Evidently seeing that making people feel insecure about foreigners works to incite nationalism in the US and Western Europe, Chinese communist dictator Xi Jingping last week told his minions the regime will turn its focus to fortifying its border with India, Bloomberg reports.

“China faces new opportunities and challenges in border, coastal and air defense” as a result of changes in the global landscape, said Xi during a study session of the ChiCom Politburo, mentioning a 2020 firefight between Indian and Chinese troops that left 20 of fellow dictator Narendra Modi’s stormtroopers and four of the ChiComs dead. Xi did not explain why it’s so important in practical terms to secure a disputed frontier stretching thousands of miles across desolate and treacherous Himalayan wilderness so it’s safe to assume this is simply his dick-measuring contest with Modi.

A new survey by the AP/NORC finds Vice President Kamala Harris’s favorability rating among respondents at 46 percent vs 47 percent unfavorable for negative -1 net, a clear advantage over convicted felon former President Trump’s -16 percent net at 41 to 57 percent favorable/unfavorable.

Couch fucker Mike Pence replacement JD Vance is also double-digits underwater at -13 percent at 27 percent favorable to 40 unfavorable, a gap that’ll probably grow when the 33 percent remainder who weren’t familiar enough with him start to learn more about his overall shitty personality.

Federal Reserve plans first rate cut in four years, possibly reducing U.S. borrowing costs. https://t.co/UPpz4Hk1hh

— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) July 31, 2024

Republican Maricopa County, Arizona Recorder and longtime Kari Lake nemesis Stephen Richer was felled in Tuesday’s primary election by hardcore MAGA state Representative Justin Heap, the New York Times reports on the wages of “sin” being paid by a “RINO” who denied election denialism.

At least Richer still has a damages-only defamation case against Kari Lake to look forward to.

Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in an unspecified type of airstrike in Tehran on Wednesday, just after he attended the inauguration of Iran’s new president, an escalation by Israel for which supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Israel had “prepared a harsh punishment for itself” by killing “a dear guest in our home,” the Associated Press reports.

Haniyeh’s death comes just a day after a strike on Damascus that killed a top Hezbollah commander believed responsible for the deadly missile attack on a Golan Heights soccer field that killed 12 kids.

“Crazy Kamala Harris, voted the WORST Vice President in American history, needed a concert to bring people into the Atlanta arena, and they started leaving 5 minutes into her speech. I don’t need concerts or entertainers, I just have to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!” posted convicted felon former President Trump late Tuesday, as if he didn’t just have stupid Kid Rock, Hulk Hogan, and Lee Greenwood share the stage two weeks ago at his coronation ceremony in Milwaukee.

Conspiracy theorist, Trump acolyte, and self-proclaimed Rightful Governor of Arizona Kari Lake won the state’s GOP primary for the open Senate seat being vacated by Kyrsten Sinema, who decided she just wasn’t into the Senate, NBC News declared.  Lake will face popular Democrat Ruben Gallego, who ran unopposed in the Democratic primary.

Early on in the highly contested GOP primary for the 8th Congressional District seat, Trump-endorsed Republican Abraham Hamadeh, an election-denying MAGA early adopter, holds an early lead against Trump-endorsed Thielian Blake Masters, who lost the last Arizona Senate race to Mark Kelly.  With about two-thirds of the vote in, Hamadeh holds 29.9% to Masters’ 23.4%.

And that’s not a typo:  Trump endorsed both Hamadeh and Masters, saying on his failing social media site, “They will both be spectacular, and I’m pleased to announce that both Blake Masters and Abe Hamadeh have my Complete and Total Endorsement to be the next Congressman of Arizona’s 8th Congressional District — THEY WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN!”

Vice President Kamala Harris will be the only candidate on the ballot for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination because she was the only candidate who qualified with the minimum number of delegate signatures, Politico reports.

Candidates needed to get at least 300 delegates’ signatures from the nearly 4,000  to earn a spot on the ballot; no other candidate besides Harris collected 300 signatures.  Harris needed to get 1,976 delegates’ votes to win the nomination; she reportedly has 3,923 pledging support.  Voting will be open to the delegates starting Thursday at 9 a.m. ET, and closing Monday at 6 p.m.

Yeah, JD Vance actually said “I would call my wife up here to speak but then I think I’d have to sleep on the couch.” He didn’t pause very long, possibly because he realized what he just said and didn’t want to let the obviously muted, uncomfortable laughter from the audience drag on awkwardly.

Anita Dunn, a senior policy advisor to President Biden and previously Obama’s communication director, announced she is leaving her White House position to serve as an advisor to a Super PAC supporting Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, the Washington Post reports.

Dunn will take a unique place with Future Forward and the affiliated Future Forward USA Action PAC:  although PACs are not allowed to coordinate ad buys with campaigns, they are allowed to communicate and work together on other efforts.  Dunn will serve as a liaison with the campaign, but she will not be able to comment on ad creation or buys.

President Joe Biden will deliver the opening night address of next month’s Democratic National Convention in speech highlighting his administration’s achievements, CNN reports. “Monday night is Joe’s night, and then he’ll turn the keys over,” a source familiar with the plan told the network.

Former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama are tentatively set to headline the second night, followed by the mystery running mate on the third, then Madam Veep herself closing on night four.

A Nebraska teenager is now the GOAT of YouTube pranks: USA Today reports the unidentified 17 year-old in April broke open the padlock on a railroad track switch in his hometown of Bennet, causing a BNSF freight train loaded with coal to collide with a parked boxcar and derail!

The teen, not named in the report because he’s currently charged in juvenile court – though prosecutors are trying to change that – faces two felony counts of criminal mischief for intentionally damaging or tampering with property for the stunt that caused $350,000 in damages.

“Pro” wrestler-turned-Fox News personality Tyrus on Tuesday was nonplussed over the success of the “White Dudes for Harris” event the previous evening, as evidenced by his word salad.

A new swing state survey by Bloomberg/Morning Consult – a sponsor/pollster combo that was absolute shit for Joe Biden for really the entirety of his campaign – shows Vice President Kamala Harris leading convicted felon former President Trump by 47 to 46 percent in the aggregate. In both Arizona and Wisconsin, Harris leads by 2 percent – 49 to 47, in Georgia they’re tied at 47. In Michigan Harris is up freaking 11 percent – 53 to 42, in Nevada she’s up 2 percent – 47 to 45. Trump is up 4 percent in Pennsylvania – 50 to 46, and by 2 percent in North Carolina – 48 to 46 percent.

We chose to ignore this pollster previously because, like we said, it was shit for Biden. In April Trump led in every state except Michigan and by 6 percent in the aggregate. We’re still not taking this new one literally or seriously, we did however pick it up to show movement and to give you the heads up that there’s going to be a lot of shrieking on the MAGA internet in response to these numbers.

A Petersburg, Virginia firefighter put in an admirable effort at getting away with sideswiping a parked car with a ladder truck during a training exercise after drinking 18 cans or bottles of an unspecified beer with 8 percent alcohol, passing most field sobriety tests from a responding cop, but ultimately it was the breathalyzer that did 34 year-old Aaron Hinspater in, the Progress-Index reports.

Hinspater was able to do the one-legged standing and a walk-and-turn after last week’s incident, but the “jerky eye movement” part was suspect. Then Hinspater also blew a 0.145 in two tests 20 minutes apart, so that kind of made it open and shut. “Hinspater then said he had consumed 18 beers that were at an 8 percent alcohol count,” the responding officer wrote in the report. The now-suspended-without-pay firefighter will be arraigned Friday morning in Petersburg General District Court on one count of first-offense driving while intoxicated, a Class 1 misdemeanor.

Trumpworld bows down to left-wing media lies, and keeps signaling he doesn’t want his most loyal foot soldiers — who kept with him even when very few others did — or their conservative ideas in his next administration. Interesting. pic.twitter.com/Ne38h9vI7z

— Mollie (@MZHemingway) July 30, 2024

“President Trump’s campaign has been very clear for over a year that Project 2025 had nothing to do with the campaign, did not speak for the campaign, and should not be associated with the campaign or the President in any way. Reports of Project 2025’s demise would be greatly welcomed and should serve as notice to anyone or any group trying to misrepresent their influence with President Trump and his campaign – it will not end well for you,” write Trump Reichsgauleiters Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles in a statement responding to reporting on a Heritage shitbag quitting.

On that, the Daily Beast’s Roger Sollenberger did a full write-up on that, with a source telling him that “the rift between the Trump campaign and the Heritage Foundation was not ideological, but rather was about power and who will ultimately control Trump World and make staffing decisions in a possible second Trump administration.” Meaning that this is at least partially separate from Trump’s bullshit attempts at “distancing” himself from the effort. But again, it’s hard to see how this would be happening if the campaign wasn’t being tagged with the fascist plot.

Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign jumped on the pile with a statement on saying “Project 2025 is on the ballot because Donald Trump is on the ballot. This is his agenda, written by his allies, for Donald Trump to inflict on our country. Hiding the 920-page blueprint from the American people doesn’t make it less real – in fact, it should make voters more concerned about what else Trump and his allies are hiding. What remains clear is that Trump, Vance, and the Project 2025 agenda will take America backwards: more abortion bans, more suffering, higher costs for the middle class, cuts to Social Security and Medicare, repeal of the ACA, and empowering Trump to destroy democracy.”

Personnel with the Pittsburgh Police Department, Pittsburgh Regional Transit, and the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority were two-thirds heroes on Tuesday when they were able to rescue two out of three ducklings that were trapped in a storm drain next to Allegheny Station, WPXI reports.

“Officials said they are holding out hope that, with enough rain, the third duckling will make it to the river safely and reunite with its siblings,” WPXI wrote in the close of the brief article, as if that’s going to end well for the poor bastard… if he/she is even still alive. Who the fuck says that they “hope” the little ducky gets blasted out of an outflow pipe during a torrential downpour? Just say “Hey we tried our best. At least we got two of them out but unfortunately the third was out of our reach.”

Project 2025 director Paul Dans has stepped down from the Heritage Foundation after pressure from Trump campaign leadership and ongoing power struggle over staffing control for potential second Trump Reich, according to an internal email obtained by the Daily Beast’s Roger Sollenberger.

While maybe it really is over “staffing,” it’s extremely hard to see this as happening if Project 2025 hadn’t become such a political liability for the rapey convicted felon and his minions. Increasing negative publicity for the agenda was one of the few things that Joe Biden legitimately had going good for him before he dropped out – and Kamala Harris sure as hell isn’t going to let it slide.