Watching an éclair pistache in the making, where every frame is as delectable as the next, is almost as satisfying as eating one. I need to visit Reddit's r/Baking more often.
Front page thumbnail image: Marys Poly / shutterstock.com
"Roe is dead," Elizabeth Warren said in an impassioned speech today at a Massachusetts rally. "And understand this," she warned, "It doesn't stop today with the opinion of Dobbs." (Video below.)
But never one to fall into despair, the 73-year-old Senator also stressed that she's ready for the fight.
"Clarence Thomas has already made clear he's coming after everybody else. He's coming after the LGBTQ community. He's coming after contraception. He is coming after anyone who doesn't live and doesn't look just like what Clarence Thomas thinks that the ideal American is supposed to live and look [like]," the Senator said. "But we've got news for Clarence Thomas: he doesn't get the last word."
She also pointed a finger at Mike Pence, who "waited about two seconds after this opinion came out to call for a national ban on abortion. … The forces that brought us to this day are continuing to gather…" she said, "and they will not rest until they ban abortion across this nation. This is the fight we are in."
But Warren, who refuses to cower when the going gets tough, said she is "angry and determined."
"We are aimed like a laser beam on the election in November," she said to cheers. "Make no mistake. Roe is on the ballot."
"The Supreme Court extremists do not get the last word," she said. "We are here because we will make Roe alive again."
A day after the Supreme Court overturned New York's law that limited people from carrying guns in public, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Q–GA) said even children should handle guns.
"I think children should be trained with firearms. I definitely do. I think that's very important so that they understand the safety," she told Rep. Jamie Raskin (D–MD) before the House Rules Committee today. But what else can we expect from a GQP Congresswoman known for raffling off her "famous AR-15" and harassing a teenaged Parkland shooting survivor.
What a week for SCOTUS and the GQP. And according to Kevin McCarthy, you ain't seen nothing yet.
Front page thumbnail image: Gage Skidmore / Flickr, from Surprise, AZ, United States of America – Marjorie Taylor Greene, CC BY-SA 2.0
Kevin McCarthy made it crystal clear today. After news that SCOTUS overturned Roe v. Wade, the House Minority Leader warned, "As encouraging as today's decision is, our work is far from done." In other words, the GQP is just getting started.
A gentleman in Japan didn't mean to lose a work-related USB flash drive stuffed with personal info on every single resident in the town of Amagasaki (pop. 465,177). He simply decided to get drunk while toting said USB flash drive. He then decided to fall asleep on a sidewalk. And much to his surprise, when he woke up, his (and the entire city's) personal belongings were gone.
From CNN:
The man works for a company tasked with providing benefits to tax-exempt households, the city government's statement said.
On Tuesday, he went to the city administration's information center and transferred residents' data onto a flash drive. The data included the names, birth dates, and addresses of 465,177 people, the statement said — the city's entire population.
The flash drive also contained sensitive information including tax details, bank account names and numbers, and information on households receiving public assistance such as childcare payments. …
It added that though the employee had been authorized to access the data, he had not been given permission to transfer it onto a separate electronic device. The statement also criticized the employee for failing to erase the data from the flash drive after completing his work at the city office, and for carrying it personally instead of using a more secure transportation method.
Authorities held a news conference on Thursday, with the city's mayor and other officials bowing in apology to residents.
So far, no data leak has been reported, according to CNN.
A gentleman in Vermont didn't need a gun to threaten the police who were arresting his son — he had himself an excavator. Officers were trying to arrest 24-year-old Brandon Tallman — on charges of burglary and assault, according to ABC11 — while also scuffling on the ground with the suspect's mother. Meanwhile, the suspect's father, 52-year-old Wayne Tallman, jumped into action by climbing inside the cab of a nearby excavator. Police dashcam video shows the excavator bucket as it puts up its duke, looming over and lurching toward the Troopers as one officer points his gun at the metal beast. No shots were fired, however, and eventually all three Tallmans were taken into custody.
Front page thumbnail image: Vermont State Police / dashcam screengrab
A perturbed gentleman complained that because of masks and vaccines, he lost his job. And the person who fired him? When questioned further, the man who gave him the axe turned out to be himself — he was self-employed. Only in MAGA-land.
Front page thumbnail image: 4 PM production / shutterstock.com
A kangaroo pouch has turned into an exit chute for this overgrown joey, who won't take the hint that it's time. I've seen videos of teenage joeys struggling to get inside their pouch, but this is the first I've seen of one repeatedly sliding right out.
Front page thumbnail image: Ken Griffiths / shutterstock.com
A raccoon in New York was punished by death for the high crime of living as a pet. Its cover was blown after its bright humans brought it along to buy food at a pet store, where it was spotted by a worker who called authorities.
Although New York's Department of Conservation claims that "raccoons are protected by law," they also warn that "raccoons as pets may be harmful to both humans and raccoons." In this case, being a "raccoon as pet" was harmful only to the raccoon, who was euthanized. The humans, on the other hand, who gave the raccoon no choice in the matter, were simply fined $500 each.
From AP:
The officer used store surveillance video, a store-issued rewards card and license plate information to locate the couple in the town of Attica in western New York, the department said. The owners turned the raccoon over and were each charged with unlawfully possessing a wild animal, which is subject to $500 fine, authorities said.
The raccoon that was confiscated from the couple was euthanized and tested for rabies — a test that can only be performed on an animal after it has died. The test was negative, the DEC said.
NRA darling Lauren Boebert rejoiced in the SCOTUS decision to make homicide shootings as easy in New York as they are in Texas (and most other states). The gushing Qongresstroll and proud owner of Shooter's Grill in Rifle, Colorado could barely contain herself as she celebrated the wonderful news that New York's gun safety law — established in 1911 — which required "proper cause" to carry a handgun in public, was overturned today by the U.S. Supreme Court.
And as a two-fer, she also reminded the public how well SCOTUS is working along with Republican caucuses — Separation of Powers be damned — to make gunslinging more accessible to all.
"The Second Amendment Caucus, the House Freedom Caucus, and the Supreme Court are working [together] to ensure the second amendment, as our founders intended, is available to all Americans."
Front page thumbnail image: Jim Lambert / shutterstock.com
Rather than listen to common sense, Marjorie Taylor Greene told a British reporter to "go back to your country" during a press conference on gun safety yesterday (video below). She was triggered when told the U.K. didn't have guns and thus didn't have mass shootings.
"We don't have guns in the U.K., that is true, but we don't have mass shootings either. Children aren't afraid to go to school," the reporter said.
"You have mass stabbings, lady," Greene shot back with a straight face. "You have all kinds of murder."
"Nothing like the same rates here," the "lady" said.
"Well, you can go back to your country and worry about your no guns," Green said. "We like ours here."
Just to be clear (which is never the case when Greene is in the room), death by stabbings is higher in the United States (6.3 per million residents) than it is in the U.K. (3.9 per million residents) according to The Washington Post. And of course death by guns is higher in the United States (79% of homicides) than it is in the U.K. (4% of homicides), according to the BBC.
Front page thumbnail image: Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America – Marjorie Taylor Greene, CC BY-SA 2.0
I've never seen an enchanted instrument such as this. As soon as a man launches into a folk tune with his harmonica, his doggo leaps into the most festive of jigs. I laughed out loud with all three viewings. Everyone needs a harmonica like his!
Front page thumbnail image: BobbyHobby / shutterstock.com
The word "the" is about as dull as they come. Until, that is, someone else wants it. Suddenly it becomes the most coveted of all the 171,000-plus words in the English language. At least that's how it was for The Ohio State University and fashion designer Marc Jacobs, who battled over the trademark of the word "THE" like toddlers fighting over the faded handle of a broken shovel in a sandbox full of otherwise colorful toys.
Both the university and the clothing company have been fighting over "THE" since 2019 — both wanted to prominently display the definite article on their own articles of clothing. And, although Jacobs filed for the trademark first, the university — which has formally called itself The Ohio State University since 1878 to stand out from other Ohio schools — won the trademark based on the fact that they have been using the word on their shirts, hats, and other apparel since 2005.
But, rather than pick up their toys and go home, the good sports, according to NBC4i, "worked to resolve their dispute so both could claim use of the word on their products."
If only all of the world's crises could be this silly, and work out so amicably.
Check out the beautifully shot insect below, which I ran across on Reddit. With its yellow and brown-striped body and its extendable, grasping forelegs, it looks like a cross between a wasp and a mantis. But nope, it's neither. As I just found out, it's actually a Mantispid (or mantisfly or mantidfly), which are predators without stingers found from Costa Rica to Canada. I wonder how many of these creatures I've seen and mistook for a wasp?
Here's another cool video on mantisflies, a year old, from YouTube, in which the impersonator meets a real wasp:
Front page thumbnail image: Narupon Nimpaiboon / shutterstock.com
Bleeding heart bigot Marjorie Taylor Greene is known for her intolerant stance against anything other than white Christian males (ie., trying to link the Jan. 6 insurrection to BLM, comparing BLM to the Ku Klux Klan, hanging anti-LGBTQ signage outside her office door, complaining that men don't enjoy enough victories, hiring an Islamophobic misogynist intern). But that didn't stop under-the-radar hubby Perry Greene from quietly investing $295,000 into companies that support everything Empty G. is against.
For instance, according to Business Insider India, he bought stock in Nestle, a company that stands with BLM: "Black lives matter. They matter to us inside of Nestlé and they matter to us outside of Nestlé."
And Visa, whose CEO Al Kelly wrote: "We must focus on how much Black Lives Matter and what we can do in driving real and lasting change to end social injustice and racial inequality."
And then there's Disney.
From Business Insider India:
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's husband, Perry Greene, just bought up to $295,000 worth of stock in companies that have predominantly — and openly — supported social efforts that the Republican congressman vehemently opposes, such as the Black Lives Matter movement and LGBTQ+ rights.
Perry Greene on June 10 purchased four- or five figures worth of stock in Costco Wholesale Corporation, Goldman Sachs Group, Home Depot, Intel Corporation, Nestlé, Procter & Gamble Company, United Parcel Service, and Visa Inc., according to a personal financial disclosure Marjorie Taylor Greene filed June 20 with the US House of Representatives.
And it's not always Perry Greene alone. From LBGTQ Nation:
Greene and her husband have also previously invested in Disney and Walmart, two companies whose LGBTQ-inclusive business practices and marketing oppose her bigoted views. Walmart has touted its presence in local Pride parades and Disney has slowly increased its positive representations of queer people in its films and TV shows.
Of course this does not mean Gentleman Greene – who wears an OAN t-shirt – differs from his hate-peddling wife. He is married to one of the most repulsively divisive — and opportunistic — people in the history of the U.S. Congress (I would say the most, but there's Lauren Boebert…), after all. It's just that when it comes to profit and opportunity, there are no boundaries for these folks, no matter where they stand.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams is following in the footsteps — or bulldozing trail — of his predecessor, crushing 900 illegal dirt bikes and ATVs as if they were aluminum cans on Tuesday. At one point a bike got caught in the bulldozer, which had to reverse course to untangle the metal from its tracks before continuing to transform these vehicles into scrap metal.
From Car and Driver:
The mayor said the city chose to destroy the dirt bikes rather than sell or donate them because it keeps them off the street permanently. In his press conference, the mayor stated that many of the bikes don't have insurance and said he is pushing for ATV dealers to request proof of insurance and registration documents before selling the vehicles.
"It's reckless and it's illegal. It puts everyone at risk. Other drivers, passengers, pedestrians, and not to mention the bike riders themselves," said Sewell. Message received, Commissioner. Message received.
If only we could do this with illegal weapons!
Frontpage thumbnail image: Jason Finn / shutterstock.com
Just like the man who couldn't help but heckle Ted Cruz at a restaurant last month (see second video below), another man disgusted with Ted Cruz leaned over the Senator, who was sitting behind a table at the Texas GOP convention in Houston last week, and tore into him.
"Remember how Trump made fun of your wife and you went and became best friends with Trump, why do you do that?" he asked before answering the question himself: "It is because you are a coward. You see, I do love America, you don't."
"You care more about the border between Ukraine and Russia than you do about the border between Texas and Mexico, why is that?" he continued, pointing his finger in the heckler-magnet's face.
As handlers started to push the man away, he asked, "Why are you a globalist? You're a globalist, bud, and that's why you're a coward and a liar."
And then for his parting shot, "When people were freezing and dying in Cancun, Mexico — you remember that? — remember when you were at the all-inclusive buffet and people were freezing? … Remember when people were dying?!"
"Weird Al" Yankovic says his friend was recently digitizing footage from his "Eat It" video — his 1984 Grammy award-winning spoof of Michael Jackson's "Beat It" — and found this "insurance" take (below), which is a 3-minute-long shot of Yankovic's character battling junk food in his bedroom.
"Basically this is a take where the director just points the camera at the star of the video, who just does anything they feel like doing for the duration of the song," he explained on his YouTube page. "It's insurance, in case for some reason the production runs out of time and doesn't get all the shots they were hoping to get."
Although in character throughout as he improvs the scene, the fun really ramps up once the guitar solo breaks in.
For bedroom shot comparison's sake:
Front page thumbnail image: Bart Sherkow / shutterstock.com
When you gotta go, you gotta go, as one dog demonstrates. Here is a responsible pooch braving tornado weather to do its business where it belongs — although from the look of things, keeping said business where it belongs is just a crap shoot.
Front page thumbnail image: Huntstyle / shutterstock.com
A black bear wanted to join a couple and their three young kids on a popular hiking trail in Whistler, Canada, following them for about 20 minutes (see shortened 41-second clip below). The family, whose children are between one and six years old, remained calm as they tried to keep a distance, at times telling one of the boys to pick up the pace. Meanwhile, the parents continued to shout "Hey bear!" and "Go home" at the ambling creature who, according to 13News, finally got the hint and trailed off.
Front page thumbnail image: Rachelle Van De Kamp / shutterstock.com
