Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Disagreements are healthy; personal attacks are not.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

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

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

A fool as well as an oath-breaker.

Washington Post Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

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

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

… gradually, and then suddenly.

Weird. Rome has an American Pope and America has a Russian President.

Humiliatingly small and eclipsed by the derision of millions.

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

Giving up is unforgivable.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

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

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Jesus watching the most hateful people claiming to be his followers

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

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

So many bastards, so little time.

So fucking stupid, and still doing a tremendous amount of damage.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

Just because you believe it, that does not make it true.

Trump should be leading, not lying.

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Arizona and Nevada: Can We Get Halfway There Today?

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Do you guys remember Kris Mayes, the candidate for Attorney General in Arizona?  She was one the candidates we supported in our “election protection” thermometer in 2022, and she won.

Well, yesterday she subpoenaed Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar as part of her fake electors investigation.  I’ll have more details on that in a post tomorrow, but you can bet that if her opponent had won, there wouldn’t be an investigation.

All these folks we supported in 2022 are the gifts that keep on giving, and I’d love for us to get some more great people elected in 2024.

We have an external match and we still have Balloon Juice Angels for both Arizona and Nevada, which means that anything you donate up to $50 will turn into 4x the amount you donate.

To count toward the match, let us know about your donation in the comments, or you can drop me an email message if you prefer.  Let me know which state or state in the comments.

ARIZONA

 

NEVADA

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Late Night Open Thread: Chris Christie, Again

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Chris Christie — and he would probably admit this, cheerfully, on camera — is an attention whore. I’m glad he’s (back to) calling out the man he once hoped would make him vice president; I’m even gladder he turned down No Labels when it might have encouraged those grifters to keep sucking up media attention.

On the other hand, he’s yet to earn a Profiles in Courage award. His apostasy makes a tingle run up the leg of Politico race-horse tout Jonathan Martin, but the answer to the question “Why Hasn’t Biden Called Chris Christie?” is that it’s only April, and that means we’ve got five or six more months of Christie grandstanding to come.
 
A much better argument, from Tom Moran at the Star-Ledger — “Will Christie vote for Biden? Logic demands it”:

… If you believe, as Christie does, that Trump is an unhinged maniac with a knife at the throat of American democracy, then why not swallow hard and vote for Biden?…

When Christie left the race in January, he vowed that he would never vote for Trump “under any circumstances.” But he added that, “I can’t see myself voting for President Biden, either.”

And so, he joins other refugees from Trump world, like former Vice President Mike Pence, who can’t bring themselves to support Biden. Also in that camp are Sen. Mitt Romney, the GOP’s presidential nominee in 2012, William Barr, the former attorney general, Mark Esper, the former defense secretary, and of course, former Rep. Liz Cheney, the unlikely heroine of this era.

The problem with their middle ground is simple math: If they want to stop Trump, a Biden vote is worth twice as much as a protest vote…

If you put Christie’s statements under a microscope, you can find reasons to hope he will come around and endorse Biden, as former Gov. Christie Whitman did in 2020. He ruled out voting for Trump absolutely; but he stopped shy of that on Biden, saying that he “can’t see” it right now.

Maybe he just needs time to move this decision from his heart to his head.

That, finally, would clear him of culpability in creating this national nightmare. He was, remember, the first major Republican to endorse Trump in 2016. And he stuck with him during the entire first term, even after Trump talked about the “fine people” in the KKK, after he spread his poisonous nonsense during the pandemic, after he blackmailed Ukraine to dig up dirt on Biden. He helped Trump prepare for the 2020 debates with Biden.

Christie saw the light on election night, when he declared Biden the legitimate winner on national TV. He broke cleanly from Trump after Jan. 6, and ran for president against Trump with the determination of a kamikaze pilot.

So, his place in the history books is not yet settled. A Biden endorsement just might tip the balance in his favor.

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War for Ukraine Day 772: Russia Double Taps Strikes Rescue Workers in Zaporizhzhia

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Screen shot of new artwork by NEIVANMADE. The background is black. In the bottom foreground are grey Ukrainian homes and apartment buildings being bombarded by red Russian missiles with the Special Military Operation "Z" symbol on them. Above the missiles, written in red is the word "Ruzzians". Below the buildings being attacked is the statement "Turns Homes Into Graves".

(Image by NEIVANMADE)

Update as of 10:00 PM EDT: All of Ukraine is now under air raid alert.

Screen grab of the air raid alert map for Ukraine. It is from 9:58 PM EDT and the entire country is under air raid alert. Every oblast/region is colored red or dark red.

Casualties are coming in for Kharkiv:

As I begin to write tonight’s update – 7:20 PM EDT – the eastern half of Ukraine is under air raid alert!

Kharkiv is under missile and Shahed drone attack!

Earlier today Russia did another double tap strike in Zaporizhzhia targeting rescue workers who’d responded to the initial strike.

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

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Honoring the World Central Kitchen Heroes

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From World Central Kitchen.  We should remember their names.

“These are people I served alongside in Ukraine, Turkey, Morocco, The Bahamas, Indonesia, Mexico, Gaza, and Israel. They were far more than heroes,” said WCK founder and Chief Feeding Officer José Andrés. “Their work was based on the simple belief that food is a universal human right. It is not conditional on being good or bad, rich or poor, left or right. We do not ask what religion you belong to. We just ask how many meals you need.”

WCK coordinated everything correctly with the IDF in advance. Despite that, our convoy was hit as it was leaving the Deir al-Balah warehouse, where the team had unloaded hundreds of tons of humanitarian food aid brought to Gaza on our newly established maritime route from Cyprus. “This is not only an attack against WCK, this is an attack on humanitarian organizations showing up in the most dire of situations where food is being used as a weapon of war. This is unforgivable,” said Erin Gore, CEO of WCK.

The IDF has acknowledged its responsibility and its fatal errors in the deadly attack on our convoy in Gaza. It is also taking disciplinary action against some of those in command and committed to other reforms. These are important steps forward. But without systemic change, there will be more military failures and more grieving families. In addition to the tens of thousands of Palestinians killed, nearly 200 humanitarian workers have lost their lives during this conflict. That is why World Central Kitchen is demanding the creation of an independent commission to investigate the killings of our WCK colleagues.

While we continue to demand full accountability for what happened to our team—our friends—we continue to mourn the loss of their incredible hearts and smiles. WCK’s leadership is in close contact with their families, and we are doing everything we can to support them in this unimaginable time. Please stay tuned to our social media channels for information about the WCK global community honoring the lives of these heroes and ways you can participate. In the coming days, we will be sharing heartfelt tributes to remember their vibrant lives and indelible impact on the world.

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Friday Evening Open Thread: Can’t Spell ‘Ratf*cker’ Without ‘RFK’ Jr…

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Friday Evening Open Thread: Can't Spell 'Ratf*cker' Without 'RFK' Jr...

(Jack Ohman via GoComics.com)

The campaign of independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sent out with a fundraising email Thursday referring to Jan. 6 defendants as “activists” who have been “stripped of their Constitutional liberties,” echoing former President Donald Trump’s rhetoric about the 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

In the appeal sent to supporters, signed by “Team Kennedy,” the campaign called for the exoneration of “political prisoner Julian Assange,” the founder of WikiLeaks, suggesting he and Jan. 6 defendants are victims of prosecutorial abuse.

“This is the reality that every American Citizen faces — from Ed Snowden, to Julian Assange to the J6 activists sitting in a Washington DC jail cell stripped of their Constitutional liberties. Please help our campaign call out the illiberal actions of our very own government,” the fundraising email read…

After publication of this piece, Kennedy spokesperson Stephanie Spear told NBC News that the language was an “error.”

“That statement was an error that does not reflect Mr. Kennedy’s views. It was inserted by a new marketing contractor and slipped through the normal approval process,” she said…

As NBC News reported, there are just 15 Jan. 6 defendants who are currently being held in pretrial detention.

Most of them are credibly accused of violence against law enforcement officials…

(I’ve actually been working on a post about the Jan6 ‘hostages’, but it’s been a very busy week… )

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We’ve Got Intelligence and Humor

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We’ve got intelligence and humor. And Dark Brandon!  Plus we can spell.  What have they got? (Besides their miserable existence, and hate.)

Oh, right.  Trump is going to host a fundraiser at MAL for the Legal Defense Fund of his apparent friend and soulmate Tim Ballard, who is being sued by multiple women for sexual assault.  You can’t make this stuff up!  (Do we think this is why the earthquake hit?)

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Open thread.

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One Person Can Change the World, or at Least Part of It

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One voice can change a room, and if one voice can change a room, then it can change a city, and if it can change a city, it can change a state, and if it change a state, it can change a nation, and if it can change a nation, it can change the world. ~Barack Obama

One black couple did exactly that in 1939, and now, in 2024, generations later, we can see the impact of what that couple did with one brave, bold, and simple, act.  A black couple rented a home to a Chinese family.

One Person Can Change a World

A Black couple defied racism by renting to a Chinese family. Now comes $5 million in thanks (LA Times)

Every morning, Lloyd Dong Sr. would take the ferry from San Diego to Coronado, where he worked as a gardener for wealthy homeowners. And every night, he would retreat back home across the bay, barred by racially restrictive housing practices in the early 1900s from renting or buying his own house in the town.

Gus and Emma Thompson — a Black couple who had managed to secure ownership of Coronado property before restrictions took hold — boldly rented a house they owned to the Dong family, whose Chinese heritage blocked them from living in the community. The intersection of these two families amid the embedded racism of the time would decades later become a story of gratitude, made possible by the very home that once belonged to the Thompsons.

Some 85 years since the Dongs moved to Coronado, Lloyd Sr.’s sons, Ron Dong and Lloyd Dong Jr., are donating $5 million from their portion of the sale of the house they eventually came to own to San Diego State University’s Black Resource Center.

The gift will expand scholarships for Black students and fund future renovations at the center, its director, Brandon Gamble, said.

One Person Can Change a World 1
The Dongs’ family house in Coronado, originally the home of the Thompsons. (Courtesy of Janice Dong)

“I don’t know how to describe the feeling in my chest, but there’s a feeling that racism gives that folks are familiar with; you may not be able to describe it all the time,” Gamble said. “This is the complete opposite, and we don’t get to access it enough.”

Ron Dong, 86, the eldest son, said his father “tried and tried [to live in Coronado] and the only thing that came up was Gus Thompson willing to rent his house that he had available…. That was the big plus for our family, because it has made all the difference for us.”

Open thread.

 

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