So my physician’s appointments went fine and I am not going to die anytime soon (unless I just drop dead or get hit by a car or something), so I suppose that’s good. My doctor is still young and the reason I am telling you that is because it means she is not dead inside yet so when I say things like “I just assume every time I come in I have cancer until you prove otherwise” or “if I do get cancer it better be the weight loss kind” it upsets her a little.
At any rate they are going to x ray my ginormous fucking head to check out my sinuses and then I am going to an allergist. I hope xrays are not priced by the square inch or I may need a gofundme.
So that is all good news, I suppose.
I see we are back to this for another try:
President Trump reposted a fake video showing former President Barack Obama being arrested in the Oval Office, as Trump administration officials continue to accuse Mr. Obama of trying to harm Mr. Trump’s campaign during the 2016 election, and the president seeks to redirect conversation from the Epstein files.
The short video, which appears to have been generated by artificial intelligence and posted on TikTok before being reposted on Mr. Trump’s Truth Social account on Sunday, comes days after the Office of the Director of National Intelligence issued the latest in a series of reports from the Trump administration trying to undermine the eight-year-old assessment that Russia favored the election of Mr. Trump.
It might work with a lot of the rubes, though, because the entire reason we have President Trump is the racist backlash from white America because we elected a black President. When you watch or read the news, if you keep in mind one of the main reasons we have Trump is white America never recovered from us electing a black President and this is our punishment, everything that is happening makes more sense. It doesn’t explain everything, but it explains a ton of it.
In other grim news:
Migrants at a Miami immigration jail were shackled with their hands tied behind their backs and made to kneel to eat food from styrofoam plates “like dogs”, according to a report published on Monday into conditions at three overcrowded south Florida facilities.
The incident at the downtown federal detention center is one of a succession of alleged abuses at lails operated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (Ice) n the state since January, chronicled by the advocacy groups Human Rights Watch, Americans for Immigrant Justice, and Sanctuary of the South from interviews with detainees.
Dozens of men had been packed into a holding cell for hours, the report said, and denied lunch until about 7pm. They remained shackled with the food on chairs in front of them.
“We had to eat like animals,” one detainee named Pedro said.
Degrading treatment by guards is commonplace in all three jails, the groups say. At the Krome North service processing center in west Miami, female detainees were made to use toilets in full view of men being held there, and were denied access to gender-appropriate care, showers or adequate food.
Remember, this is obviously horrible, but this is by DESIGN. This is working as intended for these SS fucks in DC. Alligator Alcatraz exists solely to brutalize brown people inside it, terrorize those outside, and serve as a vehicle for graft, bribery, and embezzlement for friendly and connected contractors. It serves no other purpose, as we know the people in there are not violent offenders.
Just all around great work fiscal conservatives:
President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” which he signed into law this month, will add $3.4 trillion to the U.S. national debt over the next decade, according to a report the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office published Monday.
The report found that the law, which Republicans passed along party lines, will also “increase by 10 million the number of people without health insurance” by 2034.
The budget office scrutinized the final version of the bill after Republicans made a series of last-minute changes to cobble together the votes needed in the Senate; it passed 51-50. That revised version subsequently passed the House on a vote of 218-214. Trump enacted it on July 4.
The package extends Trump’s 2017 tax cuts while providing tax deductions for tips and overtime pay for the next four years. It includes hundreds of billions of dollars in new spending for the military and to carry out Trump’s mass deportation agenda. And it pays for some of that with cuts to Medicaid, SNAP benefits (which help low-income families purchase groceries) and clean energy funding.
Some days it is really fucking hard to figure out which part of the Trump coalition is the bigger bunch of frauds? The evangelicals and all their phony bullshit, or the fiscal conservatives. It’s a fucking coin toss either way.
That’s it for me. Currently watching some new Eric Bana limited series about a murder in Yosemite. Had to quit Riviera- I have no idea what is going on but there with these big plot leaps between episode three and four of the second season. Like what is she doing with some guy in France who I have never seen before and I just said fuck this and moved on with my life.
I’m old. I’ve seen enough shark jumping to know it when I see it.
Be cool.
hells littlest angel
If they’re degrading and dehumanizing prisoners to that degree over the course of just a few weeks, these guards will be ready for extermination duties in no time.
Alligator Auschwitz indeed.
SpaceUnit
Sometimes I just have to tune this shit out and go to La-La Land.
Having trump in the WH is like having some attention-seeking weirdo degenerate in your neighborhood who rings your doorbell a dozen times a day. And when you open the door he’s out in the lawn or the street committing some disgusting and obscene act. He’s taking a shit or fucking a goat and he wants you to see it. He wants it to make you sick.
And the cops won’t do anything and so at some point you just take a break from answering the doorbell. You know it’s him. He’s out there doing something awful. But sometimes you gotta take a break.
Eunicecycle
It sounds like we are seeing the reenactment of the Stanford Prison experiment, in real life.
They Call Me Noni
Got to the “made to eat from styrafoam plates like dogs” and started crying. Just can’t right now.
gene108
I think people have to be in pretty good overall physical health to be overly paranoid about their health to think everything’s cancer or joke about it.
Basically, there’s no chronic condition that has some basic bodily function permanently out of whack.
Eunicecycle
@SpaceUnit: that’s a great analogy. And it wears me out.
Splitting Image
The only people in the Republican coalition who aren’t frauds are the billionaires who are in it for their tax cuts, the child molesters and rapists who want the government to protect them from any nasty consequences for what they are doing, and the hardcore Nazis like Stephen Miller who will straight up admit that it’s all about white supremacy.
Everybody else who voted for Trump is making nice to all three of those groups either because they are pretending to care about something that is not a real problem or pretending that electing Donald Trump is a necessary step to solving a real problem.
Baud
Let’s hope this is true
gene108
The terrifying thing is so many Americans feel these terrible conditions are what’s good about ICE concentration camps, or they aren’t cruel enough.
Reminds of the “tough on crime” crowd, back in the 1980’s, that brushed aside complaints about inhumane conditions due to overcrowded prisons. Some people still think all forms of detention should involve torture.
We’re a country full of sadists.
Old Dan and Little Ann
Big Yankees- Toronto Blue Jays series started tonight. I was hoping to get to a game but finances. I was also slightly nervous about getting disappeared when trying to re-enter the U.S.
KrackenJack
Speaking as someone who’s had enough abdominal images to make a full-length movie.
It’s okay if they switch the x-ray machine in to panorama mode. It’s bad news if they refer you to the IMAX imaging center.
Sister Golden Bear
A little mood music for your next visit.
🎵 Everything gives you cancer
There’s no cure, there’s no answer
Everything gives you cancer 🎶
UncleEbeneezer
@Baud: They reject it in a poll. Sadly that means very little as far as actual vote-counting goes.
UncleEbeneezer
Also too, they truly believed that
the b*tchHillary was gonna win and they were tired of all these advances women (and LGBTQ People) had made over the past fifty years.Trivia Man
Alligator Auschwitz
eta Hells Littlest Angel got there first. I refuse to use their framing.
WTFGhost
@gene108: We are a country full of bullies who will be sadists if given the opportunity. That’s what slavery taught us – some people were born to be slavedrivers, and those people should probably be identified, and neutralized ASAP. (No slaves = no need for slave drivers. They can find another job.)
If you took someone who hated immigrants, and you showed them a real, live, picture of 32 men in a cage built for 8, shackled and having to eat like dogs, that person would probably be sick and say “this is a lie! Trump wouldn’t do this!!!”
Because that person hasn’t depersonalized migrants – he still sees “men and women” in those cages – he doesn’t see “slaves” in those cages.
Now, the problem is, we’re (I hate using that word, but it’s true) WE ARE training sadists to be sadistic prison camp guards, and moving people from sadistic prison camp guards to SS troopers is the next step. You don’t just want them to torture helpless people – you want them taking down any threat whatsoever!
No – most people in this country do not approve, and would not approve, but, yes… if we took 10 red staters, and offered them prison camp guard jobs, they might take them, and might start to enjoy the torture. It’s that, or get so sick of it that you lose your job, right?
How many would storm out in a rage, and refuse to harm innocent other people? Beats me; as a child, I thought “all ten, if only we could *explain* to them!” but I’m not that child any longer, I’m the child who got spit on by a bunch of kids at a public pool… twice! So I know about people loving to humiliate.
I also know that most people, raised right, and given the choice, would rather do right, than not. They might believe stupid evil thoughts, but, they’re not stupid evil people.
My humble opinion, and a bargain at half the price!
lowtechcyclist
@KrackenJack:
At first I read that as ‘paranormal mode’ 😁
HeleninEire
Lots of people in my family have died of cancer. Many very young. So here’s how I manage my cancer stress. I go for my mammogram and to the gynecologist the same week every year. For the week before, and for the 2 weeks after, when I am waiting for results, I let myself stress. When I get the thumbs up, I put it out of my mind until the next year.
I can actually do it…which is remarkable because I’m a big worrier. But I’ve been doing this for so long (45 years easily), it works.
Also…fuck Trump. He is just the nuttiest.
mrmoshpotato
Fuck Dump. Fuck the GOP. Fuck ICE. Fuck DHS. Bunch of barbaric, fascist piles of shit.
Glad to hear you’re in good health and getting a melon xray for your sinus issues.
I watched all 6 episodes of Untamed yesterday. Enjoy.
Time for baseball.
mrmoshpotato
@KrackenJack:
LOL!
NotMax
Profiles in stupid.
Tuberville says Trump’s health issues exacerbated by ‘fighting the radicals’.
Baud
@NotMax:
Yay radicals!
WTFGhost
Well… you’re violating expectations when you say those things, and that breaks a brain, which causes at least a moment of confusion, and, it should evince worry from a doctor.
My worry – which I’ll keep short – is that dark humor, for me, comes from a bit of a fatalistic place, and, while fatalism is indicated in the short term, it’s not indicated in the long term (not until you get some Walter White style cancer diagnosis, at least). You just like dark humor? Good for you; next time I see you, I’ll buy you the best birch beer they have on tap, and say I hope you like your humor this dark.
(Too few taverns carry birch beer any more.)
But sometimes, dark humor means there’s something dark inside. Like, for me, the reason I was cranky all the time, was, I was in pain. So: I’d want your doc stopping, and thinking “what darkness could I have missed? Thyroid? No… heart? no… endocrine? no… Depression? No…”
Because I had too many docs who just said “there’s nothing wrong with you!” when I knew exercise would knock me out for several days. (Yet, still didn’t know I was in constant pain. Pain can be *weird*!!!)
Anyway: docs should stop, and think, and yes, the younger ones will take time to deaden up, but remind them that you’re joking, somewhat, okay? I don’t tell my doctors I’m feeling suicidal. I say I’m on grenade watch, I want some Republican or other evil person to throw a grenade so I can die saving others! They appreciate the dark humor, where I say “I’m not trying to die, but, no promises, once the grenade’s on the ground.” For you, it might not be a depression-thing, it might just be a dark humor thing, “no, I’m just expecting my body might be holding back some dirty trick it wants to play.”
Anyways, I’ll wander off now.
kindness
The biggest frauds…Evangelicals or ‘fiscal conservatives’? To me they are a perfect little circle jerk cult and we all can see they are loving it.
Sure Lurkalot
Tell it, Hunter.
Booger
@Baud: Free Radicals!!
MattF
Some sorta positive news. The ex-policeman who was part of the raid that killed Breonna Taylor was sentenced to 33 months in prison, rather than the one day recommended by the (so-called) Justice Department.
HeleninEire
@HeleninEire: And one of my biggest flaws is that I can’t do the same with politics. I wish I could but I feel obligated to know what is going on.
I need to fix that.
WTFGhost
@NotMax: Some day, a la damn.
There’s a movie that made fun of “Duck and Cover” and other useless drills for trying to survive an atom bomb.
Some day, like that movie, we’ll have clips of Tuberville for the stoned and the drunk to laugh at, lord willing and the creek don’t rise.
ETA: worst part is, I thought “nuclear diner” and found a bunch more about Cheryl Rofer than I’d known when she was posting here (laughs at self)
ETA-sub-2: I think it was “The Nuclear Cafe,” and, if so, I feel much better for searching on “diner”.
zhena gogolia
@SpaceUnit: Good description.
NotMax
@Trivia Man
It’s the new AI.
Alligator Incarceration.
//
comrade scotts agenda of rage
The lesson of the Holocaust was not that the Nazis were uniquely evil.
The lesson was that anyone can become a Nazi.
We are witnessing this with America right now.
A good overview on ‘state terror’:
snyder.substack.com/p/state-terror
NotMax
@comrade scotts agenda of rage
May be time to mention it again.
Won’t be new info to most of us but a good, concise primer to share with the less enlightened which might as well be called Dictator 101.
frosty
@HeleninEire: I just did my internet research and I’m going to sign up for Postcards4VA. I’m pretty much done with canvassing; it’s not a good job for an introvert. I bought 1,000 postcards from Stone Maven Designs to cover the next few elections.It makes me feel better to do something … anything!
ETA in the meantime I continue to read too much, including ALL the comments on Balloon-Juice. To quote a friend from many years ago: “I must have rocks in my head!”
trollhattan
@Baud:
Set the radicals free.
NeenerNeener
Yeah, John, the first season of Riviera was good, the second season made almost no sense at all.
MagdaInBlack
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I am currently reading Timothy Snyder’s ” The Road to Unfreedom” which is about how we got here. Putin, propaganda, all the fun stuff.
Princess
Maybe already covered but I just read that House Republicans have shut down the Rules committee and thus all the legislation they planned to do before break to prevent the Dems from bringing a resolution on Epstein to the floor.
Wow, this has them really scared.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@NotMax:
To Tuberville: Are the “radicals” in the room with us right now, Senator?
Martin
Just got back from a weekend trip. Never seen this much corn being grown in California. Corn is the crop of last resort here – it pays very little, but requires almost no labor and there’s always some demand. It’ll cover your bills and that’s about it. If you don’t think you can get farm labor, you plant corn.
Shout out too to the billboard on the 5 telling us that “SeaWorld sexually assaults their dolphins. Don’t visit.” Quite the standout against the endless parade of lawyers with easy to remember 1-800 numbers.
E.
I would like to take this moment when we are talking about doctors to say, those of you depending on your doctor to help you make appropriate end-of-life care, double check that while there is still plenty of time. My father’s doctor of 22 years dragged his feet on Oregon’s Death With Dignity paperwork till dad starved himself to death and it was a particularly awful process for him and the family. Worse because unnecessary. I have spent the last two weeks caring for him while he begged me to kill him and I am upset about it.
Nukular Biskits
I know Cole doesn ‘t like emojis but that truly made me 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
WTFGhost
Something has been fucked up with me all day today, and I finally figured out what it is.
When I’m wide awake, I feel… conversational. Like, if I were in customer service, I’d as the customer how their day was going, and chat with them about gardening for a moment if that’s what they wanted to babble forth. (I know nothing about gardening, and I’d still be willing to let them babble forth their joy. That’s the kind of day I’m having.)
I’d say “I don’t like it,” because that’s what every misanthrope is supposed to say in a situation like this, amiright? But that’s not true. I don’t *trust* it. Last time I felt remotely normal, I went crazy for three days, remained mostly crazy for several weeks, and some asshole doctor said I was an alcoholic.
(I’m not – I’m addicted to not being in extreme pain, that nothing else alleviates. Fix the pain, I’ll stop drinking, except the occasional sip of fine whiskey, or wine with a meal. Also, the doctor lied in the chart. Note to self: time to get sworn affidavits that show the doctor just made shit up.)
Fuck. I can remember how to spell affidavit. That’s not supposed to happen either – I’m supposed to keep starting it like “affably,” not remember it’s “affi”. Do you know how annoying this is?
It’s like, today, I might have a beautiful, wonderful thought, and want to share it with the whole wide world, and then… tomorrow I can’t talk any more.
Remember how I said, earlier today, I sometimes rage too much for other people to see? (Did I actually say that? Did it survive?) Imma go do that now, far out of sight of you people who think rage is abnormal, because you *should* feel that level of rage is crazy, if you’ve never experienced it yourself.
JWR
@hells littlest angel:
Hey wait! Do you mean to tell me there’s some truth to those, “They are installing incinerators at Alligator Alcatraz!“, stories after all?! ;)
Sure Lurkalot
According to Wikipedia, the US is 5th in the world in terms of incarceration rate per 100,000, behind El Salvador, Cuba, Rwanda and Turkmenistan. Number one for number of incarcerated.
Despite the fact violent and property crime rates have decreased significantly since the 90’s.
The land of the free loves its jails, has for a very long time long time.
Probably too radical lefty to propose prison or sentencing reform though. Don’t want to be seen as “soft on crime”, especially when we have tens of millions of violent immigrant criminals to be rounded up and tortured.
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax: Boo hoo, Dump! Boo hoo!
Archon
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I understand how and why fascism can be appealing with hyperinflation or at 33 percent unemployment. I didn’t get the idea that people would vote for a tear down of the system at 4 percent unemployment and 3 percent inflation,
Math Guy
@E.: So sorry you and your dad and family had to go through that.
HeleninEire
@frosty: Yeah. I read everything on Balloon Juice. I don’t really comment as much I used to. That’s because I’m often way behind on the threads and so many people here are way smarter than me.
Mr. Bemused Senior
John, a friendly word of advice: you do not want to be on the cancer chemotherapy weight loss diet.
trollhattan
@HeleninEire:
I promise to not present that particular problem.
Baud
Baud
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Isn’t Timothy Snyder the one who went to Canada, recently?
On a similar note, is it just me, or are a lot of foreign governments/our allies seemingly burying their heads in the sand about what’s happening here? I remember reading that the EU was blowing it’s chance to assert itself as a global power, with many members’ defense ministers sucking up to Trump around the Iran strikes. Then there was that “Daddy” shit from the NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. I don’t get it.
What’s happening to Trans people, for example, is clearly a genocide imo, and yet a trans American applying for asylum would likely be denied because the US is “safe by global standards” according to other nations. You’d have to be literally being thrown in prison for being trans or gay, etc like they do in some African states. Even the end of same-sex marriage wouldn’t be enough to qualify, so I’ve read
The more I’ve looked into immigration to other nations, the more it seems like it’s designed to throw up walls and keep “undesirables” out
ETA:
Does anybody see this same thing? Or has not enough time passed yet for foreign governments to react?
Math Guy
@Baud: Well said.
frosty
LOL BS. If everyone felt like that there wouldn’t be any comments! Just figure you’ve got a different perspective and that’s all that matters. Queens! Dublin!
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Baud:
I guess the Admin didn’t get what they wanted, so now are calling it quits
Suzanne
You’re right, that’s a really tough call.
I hope that they hate shitlib basic wine moms the most. I’m trying!
Archon
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): The problem is everybody except Russia, China and apparently some Americans recognize a world without American hegemony is worse in pretty much every way. If you believe that it’s better to try to placate Trump, ride it out and pray Americans come to their senses than actively try to come up with a new, much worse system.
Princess
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Why do you expect foreign governments to save the US from the mess it made for itself? They’re busy trying to save themselves and that includes lying to and flattering your dear leader to get him to back down from willfully destroying their economies.
Jeffro
Dems at all levels would do well to campaign on prosecuting and imprisioning every single trumpov “official” who is breaking the law – whether that means kidnapping people, skimming/stealing from the Treasury, manipulating the stock market, or helping trumpov cover up the Epstein files.
oh, and taxing billionaires JUST BECAUSE
that’s it, that’s all you need. Heads on pikes and making the rich pony up for once.
CapnMubbers
@frosty: I remember your plaintive wail late at night some years ago:
…must…read…every…comment…
while holding my eyelids open to finish every single word…
Jeffro
why…it’s almost like about 40% of Americans are living in some sort of North Korean-style ‘bubble’ of disinformation, or something…
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Princess:
Vulnerable populations like trans people are in danger in the US. I expect foreign governments that supposedly care about human rights to do everything in their power to help them if they can. Trans and other queer people were some of the first to go to the concentration camps in Nazi Germany. Many trans/queer people are also disabled and tend to be poor
ETA: Not everyone here in America voted for or supports Trump, LGBT+ folks in particular. Do they deserve to suffer? Do innocents like children, migrants, etc deserve to suffer?
NeenerNeener
deleted
Old Dan and Little Ann
I just saw a meme on the book of faces regarding the new name of Washington’s football team. The Washington Epstein Files.
Ramona
@NotMax: Poor widdle babeee! Wah! Wah! Wah!
prostratedragon
Historian Andrea Pitzer 🧵:
Trivia Man
@frosty: that’s the beauty of diversity – we need a variety of backgrounds to get the best outcomes.
HeleninEire
@frosty: 😆 Thanks!
HeleninEire
@trollhattan: 😆 Thanks
Ramona
@E.: I am so, so very sorry that this awful thing is happening to you!
Sure Lurkalot
@E.: I am so sorry for your loss.
Eolirin
@HeleninEire: Nah, we’re just faking it :P
Marc
I’m one of the few who managed to gain weight on chemo, for some reason I had the munchies the entire time.
prostratedragon
@Princess: It must be the money. Though in 🤡’s case, also the sex.
Ryan
https://balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/protest-sign-ICE-needs-you-450×600.jpg
Fuck yeah America.
Chacal Charles Calthrop
@Splitting Image: this
Eolirin
@E.: I am so so sorry for your loss and the nature of it.
Martin
@Archon: I don’t think the economic specifics matter. When you have hyperinflation, you have a populace that doesn’t understand what to do or why it’s happening. The financial crisis had that effect on a lot of people. So did Covid. So do a lot of other stuff.
TS
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Foreign governments are like the people that live in those countries – most cannot believe that people knowingly elected trump. Throw some blame around at home as you will but those of us living elsewhere are trying to sort out how to survive the new world order and are still in utter disbelief over trump blowing up trade, immigration and every treaty the US ever signed, not to mention the lack of human rights that is seen more and more every day. There is zero trust in trump but each government has to work out how to handle that and generate some type of relationship with the US (or not) assuming trump seems to have the 3 branches of government under his control, so nothing will change in the short term.
It was always the point of US exceptionalism that the US was always right & anyone against them was wrong. To blame other countries for the mess of the US seems to be continuing that belief.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@TS:
I don’t believe in American exceptionalism.
Are you saying I’m blaming what’s happening in the US on other countries? I don’t see how I’m doing that.
I do think they could be doing more to help vulnerable populations in the US like Trans people, who are literally facing a genocide, by granting asylum. I think it’s a moral imperative of all good people everywhere to help others if it’s within their power to do so. Other governments have agency
ETA: Trump/MAGA is just the American version of what’s been a global trend of a rising far-right. Elections from the past few years is proof of that. If Trump wasn’t such an asshole, you’d have a Liberal (right-wing) coalition government in Australia right now
Ruckus
Some days it is really fucking hard to figure out which part of the Trump coalition is the bigger bunch of frauds? The evangelicals and all their phony bullshit, or the fiscal conservatives. It’s a fucking coin toss either way.
ALL OF IT. Every damn word.
TS
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
The point being that trump is such an asshole – and if he wasn’t the US wouldn’t be facing the horrors of his administration. Our opposition leader was a trump fan – it certainly didn’t help his cause – if he had been your usual LNP leader he may have been elected.
The world has voiced their views on trump many times in many ways. Australia is seeking trade partners well away from trump’s tariffs. It is so hard to believe that we are finding it easier to deal with China than with the USA. But that is where we are. It took a world war to get rid of Hitler, do you want the rest of the world to be at war with the USA or can things be changed in a different way? Many countries are trying to find another path.
Betty
@Sure Lurkalot: Some people online are saying Hunter is a jerk who shouldn’t be talking. I don’t know about that, but his whole interview is cathartic. Someone going scorched earth on those who deserve it.
BellyCat
Agree. Nothing like the hunted becoming the Hunter!
ArchPundit
I so feel John’s comment about his younger physician getting concerned by such statements. I think Kennedy broke mine to where I’m even getting her to develop a slightly dark sense of humor.