Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Disappointing to see gov. newsom with his finger to the wind.

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

“Just close your eyes and kiss the girl and go where the tilt-a-whirl takes you.” ~OzarkHillbilly

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.

You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

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

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

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

Giving in to doom is how authoritarians win.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

This really is a full service blog.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

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Open Thread: News That Doesn’t Actually Suck

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Dr. Carla Hayden will join @mellon.org to advise on efforts to advance public knowledge through libraries & archives.
📚💙
“Together, we will work to strengthen the public knowledge ecosystem and ensure that the transformative power of information remains accessible to all.”
apnews.com/article/carl…

[image or embed]

— American Library Association (@amlibraryassoc.bsky.social) July 8, 2025 at 3:23 PM

… The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation exclusively told The Associated Press that Carla Hayden will join the humanities grantmaker Monday as a senior fellow whose duties will include advising on efforts to advance public knowledge through libraries and archives.

The year-long post places Hayden back at the center of the very debates over American culture that surrounded her dismissal. The White House ousted Hayden, the first woman and the first African American to hold the title, after she was accused of promoting “radical” literary material by a conservative advocacy group seeking to squash Trump opposition within the federal government.

Hayden acknowledged existing threats to “the free exchange of ideas” in a statement to the AP.

“For generations, libraries, archives, and cultural institutions have been the guardians of knowledge and the catalysts for human progress,” she said. “Together, we will work to strengthen the public knowledge ecosystem and ensure that the transformative power of information remains accessible to all.”

Meanwhile, the Mellon Foundation has been working to fill fiscal holes for arts communities reeling from federal cuts. Its $15 million “emergency” fund aims to offset the $65 million that were supposed to go to the state humanities councils that organize book fairs, heritage festivals, theater productions and other programs fostering cultural engagement.

The foundation has previously supported the American Library Association’s efforts to counter book bans, increase scholarships for librarians of color and boost adult literacy…

The library’s interim leadership is a point of dispute. Trump appointed Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who represented the president during his 2024 criminal trial, as acting librarian. But staff, awaiting congressional approval of Trump’s permanent pick, have recognized Robert Newlen, who assumed the title upon Hayden’s ouster.

The role ‘s responsibilities range from looking after collections to selecting the country’s poet laureate to awarding the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song and the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction. The library also manages the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.

Librarians serve 10-year terms, and Hayden’s was scheduled to end in 2026. Her tenure included modernizing its reservoir of the nation’s books and history. She oversaw new initiatives reaching out to rural and online audiences. Recent campaigns sought to improve accessibility for everyday visitors. And she arranged for Lizzo’s 2022 performance where the artist played a crystal flute owned by President James Madison — among the Library’s troves of artifacts…

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Fox News Friday Open Thread

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No, not that Fox News. I just mean I have some fox news:

Fox News Respite Open Thread

Foxes are to urban and suburban Britain as raccoons are to large midwestern North American cities. They’re wild animals, and I don’t have any illusions about taming them or anything like that. But this guy or gal has been visiting early in the morning looking for any leftovers in the stray cats’ bowls, and is quite photogenic. A friend suggested Scraps as a name, and The Child approved.

It’s hot here – not southwestern US hot, but it was 93° F today. The UK doesn’t really do residential air conditioning, and as I’m functionally blind in one eye, I walk most places. I’m weary from this week’s  marches to and from school with The Child. I’m weary from work, which is usually quiet this time of year but is currently full-on. I’m very weary from the last ten days* of actual news, and I feel guilty about feeling weary: I don’t live in the US anymore, and to date none of my family are directly impacted by anything other than higher prices, though we worry for members of the family in science- and higher ed-related jobs. Also, I am a freelancer, so more work always means more money for me.

Still, I feel drained, and trying to unplug from the news doesn’t work. I’m behind on one or two things for work. I only have half of the next episode of my podcast finished, and it’s due to publish Sunday. But I’m going away overnight tomorrow anyway, for a one-night “camping” trip on a friend’s property where a 19th-century farmhouse restoration is in progress, and where we will eat and drink too much and play a tabletop Call of Cthulhu game. I’ve been feeling, lately, like I should snatch these dumb, irresponsible moments where I can.

Happy Friday, kinda. I hope you like Scraps the Fox.

*Last 8–9 months of news, really, but the last 10 days have been a vortex of awful. You get it.

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How About Some Great News?

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The Wisconsin’s Supreme Court, with its 4-3 liberal majority, has struck down the state’s 1849 abortion ban.

h/t Mousebumples for keeping us informed!

This never could have happened if we hadn’t fought like hell to get Janet Protasiewicz elected to the Wisconsin Supreme court, giving liberals a majority on the court.

I’m not exactly sure of the process in Wisconsin.   But I have to wonder if this decision would have been delayed if the liberals hadn’t fought like hell to win the election in November and keep the liberal majority.

So the should be a reminder to all of us – good things bring more good things, and it’s worth fighting for the world we want to see.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Writing for the court’s liberal majority, Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Dallet said the Wisconsin state Legislature had effectively repealed the 1849 law when it enacted additional laws regulating access to abortion.

“… this case is about giving effect to 50 years’ worth of laws passed by the legislature about virtually every aspect of abortion including where, when, and how health-care providers may lawfully perform abortions,” Dallet wrote. “The legislature, as the people’s representatives, remains free to change the laws with respect to abortion in the future.”

And we’ll need to fight again in 2026 when this lovely conservative member of the Wisconsin Supreme Court will be on the ballot again.

Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley, a member of the court’s conservative minority, wrote that majority opinion “erases a law it does not like, making four lawyers sitting on the state’s highest court more powerful than the People’s representatives in the legislature.””Any remaining doubt over whether the majority’s decisions are motivated by the policy predilections of its members has been extinguished by its feeble attempt to justify a raw exercise of political power,” Bradley wrote. “The majority not only does violence to a single statute; it defies the People’s sovereignty.”

Let’s help Wisconsin are FIRE her next year!

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At Least Some Living Things Like the Heat, Though I Am Not One of Them

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I don’t think I’ve mentioned the new patio I had put in on the side of the house.  The old patio had the original cement rectangular bricks from the 1940s or 50s, and they were not only ugly but also an accident waiting to happen.

So we started the patio in the fall, didn’t finish before mid-December, so picked it up again in the Spring.  Finished during the same weeks I was having the floor redone. Pro-tip:  for maximum stress and disruption, always be sure to have two major house projects going at the same time.

Anyway, here are some pics of the new patio and of some of the green growing things that now live on the patio.  In no particular order…

Zucchini & cucumber on the left, spicy peppers and tomatoes are on the right.

The photos above are of the patio behind the gate.

The ones below are the patio toward the front of the house, in front of the gate.
The bleeding heart vine above is happier than the one below, but that one is coming along, too! The top one gets more sun.

Totally open thread.

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Taking a Break from the News

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Want to take a break from the news?

Here are the sidebar images from June.

How can it be literally half a year since we started doing these?

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The pics below are in no particular order.  Click on any image below to see the full-size.

Image by BarcaChicago (6/30/25)
Image by BarcaChicago (6/28/25)
On The Road - way2blue - EAST 2 WEST, SAMOA—RESPITE EDITION—FEBRUARY 2025 ( third of five) 2
Image by way2blue (6/21/25)

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Does He Think He Can Fly?

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As Liminal Owl wrote when she sent this to me, no hookers, just blow.

As someone who woke up sobbing in the night, I can attest to at least the first part of this quote that was made famous by Robert Kennedy when Martin Luther King died.

“Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget
falls drop by drop upon the heart
until, in our own despair, against our will,
comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.”

― Aeschylus

Still hoping for the wisdom.

In the meantime, this is about all I’ve got.

When Barney lifts his leg, does he think he’s flying?  Or is he imagining that he’s flying?

Discuss!

Okay, one more thing.  A picture of dust mop Henry from when he was a baby. trying to get Tucker to play with him.

This was from before Henry’s curly grown-up hair came in.

Mostly open thread.  By which I mean anything personal or respite-y of any sort is welcome, but politics is not.

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Think Pink (Open Thread)

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The news of the day is ghastly so far, or at least it was when I quit looking a while ago to avoid the mounting temptation to take up day drinking. (The six Republican hacks on the SCOTUS have all but crowned the orange pustule — read all about it in Rose’s post below.)

But yesterday, I saw something heartwarming in a local paper that’s worth sharing. It’s about flamingos.

Two flamingos wading in shallow water. One has its wings outstretched.

As regular readers may recall, I’m a big flamingo fan. Even drove hundreds of miles toward the end of 2023 to gawk at hurricane refugee pink birds.

So, when I saw this story in the Orlando Sentinel (gift link) about flamingos reclaiming Florida, well, it was the best news I’d read in a long time. Got a little teary about it, I don’t mind admitting.

Tickled Pink: Flamingos on Merritt Island show birds are giving Florida a second chance
Central Florida refuge one of several areas where flamingos have established toeholds in a Sunshine State recovery

Driven beyond their Caribbean, Central and South American homes, apparently by hurricane activity, scores of flamingos now spend significant time in southern Florida, and, most visibly, around Merritt Island. As yet, none are known to have bred here, crossing the threshold that would make them natives again rather than merely visitors – but it seems increasingly possible.

“This is a newer generation of flamingos that have discovered Florida and are now trying to figure out, maybe it’s worth giving it a go,” said Julie Wraithmell, executive director of Audubon Florida.

If flamingos haven’t given up on Florida — or America — how can I? Anyhoo, godspeed, pinkos!

Open thread!

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