President Biden will on Monday publish an op-ed calling, as expected, for major reforms to the Supreme Court following some pretty fucked up shit in both the far right majority’s rulings and ethical conduct, according to excerpts shared with Politico ahead of printing in an unspecified paper.

“What is happening now is not normal, and it undermines the public’s confidence in the court’s decisions, including those impacting personal freedoms… We now stand in a breach,” Biden writes in the piece, which comes with a speech set for Monday at the LBJ Presidential Library in Texas.

“The nation was founded on a simple yet profound principle: No one is above the law. Not the president of the United States. Not a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States,” the piece continues. In it Biden outlines his proposals for an enforceable code of ethics but the mechanisms and penalties for enforcement remain vague. What’s less vague is the likely outcome: That nothing will happen in Congress this year given that it would be pointless for Senate Democrats to abolish the filibuster to pass reforms only for Jesus Dork House Speaker Mike Johnson to ignore it.

That’s different than saying this is a waste of time and energy. It isn’t. Making accountability for an unaccountable court a middle term reach goal for the next Democratic trifecta in Washington is a worthwhile policy statement for the party and a no-brainer as a campaign strategy.

Flights to and from Lebanon’s capital Beirut were canceled Monday as the country braced for a possible offensive by the Israeli military against the Shiite terrorist militia Hezbollah in retaliation for a missile strike that killed 12 kids on a soccer field in the Golan Heights, Reuters reports.

Lufthansa, Swiss, Turkish Airlines, and others have halted their flights until at least August 5th as the Netanyahu Regime signaled that they would start bombing their northern neighbor again.

Venezuelan dictator Nicholas Maduro on Monday celebrated “winning” a third term after the country’s election authority declared him the winner, despite the opposition declaring victory amid some fairly obvious signs of rigging by the ruling communist regime, the Associated Press reports.

Would like to say that in another timeline where Joe Biden hadn’t dropped out yet – or at all – that I would have still printed a retrospective with the same headline (up to you whether it’s the Bananarama or Taylor Swift track of that name playing in your head right now) a month from the day after the night that ended his long and storied career in politics. Truth be told I almost certainly would have just tried in my own way to continue to walk the line between gallows humor and hollow attempts at boosting morale, not even acknowledging the milestone. What would have been gained by being honest that American democracy was sliding towards another very dark period which it wasn’t terribly likely to survive? How does one ever truly process a trauma like that?

Those interminable days of the mainstream media grinning happily while banging out scorching hot takes like “Trump on glide path back to White House: Top 10 picks for cabinet posts,” their best at preemptively currying favor with a regime that is far more likely to imprison them for sedition than the current one ever would. The agony of waiting on something, anything else to happen that would change the subject. And the even worse agony of those other news cycles – the Supreme Court throttling the conspiracy case against the fat fuck and giving him a blank check to create a permanent dictatorship, that stupid incel bringing an AR-15 to a sniper rifle fight, Aileen Cannon doing what she was hired to do – just increasing the torment. That Biden was doomed and then he wasn’t because of a middling performance at this or that and then he was again.

Wanted war criminal Maria Lvova-Belova – Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s co-defendant on the ICC’s arrest warrant issued last year for her role in abducting children from Ukraine and forcing them to live in Russia – dubbed by the Telegraph as the “‘family values’ czar” for her position as the “Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights,” has reportedly walked out on her husband, Orthodox Priest Pavel Kogelman, and sacked up with billionaire Putin crony Konstantin Malofeev.

Malofeev’s racket is – you guessed it – an Orthodox church-backed propaganda media empire, called “Tsargrad,” which advocates for installing Putin as the “czar for life,” as if that isn’t already the de facto state of affairs for the Russian presidency. While we’ll note that nothing’s official or confirmed as the only sourcing for Malofeev wrecking Kogelman’s home – five natural kids and another five “adopted,” at least one of them abducted from Ukraine – is reports of Lvova-Belova being filmed holding hands with the “Orthodox oligarch” at a church procession last week, we’ll let this speak for itself. Readers can go to town with the obvious parallels here on the homefront.

South Carolina Senator and Childless American Lindsey Graham on Sunday told CBS’s Rob Costa he was unbothered by colleague and Trump running mate JD Vance’s recent displays of utter contempt for his life choices, chuckling to Costa that nothing was more important than electing the Orange Caesar and his chosen sidekick, even if maybe he died a little bit on the inside while realizing that, no matter how much of a team player he’s been, his party deeply hates who he truly is.

A new ABC News-Ipsos survey finds 48 percent of respondents overall saying they’re “enthusiastic” about Vice President Kamala Harris’s candidacy, a clear edge over 39 percent saying the same about convicted felon former President Trump. The gap is even more pronounced among independents, with 48 percent enthusiastic for Harris to Trump’s 31 percent. Within the respective sides 88 percent of Dems are enthusiastic about Harris to 82 percent of GOP voters for Trump.

We would say this is a significant shift from Biden if ABC News/Ipsos had bothered to ask the question on their prior surveys. It appears they didn’t. They did however note that “Two-thirds (66 percent) of Americans report they are “absolutely certain to vote” in the upcoming presidential election, including 76 percent of Democrats and 78 percent of Republicans. This is up from 70 percent among Democrats and roughly unchanged among Republicans (75 percent) from the last ABC News/Ipsos poll produced before Biden left the race.” That’s not nothing.

Fascist weirdo Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton on Sunday claimed it was “obvious” that convicted felon former President Trump was “making a joke” when he told his fans “You have to get out and vote. You won’t have to do it anymore. Four years, it will be fixed, it will be fine. You won’t have to vote anymore… In four years, you won’t have to vote again,” at some cult gathering on Friday, with Cotton immediately pivoting to a desperate smear of the shit Harris said in her first failed campaign in 2019 about banning fracking and defunding the police as Cotton had no doubt memorized verbatim from the oppo research memos sent to him by his overlords in the NRSC.

“We have a very important Republican Primary Election on Tuesday for Arizona’s 8th Congressional District, with two spectacular America First Candidates. Blake Masters is a very successful businessman, and an incredibly strong supporter of our Movement to Make America Great Again – He is smart and tough! Likewise, Abe Hamadeh, a Veteran, former prosecutor, and fearless fighter for Election Integrity, has been with me all the way!” posted convicted felon former President Trump Sunday, splitting what had been solely his support for Hamadeh, his ULTRA MAGA 2022 attorney general candidate who lost to Dem Kris Mayes by 238 votes, with Masters, the creepy reptilian fascist who Trump backed vs Senator Mark Kelly the same year, losing by a far wider margin.

Seriously, Trump had snubbed Masters and given Hamadeh his “complete and total” backing in December 2023, right after 2022 GOP ticket-mate Kari Lake had voted Masters off the island for not going along with their post-midterms “Stop the Steal” shitshow in the Grand Canyon State.

We have no evidence, but we would hazard that Trump was sold on this by JD Vance, who like Masters is an acolyte of far right nihilist homosexual vampire tech billionaire Peter Thiel.

Vice President Kamala Harris’s shotgun campaign on Sunday announced they raised $200 million from small donors in their first week, 66 percent of it from first-timers, Politico reports.

“The momentum and energy for Vice President Harris is real,” wrote Harris for President communications director Michael Tyler, adding “and so are the fundamentals of this race: this election will be very close and decided by a small number of voters in just a few states.”

Also mentioned in Politico’s article is that Vote.org reports processing 100,000 new registrations this week, 84 percent of them noobs between the ages of 18 and 34. Seems significant.

The Park Fire spread to be the size of the city of Los Angeles and fire officials said it was uncontained, consuming as much as 5,000 acres, or eight square miles, an hour, the Associated Press reports.  It’s already consumed 544 square miles of land and at least 19 structures as it moves north.

Authorities also announced they identified the source of the fire, and it’s far more terrestrial than Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Jewish-controlled space lasers and far more domestic than the migrant panic Murdoch-run outlets wanted to ignite. Instead, police arrested 42-year-old Ronnie Dean Stout II of Chino, who rolled a car that had been set ablaze into a canyon.

Stout then tried to blend into the crowd that assembled before slipping away but authorities were able to identify him. He’ll be charged with arson and various other crimes based on the final damages from the fire, the Butte County District Attorney’s Office said.

Claiming that he believes the campaign doesn’t need his donations, Peter Thiel–the man who launched JD Vance’s political career with the stroke of a pen on the bottom of a $10 million check–says he won’t make any donations to the campaign Vance jumped onto, headed by Donald Trump, the New York Times reports.

Saying he was “disinclined to do it,” Thiel predicted to the Times that the Trump-Vance ticket was going to kick liberal ass in the November election.  He just won’t put his money behind it.  “I went on record saying I would not give money to super PACs, and I still feel I have to stick with that,” he said. “I think it’s going to be very different from 2016 or 2020. I don’t think the election is going to be close. I think Trump and JD will crush the election by a solid margin: 4 percent or 5 percent of the popular vote. And it doesn’t matter what I do. It doesn’t matter what Democrat donors do.”

While very generous in helping Vance buy his seat as well as in a losing effort in Arizona to promote Blake Masters in 2022, Thiel only gave $1 million to Trump’s 2016 effort and nothing to the failing 2020 reelection campaign.

We have no idea how close convicted felon former President Trump is to firing his running mate, eyeliner-wearing Republican Ohio Senator JD Vance… or if he’s considering it at all. We will say however it took more than four years for the fanboys to turn on Mike Pence. It hasn’t even been two weeks yet and already a shit ton of Republicans are feeling buyer’s remorse over Vance. Look for any cues in Trump’s words and body language toward Jaydee. Could be very tea-leafy.

Republican Pennsylvania state senators this week allowed the yearly legislative session to end without taking up a state House-passed bill to unfuck the “Red Mirage,” and allow pre-canvassing of mail-in ballots before Election Day, the Washington Post reports. Just like in 2020, the inaction will again create space for MAGA shitbags to claim “fraud” simply because they’re more likely to vote in person and Dem ballots will be tabulated later. Michigan at least amended their laws, thanks to a Dem trifecta. Wisconsin probably won’t, so only one of the three “Blue Wall” will have fixed the issue.

NY Times digs up old e-mails from JD Vance to classmate attacking ‘morally reprehensible’ Trump https://t.co/dPO7uzhSZ9

— Fox News (@FoxNews) July 27, 2024

“A vein-filled rock is catching the eye of the science team of NASA’s Perseverance rover. Nicknamed ‘Cheyava Falls’ by the team, the arrowhead-shaped rock contains fascinating traits that may bear on the question of whether Mars was home to microscopic life in the distant past.”

“Analysis by instruments aboard the rover indicates the rock possesses qualities that fit the definition of a possible indicator of ancient life. The rock exhibits chemical signatures and structures that could possibly have been formed by life billions of years ago when the area being explored by the rover contained running water. Other explanations for the observed features are being considered by the science team, and future research steps will be required to determine whether ancient life is a valid explanation. The rock – the rover’s 22nd rock core sample – was collected on July 21, as the rover explored the northern edge of Neretva Vallis, an ancient river valley measuring a quarter-mile (400 meters) wide that was carved by water rushing into Jezero Crater long ago,” says a NASA press release that also serves as a pitch for future missions and thus more funding.

• Joe Biden’s portrait belongs on currency.
• While conservative propaganda outlets gripe about Kamala Harris’s laugh in a standard misogynistic attack, no one had been able to produce any video or audio of Donald Trump genuinely laughing.
• Nothing screams “entitled” better than complaining that you spend so much donated money on ads that were instantly made outdated.  Well, maybe one thing:  when Stephen Miller is the one complaining.
• Biden is a man of honor, patriotism and service.  Kamala Harris is a woman with the same characteristics.  The name at the top of the ticket changed; the values didn’t.  And no matter how they change the message, the values and goals of Republicans didn’t change either.
  Read More ▶ “Random thoughts Friday, Volume CLXXXIII”

Trump supporter and bedlinen fetishist Mike Lindell avoided being evicted from one of his company’s largest warehouses when he worked out a last-minute deal with his landlord in Shakopee after receiving his final, legally-mandated eviction notice, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports.

On Tuesday, Lindell reportedly wired the landlord $250,000, about half of the back rent he’s believed to owe, just as the landlord was planning to take Lindell’s property out of the building as a court’s order was imminent.  However, MyPillow lawyer Doug Wardlow informed the court, “We are in a position to redeem the tenancy,” before the judgment was issued.

Jerry Falwell Jr., the disgraced former head of Liberty University who was fired after a series of administrative, management and sexual scandals arose in 2020, reached a settlement with the school his father founded, the Washington Post reports.  Terms of the deal were not discussed.

Falwell, you may remember, enjoyed watching his wife engaged in carnal relations with a young pool boy named Giancarlo, for whom Falwell later helped finance a hospitality start-up.  He was also photographed with his pants unzipped next to a pregnant member of his staff.  And there was the typical corruption:  self-dealing, directing contracts to friends, misuse of university funds, etc.

A Las Vegas man faces federal charges relating to multiple threats he made against more than ten people he felt threatened adjudicated rapist and GOP honcho Donald Trump, including threats against Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and New York Judge Juan Merchan, the Associated Press reports.

Thirty-two-year-old Spencer Gear was indicted on 22 federal charges which outlined telephoned threats to eleven people, including a call to New York on the day of Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts during where he allegedly threatened the lives of Merchan and Bragg. “The defendant does not seem to have respect for the judicial system and for judges,” the magistrate judge noted in scheduling the trial for September 24th.