Kremlin spokesworm Dmitry Peskov on Saturday announced mutinous Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prighozin will move to Belarus and all charges against him will be dropped as part of a settlement negotiated by Minsk’s dictator Alexander Lukashenko ending the nascent insurrection that appeared to gravely threaten the Putin’s regime’s grip on power, Sky News reports.

None of the Wagner Group fighters will face prosecution and are said to be returning to the front in Ukraine. It’s not clear how much Kyiv was able to take advantage of the chaos during the 24-ish hours the Wagner mercs had abandoned their positions and if any significant regular Russian army forces were pulled back to pursue them amid the ongoing Ukrainian counteroffensive.

After our government has been funding a proxy war with Russia in Ukraine for over a year, I sure hope our government isn’t behind a coup attempt currently happening in Russia.

Regime change in a nuclear armed country may lead to terrible consequences the American people don’t…

— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) June 24, 2023

“Regime change in a nuclear armed country may lead to terrible consequences the American people don’t want.”  Neglecting the fact that the nuclear-armed USSR completely collapsed, and that “regimes” in democratic nations like France and the UK change regularly, Republican Georgia Congresswoman and stand-in for the Missing Link Marjorie Taylor Greene adds to her rather impressive list of conspiracy theories she supports by promoting the idea that Joe Biden ordered the start of the Russian coup (even though she claims he’s a doddering, incompetent, senile old man, too).

Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin has ordered his mercenaries to stand down, the AP reports following an announcement by Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko that he had successfully negotiated a peace deal between the Kremlin and Wagner on Saturday.

Clearly speaking from a position of strength, Russian State Duma Committee on State Construction Pavel Krasheninnikov on Saturday offered rebellious Wagner mercenaries a full amnesty if they lay down their arms and give up the mutiny, CNN reports. “Of course, there is a chance to lay down arms and avoid punishment, and the President also talked about this,” Krasheninnikov told TASS.

In very related news, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin declared a “counter-terrorism regime” and ordered citizens to stay home on Monday. “The situation is difficult. In order to minimize risks, I, within the framework of the operational headquarters, decided to declare Monday a non-working day – with the exception of authorities and enterprises of a continuous cycle, the military-industrial complex, and city services… I ask you to refrain from traveling around the city as much as possible. It is possible that traffic will be blocked in certain areas and on certain roads,” Sobyanin wrote on Telegram. Other reports indicate the Kremlin is preparing to declare full-on martial law with the Wagner convoy now passing through the city of Lipetsk, less than 300 miles from Moscow.

“I wonder if the CIA offered him a lot more money than Putin did” – The current top comment on the Breitbart article “Wagner Rebels Will Answer For Betrayal Says Putin as Rostov Occupied”

“None of this train wreck would be happening if Trump was in office” – Top comment on Newsmax.

“Fuck Ukraine” – Top reply on the Patriots.Win (formerly r/theDonald) post “Putin calls armed rebellion by mercenary chief a betrayal and vows to punish its leaders,” posted Saturday.

Ukrainian Defense Ministry official Yuriy Sak on Saturday told the BBC that he and others in Kyiv are enjoying the mayhem in Russia, calling it a “civil war” and making a popcorn joke.

“We are little-by-little running out of popcorn… Yesterday everybody knew that Russia was the second most powerful army in Ukraine and today we’re seeing how… the Russian army is becoming the second most powerful army in Russia,” said Sak, adding that the situation was bound to happen sooner or later given Moscow’s lies about losses. “What we’re seeing now in Russia is a civil war.”

The BBC also reports they’ve confirmed a video of a Wagner convoy headed toward Moscow.

• Who had Russian Revolution on their Friday bingo card?  Oh, everyone?
• Hunter Biden pleaded guilty, and no one took to the streets claiming a Deep State conspiracy.  He fucked up; he copped a plea; he’s taking responsibility.  That’s how adults handle things, not whining about being persecuted.
• Yes, the loss of the Titan sub is tragic, but (a) FAFO and (b) deep sea diving, just like deep space flight, is a dangerous endeavor on the cutting edge of technology and science.  That said, it sounds as though the operator cut safety checks for the sake of getting the vehicle into the water, which made failure an eventual certainty.  
• No one’s taking seriously an ethics censure from a caucus that includes George Santos.
  Read More ▶ “Random thoughts Friday, Volume CXXVI”

An engineer noted his concerns about the length and cargo load of the train that later derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, saying the train was too large and its configuration too unstable to ensure it could operate safely on the designated route, Politico reports.  His concerns were dismissed by a company yardmaster who commented, “well, this is what they want.”

“If you talk to the manager, they said this train was 100 percent rule compliant,” the engineer told NTSB inspectors during an interview included in the report released Thursday. “To me, in my opinion, you know, you got 32 percent of the weight on the headend. Twenty percent in the middle and 40 percent weight on the rearend. So, to me, that’s why we reported that to the yardmaster and like I said this is what they want.”

In a separate report coincidentally released Thursday, investigators noted that the last railside monitor that records and transmits data about passing trains had malfunctioned at the time of the accident and failed to transmit data to a Norfolk Southern monitoring station.  The monitoring station might have warned safety officials of problems with the train, prompting an inspection of the engine and cars before it entered the populated East Palestine area.

A federal judge blocked the new Florida law that bans drag shows in public places where children may see them, the latest in a string of court losses for Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s anti-LGBTQ agenda, CBS News reports.

Citing the fucking First Amendment, the operators of the family-oriented restaurant chain Hamburger Mary’s in Orlando, where they’ve hosted family-friendly drag shows for 15 years, said the law illegally targeted a group of people to limit their freedom of speech.  U.S. District Judge Gregory Presnell cited the vagueness of the law and its potentially chilling effects on the plaintiff’s rights as a reason to issue the injunction.

Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith on Friday filed a motion requesting shitty MAGA Judge Aileen Cannon delay the start of disgraced former President Trump’s federal criminal trial for stealing and hoarding classified documents to December 11, 2023. It’s not clear why exactly Smith’s team made this request, however Cannon’s proposed August start was obviously pretty ambitious and unrealistic, so it could be that Smith just wants all the anticipated delays out of the way.

Former Trump 2020 campaign staffer Michael Roman is in talks with Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith’s team about a cooperation deal in which Roman will testify about the fake Trump 2020 electors scam, the New York Times reports on more bad news for the Orange Tyrant.

“On June 23, 2023, the Investigative Department of the FSB of Russia lawfully and justifiably instituted criminal proceedings against EV Prigozhin under Article 279 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation for organizing an armed insurrection. There will be an appropriate legal assessment of his actions. This crime is punishable by imprisonment for 12 to 20 years,” says the Russian FSB announcing charges against Wagner Mercenary Group boss Yevgeny Prigozhin.

High ranking General Sergey Surovikin, Commander of the Russian Aerospace Forces, called on the Wagner mercs to surrender in a statement. “I have just returned by the order of the Ministry of Defense from the zero line, where our forces, our commanders, our soldiers, volunteers carry out the objective, fighting the superior enemy forces to death, take casualties, but stand on their positions. I appeal to the leadership, commanders and fighters of PMC Wagner: Together with you, we walked a difficult path. Together with you, we fought, we took risks, we took losses, but overcome together.”

“We are of the same blood. We are warriors. I call on you to stop. The enemy is waiting for our internal political situation to aggravate. We shouldn’t play into the enemy’s hand in this difficult time for the country. It needs to be done before it’s too late: to obey the will and order of the people-elected President of the Russian Federation. Stop the columns, and return them to their permanent positions and places of concentration,” said Surovikin, clearly not fucking around.

https://youtu.be/SzN5pRfEWB4

After claiming the Kremlin’s justification for the Ukraine invasion was false, Wagner forces commander Yevgeny Prigozhin claimed Russian missiles and bombs rained down on his positions killing thousands of his fighters,  and he declared that he was going to redirect his troops to eliminate the Kremlin’s military commanders who ordered the attack, but then the Wagner forces will return to the front line:

PMC Wagner Commanders’ Council made a decision: the evil brought by the military leadership of the country must be stopped. They neglect the lives of soldiers. They forgot the word ‘justice,’ and we will bring it back. Those, who destroyed today our guys, who destroyed tens, tens of thousands of lives of Russian soldiers will be punished.

Read More ▶ “Wagner commander vows retribution against Russian leaders who ordered bombing of his troops in Ukraine”

Titular Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy on Friday told CBS’s Scott MacFarlane he supports moving forward on the stupid resolutions to “expunge” both of fat former President Trump’s impeachments, including the one for inciting the Capitol insurrection on January 6th, 2021 during which McCarthy screamed “They’re trying to fucking kill me!” while on the phone with Trump.

A political action committee created to back Robert F Kennedy Jr’s stupid presidential campaign called “Heal the Divide” is helmed by a right-wing political consultant named Jason D Boles, whose firm RTA Strategies was paid $372,000 for services rendered to Marjorie Taylor Greene‘s campaign and “Save America, Stop Socialism” PAC, and has signed on to serve as the treasurer for lying piece of shit Congressman George Santos’s campaign treasurer, Rolling Stone reports.

RTA’s founder, Rick Thompson, also served as the custodian for Herschel Walker’s campaign committee, while Boles served as the treasurer, netting the firm $50,000 for that failed bid in 2022.

But, you know, RFK Jr’s campaign is a totally legitimate bid and these guys definitely want to see him defeat Joe Biden and Donald Trump to become the 47th President of the United States.

Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation of disgraced former President Trump’s post-2020 election coup attempt is now in the flipping phase, as at least two of the swing state Republican lackeys who signed fake electoral votes for the obese orange autocrat have accepted limited immunity deals in exchange for their testimony the grand jury, CNN reports.

“That activity could signal that investigators are nearing at least some charging decisions in a part of the 2020 election probe, sources added” CNN writes in the report, meaning the endgame could be in sight for the other major criminal investigation Jack Smith’s been pursuing into Trump.

A new report from right wing podcaster Stewie Peters reveals that the Jews sank the Titanic in 1912 as part of an insurance scam and then imploded the OceanGate Expeditions submersible Titan to cover up the original crime, killing 1,519 passengers and crew on both vessels, 111 years apart.

“What if all of this is actually a ploy to keep people from visiting the Titanic wreckage? But if that’s the goal, why? Maybe because if people explore the Titanic too much, they would discover that it wasn’t an iceberg that sank the Titanic. There’s a lot of alternative theories about how that sinking occurred – that it was intentionally sunk as part of an elaborate insurance scam and even that it was sunk by a newly created Federal Reserve,” said Peters, before he and guests then explained to the audience that the Rothschild banking family, the far right codeword for all Jews, were involved.

We would have to question why an iceberg can’t be Jewish too though, since “Berg” is in the name.

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro on Friday held a press conference to announce that the portion of Interstate 95 in Philadelphia destroyed by a fiery explosion on June 11th will reopen at noon, far ahead of initial estimates that the job would take months to complete, and just five days after Shapiro himself had pegged it at two weeks, CBS News Philadelphia reports.

The rapidly constructed lanes are only temporary and a 45 mph speed limit will be enforced on the overpass as a permanent overpass is constructed, but still it’s a disappointment that right wingers weren’t loudly ripping Shapiro and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg for the initial estimate.

In an 8-1 decision with only far right extremist Samuel Alito dissenting, the US Supreme Court on Friday tossed Picasso-faced Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s lawsuit against the Biden Administration over border enforcement policy, ruling the state lacked standing under Article III.

“The States of Texas and Louisiana claim that the Guidelines contravene two federal statutes that they read to require the arrest of certain noncitizens upon their release from prison (8 USC §1226(c)) or entry of a final order of removal (§1231(a)(2)). The District Court found that the States would incur costs due to the Executive’s failure to comply with those alleged statutory mandates, and that the States had standing to sue based on those costs. On the merits, the District Court found the Guidelines unlawful and vacated them. The Fifth Circuit declined to stay the District Court’s judgment, and this Court granted certiorari before judgment… Texas and Louisiana lack Article III standing to challenge the Guidelines,” Kavanaugh wrote in the majority opinion.