Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

I swear, each month of 2025 will have its own history degree.

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

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Be a wild strawberry.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

So very ready.

I am pretty sure these ‘journalists’ were not always such a bootlicking sycophants.

“woke” is the new caravan.

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

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

All hail the time of the bunny!

If rights aren’t universal, they are privilege, not rights.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

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Sunday Morning Open Thread: This, Too, Is America

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Honestly, America at its best tells everyone in the world, "Are you fleeing tyranny? Or maybe have drive and hustle? In that case, answer some test questions about George Washington, and congratulations, you're an American!"

If we keep this spirit, we'll own the 21st century as hard as the 20th.

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— Andrew Reeves (@andrewsshi.bsky.social) May 23, 2024 at 8:39 PM

From MNPR News, “Inside Hmong Cornhole, the largest cornhole club in Minnesota”:

It’s Monday night at the National Guard Armory in northeast Minneapolis, which means it’s time for Hmong Cornhole.

A few dozen folks throw little bean bags into holes in rows of glossy wooden boards. They chat and fist bump and update scores on digital tablets. Kids occasionally run weaving through the boards, sometimes squirreling away bags from their parents.

“Picturing my life without cornhole before this,” Dia Lee says, “I didn’t know any of these people. I didn’t know anybody from this club or in this Hmong cornhole community, so this definitely has strengthened our community.”…

A handful of cornhole players in the Twin Cities Hmong community — Alan Lee, Kou Xiong, Sue Moua, Ger Vang and Toua Xiong — started the club on Labor Day in 2021. With about 120 players, Hmong Cornhole is now the largest cornhole club in the state.

Many of the club members clock at least 15 hours a week playing cornhole. Hmong Cornhole hosts weekly events, fundraisers and raffles, both at the Minneapolis armory, as well as the one in St. Paul near the capitol.

Sometimes they play at Unison, a Southeast Asian restaurant in Maplewood. On Memorial Day, they will host a tournament at Kingston Park in Cottage Grove for the 4th annual Hmong Memorial Sports Fest and Street Fair. Another tournament will be June 29-30 at the Hmong International Freedom Festival — what Alan Lee calls the “Hmong Olympics.” …

Alan Lee says after they founded their club, other Hmong Cornhole groups popped up in Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia, Oklahoma, California and the Carolinas — all states with large Hmong populations.

Alan Lee says they started a club so the Hmong community could compete on an even playing field as cornhole is a predominantly white sport.

“Genetically speaking, we’re not as tall, we’re not as fast, we’re not built,” Alan Lee says.

Dia Lee and Houa Xiong say the Hmong community is very competitive. Many Hmong Cornhole players say the sport took off in the Hmong community because it’s a mental game first: Success relies on technique, strategy and repetition…

Alan Lee says they play at the armories because he’s a Chief Warrant Officer 2 with the National Guard, where he’s served for 20 years, so he was able to secure the space. Lee was first introduced to cornhole by a roommate in 2007 during his first deployment for Operation Iraqi Freedom.

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Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Cherish the Bright Spots

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Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Cherish the Bright Spots 3
 
Top photo of poppies from the ever-reliable Jeffg166.

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Commentor SpiderInk linked to her blog Native Flora for Fauna in last week’s comments, and I invited her to send pics:

Here are some native plant pix that you are welcome to put up on Balloon-juice. All of these bloom in the northeast in April/May.

The first is Amsonia Tabernaemontana (Bluestar)

Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Cherish the Bright Spots

The second is Aquilegia canadensis (native Columbine) among Heucheras

Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Cherish the Bright Spots 1

The third is Penstemon digitalis (Beardtongue)
Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Cherish the Bright Spots 2

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Spent most of yesterday afternoon acquiring what will probably be the last of this year’s annuals for the front-yard containers, and plan to spend the week getting them, plus the remaining mail-order tomatoes, properly planted out and sited for best effect. (Given the haphazard state of our ‘landscaping’, this sometimes feels like putting lipstick on a pig, but at least it gets me exercise out in the fresh air.)

Spousal Unit took a bunch of phone pics of this year’s iris blooms… I cannot recommend Schreiners Irises highly enough; we are getting gorgeous blooms from plants that spent the winter ‘set aside’ in last year’s battered tomato rootpouches… so if I can ever get him to focus for an hour or two, I might someday even be able to share proof-of-garden-life pics with y’all!

What’s going on in your garden(s), this week?

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Dank Grey Dawn Open Thread: ‘Becoming Ungovernable’ At the Libertarian Con(vention)

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This year’s Libertarian nominating convention is being held in Washington DC, so TFG’s handlers had the bright idea of sending him to speak before a pre-screened crowd with which (they assumed) he would have much in common. It’s true that we all joke about libertarians being ‘Republicans who want to smoke weed’, but as with any other schismatic cult, it’s very important to observe the exact contours of the separatist ritual.

Per Will Weissert, the Associated Press — “Trump, accustomed to friendly crowds, confronts repeated booing during Libertarian convention speech”:

Donald Trump was booed repeatedly while addressing the Libertarian Party National Convention on Saturday night, with many in the crowd shouting insults and decrying him for things like his COVID-19 policies, running up towering federal deficits and lying about his political record.

When he took the stage, many jeered while some supporters clad in “Make America Great” hats and T-shirts cheered and chanted “USA! USA!” It was a rare moment of Trump coming face-to-face with open detractors, which is highly unusual for someone accustomed to staging rallies in front of ever-adoring crowds.

Libertarians, who prioritize small government and individual freedoms, are often skeptical of the former president, and his invitation to address the convention has divided the party. Trump tried to make light of that by referring to the four criminal indictments against him and joking, “If I wasn’t a Libertarian before, I sure as hell am a Libertarian now.”

Trump tried to praise “fierce champions of freedom in this room” and called President Joe Biden a “tyrant” and the “worst president in the history of the United States,” prompting some in the audience to scream back: “That’s you.”

As the insults continued, Trump eventually hit back, saying “you don’t want to win” and suggesting that some Libertarians want to “keep getting your 3% every four years.”…

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War for Ukraine Day 822: Russia Tu-95 “Bear” Bombers Are Airborne! Air Raid Alerts Up Over All of Eastern & Southern Ukraine!

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Air raid alert map of Ukraine. All of eastern and southern Ukraine is under air raid warnings.

(Air Raid Alert Map as of 6:56 PM EDT)

Quick housekeeping note: the dogs are fine! The tweet embedding problem is definitely because of the change from twitter.com to x.com URLs.

In the hour that I’ve been writing this the air raid alerts have gone up over 2/3rds of Ukraine. Only its westernmost Oblasts are not under air raid warning!

Air raid alert map of Ukraine as of 7:56 PM EDT on 25 MAY 2024. 2/3rds of Ukraine is under air raid alerts. Only the westernmost oblasts/regions are not under alert.

Kharkiv was hit early today, but right now the Russian’s have five Tu-95 strategic bombers in the air and all of eastern and southern Ukraine is under air raid alerts and warnings.

Here’s the full text of Trofimov’s quoted tweet:

Russia hit the Epicenter shopping mall in Kharkiv as it was packed with customers. Authorities say at least 11 people are dead. Reminder: the White House prohibits Ukraine from using American weapons to target Russian bases, launchers and planes that pummel Kharkiv daily from across the border, because “escalation.”

Russian military airfield Baltimore near Voronezh. Airfield from which Russian military aircrafts took off to attack the hardware store in Kharkiv.

180km from the frontline, 50km closer than Belbek military airfield in Sevastopol which was targeted by ATACMS missiles recently.

We were able to prevent this, save lives. But unfortunately for all Ukrainian, for Kharkiv residents who will soon bury their family members, Baltimore and other military targets on Russian territory are under the personal protection of J.Sullivan and his colleagues.

The problem, as I and others have repeatedly pointed out, is that the US prohibits the Ukrainians from using US supplied weapons systems and/or munitions to strike across the border into Russia. This makes the Russian military very happy because it means they can launch their bombers and stage personnel and equipment across the border and Ukraine either has to use its own limited supply of Ukrainian produced weapons to try to degrade and deter Russian attacks or wait until the Russians cross the border. Combined with the dearth of air defense – both US and European/NATO ally produced systems and munitions – and Kharkiv and Sumy and Odesa and all the other oblasts bordering Russia, Belarus, and the Black Sea are exposed and vulnerable. The US backfill won’t really begin to arrive in significant quantities until mid June to July. The Czech Republic’s 155mm shell campaign resupply won’t arrive until then either. And even when Ukraine uses Ukrainian produced weaponry, or British weaponry as they appear to have removed any geographic restrictions and caveats on their use, the US often publicly tells the Ukrainians to stop attacking across the border. This is the policy equivalent of lie back and take it.

Here’s the full text of Kuleba’s tweet:

Putin may spread any lies, but here are his actions. Barbaric war crimes against civilians.

Large shopping mall in Kharkiv. Saturday. Heinous strike to ensure maximum casualties. He can’t occupy Kharkiv, hence he tries to kill it.

There are two ways for Ukraine’s partners to prevent such strikes.

First: more “Patriots” and other air defense systems for Ukraine.

Second: Ukraine shooting down Russian military aircraft before they drop bombs on Kharkiv and other cities and communities.

Provide Ukraine with additional air defense and support Ukrainian strikes on military targets in Russia. Act now.

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

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Saturday Night Open Thread

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Greetings, folks. I had a very lazy couple of days, in large part because pollen counts are through the roof and the weather keeps changing. Whatever. Quit your bitching old man.

I was driving home from the big city about a half hour ago and on the ride I looked out my window and several times saw people floating down the creek in inner tubes, and I thought to myself, “is riding an inner tube down a creek a uniquely American pastime? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a movie with people from a different culture do it, have I?

Not a minute later after having that thought I rounded a corner and there, surrounding a big ole pickemup trick, were a bunch of hillbillies gathered after tubing around the tailgate swilling beer, with the truck just right off the edge of the road so that you had to get over to not clip one of the fuckers. And to boot, the one fellow with his back to the road had his britches pulled down so that his entire ass was exposed. I then thought, if this is a uniquely American pastime, this is definitely the West Virginia version of it.

I’m sucked into Horizon Forbidden West (a video game). I’m gonna peace out.

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Saturday Evening Open Thread: Grumble in the South Bronx

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As someone who once lived in the South Bronx (for one summer, fifty years ago, in the rent-controlled apartment my dad inherited from his parents after his divorce), my first assumption was that Trump went there for the same reason Reagan did in 1980: In the hope that some spectator would throw a brick, or at least a naughty word, and provide clip-worthy Those People, what ya gonna do? coverage to share with scared suburbanites.

(Noted later: A cult-friendly subtext of ‘Sure, Biden can throw a party for the President of Kenya, but it’s *Trump* the Black Americans REALLY love!’)

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