Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
A sampling of the news from my RSS reader this morning.
I’m not sure I can bear to read any of them, but I am loving the titles.
What’s everyone up to on Labor Day?
I have hours of work to do this morning, then some friends are coming over this afternoon to play cards and drink sour cherry mojitos.
Betty Cracker posted this image last week, and I love it so much. Perfection.
Open thread, obviously.
AI-driven nature apps are changing how people engage with wildlife on their hikes.
— The Associated Press (@apnews.com) August 28, 2025 at 3:00 PM
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I can remember when fans could barely interest even local media into covering the biggest pop-cult conventions…
Comic-Con Africa has drawn tens of thousands of fans to Johannesburg.
— The Associated Press (@apnews.com) August 31, 2025 at 2:00 AM
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Exactly. Whatever the problem is – and every state, red and blue, has plenty of problems – dictatorship is not the answer.
— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec.bsky.social) August 31, 2025 at 11:39 AM
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Honestly Trump being too old & sick to talk to reporters serves my purposes almost as well as him kicking it. "What if Trump was president & it wasn't any fun" is a pretty good summary of why the press hated COVID & I am very happy to bring that back
— Chatham Harrison dba TRUMP DELENDUS EST (@chathamharrison.bsky.social) August 31, 2025 at 10:36 PM
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In Donald Trump's America consumers have fewer choices at higher prices thanks to increased taxes on imported goods. www.nbcnews.com/business/bus…
— Adam J Schmidt (@adamjschmidt.bsky.social) August 29, 2025 at 11:03 AM
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University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index was 74.0 in December, now 58.2 in August. Conference Board’s consumer confidence index was 104.7, now 97.4. Government officials shouldn’t go on TV and blatantly lie like this.
— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec.bsky.social) August 31, 2025 at 11:36 AM
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Pope Leo XIV denounced the “pandemic of arms, large and small,” as he prayed publicly for the victims of the shooting during a Catholic school Mass in the United States.
— The Associated Press (@apnews.com) August 31, 2025 at 5:00 PM
What a headline from the San Diego Union-Tribune:
"Duke Cunningham, war hero turned corrupt congressman, dies at 83"
Old heads will remember the 2006 special election in #CA50 to replace Cunningham after he resigned— The Downballot (@the-downballot.com) August 29, 2025 at 12:18 PM
Us old heads remember Duke whenever our Very Serious Media Pundits claim that the current Oval Office Occupant represents a tawdry betrayal of established GOP norms. Per Trip Gabriel at the NYTimes, “Duke Cunningham, 83, Congressman Convicted in Corruption Scandal, Dies” [gift link]:
Former Representative Duke Cunningham, an ace fighter pilot elected to Congress from San Diego whose combat heroics in Vietnam were forever marred by a bribery scandal that sent him to federal prison, died on Wednesday in Little Rock, Ark. He was 83.
His death, in a hospital, was announced on social media by his family. No cause was cited.
One of only two Navy aviators in the Vietnam era to be confirmed an ace for shooting down five enemy planes, Mr. Cunningham, whose given name was Randall, was recruited by Republican Party activists to run for Congress in 1990. He was re-elected repeatedly and sat on the powerful Appropriations and Intelligence committees, where he abused his power to win favors for military contractors in exchange for at least $2.4 million in cash, gifts and benefits.
He pleaded guilty in federal court in 2005 to tax evasion and conspiracy to commit bribery. Among the favors he accepted from defense contractors were a Rolls-Royce, free rent on a live-aboard yacht, the Duke-Stir, moored on the Potomac River, and a sweetheart sale of his San Diego County home for nearly $1 million above market value.
The San Diego Union-Tribune exposed the corruption beginning in June 2005, revealing that a defense contractor bought Mr. Cunningham’s house for $1.675 million, then sold it at a $700,000 loss. Shortly after, the contractor began winning millions of dollars in defense and intelligence-related deals from the government. The newspaper’s coverage won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting, which it shared with its sister organization, the Copley News Service.
Mr. Cunningham was sentenced to more than eight years in prison, one of the longest sentences handed to a former congressman for corruption. He was released in 2013. President Trump pardoned him just before the end of his first term in January 2021…
Blast From the Past: Duke Cunningham Has DiedPost + Comments (14)
NPR: Giuliani hospitalized
NBC: Giuliani hospitalized after crash
CNN: Giuliani in serious condition after car crash
FOX: King Giuliani hospitalized immediately following a beautiful domestic violence case where he was a hero and great guy
Skip the Online Raccoon: Rudy dead lol— Skip, the Online Raccoon (@badposter.lol) August 31, 2025 at 8:54 PM
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The Rudy Giuliani story is a nice change of pace. The health difficulties of 80 year old men are significantly less distressing when they aren't urgent national security matters
— Chatham Harrison dba TRUMP DELENDUS EST (@chathamharrison.bsky.social) August 31, 2025 at 10:20 PM
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As a journalist, I am not going to wildly and irresponsibly theorize what happened with Giuliani.
I am going to wait for it to be reported out because the truth is probably 1000% crazier than anything I could come up with.— Brian PJ Cronin (@brianpjcronin.bsky.social) August 31, 2025 at 8:19 PM
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Yes:
The police version of the crash, as relayed by a local Manchester reporter, is unsurprisingly quite different from what Giuliani's spokesman says. The whole thing is even more murky now, however.
manchester.inklink.news/rudy-giulian…— Helen Kennedy (@helenkennedy.bsky.social) August 31, 2025 at 5:57 PM
This sounds to me like the simplest explanation: It was a mundane traffic accident, until the Giuliani genius for unnecessary elaboration came into play. Per the Manchester InkLink:
Late Night Open Thread: Rudy Giuliani Is Not DeadPost + Comments (36)
(Image by NEIVANMADE)
The cost:
A funeral is being held today for 2-year-old Anhelina and her mother Nadiya near their destroyed home in Kyiv.🕯💔
They died during a Russian attack on the night of August 28. The girl’s father, Maksym, was at work that night.
— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) August 31, 2025 at 7:38 AM
This tears me apart. This beautiful family should still be alive. Baby Anhelina playing, growing up, going to kindergarten and then school. Her mother watching her little girl blossom.
russia stole this — leaving a wound that will never heal in the hearts of those who loved them.
— Olena Halushka (@halushka.bsky.social) August 31, 2025 at 11:52 AM
The Flamingos are operational!
Flamingo launch 👀🦩
Hopefully, we will see these birds in action soon 😈
— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) August 31, 2025 at 8:43 AM
‼️ /1. The first publicly known combat use of the Flamingo cruise missile has been reported against Russian targets in Crimea, near Armyansk. The strike hit an FSB outpost and several patrol hovercraft.
The attack took place early on 30 August 2025.
— 🦋Special Kherson Cat🐈🇺🇦 (@specialkhersoncat.bsky.social) August 31, 2025 at 11:48 AM
/2. According to reports, six patrol hovercraft were damaged.
The exact types of vessels hit have not been disclosed. However, FSB border units in Crimea are known to operate Khivus A-8, as well as the larger A25PS class.
militarnyi.com/uk/news/ob-y…
— 🦋Special Kherson Cat🐈🇺🇦 (@specialkhersoncat.bsky.social) August 31, 2025 at 11:50 AM
Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump. (emphasis mine)
So, anyone seen Trump since yesterday morning?
— Dana Houle (@danahoule.bsky.social) August 31, 2025 at 6:37 PM
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I was like “fuck he’s fine” yesterday morning but subsequent lack of evidence has me wondering. like he’d make a point of saying something shitty to the press pool, no? that’s kind of his thing
— post malone ergo propter malone (@proptermalone.bsky.social) August 31, 2025 at 5:34 PM
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The man has always scoured the horizon for cameras to put him on the idiot box. His staff couldnt stop him from running up to them if their lives depended on it. Since hes not, he probably feels how he looks. That and the security is keeping reporters bigfoot photo distance away.
— The Wrong Way Kid (@the-wrong-way-kid.bsky.social) August 31, 2025 at 6:01 PM
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you’ll know if the president buys the farm because really weird shit will start happening in the crypto markets out of nowhere at least three or four hours before anybody says anything publicly
— not an art thief (@famousartthief.bsky.social) August 31, 2025 at 6:02 PM
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in a criminal government just follow what the criminals do
— not an art thief (@famousartthief.bsky.social) August 31, 2025 at 6:05 PM
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So uh. Why isn't Trump getting in front of a camera?
— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) August 31, 2025 at 3:18 PM
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Schadenfreude Open Thread: We Are All KKKremlinologists NowPost + Comments (107)
Been busy the past 48, so I have been checking the headlines to see what I missed. Fucking hell:
It is once again that time of year when self-proclaimed “Burners” retreat to the dust-coated landscape that is Black Rock City, Nevada, to take copious amounts of drugs and barter for threesomes under the guise of “community building.” So what fresh hell hath Burning Man 2025 wrought? It’s not disgraced Thinx co-founder Miki Agrawal handing out her breast milk for iced lattes. It’s also not Paris Hilton’s 2017 super-“sick,” four-hour-long DJ set. And nice try, but no, it’s definitely not Ivanka Trump reading Playa Fire faster than romantasy girlies lap up A Court of Thorns and Roses. This year, I regret to inform you that Burning Man’s 22-year-old Orgy Dome has perished.
I asked the miscreants and sick bastards on bluesky to come up with a more disgusting phrase than “Burning Man Orgy Dome” and someone immediately responded “Burning Man Orgy Dome & Cafeteria” and I dry-heaved.
Can we call it ethnic cleansing now?
A postwar plan for Gaza circulating within the Trump administration, modeled on President Donald Trump’s vow to “take over” the enclave, would turn it into a trusteeship administered by the United States for at least 10 years while it is transformed into a gleaming tourism resort and high-tech manufacturing and technology hub.
The 38-page prospectus seen by The Washington Post envisions at least a temporary relocation of all of Gaza’s more than 2 million population, either through what it calls “voluntary” departures to another country or into restricted, secured zones inside the enclave during reconstruction.
Those who own land would be offered a digital token by the trust in exchange for rights to redevelop their property, to be used to finance a new life elsewhere or eventually redeemed for an apartment in one of six to eight new “AI-powered, smart cities” to be built in Gaza. Each Palestinian who chooses to leave would be given a $5,000 cash payment and subsidies to cover four years of rent elsewhere, as well as a year of food.
These are just the grossest and dumbest people ever and should this ever come to fruition, I guarantee this will be the destination of choice for every suicide bomber in the world.
Thoughts and prayers:
Rudolph W. Giuliani was injured in a car accident in New Hampshire on Saturday evening and taken to a hospital with a fractured vertebra, according to the head of security for the former mayor of New York City and lawyer for President Trump. A person close to Mr. Giuliani said he was expected to recover.
Mr. Giuliani, 81, was traveling on a highway after having stopped to help a “woman who was the victim of a domestic violence incident,” Michael Ragusa, Mr. Giuliani’s security official, said in a social media post. He did not offer additional information about the incident, including where in New Hampshire it occurred or whether Mr. Giuliani was behind the wheel. Mr. Giuliani called 911 and waited with the woman until help arrived, Mr. Ragusa said.
Keep praying, folks, we’re so close to them being answered.
I had to hit the grocery today, and the prices of produce are soaring. We are rapidly approaching the point where going to the grocery store and buying fresh vegetable heavy meals with a cheap protein are more expensive than prepared bullshit like a frozen pizza. We may all be living in financially induced grocery deserts quite soon.
There’s a whole lot of shit going on out there- trumps tariffs being found unlawful, judges having to force the ice brownshirts to deplave a planeload of fucking kids they were shipping to Guatemala, Trump ruining thirty years of Indian diplomacy demanding Mohdi nominate him for a peace prize, and on and on.
Just to much stupid and evil out there. But there is still good- like what you all did yesterday raising funds for Ukraine.
