Call me Bob

This is sorta giving away the game.

Republicans like to pretend they don’t like high crime rates, but this is simply not true. They see high crimes rates (real or imagined) as opportunities to scare white supremacist voters—and enact laws that make the lives of darker skinned people miserable.

Sean Duffy: "Pete Buttigieg was running for president as opposed to doing his job and making sure that we got our air traffic control system modernized."

(Pete Buttigieg ran for president in 2020. He became transportation secretary in 2021.)

“In the good old days this doesn’t happen because they used to treat them very, very rough. And when they protested once, you know, they would not do it again so easily.”
youtu.be/wP4DdYvD480?...

This sounds very much not good:

For the first half of the year, NYC added under 1,000 jobs. Same period last year was 66,000.
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/13/n...

Maine Morning Star -- typically as deferential to Susan Collins as the rest of the cowed/complicit Maine press -- admits that despite Collins blather about supporting medical research, she was the deciding vote AGAINST reinstating research grants, including millions for Maine labs. #MEpolitics

Robert Reich The DOGE Damage Elon is Leaving Behind

DOGE claims it has saved taxpayers $32.7B by cancelling federal contracts, but a new POLITICO investigation could only verify $1.4B of actual cuts.

These cuts are barely saving anything, and the disruption they’ve caused far outweighs any savings.

Here's how DOGE hurts you.

A pair of unworn hi-vis yellow/green Nike sneakers sitting on a dirty rug. There are not words to describe how highlighter bright these sneakers are and frankly even the photo doesn’t capture it.

I bought a pair of black NoBull shoes for the gym but they are ugly and make me sad every time I put them on. So I decided life is too short and money is fake and bought a new pair of ludicrously bright Nikes and they make me so much happier!

“Meschers: Geometry Processing of Impossible Objects”

A graphics and material-modelling tool that can systematically handle impossible objects.

Want your Penrose triangles smoothed into bagels, while retaining their delicious impossibility? Meschers can do that.

H/T @sohkamyung@mstdn.io

YouTube video by Nature’s Power Chaos in Texas, USA Again! Destructive Hailstorm & Severe Floods Destroyed Homes & Cars in Amarillo

youtube.com/watch?v=u_VH...

Texas

Carrie Underwood will likely forever regret her decision to sing for the orange wannabe dictator. Zero sympathy.

Paying Gestapo more than teachers

Welcome to the Great Bear Sea | The Tyee After decades of discord, Canada is working with First Nations to create marine protected areas stretching from Vancouver Island to Alaska.

There’s a live? coral reef??? in Queen Charlotte Sound????? that was only documented in 2021 by a combination of Indigenous traditional knowledge and modern submersibles?????

Issue-specific targeted checkpoints like DUI checkpoints can be constitutional, but a generalized roust-everyone-for-anything checkpoints are definitely not. There may be an exception for a special purpose to help a career sex pest and rapist evade attention to his connection to a serial pedophile.

Screenshot of Jannie Pirro above the headline: Pirro Announces Felony Charge After Sandwich Hits Officer

I’m not saying comedy is getting harder per se, but this is a real headline about a currently serving U.S. Justice Department official. I mean, come on.

can’t stop thinking about how bizarre it is to put a checkpoint on that specific intersection

it was placed at the opposite of a bottleneck, as you have many options to turn away from where it was & you can see it from the top of & bottom of a hill

& it’s a quiet wednesday night

We’re in the phase where Americans, press included, should be considering all news originating with the government as propaganda first. Its institutional tendency is to evade good-faith dialogue with the public.

This is exactly one block from the sandwich throwing incident. The neighborhood is being collectively punished for it.

We were within inches of a vaccine for several cancers, flu, the cold. Inches.

My nephew (Desi, dark brown, Muslim) is moving home from DC tomorrow. He has spent the last few days inside. He is currently strategizing with all of his friends the safest way for him to get onto the train and out of the city without having to interact with fed goons.

How is this reality?

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton Is Outsourcing More of His Office’s Work to Costly Private Lawyers Despite having an office of hundreds of attorneys, Ken Paxton is frequently opting for private lawyers — many to whom he has personal or political ties — to argue on behalf of Texas. One attorney…

Texas AG Ken Paxton hired a former staffer to work on a recent case. As a state employee, her labor would have cost taxpayers $641.

As a private attorney, Paxton allowed her to bill $3,780 an hour, so that day of work cost taxpayers $24,570.

With @texastribune.org

Press needs to stop repeating govt euphemism of “clearing homeless camps.” I’ve witnessed it in other cities: massive destruction of personal property. Not just bedrolls & tents; family photos, Bibles, meds. Times I’ve seen it people weren’t even given option to move their things.

New must-read report from Defense for Children International - Palestine on the abduction and torture of 16-year-old Omar Nizar Mahmoud Asfour for 26 days at Sde Teiman military detention camp. Insanity:

YouTube video by WQAD News 8 Deadly storms, flooding impact Tennessee

youtube.com/watch?v=S_bp...

YouTube video by Katie Phang Trump HUMILIATED After Court’s Ruling DROPS the HAMMER

We gotta celebrate the wins and this one is a big one.

A federal appeals court upholds @ejeancarroll.bsky.social’s $83.3 million verdict against Donald Trump & slams Trump and the DOJ for trying to insert an argument on appeal that they both waived.

youtu.be/zYGTLiBdfOw?...

YouTube video by 11Alive Flooding in northwest Georgia amid heavy Chattanooga rains | Drone video

youtube.com/watch?v=n9AH...

News

Alex Jones’ Infowars will go up for sale yet again, judge rules | CNN Business The order paves the way for The Onion to revive its bid for the conspiracy-driven outlet and its assets.

Alex Jones’ far-right platform Infowars can be sold once again to help pay the more than $1 billion he owes the families of Sandy Hook shooting victims, a Texas district court judge has ordered.

BREAKING: Federal court blocks and limits most of Florida law targeting school library books.

The only constitutional application is its "harmful to minors" provision, which limits obscene material that had already been banned from school libraries.

More to come at Law Dork: www.lawdork.com

(NBC News) - President Donald Trump's pick to run the Bureau of Labor Statistics was among the crowd outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, with the White House saying he was a "bystander" who wandered over after seeing coverage on the news.

@ryanjreilly.com
www.nbcnews.com/politics/jus...

New Zealand woman and six-year-old son detained for three weeks by Ice in US enduring ‘terrifying’ ordeal Sarah Shaw, who has a US visa and lives in Washington state, was detained after attempting to re-enter US from Canada

These aren’t rumors: This. Is. Happening.
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

70% of Americans believe same-sex couples should be legally allowed to marry.

But Christian White Nationalism doesn’t care about national sentiment. They are deluded into believing they’re saving unholy sinners from an amoral society.