Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

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

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

The fight for our country is always worth it. ~Kamala Harris

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

The unpunished coup was a training exercise.

Not all heroes wear capes.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

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Late Night Open Thread: Mitch McConnell, Still Not Dead

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see Mitch McConnell just falls down all the time it’s fine right

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— Philo of Alexan (@philoof.bsky.social) October 16, 2025 at 6:50 PM

Per ABC, “Sen. Mitch McConnell falls in Capitol hallway”:

Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell, 83, fell to the ground in a Capitol hallway Thursday afternoon as he made his way to Senate votes.

McConnell, who announced in February that he would not seek reelection, fell to the floor while two volunteers from the environmental advocacy group Sunrise Movement approached the senator and asked him a question about Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions. He did not respond to the question.

The senator seemed unsteady, but got up and kept walking with the help of his detail. He then waved to the two individuals who were questioning him.

The Senate was taking a series of votes on Thursday related to the government shutdown, now on its 16th day. After the fall, McConnell voted and he is expected to vote late in the day as well…

As a fellow (not quite that) Old Person with balance issues, I can attest that very slightly uneven surfaces, like tile floors, can be especially tricky when one is distracted. I’m sure the Sunrise Movement is happy to take the credit, of course…

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Simple and Powerful Messaging Open Thread

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This is a terrific protest idea

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— Tedra Osell (@tedos.bsky.social) October 11, 2025 at 10:17 PM

When I first saw that Bluesky tweet, I thought it was just an image.  But no, it’s a short video of all the signs and it’s one of the most powerful things I’ve seen.

 

Simple and Powerful Messaging Open ThreadPost + Comments (43)

War for Ukraine Day 1,330: One Weird Trick

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A black and white cartoon with Popeye the Sailor Man facing forward and to the left. His word bubble says "I Yam Disgustipated"

There is no daily address from President Zelenskyy today most likely because he’s traveling to the US to meet with President Trump tomorrow.

So let’s see what’s going on with the Trump administration regarding Ukraine.

Leavitt: “President Putin thanked the First Lady for her efforts to bring back children and save children in this brutal conflict.”

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) October 16, 2025 at 1:19 PM

Amazingly, there’s one weird trick to get these stolen Ukrainian children home from Russian captivity: Putin could just send them all back to Ukraine rather than continuing to steal them and allowing his cronies to adopt them.

In more American stupidity today, aside from the HHS press conference at the White House that was just off the looking glass and through the map, we have these gems:

Leavitt says Trump and Putin were on the phone for more than 2 hours

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) October 16, 2025 at 1:18 PM

A proper quarterly evaluation takes time.

According to Ushakov, the aide to the Russian president, today’s conversation took place at the initiative of the Russian side. Particular attention was given to resolving the war in Ukraine.

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— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) October 16, 2025 at 2:38 PM

Trump: “President Putin and I will meet in an agreed upon location, Budapest, Hungary, to see if we can bring this ‘inglorious’ War, between Russia and Ukraine, to an end.”

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) October 16, 2025 at 1:16 PM

Q: Why will a second meeting with Putin now will yield different results than Alaska?

TRUMP: I think Alaska actually set a stage and that wasn’t very long ago. You have to understand, I came into this situation. I didn’t start this war. This is a Biden deal.

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) October 16, 2025 at 4:32 PM

Q: Thune said he’d like to proceed with the bill that would put sanctions on Russia?

TRUMP: Well we’re gonna see. He doesn’t know about the call yet. And it was subject to what I wanted to do.

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) October 16, 2025 at 4:38 PM

Two more weeks!

Q: What did you tell Putin about the Tomahawk missiles?

TRUMP: I will tell you we need Tomahawks for the United States of America too

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) October 16, 2025 at 4:31 PM

Q: Did Putin try to dissuade you from selling Tomahawk missiles?

TRUMP: Well of course. Do you think he’s gonna say ‘please sell Tomahawks?’

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) October 16, 2025 at 4:39 PM

>trump said putin didn’t like the idea of selling tomahawks to Ukraine

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— Mira of Kyiv 🇺🇦 (@reshetz.bsky.social) October 16, 2025 at 5:01 PM

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Thursday Afternoon Open Thread

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I have out of town company coming on the 27th, so I realized it’s definitely time to get my Covid shot.

Interesting that at CVS they just ask if you have had a Covid shot in the past 2 months.  Maybe there’s a big difference between the previous version and this one, enough that you don’t need to wait 6 months?

Hoping to not get “Covid arm”, which I have gotten every single time I have gotten the Covid vaccine.  I get a big, red, hot, raised area on my arm near the injection site – bit enough that if I put my hand over it, my hand nearly covers all the surface area of the mad mad mad spot on my arm.  And it itches like crazy!

Hope springs eternal, but either way, it beats the hell out of getting Covid.

What’s everybody else up to?

Open thread.

Thursday Afternoon Open ThreadPost + Comments (94)

Mike Johnson did NOT SEE this coming…

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Why do all these Nazis* keep working/voting for and getting elected to Mike Johnson’s political party? ‘Tis a mystery. (The Guardian)

Johnson condemns Young Republicans group chat messages
The House speaker has condemned racist, sexist and homophobic messages from a Young Republicans group chat that were leaked this week.

“We roundly condemn any of that nonsense,” Johnson said, while underscoring that he didn’t know the members of the chat accused of sending the messages. “Somebody posted a photo of me standing next to these guys wearing tuxedos. Obviously, I think it was at the inauguration, and people are just coming up and asking for selfies … I’ve never heard of that person in my life.”

Johnson also said he couldn’t comment on the ongoing investigation into an image of American flag with a digitally altered swastika symbol seen in congressman Dave Taylor’s legislative office. The Republican lawmaker representing Ohio referred the matter to Capitol police and said that “the content of that image does not reflect the values or standards of this office, my staff, or myself, and I condemn it in the strongest terms” in a statement.

“Anybody in any party who espouses it, we’re opposing that,” Johnson said plainly today.

It’s just SO WEIRD that Nazis keep popping up in Republican group chats, selfies with Mike Johnson and in Republican legislative offices on Capitol Hill, y’all. Why does this keep happening?

Open thread!

*Reference to a timeless classic from The Onion.

Mike Johnson did NOT SEE this coming…Post + Comments (164)

Thursday Morning Open Thread: Resist

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— Mike Luckovich (@mluckovich.bsky.social) October 9, 2025 at 9:11 PM

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Mike Johnson: "I don't think it will end before the Hate America Rally on the Mall on Saturday, where all the Marxists and antifa people and all the people who hate Trump and hate America will be there."

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) October 15, 2025 at 2:40 PM

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yeah run this everywhere

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— not an art thief (@famousartthief.bsky.social) October 15, 2025 at 9:43 AM

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This is almost literally what the English Civil War was fought over.

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— Don Zeko (@donzeko.bsky.social) October 15, 2025 at 8:17 PM

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shaheen talking like this should probably underline that senate dems are committed to holding the line

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— GHOULLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachine.com) October 15, 2025 at 1:10 PM

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A lot of time and effort has gone into survey research around what is the best protest sign slogan, message, wording etc and to be frank the research is pretty clear the most effective things you can do at a protest are express joy and express camaraderie, don't overthink it

— JLRay (@jlray.bsky.social) October 15, 2025 at 9:25 PM

Thursday Morning Open Thread: ResistPost + Comments (269)

Cold Grey Dawn Open Thread: The Aristocrats Eugenicists!

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'It can be a loss of life': First responders detail the deadly cost of rural hospital closures
Rural hospitals are vanishing, and Medicaid cuts could accelerate the collapse.
abcnews.go.com/US/loss-life…

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— 🦋 kris🌻⋆⋆⋆ (@eviebauer727.bsky.social) October 8, 2025 at 12:52 PM

Look, it’s just not cost-effective to keep a scatter of useless eaters alive across broad swathes of flyover country, okay? Per ABC:

… President Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill slashes nearly $1 trillion in Medicaid funding over the next decade. The administration says this cuts wasteful spending and will create a $50 billion fund for rural hospitals. But many health experts say that’s not nearly enough.

Already, nearly 100 rural hospitals have closed or eliminated inpatient services in the last decade, threatening health care access to some of the more than 16 million people living in rural communities who rely on Medicaid.

While the full impact of Medicaid cuts could take years to unfold, doctors say the system is already buckling. Many rural hospitals are already operating on razor-thin or negative margins, and they see these looming Medicaid changes could push them over the edge…

A spokesman for the White House issued a statement to ABC News claiming, in part, that rural hospitals do not suffer from low margins, but low volumes.

“Rural hospitals in sparsely populated areas have chronically low utilization rates, often having more empty beds than filled ones,” the statement reads.

“Only seven percent of Medicaid spending goes to rural hospitals, and rural hospitals’ economic woes have continued to worsen despite the dramatic increase in Medicaid spending in recent years,” the statement adds.

The White House also said the Trump administration’s $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Fund is designed to “push states to adopt meaningful healthcare reforms to make rural hospitals economically viable.”

Something that has taken me some time to get my head around, but it's becoming more clear to me (or I'm just descending into poster's madness, hard to say) as we go on is that Trump and co. actually don't care about all stick, no carrot, and in fact, actually want it to be that way.

— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) October 11, 2025 at 2:58 PM

These people want to reform the administrative state, tear out benefits and do eugenics, and racially remake the countries population.
There is no deliverism here, it's raw transformational politics. There will never be carrots, it's just sticks all the way down.

— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) October 11, 2025 at 2:58 PM

Just to remind people, the reason that Trump wants to blow up CDC is pretty easy: they want people to die.
The combination of destroying rural areas to centralize population and removing weak populations seems to be part and parcel of their strategy to remake the welfare state.

— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) October 11, 2025 at 2:44 PM

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Cold Grey Dawn Open Thread: <em>The <del>Aristocrats</del> Eugenicists!</em>Post + Comments (40)