Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

Finding joy where we can, and muddling through where we can’t.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

Fight them, without becoming them!

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Come on, man.

This blog will pay for itself.

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

“They all knew.”

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

Reality always gets a vote in the end.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

I did not have this on my fuck 2025 bingo card.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

This fight is for everything.

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

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Angel Matching for October Political Fundraising

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Zoom With Four Directions Set for Thursday at 7 pm ET 1

All of the previous Angel matches for the 4 organizations are now complete.

Patrick G has come forward with a $375 match Balloon Juice Angel match for each of the 4 organizations!  He will match up to $50 per person until matching donations for a particular organization reach $375.  (alphabetical order!)

  • Four Directions – Native Vote in Montana (Jon Tester)
  • Nebraska Senate Field Organizing (Dan Osborn)
  • North Carolina Asian Americans Together (NCAAT) – Ballot Curing
  • North Carolina Black Alliance – Ballot Curing

As always, tell us about your donation in the comments of this post, or send email to WaterGirl.

Anybody up for a Sunday morning challenge?

Whichever organization reaches the $375 in matches first will get a bonus $500 Angel match from another Angel.

Let’s go!

We still have the $500 match for the Blue AZ Candidates, but it’s not part of the challenge.

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Sunday Morning Open Thread

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Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Powellswood Garden, Part 2 – Tropical Plants

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Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Powellswood Garden, Part 2 - Tropical Plants
 
Another great set of photos from Mike in Oly:

Here is part 2 of my visit to Powellswood Garden in Federal Way, WA. This is the tropical garden. It was just amazing to me with so much color and texture – and huge healthy plants!

Top photo: The borders in this garden room were all about tropical colors and textures. And it was a feast for the eyes and nose. The plants are packed in leaving no open space to be seen and they surged right out of the border and over the paved patio outside a small event space. There was so much to see it was almost overwhelming.

– I loved this combo of bright orange-red impatiens and a chartreuse plant I did not recognize, and a touch of purple from verbena bonariensis.

Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Powellswood Garden, Part 2 - Tropical Plants 7

– Tall spires of cleome not only added bright white and pink blooms but a heavenly scent. I’ve tried to grow them in my garden but I don’t think we get as much heat as they prefer. They struggle for me.

Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Powellswood Garden, Part 2 - Tropical Plants 2

– A wider shot of the border featuring red castor bean, angel’s trumpet, dalias, bananas and other fabulous plants.

Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Powellswood Garden, Part 2 - Tropical Plants 1

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Late Night Open Thread: Intransigent

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Intransigent

(Non Sequitur via GoComics.com)

Actual warlords, of course, can forcibly prevent their supporters from leaving their speeches… Per the Washington Post, “The reasons people leave Donald Trump’s rallies early”:

Less than 25 minutes into Donald Trump’s remarks, Melissa Prescott walked out.

She arrived at the Linda Ronstadt Music Hall in Tucson at 8:30 a.m. on a hot September day, waited in line outside with her teen daughter for more than four hours, then waited another hour inside before Trump took the stage about 2:15 p.m. As Trump was complaining about 2016 exit polls and speaking about how he likes “the old people the best,” Prescott, along with dozens of others, started trickling out.

“I’m glad we got in. I wish I could stay to hear more,” said Prescott, 36, who explained that she needed to go pick up her disabled cousin.

The Republican presidential nominee consistently draws large, enthusiastic and rowdy crowds to his rallies and other campaign events, and at nearly all of them, another trend is clear: Scores of people leave early.

Most stay. But Trump often runs late and goes long, prompting many to bow out because of other responsibilities, priorities or, sometimes, waning patience and interest, according to Washington Post interviews and observations across dozens of events. Some said they wanted to beat traffic or had work the next day. Others complained about sound quality. One man wanted to go home to his French bulldog. Another needed to get home to his daughter. A third had a Yorkie with him that started acting out. A fourth man said his phone died.

The early rally departures have touched a nerve in Trump, who has long shown intense interest in attendance, ratings and other optics. He has mentioned the subject in a defensive tone lately after Vice President Kamala Harris needled him over it and suggested people leave out of “exhaustion and boredom.”…

Trump repeatedly has resisted entreaties from advisers and allies to cut down on his speeches. “They want a show. They want two hours,” Trump said this year to an ally who suggested shorter speeches. Like others, the ally spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a private conversation.

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War for Ukraine Day 955: Russia Downs Its Own New Attack Drone Over Ukraine So the Ukrainians Can’t Get Their Hands On It

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Two quick housekeeping notes. First, Rosie is doing very well. Thank you for all the good thoughts, prayers, well wishes, and donations.

Second, the tropical wave/disturbance they were worried was going to form up where Helene did and basically follow Helene’s track up the gulf this weekend instead slowly meandered across the Yucatan and is now in the western Gulf of Mexico as Tropical Storm Milton. It is expected to track southwest to northeast across the gulf from where it is and make landfall somewhere in Florida as a category 3 hurricane sometime on Wednesday or Thursday. Unfortunately, by the time the forecasting and modeling tightens up it will be late Monday. So if you may be in the path of the storm, which is almost all of Florida, start making your plans now knowing you may have to adjust on the fly. At noon today it was supposed to make landfall between Sarasota and Bradenton. Now it is supposed to make landfall on St. Pete Beach and track diagonally across Pinellas County, through Tampa Bay, over Tampa, and then continue northeast across the state. We are well into the uncertainty part of the forecast at this point and they won’t know where the track will shift = north or south – until we are far, far, far too close to landfall.

Last night in comments UncleEbeneezer wrote:

Hey Adam, semi-tangent but sort of on topic: I recently went down a rabbit-hole about the Soviet Anti-Zionist propaganda campaigns from 1920’s-80’s, mostly reading the

GEC Special Report: More Than a Century of Antisemitism:

How Successive Occupants of the Kremlin Have Used Antisemitism to Spread Disinformation and Propaganda

As well as:
Demonization Blueprints: Soviet Conspiracist Antizionism in Contemporary Left-Wing Discourse by Izabella Tabarovsky and I was just curious (since this is right in your area of expertise) as to her reputation as an historian of Soviet AntiSemitism?  Is she reputable?  It all looks pretty legit to my untrained eye.  And it is wild to me to think that almost every major framing I’ve seen from the Left wrt Gaza over the past year (and sometimes Ukraine too), are rooted in an AntiSemitic propaganda campaign from the USSSR.  This seems like the sort of thing more people should be aware of.

Going in reverse order, I’ve bever heard of Tabarovksy. She appears to be a professional think tanker, bouncing from one to the next. Or at multiple ones at the same time. I know some people at the GEC and am professionally familiar with their work. It’s quality stuff. Thanks for bringing this to everyone’s attention.

Russia tried to attack Ukraine with it’s new S-70 Okhotnik heavy attack UAV/drone. When the Russians realized it was in danger, they shot it down themselves. Or they shout it down by mistake, with the Russians you can’t really tell. Anyhow, it landed in Ukraine near Konstantynivka, which means the Ukrainians are already doing exploitation operations.

Ooopsie!

Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.

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Milton is looking for his stapler in Tampa Bay

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The National Hurricane Center is currently forecasting current Tropical Storm Milton to make a speed run east northeast across the Gulf of Mexico and hit somewhere near Tampa Bay as a Category 3 storm in the middle of the week.

National Hurricane Center forecast of TS Milton as of 1645 ET 10/5/2024

The forecasted landfall is Wednesday.

West Florida Jackals — start prepping now and be safe!

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Election 2024 Open Thread: The Closer

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Per the Washington Post, “Obama to campaign for Harris in month leading up to election”:

… Obama senior adviser Eric Schultz said in a news release that the former president is doing “everything he can to help elect Vice President Harris” and Democrats across the country.

“Now that voting has begun, our focus is on persuading and mobilizing voters, especially in states with key races,” Schultz said. “Many of these races are likely to go down to the wire and nothing should be taken for granted.”

Obama, the country’s first Black president, is the nation’s most popular Democrat and still wields considerable influence in his party. After President Joe Biden’s faltering debate performance against Donald Trump, Obama told allies that the president needed to reconsider whether his candidacy was viable. Obama and his wife, Michelle, endorsed Harris shortly after Biden left the presidential race and Harris became the presumptive nominee. Since then, the Obamas have said Harris represents a continuation of the same vision of America that helped Obama make history in 2008.

“If we work like we’ve never worked before, if we hold firm to our convictions — we will elect Kamala Harris as the next President of the United States,” Obama said at the Democratic National Convention in August. “We’ll elect leaders up and down the ballot who will fight for the hopeful, forward-looking America we all believe in.”…

Harris was an early supporter of Obama, traveling to Iowa during the 2008 campaign to knock on doors for him. The two of them have a relationship that stretches back two decades.

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