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The Horrors

You are here: Home / Archives for The Horrors

Just for the Taste of It Open Thread

by Rose Judson|  April 15, 20264:54 pm| 85 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Bring on the Brawndo!, The Horrors

I was on the swim team in high school (and for a bit in college, but I was mostly injured). The girl who swam the breaststroke leg of my mixed-medley relay team was . . . not scientifically inclined, let’s say. She thought that Diet Coke was called Diet Coke because it somehow neutralised the calories of any food you consumed when you were drinking it. When she first shared this opinion at a post-meet McDonald’s run, I laughed, because I thought she was doing a bit. But no: complete sincerity.

Compared to some people, though, she’s a rocket scientist.

Just for the Taste of It Open Thread

From The Guardian:

“Your dad argues that diet soda is good for him because it kills grass – if poured on grass – so, therefore, it must kill cancer cells inside the body,” Oz said on Triggered with Don Jr, the president’s eldest son’s podcast. . . .

Don Jr responded by suggesting there might be something to his father’s habits: “But then maybe he’s on to something. Because I will say this: I know a lot of guys pushing 80, not a lot have his level of energy, recall, stamina.”

Do you know a lot of guys pushing 80, though, Don? Are they in the room with us now?

Open thread.

 

Just for the Taste of It Open ThreadPost + Comments (85)

The Third Lady Doth Protest Too Much

by Rose Judson|  April 9, 20263:06 pm| 213 Comments

This post is in: Epstein, Open Threads, The Horrors

Melania Trump has just delivered a statement from the White House, apparently with very little announcement beforehand. The topic? She’s denouncing anyone trying to link her to Jeffrey Epstein or Ghislaine Maxwell.

Melania Trump: The lies linking me with Jeffrey Epstein need to end today. I've never been friends with Epstein. I never had a relationship with Epstein or his accomplice, Maxwell. My email reply to Maxwell cannot be categorized as anything more than casual correspondence.

— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) 2026-04-09T18:37:53.381Z

Certainly she looks very casual here:

The Third Lady Doth Protest Too Much

If this were a relatively normal White House with a relatively normal press operation, we would soon find out why she’s giving this statement in the middle of a Thursday—for instance, they’re trying to get ahead of a story. But with these jokers, it could just be that Mrs. Trump 3.0 wanted to get something off her chest, and had her people call a press conference during the president’s mid-day Executive Time.

Either that, or Iran is going so badly they decided it would actually be best* to get people talking about Epstein again. However it shakes out, she has basically done this:

The Third Lady Doth Protest Too Much 1

Thought this was worth putting on our collective radar (and that it was time for a fresh thread).

 

*Absolutely intentional. I write for a living, you know.

The Third Lady Doth Protest Too MuchPost + Comments (213)

Today in Sternly Worded Letters

by Rose Judson|  April 7, 20266:26 pm| 140 Comments

This post is in: Impeach the Motherfucker!, Open Threads, Politics, It's Giving War Crime, The Horrors

Representative John Larson (D-CT 01) filed Articles of Impeachment. They’re dated yesterday, but as far as I can tell, they appear to have been published today.

They are very comprehensive, covering everything from the President’s abuse of the pardon power to his appalling rhetoric today and on Easter Sunday.

They also appear to have been co-written by Ralph Nader, because why not? Why shouldn’t the writers’ room steering our increasingly batshit telenovela of a timeline call back to him, too?

[EDIT 11:36 BST/ 6:36 EST: Just minutes after I post this, it is apparently TACO TIME. Fuck you, Don.]

Today in Sternly Worded Letters 4

 

Don’t get me wrong; I’m glad someone stepped up with the Articles of Impeachment. But it’s hard to feel anything positive will come of it. You can read the entire bill here. I already have; it’s past 11 p.m. where I am, so I doubt there’ll be much sleeping happening here tonight.

Work—at least after 2 p.m. my time, when I came out of a call and saw the President’s initial post—has been a shitshow.

Today in Sternly Worded Letters 1

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Today in Sternly Worded LettersPost + Comments (140)

He Is, Unfortunately, Risen

by Rose Judson|  April 5, 202612:01 pm| 213 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, The Horrors

It is Easter Sunday and we are in the midst of Passover, but The Horrors don’t stop. You all will likely have seen that the President greeted the day with this:

He Is, Unfortunately, Risen

The Discourse online veers from outrage and horror to conspiracy-brained speculation that he didn’t write this; that he is actually in Walter Reed or somewhere else in a vegetative state or receiving treatment while Stephen Miller is at the wheel. While we all know Miller et. al. are controlling The President’s information environment, it’s wishful thinking to believe this is anything other than the rough beast himself.

He is in a corner similar to the one he found himself in during the spring of 2020. As we all know, malignant narcissists are at their most dangerous when they’re in a corner. Unlike 2020, he is in a corner he thinks he can bomb and war-crime his way out of.

Below the jump, a thread from Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo which summarises the situation pretty well:

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He Is, Unfortunately, RisenPost + Comments (213)

Happy No Kings Day, Juicers

by Rose Judson|  March 28, 20264:30 am| 79 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Don't Know Much About History, The Horrors

Thanks to how they’ve timed their visit to me, my parents are missing their local No Kings event for the first time since Trump 2.0 began. I feel vaguely guilty about it, but they insist it’s not an issue and have even purchased me a circular saw, as one does for one’s daughter.

When researching my most recent podcast episode on the Book of Job, I came across some thoughts from Benjamin Franklin that seemed appropriate to share here this morning.

Benjamin Franklin, by George-Peter-Alexander Healy: Oil painted portrait of an elderly Benjamin Franklin a blue and buff suit with white shirt.
Benjamin Franklin, painted during his time in France, by George-Peter-Alexander Healy

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Happy No Kings Day, JuicersPost + Comments (79)

Fried-Day Open Thread: Let’s All Stare into Space for a Bit

by Rose Judson|  March 20, 20261:46 pm| 86 Comments

This post is in: Cat Blogging, Open Threads, The Horrors

Look at this guy. Gazing out the window all forlorn. Nobody’s threatening your voting rights or raising interest rates just before you’re about to start the remortgaging process or jacking up your energy bills just in time for autumn, bro.

Fried-Day Open Thread: Let's All Stare into Space for a Bit

And that’s just the financial stuff. That said, I don’t have time to stare into space, as much as I want to. So I guess it’s good to be able to delegate that to a cat.

Open thread. Weekend plans? I’m cleaning and podcasting and getting ready for my parents to visit. You?

Fried-Day Open Thread: Let’s All Stare into Space for a BitPost + Comments (86)

Donny No-Mates

by Rose Judson|  March 16, 202612:47 pm| 170 Comments

This post is in: Foreign Affairs, The Horrors

Nobody in the UK knows I’m an immigrant until I open my mouth. Lately that’s a blessing: it means I occasionally get to overhear people’s unvarnished opinions about the United States.

mom can you pick me up at the strait of hormuz, my friends are laughing at me and wont help

— Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew.bsky.social) 2026-03-16T13:01:11.463Z

The chatter is louder than usual since the start of the month. I was queuing at the garden centre a few days after the President’s little “excursion” began, and heard a man in his 60s grumbling to his wife about how inflation was going to kick off again thanks to us Yanks. I sat on the train near a couple of men in their late 20s who were discussing whether World War III was imminent. I spotted a new “FUCK AMERICA” graffiti tag in an alley I sometimes use. I could almost be fooled into thinking it’s 2005 again, and that I am a fresh-faced recent arrival in her mid-20s. Those were the days, when the Brits hated the idiot warmonger in the White House and resented their Labour prime minister for not standing up to him!

Today, things are different.

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Donny No-MatesPost + Comments (170)

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