Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

This fight is for everything.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

All hail the time of the bunny!

They don’t have outfits that big. nor codpieces that small.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

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

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

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

The republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

You cannot shame the shameless.

Washington Post Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

We are learning that “working class” means “white” for way too many people.

Cancel the cowardly Times and Post and set up an equivalent monthly donation to ProPublica.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Disagreements are healthy; personal attacks are not.

Petty moves from a petty man.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

People are weird.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

The current Supreme Court is a dangerous, rogue court.

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Read a fucking book.

Perhaps some day, over a glass of whiskey that I accept, despite my gastritis, we could talk frankly about this.

mistermix has been a Balloon Juice writer since 2010.

Personality Crisis Episode 5: Steve M

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John couldn’t make the taping of this episode, so DougJ interviewed Steve M.  of No More Mister Nice Blog, who has been blogging since 2002.  Steve’s posts are always smart and often prescient.

Topics included why Steve got the anti-vaxx trend right years before everyone else, and how Steve views the history of the Democratic Party.

This is an audio-only podcast.  Also, Pitchbot had a little bit of an audio issue at the start that’s fixed a few minutes in.

If you’re not following Steve’s blog, I think you’re missing out.

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Children Murdered in Minneapolis Mass Murder at Catholic Church

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Awful:

Two children, aged eight and 10, killed in shooting with 17 others injured, including 14 children

Two children, ages 8 and 10 were killed, with 17 others being injured, 14 of those being children, said Minneapolis police chief Brian O’Hara.

He said:

“This worship service was marking the first week of school for children that are attending the Annunciation Catholic school.

During the mass, a gunman approached on the outside, on the side of the building and began firing a rifle through the church windows, towards the children sitting in the pews at the mass.

He struck children and worshippers that were inside the building. The shooter was armed with a rifle, a shotgun and a pistol. This was a deliberate act of violence against innocent children and other people worshipping. The sheer cruelty and cowardice of firing into a church full of children is absolutely incomprehensible …

Two young children, ages 8 and 10 were killed where they sat in the pews, their parents have been notified. 17 other people were injured, 14 of them being children. Two of those children are in critical condition. The coward who fired these shots ultimately took his own life in the rear of the church.”

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PSA: Wireless Emergency Alerts

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Reports from Texas indicate that some people didn’t get the Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) that was sent prior to the flash flood there. Apparently Kerrville not only lacks sirens (again, unimaginable to me, since the small town where I grew up had them since before I was born) but there was also some kind of delay in sending it out. Even so, people reported that some of the notifications were delayed until 10 the next day, etc.

WEA uses a special channel from the cell tower, so supposedly congestion doesn’t matter. However, not having signal will matter a whole hell of a lot. I was in the Hill Country last year for the eclipse and there was no service where I was, so presumably there are other areas near flash flood alley that didn’t get the alert because they didn’t have signal. Also, it’s possible that there was an issue with which cell towers sent out alerts, but that will be determined after an investigation. (Joke — it’s Texas.)

Anyway, here’s my suggestion: check your WEA settings in your phone. Here are the things you can turn on and off for Android.

  • Amber Alert notifications: Issued when a child is missing and believed to be in danger.
  • Presidential Alerts: Issued during widespread emergencies, like natural disasters or national threats.
  • Early earthquake warnings: Sent when an earthquake is detected, giving you time to take protective action.
  • Imminent threat notifications: Provide warnings about natural disasters or other serious threats in your area.
  • State/local alert tests: Periodic tests to ensure the alert system is working properly.
  • Public safety alerts: Provide information on local safety issues, such as road closures or ongoing criminal activity.

iPhone is the same except for the earthquake alert. Presidential alerts can’t be turned off (they’re called “national alerts” now).

Here’s information on how to check your WEA settings in Android and in iPhone.

This is a cross-post from my new place — heymistermix.com. John graciously invited me to cross post here, with the comments off. You’ll need to subscribe to comment. Subscriptions are free, and you can just visit the site to read my stuff. I’ll cross-post some of it here. Kay is also posting there now if you’re interested in her take on things.

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Political Assassinations in Minnesota

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Terrible:

BLAINE, Minn. (AP) — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz says former state House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband were shot and killed in a politically motivated assassination, and a second lawmaker and his wife were shot and wounded. Authorities were actively searching for a suspect hours after the targeted killings.

“We must all, in Minnesota and across the country, stand against all forms of political violence,” Walz said at a press conference Saturday. “Those responsible for this will be held accountable.”

The wounded lawmaker was identified as state Sen. John Hoffman, a Democrat, was first elected in 2012. He previously served as vice chair of the Anoka Hennepin School Board, which manages the largest school district in Minnesota. Hoffman is married and has one daughter and represents a district north of Minneapolis.

Hortman had two children.  Hoffman and his wife are out of surgery after suffering multiple gunshot wounds.  There’s cautious optimism about their survival.  The suspect was dressed as a police officer and one of the officials at the press conference said that if he had been standing in the room, everyone would have thought that he’s a cop.  His vehicle looked like a police SUV.

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AOC Call to Action

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Since some of you are interested in action, I’m cross-posting this since this action is immediate:

AOC went live on Instagram on Saturday — here’s the video of the livestream that she posted to YouTube yesterday evening:

Her key points:

She’s on the Energy and Commerce Committee now.

Markup on the reconciliation bill is starting Monday.

There are Republicans on the committee who are in tough districts (PVI EVEN or single digits).

Medicaid is on the chopping block (as is SNAP).

The bill will blow up the deficit and add to the debt.

Waste, fraud and abuse is a common talking point, and if it is found, the savings should be re-invested into these programs. The claim is $50 billion in waste, fraud and abuse, though the cuts proposed are $880 billion.

Undocumented immigrants are not eligible for Medicaid even though they pay taxes to support it, despite the lies that Republicans tell.

All of this is for tax breaks for billionaires.

She has a tool here to look up whether your rep is on the committee and give you a call script to use.

She suggests not just calling Republicans to tell them to oppose this bill, but also to call your Democratic rep to thank them if they’re doing the right thing.

She would not be telling us to call unless she thought it would make a difference — she believes the Republicans are starting to crack.

Red states have a better Medicaid reimbursement rate (Kentucky is 70% fed and 30% state vs New York which is 50/50). This means Medicaid cuts will blow a hole in state budgets.
40% of Pennsylvania’s total budget is the federal match for Medicaid, 36% in Colorado (Gabe Evans is on the committee).

The committee meeting will be live streamed on C-SPAN Tuesday. Expect Democrats to propose many amendments to “grind this thing to a halt”.

Some Republicans will probably try to “take a walk” and avoid tough votes. Committee votes aren’t well tracked by the public, but tracking them adds pressure to vulnerable members. Getting view counts high, commenting on their social media, etc. amps up the pressure.

In the Q&A, she noted that the rallies that she and Bernie held are seeing a lot of first-timers (e.g., in Vegas, 50% of their RSVPs were brand-new to politics).

She called the administration’s approach the “Wizard of Oz” approach — televised as much as possible, trying to make examples out of a few immigrants to deter millions of others. She also mentioned the arrest of Newark’s mayor, noting that it’s not clear that the prison there has a certificate of occupancy. Those facilities are also run by contractors. She emphasized that Members of Congress have an absolute legal right to conduct oversight at ICE/CBP facilities, and the lawbreakers if MoCs are not admitted are ICE and CBP.

The attitude that is actually anti-American, actually “treason” is to attack free speech, and the powers of Congress. “Kristi Noem spits on the American flag every time she does (things like that).” She says that “pissed me off”. The country does not belong to one person. This is not the “United States of Trump”.

This is another cross-post from my new place — heymistermix.com. John graciously invited me to cross post here, with the comments off.  You’ll need to subscribe to comment. Subscriptions are free, and you can just visit the site to read my stuff. I’ll cross-post some of it here.  Kay is also posting there now if you’re interested in her take on things.  

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Fentanyl: Gateway Drug to Complete Lawlessness

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Independent journalist Marisa Kabas has the text of an EO that declares fentanyl a weapon of mass destruction.

The EO may be published as early as next week, the Department of State source tells me, but the timeline isn’t confirmed. The source speculates the purpose is a combination of designating fentanyl cartels as terrorist organizations and creating justification for conducting military operations in Mexico and Canada. They also suspect that it will be used domestically as justification for rounding up homeless encampments and deporting drug users who are not citizens.

That 40,000 person gulag in El Salvador isn’t going to fill itself. This EO will help.

Trump was already blathering on Truth Social about the Chief Judge of the DC Circuit, James Boasberg, the Judge who has the temerity to expect that his orders be followed, and the gall to ask for details on Trump’s El Salvador deportation flights.

“This judge, like many of the Crooked Judges I am forced to appear before, should be IMPEACHED!!!” Trump wrote about Boasberg, labelling him a “Radical Left Lunatic of a Judge” and a “troublemaker”.

This statement roused John Roberts from his dogmatic slumber to state that “impeachment is not an appropriate response to a disagreement concerning a judicial decision.” Roberts added that the proper response is to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court, where he and five other grossly corrupt judges will rule in the administration’s favor. (I added that last part by reading his mind.)

In addition to Trump’s issues with trying to fill foreign labor camps, DOGE hasn’t exactly been killing it in the courts lately. A number of rulings have reversed their firings, including one today that ordered a reversal of the recent DOGE USAID dismantlement. So the time-honored distraction of a false national emergency might just help Trump justify a lot of the illegal acts he and the DOGErs have been doing lately. The plan here is extremely complex, so pay close attention: He and King Musk will just do whatever the fuck they want. Then, the bumblefucks that he has running the DoJ will go to court and get yelled at by pissed off federal judges. It will be ugly for those idiots, but how many divisions does the federal judiciary have?

I’m done underestimating what Trump will do, so a two front North American fentanyl war might just happen. This would spark ugly guerrilla warfare between the cartels and Mexican Army to the south. The Canadians, if they’re smart and mean, which they are, could counter-invade us in the north and seize one of our lightly defended nuclear Air Force bases. It would be the end of this empire, and a lot of US citizens would die.

This is another cross-post from my new place — heymistermix.com. John graciously invited me to cross post here, with the comments off.  You’ll need to subscribe to comment. Subscriptions are free, and you can just visit the site to read my stuff. I’ll cross-post some of it here.  Kay is also posting there now if you’re interested in her take on things.

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Friday Catblogging in Memory of Kevin Drum

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Friday Catblogging in Memory of Kevin Drum 1

Kevin would always post pictures of his cat, and if he didn’t invent Friday cat blogging, he sure perfected it.

So here’s my kid’s cat — Pearl. This is from a couple of years ago where she had a stint at our house. That “Smarty Kat” branding is for the toy, not the cat. She’s quite dumb, I’m afraid to report. She’s also a bit of a misogynist (not kidding). Guys are in. Gals, she’s not so certain about.

I’ve learned from Pearl that either indoor cats aren’t super smart, or maybe this particular cat isn’t. Pearl’s never been outside, and her world is the four walls of wherever my kid is living. We always had indoor/outdoor cats at home. They were just hunting and killing machines who roamed the neighborhood at night and came back with pieces of cat claw embedded in their fur from vicious fights. For them, it was a harsh existence that they seemed to crave. For Pearl, anything outside of the front door is a mysterious land of fearful monsters.

That all said, she likes me when I visit because I’m male and I give her good treats.

This is another cross-post from my new place — heymistermix.com. John graciously invited me to cross post here, with the comments off.  You’ll need to subscribe to comment. Subscriptions are free, and you can just visit the site to read my stuff. I’ll cross-post some of it here.  Kay is also posting there now if you’re interested in her take on things.

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