1/. Thom Hartmann tells us all like it is.....our planet is way past many tipping points.....
We are the generation that broke the Earth, and now we’re out of time to pretend otherwise. I know you don’t want to hear this. Nobody does.
Just like nobody wanted to hear that 9-year-old girl’s screams echoing through the Texas Hill Country last week as floodwaters ripped through her summer camp. She was washed away before rescuers could reach her. Her story is heartbreaking, and emblematic.
Trump cynically dismissed it as “a hundred year flood” and added, “Nobody saw it; nobody expected it.”
He lied.
It wasn’t just a freak accident and Republicans know it, even though they won’t acknowledge it. It was the new climate reality. The one we’ve been warned about for decades. It’s here, now. And if we don’t act now, it’s going to get irreversibly worse.
Because here’s the part nobody in power wants to admit out loud: it’s too late to prevent more of the “minor” disasters like we just witnessed. (For the “major disasters,” see the 11-minute YouTube video that Leonardo DiCaprio and I wrote and narrated )
2/. Hartmann and Leonardo De Caprio made this 11 minute video, which [unless you are a Republican, in which case it's fake news] you will be riveted by......
3/. The new language out there......
4/. Interesting story about Ukraine's military capability - were you aware that Australia is shipping Abrams tanks and planes to Ukraine?
Me neither, and that's because Trump's goons are suppressing the media about Ukraine.....
Every now and then, the diary I keep — meant to track only the most important developments — completely overshoots my bandwidth. Each line item we’re covering today could easily be its own standalone story. But the range is so wide, we need the panoramic lens today. Wide-angle. No zoom.
Here’s what we’re walking through:
- The 49 M1A1 Abrams tanks Australia promised to Ukraine have arrived in Poland. They could cross into Ukraine at any moment. At the NATO summit, Australia also announced it will deploy an E-7 Wedgetail early warning aircraft to Poland. It’s expected to arrive by August, along with 100 Australian personnel.
- On June 26th, the EU approved its 2025 aid package for Ukraine — €30.6 billion. Of that, €10.5 billion has already been delivered.
5/. Tom Tomorrow tells us the truth!
6/. What a surprise - under pressure Bayer removed glyphosate from Roundup, but the new chemical, diquat, is even worse.
Strong advice - don't use this shit.....
The herbicide ingredient used to replace glyphosate in Roundup and other weedkiller products can kill gut bacteria and damage organs in multiple ways, new research shows.
The ingredient, diquat, is widely employed in the US as a weedkiller in vineyards and orchards, and is increasingly sprayed elsewhere as the use of controversial herbicide substances such as glyphosate and paraquat drops in the US.
But the new piece of data suggests diquat is more toxic than glyphosate, and the substance is banned over its risks in the UK, EU, China and many other countries. Still, the EPA has resisted calls for a ban, and Roundup formulas with the ingredient hit the shelves last year. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jul/06/weedkiller-diquat-organ-damage-study?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
7/. Pam Bondi.....
Here's a quote from Heather Cox Richardson - "Attorney General Pam Bondi “is so focused on preparing for and appearing on Fox News that she has
essentially ceded control of the Department of Justice” to him [Steven Miller]. "
8/. Andrew Sullivan on ICE, our version of the SS.....
There is nothing new about mass deportations in the US.
This week, I learned that for a few decades, Ellis Island was temporarily not an entrance to America, but an actual detention center for migrants waiting for an immigration hearing. Yes, you read that right. After the 1924 Johnson-Reed Act that all but shut down immigration until 1965, there were so few new applicants on American soil that they used the place as a migrants’ prison.
And it was pretty much hell on earth, as Tara Zahra’s riveting book on interwar populism, Against the World, explains. About 2,400 people were crammed into a facility with just 350 beds, the rest “condemned to bunks in wire cages ... arranged in double tiers, without mattresses, and crowded into a room with unsatisfactory ventilation ... The living conditions are abominable and the sanitary arrangements are beyond description.”
9/. Trump science.....pretty well nails it....
10/. Remember the Einstein quote - "if the honey bee disappeared off the face of the Earth, man would only have four years to live".
Well here we go.....
Bret Adee is one of the largest beekeepers in the US, with 2 billion bees across 55,000 hives. The business has been in his family since the 1930s, and sends truckloads of bees across the country from South Dakota, pollinating crops such as almonds, onions, watermelons and cucumbers.
Last December, his bees were wintering in California when the weather turned cold. Bees grouped on top of hives trying to keep warm. “Every time I went out to the beehive there were less and less,” says Adee. “Then a week later, there’d be more dead ones to pick up … every week there is attrition, just continually going down.”
Adee went on to lose 75% of his bees. “It’s almost depressingly sad,” he says. “If we have a similar situation this year – I sure hope we don’t – then we’re in a death spiral.”
11/. This was actually posted on social media by the White House.....
Sometimes you just think this can't be real.
12/. To follow on from the disgusting image above, Thom Hartmann looks at the Trump cult, and the similarities to Jim Jones,
who persuaded all his followers to drink the Kool aid....and die.
Former FBI agent Michael Fienberg has gone public, pointing out that the agency, under the leadership of Bongino and Patel, is purging itself of people who are not members of the Trump cult (my phrase, not his). Similar cult-like behavior is on vivid display with the White House press secretary, the head of DHS, and the head of the Department of Justice — among numerous other administration officials and elected Republicans — regularly spouting lies and half-truths that target women, immigrants, and Democrats.
Marjorie Taylor Greene is implying that the children who died in the Texas floods were the victims of a nefarious plot — presumably by Democrats or Jews who operate space lasers — to modify the weather, completely ignoring the fact that Republican-aligned fossil fuel billionaires have been engaged in a half-century-long scheme to sabotage our atmosphere with their carbon dioxide emissions in exchange for trillions of dollars in profits. Some of which, no doubt, have been shared with Greene or her campaign.
Multiple administration officials, elected Republicans, and rightwing media cult leaders on platforms like Fox “News” have been amplifying the racist, antisemitic “Great Replacement Theory” that wealthy Jews are paying to “replace” white people in America with Blacks, Mexicans, and other people of color.
13/. An interview with a "Futurist" about the way AI is developing, and it's coming for a lot of jobs......
If Adam Dorr is correct, robots and artificial intelligence will dominate the global economy within a generation and put virtually the entire human race out of a job. The social scientist doubles up as a futurist and has a stark vision of the scale, speed and unstoppability of a technological transformation that he says will replace virtually all human labour within 20 years.
Dorr heads a team of researchers who have studied patterns of technological change over millennia and concluded that the current wave will not just convulse but obliterate the labour market by 2045. What cars did to horses and carts, and electricity to gas lamps, and digital cameras to Kodak, are templates for the coming shock, he says. “Technology has a new target in its crosshairs – and that’s us. That’s our labour.”
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jul/09/futurist-adam-dorr-robots-ai-jobs-replace-human-labour?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
14/. And in case you don't believe the above article, here is an AI video from Pillart.....how do they do this stuff?
Go full screen.....music's eerie too......
15/. Rolling Stone rates the best movies of 2025, so far....
Welcome to the official halfway mark of a moviegoing year that’s already given us a handful of surprises, a few solid works from reliable auteurs, some really strong documentaries and not one but two Michael B. Jordans shooting Tommy guns and sending vampires back to hell. Despite the abundance of franchise sequels and a few big disappointments, it’s already shaping up to be a good 2025 for film lovers, with a lot of really strong stuff from the festival circuit heading your way in 2025’s back half. (Keep an eye out for Train Dreams, Nouvelle Vague, Sentimental Value and It Was Just an Accident, coming soon to a theater near before New Year’s Day.)
From a gamer-friendly Shakespeare production to a star-studded Wes Anderson comedy, a sexed-up spy vs. spy thriller to a double shot of uncut Canadian-cinema bliss, these 12 movies represent the high points of the year of to date. (And extra shout-outs to Best Wishes to All, Chaos: The Manson Murders, F1, I’m Still Here, Materialists, Misercordia, Presence, Sly Lives!, The Shrouds, and 28 Years Later…)
Today's penis joke
A man wakes up in the hospital bandaged from head to foot.
The doctor comes in and says, "Ah, I see you've regained consciousness.
Now you probably won't remember, but you were in a huge pile-up on the motorway.
You're going to be okay, you'll be able to walk again and sustain a reasonably normal life, however your penis was severed in the accident and they couldn't find it."
The man groans, but the doctor goes on, "You have £9000 in insurance compensation coming for the severed member and we now have the technology to build you a new penis. They work great but they don't come cheap. They're roughly £1000 an inch." "So," the doctor says, "You must decide how many inches you want.
But I understand that you have been married for over thirty years and this is something you should probably discuss with your wife.
If you had a five incher before and get a nine incher now she might be a bit put out.
If you had a nine incher before and you decide to only invest in a five incher now, she might be disappointed.
It's important that she plays a role in helping you make a decision."
The man agrees to talk it over with his wife.
The doctor comes back the next day, "So, have you spoken with your wife about the penis?"
"Yes I have," says the man.
"And has she helped you make a decision?" asks the doctor.
"What is your decision?" asks the doctor.
"We're getting granite worktops."
Today's Catholic joke
A man walks into a church confessional and says to the priest, "Bless me, father, for I have sinned.
I was with seven different women last night".....
The priest is silent for a moment, then says, “Go home and cut seven lemons in half.
Squeeze the juice into a glass and drink it down in one gulp".....
"Then will I be forgiven"...? asks the man.
"No" replies the priest, "But it will wipe that smirk off your face"....!!!
Today's police joke
A man was pulled over for speeding.
As the police officer approached the vehicle, the man quickly asked,
“Officer, may I step out of the car?”
The cop agreed, and once the man was out, the officer asked, “Why were you in such a hurry?”
The man pointed toward the car and said,
“You see the woman in the front passenger seat?
That’s my wife. And the woman in the back seat?
That’s my mother-in-law. She’s been living with us for the past three months.”
The man continued, “Well, this morning my wife and her mom got into a huge argument.
My mother-in-law demanded we take her back to her house.
Now I’m rushing to get her there as fast as possible—before they make up and she changes her mind!”
The officer paused, looked over at the car, then back at the man, and said,
“Sir, get back in your vehicle. I’ll give you a police escort—with lights and sirens. Let’s make sure she gets home!”
Today's teacher joke
A smart-arsed teenager at the back of the room raised his hand and asked.
"What would happen if I came in tomorrow suffering from complete and utter sexual exhaustion?"
The entire class was reduced to laughter and sniggering.
When silence was restored, the teacher smiled at the student, shook her head and sweetly said, "Well, I would expect you to write the exam with your other hand."
