Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

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

Let me file that under fuck it.

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

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)

In my day, never was longer.

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

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

This fight is for everything.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. do not congratulate. this is not business as usual.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Fucking consultants! (of the political variety)

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

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Congrats to Sage the Poodle!

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After last night’s disappointing baseball game, I watched the finale of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show while Bill and our own two dogs snoozed. As soon as I saw Sage, a miniature poodle from Houston, prancing around the ring, I figured she’d take home the top prize:

As many a grifty preacher has demonstrated, a fancy haircut and charisma can be an unstoppable combination! In a sense, it doesn’t seem fair for other dogs to have to compete against poodles, who seem to have the most elaborate coiffure options in addition to their formidable smarts.

Last night’s outcome is also a feel-good story from the handler’s perspective. Kaz Hosaka has competed for decades and went out a winner in his final show — all thanks to Sage! That very good girl received melon and chicken plates as treats after collecting her ribbons.

Open thread!

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Late Night Open Thread: ‘A Pride Movement for Bad People’

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With Donald Trump barred from publicly attacking the key witness in his hush money trial, his campaign brought to court a phalanx of Republican elected officials to speak for him.

“The thing that the president is prevented from saying, which is a disgrace, is that every single person involved in this prosecution is practically a Democratic political operative,” U.S. Sen. JD Vance of Ohio said outside the courthouse Monday during a morning break…

Bringing allies to court allowed Trump’s campaign to press his message without violating the gag order. It also gave those allies a high-profile platform to demonstrate loyalty to their party’s presumptive nominee and perhaps audition for higher office.

According to Trump’s campaign, all of his courthouse guests Monday volunteered to appear to support the former president and were not explicitly invited by people affiliated with the campaign. But U.S. Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, who was at court with Trump last week, said Monday that he had been invited by Susie Wiles, a senior adviser to Trump’s campaign and also a longtime Florida GOP operative who advised Scott’s 2010 gubernatorial bid…

Vance, widely seen as a contender to be Trump’s vice presidential pick, was part of a group that arrived at court with Trump and stood behind him as he addressed reporters before heading into the courtroom. It was the biggest single showing of the allies joining Trump in court for the hush money trial since it began last month.

Others in Monday’s group included Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, U.S. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis of New York, and a pair of attorneys general, Steve Marshall of Alabama and Brenna Bird of Iowa. Former GOP rival Vivek Ramaswamy, who shuttered his campaign earlier this year but is considered a likely part of a new Trump administration, planned to come to court on Tuesday, according to a spokesman for the entrepreneur…

Outside court with Vance, Tuberville on Monday questioned the citizenship of the jurors, suggesting there were “supposedly American citizens in that courtroom,” and portrayed Bragg as a publicity-seeker.

He described Trump as “going through mental anguish in a courtroom. That’s very depressing.” …

Tuesday, it was ‘Leader’ Johnson’s turn atop the klown car:

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War for Ukraine Day 811: A Brief & Late Tuesday Night Update

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(Image by NEIVANMADE)

A quick housekeeping note: Sorry for the delay tonight. I just got back from the emergency vet. Not for Rosie, Rosie is fine! Ruby, however, got into something she shouldn’t have earlier and we went to the emergency vet, which is the same vet as the oncology vet, to make sure she’s okay. I got home about 1/2 an hour ago. All of Ruby’s bloodwork is good, they got her to puke up what she shouldn’t have eaten so that’s all out of her system, but they’re keeping Ruby overnight as they want to get her fever down. So she’s being monitored, getting IV fluids, antibiotics, and the vet expects she’ll be coming home tomorrow. So that’s why tonight is delayed.

The only air raid alerts as of 11:06 PM EDT are for Luhansk and Crimea, which always have air raid alerts, and Kharkiv Oblast.

The Russians are still hammering away at Kharkiv and Sumy Oblasts:

Twitter/X is literally preventing access to Voichuk’s, as well as Maria Avdeeva’s tweets with videos of the attacks aftermath. If I click on the tweets they disappear. If I try to embed them here, this is what I get:

https://x.com/maria_avdv/status/1790417111937958329

Notice how that isn’t actually embedding.

Kyrylo Budanov, Chief of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of Ukraine commented on the threat of the Russian offensive in Sumy region:

“From the very beginning, the Russians were planning an operation in Sumy region. As of now, they are keeping small groups of forces in the border area – they have the town of Sudzha, and we have the Sumy area, but the situation has not allowed them to take active action and start implementing their plan,” Budanov said.

From The New Voice of Ukraine:

“Everything that was in the border area has already been deployed. Next, they will have to bring in their reserves,” Budanov said. He noted that the Russians had planned an offensive operation in Sumy Oblast from the very beginning. However, the situation had not yet allowed them to implement their plan.

<p “margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:=”” justify;line-height:150%”=””>”As of now, they are keeping a small group of troops in the border area near, let’s say, the (Russian) town of Sudzha, and from our (Ukrainian) side it is in the deirection of Sumy.”

Earlier, on May 14, Budanov said that Russian attacks in Kharkiv Oblast would continue for “another three or four days,” after which Russian troops were expected to “make a hard push in the direction of Sumy.”

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

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Reminder: VAAC Zoom Tomorrow (Wed) at 7:30 Eastern, VAAC Angels, and What Comes Next

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Zooming!

Just a reminder that the zoom with the great folks at VAAC is tomorrow evening – Wednesday – at 7:30 Eastern.  We’ve got several VAAC peeps who are showing up to meet with us tomorrow – they are really special people and once you hear their stories, I guarantee that you will come away inspired.

I mean, really, who couldn’t use a little extra inspiration these days?

Oh, and if you missed all the previous posts about VAAC (Voting Access for All) click on the category link above, and also copied here for your convenience, .  You’ll find 6 or 7 recent posts about VAAC that will supply lots of information about the organization.

To RSVP and get the zoom link, send email to WaterGirl.

Brutal honesty?  I have not had the number of RSVPs we hoped for. I hope it’s just that BJ peeps have been busy or focused on the NY trial, and have just forgotten to RSVP. Let’s make it worth their time, and let them know they have our support. 

Donating!

We reached $15,000 on Monday, which is really great!   And we have a $2,500 check from an angel who did the double-angel-matching, which won’t show up in the thermometer, but does count toward our $25,000 goal!

So all wee really need in order to reach our goal for VAAC is $7,200.  And we have 2 angels who came forward, each with $1k to match for you guys.  So that $2k (once you match it!) will count toward the $7,200.

So really, we just need to pull together and donate $5,200 through the thermometer, and we will have met our $25,000 goal for them.

So until further notice, we have an angel match and the external match, so all donations  up to $100 are really 4x the donation amount.

If you donate for the match, either add it to this thread or send me an email message.

Thanks so much, guys!

What’s Next!

After this we’ll take a couple weeks off from fundraising, and then we’re looking at some new organizations we’re excited about and we’ll have more details for you in a week or so.

Totally open thread!

 

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Readership Capture: Pete Buttigieg’s View from the Middle Seat

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From the Washington Post, “Pete Buttigieg’s view from the middle seat” [gift link]:

… Like all road warriors, Buttigieg has strong feelings about air travel: who gets the elbow space, his preferred window shade position (up), whether it’s acceptable to recline (yes) and the best in-flight snacks (stroopwafel).

But his strongest feeling — backed by a flurry of new policies, rule proposals and pressure campaigns — is that airlines have gotten a pass from regulators and need to do better by passengers.

“On one hand, flying is a miracle, and it’s an extraordinary thing that we’re able to do,” he said, in a car that whisked him from Denver International Airport. “But it’s also true that it’s become more and more frustrating in many ways. And the airlines aren’t going to fix that on their own; they need to be pushed.”

As the nation’s top transportation official, Buttigieg has responsibilities beyond air travel: He has responded to backlogs at California ports, a train derailment in Ohio and the Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore. But between the pandemic, airline meltdowns, air-traffic-controller shortages and Boeing safety concerns, he’s overseen an unusually tumultuous stretch of aviation history. And he knows the time for his agenda is running out.

In interviews, announcements and public speeches over the past few months, Buttigieg has challenged airlines with an urgency driven by the calendar. Whatever the outcome of the presidential election, he said he plans to “sprint” to the finish line.

The prize he eyes? “I really want this to be known as the period when we did the biggest expansion in passenger rights since deregulation, and I think we can hit that mark,” he said…

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Trump’s NY Criminal Trial, Day 17 (Michael Cohen)

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 It’s Day 17 of the trial.

Hard to believe it’s possible that the prosecution could rest as soon as Thursday.  That would be trial days on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday this week.  Trump has Friday off to go to Barron’s graduation.  Odds on Trump skipping graduation to go to his own rally that night?

Michael Cohen will be back testifying today!

I think the trial must be making Trump jumpy!

Trump’s NY Criminal Trial, Day 17 (Michael Cohen)h/t Subaru Diane

Best sources of live blogging that I have found.  It looks like some of them are only live blogging for the “big” witnesses.  Pretty sure that Michael Cohen counts as a big witness.  This is gonna be lit, as the kids used to say.  (What do the kids say these days?)

Josh Kovensky (TPM)   live blogging

Mark Sumner (Daily Kos)  live blogging

Tyler McBrien (Lawfare) on twitter

Anna Bower (Lawfare) on twitter

Adam Klasfeld on twitter.

AP Live blogging

NBC live blogging  (not seeing it yet this morning)

Still loving this awesome image.  When you get tired of it, let me know.


So easy to find the image in the media library.  I just search for bitch, and it comes right up.

Open thread.

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Late Night Schadenfreude Open Thread: Clarence Thomas Is Not Happy

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Late Night Open Thread: Clarence Thomas Is Not Happy

And you know ‘Just Us’ Thomas really means it, because the original AP story was printed by both Politico and NBC News. I personally see this as a small hopeful sign — sounds like Thomas would like to leave the bench and spend his golden years touring with his beloved Ginni, but his oligarch “friends” won’t let him retire if a reelected President Biden will be there to replace him with a Democrat.

(Also, frankly, can’t be much fun even for a professional Grievance Collector like Thomas to be reminded every day that he was indeed elevated as a token, an insult to Justice Thurgood Marshall, a Caligula’s horse in clown shoes.)

His wife is a fucking conseravtive activist who tried to end democracy and overturn Biden's election on January 6th, fucking spare me this bullshit

[image or embed]

— Lord Businessman II (@lordbusinessman.bsky.social) May 12, 2024 at 4:40 PM

… Thomas spoke at a conference attended by judges, attorneys and other court personnel in the 11th Circuit Judicial Conference, which hears federal cases from Alabama, Florida and Georgia. He made the comments pushing back on his critics in response to a question about working in a world that seems meanspirited.

“I think there’s challenges to that. We’re in a world and we — certainly my wife and I the last two or three years it’s been — just the nastiness and the lies, it’s just incredible,” Thomas said.

“But you have some choices. You don’t get to prevent people from doing horrible things or saying horrible things. But one you have to understand and accept the fact that they can’t change you unless you permit that,” Thomas said…

No mention in the article of his hearers yelling The South shall rise again!…

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