James H McLaren @JamesHMcLaren@qoto.org

New Yorker cartoon of the moment: https://www.newyorker.com/cartoons/daily-cartoon/tuesday-august-13th-musk-boosts-trump

Will you take all the MAGAs with you?

Trump says he'll flee USA if defeated by Kamala Harris - pin-pointing surprising new home

https://www.irishstar.com/news/us-news/trump-says-hell-flee-usa-33455833

Dumb as a lampost. But unfortunately, dangerous.
Bill McKibben’s take on Trump’s boneheaded climate comments.
#ClimateChange #climate

https://open.substack.com/pub/billmckibben/p/the-dumbest-climate-conversation?r=27ssa&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

Just saw this headline under "positive news": "9-year-old sells lemonade to help pay for dad's kidney surgery"

This is not fucking positive or heartwarming, it's dystopian!

It's utterly horrible that we've decided that allowing people to become billionaires is more important than universal access to lifesaving medical care.

A note from writer Mindy Fischer.

“So I was just reading that Georgia just purged hundreds of thousands of voters off the voter rolls. I have voted in every election here in Atlanta since I moved here 11 years ago. There's no reason I should be removed but I thought I'd double check just in case. And goddammit I'm no longer registered. So I had to reregister and now wait for them to update the rolls.
Check your voter registration in whatever state you live in. It's important!“ - Mindy Fischer

JD Vance is basically an *AI person.* Lacking any soul or convictions, he's scraped the trait data from a series of mentors to concoct what he thinks is a plausible personality.

Saw a documentary about some research ship that captures sharks, keeps them in a pen-sort of thing while they tag them and take blood samples, etc., and then after about 15 minutes they open the pen thing and the shark swims away, evidently none the worse for wear. It occurred to me that those sharks will probably spend the rest of their lives telling other sharks that they were once abducted by aliens who performed medical experiments on them, and none of the other sharks will believe them.

My Latest Desktop Wallpaper, Carp Ridge Hike, April, 2011, Panasonic Lumix FZ100 photo edited #photography

Via #TheIntellectualist, #AaronRupar, and #ABC's #ThisWeek with #GeorgeStephanopoulos @ 1:32pm EDT on Aug11, 2024

VANCE: What the American people don't want to talk about is weird juries in NYC.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So juries are not legitimate when they find someone liable for sexual defamation and assault?

VANCE: Absolutely.

#JDVance #Weird

270 is not the goal.

The goal is such a staggering landslide win for Kamala Harris that it as seen as a nationwide full rejection of Trump and the MAGA movement, forcing the Republicans to rebuild themselves by recognizing that adherence to any facet of Trumpism is a guaranteed loss.

America would be best served by two (or more) reasonable parties that universally reject extremists and bigots, such that they have no political home and no voice within American discourse.

I'm listening to Margaret MacMillan's Reith lectures on war.

One point that struck me was that right-wing types often glorify war for its self-sacrifice: risking your life for others is seen as a positive thing, and it is.

But giving a little in taxes to help your country is seen as a terrible imposition, that they want to avoid as much as possible.

🤔

The American media is completely useless.

JD Vance made a TikTok, to try to appeal to GenZ or something. He posted a single video on the account, got roasted for 10,000 comments, then ran away and deleted the account. 😆😆😆🤌🏼

@GottaLaff watched a bit of the Trump rally last night. It was all just driving up fears about immigrants and how Kamala was going to let in all the scary brown people. Disgusting.

His base is so dumb they think "seeking asylum" actually means insane asylums. He's got them convinced all immigrants come from mental institutions and prisons. It's really sick stuff.

As someone raised by a single mother, who, once I got my license, often got sent on errands to go buy pads, and who has continued to do so, having been married for over 20 years to a real live woman who's a whole fucking person with bodily functions and everything, I really appreciate the type of masculinity that doesn't wilt in the face of totally normal and necessary sanitary products.

If there's one thing these fascists have made abundantly clear is that they value women primarily for their reproductive systems. And then they are gonna get squeamish about the normal functioning of that reproductive system?

And these are the same people who think you should have no problem seeing some white dude cosplaying in tactical gear carrying around an AR-15 in public.

Fuck these Nazi clowns and their fragile china-doll egos. I don't claim to know what it means to "be a man" but I sure as hell know it doesn't involve making women feel shitty about their bodies and forcing everyone around you to wonder if you're gonna murder them at any given moment.

How about just trying to be a decent human being?

The main problem with the failure of journalists and academics to abandon Twitter despite knowing that they should (the liberal professional condition is accepting a paycheck from sources we know perhaps we shouldn't) is that at some margin, Elon and his algorithm drive mainstream journalism in directions it otherwise wouldn't have gone, or at least not as far and as credulously.

I wonder whether the coverage given the lame attempt to "swift boat" of Tim Walz isn't an example of that in action.

Walz's ability to cut through the bullshit clearly and succinctly is such a joy to behold. The simple statement of "Mind your own business!" feels profound in a political landscape where the right complains about a "nanny state" when what they're trying to create is just a fascist nanny state where the government is all up in everyone's business. The Democrats are the ones who are saying just let everyone be themselves. That's a pretty simple and broadly appealing message, and it's so refreshing to hear a politician just say it directly and unapologetically, not because it polls well, but because it actually reflects his core values.

OK, this is freakin' brilliant. https://www.comicsands.com/harris-factcheck-trump-press-conference-2668934028.html?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=infeed&utm_campaign=linkprogram

"should Nigel Farage take any blame for the recent riots?"

This poll isn't going the way the Express expected. Here's a direct link so you can vote too 😂

https://xd.wayin.com/display/container/dc/e91ed39c-179d-4b0f-9a09-ad756da68710/entry

If people were taught history, sociology, political science, communication studies, media studies, logic, etc. they would be less susceptible to being fooled by online misinformation.

In a stunning coincidence, these are the kinds of subjects that the right derides as “soft” or “fluff” when it comes to education.

It couldn’t be that the right benefits from ignorance could it?? /s. #politics