📌Susan Collins is voting "no" on the repulsive Blanche because she has been given political cover by Thune. Her vote doesn't matter. This isn't a heroic decision, it is pure politics, and whether anybody wants to admit it or not it's how she has survived like a parasite in that chamber for 30 years.

Musk spent $291 million on the 2024 elections. For him, that's pocket change. It bought: →Lucrative government contracts →Investigations into his businesses suspended →DOGE Untaxed wealth = unprecedented power.

I've been reading Wild Faith by @swordsjew.bsky.social & just finished the chapter on how much right wing evangelicals love child abuse so seeing Johnson stand by Miller is unsurprising to me but still astoundingly fucked Strongly recommend the book tho it really casts a light on all these ghouls

If you aren't aware of Bolts they do fantastic journalistic coverage of politics across the US and down into local elections.

Bolts@boltsmag.org · 19h ago

Kansans rejected a measure to remake their supreme court. Missourians refused to phase out the income tax. Voters chose Senate and governor nominees, and in Washington they narrowed the field for supreme court seats. Catch up with the night's results.

Okay this was funny (absolutely right about the pet thing)

"If you came across these headlines as a non-sports fan, it would probably be fair for you to assume that there's a trans woman playing in the WNBA, or at least one at a high level in college." Well said, @laurentheisen.bsky.social. Numerically a nonissue, but manufactured for politics and bigotry.

The Right Has Created Its Perfect Trans Athlete | Defector

A lot of people in and around the WNBA are talking about trans women. In the aftermath of Indiana Fever role player Sophie Cunningham’s negative comments about trans people playing sports in an ESPN p...

defector.com

"Well, you know what they always say. Kill 'em-- BANG --with Kind ...Ness. Kindness. Oh jeez I thought that would flow better. Huh. Gotta do something about that! Ha! Anywhoo, where's that bomb?"

Very plausible, but it would be just as illegal and appalling if they WERE involved in drug trafficking.

CNN@cnn.com · 2d ago

The US military’s strikes on alleged drug boats have likely illegally killed “individuals who are not involved in narcotrafficking,” Sen. Tim Kaine told the White House, following “a careful review” of classified information he has seen so far.

I suppose you would probably believe that if you had made billions of dollars in the past 18 months

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 22h ago

Trump: "Then they say, 'On the economy, Trump is at 42%.' I shouldn't be at 42%. We have the greatest economy maybe in the history of the world."

This is genuinely great. I like McMorrow a lot more than I liked her campaign team. Time to come together and win the general. Stevens also made some good gestures in the last 24 hours; here’s hoping she carries through.

#StupidSuez@diplomatofnight.com · 19h ago

Mallory McMorrow endorses Abdul El Sayed minutes after NBC call

"The events of Ray Bradbury’s short story “There Will Come Soft Rains” occur today: August 4, 2026. Like so many dates in science fiction, this one probably seemed far away when it was chosen, but once it was finally upon us, it passed like all days." www.rogerebert.com/mzs/silhouet...

Silhouettes and Warnings: On Reading Ray Bradbury's "There Will Come Soft Rains" On the Exact Day When It's Set

The events of Ray Bradbury's short story "There Will Come Soft Rains" occur today: August 4, 2026.

rogerebert.com

The Runaways (Joan Jett, Jackie Fox, Lita Ford, Cherie Currie, and Sandy West) at CBGBs — Bob Gruen, August 1976

I've told this story before and I suppose now it's time to do it again. When I was in 9th grade, my English teacher was the elderly sort of man who always wore a gray flannel suit and had a cigarette before class and a cigarette at the end of class every period.

Sarah@sosomanysarahs.bsky.social · yesterday

It seems like assigned reading, especially summer reading, should include titles from different genres, with different tones, from different eras. (And as a former sulky Anne Rice-reading teen, I advocate for some over-the-top moodiness in the mix with realistic problem fiction and happier tales.)

Any 26-person firm would fail this task. This 26-person firm was built specifically to fail. It is loaded up with legal pariahs that have no relevant experience.

Politico@politico.com · yesterday

26-employee Texas law firm gets $150M to represent 24,000 children in immigration court

In addition to having no experience in immigration, their website shows Ilya Shapiro (!) and disgraced former law prof Joshua Wright (!) as Senior Counsel. I don't think this massive contract was awarded to give immigrant children effective, zealous advocacy. burkegroup.law/our-team/

Our Team - BURKE LAW GROUP, PLLC

Our Team

burkegroup.law

Politico@politico.com · yesterday

26-employee Texas law firm gets $150M to represent 24,000 children in immigration court

We're giving away 25 copies of SANDMAN SLIM over on Goodreads! Just stop by and mash the button. (US only) www.goodreads.com/book/show/70...

Sandman Slim (Sandman Slim #1)

Supernatural fantasy has a new antihero in Sandman Slim…

goodreads.com

I picked up two copies of Hookland Fragments by @hookland.bsky.social so I can anonymously sneak the second copy into the little library in the break room at my law job.

Massachusetts farm installs 832 solar panels above berry fields, and the berries grown underneath turned out sweeter and juicier and could change the future of American farming - The Economic Times share.google/GDGqQBgisqhG...

Massachusetts farm installs 832 solar panels above berry fields, and the berries grown underneath turned out sweeter and juicier and could change the future of American farming

A Massachusetts farm is integrating solar panels above berry fields. This agrivoltaics project generates electricity while shading the crops. The elevated panels create a cooler microclimate, retain...

share.google

"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob." —FDR, 1936

Holy shit, “Just one small problem Sell their houses to who, Ben? Fucking Aquaman?” is a Haiku

If Major League Baseball were serious about reducing the Dodgers' big-market advantage, they'd let a second team be located in the greater Los Angeles area

Herman Cain's last post before he died of ... wait for it ... COVID! The GOP is rewriting history. Covid tore through the world like a killing machine. 1.2 million Americans died. Stop pretending Dr. Fauci did anything other than his best to keep people alive. And release the Epstein Files!

Follow me for more diet hacks

The story of the man who falls and gets ridiculed by unsympathetic gulls: a tale as old as time. www.tom-cox.com/its-a-herrin...

It's A Herring Gull's World (We Just Live In It)

The full version of today's post if for paying subscribers (because I haven't done one of those for a while). If you'd like to read it you can support my writing for as little as £1.66 per month, whic...

tom-cox.com

Rob Harvey@robharvey99.bsky.social · 4d ago

I'm not sure I'd be able to sleep after having seen that! Beats my holiday spot...

SHOOT IT INTO MY VEINS

Henry Farrell@himself.bsky.social · 6d ago

I remember seeing someone (very reasonably) complaining here a few days ago that there seems to be next to no visible thinking on left and center about how to join the dots on administration and democracy. This is the beginnings of an answer to that complaint donmoynihan.substack.com/p/rebuilding...

"I know other Universes that use sub-text, and they're all cowards." -Our Universe, probably

Erin Fogg says Free Link@criminalerin.bsky.social · 5d ago

Help! My symbolism! It's so overt! And very explicit!

It's just kinda funny how Dems do in fact have deep, consistent rural strongholds. All over the US! And even most Professional Rural Understanders I've run into just... can't see them. Or figure out how to work with them and build on them. For some reason haha it's so crazy

Also, as we all know, there are lots of rural areas that don't vote GOP. Coincidentally, they're all the rural areas that aren't majority-white. We do ourselves a real disservice pretending the "rural-urban divide" in politics is real. It ain't. Full stop.

Six congressmen bought between $83,000 to $245,000 in SpaceX stock just before its IPO: -Jared Moskowitz -Gil Cisneros -Dan Meuser -John McGuire -William Timmons -John James Five serve on committees whose work impacts SpaceX's business. We must ban members of Congress from trading stock.

No professional accomplishment has ever made me happier than this. theonion.com/translator-o...

Translator Of Original ‘Minions’ Epic Poem Slams ‘Sexless, Bloodless’ Film Adaptation

PHILADELPHIA—In a 4,500-word essay published in Harper’s Magazine, Emily Wilson, known for her popular translation of the Minions epic poem, blasted the latest film Thursday as a “sexless, bloodless” ...

theonion.com