Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

I did not have this on my fuck 2025 bingo card.

If rights aren’t universal, they are privilege, not rights.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

With all due respect and assumptions of good faith, please fuck off into the sun.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

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

Let there be snark.

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it is not glory.

When I was faster i was always behind.

If ‘weird’ was the finish line, they ran through the tape and kept running.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

This is dead girl, live boy, a goat, two wetsuits and a dildo territory.  oh, and pink furry handcuffs.

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Not all heroes wear capes.

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

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Museums are not America’s attic for its racist shit.

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

Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

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Friday Morning Open Thread: FORWARD!

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Josh Marshall at TPM — “Kamala, A Riddle Wrapped in a Mystery Inside an Enigma, Many People are Saying”:

… I actually got in a minor spat today with a reporter who I’d dinged for an article description which presented Harris as a sort mystery candidate verging on a Manchurian Candidate, with unknown views and barely detailed ambitions. Are we kidding with all of this?

On the one hand, journalists press for information, details, answers. That’s what they do. It’s their job. It’s part of their job to be annoying. They press for things that people aren’t going to volunteer. But there is something uncanny and vaguely absurd hearing this mix of complaints, demands and warnings of electoral disaster leveled at a campaign which is finishing up what has to be at least among, and quite possibly the, best single month of any presidential campaign in at least half a century. Campaign success isn’t what journalists are or should be concerned about. But it defies belief that Harris and her campaign would shift gears when what they’ve been doing is working this well…

The deeper story is that most campaign reporters simply don’t know what to make of Harris’ campaign and can’t figure out how it has managed, at least for the moment, to be so successful. That’s not a criticism: I think many of Harris’ supporters are equally mystified. But they’re just happy with the results. They don’t need an explanation. But for reporters the inexplicableness requires a storyline. And this is that storyline: the substanceless campaign, the lack of interviews, yada yada yada. As Kate noted in today’s pod: Biden started doing a bunch of interviews when his campaign started to tank. Trump’s been doing a spree of them because he’s floundering and he’s trying to regain attention. Candidate do these when they need to, not when reporters demand it…

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Late Night Open Thread: Norman Desmond, in Sundowning Boulevard

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You know it’s legit, cuz Vanity Fair‘s Gabriel Sherman is usually holding a flashlight under his chin and telling “the unstoppable serial killer with a hook” campfire stories:

… Trump has been in a self-destructive spiral since the moment Democrats replaced Joe Biden with Kamala Harris. Trump’s descent began when he made a racist claim at a July 31 conference for Black journalists, saying that Harris changed her identity for political gain (“Now she wants to be known as Black,” Trump claimed). At a rally in Georgia a few days later, Trump ranted for nearly 10 minutes about the state’s popular Republican governor, Brian Kemp, whom Trump blamed for his 2020 loss to Biden. “Little Brian, little Brian Kemp. Bad guy,” Trump fumed. On Truth Social, Trump floated unhinged, evidence-free claims, such as his theories that Biden might crash the Democratic National Convention to take the nomination back and that Harris and Democrats are running a psyop by creating AI videos and images of the vice president’s packed rallies. “It’s nuts,” a Trump friend told me.

Republican donors and Trump campaign officials are struggling to understand why Trump seems to be sabotaging his own candidacy. One theory, according to sources, is that Trump has been experiencing trauma from his near-death experience following the assassination attempt at the rally last month in Butler, Pennsylvania. “He’s been watching that seven-second clip of how close he was to getting shot right in the head—over and over and over again,” the Republican close to the campaign said. “He may actually legit have PTSD.” A campaign official confirmed that the shooting continues to weigh on Trump. “He’s been through a lot,” the official said. (The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment.)

Another theory is that Trump can’t let go of the fact that Biden dropped out. “They cheated by swapping Biden,” Trump has told people, according to a person who recently spent time with the Republican presidential nominee. The Trump campaign believed that Harris’s honeymoon would fade, but instead, the opposite has happened: Her momentum is surging…

Many people are saying…

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War for Ukraine Day 904: Ukraine Continues Its Cross Border Offensive Capturing 100 More Russian POWs

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Three quick housekeeping notes. First, Rosie is still doing great. Nothing much more to report until her next treatment on Monday. Thanks for all the good thoughts, well wishes, prayers, and donations.

Second, I’m still fried, so I’m going to try to keep tonight’s update as short as possible.

Third, I’m aware of the new reporting that an investigation has concluded that the Ukrainians blew up the Nordstream pipeline back in 2023, that the US asked President Zelenskyy to stop the operation, which he did, but GEN Zaluzhnyi went ahead with it anyway. I’m not going to cover it in depth yet because while it wouldn’t necessarily surprise me if the Ukrainians did this, the chain of events described, including that GEN Zaluzhnyi would disregard a direct order, as well as the logistics of pulling this off, need clarifying.  I just don’t want anyone asking what I think. What I think is that I have questions.

The Russians have continued their aerial bombardment of Kharkiv.

Russian forces targeted the village of Zolochiv in the Bohodukhiv district of Kharkiv Oblast with four aerial bombs. The attack caused extensive damage to at least 26 houses, civilian infrastructure, a music school, and a kindergarten. A 12-year-old boy was injured, and five other civilians experienced acute stress reactions.

Here are the details from Ukrainska Pravda:

A Russian airstrike on the village of Prykolotne in the Kupiansk district of Kharkiv Oblast has killed two people and injured six others.

Source: Kharkiv Oblast Prosecutor’s Office

Quote: “The investigation says that on 15 August at around 15:20, the Russian Armed Forces carried out airstrikes on the village of Prykolotne in the Kupiansk district. A strike was recorded on the territory of a civilian enterprise. A fire broke out in a warehouse building with a total area of 800 square metres. Two men aged 44 and 57 were killed. Five other people – two women and three men – were injured. Those who were killed and injured were employees of the company.”

Details: Later, the prosecutor’s office reported that the number of injured had increased to six. A 47-year-old man, also an employee of the company that came under Russian airstrike, asked for medical assistance.

Sumy Oblast:

From Ukrainska Pravda:

Russian troops dropped two bombs, likely guided aerial bombs, on the civilian infrastructure in the Sumy district on the evening of 15 August. As a result, a man was killed and two more people were injured.

Source: Sumy Oblast Prosecutor’s Office

Quote: “The investigation says that on 15 August 2024 at about 17:30, the enemy dropped two guided aerial bombs on the civilian infrastructure in Krasnopillia hromada of the Sumy district, using methods of warfare prohibited by international law [a hromada is an administrative unit designating a village, several villages, or a town, and their adjacent territories – ed.].

And Kyiv:

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

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The Point Is To Win

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The Point Is To WinThe Point Is To Win 1

Is there a word of this that’s false?   Is it even a tenth as harsh as the average “Troof” that Trump shits out on his failing social media platform?  No and No.  It’s just how politics ought to be played when your opponent is Trump, or a Trumper.

This is good, too:

The Point Is To Win 2

So far, Harris/Walz is the best comms operation of any Democratic campaign, ever.

 

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Let’s Go! Kamala and Tim Table Talk

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This has been so much fun so far. But as Tim Walz says, hope alone will not win this. Neither will joy. But they will surely keep us motivated to get over the finish line.

I believe this is a pre-taped convo and they are premiering the video at 2 pm. Fingers crossed no hitches as I have to run out shortly. I’m here for the recipes, LOL.

  Aug 15, 2024 • #KamalaHarris #Harris2024

Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, sit down for a conversation about their historic campaign. They talk taco recipes, hot peppers, their childhoods, careers, and the rights and freedoms they want to protect.

Here’s the video:

 

My current swag (all on the way)

ETA: Here is the Live rally with Biden and Harris (h/t SiubhanDuinne):

Enjoy the show!  Open thread

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Gena Rowlands RIP

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Gena Rowlands RIP to a Post-Menopausal Woman

One of the greats, dead at 94.

This still is from one of her later films, Unhook the Stars, directed by her son Nick Cassavetes.  Rowland plays Mildred, who has just gotten rid of her pain in the ass grown daughter (Moira Kelly), and then comes to the aid of her neighbor (Marisa Tomei), who is kicking out her abusive husband.  The story is all over the place, but Rowlands turns in a great performance as her relationship with Tomei’s son grows.  This still from the point in the film where Mildred learns that Tomei’s character is reuniting with the husband, so her relationship with the boy is ending.  If there’s a more expressive face in cinema than Rowlands’, I don’t know whose it would be.

One of the turning points in the movie is when her douchebag son tries to get her to move to his place in San Francisco to help raise his soon-to-be-born child.  Mildred refuses, even though as we’ve all learned from JD Vance, the whole purpose of the post-menopausal female is to raise grandchildren.  Instead, Mildred decides to live her life on her terms.

Anyway, a movie worth watching if you want to see a more than one-dimensional portrayal of a post-menopausal female.

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Fighting for Everything We Believe In, and Celebrating Victories

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Does it seem strange to talk about the accomplishments of one of the boots on the ground organizations we partner with, as we raise money for a different group?  Not to me!

We try to fund groups when they can put our funds to best use, and then we get reports later, often when we are funding someone else.

This is the kind of difference we make with our fundraising efforts on Balloon Juice.

(We still have the double matches that The Civics Center found us, and we still have a BJ Angel, matching up to $250 per person, which gives us a 6x match for as long as this Balloon Juice Angel match lasts.)

It's Up to Us Now, Next Up, Youth Again (but younger!) 1

Now, the update from Worker Power!

We want to share the recent victories you have helped us achieve in Arizona, the swing state that will decide the outcome of one of the most contentious elections in our nation’s history.

First, we are proud to announce that earlier this month, we submitted sufficient signatures to place a Hotel Workers Protection Act on the November ballot in the City of Glendale, Arizona. This initiative aims to create a minimum $20 wage for hospitality workers, limit the number of square feet a room attendant can be required to clean in a single shift, and ensure that service charges levied by hotels are actually given to the hotel staff. This historic measure would represent a significant intervention for workers in one of Arizona’s fastest-growing hospitality markets. Rather than accepting these signatures and placing the measure on the ballot, the City of Glendale officials have refused to accept the signatures on the basis that our initiative breaks the single-subject rule for citizens’ initiatives in Arizona. Fortunately, we won the first round of litigation, and pending a successful appeal by the city in the next two weeks, we are headed to the ballot in November!

Second, we delivered a victory (by fewer than 50 votes) for Lupe Conchas to the City Council in Glendale’s Cactus district. Lupe took out a conservative white incumbent who has represented this majority-democrat, majority-Latino district for over 20 years. Lupe is the first LGBTQ council member in Glendale’s history.

Third, Worker Power finished a partisan voter registration drive where we successfully collected 6,552 voter registration applications among young people and communities of color in Arizona’s Congressional Districts 1 and 6, which Democrats lost by a combined 8,000 votes in 2022. This work necessitated an early start in the field in some of the North Phoenix suburbs, where we have flipped state legislative seats in recent elections (namely in Legislative Districts 2 and 4). But it also necessitated the expansion of our field efforts to southern Arizona and to the suburbs north and east of Tucson, which will be critical to any successful effort to flip CD1 and the state legislature in Arizona.

We also collected 10,000 ballot initiative signatures for a statewide minimum-wage initiative that is in the process of qualifying for the November ballot.

Additionally, we conducted an advocacy canvass with 19,774 knocks and 4,197 contacts, educating and engaging voters about the need for U.S. Supreme Court reform (an issue Biden and Harris have since endorsed). Moreover, this July, we conducted a survey among 8,459 voters—largely low—and mid-propensity Latino voters—asking their opinions about the Presidential and U.S. Senate elections and getting their commitments to vote in the fall.

Finally, this week marks an important milestone as our 70 canvassers have hit 150,000 doors and counting. We have already spoken to over 21,000 voters—more than any other organization conducting field operations in swing states in the U.S. at this stage of the electoral cycle. We have engaged voters in minimum-wage initiative signature drives, municipal primary elections, and a survey to educate voters on the upcoming Presidential elections.

Starting today, we will be doubling the size of our canvass team. We will be knocking on more than 10,000 doors a day, advocating for democratic candidates at the Federal, State, and City levels and the Abortion Access Act ballot initiative.

Of course, small victories like these lead to bigger ones, which in turn lead to movements that transform our communities. Our victories are only possible because of your support. Thank you for being part of the Worker Power family. We will send more good news in the coming weeks and months.

Open thread!

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