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Balloon Juice

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The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

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

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

People are complicated. Love is not.

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Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

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You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Rooting for Injuries Open Thread: Elon & Don TACO, Fighting Again

Rooting for Injuries Open Thread: Elon & Don TACO, Fighting Again

by Anne Laurie|  July 1, 20251:02 pm| 170 Comments

This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., DOGESHIT, Republican Politics, Trumpery, Elon Musk

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It’s been hours since the Terrible Twinsies got any of the sweet, sweet Big Media attention they craved…

Musk doesn't realize this provision was basically created to protect DOGE?

[image or embed]

— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec.bsky.social) July 1, 2025 at 9:48 AM


===

ROTFL. Normally I'd express outrage, but Elon made this bed for himself and climbed right in.

[image or embed]

— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec.bsky.social) July 1, 2025 at 9:41 AM


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🤣🤣🤣🤣

[image or embed]

— Jon Cooper (@joncooper-us.bsky.social) July 1, 2025 at 9:31 AM

===

He thinks it's a spending ceiling, but it's not. It's about being able to borrow to pay for money already spent, as opposed to default on US Treasuries, the financial cornerstone of the world economy.

[image or embed]

— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec.bsky.social) July 1, 2025 at 9:44 AM


===

obviously this is a big sickos haha yes dot jpg moment but i have to say that elon threatening to start a new political party and then primary every republican in congress seems to indicate that he may not know how any of this works www.nytimes.com/2025/06/30/u…

[image or embed]

— Josh Fruhlinger (@jfruh.bsky.social) July 1, 2025 at 12:13 AM



From Teddy Schleifer, intoxicated wealth-sniffer, whom the NYTimes seems to be paying to follow Elon around full-time now [gift link]:

The country’s biggest Republican donor called on Monday for the formation of a new political party and suggested he would back primary challengers against nearly every single Republican in Congress.

That was the saber-rattling declaration of Elon Musk, should Republicans on Capitol Hill pass President Trump’s sweeping domestic policy bill.

While Mr. Musk’s words are often just that, he has dramatically escalated his anti-Republican rhetoric over the past few days. On Monday, he suggested that if the G.O.P. bill passed, he would swiftly form a new “America Party.”

“If this insane spending bill passes, the America Party will be formed the next day,” he wrote in one of several Monday posts to his 220 million followers on X. “Our country needs an alternative to the Democrat-Republican uniparty so that the people actually have a VOICE.”

By the evening, Mr. Musk was committing to specific action, saying that he would support Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky, among the most prominent holdouts against Mr. Trump’s bill. Though various G.O.P. factions have voiced concerns about the legislative package, potentially imperiling its passage, almost every Republican member in Congress supports some version of it.

At one point in the evening, Mr. Musk wrote that nearly the entire House and Senate G.O.P. “will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth” — a tall task for even the world’s richest person, who donated nearly $300 million to Republican candidates in the 2024 election.

Mr. Musk went out of his way to call out two House Republicans who style themselves budget-cutters as leaders of the House Freedom Caucus: Representatives Andy Harris of Maryland and Chip Roy of Texas. He also squabbled with Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma.

As Mr. Musk campaigned against the bill, Mr. Trump appeared to threaten the subsidies Mr. Musk’s companies, including SpaceX, receive from the federal government…

===

honestly the party doesn't need to be "viable" to fuck up republicans' shit, if it gets like 5-10% of the vote mostly pulls from republicans it guarantees a pretty big democratic majority, but even that seems, uh, PRETTY unlikely

— Josh Fruhlinger (@jfruh.bsky.social) July 1, 2025 at 12:15 AM

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    170Comments

    1. 1.

      lollipopguild

      July 1, 2025 at 1:10 pm

      Trump is going to deport Elon and take away all of his Govt. monies? Did I just die and go to Heaven?

      Reply
    2. 2.

      Old Dan and Little Ann

      July 1, 2025 at 1:13 pm

      I’ll believe it when I see it. I do hope to see it.

      Reply
    3. 3.

      Miss Bianca

      July 1, 2025 at 1:18 pm

      I am so fucking sick of all these dipshits I could scream. At this point, I am rooting not just for injuries, but for sudden, hideously painful deaths for the entire GOP contingent.

      Reply
    4. 4.

      Enhanced Voting Techniques

      July 1, 2025 at 1:20 pm

      That does say a lot when some  stoner like Musk get it this bill is really dumb idea.

      Reply
    5. 5.

      MazeDancer

      July 1, 2025 at 1:21 pm

      Trump just did the “people are saying” thing about Zohran Mamdani. That Zohran is here illegally.

      Zohran Mamdani is an UWS kid of privilege. H&H Bagels, Zabars, Central Park, private school genuine New Yorker.His mother is a vaunted movie director and his dad a notd professor at Columbia

      If he is here illegally so are Ivanka, Barron, Donnie, and Eric. And half the UWS.

      Think Trump might have just insured Mamdani’s elecion.

      Reply
    6. 6.

      Steve LaBonne

      July 1, 2025 at 1:23 pm

      Remember how Elmo was going to find all those savings and failed because they don’t exist? Pepperidge Farm remembers!

      Reply
    7. 7.

      chemiclord

      July 1, 2025 at 1:23 pm

      It’s actually kinda fascinating how eerily similar the Lefter-than-thou and alt-right reactionary rhetoric is considering how they believe pretty much entirely mutually exclusive things… outside of “liberal democracy sucks” I guess.

      Reply
    8. 8.

      NaijaGal

      July 1, 2025 at 1:24 pm

      @MazeDancer: No, Pete Doocy asked a question of the White House spokesperson yesterday about whether the administration would look into Mamdani’s naturalization paperwork in order to denaturalize and deport him. The answer was basically yes.

      Reply
    9. 9.

      Ruckus

      July 1, 2025 at 1:25 pm

      elon is supposed to be the world’s richest man which he thinks makes him the smartest. But money can’t buy intelligence or the ability to see the real world in front of him, that takes his ego not being in the front of everything else. His idiotic ego, that thinks that money makes him smart. But he didn’t earn that money it was left to him – an inheritance, that was likely gotten by what most humans would call fucking over other humans. He built – OK paid for a business to make electric cars. They aren’t bad, could be better (I’ve known a couple of owners) but he’s such a pompous, arrogant jackass that most people see him instead of the cars. Then he comes out with this stainless steel abomination that is a 4 seat pickup that looks up close like it was a kit in a box that got thrown off the back of a truck delivering it to your door, driving by at 60 mph and the straps were cut and it was pushed off that moving truck, because for them to finish it would raise the price about 25% and no one would buy one. Of course they are selling like hotcakes at 3 pm in a truck stop dinner, because they are fugly (that’s fucking ugly…) look like a very expensive, oversized kid’s toy and don’t actually carry much. I’ve known a couple Tesla car owners and they liked their cars. I’ve never seen a cyber truck on the road. I’m sure they exist but why?

      Reply
    10. 10.

      Steve LaBonne

      July 1, 2025 at 1:25 pm

      @Enhanced Voting Techniques: Not for any sane reason- he thinks it doesn’t cut nearly enough.

      Reply
    11. 11.

      Steve LaBonne

      July 1, 2025 at 1:26 pm

      @chemiclord: “Liberal democracy sucks” is always what’s at the point where the ends of the horseshoe meet.

      Reply
    12. 12.

      Ruckus

      July 1, 2025 at 1:28 pm

      @Miss Bianca:

      That’s not nice.

      Honest, truthful, admirable and deserved, but not nice.

      Of course nice is sometimes over rated…..

      Reply
    13. 13.

      Ruckus

      July 1, 2025 at 1:30 pm

      @MazeDancer:

      I don’t call drump shitforbrains for no reason.

      Reply
    14. 14.

      Steve LaBonne

      July 1, 2025 at 1:30 pm

      @Ruckus: “Nice is different than good.” – Red Riding Hood

      Reply
    15. 15.

      Captain C

      July 1, 2025 at 1:31 pm

      @MazeDancer: People are saying FFOTUS is a Queens nepo baby who cheated his siblings, squandered his inheritance, and could never make it in Manhattan society because he was a stingy, crude asshole who wouldn’t give to charity.

      In this case, they’re 100% right!

      Reply
    16. 16.

      Captain C

      July 1, 2025 at 1:37 pm

      Also, I still think Lone Skum and FFOTUS, when this is all over and they are tried and convicted, should be forced to share a cell together until the end of their lives.

      Reply
    17. 17.

      Old School

      July 1, 2025 at 1:37 pm

      At one point in the evening, Mr. Musk wrote that nearly the entire House and Senate G.O.P. “will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth”

      I’m OK with both of those outcomes.

      Reply
    18. 18.

      Soprano2

      July 1, 2025 at 1:45 pm

      The pressure for Democrats to welcome this white supremacist into our party with open arms is going to ratchet up a lot now. I’ve been hearing it ever since the Musk/FFOTUS bromance broke up. They don’t seem to think being a white supremacist Nazi is a deal-breaker for Democrats. I don’t for a minute believe he’s changed at all. Yet another person who didn’t listen to anything FFOTUS said while he was campaigning, or else he would know how much R’s hate renewable energy.

      Reply
    19. 19.

      comrade scotts agenda of rage

      July 1, 2025 at 1:51 pm

      @Soprano2:

      The pressure for Democrats to welcome this white supremacist into our party with open arms is going to ratchet up a lot now.

      MattY and the rest of the “abundance” clowns are on Line 2.

      Reply
    20. 20.

      Citizen Alan

      July 1, 2025 at 1:52 pm

      @Ruckus:  I think we’re up to 3, possibly 4 in Fresno. One red, one black, and either two silvers or one silver that really gets around town a lot. One of the a-holes uses my gym so I see it pretty regularly. Have not seen the owner yet.

      Reply
    21. 21.

      Another Scott

      July 1, 2025 at 1:53 pm

      Something something bread and circuses?

      47 always, always has to be in the news.  Setting the scene for what is talked about.

      Meanwhile, … Phys.org:

      I analyzed more than 100 extremist manifestos: Misogyny was the common thread

      […]

      As a researcher looking at digital extremism and gender-based violence, I’ve analyzed more than 100 manifestos written by people who carried out mass shootings, stabbings, vehicular attacks and other acts of ideologically, politically and religiously motivated violent extremism in Canada, the United States and beyond.

      These attackers may not belong to formal terrorist organizations, but their writings reveal consistent ideological patterns. Among them, one stands out: misogyny.

      Misogyny is the ‘gateway drug’
      The Waterloo case is not unique. In fact, it mirrors a growing number of violent incidents where gender-based hate plays a central role. Reports by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue and Public Safety Canada show misogynist extremism is rising in Canada. It’s often entangled with white nationalism, anti-LGBTQ+ hate and anti-government sentiment.

      According to political sociologist Yasmin Wong, misogyny now acts as a “gateway drug” to broader extremist ideologies. This is particularly true in digital spaces where hate and grievance are cultivated algorithmically.

      In my analysis of manifestos collected from 1966 to 2025, gender identity-driven violence appeared in nearly 40% of them. These violent beliefs were either the primary or a significant secondary motivation for the attack. This includes direct expressions of hatred toward women, trans and queer people and references to feminist or LGBTQ+ movements.

      […]

      Looking at the 2016 and 2024 Presidential election campaigns, I think we can see that there’s a through-line in our “normal” politics as well.

      It’s a big problem.

      Worth a click.

      Best wishes,
      Scott.

      Reply
    22. 22.

      Tim C

      July 1, 2025 at 1:54 pm

      @chemiclord: If you want to learn about how none if this is new, read up on how the KPD (Communists) worked with the Nazis (NSDAP) to bring about the end of the Weimar Republic.  Short version is that the communists absolutely despised the Social Democrats (Fairly leftish for the time) party more than they they hated the Nazis.  Then they figured after the Nazi’s collapsed the republic, they could take over.   “Nach Hitler Uns”  (After Hitler, US)

      Spoilers:  It didn’t go well.

      Reply
    23. 23.

      scav

      July 1, 2025 at 1:55 pm

      At one point in the evening, Mr. Musk wrote that nearly the entire House and Senate G.O.P. “will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth”

      Two things I get from that.

      A) He’s not abandoning the GOP, he’s going for a takeover of it.  He’s going after primaries.

      B) His baseline assumption is thus Repub voters will follow the money, they can essentially be bought.

      Reply
    24. 24.

      bjacques

      July 1, 2025 at 1:55 pm

      If Trump had a tenth the stones of Putin, Musk would be in the Gator Gulag and his businesses divided up between Don Jr and Eric.

      To be fair, the Social Democrats under Ebert slaughtered a lot of Communists after the collapse of the Munich Soviet in 1919, IIRC.

      Reply
    25. 25.

      jonas

      July 1, 2025 at 1:56 pm

      @Captain C: The entire premise of The Apprentice was basically to make it look like Trump was this huge icon of the Manhattan charity circuit. Remember all the challenges that in some way revolved around some “fundraiser” he was hosting, or some “charity” his businesses supported?

      All made up. Every. Fucking. Bit. Even the fake charity he had set up outside the Apprentice bullshit was shut down by NY state for being a fraud. The guy wouldn’t piss on you if you were on fire. That’s the kind of philanthropist he is and everyone knew it and never invited him to fancy galas or asked him to sit on the board of the Met or whatever and that’s why he’s had it out for NYC’s elite for decades.

      Reply
    26. 26.

      cmorenc

      July 1, 2025 at 1:57 pm

      @Soprano2:

       Yet another person who didn’t listen to anything FFOTUS said while he was campaigning, or else he would know how much R’s hate renewable energy.

      Did Trump’s hatred of renewable energy come in significant part from his dislike of the aesthetics of a proposed wind energy project off the Scottish coast that would be visible from one of his golf course property projects?

      Reply
    27. 27.

      Old School

      July 1, 2025 at 2:00 pm

      On Monday, he suggested that if the G.O.P. bill passed, he would swiftly form a new “America Party.”

      That’s kind of mundane for Musk.  I would thought “Party X” or “The Sexy Party” would be more likely.

      Reply
    28. 28.

      clay

      July 1, 2025 at 2:00 pm

      Elon Musk: “America has a uniparty which is why I spent hundreds of millions of dollars on Republican candidates.”

      Easy to see why he’s worshipped as a genius.

      Reply
    29. 29.

      Archon

      July 1, 2025 at 2:02 pm

      I don’t believe Musk but he could do enormous damage to the GOP political prospects if he follows through on his threats

      Reply
    30. 30.

      Baud

      July 1, 2025 at 2:02 pm

      @Soprano2:

      Since everyone has a different deal breaker, I’m not sure we can say there are any deal breakers.

      Reply
    31. 31.

      HopefullyNotcassandra

      July 1, 2025 at 2:04 pm

      @NaijaGal: No doubt this regime will try.  The circus is the only thing these nincompoops do remotely competently.

      Reply
    32. 32.

      comrade scotts agenda of rage

      July 1, 2025 at 2:04 pm

      @cmorenc:

      That’s a part of it but by all accounts, his hatred is nothing more than typical financial support to the GOP by fossil fuel corporations.  Not that they don’t give a shitload of money to Dems but at least Dems don’t see energy development as a zero sum game.

      Reply
    33. 33.

      Tim C

      July 1, 2025 at 2:06 pm

      @bjacques: Yeah,  sorta.   Though again, that came *AFTER* the KPD got a bit ahead of themselves and took over Bavaria without noticing they didn’t exactly have the support of the population.   Likewise the Friekorps weren’t exactly operating out of an abundance of caution or authority.   I mean it’s not like we have mysterious Quasi-legal masked bullies wandering around today kidnapping…..

      Oh shit.

      Reply
    34. 34.

      HopefullyNotcassandra

      July 1, 2025 at 2:06 pm

      @Captain C: that is epically literary.  I see a short story in your future

      Reply
    35. 35.

      Steve LaBonne

      July 1, 2025 at 2:06 pm

      @comrade scotts agenda of rage: Please tell me it’s a railroad line and a train is barreling toward them.

      Reply
    36. 36.

      Soprano2

      July 1, 2025 at 2:07 pm

      @comrade scotts agenda of rage: Yep, along with James Carville among others. They think he used to be a Democrat! LOL For me him professing white supremacist views over and over and over is a deal-breaker regardless of anything else he might say. Let him repudiate that and then PROVE IT for a few years and I might rethink my position. I think he’s like FFOTUS in that he has few beliefs he truly holds, but I think white supremacy is one of them.

      Reply
    37. 37.

      NotMax

      July 1, 2025 at 2:07 pm

      the entire House and Senate G.O.P. “will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth”

      ¿Por qué no los dos?
      ;)

      Reply
    38. 38.

      HopefullyNotcassandra

      July 1, 2025 at 2:09 pm

      @Tim C: Rosa Luxembourg’s pathetic, horrible ending enters the picture.

      Reply
    39. 39.

      They Call Me Noni

      July 1, 2025 at 2:10 pm

      @jonas: I watched one episode of that horrible show and thought “what a bully this asshole is”.

      Reply
    40. 40.

      Soprano2

      July 1, 2025 at 2:12 pm

      @Baud: Well, that’s my personal deal-breaker. I can forgive someone a lot if they’ve truly changed, but he’d have to demonstrate for a long time that he had truly repudiated that crap. Also the misogyny, which as we see from the upthread posting is a “gateway drug” for many of these people. Look at how many derogatory words we have for men who society thinks behave like women, and it’s hardly a mystery why this is so.

      Reply
    41. 41.

      HopefullyNotcassandra

      July 1, 2025 at 2:13 pm

      @scav: it appears to me the soutpiel fails to understand our system.

      Mr. Musk’s hypothetical new party will not be able to primary every Republican since most republicans primaries are closed affairs.   I suppose he has the funds to try & do both.

      If so, we should all invest in popcorn futures?

      Reply
    42. 42.

      Baud

      July 1, 2025 at 2:14 pm

      @Soprano2:

      I have so many deal breakers I might as well not be part of a party.

      Or maybe I just have a few deal breakers and people suck.

      It’s all relative.

      Reply
    43. 43.

      HopefullyNotcassandra

      July 1, 2025 at 2:16 pm

      @cmorenc: yes

      That and somehow wind causes whales to die and cancer to grow in his big, holey head.

      Reply
    44. 44.

      Madeleine

      July 1, 2025 at 2:16 pm

      @MazeDancer: Public school—Bronx Science.

      Reply
    45. 45.

      HopefullyNotcassandra

      July 1, 2025 at 2:18 pm

      @Soprano2: his emotional IQ is not high.  That much we can all witness with our own eyes.

      Reply
    46. 46.

      tam1MI

      July 1, 2025 at 2:19 pm

      @NaijaGal: Pete Doocy asked a question of the White House spokesperson yesterday about whether the administration would look into Mamdani’s naturalization paperwork in order to denaturalize and deport him. The answer was basically yes.

      I could be wrong on this, but “we’ll look into it” seems to be Trump world’s way of saying, “We ain’t gonna do shit”.

      Reply
    47. 47.

      rikyrah

      July 1, 2025 at 2:21 pm

      @Miss Bianca:

      Come sit by me😒

      Reply
    48. 48.

      rikyrah

      July 1, 2025 at 2:23 pm

      @Soprano2:

      Hell muthaphuckin NO😠😠

      Reply
    49. 49.

      NotMax

      July 1, 2025 at 2:24 pm

      @HopefullyNotcassandra

      “If the power generation uses up all the wind where will people be able to fly kites? How will sailing ships be able to ply the seas? Manufacturers of wind chimes will be put out of business.”
      //

      Reply
    50. 50.

      Dorothy A. Winsor

      July 1, 2025 at 2:25 pm

      @tam1MI: Yeah, I used to tell my son, “I’ll think about it.” Same thing

      Reply
    51. 51.

      Tim C

      July 1, 2025 at 2:26 pm

      @HopefullyNotcassandra: Yup. Perfect example, though I think she got singled out due to her gender. (Because misogyny as mentioned is the core part of extremism on all sides.)

      Reply
    52. 52.

      sab

      July 1, 2025 at 2:26 pm

      @MazeDancer: I am not a New Yorker. UWS= Upper West Side?

      Reply
    53. 53.

      Rachel Bakes

      July 1, 2025 at 2:29 pm

      @Steve LaBonne: my thoughts exactly. Stephen Sondheim said it perfectly.

      Reply
    54. 54.

      MazeDancer

      July 1, 2025 at 2:31 pm

      @Captain C: So true.

      And so stupid.

      The way into Manhattan Society has never been complicated: Give Money.

      The more you give, the more they will include you. Start with buying a few tables at galas. Joining small boards and raising big bucks for them.

      Work your way up, give,give,give, and soon they will be throwing galas honoring you.

      Arts and theatre are key. So are medical establishments. Universities. NYPL. Museums.

      Burning money by backing Broadway plays is also good.

      You can buy your way in if you have enough money.

      Trump, always cheap and stupid, never made the effort.

      Reply
    55. 55.

      NotMax

      July 1, 2025 at 2:35 pm

      @MazeDancer

      Zabars

      Store with much too much enticing stuff to browse through crammed inside
      ;)

      Reply
    56. 56.

      scav

      July 1, 2025 at 2:38 pm

      So his new independent party in a mere 1.5 years is going overwhelm Republican primaries of the American uniparty that keeps losing popular votes.  Got it.  Yep, the unique high-value brilliance of businessmen should really be taking a tooth-fairy level beating in any sane world — which clearly doesn’t apply in these here states.

      Reply
    57. 57.

      scav

      July 1, 2025 at 2:40 pm

      @HopefullyNotcassandra: Yeah, I finally caught up with that scintillating facet of his unique genius.

      Reply
    58. 58.

      Steve in the ATL

      July 1, 2025 at 2:40 pm

      Saw a Tesla on Peachtree this morning with an Elon University sticker on it.  Struck me as an unfortunate combination.

      Reply
    59. 59.

      HinTN

      July 1, 2025 at 2:42 pm

      @Ruckus:

      I’ve never seen a cyber truck on the road. I’m sure they exist but why?

      Oh, I’ve seen them. More and more, recently. They exist because Lone Skum said they would. Why anyone would purchase one remains a mystery.

      Reply
    60. 60.

      danielx

      July 1, 2025 at 2:42 pm

      @Ruckus:

      I saw a pink one today.

      Grotesque.

      Reply
    61. 61.

      Trollhattan

      July 1, 2025 at 2:42 pm

      @Archon:

      Same. He did their bidnez busting up so very many federal departments and now if he’s no longer useful, they’ll simply ignore him and stop inviting him to stuff and taking his calls.

      JD’s still there to be the tech bros’ shine boy.

      Reply
    62. 62.

      HopefullyNotcassandra

      July 1, 2025 at 2:44 pm

      @NotMax: Obviously, with one quibble on the lovely language choices.   Ply the seas is bigly too poetic for his Holey Headedness.

      Reply
    63. 63.

      Belafon

      July 1, 2025 at 2:44 pm

      @Miss Bianca: I saw a woman at the grocery store with a shirt saying “I’m about ready to flip tables like Jesus” or something really close to that.

      Reply
    64. 64.

      Trollhattan

      July 1, 2025 at 2:45 pm

      @Steve in the ATL:

      They recruited my kid and she even visited the campus. Likewise, I hadn’t known they exist and pondered how long it will take them to recover their good name.

      Mind, all that was the spring of ’24 and the greater Elon horrors were still off in the future.

      Reply
    65. 65.

      WaterGirl

      July 1, 2025 at 2:46 pm

      @MazeDancer:

      You accidentally appended extra characters at the end of your email address, so it sent you into moderation.

      You’ll want to fix that before you comment again, if you haven’t already.

      Reply
    66. 66.

      Enhanced Voting Techniques

      July 1, 2025 at 2:46 pm

      @Steve LaBonne: That really is one of it’s problems; it drives up the deficit for a tax break that doesn’t benefit anyone  (the tax break is like the equivalent  to a family meal for the billionaires) If it was just austerity at lest it would, in the theory, bring the deficit down.

      Reply
    67. 67.

      Trollhattan

      July 1, 2025 at 2:47 pm

      @danielx:

      Barbie Edition Cybertruck somehow seems necessary.

      Matte black with opaque windows is becoming a thing here. Makes the thing look even bigger, for some reason.

      Reply
    68. 68.

      HopefullyNotcassandra

      July 1, 2025 at 2:49 pm

      @Tim C: Yes.  Her birth religion played a role too, no doubt.  Had she made the deal the Weimar Republic’s liberals offered her, perhaps millions more people live full lives, World War II never starts and the absurd Austrian spends all of his days locked securely up.   She paid the ultimate price for her stupid recalcitrance, as did millions of others who had no choice at all.

      Reply
    69. 69.

      Shakti

      July 1, 2025 at 2:51 pm

      • Looks like I’ll tell my brother he needs to stay with his job and get insurance that way — because the subsidies for marketplace insurance are going to go poof. [ I carry the costs for that]
      • Wonder what Betty Cracker and other Florida Balloon Juicers are doing differently for this hurricane season. I have felt like I’m waiting for hurricanes since the last season.
      • I’m not sure what would actually cause injuries to Elon/Trump/Republicans/enablers — real ones, not “oh they lose the house/senate.” It would be funny if their OSHA/FAA/FDA violations/broken code caught up with them.
      Reply
    70. 70.

      Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

      July 1, 2025 at 2:51 pm

      @Old School: If it gets right- and leftwing dude bros to stop directly or indirectly supporting the GOP, I’m all for it. Please proceed, Elon.

      Reply
    71. 71.

      Jackie

      July 1, 2025 at 2:51 pm

      @Archon:

      I don’t believe Musk but he could do enormous damage to the GOP political prospects if he follows through on his threats

      And then flip back to trying to vote Democrats out.

      Muskrat wants to own America.

      He went after democrats in ‘24 and ‘25  – anybody remember his spending millions trying to buy a judge just a couple of months ago?

      If America could get Muskrat out of the US, we’d ALL benefit as Americans.

      Reply
    72. 72.

      HinTN

      July 1, 2025 at 2:52 pm

      @Trollhattan: “Now Leggles the tailor and the shine boy’s gone. Faded out with ragtime blues.”

      Reply
    73. 73.

      Trollhattan

      July 1, 2025 at 2:57 pm

      @HinTN:

      👍 Every day is a good day for some Joni.

      Reply
    74. 74.

      lollipopguild

      July 1, 2025 at 2:57 pm

      @NotMax: If we can get people to eat beans (a renewable resource) we can make all of the wind we can possibly use.

      Reply
    75. 75.

      jonas

      July 1, 2025 at 2:58 pm

      @Enhanced Voting Techniques: oh he’s fine with all the screw the poors stuff. He’s just upset because it also eliminates most of the green energy subsidies and government contracts his companies rely on.

      Reply
    76. 76.

      Old Man Shadow

      July 1, 2025 at 3:02 pm

      As much as Elon deserves it, I feel rather sick to my stomach thinking about letting the President determine who is a citizen of the United States based entirely on their level of support for him.

      Reply
    77. 77.

      MazeDancer

      July 1, 2025 at 3:02 pm

      @Madeleine: Yes, an excellent school. But grammar school, when he arrived at age 7, was Bank Street.

      Good liberal education.

      @sab: Yes, sorry, UWS = Upper West Side. Same thing with an E = Upper East Side..

      Separate, distinct cultures with overlap when it comes to private schools for rich kids

      And there is some nuance in culture the more Upper you go on the WS.

      Have lived in both areas and vastly prefer UWS. And not just for the superior food shopping.

      But for such a small geographic area, Manhattan is full of neighborhoods. And there is something to like about almost all of them.

      Reply
    78. 78.

      Archon

      July 1, 2025 at 3:04 pm

      @jonas: He might be fine with screwing the poor but he blew up his companies brand by being the heat shield on DOGE cuts only to find Republicans doubling down on debt. So I can hate Elon and his politics while also acknowledging how and why he might feel completely and utterly betrayed by Trump and Republicans.

      Reply
    79. 79.

      NotMax

      July 1, 2025 at 3:06 pm

      @lollipopguild

      Fartmills will power the Earth!
      :)

      Reply
    80. 80.

      rikyrah

      July 1, 2025 at 3:06 pm

       

       

      waltb31 (docb2020 on Threads) waltb31.bsky.social (@waltb31) posted at 5:28 AM on Tue, Jul 01, 2025:

      Big agricultural farms in Mississippi are using slaves from prisons to work on egg and chicken farms. Slaves. In America 2025. Now you understand why so many private detention centers are being built for immigrants. Slave Labor #AbolishSlavery #Nuremberg2028 https://t.co/eHXJb7VCBP

      (https://x.com/waltb31/status/1939994604335460406?t=7Kg41cYBIHhhhK5gDqsm1g&s=03)

      Reply
    81. 81.

      Suzanne

      July 1, 2025 at 3:08 pm

      @Soprano2: Like, FFOTUS is a bigot and a white supremacist…. But he doesn’t go to meetings. Elon is definitely the kind of Nazi who goes to meetings.

      Reply
    82. 82.

      rikyrah

      July 1, 2025 at 3:09 pm

       

      Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) posted at 11:32 AM on Tue, Jul 01, 2025:

      Trump calls for deporting US citizens: “We also have a lot of bad people that have been here for a long time … many of them were born in our country. I think we ought to get them the hell out of here too, if you want to know the truth. So maybe that’ll be the next job.” https://t.co/zQDOlqjB3u

      (https://x.com/atrupar/status/1940086036643697161?t=wc5tIRgUzFuk5aYb796zIA&s=03)

      Reply
    83. 83.

      Captain C

      July 1, 2025 at 3:11 pm

      @jonas:

      The entire premise of The Apprentice was basically to make it look like Trump was this huge icon of the Manhattan charity circuit.

      I never watched it because it was so annoying, but that’s not surprising.  I think the entire show was a fraud; I read somewhere that he was chosen for it because actual entrepreneurs were too busy running their companies to be on a ‘reality’ show.

      Even the fake charity he had set up outside the Apprentice bullshit was shut down by NY state for being a fraud.

      Is that the children’s cancer one that he and his degenerate kids stole from?

      The guy wouldn’t piss on you if you were on fire. That’s the kind of philanthropist he is and everyone knew it and never invited him to fancy galas or asked him to sit on the board of the Met or whatever and that’s why he’s had it out for NYC’s elite for decades.

      I remember reading where at one of those galas he plopped himself into one of the VIP/megadonor seats despite not having given a dime to the charity, and that this caused real problems with the actual benefactor whose seat he stole.  One wonders why they didn’t do some genteel version of the Casino cowboy scene to get rid of him rather than allow him to screw up their fundraiser that way.  If I was a donor to that charity I would seriously question future giving, even if I wasn’t the big donor whose seat and dinner were stolen by TFG.

      Reply
    84. 84.

      Captain C

      July 1, 2025 at 3:12 pm

      @HopefullyNotcassandra: I don’t know if I would watch that buddy movie, but if I had the cash I would definitely produce it.

      Reply
    85. 85.

      Captain C

      July 1, 2025 at 3:14 pm

      @HopefullyNotcassandra:

      wind causes…cancer to grow in his big, holey head.

      That is an acceptable outcome.

      Reply
    86. 86.

      Geminid

      July 1, 2025 at 3:14 pm

      @Citizen Alan: I’m kind of surprised you don’t see more Cybertrucks in Fresno. Then again, I heard they’re not selling that well.

      There was a stir when a Cybertruck was spotted in Damascus, Syria earlier this year. That led to widely circulated “How it started/How it’s going” meme. It showed a picture of the Cybertruck driving around downtown Damascus, and another photo of it being hauled away on a roll-back truck.

      Reply
    87. 87.

      Captain C

      July 1, 2025 at 3:17 pm

      @scav: If you took some ketamine it might make sense.

      Reply
    88. 88.

      Baud

      July 1, 2025 at 3:17 pm

      @rikyrah:

      We’ve obviously already lost the battle on whether exiling citizens is deportation.

      Reply
    89. 89.

      lgerard

      July 1, 2025 at 3:17 pm

      @Trollhattan:

      Matte black with opaque windows is becoming a thing here. Makes the thing look even bigger, for some reason.

      There is one of these in my neighborhood. When I first saw it down the street parked at the curb I thought it was a dumpster.

      First impressions are often correct……

      Reply
    90. 90.

      Paul in KY

      July 1, 2025 at 3:17 pm

      @lollipopguild: Remember: TACO. Which is a bummer in this case.

      Reply
    91. 91.

      Moondoggus

      July 1, 2025 at 3:18 pm

      @Old School: people seem to think that Elon is going to fund challengers.

       

      i think it far more likely that he will turn Xitter against Republicans. That should terrify them.

      Reply
    92. 92.

      Paul in KY

      July 1, 2025 at 3:21 pm

      @Ruckus: I’ve seen about 4 or 5. All ugly as hell.

      Reply
    93. 93.

      eclare

      July 1, 2025 at 3:22 pm

      Soothing photo today.  Thanks WaterGirl.

      Reply
    94. 94.

      rikyrah

      July 1, 2025 at 3:24 pm

       

       

      Andy Specht (@AndySpecht) posted at 10:45 AM on Tue, Jul 01, 2025:

      NEW @NRSC letter to GOP donors:

       

      With Tillis out, the group is “more confident than ever” Republicans can keep North Carolina’s Senate seat.

       

      Internal polls showed Tillis trailing Democrats by 9-13 percentage points, source says. https://t.co/SM1WvlEtZK

      (https://x.com/AndySpecht/status/1940074211453678046?t=nauA0ETIBOwN8BNg2vDlOw&s=03)

      Reply
    95. 95.

      Suzanne

      July 1, 2025 at 3:25 pm

      I saw a green Cybertruck a couple of days ago. The color made it slightly less ugly.

      Reply
    96. 96.

      rikyrah

      July 1, 2025 at 3:25 pm

       

       

      Chris Murphy 🟧 (@ChrisMurphyCT) posted at 11:04 AM on Tue, Jul 01, 2025:

      Final vote. 50-50. VP breaks the tie.

       

      One single GOP Senator could have stopped this abomination. Saved millions of parents from watching their child go hungry. Saved the lives destroyed when Medicaid disappears.

       

      They will all live forever with the horror of this bill.

      (https://x.com/ChrisMurphyCT/status/1940079181372563966?t=vTnMsU-Q7mQOVHG-Kk0Pag&s=03)

      Reply
    97. 97.

      Paul in KY

      July 1, 2025 at 3:25 pm

      @Another Scott: Another reason that we must (IMO) run a dude in 28. Must win at all costs and I am convinced that in present US society, a female at top of ticket costs us too many votes. Those who didn’t vote for Sec. Clinton and VP Harris for that reason are jerkwad POSes, of course, but if they would vote for a Dem dude, then we must have their votes.

      Reply
    98. 98.

      HopefullyNotcassandra

      July 1, 2025 at 3:27 pm

      @Captain C: buddy movie?  I figured it would be a daily brawl, like the kind between two kindergarteners who have not yet learned how to punch or weave.

      Reply
    99. 99.

      Paul in KY

      July 1, 2025 at 3:27 pm

      @Old School: He’d probably go with ‘The Nasty Party’ and then, you know…mispronounce it.

      Reply
    100. 100.

      HopefullyNotcassandra

      July 1, 2025 at 3:28 pm

      @Moondoggus: into what though?  Where will all the catturds go????

      Reply
    101. 101.

      Geminid

      July 1, 2025 at 3:29 pm

      @Archon: For all his big talk, I don’t think Elon Musk has the focus and patience to build a rival power center inside the Republican Party, or outside it either.

      Reply
    102. 102.

      Captain C

      July 1, 2025 at 3:29 pm

      @HopefullyNotcassandra: That would be my guess too.  Perhaps we can cuff them together by their good hands to increase the possibilities of humorous conflict.

      Reply
    103. 103.

      HopefullyNotcassandra

      July 1, 2025 at 3:30 pm

      @rikyrah: yesssss

      the Republican Party of North Carolina is well known for picking stellar statewide candidates

      snarkity snark snark

      Reply
    104. 104.

      laura

      July 1, 2025 at 3:30 pm

      @rikyrah: California voters just this last election voted in favor of subjecting inmates to mandatory work orders. Previously, an inmate could refuse an order of forced labor, although it is a common practice to offer inmates work for a sub sub-minimum wage and such work has been considered a privilege, and sought after. The language of the Bill was purposefully vague and passed handley. I voted against it because it is cruel and it denies the encarecerated one more of the few rights they retain as well as leaving no room for religious or conciencous objectors.

      Reply
    105. 105.

      Matt McIrvin

      July 1, 2025 at 3:30 pm

      @MazeDancer: so, Trump sends the Mayor-elect to Gator Gulag and what happens?

      Reply
    106. 106.

      Josie

      July 1, 2025 at 3:30 pm

      @Paul in KY: ​
       I agree totally. Like you, I don’t like it but I agree.

      Reply
    107. 107.

      comrade scotts agenda of rage

      July 1, 2025 at 3:31 pm

      @Trollhattan:

      Definitely not matte black:

      https://flic.kr/p/2qwmBa2

      I was in LA in early May and would see 1-3 Wankpanzers each day and yeah, matte black with opaque windows were the “thing”.

      Tomorrow, Tesla will release it’s Q2 sales report and everybody’s expecting another blood bath.  Which would be A. Good. Thing.

      Reply
    108. 108.

      HopefullyNotcassandra

      July 1, 2025 at 3:32 pm

      @Captain C: that is a thought.  Surely it would drive up the ratings, which would bigly please the incarcerated pair.

      Reply
    109. 109.

      rikyrah

      July 1, 2025 at 3:32 pm

       

       

      Rep. Pramila Jayapal (@RepJayapal) posted at 11:25 AM on Tue, Jul 01, 2025:

      Selfish. Cruel. Expensive.

       

      Voting for the bill because you got a special hospital fund just for your state is open acknowledgement that folks will get kicked off healthcare & will have to go to expensive emergency rooms. Also clear you know it’s a terrible bill for everyone.

      (https://x.com/RepJayapal/status/1940084295789433002?t=wd-uE_bLBeE5iy35dnXtaQ&s=03)

      Reply
    110. 110.

      Matt McIrvin

      July 1, 2025 at 3:33 pm

      They’re probably looking into de-birthright-ifying Barack Obama. Closes a circle for Donny.

      Reply
    111. 111.

      Another Scott

      July 1, 2025 at 3:34 pm

      RollCall.com:

      Three Republicans joined all Democrats in opposing the measure: deficit hawk Rand Paul of Kentucky; retiring Thom Tillis of North Carolina; and Maine’s Susan Collins, who’s now the most endangered GOP incumbent in next year’s midterms after Tillis’ decision.

      If just one more Republican voted “no,” it would have sank the bill. That’s why GOP leaders invested so much time and energy in wooing Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who finally voted for it after many hours of cajoling.

      There was one piece of bad news for Trump in the final minutes of debate: Democrats struck the bill’s official title — the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” — on a “Byrd rule” point of order given the language had no budgetary impact.

      Heh. Good one. Make him eat it.

      The revised bill now heads back to the House, where prospects for final passage remain uncertain at best. Hard-line House conservatives have railed against the Senate’s changes to a bill that passed the House by a single vote last month.

      House leaders have instructed members to return to Washington for votes as early as Wednesday morning in an effort to send the measure to Trump’s desk by a self-imposed July Fourth deadline.

      But it’s hardly clear that Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., will have enough votes to rubber-stamp the Senate’s changes to meet that deadline.

      If he doesn’t, more time will be required to negotiate revisions. Given all that’s been happening on Capitol Hill, Trump appeared to soften on his deadline a bit on Tuesday morning. “I’d love to do July Fourth, but I think it’s very hard to do July Fourth,” the president told reporters.

      Back in the olden days, when bills differed there would be a “conference committee” to hammer out the differences and then both houses would vote on that. AFAIK, they haven’t used that process in a very long time (instead one chamber jams the other and forces them to accept their version), but maybe they’ll resurrect it now to try to rush it through so they can all split DC.

      Murkowski called her decision on the bill “probably the most difficult and agonizing 24-hour legislative period that I’ve encountered, and I’ve been here quite a while.”

      While she liked the extension of tax cuts and other tax breaks in the bill, she said, “I struggled mightily with the impact on the most vulnerable in this country,” particularly because of cuts to Medicaid and food stamps.

      Murkowski said she ultimately agreed to support the bill after winning concessions such as “greater flexibility” in the food stamp program and the doubling of the size of a new fund for rural hospitals. But she also said she would like to see more improvements by going to conference with the House.

      “My hope is the House is going to look at this and recognize that we’re not there yet,” she said.

      The situation with Murkowski was so fraught that even Paul’s vote appeared to come back into play for a time. He’d long been written off as a staunch “no” vote given his concerns about the bill’s $5 trillion debt limit increase, saying he’d only back the measure if they reduced that figure to $500 billion.

      Still, Paul was seen going in and out of Thune’s office overnight, and Vance spoke to him upon the vice president’s arrival back at the Capitol on Tuesday morning.

      Ultimately Paul couldn’t be convinced, and the debt ceiling increase remained at $5 trillion.

      So, yeah, they were going to pass something. The only question was who was going to get rewarded and who was going to play “principled conservative”. Presumably the same calculus is happening in the House, but too many of those people are crazy so it’s not a done-deal yet.

      More at the link.

      Best wishes,
      Scott.

      Reply
    112. 112.

      jonas

      July 1, 2025 at 3:35 pm

      @Archon: A little bit like a group of crooks, one of whom is focusing on mugging little old ladies, but then finds out the rest of the gang has been cashing in on drug dealing and not cutting him in and now he’s all pissed, like “hey, guys, we had a deal here! You all suck!!”

      No honor among thieves, as they say. I hope he ends up getting  his stupid-ass frog face deported.

      Reply
    113. 113.

      Soprano2

      July 1, 2025 at 3:35 pm

      @rikyrah: And as usual, something that should be a five-alarm fire for reporters will probably be glossed over.

      Reply
    114. 114.

      Geminid

      July 1, 2025 at 3:35 pm

      @Suzanne: I saw a green Rivian a couple months ago. That was a pretty truck.

      Reply
    115. 115.

      Ramona

      July 1, 2025 at 3:38 pm

      @They Call Me Noni: That’s what I thought too. I could not understand why people liked it.

      Reply
    116. 116.

      HopefullyNotcassandra

      July 1, 2025 at 3:39 pm

      @Matt McIrvin: it still does not work.  Barack Obama’s mother was an American citizen.

      Reply
    117. 117.

      HinTN

      July 1, 2025 at 3:42 pm

      @Geminid: a professional friend has a Tesla and a Rivian. He was an early adopter for both and has been pleased. I think the quality of the early Teslas was probably superior to the later models.

      Reply
    118. 118.

      Archon

      July 1, 2025 at 3:42 pm

      @rikyrah: Trump never said those “black jobs” wouldn’t be from the incarcerated.

      Reply
    119. 119.

      Jeffro

      July 1, 2025 at 3:43 pm

      Musk’s $$$ vs trumpov’s threats and intimidation…gosh, who do I wanna root for here?

      Reply
    120. 120.

      HopefullyNotcassandra

      July 1, 2025 at 3:46 pm

      @Another Scott: Lisa Murkowski got the Klondike kickback* she did not have the moral will to refuse.

      * the Klondike kickback is significantly larger and more expensive than the Cornhusker kickback ever was.

      Reply
    121. 121.

      comrade scotts agenda of rage

      July 1, 2025 at 3:47 pm

      @Geminid:

      More Rivians than you can shake a stick at:

      https://photos.app.goo.gl/rE8kdnmo9cSbEpwr6

      Five minutes from my house.  There are a ton of these very, very pricey EVs in Denver for obvious reasons.

      Reply
    122. 122.

      Belafon

      July 1, 2025 at 3:48 pm

      @Paul in KY: I’m still torn on that, but it won’t affect my vote. If America isn’t ready to elect a woman, then we won’t actually fix anything. If we elect a man, we’ll most likely be in a position where the only change people want is what was tried in 2024 didn’t work.

      Reply
    123. 123.

      Splitting Image

      July 1, 2025 at 3:50 pm

      @Paul in KY:

      Another reason that we must (IMO) run a dude in 28. Must win at all costs and I am convinced that in present US society, a female at top of ticket costs us too many votes. Those who didn’t vote for Sec. Clinton and VP Harris for that reason are jerkwad POSes, of course, but if they would vote for a Dem dude, then we must have their votes.

      Meh. I say wait for awhile before committing to any candidate, or any type of candidate.

      The Democrats might indeed do better with a man at the top of the ticket, and a white man at that, but saying it out loud at this point is a good way to get Andrew Cuomo as your candidate. One reason being that all of the consultants trying to bury Mamdani in New York are probably already beating this drum.

      Pritzker and Newsom are probably the two frontrunners at his point, but I would avoid trying to clear the field for them. By this time next year there may be 20 candidates running, and there will be plenty of time to pick the best one then.

      Reply
    124. 124.

      jonas

      July 1, 2025 at 3:51 pm

      @Captain C:  I read somewhere that he was chosen for it because actual entrepreneurs were too busy running their companies to be on a ‘reality’ show.

      That is correct. He was really the only famous “rich guy” they could get to spend hours every week filming a reality show. Everyone else was busy, you know, running stuff and doing real work. I think it was back in 2015 or 16 when Josh Marshall (iirc) was talking to some major Wall Street macher or something about Trump’s candidacy and image as a businessman and the guy supposedly goes, “Trump? *I’m* a billionaire. Trump’s a clown who lives on credit.”

      Turns out the presidency is pretty lucrative, though!

      Reply
    125. 125.

      Shakti

      July 1, 2025 at 3:51 pm

      @Another Scott:

      • -What does Alaska do for the rest of the country again [yes, I know the states all fund each other. In theory.]
      • What does Murkowski get for her vote in particular? [I’m not sure she got anything for her state — which pays a subsidy to residents to induce them to stay. ]
      • What sinecures does she have lined up for her post senatorial career [if it came to that]?
      Reply
    126. 126.

      HopefullyNotcassandra

      July 1, 2025 at 3:52 pm

      @HinTN: still many teslas are the most dangerous cars on the road.

      https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a62919131/tesla-has-highest-fatal-accident-rate-of-all-auto-brands-study/

      There is also the sometimes deadly difficulty with opening the door of a Tesla when the power is off (like following an accident).

      https://www.techspot.com/news/107995-tesla-owners-install-diy-rip-cords-avoid-trapped.html

      Warn your friend !

      Reply
    127. 127.

      prostratedragon

      July 1, 2025 at 3:52 pm

      @Captain C:  A sudden, utterly nonviolent  inundation of dark folks was known to work in such situations back in the day, but I guess the Met board or whatever didn’t have the right connections.

      Reply
    128. 128.

      JML

      July 1, 2025 at 3:53 pm

      @rikyrah: this is definitely part of the GOP plan: fill up the prisons with anyone they deem “undesirable” then work them to death to enrich their coffers.  Sadly, too many Americans will buy into this because they’ll think the only people being stuffed into prison are actual criminals and that they deserve it. And this corrupt Court will never invoke the 8th amendment: nothing is too cruel for these fuckers as long as it happens to someone else.

      Reply
    129. 129.

      Miss Bianca

      July 1, 2025 at 3:58 pm

      @Belafon: Heh. WWJD – “What Would Jesus Destroy”?

      Reply
    130. 130.

      Citizen Alan

      July 1, 2025 at 4:01 pm

      @JML: I’ve said for some time that there will a serious push to reinstitute slavery, and a massive expansion of the prison population would bypass the 13th amendment.

      Reply
    131. 131.

      Miss Bianca

      July 1, 2025 at 4:02 pm

      @rikyrah:

      Trump calls for deporting US citizens: “We also have a lot of bad people that have been here for a long time … many of them were born in our country. I think we ought to get them the hell out of here too, if you want to know the truth. So maybe that’ll be the next job.”

      You first, Donny. You. First.

      Reply
    132. 132.

      Enhanced Voting Techniques

      July 1, 2025 at 4:03 pm

      @Splitting Image: If a white woman can’t get elected president, I would be skeptical a Muslim-American could, in two years.  Then again, Trump seems headed to be a bigger disaster than GW Bush, so who knows?

      Also, ya’ a white man likely would work, but not all white men are the same – see Cumeo and Fetterman.

      Reply
    133. 133.

      Shakti

      July 1, 2025 at 4:04 pm

      @Paul in KY: Maybe.

      But I don’t think there will be any people  left would stay home or vote for the Republican butfor the Democrats running a female candidate instead of a white guy.

      Or at least I don’t think they’d be the margin between victory and defeat.

      Especially after everything that has happened and will happen. I think such people would simply find another pretext to stay home or vote Republican. At this point, they’ll run Trump again (yes, the constitution, but seriously he shouldn’t have been allowed to run again and well) and such a person will vote Republican or stay home because they like what’s happened, not “eww girl cooties” consciously or unconsciously.

      [I don’t know what the butfor numbers are for Harris. Biden’s numbers must have been so bad if he decided not to run again based on your logic]

      Reply
    134. 134.

      Ramona

      July 1, 2025 at 4:04 pm

      @HopefullyNotcassandra: What was the deal offered to Rosa Luxembourg by Weimar? (Just finished scanning the Wikipedia entry on her.)

      Reply
    135. 135.

      jonas

      July 1, 2025 at 4:06 pm

      @rikyrah:  They will all live forever with the horror of this bill.

      Unfortunately Americans have the memories of lobotomized hamsters, so everything will go to shit and people will be all pissed and miserable but also no-one will remember who voted for anything and anyway bothisides are so bad and …..hey! Shinything! Squirrel! FFS you’d have thought one round of Trump was enough for America for at least a generation or two, but apparently not! Four years later here we are again.

      Until Democrats can commandeer more of the media ecosystem than just MSNBC and a few late night talk show hosts, nobody in America is even going to be remotely aware of why all the shits that going to happen to them is happening. 

      Reply
    136. 136.

      Miss Bianca

      July 1, 2025 at 4:08 pm

      @Another Scott: So, she’s depending on the House (HA!) to save her from her vote? What a contemptible little coward.

      To think I used to think Murkowski actually had something resembling principles, maybe.

      Reply
    137. 137.

      Matt McIrvin

      July 1, 2025 at 4:09 pm

      @Citizen Alan: The loophole in the 13th specifies that there has to be a criminal conviction. But right-wing courts seem to be convinced that the privilege of deporting them means immigrants have basically no constitutional rights… and Trump seems to think he personally decides who gets to be a citizen… so you do the math.

      Reply
    138. 138.

      RaflW

      July 1, 2025 at 4:10 pm

      @rikyrah: This is beyond the pale. Making people stateless is insane. But our media elites will not take it seriously until one of them gets extraordinary renditioned to South Sudan, I suppose.

      Reply
    139. 139.

      prostratedragon

      July 1, 2025 at 4:11 pm

      Thread on the Florida camp:

      The President finds time to attend the “grand opening” of a new concentration camp on a Florida swamp, but not to attend the funeral of an assassinated Minnesota lawmaker

      Never forget.

      Alcatraz was a prison for people duly convicted of crimes. This thing is not that.

      Reply
    140. 140.

      jonas

      July 1, 2025 at 4:13 pm

      @Miss Bianca: Let’s see… When my time came, I would demand to be deported to either Switzerland, Finland, or New Zealand.

      Reply
    141. 141.

      Captain C

      July 1, 2025 at 4:14 pm

      @RaflW: At this point I vote for that to be Tapper, or one of the FTFNYT asslickers.

      (I mean, ideally no one at all, but…)

      Reply
    142. 142.

      zhena gogolia

      July 1, 2025 at 4:15 pm

      What happened to the fucking respite thread? I need it.

      Reply
    143. 143.

      Dave

      July 1, 2025 at 4:19 pm

      @Archon: Though I would also emphasize “incredibly predictably”.

      Which is Trump’s real super power somehow every over confident dingbat he uses and discards is convinced that it doesn’t apply to them.

      Elon is for instance after all very smart, just ask him, and definitely the protagonist so it can’t happen to him

      Reply
    144. 144.

      A Man for All Seasonings (formerly Geeno)

      July 1, 2025 at 4:20 pm

      @MazeDancer:

       Universal Waste Systems?

      Reply
    145. 145.

      WaterGirl

      July 1, 2025 at 4:21 pm

      @zhena gogolia: This one went up 2 minutes after mine, so no one was commenting on my post, so I pulled it for another time when people might actually see it.

      Reply
    146. 146.

      Miss Bianca

      July 1, 2025 at 4:21 pm

      @Captain C: The beatings deportations will continue until morale improves.

      @WaterGirl: I commented!

      Reply
    147. 147.

      Archon

      July 1, 2025 at 4:22 pm

      Nothing Trump and the Republicans have done the past six months fits with a party expecting free and fair elections in 18 months.  Who knows though, maybe they have convinced themselves a transgender winning 5th place in some high school sport nobody besides the parents of those athletes cares about will outweigh actively making life harder for 99 percent of voters.

      Reply
    148. 148.

      JaySinWa

      July 1, 2025 at 4:23 pm

      If Musk created a party would it fail like Perot’s Reform, What ever Bloomberg did, Yang’s Forward party, Kanye West, some other dude/ette, or would it fail in a new and unique manner?

      Reply
    149. 149.

      zhena gogolia

      July 1, 2025 at 4:25 pm

      I’m feeling real patriotic about the fucking 4th of July, which I hate under the best of circumstances.

      Our country elected a disgusting, orange-faced, senile, debauched, insane criminal as President of the United States. And half of the country worships him and still have their flags and signs and lights out honoring him.

      Reply
    150. 150.

      Dan B

      July 1, 2025 at 4:31 pm

      @rikyrah:  Chilling!  Our neighbor for ten years was a wonderful black guy who would not work in the North End, whiter, end of Seattle.  He was rightfully fearful of being arrested because he was not in the right neighborhood.  There are probably two percent black people in the north end but that didn’t reassure our neighbor.

      Reply
    151. 151.

      JWR

      July 1, 2025 at 4:33 pm

      @Ruckus:

      I’ve never seen a cyber truck on the road.

      I hadn’t seen one until a few days ago, but it was making a left-hand turn so I missed most of it.  Then a few nights later, on the same street and intersection, I saw it again, and OMG that ugly fugly headlight configuration!  Does Elon think that’s what a robot’s smile looks like, or what?

      Reply
    152. 152.

      HopefullyNotcassandra

      July 1, 2025 at 4:39 pm

      @Citizen Alan: slavery is terrible for economies.   We still live with the poison from ours below the Mason Dixon* line.  That poison reveals itself in higher maternal mortality, lower life expectancy, higher crime rates and lower wages.  Slavery sucks for human beings  just as Thomas Jefferson said (before he, too, succumbed to the poison).

      *Bizarre that a jolly, brilliant Quaker, Jeremiah Dixon should find his legacy as a stand-in name for the fascist antebellum south!

      Reply
    153. 153.

      HopefullyNotcassandra

      July 1, 2025 at 4:39 pm

      @JaySinWa: new and unique manner better suited for Fox false propagandizing?

      Reply
    154. 154.

      HopefullyNotcassandra

      July 1, 2025 at 4:41 pm

      @Archon: the gop mucus bubble is truly thick enough for that to be true.  Let us hope that gop mucus has not ensnared more of our neighbors.   It is insidious.

      Reply
    155. 155.

      HopefullyNotcassandra

      July 1, 2025 at 4:42 pm

      @zhena gogolia: not half.  Many of us did not vote.  Many of us never vote too.

      Reply
    156. 156.

      JBWoodford

      July 1, 2025 at 4:49 pm

      @Archon: Early in Trump’s first term, when Twitter was still the Good Bird Site, Alexandra Erin observed there that in general fascists will never show uncertainty–will never *not* act as though their victory is assured. IME that’s true, so I don’t see Trump et al’s behavior as indicative of a cunning plan. I mean, they may have a plan, but this is how they’d be acting either way.

      Reply
    157. 157.

      Geminid

      July 1, 2025 at 4:51 pm

      @comrade scotts agenda of rage: I don’t get around much and that’s the only Rivian I’ve spotted. I saw it at the Hunt Country Store, six miles west of Charlottesville.

      It was funny watching the Rivian navigate a speedbump. That driver slo-o-wly eased over it like he had a precious Ming vase in back. Must have been new.

      Reply
    158. 158.

      Splitting Image

      July 1, 2025 at 5:00 pm

      @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

      If a white woman can’t get elected president, I would be skeptical a Muslim-American could, in two years. Then again, Trump seems headed to be a bigger disaster than GW Bush, so who knows?

      I wasn’t thinking of Mamdani running for President in a couple of years, so much as what the James Carville types who have been sandbagging Mamdani are doing behind the scenes to make sure that someone like Andrew Cuomo or Joe Manchin (i.e. the most conservative white guy available) gets the nomination.

      What the Democrats need is the most progressive candidate who can win. I don’t think it will pay to think too much about what sort of person is most likely to win until people start stepping up to run.

      Remember back in 2008, the top three candidates were Obama, Clinton, and John Edwards. On paper, Edwards was obviously the most electable of the three because he was a white guy. But he had a nasty scandal waiting to be uncovered, and was probably the only one of the three who would have lost to McCain.

      Obama was the riskiest candidate but had the highest ceiling.

      Reply
    159. 159.

      Miss Bianca

      July 1, 2025 at 5:19 pm

      @Splitting Image: On the whole, I find myself wishing sometimes that Obama had waited, put in a few more years in the Senate, and that we could have had a President Hillary Clinton. But…then again, I remember what a shot in the arm he was as a candidate and what a good POTUS he was, and I can’t honestly repine.

      Reply
    160. 160.

      dnfree

      July 1, 2025 at 5:30 pm

      @Miss Bianca: Then we might never have had President Obama.  Timing is everything.  Obama discussed with his colleague Dick Durbin whether he should wait, and Durbin told him not to.

      Reply
    161. 161.

      mrmoshpotato

      July 1, 2025 at 5:40 pm

      Can’t these two assholes settle their differences with a slapfight aboard a rocket to Mars?

      Reply
    162. 162.

      Shalimar

      July 1, 2025 at 5:45 pm

      @Another Scott:

      Hard-line House conservatives have railed against the Senate’s changes to a bill that passed the House by a single vote last month…. Murkowski said she ultimately agreed to support the bill after winning concessions such as “greater flexibility” in the food stamp program and the doubling of the size of a new fund for rural hospitals. But she also said she would like to see more improvements by going to conference with the House.

      She is not this stupid.  She knows the House will make the bill worse.  She just doesn’t care now that she thinks she has avoided responsibility for her vote.

      Reply
    163. 163.

      WTFGhost

      July 1, 2025 at 7:34 pm

      @Miss Bianca: That sounds fair.

       

      @Enhanced Voting Techniques: well, even a gored ox sometimes squeals in anger.

      @Steve LaBonne: “Dear Pepperidge Farms; have you ever considered applying your techniques to the disposal of toxic waste? Please don’t laugh.”

      @Ruckus: Honestly, that’s one of the things that would suck about winning the lottery. I’d never know precisely what a friend *was* before I couldn’t even express who they *were*.

      @Soprano2: We thought about the old expression, lie down with dogs, get up with fleas, and thought better of expanding our coalition in his singular direction.

      (Okay, this is too many responses, but I think you get the spirit of things.)

      Reply
    164. 164.

      WTFGhost

      July 1, 2025 at 7:43 pm

      @HopefullyNotcassandra: Do remember, if you can point to sufficient ick, people might realize they’ve got some of that mucus on them, and start trying to extricate themselves. Remember, we’re in tariff purgatory right now – “ninety deals in ninety days,” “No one knew world trade could be so complicated. I want to just set the rate they pay, period.”

       

      @JWR: I think it’s intended to be intimidating, to which I think “Go for it, em-effer, front and side airbags, crumple zones, and my team of lawyers will literally curb stomp yours.” It really does make driving feel a bit less friendly. They should put Optimus Prime’s face on them all, to make it friendly. And emphasize how it’s, you know… well, I wouldn’t say it, but lots of people are saying, I imagine…

       

      @JaySinWa: The good news is, it might end up pulling in the fascist right, because such a small party is so easy to take over. (I believe that’s how the reform party eventually met its end… unless it’s still alive, which, whew.

       

      @WaterGirl: Ow, wow, man which totally means I might both have commented, and not have commented, which is just so trippy right now.

      I’m closing this browser window. A mild excess of THC is causing extended verbosity.

      Reply
    165. 165.

      Gloria DryGarden

      July 1, 2025 at 8:46 pm

      Naming this day July fools’ day, or senate fools’ day.

      because they recounted votes, arranged who could afford a no, arranged a tie breaker, and voted in this heinous destructive bill.

      apostrophe carefully placed, for clarity.

      Reply
    166. 166.

      Paul in KY

      July 1, 2025 at 9:33 pm

      @Belafon: Understand.

      Reply
    167. 167.

      Paul in KY

      July 1, 2025 at 9:33 pm

      @Splitting Image: Andrew Fucking Cuomo would still be miles better than the thing that infests it now.

      Reply
    168. 168.

      Paul in KY

      July 1, 2025 at 9:35 pm

      @Shakti: In a close election, as in 2016 and 2024, their numbers can be significant.

      Reply
    169. 169.

      Paul in KY

      July 1, 2025 at 9:35 pm

      @Miss Bianca: If she had ‘principles’, she’d caucus with the Dems.

      Reply
    170. 170.

      WTFGhost

      July 1, 2025 at 10:44 pm

      @Gloria DryGarden: I prefer “Jeweled Lie” for “ju- ly.”

      Reply

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