Balloon Juice - Open Threads Archives

Ronald Reagan Speaks from the Grave: Don’t Cut and Run

by WaterGirl| April 3, 202410:35 pm| 48 Comments

This post is in: Elections 2024, Open Threads, Politics

I found this in an open tab in my browser. It’s really good.

If the video influences people, this might turn out to be the only decent thing Reagan ever did, albeit indirectly.

And this is fun to think about!

Under 11th Circuit rules, if Jack Smith petitions for mandamus to order Judge Cannon to rule on Trump’s Presidential Records Act motion before trial, the Judge becomes a “respondent” to the request & the appeals court can order that she file a response defending her behavior.

— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) April 3, 2024

Open thread.

Ronald Reagan Speaks from the Grave: Don’t Cut and RunPost + Comments (48)

Interesting Read: “What Happened to QAnon?”

by Anne Laurie| April 3, 20249:26 pm| 39 Comments

This post is in: Elections 2024, Excellent Links, Republican Politics, Republican Venality, Trumpery, Riveted By The Sociological Significance Of It All

What happened to QAnon? And if Trump comes back, does the conspiracy theory? https://t.co/uqZjcI0Rqy

— Philip Bump (@pbump) April 3, 2024

Philip Bump, at the Washington Post — “What Happened to QAnon?”: [gift link]

As the 2020 election approached, President Donald Trump had two problematic groups of supporters that he didn’t want to alienate. One was the Proud Boys, an extremist group that had already earned a reputation for engaging in violence against opponents. The other was more loosely knit: adherents of the QAnon movement.

QAnon was problematic for very different reasons. While there had been crimes linked to the movement (including at least one killing), the political challenge was primarily that the most fervent supporters held views that were somewhere between bizarre and deranged. There’s an international cabal of prominent people in entertainment and the Democratic Party that worships Satan and traffics children to ingest a chemical they produce? Got it.

Those views sat at the extreme, certainly. But even more anodyne manifestations of QAnonism were dubious, centered on an anonymous figure, Q, who allegedly worked in the Trump administration and was helping the president combat the evil deeds of his enemies. Q began posting cryptic messages online a few months into Trump’s presidency, with tens of thousands of people subsequently parsing them for hidden meaning.

By mid-2018, QAnon was a prominent part of Trump rallies. Supporters held up signs or large “Q’s” to get on camera, with success. By early 2019, after a spate of news stories drawing attention to the movement’s bizarre beliefs, adherents reported being asked to hide any Q insignia at the president’s rallies.

Then the election rolled around. Trump’s campaign slowly began to embrace members of the movement, recognizing its scale and loyalty to his politics. He refused to condemn even the more extreme forms the movement took and, only weeks before Election Day, even endorsed the idea that QAnon members were combating child trafficking…

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Then the movement mostly evaporated. Adherents still existed; Trump began elevating their content on his social media platform with regularity. But QAnon simply wasn’t the same force that it had been when he was president.

To explore the reason QAnon lost so much energy — and to figure out where it went — I spoke with The Washington Post’s Will Sommer, author of the book “Trust the Plan: The Rise of QAnon and the Conspiracy That Unhinged America.”

Sommer points to 2020 as the height of the QAnon movement’s size and influence. It wasn’t just Trump’s reelection bid, though that was important, given his role in the purported fight against the elites. It was also the coronavirus pandemic and the Black Lives Matter protests — and even the death of Jeffrey Epstein, a galvanizing point of skepticism about official narratives…

The effort to block Joe Biden’s presidency failed. Trump moved to Florida. Q — generally believed to be a man named Ron Watkins — stopped posting new messages.

“You end up with a sort of reformulated QAnon that is sort of ‘QAnon in the wilderness,’ ” Sommer explained. “It’s no longer ‘this is at hand, the storm,’ but it becomes, you know, perhaps that Trump is secretly still in power or the Biden presidency is being filmed at Tyler Perry Studios or that the election was stolen.”

It was certainly harder to think that Trump was still fighting the satanic cabal from the cozy confines of Mar-a-Lago. But that wasn’t the only reason that QAnon lost steam. Its energy was also co-opted.

“QAnon and these conspiratorial beliefs and a lot of the ideas that were at the core of it … that has become more mainstreamed in the Republican Party,” Sommer explained. “It’s not that the Republican Party rejected QAnon, but that QAnon sort of assimilated into the GOP.”...

And now, of course, RFK Jr. is working hard to co-opt the QAnoners and the Q-Curious. Gonna be interesting seeing how the MAGAts — and more importantly, their handlers — respond!

Interesting Read: “What Happened to QAnon?”Post + Comments (39)

War for Ukraine Day 770: Kharkiv Is Under Attack!

by Adam L Silverman| April 3, 20248:16 pm| 23 Comments

This post is in: Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Military, Open Threads, Russia, Silverman on Security, War, War in Ukraine

(Image by NEIVANMADE)

As I write this Kharkiv is under attack!

A second drone just “double tapped” in Kharkiv where an initial one hit an apartment building. Ukrainian firefighters were responding and reports are at least 3 rescuers were murdered. It’s past 2am and Russia is a terrorist state.

— Nate Mook (@natemook) April 3, 2024

Right now all of eastern Ukraine is under air raid alert.

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

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We clearly understand what Russia is preparing for; we and all our partners must have a clear response to Russian operations – address by the President of Ukraine

3 April 2024 – 21:47

I wish you health, fellow Ukrainians!

There is a new security agreement for our country. This is the eighth one – now with Finland. Today we signed it in Kyiv during the visit of the new President of Finland. He arrived together with the Speaker of the Parliament, and this is the first time such a joint visit has been made, moreover, the first visit of the new President has been made specifically to Ukraine. It is very symbolic, and we appreciate this symbolic support. Just as we appreciate all the practical support provided by Finland for our defense and our people. Today we have a new package of defense support. We talked in great detail about the need to bolster air defense. We also talked about defense production – about joint projects on weapons, on shells. This is where our countries can do much more together. And we have agreed today that the teams of our countries will work together as actively as before.

It is important to say that Finland clearly understands the necessity of Ukraine’s integration into the European Union and NATO. I thank you for your willingness to help, to provide arguments in favor of an invitation for Ukraine to join NATO. In general, we can say that the entire Finnish society, all political forces equally understand the importance of our defense in this war for our entire region, for the whole of Europe. And we must not waste time, we must interact more, do more together, and convince other partners to be more active. It’s all about our common security, about protecting millions of people from Russian murderers.

I also had several phone calls today. The first was with Prime Minister Kishida. I thanked him for the comprehensive assistance provided both for our security and for our economic resilience. And for the political support. Japan is among the global leaders in assisting Ukraine and upholding international law. I briefed Mr. Prime Minister on the situation on the battlefield, its prospects, and our needs, including everything that would help us repel Russian attacks. It was a fruitful conversation. And after the recent decisions of the Japanese government, Japan’s total support for Ukraine has already exceeded $12 billion.

Today I also spoke with the new Prime Minister of Portugal. We coordinated our work and, in particular, instructed our teams to start preparing a security agreement between our countries. Of course, we will continue to implement the existing agreements.

We are gradually planning our work with our partners for the coming months – both May and June should be a time of activity for the sake of Ukraine, for the sake of achieving our goals in this war. We clearly understand what Russia is preparing for, what they want, and what they will be drafting soldiers into their army for. And we, all of us, our partners, must have a strong response to Russian operations – any Russian operations. We must win this war. This is Ukraine’s historic chance to thwart Russian revanchism, and we must seize it. For the sake of reliable security for our children.

Today, Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi delivered a long and detailed report. Our actions in key directions. Defense of our positions. Fortification of our positions. Our pressure on Russian positions. Our key plans for defense and active operations in the near future.

I thank everyone who is fighting on the frontline now, who is in combat positions and on combat missions. I thank everyone who trains our warriors, everyone who volunteers. I am proud of our people. And I thank everyone in the world who helps.

Glory to Ukraine!

During a presser with the Finnish president, Zelensky responded to the UN’s “condemnation” of the strikes on Shahed drone manufacturing plant in Tatarstan: "To truly grasp how people survive in Kharkiv without light and water, you must come, see, and then decide whether to… pic.twitter.com/g2xpwUdZQm

— Maria Avdeeva (@maria_avdv) April 3, 2024

During a presser with the Finnish president, Zelensky responded to the UN’s “condemnation” of the strikes on Shahed drone manufacturing plant in Tatarstan: “To truly grasp how people survive in Kharkiv without light and water, you must come, see, and then decide whether to condemn something or not. Russia understands nothing except force”

Politico EU reports on the munitions and weapons system famine in Ukraine. (emphasis mine)

According to Zelenskyy, unless the stalled multibillion-dollar package is approved soon, his forces will have to “go back, retreat, step by step, in small steps.” He also warned that some major cities could be at risk of falling.

Obviously, Zelenskyy’s warnings are part of a broad diplomatic effort to free up the military aid his forces so desperately need and have been short of for months — everything from 155-millimeter artillery shells to Patriot air-defense systems and drones. But the sad truth is that even if the package is approved by the U.S. Congress, a massive resupply may not be enough to prevent a major battlefield upset.

And such a setback, especially in the middle of election campaigns in America and Europe, could very well revive Western pressure for negotiations that would obviously favor Russia, leaving the Kremlin free to revive the conflict at a future time of its choosing.

Essentially, everything now depends on where Russia will decide to target its strength in an offensive that’s expected to launch this summer. In a pre-offensive pummeling — stretching from Kharkiv and Sumy in the north to Odesa in the south — Russia’s missile and drone strikes have widely surged in recent weeks, targeting infrastructure and making it hard to guess where it will mount its major push.

And according to high-ranking Ukrainian military officers who served under General Valery Zaluzhny — the commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces until he was replaced in February — the military picture is grim.

The officers said there’s a great risk of the front lines collapsing wherever Russian generals decide to focus their offensive. Moreover, thanks to a much greater weight in numbers and the guided aerial bombs that have been smashing Ukrainian positions for weeks now, Russia will likely be able to “penetrate the front line and to crash it in some parts,” they said.

They spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak freely.

“There’s nothing that can help Ukraine now because there are no serious technologies able to compensate Ukraine for the large mass of troops Russia is likely to hurl at us. We don’t have those technologies, and the West doesn’t have them as well in sufficient numbers,” one of the top-ranking military sources told POLITICO.

According to him, it is only Ukrainian grit and resilience as well as errors by Russian commanders that may now alter the grim dynamics. Mistakes like the one made on Saturday, when Russia launched one of the largest tank assaults on Ukrainian positions since its full-scale invasion began, only to have the column smashed by Ukraine’s 25th Brigade, which took out a dozen tanks and 8 infantry fighting vehicles — a third of the column’s strength.

However, the high-ranking Ukrainian officers reminded that relying on Russian errors is not a strategy, and they were bitter about the missteps they say hamstrung Ukraine’s resistance from the start — missteps made by both the West and Ukraine. They were also scathing about Western foot-dragging, saying supplies and weapons systems came too late and in insufficient numbers to make the difference they otherwise could have.

“Zaluzhny used to call it ‘the War of One Chance,’” one of the officers said. “By that, he meant weapons systems become redundant very quickly because they’re quickly countered by the Russians. For example, we used Storm Shadow and SCALP cruise missiles [supplied by Britain and France] successfully — but just for a short time. The Russians are always studying. They don’t give us a second chance. And they’re successful in this.”

“Don’t believe the hype about them just throwing troops into the meat grinder to be slaughtered,” he added. “They do that too, of course — maximizing even more the impact of their superior numbers — but they also learn and refine.”

The officers said the shoulder-fired anti-tank missiles supplied by the U.K. and U.S. in the first weeks of the invasion came in time, helping them save Kyiv — and so, too, did the HIMARS, the light multiple-launch rocket systems, which were used to great effect, enabling them to push Russia out of Kherson in November 2022.

“But often, we just don’t get the weapons systems at the time we need them — they come when they’re no longer relevant,” another senior officer said, citing the F-16 fighter jets as an example. A dozen or so F-16s are expected to be operational this summer, after basic pilot training has been completed. “Every weapon has its own right time. F-16s were needed in 2023; they won’t be right for 2024,” he said.

And that’s because, according to this officer, Russia is ready to counter them: “In the last few months, we started to notice missiles being fired by the Russians from Dzhankoy in northern Crimea, but without the explosive warheads. We couldn’t understand what they were doing, and then we figured it out: They’re range-finding,” he said. The officer explained that Russia’s been calculating where best to deploy its S-400 missile and radar systems in order to maximize the area they can cover to target the F-16s, keeping them away from the front lines and Russia’s logistical hubs.

The officers also said they now need more basic traditional weapons as well as drones. “We need Howitzers and shells, hundreds of thousands of shells, and rockets,” one of them told POLITICO, estimating that Ukraine needed 4 million shells and 2 million drones. “We told the Western partners all the time that we have the combat experience, we have the battlefield understanding of this war. [They] have the resources, and they need to give us what we need,” he added.

Much more at the link.

In March alone, Russian terrorists used over 400 missiles of various types, 600 "Shahed" drones, and over 3,000 guided aerial bombs against Ukraine.

This terror is wreaking havoc on cities and villages throughout Ukraine, and Russia is particularly relentless in bombarding… pic.twitter.com/BLpNNK1ZeE

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) April 3, 2024

In March alone, Russian terrorists used over 400 missiles of various types, 600 “Shahed” drones, and over 3,000 guided aerial bombs against Ukraine.

This terror is wreaking havoc on cities and villages throughout Ukraine, and Russia is particularly relentless in bombarding frontline and border areas.

Our city of over a million people, Kharkiv, has been subjected to missile and drone strikes since the full-scale war began. Recently, Russian terrorists also began to use aerial bombs against Kharkiv. The city sees daily humiliation and pain, as well as daily losses. Critical infrastructure has been destroyed, and ordinary residential buildings are being demolished on a daily basis.

None of this will be possible when Ukraine receives reliable air defense systems capable of saving lives and restoring security to our cities. “Patriots” in the hands of Ukrainians have demonstrated that all forms of Russian terror can be defeated.

This is what our Kharkiv, as well as all of our cities and communities, require right now, as Russian strikes threaten their lives.

Finland:

Finland sends the 23rd military aid package for Ukraine, worth €188 million.

The total amount of support provided by Finland since the beginning of the full-scale aggression is close to €2 billion.

Also, Ukraine and Finland have signed an agreement on security cooperation and… pic.twitter.com/pfYjdTgdbs

— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) April 3, 2024

Finland sends the 23rd military aid package for Ukraine, worth €188 million.

The total amount of support provided by Finland since the beginning of the full-scale aggression is close to €2 billion.

Also, Ukraine and Finland have signed an agreement on security cooperation and long-term support.

We are grateful to our Finnish partners for their unwavering support. Together, we will overcome the russian evil.

Kostyantynivka, Russian occupied Donetsk Oblast:

I meant to mention, it’s scrawled on the wall of the destroyed Kostyantynivka train station, where I must have caught more than 100 trains in more than a decade. And the station where I first arrived in the Donbas when I moved here 14 years ago. See the opening pages of my book. https://t.co/z0JslZZlk3

— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) April 3, 2024

Chasiv Yar:

Things definitely not looking great for the Ukrainians trying to hold onto Chasiv Yar. If it falls, Russia would be able to use the heights to threaten Kostiantynivka, where there's a major rail line. (video of Chasiv Yar from https://t.co/e9yYHTXP9g) pic.twitter.com/dms0WjTEC7

— Mike Eckel (@Mike_Eckel) April 3, 2024

Kharkiv:

Comparing Russian attacks on power stations to Ukrainian strikes on oil depots is like equating aggressor with victim. Key difference: while one is a war crime, the other is Ukraine's right to self-defense. Witness the aftermath of the latest attack on a Ukrainian power station. pic.twitter.com/PgkMGJzUhA

— Maria Avdeeva (@maria_avdv) April 2, 2024

Zaporizhzhia front:

The path of the russian Buk air defense system has ended.
Ukrainian warriors destroyed it on the Zaporizhzhia axis.

📹: @DI_Ukraine pic.twitter.com/j8J9VR4UDB

— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) April 3, 2024

Tonenke, Russian occupied Donetsk Oblast:

Powerful footage shared by DeepState shows warriors of the 25th and 68th Brigades repelling an assault by armoured group of the imperial formations using anti-tank systems, including Javelin. It is believed around 50 imperial vehicles took part in the assault on Tonen'ke several… pic.twitter.com/ieeSCI7dUY

— WarTranslated (@wartranslated) April 3, 2024

Powerful footage shared by DeepState shows warriors of the 25th and 68th Brigades repelling an assault by armoured group of the imperial formations using anti-tank systems, including Javelin. It is believed around 50 imperial vehicles took part in the assault on Tonen’ke several days ago. The battle rages on.

https://t.me/DeepStateUA/19161

Kreminna front, Terny, Russian occupied Donetsk Oblast:

Repelling of a Russian AFV column attack on the Kreminna front, Terny area. https://t.co/AXQLDrYohL https://t.co/gMXR7ThYGr pic.twitter.com/IB7hy18GQq

— Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) April 3, 2024

Bakhmut front:

Example of the use of Ukrainian ground drones to destroy Russian trench positions. Drones deliver and unload mines on Russian positions, after which remote detonation is carried out.https://t.co/5lH57v8YgR https://t.co/vUMeFfmKbd pic.twitter.com/HTCdBefdcT

— Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) April 3, 2024

That’s enough for tonight.

Your daily Patron!

A new video from Patron’s official TikTok!

@patron__dsns

Весна!🥹✨🍃🌞

♬ hendriksvibes – Hendrik 🐊

Here’s the machine translation of the caption:

Spring! 🥹✨🍃🌞

Open thread!

War for Ukraine Day 770: Kharkiv Is Under Attack!Post + Comments (23)

Wednesday Afternoon Open Thread

by WaterGirl| April 3, 20245:41 pm| 194 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

Looks like we could use an open thread!

Wednesday Afternoon Open ThreadPost + Comments (194)

Smith to Cannon: Put Up or Shut Up

by Betty Cracker| April 3, 202412:08 pm| 199 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Trump Crime Cartel, Trump Indictments

We talked about this a little in the overnight thread, but it deserves its own post: DOJ prosecutor Jack Smith submitted a filing last night that indicates he’s had enough of Judge Aileen Cannon’s foot-dragging bullshit. Here’s a PDF of the filing. An excerpt of TPM’s analysis below:

In a new filing that bluntly confronts U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, Special Counsel Jack Smith takes a new tone of incredulousness and disdain for her mishandling of the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case.

The issue at hand is her failure to have yet ruled on Donald Trump’s motion to dismiss based on his inane, unprecedented, and counterfactual reading of the Presidential Records Act. Instead of rejecting the argument out of hand, Cannon not only is entertaining it but ordered the two sides to propose jury instructions based on two different deeply flawed interpretations of the PRA…

Smith ripped her interpretations of the PRA: “both of the Court’s scenarios are fundamentally flawed and any jury instructions that reflect those scenarios would be error.” He said her “legal premise is wrong” and her requested jury instructions “would distort the trial.”

Smith all but threatened to take Cannon up on appeal, urging her to rule promptly and not wait until a jury has been seated and thereby deprive the government of the opportunity to appeal. At this point, Smith would prefer an adverse ruling to no ruling at all: “Whatever the Court decides, it must resolve these crucial threshold legal questions promptly. The failure to do so would improperly jeopardize the Government’s right to a fair trial.”

I’m not a lawyer, but Cannon’s delay on the PRA-based motion to dismiss and demand for juror instructions seems like putting the cart before the horse. Since she’s moving with the blazing speed of a three-legged turtle, Cannon hasn’t even set a trial date, so jury instructions aren’t urgent. But by delaying the ruling, she deprives Smith of the opportunity to ask appeals court judges to explain how the PRA works to her.

Maybe it’s a risky move on Smith’s part, challenging Cannon like that — he all but called her a dumb poopy-head. But I don’t think he had any choice.

Open thread.

Smith to Cannon: Put Up or Shut UpPost + Comments (199)

World Central Kitchen: Protect the Helpers

by Betty Cracker| April 3, 20249:27 am| 237 Comments

This post is in: Foreign Affairs, Open Threads, War

Chef José Andrés wrote a powerful guest opinion piece for the New York Times in response to the death of seven WCK aid workers in an IDF strike earlier this week. Here’s a gift link. Excerpts below:

In the worst conditions you can imagine — after hurricanes, earthquakes, bombs and gunfire — the best of humanity shows up. Not once or twice but always.

The seven people killed on a World Central Kitchen mission in Gaza on Monday were the best of humanity. They are not faceless or nameless. They are not generic aid workers or collateral damage in war…

From Day 1, we have fed Israelis as well as Palestinians. Across Israel, we have served more than 1.75 million hot meals. We have fed families displaced by Hezbollah rockets in the north. We have fed grieving families from the south. We delivered meals to the hospitals where hostages were reunited with their families. We have called consistently, repeatedly and passionately for the release of all the hostages…

We know Israelis. Israelis, in their heart of hearts, know that food is not a weapon of war.

Israel is better than the way this war is being waged. It is better than blocking food and medicine to civilians. It is better than killing aid workers who had coordinated their movements with the Israel Defense Forces.

The Israeli government needs to open more land routes for food and medicine today. It needs to stop killing civilians and aid workers today. It needs to start the long journey to peace today.

In the worst conditions, after the worst terrorist attack in its history, it’s time for the best of Israel to show up…

Like the humanitarian he is, the chef acknowledges the immense suffering on all sides — the Palestinian civilians in Gaza, the hostages still being held there and the victims and survivors of Hamas atrocities. The worst currently have free rein. I sure hope the best figure out how to show up.

Open thread.

World Central Kitchen: Protect the HelpersPost + Comments (237)

Late Night Open Thread: RFK Jr Gets Some More of the Attention He So Craves

by Anne Laurie| April 3, 20243:23 am| 117 Comments

This post is in: Elections 2024, Grifters Gonna Grift, Open Threads

One of the most obvious similarities between Trump and RFK Jr is that the more you get to know about him, the more you realize he’s just a terrible human who doesn’t care about anyone other than himself. https://t.co/fbG3jU4uNU

— Jason Karsh (@jkarsh) March 30, 2024

The [unpaywalled] MSN / Washington Post, last Friday – “Cesar Chavez’s family tells RFK Jr. to stop using activist’s name, image”:

The family of labor activist Cesar Chavez sent a letter to independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Friday, warning him to stop referencing the late patriarch in election campaigns or face potential legal action.

The letter, signed by Cesar Chavez’s eldest son, Fernando, reiterates the family’s support for President Biden, according to a copy obtained by The Washington Post. Julie Chavez Rodriguez, the granddaughter of the labor union leader, leads Biden’s reelection campaign.

“We respectfully call upon you and your campaign to cease using images of our father to associate yourself with him and suggest your campaign’s goals are compatible,” Fernando Chavez writes.

The letter comes a day before Kennedy is set to host a campaign event in Los Angeles on Cesar Chavez’s birthday to launch a Latino outreach program. In promoting the event, Kennedy called Chavez a good friend…

Kennedy’s father famously supported the farmworkers’ strike that Chavez led in the 1960s and was present when Chavez broke his fast protesting the conditions.

In the letter, Fernando Chavez says the family remains grateful to the younger Kennedy for helping carry Chavez’s casket after his death in 1993, as did other prominent figures.

“To our knowledge, none of them have featured images carrying the casket in their political campaign materials and promotions,” Fernando Chavez writes. “We take offense at the use of such sacred moments purely for political purposes.” …

He is paid by special interests to divert votes from president Biden. Dems who want to vote for him will be complicit in trump and putin winning.

— Baba Jaga ???????? (@AnnaKub10184673) April 2, 2024

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Late Night Open Thread: RFK Jr Gets Some More of the Attention He So CravesPost + Comments (117)

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

“Loving your country does not mean lying about its history.”

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

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

Dear elected officials: Trump is temporary, dishonor is forever.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.

The words do not have to be perfect.

No Kings: Americans standing in the way of bad history saying “Oh, Fuck No!”

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Jesus watching the most hateful people claiming to be his followers

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

We can’t confuse what’s necessary to win elections with the policies that we want to implement when we do.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

America is going up in flames. The NYTimes fawns over MAGA celebrities. No longer a real newspaper.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

People are complicated. Love is not.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

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

Ronald Reagan Speaks from the Grave: Don’t Cut and Run

Interesting Read: “What Happened to QAnon?”

War for Ukraine Day 770: Kharkiv Is Under Attack!

We clearly understand what Russia is preparing for; we and all our partners must have a clear response to Russian operations – address by the President of Ukraine

Wednesday Afternoon Open Thread

Smith to Cannon: Put Up or Shut Up

World Central Kitchen: Protect the Helpers

Late Night Open Thread: RFK Jr Gets Some More of the Attention He So Craves