Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

Republicans in disarray!

Reality always gets a vote in the end.

Find someone who loves you the way trump and maga love traitors.

No one could have predicted…

If you can’t control your emotions, someone else will.

I am pretty sure these ‘journalists’ were not always such a bootlicking sycophants.

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

Republicans do not trust women.

Trumpflation is an intolerable hardship for every American, and it’s Trump’s fault.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Just because you believe it, that does not make it true.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

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

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

This fight is for everything.

Humiliatingly small and eclipsed by the derision of millions.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

We will not go back.

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

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

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Monday Morning Open Thread: Catching Up

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Wanda Sykes presented an award at the Golden Globes to Ricky Gervais, who didn’t show up. ‘He would like to thank God,’ she said, ‘and the trans community,”

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— Vulture (@vulture.com) January 11, 2026 at 11:10 PM

Wanda Sykes killing it.

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— East of Barrie (@eastofbarrie.bsky.social) January 11, 2026 at 11:07 PM

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I’m assuming that if it gets through the Senste that’s exactly what he will do. And that too few Republicans will vote to override & it fails. That is a very bad outcome & will harm tens of millions. But it’s also giving in a club to Democrats & saying “please bludgeon me to political death”

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— Dana Houle (@danahoule.bsky.social) January 12, 2026 at 12:04 AM

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Frey: "I think the initial impetus to come to MN was to arrest & deport a bunch of Somali people. They got here & realized the Somali people that would be deported are all citizens. Then they turned their ire toward our Latino community & others. These are communities that make Mpls a better place."

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) January 10, 2026 at 11:58 AM

Philadelphia sheriff Rochelle Bilal:
“No law enforcement professional wears a mask…No law enforcement professional shoots at a moving vehicle.
“What Trump’s private army is doing…is not only against legal law, but moral law.”
Vows to arrest agents on site who commit crimes.

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— Jay Kirell (@jasonkirell.bsky.social) January 9, 2026 at 5:11 PM

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Monday Morning Open Thread: Catching UpPost + Comments (121)

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: C.R.E.A.M. vs the GOP

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This year, instead of lowering costs for you, Donald Trump has worked hard to make himself, his family, and his billionaire buddies even richer.

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— Elizabeth Warren (@warren.senate.gov) December 29, 2025 at 4:07 PM

The Affordable Care Act tax credits expire in five days.
House Republicans refuse to come back to Washington to vote on an extension.
You deserve better.

— Hakeem Jeffries (@hakeem-jeffries.bsky.social) December 27, 2025 at 9:43 AM

(sigh) They haven't posted the actual press release w/the hard numbers yet, but once again, a HUGE chunk of those 15M are likely people who passively auto-renewed without realizing that their premiums are about to double or triple.
I'd expect a large number to drop their coverage next month.

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— Charles GetCovered-ba ?? (@charlesgaba.com) December 23, 2025 at 3:18 PM

Financial analyst John Cassidy, at the New Yorker — “The Biggest Threat to the 2026 Economy Is Still Donald Trump”:

In a prime-time address from the Oval Office last week, Donald Trump said, “We are poised for an economic boom the likes of which the world has never seen.” This was the sort of bloviating that has convinced many voters he’s hopelessly out of touch, but it did raise the question of how the economy is likely to perform in 2026, a midterm-election year. Given the data fog that the government shutdown created, the old joke applies more than ever: it’s difficult to make predictions, especially about the future. But some things seem reasonably clear.

Right now, the economy is working in the Democrats’ favor. Concerns about affordability have refused to abate: the latest weekly poll by YouGov/The Economist indicates that Americans still consider “inflation/prices” to be the most important policy issue, and just a third of them approve of how Trump is handling it. Meanwhile, it looks like G.D.P. growth for 2025 will come in at about two per cent—one percentage point lower than it was in the last two years of the Biden Administration—and the unemployment rate is ticking up. When Joe Biden left office, it was four per cent; now it is 4.6 per cent.

Still, November is a long way away, and observers outside the Oval Office, including Jerome Powell and his colleagues at the Fed, have been raising their estimates of how the economy might perform in the New Year. “Fiscal policy is going to be supportive. And, as I mentioned, A.I. spending will continue,” Powell said at a press conference earlier this month. “The consumer continues to spend. So, it looks like the baseline will be solid growth next year.” Many economists on Wall Street concur. In releasing its global outlook for 2026 last week, Goldman Sachs upped its prediction for U.S. growth to 2.6 per cent: “The US is likely to outperform substantially . . . because of reduced tariff drag, tax cuts, and easier financial conditions.”…

President Trump said he might sue Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell for what he called “gross incompetence,” adding new tension to the already strained relationship between the White House and the independent central bank.

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— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost.com) December 29, 2025 at 5:45 PM


[Gift link]:

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Tuesday Morning Open Thread: C.R.E.A.M. vs the GOPPost + Comments (160)

Open Thread: President Make-A-Wish’s Latest Mil-Toy Fantasy

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Every announcement is Peak Vulgar, zero class.

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— Mark Chadbourn (@chadbourn.bsky.social) December 22, 2025 at 5:06 PM

Per Breaking Defense, “Trump announces new Trump-class ‘battleship’ as part of ‘Golden Fleet’”

… “They’ll be the fastest, the biggest and by far, 100 times more powerful than any battleship ever built,” Trump said at his Mar-A-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla. “Battleships are the largest, sturdiest and most heavily armed vessel built specifically for naval combat. While America has built many new warships over the years, they’ve tended to be smaller, much smaller, and not conducive to where we are and where we’re going — peace through strength.”

Trump, flanked by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Navy Secretary John Phelan and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, also said the Navy would aim to quickly start building two battleships, but that the class could ultimately have between 20 and 25 ships. Photos on display on each side of Trump suggested at least one of the “Trump class” ships would be named “USS Defiant.”

The new “battleship” is planned to be around 30,000-40,000 tons — considerably larger than the Navy’s current fleet of destroyers — and capable of using a variety of future weapons, such as electromagnetic railguns and hypersonic munitions. Trump said the new ships would also carry nuclear-armed sea-launched missiles, creating what Navy Secretary John Phelan amounted to a new nuclear deterrent.

“These new battleships will stand as the centerpiece of the Navy’s Golden Fleet initiative and will be the first of its kind providing dominant firepower and a decisive advantage over adversaries by integrating the most advanced deep-strike weapons of today with the revolutionary systems of the years ahead,” the Navy said in a statement following Trump’s announcement.

The Wall Street Journal, which first reported Trump’s plans, wrote that the Navy will launch a competition to find a vendor and plans to procure the first ship in 2030…

President Make-A-Wish's Latest Mil-Toy Fantasy

This exists entirely to make Trump feel good & maybe direct money to something that will be useful when he's gone

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— Chatham Harrison dba TRUMP DELENDUS EST (@chathamharrison.bsky.social) December 22, 2025 at 6:37 PM

Trump’s press conference today was among his more haywire performances, and his slushy delivery and meandering answers will not halt speculation about his cognitive health.
www.theatlantic.com/politics/202…

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— Tom Nichols (@radiofreetom.bsky.social) December 22, 2025 at 11:55 PM

Tom Nichols, at the Atlantic, on “Trump’s Vanity Fleet” [gift link]:

Imagine the CEO of a car company telling his engineers and designers that he wants them to make a new line of automobiles. He knows nothing about cars and has no interest in how they’re produced, but he knows one thing for certain: The line will be named after himself. Everyone claps—because of course they do—but no one really knows what comes next, except that the line needs to look sexy and sporty…

Trump and Navy Secretary John Phelan did make some news today. (Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegeseth were also on hand, but they limited themselves to some standard-issue sycophancy.) First, we learned that the president of the United States clearly has no idea what battleships are. Second, the United States is going to invest in a new class of naval vessel. Third, America is going to reverse more than 30 years of wise policy by putting nuclear weapons back on U.S. Navy surface vessels.

Trump announced that the new Trump-class ships will be “battleships,” but they seem to be supersize versions of the existing workhorse of the Navy, the Arleigh Burke–class destroyers; the first ship, called the Defiant, will be about three times the size of a Burke. The Navy has also announced the development of a new class of frigates. Destroyers and frigates, as the Navy knows (and as the commander in chief should know) are not battleships. Battleships are huge and powerful, and are meant to dish out —and withstand—serious punishment. Destroyers and frigates are less rugged, and perform missions that require more speed and agility than battleships can muster. But none of that matters: The goal, apparently, was to give a childlike president a new toy, named after himself, in exchange for gobs of money that the Navy will figure out how to spend later.

Indeed, defense investors cheered the announcement, but the spending will likely come much later, because the United States does not have the capacity to build vessels it hasn’t even designed yet. Trump told a reporter today that he expects the first ship to arrive in two and a half years, which is possible if the Navy slaps some gold paint on a Burke class, adds some missiles, and then stencils USS TRUMP on the side. But the last time the Navy really tried to create a new kind of ship—the Zumwalt-class destroyer—the process took years and ended in failure…

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Open Thread: President Make-A-Wish’s Latest Mil-Toy FantasyPost + Comments (170)

Tuesday Morning Open Thread

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Life is too expensive in the United States.
And Republicans have done nothing about it.
You deserve better.

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— Hakeem Jeffries (@hakeem-jeffries.bsky.social) December 21, 2025 at 10:34 AM

laser focused on raising costs for everyday americans

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— Reconstructionist (@unavaleable.bsky.social) December 22, 2025 at 4:33 PM

Trump’s attack on the CFPB is hurting families — 21 states and DC are fighting back.
Their new lawsuit details how starving the agency of funding would turn off the consumer complaint database that has helped millions of Americans at the end of their rope after getting scammed.

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— Elizabeth Warren (@warren.senate.gov) December 22, 2025 at 6:32 PM

Health care rises sharply as Americans' priority for the government to address following a year of cuts, new AP-NORC poll finds.

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— The Associated Press (@apnews.com) December 19, 2025 at 7:13 AM

Yes, Mike Johnson has weird, retrograde views on women.
But it’s so much worse.
His leadership is a threat to the health and security that should be our daughters’ birthright.
Read more in my op-ed for the Boston Globe.
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/12/20/o…

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— Katherine Clark (@whipkclark.bsky.social) December 22, 2025 at 11:05 AM

This is what happens when billionaires control the press.
Corporate media execs at @cbsnews.com are pulling punches to protect profits & make sure their next big merger gets approved.
This self-censorship is awful for journalism & terrible for democracy.

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— Representative Jim McGovern (@repmcgovern.bsky.social) December 22, 2025 at 5:18 PM

i don't know if we're gonna get a real farm crisis but does seem like we're getting a meatpacking crisis

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— Reconstructionist (@unavaleable.bsky.social) December 22, 2025 at 9:12 PM

Tuesday Morning Open ThreadPost + Comments (222)

Monday Morning Open Thread

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Can’t see the product for the marketing… Per the NYTimes, “Real or Fake? There’s a War Over Christmas … Trees”:

… Advertising is difficult for agricultural products, even those in high demand. Consumers might know a few brands, at best, but not the thousands of farmers who produce for them. So for almost every fruit, vegetable or animal, there is an organization dedicated to marketing it, funded by small fees paid by producers.

These groups advertise, develop new recipes, buy a Super Bowl commercial for Mexican avocados or, in the case of raisins in the 1980s, create Claymation characters and a television series. They hope these efforts will persuade consumers to buy more of their products.

But most people aren’t going to buy multiple Christmas trees, purchase them in July or find new uses for them. So figuring out how to induce demand in a declining industry falls upon the shoulders of Marsha Gray, executive director of the Real Christmas Tree Board.

The board’s mission is to persuade Americans to buy live-cut trees, and its main point is that live-cut trees are real, while plastic trees stored in a box are fake…

The fight is daunting. According to the American Farm Bureau Federation, an agricultural lobbying organization, the value of imported artificial trees has doubled in the last decade, though that fell this year as fewer were imported because of tariffs on China. The United States also has 35 percent fewer acres dedicated to producing Christmas trees than it did 20 years ago.

Ms. Gray has an advertising budget of less than $1 million annually, mostly spent on media awareness and some small online search campaigns. Which is why the entire Christmas tree industry is so excited by Home Depot’s latest ad.

Its big Christmas commercial this year features a North Carolina Christmas tree farm and follows a young boy picking out a live-cut tree at one of its stores. Home Depot has spent about $10 million to air the commercial on national television over 1,000 times, according to iSpot, a television analytics company.

“It’s more than just a transactional purchase, the way we look at Christmas trees,” said Dan Stuppiello, the Home Depot executive in charge of live goods. “We try to create more of that festive environment.”…

 
(H/t commentor Opiejeanne)

Monday Morning Open ThreadPost + Comments (171)

Open Thread: Turning (On Each Other) Point USA’s First Post-Charlie Convo

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At Turning Point, Erika Kirk acknowledges that major rifts have emerged in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
Rifts that could impact midterms.
“We saw infighting. We’ve seen fractures. We’ve seen bridges being burned that shouldn’t be burnt. We saw a lot on full display.”
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— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yasharali.bsky.social) December 18, 2025 at 7:49 PM

Bless Murphy the Trickster God, there are So.Many.Layers of infighting available for us outsiders’ delection here! Per the Associated Press, “Here’s what you missed at Turning Point’s chaotic convention”:

When Turning Point USA’s annual AmericaFest convention reached its halfway point, Erika Kirk tried to put a smiling face on things.

“Say what you want about AmFest, but it’s definitely not boring,” said Kirk, who has led the influential conservative organization since her husband Charlie was assassinated in September. “Feels like a Thanksgiving dinner where your family’s hashing out the family business.” …

Some of the biggest names in conservative media took turns torching each other on the main stage, spending more time targeting right-wing rivals than their left-wing opponents.

The feuds could ultimately define the boundaries of the Republican Party and determine the future of President Donald Trump’s fractious coalition, which appears primed for more schisms in the months and years ahead…

Ben Shapiro, co-founder of the conservative media outlet Daily Wire, set the tone with the first speech after Erika Kirk opened the convention. He attacked fellow commentators in deeply personal terms, saying some of the right’s most popular figures are morally bankrupt.

Candace Owens “has been vomiting all sorts of hideous and conspiratorial nonsense into the public square for years,” he said.

Megyn Kelly is “guilty of cowardice” because she’s refused to condemn Owens for spreading unsubstantiated theories about Kirk’s death.

And Tucker Carlson’s decision to host antisemite Nick Fuentes on his podcast was “an act of moral imbecility.”…

Barely an hour later, Carlson took the same stage and mocked Shapiro’s attempt to “deplatform and denounce” people who disagree with him.

“I watched it,” he said. “I laughed.”

Others had their chance the next night.

“Ben Shapiro is like a cancer, and that cancer spreads,” said Steve Bannon, a former Trump adviser…

I’m a Cynic, of course, but I gotta say that while the ‘celebrities’ on stage seem pretty pumped, the attendees (who paid to be there) look at best dutiful about the whole goat rodeo…

PHOTOS: Turning Point USA is holding its annual youth conference in Phoenix, where conservative influencers have clashed and the women have drawn inspiration from Charlie Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk.
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— The Associated Press (@apnews.com) December 19, 2025 at 2:30 PM

The NYTimes is just short of gleeful — “Turning Point’s Annual Gathering Turns Into a Gripefest” [gift link]:

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Open Thread: Turning (On Each Other) Point USA’s First Post-Charlie ConvoPost + Comments (78)

Late Night Open Thread: Dan Bongino Makes His Exit

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He found the job to be too fact-oriented.

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— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec.bsky.social) December 17, 2025 at 6:20 PM

Bongino’s announcement made a lot of people happy, and I’m not talking about his thousands of podcast listeners. Per MS-NOW, “FBI’s No. 2 confirms he’s moving on – Controversial deputy director has cleared out his office”:

… Bongino had quietly told confidants he planned to formally leave his job early in the new year and would not be returning to headquarters to work this month, according to eight people briefed on his account. He later confirmed the report on X…

With word of an impending departure has come speculation that Bongino is returning to podcasting, which reportedly made him worth $160 million.

In August, after Bongino privately sparred with Bondi, Trump took the unprecedented step of naming a co-deputy director to help share Bongino’s work, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey.

MS NOW reported last month that Trump and his White House aides have been weighing whether to remove FBI Director Kash Patel and replace him with Bailey in the new year…

Bongino faced tremendous backlash from pro-Trump MAGA supporters related to the Jeffrey Epstein case, when he and fellow Justice Department leaders backtracked from earlier claims that the Epstein files contained a secret “client list” of prominent people that Epstein had kept as the fodder for potential blackmail…

“Listen, that Jeffrey Epstein story is a big deal, please do not let that story go. Keep your eye on this,” Bongino told his listeners in 2023. Bongino also suggested he had strong doubts about official government reports that Epstein had committed suicide in his jail cell.

Once inside the bureau, however, Bongino said in a television interview that he had concluded there was no evidence Epstein was murdered. The Justice Department and FBI issued a joint memo in July saying the Epstein files contained no client list, and the furor it unleashed from the MAGA movement led to an angry confrontation between Bongino and Attorney General Bondi in July…

Bongino has drawn disdain and ridicule from a wide swath of FBI agents…

One supposes that a successful podcaster must have a fine sense of timing:

fwiw I think “Bongino quit because of what he saw in the Epstein files” is a lot less likely than “Bongino was/is going to get blamed for the inevitable clusterfuck of the Epstein Files release”

— post malone ergo propter malone (@proptermalone.bsky.social) December 19, 2025 at 5:05 PM

True!

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Late Night Open Thread: Dan Bongino Makes His ExitPost + Comments (37)