Israel's defence and finance ministers announced plans for three illegal settlements in Gaza and more than $400m (300m) in funding to expand construction in the occupied West Bank, as Israel's military commander for the region celebrated violent outposts as his "security partners". Read more
Texas Senate candidate James Talarico, a Democrat, faced a week of hell thanks to the release of multiple bombshell reports about him and his allies. The first report revealed that LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, a prominent billionaire venture capitalist, donated $10 million last month to a PAC supporting Talarico's campaign. This is problematic because Hoffman has ties to deceased pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. "The release of the Epstein files' showed Hoffman maintained contact with Epstein after the financier pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor in 2008," according to The Texas Tribune. Yet Talarico has repeatedly insisted in his attacks on Republicans that "the Epstein class has no place in Texas." Unless, it appears, the so-called "Epstein class" is donating to one's campaign?
A dozen Somali gangs with hundreds of members, mainly teenagers, are wreaking havoc in Minnesota, committing public shootings and murders out in the open, according to local officials. Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher, whose office patrols the metropolitan region surrounding Minneapolis and St. Paul, told the Washington Examiner that as many as 300 Somali youth are engaged in gang activity around the Twin Cities area. Read more
As the bombing starts again, it's clear the president has dragged the US into a limitless fiasco " and the world into an economic quagmire. Read more
Billionaire Tilman Fertitta, the good-for-nothing US Ambassador to Italy, was met with hundreds of furious Samaritans when he arrogantly arrived in Venice on board his super-luxury yacht -- replete with two helipads, swimming pool, and spa -- forcing riot police to clash with the righteous volunteers in 90F heat.
The Trumpf junta and mega-oligarchs are completely oblivious to the reality faced by the poor, the oppressed, the dispossessed, and the suffering
AIPAC has suspended campaign fundraising efforts for more than two dozen House Democrats who voted to cut off billions of dollars in US military aid to Israel. Democrats have come under increasing pressure to oppose unconditional support for Israel, primarily driven by the severe humanitarian crisis, wanton destruction, abject misery, and ~75,000 deaths the IDF have caused in Gaza, which cost the incumbent Democrats the White House in 2024.
You can see how the insidious AIPAC donation portal works here: AIPAC blood-money portal
Another weekend music thread. Post what ever floats yer boat. The linked tune in the title is a Malcolm McLaren tune called Eiffel Tower, from the 80's. 1984 to be specific. Mr McLaren has also performed a tune, Swamp Thing. An interesting tune. ...
Oligarch and freshman US Senator Bernie Moreno (R-OH) will introduce legislation to sanction Canada and Canadian officials over the huge wildfires that have poured smoke and haze across the US, creating hazardous air-quality conditions. In addition, White House hobgoblin Stephen Miller's wife, Katie, posted on social media that the wildfire smoke over America somehow absurdly proves that Canada should be an American state.
Spure-wealthy idiotic AIPAC Republican
Victims of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein blasted Todd Blanche after meeting with the acting attorney general at the Department of Justice, a sit-down Sen. Thom Tillis urged Blanche to have as he seeks Senate confirmation as the permanent U.S. attorney general.
Those victims called Blanche condescending and evasive, saying he seemed motivated to talk to them face-to-face Thursday afternoon solely to get his nomination by President Donald Trump advanced by the Senate Judiciary Committee.
"After meeting with Todd Blanche, I feel even more confident in urging senators to vote against his confirmation as the United States' Attorney General," Annie Farmer, one of those victims, said in a statement Thursday night.
Palestinian prisoners could be held in jails surrounded by crocodile-filled moats, under proposals put forward by the Israeli government.
Idit Silman, Israel's environmental protection minister, has reclassified the Nile crocodile as a "tended wild animal", paving the way for their use at detention centres.
The reclassification of the reptile followed longstanding protests from both human and animal rights groups. Read more
An employee of The GEO Group, the private-prison company that operates the Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Aurora, has been arrested in connection with a shooting of a woman outside the facility Thursday night, Aurora police said. Brandon Booth, 42, was arrested on suspicion of charges that include attempted second-degree murder, first-degree assault and felony menacing, according to an Aurora Police Department release. The shooting occurred just outside the facility on Nome Street, where the victim had been among a group of demonstrators participating in a protest against ICE detention.
Russian hackers have been exploiting unsecured doorbell cameras and other internet-connected devices to spy on NATO military bases and weapons transport routes. This attack, revealed by Dutch intelligence, highlights the severe risks associated with poorly secured IP cameras and the consequences for organisations in the UK and across Europe.
Climate lawsuits seeking massive damages from fossil fuel companies increasingly hinge on the question: how reliably can scientists pin specific extreme weather to human-caused climate change? Very confidently for events like heat waves and heavy rainfall -- but much less so for others, like thunderstorms and tornadoes, according to a major new report published Thursday by the United States' top science advisory body.
Top of Drudge Report. There are elements many can agree with, but the damage to the Nation outweighs putting the DSA in charge. Read more
Chinese Tech Support: Microsoft is using engineers in China to help maintain the Defense Department's computer systems " with minimal supervision by U.S. personnel. Skills Gap: Digital escorts often lack the technical expertise to police foreign engineers with far more advanced skills, leaving highly sensitive data vulnerable to hacking. Ignored Warnings: Various people involved in the work told ProPublica that they warned Microsoft that the arrangement is inherently risky, but the company launched and expanded it anyway.
The Bureau of Land Management plans to reopen the area around Chaco Culture National Historical Park for possible oil and gas leasing, giving the public until July 29 to comment. In April, the Interior Department moved to revoke protections surrounding Chaco Culture with a proposal to rescind Public Land Order 7923, which put wide areas of land around the park off limits to mining and drilling. The BLM has now opened a 14-day comment period for the draft Environmental Assessment for Proposed Revocation of Public Lands Order 7923. The move came just days after President Donald Trump slashed the boundaries of two Utah national monuments, Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments, by nearly 3 million acres. Both are important to tribes in the region. Read more
