Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

He really is that stupid.

Let there be snark.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

It is not hopeless, and we are not helpless.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. do not congratulate. this is not business as usual.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

If America since Jan 2025 hasn’t broken your heart, you haven’t loved her enough.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

Trumpflation is an intolerable hardship for every American, and it’s Trump’s fault.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

Washington Post Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

President Musk and Trump are both poorly raised, coddled 8 year old boys.

How stupid are these people?

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

This fight is for everything.

Not all heroes wear capes.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Friday Open Thread: Summer Shade

Reader Interactions

108Comments

  1. 1.

    Jeffro

    Hopefully he joked about ‘just’ having gotten over his bout of Ebola right after that cough…sleep tight, Donnie!

  2. 2.

    misterpuff

    Dolt 45 probably has a flying squad of physicians and nurses to “sanitize” any proven germ carrier.
    “PM Trudeau was wrestled to the ground and slathered with hand sanitizer this morning in the Oval Office.”

  4. 4.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Germophobe Donald needs to be made as uncomfortable as possible at all times.

  7. 7.

    Mike in NC

    Lately we’ve learned that the worst thing to do in front of Fat Bastard is to cough (spread nasty germs!). He will order up an air strike on Canada as soon as somebody shows him where it is on a map.

  9. 9.

    The Dangerman

    I know we can play the “what if Obama had done that” game all day long…

    …but can you imagine if Obama had first ordered the strike against Iran and then called it off after, apparently/presumably, putting our military in jeopardy (supposedly, Iran knew about the incoming somehow)? The mind is blown. Could be lack of coffee.

    Unbelievable.

  11. 11.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    So that coughing is people trying to hide they are laughing at Trump’s ignorant stupidity.

  12. 12.

    Martin

    People should be paying more attention to the US threat to pull out of the international postal union, which is an agency under the UN. It has implications for a wide range of things such as overseas voting, but it has some pretty bread and butter consequences to most people.

    The union regulates how mail flows across national borders, including the rates. By agreement, nations balance their postal budgets through what are called terminal dues which is based on the net difference in weight for all mail sent across a particular border. The idea is that when sending an international package, that the sender doesn’t need to calculate both a domestic rate, and then an additional rate(s) in the receiving countries. The treaty suggests that every nation set their own rates as needed internally, plus an appropriate international surcharge, and then all the countries add up the weight of what was sent, find the difference, multiply by the terminal rate, and then that nation pays the balance out of their international surcharge funds.

    This ends all of that. There are effectively no nations that are not part of the union (some use a host nation as a proxy) so we would be the only one. It’s unclear how much it would cost to mail things out of the US. It’s unclear how much it would cost to mail things to the US. And the idiots running the federal government under this President are entirely unlikely to figure that out in a competent way. The annoyance causing us to pull out of this treaty is that it’s cheaper to mail goods to US addresses from China than it is from other US addresses, because China sets the rate and the international surcharge. China is willing to subsidize delivery and the US is not, and that favors certain kinds of Chinese industries.

    Expats will feel this bigly, but a lot of Americans are unaware how much of the prices they see on overseas goods is due to this treaty. The US probably, without too much effort, could have organized our allies into applying pressure onto China through the UPU to try and address this imbalance, but that requires planning and recognition that the UN is a valid organization, so we’ll instead take the garden pruners and cut our dick off instead, because fuck, that’s way easier to organize.

  13. 13.

    Adam C

    I doubt it was on purpose. Trudeau needs Trump’s help right now, we’re in a fucking bind over arresting this Huawei woman.

  16. 16.

    MattF

    OT. WaPo reports that Felix Sater’s lawyer cites ‘health reasons’ for Sater’s no-show.

  17. 17.

    trollhattan

    @humboldtblue:
    Maybe the best part of this is if indignant parents flee the state due to our repression, win-win. A little odd for Newsom to have watered it down but yay on my senator for authoring and seeing it through. Anti-vaxxers do not like him, not one bit.

  21. 21.

    Waynski

    It could have been an allergic reaction to all the chemicals wafting off the rotund one’s “hair”.

    PS – No offense to the follicly challenged among us. Starting to lose it myself.

  26. 26.

    SenyorDave

    @MattF: WaPo reports that Felix Sater’s lawyer cites ‘health reasons’ for Sater’s no-show.

    Are the quotes yours or WaPO’s?

    I’m assuming we won’t ever hear his testimony.

  27. 27.

    TenguPhule

    @Martin:

    People should be paying more attention to the US threat to pull out of the international postal union

    Hawaii will secede from the union if he fucks up our shipping prices and sources. Shit is expensive enough as it is to live here on a couple of islands in the middle of nowhere.

  30. 30.

    Fred Fnord

    @Martin: We could also just subsidize the USPS (indirectly, so that it passes Constitutional muster). Lower the prices enough that the difference is truly minimal, on the order of cents.

  31. 31.

    MattF

    @SenyorDave: The story contains a quote from the lawyer that contains the specific phrase ‘health problems’ as the reason for the no-show.

  35. 35.

    Doug R

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Remember when Trudeau beat him at shaking hands? A classic.

    One of the advantages to being the son of a politician, you can draw on Dad’s network of cronies for strategies of dealing with tinpot dictators.

  37. 37.

    GxB

    A lot of lefty Canucks seem to dislike Trudeau for various reasons – mostly amounting to him being “a pretty-boy empty suit”. That may be true but the way he yanks the saffron shart’s chain will always make me smile.

  38. 38.

    Matt McIrvin

    @GxB: I think Trudeau promised electoral reform and went back on the promise once in power under the existing system. As far as I can tell that was a major source of dissatisfaction.

  39. 39.

    dww44

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: It is. And I have long decried GOP efforts to privatize and dismantle and sell off the USPS to private for profit entities. Far too much of our government, at all levels, has been sold off to” for profit” entities to make them “more efficient”. Social welfare for the corporate class is what it really is.

  40. 40.

    Doug R

    @GxB:

    A lot of lefty Canucks seem to dislike Trudeau for various reasons – mostly amounting to him being “a pretty-boy empty suit”. That may be true but the way he yanks the saffron shart’s chain will always make me smile.

    Us folks in British Columbia are not impressed with how he’s gone along with the bitumen pipeline expansion. Pandering to Alberta and their corporate masters in Ontario to TRIPLE the size of an underused pipeline to ship toxic bitumen, upping the amount of tankers out of Vancouver from once a week to once a day, sailing past what is known as “The Graveyard of the Pacific”.

  41. 41.

    Immanentize

    @dww44: Warren is in favor of Post Office Banks. That would pretty much end pay day lenders and help save the post office in our smaller (including rural) communities.

  50. 50.

    Immanentize

    I just read the Flowers decision regarding racial jury strikes — and I am certain that Thomas’ opinion was originally the majority opinion, but that he just could not get five votes to support his theories. His dissent is longer than the majority and goes into odd details in order to get to a strange law change point. He only got two other votes — and only for parts of that opinion.

  51. 51.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @The Dangerman: Somehow? I don’t think I’m being paranoid when I say Putin is in effect cleared to the highest level of clearance and need to know. I’m certain he has complete advance knowledge of military operations.

    I’m on vacation dammit. I gotta stop reading this stuff.

  52. 52.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Chris Johnson: we love that song but when I told my wife about how it’s used in Wicker Man, that kind of ruined it for years for her.

  54. 54.

    plato

    Fucking cowards.

    Oregon Gov. Kate Brown deployed the state police to try to round up Republican lawmakers who fled the Capitol in an attempt to block a vote on a landmark climate plan that would be the second of its kind in the nation. https://t.co/hv7BT5uz1p— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 21, 2019

  55. 55.

    patrick II

    @chris: The chocolates from Trudeau were made by a small company founded by a Syrian refugee family. Good politicians can play at many levels.

  58. 58.

    raven

    Advice Columnist E. Jean Carroll Details Alleged Rape By Trump In 1990s

    “Carroll wrote that she didn’t come forward sooner because “receiving death threats, being driven from my home, being dismissed, being dragged through the mud, and joining the 15 women who’ve come forward with credible stories about how the man grabbed, badgered, belittled, mauled, molested, and assaulted them, only to see the man turn it around, deny, threaten, and attack them, never sounded like much fun.”

    “

  59. 59.

    TaMara (HFG)

    Quoting from the transcript:
    TRUMP: “Excuse me — Under Section II — Well, you can go to prison instead, because, if you use, if you use the photograph you took of the letter that I gave you —”
    TIME: “Do you believe that people should be —”
    TRUMP: “confidentially, I didn’t give it to you to take photographs of it — So don’t play that game with me. Let me just tell you something. You take a look —”
    TIME: “I’m sorry, Mr. President. Were you threatening me with prison time?”

  60. 60.

    mrmoshpotato

    @TenguPhule:

    in the middle of nowhere

    Don’t sell yourself short. Hawaii isn’t in the middle of nowhere. It’s in the middle of big water, ocean water, which is tremendously wet in terms of water.

  61. 61.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @TaMara (HFG): It would be comical if it weren’t reality, part the zillionth. He brags about the letters, they’re probably the most reading he’s done in twenty years, they dictate our policy to North Korea, because whoever wrote them calls him “Your Excellency”… but he threatens jail time to anyone he thinks might show them to the public.

  62. 62.

    GregB

    Trump’s fascist shock troops are planning mass round ups in many US cities on Sunday.

  63. 63.

    smintheus

    @germy: I feel like a terrible person for hoping that her allegations against Trump prove to be true. Finally we may have an accuser who has a megaphone large enough to be heard over Trump’s noise machine.

  69. 69.

    GxB

    @Doug R: Ahh, so kind of a Joe Biden of Canada then? TMYK – fair enough. Still… ya wanna trade? – we’ll give you a good deal – bigly.

  71. 71.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Steve Clemons makes a funny (see linked pic)

    Steve Clemons @ SCClemons
    Off2Miami! BernieSanders in Seat 15A Thought Bubble: “Is she going to kick my chair? I know she’s going to kick my chair! Elizabeth, don’t even think of kicking my chair!” ewarren in 16A Thought Bubble: “I’m going to kick it the exact moment he thinks I won’t.”

  75. 75.

    TenguPhule

    ‘I don’t know how we’re going to survive this.’ Some once-loyal farmers begin to doubt Trump.

    I should probably feel guilty about this enjoying this.

    Some rural residents are growing increasingly frustrated with the ongoing trade feuds and wonder how long Trump will call upon farmers to make sacrifices as the country’s “patriots.”

    “People are starting to say, ‘I don’t know how we’re going to survive this,’ ” said Martinmaas, who voted for Trump in 2016, but says he’s open to a Democrat like Montana Gov. Steve Bullock this time. “You know, we’re the ones taking the brunt of it in all these negotiations, so they need to be kind of helping us out right now.”

    Martinmaas, whose family homesteaded this land in 1888, said his farm operation lost more than $700,000 last year. He’s had to put a moratorium on buying new equipment, and he’s stuck with grain bins full of soybeans, because China isn’t buying. Other farmers can’t pay their bills for the hay and grain they bought from him.

    Martinmaas, 69, says he’s skeptical that Trump’s aid package will help, given the uncertainty about how much individual farmers will receive and who will qualify.

    Trump’s 2016 victory hung largely on support from rural and small-town Americans like Martinmaas. His approval rating with them remains strong — 57 percent, far higher than the 39 percent of Americans overall, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll in late April.

    But a survey of farmers released this month by Purdue University’s Center for Commercial Agriculture shows rising pessimism, with only 20 percent saying they believe the trade war with China will be resolved by July 1, down from 45 percent in March.

    But in tiny Orient — population 63 — farmers are beginning to voice disillusionment and frustration. More than a dozen farmers did not have their operating loans renewed for the coming year, according to a local lender, with at least one farmer losing it all and a land auction planned for the courthouse steps later this month. Agriculture exports from the state to China — a big soybean buyer — fell 40 percent in the state last year, part of a $10 billion loss nationally, according to an American Farm Bureau Federation analysis.

    But I don’t. Suffer, assholes.

  76. 76.

    TenguPhule

    ICE raids targeting migrant families slated to start Sunday
    Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are preparing for pre-dawn raids targeting as many as 2,000 families in several U.S. cities.

    Somebody tell me again they don’t have the manpower to start mass round ups.

  78. 78.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @TenguPhule: They were talking millions last week, and it’s always a good idea to give folk warning that you’re going to pick them up and when you’re going to pick them up. I’m quite a few will find a good reason to go to mass on Sunday.

  79. 79.

    TenguPhule

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    I’m quite a few will find a good reason to go to mass on Sunday.

    I’m pretty sure ICE would be waiting at Churches catering to non-whites to save themselves some time. Its not like they’re not already doing something similar with local courts.

  80. 80.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    Well I had a good day. I was scheduled to go in for a second Endoscopy today and when I got there the Doctor decided that the meds they had put me on were doing the trick so there was no reason to shove a camera down my throat again. To say I was delighted was an understatement. Yay!

  81. 81.

    J R in WV

    @GregB:

    Trump’s fascist shock troops are planning mass round ups in many US cities on Sunday.

    Now I’ve seen a headline in the Google News about ICE attempting to round up visitors seeking asylum in unnamed cities

    That’s not quite the same as what you announced, but pretty close. Families again, that seems to be the new target all the time, families. Trump hates his family, why should he respect anyone’s family?

  84. 84.

    rikyrah

    @Immanentize:

    @dww44: Warren is in favor of Post Office Banks. That would pretty much end pay day lenders and help save the post office in our smaller (including rural) communities

    I am completely in favor of it. I think it would be a great idea.

  85. 85.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Litlebritdifrnt: I’d bet you live in some kind of socialist hellhole where the doctor’s income stream is not a direct function of how many cameras s/he shoves down how many throats. Because here in the US, having a doctor say “you know what, this costly and invasive procedure that makes me a bundle is medically unnecessary, so I’ll skip it” is vanishingly unlikely.

  86. 86.

    Yutsano

    @GxB: @Matt McIrvin: He was also elected for trying to attempt to get Canada’s economy off the Harper regime’s All Oil All The Time plan. That…isn’t panning out so well. The idiot to the south isn’t helping things true but Trudeau was supposed to get the economy on a more diverse footing. But is Parliament isn’t helping there.

  90. 90.

    Ben Cisco

    Cravenaugh on the right side of a court case?

    https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1019666#referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&amp_tf=From%20%251%24s

    WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court Thursday reversed the conviction of a Mississippi death row inmate who said the state prosecutor repeatedly kicked black people off the jury each time he was tried for the same murders.

    “Equal justice under law requires a criminal trial free of racial discrimination in the jury selection process,” wrote Justice Brett Kavanaugh in the court’s 7-2 ruling. ”

    Don’t trust it – it sounds as though it was obvious, but this fucking guy – I find myself wondering what his play is.

  93. 93.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Maggie Haberman @ maggieNYT
    A source told me 30 minutes ago that Trump was pleased with his own performance last night, loved being in command by ordering the strikes and by then ordering the stand-down. And the president just… tweeted it.

    Just saw a clip of his interview with Chuck Todd– the Unspeakable meets the Insufferable– and he was sirring it like a sonofabitch. “I asked them… they said, “Sir, we’ll have to get back to you. They’re good people, the generals.” Talking about them like they were his favorite waiters at Mar-a-Lago.

    It will be interesting, over the next week, to compare how his story evolves, especially if he has a 60 Minute Hate coming up.

  94. 94.

    Betty

    @Martin: This is frightening. I live overseas and depend on the US mail for a variety of things. It is already very slow because, I have been told, some restrictions put on by Homeland Security. What next?

  95. 95.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Gin & Tonic:

    I’d bet you live in some kind of socialist hellhole where the doctor’s income stream is not a direct function of how many cameras s/he shoves down how many throats.

    Now THAT is a sentence! LOL

  98. 98.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Ben Cisco: I know it doesn’t seem like it from news reports but most Supreme Court cases are not the controversial 5-4 decision. I am on my so I can’t find and link to it now, but 9-0, 8-1, and 7-2 decisions are very common.

  99. 99.

    SiubhanDuinne

    The putative next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom:

    Police called to loud altercation at Boris Johnson’s home

    Police were called to the home of Boris Johnson and his partner, Carrie Symonds, in the early hours of Friday morning after neighbours heard a loud altercation involving screaming, shouting and banging.

    The argument could be heard outside the property where the potential future prime minister is living with Symonds, a former Conservative party head of press.

    A neighbour told the Guardian they heard a woman screaming followed by “slamming and banging”. At one point Symonds could be heard telling Johnson to “get off me” and “get out of my flat”.

    The neighbour said that after becoming concerned they knocked on the door but received no response. “I [was] hoping that someone would answer the door and say ‘We’re okay’. I knocked three times and no one came to the door.”

    The neighbour decided to call 999. Two police cars and a van arrived within minutes, shortly after midnight, but left after receiving reassurances from both the individuals in the flat that they were safe.

    [snip]

    The neighbour said they recorded the altercation from inside their flat out of concern for Symonds. On the recording, heard by the Guardian, Johnson can be heard refusing to leave the flat and telling Symonds to “get off my fucking laptop” before there is a loud crashing noise.
    Symonds is heard saying Johnson had ruined a sofa with red wine: “You just don’t care for anything because you’re spoilt. You have no care for money or anything.”
    The neighbour said: “There was a smashing sound of what sounded like plates. There was a couple of very loud screams that I’m certain were Carrie and she was shouting to ‘get out’ a lot. She was saying ‘get out of my flat’ and he was saying no. And then there was silence after the screaming. My partner, who was in bed half asleep, had heard a loud bang and the house shook.”

    From The Guardian, about an hour ago. For some reason the link function is balky.

  101. 101.

    Ben Cisco

    @Omnes Omnibus: I wasn’t aware of that. Feels like it doesn’t really get covered unless it’s controversial / 5-4. Guess I should have seen that coming. Thank you for the intel.

  103. 103.

    James E Powell

    @TenguPhule:

    I don’t feel the least bit guilty. Children have been taken from their parents and put in cages because they are ignorant bigots. And I don’t delude myself by thinking that any of this will ever change their votes to the humane party.

  105. 105.

    Another Scott

    @raven: Horrifying. Absolutely horrifying, the things she describes that she’s endured since she was a child.

    And we all know that she’s not a unique case.

    :-(

    Thanks for the pointer.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  107. 107.

    Ruckus

    @Martin:
    We all should know by now that conservatives think that sticking their heads either in a hole in the ground or up their own asses removes all traces of whatever is not in said hole. So their lives are safe from all the things they fear, which seems to be pretty much everything. But of course this makes them unable to hear the glorious and wonderful cheers for their concept that they are great and smart and wonderful. So instead all they hear is their own labored breathing – because of course their head is stuck in one hole or another. This of course also leads to their inability to actually do anything positive, even for themselves. It colors their worlds with dirt or shit, neither of which contain any magic for creating smart humans. And as magic is all they have…….

  108. 108.

    Ruckus

    @Litlebritdifrnt:
    Yea!
    Always better that they don’t have to put things in you that don’t normally belong there. Which seems to be so obvious. At least it was something that you were able to gave consent for, even if not exactly eager.

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