DOJ misses deadline to file formal answer or move to dismiss in @katiephang.bsky.social suit re Epstein docs. Asks for retroactive extension. Doc: www.documentcloud.org/documents/28...

PhangBlancheNunc080526

documentcloud.org

Do all spouses have ritual call-and-responses? Because one of ours is: Spouse: I’m going to jump in the shower. Me: Don’t do that! That’s how accidents happen.

ICE has now spent over $2.2 BILLION on purchasing 4 private prisons from CoreCivic, with the company banking half a billion dollars on the most recent sale. Of course, ICE will not actually operate these facilities; CoreCivic keeps the contracts to run these places for the foreseeable future.

Corruption is not forever.

Undoing Trump’s Golden Age of Corruption

He’s made the presidency into a profitable grift. Here’s how some of his ill-gotten gains might be clawed back.

lnk.thebulwark.com

in case you were wondering whatever became of the us institute of peace, the once-venerable congressionally chartered think tank is now a propaganda site www.usip.org

Trump: "If you had fair and strong elections, they would lose 25% of their base. They would never be elected again. And I'm trying to explain that to Republicans, but some of them don't quite understand it ... we gotta get the Republicans do be tougher, especially in the Senate."

fuck that's a smooth answer

#StupidSuez@diplomatofnight.com · 4h ago

Banger

Note to readers: Not one of these ships will ever be built.

Benjamin Dreyer@bcdreyer.social · 2h ago

I hope you're sitting down.

Genuinely shocked. But good!

The Hill@thehill.com · 3h ago

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) says he will vote against acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s nomination to serve in the role permanently, putting more pressure on Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) to limit GOP defections on the high-profile nominee.

A new survey from @knightfoundation.org and @ssrsresearch.bsky.social reveals a disquieting decline in how free Americans feel to use the freedoms protected by the #FirstAmendment without government interference or punishment. 🧵

Knight Foundation-SSRS Poll: Americans Feel Free Expression is Eroding - Knight Foundation

For more than two decades, Knight Foundation has commissioned research to better understand Americans’ lived experience with the First Amendment and free expression. As the country marks its 250th ann...

knightfoundation.org

It appears that people do not enjoy living under fascism. Fascism is for losers.

Paul Rosenberg@paulrosenberg.bsky.social · 3h ago

I see 4 major developments manifest in yesterday's elections: 1) El-Sayed's victory, along with multiple downballot victories shows a significant expansion of DSA/Sanders/AOC-aligned power in the heartland, where we've been told it just couldn't reach. 1/5

Peter Thiel gays at Stanford: "Rabois came to Thiel's attention after he was found outside an instructor's home, shouting homophobic slurs and the suggestion that the instructor "die of AIDS." A few went on to join PayPal company Thiel en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_R... NYT promoting Michael Barbaro:

Donald Trump’s Big Gay Government

On the town with the A-Gays of Washington, who have never been happier to be out, proud and Republican.

nytimes.com

NYTimes: affirmative action for mediocre editors angry at MeToo@originalist.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Michael Barbaro failing upward because "I’ve been on a journey that I know Ross approves of," Barbaro said, referring to his ending his same-sex marriage and marrying a woman. "It’s no secret that [Douthat] wants people to have children and to enter into monogamous heterosexual relationships."

Wow! @menendez.house.gov says that the EXACT scenario I flagged two months ago, where ICE "releases" someone having a medical emergency solely so their death won't be recorded as occurring while in custody, happened last month at the infamous Delaney Hall detention center in Newark, NJ.

Matt Shuham@mattshuham.bsky.social · 21h ago

Days before the death of Edwin Jeovanny Lopez Cornejo, ICE officials did not report the death of another man who’d been detained at Delaney Hall — because they had technically “released” him in the middle of a medical emergency, Rep. Rob Menendez (D-NJ) alleged. www.huffpost.com/entry/delane...

the arc of discourse is long but it bends towards burrito

huck mason@tylerhuckabee.bsky.social · 8h ago

for reasons that only make sense if you're insane, a TPUSA kid complaining about burrito costs on xitter has the GOP's biggest divas going for each other's throats.

It’s a Klan Rally. These people only have to hear a name that their lizard brains process as sounding Arabic and hate immediately pours out.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 3h ago

LOMBARDO: So I know the pastor spoke about Officer Abdelnabi-- TRUMP RALLY CROWD: *Boooooo* LOMBARDO: No. We're not booing him. He's the officer that passed away here recently

Good on you if you've reached this point in life without having been cornered and talked at by someone who has done enough blow to stun a horse but you're getting the experience at every Altman press event, this is what it sounds like.

At some point we are going to have to reckon with what percentage of the Thought Leadership we get from this class of people is just drug addiction. Either a lot of credulous reporters have never listened to someone tooted out of their mind go on a monologue or they're afraid to call it out.

Richard Kadrey@richardkadrey.bsky.social · 4w ago

This from the guy who has to hire people to play his video games for him.

As I was saying

Ed Burmila@edburmila.bsky.social · 4w ago

At some point we are going to have to reckon with what percentage of the Thought Leadership we get from this class of people is just drug addiction. Either a lot of credulous reporters have never listened to someone tooted out of their mind go on a monologue or they're afraid to call it out.

"Academic freedom" at work in Texas.

Kevin M. Kruse@kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 6h ago

I'd love to hear why my book White Flight -- which won prizes from the Southern Historical Association and the American Political Science Association -- was deemed not good enough for students at Texas A&M.

"Off the record" is an agreement between a journalist and a source, and the agreement must take place BEFORE the disclosure of "off the record" information. You can't unilaterally assert it, and it isn't retroactive. You also definitely can't assert it once you, uh, post it on YouTube.

@myskhin.bsky.social · 4h ago

So what is the journalistic rule of thumb here? If a journalist was on the call would he even have any responsibility to take this "off record" since it sounds like anyone might have been able to join the call.

Whenever one of these freaks goes off on a tangent about their trans conspiracy of the day, the proper response -- from an interviewer or anyone else -- is "well, it seems like you're having some sort of mental breakdown here, so we'll wrap it up"

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 4h ago

Royce White is now ranting about "transgender sex dolls" during a forum that is supposed to be about agricultural issues. This guy is a serious Republican in Minnesota who had the party's nomination for a Senate seat two years ago. Insanity.

Dying at the right-wing activists that (1) held a call with Todd Blanche in which Blanche made a lot of anti-abortion promises, (2) said "uh this is off the record" like doing so would magically ward off journalists, and then (3) UPLOADED IT TO THEIR YOUTUBE CHANNEL www.politico.com/news/2026/08...

This is a huge deal & fantastic scoop from @noupside.bsky.social and @rer.bsky.social It underscores how Elon et al. has no real meaningful commitment to a "balanced" information ecosystem or "free speech" environment There's just a commitment to self-serving marketing ploys.

Lawfare@lawfaremedia.org · 8h ago

Grokipedia appears not to have updated any articles since April 24. @noupside.bsky.social and @rer.bsky.social explore why it matters that the encyclopedia hasn’t edited itself or processed edits from humans in more than 3 months. www.lawfaremedia.org/article/grok...

The Coward Matthew Yglesias

Personally I would love to see Bluesky expand. It shouldn’t just be the app for leftists who can’t stand Matt Yglesias! It should also be the app for liberals who can’t stand Matt Yglesias. And apolitical folks who can’t stand Yglesias. And, yes, even conservatives who can’t stand Matt Yglesias!

This is funniest thing you'll see today. Also, Schiff is very good at this.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 6h ago

holy shit -- Schiff ties Trump's judicial nominees in knots by asking them who won the 2016 before *before* asking them who won in 2020, which results in them sounding like election deniers about Trump's victories!

Gosh. You're telling me the lawyer who represented the white supremacist Jared Taylor in suing Twitter for banning his account might *also* harbor white supremacist ideas? How unshocking.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 6h ago

SCHIFF: You told my staff you stood by your article in white nationalist website VDARE where you wrote, 'Muslim immigrants & their kids seem prone to terrorism' C: I wrote that article in support of Trump's travel ban S: Do you stand by it? C: I stand by that article S: That's all I need to know

This highlights a profound impact of Trump — the further normalization of violence against women. Trump got elected in spite of his long history of violence against women. He is not held accountable when he continues to abuse women. 1/2

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 9h ago

Max Miller on why he's staying in the race: "When we go back to 2015 and 2016, & people in the media looked at President Trump, & everyone came out with allegations. Dozens of women, dozens of crazy allegations, dozens of nasty criminal misconduct. And you know what he did? He stayed in the fight."

Additional commentary on that 1997 NR masthead, the heyday of “responsible conservatism.” bsky.app/profile/seth...

Seth Cotlar@sethcotlar.bsky.social · last yr.

Looking at this NR masthead from 1997 and I notice that not only is Dinesh on it, but the top editor is currently shilling for Orban in Hungary, the 2nd guy heads up the white nationalist org VDare, and then there's Mark Levin (lol), eugenicist Ernest van den Haag, & segregationist Kilpatrick.

FWIW, both of VDARE’s founders were on the masthead of the National Review in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Peter Brimelow was also a staffer for Senator Orrin Hatch. This white nationalist thread has been present in the conservative movement for a long time. Screenshot is from 1997.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 6h ago

SCHIFF: You told my staff you stood by your article in white nationalist website VDARE where you wrote, 'Muslim immigrants & their kids seem prone to terrorism' C: I wrote that article in support of Trump's travel ban S: Do you stand by it? C: I stand by that article S: That's all I need to know