Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
This song got us through Miss Willow’s trip to the vet yesterday. She gets very distressed and lets out a series of mournful cries, the whole way.
So yesterday I put Jimmy Buffet’s It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere on repeat, turned up the volume, and I belted out the lyrics to the song as we drove – in a happy party-like tone. Listening twice got us there; listening twice got us home. I think it helped her; I know it helped me.
Open thread.
I have a day filled with the kind of stuff I hate. 8 am, the A/C people come to see why my A/C isn’t working. 9:30 I go to my car repair guy so he can listen and see why my CRV doesn’t sound right. At noon, I have other workers coming to the house. Oh, and tomorrow the oven repair guy comes. It’s not shark week, it’s why is everything breaking week. Ugh.
Anyway, I don’t see anything happening in the backroom at the moment, so I will leave you with this from Jen Rubin.
Jennifer Rubin / The Contrarian
In a bold move to foil Donald Trump’s effort to rig the 2026 elections with the re-redistricting of Texas, Democrats in Texas, Illinois, New York, and California have managed to demonstrate the fighting spirit many activists have been looking for since Trump took office.
House and Senate Democratic leadership on one hand, and, on the other, Democratic activists and a group of high-profile fighters (including Illinois Gov JB Pritzker, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, and, more recently, California Gov. Gavin Newsom) have conducted a sort of running debate since January that has gone like this:
Democratic base: Fight!
House and Senate Dem Leaders: We are!
Democratic base: Not really! Look at the CR screw-up.
House and Senate Dem Leaders: What d’ya expect—we are in the minority!
Democratic base: More!
House and Senate Dem Leaders: We’re trying!
Democratic Base: No, fight like Pritzker/AOC/Booker/Newsom
I have to say, that was a pretty good summary!
Well, the base appears to have gotten what it’s been looking for all these months.
In just the last month or so, Senate and House Democrats fought tooth-and-nail to stop the horrendous reconciliation bill, knocking out many horrible proposals, forcing votes into broad daylight, and messaging relentlessly.
Then, House Democrats’ incessant maneuvers to force release of the Jeffrey Epstein files in turn forced Speaker Mike Johnson to scurry out the doors early to the August recess. Meanwhile, Senate Democrats have fought so tenaciously on nominees that Republicans threw up their hands and left town without confirming a slew of terrible nominees.
This week, the re-redistricting fight took center stage. Trump apparently does not believe his own hollow boasts. (Everything is great! We’re winning!) Recognizing the only way to save the House majority in 2026 would be to cheat, he demanded Texas Republicans make the current gerrymandered congressional lines even more favorable to Republicans. They hope to squeeze out five more Republican seats. Having no will of their own, Texas Republicans immediately tried to rush through this new re-redistricting. But Democrats struck back on multiple fronts.
Democrats turning the tables
Democrats may be getting some traction. The right-wing opinion page of the Wall Street Journal pleaded for a true in the redistricting wars. Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Cal.) put out a press release vowing to introduce legislation to prohibit mid-decade redistricting nationwide. Even if that were to pass, it is not clear it would be constitutional. However, signs of buyers’ remorse signify at least someRepublicans realize the downside to the Trump-Abbott power grab.
In sum, however this washes out, Democratic leaders across the country are showing spine and blocking MAGA tactics aimed at destroying the normal operation of elections. Democratic politicians aren’t just complaining or running to court. They are effectively raising the stakes with their feet and their own redistricting plans. This response should further encourage the Democratic base already itching to engage in the midterms.
Democratic voters and activists should be proud to see their elected leaders turn the tables on MAGA autocrats. That is how to fight back—and how to mobilize voters nationwide.
Open thread.
i got a text that said "trump is on the roof of the white house shouting at people" and i didn't actually believe it
— Sky Marchini (@sky.skymarchini.net) August 5, 2025 at 11:09 AM
I may be the only one here old enough to remember that shaggy-dog story…
Nope, here’s Popehat:
See you can't just say "America has fallen." You have to ease people into it, kindly. So when people ask how things are going you start out like "well, Trump went up on the roof today but I'm sure it will be okay. ".
— Bad Back Hat (@kenwhite.bsky.social) August 5, 2025 at 11:23 AM
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Maybe he was swaying to music for 40 minutes
— Dana Houle (@danahoule.bsky.social) August 5, 2025 at 4:17 PM
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He went out there to claim he's personally paying for the ballroom. No he fucking isn't. Your sick relative has to die so Donald Trump can build a gilded ballroom that he's never gonna use because he's in the Epstein files and his heart is giving out.
— Arcade (@arcadesrevenge.bsky.social) August 5, 2025 at 11:51 AM
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had Biden randomly wandered on the White House roof shouting at reporters about nuclear weapons, Jake Tapper would drop everything to pitch a new series of books and Hannity would anchor ongoing special coverage until 2029
but when Trump does it it's just Trump being Trump!— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) August 5, 2025 at 12:08 PM
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Late Night Open Thread: Granpa’s on the RoofPost + Comments (85)
(Image by NEIVANMADE)
Because I did the earlier post on the Mann Gulch fire, I’m just going to run through the basics tonight.
The cost and the reason:
Some warm news from Ukraine for you. Take a look at how the residents of a Ukrainian village are meeting their fellow villager after three years of the hell of russian captivity. The banner which they hung says: “Welcome home. Thanks for your invincibility” ❤️🩹
— Olena Halushka (@halushka.bsky.social) August 5, 2025 at 10:54 AM
Another Georgian fighting against Russia in Ukraine, Mikheil Shedania, has died. Fellow soldiers said he was killed while trying to evacuate his comrades from the danger zone.
From the very first days of the war, several hundred Georgians have been fighting in Ukraine.
— Publika.ge (@publikage.bsky.social) August 5, 2025 at 9:25 AM
Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.
War for Ukraine Day 1,258: The Cost and the ReasonPost + Comments (7)
A war is brewing over the future of the Republican Party.
It’s getting messy.— Politico (@politico.com) August 2, 2025 at 11:48 AM
Last weekend, per Politico:
Young Republicans are split over the future of the party, with two warring factions seeking to position themselves as the true MAGA warriors ahead of a weekend vote for control of the party’s youth arm.
On Saturday, young party members will converge in Nashville, where they’ll decide between two slates to lead the Young Republican National Federation: Grow YR, led by current YRNF Chair Hayden Padgett, and the insurgent Restore YR campaign, led by New York State Young Republicans Chair Peter Giunta.
The brawl between the two slates is both personal — including interpersonal clashes and squabbles over hotel loyalty points and committee assignments — and ideological, with both sides looking to prove their loyalty to President Donald Trump and the MAGA movement. But the fight is also a microcosm of a schism ready to burst in the party at large, which is already delicately trying to chart a course for its post-Trump future…
Restore YR, which is seeking to unseat the current leadership in an effort to “restore trust, opportunity, and unity,” has won the endorsements of hardcore MAGA firebrands like Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), longtime Trump ally and convicted felon Roger Stone, Florida GOP Chair Evan Power, and Turning Point Action Chief Operating Officer Tyler Bowyer, who was one of several “fake electors” in Arizona in 2020.
Stone, who served as Young Republican National Federation chair from 1977 to 1979, said he endorsed the Restore YR slate “simply because they are most closely aligned with President Trump and the America First Movement within the Republican Party.”
While YRNF has never been a backbone of the GOP’s fundraising efforts, its 14,000-some foot soldiers have long served a vital role in ground game efforts for Republican campaigns, and the organization has produced some of the party’s most dedicated advocates, with more than a dozen alumni currently serving in Congress.
“The YRs are the boots on the ground,” said California Young Republicans Chair Ariana Assenmacher, who is running for co-chair on the Restore YR slate. “We’re the youth movement of the party, and so for us to be able to go into ’26 with a clear game plan of what congressional and Senate seats we’re going to be focusing on, what statewide races we’re going to be focusing on, we need to make sure that we are giving the president and the administration as much support as possible.”
In June, Giunta — who leads the Restore YR challengers — shared a litany of complaints about Padgett and his board’s leadership with the White House, alleging the incumbent YRNF administration had shown insufficient support for the president and, at times, secretly worked to undermine him…
Repubs in Disarray! Open Thread: The Opposite of SolidarityPost + Comments (79)
(Image of the Mann Gulch Monument)
I am breaking containment to one additional post today. Do not get used to it.
Today is the seventy-sixth anniversary of the Mann Gulch fire and I think it is deserving of a post. The primary source material for this is Norman McLean’s excellent Young Men and Fire. I also ran down some of the after action reports (AARs) that McLean references, as well as some much later reporting regarding maintenance of the monuments
This one is for Raven as he’s the one that got me hooked on this history. It’s all his fault!
(Image of the Mann Gulch Fire sign)
In August 1949 the US Forest Service and its smoke jumpers found themselves completely stretched to the breaking point. And something did actually break. On 5 AUG the remaining 15 available smoke jumpers were mobilized as a result of a wild fire that had resulted from a lightning strike in what is now the Gates of the Mountains. They took the last available C-47 and were led by Wag Dodge. With the exception of the two youngest smoke jumpers, they were all WW II paratrooper vets. One of the smoke jumpers got sick/got the vapors on the flight onto the objective and did not jump. There was also a former smoke jumper, who was now working as a ranger and fire guard because his mother was worried being a smoke jumper was too dangerous, who was already on site working the fire as he’d deployed from his ground station.
This tragedy is an example of small team operations breakdown. At the time of the Mann Gulch fire, smoke jumping teams were not formalized units where every team was made up of a specific set of members. Rather, each team was formed ad hoc with the senior person available on the roster as the foreman and jump master and however many fire fighters were needed simply selected in order on the available list. The available list were the smoke jumpers that had not just come off working a fire and were considered “fresh” and available to work a fire. The team that jumped into Mann Gulch had never worked together as a team, they’d never worked with Dodge, one of the most experienced smoke jumpers in the service at the time. Only two – the two youngest – actually knew each other well as they’d been assigned to do work together around the smoke jumper’s headquarters and camp. In short, there was no team or unit cohesion because the teams were all ad hoc. This is the first critical failure leading to the tragedy.
When they jumped in, their equipment pallet’s parachute didn’t open, it crashed, and the radio, among other things, was destroyed. So they had no way to call for help. This meant that the fire guard had to hike back off the objective to his station to radio in. It also meant there was no way for anyone outside Mann Gulch to reach the team on the ground. After reviewing McLean’s book and the AARs, my professional opinion, with full hindsight as someone who led a small team in OIF 2008, is this was the point where Dodge should have immediately hiked his men out of Mann Gulch. Their comms were down and could not be restored. They were isolated. They already knew there were no other available assets to assist even if they could get a message out. At that point the first priority is to protect your people. This was the second critical failure.
After landing Dodge assessed the fire, decided it was not to serious, but also was bothered by something he couldn’t articulate. He brought his deputy and the fire guard to take a second look, they didn’t see anything out of order, and, as a result, Dodge determined they could fight it. He declared it a 24 hour fire, meaning they’d work it in bits over a 24 hour period, which would qualify them for overtime. Dodge was, by all accounts including that of his widow, an exceedingly self contained and taciturn individual. He didn’t bounce what he found off about the fire off of his deputy or the fire guard, he just compartmentalized it, and moved forward. Dodge deciding to ignore what his experience and expertise were telling him – that something was off with the fire – was the third critical mistake leading to mission failure.
At the same time all of this was happening, the Forestry Service was actually trying to reach Dodge and his team as they were out of contact/couldn’t be raised on the radio. Which was because the radio broke when the parachute for the pallet it was on didn’t open.When they couldn’t be raised, someone hiked in to the fire guard’s station and left a note on his door that he never got because he was in Mann Gulch fighting the fire. The Forest Service then tried to pull in additional resources through memorandums of understanding (MOUs) and memorandums of agreement (MOAs) with other agencies. However, they were rebuffed on the basis that the MOUs and MOAs didn’t allow for ad hoc support. They then started going bar by bar in Helena trying to recruit anyone willing and semi-sober enough to provide support. Eventually they wound up with a group of volunteers, but by then it was too late as they had to be transported by truck and then boat. This was the fourth critical mission failure. Ad hoc agreements and unclear MOUs/MOAs and interagency disputes are not a problem until they are!
As Dodge and his team started working the fire they had their backs to the Missouri River working side hill. The fire eventually blew up/flashed over and got behind them and then roared up slope picking up speed and strength. At this point it was a foot race: “200 yards to safety, death was 50 yards behind.” Dodge, acting on what McLean and the AAR concluded was instinct, lit an escape fire. He ignited a circular patch of the dry cheatgrass and as soon as it burned out, he called to the team to join him in it. They ignored him, either because they couldn’t hear him or thought he was nuts, and kept sprinting for the crest above the gulch. Dodge lied down on the now fuel free, but still hot ground and the fire passed right over him leaving him singed, but otherwise unharmed. The two youngest smoke jumpers made not just the crest, but, according to both McLean’s assessment and the AARs, did so at the only place where they could actually escape over the crest to safety based on the geography. The other thirteen – twelve smoke jumpers and the ranger/fire guard – all perished in the fire. This is the fifth critical mission failure, but it proceeds from the first. Because the team, like all the smoke jumping teams, was put together from the remaining available jumpers, there was no team cohesion. While everyone knew who Dodge was and respected him, they’d never worked with him before. As a result, when he gave the unconventional order to get into the escape fire, there was no trust between team and team leader. His men scattered and all but two died as a result.
I’m not convinced it was instinct to light the escape fire. McLean wrote in Young Men and Fire that lighting escape fires had been a well documented long term practice of the northern plains tribes. I expect that Dodge had read about the practice somewhere, it had stuck with him, and in his desperation he tried the technique. I can’t prove that, but it makes more sense than just re-inventing it on the spot with the adrenaline pumping and his and his team’s lives on the line.
The Forest Service & the smoke jumpers took the painful lessons of everything that could go wrong going wrong at Mann Gulch to heart & made a number of positive changes to prevent such a tragedy from ever happening again. Including how the teams are formed, trained, clarifying MOUs & MOAs with other agencies, etc. There have been other tragedies, other very bad days for the smoke jumpers, but not because of a repeat of what went wrong for the team at Mann Gulch.
There are two interesting epilogues to the tragedy and both involve David Navon.
Professional baseball player, Jack Lucky Lohrke, had been a friend of David Navon, one of the WW II vets and smoke jumpers that died at Mann Gulch. Years after the fire and after he retired, Lohrke took his son hiking there as a sort of memorialization of his dead friend. While there his son was digging around in the dirt around where Navon’s marker was. He found Navon’s rank bars from WW II and Lohrke was able to return them to his parents.
Despite Navon being Jewish, when they put the markers up for each of the fallen smoke jumpers where the AARs indicated they had perished in the fire, they put up crosses for all of them including Navon. Over the years the markers have all been replaced with more durable ones. The Smoke Jumpers actually jump the markers in to replace them. When they had to replace Navon’s they jumped in a star of David marker rather than a cross. There are now twelve crosses and one star of David high above the cold Missouri Waters.
To finish, here’s James Keelaghan, who wrote & originally performed Cold Missouri Waters.
Open thread!
We were talking the other day about governors we like. JB Pritzker impresses me. His actions during Trump 2.0 have been exemplary. He gets the gravity of the situation and is using his power for good.
I really like the role he’s playing in sheltering the Texas Dems who fled their state to break quorum. Noah Berlatsky wrote about it in a piece here called “Pritzker Models Solidarity.” Berlatsky writes about Pritzker treating Texas Dems like the political refugees they are at the moment.
He also writes about how the governor has stepped up to help ordinary folks from red states, welcoming women who need access to reproductive healthcare and trans people who just want to live their lives in peace without persecution.
“There are no red states or blue states, just the United States,” President Barak Obama famously declared. Since Obama, the US has only become more partisan, and the differences between right and left leaning states only seem more stark. At the same time, though, the ongoing fascist crisis, and Trump’s assault on the Constitution, has made the need for solidarity between people of every state more and more important…
Political chaos in Texas can seem like a big old colorful Texas mess… But as Pritzker knows, our neighbor’s mess is our mess too. Texas’ attack on democracy is going to affect the composition of the House, and that affects everyone in the country.
More, what happens in red states matters to us in Illinois because we have friends, family, colleagues, and countrymen and women in red states. Marginalized people in red states—trans people, women, Black people—need our help. And we need theirs too, because people in red states are uniquely positioned to fight against the erosion of all our rights. We’re all one country, which is why it makes sense for Texas legislators to fight for democracy by coming to Illinois.
We live in maddening times, so I can understand the temptation to say to hell with the red states, even though I live in one myself. But we’re in this together, whether we like it or not. Millions of people in red states oppose Trump and fascism, so we’re on the same side. It’s important not to lose sight of that.
Open thread.