Headlines below the fold

the fires in New Mexico have started earlier than usual this year.

photo NASA.

no, this one is not close to where I worked in the past, but usually the area has several fires before the autumn hits.

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The Bilderbergs are meeting in Chantilly (near Dullas airport west of Washington DC) and the alternative media and the UK Guardian are there, even if no one else is covering the story.

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Ships going up the Red Sea routes are putting on line if they have armed guards aboard, so that the Somali pirates don't bother to attack them.
Why?

There have been no serious injuries on the ships so far, but there is some damage, and the shipping companies are also afraid of getting sued for pirates killed or wounded by the return fire. 

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an article on Chinese counterfeit parts causing problems in the US Military.

Here, unlike in the US, you just can't rely on what you buy (unless you buy it from an upscale retailer). The parts are cheap, but it's like playing the lottery to see if it's real or a fake: Spigots break in six months, parts don't fit, radios go kaput etc...and then there is the lethal problem of counterfeit medicines that kill literally hundreds of thousands in third world countries.

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the science to the rescue article from Improbable Research: exploding meat.
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There might be 1.5 million in NYC who need help from soup kitchens and food banks to supplement their diets, but never mind. Enter this contest and you too can share lunch with the President, first lady and the very undernourished Sarah Jessica Parker.

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And the movies this summer are bipartisan fingerpointers.

True, LesMis is about the 99 vs the 1 percent, but Jean Val Jean is an entrepeneur, who gets people out of poverty by running a factory, and Javert resembles Homeland security's enthusiasm for punishing trivia instead of going against the real criminals.

The Hunger Games can be seen as anti fascism, but the Blue Dog Democrats know Katniss is one of them, clinging to her guns (in this case bow and arrows) and religion (implied, since God is never mentioned, but the society is that of Appalachia).

And then there is For Greater Glory. Those lawless Hispanics (or those "taliban Catholics") against the good old fashioned values of secular government.

and then there is the Dictator...

No, I won't see any of these until they are on HBO...