Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
In case anyone wants to take a break from the news, here are all the sidebar images from April.
In no particular order. Click on any image to see it in full-size.
Just enjoy the beauty, or chime in with thoughts about a daily image in the sidebar.
Open thread.
My power came back on around 12:40 AM and has stayed on, so we are good to go. I have no idea what the issue was, the power in my neighborhood almost never goes out.
As I included in last night’s update, Ukraine and the US agreed to a deal for an investment for reconstruction fund. It does potentially include investments in Ukraine’s mineral, including rare earth elements (REEs), and natural gas sectors, but it’s not the minerals or rare earth element deal that was being pushed back in February. It also appears to have been what was necessary to get Trump and his team to open up US military sales and the provision of military aid.
It was downright cruel to stall weapon sales while the missiles kept pouring down on us—just to twist our arm into signing the deal. But hey, a win’s a win.
Yay to weapon!— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) May 1, 2025 at 6:39 AM
While there is still room under the presidential draw down cap in the aid for Ukraine, Taiwan, Israel, and a few other places bill that passed last year after months of Republican delays, I think it is actually better that Ukraine is buying a lot of these weapons. It puts Ukraine on the same footing as other US allies and partners as buyers. And that’s important to the current president because he thinks of himself as someone selling things.
From The Kyiv Independent:
The Trump administration formally notified Congress on April 29 that it is preparing to authorize the sale of “$50 million or more” in “defense articles” to Ukraine.
This marks the first such move under the current U.S. government.
The notification, recorded as communication EC-859, is a memo from the Senior Bureau Official, Legislative Affairs, Department of State, to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.
Under the Arms Export Control Act, the document informs lawmakers of a proposed license to export “defense articles, including technical data, and defense services to Ukraine in the amount of $50 million or more.”
It provided no further details about the types of weapons or services.
The development comes alongside the April 30 signing of a long-awaited minerals agreement between Ukraine and the U.S., which establishes a joint investment fund focused on future extraction and processing projects.
After months of talks, Kyiv and Washington finalized a deal structured around new investments, excluding provisions tied to past debts or existing facilities.
Ukraine has expressed readiness to deepen its defense partnership with the U.S.
On April 13, President Volodymyr Zelensky told CBS News that Ukraine is prepared to purchase 10 U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems for $15 billion to protect cities from ongoing Russian missile and drone attacks.
“We will find the money and pay for everything,” Zelensky said, adding that he made the offer directly to U.S. President Donald Trump and previously to former President Joe Biden.
Trump rejected the request on April 14, accusing Zelensky of “always looking to purchase missiles” and falsely claiming that Ukraine provoked the war with Russia.
The U.S. president has consistently opposed unconditional military grants to Ukraine, pushing instead for loans or deals tied to reciprocal economic benefits.
“We are in for $350 billion, or close to it… Biden handed them $350 billion between cash and military equipment. We got nothing,” Trump said during a May 1 interview with NewsNation.
“So I said, look, they have great rare earth — meaning certain minerals, materials — they have things that a lot of places do not have, big assets that they have. And we made a deal today — we get much more, in theory, than the $350 billion,” he added, referencing the minerals deal.
Trump has repeatedly avoided answering whether the U.S. would continue aiding Ukraine if Russia refuses to negotiate, leaving open questions about his commitment to Kyiv’s defense in the absence of peace talks.
Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.
War for Ukraine Day 1,162: When Is a Deal a Shakedown?Post + Comments (8)
Cole is on the road today. I think!
A little musical accompaniment to a wide open thread. I want to credit the person who sent this video to me with a note that says “Music for Our Times” but I’m not sure if the name he used is his name or his nym. Not risking putting up a real name.
Update: h/t realbtl
All You Fascists Are Bound To Lose (Squishable Open Thread)Post + Comments (105)
Today’s rally 3:30pm Mountain time.
Scheduled 3:00 to 5:00
A bit smaller today, but still some(?) thousands. There is a large flat area up at the top, so people that can’t be seen in the photo. Lots of horn honking!
Steve the ultimate lurker – May Day CO State Capitol (Open Thread)Post + Comments (20)
In the wee hours after the elections in Canada on Tuesday, Pete Downunder was kind enough to share kind of a primer on the upcoming Australia elections. I found it super helpful, so with his permission I’ve copied it here.
So study up! If you want to know what’s up before this Saturday morning when results start coming in. :-)
I will have an Australia election results post up at 5am on Saturday morning (blog time) where Pete Downunder has offered to kind of live blog the results in real time as they start coming in. All of our other Australia peeps are invited to chime in, as well, and share what you know or you think you know!
Now that Canada has shown the way, we’re up next on 3 May (our time: GMT +10). At the risk of repeating what many of you (and all Aussie Jackals) know, we have a house and a senate. Unless the party with a house majority also has a senate majority the senate acts as a restraint on the majority.
The leader of the majority party in the house is the Prime Minister. To confuse Americans further, the left-ish (or more accurately slightly less right-ish) party is Labor (spelled the US way not the UK way for historical reasons too boring to go into here.) Its colour is Red. The center to far right-ish party is misleadingly named the Liberal Party (again for boring historical reasons). Because the Liberals have an alliance with a right-leaning country based party called the National Party they are usually referred to as the Coalition or the LNP. Their colour is Blue.
They are the major parties. The main minority party is the left leaning Green party whose colour, surprise, is Green. There is also a group of independents whose backgrounds vary but tend to be center to center left but who have in common support from an environmental funder. Their colour is Teal and collectively they are called the Teals but they are not a party and each is an independent individual. Some, but not all, are defectors from the LNP. There are also a scattering of minor parties on the right but they are increasingly irrelevant.
We have mandatory preferential voting. Not only must you vote but you must number all the boxes in order of preference. In my electorate the ballot has 8 boxes, one each for Labor, LNP and Greens and 5 more for some minor parties and independents. My electorate is one of few with a Green incumbent but the LNP is desperate to get the seat back.
After all the votes are cast, if no one has 50% + 1, the election officials then go through those with the lowest votes as #1 and allocate their preferences as shown on the ballots. This is repeated until one candidate exceeds 50%. For example in my electorate Labor wants its voters to vote Labor #1 and Greens #2 and LNP #8 and the rest are more or less random. The Greens ask their voters to do basically the same but with Greens #1 and Labor # 2 and LNP last. Thus a major party candidate who can’t win on their own can get over the line with other party preferences. There will be quiz on this next week.
At the moment Labor holds a majority with Anthony Albonese (known universally as Albo) as PM. The Guardian newspaper recently ran a fun contest to chose the invertebrate of the year. I nominated Albo as he is totally spineless. Good hearted but useless. The Opposition is a former cop named Peter Dutton who is far right but not insane like Trump. He is really unlikable. Up until a few months ago, Australian polling was putting LNP in front, but the Trump madness has, like in Canada, turned things around and Labor now barely leads in the polls. As in Canada it could be a minority Labor government with the Greens and Teals holding the balance of power.
That is more than you wanted to know about Australian elections. I’ll will take questions but I don’t want to always see the same hands. I also welcome additions and corrections from other Aussies.
I believe Australia is 10 hours different from us, but Pete is up right now (it’s the wee hours of Friday morning in Australia and he will be on this thread in case anyone has any questions or wants to talk about the election.
I have family in Australia, so this is even more personal for me, but in the current environment, we all have to follow a lot of things that we might have paid less attention to in the past.
Update:
I have sort of been a “normie” in the past week or so because of a big push for one of my clients, a big undertaking at home, and the start of gardening season.
So I haven’t had time to read all the newsletters and substances and articles in the news.
But vibes? Even normies have time for vibes, and it sure feels like something is shifting.
Cue 100 people telling me I’m wrong? I hope not, but the chips will fall where they may.
Open thread.
Anyone going to a May Day protest today? (Wish I could, but I can’t.)
Here’s a link to Indivisible’s May Day page, which has a searchable list of more than 1,000 events. Here’s how the organization describes the purpose on this May Day:
Trump and his billionaire profiteers are trying to create a race to the bottom—on wages, on benefits, on dignity itself. This May Day we are fighting back. We are demanding a country that puts our families over their fortunes—public schools over private profits, healthcare over hedge funds, prosperity over free market politics.
Although much of the world celebrates International Workers Day on May 1st, May Day fell out of favor in the USA because Cold Warriors detected a whiff of commie. I agree with the LOL GOP fellow from Bluesky when he says, “if the GOP gets to be led by a KGB agent, we get May Day back.”
***
Like many year-round Florida residents, I dread summer. May 1st for me marks the end of stone crab season (boo!) and a preview of the long, hot season of suffocating heat and humidity to come. And possibly hurricanes. So, not a fan.
But on the bright side, this is the time of year when lots of snowbirds decamp, so there’s less traffic and competition for seats at the local tiki bars. Bill informs me that our MAGA dope neighbor is migrating back home soon, so I’ve got that going for me.
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Here’s one for the “You’ve Got to Hand It to Them” file:
sometimes you do have to hand it to them
— Marisa Kabas (@marisakabas.bsky.social) May 1, 2025 at 9:05 AM
Backstory in case you missed it: When asked about possible toy shortages due to his dumb tariff pissing contest with China, Trump said, “Maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30, and maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more than they would normally.” (YouTube)
Yep, this person actually said that.
Open thread.
![On The Road - lashonharangue - Mayan Ruins and the Sacred Monkey River [4 of 4] 4](https://balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/6-Copy-of-DSC05967-edit.jpg)
![On The Road - lashonharangue - Mayan Ruins and the Sacred Monkey River [2 of 4] 8](https://balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/2-Copy-of-DSC05768-edit.jpg)
