Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

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

Good lord, these people are nuts.

This blog will pay for itself.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

Finding joy where we can, and muddling through where we can’t.

Too little, too late, ftfnyt. fuck all the way off.

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

This fight is for everything.

Bark louder, little dog.

Everybody saw this coming.

Giving up is unforgivable.

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

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

The fight for our country is always worth it. ~Kamala Harris

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

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

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

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Trumpery Open Thread: Too Blatant

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Oh that's just some good old garden variety Trump corruption.

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— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) May 11, 2025 at 10:15 AM

Sometimes the Oval Office Occupant makes even Our Very Serious Media uneasy…

Under the Trump administration, NO ONE is above the LAW– until NOW, thanks to the all-new "PALACE IN THE SKY," flying high above the petty "laws" of congress and the Fake News Constitution. THANK YOU! L'ÉTAT C'EST MOI!!

— Hemry, Local Bartender (@bartenderhemry.bsky.social) May 11, 2025 at 2:13 PM

It’s especially galling that AG Pam Bondi personally wrote the memo approving the gift of the Qatari airplane. Her last job was as a lobbyist for Qatar! efile.fara.gov/docs/6415-Ex…

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— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw.bsky.social) May 11, 2025 at 1:46 PM

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Late Night Open Thread: Prosecutors Consider Sam Bankman-Fried Incorrigible

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And they make a good argument, IMO. Per the Associated Press:

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s orchestration of one of history’s largest financial frauds in his quest to dominate the cryptocurrency world deserves a prison sentence of 40 to 50 years, federal prosecutors on Friday told a federal judge.

Prosecutors made the recommendation in papers filed in Manhattan federal court in advance of a March 28 sentencing, where a judge will also consider a 100-year prison sentence recommended by the court’s probation officers and a request by defense lawyers for leniency and a term of imprisonment not to exceed single digits.

Bankman-Fried, 32, was convicted in November on fraud and conspiracy charges after his dramatic fall from a year earlier when he and his companies seemed to be riding a crest of success that had resulted in a Super Bowl advertisement and celebrity endorsements from stars like quarterback Tom Brady and comedian Larry David.

Some of his biggest successes, though, resulted from stealing at least $10 billion from investors and customers between 2017 and 2022 to buy luxury real estate, make risky investments, dispense outsized charitable donations and political contributions and to buy praise from celebrities, prosecutors said.

“His life in recent years has been one of unmatched greed and hubris; of ambition and rationalization; and courting risk and gambling repeatedly with other people’s money. And even now Bankman-Fried refuses to admit what he did was wrong,” prosecutors wrote…

They said crimes reflecting a “brazen disrespect for the rule of law” had depleted the retirement funds and nest eggs of people who could least afford to lose money, including some in war-torn or financially insecure countries, and had harmed others who sought to “break generational poverty” only to be left “devastated” and “heartbroken.”

“He knew what society deemed illegal and unethical, but disregarded that based on a pernicious megalomania guided by the defendant’s own values and sense of superiority,” prosecutors said…

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Late Night Open Thread: No Scruples Labels Reaches A Decision Point

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Ed Kilgore, at NYMag, is extremely skeptical:

… “No Labels has said for months that our movement plans to regroup shortly after Super Tuesday to evaluate whether we should offer our ballot line to a Unity presidential ticket — and that remains the plan,” the official said. “On March 8, we will gather our 800 delegates from all 50 states — who would ultimately approve a final Unity ticket — to discuss and vote on whether they want us to continue moving forward.”…

Tara Palmeri, journamalistic botfly, at Puck:

So it’s finally put up or shut up time for No Labels—the disorganized dark money group that counts Nelson Peltz, Steve Schwarzman, and Harlan Crow as donors—to execute its quixotic plan to assemble a unity-ticket to challenge the increasingly inevitable disappointment of a Trump–Biden rematch. Over the last two years, the third-party group has raised tens of millions on the assumption that No Labels and its opportunistic C.E.O., Nancy Jacobson, could recruit a viable candidate—Larry Hogan, say, with Joe Manchin as V.P. Sure, No Labels has been able to get their name on the ballot in 16 states. Unfortunately, they just haven’t been able to find that dream ticket, which will prevent them from ballot access in many others.

So on March 8, just three days after Nikki Haley is set to be demoralized in 16 states on Super Tuesday, No Labels is handing over the power to their 800 delegates to make a choice about whether to move forward, and with whom. Their ideal candidate, of course, has been Haley, herself…

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Dank Grey Dawn Open Thread: CPAC — Fewer, But Meaner ‘Conservatives’!

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There’s a couple of competing events this weekend, but the main reason CPAC attendance is down just might be Matt Schlapp’s legal problems (no good ‘conservative’ wants that stink on them!). Per the Daily Beast:

… On Wednesday, the opening day for CPAC 2024, the Alexandria City Courthouse posted a batch of eye-popping new filings in the sexual battery and defamation lawsuit against Schlapp—including a subpoena to a CPAC official alleged to have overseen document destruction days after the accusations were first publicly reported. Schlapp was on notice at the time about potential legal action.

The court records show subpoenas to other key witnesses, as well, including CPAC officials and other alleged victims. Two young men who previously reported unwanted physical advances from Schlapp have been deposed, including in connection with an alleged incident where the conservative icon, drunk and stripped to his underwear, rubbed his crotch on a young man at a fundraising event months before the alleged assault at the center of the lawsuit…

The event has in years past been a magnet for conservative stalwarts and rising stars alike, a staple for Beltway Republicans looking to make inroads with the party’s most well-wired players. However, with the arrival of Trump and the MAGA movement, CPAC’s star began to dim. Recent years have seen notable shifts in attendance, as CPAC scrapped its mainstream conservative bona fides and instead embraced fringe and frivolous figures on the far right—celebrating the likes of Jan. 6 insurrectionists and anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists, while platforming authoritarian leaders across the globe.

It’s unclear how much of that branding pivot was pre-planned and how much was simply an inability to forestall Trump, leading Schlapp and his crew to adopt a “sour grapes” attitude that recast MAGA critics within the GOP as scurrilous political enemies. Regardless, the shifts have led to declines in attendance, revenue, and influence, a trend the Schlapp allegations exacerbated last year…

Still a hardcore bunch of chaos agents, wannabe kapos, and genuine foreign heads of state (Nayib Bukele, Liz Truss) ready to rile up the rubes:

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Jared’s (Hundreds of) Millions – STOCKPILE

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Vivek-secting Ramaswamy – STOCKPILE

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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/25/vivek-ramaswamy-rightwing-elite-close-ties-leonard-leo-peter-thiel

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Late Night Creepy Tales Open Thread: Tim Ballard, Grifting & Groping for ‘Freedom’

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Mike Lee (… roy Jenkins!) just dodged a bullet:


Best guide to ‘conservative’ politics — Every accusation a confession:

Tim Ballard, the founder and former head of the anti-trafficking group Operation Underground Railroad whose heavily fictionalized exploits were the subject of this summer’s surprise box-office hit Sound of Freedom, has been sued in Utah’s Third District Court by five women accusing him of sexual misconduct. The Utah news outlet KSL was the first to report the filing. An accompanying press release issued by their attorney, Suzette Rasmussen, reports that additional suits are likely to be filed by more women in the coming month.

“The tragic irony is not lost on these five women,” Rasmussen wrote in the press release. “Tim Ballard literally trafficked them for his own sexual and egotistical gratification.”

In the suit, the women, who all live in Utah, and who filed the suit using initials to protect their privacy, accuse Ballard in detail of “coerced sexual contact.” The suit alleges that Ballard and/or the co-defendants have committed sexual assault and battery, conspiracy, fraud, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and “outrage,” and accuses OUR of failing in its fiduciary duties, asking for a trial by jury and damages in an amount to be proven at trial.

The central allegations have to do with the so-called “couples ruse,” which is described in the suit as “a tool for sexual grooming.” …

The suit names a slew of co-defendants alongside Ballard, including Operation Underground Railroad, Children Need Families (an adoption grant organization founded by Katherine Ballard, Tim’s wife), the SPEAR Fund (a new anti-trafficking group for which Ballard has said he is a senior adviser), Liberty and Light (a Utah organization that appears to be the entity behind the SPEAR Fund), and three Utah shell companies that have been associated with Ballard: Rockwell Group Inc., Deacon Inc., and Slave Stealers LLC. The suit also names members of OUR’s board and Janet Russon, the purported psychic medium whose “intelligence” was used to carry out ineffectual missions for OUR and who was, the suit says, complicit in Ballard’s abuse…

The suit is the latest in a swift and stunning reversal of fortune for Ballard, long a prominent figure in anti-trafficking circles, and in Utah more broadly. It was filed on October 9, the day before Ballard was said to be planning to announce a bid for U.S. Senate, in the seat recently vacated by Mitt Romney. One of Ballard’s biggest supporters in the state, Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes—who has himself gone on missions with OUR—said recently that in light of the allegations, he wouldn’t support Ballard in a Senate run…

If you don’t remember / were lucky enough to miss the whole Sound of Freedom circus, here’s a pretty comprehensive update from the Washington Post, dated last July 13th — “The man at the center of ‘Sound of Freedom’ abruptly leaves group he founded” [unpaywalled gift link]:

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