And another day dropping out, elegies, extremists, conscriptions, less porn available in NE, John Deere, the STI epidemic, and Doomsday Dinners comes to a close:
“There is not a flicker of the old Republican Party left. No embers of fiscal conservatism, global leadership, or moral decency. Reaganism’s ashes are stone-cold. Milwaukee showed us a MAGA movement confident of victory. No previous Republican National Convention has known such vindictiveness, paranoia, and hero-worship.” -- Dan Hannan
“A fundamental thing that gets lost in the coverage is that Trump isn’t just promising to govern like an authoritarian, he’s *campaigning like an authoritarian*. Lies, fear, sweeping false promises—Trump’s following the dictator playbook on fooling people into giving up democracy.” — Jesse Lee
Trump on authoritarians: "They're all smart, tough. They love their country ... we have to have somebody that can protect us. And Orban was right: we have to have somebody that can protect us." — Link
Trump on President Xi: "He's a brilliant man. He controls 1.4 billion people with an iron fist. He makes guys like Biden look like babies." — Link
“Trump is conditioning his cult to demand he be a dictator on day one. Guys like Trump—pretenders, charlatans and frauds with no real ideas, knowledge or skills except running their mouth—can only thrive in dictatorships because in democracies people can and do expose them.” — Paula Chertok
Note: We have been warned. We know what’s coming if Trump and MAGA regain power. They’re not hiding what they plan to do.
President Joe Biden drops out of 2024 presidential race. -- Just in case you hadn’t heard, yet.
With Biden's backing, Kamala Harris leads the pack in bid to replace him on the ticket. Biden’s decision to bow out breaks open the nominating process — meaning Harris or any other Democrat could seek the party’s nomination. The delegates who were elected during the primary campaign to support Biden will now be tasked with voting on who will be the party’s nominee. The Democratic National Convention is scheduled to begin Aug. 19 in Chicago, and with Biden’s backing, Harris became the instant favorite.
Elegy for the Grand Old Party. Sporting bandages on their ears, delegates loudly insisted that their candidate, a convicted felon, was innocent, while simultaneously demanding that President Joe Biden be put on trial. They averred, and seemed genuinely to believe, that Biden was responsible for the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump. Yet they hit the roof when anyone asked how Biden’s “bullseye” metaphor measured up against Trump’s long list of more overt rhetoric: “knock the crap out of ’em,” “there has to be retribution,” “stand back and stand by,” “we fight like hell,” “free the Jan. 6 hostages,” etc. I was invited as part of a delegation from the British Tories. I attended the last three conventions, but I could not face this one. Like Mike Pence, I am too heartbroken at the death of the Grand Old Party to turn my full gaze on what has replaced it.
The 2016 Republican convention let extremists in. In 2024, they took the stage. “In 2016 [Maga] was an effective movement which was insurgent and combative … Now they have the space to work out new forms of far-right politics.” ... “Trump has been given a license by party elites and voters to figure out an authoritarian politics that will work.”
Europe turns to conscription as threat of wider war with Russia grows. “It is tragically true that here we are, in 2024, and we are grappling with the questions of how to mobilize millions of people to be thrown into a meatgrinder of a war potentially, but this is where Russia has put us,” he said.
Elon Musk’s X Is Reportedly Resisting a Subpoena in Jeffrey Epstein-Related Legal Case. X (the website formerly known as Twitter) is reportedly stonewalling subpoena requests related to a legal case involving dead financier and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Why? Nobody knows, but it sure is weird.
Pornhub Pulls Out of Nebraska. Nebraska Legislative Bill 1092 went into effect on Friday making it a requirement for sites that show adult content to verify the age of users. This usually means some form of identification needs to be uploaded to the site to confirm the person using the site is 18 or over. Pornhub’s parent company Aylo refuses to obtain these kinds of personal documents from its users so, as it has done in Texas and other states, it banned access to the porn site as of Monday this week, according to a report from the Nebraska Examiner.
More AI-generated child sex abuse material is being posted online. The review of content also found that a higher percentage of material posted on the dark web is now depicting more extreme or explicit sex acts compared to six months ago...Entirely synthetic videos still look unrealistic, Sexton said, and are not yet popular on abusers’ dark web forums, though that technology is still rapidly improving.
John Deere ends support of ‘social or cultural awareness’ events, distances from inclusion efforts. Farm equipment maker John Deere says it will no longer sponsor “social or cultural awareness” events, becoming the latest major U.S. company to distance itself from diversity and inclusion measures after being targeted by conservative backlash. In a statement posted Tuesday to social media platform X, John Deere also said it would audit all training materials “to ensure the absence of socially-motivated messages” in compliance with federal and local laws. It did not specify what those messages would include.
A 7th person with HIV is probably cured after stem cell transplant for leukemia, scientists say. A man in Germany has no detectable HIV in his body after he was treated in 2015. Only six other cases have achieved the milestone since the AIDS epidemic began.
Preventive antibiotics may help curb the STI epidemic, experts say. New research finds that taking an antibiotic after sex, or even taking a smaller dose daily, substantially reduces the risk of sexually transmitted infections. Instead of simply treating sexually transmitted infections with antibiotics, a new public-health movement seeks to use one such medication to prevent STIs in the first place. Promising research into variations on this method has raised hopes, but also concerns about whether this method might also contribute to another public health crisis: drug-resistant infections. One thing is clear: The nation is in dire need of game changers to battle the STI epidemic, as gonorrhea, chlamydia and syphilis have largely soared during the past decade.
Doomsday dinners: Costco sells 'apocalypse bucket' with food that lasts 25 years. The Readywise Emergency Food Bucket boasts 150 freeze-dried and dehydrated meal servings and has caused a stir on social media. With an online price tag of $79.99, the bucket's product description boasts that it’s more than just food, it provides “readiness in the face of uncertainty." The bucket features 80 entrees and sides, 30 breakfast servings and 40 drink servings that just need water to prepare, for a total of 25,280 calories. The meal options range from teriyaki rice, tomato basil soup, pasta Alfredo, cheesy macaroni and apple cinnamon cereal. And, crucially for those preparing for an apocalypse, the bucket lasts up to 25 years on the shelf.
RIP Bob Newhart. Thank you for the laughs. He was 94.
To escape all the above chaos you just read, tune in to 99.9 Waiting for the Comet. The songs you love. The songs you forgot you love. And the songs you don’t yet know you love.
Life’s short. Live, love, create, and help others.
Until next time, my friends. Stay safe and stay sane. Good night.
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