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Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

Mediocre white men think RFK Jr’s pathetic midlife crisis is inspirational. The bar is set so low for them, it’s subterranean.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

Not loving this new fraud based economy.

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

This chaos was totally avoidable.

I am pretty sure these ‘journalists’ were not always such a bootlicking sycophants.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

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

Let there be snark.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

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Trumpery

You are here: Home / Archives for Politics / Trumpery

Space Tech Open Thread: No Theft Too Large or Small

by Anne Laurie|  July 15, 202512:50 pm| 69 Comments

This post is in: Grifters Gonna Grift, Open Threads, Republican Venality, Space, Trumpery

Leave it where it is.

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— Clean Observer (@hammbear2024.bsky.social) July 14, 2025 at 1:12 PM

The “Big Beautiful Bill” Is Trying To Steal A Space Shuttle [gift link]

The Space Shuttle drips romance. Representing nearly a half-century of human spaceflight—from its conception in 1968, even before the Moon landing, until its retirement in 2011—its design and even its name capture a hope that space travel would one day be commonplace. That before long, the first step to heading to the Moon or Mars would be as workaday as boarding a shuttle for a quick jaunt to low Earth orbit. It proved a beautiful, flawed achievement: Two traumatic catastrophes showed early safety analyses were overgenerous, but the Shuttle did provide the freight and manpower for the first tentative steps toward a permanent spacefaring presence, and all the science that came with it. The craft themselves are retrofuturist works of art: gleaming white above, reverse countershaded beneath, all swooping curves and aerodynamic lines. A stately relic of space-age optimism.

It’s no wonder, upon the program’s retirement, that everyone wanted a Shuttle. Twenty-one museums and institutions vied for the right to house one of the four surviving craft. NASA made its selections based on applicants’ historical significance and plans to preserve and display the Shuttles, and in 2011 the winners were announced. The Intrepid Museum in New York received Enterprise; Kennedy Space Center in Florida got Atlantis; the California Science Center obtained Endeavour; and the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, an annex of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Fairfax County, Va., received Discovery.

Many of the cities not selected cried foul, none louder than Houston, home of the Johnson Space Center, which has been “Mission Control” for every single NASA human spaceflight since the Gemini Program. They surely had a beef—I remember being shocked and feeling like New York had somehow gotten away with something when it was picked over Houston—but their efforts to be selected were reportedly kind of half-assed. Still, Texas has never forgotten the snub, and bided its time until the political power to redress it landed in the hands of someone venal and petty enough to exercise it.

Someone like Donald Trump. The “One Big Beautiful Bill,” signed into law on July 4, addresses the old grudge deep, deep within its 900-odd pages. The bill authorizes $85 million to be spent on moving Discovery from Virginia to Texas. It is pork barrel legislation adopted directly from and functionally enacting the “Bring the Space Shuttle Home Act” introduced earlier this year by Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz.

Rather than settling the vehicle’s fate, however, this is just kicking off a nasty battle between the states, and between the Smithsonian and the federal government. The relocation is far from assured, for a number of reasons…

Space Tech Open Thread: No Theft Too Large or SmallPost + Comments (69)

Open Thread: How Has Trump Failed Us, Today?

by Anne Laurie|  July 15, 202511:00 am| 204 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Republican Politics, Trump Crime Cartel, Trumpery

Inflation rose last month to its highest level since February as Trump's tariffs are pushing up the cost of a range of goods.

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— The Associated Press (@apnews.com) July 15, 2025 at 9:15 AM

But mah ‘sponsive EGGS!… Per the AP, “The tariff-driven inflation that economists feared begins to emerge”:

…Consumer prices rose 2.7% in June from a year earlier, the Labor Department said Tuesday, up from an annual increase of 2.4% in May. On a monthly basis, prices climbed 0.3% from May to June, after rising just 0.1% the previous month.

Worsening inflation poses a political challenge for Trump, who promised during last year’s presidential campaign to immediately lower costs only to engage in a whipsawed frenzy of tariffs that have left businesses and consumers worried. Trump has already declared that the U.S. effectively has no more inflation as he has attempted to pressure Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell into cutting short-term interest rates…

Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core inflation increased 2.9% in June from a year earlier, up from 2.8% in May. On a monthly basis, it picked up 0.2% from May to June. Economists closely watch core prices because they typically provide a better sense of where inflation is headed…

For Democratic lawmakers, the inflation report confirmed their warnings over the past several months that Trump’s tariffs would push up inflation. Their argument on Tuesday was that the situation will likely get even more painful given the size of the tariff rates in the letters that Trump posted over the past week.

“For those saying we have not seen the impact of Trump’s tariff wars, look at today’s data. Americans continue to struggle with the costs of groceries and rent — and now prices of food and appliances are rising,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. “Families were already getting crushed, and the president’s making it worse.” …

Elsewhere on the Trump Smorgasbord of Suxx…

The Appalachian region in Ohio and elsewhere is bracing for a big hit as President Donald Trump proposed a 93% cut to funding for the Appalachian Regional Commission. ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/07/15/t…

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— David DeWitt (@daviddewitt.bsky.social) July 15, 2025 at 8:03 AM

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BREAKING: Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang says the technology giant has won approval from the Trump administration to sell its advanced H20 artificial intelligence computer chips to China. The White House announced in April that it would restrict sales of Nvidia’s H20 chips and AMD’s MI308 chips to China.

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— The Associated Press (@apnews.com) July 14, 2025 at 11:57 PM

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The Supreme Court just ruled that Trump can dismantle the Department of Education
Justice Sotomayor:
“That decision is indefensible..The majority is either willfully blind to the implications of its ruling or naive, but either way the threat to our Constitution’s separation of powers is grave”

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— Adam Cohen (My Personal Views Only) (@axidentaliberal.bsky.social) July 14, 2025 at 8:42 PM

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"Five months into its unprecedented dismantling of foreign-aid programs, the Trump administration has given the order to incinerate food instead of sending it to people who need it"
@hana-kiros.bsky.social, on spending $130,000 to burn food worth $800,000
www.theatlantic.com/health/archi…

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— Anne Applebaum (@anneapplebaum.bsky.social) July 15, 2025 at 1:31 AM

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Sad trombone coda:

WATCH: House Republicans block a vote to release the Epstein files

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— The Tennessee Holler (@thetnholler.bsky.social) July 14, 2025 at 11:06 PM

Open Thread: How Has Trump Failed Us, Today?Post + Comments (204)

Dinging Dear Leader Open Thread: Sportsball Diversion / Division

by Anne Laurie|  July 14, 20251:27 pm| 81 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Sports, Trumpery

Cole Palmer was surprised to find U.S. President Donald Trump on the stand as Chelsea received the Club World Cup trophy after a 3-0 win over Paris Saint-Germain.

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— The Associated Press (@apnews.com) July 14, 2025 at 9:00 AM

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) — Cole Palmer was jumping up and down behind Reece James as the Chelsea captain received the trophy for the Club World Cup, U.S. President Donald Trump to his left, standing between the midfielder and goalkeeper Robert Sánchez.

“I knew he was going to be here, but I didn’t know he was going to be on the stand when we lifted the trophy, so I was a bit confused,” Palmer said.

Palmer received the Golden Ball as top player of the tournament after scoring the first two goals in Chelsea’s 3-0 smothering of Paris Saint-Germain on Sunday night. Trump — wearing a bright red tie — appeared to leave the award stand with a medal of his own, handed to him by FIFA President Gianni Infantino right after the medallion presented to James…

Apparently Trump brought his current emotional support team…

… Other guests spotted in the president’s suite included Attorney General Pam Bondi, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, NFL great Tom Brady and media mogul Rupert Murdoch…

Sporting events have made up the bulk of Trump’s trips in the U.S. since taking office this year. In addition to his visit this weekend to the soccer tournament, he’s attended the Super Bowl in New Orleans, the Daytona 500 in Florida, UFC fights in Miami and Newark, New Jersey, and the NCAA wrestling championships in Philadelphia.

 
Matt Viser, at the Washington Post, is a born coat-holder, so consider this another sign that Trump is no longer considered untouchable — “Trump gets mixed reception at soccer final, a test run for the World Cup“:

… Sunday’s FIFA Club World Cup final at MetLife Stadium featured Chelsea FC defeating Paris Saint-Germain 3-0, culminating weeks of competition in U.S. stadiums. It was something of a test run for the World Cup, which will include many of the same top names in the sport playing on behalf of their national teams.

That’s why many world leaders and sports fans have been scrutinizing the club games for on- and off-field clues about America’s ability to host. The skepticism is driven by concerns over whether a president who has taken actions to close America’s borders and imposed wholesale bans on residents from some countries can host a quadrennial celebration of global camaraderie and athleticism.

In one indication of the mixed relationship the “America First” president has with the global game, some on Sunday cheered his attendance, chanted “USA! USA!” and turned to take photos. But when he appeared on the jumbo screen during the national anthem, boos rose up before the camera quickly turned elsewhere.

As Trump took the field with FIFA president Gianni Infantino after the match for the medal ceremony the crowd loudly booed Trump again as he pumped his fists and took the stage. Chelsea players gave one another confused looks as Trump continued to linger while they raised the trophy in celebration…

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In recent weeks, complaints have already been raised about quality of the grass on the fields, the heat for midday matches, and partially filled stadiums.

The World Cup is likely to bring a host of other organizational and political challenges, especially amid the Trump administration’s harsh crackdown on immigration.

Will international fans and players be welcomed to stadiums in American cities that Trump has threatened over their more open immigration policies — and will the president be welcomed at an opening match played in Los Angeles, where he recently deployed National Guard troops?

What happens to the Iranian national team, which has already qualified for the World Cup, and the traveling fans who want to cheer their home country team but are banned from entering the United States? Other countries whose citizens Trump could ban — such as Ghana, Cabo Verde, and Egypt — might also qualify to be among the 48 nations competing…

Trump, more than many presidents, has embraced sports as a cultural touchstone and a way to expand his reach. He has attended the Daytona 500 and wants to host a UFC match at the White House. He pushed Major League Baseball to reinstate Pete Rose, bashed NFL players for protesting racial inequality during his first term, and this year became the first sitting president to attend a Super Bowl.

He has been less connected with soccer — although golf caddies reportedly nicknamed him Pelé after seeing him frequently kick his ball onto the fairway — but has taken pride in hosting the World Cup. The event will come next summer as America celebrates the 250th anniversary of its founding, an event that Trump has also been heavily involved in planning, and two years before Los Angeles hosts the Olympics.

Trump in March appointed Andrew Giuliani, son of close Trump ally Rudy Giuliani, as executive director of a World Cup task force he created to oversee planning and coordinating. Trump’s signature legislation — the One Big Beautiful Bill — included $625 million for security and other costs related to the World Cup, and some of his immigration policies have included carve-outs for soccer players and coaches, even as people from their country could be barred from attending…

Giuliani said immigration officials would not target stadiums where matches were being played.

“We’ve had 62 games at this point and that has not been an issue at all,” he said. “That was a narrative at the very beginning of this tournament that has been proven that this is not something we’re targeting here.”…

The order provides exemptions specifically for players and coaches in the World Cup, as well as support staff and immediate family members. But it doesn’t include fans. Human rights groups have also warned that fans from countries that are not officially banned from visiting might think twice, given Trump’s border policies.

Giuliani said that the U.S. is still working with FIFA and awaiting the results of qualification matches to figure out which countries will be competing, and how to handle administration policies with countries such as Iran.

“This is a dynamic situation right now,” Giuliani said. “This will have to be a conversation between some of the task force members and probably even the president himself in terms of what this looks like moving forward.”

Trump booed during the national anthem at the FIFA World Cup Final📍 MetLife Stadium, New Jersey

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— Bill Caine (@allchronology.com) July 14, 2025 at 5:35 AM


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The chance to make Donald Trump hear your jeers is the only reason some might risk coming to America to see the World Cup.

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— LOLGOP (@thefarce.org) July 13, 2025 at 10:31 PM

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Chelsea cropped him out lolol

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— J.A.Walker (@jawalker.bsky.social) July 14, 2025 at 10:35 AM

Dinging Dear Leader Open Thread: Sportsball Diversion / DivisionPost + Comments (81)

Late Night Open Thread: Buyer’s Remorse

by Anne Laurie|  July 13, 202510:48 pm| 108 Comments

This post is in: Grifters Gonna Grift, Open Threads, Republicans in Disarray!, Trumpery

america as a country may now simply be too stupid for democracy https://t.co/MNPCTOeKjF

— Fordow Focused (@canderaid) July 12, 2025


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as this gets worse you're going to see endless efforts at reputational retcon by people who knew EXACTLY what they signed up for
and by people who were too ignorant or dis/misinformed to understand what they were signing up for, but lack the humility to own that

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— Karl Bode (@karlbode.com) July 11, 2025 at 11:09 AM

Of course the PodBros are lying — they encouraged their listeners to vote for Trump because another Trump administration would be entertaining, and besides, at least he wasn’t a Black female Democrat. But the Epstein files botchery is giving them an excuse to pretend they were somehow mislead by yet another dishonest pol. Per the Daily Beast:

Podcaster Andrew Schulz gave Donald Trump street cred in the world of chronically online young men, but he’s been having second thoughts.

On a Thursday episode of his Flagrant podcast, the comedian torched the president for “doing the exact opposite” of his campaign promises.

“There’ll be people that they’ll DM me like, ‘You see what your boy’s doing? You voted for this.’ I’m like, ‘I voted for none of this,’” he said. “He’s doing the exact opposite of everything I voted for. I want him to stop the wars—he’s funding them. I want him to shrink spending, reduce the budget—he’s increasing it.”

Schulz voted for Trump last year even after laughing in his face during a 90-minute podcast that has racked up nearly 10 million views. Schulz erupted in a fit of giggles after the then-Republican candidate called himself “basically a truthful person.”…

The podcaster, who commands an audience composed chiefly of young men, predicted that Trump would win by a landslide after their interview. He was gleeful after a listener declared that “Flagrant is gonna get Trump elected.”

But the recent controversies that have roiled the administration, from its aggressive deportation blitz to the Medicaid cuts in Trump’s megabill, have forced Schulz to rethink his support.

“I already expect politicians to not do most of the s-–t they say,” he said. “I don’t want to be too cynical, but now I’m getting to the point where it’s like, ‘Can they do anything?’”…

Actions have consequences? What hellworld is this?

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I'm all for people admitting error and apologizing for their poor choices, but much like journalists who kissed Elon Musk's ass for 15 years that's not what you're going to get.
A lot of these guys are going to claim Trump suddenly and mysteriously changed, dodging any personal responsibility

— Karl Bode (@karlbode.com) July 11, 2025 at 11:11 AM

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maga: “I am not to blame, this seemed vague!”

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— This Machine Kills Malarkey (@lavendesic.bsky.social) July 11, 2025 at 2:48 PM

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So hard to predict that Trump would be a bad president based on nothing more than his entire life and also that time he was already president for four years and it went horribly and ended in a recession and a pandemic where a million Americans died.

— Benjamin Johns (@baj.bsky.social) July 11, 2025 at 11:26 AM

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These manosphere douche saddles are a bunch of poorly educated, failed stand-ups who stand for nothing and fell ass backwards into a way to make a buck. You have to be a world class dipshit to let them inform your politics in the first place.

— Nicky Six Names (he/him) (@sicksnames.bsky.social) July 11, 2025 at 11:34 AM

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But it does (Murphy the Trickster God willing) seem that a lot of non-MAGA cultists are using Trump’s sweaty disavowals as an excuse to sidle towards the exits… and the True Believers are no longer buying ‘Who are you gonna believe, me or your lying eyes?’.

Dry-eyed summary from the Atlantic — “Conspiracy Theorists Are Turning on the President” [gift link].

This is, after all, deeply suspicious behavior!…

a deranged Trump claims Obama and Hillary wrote the Epstein files and urges people to not care about them 🥴

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) July 12, 2025 at 5:26 PM

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An unusual sight: President Trump is getting ratio’d on Truth Social for asking his followers to move on from the Epstein files. Some say he’s “gaslighting,” others say it will cost him supporters or even “kill MAGA.” A sampling of some replies getting heavy engagement.

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— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur.bsky.social) July 12, 2025 at 10:05 PM

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Sad update: it appears that the crazy people I've spent years training to be rabid animals have, for reasons too complicated to explain right now, completely turned against me

— Matt Jordan (@itsmattjordan.com) July 12, 2025 at 10:33 PM

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Just checked the bad place and can confirm they’re losing their fucking minds

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— Laura Bassett (@lebassett.bsky.social) July 12, 2025 at 7:06 PM

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Trump (sobbing): I never thought leopards would eat MY face.

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— Aditya Sood (@adityasood.bsky.social) July 12, 2025 at 7:54 PM


 
Will this stay ‘news’ by tomorrow? Who knows — but any wounds we can help inflict are useful…

one read I think is right: an essential element of MAGA backlash over Epstein stuff is that Trump is fucking with MAGA grifter money

— post malone ergo propter malone (@proptermalone.bsky.social) July 13, 2025 at 10:27 AM


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btw these people are psychotic and have firearms

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— post malone ergo propter malone (@proptermalone.bsky.social) July 12, 2025 at 7:49 PM

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The combination of anecdotal evidence I've seen is a bunch of journalists saying "Huh, seeing people talk about this who never talk about politics."

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— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) July 13, 2025 at 8:25 PM

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as cliche as it sounds, my wife and i were out for breakfast yesterday and heard a boomer couple in the booth behind us talking about Trump/Epstein
ofc we live in a D+30 county but it was still a Midwestern Diner so hoping the NYT drop by for a profile at some point

— Bucky Workclothes (@buckybandido.bsky.social) July 13, 2025 at 8:29 PM

Late Night Open Thread: Buyer’s RemorsePost + Comments (108)

Government-Sanctioned Manslaughter by the Trump Crime Cartel

by Anne Laurie|  July 13, 20251:23 pm| 110 Comments

This post is in: Immigration, Republican Venality, Trump Crime Cartel

"What would Germany look like without Jews?"

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— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec.bsky.social) July 11, 2025 at 3:33 PM


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BREAKING: A farmworker at a Southern California cannabis farm has died, the United Farm Workers says, a day after being injured during an immigration raid by federal officers.

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— NBC News (@nbcnews.com) July 11, 2025 at 5:36 PM

Per the NYTimes:

… The farmworker, Jaime Alanís, fell several stories to the ground from a greenhouse on Thursday, when federal agents raided a state-licensed cannabis farm in the agricultural region of Ventura County, Calif.

Mr. Alanis‘s condition had been the subject of confusion among officials, relatives and the media. On Friday, leaders with the United Farm Workers union said that Mr. Alanís had died on that day, and The New York Times and other media outlets reported that…

On Saturday evening, a lawyer retained by the family through the Mexican consulate said in a text message that Mr. Alanis had died on Saturday afternoon. The lawyer, Jesus Arias, added that the family decided to “disconnect” after tests for brain function yielded “no good results.” Mr. Arias said arrangements were being made to transfer Mr. Alanis’s body to his family in the Mexican state of Michoacán.

Elizabeth Strater, vice president for the United Farm Workers union, said in an interview on Friday that during the chaos of the raid, Mr. Alanís “fell 30 feet or more, and experienced devastating spinal and skull injuries.”

An official who was briefed on the situation said Mr. Alanís was from Michoacán, had been working at the farm for more than a decade and had been trying to flee from agents when he fell. He is in his late 50s.

Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said on Friday that Mr. Alanís had not been in federal custody and denied that the agents involved in the raid were the reason he climbed the greenhouse. “Although he was not being pursued by law enforcement, this individual climbed up to the roof of a greenhouse and fell 30 feet,” she said in a statement. Agents called for help, she added, “to get him care as quickly as possible.”

In a statement, Teresa Romero, president of the U.F.W., said that several farmworkers had been critically injured in the enforcement actions, and that others, including U.S. citizens, remained unaccounted for. She said those citizens who were detained “were forced to delete photos and videos of the raid from their phones” before being released…

Sounds like ICE killed a guy and then held american citizens hostage at gunpoint until they agreed to destroy the evidence

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— Hemry, Local Bartender (@bartenderhemry.bsky.social) July 11, 2025 at 6:03 PM

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The UFW can confirm farm workers were critically injured yesterday during chaotic raids in Ventura County, CA. Other workers, including US citizens, remain unaccounted for.
UFW staff is on the ground supporting impacted families.
Our full statement below. ⬇️

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1/

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— United Farm Workers (@ufw.bsky.social) July 11, 2025 at 2:41 PM

The UFW can confirm farm workers were critically injured yesterday during chaotic raids in Ventura County, California. Others, including US citizens remain totally unaccounted for. 3/

Our staff is on the ground supporting families. Many workers-including US citizens, were held by federal authorities at the farm for 8 hours or more. US citizen workers report only being released after they were forced to delete photos and videos of the raid from their phones. 4/

The UFW is also aware of reports of child labor on site. The UFW demands the immediate facilitation of independent legal representation for the minor workers, to protect them from further harm. Farm workers are excluded from basic child labor laws. 5/

It is unfortunately not uncommon for teenagers to work in the fields. To be clear: detaining and deporting children is not a solution for child labor. 6/

These violent and cruel federal actions terrorize American communities, disrupt the American food supply chain, threaten lives and separate families. 7/

There is no city, state or federal district where it is legal to terrorize and detain people for being brown and working in agriculture. These raids must stop immediately.
8/

Government-Sanctioned Manslaughter

I sat in the courtroom for this hearing on Thursday and listened to the federal government bend over backwards to try and justify their roving patrols as not at all racist and unconstitutional
They failed spectacularly. Miller’s rhetoric is predictable &dangerous, but also the gov is full of idiots

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— Mel Buer (@melbuer.bsky.social) July 12, 2025 at 2:52 PM

I don’t know what gods, if any, Stephen Miller follows. But it has been my lived experience, since I was a tiny child, that Sekhmet, Goddess of Consequences, will not be outrun.

Well you may throw your rock and hide your hand
Workin’ in the dark against your fellow man
But as sure as God made black and white
What’s done in the dark will be brought to the light

Government-Sanctioned Manslaughter by the Trump Crime CartelPost + Comments (110)

Late Night Open Thread: America’s Fascists Love Alligators

by Anne Laurie|  July 12, 202511:42 pm| 136 Comments

This post is in: KULCHA!, Open Threads, Republican Venality, Trumpery

"American fascism writ large yearns for ethnic cleansing and the concentration camp; in the south, American white supremacy yearns for the Alligator." defector.com/why-do-fasci…

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— Defector (@defector.com) July 10, 2025 at 7:36 PM

In June, Florida’s attorney general James Uthmeier extolled the benefits of the concentration camp they were rushing to build in the wetlands of the Big Cypress Nature Reserve, west of Miami and just north of the Everglades. The swamp location wasn’t incidental to the 5,000-bed facility, but a plus. “It presents an efficient, low-cost opportunity to build a temporary detention facility because you don’t need to invest that much in the perimeter,” he crowed. “If people get out, there’s not much waiting for them other than alligators and pythons.”

What happened next was, perhaps, predictable. The Department of Homeland Security formally named the camp “Alligator Alcatraz,” a sweaty piece of branding that the rest of the administration picked up with customary glee. DHS social media posted AI-generated images of smug-looking alligators wearing ICE baseball caps. Online stores run by the Florida GOP (and Uthmeier himself) immediately began selling “Alligator Alcatraz”-branded T-shirts and beer koozies. During Trump’s first term, the New York Times reported, the president had often fantasized behind closed doors of a moat beneath his border wall, one that could be filled with snakes and alligators; when he toured the installation on July 1, he leaned and swayed and grinned at the sight of chain link cages under tent awnings, and returned again and again to the reptiles in the surrounding swamps. “We’re going to teach them how to run away from an alligator,” he rambled in response to a reporter’s question. “OK, if they escape prison, how to run away, don’t run in a straight line, run like this. And you know what? Your chances go up at about one percent, okay? That’s a good thing.”

It is, as with so much in the second Trump administration, an act of performative cruelty and malice and money-grubbing dressed up—not especially convincingly—as expediency. But like so much marsh gas, the lurid fantasies which drive these people are continually bubbling up to the surface. American fascism writ large yearns for ethnic cleansing and the concentration camp; in the south, American white supremacy yearns for the Alligator.

Let’s begin with the fact that there are two types of alligators, and they have very little do with one another. There’s the real American alligator (A. mississippiensis), a large but—as crocodilians go—rather docile and shy predator of the southern wetlands, subsisting on everything from fish to deer. Forget that one, please. We are concerned here with the symbolic one: the Alligator, Scourge of the Swamp, the monster that dwells in the mire of the American imagination. This latter form “is most fond of human flesh as an item of diet,” according to a characteristically breathless 1923 report in the Oakland Tribune. “Hunters say that while an alligator will risk its safety for a young dog, it will jeopardize every hope of life for a live baby. And in the matter of color … black babies, in the estimation of the alligators, are far more refreshing, as it were, than white ones.”…

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Whether or not this ever happened is a subject of some debate. The Jim Crow Museum maintains that it did, if rarely; Snopes, kicking the tires on the more prominent stories, suggests it probably didn’t. Certainly it was something later Southern writers were eager to laugh off. In 1968, baseball pitcher Bob Gibson recalled being heckled with “gator bait” stories during his time in Columbus, Georgia. Clearly stung—and thumbing his suspenders with every word—the sports editor of Columbus’ newspaper fired back, wondering how Gibson could be “naive enough to fall for such a fantastic tale,” one that had to be “tongue-in-cheek.”

Gibson, of course, wasn’t falling for anything. That this bit of racist invective was not a literal threat does not mean that it wasn’t a serious one: It’s hard to laugh off a joke when the punchline is your disposability. And as folklorist Patricia Turner writes in her 2002 book Ceramic Uncles and Celluloid Mammies, it was a joke that white Southerners simply delighted in making. Among several too flatly racist to repeat, Turner records one where Lyndon Baines Johnson’s helicopter stops over in Louisiana to award a medal for integration to two white men pulling a black man on water skis through a swamp. After LBJ leaves, the two white men glance at each other, baffled. “Who in the shit was that?” “I don’t know, but he doesn’t know a goddamn thing about catching alligators.” …

I piously hope the Goddess of Consequences will let me live to see this day…

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— JoeMyGod (@joemygod.bsky.social) July 11, 2025 at 6:22 PM

Late Night Open Thread: America’s Fascists Love AlligatorsPost + Comments (136)

Saturday Morning Klown Show Open Thread: GOP Falling Into the Pit They Have Dug

by Anne Laurie|  July 12, 20255:24 am| 134 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Republicans in Disarray!, Trump Crime Cartel, Lock Him Up...Lock Them All Up

lol

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— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) July 11, 2025 at 3:03 PM

Rolling Stone is on it — “The DOJ’s Epstein Memo Is Tearing the Trump Administration Apart”;

… The Department of Justice announced in a memo on Sunday that Jeffrey Epstein had indeed killed himself, that his potentially explosive “client list” doesn’t exist, and that the administration is effectively closing its case on the convicted sex offender, whose 2019 death in prison has been a lightning rod for conspiracy theorists — especially those who supported Trump, never mind the president’s own connections to Epstein.

Rolling Stone reported that the Trump administration was bracing for a MAGA revolt over its nothing to see here-style memo. MAGA revolted as expected, with scores of prominent right-wing influencers expressing outrage over the memo. Many are calling for Attorney General Pam Bondi to be fired, and some even seem to be souring on the president. “Trump has become the Deep State. What is more Deep State than covering up for pedophiles?” someone asked former Trump adviser Steve Bannon at a MAGA event on Friday.

It isn’t just outside onlookers and online MAGA diehards who are miffed. Rolling Stone can confirm that FBI Director Kash Patel and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino have also been furious since the memo’s release, and more broadly over Bondi’s handling of the Epstein investigation, including the public rollout of federal conclusions.

Laura Loomer — a far-right conspiracy theorist who is close with Trump and was also apoplectic over the memo — posted to X on Friday that Patel and Bongino are “LIVID” at Bondi, and that Bongino even took the day off from work on Friday. Axios corroborated soon after that Bongino ditched work on Friday after clashing with Bondi over these matters, with CNN adding that Bongino has talked to people about potentially resigning over the memo…

Trump promised before the election that his administration would release the so-called Epstein Files, which MAGA conspiracy theories long hoped would reveal a host of powerful figures who were in league with Epstein. After Bondi said Epstein’s client list was on her desk in February, she arranged a stunt in which she handed out folders consisting of “Phase 1” of the Epstein Files to prominent right-wing influencers.

Many of these influencers now feel betrayed by the DOJ’s memo, which noted that after an “exhaustive” investigation, the administration found “no incriminating ‘client list,’” nor any “credible evidence … that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions.” The DOJ also released a video of Epstein’s cell the night he died. The video skips a minute before midnight, however, which led to more speculation about a potential cover-up…

Trump, once a friend of Epstein’s, lashed out at a reporter who asked Bondi about the missing minute during a Cabinet meeting earlier this week, questioning why anyone was still bringing up Epstein, and calling it a “desecration.” Bondi attributed the missing minute in the footage to an old system that cuts out a minute when the video is reset every night, which hardly tamped down the uproar over the memo and video.

Elon Musk, a former Trump ally and megadonor who headed his so-called Department of Government Efficiency, has added fuel to the fire as his relationship with the president has deteriorated. He wrote last month that the “real reason” the Epstein Files had not been made public is because Trump “is in” them. Musk then wondered after the memo’s release on Sunday, “How can people be expected to have faith in Trump if he won’t release the Epstein files?”

Unsympathetic observers have snarked that Bongino is finding his ‘FBI deputy director’ job harder and less personally rewarding than his old gig as a prominent right-wing podcaster, especially since Attorney General Pam Bondi has been suspiciously unsympathetic recently to Bongino’s most loyal QAnon-curious audience.

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And now Jamie Raskin is stirring the pot…

Top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee (which oversees DOJ) says "I'm going to be asking Chairman Jordan to call for a hearing where we subpoena the Attorney General and Dan Bongino and Kash Patel to come in and tell us everything that we know" about the Jeffrey Epstein files

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— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein.bsky.social) July 11, 2025 at 9:49 PM

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yeah this feels different. They're getting hammered by their own base and its ripping the leadership of the administration apart.
Trump being totally checked out probably means this just rages for awhile, and who knows what happens with that being the case.

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— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) July 11, 2025 at 3:15 PM

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@schnorkles.bsky.social yesyesyesyesyes he's not gonna go quietly fuck yeah fuck yeah fuck yeah fuck yeah

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— SpiderHyphenMan (@spiderhyphenman.bsky.social) July 11, 2025 at 6:45 PM

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Laura Loomer is currently referring to Attorney General Pam Bondi as “Scam Blondie”

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yasharali.bsky.social) July 11, 2025 at 4:09 PM

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White House backs Bondi

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— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yasharali.bsky.social) July 11, 2025 at 5:55 PM

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If you think Trump is going side with Bongino to fire Pamela Jo Bondi, who got her job by protecting Trump from a Florida investigation of Trump University's consumer fraud (after a $25,000 bribe), for protecting him again by withholding the Epstein list with his name on it, bless your little heart.

— Mrs. Betty Bowers (@mrsbettybowers.bsky.social) July 11, 2025 at 9:24 PM

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crank schism. Crank schism! CRANK SCHISM!

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— The Wrong Way Kid (@the-wrong-way-kid.bsky.social) July 11, 2025 at 5:52 PM

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after bellowing about epstein for years they’ve all backed themselves into a corner and i love that for them

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— shauna (@goldengateblond.bsky.social) July 11, 2025 at 5:38 PM

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Mob boss Donald Trump resorts to the crime of extortion in hopes of keeping some of his other crimes hidden from the public. This is evidence known as #ConsciousnessOfGuilt in criminal cases.

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— Mrs. Betty Bowers (@mrsbettybowers.bsky.social) July 11, 2025 at 7:21 PM

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Like this was always how this ship of incompetence was going to go. The glue kind of keeps everything together while there aren't active catastrophic situations, but the second that happens, you have a federal government completely unable to respond because of Elon and Vought.

— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) July 11, 2025 at 5:28 PM

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Bondi, Patel, Bongino…I wonder which one Putin will fire.

— Dana Houle (@danahoule.bsky.social) July 11, 2025 at 6:10 PM

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Watching different MAGA factions rip each other apart over Epstein because the truth is completely incidental to their various agendas is quite a sight to behold.

— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec.bsky.social) July 11, 2025 at 7:41 PM

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Amidst all the tragedy, stupidity, and horror of the Trump admin, it is good to finally have something incredibly stupid to lol about.

— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) July 11, 2025 at 6:07 PM

Saturday Morning Klown Show Open Thread: GOP Falling Into the Pit They Have DugPost + Comments (134)

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