Ray Kappe-designed Home On The Strand, Manhattan Beach

GOP nominee for Governor in N. C. Mark Robinson has made a lot of hateful comments that should make him disqualified for any elected office, but this one tops that cake. It's as if Republicans are trying to out-MAGA each other with incendiary remarks. And, of course, the calls for political violence are increasing -- but only on the right. Robinson is a staunch pro-lifer with a disdain for actual human life, and he's steeped in self-inflicted problems right now, like failing to file taxes for five years.

Morning Joe did a compare and contrast with July 4th messages from President Biden and Trump: "We're the only nation on the earth founded on an idea, not ethnicity, not geography, not anything else, on an idea. Now, decades later, we must look at ourselves and ask the question, will we stand for freedom again?

While America celebrated the founding of our great country on July 4th, Trump just bashed and castigated his political rivals and those prosecuting his indicted crimes. Let's remind the tangerine ballbag that Independence Day is about celebrating the ratification of the Declaration of Independence by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, establishing the United States of America. Welcome to the future, subjects.

Independent media outlets are the only ones pointing out how frequently Donald Trump appears in the the Epstein document dump from earlier in the week. Shout out to Ben Meiselas and Meidas Touch for giving this important news some daylight. Trump’s name appears over and over again on Jeffrey Epstein’s message logs in the grand jury docs released this week.

Tensions between neighbors Pakistan and Afghanistan are running high as the Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif said this week that his country plans to continue launching cross-border attacks as part of a new military operation to curb terrorism. The comments mark a notable shift for Pakistani officials who, until now, had only admitted to one such cross-border strike in March.

Britain’s Labour Party achieved a decisive victory in the country’s July 4 election. But there were some contests, even in some of the party’s strongholds, that ended up being too close for comfort. And in a handful of constituencies, Labour lost out to independent candidates—including the party’s former leader. The culprit wasn’t another party, but rather, an issue: Gaza.