Iran doesn’t want the Strait of Hormuz closed, they want it open so they can make $500 Million Dollars a day (which is, therefore, what they are losing if it is closed!). They only say they want it closed because I have it totally BLOCKADED (CLOSED!), so they merely want to “save face.” People approached me four days ago, saying, “Sir, Iran wants to open up the Strait, immediately.” But if we do that, there can never be a Deal with Iran, unless we blow up the rest of their Country, their leaders included! President DONALD J. TRUMP

Trump threatens Iran with potentially "blowing up the rest of their Country, their leaders included!"

Virginia voters just handed Democrats another win in the Great Redistricting Wars Trump’s gerrymandering efforts are backfiring.

Trump thought he could steal the midterms by making MAGA minions rig the House maps.

They thought blue states would sit back and do nothing.

We proved them wrong. Thank you to VA Indivisibles and organizers across the commonwealth for this huge win and your commitment to protecting our democracy.

Congratulations, Virginia! Republicans are trying to tilt the midterm elections in their favor, but they haven’t done it yet. Thanks for showing us what it looks like to stand up for our democracy and fight back.

Sec. Hegseth: "It's Just Gay" To Require Our Warriors To Wash Hands After Using The Bathroom

My most liberal idpol radlib take is that I think it's pretty bad that
right wing forces are actively intervening on behalf of the Klan with the full weight of the state legal apparatus

The person witnessing the exchange between AOC and RFK, Jr. at today’s congressional hearing is all of us.

Maybe it's just me but I don't think Jeffrey Epstein's clients should be the ones to decide if Jeffrey Epstein's clients should be prosecuted.

Ossoff: "You were talking earlier about Jared Kushner. The guy leading our diplomacy in the Middle East is bringing in billions from Middle Eastern princes and sheiks and going around the region asking for billions more while he conducts nuclear diplomacy on behalf of the country. It's obscene."

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has signed an executive order banning state employees from using insider info to bet on prediction market apps like Kalshi and Polymarket, warning the unregulated boom “opens the door to insider trading and abuse.”

a black and white photo of a little girl covering her face with her hands . ALT: a black and white photo of a little girl covering her face with her hands .

Thank you, VA.

as it becomes clear that Yes has won in VA and gerrymandering will pass, a message to Republican voters:

you brought this on yourselves

you convinced the most fairness-obsessed, That Wouldn’t Be Fair-minded voters in the country to affirmatively vote to put you in the dumpster

you earned this

NYT: “Justice Dept. Charges Prominent Civil Rights Group With Financial Crimes”

Republicans have accused the Southern Poverty Law Center, which is best known for investigating hate groups, of unfairly targeting conservative and Christian organizations.

Oh noez! “Rhetorical hyperbole.” I’d bet the bourbon that this is the way his Patel’s lawsuit against the Atlantic goes as well.

>> bsky.app/profile/greg...

A clip from The New York Times reads: "But only the entities that officially paid the tariffs are eligible to recover that money. That means that the fuller universe of people affected by Mr. Trump’s policies — including millions of Americans who paid higher prices for the products they bought — are not able to apply for direct relief. The extent to which consumers realize any gain hinges on whether businesses share the proceeds, something that few have publicly committed to do. Some have started to band together in class-action lawsuits in the hopes of receiving a payout."

The average American family paid $1,700 in tariffs last year, according to the bipartisan Congressional Joint Economic Committee. Few will ever see any of that money back. The refunds will go to companies, if doled out at all. What a joke.

Leaving aside the basic fact of its absurdity - no, the average IQ in Somalia isn’t 70 - all I see here is a couple of idiots desperate for an unearned reason to think they’re better than others. Pathetic.

The Strange Death of Orbánism Franz Pokorny

Hungarian taxpayers paid American “post-liberal” Rod Dreher $105,000 last year to produce propaganda for Orban’s regime. www.jaccusepaper.co.uk/p/the-strang...

The real failure to look in the mirror is academics falling back on comfortable “we’re partly responsible because we enforced left wing orthodoxy“ thinking rather than the less comfortable truth that Trump/MAGA are bad faith actors who will only be satisfied with resegregated MAGA academies

if the right is successful, it must be because the liberals possess some fatal shortcoming or overreached in a way that mechanically produced backlash. the idea that the political right is its own thing with its own aims, can harness discontent and take advantage of contingency is verboten i guess

flipping through a proof of yet another book from a somewhat well known liberal voice diagnosing “where the left went wrong” and i’m struck, again, by the fact that a large part (if not most) of the liberal commentariat simply does not believe that the political right has agency.

an average of just under 35 percent approval. oof.

Remember, Democrats have repeatedly advanced measures to ban partisan gerrymandering and Republicans have voted against them time after time.

This is the game Republicans wanted to play. OK, then.

Daily Reminder: Release th Epstein Files👇🏻

'I don't buy it': Nicolle reacts to Tucker Carlson's apology for helping to re-elect Trump YouTube video by MS NOW

Exactly. Don’t elevate Tucker Carlson; he’s still a scumbag. He’s remorseful because he thinks Trump hasn’t gone far enough in being evil.

This @nicollewallace.bsky.social segment is great at explaining why not to believe Carlson.

'I don't buy it': Nicolle reacts to Tucker Carlson's apology for helping to re-elect Trump YouTube video by MS NOW

#TuckerCarlson will never not be full of bullshit. Remember the texts and emails between the #FoxNews people talking about how awful #Trump was and what an idiot he is? Now Tucker wants people to believe that he didn't purposely mislead people? Give me a break.
youtu.be/l4Wos0vXwb0?...

From the AP:

“FBI Director Kash Patel said last year that the agency was severing its relationship with the (SPLC) center, which had long provided law enforcement with research on hate crime and domestic extremism.”

Of course he did, he’s part of the extremist hate group now in power.

Help me out here, is the drunken Kash Patel, who isn't investigating his own president for raping a child, saying the FBI's own methods are criminal?