JNKumar
@jnkumar.bsky.social
PROTECT VOTING RIGHTS. Protect free press, democracy, our environment #resist #voteblue #womensrightsarehumanrights
The Reflecting Pool saga is a perfect diorama of how right-wing media turns Trump’s fantasies into public reality, and then tries to quietly conceal the wreckage once the facts catch up.
Jeanine Pirro's Reflecting Pool reckoning
The former Fox News star couldn't sustain Trump's fantasy. Her downfall is classic MAGA tale
salon.com
as noted yesterday, Trump has now come around to treating an Iranian toll system covering the Strait of Hormuz as a given. Hard to overstate the level of strategic failure. US started the war purely as a war of choice and ends up dramatically empowering Iran and given the Iranian govt big wins.
Bill Grueskin@bgrueskin.bsky.social · 4h agoReuters: Iran wants fees of 5%-7% of the price of cargo from ships using the strait; Oman wants 3%. "Making fees voluntary, at least nominally, could be a way out of the impasse, although an implied threat of Iranian attacks could mean shippers would be unlikely to risk transit without paying."
NEW from me: I think this is the perfect time to use Rachel Maddow’s oft-repeated phrase - ‘watch what they do- not what they say.’ Ignore Ellison's PR pitch, but look at what's happening at CBS News including directing reporters to add “facts” that did not exist. open.substack.com/pub/jennifer...
David Ellison can’t be trusted with CNN
We've already seen how Ellison has wrecked CBS. Don't fall for his PR push on CNN.
open.substack.com
"Shame on you Wallace. Your dad built 60 Minutes. And it's been murdered," a CBS News staffer tells me. "I guess that Redbird Capital check is worth pissing on your dads legacy."
Justin Baragona@justinbaragona.bsky.social · 3h agoJust to make the point abundantly clear, Chris Wallace is now a paid advisor to an investment firm that has a large stake in Paramount and a vested interest in getting the Warner Bros. merger over the line. www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/bus...
Or, as @radiofreetom.bsky.social put it: "the president has encased himself in the hard amber of irrationality that inevitably surrounds authoritarian leaders. He has become detached from reality—and that detachment is extremely dangerous." www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
Trump’s Irrationality Is Dangerous
The president’s recent rant is a sign of serious dysfunction in the Oval Office.
theatlantic.com
Dan Froomkin/Press Watch/Heads Up News@froomkin.bsky.social · 20h agoWith his ridiculous claim about nonexistent vandalism at the Reflecting Pool, Trump is either trying to gaslight us or, more likely, he’s gaslighted himself: he’s told himself so many lies that he has lost all sense of what is actually happening. presswatchers.org/2026/08/the-...
Anti-abortion groups' latest strategy in their push to ban mifepristone is disguised as "advocacy": They claim that telehealth access to the pill enables abusers to force their partners to have an abortion.
Anti-abortion advocates push to ban mifepristone under the guise of protecting women from abusive partners
mediamatters.org
The New Republic’s Matt Ford on Trump selling early looks at his social posts, which often move markets: “The scheme is functionally no different than if he asked for giant burlap sacks of cash from Wall Street executives in exchange for reading his executive orders the day before they are issued.”
Is Trump the GOAT of Presidential Corruption?
The president’s gluttony for graft is the only truly remarkable thing about his political career.
newrepublic.com
Notice DOJ doesn't talk about its efforts to obtain state voter files anymore. They are 0-20 in those cases and today is the beginning of the quiet period -- states can no longer do systematic removals of names from the voter rolls. TLDR: We won!🥳
I know it sucks, but Dems have got to be prepared to inherit a munitions-and-readiness hole that is going to be expensive to fill, but which will need to be filled. Hardly the only such hole, but it will be a big one.
Secretary of Defense Rock@sodrock.bsky.social · 3h agoWho knew ridiculously long deployments and demanding op tempos run a ship and crew into the ground!
* It's unreal how terrible Trump's nominees are * DURBIN: You wrote, 'Feminists advanced a theory that rape is meant to perpetuate male domination.' Do you still oppose Violence Against Women Act? CANDEUB: I haven't really thought it D: In 2023 you did an interview & decried harassment laws ...
BREAKING: The New Mexico Department of Justice has sued Acting AG Todd Blanche and the DOJ, requesting the court for access to unredacted Epstein-related investigative files that the DOJ has been withholding.
Honestly, at this point, Democrats should be thrilled with this -- Miller has set himself on fire and if the GOP wants to hold him close, so be it.
Kyle Griffin@kylegriffin1.bsky.social · 7h agoMike Johnson tells Politico that he's standing behind Republican Max Miller — despite the "serious" domestic abuse allegations against him.
in 2016 Elon Musk said he would build a fully automated factory in Fremont, California for the upcoming Model 3 and he then spent on the order of $2 billion on production lines that didn't work, forcing Tesla to assemble cars by hand in a tent but sure, now he's gonna do it on the moon
It was never about leaving it up to the states when Dobbs fell. It’s only Tuesday. www.politico.com/news/2026/08... #Pinks
Blanche assures anti-abortion supporters that Dobbs will be ‘permanent in every single state’
The acting attorney general made the remarks during a private call with faith leaders.
politico.com
Whether someone realizes it or not, accepting the "liberal bubble" framing at all is a way of granting the utterly absurd notion that the globally reviled and increasingly unpopular views of the reactionary right are the norm
Ian Boudreau@ianboudreau.com · 2d ago"Liberal bubble" has only ever meant anywhere where right wing perspectives aren't artificially elevated and forced into everyone's feeds.
What a surprise, the alleged abuser was jacking himself up on testosterone.
RFK Jr's CDC reportedly scaled back foodborne disease tracking last year, removing cyclospora from mandatory reporting. The CDC also lost roughly 3,000 employees since 2025. Now a cyclosporiasis outbreak has killed 2 and sickened thousands across 45 states. "Make America Healthy Again."
🚨BREAKING: Missouri voters have rejected a ballot measure to limit their own ability to pass amendments to the state constitution — a proposal that fueled extraordinarily high voter turnout in Tuesday’s election. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...
Missouri voters reject ballot measure limiting their power to amend state constitution
Notably, the proposed amendment would not have affected constitutional amendments that the legislature put on the ballot. State lawmakers only wanted to make it harder to pass a voter-led measure, not...
democracydocket.com
These betting markets sites are so socially corrosive. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
My son has cancer. Kalshi wants you to be able to bet on his medical future | Joshua Pederson
The predictions market is planning to allow betting on clinical trial results and regulatory decisions as our family fights for his survival
theguardian.com
One thing people should notice, Dems are turning out in almost 2X the numbers of GOP in Michigan so far for this
A paramilitary group plotted to overthrow the Constitution then conducted a violent attack on America. They were convicted in court of seditious conspiracy, and jailed. Then the leader they aimed to illegally install got power and let them out, their records wiped clean. The Jan. 6 attackers won.
Judge Pained as He Grants Dismissal of Jan. 6 Charges Against Oath Keepers
The judge, Amit P. Mehta, blasted the administration’s request for a dismissal in the case, saying it bestowed “unearned grace” on the Oath Keepers defendants “by wiping their records clean.”
nytimes.com
On the campaign trail Trump said he would never let anyone touch Medicare. On 01.01.2027 the subsidy program for Medicare Part D that helps keep Rx prices down is set to expire. #RepublicanMedicareCuts can be reversed, but we must win the House and Senate. We have 91 days LFG!!
You can never just move on from this, even after he's gone. Without punishment and ostracism for everyone who has participated in his crime spree over the last 18 months you can forget it- we're all just treading water until the next tyrant
Carl Quintanilla@carlquintanilla.bsky.social · yesterday“.. Trump has leveraged his control of the federal government to instead escape the scrutiny that every other modern president, not to mention every other regular taxpayer, has been subject to.” @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2026/08/03/b...
“.. Trump has leveraged his control of the federal government to instead escape the scrutiny that every other modern president, not to mention every other regular taxpayer, has been subject to.” @nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2026/08/03/b...
Biden was replenishing our stockpiles with US manufacturers using US union steel. Trump has sent tens of thousands of those jobs overseas and has crippled our supply chain with tariffs and none of our allies want to help us. Maybe we can buy our arms back from Saudi Arabia.
MeidasTouch@meidastouch.com · yesterdayIn case you’re wondering who’s really “begging for a deal”
There it is!! Sen Cornyn (R-TX) says “there’s nothing we could do to rein in the president.” If impotent Republicans can’t rein him in then the Democrats will happily do it when we take back Congress in 92 days. We will reverse the #RepublicanMedicareCuts Spineless, cowards‼️
This is what a decade of Trumpism has encouraged -- a GOP gubernatorial candidate in Colorado who's unsure of how many people he's killed but positive that his Jewish opponent is a tool of Satan. These people were in the tent before, but the rest of the party seemed embarrassed about them. No more!
Kyle Clark@kylec.bsky.social · yesterdayDepicting Jewish people with horns is a centuries-old, dehumanizing, antisemitic trope. Democratic Gov nominee Phil Weiser is outspoken about his mother’s birth in a Nazi concentration camp, his family members killed in the Holocaust, and the threat posed by antisemitism today.
Insane. Republicans have to go.
Kyle Griffin@kylegriffin1.bsky.social · yesterdayBREAKING: The nomination of Trump's former personal lawyer to be Attorney General just advanced to the full Senate. Judiciary Republicans caved: All 12 Republicans voted in favor of Todd Blanche. All 10 Democrats voted against.
