Panicked JD Vance blames "chaos" of finances on Harris — meanwhile, Dow Jones nears all-time high (video)
Carla Sinclair / 10:47 am PT Tue Aug 6, 2024
Image: JD Vance; Fox News
The sky is falling! The sky is falling! JD Vance rolled out of his couch today to cry about the "chaos" closing in on him, blaming the collapse of the world and its financial markets squarely on Vice President Kamala Harris.
"We've got chaos in the world financial markets," the panic-stricken VP candidate said after Harris chose popular Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to be her running mate. "Everything that Kamala Harris touches has been a disaster!" (See video below, posted by Acyn.)
Meanwhile, the Dow Jones has reached a near historical high as of this writing, hitting 39,306.37 so far today. The Dow Jones enjoyed its all-time highs in May and July of this year (on Biden and Harris's watch, mind you), surpassing 40,000 points "for the first time ever," according to NPR.
But the only thing the Trump-Vance doomsday duo can see are the walls that are closing in on their MAGA chicken coop as they witlessly squawk in fear.
Previously: Trump campaign fails to spin JD Vance yelling at his son into a heartwarming story
Pharma-bro Shkreli claims he helped launch Trump crypto coin with Barron, now worth $0.0004 after mysterious sell-off
Ellsworth Toohey / 10:41 am PT Tue Aug 6, 2024
Solana-based memecoin DJT dropped 90% on August 6, 2024 (Image: CoinMarketCap)
It's no surprise the DJT crypto coin, also known as the "Save America" token, is a product of the dark mind of pharma-bro fraudster Martin Shkreli, who claims he helped Barron Trump launch it.
Even less surprising is that someone rug-pulled the coin when a wallet "holding around 20% of the supply of the $DJT Trump-themed memecoin suddenly dumped its holdings," reports Web 3 is Going Great. Now the incel MAGA supporters who bought the coin are displeased because the price dropped 90% and is now almost worthless.
From Protos:
Basically, all of the locked value — millions of dollars in Solana — was taken out by an unknown party. The rug-pull was first noticed and tweeted about by @tomkysar, though the tweets have since been deleted. The exit likely netted the rug-puller a couple of million dollars in Solana.
Immediately, numerous accounts began to accuse Shkreli of taking the money, but he's adamant that he wasn't involved and that only Barron Trump or Barron's best friend would be able to take the liquidity and run.
The DJT token is now down over 90% from all-time highs, currently trading for $0.0004. Whether there will be any ramifications — legal or otherwise — for anyone involved remains to be seen.
Previously:
• Convicted PharmaBro Martin Shkreli sued for allegedly copying rare Wu-Tang album
• Martin Shkreli weeps as he is sentenced to 7 years in prison
• Disgraced 'Pharma Bro' sued for leaking $4 million Wu-Tang Clan album
• Convicted PharmaBro Martin Shkreli sued for allegedly copying rare Wu-Tang album
• After boasting about running his company from prison, Martin Shkreli gets solitary confinement
• Would you trust your health to Martin Shkreli's AI fake doctor? Then head over to Dr Gupta!
• Martin Shkreli buying domain names of people who write about him
• Martin Shkreli buying domain names of people who write about him
• Martin Shkreli placed in solitary confinement
Fox News denying Trump's Project 2025 connections
Jason Weisberger / 10:17 am PT Tue Aug 6, 2024
Image: Screen Grab/The Simpsons
Fox News' Harris Faulkner cut off a guest and insisted Trump isn't behind Project 2025; he told her himself!
The Trump Campaign has far too many ties to Project 2025 for anyone to believe the distance they've tried to insert between themselves. Project 2025 is summarized in Agenda 47, Trump's "policy document." Agenda 47 seeks to couch broad reforms within the existing framework, while Project 2025 details more radical structural changes to the government. Agenda 47 is the high-level document, and Project 2025 is the detailed 900+ page-plus plan. Trump picking one or two specifics to quibble about is just a show.
"You were talking about a moderate V.P.," he continued. "Donald Trump picked the guy who wrote the forward for Project 2025, an extreme MAGA supporter, to be his nominee."
"That is not true!" Harris interrupted. "And Donald Trump told me personally a few hours before the assassination attempt on his life, I was the last reporter to sit with him before that. He personally told me that Project 2025, yeah, he knew some people who were involved in it."
"But it was way, way, way — three ways — too far on abortion," she continued. "He didn't sanction that. That wasn't part of what he was into, Project 2025. And perhaps, if you talk with him in person, you'll get more details on that as well."
In fact, Vance did write the forward to a book from the author of Project 2025.
Previously:
• Media Matters publishes useful guide to Project 2025, the extreme right-wing agenda that 'represents a threat to democracy, civil rights, the climate, and more'
• Trump's distancing himself from Project 2025 is all part of the plan
• Project 2025 is also very racist
• Read J.D. Vance's foreword to Project 2025 book
• Project 2025's goal: Trump as President for life
• A list of the terrible things Project 2025 has in store for us
• Trump adherents Greene and Lake are promoting Project 2025
Beach bully cited by California Coastal Commission
Jason Weisberger / 9:49 am PT Tue Aug 6, 2024
Martin Bialkowski/shutterstock.com
California's beaches are public, but that doesn't stop beachfront property owners from raging out.
The California Coastal Commission informed a woman in Laguna Beach, California, that everything she said in a viral video was wrong. She must remove her weird rope and stop hassling people on a California beach. The fine if she does not is quite large.
A woman who was filmed yelling at beachgoers at Laguna Beach recently to get off "my property" has received a letter from the California Coastal Commission instructing her to stop blocking access to a public stretch of the sand, KCAL-TV reported.
The 1976 California Coastal Act protects the public's access to the state's beaches. Under the law, people have the right to use the beach as far as the mean high tide line, which is generally considered to be the wet or damp sand area of the beach. Oceanfront homeowners can't legally stop people from planting their umbrellas and blankets on that sand.
According to the Coastal Commission's website, the commission can impose administrative penalties of up to $11,250 a day for each violation of the law's public access provisions.
In Malibu, a man who a property owner hassled decided to make a sign and stage a protest. This kind of beach battle has long been a thing in Malibu, and elsewhere, but tensions seem to be a bit higher this summer.
Stay out of Malibu, Lebowski! Stay out of Malibu, deadbeat! Keep your ugly fuckin' goldbrickin' ass out of my beach community.
Previously:
• Rich people must allow access to a public beach
• 7 years later, Sun Microsystems cofounder Vinod Khosla loses bid to privatize public beach
• Signs directing public access to Malibu beach only last eight days
• Smartphone app gives public access to Malibu's illegal 'private' beaches
• Billionaire told he can't block access to public beach
Xitter XEO exposes vast conspiracy of legal behavior
Ellsworth Toohey / 9:48 am PT Tue Aug 6, 2024
Twitter CEO Linda
Twitter's titular CEO, Linda Yaccarino, posted a video on Twitter today announcing that her company had filed a lawsuit against the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) and the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) for allegedly conspiring to boycott advertising on the platform.
In her gravely emotional video, Yaccarino lifted her hand and held it over her heart, proclaiming in an aggrieved tone, "I was shocked by the evidence uncovered by the House Judiciary Committee that a group of companies organized a systematic illegal boycott against X. It is just wrong, and that is why we are taking action."
GARM is a cross-industry initiative founded in 2019 after the Christchurch Mosque shootings, which was livestreamed on Facebook. It's stated mission is "to help the industry address the challenge of illegal or harmful content on digital media platforms and its monetization via advertising."
Wearing a necklace that said "Free Speech," Yaccarino said in the video, "They conspired to Boycott X, which threatens our ability to thrive in the future. That puts your global town square, the one place that you can express yourself freely and openly, at long-term risk."
Two questions:
1) Most importantly, did anyone else think of the Heaven's Gate initiation video when they saw this?
2) Is it a violation of the Constitution for an advertising member organization to decide that a privately owned social media platform is too vile and hateful to support? That's what Yaccarino seems to think.
A 42-year-old Supreme Court ruling doesn't think so. From the ACLU:
In NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware Co., the Supreme Court in 1982 unanimously upheld the First Amendment right of Black Mississippians to boycott local businesses in protest against segregation and racial inequality. The decision established that politically motivated consumer boycotts are fully protected by the Constitution. As a result, today, people of all political stripes can proudly exercise their right to boycott — from right-wing boycotts of companies that support Planned Parenthood to left-wing boycotts of companies that support the National Rifle Association.
But this time around, Musk and Yaccarino have a different Supreme Court to depend on — one that has been bribed by far-right benefactors with lavish gifts to see things their way.
Previously:
• Twitter's new CEO said to be NBC executive Linda Yaccarino
• Family Ties: Xitter's Yaccarino lets son in on the action
• WSJ charts show Twitter's steep decline in users and revenue
• Twitter ad numbers plummet! Visa bought just $10 in ads in last 12 weeks, according to report
• Major brands pull ads after they appear next to pro-Nazi content on Twitter
Whale of a time at Olympics when humpback breaches during surfing semifinals (video)
Allan Rose Hill / 9:16 am PT Tue Aug 6, 2024
illustrative image: William Drumm / Shutterstock.com
Tatiana Weston-Webb of Brazil and Brisa Hennessy of Costa Rica were competing in the Olympic surfing semifinals yesterday when a whale stole the show. Video below.
The humpback whale was far enough from the athletes when it breached but still close enough to make for very memorable moment.
"In Tahiti, where the 2024 Olympics surfing competition was held almost 10,000 miles away from the host city of Paris, whales gather around the islands during mating, birthing and migration season," reports France24.
Previously:
• Breakthrough in understanding whale language
• Idiot attempts to 'body slam' endangered killer whale (video)
Convicted felon Trump mad that Tim Walz lets felons vote
Jason Weisberger / 8:55 am PT Tue Aug 6, 2024
Trump
Donald Trump incompetently struggles to find an attack that sticks to Kamala Harris or her new running mate, Tim Walz.
Trump released a statement criticizing Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the newly announced running mate to Kamala Harris, for restoring the right to vote to convicted felons who had served their time. As usual, Trump paid no attention to the details and forgot that he is a convicted felon. This simply reminds us Trump is mean, vindictive, and stupid.
Trump issued a statement rife with criticisms of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz — among them a joke about cows and rocks — and a line that shocked those who read it.
"Embracing policies to allow convicted felons to vote, Walz is obsessed with spreading California's dangerously liberal agenda far and wide," the comment states.
New Republic staff writer Alex Shephard was quick to point out Trump is the first U.S. president and Republican nominee to be convicted of felony charges.
Previously:
• Why aren't more conservatives concerned about felon voting rights?
• Trump found GUILTY on all counts in hush money trial
• George Conway's 3 tips to liberal media on how to beat Donald Trump (video)
Long island lawmakers ban masks in public, with up to a year in jail
Rob Beschizza / 8:50 am PT Tue Aug 6, 2024
A standard KN95 mask (product shot)
Commissioners in Nassau county, New York, voted to ban masks in public, with only vague exceptions for health or religious reasons. County Executive Bruce Blakeman said it was to prevent people from hiding their identity in public, especially during protests: "people should not be allowed to cover their face," he said.
The "Mask Transparency Act" punishes offenders with up to a $1000 fine or a year in jail.
The ACLU issued a statement condemning the ban as "a dangerous misuse of the law to score political points and target protestors" and "ripe for selective enforcement."
"Banning face masks also puts Nassau County residents' health at risk," wrote the civil liberty group's Susan Gottehrer. "With COVID-19 on the rise across Long Island, face coverings are critical to protecting the health of an individual, their family, and their community…The ban's so-called health and religious exceptions are entirely inadequate: Nassau County police officers are not health professionals or religious experts capable of deciding who needs a mask and who doesn't.""
The mask ban passed with 12 Republican votes. Seven Democrats abstained. New York Governor Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Eric Adams, both Dems, support mask bans at protests and on public transportation.
Previously: Long Island Trump yard shrine 'just straight up uncomfortable' to look at
Donald Trump blames his bizarre interview with "butt-sniffing" streamer on son Barron
Carla Sinclair / 8:49 am PT Tue Aug 6, 2024
Evan El-Amin / Shutterstock.com
Hoping to shed his "weird' reputation, Donald Trump cozied up to a young Nazi sympathizer known for his unsavory "butt-sniffing" videos at Mar-a-Lago yesterday. The out-of-touch ex-president then blamed his stinky decision to schmooze with a perverse 23-year-old streamer on his teenage son, Barron Trump.
"My son Barron says 'hello'. He's a great young guy but he's a big fan of yours," Trump said, making it clear in the awkward chat with controversial hatemonger Adin Ross — who has admitted to sniffing his sister's panties and whose previous guests include white supremacist Nick Fuentes — that this wasn't his idea.
"Barron says, 'Dad he's really big' …'he's also a friend of mine,'" Trump said. "My kid says, 'Dad, you have no idea how big this interview is.'" Oof, after wisely keeping Barron out of the spotlight for his first 18 years, this certainly can't be one of the world's first impressions of Barron that Melania was hoping for. (See two videos below showing Barron's pal, the butt-sniffer, in action, posted by Meidas Touch.)
From The Independent:
Ross is popular with young men – particularly with the demographic Barron, 18, belongs. Ross rose to fame initially streaming himself playing video games online but has also dabbled in giving controversial individuals, such as white supremacist Nick Fuentes, airtime on his platform.
The bizarre interview seems part of Trump's campaign strategy to appeal to young men – a voting group moving more to the right.
Ross was accused of giving a masked individual a platform to espouse Nazi-like views.
Previously: Trump was slapped with "weird" label back in 2006, while lusting over daughter Ivanka (video)
Paris mayor drops f-bombs on reactionaries
Jason Weisberger / 8:35 am PT Tue Aug 6, 2024
Moulin Rouge
While the Olympic Committee kind of apologized to people who may have been offended, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo told them to f*ck off.
Opportunistic fascist assholes have sought to portray the Paris Olympics as some liberal fantasy land designed to offend; Paris' Mayor Anne Hildalgo tore into them for the division they seek to create over nothing. The opening ceremonies were a lovely display honoring history, the Olympics, and Paris as their chosen location. All the outrage is fake, and the morons who won't let it go are not worth the time.
Hidalgo, on the other hand, said, "Fuck the reactionaries, fuck this far right, fuck all of those who would like to lock us into a war of all against all," in an interview with Le Monde published Tuesday, using the expletive in the original English.
Most of the anger surrounding nearly four-hour ceremony was directed at an artistic segment called "Festivity," which featured a group of dancers and drag performers in a scene that many perceived as paralleling Leonardo Da Vinci's "The Last Supper" — something organizers have denied.
Christian groups and conservative leaders worldwide — including Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban and former United States President Donald Trump — criticized the opening ceremony as tasteless and blasphemous.
Much of the vitriol has been directed at the ceremony's artistic director, Thomas Jolly, and a DJ who participated in the performance. Both have received death threats and been subjected to cyberbullying online.
Hidalgo said she was proud of the way the opening ceremony presented Paris to the world.
Previously:
• Paris Olympic Village gains facepalm status
• Breakdancing will be an official sport at the Paris 2024 Olympics
• Paris 2024: watching the games, but mostly the toilets
• WTF is the Paris Olympic mascot?
Blow-nado: Hurricane Debby dumps $1 million of cocaine onto Florida beach
Allan Rose Hill / 8:28 am PT Tue Aug 6, 2024
image: US Border Patrol
Hurricane Debby blew 70 pounds of cocaine onto a Florida Keys beach over the weekend. A beach visitor spotted 25 packages of the devil's dandruff on the sand and called the cops.
"US Border Patrol seized the drugs, which have a street value of over $1 million dollars," Samuel Briggs II of the US Border Patrol's Miami Sector posted to X.
Each package was emblazoned with a triangle-shaped logo so it should be easy to return it to its rightful owner.
Previously:
• Tourists discover 20 kilos of cocaine in waves on South Carolina beach
• Florida boaters find $1 million worth of cocaine in ocean — but it's the coke's label art that's interesting (video)
• 'Every single marine species that we've looked at so far is full of cocaine'
Black cloud of dragonflies terrorizes beachgoers (video)
Allan Rose Hill / 7:50 am PT Tue Aug 6, 2024
image: Petr Ganaj/Shutterstock
"I was enjoying a nice day at Misquamicut State Beach until we endured a dragonfly apocalypse," says Stephanie Martin who captured the video below in Westerly, Rhode Island.
As this black cloud of dragonflies approached, she said it sounded like an airport.
"It kind of felt like an eternity, but I would say it probably lasted between 2 and 4 minutes and then once they were gone, they didn't come back for the rest of the day," she told WCVB.
While the scene had Biblical plague-like vibes, it was really just dragonflies doing their thing, says UMass-Amherst pollinator specialist at UMass Amherst.
"It was certainly a unique site, but it's actually a normal part of some dragonflies' lifecycle," she said. "We have some migratory dragonfly species here in the United States, some of which migrate from the Northeast down to the Gulf of Mexico or southeastern states, between late July and mid-October. The reason we saw such a large swarm is because they stopped to feed on other insects along the way, and they usually stop where there's fruitful resources."
Previously:
• Scientists created a new neural network based on dragonfly brains
• The largest insect that ever lived, the Dragonfly-like Meganeuropsis, had a wingspan of 28'
Museum refuses DNA test on suspiciously large "pet" frog
Popkin / 7:00 am PT Tue Aug 6, 2024
See page for author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Have you heard the legend of the Coleman Frog? As the story goes, a Canadian lodge owner named Fred Coleman was in his boat in Killarney Lake in New Brunswick in 1885 (or by some accounts, 1889), when a 7-pound frog hopped in. As reported in Atlas Obscura, Coleman treated his pet with a lavish diet of "cornmeal, baked beans, June bugs, and the occasional drink of whiskey." The gluttonous amphibian ballooned to 42 pounds, and became a local celebrity. It even overcame its shy nature "to come when called and entertain Fred's guests," reports Atlas Obscura.
Coleman's beloved frog was sent to a taxidermist after allegedly dying in a dynamite blast. While the Fredericton Region Museum, which proudly displays the Coleman frog, swears that it's real (and refuses to do DNA testing on the frog's remains), many people have their doubts based on the frog's appearance.
You can see the photo of the Coleman Frog on Atlas Obscura and decide for yourself.
Previously:
• Watch Frog bake a pie for Toad
• Here's the Piers Morgan vs. Kermit the Frog fashion showdown you never knew you needed
• The sounds of tree frogs and howler monkeys in Costa Rica
• Man who hatched more than 2 million frog eggs unleashes frog army
• These frogs look like something from Studio Ghibli
• Saving frogs from a deadly fungus with little saunas
Kamala picks Tim Walz for VP, and Trump struggles with spelling
Jason Weisberger / 6:58 am PT Tue Aug 6, 2024
Image: Rebekah Zemansky/Shutterstock.com
Kamala Harris has picked Minnesota Gov.Tim Walz as her running mate, while Trump continues failing to find a nickname for her.
Minnesota's Gov. Tim Walz is a guy most American voters first heard of as a member of the Veepstakes. Former school teacher, Congressperson, two decades of service in the Army National Guard, and he's beat Republicans in a Red district. He's a white dude from the Midwest who has advocated for anti-discrimination laws, supported marriage equality, and worked to protect LGBTQ+ individuals from harassment and violence. Walz has also protected women's rights to healthcare in Minnesota. This seems like a solid choice that ticks all the boxes people said Harris must and avoids controversy.
Picking Walz underscores the Harris campaign's focus on a path to victory that puts a premium on the "blue wall" states of the Midwest. Minnesota is slightly outside that sphere, but Walz, once a high school football coach, has evolved during his time in office into something of a progressive populist folk hero – the exact kind of pugilistic voice that Democrats taking on Trump are keen to highlight.
He has over the past week delivered a handful of memorable haymakers against Republicans, though his most notable contribution has been a determination to label the GOP, especially its presidential ticket of Trump and Ohio Sen. JD Vance. Walz has referred to the duo as "weird dudes," before lighting into their political agenda.
The news about the likable Walz comes as the felon selected by the Republicans to represent them and his smokey-eyed, Pokemon-hating sidekick have continued to struggle. Trump has tried a multitude of insults and nicknames for Vice-President Kamala Harris, but none seem to stick. Without a nickname, Trump seems unable to get started campaigning against her. He is stuck complaining about Joe Biden over two weeks after the President announced he was dropping out in favor of Harris. Perhaps JD Vance's notable lack of traction is similarly related to his inability to pick a name.
Trump's platform is a derivative of Project 2025, his playbook. He and Vance can't talk about issues because the abhorrent policies Republicans are looking forward to sicken the nation. They can only run against someone and not for anything except their greed and self-serving worldview. Harris, a strong, competent, accomplished Black woman with a popular vision for the country, seems to have Trump in fits. Every tick of the polls in her favor is another cut and furthers his tailspin.
Previously:
• Kamala Harris surges ahead — now beating Donald Trump in 7 national polls
• Kamala Harris can beat Trump easier than Biden (or anyone else) can, says new CNN poll
• Kamala Harris far out raises Donald Trump in July
Mesmerizing video: how instant ramen is mass-produced in a factory
Popkin / 6:00 am PT Tue Aug 6, 2024
In many countries, it is against the law to eat instant ramen without looking at a screen of some kind. (PBXStudio/shutterstock.com)
The average person in Japan eats almost 50 packages of instant noodles a year. That's why factories are so busy cranking out the salty, high-carb treat.
The production of instant noodles in Japan is highly automated, with machines handling everything from dough mixing and noodle cutting to topping placement and packaging. This ensures consistency and efficiency in production. This video shows the satisfying process of the popular Japanese ramen brand Yakibuta Cup Noodle being produced. We see the creation of the ramen noodles, the way they're measured and packaged, how sauce and condiments are added to the mixture, how the ramen is sealed up, and more.
At the end of the video, the ramen gets taken off a store shelf, prepared with hot water, and eaten. Watching this video was almost as satisfying as eating a cup of Ramen.
See also: Leftover ramen harming mountain ecosystem
Recreational marijuana sales begin in Ohio today
Rob Beschizza / 5:35 am PT Tue Aug 6, 2024
Joseph Sohm/shutterstock.com
Sales of recreational marijuana begin today in Ohio, with 98 dispensaries able to open across the state. It's not clear how many actually will, according to ABC News, but the high times are coming.
Fifty-seven percent of Ohio voters approved allowing those over 21 to possess, purchase, and grow limited amounts of cannabis for personal use last November. Recreational sales, though, were delayed until dispensaries could be licensed and regulated. The law permits the possession of 2.5 ounces of cannabis, six plants per individual or twelve plants per household. Marijuana sales are to be be taxed at 10%.
Weed is now legal for recreational use in 24 states and legal for medical use in all but six: Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas and the Carolinas. Texas, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Tennessee and Georgia allow only CBD oil.
Judge orders Feds to give QAnon Shaman his hat back
Rob Beschizza / 5:08 am PT Tue Aug 6, 2024
Jacob Chansley. Photo: Johnny Silvercloud/shutterstock.com
The insurrectionary accouterments of Jacob Chansley, better known as QAnon Shaman, must be returned to him. A judge ordered the U.S. Justice Department to give him back the "unmistakeable outfit" confiscated when Chansley was arrested for his part in the Jan 6, 2021 riots on Capitol Hill.
Chansley, who was sentenced to 41 months imprisonment for his participation, had demanded back the "horned coyote-tail headdress" and the "six-foot pole with an American flag ziptied to the shaft and a metal spearhead fixed to the top." The Department of Justice had wanted to keep them because they were "used to project strength during the assault on the U.S. Capitol" but Judge Royce Lambert ordered it instead to turn them over.
Mr. Chansley has completed his prison sentence and much of his term of supervised release. Now, he has moved for the return of his property seized and still held by the government, including his spear and helmet … Since the government has not established that it still needs these items as evidence and has not sought their forfeiture, the Court will GRANT Mr. Chansley's motion."
He's going to sell them, surely.
"We live in a primitive time, don't we, neither savage nor wise. Any rational society would either kill me or give me my horned coyote-tail headdress."― Hannibal Lecter, Red Dragon
Previously:
• A close reading of the QAnon Shaman's self-published manifesto
• The QAnon Shaman is running for Congress
• QAnon Shaman should be released from jail because his sharp-pointed spear wasn't really a spear, says his lawyer
Judge rules Google has illegal monopoly on search
Rob Beschizza / 4:57 am PT Tue Aug 6, 2024
Sundry Photography/Shutterstock.com
Google holds a monopoly on the internet search business and has abused it, United States District judge Amit Mehta ruled yesterday. The landmark antitrust trial lasted for nearly three months and a new one now begins to decide how the tech giant will be penalized.
Google has unlawfully maintained its dominance in search by using anticompetitive deals to keep rivals from gaining traction. And without fear of pressure from competitors, Google has been able to charge whatever it wants for search ads, he said.
The New York Times describes it as the first antitrust decision of the modern internet era.
"Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly," Judge Mehta said in his ruling.
The ruling is the most significant victory to date for American regulators who are trying to rein in the power of tech giants in the internet era. It is likely to influence other government antitrust lawsuits against Google, Apple, Amazon and Meta, the owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
You can read the 286-page ruling for yourself.
It's the biggest antitrust case since the 1990s, when the Department of Justice took on Microsoft for abusing Windows' success to control retailers and exclude competing software. More antitrust lawsuits are brewing against Google, Apple, Amazon, Meta/Facebook and others; Google paying Apple billions of dollars to exclude competitors from iOS was a major part of the lawsuit it just lost.
The DoJ hasn't formally signaled what remedies it wants, but anything less than splitting Google into separate companies—search, advertising, and everything else—will likely amount to "a fine is just the price of doing business."
Previously:
• The Antitrust Case Against Facebook: a turning point in the debate over Big Tech and monopoly
• Beyond antitrust: the anti-monopoly movement and what it stands for
• Bill Gates just accidentally proved that even 'unsuccessful' antitrust enforcement works
Supreme Court declines to halt Trump sentencing
Rob Beschizza / 4:32 am PT Tue Aug 6, 2024
davidsmith520/shutterstock.com
The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to halt former president Donald Trump's sentencing on his felony convictions in New York. The effort was mounted on his behalf by the state of Missouri and described by most as a long shot.
The court rejected Missouri's bid to sue the state of New York, meaning the justices willnot lift the gag order or delay sentencing in the unusual claim brought by Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, a Republican who is running for a full term this fall.
Many commentators said the filing was more of a political stunt aimed at gaining publicity than a serious legal claim.It echoed to some extent an attempt by Texas in 2020 to challenge election results in states that Trump lost to President Joe Biden in the presidential election, which the Supreme Court also swiftly rejected.
As hopeless as it was, "conservative" justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito signaled they would have allowed the plaintiff to file, if not grant emergency relief.
Previously:
• Can the profoundly corrupt Supreme Court be fixed?
• Supreme Court allows emergency abortions in Idaho, for now
• Supreme court gives corrupt officials a license to grift
• Supreme Court rejects Steve Bannon's plea to avoid prison time
• Supreme Court justice Samuel Alito flew inverted U.S. flag outside home, a MAGA symbol of insurrection
Donald Trump just got weirder: watch his "butt-sniffing" interviewer in action (video)
Carla Sinclair / 4:35 pm PT Mon Aug 5, 2024
Image by Evan El-Amin / shutterstock.com
Donald Trump outdid himself in the weird department today, inviting none other than a 23-year-old streamer known as a "butt sniffer" to Mar-a-Lago for an interview.
Always a sponge for gifts and flattery, Trump cozied up to right-wing streamer Adin Ross, who then gifted Trump with a Cybertruck and Rolex watch. And, according to Meidas Touch, Ross is not only a pal to white supremacist Nick Fuentes, but is also known for his habit of sniffing freshly warmed chairs.
To get a better idea of what that means, a video montage posted by Meidas Touch starts with couch-king JD Vance griping that "Kamala Harris says we're weird." We are then punished with clips of Trump's interviewer burying his nose into chairs as soon as someone stands up and walks away, before Trump praises the young whiffer-snapper. "I don't know what you're doing, but you really are respected," the bizarre ex-president says. (See video below.)
It's not clear whether or not Trump's fumes made an impression on the "respectable" sniffer's snoot, but if what former Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger says is true, it wouldn't take a chair-sniffer to get a nostril-load of Trump.
From The Independent:
During a livestream from Mar-a-Lago, streamer Adin Ross gave Donald Trump a Rolex and a Tesla Cybertruck wrapped in a photograph of the former president taken moments after a gunman shot him at a rally in Pennsylvania last month.
Ross repeatedly stated that he was giving them to the former president as "gifts." While it's unclear if Trump actually accepted the offering, it could exceed the maximum $3,300 limit on presidential campaign contributions under federal campaign finance law.
The 23-year-old streamer — with a mostly young male audience of more than 1.4 million Kick followers and 4.4 million YouTube subscribers — wore a white "Make America Great Again" hat and red tie as he heaped praise on the former president, who largely rambled through familiar grievances and disconnected thoughts on immigration, crime, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and cryptocurrency.
Previously: Weird MAGA is the meme of the hour
Luxury fashion brand launches $100 perfume for your dog, spurring an RSPCA warning
Allan Rose Hill / 3:06 pm PT Mon Aug 5, 2024
image: Dolce & Gabbana
Dolce & Gabbana has expanded its line of perfumes with a new scent that delivers the "warm notes" of ylang ylang, musk and sandalwood. It's for dogs. Very fashionable dogs. Luxury dogs, you might say.
The video ad (below) depicts a series of fancy dog breeds with this voiceover: "I am delicate, authentic, charismatic, sensitive, enigmatic, rebel, fresh, irresistible, clean, cause I'm not just a dog, I'm Fefé."
Fefé sells for €99. The bottle features a 24-carat gold-plated paw so you know it's worth every penny. Thing is, the RSPCA says a dog perfume is a terrible idea.
"Sometimes dogs can be anthropomorphised and the lines can become blurred between what dogs like and what we, as humans, think they'll like," RSPCA senior scientific officer Alice Potter told The Guardian.
"Dogs rely on their sense of smell to communicate and interact with their environment as well as the people and other animals within it. Therefore we advise that strong-scented products such as perfumes or sprays are avoided, especially as some smells can be really unpleasant for dogs."
Previously:
• Perfume that smells like ink
• Perfume to smell like a kitten
• Bic perfume in packaging inspired by their lighters
Police officer in St. Paul earns himself a DWI after crashing into building, starting fire
Carla Sinclair / 3:06 pm PT Mon Aug 5, 2024
Image: FabrikaSimf / shutterstock.com
A police officer in St. Paul, Minnesota apparently thought clocking out for the day meant the rules no longer applied. And thus, the confused gentleman earned himself a DWI today for crashing his personal car into a building last week and starting a fire while intoxicated.
Bryan James McKinnon, a St. Paul cop since 2022, set out on his joyride Wednesday night, and it didn't take long before he lost control (shortly after midnight). Upon smashing through the side of a building, his car caught fire, which spread to the structure he had damaged. Fortunately, the building was vacant and firefighters were able to extinguish the fire without any injuries.
"This incident is deeply concerning and does not reflect or align with the values of our department or the expectations we have of each other or the people we serve," said Police Chief Axel Henry, via the Pioneer Press. "We are cooperating with the Minnesota State Patrol's investigation and are following our internal policies and procedures."
McKinnon has since been demoted to a desk job while authorities continue to investigate
From Yahoo!:
The Minnesota State Patrol said they noted signs of impairment while speaking with McKinnon and gave him field sobriety tests. He declined a portable breath test, the citation said.
At the hospital, the State Patrol said they obtained a fluid sample for testing and results are pending, according to the citation.
The St. Paul City Attorney's Office cited McKinnon for operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol and fourth-degree driving while impaired, which are both misdemeanors.
Previously: Cop arrested on felony warrant has uniform cut off with scissors
Watch painful moment Olympic pole vaulter's "pole" (ahem) knocks him out of the competition
Allan Rose Hill / 1:29 pm PT Mon Aug 5, 2024
illustrative mage (cropped): Andrey Burmakin/Shutterstock
French pole vaulter Anthony Ammirati, 21, was close to clearing the bar at 5.70meters at the Paris Olympics yesterday when his, er, "pole" got in the way. His bulge hit the bar, ending Ammirati's Olympic dreams this time around. Following the mishap, Ammirati said it was a "big dissappointment" and he was a "bit gutted."
"It's a big disappointment," he told the French Athletics Federation. "I'm a bit gutted, because I didn't miss anything on the third attempt at 5.70 m. What I did miss was a bit of jumping in training to fine-tune the settings."
"I was 100% physically, but I was missing a little pole," reads a translation of Ammirati's comment on the French Athletics Federation site. I guess he brought the big pole instead.
Previously:
• Watch: slow-motion video of 17-year-old Mondo Duplantis' record-breaking pole vault
Usha Vance defends husband's weird "cat ladies" insult on Fox News
Ellsworth Toohey / 12:06 pm PT Mon Aug 5, 2024
JD Vance's wife, Usha, interviewed on Fox News, Aug 5, 2024 (Screenshot)
Usha Vance appeared on Fox News yesterday in a prerecorded interview with Fox & Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt. Poised and prepared, Vance answered a few softball questions until about seven minutes in, when Earhardt brought up by her husband's weird 2021 claim that "We are effectively run in this country, via the Democrats, via our corporate oilgarchs, by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they've made, and so they wanna make the rest of the country miserable, too. It's just a basic fact."
"What was your reaction?" Earhardt asked her.
Vance didn't appear to be flustered. She knew the question coming and he had a canned answer.
"I took a moment to look and actually see what he had said and try to understand what the context was and all that, which is something that I really wish people would do a little bit more often," she told Earhardt.
The funny thing is, JD actually said, "We are effectively run in this country … by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they've made, and so they wanna make the rest of the country miserable, too." And if you watch the video where JD told a giggling Tucker Carlson that, you'll see that the "context" is more of the same about how "miserable" these childless adults are.
I guess in the Vance household, they have a special language where words don't mean what normal people think they mean. For instance, telling your 7-year-old boy to "shut the hell up" when he wants to talk about his Pokémon cards, means, "Hold on, Billy, I have to make a phone call then we can talk."
This interview with Usha has other interesting examples of Vance-speak.
Usha said JD "made a quip in service of making a point that he wanted to make that was substantive, and it had actual meaning."
For the Vance family, a demeaning insult is called a "quip."
Usha said JD complained about "childless cat ladies" because he wanted to initiate a substantive conversation about the difficulties of parenting in America.
For the Vance family, meaningful conversations always being with an insult that has nothing to do with the topic being discussed.
She concluded by saying, "Let's try to look at the real conversation that he's trying to have and engage with it."
The Vances enjoy trading offensive barbs with one another as a way to foster better communication. Why don't more people think of this?
So there you have it, a crash course in Vance speak. It's easy to learn — the grammar and spelling are nearly identical to American English. Just practice up on deflection, contradiction, minimization, lack of accountability, false equivalence, and selective empathy, and you'll be speaking like a Vance in no time!