Welcome to kitten season, when animal shelters need all the help they can get

Strawberry, Blueberry, JoJo and Mazzy were about 6 weeks old when animal rescuers coaxed them out of long metal pipes in the parking lot of a storage unit company. Meatball was a single kitten living in a cold garage with a group of semi-feral adult cats.

Spaghetti, Macaroni and Rigatoni, meanwhile, were just 2 weeks old when the good folks of LIC Feral Feeders, a cat rescue in Queens, took them in and bottle-fed them until they were strong enough to survive.

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Kitten season, typically landing during warmer months, is the time of year when most cats give birth. That produces a surge of kittens, often fragile neonates. Shelters get overwhelmed, especially when it comes to the 24-hour care and feeding of extremely young kittens.

That, as a result, triggers a need for more foster homes because many of the 4,000 or so shelters in the U.S. don’t have the time or resources for around-the-clock care, said Hannah Shaw, an animal welfare advocate known as the Kitten Lady with more than a million followers on Instagram.

“We see about 1.5 million kittens entering shelters every year. And most of them will come into shelters during May and June,” she said. “Shelters need all hands on deck to help out through fostering.”

https://apnews.com/article/kitten-season-foster-shelters-a7728f596e87ceeb89b38cd42d69ad3e

I'm currently fostering my fourth, and would have given her back sooner to be adopted except she's been battling a stubborn case of...lice! Hopefully her next lime -sulfur bath will fix it for good.

Revealed: the far-right, antisemitic men's club network spreading across US

A nationwide US network of dozens of far-right, men-only fraternal clubs has what members describe as “literally hundreds” of participants who include past and currently serving military personnel, lawyers, civil servants, and prominent antisemitic influencers, a Guardian investigation can reveal.

The Old Glory Club (OGC) – which has at least 26 chapters in 20 US states and until now has drawn little attention – exemplifies the alarming rise of organized racist political groups in the past few years but especially during the rise of Donald Trump and his return to the White House.

The OGC network has held conferences, meetups and other events. Key members like podcaster Pete Quinones use their platforms to push far-right ideas about Jewish people and immigrants. Other members have used their platforms to respond to political events, and to advocate measures including “cancellation insurance” for members whose extreme political views might impede their professional lives.

Harry Shukman, a researcher at UK anti-fascist non-profit Hope Not Hate, who last month published an exposé on the OGC-affiliated Basketweavers organization in the UK, told the Guardian: “Groups such as the OGC are a new breed of extremist organisation which aims first to build an offline social network before taking over society.”

He added, “They seek to lower the bar to participating in the far right, and by doing so have proved attractive to a cohort of mostly male members, some of whom have never before undertaken any form of activism.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/05/far-right-mens-clubs-old-glory

When fascism comes to America, it will come toting a bible and wrapped in the American flag. And here it is.

MTG Wants to Make 'Deadly' Weather Manipulation a Felony

Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has a new top priority after doing her part to shuffle President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” across the finish line.

Greene announced in a Saturday tweet that she intends to wage war on the “deadly” practice of “climate modification” and “geoengineering” with a bill that would make any such efforts a felony offense.

Greene said the bill will prohibit “the injection, release, or dispersion of chemicals or substances into the atmosphere for the express purpose of altering weather, temperature, climate, or sunlight intensity.”

According to Greene, she’s been “researching weather modification” and now she is ready to take action after spending months “writing this bill” with her legislative counsel.

She added, “It will be similar to Florida’s Senate Bill 56. We must end the dangerous and deadly practice of weather modification and geoengineering.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/marjorie-taylor-greene-wants-to-make-deadly-weather-manipulation-a-felony/

This person is truly batshit crazy.

I have a theory about the orange slime's health

You've all noticed, I presume, that he is cyclically very puffy and then not, cyclically very gray and then back to his original orangeness. I've been observing this recently, and to my nurse's eye, I'm wondering if he's not on dialysis. He would, of course, never admit it to anyone, but it would account for the cycling. It seems to run over about a 3-5 day period, which is about how often he goes "somewhere", disappears into the depths of the White House, or jets off to Mar-a-Lardo. It would be easy enough to get it done privately. Even peritoneal dialysis, which doesn't require a lot of equipment, just time.

What do you all think?

Bobbie Reads Tarot---July 4 2026

LA school district demands inquiry after Ice officers filmed urinating on campus

A Los Angeles school district is demanding an investigation of an incident last month during which Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents gathered at a local high school before a raid and were seen publicly urinating on school grounds, not far from where elementary school students were attending summer classes.

According to a statement from El Rancho unified school district, which also released video evidence in the form of surveillance-camera footage, the incident took place on the morning of 17 June at Ruben Salazar high school in Pico Rivera, in south-eastern LA county.

After school staff observed eight to 10 marked and unmarked Ice vehicles arrive on the high school campus, which is adjacent to an elementary school, a park and a preschool playground, they asked the federal agents to leave.

The school has since written to Kristi Noem, the US homeland security secretary, to request an inquiry. “At no time was a legal or legitimate reason offered or provided as to why Ice agents entered and remained on school grounds, nor did they provide any judicial warrant,” the school district said in the statement.

After the Ice agents agreed to leave the high school campus, school district staff told managers that they had seen the federal agents “urinating at Salazar in public view”. A review of surveillance camera video, posted on YouTube by the school district, appears to show 10 federal agents urinating near storage containers in the high school parking lot, from 8.54am to 9.04am.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/04/los-angeles-ice-officers-urinating

Go find a gas station or a 7-11, you uncivilized bastards!

The IOC handed LA the 2028 Olympics. Now Trump is weaponizing them

When the International Olympic Committee first handed Los Angeles the 2028 Summer Olympics back in 2017, IOC president Thomas Bach called it “a golden opportunity” for all involved. Fast forward to last month when Kirsty Coventry took the reins from Bach at the IOC. So much has changed.

In January, LA was hit with deadly wildfires. That same month a different sort of natural disaster took shape as Donald Trump returned to the White House. Bach had previously praised LA for its “strong foundation”, but that foundation has crumbled under the weight of the wildfires, a citywide budget crisis and an erratic president whose marauding Immigration and Customs Enforcement look like they arrived straight from robbing a liquor store to instill fear across Los Angeles.

The LA28 Olympics are now a slow-motion train wreck.

Just ahead of his inauguration, Trump assured Casey Wasserman, the chair of the LA28 Olympic Organizing Committee, that “These are America’s Olympics,” adding, “These are more important than ever to LA and I’m going to be supportive in every way possible and make them the greatest Games.” Then, in March, speaking to the IOC, Wasserman insisted that “irrespective of politics today, America will be open and accepting to all 209 countries for the Olympics.” He added, “LA is the most diverse city in the history of humanity and we will welcome the people from around the world and give them all a great time.”

On one hand, that may be true. Trump is not likely to squander an opportunity to engage in sportswashing: using sports to self-aggrandize on the global stage while stoking nationalism, bolstering the state security apparatus and deflecting attention from domestic social problems. Trump frequently yammers about how the Los Angeles 2028 Summer Olympics and the 2026 World Cup are among the events in his second term that gets his fascist heart a-tittering the quickest. Staging the mega-events is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to appear important on the world stage. Moreover, during Trump’s first term, he assured LA28 Olympic organizers that the federal government would supply security to protect the event.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/jul/04/la-olympics-2028-trump-ice-ioc-kirsty-coventry

I predict he will use the 1936 Berlin Olympics as a blueprint. It will fail horribly, like most things he does.

'A dark day for our country': Democrats furious over Trump bill's passage

Democrats have erupted in a storm of outrage over the passage of Donald Trump’s budget bill, delivering scathing critiques that offered signs of the attack lines the party could wield against Republicans in next year’s midterm elections.

Party leaders released a wave of statements after the sweeping tax and spending bill’s passage on Thursday, revealing a fury that could peel paint off a brick outhouse.

“Today, Donald Trump and the Republican party sent a message to America: if you are not a billionaire, we don’t give a damn about you,” said Ken Martin, the Democratic National Committee chair.

“While the GOP continues to cash their billionaire donors’ checks, their constituents will starve, lose critical medical care, lose their jobs – and yes, some will die as a result of this bill. Democrats are mobilizing and will fight back to make sure everybody knows exactly who is responsible for one of the worst bills in our nation’s history.”

The bill’s narrow passage in the House on Thursday, with no Democratic support and only two no votes from Republicans – which came from Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania – is “not normal”, wrote congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/04/democrats-trump-bill

I have no use for Massie, but I'll hand him a bone on this one. Fitzpatrick I don't know at all so I'll pass.

MAGA lawmaker begs Wisconsin's Democratic governor to protect constituents from megabill

Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin wrote a letter urging his state’s Democratic governor to take steps to protect rural hospitals from the fallout of Republicans’ widely reviled budget bill — which Van Orden voted for.

Van Orden’s urgent letter, which was dated Wednesday ahead of the bill’s Thursday passage, added to the list of Republicans who have effectively acknowledged the legitimacy of widespread fears that Republicans’ Trump-backed budget will harm some of the most vulnerable Americans — even as many Republicans have suggested it won’t.

Van Orden’s letter essentially called on Gov. Tony Evers to hurry up and sign the state budget, in order to protect rural hospitals from some of the steep Medicaid cuts that are likely to be triggered by congressional Republicans’ megabill.

“I cannot emphasize enough the importance of signing the proposed state budget into law without delay,” Van Orden wrote. “As you are aware, timely enactment is especially critical this year due to the proposed increase in the state provider tax, which must be effectuated before the anticipated signing of the One, Big, Beautiful Bill on or around July 4, 2025.”

Van Orden’s letter included flowery, Orwellian language touting the GOP bill as ensuring the solvency of BadgerCare, the name of Wisconsin’s Medicaid program, and “bolstering our rural healthcare systems,” but the gist of it was clear: The GOP budget is a threat to Medicaid and rural hospitals, and Wisconsin ought to act accordingly.

https://www.msnbc.com/top-stories/latest/van-orden-letter-evers-wisconsin-budget-medicaid-rcna216850

How many ways can you say HYPOCRITE?

Mexican Boxer Julio Csar Chvez Jr. Arrested By ICE

Mexican boxer Julio César Chávez Jr. was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Studio City, California, on Wednesday.

The Department of Homeland Security announced Chávez’s arrest in a Thursday press release, describing the 39-year-old former middleweight champion as a “public safety threat” with alleged links to the Sinaloa cartel.

“Chavez is a Mexican citizen who has an active arrest warrant in Mexico for his involvement in organized crime and trafficking firearms, ammunition, and explosives,” the statement read.

The son of multiple-time world champion Julio César Chávez Sr., the boxer recently lost a high-profile 10-round bout with influencer-turned-boxer Jake Paul.

In the statement, DHS said it was processing Chávez for expedited removal from the United States.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/boxer-julio-cesar-chavez-ice-arrest_n_6866c94de4b0225e8f8be09d

JHRC, who's next?