A leaked internal Texas Department of Public Safety email obtained by the Houston Chronicle reveals horrific cruelty being deliberately inflicted on migrants on the orders of hateful and sadistic Governor Greg Abbott, who issued a directive for harsh treatment of migrants that led to Department of Public Safety personnel orders to force families with children and nursing babies back into the waters of the Rio Grande.

The cruelty doesn’t end there:  Abbott ordered troopers to withhold water from migrants even as temperatures reach record highs.  He also ordered the placement of a “buoy barrier” in the Rio Grande, turning sometimes needed flotation for swimmers into bloodying weapons.  Migrants also report being cut by razor wire at and under the water line in the river at a crossing point at Eagle Pass.

According to a “whistleblower” trooper who leaked the memo, troopers who found a group of about 120 migrants on June 25th laying exhausted and hungry along the US side of the river, but on the other side of a fence, were ordered by their commander to force the group, which included families with toddlers and infant children, back into the water.  The troopers questioned the order on humanitarian grounds, and were then told to abandon the people there with assistance or water.  Contrary to their orders, the troopers independently notified other agencies who provided assistance.

Alex Gleason, the lead engineer for Donald Trump’s social media platform Truth Social, told Reuters he resigned from the indicted felon’s venture to concentrate on growing the underlying framework he developed independently and then adapted to use for Trump.

Prior to joining Trump Media and Technology Group in January 2022, Gleason developed Soapbox, an open-source decentralized social media technology he believed could challenge the dominance of Facebook and Twitter.  His departure is the latest blow to Truth Social, which continues to struggle to attract users and which awaits a cash injection from Digital World Acquisition, itself having a pretty crappy month.

A judge ordered the release of records from a case in which two married Daytona Beach Shores (Florida) police officers brought their 3½-year-old son to the police station and locked him in a cell as a motivation to potty train, the Daytona News-Journal reports.  The name of the minor and other personal information will be redacted.

Sgt. Jessica Long and Lt. Michael Schoenbrod brought their son to the jail overnight on October 5th to 6th.  On two occasions, Schoenbrod put the boy, alone, into one of the “cages” where prisoners are held, once for three to five minutes and a second time for “13 minutes or something like that,” Schoenbrod said in an interview with a child services advocate.  Schoenbrod also admitted to handcuffing the child who broke down in tears before he promised to learn potty training.

Amazingly, neither Long nor Schoenbrod faced criminal charges for the abuse even though a state Department of Law Enforcement investigation recommended charges to the local prosecutor.  The police department conducted an internal professional standards investigation–which may or may not have involved a question as to why the Florida officer didn’t taze the disobedient detainee–but its results will not be made public.  And yes, they’re still on the job.

He’s a grown man who was just named host of a key primetime hour on a propaganda network’s lineup.  But Jesse Watters has to exploit his seemingly addled mother, mocking her on air, but Mother’s wise words to “seek solutions rather than fanning the flames” isn’t what Fox is about, so instead of listening to his mother (like the mama’s boy he is), he’ll listen to the lemmings in is production office.

The emergency slide from a United Airlines Boeing 767 detached from the aircraft as it was on its landing approach to O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, crashing into a neighborhood about a mile from the airport, NBC News reports.

A maintenance crew noticed the inflatable slide was missing from the plane, which had just landed on a flight from Switzerland.  The slide was located in the backyard of a home in the Schorsch Forest View neighborhood, with no injuries reported.

Democratic Congressmen from Texas Joaquin Castro and Lloyd Doggett wrote to the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency advising the agency to refuse a Texas state request to self-regulate the carbon-capture industry in the state “can’t be trusted,” Bloomberg reports.

The Congressmen specifically cited the Texas Railroad Commission, which despite its name, doesn’t regulate the railroads in the state.  Instead, the TRC is the state regulator for the Texas energy sector, headed by three elected commissioners.  Texas seeks the status held by North Dakota and Wyoming, which are certified to regulate the carbon capture operations in their states.

“The Railroad Commission of Texas can’t be trusted to uphold the standards that protect health and safety in communities with carbon capture infrastructure,” Castro said in a statement. “Moreover, Texas regulators are unwilling to meet their existing obligations to plug abandoned oil wells. The EPA must not give the commission more oversight over carbon storage wells and related infrastructure, which are disproportionately located in communities of color already exposed to dangerous levels of pollution.”

During a Monday session of the House Rules Committee, Democratic Colorado Congressman Joe Neguse illustrates the adage that Republicans constantly complain about how ineffective government is and prove it when they take office.  Questioning the Republican head of the House Education Committee, North Carolina’s Virginia Foxx, Neguse lists the issues adversely impacting today’s education environment:  poor teacher pay and retention; gun safety; food security; and pandemic-caused learning gaps.  And Neguse skillfully notes that Foxx’s committee has yet to present a single bill addressing any of those issues.  Later, Neguse goes on to rail on Foxx for bringing numerous bits of legislation to the Rules Committee for consideration that increases the power of the federal Department of Education, an agency Foxx says shouldn’t exist in the first place.

A judge in an Iowa county blocked the state’s new six-week abortion ban from going into effect until the court hears arguments from plaintiffs against the law, including the ACLU and women’s health providers, the Washington Post reports.

Polk County District Court Judge Joseph Seidlin heard arguments from the litigants, with the foes of the law saying it violates the state constitution.  The state’s lawyers claim that the law needs to go into effect immediately to protect the rights of “the unborn” although no such rights are outlined in the Iowa Constitution.

The Georgia state Supreme Court on Monday unanimously tossed disgraced former President Trump’s petition to intervene in the expected criminal case against him and his minions in Fulton County over their failed attempt to overturn the 2020 election in the Peach State, Lawfare’s Anna Bower reports on another embarrassing defeat for the hateful orange-colored sexual predator.

Trump had sought to have the court disqualify Fulton District Attorney Fani Willis and Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney from the case, as well as “quash” the report from the special grand jury that had examined the evidence and testimony against the twice-impeached loser and the goose-stepping twats who had signed fraudulent electoral college votes for him. The now-doomed attempt to derail the case followed – and was probably spurred by – the wacky former special grand jury forewoman Emily Kohrs’s February media tour in which she all but outright confirmed the jurors had recommended the fat miserable bastard be charged – and got a good laugh out of Trump having posted “Thank you to the Special Grand Jury in the Great State of Georgia for your Patriotism & Courage. Total exoneration. The USA is very proud of you!!!” just a few days prior.

The Food and Drug Administration approved a new treatment that can be given to all infants that would block the RSV virus from infecting the child, CNN reports, creating yet another helpful medical invention conservatives will undoubtedly revolt against.

The leading cause of hospitalization for young children in the United States, RSV is the second most-fatal illness for children in their first years of life, after malaria.  The new treatment, nirsevimab, brand name Beyfortus, isn’t a vaccine that stimulates the body to produce antibodies; it’s essentially the antibodies themselves.  A different treatment that acts similarly was earlier approved for children at high risk for the RSV infection, but nirsevimab is recommended for all children.

Asked to respond to growing calls from Democrats to cancel antisemitic conspiracy freak RFK Jr’s scheduled Thursday testimony to the stupid “Weaponization” subcommittee, spandex-wearing grapple freak Jim Jordan told Politico’s Jordain Carney “I disagree with everything he said,” but “I don’t think censoring somebody is actually the answer here,” confirming that he’s cool with hosting a guy who thinks the Jews and ChiComs engineered COVID-19 as a bioweapon so he can talk about his views being somehow unfairly censored by the Big Tech-Democrat-Deep State complex.

This whole storyline could not be more perfect. It’s been almost two months since the last hearing of Gymbo’s marquee effort of the 118th Congress and his new star witness goes and fucks this up for him just days beforehand. It was like Jordan bought shares in RFK Jr’s astroturfed bullshit at a high when he scheduled last month and now he has to sell when it’s worthless. Even better is what would’ve been a low-mid viewership hearing is now going to turn into an embarrassing spectacle viewed by millions as Democrats shred into both of them for still holding it.

And here’s legendarily uncourageous titular Speaker Kevin McCarthy saying the same thing, almost verbatim as Jordan, making it pretty plain that they read from prepared talking points about how to address why the fuck RFK Jr is still testifying. What makes it stick out however is that it came right after McChickenshit went off on Democrats over Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal calling Israel a “racist state,” which might be a mild exaggeration at worst. The clip’s an interesting juxtaposition of vocally opposing “antisemitism” with condoning actual antisemitism.

In related news, RFK Jr’s own sister ripped into him in a statement on Monday, writing “I strongly condemn my brother’s deplorable and untruthful remarks last week about Covid being engineered for ethnic targeting. His statements do not represent what I believe or what Robert F Kennedy Human Rights stand for, with our 50+ year track record of protecting rights and standing against racism and all forms of discrimination.” Doesn’t sound like they were getting along beforehand.

In a motion requesting a protective order ahead of the Tuesday hearing to hash out issues over the evidence in disgraced former President Trump and his minion Walt Nauta’s upcoming trial on espionage act violations and other charges, Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith’s team indicated there’s some classified evidence prosecutors want to keep away from the demented orange defendant during discovery. They’ll still let his lawyers see it, so it’s not like this is going to be any sort of constitutional issue. Naturally Team Orange still complained over it.

“On July 12, 2023, the Government sent to counsel for the Defendants the proposed protective order. On July 14, 2023, counsel for the Defendants informed the Government that they intend to object to certain provisions of the proposed protective order, but did not specify any such provisions. Because the entry of a protective order is necessary to provide any classified discovery to the Defendants, the Government respectfully requests that the Court require the Defendants to file on an expedited schedule any objections to the proposed protective order,” Smith’s team wrote.

The proposed protective order itself was not, to our knowledge made public so we don’t know what was so objectionable to Trump. Neither does Smith’s team, as they wrote above. If we had to guess, Trump exploded at his lawyers when they told him about this, simply because he’s mentally incapable of countenancing any sort of restriction or imposition on him, and now they need to spend the next few days coming up with some sort of plausible-ish premise to base their opposition on.

We hate to break this to far right Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as this news is going to be very hard for him to hear, but it seems that his BFF, Texas MAGA billionaire Harlan Crow, isn’t a real, sincere friend and is just using him according to a new report from ProPublica which says Crow wrote off the fun yacht trips he took Clarence on as business expenses on his taxes.

We recommend Ginni take her husband out for a long walk or to get some ice cream with lots of sprinkles so they can talk about it, because it’s not Clarence’s fault that Harlan is such a stinking jerk. Adults can be so cruel sometimes, especially when it comes to money stuff like this.

In all seriousness it’s actually hilarious that this is the only time Crow would be completely honest about the nature of their “friendship” is so he could save at most, what, a few grand? What kind of billionaire oligarch is that fucking cheap and stupid that he would leave a paper trail for his bribery? Even better is that was what it took to turn what was a muddy Supreme Court ethics issue into potential criminal exposure for himself and others in Clarence’s “social cricle.”

The abuse hurled at @Moms4Liberty on @Twitter over the past week is unreal- cursing, threats, insults, defamation.@elonmusk, you say not to block people- but how much abuse are people supposed to take?

I implore you & @TwitterSupport to review the hate directed to our Moms.

— Tiffany Justice (@4TiffanyJustice) July 16, 2023

Donald Trump plans to consolidate power in the Office of the President if he gets reelected, taking offices that were formerly apolitical and independent to make them answerable directly to him and his agenda, the New York Times reports.  The move would make positions such as Attorney General or FCC Commissioner directly accountable to Trump and deferential to Trump’s whims.

“What we’re trying to do is identify the pockets of independence and seize them,” said Russell T. Vought, Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget who now runs a conservative policy group.  This would include purging civil servants who Trump deems insufficiently loyal to him and his policy initiatives.  It would be an upheaval of the government workforce unlike any other in modern times.

Offices from the FCC, to the Justice Department to the Federal Trade Commission would be impacted, demanding each regulatory and law enforcement agency have their operations and investigations blessed by Trump–meaning Trump could target political foes and protect allies.

Monday morning brought a one-two punch of positive socioeconomic news for the United States under the Biden Administration. First, the New York Times reports that the CDC’s “excess death rate,” used as an indirect estimate of mortality attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic and associated economic turbulence, now appears to be at or near zero, meaning a roughly similar number of Americans are dying per capita, per day as there were in 2019. There’s slight disagreement on the exact number, as the CDC and The Economist magazine say it’s under 1 percent, while the Human Mortality Database says it’s actually negative now relative to 2019.

Meanwhile the Wall Street Journal reports wage growth is again outpacing inflation, as adjusted average hourly wages rose 1.2 percent in June, eclipsing a 0.3 percent increase in inflation.

But you know, the Biden Regime is destroying America and turning it into an apocalyptic wasteland and only a restoration of the Holy Orange Messiah can return this nation to greatness.

Residents of a South Florida subdivision are trying to figure out what the hell to do about a dozens-strong and growing herd of bunny rabbits that have threatened to overrun their community and spread to adjacent neighborhoods in the Fort Lauderdale area, the Associated Press reports.

The estimated 60 to 100 adorable little fuck machines are believed to be descended from an unknown number of domesticated lionhead bunnies some asshole neighbor had been breeding in her backyard and illegally abandoned when she moved away. The AP describes lionheads as capable of birthing two-to-six babies every month after they mature sexually at three months.

As such, the current local population estimate lays bare a staggering attrition rate for the cuddly pet store products in a deeply hostile environment rife with scorching heat, lack of suitable food sources, and of course rampant predation by raptors, cats, and reptiles. Local woman Alicia Griggs is working to raise the $20,000 to $40,000 needed to hire a company to trap, neuter, and rehome the bunny herd or give them to Governor Ron DeSantis to fly them to Martha’s Vineyard.

Area man Gator Carter doesn’t see the need. “People drive by, stop, love ’em, feed ’em. “They don’t bother me. We have a couple Airbnbs on the island here and the people (guests) are just amazed that the rabbits come right up to them,” said the man, whose name “Gator” wasn’t printed in quotes in the AP’s article (eg Rob “Gator” Carter). His name appears to be literally Gator.

Speculation of No Labels third party presidential ticket soars as Machin to appear at centrist group’s confab https://t.co/axX8blJ2Ru

— Fox News (@FoxNews) July 17, 2023

Fox News on Monday expressed a strong desire to trust this notoriously capricious and unreliable actor to do the “right” thing for them, despite having been burned by him in the past on numerous, notable junctures including his vote in 2020 to convict fat former President Trump in his first impeachment trial, his 2021 vote on the American Rescue Plan, and his 2022 vote for the Inflation Reduction Act, with that last one seriously pissing them off more than any of the others. For every Biden nominee that he sank just to be an asshole there are dozens upon dozens more that he allowed to take important posts. Now they’re going to rely on him to perform an extremely narrow and specific task for which the margin of error is zero and there is no “viable” backup option should he decide on a whim to fuck them over at the last possible minute.

The Putin Regime on Monday announced the suspension of the Turkey and UN-brokered agreement in which they allowed vessels carrying Ukrainian grain exports to leave ports safely, CNN reports.

Kremlin spokesworm Dmitry Peskov said the deal “has been terminated” until the Russians get relief from sanctions on their own food exports. “As soon as the Russian part is completed, the Russian side will return to the implementation of this deal immediately,” said Peskov. Ukraine’s agriculture sector remains a major contributor to the global food supply even amidst the ongoing Russian invasion of the country and any renewed disruption could cause a rebound in inflation.