Thursday, September 10, 2026

Today's Cartoons

 

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(David Rowe, Financial Review, Australia)

(Bart van Leeuwen, Oedipoes.com, Netherlands)

(Patrick Chappatte, The Boston Globe)


(Benjamin Slyngstad, @slyngstad_cartoons)

(Pat Bagley, The Salt Lake Tribune)


(Jack Ohman, Tribune Content Agency)

(Monte Wolverton, caglecartoons.com)

(Jonathan Brown, caglecartoons.com)


(Dave Whamond, caglecartoons.com, Canada)

(Peter Kuper, gocomics.com)

(Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

(Mike Konopacki, The Capital Times, Madison, WI)

(Jon Adams, The New Yorker)



QOTD -- How Terrorism Wins

 

"... Do not let terrorists who hold state power tell you how to react to terrorism.

"Do not be provoked, do not enter the mental world of the terrorist, foreign or domestic; think for yourself. And do that thinking in the future: not as a reaction to some orchestrated horror, theirs or ours or anyone’s; not amidst a cloying nostalgia in which we were always right because only others can do wrong; but in the hope that we can make this quarter century better than the last.

"Commemoration is a singular chance to reflect. Americans in power will try to use this anniversary to that everything happened exactly as it had to, and that we should bow our heads rather than use them.

"We went along twenty-five years ago. We should not do so again. Thinking about the last quarter century, we can choose to think differently.

"And what we failed to do then we can do now. We can think of our security as part of our freedom, as our education and our health and ability to realize our best selves. We can turn from sources of energy that kill to sources of power that enliven. We can love our country but recognize that our only homeland is a common one, the earth itself." -- Timothy Snyder, writing from Kiev, concluding his "Thinking About..." Substack essay, "Helping The Terrorists Win." Professor Snyder traces the response to terrorism from 9/11 to today, and all the wrong-headed ways we lashed out, often creating more problems and "helping the terrorists win."  Perhaps if we see and understand the broader implications of our past actions, we can someday learn to do what's most effective and positive for ourselves and our planet.  A typically thoughtful piece, well worth the read.


Skeets Of The Day


Operation Epic Quagmire: Iran escalating, oil prices surge -- 

 

Page One. @wsj.com

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— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla.bsky.social) September 10, 2026 at 7:00 AM

 

The price of U.S. crude oil rose above $100 for the first time Thursday since May with no end in sight in the Iran war.

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— The Associated Press (@apnews.com) September 10, 2026 at 9:15 AM


The Briber-in-Chief -- 


Sounds like something a man convicted of multiple felony fraud counts would do

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— Brandi Buchman (@brandibuchman.bsky.social) September 10, 2026 at 6:34 AM

 

Aside from the blatant illegality here, you’ll get this right after your tariff dividend, your freedom dividend, Trump’s health care plan, and your $2 gas

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— Angry (@angrystaffer.bsky.social) September 9, 2026 at 11:11 PM


More on the "Trump-a-Loser" convention -- 


Trump’s sweaty breathless freak out in Dallas is the most desperate performance yet from America’s failed, corrupt, fading lame duck president and his rapidly diminishing base of followers.

— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf.bsky.social) September 10, 2026 at 7:08 AM

 

The Party wanted you to not believe what you saw with your own eyes—that an octogenarian repeatedly falling asleep in the Oval Office was actually a champion pole vaulter clearing bars 20 feet high.

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— David Corn (@davidcorn.bsky.social) September 9, 2026 at 10:38 PM

 



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— WokeMooseAndSquirrel๐ŸŒŠ๐Ÿซ (@wokemoosensquirrel.bsky.social) September 9, 2026 at 9:33 PM

 

The withheld Epstein files almost certainly answer that question

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— Scott Horton (@robertscotthorton.bsky.social) September 10, 2026 at 10:12 AM


Grindr outage reports are surging in Dallas on Day 1 of the Republican midterm convention

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— FactPost (@factpostnews.bsky.social) September 9, 2026 at 6:58 PM

 

The unhinged Malignant Fascist undermines environmental rules for data centers -- 


The Republican Party makes false promises and creates fake culture war distractions because they don’t want you to pay attention to things like this.

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— Ron Filipkowski (@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social) September 10, 2026 at 7:40 AM


The constant companion and her daycare client -- 


First to drink the Kool-Aid, first to ask for seconds.

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— ๐•Š๐•ฆ๐•Ÿ๐••๐•’๐•– ๐”พ๐•ฆ๐•ฃ๐• (@sundaedivine.lol) September 10, 2026 at 6:35 AM

 

 

Trump Offers Bribe To Vote Republican




Continuing in his efforts to rig the mid-term elections, the corrupt and demented Malignant Fascist promised to give every adult $5,000 if the Republicans keep control of the House and Senate.  He made the bogus bribe offer at his "Trump-a-loser" convention in Dallas last night.  From the Associated Press:

"President Donald Trump pledged Wednesday to send every American adult $5,000 if Republicans retain control of the House and Senate in the midterm elections, an extraordinary gambit to reverse his party’s sagging fortunes in November.

The dubious promise would most likely cost more than $1 trillion and require congressional approval, and would further exacerbate the country’s nearly $1.8 trillion annual budget deficit and concerns about inflation.

“'f the Republicans win, you win with us and you get $5,000,' Trump said during the GOP’s midterm convention in Dallas. 'It will be called the Trump Dividend.'

He likened the payments to a corporation’s distributions to shareholders, citing 'our tremendous strength and success economically.'

Within an hour, Vice President JD Vance appeared to try to walk back Trump’s proposal — at least in part — by suggesting the dividend payments would not go to the wealthy. Vance suggested it could be paid for by U.S. tariff revenues, though the suggested payment dwarfs what the U.S. has taken in through the protectionist measures." (our emphasis)

Some rubes will believe this pathological liar, whose promises are rarely kept, but we expect all but the most deluded will not.  It also appears to violate Federal campaign laws which prohibits the use of bribery to gain votes, but this convicted felon couldn't care less if it means saving his orange hide. 


Alarming Warnings On AI Development

 


The warnings on AI development have suddenly started coming from inside the house, and are alarming:

OpenAI and Anthropic researchers are ramping up calls for an AI slowdown and warning of existential risks to humanity after the resignation of a researcher at Anthropic fueled fresh scrutiny.

The concerns started after Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon said Tuesday that he was quitting the company as he accused Anthropic and rival OpenAI of “gambling with our lives.” He added that those building AI believed that it could “kill us all by the end of the decade.” Evan Hubinger, Anthropic’s alignment lead, responded that he expects there is a more than 10% chance of that happening.

Since then, several employees at both AI labs have come out in support of calls to slow the pace of AI development as they stressed the risks of the technology. The public warnings are the culmination of growing concern globally about the capability of AI, following numerous cyberattacks and security incidents in recent months by rogue models developed by both OpenAI and Anthropic.

“In my personal capacity, I also think we need to slow down,” Julie Steele, a member of OpenAI’s technical staff who works on the safety team, said late on Wednesday in a post on X in response to Coxon’s warnings. 

Anthropic researcher Samuel Marks said that “AI developers believe their technology could cause human extinction (or similarly bad outcomes),” in an X post on Wednesday. “This could happen in the next few years. In general, the more senior the employee, the more concerned they are.”

Anthropic was the first lab to publish a framework dedicated to mitigating “catastrophic risks from AI models,” a spokesperson told CNBC when asked about the comments from employees on social media.

“We have always been transparent that AI will bring both enormous benefits and unprecedented risks,” an Anthropic spokesperson said, adding that the company was building models with “some of the strongest safeguards in the industry.” [snip]

Many of the biggest AI safety fears revolve around advanced models getting increasingly capable at improving their own performance, a technique known as recursive self-improvement, or RSI.

“It’s hard to overstate how dangerous speeding towards RSI is,” said Jasmine Wang, an OpenAI researcher working on alignment, on Wednesday evening.

“There is not yet a viable scientific plan to solve risks from recursively self-improving AI. Please look up!” said Anna Wang, who works on AGI safety and alignment at Anthropic.

OpenAI’s chief scientist Jakub Pachocki said Saturday that he has a “strong expectation” that the speed of progress in AI could be sustained into recursive self-improvement.

“If AI development continues along its current path, the systems we’ll see in the next few years are likely to represent further capability jumps of equal or larger magnitude, and to increasingly drive their own development,” he said in a company blog post.

“This is a time that calls for extreme caution,” Pachocki added. “I am concerned no one is prepared for the consequences of a continued rapid rise in machine intelligence.”

Paul Christiano, who was formerly head of safety at the U.S. Commerce Department’s Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI), said recent development of AI capabilities led him to “believe there is a meaningful risk that rapid acceleration in AI capabilities leads to catastrophic and irreversible loss of control in the very near term.” OpenAI announced Wednesday that Christiano is joining the board of OpenAI Foundation.

Concerns around the capability of AI models have ramped up in recent months. The announcement of Anthropic’s Mythos model, which it touted as having advanced cyber capabilities, in April whipped up a frenzy of panic among financial institutions globally.

In July, OpenAI said its models were responsible for a cyber incident on another company, while Anthropic’s Claude models were also responsible for cybersecurity incidents, including in one case where Mythos created fake identities to fool humans.

Roughly 1,400 AI researchers, from companies including OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta and Google DeepMind, published an open letter in July urging the U.S. government to develop the tools necessary to support an effort to “deliberately pace the frontier of automated AI development.”

While chiefs of AI labs have increasingly publicly called for more rules and standards around the development of models, huge competition between companies developing the tech is spurring rapid advances.  (our emphasis)

We've always had just enough human intelligence to sow the seeds of our own destruction.  Unfortunately today, instead of a bright and nimble central federal government ready to address the issue, we have a demented moron Malignant Fascist who sees the future of AI in terms of beating China to the punch (and, of course, being able to post AI slop portraying him as an immortal hero).  Congress, with its large AI / tech know-nothing contingent, may slowly be getting on the case.  Meanwhile, the oligarch tech bros are pleading with everyone else to solve their problem because they're too competitively greedy to stop it on their own for now.

(Image: SciTechDaily.com)

 

Wednesday, September 9, 2026

QOTD -- "Self-Medication From A Sundowning President"

 

The wonderful Nobel laureate Paul Krugman, writing in Substack, about the crazed and ignorant Malignant Fascists's trade war on Canada:

'There have been many trade conflicts in history, some of them more destructive than the US-Canada fight. But I don’t think there has ever been a dispute this stupid.

Bear in mind that this crisis is entirely gratuitous. Canada has done nothing wrong. Even if one buys into Trumpian nonsense about how every nation that sells us more than it buys is ripping us off, Canada isn’t a villain. Last year Canada did run a modest trade surplus with the United States in goods, but more than half of this imbalance was offset by a U.S. surplus in services. Overall trade between our nations was almost balanced.

So what is this about? Clearly, we’re looking at a symptom of deranged Trump syndrome. As Trump’s failures, from soaring fuel prices to plunging approval, multiply, he is doubling down on his disrespect for and attempted bullying of our northern neighbor and former ally. That is, you should think of this conflict not as something reflecting U.S. national interests, but as a form of self-medication from a sundowning president." (our emphasis)

Almost all of what animates the sick, narcissistic Malignant Fascist is his insatiable need to be praised and liked, regardless of whether the interests of the U.S. are at stake. When he's rejected, he lashes out in a fit of narcissistic wounding.  He's a national security threat, but no one in his MAGAt cult will call for his removal. 

 

Today's Cartoons

 

(click on images to enlarge)

(Clay Jones, gocomics.com)

(John Darkow, Columbia Missourian)

(Jack Ohman, Tribune Content Agency)

(Pedro Molina, Tribune Content Agency)


(Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

(Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Canada)

(Paul Duginski, caglecartoons.com; context here)
(Nick Anderson, The Contrarian)

(Dave Whamond, caglecartoons.com, Canada)

(John Deering, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

(Pat Bagley, The Salt Lake Tribune; context here)

(Patrick Blower, @blowercartoons, UK)

(Niall Maher, @nialljmaher)


Skeets Of The Day


 

The Epstein-Trump files coverup / missing pages / follow the money --


NPR published a stunning report on serial numbers and discovery logs that do not line up with what the Justice Department has posted online. Some of the missing materials relate to allegations involving Trump! The department declined to explain the discrepancies! www.mediaite.com/opinion/epst...

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— WomenRiseUp2026 (@womenriseup2026.bsky.social) September 8, 2026 at 9:14 PM

 



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— Miaganga (@miaganga.bsky.social) September 8, 2026 at 6:46 PM

 

Operation Epic Quagmire / the price we pay, the profits Trump makes  --

 

Oil back over $100 a barrel. This is all on Trump and GOP!! Nov 3 election could not come soon enough to destroy the GOP!! Gas now up 40% to $4.22. Diesel is at a record of nearly $6.00.

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— Dean Obeidallah (@deanobeidallah.bsky.social) September 9, 2026 at 7:04 AM

 

The average price of a gallon of gasoline in the US. overnight took its steepest jump since May, climbing seven cents to $4.22, AAA reported. The average price of a gallon of gas in the U.S. two days before Trump and Netanyahu attacked Iran was $2.98. #EndlessWars #EndlessTradeWars #EndlessChaos

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— Ken Bazinet (@kenbazinet.bsky.social) September 9, 2026 at 4:52 AM

 

Trump's oil investments have gained millions during Iran war as his accounts keep trading

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— CNBC (@cnbc.com) September 9, 2026 at 6:46 AM

 

Trump's despicable 9/11 lies, and the sanewashing --

 

1. This week is the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Trump is marking the occasion by describing his role in heroic terms, claiming he personally went to Ground Zero with an army of construction workers to aid recovery efforts. It is all a fantasy.

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— Judd Legum (@juddlegum.bsky.social) September 9, 2026 at 8:32 AM

 

2. As the years have passed, Trump's account of the day has become even more dramatic and implausible. We review the actual facts in today's Popular Information:

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— Judd Legum (@juddlegum.bsky.social) September 9, 2026 at 8:32 AM

 

Ah, yes. 9/11. The day New Yorkers famously can’t remember where they were, what they were doing, or what exactly the weather was.

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— Julie Goldberg (@juliegoldberg.bsky.social) September 9, 2026 at 7:53 AM

 

This is what Trump did on 9/11.

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— Ron Filipkowski (@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social) September 8, 2026 at 11:48 AM

 

No sense of skepticism in this headline or social media post, unless you think quotation marks do the trick. I don't. Why are major media so lame in the face of the most blatant liar in American political history? It's either cowardice or complicity, or both.

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— Mark Jacob (@markjacob.bsky.social) September 9, 2026 at 8:14 AM

 

Who did show up at Ground Zero?  --

 

You know who actually did show up at Ground Zero? Canadian emergency rescue crews.

— Andrew Weinstein (@andrewjweinstein.com) September 8, 2026 at 7:12 PM

 

The Republican War on Women, cont. --


The next phase in the abortion wars may come down to one question: Will federal courts allow the rights of red states to enforce bans to override the rights of blue states to protect access? The 5th Circuit hears a pivotal case today that could provide an answer. www.politico.com/news/2026/09...

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— Alice Miranda Ollstein (@alicemiranda.bsky.social) September 9, 2026 at 8:00 AM

 

Moscow Mitch, where are you? --

 

๐Ÿ”ฅ๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ”ฅ๐Ÿ˜‚

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— Hoodlum ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ (@nothoodlum.bsky.social) September 8, 2026 at 6:09 PM

 

 

Mid-Week Song

 

It's been almost 5 years since Grammy-winning The War on Drugs released their fifth studio album. Yesterday, they released a new, anthemic single "Who's That" from their much anticipated upcoming sixth album, featuring a gritty lead singer Adam Granduciel singing and playing a powerful guitar break while seeming to walk LA's streets at night, reflecting on depression and a relationship. Glad they're back. Enjoy.

 


Stooges Witkoff, Kushner Likely Compromised


When the bungling pro-Putin team of Steve "Witless" Witkoff and Jared "Mr. Ivanka Trump" Kushner arrived in Moscow for their friendly meeting with war criminal Vladimir Putin, they foolishly accepted a ride in a Russian government vehicle.  That likely insured that information on their phones was downloaded by Russian intelligence services without them knowing it.  Maj. Gen. Randy Manner discussed it on CNN:

"'It's important for your listeners to understand that the Russians have the ability that, if you get within a certain number of feet of a device that would be included in that vehicle, they can take everything off of your phone and copy it without you even knowing it. All your contacts, all your messages, all your emails — everything — can then belong to the Russians.

So, for them to fall victim to such a ludicrous, unbelievable situation, to accept a Russian vehicle that shows the ignorance and lack of knowledge in general about how sophisticated the Russians are.'" (our emphasis)

Think of the treasure trove the Russians likely obtained: e-mails, browsing histories, personal phone numbers, videos, even document files.  These two idiots go to Moscow thinking that Russia's really our friend, if only we could work up some business deals and get Ukraine to capitulate.  Putin must be thrilled whenever he sees these two coming, knowing that their incompetence and gullibility is a gift to his regime. 

 

Trump's Crazy Summer

 

Jimmy Kimmel is back from summer vacation for his 4,000th show and, after some thanks for guest hosts, reviews the summer's craziness, starting and ending with the Malignant Fascist -- all the best and worst Malignant Fascist moments that he missed.  Great, hilarious quips.

Tuesday, September 8, 2026

QOTD -- Trump's "Jesus Truth" v. Regular Truth

 

"... Trump posted a fake AI video [see "Skeets" below] about an imaginary interview immediately after 9/11, in which he described how he rushed down to Ground Zero with hundreds of construction workers the next day, and “worked long and hard” at the scene of the catastrophe, wasn’t any kind of news story. It’s certainly an interesting question, given that this incident by itself would have gotten Joe Biden impeached, if not removed immediately via the 25th amendment.  [snip]

"Without exaggeration I would be less surprised to learn that Julia Child was an All-Pro NFL defensive tackle in the 1950s than to find out that Donald Trump did something like this.

"The fact that Trump releases AI videos of this type illustrates once again a concept I’ve been turning over in my mind for awhile now, which is the idea of Jesus truth versus regular truth. That Donald Trump is incapable of an altruistic act of any kind is regular truth: That he heroically sacrificed his own safety and comfort through his personal labors at Ground Zero is Jesus Truth, which is to say that it’s something that’s not literally true, but is true in a deeper symbolic way. Trump is a Christ-like figure as a matter of Jesus Truth because that’s who he needs to be for the whole evangelical mythology built up around him to make any sense at all, so he is..." -- law professor Paul Campos, LGM, writing "More on Jesus Truth v. Regular Truth" about the pathological lying Malignant Fascist's decades- long fables of his selfless heroism on 9/11 and days following.  Were we not a democracy in decline, responsible people would have indeed removed him from office via the 25th Amendment -- hell, were we not a democracy in decline, he would never have been elected twice!


Today's Cartoons

 

(click on images to enlarge)

(David Rowe, Financial Review, Australia;  context here)

(Patrick Chappatte, NZZ am Sonntag, Zurich, Switzerland)

(Dave Whamond, caglecartoons.com, Canada)

(Michael de Adder, Globe and Mail, Toronto, Canada;  context here)

(Dave Granlund, politicalcartoons.com; context here)

(John Darkow, Columbia Missourian)

(Bruce Plante, caglecartoons.com)

(Mike Smith, Las Vegas Sun)

(Bill Bramhall, New York Daily News)

(John Deering, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette;  context here)

(Pat Bagley, The Salt Lake Tribune)

(Rick McKee, caglecartoons.com)

(Peter Steiner, @plsteiner)


Skeets Of The Day

 

Putin's proxies at work --


Expect lies.

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— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf.bsky.social) September 7, 2026 at 10:56 PM

 

Just a reminder. It was exactly 2 months ago that Trump “promised” to get Ukraine a license to build Patriots. Since then it’s been all backtracking and lies. It was always a plan to help Putin by further delaying help for Ukraine. And it worked. abcnews.com/Politics/tru...

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— Phillips OBrien (@phillipspobrien.bsky.social) September 8, 2026 at 6:48 AM

 

As I’ve noted before, for Putin a win-win means I beat you twice. londonlovesbusiness.com/what-is-a-wi...

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— John Sipher (@johnsipher.bsky.social) September 8, 2026 at 8:57 AM


Lying liar and his lies -- 


Fact check: There’s no proof Trump sent a large group of construction workers to Ground Zero. He pledged a $10,000 donation that auditors found no record of. There is no record of him attending even a single funeral for a 9/11 victim. www.snopes.com/fact-check/t... politifact.com/factchecks/2...

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— Hoodlum ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ (@nothoodlum.bsky.social) September 7, 2026 at 7:49 PM


Trump claims he was basically lifted out of the rubble on 9/11: "Two fireman, big strong guys, they grabbed me under the arms -- 'got to get our of here!' -- and they literally lifted me up, and they started running with me."

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) September 8, 2026 at 11:07 AM

 

Failed Whiskey Pete Hegseth has to go, part infinity -- 


“Under Hegseth, Chaos Prevails at the Pentagon.” Will Trump keep him? @paulwaldman.bsky.social discusses in the @atrupar.com's latest PN: open.substack.com/pub/aaronrup...

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— Susan McPherson (@susanmcp.bsky.social) September 8, 2026 at 7:36 AM


The more Dems pull ahead, the more the corrupt Malignant Fascist will cheat --

 

Charlie Cook, who's handicapped elections for decades, tells me he's never seen anything like the fiasco Trump foisted on GOP. "Rs are so underperforming," he says, that "the normal rules don’t seem to be applying." On the pod he explains why GOP may lose Sen/House: newrepublic.com/article/2151...

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— Greg Sargent (@gregsargent.bsky.social) September 8, 2026 at 7:19 AM


What's that Musk-y smell? The Neo-Nazi bankroller of the Republican Party (and German AfD)-- 


Wouldn't it be weird if the racist billionaire who bankrolled and took credit for the neo-Nazi victory in Germany was somehow involved in American politics too? Can you even imagine? I bet the media would have a field day asking politicians who aligned with him and took his money for statements!

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— Kevin M. Kruse (@kevinmkruse.bsky.social) September 7, 2026 at 5:54 PM


The MF's corruption reflected in the people he hired -- 

 

Unprecedented corruption www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

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— Brendan Nyhan (@brendannyhan.bsky.social) September 7, 2026 at 9:46 PM


Republican crime blotter: Missouri MAGAt caught trying to plant drugs on opponent -- 


You can’t make this shit up. Thomas Ross, a Republican candidate for the Missouri House, won his primary by just 33 votes. Prosecutors say he plotted to have cocaine and Adderall planted in his opponent’s purse or car. He’s since dropped out of the race. Just a completely normal election. ๐Ÿ™ƒ

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— Christopher Webb (@cwebbonline.com) September 7, 2026 at 11:49 PM


Don't forgive the MAGAt voters who put us in this situation -- 


Every one of you Trump voters own this bat-shit craziness. Every bit of it. You wanted it, you voted for it, and it's yours. And decent people in the U.S. and throughout the world will never, ever forgive you for it.

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— Bob Geiger (@bobgeiger.bsky.social) September 7, 2026 at 7:36 PM


The MF's ever-changing coiffure gets a new look -- 


BREAKING: a White House insider told CNN that Natalie Harp was so furious with President Trump, after he inadvertently called her "Melania" in bed - that she took his dirty diaper, pulled it over his head and demanded that he wear it like for an entire day. #Donaldtrump

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— Paulley Ticks (@tomadelsbach.bsky.social) September 8, 2026 at 1:31 AM

 

 

Netanyahu Warned About Oct. 7 Attack

 


It's being reported that right-wing Israeli Prime Minister and close ally of the deranged Malignant Fascist was warned by a Gulf state leader that Hamas was going to attack Israel days before the October 7 attack. Netanyahu declined to share that warning with his national security and defense heads. From The Times of Israel:

"Some 10 days before Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was personally warned by the leader of the United Arab Emirates that Hamas was planning a major offensive move against Israel, but did not update Israeli security leaders and did nothing with the information, according to a report on Tuesday.

The Haaretz newspaper report cited a new book, “Kidnapped: 843 Days of Abandonment,” by journalists Shlomi Eldar and Ruth Yuval, based on interviews with dozens of sources including senior officials in Israel and around the world. It said three senior foreign officials were updated on the contents of the 45-minute phone call at the end of September, and it cited a Palestinian adviser to Emirati President Mohammed bin Zayed who emigrated from Gaza to the UAE and had direct knowledge of the conversation.

It said Mohammed bin Zayed (known as MBZ) warned Netanyahu that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was planning major action against Israel that would lead to bloodshed, unsettle the region and potentially harm the Abraham Accords." (our emphasis)

Netanyahu is facing an election on October 27, and he's trying to use his position as a "war time" prime minister to convince Israelis that he deserves more time in office. He's facing Gadi Eisenkot's Yashar Party, which is projected to outpace Netanyahu's right-wing Likud Party in Knesset seats, and who has said "the way Israel is being led today is dangerous." Let's hope this revelation about being warned before October 7 sinks Netanyahu and his far-right coalition.

BONUS: More here.

(photo: UAE's bin Zayed, Netanyahu, Hamas' Yahya Sinwar. Haaretz)