Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

’Where will you hide, Roberts, the laws all being flat?’

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

Stay strong, because they are weak.

Finding joy where we can, and muddling through where we can’t.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

Too little, too late, ftfnyt. fuck all the way off.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

Hot air and ill-informed banter

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

White supremacy is terrorism.

Wednesday Morning Open Thread

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“Girls Just Want to Have Fun” peaks at #2 today in ‘84
“We got every racial group of girl—mixed, Spanish, white, black, Asian,” said Lauper, “so that every little girl who looked at that video would .. understand that every young woman, older woman, every person is entitled to a joyful experience.”

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— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla.bsky.social) March 10, 2026 at 2:12 PM

Schumer on the SAVE America Act: "It is not about showing ID when you show up to vote. It's about the voter registration rolls, destroying them, purging them, not letting people know, and taking the rights in an algorithm but together by DOGE and Musk — it's an outrage"

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) March 10, 2026 at 3:23 PM

I just left another briefing on Iran.
Here's the only part of Trump's plan that is clear to me:
He won't spare a cent for the 15 million Americans who will lose their health care, but he'll spend a billion dollars a day bombing Iran.

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— Elizabeth Warren (@warren.senate.gov) March 10, 2026 at 2:05 PM

Trump has spent more in 10 days on his reckless war in Iran than America spends in two years on community health centers providing medical care for low-income and uninsured Americans.
Our priorities are out of whack in this country.

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— Rep. Jim McGovern (@repmcgovern.bsky.social) March 10, 2026 at 9:46 PM

Then those people are idiots.

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— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec.bsky.social) March 10, 2026 at 6:10 PM

Freedom’s just another word for Repubs are gonna lose..

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— Dana Houle (@danahoule.bsky.social) March 11, 2026 at 12:14 AM

I am sure this will only reinforce his sense of white victimhood.

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— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec.bsky.social) March 10, 2026 at 6:55 PM

when Olaudah Equiano was 11 he was kidnapped out of coastal Africa and sent into slavery, he bought himself as an adult and settled in UK, he spent the rest of his life fighting to abolish slavery, though he didn't live to see it, his book was key in the passage of a bill banning the salve trade

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— Henry (@henrythedog.bsky.social) March 10, 2026 at 5:32 PM

Harvey Milk spoke of the need for Hope, that you cannot live on hope alone but without it life is not worth living.
Dr. King said he might not live to see the promised land but he had seen it
Equiano didn't live to see the fruits of his work, but he built a better world he never got to see.

— Henry (@henrythedog.bsky.social) March 10, 2026 at 5:32 PM

Wednesday Morning Open ThreadPost + Comments (77)

Plagues & Pandemics Update – March 11, 2026

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MRSA, if you're listening,

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— post malone ergo propter malone (@proptermalone.bsky.social) March 10, 2026 at 1:59 PM


(Yes, there were also many snarky comments about how, out of respect for his beliefs, his surgeons would not wash their hands; that the anesthesiologists would give him a strip of leather to chew instead of some hard-to-pronounce chemical vapor; and expressing surprise that he’d chosen surgery instead of an intense course of beef tallow & raw milk… )

USA: Epidemic trend summary: Mar 6, 2026
COVID-19
As of March 3, 2026:
🔹2 states have COVID-19 infections growing or likely growing
🔹35 state has infections declining or likely declining
🔹10 states show no change
Source: cdc.gov/cfa-modeling…

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— Denis – The COVID Info Guy (@thecovidinfoguy.bsky.social) March 9, 2026 at 6:04 PM

Influenza
As of March 3, 2026:
🔹5 states have Influenza infections growing or likely growing
🔹31 states has infections declining or likely declining
🔹12 states show no change
Source: cdc.gov/cfa-modeling…

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— Denis – The COVID Info Guy (@thecovidinfoguy.bsky.social) March 9, 2026 at 6:04 PM

RSV
As of March 3, 2026:
🔹13 states have RSV infections growing or likely growing
🔹19 states has infections declining or likely declining
🔹16 states shows no change
Souce: cdc.gov/cfa-modeling…

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— Denis – The COVID Info Guy (@thecovidinfoguy.bsky.social) March 9, 2026 at 6:04 PM

Recent pandemic viruses, including #SAR-CoV-2, spread directly to people without adaptation, researchers say
The findings provide further evidence against the COVID-19 lab-leak hypothesis.
www.cidrap.umn.edu/c…

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— CIDRAP (@cidrap.bsky.social) March 10, 2026 at 2:37 PM

Up to 56,000 people died from COVID-19 or RSV last year
Respiratory syncytial virus was associated with 190,000 to 350,000 hospitalizations from July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2025, as well as 10,000 to 23,000 deaths, according to data published by the CDC.
www.cidrap.umn.edu/c…

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— CIDRAP (@cidrap.bsky.social) March 4, 2026 at 9:15 AM

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On The Road – Elma – International Garden Tour Part 2

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Elma

The second installment of the International Garden Tour is in South Africa in 2013. My African safari began and ended in South Africa, with visits in between to Botswana and Zimbabwe. The last stop before our very long flight home was a few days in Cape Town which included a visit to the Kristenbosch National Botanical Garden.

On The Road - Elma - International Garden Tour Part 2 9
Cape Town SA

The Kristenbosch is a World Heritage Site, established in 1913 as the first indigenous botanical garden. It is part of the Cape Floristic Region, the smallest of the six recognized floral kingdoms of the world, an area of extraordinarily diversity.

On The Road – Elma – International Garden Tour Part 2Post + Comments (2)

War for Ukraine Day 1,475: If You Look Around the Table & Can’t Tell Who the Mark Is, You’re the Mark

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Once again Trump and his team, which I’ve decided to start calling Team Clown Shoes, has told on themselves:

QUINTANILLA: Do we think the Russians have shared intel about US military assets, and if so, why would we be giving waivers on oil sanctions?

WITKOFF: I can tell you that on the call with POTUS, the Russians said they have not been sharing. That’s what they said. We can take them at their word.

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) March 10, 2026 at 12:08 PM

It is important to remember that a significant portion of Witkoff’s wealth comes from doing business with Russian oligarchs and organized crime leaders investing in the retail properties he develops. Just as Jared’s and his family’s, as well as Trump’s, is from Russian oligarchs and organized crime members using their purchases of Kushner and/or Trump properties to launder their money, as well as to have their wives, mistresses, and girlfriends live in while pregnant so their children are born in the US so they’re US citizens. Kushner’s family’s companies actually market not just to wealthy Russians using this as a perq of buying one of their properties, they do the same thing with wealthy Chinese citizens. All while Trump rails against birthright citizenship.

Remember as I covered last week, Witkoff, Kushner, and whomever works for them refused to read the documents the Iranians prepared for them in English to ensure that there would be no confusion or misunderstanding during negotiation because reading three to five pages of bullet point was too hard and too much to read. Today we found out from new reporting that these geniuses didn’t understand the intelligence and information they were given about Iran’s nuclear program and went right to the Iranians were driving quickly towards building an viable functional nuclear weapon. From MSNow:

The Trump administration has cited Iran’s Tehran Research Reactor as a central justification for its military strikes, but has provided no evidence that the facility — built by the United States and used for civilian research for nearly six decades — was being used to develop nuclear weapons. Multiple nuclear scientists and nonproliferation experts told MS NOW that the reactor does not have the  capacity to serve as an easy conduit to a bomb as asserted by the administration.

The gap between the administration’s numerous claims about Iran and the available evidence has become a focal point of criticism as questions mount over the decision to launch strikes rather than continue negotiations.

Just 36 hours before the United States opened its military assault, Iran’s nuclear negotiators, along with Oman’s foreign minister as mediator, presented the U.S. with a seven-page proposal for a potential nuclear deal, according to U.S. negotiator Steve Witkoff. But the American negotiators, Witkoff and Jared Kushner — who, according to a senior Middle East diplomat with knowledge of the talks, chose not to include nuclear technical experts in the negotiations — balked at Iran’s request to continue using 20%-enriched uranium at the reactor, a facility for civilian nuclear development that the U.S. first built and provided to Iran in 1967.

“The [International Atomic Energy Agency] had evidence that they were stockpiling there and they had enough fuel to run TRR for the next seven or eight years without any additional fuel being delivered,” Witkoff said on “The Mark Levin Show.” “They were stockpiling again at the 20% level.”

Witkoff alleged that the International Atomic Energy Agency director general, Rafael Grossi, who was a part of the final round of talks just before the military incursion, told Iran that it had stopped “burning anything” at the reactor and, instead, claimed that “all of the fuel is stockpiled.” Witkoff said it was their “‘Perry Mason’ moment.”

“This is spin, it just isn’t true, and the conversation that did take place with Director General Grossi present has been taken completely out of context by Mr. Witkoff,” a Persian Gulf diplomat who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive deliberations said in response to the claim.

Several nuclear experts who spoke to MS NOW questioned the extent to which Witkoff and Kushner — who led the nuclear negotiations and described the Iranian position to Trump — understood the technical details of the enrichment programs at the heart of the deliberations.

Elena Sokova, the executive director of the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation, called the administration’s assessments of the Tehran Research Reactor “confusing and misleading” and riddled with “technical errors.”

“It mixes up different elements of the nuclear program and their potential proliferation capabilities,” Sokova said. “Research reactors are not capable of doing enrichment of uranium, whether for civil or military purposes.”

Witkoff and Kushner did not bring technical experts from the U.S. to sit in on their talks in Geneva, according to a senior Middle East diplomat with knowledge of the talks, and the White House opted to forgo scheduled technical talks set for this past Monday in Vienna, where more detailed nuclear details were expected to be addressed.

More at the link.

Speaking of Team Clown Shoes:

For ordinary civilians who don’t follow the news closely, modern drone warfare might seem new and unreal.

But officials, who have access to all the intelligence and whose duty was to plan an attack on Iran, have no excuse.

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— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) March 10, 2026 at 2:39 PM

> Ukrainians had to make a PowerPoint presentation for US officials to articulate the threat of Iranian drones, Americans dismissed it as just “Ukrainian things” but then their 2 collective neurons finally connected after a shahed above a US military base

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— Mira of Kyiv 🇺🇦 (@reshetz.bsky.social) March 10, 2026 at 6:32 PM

“Three Ukrainian teams have departed for Qatar, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia, and their arrival is expected later this week.” – Zelenskyy.

— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) March 10, 2026 at 12:53 PM

Despite the inanity, the Ukrainians are on their way to help. As President Zelenskyy detailed in his address today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.

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War for Ukraine Day 1,475: If You Look Around the Table & Can’t Tell Who the Mark Is, You’re the MarkPost + Comments (20)

Tuesday Night Open Thread

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It feels like Friday. Let’s check in on the shitshow murderfest in Iran:

The U.S. Navy has refused near-daily requests from the shipping industry for military escorts through the Strait of Hormuz since the start of the war on Iran, saying the risk of attacks is too high for now, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The Navy’s assessments spell continued disruption to Middle East oil exports and reflect a divergence from President Donald Trump’s statements that the U.S. is prepared to provide naval escorts whenever needed to restart regular shipments along the key waterway.

Shipping along the narrow strait has all but halted since the start of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran more than a week ago, preventing exports of around a fifth of the world’s oil supply and sending global oil prices surging to highs not seen since 2022.

Ehh, no big deal. Trump says it will be all over soon and the markets could agree. I wonder how Iran feels about things:

Iran has begun laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important energy chokepoint that carries about one-fifth of all crude oil, according to two people familiar with US intelligence reporting on the issue.

The mining is not extensive yet, with a few dozen having been laid in recent days, the sources said. But Iran still retains upward of 80% to 90% of its small boats and mine layers, one of the sources said, so its forces could feasibly lay hundreds of mines in the waterway.

Just a flesh wound. Meanwhile, the strikes from the US and Israel continue in Iran and are on going as we speak, and Israel blasted Beirut for shits and giggles. So that’s all going great.

***

I forgot Congress can actually legislate:

The Senate is moving toward passing the most significant housing legislation in a generation, grasping for a rare bipartisan deal in a Congress deeply divided ahead of midterm elections where the majority is at stake.

The package of bills, which aims to make it easier to build and finance new housing and bolster existing federal assistance programs, has quietly advanced even as lawmakers clash over other issues, including President Trump’s immigration enforcement tactics and the war in Iran.

The progress of the White House-backed package has been all the more surprising because it would tackle a critical cost-of-living issue at a time when Democrats have made it clear they plan to try to weaponize Americans’ economic stress in their campaigns against Republicans as they push to win control of Congress. So far, Democrats appear to have calculated that they do not want to be seen as standing in the way of enacting what could be the only significant legislation to address affordability ahead of the November balloting, wary of opening themselves to Republican attacks that they are not sincere about addressing the issue.

But fresh obstacles have emerged in recent days. Mr. Trump has declared that he will not sign any legislation until Congress delivers him a voter ID bill that has stalled in the Senate, making it clear that the housing measure is not his top priority. And Republicans have begun feuding among themselves over what should be in the final bill, including whether to include a provision to ban the creation of a federal cryptocurrency, complicating the legislation’s chances of clearing Congress at all.

Have any of you been following this?

***

Joelle just got home from work so I am going to go hassle her. I am really enjoying the new Young Sherlock series on Amazon Prime- I don’t care what people say, I love the Guy Ritchie style. It’s always fun.

*** Update ***

Two quick bird stories. I was sitting outside watching the birds (I feed them this time very night) and some bird swooped down, grab a finch off the cinderblock fence (it screamed) and took off carrying the dead bird like the eagles carried frodo off the top of Mt. Doom and landed on my neighbor’s roof while I stood up and screamed “hey hey hey put that down.” It never relinquished it’s grip, rested a bit and took off.

It happened so fast I did not get a good look at it and had my sunglasses on and got no real good look at it, but it was a wild thing to witness. It was not that big of a bird, either.

Somewhat relatedly, I may be overfeeding my birds and making them targets of opportunity:

Tuesday Night Open Thread 29

Can birds get diabeetus?

Tuesday Night Open ThreadPost + Comments (141)

DHS Open Thread: Backtrack!… BACKTRACK!

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"WH encourages Republicans to go ahead and try to close the barn doors a few months after the horses went out"

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— Daniel Gilmore (@gilmored85.bsky.social) March 10, 2026 at 3:16 PM

It's hard to say. Detention numbers are down significantly. We can't say exactly why for now (I have theories, as do others) but if the Homan/Lyons wing has convinced the White House that the Miller/Noem mass deportation pushes were bad politics, they may have finally found the brake pedal.

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— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social) March 10, 2026 at 3:03 PM

They won’t stop trying to do mass deportations, but it’s becoming increasingly obvious that talking about mass deportations is not nearly as popular as Stephen Miller assured them it would be. Blair is Susie Wiles’ underhenchman:

DORAL, FL — White House Deputy Chief of Staff James Blair privately urged House Republicans on Tuesday to stop emphasizing “mass deportations” and instead focus their messaging on removing violent criminals, according to sources in the closed-door briefing.

Why it matters: Mass deportations were central to the GOP’s 2024 campaign message.
– Nearly half — 49% — of Americans say Trump’s mass deportation campaign is too aggressive, including 1 in 5 voters who backed the president in 2024, a Politico poll from January found.

State of play: Blair delivered the message during a policy listening session with House Republicans at their annual retreat in Doral, Florida.
– He encouraged members to focus on deporting violent offenders rather than defending the broader concept of mass removals.

The advice signals a recalibration by the White House — and reflects growing concern among some Republicans that Democrats are successfully framing Trump’s immigration policy as overly sweeping and indiscriminate…

ICE detention peaked at roughly 73,000 people in custody in mid-January. Since then, my sources say total in detention has fallen to sub-63,000. That is a significant drop, reversing the trend back to where things were in early November.
I am deeply skeptical of any major changes, to be clear.

— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social) March 10, 2026 at 3:05 PM

Meanwhile, the KKKlown in Chief, last night:

It's been well over 10 years now, and nobody close to him has even bothered to tell him that's not what seeking asylum is.

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— ⓘ 𝕆ligarch f*ckery detected (@adelpreore.bsky.social) March 10, 2026 at 12:20 PM

DHS Open Thread: <em>Backtrack!… BACKTRACK!</em>Post + Comments (68)

The Politics of AI

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I don’t hate AI per se. I’ve used Le Chat occasionally for stuff like planning itineraries, and I know people who use AI on the job in all kinds of useful applications, including research.

My main objection is that a staggeringly high percentage of the people who are competing to build the dominant AI platforms and many of the technology’s most prominent boosters seem to be sociopaths.

That’s bad! And then there’s what’s already happening in schools:

I understand why chatbot cheating happens but every time I read about it I want to gently remind everyone that the point of schoolwork is not for the submission to exist. Teachers are not just greedy for more essays or solved equations. The point is to do the work WITH YOUR OWN BRAIN, FOR LEARNING.

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— Katie Mack (@astrokatie.com) February 24, 2026 at 2:37 PM


Prompt engineering may become a valuable skill in its own right, but it isn’t going to teach people to think for themselves. Also, I hate bullshit framing like this:

How does A.I. stack up against some of the world’s best human writers? Take our quiz.

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— The New York Times (@nytimes.com) March 9, 2026 at 6:00 PM

Fuck their stupid quiz!

It’s no coincidence that tech oligarchs and AI boosters aligned themselves with the political movement that needs to make the truth meaningless and keep people angry, divided and dumb to retain power.

But you know who else finds AI deeply suspect? Lots of voters, across the ideological spectrum. NBC News did a poll, and here’s an article about it that’s interesting if you can ignore the reflexively anti-Dem framing.

A couple of excerpts:

Voters are worried about AI and don’t trust either political party to handle the rapidly evolving technology, according to a new national NBC News survey.

A majority of registered voters, 57%, said they believe the risks of AI outweigh its benefits, compared with 34% who said the opposite. What’s more, a plurality of voters view AI negatively and don’t believe either Democrats or Republicans are doing a good job handling policy related to the rapidly advancing technology.

Just 26% of voters say they have positive feelings about AI, compared with 46% who hold negative views.

Trump and his cronies are all in on AI because they are greedy pricks and also authoritarians. They hope to socialize the risks during the development phase, privatize any profits that emerge and then use AI to fire workers and create a surveillance state.

As noted, that’s bad, but maybe it’s also an opportunity?

Bill McInturff, a Republican pollster with Public Opinion Strategies, which conducted the NBC News poll along with the Democratic polling firm Hart Research Associates, said the findings indicate AI is an issue that’s “up for grabs” by both parties to try to seize a political advantage.

The demographic groups with the most negative views of AI are voters ages 18-34, among whom the net favorability rating for AI is minus 44, and women ages 18-49, who reported a net AI favorability rating of minus 41. The two groups with the most positive views of AI are men over 50, with a plus 2 favorability rating, and upper-class voters, who also have a plus 2 favorability rating.

I don’t know how the politics of AI will develop, but it’s something to keep an eye on. Open thread for this or any other topic.

The Politics of AIPost + Comments (192)