Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The current Supreme Court is a dangerous, rogue court.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about its history.”

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

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

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

The revolution will be supervised.

Also, are you sure you want people to rate your comments?

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

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

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

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

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

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War for Ukraine Day 727: It’s Called Subversion

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With the news that broke today with the release of the detention memo for Alexander Smirnov, I’m going to do something a bit different. Once we get past the jump I’m going to walk you through the heart of Russia’s political warfare campaign against the US, the EU, NATO, and other of their allies and partners.

First, however, today is Heavenly Hundred Heroes Day in Ukraine:

Today, Ukraine marks the Day of Remembrance of the Heroes of the Heavenly Hundred.

10 years since we learnt that freedom is not free.
10 years of our struggle for freedom and the right to self-determination.
But we stood firm 10 years ago and continue to do so today.

We will never forget the feat of the Heroes of the Heavenly Hundred.
We will win in this war for our independence.

It is also the anniversary of Russia’s infiltration of its Little Green Men into Crimea to subvert Ukrainian sovereignty and control over Crimea.

10 years ago, russia’s aggression against Ukraine began.
On February 20, 2014, russian troops started an operation to seize Crimea. “Little green men” appeared on our land.

Our struggle has been going on for 10 years.
We know that Ukraine will win and aggressor will pay for their crimes.

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

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Tuesday Night Open Thread

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Greetings from Paradise. Or at least it was today. It was 79 and breezy with clear blue skies and I made a point to go stand shirtless out in the back yard for a bit to get some sun. Thank jeebus for 8 ft tall privacy fences.

It was so nice I took Jack on three long walks, one of which was 2-3 miles. I couldn’t find the little litter bags, so I just grab a trash bag for the kitchen and jammed that in my pocket. As we were walking, I saw some trash, and a light bulb went off inside my head- “Hey! I just so happen to have a trash bag in my pocket!!!” So I pulled out the trash bag, and thus began my side quest of picking up trash and then emptying the trash bag whenever I saw a can. And actually, walking the dog was a side quest itself, so I was on a side quest while doing a side quest. At any rate, it was fun.

***

I took a drive to a hat place today- Heritage Hats, because I need a hat to wear while outside because this sun is no joke, and when your head is so large it has its own seasons, off the rack hats generally don’t work. At all. Plus, I really liked his website. It looked like the kind of website that someone who was dedicated to his thing would have- not someone who gets all caught up in fads.

Got there, and there were so many hats. I mean, I know I expected there to be hats at the Heritage Hat Shop. It’s in the fucking title. I just didn’t realize there were that many. And he had so many that fit me large noggin’. So I browsed around and left with a super cheap floppy straw hat. The nice hats are in the price range that you need to know what you are getting into and to plan the expense.

At any rate, while I was there, I tried on a bunch of them, and looking in the mirror I remembered I was wearing my purple “GASLIGHTING ISN’T REAL YOU’RE JUST CRAZY” t-shirt:

Tuesday Night Open Thread 1

I’m not a mirror person- I mean I look in one when I brush my teeth or do a visual inspection of my mug looking for shit I might need to take to the doctor, but I never really look at myself or check my fit or what you will. And I am also someone who tunes things out. It is entirely likely that if you grabbed me off the street, blindfolded me, and asked me “What shirt are you wearing” 99 times out of 100 I would have no fucking clue. It’s fire and forget when I dress and has everything to do with if it is cold or if it is warm.

So I guess what I am trying to say is that when I tried on a hat for the first time and saw my shirt I had the realization that not a couple hours ago I was walking down the streets of Tempe in all my glory with a half full trash bag and a limping dog in floral collar. I bet every fucking person who drove by thought I was homeless and digging through trash or recycling. Or mentally unwell. In which case, they wouldn’t be 100% wrong.

***

Joelle is on day two of the flu/stomach bug, while I remain unscathed. I am crediting my consumption of Picante Clamato, which I did not know existed until I got here, and fuck each and everyone of you for not letting me know there were MULTIPLE flavors of Clamato. I just thought there was only the OG. But no- there are a few I have not had. I will fix that.

Currently I am fighting the AARP homepage. I finally got around to joining and the website is making me feel like a fucking boomer. So that is my exciting night.

Behave.

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Bedtime Reading for the Young & Simple: An American Education: Notes from UATX

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There are WOKE DRAGONS under the bed, but our WHITE KNIGHTS will vanquish them for you (and a moderate fee)…

Remember Bari Weis and her proudly, avowedly University of Austin? Noah Rawlings, at The New Inquiry, goes “Inside the “Forbidden Courses” at the billionaire-backed University of Austin, the campus of the “anti woke” commentariat”:

A revolution in education! A resuscitation of the university mission! To happen in, of all places, not the pompous old northeast or the debauched West Coast, not New York or California but the country’s southern reaches—in the Texas Hill Country, in the city of Austin, where already technologists and venture capitalists had swarmed, drawn by the absence of income tax and the looseness of labor regulations, pulled by the mild zoning laws and the natural beauty and the food trucks and the good vibes. Austin, because it was “a hub for builders, mavericks, and creators.” Here a new university: the University of Austin, or UATX.

Around this idea journalists, historians, technologists, and financiers had assembled. People like Bari Weiss, Joe Lonsdale, Joshua Katz, Peter Boghossian, and more. They saw a void in American higher ed. There was not, they asserted, enough free speech. Where, they wondered, was the pursuit of truth? Nowadays, those things were hard to find, but they would be abundant at UATX, an institution to be built from the bottom up, through sheer will and courage—and some backing from billionaires. The Yales, the Stanfords, the UChicagos had been overrun by hordes of “diversocrats” and woke elites. At UATX there would be none.

Many of the founders had participated in the same conservative think tanks: The Hoover Institution, The Manhattan Institute, The American Enterprise Institute. Many had contributed to The Free Press, the digital paper founded by Bari Weiss in 2021, the same year UATX was announced. Many were friends or fans of Jordan Peterson. One UATX founder was even double-dipping, delivering lectures at both UATX and Peterson’s forthcoming Peterson Academy. One had been fired from Princeton University after sleeping with a student and “discouraging her from seeking mental health care,” per an official university statement. One had been accused of assaulting his girlfriend. (The charges were dropped.) Another had had a talk at MIT canceled after comparing Affirmative Action to “the atrocities of the 20th century.” And so, beneath their optimism, there churned bitterness and indignation at their mistreatment by the Thought Police—sour feelings they sweetened with their commitment to “free and open inquiry.”

To build a university you need money and time to raise it. But the founders were eager. They were ambitious, impatient. They wanted students and classes now. So in the summers of 2022 and ’23, UATX established weeklong programs where students at other institutions could attend seminars and lectures by “world-class scholars and knowledge creators”—a sort of anti-woke summer camp. Title: Forbidden Courses…

THE University of Austin is not in Austin. Not yet. It’s 200 miles northeast, in Dallas, on an office complex owned by Mr. Harlan Crow. “Old Parkland,” the complex is called. Crow, a conservative billionaire who recently made the news for funneling thousands of dollars in undisclosed gifts to Justice Clarence Thomas and his family, gives money to UATX, too. He also rents out rooms in Old Parkland to the nascent university, at what UATX founder Peter Boghossian called “a generous rate.” I would later encounter the rich Texan at several UATX lectures, squinting and smiling in preppy athleisure.

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Open Thread – Spread the Word on Ukraine

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This is the only war in my lifetime that I have supported, because Ukraine has the absolute right to exist and to defend their homeland from invasion by Russia.

I hope the Republicans who are blocking aid are getting an earful from their constituents on their little 2-week vacation.

And many of them may not even understand that much of what we are spending on Ukraine stays right here. We have workers in factories producing what we send to Ukraine, or producing stuff for the US to replace what we send to Ukraine, which puts money in the pockets of the employees, which in term is part of why our economy in the US is doing so well.

90% of Ukraine aid spending stays in the U.S., creating thousands of jobs

Although some may claim U.S. aid vanishes into a cesspool of unchecked Ukrainian corruption, one study has shown that 90% of Ukraine aid dollars are not actually sent to Ukraine after all. Rather, these funds stay in the U.S., where leading defense contractors have invested tens of billions in over 100 new industrial manufacturing facilities, creating thousands of jobs across at least 38 states directly, with vital subcomponents sourced from all 50 states.

Virtually all the munitions Ukraine is most reliant upon are fully built in the U.S., ranging from javelins made in Alabama, to Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (GMLRS) made in West Virginia, Arkansas, and Texas. Not forgetting the smaller-ticket items such as night-vision gear, medical supplies, and small-arms ammunition, all made in the U.S. Any additional Ukraine aid would likely only help the U.S. economy even more, since previous weapons shipments were largely drawdowns of musty old stockpiles and existing inventories rather than new supplies.

I have been hearing this for months, but not enough people understand this.  We need to spread the word.

Read the whole thing.

Update:  And this from Navalny’s wife.  She is one brave woman.

Oh boy, that was hard to watch.

Open thread.

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Hey, Kari Lake, What’s Your Game Now?

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Hey, Kari Lake, What's Your Game Now?

Via Josh Marshall, here’s a run down of Kari Lake’s most recent encounter with an actual media outlet:

A defensive Kari Lake acknowledged in a radio interview Monday she couldn’t identify exactly who “stole” her gubernatorial election, said Ukraine “is lost” to Russia, and said she would not back a federal ban on all abortions.

Lake also now says her past criticism of the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., that offended and alienated many of his supporters was meant in jest.

Kari’s clearly trying to “pivot” but you can’t pivot when you’ve been talking shit for years.  Since this is a local newspaper (The Arizona Republic), they actually call her on her bullshit.  First, they dig into the abortion issue:

Lake said Monday she doesn’t support the availability of a pill that terminates pregnancy, saying she doesn’t think women should be taking medication that carries the risk of hemorrhaging.

You know what else carries a risk of hemorrhaging?  Pregnancy.  Hopefully zero people who really care about a woman’s right to an abortion will be fooled by Kari’s position.

Moving on to McCain, make sure you don’t have a mouthful of food or drink, so you don’t spit it out laughing at her “jest”:

In November 2022, Lake lashed out during a campaign event, asking, “We don’t have any McCain Republicans in here, do we? Get the hell out!”

She said the GOP “was the party of McCain. It was bad. Arizona has delivered some losers, haven’t they?”

Ha ha ha!  Such a comedian.  As with most bullies, “I was only joking” is just a bunch of gaslighting.

Here’s some foreign policy wisdom:

Lake said Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent interview with conservative commentator Tucker Carlson showed he is willing to negotiate peace in Ukraine.

I could go on, but you get the picture.  Yeah, all the MAGAts will voter for her, but she’s gonna have to work a lot harder on her re-brand if she wants to appeal to anyone outside of the Fox/OAN bubble.

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Tuesday Ups and Downs Open Thread

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Still high about Wisconsin, and we have good news from New York!

Great to have the feedback that receiving postcards from out-of-state aren’t dissed or disregarded, but in stead are appreciated, energizing, and mobilizing.  (Newsday)

Suozzi’s widest margins of victory came in areas such as New Cassel, where he captured 90% of the vote, and Port Washington, where he beat Pilip 73% to 26%. In Plainvew, Old Bethpage and Jericho, Suozzi won by 64 to 36%, while in Westbury Suozzi won 69% to 31%.

Kim Keiserman, president of the Port Washington Democratic Club, said her group built a seasoned canvassing operation after Republican Donald Trump became president in 2017. Many in the club understood that, with the special election, “this is the time we have to come together and get this done. This is kind of make or break for Democrats on Long Island,” Keiserman said.

“It was really energizing to see how the rest of the country cared about this race. Usually in the past we’ve been the ones writing postcards to people in Georgia or Wisconsin,” in get-out-the-vote campaigns on behalf of Democrats. “To be receiving these postcards from people across the country, who cared about us and about Democrats, was incredibly energizing and mobilizing.”

How did I miss this?  (rhetorical question, I was busy working on a project)

Is the Moscow Times a trustworthy source?

Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s body is not in the morgue where authorities said it was brought after his death, his team announced Saturday.

“Alexei’s lawyer and his mother have arrived at the Salekhard morgue. It’s closed, however, the colony has assured them it’s working and Navalny’s body is there,” Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said on X, formerly Twitter.

“The lawyer called the phone number which was on the door. He was told he was the seventh caller today. Alexei’s body is not in the morgue,” Yarmysh added.

She said another Navalny lawyer visited the Salekhard Investigative Committee and was told that “a repeat histological examination was taken” and that his cause of death is still unknown.

The results of the analysis “will supposedly be out next week,” she said.

“It is obvious that they are lying and doing everything not to give the body away.”

She later wrote that the Investigative Committee said Navalny’s body will not be handed over to his family until the forensic examination is complete.

“Only an hour ago, the lawyers were informed that the investigation had been concluded and that something criminal had not been established. They literally lie every time, driving us around in circles and covering their tracks.”

Navalny ally Ivan Zhdanov said that Navalny’s lawyer and mother were told that his cause of death was “sudden death syndrome” when they visited his prison colony earlier Saturday.

I can’t decide if this is two steps forward, one step back. Or one step forward and two steps back. Or no steps at all, just the appearance of steps.   Five recusals, some of them were from the corrupt justices, that seems new and different, maybe even progress.  But the new rules say you have to give your reason for recusal, and Kagan and Jackson did exactly that.  But Roberts, Barrett and Alito effectively said fuck you, that’s why.  Even the Chief Justice flipped off the new rules.

Ending on a high note.

Good news, bad news, it’s enough to give a person whiplash.  On the political front, do you tend to be a glass half full or glass half empty person?  If you want to go from one to the other, what’s the starting point?

Open thread.

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