Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You passed on an opportunity to be offended? What are you even doing here?

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

The words do not have to be perfect.

The National Guard is not Batman.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Come on, man.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

We are learning that “working class” means “white” for way too many people.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

Usually wrong but never in doubt

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

Dumb motherfuckers cannot understand a consequence that most 4 year olds have fully sorted out.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

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

A fool as well as an oath-breaker.

Stay strong, because they are weak.

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

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

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

Consistently wrong since 2002

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ProPublica – the Corrupt Aileen Cannon Is In the Spotlight

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Cannon, whose oversight of the Donald Trump classified documents case has garnered widespread criticism, has repeatedly violated a rule requiring that federal judges disclose their attendance at private seminars.  (ProPublica)

I was hoping Cannon would have her time in the barrel!

In 2021 and 2022, Cannon took weeklong trips to the luxurious Sage Lodge in Pray, Montana, for legal colloquiums sponsored by George Mason, which named its law school for Scalia thanks to $30 million in gifts that conservative judicial kingmaker Leonard Leo helped organize.

Current rates for standard rooms at Sage Lodge can exceed $1,000 per night, depending on the season. With both Montana trips, Cannon’s required seminar disclosures were not posted until NPR reporters asked about the omissions this year as part of a broader national investigation of gaps in judicial disclosures.

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Cannon’s annual disclosure form for 2023, which was due in May and offers another chance to report gifts and reimbursements from outside parties, has yet to be posted. (Cannon reported the two Montana trips on her annual disclosure forms, but the required 30-day privately funded seminar reports had not been posted. In 2021, Cannon incorrectly listed the school as “George Madison University.”)

The court’s administrative office declined to say if she requested a one-time extension to give her until Aug. 13 to file. A spokesperson would not discuss whether she met the deadline or the status of her disclosure, which must be reviewed internally.

Cannon’s performance during almost four years of a lifetime appointment has drawn criticism from lawyers, former federal judges and courtroom observers who told ProPublica that she doesn’t render timely decisions and has made unpredictable rulings in both civil and criminal matters. On July 15, she threw out the case brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith that alleges Trump mishandled classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence; Cannon called Smith’s appointment unconstitutional since he was not nominated by the president and approved by the Senate.

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By contrast, Trump, who appointed Cannon in 2020 to the Fort Pierce courthouse, has praised her brilliance, and Federalist Society founder Steven Calabresi called her a heroine for throwing out the criminal case against Trump.

h/t Scout211

Open thread.

 

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Pager of Mass Destruction

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This is awful and strange at the same time:

Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate against Israel after pagers used by its members exploded across Lebanon simultaneously, killing at least nine people and wounding almost 3,000 in a dramatic and unprecedented attack at a time of heightened tensions in the Middle East.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the blasts, which came just hours after Israel announced it was broadening the aims of the war sparked by the Hamas attacks on 7 October to include its fight against Hezbollah along the border with Lebanon.

Lebanon’s health minister, Firass Abiad, said the blasts on Tuesday killed a 10-year-old girl, among others. “About 2,750 people were injured … more than 200 of them critically,” with injuries mostly reported to the face, hands and stomach, Abiad told a press conference.

The apparent sabotage attack followed months of targeted assassinations by Israel against senior Hezbollah leaders and came as US officials try to de-escalate tensions between the two sides and remain concerned that Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, could order a ground invasion of Lebanon. It threatens to derail efforts by the US to prevent Iran, which backs the Lebanese Shia militia, from retaliating against Israel for the July bombing in Tehran that killed Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh.

The blasts appeared to exploit the low-tech pagers that Hezbollah has adopted in order to prevent the targeted assassinations of its members, who could be tracked by mobile phone signals. Those wounded in the attack include Iran’s ambassador to Beirut, Mojtaba Amani, according to reports.

There’s a graphic video of a pager exploding in a grocery store at the Post, and just from a technology perspective, I’m amazed at the force of however much explosive was packed into a device that’s generally smaller than a deck of cards.  Whoever did this — and how could it be anyone but Israel — had to know that there was a huge potential for collateral damage of innocent bystanders.

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Operation Blue Arizona, Day 2 (with 48 days left)

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It’s Day 2 of Operation Blue Arizona, and we have some new Balloon Juice Angels!

Angel Summary for Day 2

We have angels for 3 of our thermometers today!

lurker – Worker Power

silvery – Four Directions (+ external match!) so 4x matching

anonymous – Arizona Candidates 

Since you guys are already familiar with Worker Power and Four Directions,  I’ll include details about the candidates in this post, but just include the thermometers for the rest.  But if you have any questions, or you would like more information, let me know in the comments and I’ll include that in tomorrow’s post.

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO SHARE THIS POST ON SOCIAL MEDIA OR WITH ANYONE YOU KNOW WHO WOULD APPRECIATE KNOWING ABOUT GREAT ORGANIZATIONS AND CANDIDATES (where their contact information is not shared by default)

U.S. Congress

Amish Shah. Shah is an emergency room physician and State Representative who is taking on perpetually vulnerable Republican Congressman David Schweikert.  Schweikert retained his seat by only 3,000 votes in 2022.  Shah is running on protecting Medicare, border security and reproductive freedom.  Shah had to survive a primary in August, and needs the cash.

Kirsten Engel.  This is a rematch between first term Republican Congressman Juan Ciscomani and challenger Kirsten Engel.  In 2022, he won by only 1.5% in an off-year election.  Engel is currently ahead in fundraising, but insiders in AZ warn of an upcoming Republican money bomb.

Arizona State Legislature

  • Republicans control the state Senate 16-14
  • Republicans control the House 31-29.
  • A Democratic flip will protect voting rights.
  • The state Republican party is batshit crazy and in total disarray.

While there are any number of potential candidates to support, we’re targeting four candidates in Legislative Districts 16 and 17 (Tucson and Casa Grande), where the Worker Power team we’re helping support is canvassing.

Keith Seaman:  Keith was a retired teacher and Legislator who was so outraged by Dobbs that he ran for a Republican state seat in 2022 and won.  Barely.  This is our only retention play.

Stacy Seaman:  Stacy is Keith’s daughter, a school teacher running to flip a House Republican seat.  The Seaman family is well known and respected in Pinal County (Casa Grande).

Kevin Volk:  Kevin is a young Tucson native, former intern for Gabby Giffords and started a small business owner focused on building affordable housing.  Another potential flip.

John Mclean:  John is a retired CEO, running for Senate on reproductive rights and fiscal responsibility, against a dangerous Republican.

Maricopa County Recorder

Tim Stringham (former JAG officer)

The office of Maricopa County Recorder is arguably Arizona’s second most important election protection official.  The Recorder oversees elections in Arizona’s most populous County, with over 60% of the state’s population.  The Republican is  a notorious election denier who refuses to debate the Democratic candidate we’re supporting.

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Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Another Day, Another Step Forward…

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Pretty much your standard beat-sweetner, except: (a) The Blade is explicitly an LBGTQ+ outlet; and (b) Once again, it ain’t the FTFNYTimes.

Writing about President Joe Biden’s legacy is difficult without the distance and time required to assess a leader of his stature, but what becomes clear from talking with him is the extent to which his views on LGBTQ rights come from the heart.

Biden leads an administration that has been hailed as the most pro-LGBTQ in American history, achieving major milestones in the struggle to expand freedoms and protections for the community.

Meanwhile, conservative elected officials at the local, state, and national levels have led an all-out assault against LGBTQ Americans — especially those who are transgender, and especially transgender youth, who face an uncertain future with Donald Trump promising to strip them of their rights and reverse the gains of the past four years if he is elected in November.

Biden shared his thoughts and reflections on these subjects and more in a wide-ranging sit-down interview with the Washington Blade on Sept. 12 in the Oval Office, which marked the first time in which an LGBTQ newspaper has conducted an exclusive interview with a sitting U.S. president…

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Come the Dawn Open Thread: What the ‘Kids’ Remember

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It’s not just the Sandy Hook survivors; there’s a whole generation of kids who’ve been subjected to school shooter drills because the ‘adults’ in charge love their guns more than they love their children. Per NBC News, “The first graders who survived Sandy Hook will vote in their first presidential election”:

Grace Fischer survived the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School by staying quiet and huddled, as her first grade teacher softly read “The Nutcracker.”

Then she spent the rest of her childhood watching mostly from the sidelines as dozens of similar shootings shattered other schools across the country.

Now 18, Fischer will vote in her first presidential election in November. It’s a monumental moment, nearly 12 years after she endured one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history, and it has given her and her peers hope that they can effect change…

Activists at the time hoped the tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut, would become a watershed moment and spark significant legislative action, said Emma Brown, executive director of Giffords, the gun safety group founded by former Rep. Gabby Giffords — a shooting survivor.

“The country was forced to look at this issue in a visceral, terrible way,” Brown said. “The loss of all of those kids in their classroom was so inconceivable and so horrific that even the politicians and the folks who had been trying to act like this wasn’t a growing problem in this country were unable to deny it for the first time.”…

States have since passed hundreds of gun-safety laws, but major federal bills that have been proposed, including bans on semiautomatic weapons and high-capacity magazines, have failed…

Friday marked 20 years since the 1994 federal assault weapons ban expired. Meanwhile, mass shootings have become more frequent…

On Thursday, the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions said guns were the leading cause of death among children and teens, killing more people ages 1 to 17 in the U.S. than car crashes and cancer, for the third year in a row.

“We were told this would be what turns everything around,” said Emma Ehrens, 18, who was next to the Sandy Hook gunman as he shot her classmates. “It really breaks your heart a little bit more every time.”

Ehrens, Fischer and two other first grade Sandy Hook survivors who spoke to NBC News said they are hoping to turn the tide by electing Vice President Kamala Harris as president.

“It’s a no-brainer for me,” said survivor Lilly Wasilnak, 18.

The teens first met Harris at the White House on National Gun Violence Awareness Day on June 6, as they were preparing to graduate high school. They shared their individual accounts of the shooting with Harris, who thanked them for their courage.

“None of you should have had the experience that you’ve had at all,” Harris told them, according to a video released by the White House. “Know that you guys are moving the needle.”

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New Hampshire School System Says ‘Hold My Beer’

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Is there a word for ‘Hateful and Petty to the 10th Power”?

One of our BJ peeps wrote to tell me about a ‘lovely’ school in New Hampshire.  In his words:

We are infested with libertarians and MAGA, I’m sure this sounded good in their bubble (the town in question is generally conservative), but when exposed to the more rational part of the electorate it shows how mean and nasty the right has become.

Heres’ the story as I understand it:

  •  Some families had unpaid bills for school lunches
  •  A local church offered to pay off the bills for school lunches
  •  The school system sues the families instead
  •  When this made the news, it didn’t go so well for the school system in the court of public opinion
  •  And apparently the school system is surprised?

After rejecting an offer from a local church to pay off all student lunch debt, Goffstown School District Business Administrator Scott Gross is instead taking families to court.

These people are monsters:

  • Gross said he was concerned the gift would lead to more families not paying for student lunches, according to Wells.
  • One of the arguments against St. Matthew’s helping that Gross raised with Wells last year, is that some of the families don’t qualify under the guidelines as poor and should therefore be made to pay.
  • A blanket gift for all the debt would be helping people who did not deserve the assistance.

But for Wells, that’s not the point. He cited Catholic author and activist Dorothy Day who said, “The Gospel takes away our right forever to discriminate between the deserving and the undeserving poor.”

I am reminded of my favorite line in the song Eve of Destruction: Hate your next door neighbor, but don’t forget to say grace.

The Eastern world, it is explodin’Violence flarin’, bullets loadin’You’re old enough to kill but not for votin’You don’t believe in war, but what’s that gun you’re totin’?And even the Jordan river has bodies floatin’
But you tell meOver and over and over again, my friendHow you don’t believeWe’re on the eve of destruction
Don’t you understand what I’m trying to sayCan’t you feel the fears I’m feeling today?If the button is pushed, there’s no runnin’ awayThere’ll be no one to save with the world in a graveTake a look around you boy, it’s bound to scare you, boy
And you tell meOver and over and over again, my friendHow you don’t believeWe’re on the eve of destruction
Yeah, my blood’s so mad, feels like coagulatin’I’m sittin’ here just contemplatin’I can’t twist the truth, it knows no regulationHandful of senators don’t pass legislationAnd marches alone can’t bring integrationWhen human respect is disintegratin’This whole crazy world is just too frustratin’
And you tell meOver and over and over again, my friendHow you don’t believeWe’re on the eve of destruction
And think of all the hate there is in Red ChinaThen take a look around to Selma, AlabamaAh, you may leave here for four days in spaceBut when you return, it’s the same old placeThe poundin’ of the drums, the pride and disgraceYou can bury your dead, but don’t leave a traceHate your next door neighbor but don’t forget to say grace
And you tell meOver and over and over and over again, my friendYou don’t believe we’re on the eve of destructionNo no, you don’t believe we’re on the eve of destruction

Jesus wept.

Open thread.

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War for Ukraine Day 936: A Brief Monday Night Update

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Two quick housekeeping updates. First, Rosie is doing well after her treatment today. Just two more to go. Thank you for all the good thoughts, well wishes, prayers, and donations.

Second, today was a much longer day than I was expecting. Nothing bad, just long. So just the basics tonight.

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

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