It's a really big deal that @cookpolitical.com has shifted #KSSEN from Solid R to Likely R @hamilton4kansas.bsky.social needs Bluesky follows!! And votes!
OrangeMike
@orangemike.bsky.social
Absurdly obsessed with my favorite color. Grew up in a Kansas farm town. Approaching old age in my chosen home of Dallas, where I frequently walk or take DART. he/him Also: Cats • Politics • Urbanism • Architecture • Baking
In Bari Weiss' Free Press, Olivia Reingold reported from El-Sayed's watch party that "there were keffiyehs as far as the eye could see ... keffiyehs on heads, keffiyehs as belts, keffiyeh-printed phone cases." Not a single one made it into images from Reuters, a local ABC station, or Detroit News.
www.kentucky.com/news/state/k...
Report: KY organ donor organization often failed to stop procedures despite signs of life
The federal investigation determined medical personnel should have called off organ donation procedures sooner because of signs of life, according to the New York Times.
kentucky.com
Early results show Kansans rejecting constitutional amendment by wide margin | via @journalist-sherman.bsky.social, Jacinda Hall and @kansascarpenter.bsky.social #ksleg
Early results show Kansans rejecting constitutional amendment by wide margin • Kansas Reflector
Kansas voters were set to evaluate a proposed constitutional amendment that would spike a 68-year-old system for selecting justices for the highest court
kansasreflector.com
NEW: Voters have rejected Republicans' scheme to unseat the Kansas Supreme Court's Dem-appointed majority and overturn abortion rights. Amendment 1 would have let the GOP replace the system of a nominating commission, gubernatorial appointment, and retention elections with direct partisan elections
On the same day that David Ellison claims he's not putting his finger on the scale, there's this: "CBS’s 60 Minutes had the scoop on Jeffrey Epstein’s sketchy financials—before the Bari Weiss–run network fired the reporter fronting the investigation."
The New Republic@newrepublic.com · 2d agoBanks permitted millions in suspicious transactions tied to Epstein—and former 60 Minutes correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi had the story months ago. But the report would never air. trib.al/ZShZlIS
"More needs to be made of this," a senior CBS News staffer tells me about the 60 Minutes story that Sharyn Alfonsi was working on about Epstein and banks that appears to have been scuttled after her firing. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Banks permitted millions in suspicious transactions tied to Epstein—and former 60 Minutes correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi had the story months ago. But the report would never air. trib.al/ZShZlIS
If Democrats retake the majority in the Senate and I become chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, one of my first acts will be to subpoena the bankers that helped Epstein carry out his crimes and help deliver real accountability.
Additionally, Epstein accomplices Darren Indyke, Richard Kahn and Harry Beller moved significant amounts of cash around the world in order to finance Epstein’s operations. All three former Epstein employees should be investigated for the key role they played in Epstein’s sex trafficking.
Paul Morris Mary Erdoes Jes Staley Stephen Cutler John Duffy Justin Nelson Paul Barrett Mary Casey David Brigstocke Jeff Matusow Jane Heller Karen Weiss Stewart Oldfield
My investigators compiled a list of individual employees at JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Deutsche Bank, the behavior of which merits investigation by federal prosecutors. That list includes:
Bombshell new report out from my investigators this morning spanning our four year investigation into Jeffrey Epstein’s financial records. This report shows exactly how Wall Street protected Epstein and enabled his sex trafficking for decades. Mega thread following with some key points:
Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan, BofA Enabled Epstein, Wyden Report Says
Democrat Ron Wyden cited nonpublic documents held by the US Treasury in a report that says banks delayed reporting suspicious financial transactions and calls for tougher anti-money-laundering rules, ...
bloomberg.com
Don't miss this vile story: MAGA is raging at DHS chief Markwayne Mullin for admitting migrant farmworkers can beneft our economy. This means his devotion to ethnic cleansing is in doubt. He must be excommunicated! I wrote about the collapse of MAGA mythology here: newrepublic.com/article/2138...
REMINDER: A main argument against US aid to Ukraine is the US badly needed to husband missiles and air-defense for the possibility of war with China. Then the US used that and more on war with Iran. And the supposed China hawks said nothing, confirming that they were Russia sympathizers all along.
The reason Trump’s approval keeps hitting a new all-time low every day, and why Republicans might lose the Senate, is because GOP voters are losing their enthusiasm for his agenda, while independents move in droves toward an energized Democratic base. www.gelliottmorris.com/p/2026-08-04...
He's losing words. Anyone with a parent or loved one suffering from dementia will recognize this pattern. Wen he says "moving cameras," it's because he can't recall the word "videos" and so he's stating the component parts as best he can. E.g., a "camera" is involved and the images are "moving"
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 2d agoTrump: "We have photographs or tapes -- like moving cameras, right? -- where people are on the side cutting it with a box knife."
It would be a shame if one of these so-called journalists repaid Trump for all the disrespect by obtaining and releasing the unredacted Epstein files, which hundreds if not thousands of people have access to.
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 2d agoTrump says Jeanine Pirro "choked" and then snaps at a reporter who asks if her job is safe: "Don't ever talk again"
From a Fox Poll out 7/31: Talarico-Paxton is the marquee race down here but check out the dead heat btw Abbott and Hinojosa for governor. This contest isn't even on the radar for the national Dems, AFAIK. She's has $3m cash on hand--Abbott has *$67m*. Some more highlights from the poll... /1
🧵Alert: The backstory on this story may interest you. Or it may bore you. Either way, here it goes. I first asked the FCC for Chairman Brendan Carr's 2025 financial report on June 24.
FCC Commissioners Face Ethics Complaints for Taking Luxury Gifts From Paramount
Citing a ProPublica report on Paramount providing luxury Kennedy Center gala tickets to FCC officials, the complaints note that commissioners accepted the gifts while the FCC was reviewing or about to...
propublica.org
I'm not sure folks have realized just how crazy the second half of 2026 and 2027 will be for global temperatures – on the back of a record-smashing El Niño event. Here is my latest estimate of where both years will end up compared to global temperatures since 1850.
“To admit the accusations against Miller are credible and to admit they require moral action in response is to admit that all those things the media has been saying about Trump and Republicans might also be true. That is unendurable.” Someone I know hits this mental impasse with Trump and tariffs!
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 3d agoNew in PN: The right-wing bubble seals in the GOP with Max Miller "When you become the party of Fox News, you become a party whose candidates have no idea how to exist outside of Fox. That's why the GOP's fascist propaganda may, for once, be not a life raft but an anchor when the blue wave hits."
The alleged abuser “enthusiastically promoted Trump’s 2020 election lies. Trump rewarded him by supporting his primary bid in 2022 against Rep. Anthony Gonzalez, who voted for Trump’s 2020 impeachment…Trump called Miller a ‘really great guy’ w/‘a passion for this country like you wouldn’t believe.’”
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 3d agoNew in PN: The right-wing bubble seals in the GOP with Max Miller "When you become the party of Fox News, you become a party whose candidates have no idea how to exist outside of Fox. That's why the GOP's fascist propaganda may, for once, be not a life raft but an anchor when the blue wave hits."
For Texas Architect, I unloaded on Texas cities for using deferred maintenance as a precedent for demolishing and abandoning civic structures, including I.M. Pei's Dallas City Hall. Fort Worth and San Antonio aren't spared either. magazine.texasarchitects.org/2026/07/28/d...
"Deferred Maintenance" Endangers Civic Heritage - Texas Architect Magazine
If “deferred maintenance” is the government’s version of the excuse “the dog ate my homework,” then some Texas cities may…
magazine.texasarchitects.org
James Talarico on Texas officially banning THC: “Texans aren’t going to stop smoking weed and eating edibles because politicians in Austin say so. We are now telling full-grown adults how to live their lives. This is the nanny state at its worst; this is big government at its worst."
TIL about DORFic decor. No one who has been over to my place in the last 20 years or so will ever believe that I just learned this was a thing that existed, but I honestly had no idea anyone else was that into it. Yes I am old and out of touch. 😭
“Conservative” politics in America have simply become a competition for who can say the most outrageous and provocative shit, while successfully baiting more famous people into beefing with you publicly. It’s almost as if this is the logical outcome of nominating a Reality TV star for president.
Right wing Twitter has basically become a form of soap opera fandom for fascists. Did you hear who had a nasty falling out? Did you hear who is secretly gay? Did you hear who threatened to kill who? Be sure to tune in tomorrow!