• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The National Guard is not Batman.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

People identifying as christian while ignoring christ and his teachings is a strange thing indeed.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

A fool as well as an oath-breaker.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

Hey hey, RFK, how many kids did you kill today?

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

People are weird.

Decision time: keep arguing about the last election, or try to win the next one?

We will not go back.

When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty. ~Thomas Jefferson

Radicalized white males who support Trump are pitching a tent in the abyss.

I swear, each month of 2025 will have its own history degree.

Mediocre white men think RFK Jr’s pathetic midlife crisis is inspirational. The bar is set so low for them, it’s subterranean.

Mobile Menu

  • 2026 Targeted Political Fundraising
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • 2026 Activism
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • Targeted Fundraising!
End of An Era, Start of a New OneI 1

Politics

You are here: Home / Archives for Politics

Open Thread: RETVRN (to the Religious Wars)

by Anne Laurie|  April 3, 20266:03 pm| 129 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Religion, Trumpery

Eh, I grew up Catholic, it's not like we make a fuss about Good Friday or anything, I'm sure no one will be upset.

[image or embed]

— Kevin M. Kruse (@kevinmkruse.bsky.social) April 3, 2026 at 1:46 PM

I’m sure things have changed a bit over the last 50 years, but when I was growing up In The Church, we not only had mandatory Good Friday mass, it was a special extra-long ceremony where the presiding priest marched all around the chapel, trailed by altar boys, marking all 14 Stations of the Cross with a (mumbled) recitation of horrors…

To all the people and AI bots online insisting that no Catholic church holds Mass on #GoodFriday, I give you the literal Pope officiating at Mass on Good Friday.
I also suggest people engage their brains before they speak/post, but yeah, I know, good luck with that. www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuNM…

[image or embed]

— Kat4Obama (@kat4obama.bsky.social) April 3, 2026 at 3:12 PM

Turns out these guys really do respect some traditions of Western Civilization! Sure, they hate art, culture, self-reflection, civic responsibility, and democracy, but they're game for some good old Catholic/Protestant conflict.

[image or embed]

— Max Kennerly (@maxkennerly.bsky.social) April 3, 2026 at 3:07 PM

Catholic converts from evangelical Christianity born after 1980 have their own self-contained culture and aesthetic that basically looks like “Lord of the Ring” to cradle Catholics and associated ethnic whites.

[image or embed]

— Sarah Archer (@sarcher.bsky.social) April 3, 2026 at 2:04 PM

The big MAGA Catholics are increasingly anti-Vatican, I wouldn’t be surprised if Vance etc spin off their own thing with the MAGA evangelicals.

Not a single one of these smartphone catholics is even remotely catholic and I’ve been going insane pointing it out for over a decade. They are just mean snobby big city evangelicals who think megachurches are for hicks

[image or embed]

— Patrick Cosmos (@veryimportant.lawyer) April 3, 2026 at 2:21 PM

show full post on front page

There have been two Catholic Presidents, both Irish. One was murdered, and the other was subjected to character assassination. JFK had to tell an audience of Protestant ministers that Pope John XXIII wouldn't run the U.S. government. www.jfklibrary.org/learn/about-…

[image or embed]

— Kat4Obama (@kat4obama.bsky.social) April 3, 2026 at 4:17 PM

I say this as someone brought up between Catholic and Protestant, and someone who genuinely believes in a higher power and all that. You cannot, by any measure, claim to follow the teachings of Christ and follow anything to do with Donald Trump and his administration.

[image or embed]

— Dan Sohege (@danielsohege.bsky.social) April 3, 2026 at 3:35 PM

“Just a friendly reminder: There will be a Protestant Service (No Catholic Mass) for Good Friday today at the Pentagon Chapel.”
— Friday email sent by Air Force leadership
Pro-MAGA Catholics, Jews, Mormons, etc: y'all will never be in club of Christian Nationalist #DUIHireHegseth.
🧾 is.gd/YJvApR

[image or embed]

— Pam Spaulding (@pamspaulding.bsky.social) April 3, 2026 at 3:22 PM

The Archbishop for Military Services put out a statement last fall expressing frustration that the Army canceled contracts that help support Catholic chaplains and Catholic service members. It's starting to be a pattern, this lack of support for Catholics in the military.

[image or embed]

— ex-Lethality Jane (@lethalityjane.bsky.social) April 3, 2026 at 2:45 PM

Archbishop leading US military’s Catholic chaplains questions whether Iran war is just
www.bostonglobe.com/2026/04/03/n…

[image or embed]

— Revan (@docrevan.bsky.social) April 3, 2026 at 3:27 PM

Open Thread: RETVRN (to the Religious Wars)Post + Comments (129)

PBS Documentary: White with Fear

by WaterGirl|  April 3, 202611:15 am| 113 Comments

This post is in: Justice, Open Threads, Politics, Racial Justice

There’s a new documentary out – White with Fear – and it looks really interesting.

One phrase really stands out in the trailer below: Strategic Racism

“White with Fear”: That’s the clever name of the new PBS documentary premiering at 10 p.m. Tuesday. Directed and written by Andrew Goldberg, and recently nominated for a Writers Guild of America award for best documentary screenplay, the film explores the GOP’s dark mastery of selling racism without being overtly racist — except, of course, when they just say the quiet part out loud.   (The Boston Globe)

The concept is not new to us, of course, but the documentary is getting rave reviews.

It appears to be free to watch online at PBS for the next 18 days. (expires 4/21)   It’s also available to rent or buy on Amazon Prime, and likely on other streaming platforms, as well.

I plan on watching, and I’m wondering if any of you guys might be interested in having a zoom to talk about it?

I think it would make sense to do it in the last week of April – if you are interested in a zoom on this topic, let us know in the comments, and send me an email with a tentative RSVP.

Open thread.

PBS Documentary: White with FearPost + Comments (113)

Open Thread: Banger Memes, Dude

by Anne Laurie|  April 3, 20269:49 am| 90 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, Trump Crime Cartel, War

Interesting how many "Pete fucked this up" stories are coming out rn.

— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) April 2, 2026 at 11:14 PM

(Scheduling this post in the early hours… )

If they go to the trouble to say it, then I'm suspicious why

[image or embed]

— Tom Nichols (@radiofreetom.bsky.social) April 2, 2026 at 5:22 PM

Mr. Nichols, like our own Adam Silverman, is a professional military explainer. “Hegseth’s War on America’s Military” [Gift link]:

The United States is in the middle of a major war, but that didn’t stop Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Thursday from firing General Randy George, America’s most senior Army officer. George was the Army’s Chief of Staff, and he was cashiered along with another four-star general, David Hodne, and Major General William Green, Jr., the top Army chaplain, in what has been a rolling purge by Hegseth of senior officers—particularly those close to the Secretary of Army, Dan Driscoll.

Why were these men fired while U.S. forces are fighting overseas? The Defense Department has given no official reason for their dismissals, but likely they are the latest victims of Hegseth’s vindictive struggles with the Army, which he feels treated him poorly—the service “spit me out” he said in his 2024 book—as he struggles in a job for which he remains singularly unqualified.

Hegseth began his tenure by acting against what he sees as a Pentagon infested with DEI hires. He pushed for the removal of the then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, C.Q. Brown, who is Black, and he fired a raft of female military leaders, replacing them all with men. But dumping the Army Chief of Staff in the middle of a war, without explanation, is a reckless move even by Hegseth’s standards. George is a decorated combat veteran who was slated to stay in his job until 2027, and he has never publicly feuded with Hegseth—despite having good reason to do so.

Trump and Hegseth have been on a clear mission to politicize the U.S. military, and to turn it into an armed extension of the MAGA movement. Hegseth regularly proselytizes, both for Trump and for his right-wing evangelical beliefs, from the Pentagon podium. He has intervened in Army promotions, recently culling four colonels—two Black men and two women—from the list for advancement to brigadier general. (This may be the tip of the iceberg: NBC is now reporting that Hegseth has also cancelled the promotions, across multiple services, of at least a dozen minority and female officers.) When two Army helicopters buzzed a political rally and then flew to MAGA favorite Kid Rock’s house, Hegseth short-circuited the Army’s suspension of the pilots and squashed an investigation into their actions. In keeping with the best American civil-military traditions, George and other senior military leaders have been remarkably disciplined in keeping their thoughts out of the public eye…

“A second senior White House official who is also closely involved in the video-making effort described it as a collegial, creative endeavor. ‘We’re over here just grinding away on banger memes, dude.'”
[image or embed]

— Matt Zoller Seitz (@mattzollerseitz.bsky.social) March 18, 2026 at 11:08 PM


Related Politico story from March — “Inside the White House plan to sell the Iran war online”:

show full post on front page

President Donald Trump’s hype campaign for the Iran war has demolished decades of presidential decorum around wartime messaging — and is mortifying former defense officials and members of Congress.

The White House is loving it.

The administration’s TikTok-style mash-up videos of missile strikes spliced into movie clips and video games — along with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s attack-style language at Pentagon press conferences — have gobsmacked those with a more traditional view of how a government should sound during a time of war. But this modern media strategy is achieving what the White House appears to prioritize: audience engagement.

“Over a four day period, the videos that we put out had over 3 billion impressions,” said a senior White House official, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about the administration’s communications strategy. “That blows away anything we’ve ever done in the second term.”…

No previous administration ever tried to sell a war by making a video of legendary bowler Pete Weber landing a strike using computer-generated bowling pins to represent Iran’s military — all to a Lynyrd Skynyrd soundtrack. But past administrations didn’t exist in the age of incessant group chats, TikTok and AI.

A second senior White House official who is also closely involved in the video-making effort described it as a collegial, creative endeavor. “We’re over here just grinding away on banger memes, dude,” said the person, also granted anonymity to speak candidly. “There’s an entertainment factor to what we do. But ultimately, it boils down to the fact that no one has ever attempted to communicate with the American public this way before.”…

Pentagon officials have also taken a bombastic tone, attempting to dunk on MAGA critics, journalists and the Iranian regime in a seeming extension of the White House’s viral communications strategy. Hegseth has said the U.S. would give “no quarter, no mercy for our enemies,” an indication that troops should not spare the lives of their enemies, a potential war crime. Hegseth also referred to rules of engagement as “stupid” and to Iranian leaders as “rats” who are “cowering” underground….

And when ‘banger memes’ are no longer enough entertainment, Trump will inevitably find some scapegoat to shove under the bus. Not as though Whiskey Pete is gifted with foresight, tho!

Wait, Hegseth fired the ARMY CHAPLAIN too? That’s a career-defining scandal for any cabinet secretary in any other era. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/02/u…

this is the chaplain btw. wonder why he was fired.

[image or embed]

— jamelle (@jamellebouie.net) April 2, 2026 at 8:39 PM

Pete Hegseth sent U.S. troops to fight and die in Iran. Was he trying to cash in on the war behind closed doors?
This would be a massive betrayal.
I’m pressing for a full investigation NOW.

[image or embed]

— Elizabeth Warren (@warren.senate.gov) April 2, 2026 at 9:39 AM

Trickster God forbid:

There is a predictable way that this ends and Hegseth owns it

[image or embed]

— Don Moynihan (@donmoyn.bsky.social) April 2, 2026 at 7:05 PM

"Biden used the military to try and STOP aggression, and that has limited our ability to START aggression" is a thing one can say. Yes, one can say it and then have it played back in The Hague, but one can indeed say it.

[image or embed]

— Malaclypse the Middle (@malaclypse.bsky.social) March 20, 2026 at 7:09 AM

Open Thread: Banger Memes, DudePost + Comments (90)

TGIFriday Morning Open Thread

by Anne Laurie|  April 3, 20267:48 am| 86 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Republicans in Disarray!

In a leafy Tehran park on Thursday, Iranians gathered for picnics on the final day of the Persian new year holidays, shrugging off US President Donald Trump's threats to punish Iran with massive bombing.
Tradition calls for spending the day outdoors to ward off bad luck.
u.afp.com/SbBC

[image or embed]

— AFP News Agency (@en.afp.com) April 2, 2026 at 8:00 PM

Since Liberation Day, a year ago today:
* US foreign direct investment is lower
* US factories employ 89,000 fewer people
* US goods trade deficit is UP 2%
@npr.org
www.npr.org/2026/04/02/n…

[image or embed]

— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla.bsky.social) April 2, 2026 at 7:46 AM

A year ago was Donald Trump's "Liberation Day."
What's happened since?
– Families have paid $1,700 in higher costs
– 89,000 manufacturing jobs lost
– Global investment in U.S. hit its lowest since COVID
And no tariff refunds in sight for Americans, just the bill.

— Elizabeth Warren (@warren.senate.gov) April 2, 2026 at 3:00 PM

i would like to extend my hearty appreciation to the republican president of the united states for his contribution to the democratic party’s campaigns in the fall

[image or embed]

— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachine.com) April 2, 2026 at 6:02 PM

It’s been one year since Trump’s “liberation day,” and folks are hurting more than ever thanks to his terrible tariffs.
The only thing he's liberated is hard earned money from your wallet—all so his billionaire donors in the Epstein class can buy another super yacht.

— Rep. Jim McGovern (@repmcgovern.bsky.social) April 2, 2026 at 4:10 PM

show full post on front page

they're calling it the stupidest purge in history, folks, no one has ever purged a government in dumber ways than this one, big strong men, tears in their eyes, they come up to me and they say, "mister president, who hired all these fucking clowns?"

[image or embed]

— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachine.com) April 2, 2026 at 8:45 PM

House Republicans continue to extend the DHS shutdown for no reason.
This morning, the Senate UNANIMOUSLY passed a bill to fund everything at DHS besides ICE & Border Patrol AGAIN. The House could have passed this TODAY.
Speaker Johnson—stop playing games & pass this bill ASAP.

— Senator Patty Murray (@murray.senate.gov) April 2, 2026 at 7:14 PM

I think its safe to say that Trump realizes that his current administration is wildly unpopular and is lashing out and firing people now because the whole "never show any surrender ever" was shown to be terrible politics.

— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) April 2, 2026 at 1:17 PM

Kinda feels like Trump is getting boxed in like.. everywhere.

— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) April 2, 2026 at 11:48 AM

Like idk how you can look at the last 6 weeks and say "Ah yes, this authoritarian project is clearly succeeding and will consolidate."

— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) April 2, 2026 at 11:48 AM

My concern right now is that we're actually in a period of anti-incumbency that leads to reactionary swings back and forth because no one can quite fix what's happening.
I don't know what emerges from the GOP in 2032, but I don't like the shape of the young part of the party rn.

[image or embed]

— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) April 2, 2026 at 12:04 PM

i ordinarily don’t approve of sephiroth posting from senators but i have every confidence that wyden intends every word

[image or embed]

— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachine.com) April 2, 2026 at 6:50 PM

TGIFriday Morning Open ThreadPost + Comments (86)

Trumpery Open Thread: April’s Fool

by Anne Laurie|  April 2, 20267:30 pm| 203 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Republicans in Disarray!, Trumpery

After Trump’s speech, Americans could be forgiven for being even more concerned now about the war in Iran than they were only a few days ago, @radiofreetom.bsky.social argues:

[image or embed]

— The Atlantic (@theatlantic.com) April 2, 2026 at 10:30 AM

Gift link:

… Trump’s critics (including me) have castigated him for refusing to go on television and provide a comprehensive explanation of the war to the American people. But given his performance this evening, perhaps he had the right instinct. His address did not come across as a wartime speech but instead was a disjointed series of complaints, brags, and exaggerations (along with a few outright lies) delivered by a man who looked and sounded tired. After his 19 minutes on the air—brisk by Trump’s standards—Americans could be forgiven for being even more concerned now than they were only a few days ago.

A speech that should have been a clear explanation of why the United States is fighting a nation of 92 million people began instead in shambolic style. He discussed the operation that captured the president of Venezuela, perhaps hoping to make listeners believe that the Iran war will be a similarly short operation. He then said that Iran has taken losses never seen “in the history of warfare”—as if the destruction of, say, the Axis in World War II had never happened.

Trump offered little that was new, instead repeating the same lines from a short video presentation the night that he ordered attacks on the Islamic Republic, more than one month ago. He listed—rightly and correctly—the various offenses that the fanatical Iranian regime has perpetrated against the United States and other countries for nearly a half century. But he couldn’t help himself: He patted himself on the back for killing the Iranian terror mastermind Qassem Soleimani in his first term, and for canceling the Iran nuclear deal negotiated by Barack Obama. (“Barack Hussein Obama,” of course.) The United States, Trump claimed in a strange moment, had emptied out all the banks in Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia as part of that deal—“all the cash they had”—to send that “green, green” currency to Iran.

But back to the war: What is America fighting for? Trump insisted that Iran must never be allowed to get a nuclear weapon. Almost no one would disagree with this general point—certainly I don’t—but Trump presented no evidence that Iran was nearing the nuclear threshold. Instead, he simply asserted that the Iranian mullahs were going to get a nuclear weapon and that the United States had to stop them: In other words, he admitted to launching a preventive war based on something that might happen one day…

… The reality, as best we can tell, is that Trump fully expected the Iranian regime to collapse in a matter of days or weeks, and he is now flummoxed to find out that a major war is a lot more complicated than he—or Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth—realized. The president’s delivery tonight was hardly a confidence-building exercise. He was, as he himself might say, low energy—mumbling and lapsing into the repetitive phrases that come out when he’s riffing on a point instead of reading the speech in front of him. (I lost count of how many times he said “like nobody’s ever seen” and “decimated” and “never before.”)

The president seems lost. Perhaps he should have stayed off the podium for a bit longer, rather than display how adrift he is to the American public and the world.

Politico, sensing a murmuration of the media starlings, “‘What the hell did he just say?’ GOP Iran worries build after Trump speech”:

President Donald Trump’s primetime address on Iran did little to relieve rising alarm from plugged-in Republicans in key states across the country who see the war as pushing costs higher and their midterm chances ever-lower.

Trump declared Wednesday night that the U.S. offensive in Iran is “nearing completion” but warned that military operations would intensify over the “next two to three weeks.” He attempted to clarify his goals for the war — to destroy Iran’s nuclear capabilities — and insisted it was never about regime change. And he shrugged off the spike in oil and gas prices as a “short-term increase.”

To a number of GOP strategists and local party leaders involved in key congressional and gubernatorial races, the message was too little, too late and too jumbled…

Trump’s decision to attack Iran, and the subsequent spike in oil and gas prices, are the latest sources of heartburn for Republicans who were already feeling queasy about public opinion that has turned against Trump’s domestic agenda. They heard little new information Wednesday night from the president that signaled a course correction.

Conversations with more than half a dozen operatives and party chairs across seven battleground states revealed their anxiety that the prolonged conflict is overshadowing the White House’s affordability message and could hurt their chances of holding onto power this November…

Trump social media team: Uhhh… psyche?

show full post on front page

so, for my sins, i went to the original post to see if there was some kind of context in the video that i might have been missing, but, no, it’s this picture of fess parker over the davy crockett theme song for two minutes and change. i’ve got nothing, the president has oatmeal brains.

[image or embed]

— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachine.com) April 2, 2026 at 2:01 PM

stress and a poor schedule can negatively exacerbate dementia. that’s the explanation.

— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachine.com) April 2, 2026 at 2:02 PM

I am a longstanding It Happens skeptic because I simply do not believe the universe is that nice to us and his dad lived forever
but we are well into "they just gave his dad fake work because his brains were oatmeal" territory at this point

— Micah (@rincewind.run) April 2, 2026 at 2:05 PM

He seems to have fixated on this for a while. I feel like there's some kind of assumed racist agreement that there is something underhanded or facetious about a black woman having the same surname as a famous white man
www.yahoo.com/news/article…

[image or embed]

— Psy Costanza (@ganondalf.bsky.social) April 2, 2026 at 2:11 PM

Some have pointed out that its Fess Parker as Daniel Boone, not even the TV version of Davy Crockett.

— Wes Allen (@fredwesley.bsky.social) April 2, 2026 at 2:56 PM

As said above, this seems like an April Fool’s Day post that one of his staffers appears to have mis-scheduled. Now the fact that his scheduler couldn’t tell his April Fool’s Day content from his normal brain mush is another matter…

— ndierman.bsky.social (@ndierman.bsky.social) April 2, 2026 at 2:06 PM

Guess this will be their legal defense at the eventual Nuremberg trials: “Our boss was deep in dementia, but also he had the nuclear codes, so we were terrified of contradicting him… ”

Trumpery Open Thread: April’s FoolPost + Comments (203)

Bondi Shit-Canned, Plus That Fucking Speech

by Betty Cracker|  April 2, 20261:33 pm| 183 Comments

This post is in: Foreign Affairs, Open Threads, Politics, Republican Stupidity

Might as well go straight to the regime’s legacy propaganda organ for the scoop: (Fox “News”)

FIRST ON FOX — President Donald Trump reportedly has already fired Attorney General Pam Bondi, according to two sources familiar with the matter who spoke with Fox News Digital.

Bondi met with Trump in the Oval Office Wednesday night ahead of his speech to the nation on the war in Iran, where she reportedly was informed of her ouster, according to two sources familiar with the meeting.

One of those sources said that by the time Trump took his place behind the podium for the address, Bondi already had lost her job and was on her way back to Florida.

No indication that Bondi received a face-saving, make-work job like Noem’s Shield Maiden of the Americas gig. That’s because Bondi screwed the pooch on the Epstein cover up. Sucks to be her.

***

Speaking of that awful speech last night, I think the Associated Press is usually a decent mainstream news source. But like other legacy media outlets, they’re still trying to cover an authoritarian cult of personality as if it operated within the traditional civic democratic ecosystem of yore.

So they end up lying on the authoritarian’s behalf with jaw-dropping whoppers like this analysis of the speech Trump delivered last night:

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump used his first major address since launching his war in Iran to assure Americans that all of his military objectives will be completed “shortly” and urge an increasingly skeptical electorate to give him a little bit more time.

Trump in his Wednesday evening speech dialed back the bluster that’s dominated his rhetoric in recent days as world markets convulse and a badly battered Iran is still landing some effective blows on Gulf neighbors’ infrastructure and U.S. bases.

No one who watched that speech and aimed to describe it honestly could make such an assertion. Here are verbatim excerpts that are textbook examples of bluster dialed up to 11 with the knob on the Blusterator™️ ripped off:

In these past four weeks, our armed forces have delivered swift, decisive, overwhelming victories on the battlefield. Victories like few people have ever seen before. Tonight, Iran’s navy is gone. Their air force is in ruins. Their leaders, most of them, terrorist regime, they led, are now dead.

Never in the history of warfare has an enemy suffered such clear and devastating large-scale losses in a matter of weeks. Our enemies are losing and America, as it has been for five years under my presidency, is winning, and now winning bigger than ever before.

Before discussing this current situation, I also want to thank our troops for the masterful job they did in taking the country of Venezuela in a matter of minutes. That hit was quick, lethal, violent and respected by everyone all over the world. After rebuilding our military during my first term, we have by far the strongest military anywhere in the world.

First, and perhaps most importantly, I killed General Qassem Soleimani. In my first term. He was an evil genius, brilliant person, a horrible human being, however, the father of the roadside bomb. And he lived, just horrible what he did. Iran would have been perhaps in a far better, stronger position had he lived. We would have had probably a different conversation tonight. But you know what? We’d still be winning and winning big.

There would have been no Middle East and no Israel right now, in my opinion — the opinion of a lot of great experts — had I not terminated that terrible deal. I was so honored to do it, I was so proud to do it, it was so bad right from the beginning.

As I stated in my announcement of Operation Epic Fury, our objectives are very simple and clear. We are systematically dismantling the regime’s ability to threaten America or reject power outside of their borders. That means eliminating Iran’s navy, which is now absolutely destroyed, hurting their air force and their missile program at levels never seen before and annihilating their defense industrial base. We’ve done all of it. Their navy is gone. Their air force is gone. Their missiles are just about used up or beaten.

The United States has never been better prepared economically to confront this threat. You all know that. We built the strongest economy in history. We’re going through it right now, the strongest in history. And one year we’ve taken a dead and crippled country. I hate to say that, but we were a dead and crippled country after the last administration and made it the hottest country anywhere in the world by far, with no inflation, record setting investments coming into the United States, over $18 trillion and the highest stock market ever with 53 all-time record highs in just one year.

Tonight, every American can look forward to a day when we are finally free from the wickedness of Iranian aggression and the specter of nuclear blackmail. Because of the actions we have taken, we are on the cusp of ending Iran’s sinister threat to America and the world. And I’ll tell you, the world is watching. And when we do, when it’s all over, the United States will be safer, stronger, more prosperous and greater than it has ever been before.

“Sane-washing” seems too tame a word for the practice of describing the stream of bloodthirsty, juvenile drivel that dribbled out of Trump’s misshapen and increasingly saggy piehole as “dialed back bluster.” So does “hackery.”

Anyhoo, open thread.

Bondi Shit-Canned, Plus That Fucking SpeechPost + Comments (183)

No Kings – Burrowing Owl – Longmont CO (Open Thread)

by WaterGirl|  April 2, 202611:28 am| 40 Comments

This post is in: No Kings, March 28, 2026, Political Action, Politics

Note from Burrowing Owl:

The chicken sign didn’t work well for cars obviously, but even passers by needed a while to take it in. I only had a few people, older, immediately “get it.”

“What does he have on them? Why don’t they stop him?”

Props to the Balloon Juice community for standing up and speaking out!

No Kings – Burrowing Owl – Longmont CO (Open Thread)Post + Comments (40)

  • Page 1
  • Page 2
  • Page 3
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Page 4083
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

On The Road - frosty - 3rd Annual National Park/COVID Challenge - Oregon - Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area - Engineering
Photo by frosty (4/3/26)
Donate

Election Resources

Voter Registration Info – Find a State
Check Voter Registration by Address
Election Calendar by State

Targeted Fundraising Info & Links

Recent Comments

  • A Ghost to Most on Open Thread: RETVRN (to the Religious Wars) (Apr 3, 2026 @ 8:21pm)
  • Baud on Open Thread: RETVRN (to the Religious Wars) (Apr 3, 2026 @ 8:21pm)
  • Old School on Open Thread: RETVRN (to the Religious Wars) (Apr 3, 2026 @ 8:21pm)
  • Scout211 on Open Thread: RETVRN (to the Religious Wars) (Apr 3, 2026 @ 8:20pm)
  • Eunicecycle on Open Thread: RETVRN (to the Religious Wars) (Apr 3, 2026 @ 8:20pm)

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)

Fix Nyms with Apostrophes

Outsmarting Apple iOS 26

Balloon Juice Mailing List Signup

Order Calendar A
Order Calendar B

Social Media

Balloon Juice
WaterGirl
TaMara
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
DougJ NYT Pitchbot
mistermix
Rose Judson (podcast)

Donate

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Privacy Manager

Copyright © 2026 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc