Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

“A king is only a king if we bow down.” – Rev. William Barber

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

If America since Jan 2025 hasn’t broken your heart, you haven’t loved her enough.

That meeting sounds like a shotgun wedding between a shitshow and a clusterfuck.

President Musk and Trump are both poorly raised, coddled 8 year old boys.

I don’t recall signing up for living in a dystopian sci-fi novel.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

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

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

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

“In this country American means white. everybody else has to hyphenate.”

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

Books are my comfort food!

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

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Starliner Launch Rescheduled for 10:52 AM EDT

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Okay, NASA is giving it another try, so here are the feeds. Forgive the repost, but I thought better to get it up than try and create a new post before I’ve had a full cup of coffee.

(The original launch was scrubbed on Saturday, this is a repost with new video feeds, but original comments included)

NASA has two feeds. I’ve embedded one below, but there is also this one, they are slightly different feeds.

 

Watch live as two NASA astronauts launch from Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft as one of the final steps on the road to certification. Launch of the ULA (United Launch Alliance) Atlas V rocket and Starliner spacecraft is targeted for 10:52 a.m. EDT Wednesday, June 5 (1452 UTC) from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The two NASA astronauts aboard, flight commander Butch Wilmore and pilot Suni Williams, will test the end-to-end capabilities of the Starliner system, including launch, docking, and return to Earth. After a one-week stay docked to the International Space Station, the Starliner and crew will land under parachutes in the western United States. The launch attempt on May 6 was scrubbed due to a faulty oxygen relief valve observation on the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket Centaur second stage. The launch attempt on June 1 was scrubbed due to an observation of a ground launch sequencer. Launch coverage on NASA+

(https://plus.nasa.gov) will end shortly after Starliner orbital insertion. NASA Television

(https://nasa.gov/nasatv) will provide continuous coverage leading up to docking and through hatch opening and welcome remarks.

Learn more about Boeing Starliner: https://www.nasa.gov/mission/boeing-c…

Learn more about the Commercial Crew Program: https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/…

This one is without the NASA commentary, but some interviews, mostly just live crew, though:

 

In other news, Carbon Cowboys’ new documentary Roots So Deep is available to stream (rent) here.  I’ll do another climate post next weekend. I’m a bit scattered these days to put one together today.

Otherwise, totally open thread.

ETA: Unfortunately, I’ve got to begin my day, so I don’t think I’ll be able to stick around for this, if it gets scrubbed again, treat this as an open thread. Thanks!

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Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Dems Are On A Roll!

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Great news from New Jersey!

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Tuesday Night Good News, Bad News, but Mostly Good News Open Thread

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The good news I’m seeing seems to be mostly for the Dems, and the bad news is for the Republicans.

Works for me!

Swalwell refused to stop until he got to the end of the alphabetical list of nations that won’t let a convicted felon enter the country. I like the fight in the Dems these days. (It’s a Newsweek article so make of it what you will.)

Interesting, for sure.  True?  We’ll find out.  I say let them fight.

Josh Paul was part of our “election protection” thermometer in 2022.  Great to see all these folks we supported placing high importance on the rule of law.  Exactly why we supported them!

I bought 3 gorgeous pots of sunflowers today, and 15 bags of mulch.  Let’s just say that I’m more excited about the sunflowers than all the mulching ahead of me.  I prefer the look of brown mulch, but the bunnies don’t like cedar mulch, so that’s what I got for the new bed in front.  Pretty sure the sunflowers will look better planted than they do with bags of mulch stacked behind them!

It rained so hard tonight (but only for 10-15 minutes) that the gutter couldn’t keep up with the rain!  It was spilling out over the sides, even though I had just cleaned it out a couple of weeks ago.  Once the rain stopped, I checked, and the gutter really was clear – the rain was coming down too fast for the gutter to keep up.  Nice that I only have one gutter – on the other side of the house, the rain just runs off and waters the ferns I pictured in my post last night.

Monday Evening I Need More Time In the Day Open Thread

Oh, and you guys convinced me to change The Former President and Convicted Felon Is a Whiny Little Bitch TO The Former President and Convicted Felon Is a Whiny Toddler.  A clear victory for peer pressure.

Open thread.

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War for Ukraine Day 832: The Russian Caused Power Outages Have Begun

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A painting by Ukrainian artist NEIVANMADE. The words "NEVER AGAIN" are repeated over and over, from left to right and top to bottom, in a faded, washed out black against a white background. Red, the color of blood, runs and drips down across 2/3rds of the painting. "WHILE YOU TOLERATE TYRANTS" is written/painted in the bottom white corner below the three rows of "NEVER AGAIN".

(Image by NEIVANMADE)

Quick housekeeping note: Rosie is doing well 24 plus hours her last chemotherapy session. She’s eating, active, and behaving normally. Thank you all, again, for the well wishes, good thoughts, prayers, and donations!

As I start tonight’s update, at 5:35 PM EDT, air raid alerts are up over all over southern and eastern Ukraine except for Sumy, Odesa, and Zaporizhzhia Oblasts.

The power outages that are the result of Russia’s targeting of Ukrainian civilian infrastructure, in this case power generation and transmission systems, have begun.

The scale of these attacks have been massive. Here is just the tally of the Russian strikes on Kharkiv in May of 2024:

This went largely unremarked last week, but I think it needs to be recognized, especially as I’ve seen references to the video clip being faked.

From The Kyiv Independent: (emphasis mine)

Ukraine recognizes both Israel and Palestine, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in Singapore on June 2, calling for an end to the conflict in Gaza.

Kyiv voiced support for Israel after it came under a deadly attack by the Hamas militant organization in October 2023. Tel Aviv’s subsequent shelling and ground invasion of Gaza attracted harsh criticism from much of the international community, with the U.N. estimating the Gaza death toll at over 35,000.

When asked by a journalist about Kyiv’s support for Israel, Zelensky stressed that Ukraine also offered to help alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and said that the two periods should “not be mixed together.”

“Ukraine said that if Hamas terrorists attacked civilians on the first day of their attack on Israel, then Israel has the right to defend itself,” Zelensky said during the Shangri-La Dialogue conference.

“And after that, when Israel was in Gaza and there was a humanitarian crisis, Ukraine said: Firstly, we are ready to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza.

“Secondly, we must respect international law. Thirdly, Ukraine recognizes two states, both Israel and Palestine, and will do everything it can to convince Israel to stop, to end this conflict and prevent the suffering of civilians.”

The president also said that Ukraine is  a “just country that recognizes international laws and the U.N. charter.”

Ukraine invited both Israel and Palestine to the upcoming global peace summit in Switzerland as Kyiv is “ready to hear every opinion” of other countries, except for Russia, Zelensky noted.

The peace summit will be held on June 15-16 in the Burgenstock resort in Switzerland.

Ukraine hopes the summit will address several key areas, such as energy security, the exchange of captives, the return of deported children, global food security, and other topics.

President Zelenskyy is back at home. Here is his address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.

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Open Thread: Boebert Shutdown, National Media Should Take Notes

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I really wasn’t going to post about the CO4 Republican debate, because it’s so inside Colorado baseball. But it has gone viral so I did what I didn’t want to do, I listened to Boebert lie and lie and lie again.

I passed on the debate the first time because the district she’s carpetbagging – I mean running in – is no longer my district by just a few blocks. The legislators came to their senses and redrew the lines so I’m now in Joe Neguse’s district, thank the stars.

If you’ve tuned into a few of my posts, the moderator will look familiar. I’m usually posting his good news stories.

Kyle Clark doesn’t just hold Boebert’s feet to the fire…enjoy.

 

If you feel the need to torture yourself, the entire debate is here (youtube link).

=====

Besides his funky jackets and his nightly good news, he also reads feedback in the last minutes of the broadcast. And he often chooses some of the most brutal. And has some snappy comebacks. But this was brilliant.

 

Since the debate has gone viral, lots of big names are calling for him to go national. My reply, he’s ours, hands-off. I may not agree with him all the time, but he’s as brutal with the Dems as he is with the rethugs and his journalism makes (some) of the other local news stations up their game, too.

Open thread

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Lock Him Up?

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I was bored earlier and needed mindless entertainment, so I browsed free old movies on my streaming channels. I settled on “Two Weeks Notice,” starring Hugh Grant and Sandra Bullock. It’s the fluffy rom-com I expected, but guess who makes a cameo? Convicted felon Donald Fucking Trump!

Goddamn. I knew the sumbitch was in one of the “Home Alone” films. I guess I need to print out a list of every movie he’s defiled with his vile presence so I can avoid them in the future.

***

The Hill published an article about Republican senators warning Judge Merchan not to sentence Trump to jail or house arrest. The list includes the batshit usual suspects (Baby Doc Paul, Cancun Cruz, etc.) as well as what passes for a “moderate” Republican these days, including Cornyn and Tillis.

All of the lackeys dutifully mouthed the “weaponized judiciary” lies. The idiotic Sen. Budd from NC provides a representative sample of the genre:

“But when you see the conviction and the rules that he instructed the jury with, it’s completely unfair, it’s unconstitutional, and I would put nothing past him at this point,” he said of Merchan.

Budd said a tough sentence “would only strengthen the resolve of the Americans to support President Trump.”

As if.

My completely uneducated guess is Merchan will not sentence Trump to jail or house arrest. Locking him up does raise legit issues since the convicted felon is (absurdly) one of two viable candidates for president.

I think the best we can hope for is that Merchan will craft a poetically just community service stint, such as making Trump spend 100 hours as a do-boy for election workers, who have a busy summer ahead of them. Not a public-facing role for Trump, obviously — make him schlep boxes and roll equipment around to support election logistics. Something like that.

Anyhoo, Jen Rubin, the most righteous of the Never Trumpers, says the situation demands jail time: (WaPo gift link)

Merchan should take into account that Trump has hurled threats and smears at witnesses, jurors and the judge (including his family). He also should consider the racist attacks and implicit threat of violence directed at Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. The felon who will stand before him has tried to intimidate witnesses and delegitimize the New York courts as corrupt. In continuing to incite his mob (that now threatens the safety of the anonymous jurors) and demean the courts as “rigged,” Trump does far more damage to the people of New York (not to mention the country) than he did with any single criminal act. The potential that New Yorkers will be less willing to serve as jurors after watching the vitriol unleashed on these 12 people could be among Trump’s most enduring injuries to the court system…

With other criminal cases against Trump delayed, Merchan alone has the responsibility for the foreseeable future to mete out punishment that is appropriate for Trump’s crimes and sufficient to protect the justice system. The voters ultimately will have to reject fascism at the ballot box, but at present Merchan must exercise his discretion in sentencing Trump to actual incarceration for at least a year to shelter the independent judiciary — judges, jurors and witnesses — threatened by this felon and his rhetoric. If he does not, he puts New Yorkers and the Constitution at risk.

She’s not wrong, but it ain’t gonna happen. The nation had its chance to shitcan the orange fart cloud forever in Impeachment II, but Senate Republicans chickened out. So here we are, and it’s up to wee the pipple.

Open thread.

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Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Another Day, Same Ol’ Republicans

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A snarky little treat to start the morning — “Another Committee to Confirm Our Conspiracy Theories comes up short”: [gift link]

… Last fall, Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), chairman of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, made an incendiary public accusation that, “according to information gathered by the select subcommittee,” Anthony Fauci “was escorted into Central Intelligence Agency Headquarters — without a record of entry — and participated in the analysis to ‘influence’ the agency’s review” to say that covid-19 did not originate from a lab leak. “Wenstrup reveals new allegations,” his news release boasted…

Fox News, the New York Post and the rest of the right-wing conspiracy machine ran with it. And then — nothing. The subcommittee came up with no evidence to support the claim, supposedly made by a whistleblower, and nothing to challenge Fauci’s testimony that he hadn’t been to the CIA in 20 years. Appearing before the panel in a public hearing on Monday, Fauci, now retired after decades leading the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, ridiculed the idea that “I was parachuted into the CIA like Jason Bourne and told the CIA that they should really not be talking about a lab leak.”

So what did committee Republicans do after their Fauci-to-CIA conspiracy theory collapsed? They pretended it never happened. The Republican staff director, Mitch Benzine, during his time to question Fauci at the hearing, announced: “That was not an allegation made by the committee.”…

This follows a pattern. The Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, after holding several hearings that failed to produce anything other than warmed-over allegations about the so-called deep state, was panned even by right-wing media. The Oversight Committee investigation of Joe Biden’s “corruption” failed so thoroughly to find even a trace of wrongdoing by the president that Republicans have had to quietly shelve their impeachment ambitions.

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