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Behold the Amazing Trumpkin's ability to change reality just by thinking about it, and his cult's acceptance of whatever he feeds them, no matter how inane.
We fervently hope for the day when handcuffs are slapped on him, so he can show us how he gets out of them in his mind.
Please consider supporting Tom's work by going here.
A New York Times / Siena poll released late last week shows the Malignant Loser is viewed by the majority of voters (54%) as having threatened democracy after he lost the 2020 election. His unfavorable ratings were also under water, with 53% viewing him negatively. A narrower majority (51%) believe that the Malignant Loser committed serious Federal crimes. Depressingly, his cult / tribal MAGA Republican following remains fairly steady from July's polling, proving his statement in 2016 that, "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK." If a violent insurrection that he organized and directed based on his monstrous Big Lie won't sway them, it's hard to fathom what will.
The poll was conducted from September 6 to 14, after the stash of classified documents was found at the Malignant Loser's Mar a Lago estate, but before the New York Attorney General's office sued him (and his offspring) for years of widespread fraud in connection with the corrupt Trump Organization.
The Russian air force reportedly has had a very bad day. The Ukrainian defense ministry on Saturday claimed its forces shot down four Russian warplanes in 24 hours: an Su-34, two Su-30s and an Su-25.
Videos circulating online seem to confirm at least two of the shoot-downs. “Today is a good day,” the Ukrainian defense ministry tweeted.
The aerial losses come nearly a month after the Ukrainian army launched twin counteroffensives in the south and east. The eastern counteroffensive broke through Russian lines outside Kharkiv and triggered a rapid collapse in the Russian army in the area...
#Ukraine: We have now been graced with HD footage of this shootdown, which shows that the two crew members ejected at very low altitude. The Su-30SM is obliterated. https://t.co/S525fhtl6f pic.twitter.com/qEdpkv7S7F
— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) September 24, 2022
Brothers of Italy leader Giorgia Meloni has claimed victory in a general election that seems set to install her as Italy's first female prime minister, leading the most far-right government since the fascist era of Benito Mussolini.
Addressing the media and supporters in the early hours of Monday morning, Meloni said it was "a night of pride for many and a night of redemption.""It's a victory I want to dedicate to everyone who is no longer with us and wanted this night," she said. "Starting tomorrow we have to show our value ... Italians chose us, and we will not betray it, as we never have," she said.Preliminary results put an alliance of far-right parties, led by Meloni's ultraconservative Brothers of Italy party, on track to win at least 44% of the vote, according to the Italian Interior Ministry. [snip]Sunday's results come as other far-right parties in other European countries have marked recent gains, including the rise in Sweden's anti-immigration party, Sweden Democrats -- a party with neo-Nazi roots -- who are expected to play a major role in the new government after winning the second largest share of seats at a general election earlier this month.And in France, while far-right ideologue Marine Le Pen lost the French presidential election to Emmanuel Macron in April, her share of the popular vote shifted France's political center dramatically to the right.
Michael Daino smiled as he unloaded folding chairs from a car and lugged them up the Pennsylvania capitol building steps. “One of the sharks!” he said when I told him I was a journalist. “Circling the waters looking for bait.”
The activist from Delaware County was excited. He’d met Doug Mastriano at a 2020 COVID denial rally ― a “reopen” rally, he called it — in the early days of the pandemic, when Mastriano was just a state senator. Now, two years later, Daino was organizing this get-out-the-vote event on Saturday for Mastriano, the Republican nominee for Pennsylvania governor. How far they’d come together. Up to 2,000 people were expected here. Mastriano had posted a video urging folks to come to the “big rally.” He was going to give a speech.
But only 50 or so people turned up to hear Mastriano speak. An embarrassing showing...
Embarrassing and sad!
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Usually the swirling discs of material surrounding a young star are funnelled into twin outflows of gas and dust from the star. In the case of IRAS 05506+2414, however, a fan-like spray of material travelling at velocities of up to 350 kilometres per second is spreading outwards from the centre of this image.
Astronomers turned to Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 to measure the distance to IRAS 05506+2414. While it is possible to measure the velocity of material speeding outwards from the star, astronomers cannot tell how far from Earth the star actually is from a single observation. However, by measuring the distance that the outflow travels between successive images, they will be able to infer the distance to IRAS 05506+2414. This will allow astronomers to determine how bright the star is and how much energy it is emitting, and hence to estimate its mass — all vital information that will help to understand the origin of this bright young star’s unusual outflow.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. Sahai
Observing the Malignant Loser over the past several years, it's obvious to objective eyes that his number one concern is himself. Everything else takes a back seat, including his corrupt, grifter children. He's watched his closest enablers (e.g., Michael Cohen) go down in flames covering for him. Here's his biographer David Cay Johnston on MSNBC confirming what awaits his kids as the New York Attorney General's major fraud suit proceeds:
"Well, New York has a civil fraud, conspiracy statute, as all states do, and conspiracy statutes are designed to make it possible for prosecutors to break up the conspiracy to get the rats to scatter and rat each other out.
And at some point Trump will not be in alignment with his children so I think there is going to be some disruption here in the family. They are all going to be looking out for their own individual interests at some point and that's going to be fascinating to watch because Donald would throw his own children under the bus if he has to. Ivanka would be the hardest to do, but he'll throw them under the bus if he needs to for himself." (our emphasis)
We'd recommend they preempt their sociopathic daddy by cooperating with the Attorney General's office, under the old organized crime adage of "do unto others before they do it to you."
(photo: "It was me or them. I chose me!")
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(Ann Telnaes, Washington Post)
(Ed Wexler, caglecartoons.com)
(Clay Bennett, Chattanooga Times Free Press)
(Adam Zyglis, The Buffalo News)
(Matt Davies, Newsday)
(Kevin Siers, Charlotte Observer)
(Pedro Molina, gocomics.com)
(Dave Brown, The Independent, London)
(Will McPhail, @WillMcPhail)
"Necessity has a way of obliterating from our conduct various delicate scruples regarding honor and pride." -- Nobel Prize laureate William Faulkner, from "Absalom, Absalom!" Faulkner authored such works as "Light In August," "The Sound and the Fury," and "Intruder in the Dust."
The conduct of such abject Trump bootlickers as Rep. Kevin McCarthy, Sen. Lindsey Graham, Rep. Elise Stefanik and thousands of more Republican politicians in service to the "necessity" of their own shameful careers has obliterated their honor, and marked them for history as moral cowards.
"The Iranian regime’s brutal killing of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini — who was reportedly brutally beaten after she was detained for showing too much hair — has triggered nationwide protests, led by the nation’s granddaughters against the grandfathers who have ruled their country for over four decades.
"It’s premature to assess whether these protests will meaningfully change Iran’s politics, or whether they are simply another crack in the edifice of a rotting regime whose lone source of diversity is whether the beards and turbans of its ruling men are black or white. Yet one conclusion can already be drawn: Amini’s killing, and Iranian society’s response to it, should permanently alter how the outside world interacts with Iranian officials. And that shift in awareness should also include a fundamental reassessment of its own Iran policy by the Biden administration.
"Amini’s case was not isolated. According to human rights groups, every year millions of women are stopped and harassed in Iran for “improper hijab,” and numerous Iranian women are serving double-digit prison sentences for refusing to veil. This system of institutionalized violence has little to do with presumed Iranian religious traditions; authentic cultural norms don’t need to be imposed by the threats of a police state. Compulsory hijab is one of the three remaining ideological pillars of Iran’s theocracy, along with 'Death to America' and 'Death to Israel.'” -- Karim Sadjadpour in the Washington Post, discussing the brutal, misogynist insanity of the Iranian theocracy and, in the full op/ed, what the West should learn from the protests there. More than 30 people have been reported killed in those protests, a number that will doubtless rise as protests spread.
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(Pat Byrnes, caglecartoons.com)
(Steve Benson, Arizona Daily Star)
(Chris Britt, gocomics.com)
(Tim Campbell, Counterpoint)
(Clay Jones, claytoonz.com)
(Jimmy Margulies, jimmymargulies.com)
(Ed Hall, Artizans.com)
(Pat Bagley, The Salt Lake Tribune)
(Joe Collignon, caglecartoons.com)
(Matt Davies, Newsday)
(John Deering, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
(Jeff Hobbs, @WeeklyHumorist)
Here's your party of Jefferson Davis / Wall Street / insurrection... --
House GOPers rolled out their agenda with a fake Lincoln quote:
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) September 23, 2022
The House Republican conference thought their agenda was quoting Abraham Lincoln. It was actually quoting a Lehman Brothers ad from the 1980s.https://t.co/pM1GxBF9og
...And misogyny --
Arizona is now being ruled by an abortion law that is 157 years old https://t.co/LCX8xbgNEP
— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) September 24, 2022
Former "President" Pussygrabber's still a serial predator, part infinity --
Trump invites a group of women to Mar-a-Lago, tells them to leave their husbands at home. pic.twitter.com/0OpNygQwLI
— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) September 24, 2022
Ukraine's C-in-C sizes up Putin's "mobilization" --
“We finished up with the 🇷🇺professional army, and now it’s time to defeat unprofessional” - Gen. Valerii Zaluzhny, a Commander-in-Chief of the Armed forces of Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/shK0GDdaAz
— Mykola Vorobiov 🇺🇦🇺🇸🇪🇺 (@komitet2012) September 24, 2022
Sir Elton meltin' --
Biden Surprises Elton John With National Humanities Medal .. tearing up, Elton John said he was “flabbergasted and humbled.” pic.twitter.com/EuEq9HMj9N
— Howard Mortman (@HowardMortman) September 24, 2022
A dog's life --
Dog loves the slide.. 😅 pic.twitter.com/OmL7BEtzTa
— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) September 24, 2022
That's a screenshot from a video, "The Preamble to the Commitment to America," the Christofascist Republican Party's risible, empty "agenda" for 2023 and beyond. The problem?
House Republican leaders on Friday unveiled their “Commitment to America” agenda for 2023 ― and with it, an inspirational video full of scenes presented as exceptional imagery of America that were actually stock footage from Russia and Ukraine.
“We celebrate the rich heritage of the American story and the vibrancy of the American Dream,” the voice says, over footage of a drilling rig at sunrise.
But this video snippet, an apparent nod to America’s natural resources, wasn’t filmed in America. It’s stock footage created by Serg Grbanoff, a filmmaker based in Russia.
Grbanoff told HuffPost that he filmed this scene in Russia’s Volgograd region...
It's a hard habit to break, but the Republicans have to stop relying on Putin's Russia for everything from a Putin- approved candidate and election interference to stock propaganda footage.
As the sham referendum takes place in Russian-occupied Ukraine, a more legitimate and telling vote is taking place in war criminal Putin's Russia:
Military-aged men fled Russia in droves Friday, filling planes and causing traffic jams at border crossings to avoid being rounded up to fight in Ukraine following the Kremlin’s partial military mobilization.
Queues stretching for 10 kilometers (6 miles) formed on a road leading to the southern border with Georgia, according to Yandex Maps, a Russian online map service.
The lines of cars were so long at the border with Kazakhstan that some people abandoned their vehicles and proceeded on foot — just as some Ukrainians did after Russia invaded their country on Feb. 24.
Meanwhile, dozens of flights out of Russia — with tickets sold at sky-high prices — carried men to international destinations such as Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Serbia, where Russians don’t need visas.
The exodus is not without its critics in Europe:
Some European officials view fleeing Russians as potential security risks. They hope that by not opening their borders, it will increase pressure against Putin at home.
Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics said Thursday that many of those fleeing “were fine with killing Ukrainians. They did not protest then. It is not right to consider them as conscientious objectors.”
What's also of note is that the place of these comparatively well- off, mostly ethnic Russian men will be taken up by conscripts from central Asia, who'll be Putin's cannon fodder:
In an early sign of how seriously Moscow is ramping up its efforts, the Human Rights Council of Russia has proposed that immigrants from central Asian countries who have had Russian citizenship for less than 10 years will undergo compulsory military service in Russia for a year."We are preparing proposals for new citizens of the Russian Federation who have Russian citizenship for less than 10 years to do compulsory military service for a year for people from Central Asian countries: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan," council member Kirill Kabanov wrote on Telegram Thursday.
Deranged Malignant Loser seeks his own level --
Trump is really stepping his QAnon outreach — last night he posted a video filled with overt QAnon memes on TruthSocial. pic.twitter.com/YIG2wFGyMY
— Will Sommer (@willsommer) September 23, 2022
Russian war criminal Putin's obscene "referendum" --
Pretending that people vote for their own genocide is not a "referendum." It is an obscenity.https://t.co/oO0uOCRySN
— Timothy Snyder (@TimothyDSnyder) September 23, 2022
Republican human trafficking flights not going over well with the general public --
Just 1/3 of Americans back Republican migrant flights, Reuters/Ipsos poll shows https://t.co/P5N0JtbKGy pic.twitter.com/41xW0qSMn7
— Reuters (@Reuters) September 23, 2022
Republican stolen valor candidate should ask the Malignant Loser to just "think" and his military record will be de-classified! --
Trump endorsed congressional candidate JR Majewski today says that the reason why there is no record of him serving in combat in Afghanistan in his service record is because it is “classified.” pic.twitter.com/FhHdo2TkuN
— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) September 23, 2022
"Bipartisanship" as in Sen. "I Blocked Merrick Garland And Gave You Coney-Barrett, Kavanaugh and Gorsuch" McConnell, you shallow, limelight-seeking twit --
This Monday, Sept. 26, the McConnell Center is excited to welcome U.S. Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) to give a talk titled "The Future of Political Discourse and the Importance of Bipartisanship." Join via livestream at https://t.co/F7epAlno78 at 10 AM. #Leadership pic.twitter.com/t0LO0ZazOi
— McConnell Center (@ULmCenter) September 23, 2022
Sounds good to us --
but won't it be fun to slowly grind that stone down until it's nothing but a pile of dust then sweep it into a sewer where it will forever remain floating in a dark pool of shit? pic.twitter.com/DEfS0sPwlP
— Matt Oswalt (@MattOswaltVA) September 23, 2022
Spend time near trees (Happy Friday!) --
The Japanese practice of 'forest bathing' is scientifically proven to improve your health. pic.twitter.com/r5rQq2SjoP
— Vala Afshar (@ValaAfshar) September 22, 2022
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(John Darkow, Columbia Missourian)
(Rob Rogers, Tinyview.com)
(Michael de Adder, Washington Post)
(Jeff Stahler, gocomics.com)
(Ann Telnaes, Washington Post)
(Lalo Alcaraz, LA Weekly)
(Clay Bennett, Chattanooga Times Free Press)
(Drew Sheneman, The Star-Ledger, Newark, NJ)
(Heng Kim Song, CartoonArts, Singapore)
(Kevin Kallaugher, The Economist, London)
(Ellis Rosen, @EllisRosen)
The Associated Press reports that there's been a marked shift of world opinion away from Russia over its brutal invasion of neighboring Ukraine since the start of hostilities in February. Noting that numerous nations spoke out against Russia at the U.N. General Assembly meeting this week, formerly reluctant critics like Brazil, Mexico and India are expressing concern and objection to Russia's continued aggression, joining the vast majority of nations:
"Western officials have repeatedly said that Russia has become isolated since invading Ukraine in February. Until recently, though, that was largely wishful thinking. But on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, much of the international community spoke out against the conflict in a rare display of unity at the often fractured United Nations.
The tide had already appeared to be turning against Russian President Vladimir Putin even before Thursday’s U.N. speeches. Chinese and Indian leaders had been critical of the war at a high-level summit last week in Uzbekistan. And then the U.N. General Assembly disregarded Russia’s objections and voted overwhelmingly to allow Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to be the only leader to address the body remotely, instead of requiring him to appear in person." (our emphasis)
That last rebuke to the Russian invaders was not lost on them, as when it came time for Russia's devious Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's chance to address the Security Council while speaker after speaker slammed Russia, he came 90 minutes late and left when he finished his offensive remarks. As Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba quipped, "I notice that Russian diplomats flee almost as quickly as Russian soldiers.”
(photo: Lavrov making like a frightened Russian soldier. Amr Alfiky/Reuters)
