✕

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Rupert, come get your orange boy, you petrified old dinosaur turd.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

“Alexa, change the president.”

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

Disagreements are healthy; personal attacks are not.

The only way through is to slog through the muck one step at at time.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

This really is a full service blog.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

‘Tax the rich’ IS the MODERATE position!

When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty. ~Thomas Jefferson

They are not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Is trump is trying to break black America over his knee? signs point to ‘yes’.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

Fight them, without becoming them!

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

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War for Ukraine Day 1,652: A Brief Thursday Night Update

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A black and white cartoon of Popeye's face/head. He is facing to the viewer's left. His right eye is squinted shut and his pipe is sticking out of the right side of his mouth. The speech bubble reads "I yam disgustipated".

I’m fried, so I’m just going to run through the basics again tonight so I can rack out.

Russia is continuing its escalated drone based strike tempo on Ukrainian civilians, civilian facilities, and civilian infrastructure.

As I hear yet another air raid siren rn, I’m looking at photos of russia’s latest attacks on Odesa & Kyiv, Sumy & Khmelnytskyi.

It’s getting harder to find words to keep the world’s attention on russia’s genocidal war. Yet Ukrainians don’t have luxury of turning off a drone that flies right at us.

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— Olena Halushka (@halushka.bsky.social) September 3, 2026 at 4:20 AM

russians burned down a huge warehouse storing medications in the Kyiv region.

Tell me this isn’t a genocidal war aimed at destroying the Ukrainian nation.

Sick monsters obsessed with torturing others are spreading death in every possible form. russia is cancer.

— Olena Halushka (@halushka.bsky.social) September 3, 2026 at 8:52 AM

And then the Russians don’t understand why no one but people like Trump want to deal with them:

Russia: “Why does nobody take our diplomacy seriously?”

Also Russia’s Foreign Minister:

“Führer Ursula.”

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— Maria Drutska (@mariadrutska.bsky.social) September 3, 2026 at 11:43 AM

Here are some of tonight’s outgoing Ukrainian fires:

HERE WE GO ‼️👀 DroneBomber

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— MAKS 26 👀🇺🇦 (@maks23.bsky.social) September 3, 2026 at 5:39 PM

We finally have a bit of clarity on what seemed to be two separate incidents in Kyiv, but have turned out to be the same incident. Apparently the fire fight between Soldiers from the HUR and SBU wasn’t some interservice rivalry gone awry. Rather, they got into it when responding to what has been reported as an attempted assassination attempt on the Russian leader of one of the Russian opposition units fighting on behalf of Ukraine.

The Guardian has the details:

Volodymyr Zelenskyy blasted Ukraine’s SBU and GUR after a shootout in Kyiv between the two intelligence and security services reportedly left three officers injured. The SBU is Ukraine’s internal security service, like MI5 or the FBI. The GUR, or HUR, is its armed forces counterpart and also carries out military activities and special operations. Reports said the gunfight stemmed from the SBU taking into custody a leader of an anti-Kremlin Russian unit that fights for Ukraine under the watch of the GUR. Ukraine’s president called the situation “absolutely shameful” as he called in prosecutors and investigators, as well as firing a senior SBU officer. “Here in Ukraine, shooting is only permissible at Russian occupiers in defence of Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said. “Our state will not perceive any other shootout as something that anyone is allowed to do.”

Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.

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Excellent Read: “Remembering Dolly and Gloria, Childfree Icons”

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Childfree icons who gave a damn about their and future generations — RIP, Gloria Steinem & Dolly Parton edition.cnn.com/2026/09/03/u…

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— Gwen Róisín (@meowthrandir.bsky.social) September 3, 2026 at 12:57 PM

Choire Sicha, at CNN:

… While both said they were influenced by having mothers who were frequently ill and in need of caretaking, they had very different paths to not having children of their own — and different paths in helping better the world for children and parents.

Parton’s path to a childfree existence was fairly convoluted in the way that bodies so often make things. She also grew up one of 12, and five of her younger siblings lived with her for a time after she left the family home. “We always have somebody’s children and we don’t want the total responsibility,” she said of those years.

But Parton came to like what being childfree could do for her, recognizing that it helped her career significantly. “I just want to be free to work. I want to think, I want to write better songs, I want to write different styles of music; I want to write Broadway plays, which I am; I want to write books, which I will,” she said in a conversation with Andy Warhol in 1984…

Raising children is a grave responsibility, no matter how casually many take the decision to do it. It’s also probably one of the most time-consuming, expensive and emotionally harrowing journeys one can experience in America, right up there with medical school and chronic illness.

Parton became one of the single greatest forces for children — apart from her literacy work, she literally paid children to stay in high school and last year the Dollywood Foundation reported giving college scholarships to 22 local high school students.

“She also understood that for kids to thrive, they almost necessarily need more support than their parents can give them alone,” as Ashley Fetters Maloy put it in the Washington Post.

There are different ways to contribute to the welfare of children and mothers. Steinem’s life’s work on abortion was in support of choices around parenthood.

The problem with children and marriage, as Steinem saw it, is that they were all caught up in women being treated as inferior to men. “Especially,” Steinem said in an interview a few years back, “I admire women who have raised children maybe not with the equal help of men frequently. I have not had to do that and I think that is huge.” Did she have any regrets about not having children? “No. Absolutely not. No. I’m not sure why,” she said…

She also saw the broken dynamics of men and women having children together improving here and there because their respective spheres in society were expanding. “Raising children or being raised to raise children is the way men become whole people, just as we become whole by being active in the world outside the home,” she said to a lecture attendee in 2015…

Excellent Read: <em>“Remembering Dolly and Gloria, Childfree Icons”</em>Post + Comments (75)

Running in the Red – Democrat Sean McCann Brings Hope for the House

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Running In the Red: A New Series

If you’re like me, things can feel a bit discouraging with all the unconstitutional chicanery going on around our right to vote. Keep up the fight, follow folks like Marc Ellias and Democracy Docket. Help others check their registration and get their ballots to the ballot box. Together we can get this done.

And of course, keep reading about the deep bench of Democratic candidates taking on the reddest areas of the country. Always a mood lifter. Thanks to MazeDancer for writing up these great profiles. Today we are giving Michigan-4 a looksee.

 

Running in the Red - Democrat Sean McCann Brings Hope for the House

 

I’ll let MazeDancer take it from here:

Running in the Red – GOP Lying by Omission in Michigan-4, as Democrat Sean McCann Brings Hope for the House

If you would like to experience what it feels like to be a person who doesn’t follow politics, but wants to figure out how to vote, tune in to the race for Congress in Michigan-4.

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 One guy’s website talks about reigning in spending, lowering drug costs, and reducing energy prices,

The other guy’s website talks about keeping costs low, reigning in healthcare spending, and reducing energy prices.

You like all that talk, but how are you supposed to tell the difference?

Well, if you know Trump is destroying the nation, and the GOP ain’t stopping him, you might consider not voting for the incumbent Republican who has done diddly-squat.

Which, apparently, GOP incumbent Bill Huizenga knows.

Not once does the guy who has been a Republican in Congress since 2011, mention that he is a Trump supporting member of the GOP. Despite Bill looking like a well-coiffed, Made-by-Mattel, Chamber of Commerce President, the R-word does not appear.

Donald who?

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Sean McCann with Jocelyn Benson, Democratic Nominee for MI Governor, and current MI Secretary of State

 Sean McCann, the Democrat running in MI-4, uses the D-word early and often.

And he has all the right issues highlighted on his campaign website and takes a fierce Dem stance.

Maybe when people see “Republican” and “Democrat” on their ballot, they’ll figure it out. Or maybe Huizenga hopes they don’t read the small print?

Though, perhaps, Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Dem Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, currently running for Governor, and Dem Senator Elissa Slotkin all strongly endorsing Sean McCann has to be a clue.

Also, Jamie Raskin don’t fly across country to do events with no GOP.

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Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Hillary Scholten (D-MI) give a town hall event to support Sean McCann

Will give Huizenga’s advisors a gold star for their “Tax Man McCann” website. Just because it’s not exactly accurate – Truth is so subjective, amirite?– doesn’t stop it from being a good boogeyman.

And something of a distraction from Huizenga’s possible Trump-like grift-and-grab. Bill’s brother, Barry, while working to sell condos owned by Bill and his wife, was paid over $400,000 by the Huizenga campaign.

Brother Barry describes himself as “the campaign’s part-time chairman” and is a full-time real estate agent. Nothing wrong with representing your brother in a few sales. Nothing right about getting paid for it by his political campaign.

Huizenga says he paid his brother for providing strategy for the campaign – since 2014. Guess that is long-term strategy.

And real estate, politics, what’s the difference? Family matter. It happens. Both sides do it. As we know, Bernie Sanders has been funneling hundreds of thousands in campaign funds to his wife and son, under various guises, for years.

In another iffy entanglement, two Huizenga businesses agreed to lease space to a gravel company for a municipal operation. After the township involved approved the project, some of the gravel company execs made donations to Bill’s campaign.

Huizenga, like many Congressman, has increased his wealth fivefold while in office. He used campaign cash to fund lavish travel. Once, his antics brought him under an ethics violation investigation. A 2-2 tie vote meant he got cleared.

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Sean is a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, a federally recognized tribe.

Sean McCann wants a “Michigan you can afford”. Bill Huizenga supports Trump’s tariffs.

Sean has been a Michigan State Senator since 2019. Before that, he was a State House Rep from 2011. All together, he has spent 20 years serving the state, in which he was born, in various elected offices. Experience, he has.

Sean aims to lower costs, increase access to healthcare, guard the air and water, protect reproductive rights, and safeguard benefits for veterans. And everything else every Dem wants – and things some GOP yak about but won’t stand up to Trump to make happen.

Sean McCann gives Michiganders a true choice for their future. If they can just figure that out.

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The McCann Family including Pupper McCann, whose name isn’t given, but who, at least, appears on Dad’s website.

 Sean McCann’s interview with Simon Rosenberg at Hopium Chronicles

Sean McCann’s campaign website

Sean is our 5th ‘Running in the Red” candidate bringing “Hope for the House”. Each of the 21 candidates endorsed by both the DCCC’s “Red-to-Blue” and Hopium Chronicle’s “Winning the House” programs will be featured. See all we’ve covered, so far, here.

But we still want to showcase every Brave Blue Warrior running at every level in RedZones. So, send your names to TaMara at Balloon-Juice.com

***

Let’s do right by Dolly and Gloria, and not give up the fight!  – TaMara

Running in the Red – Democrat Sean McCann Brings Hope for the HousePost + Comments (22)

In a Shocking Display of Even a Bit of Justice at the DOJ – ICE Agent Charged with Lying About MN Shooting.

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Federal Prosecutors Charge ICE Agent With Lying About Minnesota Shooting

The charges marked a rare instance of President Trump’s Justice Department accusing a federal agent of breaking the law while on the job.

Gift link  *NYT)

The first few paragraphs, click the gift link for the full story.

A federal grand jury has indicted an ICE officer on charges of making false statements about the nonfatal shooting of a man during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota last winter, according to a person familiar with the case who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information.

The charges against the officer, Christian Castro of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, marked a rare instance of President Trump’s Justice Department accusing a federal agent of criminal wrongdoing at work.

Mr. Castro, who had been previously charged in state court, was among the thousands of federal agents who flooded Minnesota over the objections of local officials. Those agents made thousands of arrests, clashed regularly with residents and shot three people during the campaign, leaving two U.S. citizens dead.

The indictment against Mr. Castro was filed under seal and officials expect to make it public once he is in custody.
Prosecutors said Mr. Castro shot and wounded Julio C. Sosa-Celis, who is from Venezuela and who lacked legal status in the United States. The Jan. 14 shooting was followed by hours of protests and vandalism.

Top Trump administration officials initially came to Mr. Castro’s defense. But in contrast to the administration’s position in other shootings, federal officials publicly distanced themselves from Mr. Castro in the weeks that followed. Criminal charges against Mr. Sosa-Celis and another man were dropped, Mr. Castro was suspended and video footage emerged that contradicted key aspects of the initial federal account.

It was not immediately clear whether Mr. Castro had hired a lawyer for the federal case.

Open thread

 

In a Shocking Display of Even a Bit of Justice at the DOJ – ICE Agent Charged with Lying About MN Shooting.Post + Comments (114)

Worker Power in Latino an White Working Class Areas in Arizona CD-1 and CD-6 – Angel Match in Honor of Yutsano

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Funding Worker Power for 2 weeks of a GOTV Team in AZ! 2

We have an anonymous Balloon Juice Angel who came forward with an offer to match $1,250 in honor of Yutsano who lived in a working class and Latino district in Washington.  

What a wonderful tribute to our friend!

Apologies to anyone who missed last night’s thread about Yutsano and are finding out this way.

Worker Power :

The target races for our canvass are Arizona Congressional Districts 1 and 6 — two of the most flippable districts on the U.S. Congressional map—as well as reelecting Governor Katie Hobbs, Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, and Attorney General Kris Mayes. These latter three races are critical to the fate of Arizonans in every respect, but they are equally important to the entire country when it comes to blocking anti-voting legislation that may come from the Arizona Legislature next year and also when it comes to the fair secure administration of the Presidential  elections in 2026.

The bulk of our canvassing, and the canvassing for which we we are seeking help from all of you at Balloon Juice, will be conducted in precincts with high densities of Latino and White working-class voters in Democratic leaning areas that underperformed in 2024, when compared to 2020.

That underperformance relates to both the percentage of them that turned out and the percentage of participating voters in these precincts who voted for Democrats.

A significant majority of voters in these precincts lean Democratic, according to statistical models, but the number of them who are actually registered as Democrats is very low compared the number who are registered but are not affiliated with a party.

So, the disconnect between these potentially progressive voters and the Democratic Party is real, but Worker Power is successfully working to bridge that gap—being an organizational link that can motivate these community members to vote for democrats and then hold the Democrats we elect to office accountable to move policy that improves the lives of working people. And we do that through face to face conversations with voters at the doors.

As I post this, the thermometer says $16, 341, and out will be $17,341 once our Angel juno sequa (formerly eponymous) adds her $1k.  

The next $1,250 that goes into the thermometer will be Angel matched

That would leave only $159 to meet our new goal of $20,000 for Worker Power.

It would be great if we can finish this off today so we can get started with our fundraising for Four Directions in Minnesota in time for our zoom with them tonight!

Reminder that we have a zoom with Four Directions tonight at 7:30 Eastern.

RSVP by email to get the zoom link!

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Rest In Peace, Gloria Steinem

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Photo of Gloria Steinem taken in 1975. She's at a podium with a microphone.
Gloria Steinem at a women’s conference held at the LBJ Library on Nov. 9, 1975.
LBJ Library photo by Frank Wolfe

Everything sucks about Donald Trump’s degrading and embarrassing presidency, but I’m especially sorry to learn this morning that Gloria Steinem didn’t live to see the end of it. The current president is the living embodiment of everything Steinem opposed. As Steinem said when asked about her career in 2022:

“I feel proud, and I feel mad as hell. We are still dealing with the same issues.”

Yes. Yes, we are, and it’s goddamn maddening.

Here’s an excerpt from Ms. Steinem’s New York Times obituary, which covered the founding of Ms. magazine (plus a gift link).

The first glossy national periodical to be created, owned and run entirely by women, Ms. magazine, founded in 1971, sought to capture and channel a rising sense of female empowerment and eradicate the sexist assumptions that permeated the culture.

The magazine served as the movement’s manifesto, an incubator for social transformation and a blueprint for action. As such, it helped embolden women as they fought blatant discrimination and harassment in the workplace and unspoken oppression, and sometimes outright abuse, at home.

“When we started, there was not even a term for sexual harassment,” Ms. Steinem often said. “It was just called life.”

My mother, who admired Ms. Steinem greatly, was a Ms. subscriber. I remember discussing the ideas we found in it, which were often quite at odds with prevailing views in the South in the mid-1970s.

Rest in peace, Ms. Steinem, and thank you for the decades of inspiration. Your work will never be complete, but we’ll keep pushing.

Open thread.

Rest In Peace, Gloria SteinemPost + Comments (80)

Thursday Morning Open Thread

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Leading U.S. medical groups are urging people to get updated flu and COVID-19 vaccinations this fall.

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— The Associated Press (@apnews.com) September 3, 2026 at 5:00 AM


ICYMI:

… Here’s how to pick from the multiple flu vaccine options
Three “enhanced” flu vaccines are designed to better protect seniors. The American Academy of Family Physicians urges them to choose one — “but do not delay your vaccination if that one’s not available,” said AAFP’s Dr. Sarah Nosal.

There’s a new choice this year for people ages 50 and older, the first flu vaccine made with the same mRNA technology that was key to ending the COVID-19 pandemic. One study found Moderna’s mFlusiva was 27% more effective against symptomatic illness among 50- to 64-year-olds than a standard shot. The FDA just approved the new option and the company expects some doses to be available soon at certain pharmacies…

The latest on COVID-19 vaccines
COVID-19 shots once were recommended for just about everyone by federal health agencies, but like last year, the FDA has only formally approved them for higher-risk people — those ages 65 and older .or younger people with at least one health condition that increases their risk.

[Everyone can almost certainly cite at least one qualifying health condition, assuming the pharmacy bothers to ask. Even ‘not wanting to pass the virus to vulnerable community members’ would qualify, in most states.]  
Still, the family physicians recommend all adults get a COVID-19 vaccination, especially seniors and those with other risk factors. Adults 65 and older should get a fall dose and then a second dose six months later, as immunity wanes over time, Nosal said.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends a COVID-19 shot for all children ages 6 months to 23 months, and for older kids with high-risk conditions. It also supports vaccination for any child whose parent wishes it…

How to time your vaccination
October is ideal for a flu vaccine, as influenza typically starts spreading in November. COVID-19 tends to rise in late summer, as it is now, and again after the winter holidays. Fryhofer says it’s fine to time the coronavirus shot a few weeks ahead of an event you wouldn’t want to miss because of illness, like a special trip or get-together…

NEW: House Democrats block GOP-led constitutional amendment to lock Supreme Court size at 9 justices
212-206, short of the 2/3rds majority.
Every Dem but Don Davis voted NO; leaders whipped NO.
As D support to expand SCOTUS grows. Harris & Clyburn spoke out for it. www.nbcnews.com/politics/con…

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— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur.bsky.social) September 2, 2026 at 5:13 PM

Welcome to Congress, Reps. Aisha Wahab and Everton Blair!
214 House Democrats are united in our fight to lower costs and deliver for the American people.

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— Katherine Clark (@whipkclark.bsky.social) September 2, 2026 at 3:14 PM

One year ago today, Donald Trump began using your tax dollars for the cold-blooded murder of a total of 227 people so far. It was and is clearly illegal under U.S. and international law. And the American officials responsible for these extrajudicial killings must be held accountable.

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— Rep. Jim McGovern (@repmcgovern.bsky.social) September 2, 2026 at 4:26 PM

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Thursday Morning Open ThreadPost + Comments (104)