Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

They don’t have outfits that big. nor codpieces that small.

How stupid are these people?

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

He really is that stupid.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

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

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

“But what about the lurkers?”

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

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

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Trump’s cabinet: like a magic 8 ball that only gives wrong answers.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

The republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Wednesday Morning Open Thread: At Least the Weather’s Nice

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: At Least the Weather’s Nice

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Good morning from a sunny, warm Britain. It’s expected to reach 75° F today and 80° tomorrow – temperatures at which, in my experience, your typical born-and-bred Brit starts to melt.

Bet Keir Starmer wishes he could melt. It’s going to be yet another shitball of a week for him. Today’s Guardian has an exclusive story about how the US has busted the UK down to its second-tier priority list on trade negotiations:

Stomp-Friendly Early Morning Thread:

This news means that a US deal will now come no sooner than July, after this month’s clutch UK negotiation with the EU. Not having a deal in place with the US before going to the EU makes it vastly more likely that the UK will piss off Trump’s people by doing any kind of closer realignment with the EU. A majority of Brits now say they would prefer such a realignment, but what would the cost in UK-US relations be?

Also, Tony Blair has been running his mouth again, saying that fossil fuel limits, such as those ostensibly proposed by the current Labour government, are “doomed to fail,” which is just what Reform UK and Conservatives (and the various oil-exporting countries that have paid Tony for his expertise over the years) want to hear.

Finally, tomorrow is local election day here in the UK, when a few people may be bothered to vote for city or county council members and mayors. Polling indicates that Reform UK could win hundreds of these smaller seats, two mayoral contests, and a parliamentary by-election in the northwest England constituency of Runcorn and Helsby. The BBC’s Chris Mason notes, “[Reform UK]’s talk is big – they say they can win the next general election. The next few days will give us a sense of how or whether, albeit up to four years out from choosing the next government, that is a plausible claim.”

Ugh. Not looking forward to a weekend awash in front-page photos of Farage’s awful mug. Maybe I’ll just lie on the ground and look at the wisteria in the garden instead.

Stomp-Friendly Early Morning Thread: At Least the Weather's Nice 1

Welcome to Wednesday! Open thread.

Reader Interactions

165Comments

  3. 3.

    mrmoshpotato

    Good morning from a sunny, warm Britain. It’s expected to reach 75° F today and 80° tomorrow – temperatures at which, in my experience, your typical born-and-bred Brit starts to melt.

    Throw a bucket of water at them.

  4. 4.

    satby

    @Baud: “I picked you because, frankly I never heard of you”. What an asshole.

    I’m just waiting for the first (American) person to respond to one of his bullshit statements by calling it out as bullshit and flatly telling him he doesn’t fool anyone but his dumb cultists, and even they’re getting very quiet about supporting him.

  5. 5.

    p.a

    It’s complicated, and long term who knows, but decoupling from the US as much as possible looks like a winning move for the near term.  And medium-term: this idiocy will have carryover beyond Jan 2029.

  6. 6.

    eclare

    If I were the UK, I’d choose the EU over the US.

    And looking at wisteria always beats looking at Farage’s face, except for the one time that young woman threw a milkshake at it.

  9. 9.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    So the UK is flirting with giving the hard right a win, at this moment? After the pain of Brexit and seeing what’s going on here in the US? I don’t know. My only explanation is social media misinformation is so good at scrambling people’s brains and spinning them up on the right wing tempest in a teapot du juor that they can’t take a half step back and see the disaster coming until they’re in the very midst of it.

    Then, presuming they reverse course and vote for sanity once the disaster becomes evident, within 5 minutes they’ve forgotten all about how bad it was because again, social media distracts them with more misinformation about how bad the new crew is, even though things are demonstrably better in many ways. IDK what to do about it but democracies have to come up with some effective countermeasures or we’re all doomed.

  13. 13.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Baud: ​
     

    That’ll make them melt faster if they’re wicked witches.

    Throw water on them all, and let God sort ’em out?

  16. 16.

    Mai Naem mobile

    @Baud: I’ve seen several clips and Terry Moran does about as good an interview as I’ve seen with anybody do with Orange Idiot. Maybe a good thing that he’d supposedly never heard of him before.  hardly ever watch ABC  news and i know Trrry Moran’s name.

  17. 17.

    Montanareddog

    @What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: Both these things can be true:

    1. The right wing pukefunnel has become extraordinarily adept at manipulating the news cycle. Their asymmetric advantage being the truth is often complex while lies can be simple and multifarious and you push the lie you observe to be most effective
    2. Local politics are being nationalised everywhere and the Starmer government has been extremely weak and disappointing.
  18. 18.

    Baud

    @Montanareddog:

    Local politics are being nationalised everywhere and the Starmer government has been extremely weak and disappointing

     
    I can’t speak to Starmer. IMHO, in the US, the propaganda machine tears Dems down when the don’t make everything perfect right away.

  20. 20.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @Montanareddog: Yeah but…e.g. the Biden admin was made to seem weak and disappointing despite managing the economy better than any of their peers and racking up a lot of policy accomplishments.

    And it’s weak and disappointing vs. a runaway freight train of dumpster fires that you’ve already experienced once. Given those two choices why go back to the runaway dumpster fire train?

  22. 22.

    Gvg

    I need index cards for other countries. My brain is turning to mush. Reform UK is hard right as in authoritarian and are they flirting with nazi’s or openly embracing them? Just mean and self centered? Which type of bad and who funds them? These days I assume some other state is manipulating such types and it’s becoming important to keep track of.

    I know this was covered, I just can’t remember. I need this for all the non US countries these days. I am too used to the US’s simple 2 party system.

  23. 23.

    Baud

    @Gvg:

    It gets complicated because a “liberal” party in other countries might be either on the left or right side of the spectrum.

  24. 24.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Baud: ​
     

    I suppose we could just put everyone on a scale to see if they weigh the same as a duck.

  25. 25.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Gvg: It’s Nigel Farage’s party, formerly known as the Brexit Party–he was a big Trump supporter in the 2016 cycle (though Vance’s shitting on Ukraine was too much even for him) and he’s virulently anti-immigrant.

  27. 27.

    New Deal democrat

    Since it is Wednesday morning, here is the latest on COVID.

    COVID-19 has been with us for over five years. The first reliable statistics started to be kept at the end of March 2020. Last Friday the CDC issued the final update for deaths ending the week of March 29, 2025, which means we now have five full years of documentation. Here is the number of deaths for each 52 week period beginning April 1 of each of the past five years:

    4/1/20-3/31/21 504,000
    4/1/21-3/31/22 433,000
    4/1/22-3/31/23 128,000
    4/1/23-3/31/24 64,500
    4/1/24-3/31/25 36,400.

    The tipping point where the drastic reduction in deaths began was the original Omicron variant. Every variant since then has been a direct descendant.

    As a result of widespread repeated vaccinations, improved medical treatments, and the fact that nearly everyone has been infected at least once, the lethality of infections has declined dramatically. Below are particles per milliliter for each significant peak beginning with Omicron (1st column), deaths in thousands (second column), and number of fatalities per virus particle (3rd column):

    12/21 24.6. 21.3. 866
    6/22. 10.5. 3.4. 324
    12/22. 11.3. 3.9. 345
    12/23. 14.0. 2.6. 186
    6/24. 9.0. 1.4. 156
    12/24. 5.5. 1.0. 182

    On a per particle basis, lethality declined by more than half in 2022, and then by about another half from the end of 2023 on. The overall effect is that each new variant faces a virtual wall of resistance.

    And the latest wastewater analysis by the CDC shows a continued slow decline. The national level is 1.97 per mL, compared with 1.13 at the absolute lowest, and almost 25 during Omicron.

    Infectious disease modeler JP Weiland recently wrote that for another significant outbreak, a new line of variants not descended from the original Omicron would probably have to develop. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that it does not happen.

  30. 30.

    Matt McIrvin

    @New Deal democrat: There’s a fair chance COVID boosters are going to go away in the United States, because of insane politics–I’d say that would weaken the wall, but only a minority of people were still getting the boosters anyway.

  31. 31.

    Matt McIrvin

    @What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: As I mentioned a little while ago, I don’t think FDR would have been allowed to do what he did in the modern media environment. He didn’t fix everything within two years.

    But FDR was the American new-media populist in those days, using radio to go directly to the people in the way Trump used social media.

  33. 33.

    New Deal democrat

    @Matt McIrvin:

    There’s a fair chance COVID boosters are going to go away in the United States, because of insane politics–I’d say that would weaken the wall,

    Agreed.

  36. 36.

    Ocotillo

    I don’t know what to make of it but early voting for Mayor/City Council in San Antonio ended yesterday and it was the lowest turnout ever.  Some reasons being given, the current mayor has termed out so there are 27 people running in the non-partisan race which will result in a runoff as a clear majority has to be earned.  We are now having Fiesta a local 10-day event that is city wide and also had the Final Four for the NCAA men.  Nonetheless, I just don’t get the apathy.  Saturday is election day and there is a major parade and Fiesta events expected to suppress turnout.  Sigh…..

  40. 40.

    Librettist

    A trade deal? Some brain damaged gibberish about re-industializing the Liverpool waterfront and importing steam lorries is the Trump way. Foxconned II

  42. 42.

    Soprano2

    @New Deal democrat: For a couple of weeks I was feeling kind of “off”. When I exercised, it felt harder than normal. I was more tired than usual, which is saying something. Then last Wednesday suddenly I felt better. I wonder if I had a basically asymptomatic case of Covid. There’s no way to know, but it could have happened. Or maybe I was just more run down than usual.

    ETA – I see that several of you experienced that storm we had here yesterday morning. That was a hellacious storm, wasn’t it? There are trees and power lines down everywhere. The electric outage map is still big, with lots of small outages all over the city. The worst thing is, there’s another one of those type of storms coming through Oklahoma on the same path! Oh, no…..

  46. 46.

    Raven

    @Baud: I was in Grady Hospital in Atlanta recovering from a fractured spine and watched it on the tube in a Demerol haze! At the time I was just glad it was over.

  49. 49.

    Suzanne

    @Soprano2: I’m not sure if we got hit by the same storm….. but it’s a mess around here. My neighborhood has a whole bunch of downed trees and buildings with significant damage, power is still out for much of the County and it’s going to be days before it’s restored, apparently.

  52. 52.

    NotMax

    Runcorn and Helsby

    Sounds almost too British. Can see in the mind’s eye horse-drawn lorries, their sides bearing something like this:

    Runcorn & Helsby
    Fine Confectioners
    Purveyors to the Queen
    .

  53. 53.

    Jeffro

    @satby:he doesn’t fool anyone but his dumb cultists

    Should be the opening line of every elected Dem official/candidate speech from now through Nov 2028

  55. 55.

    Jeffro

    a question for the next RWNJ you happen to come across (especially if you feel like giving them a stroke): “When’s the last time Fox News highlighted a crime committed by a white person?”

  57. 57.

    RAM

    Back in ’94 when I was working on book research, my wife and I visited York and several areas of Scotland where small potteries were once located, primarily around Fife. The temp got up to 75° F. for a couple days, which we found quite pleasant, but which the locals seemed to think the desert winds had arrived and the survival of civilization (civilisation?) was in the balance.

  61. 61.

    Suzanne

    @Soprano2: Yeah, it was a very fast-moving storm. The severe part only lasted for about 15 minutes or so. We don’t have any damage, just some mess to clean up. But we’re lucky, others nearby were not.

  62. 62.

    Fair Economist

    @eclare: The UK can’t choose to make a deal with the US, because Trump breaks any deal at the first opportunity. So the EU is the only choice.

    (The EU would make far more sense since the UK does far more trade with them for geographical reason. But there’s no choice anyway.)

  63. 63.

    Matt McIrvin

    @New Deal democrat: I imagine if they had per-particle lethality numbers for spring 2020 they’d be horrendous. You can see a hint of that just in the Massachusetts state counts of COVID cases vs. deaths: by case count, the Omicron wave in the winter of 2021-22 dwarfs everything else, but by deaths, it’s the comparatively tiny case peak in spring 2020 that becomes a gigantic spike. That was when COVID was killing something close to 1% of everyone who got it.

    mass.gov/info-details/covid-19-reporting

  67. 67.

    Jackie

    @Baud: I watched the movie on Netflix. I had never heard of them prior to that. I’m pleasantly surprised this administration is recognizing them, and not discarding their history as DEI, like they attempted to do with the Tuskegee airmen.

  74. 74.

    frosty

    @Baud: The Netflix movie about the Six Triple Eight is definitely worth watching. A lot like Hidden Figures: Black women doing the job and getting nothing but obstacles thrown in their way.

  75. 75.

    Doug R

    @Matt McIrvin: ​
     

    Yes, the Liberals are the center-left party in Canada and the big right-wing party in Australia.

    To complicate things even further, the BC Liberal party was the right wing business party. And there was serious talk about them splitting from the left leaning federal Liberal party.

  76. 76.

    Librettist

    Trump be like a religious huckster telling the rubes he miscalculated the rapture by two or three years.

  79. 79.

    montanareddog

    @What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:

    Given those two choices why go back to the runaway dumpster fire train?

    The US binary party system means the pukefunnel money only had one option and enough people believed Trump, and the relentless shit-shower of lies.

    In England (not the rest of the UK) – there are more choices including two hard right parties now – the Tories and Reform. The Tories are discredited after the last few years and their new leader is useless. So the pukefunnel money is now lining up behind Reform and Farage is like Trump or Johnson in that many people find him “charismatic” in a way that those of us firmly on the left cannot see.

    Labour are proving themselves to be a weak, tired, centre right party, not the left of centre one that the electorate thought they were getting last year. The voters are already fed up with them. Some of last year’s Labour voters will vote Lib Dem tomorrow, or Green, and many will vote Reform . Added to the traditional Tories who are swapping to Reform and you will get a shellacking for both Labour and the Conservatives tomorrow.

  80. 80.

    prostratedragon

    @Baud:  Well that is good news, and surprising considering all the insults to Black servicepeople of the last  few months.

  82. 82.

    montanareddog

    @Gvg: Reform UK is not flirting with nazis and is not an explicitly racist party. They have minority officers and candidates. But their noisy anti-immigration stance attracts the support of all the nazis and racists.

    And plenty of their candidates have been outed for racist social media posts.

  84. 84.

    Citizen Dave

    @Raven: ​  There was a story on CBS Sunday Morning (on youtube) the other day about the last days in Saigon. New interviews with some of the soldiers who were there. Also another short commentary on Ford’s decision to take in Vietnamese as immigrants. Courage and doing the right thing seems mind-blowing in our current state as a nation. (Granted the opportunity was the result of colossal fucked-up decisions).​

  86. 86.

    prostratedragon

    @satby:  Charming that he thinks that’s a cutting insult. (I’ve heard of Moran and I’ve seldom watched network news for many years.)

  87. 87.

    oldgold

     

    From last night’s Moran v. Moron bout:

    Exhibit “A” on question as to whether Trump Administration is “Facilitating.”

    “You could get him (Abrego Garcia) back. There’s a phone on this desk,” Moran told Moron , pointing to the phone on the Resolute Desk.
    “I could,” Moron conceded.
    “You could pick it up, and with all–” Moran began to say.
    “I could,” Moron said again.
    “–the power of the presidency, you could call up the president of El Salvador and say, ‘Send him back right now,'” Moran explained.
    “And if he were the gentleman that you say he is, I would do that,” Moron offered, before saying, “I’m not the one making this decision.”
    “You’re the president,” Moran told him.

  88. 88.

    Jackie

    @Baud:

    It’s Congress. The vote was taken in 2022, but it was unanimous.

    I know, but FFOTUS owns Johnson, so I’m amazed it’s happening.

    OTOH, FFOTUS is probably unaware, and Hegseth hasn’t objected…. YET. There’s still time; the ceremony isn’t until Tues.

  89. 89.

    Captain C

    @What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:

    And it’s weak and disappointing vs. a runaway freight train of dumpster fires that you’ve already experienced once. Given those two choices why go back to the runaway dumpster fire train?

    Many people have the attention span of gnats, and are easily bored and apparently think that their politicians should serve them a steady diet of entertainment and drama, rather than competence.  Plus, in many cases, the runaway dumpster fire train hates the same people that they do.

  90. 90.

    RaflW

    @satby: “I picked you because, frankly I never heard of you”

    Terry Moran has been a fixture on the TV news for 25 years. I say this is evidence that Trump has active dementia. (It’s more likely he is indeed playing one of his very petty power games, but fuck it, use this as evidence of his steep mental decline. It’s what the NYT would do if it were a Democrat!)

  91. 91.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Jackie: ​
      The medal has already been voted on and signed by Biden. The time delay in the presentation is because each Congressional Gold Medal has its own design, so the medal had to be designed and made. Trump, Hegseth, or Johnson cannot change the fact they they were awarded the medal. Source

  92. 92.

    RaflW

    @oldgold: “I’m not the one making this decision.”
    “You’re the president,” Moran told him.

    But in fact the one making the decision is Stephen Miller. Trump has outsourced almost all work, since he notoriously despises actually laboring for his paycheck. He just wants the TV time, even if it doesn’t go well as was the case last night.

  93. 93.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @Suzanne: As seems to happen here all the time (touch wood) the storm split and went north of us and south of us.

    Close enough to hear the thunder, but other than a teeny little branch in the driveway, no big whoop for us.

    (I’ve noticed this over the last ten-fifteen years in Canton- it’s like the bad weather just kinda goes around us. (touches wood again))

  94. 94.

    Old Man Shadow

    Don’t trust the United States to deal in good faith so long as Republicans are MAGA fanatics. Simple lesson I thought everyone would have learned by now.

  95. 95.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Saying “I didn’t vote for this” is the first step in that process.

    Would that it could be admitted that “I voted for this to happen to other people!”

  96. 96.

    Jeffro

    @oldgold: “You could get him (Abrego Garcia) back. There’s a phone on this desk,” Moran told Moron , pointing to the phone on the Resolute Desk.
    “I could,” Moron conceded.
    “You could pick it up, and with all–” Moran began to say.
    “I could,” Moron said again.

     

    somewhere, Abrego Garcia’s lawyers’ ears just perked up

  97. 97.

    frosty

    @Professor Bigfoot: ​I did storm sampling (take water quality samples from storm drain outfalls) for a few years in Arlington Virginia. The precipitation line coming from the west frequently split and went north and south, meaning we scrambled and got out to the site for nothing.
    My theory was that it was the Washington DC heat island causing it.​

  98. 98.

    Mike S. (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)

    @Melancholy Jaques: While I was waiting for new tires to be put on my car yesterday, I saw a chyron on foxnews yesterday that said “Only 4% of trump voters regret their vote for him.”

    I assume that’s 4% of his 48.? % so about 2% of the total vote. So if the election were rerun Today he would likely lose.

    And fox was probably underestimating the regret number too!

  99. 99.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @oldgold: Wonder how many MAGAts can remotely understand how weak Trump is. And petty.

    And I wonder how many of them understand their support of him shows how weak and petty and loathsome they are.

  100. 100.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Professor Bigfoot: We are never going to get the people who are willing to admit to that.  We can get the people who didn’t think things through and say things like “I am not racist, but…”   Are they shitty people who we should never listen to?  Absolutely.  Should we accept their votes?  Yes.

  101. 101.

    RaflW

    @Matt McIrvin: Lunatic RFK Jr. is already attacking Novavax, I think because its the only one currently approved that isn’t mRNA, and Republicans are going balls-out to end mRNA anything (even as it shows promise for addressing f-king cancer).

    So attack the lesser known, more typical mechanism Novavax while we’re not paying all that much attention. If the GOP succeeds in nixing mRNAs, it’ll be too late to save the conventional jab. It’s absolute madness, but these freaks are on an anti-science bender that is truly frightening.

    (I cannot, just really fully unable to grasp why Republicans are axing all sorts of work on curing and reducing cancer. It’s so freaking strange! They’re as at-risk as anyone else. The pundits who started calling the GOP a Death Cult some years ago are right. But what the actual fuck!?)

  102. 102.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @Omnes Omnibus: Agreed on all counts; and for all of you willing to do that outreach, good on ya! Bonne chance, mes amís! 

    But pack a lunch. It’s gonna be a bear.

  103. 103.

    Miss Bianca

    @New Deal democrat: I really appreciate that you do these posts for us. Between you and Anne Laurie, I feel much smarter than the average bear when it comes to COVID stats.

    Not so much about anything else, mind…

  104. 104.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @RaflW: They would prefer to rule in Hell than to serve in Heaven.

    Better to rule over a dystopia of poverty, disease and death than to work with others for the benefit of everyone.

  105. 105.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Professor Bigfoot: Oh, I can’t do that outreach.  The effort to tamp do that urge to shout “What the fuck is wrong with you?” would be too much of a strain.   I am already on blood pressure meds.

  107. 107.

    Old Man Shadow

    @RaflW: They’re embracing eugenics.

    That’s it.

    So if you get sick, it’s your fault. You made bad choices or have inferior genes. We don’t have to help you and we shouldn’t help you.

    If you die, guess you should have eaten better.

    Same attitude they have towards poverty. Just slightly adapted to account for woo and the money they can make selling woo to the masses

    Basically “I am under no ethical, moral, or spiritual obligation to help anyone but myself.”

  108. 108.

    mali muso

    @RaflW: ​
     I just read a very cogent Substack post about how “RFK Jr.’s “MAHA” movement doesn’t want to eliminate chronic illness. They want to eliminate the chronically ill.” It’s eugenics.

    MAHA seems to believe that ill health can come only from “unnatural” contaminants (meaning man-made, like sunscreen, “chemtrails” and vaccines), consumption and poor habits. Because consumption and “bad habits” are personal choices, MAHA therefore views health as a personal choice. And in turn, those who develop chronic illnesses or who die of infectious diseases are simply reaping the consequences of their poor choices.
    ….
    MAHA seems to believe that by simply allowing “nature” to take over, sick people will die out; you only have to look at all of human history to understand that that, before vaccines and antibiotics, people didn’t “naturally” develop super-strong immune systems making them resistant to measles, mumps and smallpox. They didn’t evolve resistance to cow milk bacteria and skin cancer. They didn’t stop getting sick as the weak died and only the strong survived. Instead, life expectancy was 45 and everyone’s teeth fell out. Many people were “sickly” and home and bed bound.
    ….
    When we ask ourselves what “healthier” time MAHA is harkening back to, we can be sure they aren’t referring to a time of higher life expectancy or lower child mortality rates. But it may be that they pine for a time when disabled people were segregated from society, and people they consider “weak” died of preventable illness.

  109. 109.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @Omnes Omnibus: Brother, I had a frickin’ HEART ATTACK three weeks ago… trust me, I feel ya on that one.

    Let us both wish good fortune to those who CAN reach out to the blind, ignorant morons.

  111. 111.

    TerryC

    @Chief Oshkosh: And I wonder how many of them understand their support of him shows how weak and petty and loathsome they are.

    But here is the problem: Yes, they are “weak and petty and loathsome. I thought Obama’s election would reveal them and, boy did it!

    But now what do you do with them? Change their minds? Maybe create a country full of liberty they can emigrate to, like, hmm, Liberia?

    Seriously, though. I don’t see them changing or going away although I do think we can maybe beat them politically.

  113. 113.

    rikyrah

    Ed Krassenstein (@EdKrassen) posted at 7:10 PM on Tue, Apr 29, 2025:
    Did you vote for this?

    Trump deported home health aide Heidy Sánchez who was breastfeeding her 1-year-old US citizen daughter who has health issues. The baby girl was so traumatized that she had to be taken to the hospital.

    The father is in the US legally and Heidy was awaiting a response to a request to become legal. There was no due process. There was no option for her to take her daughter with her.

    Did you really vote for this? Or are you just so ashamed that you voted for this that you are in denial?

    t.co/zGO0PUr7Ak
    (x.com/EdKrassen/status/1917370907695161351?t=AJ3DQSGCkCyOajHH5F6Xkg&s=03)

  114. 114.

    PaulWartenberg

    The best way I can understand about Labour UK turning into wusses is that Brexit broke their internal dynamics: they’re caught between the “New Britain” elements that embraced capitalism – and ended up getting bought out by oligarchs – and the old-school Socialists who hated the EU for its corruption and didn’t want to undo the Tories’ bad idea of a Hard Brexit. There’s an inability to confront their current economic – mostly trade – woes and it’s exposed them to culture war BS like turning anti-trans and pro-AI. /headdesk

  116. 116.

    rikyrah

    Greg Sargent (@GregTSargent) posted at 8:49 AM on Wed, Apr 30, 2025:
    “I could,” Trump said when asked if he could pick up the phone and bring Abrego Garcia back.

    This wrecks Trumpworld’s fake distinction between ORDERING Bukele to release him and merely ASKING him to do so. OF COURSE Buleke would do this if Trump asked.

    t.co/qGaThweQQz t.co/209AJi8P61
    (x.com/GregTSargent/status/1917576963352363421?t=Fet5f6nVYnJ22pWxeCxNwg&s=03)

    Greg Sargent (@GregTSargent) posted at 8:55 AM on Wed, Apr 30, 2025:
    “I’m not the one making this decision,” Trump said. “We have lawyers that don’t want to do this.”

    That’s awful. Either Trump is knowingly defying SCOTUS and hiding behind his lawyers to do so, or they are deceiving him about what the court ordered.

    t.co/qGaThweQQz t.co/qQV5T2qLmd
    (x.com/GregTSargent/status/1917578513403543949?t=H-8fZ9NUGPqtsjZsiZgL6Q&s=03)

  119. 119.

    rikyrah

    You Should’ve Said Nicer Things About Joe Biden (@What46HasDone) posted at 7:57 PM on Tue, Apr 29, 2025:
    The big tell that none of these fucks actually care about Gaza and Gazans is that Trump has been President for 100 days and they still are only interested in talking about Gaza re: Biden. They care 0% about what is currently happening there now that their guy Trump is in.
    (https://x.com/What46HasDone/status/1917382756742402348?t=UB8Yd54AI-UE95iaPbuSOg&s=03)

  123. 123.

    rikyrah

    CBS News (@CBSNews) posted at 10:00 AM on Tue, Apr 29, 2025:
    Early in his second term, President Trump is struggling to deliver on his campaign trail promises to invigorate the U.S. economy. t.co/OnZwHoetiR
    (x.com/CBSNews/status/1917232406945227149?t=8bvgzGOD0M9MHq510Cn7jw&s=03)

    scary lawyerguy (@scarylawyerguy) posted at 7:17 AM on Wed, Apr 30, 2025:
    This tweet is its own form of disinformation. It starts from the premise that the economy needed “invigorating.” The reality is that the economy was strong under Biden, wages (and the stock market!) were up, and inflation was coming down. The problems now are all Trump-inflicted
    (x.com/scarylawyerguy/status/1917553836429918623?t=VlGT8Zz9nsFwOZvapy7QIQ&s=03)

  125. 125.

    Jackie

    @rikyrah: You posted:

    If this was Joe Biden’s economy, we would be subjected to days of wall to wall RECESSION IS IMMINENT coverage in the media, but Trump will just toss up some shiny object for the media to chase like compliant little puppies and this will all be forgotten by tomorrow.

    Here’s the shiny object FFOTUS is trying to make his Subjects buy into:

    President Trump on Truth Social:

    “This is Biden’s Stock Market, not Trump’s. I didn’t take over until January 20th. Tariffs will soon start kicking in, and companies are starting to move into the USA in record numbers. Our Country will boom, but we have to get rid of the Biden ‘Overhang.’ This will take a while, has NOTHING TO DO WITH TARIFFS, only that he left us with bad numbers, but when the boom begins, it will be like no other. BE PATIENT!!!”

    I believe the US economy was the envy of the world on Jan 19…

  129. 129.

    prostratedragon

    Some good news:

    BREAKING: A judge has ordered the immediate release of Mohsen Mahdawi, a Columbia student detained amid Trump administration crackdown on pro-Palestinian activists.

    @liz_crampton was in the Vermont courthouse where the decision just camedown.

    He has already walked out of the courthouse.

  132. 132.

    Tony Jay

    Ah, newnewlabourinc, everything you touch turns to shit.

    Large majorities of those polled say they want distance from Trumpia and closer ties to the EU… so Der Starmer’s handlers order full-on abasement before The Pustule and full-bore rejection of even the concept of dismantling the Brexit barricades.

    Blair’s bought-and-paid-for promotion of fossil fuel interests draw such a furious backlash that his Institute’s PR flacks immediately issue mewling retractions… so Der Starmer’s handlers announce their full support for the Toothy Twat’s nonsense.

    They only have one policy. Whatever happens, however bad the error, they just punch themselves harder in the nuts and declare victory over ‘the performative Left’.

    The UK is broken.

  134. 134.

    Jeffro

    @rikyrah: he’s right – as far as I’m concerned, it’s the biggest presidential scandal in history

    trumpov is engaging in personal, money-making business directly from the White House…

    he’s directly promoting access/favors to the presidency as a benefit of lining his pockets…

    that business is not some token lemonade stand, but potentially involves hundreds of millions of dollars…

    he is directly engaged in the regulation (or rather, the lack thereof) of that line of business, crypto…

    that line of business allows for unlimited, untraceable amounts of bribes to be paid to him (from criminals?  from hostile foreign powers?) while he’s in office…

    AND

    his entire party doesn’t have the slightest concern about it

    absolutely unprecedented

    unbelievably disgusting

  137. 137.

    cmorenc

    @Baud: It’s less that a majority of people are ok with RW bigotry and more that a majority of the electorate are only superficially engaged with politics and news much deeper than tangible ways they perceive things affect them and family personally and tangibly.

  140. 140.

    rikyrah

    @rikyrah:

     

    Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) posted at 9:25 AM on Tue, Apr 29, 2025:
    Hundreds of lawyers and other staff members are leaving the Justice Department’s civil rights division, as veterans of the office say they’ve been driven out by Trump officials who want to drop its traditional work to aggressively pursue cases against the Ivy League, other schools and liberal cities.
    nytimes.com/2025/04/28/us/…
    (x.com/kylegriffin1/status/1917223665717911756?t=9Ue_hjFXj-ib6bs0DG96CQ&s=03)

  143. 143.

    ArchTeryx

    In other international election news, I decided to contact my Quebecois friend and ask what he thought of the Canadian election results. Keep in mind, by our standards the guy is fairly liberal.

    He said he was disgusted with the whole exercise – that Trump wanted the Liberals to win (wut??) and that the Tories were even worse, and that Bloc Quebecois had their collective arses handed to them, right alongside the NDP. Since the Canadian Liberals ended up with a minority government, he has hopes that it will fall quickly.

    Political ignoramuses aren’t just an American problem, let me tell you. It’s why I joked that the best way to solve our problem is for Quebec to join us as the 51st state. They may be full of themselves, but they’d drive the fascists nuts, and within a few years we’d all be speaking French.

  148. 148.

    ArchTeryx

    @Tony Jay: Not just the UK, believe me. Talking politics with my Quebecois friend made me feel that I was trapped in the Upside Down, and he wasn’t even conservative! “Ow, my balls!” seems to be what every single center-left party in Europe and North America seem determined to do at the moment. Nevermind their voters. Oy.

  149. 149.

    frosty

    @rikyrah:…obsessing over his press and doing Fox interviews…

    B-but, that IS his most important work!!

    Or is it taking time away from kissing FFOTUS’s ass and doing makeup? That could be a problem.

  154. 154.

    Citizen Alan

    @RaflW: I cannot, just really fully unable to grasp why Republicans are axing all sorts of work on curing and reducing cancer.

    Can’t we just go with “they’re fucking evil”?

  155. 155.

    mali muso

    @Miss Bianca: I thought it really encapsulated a lot of what I intuitively felt about all this MAHA nonsense but stated it in a way that brings the unstated ideas to the surface.  Really scary stuff.

  157. 157.

    Citizen Alan

    @rikyrah: Is Gaza even still a thing? With no one to scream “Genocide Joe!!!” it seems that coverage of Israel and Palestine have basically vanished.

  158. 158.

    tam1MI

    @Citizen Alan:  Is Gaza even still a thing?

    What happened to Europe supposedly leading the charge to bring Netanyahu to heel? Have they just stopped doing this or is our shitbag press not reporting on it as usual?

  159. 159.

    Gvg

    @Old Man Shadow: they also seem to be under no obligation to help themselves.  Thats what the rest of us find incomprehensible.  We can calculate selfishness. We don’t get….suicide by stupid? What is this?

  162. 162.

    rikyrah

    This news means that a US deal will now come no sooner than July, after this month’s clutch UK negotiation with the EU. Not having a deal in place with the US before going to the EU makes it vastly more likely that the UK will piss off Trump’s people by doing any kind of closer realignment with the EU. A majority of Brits now say they would prefer such a realignment, but what would the cost in UK-US relations be?

     

    Didn’t the Orange Menace set as terms for a US/UK agreement that the UK ROLL BACK THEIR LGBTQIA+ PROTECTIONS?

  163. 163.

    sherparick1

    @Baud: He can be blamed for his own awful policies and lack of backbone.  He and his Government have been making the lives of most British people worse, especially the poorest, in order to appease the bond market and avoid taxing the upper classes. Improving the lives of most people, ending local government austerity in regard to services, and taxing the rich is the “raison d’etre” for the Labour Party.

  164. 164.

    The Audacity of Krope

    @rikyrah: they are quiet as church mice pissing on cotton…

    as the Orange Menace plans on turning Gaza into BEACHFRONT CONDOS

    Who’s quiet? Not me.

    Lovely thing about the vague, sinister “they,” they can be doing anything you claim if you want to disparage an entire group without the accountability of holding your claim up against any specific person’s actions.

  165. 165.

    sab

    @rikyrah: That will scar her for life, which I assume is the point. My oldest stepchild grew up in bad foster care (age 4 to 10) until my husband adopted her. She is 41 and still not fully recovered.

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