOP chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee reassesses blame for the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan in 2021 including the deaths of 13 American servicemembers, mysteriously increases the references to alleged responsibilities of Vice President Kamala Harris in the mayhem by 125 times, Politico report.

Texas Republican Congressman Michael McCaul mentioned Vice President Harris 251 times in the report released Sunday.  That’s 249 more references to the current Democratic Presidential nominee than in the 115-page preliminary report McCaul’s office released in 2022.

Democrats are expected to release their own report, pointing out to failures of the Trump administration to prepare for the withdrawal after signing the surrender to the Taliban

“An interview by Tucker Carlson of an election expert indicates that 20 percent of the Mail-In Ballots in Pennsylvania are fraudulent. Here we go again! Where is the US Attorney General and FBI to INVESTIGATE? Where is the Pennsylvania Republican Party? We will WIN Pennsylvania by a lot, unless the Dems are allowed to CHEAT. THE RNC MUST ACTIVATE, NOW!!!” posted convicted felon former President Trump on Sunday, apparently getting more anxious than his fanboys this early on.

Both the American film and retail industries are trying to prepare for civil unrest before, during, and after election day by shuffling things around. In Tinseltown, a Hollywood Reporter story says studios are largely skipping the normally lucrative first and second weekends of November in order to avoid having to shell out more for TV spots whose prices are being driven up by political ad spending.

And then there’s that pesky “violence” thing too. “Notably, 2024 seems different and given the incredibly high stakes and high-profile nature of this year’s presidential contest, it looks like the major studios are erring on the side of caution rather than risking the oxygen-sucking dominance of what is likely to be the most intense post-election weekend in modern history,” says veteran box office analysis egghead Paul Dergerabedian. “Waiting to see if politically distracted news cycle obsessed moviegoers will vote with their absence at the multiplex over this specific November weekend is a box office gamble most are not willing to take this year,” he continued, noting that this is really the first time in Hollywood’s history this happened. “The box office has never been impacted by the election, but this is a whole new level. It’s going to be such a shitshow,” said one exec.

The retail industry is similarly bracing for shit to get real, as Axios reports stores are offering up early holiday deals well ahead of the season to drive up sales now. “The uncertainty around election results may slow down shopping around that time and that could be one reason why retailers started to offer holiday deals early,” said George Mason University professor Mehmet Altug.

Axios didn’t really elaborate on potential reasons why partisans might buy less shit this year, but it’s not hard to imagine one side or the other being too scared and depressed to want to spend.

“Birdbrain” was awfully frustrated on Sunday trying to sell voters on the whole “Trump is the lesser of two evils” song-and-dance with CBS’s Margaret Brennan, having to deal with questions about Donald’s batshit press conference and Jaydee’s continued insane rants about childless women.

“Western Gulf of Mexico (AL91): Showers and thunderstorms have increased this morning in association with a broad area of low pressure located over the southwestern Gulf of Mexico. This system is forecast to drift slowly northwestward during the next couple of days, and environmental conditions are expected to become conducive for additional development. A tropical depression is likely to form during the next couple of days as the system moves generally northwestward and then northward near or along the Gulf coast of Mexico and Texas through the middle of the week.”

“Interests along the western and northwestern Gulf Coast should closely monitor the progress of this system. Watches could be required for portions of the coast later today or tonight. An Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunter aircraft is also scheduled to investigate the system later today,” says a National Hurricane Center bulletin putting the chances of formation into a named storm at 80 percent in the next 24 hours and 90 percent in the next 7 days. Well that definitely sucks for Texas.

“Central Tropical Atlantic (AL92): Showers and thunderstorms associated with an elongated area of low pressure over the central tropical Atlantic continue to show signs of organization. Environmental conditions appear conducive for additional development of this system, and a tropical depression could form while the system meanders over the central tropical Atlantic through Monday and then begins to move generally westward at around 10 mph through the rest of the week,” the bulletin continued, putting the chances of formation at 40 percent in 24 hours, 60 percent in 7 days.

MAGA Senator Tom Cotton on Sunday at least three times said “a few memes and videos aren’t going to make the difference” in the election in response to CNN’s Dana Bash’s questions about his party’s propagandists being exposed as paid agents of the Kremlin. At the same time he thinks some bullshit about Hunter’s laptop made the difference in 2020, so yeah he sucked in this interview.

A new set of Blue Wall surveys by CBS News/YouGov finds Vice President Kamala Harris leading convicted felon former President Trump 50 to 49 percent in Michigan, 50 to 48 percent in Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania tied at 50-50, all of these samples likely voters, raining on the celebratory circlejerk by horseracers and MAGAmericans thrilled by the Times national poll showing Trump up 1.

Venezuelan dictator Nicholas Maduro has pretty much officially Stopped the Steal as opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez has fled the country for political asylum in Spain, the BBC reports.

A Spanish Air Force jet departed Caracas late Saturday night after Gonzalez had spent the last several days hiding in the embassy. Maduro’s Regime allowed the legitimate winner of this year’s election safe passage to the airport despite having issued an arrest warrant. State security forces have also surrounded the Argentinian embassy where six allies of Gonzalez are holed up, with Maduro propagandists claiming terrorist attacks on the regime are being plotted within.