POKING AROUND AT THE END OF THE FIRST SIX MONTHS

That post from Whitey’s House yesterday was just asking for this.

Today is day 176 of the battle against the incompetent morons. 479 days from now we will send them back under their rocks where they belong.

First, the river rose in Texas. Then, the rains fell hard over North Carolina, New Mexico and Illinois. In less than a week, there were four 1-in-1,000-year rainfall events across the US - intense deluges thought to have roughly a 0.1% chance of happening in any given year. To see events that are historic and record-breaking in multiple parts of the country over the course of one week is even more alarming. At least 120 people were killed in central Texas’ Hill Country region last week, after heavy rain caused catastrophic flash flooding. On Sunday, Tropical Storm Chantal drenched parts of North Carolina. Some areas received nearly 12 inches of rain in 24 hours. In New Mexico on Tuesday, at least three people were killed by devastating flash floods that swept through the remote mountain village of Ruidoso, about 180 miles south of Albuquerque.

They’re pushing more cop paranoia about us: DHS has sent bulletins to local police in blue cities warnings that officers could face assaults with fireworks and improvised weapons: paint-filled fire extinguishers, smoke grenades, and projectiles like bottles and rocks. The guidance urges officers to consider a range of nonviolent behavior and common protest gear - masks, flashlights, and cameras - as potential precursors to violence. One list of “violent tactics” shared by the Los Angeles-based Joint Regional Intelligence Center includes protesters’ attempts to avoid identification and efforts to identify police. “The DHS report repeatedly conflates basic protest, organizing, and journalism with terroristic violence, thereby justifying ever more authoritarian measures by law enforcement,” says Ryan Shapiro, executive director of Property of the People. “It should be sobering, if unsurprising, that the Trump regime’s response to mass criticism of its police state tactics is to escalate those tactics.”

Dozens of FBI personnel have been subjected to polygraphs to try to sniff out news leaks and disloyalty to FBI Director Kash Patel. The NYT reports: “The use of the polygraph, and the nature of the questioning, is part of the F.B.I.’s broader crackdown on news leaks, reflecting, to a degree, Mr. Patel’s acute awareness of how he is publicly portrayed. The moves, former bureau officials say, are politically charged and highly inappropriate, underscoring what they describe as an alarming quest for fealty at the F.B.I., where there is little tolerance for dissent. Disparaging Mr. Patel or his deputy, Dan Bongino, former officials say, could cost people their job.”

Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate student targeted by Maladministration II for his political views, has filed a lawsuit under the Federal Tort Claims Act, seeking $20 million for false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, and other claims.

Best meme regarding the Epstein Files: “Jeffrey Epstein killed himself because he was going to be acquitted due to a complete lack ofevidence.

Grampaw Shitstain couldn’t sleep last night due to an overdose of Adderall, so he crawled to the Golden Trone Room, grabbed his phone and posted this on Lies Anti-Social: “Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship. She is a Threat to Humanity, and should remain in the wonderful Country of Ireland, if they want her. GOD BLESS AMERICA!” FACT CHECK: The president does not have the unilateral power to take away a person’s citizenship, which is protected by the Fourteenth Amendment.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called Gramps a “rapist” while jabbing him on Xitter Friday for the MAGA crisis over his handling of the files on Jeffrey Epstein. ““Wow who would have thought that electing a rapist would have complicated the release of the Epstein Files?” White House Communications Director Fu Manchu sounded off on AOC: “AOC likes to play pretend like she’s from the block, but in reality she’s just a sad, miserable blockhead who is trying to overcompensate for her lack of self-confidence that has followed her for her entire life. Instead, she should get some serious help for her obvious and severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted her pea-sized brain.”

A New Hampshire dad has reneged on his support for President Donald Trump after he was denied entry to the United States and allegedly “treated like a criminal” by border agents. Chris Landry, 46, is a Canadian national who has lived in New Hampshire since he was a toddler. He said he has visited his home country annually without issue for decades, but things changed for the worse on Sunday. That’s when Landry was informed at a Maine border crossing—on his way home from a family vacation with three of his 5 children—that his green card had been revoked and that he would be arrested if he tried to return home without permission. Landry was detained for three hours at the port of entry in Houlton, Maine, and was questioned about decades-old charges for marijuana possession and driving under a suspended license. He told NBC Boston that he was convicted of those charges in 2004 and 2007 and paid fines for both. He said that he received a suspended 60-day prison sentence for each charge and has not had any other run-ins with the law. “I was definitely all for ‘Make America Great Again’ and having a strong, unified country and a bright future for my five American children, but now I feel a little differently. “I’ve been torn from my family. My life has been disregarded completely. I never expected that I wouldn’t be able to go back home. It was scary. I felt like I was being treated like a criminal.” The Trumpscum all thought it would be “those people” who got fucked over. Go see the chaplain and he will punch you, fuckstick. I have no pity for these people.

“Dr. Phil” McGraw‘s Merit Street Media is in bankruptcy court after starting bankruptcy proceedings on July 2. and is simultaneously suing its distribution partner, Trinity Broadcasting, for breach of contract that the company says led to the chapter 11 filing. In its lawsuit, Merit Street says Trinity Broadcasting - known for its Christian programming, and with a distribution network that reaches about 65 million homes in the U.S. - forced its network, Merit TV, into expensive third-party distribution deals rather than using Trinity’s own network of local stations and provided “shoddy production services” for Merit TV’s programs, among other issues. I love it when the people who well deserve an ass kicking get their fat asses kicked.

There were 2 manure-filled trailers parked in front of an anti-Trump protest site in Carlinville, IL. The stunt backfired spectacularly, leading to 5 times as many protesters showing up at the next event. Now, security footage has been released showing three men leaving the foul cargo at the location. Local news is in touch with law enforcement to see if they’ll be taking any action.

The highest ranking member of the Catholic Church in Florida, Archbishop Thomas Wenski, condemned the concentration camp in the Everglades, saying it’s “corrosive of the common good to speak of the deterrence value of ‘alligators and pythons’ … The individuals being detained are fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters.”

In New York City, Harlem Baseball Hitting Academy founder Yeoman Wilder intervened when supposed ICE agents started questioning his youth baseball team. Wilder said the agents asked the kids: “Where they're from, who are their parents, and I just thought, ‘whoa, whoa … this is not good.’” Wilder, who has a Masters Degree in law, instructed the players to go to the far end of the batting cages and told the agents they were all invoking their Fifth Amendment rights. One of the dumber agents called him a “YouTube lawyer,” to which Wilder responded: “No, I just know how the Constitution works.”

The Department of InJustice released nearly 11 hours of what it described as “full raw” surveillance footage from a camera positioned near Jeffrey Epstein’s prison cell the night before he was found dead. The release was intended to address conspiracy theories about Epstein’s apparent suicide in federal custody. But instead of putting those suspicions to rest, it may fuel them further. Metadata embedded in the video and analyzed by WIRED and independent video forensics experts shows that rather than being a direct export from the prison’s surveillance system, the footage was modified, likely using the professional editing tool Adobe Premiere Pro. The file appears to have been assembled from at least two source clips, saved multiple times, exported, and then uploaded to the DOJ’s website, where it was presented as “raw” footage. In a case already clouded by suspicion, the ambiguity surrounding how the file was processed is likely to provide fresh fodder for conspiracy theories.

Charlie Sykes gets today’s last word: As the Trump-Epstein saga unfolds, incompetence is piled upon bad faith; and conspiracy theories jostle with Trumpist spin. The result: bozos are fighting with buffoons as the ringleader of the whole bangarang looks on. Who could have seen this coming? Other than absolutely everybody? (And, no we do not have to pick sides in a slap-fight among deplorables.)

See you Monday. Which I guarantee will be worse.

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