"In the end, it comes down to this: Not only was McConnell there for Trump again & again when it counted, he was the one person who could have forestalled Trump’s disastrous return to the White House. He chose not to, despite having condemned Trump’s actions in fomenting the January 6 insurrection."

Only a matter of time before he realizes he's the last ungilded surface in that room and moves to have himself wrapped in glorious gold too.

There are *four* takeovers in this picture: Canada, Greenland, Venezuela, and (h/t eagle-eyed @trs1998.bsky.social) Cuba!

Even if it's clownish & won't lead to anything real happening, it is *incredibly dangerous* for the president to declare his political opponents illegitimate.

This is some next level North Korean shit

Ossoff: "We understand the president may be threatening to declare sitting senators illegitimate. If that's the course of action he pursues, he's calling GA voters illegitimate...he was humiliated as a committed lifelong racist that it was Black voters in Georgia who were instrumental in his defeat"

POCAN: I think the problem is you're talking to rich people. Maybe this will help. Who pays tariffs? LOEFFLER: 80% of tariffs are paid by foreign countries POCAN: Okay. That would be like me saying I have long flowing red hair. It's complete BS. Small businesses pay tariffs.

From the World of WTF.

In March 2025, Trump met in the Oval Office with oil & gas executives. They listen their grievances and, on the spot, Trump leapt to address them. The executives were, in their own words, "stunned." Read these extraordinary excerpts. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/14/c...

The 1st question Democratic Senators should ask Todd Blanche in his confirmation hearing is why his DOJ is currently obstructing New Mexico's investigation of Epstein's Zorro Ranch. Have the New Mexico Attorney General there to testify regarding this. @durbin.senate.gov @judiciarydems.senate.gov

ICE is a lawless Gestappo that exists purely to murder immigrants and terrorize Americans. Ask every elected official why they don't support Abolishing ICE. This is a litmus test issue moving forward. No half-assed answers. Tell us straight.

I’ll never forget thinking “wow, surely Biden’s DOJ will do something about this absurdly illegal thing” - followed by the DOJ never doing anything about said thing, and then Trump winning.

President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice (DOJ) lost its 14th and 15th voter roll cases Tuesday, when federal judges dismissed* the government’s lawsuits seeking access to Virginia and New Mexico’s full voter records. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

J. K. Rowling posting an upskirt photo of a trans woman and then claiming she was "asking for it" because of the way she was dressed... you'd get laughed out of the writer's room if you tried to do it in an Armando Ianucci show.

Angry federal judge rules that Todd Blanche's grant of immunity to Trump from IRS audits violates 26 U.S.C. § 7217. "Acquiescing to any such demand is wholly incompatible with the duties of DOJ attorneys." YOUCH! storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

BREAKING: WASHINGTON (AP) — Judge says Trump lawsuit against IRS was filed for 'improper purpose' and refers attorneys for disciplinary action

The difference between Trump's political sycophants who mouth off unprofessionally for their boss and the lawyers representing him (including at DOJ) is that the lawyers need their licenses to practice after this Administration ends (and eventually it will). They're on notice.

Williams makes clear in a footnote that she lacks the power to prevent DOJ and Trump from entering into a private deal, but all that means is that DOJ could try to just do a brazen giveaway of 1.6B to insurrectionists and 100M amnesty to Trump in exchange for nothing. Just raw raid of public money.

GREAT NEWS: A judge just voided President Trump's settlement with the IRS granting him immunity from audits and referred a ​Trump lawyer and DOJ officials who signed off on the settlement ‌to ⁠state bar authorities to determine if their actions violated legal ethics rules.

In a scathing order issued against the Trump administration, a US District judge said Trump had sued the IRS “for an improper purpose” — to gain the appearance of “judicial legitimacy” for a controversial settlement with the DoJ, which Trump effectively controls. More: substack.com/@shero/note/...

BREAKING: 12 State AGs just filed suit to block the Paramount–WBD merger The compromised Trump DOJ blessed it as done but states just said otherwise @democracydefendersfund.org & coalition partners are proud to have fought this dangerous deal from day 1 Together we can #BlockTheMerger

but when @jaketapper.bsky.social wanted to ask him a real question yesterday, President Empath said he only wanted to talk about the dearly departed 🙄

CNN re-ups the clip of Trump reading out Lindsey Graham's phone number at a 2015 rally and urging people to call him

Hard to put into words how big of an own-goal it is for the United States to normalize shipping tolls at all, much less tolls at 20%. It's the kind of thing that appeals to someone who has only ever known how to run short-term scams.

"The sudden death of Lindsey Graham at age 71 — young, by today’s gerontocratic standards — is a personal parable for the degradation of conservatism. Indeed, few so perfectly bridge the rise of the Gingrich-led GOP to the steady gutting of the GOP by Donald Trump." — @schaller67.bsky.social

It got muddled b/c it was mostly seen as incidental to getting at Trump himself, but Graham didn't just vaguely lean on Raffensperger. He told him to falsify the tally by not counting ballots. Straight-up criminal election fraud no different from telling a poll worker to go dump votes in the trash.

Sex Matters says gender-critical voices are being silenced. Yet when Amnesty International UK published research critical of them, they didn't publish a rebuttal; they threatened legal action. Freedom of expression isn't a one-way street. We have responded to Sex Matters' email:

Watch only in The Black Lodge: dumb-industries.com/lodge

As a legal analyst and sort of journalist, I want to be clear I have no intention of being on a “normal path” per Trump’s intention. I believe in news based on following the facts, without fear or favor.

This is spot on - I tend to associate flag-burning with the wilder type of leftists (though not the type who'd kick out Jews for not being anti-Israel enough), but even they're better than sanctimonious would-be fascists. ____ Those kinda leftists are the red-yellow-green-brown alliance, more fash.

"Most of us would struggle to imagine a world in which Wehrmacht soldiers, Kripo officers, Zollgrenzschutz agents and members of the Reichstag could be dragged before an international court..." Skill issue

This is a really good explainer about the mortality estimates around USAID. One big point is that dismantling USAID also dismantled one of the main sources of mortality data in some of these regions. Early indicators of mortality are very worrying.

Deeply moving piece by @brycecovert.bsky.social about the immigrants facing removal proceedings who go to court without a lawyer.

Area residents in Biddeford, Maine are posting video and photos of what appears to be a Maine who was shot and killed during an interaction with ICE. Developing. imgur.com/a/bEB9pvZ

"BIDDEFORD, Maine (WGME) -- A person is dead following a shooting involving ICE in Biddeford, according to House Speaker Ryan Fecteau." wgme.com/news/local/i...

BREAKING: Federal judge finds that Trump's IRS suit was improper because Trump controlled both sides of the litigation. Judge Kathleen Williams also sanctions Trump's lawyers, issues monetary sanctions, and harshly criticizes DOJ's "untenable" conduct. More to come at Law Dork: www.lawdork.com

Go after the lawyers and a lot of Trump world falls apart.

We can't go numb to this. We can't let this become normal.

If they haven't committed any crimes, they should have nothing to worry about. That's how it works, right?

Jayapal: I’m somebody who feels like it doesn’t matter what you want to call it, but we have to disband ICE. We have to melt ICE. We have to abolish ICE. Whatever word you want to use, what we need to get to is the end result: ICE should not exist as it exists. And DHS should not exist as it exists

Oh no, I love Sam Neill. Wonderful actor and just a superb dude. I loved his social media updates from his farm. RIP you beautiful man.

what a wonderful man. don’t know if he ever saw this but i sure hope so

RIP

Calm down man I don’t need you to move a fridge, just make Medicare for All happen

Project Relief, an immigrant rights advocacy group, shared the following: “We are heartbroken to share that one of our community members was killed this morning during an encounter with ICE in Biddeford…This was a young person whose life was cut short…” www.wmtw.com/article/sign...

"total workaholic" "They played golf together more than any other two folks in public office "

beyond parody -- Fox & Friends hosts are trying to get Trump to pay tribute to Lindsey Graham, but they can't get a word in as Trump rants and raves about the SAVE America Act and the purportedly rigged elections in California

Trump dunks on Lindsey Graham in death: "He was totally against me. I mean, he was fighting me. I was leading in the polls by a lot. He said, 'I'll get you in South Carolina!' That didn't work out too well. It was amazing."

“They’re a bad group of people, and I don’t say that often.” Unless they’re Muslims Journalists Democrats Somalians People dipping their hand in the reflecting pool Women seeking terminations Communists Socialists Chinese Cubans ICE protestors Anti-Facist Climate Protestors Refugees NATO allies

LAWRENCE JONES: Today marks two years since they tried to assassinate you in Butler. How are you feeling? TRUMP: I've known Ainsley longer than the two of you. I've known her through a very handsome man named Sean Hannity. She seemed to be attracted to him for whatever the hell reason.