With $155 million in gross receipts in under 48 hours, the Barbie movie about the iconic doll and her boyfriend Ken coming to life has completely destroyed astroturfed QAnon fan fiction film Sound of Freedom at the box office, CNN reports on a thorough repudiation to all the dildos who made the cult hit’s performance against major Hollywood productions so important to their self-esteem.

At $70 million so far this weekend, the Christopher Nolan-directed historical drama Oppenheimer, starring Cillian Murphy as the tortured father of the nuclear bomb, is also on pace to quickly overtake the Jim Caviezel jerkfest’s $110 million haul. “Both [Barbie and Oppenheimer] can be considered absolute homerun hits,” industry egghead Paul DerGarabedian told CNN.

One of the most recognized icons on the internet may be going the way of dial-up service and Friendster if temperamental oligarch Elon Musk has his way.  Musk tweeted Sunday, “And soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds[,]” a characteristically ambiguous post that the enigmatic billionaire used to create buzz and discussion.

A new Fox Business News survey of likely South Carolina Republican 2024 primary voters finds disgraced former President Trump leading the pack at 48 percent support, former Governor Nimrata “Nikki” Haley in second at 14 percent, and pudding fingers Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in third at 13 percent which is lol this evil little bastard cannot catch a friggin break these days.

DeSantis is at least still in second place in Iowa in Fox Business’s parallel survey in the Cornhole State, but it’s a very distant second to Trump who leads Tiny D 46 to 16 percent among likely caucus voters there. It’s getting harder and harder to remember the last time Trump didn’t lead a 2024 GOP primary poll, but amazingly it was a pretty regular thing seven months ago.

The Greek party destination of Rhodes was scorching hot on Saturday as a wildfire forced the evacuation of thousands of locals and foreign partygoers from the island, the BBC reports.

“We have just literally escaped from a 5 star luxury resort by boat amid severe conditions. We had to follow our instincts rather than directions. Poor visibility, smoke inhalation, no real directions,” British guy Mark Cook told the BBC, adding that one moment had been lounging in the sun but “the next ash is falling and smoke rapidly progressing because the winds suddenly got significantly stronger.”

President Joe Biden will sign a proclamation on Tuesday establishing a national monument at three locations in Illinois and Mississippi honoring Emmett Till, the Black Chicago teenager tortured to death by a group of white men after allegedly whistling at a white woman while visiting Mississippi, the Associated Press reports.

The Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument will remember the impact Emmett’s death had on the nation, as well as the strength and bravery his mother showed after his murder to expose the brutality of the white supremacy power structure in the South that allowed the murderers to be acquitted in an unfair trial.

The announcement will be made on what would have been Emmett Till’s 82nd birthday, and it comes as conservatives attempt to erase or minimize white racism in American history, such as Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis’s requirement that schools in the state teach that slaves were taught skills that benefited them.

The Cambodian People’s Party is expected to sweep all 125 Parliamentary races, leading to another term in office for Han Sen, who has rules as the country’s prime minister since 1998, the BBC reports.  The election was more-or-less wrapped up in May when the leading opposition party, the Candlelight Party, was banned from the nation.  In March, Sen jailed his leading opponent, Kem Sohka.

The sweep is not unprecedented in Cambodian history:  it was shockingly done by the CPP in the last national elections in 2018, when all credible opposition parties were outlawed or their leaders jailed.

The Barbie movie has a conservative message.

It reunites a mother with her teenage daughter who denied her affection and brings a mother and daughter closer.

It also reinforces the fact there there’s only 2 genders and tells men to stop being simps.

If anything, it’s a pro-… https://t.co/Q9mnKQ6Hp5 pic.twitter.com/8JKelUH5nA

— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) July 22, 2023

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was hospitalized unexpectedly Sunday (local time) for an emergency operation to insert a pacemaker, Politico reports.  The procedure comes one week after Netanyahu was briefly hospitalized for what staff reported was dehydration.

During that hospitalization, Netanyahu had a monitor fitted that reportedly alerted last night to a heart rhythm abnormality that requires a pacemaker to correct.   Justice Minister Yariv Levin, the author of the judicial reform program that is causing widespread demonstrations, will take on Netanyahu’s duties while he is incapacitated.

Yeah, this is rational:  in apparent rage over something to do with the demasculinization of a character based on a doll featured in a comedy movie based on a fictitious world centered on a doll’s marketing campaign, conservative gadfly Ben Shapiro decides he’s going to torch his entire collection of Barbie toys.

Set aside the fact that a 39-year-old man has his own collection of dolls marketed to pre-teen girls.  The conservative penchant to destroy things they bought specifically to destroy in a theatrical fashion demonstrates that it’s really not about the brand or the movie, but about their desire to stage elaborate violent acts to prove how manly they are.  Shapiro seems comfortable while setting girls’ dolls on fire in an angry rage; perhaps he did it often as an adolescent.  That would explain so much.

Their silence was deafening. Watch the video: https://t.co/fNsPlVZtYt pic.twitter.com/rthurjQIub

— Fox News (@FoxNews) July 22, 2023

Fox hosts decry liberal “virtue signaling” as overt and presumably insincere efforts to promote a (typically liberal) cause.  They’ve demeaned it as performance art to placate special interest groups–y’know, like women–while doing nothing to solve the real problems that need to be addressed, like high taxes and the oppression of white Christian men.

But don’t let Fox’s own personal hypocrisy stand in the way of using its own virtue signaling to denounce the US women’s national soccer team as insufficiently patriotic for Fox standards.  Showing video of many of team members standing silently and respectfully while the “Star-Spangled Banner” is played prior to their match, Fox noted that the players didn’t sing, something they viewed as disrespectful even though there is no rule or law requiring citizens sing while the song is played.  Fox just made up that in its own passing grade for patriotism, “virtue signaling” of what they demand, and setting their angry audience on the targets of their displeasure.

A YUGE Happy 35th Birthday to the KING OF NEW YORK @MrSantosNY who just turned old enough to run for POTUS 👀 pic.twitter.com/hAFqgyFj3F

— VISH BURRA 🏴‍☠️ (@VishBurra) July 22, 2023

Indicted and admitted fraudster Republican New York Congressman George “Anthony Devolder” Santos celebrates his 35th birthday Saturday, acknowledged by his ethically challenged operations guy Vish Burra.

In its quest to make voting as difficult and cumbersome as possible, Florida elections officials unilaterally canceled millions of standing requests from registered voters in the state to get mail-in ballots, a move Republicans claimed they made after the 2020 election to cut down on voter fraud that barely exists in the state, NBC News reports.

Florida voters could request an absentee ballot in a statewide election up to four years prior to the election.  A 2021 law cut that window to two years and did not accommodate requests that had already been put in for the 2024 election and automatically canceled requests made through 2022, meaning all those requests made to date for 2024 mail-in ballots are now void for the next election cycle and must be resubmitted.  Democrats are now scrambling to advise all impacted and help them reapply.

“It’s doing exactly what they intended it to do, which is suppress voters and take resources,” state Democratic Party chair Nikki Fried said. “Instead of focusing our money, resources and time on other endeavors and talking to voters, we’re having to spend resources to get people back on the rolls.”

A new Yahoo News/YouGov survey finds 62 percent of Trump voters saying that racism against Black Americans is a problem, less than the 73 percent say that racism against white Americans is a problem, and LOL of course Trump fans think they’re the victims of anti-white “racism.”

The US Navy commissioned the Independence-class littoral combat ship the USS Canberra in Sydney, Australia, the first time a new warship has ever officially entered active service while stationed at a foreign port, Reuters reports.

Named after the HMAS Canberra, an Australian heavy cruiser that was sunk while supporting the US Marine landing at Guadalcanal in August 1942, was commissioned in Sydney Harbor while US and Australian forces are participating in biannual military exercises that include mock air and sea battles as well as stating amphibious exercises.

• Ocean temperatures on the Florida coast are as hot as the daytime high in Los Angeles.  Ron DeSantis is literally turning Florida into Hell.
• Why decry Jason Aldean and not rap?  First, the premise is wrong: we shouldn’t glorify violent criminals.  But rappers aren’t claiming their violence is being done in the name of the nation as a patriotic gesture to protect the country when, in fact, it’s just vigilante justice no better than Jim Crow lynchings.
• During the entire Trump Administration, no Democrat entered a poster of Ivanka’s multiple lingerie magazine shoots or the more explicit pics of her step-mom into evidence for the sole purpose of embarrassing her.  But then, Democrats are mature adults.
• How bad have you fucked up if you’d rather spend the rest of your life in North Korea than a few months in the stockade?
  Read More ▶ “Random thoughts Friday, Volume CXXX”

In a largely symbolic move, President Joe Biden announced he elevated Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns to a Cabinet-level position, an acknowledgment of Burns’ contributions to the White House operation, NBC News reports.

A career diplomat who has served both Democratic and Republican administrations (though not Trump’s), Burns served as ambassador to Russia starting in the latter part of the GW Bush administration before becoming Undersecretary of State under Hillary Clinton.

He flew to Moscow in November 2021 to warn his Russian counterparts that the US saw the signs of a Russian buildup to invade Ukraine, and that the West would institute crippling consequences.  Based on the reaction he got from the Secretary of the Kremlin’s security council, upon his return to the US, he told Biden that Putin had already made up his mind to invade. His insights into Russia persuaded the administration to release intelligence showing the Kremlin’s intent to convince the governments and population of Western nations of the threat.

Standing in front of a roomful of white people, insecure short Florida Man and Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis took offense to comments made by Vice President Kamala Harris, the first woman of color to hold elected Executive Branch office, about Florida’s new African American studies requirement to teach slavery benefited Black people because they learned job skills.  He demeaned her trip to Jacksonville where she described the realities of slavery, saying she would “try to chirp and try to demagogue” the issue of the state-mandated historical whitewashing.

President Joe Biden named Admiral Lisa Franchetti to be the next Chief of Naval Operations, the first woman to hold that position as well as the first woman to serve on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, CNN reports.  Franchetti’s nomination will have to wait, however, until Alabama Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville lifts his hold on the promotions for senior military offices in a hissy fit about the Pentagon policy to pay for the travel expenses for military members and family who need to go to another state for a safe abortion.

Franchetti joins the nominees for chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force Gen. C.Q. Brown; nominee for Army chief of staff, Gen. Randy George; and nominee for commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. Eric Smith.  The national security risks of having scores of senior staff positions unconfirmed is raising concern in the Senate, where Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is considering holding the Senate in session over the August break if Republicans can’t wrangle their obstructionist football coach.