Dan in Kansas City

Between Trump-Epstein and redistricting, Democrats finally figured out how to fight Everyone from progressives to centrists are throwing punches as Republicans flail, Eric Garcia writes

NEW from me: Historically, whenever Democrats get in the minority, they tend to see themselves as partners in governing. But Democrats completely ground Congress to a halt last week. It's a sign they are becoming more of an oppositional party. www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

Our July 2025 cover:

"Weird Al" Yankovic. @alyankovic.bsky.social

Yankovic dishes on his 'Bigger & Weirder' tour, his Emmy-winning biopic 'Weird: The Al Yankovic Story,' the changing tides of pop culture & the creeping influence of artificial intelligence.

rockcellarmagazine.com/weird-al-yan...

Photo of Tom Lehrer

My last living musical hero is still my hero but unfortunately no longer living. RIP to the great, great Mr. Tom Lehrer.

Family of man in mental health crisis killed by ex-Olathe cop to get settlement A judge found that the officer used excessive force when he shot and killed Brandon Lynch, who was 27, on New Year’s Eve in 2022.

A judge found that the officer used excessive force when he shot and killed Brandon Lynch, who was 27, on New Year’s Eve in 2022.

Indy gets his payback!

#HEYHEYHEYHEY

Royals go 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position and still walk off Cleveland Jonathan India plays hero in Game 1 of Saturday doubleheader.

Jonathan India plays hero in Game 1 of Saturday doubleheader.

HUGE WALKOFF BY JONATHAN INDIA!

Tattered paper with manuscript note "burn this letter as Soon as you have read it."

Well, he didn't. (He didn't do much else his sister advised either.)

Screenshot from King of the Hill Season 2, Episode 11

Gotta score Garcia there

Salvy’s first strikeout in TWENTY SEVEN PLATE APPEARANCES. This guy just keeps going!

The Big Beautiful Bill gives Meta a $15 billion check.

That’s more than our federal government spends on child care in an entire year.

If we invested that much in child care & early childhood education, we’d create stronger futures for everyone, not just Mark Zuckerberg.

Mass starvation stalks Gaza as deaths from hunger rise Aid agencies warned for months that Israel’s harsh limits on food aid would bring acute malnutrition and widespread suffering to Gaza’s 2.1 million people.

Babies dying of malnutrition, people gunned down waiting for rations—the forced starvation in Gaza must end now.

The Israeli government must restore the flow of aid and allow its safe distribution. This slide into famine pulls us farther from the goals of lasting peace.

In the ’80s, it became obvious that Earth’s ozone layer was thinning—caused by chemicals in old spray cans and AC units.

But some on the far right denied it was real.

The world acted anyway. We banned the chemicals. It worked.

(Researching 80s-90s right-wing conspiracy theories!)

The Texas Observer has identified James “Jim” Joseph Rodden, assistant chief counsel for ICE as “GlomarResponder” who posts white supremacist and racist statements on X. Rodden represents the agency in immigration court hearings where judges decide whether an individual is removed from the country.

This seems fine, and like a technology we should totally trust to run our educational system and other parts of our society.

MAIKEL GARCIA HAVE YOURSELF A DAY!

The Massachusetts Council had been meeting for decades. This was the first time that body met while defying a royal governor who was in the province (inside besieged Boston). The Council treated the governor and lieutenant governor as absent and assumed executive powers.

It’s like Holmes said in his Abrams dissent. If your movement or beliefs or war effort can’t tolerate criticism in a “silly leaflet by an unknown man,” what’s it worth? They’re a bunch of broke 20-year-olds fighting a billionaire war machine, using tents and mean words. You’re not the victim here.

“Trump Turnberry still boasts of its visits from Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, who was forced to stand down from royal duties in 2020 over his links to Epstein. … If the president is hoping to gain some distance from the scandal with some time on the links, he’s gone to the wrong golf courses.”

Me, on why the Maxwell pardon ploy won’t work:

“‘What did Roger Stone and Paul Manafort get charged with and what were they found guilty of?’”

Hosts: 🤔🙇🏾‍♂️😬🤷🏾‍♂️

“‘That’s right! But you will 𝙖𝙡𝙬𝙖𝙮𝙨 remember what Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of.”

www.alternet.org/donald-trump...

In the same week we have a storied news bureau agreeing to the installation of a government commissar and an Ivy league university taking dictation from the White House. A decade ago I'd have laughed out loud at the suggestion our core institutions could be this weak & unprincipled.

You could almost set your watch to this kind of thing

1717 portrait of Peter the Great

Reminder: Peter the Great was 1) taller than Hulk Hogan, and 2) won the Great Northern War (1700–1721) without the use of steroids.

“I fear the end of CBS as I knew it.”

The legendary Connie Chung on the Paramount/CBS-Skydance deal which just received approval from the FCC.

The most disheartening thing about America’s descent into fascism has been the abject cowardice of virtually all the people and institutions that could have stood up and refused to comply.

Most of the internet used to be like this. This is actually the default, it took companies enclosing the internet and adding weird, soul-killing incentives to make people behave the way they do now. In a way, there is truly nothing special about Wikipedia except that it survived longer.