Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

We will not go back.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

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

I really should read my own blog.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

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

Republicans do not trust women.

Giving in to doom is how we fail to fight for ourselves & one another.

Consistently wrong since 2002

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

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

I don’t recall signing up for living in a dystopian sci-fi novel.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

Fucking consultants! (of the political variety)

Decision time: keep arguing about the last election, or try to win the next one?

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Religion

Sunday Morning Open Thread

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call me a liberal nationalist but I feel proud to export an American culture of space exploration, multicultural immigrant cuisine, the Black American music tradition, football basketball baseball, NY Jewish comedy, land grant universities, and social libertarianism

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— Jake Grumbach (@jakemgrumbach.bsky.social) April 11, 2026 at 3:37 PM

"How many divisions does the Pope have?"
www.politico.com/news/2026/04…

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— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec.bsky.social) April 12, 2026 at 12:57 AM

Pope Leo XIV offered his strongest condemnation yet of the war in Iran, appearing to take multiple veiled shots at President Trump.

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— CBS News (@cbsnews.com) April 11, 2026 at 3:25 PM

having a pope who understands those american falsehoods we tell ourselves on a fundamental level is an incredible weapon against our deeply violent, expansionist multi generational psychopathy, as it turns out

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— Rude Law Dog (@esghound.com) April 10, 2026 at 7:36 PM

In the running for greatest giveaway of all time

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) April 11, 2026 at 8:16 PM

> @nytimes.com

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— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla.bsky.social) April 12, 2026 at 8:19 AM

Here he is tonight. Working hard to end his War in Iran and make life more affordable for Americans like he promised.

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— Ron Filipkowski (@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social) April 11, 2026 at 9:37 PM

Sunday Morning Open ThreadPost + Comments (144)

Saturday Morning Open Thread

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While Artemis II astronauts make their way around the moon and back, take a look at some Apollo items that have touched the lunar surface.
#NASA #space #Apollo

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— The Associated Press (@apnews.com) April 3, 2026 at 1:26 PM

Republicans control the House, the Senate, and the White House. Mike Johnson sets the schedule. He chose to leave Washington without a vote on the Senate compromise to pay the TSA, FEMA, and the Coast Guard.
He should do his damn job, call us back to Washington, and reopen the government now.

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— Rep. Jim McGovern (@repmcgovern.bsky.social) April 3, 2026 at 3:08 PM

Pope Leo's Good Friday service offers prayer for deported children reut.rs/47Hznc1

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— Reuters (@reuters.com) April 3, 2026 at 4:15 PM

This might be the largest party lead I've ever seen among the double haters
www.cnn.com/2026/04/03/p…

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— G Elliott Morris (@gelliottmorris.com) April 3, 2026 at 10:18 AM

Winning double haters by 10% is usually enough to swing most elections. Winning them by 30% and things are going to get wild.

— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) April 3, 2026 at 11:07 AM

The political calculations that result in cutting NASA funding the day after the Artemis II launch must be fascinating

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— Tina Smith (@smith.senate.gov) April 3, 2026 at 6:10 PM

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Saturday Morning Open ThreadPost + Comments (175)

Open Thread: RETVRN (to the Religious Wars)

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Eh, I grew up Catholic, it's not like we make a fuss about Good Friday or anything, I'm sure no one will be upset.

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— Kevin M. Kruse (@kevinmkruse.bsky.social) April 3, 2026 at 1:46 PM

I’m sure things have changed a bit over the last 50 years, but when I was growing up In The Church, we not only had mandatory Good Friday mass, it was a special extra-long ceremony where the presiding priest marched all around the chapel, trailed by altar boys, marking all 14 Stations of the Cross with a (mumbled) recitation of horrors…

To all the people and AI bots online insisting that no Catholic church holds Mass on #GoodFriday, I give you the literal Pope officiating at Mass on Good Friday.
I also suggest people engage their brains before they speak/post, but yeah, I know, good luck with that. www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuNM…

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— Kat4Obama (@kat4obama.bsky.social) April 3, 2026 at 3:12 PM

Turns out these guys really do respect some traditions of Western Civilization! Sure, they hate art, culture, self-reflection, civic responsibility, and democracy, but they're game for some good old Catholic/Protestant conflict.

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— Max Kennerly (@maxkennerly.bsky.social) April 3, 2026 at 3:07 PM

Catholic converts from evangelical Christianity born after 1980 have their own self-contained culture and aesthetic that basically looks like “Lord of the Ring” to cradle Catholics and associated ethnic whites.

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— Sarah Archer (@sarcher.bsky.social) April 3, 2026 at 2:04 PM

The big MAGA Catholics are increasingly anti-Vatican, I wouldn’t be surprised if Vance etc spin off their own thing with the MAGA evangelicals.

Not a single one of these smartphone catholics is even remotely catholic and I’ve been going insane pointing it out for over a decade. They are just mean snobby big city evangelicals who think megachurches are for hicks

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— Patrick Cosmos (@veryimportant.lawyer) April 3, 2026 at 2:21 PM

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Open Thread: RETVRN (to the Religious Wars)Post + Comments (192)

Sunday Morning Open Thread

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thinking about the medieval cat door in Exeter cathedral again

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— weird medieval guys (@weirdmedieval.bsky.social) March 16, 2026 at 3:58 PM

In the Kurdish regions of the Middle East, Nowruz celebrations — honoring the arrival of spring — are a fundamental expression of Kurdish identity. n.pr/4skpvgo

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— NPR (@npr.org) March 21, 2026 at 4:06 PM

AKRE, Kurdistan Region of Iraq — For many people, the vernal equinox — which marked the beginning of spring Friday — is just another date on the calendar. But in Iran, it’s celebrated as the Persian new year, known as Nowruz. In the Kurdish regions of the Middle East, Nowruz celebrations are a fundamental expression of Kurdish identity.

Today there are more than 30 million Kurds in a contiguous area in Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey divided by external borders and historic internal differences. The ancient town of Akre, nestled against craggy mountains in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, has been the focal point for Nowruz celebrations for decades…

Here, Kurds gather to light flaming torches at sunset, carrying them up the mountainside to symbolize the victory of light over darkness. The women wear flowing, sparkly Kurdish dresses that look as if they came out of a medieval painting. Many of the men are dressed in traditional baggy trousers with woven cummerbunds — cotton sashes worn around their waists.

On Friday, hundreds of Kurds carried flames in a procession up the mountain under purple-black storm clouds, leaving the burning burlap torches lighting the darkness next to a giant Kurdish flag unfurled by the path…

The torches reference a story in Kurdish mythology in which a courageous blacksmith assembles an army of villagers and kills a murderous king — signaling with the mountain-top flames that the Kurds are free.

This year, they also spelled out in flames the numbers two and one — referencing a saying that “two plus two equals one” — meaning the Kurdish regions across four different countries together form one united Kurdistan…

Thirty million Kurds! For comparison purposes, Google says there’s about 15 million Palestinians, in the region and the diaspora… and 70-80 million Irish, only about a tenth of us still living in Ireland.

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Sunday Morning Open ThreadPost + Comments (311)

Wednesday Morning Open Thread

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Thank you, Adam:

😻🌸 The sky is blue, the mood is cheerful, and only this red-haired beauty knows the secret to true happiness: find a warm brick, stretch out comfortably, put your face in the sun, and forget about all your problems! It's spring!

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— Vitalis Viva (@vitalisviva.bsky.social) March 2, 2026 at 8:02 AM

Stand Up For Science, March 7th, 2025 and again next week. Spread the word, please. www.standupforscience.net/march7

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— Matt Beckman (@daphsci.bsky.social) February 27, 2026 at 9:59 AM


List of local rallies

Every Lunar New Year for the past 14 years, a Southern California Buddhist temple has displayed what it calls the "10,000 Buddha Relics."

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— The Associated Press (@apnews.com) March 1, 2026 at 1:00 PM


(Even though my parents were college educated, I grew up in a home with plaster saints, scapulars, holy cards, and an array of ‘special’ rosaries. People like aids to religious belief that they can see & touch.)

Hundreds of people gathered here at a temple believed to be the birthplace of Lord Krishna, one of the most revered Hindu gods. They are here to celebrate Holi, the festival marking the arrival of spring.

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— The Associated Press (@apnews.com) March 2, 2026 at 1:00 PM

Elon Musk is expected to take the stand in a shareholder trial Wednesday in San Francisco, where he’s accused of making false and misleading statements that drove down Twitter’s stock price before he bought the social media platform for $44 billion in 2022.

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— The Associated Press (@apnews.com) March 4, 2026 at 5:00 AM

BREAKING: State Rep. James Talarico wins the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in Texas.

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— The Associated Press (@apnews.com) March 4, 2026 at 2:50 AM

BREAKING: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Sen. John Cornyn advance to a May runoff in the GOP primary for U.S. Senate. bit.ly/4b0Ldyz

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— The Associated Press (@apnews.com) March 3, 2026 at 10:52 PM

What just happened in Dallas County is one of the most blatant voter suppression operations I've ever seen—and it happened in a *primary*.
In March. Imagine November.
I broke it down here:
open.substack.com/pub/objectio…

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— Eliza Orlins (@elizaorlins.bsky.social) March 3, 2026 at 11:29 PM

Wednesday Morning Open ThreadPost + Comments (202)

Sunday Morning Open Thread: Trump’s ‘Perfect People’ At the National Prayer Breakfast

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He’s certainly done a lot for pedophiles.

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— Rep. Jim McGovern (@repmcgovern.bsky.social) February 7, 2026 at 6:04 PM

Lots of stuff going on last week, but I wanted to highlight the distinction between our own Democratic Christians and the GOP’s ‘perfect’ Christianists…

The difference could not be more stark.

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— Democrats (@democrats.org) February 5, 2026 at 3:56 PM

"Trump has become a parody of a 1980s televangelist, openly grifting his followers for massive amounts of cash. (His ballroom is practically his own Heritage USA.) But Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart put on a more convincing show." — @playtyperguy.com

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) February 14, 2026 at 12:50 PM

Trump’s ‘Perfect People’, per Stephen Robinson at Public Notice:

… According to a recent Pew poll, 69 percent of white evangelical Christians approve of his job performance. That number has dropped slightly from last year, but the investment Trump made in winning over religious conservatives continues to pay dividends.

The question is what any self-proclaimed religious person gets out of the deal…

The closest Trump ever comes to genuine religious conviction is his insistence, despite all contrary evidence, that the 2020 election was stolen from him. Otherwise, he sees religion through the same distorted funhouse mirror that he views the world. It’s all about dominance and power, never humility and compassion.

For instance, Trump boasted about his administration’s effectiveness killing people in countries that are far less powerful than our own.

“We knocked the hell out of them the other day in Nigeria because they were killing Christians,” he blathered. “When Christians come under attack, they know they’re going to be attacked violently and viciously by President Trump.”…

Peter Wehner at The Atlantic argues that Trump’s evangelical supporters regard his “viciousness as a virtue,” and at the prayer breakfast, Trump invoked Southern Baptist Pastor Robert Jeffress’s cynical description of him: “He may not have ever read the Bible, but he will be a much stronger messenger for us.” …

Trump even flexed his mobster muscle at this year’s breakfast — not so subtly threatening his own supporters if they don’t stay in line.

“We worked hard on getting rid of the Johnson Amendment,” he said. “You can say anything you can. Now, if you do say something bad about Trump, I will change my mind and I will have your tax exempt status immediately revoked.” …

There is no clear blueprint for religious faith. People can choose to find in the scripture either moral inspiration or callous vindication. Religious conservatives had long sought someone who’d help them justify their own selfishness and cruelty. This makes Trump their ideal leader. He wields religion as a blunt instrument, one that can only injure and never heal. He’s incapable of even trying to seek grace through his faith, as that would require admitting his sins and working toward genuine redemption.

The reason Trump’s unhinged, hateful remarks at this year’s prayer breakfast don’t disgust his far-right evangelical supporters is that they share his seething cultural resentment and endless persecution complex. For them, his unrestrained rage and open contempt for their mutual enemies resonates greater than a true sermon.

Back in 2017, Trump read from the script he assumed was necessary to maintain his support among evangelicals, who he probably didn’t fully understand. Almost a decade later, Trump knows religious conservatives and their motivations well enough that he doesn’t feel a need to perform anymore. Like his supporters, he’s stopped pretending he’s anything other than his worst self.

Devil worshipper

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— Asawin Suebsaeng (@swin24.bsky.social) February 5, 2026 at 9:08 PM

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Sunday Morning Open Thread: Trump’s ‘Perfect People’ At the National Prayer BreakfastPost + Comments (192)

Excellent Read: “The Second Death of Charlie Kirk”

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A great piece from @yair-rosenberg.bsky.social on how Charlie Kirk’s assassination unleashed infighting among maga elites www.theatlantic.com/politics/202…

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— Adam Serwer (@adamserwer.bsky.social) February 5, 2026 at 7:17 AM

If you want to see an ugly scrum that isn’t sports-related… Anti-Semitism has been part of the GOP’s appeal since at least the heyday of Richard Nixon, but it used to be disguised & dogwhistled. Charlie Kirk’s death gave a whole crew of far-right grifters a chance at claiming part of his very valuable audience, if they could only spit vitriol the loudest and soonest, and they did not hesitate to shiv each other in this pursuit. Yair Rosenberg, at the Atlantic [gift link]:

At the close of 2025, just a few months after Charlie Kirk was assassinated, thousands of his followers came together in Phoenix for AmericaFest, the annual convention of Turning Point USA. A casual observer might have expected this gathering to serve as an opportunity for conservatives to regroup, celebrate Kirk’s legacy, and recommit to his fight against the left. Instead, one by one, MAGA’s leading lights took the stage and began shivving one another in public.

“Today, the conservative movement is in serious danger,” warned Ben Shapiro, a co-founder of The Daily Wire. He lambasted right-wing “charlatans” who “traffic in conspiracism and dishonesty.” And he named names. Shapiro slammed Tucker Carlson, perhaps the most popular conservative commentator in America, for mainstreaming pro-Nazi sentiment, and dubbed the former Trump strategist Steve Bannon “a PR flack for Jeffrey Epstein,” the convicted sex criminal (fact-check: mostly true). “These people are frauds, and they are grifters, and they do not deserve your time,” Shapiro said. Awkwardly, several of those people were scheduled to speak after him.

“Ben Shapiro is like a cancer, and that cancer spreads,” retorted Bannon the next day from the same podium. “I just got here, and I feel like I missed the first part of the program,” quipped Carlson, who went on to accuse Shapiro and his allies of practicing “the style of debate where you prevent the other side from talking or being heard,” conflating the latter’s criticism of his conduct with censorship.

When Kirk was killed, conservatives believed that his death would galvanize his cause. “Millions of Charlie Kirks were created today,” declared Representative Lauren Boebert of Colorado. But as it turned out, Kirk’s assassin didn’t kill just one man; he destabilized the entire Trump coalition by removing a pivotal person who had been holding it together. In doing so, the killer helped unshackle dark forces—chief among them anti-Semitism—that now threaten to overtake the conservative movement…

For years, Kirk was dogged by the overtly racist followers of the young white-nationalist influencer Nick Fuentes. An avowed admirer of Adolf Hitler, Fuentes sought to subordinate racial, religious, and sexual minorities to white Christians. “The problem is that Jews run America,” he said in a representative livestream. “And the only reason we have Muslims here is because Jews are letting them in.” His supporters, known as “Groypers,” badgered Kirk with anti-Semitic and other bigoted questions at Turning Point events. “Charlie Kirk is a fake patriot, a fake Christian, and he hates his people, he’s anti-white,” Fuentes told his online audience.

Kirk recognized that this crude conspiracism was poisonous to his project of popularizing the conservative cause. When a caller to The Charlie Kirk Show asked why he wouldn’t debate Fuentes and his faction, Kirk responded: “We succeed—we win; they blame the Jews.” But Kirk also saw that Fuentes had real appeal, especially among disaffected youth, and so he tried to split the difference, repeatedly rebuking the Groypers themselves while partially co-opting some of their talking points. “If you are blaming less than 0.2 percent of the world’s population for all of your problems, that is not going to be good for your soul,” Kirk said shortly before his death. “Any young person that goes into this hyper-online brain rot, you are serving yourself over to your own demise.” Before he was killed, he drafted a now-best-selling book about the benefits of observing the Jewish Sabbath. But Kirk also blamed “Jewish donors” for being “the No. 1 funding mechanism of radical, open-border, neoliberal, quasi-Marxist policies, cultural institutions, and nonprofits.”…

Excellent Read: “The Second Death of Charlie Kirk”Post + Comments (47)