Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

In after Baud. Damn.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Just because you believe it, that does not make it true.

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

They are not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

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

Petty moves from a petty man.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

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

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

The snowflake in chief appeared visibly frustrated when questioned by a reporter about egg prices.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” was supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Tuesday Evening Open Thread

Tuesday Evening Open Thread

by | 139 Comments

This post is in: 

Chuck Schumer has put a "hold" on all of Trump's DOJ nominees over Trump accepting a gift of a $400 million luxury jet from Qatar to use as Air Force One.
“This is not just naked corruption, it is also a grave national security threat.” www.huffpost.com/entry/chuck-…

[image or embed]

— Jen Bendery (@jbendery.bsky.social) May 13, 2025 at 1:56 PM

\

Schumer’s “hold’ on Trump’s DOJ picks won’t stop their confirmations, but it will delay action on them — and eat into valuable Senate floor time.

Among those now subject to delays: DEA nominee Terry Cole, U.S. Marshals nominee Gadyaces Serralta, Asst AG nominees John Eisenberg and Brett Shumate.

Across the Capitol building, Hakeem Jeffries called Trump’s $400 million luxury jet gift from Qatar “an embarrassment” and more importantly, unconstitutional.

He noted the foreign emoluments clause bars federal officials from accepting gifts from foreign states without congressional sign-off.

"Millions of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck," Jeffries said, while Trump is out here "publicly defending a $400 million ‘flying palace’ from a close ally of Iran and Hamas.”

“I mean, you can’t make this stuff up." www.huffpost.com/entry/chuck-…

[image or embed]

— Jen Bendery (@jbendery.bsky.social) May 13, 2025 at 4:19 PM

KKKlownshw:

Prior to his departure to the Middle East, DJT hosted an Arabian Nights party at Mar-a-Lago

[image or embed]

— Olga Nesterova (@onestpress.onestnetwork.com) May 13, 2025 at 12:17 PM

Trump landed in Saudi Arabia this morning, his first stop in a four-day tour of the Gulf. He’s told advisers that he wants to sign deals worth more than $1 trillion on the trip.

[image or embed]

— Olga Nesterova (@onestpress.onestnetwork.com) May 13, 2025 at 9:29 AM

Trump goes ahead and salutes every single Saudi official at the Royal Court in Riyadh

[image or embed]

— Olga Nesterova (@onestpress.onestnetwork.com) May 13, 2025 at 10:02 AM

As part of the red-carpet treatment, Saudi officials arranged for a fully operational mobile McDonald’s unit to accompany President Trump during his stay.
According to local reports, the unit was set up near the Saudi Royal Court.

[image or embed]

— Olga Nesterova (@onestpress.onestnetwork.com) May 13, 2025 at 9:34 AM

Reader Interactions

139Comments

  1. 1.

    Leto

    He wants to sign deals worth $1 trillion

    Ok, but what’s he doing for the American public? Ah, I crack myself up. Remember to tip your wait staff.

  2. 2.

    SiubhanDuinne

    He’ll salute anyone in a uniform — the more medals and gold braid, the better. I have a vague recollection that during his first term, he even saluted North Korean officers.

  4. 4.

    SpaceUnit

    Trying to imagine the hue and cry in the media if a Democrat did this.

     

    But at least he didn’t get a blowjob from an intern.

  5. 5.

    Jackie

    @SpaceUnit:

    Trying to imagine the hue and cry in the media if a Democrat did this.

    Most Democrats wouldn’t do 99.9% of what FFOTUS and rethuglicans do or did. There are a few exceptions, ie Menendez for one.

  6. 6.

    SpaceUnit

    I just saw a story on Yahoo with the headline RFK Jr. Goes Swimming In Sewage-Tanted Water With His Grandchildren.

    Just stop it, 2025.

  7. 7.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    I noticed that Musk showed up there to hobnob…and wore a full on suit and tie…he wears a T shirt and MAGA hat in the Oval Office but for the Saudis he dresses appropriately. Tells you who he really cares about and it’s not America.

  8. 8.

    Harrison Wesley

    Never heard of red carpet treatment that included a mobile McDonald’s.  Classy!

  10. 10.

    Librettist

    So anyway, Newark airport has got construction going on, so is runway constrained. Sometime during the Mayor Pete days, some bright one decided to move Newark approach control from New York to Philly to better match work load, blah, blah, blah.

    This leaves Newark TRACON controllers looking at 11% cost of living haircuts. So they either bid other jobs in NYC, or grab the DOGE retirement cash. They only got 11 to move, so now no trained controllers for Newark approach.

    In addition, instead of building a new radar feed to Philly, they tin can and string the existing feed through NYC TRACON. Which causes intermittent outages for any controller trying to work this shit show.

  13. 13.

    WTFGhost

    The whole thing is stupid, in a real sense. Civilians do not salute, and do not return salutes. Ronald Reagan started the whole “returning salutes” which is completely improper. The President is the civilian commander in chief, and to return a salute is a military protocol.

    What’s nasty about it, is, if I were, due to a problem involving incredible odds, and probably bad eyesight, if I were elevated to the Presidency, I’d feel vaguely uncomfortable returning a salute, because I know it should matter. Someone who knows that it should matter, and doesn’t care, because it owns the libs, can do it with a smirk on their face, and get lauded for it.

    But I do have to admit: anyone with the brains god gave a breath mint would figure out not to salute foreign military officers. Maybe someone should offer Trump a Tic-Tac(tm)?

  14. 14.

    dmsilev

    @SpaceUnit: His grandchildren don’t deserve to be Darwinated for his pseudo-science beliefs. But maybe he could get a nice e coli infection or something like that.

  15. 15.

    Harrison Wesley

    There are so many messed up things in this administration it’s a challenge figuring out which ones to go after. The airborne-bordello bribe is a good one because a lot of MAGAs are pissed about it.

  17. 17.

    Mike in Pasadena

    Most of the 9-11 hijackers were Saudis, our good buddies. Which is why we had to rain down shock and awe on those Iraqis. Cuz WMDs were a slam dunk.

  18. 18.

    grumbles

    Deporting US citizens? snore.

    Attacking higher education? xitter meep.

    Pumping shitcoin from the Oval office? Oh, that might be a problem.

    Gift planes? Huh, I guess Schumer found a problem.

     

    I mean, we are stuck taking what we can get. But this fucking worse-than-useless lump utterly infuriates me.

  19. 19.

    WTFGhost

    @SpaceUnit: Wading is forbidden. Now, that, to me, says that sometimes, the risk is “seriously, you could cut your foot, and catch sepsis! Stay out of this water!” even if it’s not always precisely that bad.

    You really can’t make this anything about strengthening the body. The wimpiest infection in the world becomes deadly dangerous once it hits your blood stream.

  20. 20.

    SpaceUnit

    @dmsilev:

    In any other administration the sight of our Secretary of HHS splashing around in sewage with children would be a shock.

    Now we’re like yeah, that tracks.

  23. 23.

    Gretchen

    @Librettist: I’m really wondering if the DOGE boys got their mitts into Newark ATC. They kept saying they wanted to replace the system with SpaceX. Did they get a start on that? It would explain why it suddenly doesn’t work.

  28. 28.

    Suzanne

    @SiubhanDuinne: I feel like we should just make FFOTUS the BIGGEST, BESTEST, GOLDEST uniform ever, just for him. See if we can get him to walk in his military parade and then maybe he’ll pass out.

  29. 29.

    Geminid

    @Harrison Wesley: I just watched a clip from the finale of today’s Saudi-U.S. Investment Forum. It verged on dystopian: Trump and Prince Bone-Saw grinning and clasping hands, with the song “YMCA” blasting out.

  34. 34.

    Gretchen

    @WTFGhost: Amoebic meningitis is a hazard if you get river water up your nose and into your brain. Bobby completely submerged his head. It’s nearly always fatal.

    All those contaminated water diseases are worse for small children. Those grandchildren looked about 3 or 4.  What were their parents thinking letting him take them anywhere?

  37. 37.

    The Audacity of Krope

    Funny, after I read her about Chuck Schumer putting a hold on Trump’s nominees, I went to the NYT to read the headlines, I only ever read the headlines there cuz fuck them.

    According to them, Congress is just sitting on the sidelines.

  38. 38.

    SpaceUnit

    Im guessing the fucker brought along a bag of paint chips for the kids to snack on too.

  39. 39.

    WTFGhost

    @Gretchen: I didn’t know that hazard, but OMG, I’d never root for an amoeba, ever, but I would understand the temptation.

  41. 41.

    gene108

    Looked at the RFK, Jr. Rock Creek photos. I did not realize he was so damn ‘roided up.

    I really wish his eugenics loving ass gets sepsis, and refuses antibiotics to treat it.

  43. 43.

    Raoul Paste

    I think the portable McDonald’s unit in Saudi Arabia qualifies for the News of The Weird  post below.

    Makes a good contrast between the rich and the rest of us.

  44. 44.

    Jackie

    We knew this would happen:

    A federal grand jury on Tuesday indicted Wisconsin Judge Hannah Dugan on charges that she tried to conceal a man from arrest and obstruction of a proceeding, according to The New York Times.

    Dugan, a Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge, was arrested last month after authorities said she helped an undocumented immigrant evade federal agents waiting outside her courtroom. The indictment is a “significant step” in the Trump Justice Department’s case against her, the Times wrote.

    Dugan has since been temporarily removed from the bench by the Wisconsin Supreme Court while the case proceeds, the Times said. Through a lawyer, Dugan signaled she intended to fight the charges.

  48. 48.

    Librettist

    Lame ducks with garbage approval ratings get flown around to do the international statesman routine.

  49. 49.

    gene108

    @SpaceUnit:

    I know middle of the road folks 30 years ago who thought Clinton was super corrupt because of Whitewater, firing the travel office, getting a $400 haircut which was wrongly reported as causing a 4 hour delay at LAX*, etc.

    Haven’t stayed in touch.

    I wouldn’t be surprised if they are die hard Trump supporters.

    * The WHPC just ran with the 4 hour delay at LAX without doing any fact checking. I don’t know what right-wing rag spawned that lie. Someone actually dug through LAX flight records for that day (pre-everything being in the internet days). Took six weeks, but they found delays were in line with the usual airport delays caused by Air Force One being at an airport.

    The internet and all the information on it has been both a boon and a bane. Fact checking lies has gotten easier, but baseless propaganda reaches far more people.

  51. 51.

    Jay

    @Jackie:

    @Baud:

    As the saying goes, a competent prosecutor can get a Grand Jury to indict a ham sandwich.

    Proof of the pudding is in the trial.

  53. 53.

    Baud

    @Jay:

    A grand jury rejected one of Trump’s special prosecutors when he was going after the the Clinton people.

  56. 56.

    Jay

    @Baud:

    An American federal grand jury has from 16 to 23 jurors, with twelve votes usually required to return an indictment. All grand jury proceedings are conducted behind closed doors, without a presiding judge. The prosecutors are tasked with arranging for the appearance of witnesses, as well as drafting the order in which they are called, and take part in the questioning of witnesses.[30] The targets of the grand jury or their lawyers have no right to appear before a grand jury unless they are invited, nor do they have a right to present exculpatory evidence.[30]

  58. 58.

    Another Scott

    @Librettist: Quick!  Call in a team of MBAs from Blackrock!  I understand those guys can fix anything with the Magic of the Marketplace!!!

    :-/

    [ sigh ]

    Thanks.

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

  59. 59.

    JoyceH

    @SpaceUnit: ​
     

    RFK Jr. Goes Swimming In Sewage-Tanted Water With His Grandchildren.

    Now, every time he’s quoted about anything (like the MMR vaccine being full of ‘aborted fetus debris’), we can add, “Says the guy who drinks raw milk and swims in sewage.”

  60. 60.

    Librettist

    1,000,000,000,000

    Wow! That’s a big number!

    It also happens to be the Saudi Arabian GDP.

    All hail Donny Two Scoops!

  61. 61.

    Another Scott

    @Mike in Pasadena:

    Vee (who was at the Pentagon on 9/11):

    Vee
    @[email protected]

    9/11 Commission Report, along with the DoD, concluded that Khalid Al Thani, a member of Qatar’s royal family and former Minister of Religious Affairs, provided support to Sheikh Mohammed, the principal architect of the 9/11 attacks.
    This is who bozo is accepting $400 million bribes from. CNN confirmed that a top White House source says Trump will be keeping Qatar’s $400 million jet after he leaves office, despite his public statements to the contrary

    Selling out America to the funders of 9/11

    [ image of Twin Towers on that day ]

    May 13, 2025, 06:25 PM

    Grr…

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

  62. 62.

    The Audacity of Krope

    @Jackie: Only to about half of our nation.

    They’re from our country. They are subject to the same government we are. But are we the same nation?

    A nation shares a culture, we and they don’t even share a reality.

  63. 63.

    Mai Naem mobile

    @gene108: he would take the antibiotics and tell everybody he didn’t take the antibiotics and his genetically better body allowed the infection to resolve. Same thing he did with the COVID vax.

  65. 65.

    Mai Naem mobile

    @Another Scott: you can’t make this shit up. This whole tfg script would be turned down by every Hollywood, Bollywood and Latino and Korean studio as being too ridiculous and unbelievable.

  66. 66.

    scav

    @SpaceUnit: To be thoroughly pedantic, the surprise is more that the brain worm found enough to subsist on for even a short while.

  67. 67.

    Jay

    Today, Howard Ludnick met the family who financed the terrorist plot that murdered 658 of his employees, including his brother, shook their hands and bowed.

    3 days after 9/11, he shut off all the dead employees paychecks.

  69. 69.

    Tehanu

    @Jay:

    Today, Howard Ludnick met the family who financed the terrorist plot that murdered 658 of his employees, including his brother, shook their hands and bowed.

    3 days after 9/11, he shut off all the dead employees paychecks.

    I can’t even…

  71. 71.

    Jay

    @Another Scott:

    Word is, the jet might be airborne in 2030 at the earliest.

    The same guys and gals working on Boeing’s Air Force One, are the same people who will have to do the work bringing the Bribe up to spec, there are not many of them, (they need highly classified clearances) and they are busy.

    And of course, they will have to take it down to “the studs” and rebuild it, to avoid bugs, explosive devices, and as it’s no longer made, parts are hard to come by.

    There are those saying that it will never be “Grift Force One” as embedded code in everything from the avionics to com systems, may be compromised.

  72. 72.

    Harrison Wesley

    Why are there so many/Songs about brain worms/And what’s going on inside

    Brain worms know nothing/They just spread confusion/And keep you from using fluoride

    Sorry, that’s all the inspiration I got. Muppets and RFK Jr aren’t a natural fit.

  76. 76.

    schrodingers_cat

    Jake Tapper’s book about Biden is out. The Biden bashing going on in the media right now is a preemptive strike against a potential KH run. But I love that Tapper is getting hauled over coals on Twitter right now.

  77. 77.

    Jackie

    @SpaceUnit:

    Can’t imagine how a guy like that gets a brain worm.

    🎶If I only had a brain 🎶 I could get a brain worm…🎶

  84. 84.

    HinTN

    @Jay: Same for state Grand Juries. The ham sandwich (mostly) doesn’t stand a chance until it gets its day in court.

  85. 85.

    Fair Economist

    @Jackie:

    Most Democrats wouldn’t do 99.9% of what FFOTUS and rethuglicans do or did. There are a few exceptions, ie Menendez for one.

    Menendez’s corruption is small potatoes compared to Trump’s. Microscopically small potatoes.

  86. 86.

    Fair Economist

    @Jay:

    As the saying goes, a competent prosecutor can get a Grand Jury to indict a ham sandwich.

    Which says something about the fact that Trump’s prosecutors couldn’t get a grand jury to indict Hillary.

  87. 87.

    Jackie

    @Fair Economist: Yes. And we Democrats didn’t support his corruption, either, and didn’t interfere with his trial. But, it’s almost a guarantee he’ll get a FFOTUS pardon, as Menendez’s crimes are FFOTUS approved.

  88. 88.

    different-church-lady

    @Baud:

    ROBERTS: “I think it’s pretty important to establish that the president can do whatever he wants.”

    TRUMP: [threatens judges]

    ROBERTS: “Whoa, whoa, whoa, when I said whatever I didn’t mean that kind of whatever!”

  91. 91.

    Jackie

    @different-church-lady:

    ROBERTS: “Woah, woah, woah, when I said whatever I didn’t mean that kind of whatever!”

    Yeah, it’s VERY LIKELY Roberts and six? five? other Supremes didn’t imagine a 34 times convicted felon would be re-elected. Don’t know if they vote, but I’m sure the majority didn’t vote for FFOTUS.

    Now they’ve got to try pushing the toothpaste back in the tube. And deal with death threats should they defy him. Que sera, sera.

  93. 93.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Jay: ​
     

    3 days after 9/11, he shut off all the dead employees paychecks.

    Well of course he did! They didn’t show up for work, the slackers. “‘Dead’? What sort of excuse is that?”

  94. 94.

    Mai Naem mobile

    @JoeyJoeJoe: Timothy Mellon gave IIRC $100M to the GOP this past cycle. I’m assuming the two are related. Timothy Mellon dumped a bunch into Sherrod Brown’s race when Moreno really needed it.

  95. 95.

    NotMax

    Gonna return and sign an EO for an American version of Neom along the southern border, isn’t he.

  97. 97.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Baud: ​
     

    Chief Justice Roberts…savages ‘young people’ for having ‘no real sense’

    And they should get off his lawn!

  98. 98.

    YY_Sima Qian

    So, Trump just a gave a speech in Riyadh that amounts to a big wet kiss to the authoritarian monarchs of the Gulf States, w/ the clear intention to stay out of the domestic politics (especially wrt human rights abuses) of these countries. In fact, I am getting cognitive dissonance from the languages on “respecting the national conditions & cultural traditions” in relation to how national manage their internal affairs, as well as a commitment to “non-interventionism” & “mutual respect”, because the language is highly reminiscent of Xi’s (& Putin’s)  preferred narratives.

    Little wrong w/ these principles on their own terms, in a vacuum. In reality, even leaving aside the special case of Taiwan, the PRC’s rough interactions w/ the Philippines in the South China Sea bely such lofty principles. Russia’s conduct in Ukraine, & the rest of the Global South, shows Putin’s utter cynicism wrt these principles. & Trump Administration itself has not been shy in directly interfering in the domestic politics of European & Latin American countries, & there has not been much “mutual respect” in the omni-directional trade war.

    Now, US policy wrt authoritarianism & human rights abuses in its Gulf States partners (& allies/partners elsewhere) has always been high selective & hypocritical, & it has been bipartisan in the selectivity & hypocriticalness, so Trump is perhaps just ripping off the loincloth (for fairly transparent & corrupt quid pro quo). I am more concerned that the US will fail to serve as a constraint on military adventurism by the KSA & the UAE. Then again, the US has enabled disastrous military adventurism on the part of the KSA & the UAE in the past, in the name of countering Iranian influence.

    As for the Gulf States, they are nothing if not pragmatic. They will continue to pursue omni-directional alignment. All of the flattery from Trump & all of the deals w/ the US will not stop them from pursuing parallel deals w/ the PRC, the EU, Russia, India & others, or de-risking from US to reduce vulnerability to US coercion.

  103. 103.

    catclub

    @SpaceUnit: RFK Jr. Goes Swimming In Sewage-Tanted Water With His Grandchildren.

     

    Mississippi Gulf coast? Warm shallow water

  106. 106.

    YY_Sima Qian

    Part of the ongoing deescalation (for now) of the Sino-US trade war:

    China Lifts Restrictions on Boeing Plane Deliveries
    In a trade truce with the U.S., Beijing tells Chinese airlines that they can resume taking delivery of pre-existing jet orders
    By Raffaele Huang and Sharon Terlep
    May 13, 2025 at 11:37 am ET

    Still no new orders on the horizon, however. That might require an actual trade deal.

  107. 107.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @grumbles:

    But this fucking worse-than-useless lump utterly infuriates me.

    With the opening lines you wrote, you’re going to have to be more specific with that last statement.

  108. 108.

    Another Scott

    @SpaceUnit:

    PlanetForward.org (from May 2023):

    D.C. residents know that swimming in the city’s waterways is not the best idea — in fact, it’s been illegal since 1971. Lorde shocked concert goers and made national news last year when she claimed to float in the Potomac before her show. There’s a stigma around the cleanliness of these rivers from decades of pollution, but in recent years, the waterways have been slowly improving.

    The Environmental Protection Agency has been trying to make the city’s waterways swimmable and fishable since the Clean Water Act of 1972. While the original ten-year timeline for that goal passed forty years ago, the act set in motion a clean water agenda the city is hoping to reach in the next few years.

    […]

    Anacostia Riverkeeper launched the D.C. Volunteer Water Quality Monitoring Project in 2018 to measure and track contamination levels in D.C.’s main waterways: the Anacostia River, the Potomac River, and Rock Creek.

    With a $140,000 grant from the D.C. Department of Energy and Environment, the project has grown into a collaboration between Anacostia Riverkeeper, Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, Rock Creek Conservancy, and Nature Forward. The groups have trained almost 400 volunteers from all eight wards of the city, collecting more than 2,000 water samples from 2019 to 2022.

    Each Wednesday morning from May to September — considered the outdoor recreational season — teams of volunteers take water samples at two dozen sites across the city and test for pH balance, E. coli levels, water temperature, air temperature, and turbidity, a measure of water clarity. They also note if they see anyone in the water, as many people and their pets still wade in the creek despite park signs warning against it. The results are posted each Friday and updated in the Swim Guide app, which lets users check the water quality of nearby beaches.

    […]

    Rock Creek below Piney Branch – May 7 – FAIL

    Breaking the law.

    Doing it in a stupid and dangerous way, and hurting others in the process.

    Par for the course…

    Grr…

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

  109. 109.

    YY_Sima Qian

    It is a free for all in grift & graft:

    Tiny Company With China Ties Announces Big Purchase of Trump Cryptocurrency
    The firm, which produces content for TikTok, recorded no revenue last year, but it announced this week that a mysterious stock sale would allow it to invest heavily in the $TRUMP memecoin.

    By David Yaffe-Bellany and Eric Lipton

    The reporters are investigating the Trump family’s cryptocurrency endeavors.

    May 13, 2025Updated 6:16 p.m. ET

    In purchasing Trump’s memecoins, the PRC is behind the governments of the Gulf States, & financial/business interests from Singapore, Mexico & Australia.

  110. 110.

    Another Scott

    Angry
    ‪@angrystaffer.bsky.social‬

    Obama turned down a *book* to comply with ethics rules surrounding gifts.

    Trump is accepting a jet.

    That’s the difference.

    ‪TJ resists! Bluestormcoming!‬
    ‪@tjjohnson.bsky.social‬
    · 2h

    [ image including copy of letter ]

    May 13, 2025 at 9:13 PM

    Not a book deal. A book. Printed on paper.

    Grr…

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

  111. 111.

    BlueGuitarist

    Democratic challenger John Ewing defeats incumbent R, becoming first Black mayor of Omaha, Nebraska.

  113. 113.

    Jackie

    @BlueGuitarist:

    Democratic challenger John Ewing defeats incumbent R, becoming first Black mayor of Omaha, Nebraska.

    YES, YES, YEAH!!! 

    We need GOOD NEWS after this loooong year of the past two days!

  114. 114.

    RaflW

    @BlueGuitarist: Beat a three term incumbent Republican! First time since 2009 that Omaha will have a Dem mayor.

    I don’t know if NE Republicans will read the tea leaves, but they should. Nebraska’s 2nd District House seat could be in play.

  115. 115.

    YY_Sima Qian

    Lest we forget what is happening in Gaza (gift link to NYT article below):

    In Private, Some Israeli Officers Admit That Gaza Is on the Brink of Starvation
    Israel’s government has publicly dismissed warnings of extreme food shortages after it blocked aid deliveries, but an internal analysis concluded that a crisis looms if food supplies are not restored.

    By Natan Odenheimer and Ronen Bergman

    Reporting from Jerusalem and Tel Aviv

    May 13, 2025 Updated 10:25 p.m. ET

    Some Israeli military officials have privately concluded that Palestinians in Gaza face widespread starvation unless aid deliveries are restored within weeks, according to three Israeli defense officials familiar with conditions in the enclave.
    For months, Israel has maintained that its blockade on food and fuel to Gaza did not pose a major threat to civilian life in the territory, even as the United Nations and other aid agencies have said a famine was looming.
    But Israeli military officers who monitor humanitarian conditions in Gaza have warned their commanders in recent days that unless the blockade is lifted quickly, many areas of the enclave will likely run out of enough food to meet minimum daily nutritional needs, according to the defense officials. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to share sensitive details.
    Because it takes time to scale up humanitarian deliveries, the officers said that immediate steps were needed to ensure that the system to supply aid could be reinstated fast enough to prevent starvation.
    …

  117. 117.

    Bupalos

    1. Thank god this dude is so psychologically challenged that he keeps stepping on his dick.

    2. It really is super embarrassing that we keep losing to this choad and it’s dumbfounding that “our best” like Jeffries and Schumer, together with their whole teams, come up with barely adequate, entirely ignorable responses.

    3. We better get better at this quick because the next one won’t be pasted together out of narcissism and used 1980’s suck like this one is.

  120. 120.

    Geminid

    From Ragip Soylu half an hour ago::

    BREAKING: Erdogan joins Trump, Sharaa and MbS through video conference, Andalou Agency reports.

    There is quite a contrast in age among the leaders. Trump is 78 and Erdogon is 71, while Al-Sharaa is 44 and bin Salman is 39.

    The meeting followed Trump’s declaration yesterday that he would order the “cessation:” of US sanctions on Syria “to give them a chance at greatness.” Syrians greeted the news with widespread celebrations.

    And there was an earthquake 7 hours ago, to the east of Crete. Estimates of severity range from Magnitude 6.0 to 6.3;  it was felt in Egypt and Israel.

  123. 123.

    Baud

    Rep. Tom Suozzi: “Does this bill con’t the payroll tax on people’s tips?… Does this bill con’t the payroll tax on overtime?… Does this bill remove taxes on Social Security benefits?”

  128. 128.

    sab

    @Baud: How sad that is.

    Hundreds of thousands of people living within their borders are on the verge of starvation, and we are supposed to worry about stealth aircraft? They have known since forever they live in a tough neighborhood. Maybe try to get along instead of starving people.

  129. 129.

    Matt McIrvin

    @sab: What I think is true, though, is that they believed of Trump what they wanted to believe, and thought he’d be just as much of a dictator as they wanted him to be and no more–that if he stepped over a line, they could rein him in. And that line was in a different place for every one of them, almost but not quite nonexistent for Alito and Thomas, but they’re all in FAFO mode now.

  135. 135.

    Paul in KY

    @Jay: He will just order them to not do that so he can fly around in it. His boss Putin will ensure that happens.

  138. 138.

    Paul in KY

    @catclub: Lived in Biloxi for 8 months (training at Keesler AFB) and was advised to stay out of the water. Dirty and still had glass and debris from Camille.

  139. 139.

    Boris Rasputin (The Evil Twin)

    @scav:Then again, need we really complain about a reduction in Kennedys?

    While they do a hell of a track record, no one thinks about how dangerous they are to people around them. Joe Kennedy and his last air crew, The PT-109 crew, Governor Connally, Mary Jo, JFK Jr’s wife and sister in-law, and those are off the top of my head. Simple rule, stay clear of them.

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