Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

They don’t have outfits that big. nor codpieces that small.

It is not hopeless, and we are not helpless.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

Cancel the cowardly Times and Post and set up an equivalent monthly donation to ProPublica.

Bark louder, little dog.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Disappointing to see gov. newsom with his finger to the wind.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Rupert, come get your orange boy, you petrified old dinosaur turd.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

Republicans cannot even be trusted with their own money.

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

Republicans in disarray!

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PSA: Postcards Stamp Buyers (and Open Thread)

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Postcard stamps are going up this week – from 53 cents to 56 cents – so the folks who have offered to buy stamps for a few longtime BJ peeps who are writing postcards probably want to buy them TODAY.

To take advantage of prices before the USPS increases prices this weekend, please email me TODAY if you are able to help buy stamps for those BJ peeps who are writing postcards.

Please write to me even if you have already let me know; I have been so swamped my email inbox is a disaster.  I know Nukular Biscuits is one, and JR is another.

LET ME KNOW HOW MANY STAMPS YOU ARE UP FOR SUPPLYING TO POSTCARD WRITERS (who are regular BJ peeps).  Roughly speaking, 2 postcard stamps cost $1.  We’re probably looking at people who are up for funding 100 stamps.  (or more)

(You can expect another post asking for information on who needs stamps in the next week or so.)

 

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First They Curse, Then They Press Me ‘Til I Hurt

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First They Curse, Then They Press Me 'Til I Hurt

Whatever our feelings on the Democratic ticket, I think we can all agree that Rudy Giuliani getting thrown out of bankruptcy court is worth a laugh or two:

A New York judge dismissed Rudy Giuliani’s bankruptcy case on Friday, clearing the way for two Georgia election workers to try and recover nearly $150m Giuliani was ordered to pay them for defaming them after the 2020 election.

The ruling by US bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane comes after lawyers for the two women, Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss, as well as other creditors accused Giuliani of concealing information about his finances. The judge also prevented Giuliani from refiling for bankruptcy within one year.

I hope Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss bleed him so bad that he ends up making his martinis from plastic bottle vodka and smoking Swisher Sweets.

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Isn’t There Some Event Happening Next Week?

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I know something is gonna happen, but I can’t remember what.  Let’s see,  I’m going to visit my aunt in another state — no, that’s not it.  Vampire Weekend is playing Red Rocks, nah, I didn’t get tickets in time.  Hmmm,  now I remember:  the Republican National Convention.

Jesus, I had to actually google it to see when it started (Monday, July 15).  There is not a single story mentioning it on the Post’s front page.  The Guardian has one story about Teamsters’ President Sean O’Brien possibly addressing the convention (what’s up with that guy, anyway?  He seems to have some real misunderstanding of the Republican Party’s attitude towards unions.)  There’s one more story waaay down the page.

Overall, though, the biggest free media opportunity for Republicans is not drowning out even this little turd,  which is top right on the Guardian US home page right now:

Isn't There Some Event Happening Next Week?

So, a no-chance nepo baby’s rape allegation is bigger news than the accused pedophile and convicted felon’s convention.

I understand that the Republicans really don’t want us paying attention to their convention — it’s all fan service for fans of the worst things.  What the christofascists, glibertarians and rich, entitled fucks who serve as delegates want to hear is which folks need killing.   They’re going to play all the hits:  Project 2025, life beginning at the first thought of conception, sending goon squads into cities to round up immigrants, and how contraception needs to be outlawed.

What I don’t understand is how the media gaggle is going to justify basically ignoring a staple of American politics.  Even in 2020, coverage started more than a couple of days before the event.  I mean, it’s clear that they’re totally afraid/unable to write a set of declarative sentences describing the horrors that await if Trump is elected, but does their fear and inability stretch far enough to ignore an entire convention?  I guess we’re about to find out.

(One kind of related point about the press conference yesterday:  the only reason some of the questions were half decent was because there were foreign press in attendance.)

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If you’re looking for someone who’s young and athletic, go watch a fucking movie.

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I have been so busy with work that I don’t think I’ve looked at Balloon Juice for two days.

I don’t even know how Biden’s NATO press conference went, but I can guess that to the press it won’t matter how well Biden did – it will only matter to the press if he didn’t do well.  And even then they may make stuff up.

In any case, fuck what the media says. This is what it’s about.

Maybe this has been covered already?  If it has, it’s still worth sharing again.

EYES ON THE FUCKING PRIZE.

BrookynDad_Defiant

When I cast my vote for President Biden, I wasn’t expecting much.  I just wanted trump out of office.

I knew he was old.
I knew he had a stutter.
I knew he had a rep for “gaffes.”
I didn’t care.  Just wanted trump gone.

Four years later, things are different.
I wasn’t expecting that President Biden would be the most legislatively successful President in my lifetime.

I wasn’t expecting him to help expand NATO.
I wasn’t expecting him to lower insulin & inhalers.
I wasn’t expecting him to create & recover 15m jobs.
I wasn’t expecting him to bring manufacturing back.
I wasn’t expecting him to forgive student debt.

But he did ALL those things, and more.
He surpassed my expectations by a lot.
And he has more planned for 2025-2028.

He’s not a master orator,
He doesn’t move so smoothly
But neither did FDR from his wheelchair.

Meanwhile, trump is STILL a threat. He wants to be a dictator.
He wants to stay out of prison.
He wants revenge on his enemies.
He wants to take away from the poor and middle class and give to the ultra wealthy.
His Project 2025 will enable a national abortion ban to criminalize women seeking safe and legal abortions.
His Project 2025 will take away the rights of our LGBTQ family and friends.
His Project 2025 will transform the government into a loyalty pledge, not to America but to him ALONE.
We might never have another free election.

THAT is what is at stake in this election.

We can continue to progress with Biden policies, or we can let trump destroy democracy as we know it.

If you’re looking for someone who’s young and athletic, go watch a fucking movie.

I’ll take the old guy who needs a nap while saving democracy over the old guy trying to overthrow democracy who needs a legal team.

.

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TGIFriday Morning Open Thread: Should Our Failed Major Media Step Aside?

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If any of these well-dressed drones were capable of shame, well…

And some people wonder why President Biden is popular with non-white voters!

Yeah, I’m tired of screaming into the void where the Major Media outlets supposedly have souls, or at least some vestigage of self-awareness. There are already not-major-media tidbits being reported about the RNC KlownKar Konvention — anybody wanna bet on how the various pending stories out of Milwaukee will compare to the laser focus on Biden’s reelection campaign?

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Late Night Open Thread: Reset!

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War for Ukraine Day 869: Russia’s Wetwork Program

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A couple of quick housekeeping notes. First, Rosie is still doing excellently after her chemo treatment on Monday. There is no noticeable side effects so far. Thank you all, again, for the good thoughts, well wishes, prayers, and donations.

Second, I have had a very, very long day. So I’m going to keep tonight short(ish).

As I start writing tonight’s update – 7:45 PM EDT – all of northern central and central Ukraine are under air raid alert. The air raid alert tracker maps are not showing any Russian aviation up, so these are likely the result of drones being detected aloft.

Earlier today, however, much of Ukraine was under the threat of Russian missiles.

While President Zelenskyy did address the NATO Council today, no video has been posted. Nor is there a video address posted for today.

Earlier today, CNN broke the news, at least in the US, that Russia had targeted the head of Germany’s Rhienmetall, as well as the leaders of a number of other European arms manufacturers for assassination.

CNN — US intelligence discovered earlier this year that the Russian government planned to assassinate the chief executive of a powerful German arms manufacturer that has been producing artillery shells and military vehicles for Ukraine, according to five US and western officials familiar with the episode.

The plot was one of a series of Russian plans to assassinate defense industry executives across Europe who were supporting Ukraine’s war effort, these sources said. The plan to kill Armin Papperger, a white-haired goliath who has led the German manufacturing charge in support of Kyiv, was the most mature.

When the Americans learned of the effort, they informed Germany, whose security services were then able to protect Papperger and foil the plot. A high-level German government official confirmed that Berlin was warned about the plot by the US.

For more than six months, Russia has been carrying out a sabotage campaign across Europe, largely by proxy. It has recruited local amateurs for everything from arson attacks on warehouses linked to arms for Ukraine to petty acts of vandalism — all designed to stymie the flow of weapons from the West to Ukraine and blunt public support for Kyiv.

But the intelligence suggesting that Russia was willing to assassinate private citizens underlined to Western officials just how far Moscow was willing to go in a parallel shadow war it is waging across the west.

Papperger was an obvious target: His company, Rheinmetall, is the largest and most successful German manufacturer of the vital 155mm artillery shells that have become the make-or-break weapon in Ukraine’s grinding war of attrition. The company is opening an armored vehicle plant inside of Ukraine in the coming weeks, an effort that one source familiar with the intelligence said was deeply concerning to Russia. After a series of gains earlier this year, Moscow’s war effort has once again stalled amid redoubled Ukrainian defenses and punishing losses in personnel.

The series of plots, not previously reported, helps explain the increasingly strident warnings from NATO officials about the seriousness of the sabotage campaign — one that some senior officials believe risks crossing the threshold into armed conflict in eastern Europe.

“We’re seeing sabotage, we’re seeing assassination plots, we’re seeing arson. We’re seeing things that have a cost in human lives,” a senior NATO official told reporters on Tuesday. “I believe very much that we’re seeing a campaign of covert sabotage activities from Russia that have strategic consequences.”

The National Security Council declined to comment on the existence of the Russian plot and the US warning to Germany. But, NSC spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement, “Russia’s intensifying campaign of subversion is something that we are taking extremely seriously and have been intently focused on over the past few months.

“The United States has been discussing this issue with our NATO Allies, and we are actively working together to expose and disrupt these activities,” she said. “We have also been clear that Russia’s actions will not deter Allies from continuing to support Ukraine.”

German officials declined to comment on the specifics of CNN’s reporting. But speaking on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Washington on Thursday, Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said it shows how Russia is “waging a hybrid war of aggression” on European allies.

“We have seen that there have been attacks on factories. And this underlines once again that we as Europeans must protect ourselves as best we can and not be naive,” Baerbock said.

In a separate statement sent to CNN, the German Interior Ministry said that Berlin “will not be intimidated by the Russian threats,” emphasizing that they are fundamentally aimed at “undermining the support of Germany and our partners for Ukraine in its defense against the Russian war of aggression.”

A spokesman for Rheinmetall, Oliver Hoffman, declined to comment.

“The necessary measures are always taken in regular consultation with the security authorities,” Hoffman said.

CNN has asked the Russian embassy in Washington for comment.

If I were CNN, which I’m thankfully not, I would not hold my breath waiting for that comment.

More at the link, more on this after the jump.

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