Well this is it. Unless you’ve been living blissfully under a rock for the past 43 days you know what’s about to happen: Joe Biden vs Donald Trump at CNN in Atlanta. Empty arena deathmatch. Hostile territory and terms of engagement for the Incredible Orange Blob. Moderators who are not cupcakes. Tens of millions watching across multiple networks. A chance for those walled off from the utter insanity and incoherence of the fat fuck to be exposed freshly to just how badly he’s gotten. A chance for Biden to demonstrate the mental strength and agility too many unfairly doubt.

Pete Arredondo, the former Uvalde school district chief of police who was roundly criticized for his department’s lack of effective response to the ongoing school shooting at Robb Elementary School in May 2022, KSAT ABC-12 in San Antonio reports.

Fired months after the massacre of 19 students and two teachers, Arredondo was indicted on ten charges of child endangerment; he was reportedly in custody at the county jail he once oversaw.  Former UCISD officer Adrian Gonzales was also indicted on one count.

Teachers in Oklahoma schools teaching grades 5 through high school must incorporate lessons on the Bible into their instruction, the state’s Secretary of Education decreed on Thursday, putting up another challenge to the separation of church and state, the Associated Press reports.

“The Bible is an indispensable historical and cultural touchstone,” Republican State Superintendent Ryan Walters said in a statement. “Without basic knowledge of it, Oklahoma students are unable to properly contextualize the foundation of our nation which is why Oklahoma educational standards provide for its instruction.”

Trumpocrats For Trump! The guy on the left is me. The guy on the right is Trump. pic.twitter.com/RHj4N0zQXT

— Rod Blagojevich (@realBlagojevich) June 27, 2024

Former First Lady Melania Trump is missing, per CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, who reports that the third wife of former President Trump is not in Atlanta with her husband for Thursday night’s debate, her whereabouts a complete mystery to the general public normally expecting candidate’s spouses to show up and support them during important moments. It’s not clear if Mrs Trump is in any danger or copulating with a 28 year-old Secret Service agent or shopping at a Versace store in New Jersey or something else. Current First Lady Dr Jill Biden is in Atlanta with her husband, President Joe Biden.

“Google is still at it. On Tuesday, just two days before the widely anticipated presidential debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, the tech giant buried Trump’s campaign website in its search results. But Biden’s appears at the very top for voters looking for information about him. ‘Google is blatantly interfering in the 2024 election,’ said MRC President Brent Bozell,” writes some asshole at the Media Research Center, quoting the founder and father of Capitol insurrectionist L Brent Bozell IV, currently serving a 45 month bid in federal prison for shoving cops and entering the Senate chamber during the melee on January 6th, 2021.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission on Thursday for the second time rejected a petition to recall GOP state Assembly Speaker Robin Vos over his refusal to take up “decertifying” the state’s 2020 electoral college votes among other sins against MAGA, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.

The whole situation’s a mess because there’s a large, looming unanswered question over whether the state legislative district the far right petitioners had collected the signatures is still valid for the effort following the state Supreme Court’s decision to crush the Republican gerrymandering regime.

If it’s the old district then they got 16 signatures more than the minimum requirement. If it’s the new district – the one in which Vos will have to run for reelection in November – then they fell short by thousands, meaning that if the WEC had greenlit the petition it would’ve taken months to resolve in the courts. It’s not clear why the Mike Lindell-backed effort didn’t try to cover their bases and get enough overlap from both districts. Or not clearer because they failed the first time.

Trump campaign Reichsminister of Propaganda and failed Congressional candidate Karoline Leavitt on Thursday was pretty freaking pissed that Biden surrogate Dick Harpootlian mocked her Orange Fuhrer on Fox News right before her segment, one that in a stitched clip featured anchor Martha McCallum asking her to address how they’re handling the fact that Trump really can’t interrupt Biden in a way that the audience watching at home can hear (seriously CNN appears to have done this right), with Leavitt admitting Donald agreed to “these ridiculous rules” to act like an adult.

Fun fact: Dick Harpootlian, a South Carolina state Senator, was defense counsel for Alex Murdaugh in that really fucked-up murder trial. Must be one of those weird old school Democrats.

Spandex-wearing grapple-freak Jim Jordan’s House Judiciary Committee on Thursday voted to hold Joe Biden’s ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer in contempt for who the hell knows it’s something to do with the stupid classified documents investigation, John Solomon’s shitty website reports.

A condemned child murderer in Oklahoma on Wednesday demonstrated terrible taste in pizza by ordering two double cheese, double pepperoni Little Caesar’s pies to go with two cups of vanilla ice cream and a bottle of Vernor’s ginger ale, possibly to a make a float, the Oklahoman reports.

It’s possible that Richard Rojem, a native of Michigan who’s been imprisoned since 1984, might’ve forgotten that there were better options out there than the chain based in his home state, even in Oklahoma. Hell, a Domino’s deep dish is a pretty solid pick, gun to your head, if you had to choose a fast food pizza place. Pizza Hut isn’t that bad either. Much better than Little Caesar’s.

Maybe they were the only ones in the area who could deliver. Otherwise he might’ve been stuck with frozen pizza. Which would’ve been funny because then the warden could’ve asked him “What do you want on your Tombstone?” and then be like “Oh wait, you were already on death row when they had those commercials in the early 90s so you probably didn’t get the reference. Lolz”

Rojem was pronounced dead at 10:16 am CDT on Thursday. At least he didn’t order Papa John’s.

Take it from the people who know Donald Trump best—he is unfit to be president. pic.twitter.com/yXx1Cj7vVe

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) June 27, 2024

A New Hampshire man who was on trial for threats texted in response to blasts from fat former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and fascist tech bro Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaigns died has been found dead while a jury was deciding his verdict at the end of a federal trial, the AP reports.

Tyler Anderson, 30, had been charged in December on three counts of sending a threat using interstate commerce after he told one or both of the failed Republican presidential candidates’ campaigns shit like he would shoot everyone in the head at the events, candidate included, and desecrate their corpses. It’s not clear if Anderson was a liberal or a Republican. Probably the latter if his number was on a list of those known to the state party and obviously he didn’t threaten Trump so it’s possible this was directed at the Orange Allah’s “rivals” on that basis.

We do know however Anderson suffered from mental health problems as the court had ordered him to take his psychiatric meds at arraignment. So it’s not too hard to guess how he might’ve died.

Pittsburgh’s annual “Anthrocon” furry gathering is set for it’s biggest year ever in 2024 with attendance estimated at 15,500 people wearing giant cartoonish animal costumes and presumably having anonymous sexual encounters with other attendees via holes in the costumes, WPXI reports.

“We’re excited to welcome the fursuiters back to Pittsburgh. Each year, we have the privilege of working with the event organizers to establish strong community connections and partnerships that leave a significant and lasting impact on our city, and this year, there are several events on the docket that stand to make Anthrocon 2024 bigger and better,” said VisitPITTSBURGH’s Chief Sales Officer Andy Ortale as he momentarily suppressed his no doubt deep utter revulsion at the furries for their bizarre lifestyle and focused on the fact that their money is still green and thus worth it to the local economy, if just barely so. Or maybe he drove home and spent a few hours carefully checking for any runs in the stitching on his custom-made “Albie the Alpaca” getup, especially around the crotch zipper. Wouldn’t want it to get jammed when he spots a bright pink wolf in heat.

Whoopi Goldberg Loses It on Republicans Calling Trump 'The President' During Wild Detour on The View https://t.co/hI6vjHaJJE

— Mediaite (@Mediaite) June 27, 2024

Respondents to every single poll we’ve seen this week that has asked some variation of the question of “who do you expect to win Thursday night’s debate” has found that more respondents think convicted felon former President Trump will win over actual real President Joe Biden. The Economist and YouGov found Trump 40 percent to Biden 30 percent. Leger and the New York Post found Trump 42 to Biden 29 percent. The New York Times and Sienna asked it in two separate questions of how respondents expect each to perform, with 60 percent saying they think Trump will perform very or somewhat well compared to just 46 percent to Biden. Morning Consult has it closer at Trump 44 to Biden 41. The Daily Mail has it not close, at Trump 50 to Biden 39 percent.

We probably missed at least several more. Doubt they’d say anything different about this obvious underestimation of Joe Biden. We need not relitigate the utter insanity of the MAGA media’s deranged pregame coverage to tell you this is exactly what they don’t want people to think going in.

Or that it’s the same shit from four years ago. Remember the screams about Biden secretly wearing an earpiece? Thursday’s showdown may or may not end up moving the needle in favor of Joe Biden but it’s plain that Team Orange know that it’s at the very least fraught with the potential to do so by putting the contrasts right there in high definition right in front of the idiots who responded to these surveys, people who are under impressions such as that Biden will forget where he is, like 49 percent of the Daily Mail’s sample. “Voters expect a domineering performance from his Republican rival, and overwhelming expect him to emerge the winner,” writes the shitty British tabloid.

The US Supreme Court on Thursday handed down the opinion in Moyle v Idaho that had accidentally leaked Wednesday afternoon, ruling that abortions in the case of medical emergencies are allowed, the decision being that the petition was “improvidently granted.” Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented as she wanted the court to take on the question rather than toss it on a technicality.

In a 5 – 4 decision not split along idealogical lines as Chief Justice John Roberts, and Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor were in the minority, the Supreme Court on Thursday squashed the bankruptcy deal that would have had Oxycontin maker Purdue Pharma settle for $6 billion with the families of addicts but shield the owners, the Sackler family, from further liability.

“Today’s decision is wrong on the law and devastating for more than 100,000 opioid victims and their families,” Kavanaugh wrote in his dissent. Gorsuch, who wrote for the majority, says “Surely if Congress had meant to reshape traditional practice so profoundly in the present bankruptcy code, extending to courts the capacious new power the plan proponents claim, one might have expected it to say so expressly somewhere in the code itself.” Sounds technicality-ish.

“The former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández, 55, also known as JOH, was sentenced today to 540 months in prison and 60 months of supervised release for cocaine importation and related weapons offenses. The former two-term president was in office until weeks before his extradition to the United States in April 2022. Hernández was convicted on March 8 following a three-week jury trial,” says a Wednesday press release from the Department of Justice.

“According to court documents, from at least in or about 2004, up to and including in or about 2022, Hernández, the former two-term president of Honduras and former president of the Honduran National Congress, was at the center of one of the largest and most violent drug-trafficking conspiracies in the world. During his political career, Hernández abused his powerful positions and authority in Honduras to facilitate the importation of over 400 tons of cocaine into the US Hernández’s co-conspirators were armed with machine guns and destructive devices, including AK-47s, AR-15s, and grenade launchers, which they used to protect their massive cocaine loads as they transited across Honduras on their way to the United States, protect the money they made from the eventual sale of this cocaine, and guard their drug-trafficking territory from rivals. Hernández received millions of dollars of drug money from some of the largest and most violent drug-trafficking organizations in Honduras, Mexico, and elsewhere, and used those bribes to fuel his rise in Honduran politics. In turn, as Hernández rose to power in Honduras, he provided increased support and protection for his co-conspirators, allowing them to move mountains of cocaine, commit acts of violence and murder, and help turn Honduras into one of the most dangerous countries in the world.”

Two large asteroids will most likely survive a close call with a destructive celestial body astronomers call “Earth” during near orbital conjunctions on Thursday and Saturday, according to a pair of European Space Agency bulletins on 2011 UL21 and 2024 MK. The space rocks will avoid being obliterated by the atmosphere and surface of the monstrous blue orb by distances of 6.6 million and 295,000 kilometers, respectively. Thursday’s asteroid, 2011 UL21, would have more mass to lose were it to careen into the hellish planet believed to be ruled by hyper-intelligent rodents called “capybaras” who deceive and manipulate lesser mammalian forms via psychic energy waves.

We’re not tuned into the newest right wing freakout over the October 2020 letter signed by 50-odd former US intel community leaders calling the Hunter Biden laptop a Russian disinfo op. Obviously they’ve been furious over it for years but for some reason we don’t really care enough to find out what specific contrivance has the MAGA media-industrial complex freaking the fuck out a little extra over the last week or so. It’s probably just another re-run in their universe of grievances.

Probably. We do wonder however what if anything “the Deep State” has up its sleeve this cycle, irrespective of whether House Oversight Chairbilly James Comer and Maria Bartiromo here and the whole MAGA Cinematic Universe at large are consciously preparing their audience for another effort at “election interference” in the coming final sprint before November. There’s no dispute over whether the Justice Department, CIA, even the White House itself, among other state actors have an absolute shit ton of dirt on Donald Trump. There were only so many incriminating documents Mark Meadows could burn in his fireplace during the last few days of Trump’s Maladministration.

Of course there aren’t going to be any new court cases brought up, but think more along the lines of selective leaks to the media and/or Dem members of Congress. Biden’s in power now, he can declassify anything damning and embarrassing about Trump – “context” be damned – if he so chooses. It’s an advantage nobody’s considered yet. The only question is if Joe wants to go there.