Erin Madsen

Now California Democrats know if they want a fighter, they've got one in Katie Porter. If they want a team player who won't make waves, they've got their pick of the rest of the field. #crazylikeafox

Thank you for a perfect summer day for visiting with family. Thank you for the time. Thank you for the words. Thank you for the quiet in between the words. Thank you for a day's rest.

Trump fires a senior official over jobs numbers | CNN Business President Donald Trump has fired Dr. Erika McEntarfer, the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, whom he accused of manipulating the monthly jobs reports for “political purposes.”

Are you impressed? I'm impressed. Can any historians tell me of a time in history when a President embarrassed himself (and our country) more completely than this?

This is how you build a world-class organization. Wharton's finest. America's Best showing the rest of world how it's done. www.politico.com/news/2025/08...

In 2009, I wrote Tom Lehrer asking him to return a birthday greeting for my then girlfriend, Joanna. Sometime after her birthday, she received an envelope from California and a letter inside from Mr. Lehrer saying how he would never send such a letter and that I should have gotten her a real present

Credit to Bill Hicks. I'll bet that DOJ meeting with Ghislaine Maxwell starts a viewing of the missing minute of security cam footage from Jeffrey Epstein's cell, and ends with, "Any questions?"

If Ozzy Osbourne's funeral doesn't begin with a giant bat biting off his head, I don't even know why we have a society.

YouTube video by Extreme Deer Habitat How to never have a serious poison ivy rash again

It's that time of year again for poison ivy. Remember, scrub yourself down vigorously with a washcloth (friction) and soap (a surfactant) within 2-8 hours and you'll never suffer again. It's not the ivy that hurts, it's the ivy oil you failed to remove.
youtu.be/4oyoDRHpQK0?...

YouTube video by Barrett Lewis The Pixies - In Heaven

Word.

YouTube video by Lisa O'Neill - Topic All the Tired Horses

Some hymns emerge from the unlikeliest of places.

Brian Tyree Henry is a phenomenal leading man. I hope for my sake he doesn't go the action-star route and stop doing roles like Ray Driscoll in Dope Thief. But whatever he decides, I think it's his for the taking.

Oh cool, The Far Side is back. Can anyone read the caption?

Not all men, but definitely the loudest men...

If we found out Trump was a Russian and/or Chinese asset, Woildn’t it all make more sense?

They told me if I voted for Kamala the market would crash, and then we’d probably have a recession. They were right.

I have tariffed
the penguins
that are on
Heard Island

and which
you were probably
assuming
did not export goods

forgive me
they were taking advantage of us
so cunning
and so cold

I'm not sure what it says about me, but nothing brings me comfort and hope for the future quite like Ken Burns' The Civil War. Knowing that my country shed blood, treasure, and prosperity to fight a war to end slavery slavery makes me so damned proud. And I could hear that story over and over again.

thinking of one of abraham lincoln's great quotes this morning:

"As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy."

Astral Weeks - YouTube

Astral Weeks is proof positive that not only CAN you enjoy the art in spite of the artist; that should probably be the default position
youtube.com/playlist?lis...

‘I Messed Up At Work Again,’ Crestfallen Michael Waltz Texts Wife, National Geographic Editorial Staff

‘I Messed Up At Work Again,’ Crestfallen Michael Waltz Texts Wife, National Geographic Editorial Staff

Bill Kristol praising Sanders and AOC

imagine explaining to someone in 2016 that Bill Kristol had united in a AOC/Bernie popular front against fascism

This is horrible to post, but I may as well post it. We are essentially shutting down research operations in my group, which is focused on treatments for pediatric brain cancer. I’m a well funded investigator, and there’s no choice. Science can’t function without the stability of NIH

You must be awfully damn certain of yourself to Make a decision like this against the advice of so many very smart and invested people. And in light of trump and Vance trumpeting your cowardice. Awfully awfully damn certain.

a man in a suit and tie is standing with his hands in his pockets . ALT: a man in a suit and tie is standing with his hands in his pockets .

I don't want to say the Schumer optics are bad but Gavin Newsom just invited him on his podcast.

Your occasional reminder that when a very large online corporation claims that you can "shop small business" on their notoriously fee-heavy website...

What they're actually saying is that they feel their bottom line is threatened by your interest in seeing small businesses actually get the money.

Opinion | How Trump is reshaping reality by hiding data Sweeping statistical purges are part of a broader attempt to reinvent “truth.”

Every morning I get up and anxiously check the Washington Post Op-Ed page like Francis Scott Key looking for a flag.

wapo.st/4iCmMtn

Epic idea

No bone spurs detected.