Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

I did not have this on my fuck 2025 bingo card.

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

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Fucking consultants! (of the political variety)

… gradually, and then suddenly.

Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.

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

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

This fight is for everything.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Jesus watching the most hateful people claiming to be his followers

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

The only way through is to slog through the muck one step at at time.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.”

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

Bark louder, little dog.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Friday Evening Open Thread: Big Bad News Friday Dump Day

Friday Evening Open Thread: Big Bad News Friday Dump Day

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Since either Cole or Adam will bigfoot this post immenently… here’s a place for y’all to share your opinions on today’s various scandals…

And here is the beautiful and terrible thing: even if this is right and Trump will just fully consolidate power because nobody else has the power and will to stop him, life will continue. There is no curtain that will fall to end the tale until your funeral shroud.

[image or embed]

— How Beautiful the Stars Are (@seed-corn-thoughts.bsky.social) August 1, 2025 at 4:07 PM

===

I think a lot about how JRRT, who lost most of his friends in the horror of WW1, wrote with the common theme that despair must always be resisted, no matter how seductive it may be. Aurë entuluva! Day shall come again!

— Malaclypse the Middle (@malaclypse.bsky.social) August 1, 2025 at 4:11 PM

(Sidebar: As an old-school Middle Earth nerd, I still insist Samwise Gamgee’s “In Western Lands” song should be sung to the tune of Greenselves, because c’mon.)

Reader Interactions

46Comments

  3. 3.

    sab

    1619 we ad slavery in America, white people followed. 1776 and therafeter we white people did little except ban importing more slaves. 1864 we finally had a civil war, then Reconstruction and then Jim Crow. Which we thought we had mosty beat in 1965.

    Everything in civic life in a very imperfect country takes years and years, and the pendulum swinging back and forth.

    I still don’t think we are as dreadful as we were when I was born and we were still lynching people with impunity.

    But it is disheartening to lose a generation of progress in five months.

  5. 5.

    PsiFighter37

    Just another shitty, crappy day in a country that is no longer the country it purports to be.

  7. 7.

    lowtechcyclist

    I still insist Samwise Gamgee’s “In Western Lands” song should be sung to the tune of Greenselves

    Greensleeves, perhaps? At least, that’s the WAG of my not-so-green self.

  8. 8.

    Harrison Wesley

    @sab: And sometimes it takes a long time to get anywhere. Francis Pastorius led the Germantown Protest against slavery in 1688, but it was disregarded by pretty much everybody (including his fellow Quakers).

  9. 9.

    HeleninEire

    There are a lot of people in the US who do not have a clue…about anything.  Ask them who their congressperson is…they have no clue. Ask them who the Vice President of the United States is…they have no clue.

    Ignorance is bliss.

    I am not that person. But I am now thinking I should be. This shit causes me so much stress.

    In 6 months I can retire with (probably) enough money to last me until I am dead.

    I do love America. My Mam came here when she was just 21 years old. Goddess bless her for giving me a wonderful life.

    But yeah…once again I am out.

  13. 13.

    persistentillusion

    @mrmoshpotato: Even high again, that is a movie I will never willingly re-watch. You are welcome to your enjoyment to it. Every auteur finds its own audience.

  14. 14.

    Jackie

    Did this get covered? There’s so much Breaking News going on…

    Florida Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Josh Weil announced Thursday that, due to health concerns, he is dropping out of the party primary to challenge Republican Ashley Moody next year.

    “In 2021 and 2022, I was hospitalized on multiple occasions due to a condition called Rhabdomyolysis,” Weil said in a written statement. “In the last few weeks traveling across the state, I noticed an increase in symptoms associated with my hospitalizations. After discussion with my family, I have decided to focus on my health first and foremost.”

    Rhabdomyolysis is a rare condition in which the muscles break down following an injury or excessive exercise without rest, according to the Cleveland Clinic. It can be life threatening.

    “Florida deserves a US Senator who can fight for them 100% of the time,” Weil said. “I do not wish to hold that seat if I cannot give them that 100% that they deserve. My hope is by bowing out this early in the cycle, another staunch progressive enter the race and be successful [sic]. I trust that both my run for the special election and for Senate has demonstrated to everyday working Americans that they can make a difference by running for office in their communities.”

    floridaphoenix.com/2025/07/31/health-problem-drives-democrat-josh-weil-out-of-u-s-senate-race/

    Sigh… back to the blackboard… I had hopes that Weil could be “the one” to usurp Moody.

  17. 17.

    Eric S.

    @HeleninEire: I’m born, raised, and lived my entire life in the Land Of Lincoln. All but the first 7 have been in Chicagoland. All my friends, family, and life is centered here. I’m professionally and financially successful. I’m an introvert and suffer from diagnosed and under treatment Social Anxiety.

    Still, I sometimes fantasize about an escape. I came across a video showing southern Italian properties for sale around €100,000 last night and I thought hmmmm.

  18. 18.

    RevRick

    @Harrison Wesley: The Rev. Samuel Sewell preached an anti slavery sermon based on Joseph being sold into slavery by his brothers in 1700, but Boston Puritans were a solid link in the infamous triangular trade.

  19. 19.

    Scout211

    NBC is reporting that

    Some Republican senators have expressed concern about President Donald Trump’s decision Friday to fire the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics hours after the release of the July jobs report.

    Expressing concern!

    Several Republicans told NBC News that they would take issue with the firing of Erika McEntarfer, the commissioner of the BLS, if it is the result of Trump disliking the jobs report numbers, which showed the U.S. job market in the past months has been considerably weaker than previously thought.

    Taking issue!

    Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wy., said if the data is untrustworthy, the public should find out, but firing the commissioner before knowing whether the numbers are inaccurate is “kind of impetuous.”

    Kind of impetuous!

    “If she was just fired because the president or whoever decided to fire the director just did it because they didn’t like the numbers, they ought to grow up,” Tillis said.

    They need to grow up!

    Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said she cannot trust the job numbers — and “that’s the problem.”
    “And when you fire people, then it makes people trust them even less,” she said.

    We can’t trust the numbers!

    Oh those brave, brave Senators.  Those strong words oughta make Trump shake in his boots.

  22. 22.

    RevRick

    I’m sticking around, no matter what. And if I’m fated to be shot by a firing squad as an enemy of the state, sobeit. I’ll be damned if I ever surrender to evil.

  23. 23.

    Eric S.

    @RevRick: I appreciate this and do not disagree with it. My Euro dreams pre-date the Orange Pustule. I just love their lifestyle. Needy Amin just makes me desire it more.

  26. 26.

    different-church-lady

    Raise your hand if you knew the only American institution that would stand up against fascist was the Federal Reserve.

  28. 28.

    Eric S.

    @HeleninEire: I won’t leave while my parents are on this mortal coil. I doubt I’ll leave before retirement (assuming I don’t get shit canned by the man). After those events…

  30. 30.

    Jackie

    @Scout211:

    Expressing concern!

    Taking issue!

    Kind of impetuous!

    They need to grow up!

    We can’t trust the numbers!

    Lots of furrowed brows.

  31. 31.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Eric S.: I’m an introvert and suffer from diagnosed and under treatment Social Anxiety.

    It makes it a helluva lot harder to plan and execute on any large-scale move, doesn’t it?  I feel great anxiety contemplating moving to a place I know nobody, know nothing about, even though …. well, I see, like, one person I know per week, here in SF — so what would be so different in some new place.  Sigh.

  32. 32.

    NotMax

    Because of course hey did.

    The Trump administration may have just axed the IRS Direct File program. During a summit earlier this week, IRS Commissioner Billy Long said the free tax filing service is “gone,” adding that “big beautiful Billy wiped that out,” as reported earlier by Bloomberg Law. Source

  33. 33.

    HeleninEire

    @Eric S.: Me either.  My Dad is still here (91 years old next month). In fact he was one (of may the reasons) I returned 6 years ago. But once he is gone…I’m out.

  34. 34.

    Ealbert

    @HeleninEire:

    I know that most people can’t name their congressional representative, and I recently discovered that unlike Wisconsin, where if someone runs unopposed they are on the ballot with a line below them for a write in name, Louisiana just leaves that race off the ballot. That means that Mike Johnson’s constituents not only probably don’t know that he is their representative, they haven’t voted for someone for that position in years. How easy would it be to find someone to run for that office as an independent without Johnson really being aware of it, since he really hadn’t run for office in quite a while?

  35. 35.

    Eric S.

    @Chetan Murthy: Way, way harder. I’ve got a lifetime of connections and friends and contacts in Chicago. It’s terrifying to think about leaving and starting over.

  36. 36.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Ealbert: OTOH, I remember what happened to MTG’s opponent the first time she ran: poor guy got run outta town on a metaphorical rail.

  37. 37.

    sab

    @Jackie: Yikes for your candidate. Didn’t our Washington State jackal Yutsano get something similar and almost die of it?  He seems to be mostly recovered.

  38. 38.

    Betty

    Gobsmacked to read that Trump has selected Allen Weisselberg to head up the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A joke?

  40. 40.

    Jackie

    @sab: He’s not “my candidate” as I’m a Washingtonian, myself. But I’ve been following Weil. I hope his health stays strong, and as he stressed, hopefully a STRONG DEMOCRAT steps up to the plate!

  41. 41.

    Scout211

    @Betty: Gobsmacked to read that Trump has selected Allen Weisselberg to head up the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A joke?

    Yes, a joke from George Conway.

    He posted it on X and also Threads, with this addendum:

    (Courtesy of Grok)

  44. 44.

    Marc

    @Chetan Murthy:  well, I see, like, one person I know per week, here in SF — so what would be so different in some new place.  Sigh.

    Having lived in the same house in Oakland for 30 years (not a choice I would have made on my own), I see people every day that I know to varying degrees.  None are close friends, but it is good to know there are people around who’d help out if you asked.  Not quite like my childhood neighborhood in Cambridge where there were family and close friends all around (thanks to segregation/redlining ;), a vast improvement over every place I lived from grade school days on, which all felt very much felt like being in semi-hostile territory.

  45. 45.

    Kayla Rudbek

    @Eric S.: part of me regrets not trying for Italian citizenship and going to work in the EU  (that door appears to be closed because of changes in the Italian law)

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