https://radioink.com/2024/07/22/meme-of-trump-in-a-coffin-gets-new-york-radio-host-fired/
https://buffalonews.com/news/local/97-rock-slick-tom-tiberi-fired-facebook-meme-donald-trump/article_722e1716-4844-11ef-9a1e-9bd6d5c40542.html

Longtime 97 Rock DJ “Slick Tom” Tiberi was fired after he reposted a meme on social media that showed former President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin lying in side-by-side coffins with text that wished for their deaths.

Tiberi said he shared the “edgy” and “dark-humored” image on his personal Facebook page before the attempt on Trump’s life earlier this month and took down the post soon afterward.

But he said “far-right” users of Facebook and other sites successfully orchestrated a campaign to press Cumulus Media, the owner of the radio station, to fire Tiberi. He learned of the company’s decision on July 16 and shared the news with his Facebook followers last week.

“I upset a small group of people and they blew it out of proportion and took it out of context – misrepresented me. And the company folded under the pressure,” Tiberi said in an interview Monday. “And that’s just the way it happens these days.”

The New Jersey senator had been chairman of the powerful Foreign Relations Committee before he was charged with accepting bribes on behalf of Egypt and Qatar.

Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., will resign next month after he was found guilty on all 16 counts in a federal bribery and corruption trial.

Menendez officially informed Gov. Phil Murphy of his decision in a letter Tuesday.

"This is to advise you that I will be resigning from my office as the United States Senator from New Jersey, effective on the close of business on August 20, 2024," Menendez said in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by NBC News.

He said he chose that date to "give time for my staff to transition to other possibilities, transfer constituent files that are pending, allow for an orderly process to choose an interim replacement, and for me to close out my Senate affairs."

Murphy, a Democrat, said in a statement that he’d received the letter and that he will “exercise my duty to make a temporary appointment to the United States Senate to ensure the people of New Jersey have the representation they deserve.”

Two sources familiar with the matter said earlier Tuesday that Menendez had informed some of his staff members of his plans. The New Jersey Globe first reported his departure date.

As NBC News first reported last week, Menendez had begun telling allies in calls that he would step down from the Senate after a jury convicted him on July 16 of accepting bribes, including gold bars and cash, for official actions to benefit Qatar and Egypt. He is set to be sentenced Oct. 29 and has vowed to appeal.

Nearly every Democratic senator, as well as House members and other key elected officials in New Jersey, had said Menendez needed to resign, making it untenable for him to continue. Some had threatened to force a vote to expel him from the Senate if he didn’t leave voluntarily.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/rcna163285

A man who killed two Alaska Native women and was heard while videotaping the torture death of one say that in his movies “everybody always dies” was sentenced Friday to 226 years in prison.

Brian Steven Smith received 99-year sentences each for the deaths of Kathleen Henry, 30, and Veronica Abouchuk, who was 52 when her family reported her missing in February 2019, seven months after they last saw her.

“Both were treated about as horribly as a person can be treated,” Alaska Superior Court Judge Kevin Saxby said when imposing the sentence.

“It’s the stuff of nightmares,” Saxby said.

The remaining 28 years were for other charges, like sexual assault and tampering with evidence. Alaska does not have the death penalty.

Smith, a native of South Africa who became a naturalized U.S. citizen shortly before torturing and killing Henry at an Anchorage hotel in September 2019, showed no emotion during sentencing.

He also displayed no emotion when a jury deliberated for less than two hours and found him guilty after a three-week trial in February.

During the trial, the victims were not identified by name, only initials. Saxby said during sentencing that their names would be used in order to restore their personhood.

Smith was arrested in 2019 when a sex worker stole his cellphone from his truck and found the gruesome footage of Henry’s torture and murder. The images were eventually copied onto a memory card, and she turned it over to police.

Smith eventually confessed to killing Henry and Abouchuk, whose body had been found earlier but was misidentified.

Both Alaska Native women were from small villages in western Alaska and experienced homelessness when living in Anchorage.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/man-gets-226-year-prison-sentences-killing-2-111897984

Elon Musk is not spending $45 million a month to elect former President Donald Trump, though he has created a new super political action committee (PAC) to fund the Republican candidate, the billionaire told conservative commentator Jordan Peterson during an interview Monday evening.

During the interview, which was hosted on Musk’s platform, X, Peterson asked Musk if he had “shocked” himself by donating a substantial amount of money to Trump’s campaign. Musk – who has previously criticized Trump, calling him a “bull in a china shop” – paused to correct the “media.”

“What’s been reported in the media is simply not true,” Musk said. “I am not donating $45 million a month to Trump.”

The Wall Street Journal first reported on the claim, citing sources “familiar with the matter.” The outlet has not yet issued a retraction or follow-up article altering its reporting.

Musk did note that he created a super PAC, called the America PAC, to help support Trump. A super PAC is a group that can raise unlimited amounts of money for a campaign’s independent expenditures—such as for ads, or for day-to-day operations— but doesn’t donate directly to the campaign. They have become prominent among both Democrats and Republicans since a 2010 D.C. appeals court decision that authorized the existence of the super PACS. For a normal PAC, donors are limited to gifts of only $5,000 a year.

Several tech company leaders have donated to America PAC, including Ken Howery, an early executive at Paypal along with Musk, Antonio Gracias, a private-equity leader, Sequoia Capital’s Shuan Maguire, and the Winklevoss twins.

The super PAC is also led in part by Joe Lonsdale, a co-founder of the software company Palantir and politically ambitious venture capitalist in Austin who is close to Musk, according to the New York Times.

https://fortune.com/2024/07/23/elon-musk-backs-down-from-45-million-a-month-pledge-to-trump-says-he-doesnt-subscribe-to-cult-of-personality/

A masked man armed with an AK-47 and a full magazine of ammunition was reportedly arrested blocks away from the Republican National Convention on Monday night. Homeland Security investigators and Capitol police saw the man approaching near the RNC permitter, blocks from the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, a federal law enforcement source told Fox News. The man was wearing a ski mask and hauling a tactical bag containing the weapon and a full magazine, the outlet reported.

Milwaukee Police confirmed the report to The Associated Press and said the 21-year-old man was arrested and charges are pending against him.

U.S. Capitol Police spotted the man around 1 p.m. Monday “looking suspicious, wearing a ski mask and a large tactical backpack in the street,” police said in a statement. Capitol police stopped him and determined he had a concealed gun without a concealed-carry permit, police told AP.

The arrest comes after the attempted assassination on former President Trump on Saturday, which led to increased security at the RNC. Authorities said Thomas Crooks tried to shoot Trump with an AR-15. He killed one rallygoer in Butler, Pennsylvania, before a counter-sniper fatally shot him.

On Tuesday, police fatally shot a man blocks away from the convention perimeter, near 14th and Vliets streets in Milwaukee. Witnesses said two men were fighting in King Park and one pulled a knife.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/masked-man-with-ak-47-and-full-magazine-arrested-outside-rnc-reports/ar-BB1q766L

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd1j7kg2nk0o

A Russian man has been arrested in France on suspicion of plotting acts of "destabilisation" during the Paris Olympics, prosecutors have said.

Local media reports that a 40-year-old man was arrested on Sunday and an investigation opened into the possible passing of "intelligence to a foreign power in order to arouse hostilities in France".

The alleged plot is not believed to have been for a terror attack.

It comes just days before the games get under way, with the opening ceremony set to take place in central Paris on Friday.

Prosecutors said a search had been carried out at the man's Paris apartment at the request of the French interior ministry.

A source close to the investigation told Le Parisien agents had discovered evidence that suggested the man was preparing "pro-Russian operations" to destabilise France during the games.

Another source said the alleged plot was a "large-scale project" that could have had "serious" consequences.

No further details have been given other than that the investigation is being carried out by specialists in counter-espionage, not counter-terrorism.

The man was indicted on Tuesday evening and placed in pre-trial detention.

The crimes being investigated are reportedly punishable by a prison sentence of up to 30 years.

JD Vance ignited uproar from a particularly vocal fanbase on the internet this week, as some Taylor Swift fans say the Republican VP nominee might "need to calm down" after a video resurfaced of him slamming childless women who own cats.

"Hell hath no fury like a certain childless cat lady who has yet to endorse a presidential candidate," one X user posted in response to Vance's prior comments, which have recirculated after he and Vice President Kamala Harris have emerged as opponents on the 2024 presidential campaign trail.

Resurrected footage, shared Monday by the editor-in-chief of MeidasTouch Network, shows Vance on Fox News' "Tucker Carlson Tonight" in 2021, criticizing multiple Democratic figures as "childless cat ladies" and saying people without children don't have a "direct stake" in America's future. Vance made the TV appearance while he was running for the Ohio senate seat he eventually won.

The video had more than 25 million views on X as of Wednesday and Vance's "childless cat ladies" comments had sparked an uproar from Swiftie fans and beyond.

Swift, who endorsed now-President Joe Biden and Harris back in 2020, has not yet endorsed anyone for president in 2024.

"When it hits you that Taylor Swift is childless and has cats... The armageddon is coming for him," one X user posted Tuesday night.

Another user posted: "Vance attacked childless women who love cats. Taylor Swift would probably like a word. Release the kraken (meowww)."

One fan suggested she use his comments "right back at him" if she were to endorse Harris, while another lobbied for Swift-inspired "Democratic fundraising merch."

Internet users drew the connection between Vance's comments and Swift because she has three cats and proudly posts about them on social media.

Swift, 34, is not married and does not have children.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2024/07/24/taylor-swift-jd-vance-childless-cat-ladies/74525531007/

In a virtual event last week that was billed as a “Latino Town Hall,” presidential candidate and anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. unveiled his plan to overhaul addiction treatment programs. Speaking during a live recording of the Latino Capitalist podcast, Kennedy described opioid, antidepressant, and ADHD “addicts” receiving treatment on tech-free “wellness farms,” where they would spend as much as three or four years growing organic produce.

https://x.com/MotherJones/status/1816180369110270435

How to pay for these farms? Kennedy had an answer. With money generated through a sales tax on cannabis products, Kennedy said, “I’m going to dedicate that revenue to creating wellness farms—drug rehabilitation farms, in rural areas all over this country,” he said. “I’m going to make it so people can go, if you’re convicted of a drug offense, or if you have a drug problem, you can go to one of these places for free.”

On the farms, he said, residents would grow their own organic food—which would help them recover from addiction, “because a lot of the behavioral issues are food related. A lot of the illnesses are food related.” The idea that addiction is connected to consuming non-organic food is not backed by robust science—but it’s in line with many other unfounded claims that Kennedy has made in the past about pesticides and non-organic food causing chronic disease, behavioral problems, and autism.

Cell phones and other screens, he said, would be prohibited. “We’re going to re-parent people and restore connection to community,” he promised. “We have a whole generation of kids who are dispossessed, they’re alienated, their marginalized, their suicide rates are exploding; the second largest killer for young people is drug addiction.” Kennedy has suggested in the past that 5G cell phone technology could cause health problems.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/07/rfk-jr-wants-to-send-people-on-antidepressants-to-government-wellness-farms/

President Joe Biden’s address to the nation Wednesday evening will serve not only to explain his shocking decision to drop out of the 2024 presidential race but will carry an element of poignancy as he begins the closing chapter of his presidency and half-century in public service.

He’s no longer the presumptive Democratic nominee trying to convince the nation that he still has the stamina and faculties to take on former President Donald Trump in an election in which he warned nothing less than democracy itself is in the balance. Instead, he’s now a lame-duck, having thrown his political weight behind his vice president, Kamala Harris, after being convinced by fellow Democrats that he is politically incapable of seeking a second term in office. His speech at 8 p.m. ET will be his first extensive remarks since his announcement Sunday that he was not running and will serve as the first time many Americans see him since he tested positive for Covid-19 last week.

The president intends to use the prime-time remarks to reveal to the American people how he arrived at the painful decision, sources told CNN, which he said in his letter Sunday he believed was “in the best interest of my party and the country.”

Oval Office addresses have historically been serious moments for presidents to speak to the American people at times of national crisis or to make major policy announcements. It will be only the fourth time Biden has addressed the nation from the setting as president. And it’s the second time in just 10 days, following Biden’s remarks to the country earlier this month following the assassination attempt against Trump. He’s also used the setting to speak about Hamas’ attack on Israel last year and to laud the passage of a bipartisan budget agreement.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/24/politics/biden-oval-office-address-2024/index.html