Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

We can show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

If ‘weird’ was the finish line, they ran through the tape and kept running.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Mediocre white men think RFK Jr’s pathetic midlife crisis is inspirational. The bar is set so low for them, it’s subterranean.

That meeting sounds like a shotgun wedding between a shitshow and a clusterfuck.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

“Alexa, change the president.”

The revolution will be supervised.

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

“But what about the lurkers?”

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

Fear and negativity are contagious, but so is courage!

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

Bark louder, little dog.

No Kings: Americans standing in the way of bad history saying “Oh, Fuck No!”

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Dear legacy media: you are not here to influence outcomes and policies you find desirable.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

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Sunday Schadenfreude Open Thread: Market Forces Finish Freedomworks

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Politico says “The libertarian organization couldn’t survive the populist shift in the Republican Party”:

FreedomWorks, the once-swaggering conservative organization that helped turn tea party protesters into a national political force, is shutting down, according to its president, a casualty of the ideological split in a Republican Party dominated by former President Donald Trump.

“We’re dissolved,” said the group’s president, Adam Brandon. “It’s effective immediately.”

FreedomWorks’ board of directors voted unanimously on Tuesday to dissolve the organization, Brandon said. Wednesday will be the last workday for the group’s roughly 25 employees, though staffers will continue to receive paychecks and health care benefits for the next few months.

The development brings to a close a period of turmoil for the organization. FreedomWorks laid off 40 percent of its staff in March of 2023, and as a result of a drop in fundraising, its total revenue has declined by roughly half, to about $8 million, since 2022, Brandon said…

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War for Ukraine Day 809: Kharkiv & Sumy Are Still Under the Gun!

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Painting by NEIVANMADE. It has a white background an in the center are Soldiers in green doing air defense by firing at incoming Russian missiles in the upper right. The missiles are red and yellow. In the upper left, written in green, is the text: "SAVE THE BRAVEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD!" Below the Soldiers, also written in green, is "SUPPORT FOR KHARKIV"

(Image by NEIVANMADE)

As I start tonight’s update – 5:45 PM EDT – the only air raid alerts up are over Luhansk, Crimea, and Donetsk. This was not the case as recently as two hours ago. It is now 6:25 PM EDT and air raid alerts have gone up over all of eastern Ukraine.

Air raid alert map of Ukraine as of 6:25 PM EDT on 12 MAY 2024. All of the eastern portion of Ukraine, plus Crimea, are under air raid alert.

And now, at 6:30 EDT PM, they are all down except for Luhansk and Crimea, where they are always up.

More on Kharkiv and Sumy after the jump.

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

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It’s Up to Us Now – Voting Access for All (VAAC)

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We have a double Angel Match for VAAC today!

Just $450 left on the double-angel match.

To help goose our current effort along, we’re running two Angel matches at once, which gives us a double angel match for donations up to $100.  Which are then matched by the external match that VAAC found for us.  So donations up to $100 are a 6x match.

So $100 = $600, $75 = $450, $50 = $300, $25 = $150, $10 = $60, $5 = $30.

To count toward the double match, tell us about your donation in the comments, or send me an email message.

VAAC is doing great work:

  1. Going to prisons and jails to educate the incarcerated on their right to vote (and get them registered and out to vote in the Fall).
  2. Educating County clerks on the law and providing them with written materials regarding voting rights to distribute to the incarcerated and the released.
  3. Going to High Schools schools, mostly in the Detroit area, to put on assemblies regarding the importance of voting and voting rights and getting students registered.
  4. Going to “expungement fairs” (legal clinics with volunteer lawyers) to register and motivate voters.
  5. Going to homeless shelters to educate the unhoused on their right to vote, even without a permanent address.
  6. Motivating voters to participate by emphasizing the state and local elections that have an impact on the criminal justice system.

Open thread!

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Desperately Random – Like the Elaborations of a Bad Liar

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Desperately Random - Like the Elaborations of a Bad Liar

Trump referencing Hannibal Lecter as a sort-of a real person certainly makes you wonder what his brain worms have been thinking about since Stormy Daniels’ testimony:

Silence of the Lambs. Has anyone ever seen The Silence of the Lambs? The late, great Hannibal Lecter is a wonderful man. He oftentimes would have a friend for dinner. Remember the last scene? “Excuse me. I’m about to have a friend for dinner,” as this poor doctor walked by. “I’m about to have a friend for dinner.” But Hannibal Lecter. Congratulations. The late, great Hannibal Lecter…

I eagerly await the NYT story on this — “Trump Uses His Love of 90’s Film to Fuel Outreach to Gen X”.

This is via LGM, where Paul Campos thinks that Trump’s unhinged mouth diarrhea will go too far for some voters.  Perhaps, but I think we might be at a point where his followers will forgive anything, though I do admit that 5 1/2 months is plenty of time for dementia to do its dirty work.

Edit:  Well, I was close:

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Happy Mother’s Day

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Happy Mother’s day to all you moms out there. And if you forgot, it is still not too late to do something special for the mothers in your life.

Normally every year on Mother’s Day I get mom and dad Chinese takeout because, well, that’s what she wants. This year, though, they just had it the other day, so when I go to the big city on Tuesday I am going to pick up some Indian for them. I did get her some delicious pastries at this wonderful place in Wheeling called Good Mansion Wines. If you are ever in the area you absolutely have to go, it’s just a delightful place.

Regardless, no matter what I do for mothers day from here on out will not even compare to the gift my sister Devon got my mom this year. As you know, she is an INSANE sports fan, and lives and breathes Steelers, Pirates, and Penguins. So this year, my sister bought my mother a ten minute Cameo from none other than Dick LeBeau, a Hall of Fame football coach and player. It was really charming and he was just so nice and well spoken throughout.

Happy Mother's Day 3

I thought that was pretty neat and that you all would find it interesting. I’m off to spend the afternoon on the tractor cutting the soccer fields. I forget if I mentioned it but one of the things I am doing this summer is helping Gerald (Breyana’s dad) with his handyman/lawn service business, and taking up some of the grass duties when he has a lot of other projects. It’s perfect for me- I throw on the overalls and noise cancelling earphones and listen to music/podcasts/spanish language tapes while ridding around in circles. No one fucks with me, no one yells at me to do things differently, and I just get to ride and think and listen.

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Sunday Morning Open Thread: Shining Lights

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Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Midwestern Spring

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Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Midwestern Spring
 
Getting on with the job… From sturdy, sensible commentor Mousebumples:

Plants are just starting to bloom and sprout in my garden. I thought I’d send these along.

We have daffodils and tulips, bleeding hearts, a cherry tree, a violet bush, and a neighbor’s crab apple tree (I think – not my tree).

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I’m looking forward to (hopefully) raspberries and strawberries and nasturtiums this year in the garden.

Hoping to plant some pumpkins and squash, though we haven’t gotten to those yet. The asparagus are already coming up, though!

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Here north of Boston, there’s still a plethora of white daffodils along the north-facing back fence, but this week the front yard has been an explosion of blue-and-white columbines. All the ones in pots have been opening gradually, and the ones in the dirt are finally setting blooms.

Our various lilacs, including the two-story foundation bush that’s one of the reasons we bought this house thirty years ago, are starting to bloom as well — the front yard smells delicious, which makes the toil of cleanup & transplant somewhat less burdensome.

And we’re beginning to get the first dark-purple generic and dwarf iris blooms, too… those used to be almost the first color every year, sometimes even as the daffodils were starting, but they’ve been lagging this year. (Probably because most of the clumps need separating, along with the daylilies they’re crowding.)

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

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