Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

The current Supreme Court is a dangerous, rogue court.

All hail the time of the bunny!

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

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

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

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

They are not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

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

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

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

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

“In this country American means white. everybody else has to hyphenate.”

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

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

Stay strong, because they are weak.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

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Readership Capture Open Thread: Alexandra Petri

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The Atlantic today:
Maybe We Don’t Need to Go to Space Anymore
Trump wants to slash NASA’s budget. A Real World star will lead the agency. But everything’s okay!
By Alexandra Petri
share.google/PlDIfR6EXjgD…

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— Frank Amari (@frankamari.bsky.social) July 11, 2025 at 9:05 PM

Not sure y’all know blog favorite Petri has switched from WaPo to the Atlantic…

Sure, NASA is set to reduce its workforce by at least 2,145 employees, most of them senior-level and with expertise that will be extremely hard to replace. Sure, Sean Duffy, the former Real World cast member currently serving as secretary of transportation (which seems like a more-than-full-time job already) is now also the interim head of NASA. Sure, the Trump budget aims to slash NASA’s funding to the level it was several years before we sent anyone to the moon. The Senate is trying to preserve the budget, but—must it? It’s okay! We didn’t need to go to space again anyway! What’s in space? Nothing. Void, vacuum, Laika’s vengeful ghost, dust, gas, rocks, old Voyagers, a couple of gold records, thousands of Starlink satellites blotting out the view of the stars. It’s not like we haven’t been up there before. Going to space is much too ’60s. The whole theme of the Trump administration is undoing things we did in the 1960s, such as “end polio” and “enforce the Fourteenth Amendment.”

To anyone who says, “I don’t think a former reality-TV star should be in charge of NASA,” I say: Why does NASA deserve any better than the rest of the country?

Indeed, there might be some benefits associated with bringing Real World sensibilities to NASA. Previous administrators would have wasted money trying to actually get to space, instead of entertaining cost-saving ideas such as faking it on a soundstage and giving a press conference where you belligerently insist that you have already landed on Mars but the Fake-News Media just didn’t see it. (The saved money can be used to deport people, preferably people who came here hoping to do science for us because we were a “nice place” with “freedoms.” In a sense, deportation is a kind of space travel. El Salvador is in space.)…

… I got a look at new missions being contemplated by Duffy’s combined Department of Transportation/NASA, and they are, frankly, a little bleak:

– Fake a moon landing, but on a much worse, dinkier soundstage this time.

– Communicate with extraterrestrial life, but in a hostile, careless way that compels them to immediately attack Earth.

– Space tariffs???

– For the next mission, astronauts will fly to Cincinnati and back, coach class…

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Years and Years (Open Thread)

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I’ve been dealing with a particularly persistent and annoying bout of insomnia (a lifelong problem). Sometimes I’ll reread favorite books and rewatch movies and TV series when sleep is hopelessly elusive.

Recently, I rewatched BBC/HBO’s six-part series “Years and Years,” which stars Emma Thompson, Rory Kinnear, Anne Reid and other notables. If I recall correctly, we discussed it here in comments several years back, when it was current in the U.S.?

I may even have shared a link to the clip below? I can’t remember and can’t be arsed to look it up.

Anyway, for those who haven’t seen it, “Years and Years” is a dystopian drama that follows an extended family through 15 years of political, social and economic turmoil. The action opens the year of the series’ real-life release, 2019.

I think I first saw it in 2020-2021 or thereabouts because I think I remember being smugly relieved that they got the 2020 U.S. election wrong (they had Trump winning reelection). In the series, Emma Thompson plays a corrupt, Trump-style clown who becomes the UK’s PM.

Each episode contains scenes that set the timeline, which extends to 2034. One shows the family matriarch (Reid) sadly watching TV coverage of the 2022 death of Queen Elizabeth II. Remember, the series was released in 2019, so the writers correctly predicted the year the Queen would die. Given QE2’s advanced years, I put that down to a lucky guess.

That said, having just watched it again, I’m impressed anew by how much they got right about the ensuing years. God help us, Trump is back. The world is going to shit in all kinds of ways, what with corrupt oligarchs consolidating power, climate change, conspiracy theory madness, technological advances that outstrip humanity’s ability to handle the fallout, social fragmentation, etc.

The following scene contains at least one major spoiler, but I include it because the family matriarch sums up her view of how we weaved the handbasket that’s currently conveying us all to hell.

She’s not wrong. Anyway, it sure as fuck didn’t help lull me to sleep, watching that damn show again.

So, I’m going to go make a giant tray of lasagna. It is my firm opinion that a dystopian timeline cries out for lasagna. I’ll share a pic later, if it’s a photogenic lasagna.

For now, here’s a photo of an extremely photogenic gopher tortoise I met on the trail earlier today. As you can see, it is not worried a bit about anything. I wished it a good day, and we went our separate ways.

Gopher tortoise on a dusty trail.

Open thread!

Years and Years (Open Thread)Post + Comments (98)

Saturday Morning Klown Show Open Thread: GOP Falling Into the Pit They Have Dug

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lol

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— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) July 11, 2025 at 3:03 PM

Rolling Stone is on it — “The DOJ’s Epstein Memo Is Tearing the Trump Administration Apart”;

… The Department of Justice announced in a memo on Sunday that Jeffrey Epstein had indeed killed himself, that his potentially explosive “client list” doesn’t exist, and that the administration is effectively closing its case on the convicted sex offender, whose 2019 death in prison has been a lightning rod for conspiracy theorists — especially those who supported Trump, never mind the president’s own connections to Epstein.

Rolling Stone reported that the Trump administration was bracing for a MAGA revolt over its nothing to see here-style memo. MAGA revolted as expected, with scores of prominent right-wing influencers expressing outrage over the memo. Many are calling for Attorney General Pam Bondi to be fired, and some even seem to be souring on the president. “Trump has become the Deep State. What is more Deep State than covering up for pedophiles?” someone asked former Trump adviser Steve Bannon at a MAGA event on Friday.

It isn’t just outside onlookers and online MAGA diehards who are miffed. Rolling Stone can confirm that FBI Director Kash Patel and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino have also been furious since the memo’s release, and more broadly over Bondi’s handling of the Epstein investigation, including the public rollout of federal conclusions.

Laura Loomer — a far-right conspiracy theorist who is close with Trump and was also apoplectic over the memo — posted to X on Friday that Patel and Bongino are “LIVID” at Bondi, and that Bongino even took the day off from work on Friday. Axios corroborated soon after that Bongino ditched work on Friday after clashing with Bondi over these matters, with CNN adding that Bongino has talked to people about potentially resigning over the memo…

Trump promised before the election that his administration would release the so-called Epstein Files, which MAGA conspiracy theories long hoped would reveal a host of powerful figures who were in league with Epstein. After Bondi said Epstein’s client list was on her desk in February, she arranged a stunt in which she handed out folders consisting of “Phase 1” of the Epstein Files to prominent right-wing influencers.

Many of these influencers now feel betrayed by the DOJ’s memo, which noted that after an “exhaustive” investigation, the administration found “no incriminating ‘client list,’” nor any “credible evidence … that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions.” The DOJ also released a video of Epstein’s cell the night he died. The video skips a minute before midnight, however, which led to more speculation about a potential cover-up…

Trump, once a friend of Epstein’s, lashed out at a reporter who asked Bondi about the missing minute during a Cabinet meeting earlier this week, questioning why anyone was still bringing up Epstein, and calling it a “desecration.” Bondi attributed the missing minute in the footage to an old system that cuts out a minute when the video is reset every night, which hardly tamped down the uproar over the memo and video.

Elon Musk, a former Trump ally and megadonor who headed his so-called Department of Government Efficiency, has added fuel to the fire as his relationship with the president has deteriorated. He wrote last month that the “real reason” the Epstein Files had not been made public is because Trump “is in” them. Musk then wondered after the memo’s release on Sunday, “How can people be expected to have faith in Trump if he won’t release the Epstein files?”

Unsympathetic observers have snarked that Bongino is finding his ‘FBI deputy director’ job harder and less personally rewarding than his old gig as a prominent right-wing podcaster, especially since Attorney General Pam Bondi has been suspiciously unsympathetic recently to Bongino’s most loyal QAnon-curious audience.

===

And now Jamie Raskin is stirring the pot…

Top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee (which oversees DOJ) says "I'm going to be asking Chairman Jordan to call for a hearing where we subpoena the Attorney General and Dan Bongino and Kash Patel to come in and tell us everything that we know" about the Jeffrey Epstein files

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— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein.bsky.social) July 11, 2025 at 9:49 PM

===

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War for Ukraine Day 1,233: Another Day, More Russian War Crimes & Crimes Against Humanity

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Painting by NEIVANMADE. It has a white background an in the center are Soldiers in green doing air defense by firing at incoming Russian missiles in the upper right. The missiles are red and yellow. In the upper left, written in green, is the text: "SAVE THE BRAVEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD!" Below the Soldiers, also written in green, is "SUPPORT FOR KHARKIV"

(Image by NEIVANMADE)

At 3:30 AM local time in Ukraine/8:30 PM EDT almost all of Ukraine is under air raid alert. Drone swarms are moving from east to west and the indicators for Russian MiG-31s are up over western Russia and the Black Sea on the air raid alert maps.

Currently, many oblasts of Ukraine are under attack by russian Shahed drones. Moreover, monitoring channels are reporting the takeoff of the russian bombers, meaning that tonight Ukraine is likely to be under yet another massive combined attack.

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— Iryna Voichuk (@irynavoichuk.bsky.social) July 11, 2025 at 4:35 PM

Russian missiles are entering Ukrainian airspace

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— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) July 11, 2025 at 8:32 PM

Kyiv right now‼️ civilians are taking shelter in metro stations as Russian drones and missiles are attacking Ukraine.

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— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) July 11, 2025 at 8:37 PM

Drone situation: Swarms of Russian/Iranian Shahed flying bomb drones heading west – likely to Starokostyantyniv air base In Khmelnytsky Oblast. Meanwhile, reports that Russian Tu-95 bombers have launched cruise missiles.

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— Euan MacDonald (@euanmacdonald.bsky.social) July 11, 2025 at 7:07 PM

Earlier today:

Zelenskyy confirms RF attack on Odesa, with new waves launched. Strikes also hit Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv, Sumy regions. Odesa reports 8 injured, damage to civilian infrastructure, homes, stables, cars. Local reports note at least one horse killed.

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— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) July 11, 2025 at 5:39 AM

Now we wait and watch safely from afar.

All reports confirm that U.S. aid deliveries to Ukraine have resumed, — Zelenskyy.

“We have high-level political signals—positive signals, including from the United States and our European friends. According to all reports, deliveries have resumed,” the president said in his evening address.

— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) July 11, 2025 at 1:09 PM

Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.

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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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Friday Afternoon Distraction Open Thread: Get the Passport Stamped with All the Right Signals…

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Really doesn’t matter in itself but was weird that he kept lying about this www.occrp.org/en/news/excl…

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— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm.bsky.social) July 11, 2025 at 2:13 PM

As far as I can tell, the question of Gor’s loyalties went full social media last month, when he managed to get Elon Musk’s choice for NASA head cancelled. Per the Organized Crime & Corruption Reporting Project:

When he was named director of the White House Office of Presidential Personnel under U.S. President Donald Trump, a media report called Sergio Gor “maybe the most powerful man you’ve never heard of.”

Gor’s public profile has increased more recently, as he continued his work overseeing appointments of thousands of officials for the Trump administration. Media coverage has since filled in much of his biography with one glaring exception — his birthplace.

Now, the Times of Malta and OCCRP have obtained a notarized Maltese property record that shows Gor’s origins. He was born Sergio Gorokhovsky on November 30, 1986, in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, which was part of the Soviet Union at the time…

Gor had previously declined to say where he was born. The December 2024 profile of Gor by the Washington Post — which noted his low public profile, despite becoming a “powerful man” in the Trump administration — skirted the question of his birthplace entirely. It called him an immigrant from the Mediterranean island nation of Malta.

Gor’s Maltese background has since been cited in other media, including a New York Post story in June that garnered widespread attention. Gor declined to reveal his country of birth to the newspaper, saying only that it was not in Russia…

When he was a boy, Gor’s family emigrated to the U.S., where he became a citizen. His path to politics led him eventually to a job with Republican Senator Rand Paul, and then into Trump’s orbit.

One of his activities with Paul was a trip to Moscow in 2018 funded by the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in D.C. The visit was characterized as a “fact-finding trip to research, discuss and explore issues related to Russia and the U.S.”

Gor had also traveled to Moscow the year before, according to leaked Russian border records. He flew from Washington D.C. to Moscow with the Russian state carrier Aeroflot, and left the next day for Rome. The border records provide no indication of what Gor did in Moscow, and there is no evidence that his visit was connected to any improper activity.

Garson explained that Gor is “an avid traveler.”…

Gor left Paul’s office in 2020 to work as chief of staff on the Trump Victory Finance Committee for the failed re-election campaign. He also co-founded a conservative publishing company with Donald Trump Jr. called Winning Team Publishing.

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Immigration Open Thread: ICE Is Wearing Out Its Welcome

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The LA Times reporting provides an important bit of context for this operation; it was a cannabis farm.
Working in the legal cannabis industry is a deportable offense even for people with green cards, so if they catch people using fake papers, yikes. ICE reportedly had search warrants, too.

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— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social) July 10, 2025 at 10:32 PM

First reports I saw on social media last night referred to the raid site as a ‘strawberry farm‘, but per Reuters:

Federal agents conducted immigration enforcement raids on Thursday on state-licensed marijuana nurseries in an agricultural region of coastal Southern California, where they were confronted by throngs of angry protesters.

As word and video images of the raids spread on social media, dozens of migrant-rights activists converged on the area in vehicles leading to face-offs with federal agents in the middle of rural roadways, according to the Santa Barbara Independent, Los Angeles Times and other news media.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents accompanied by National Guard troops in military-style vehicles turned up at two locations operated by Glass House Farms – one in the Santa Barbara County town of Carpinteria, about 90 miles northwest of Los Angeles, and one in the Ventura County community of Camarillo, about 50 miles from L.A.

Glass House Farms, which bills itself as one of the “fastest-growing vertically integrated cannabis companies in the U.S.,” said on X that its greenhouse sites “were visited today by ICE officials,” adding, “The company fully complied with agent search warrants and will provide further updates if necessary.”

An attorney representing clients who work at Glass House said both of the company’s nurseries had been previously visited by ICE in June. National Guard troops were with ICE when they arrived at the property Thursday morning….

Local TV footage from the scene of one standoff showed protesters yelling and gesturing angrily at armed, uniformed federal agents wearing helmets and face masks blocking traffic with yellow crime-scene tape strung across the road…

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