Hello all! Happy Bastille Day!
I’m back from my Joe Biden-themed vacation at Rehoboth Beach, where the ice cream was melty, the sandwiches were half tuna / half chicken salad from Lori’s, the sunscreen was extra-thick, and the reading was a history book, on paper. What did I miss?
Which first, the good, the stupid, the weird or the evil?
The stupid it is!
More crazed moanings, proclaimings and tappings from a certain President! He’s tariffing Mexico and the EU some more. His belfry-bats are all a-flap over his refusal to release the Epstein files, which did exist, then didn’t exist, and now supposedly do again, because they were manufactured and planted by Obama and Hillary, or something. MAGA is so upset by his ever-shifting conspiracy theories that he got ratioed on his own platform for the first time. Also, he wants to take New-York-born Rosie O’Donnell’s citizenship away because she is a Threat to Humanity. The usual normal president stuff from a stable genius with nothing to hide! (CNN / CBS)
Then he got booed at the FIFA World Cup final.
How does the latest update of Elon Musk’s MechaHitler Grok-bot sound exactly like him and happen to parrot his prejudices and sexual fantasies about his former CEO? Musk refuses to release any technical details, but it’s obvious the bot is now searching first for its meatsack master’s opinions on a given subject before producing an answer. (AP)
The evil:
Democratic lawmakers were granted access to Alligator Auschwitz, and described conditions that would be animal cruelty if its captives were dogs. (CNN) Here’s Florida Reps. Debbie Wasserman Shultz and Maxwell Frost describing it:
And Kristi Noem wants five more hellholes just like it.
Following that green light from SCOTUS, DHS has released a horrific new memo outlining plans to send migrants to countries where they are not citizens, in as quickly as six hours from apprehension. (Washington Post archive link)
Jaime Alanis Garcia, injured as the result of an ICE raid in Camarillo, California, has died. (NBC) And as the violent ICE siege continues to plague Los Angeles, Cal State LA is allowing fearful students to take classes online. (LA Times)
The largest gender-affirming care clinic for kids, at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, is closing. (AP)
Following the erasure of trans people, bisexuals have now been removed from the Stonewall National Monument page. (LGBTQ Nation)
A wrenching personal report of the Texas floods from Arron Parsley. Warning, contains child death. (Texas Monthly)
The weird:
Did you know that there’s a massive doomsday bunker for Congresspeople under the Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia? Its designer, Paul Bugas, has passed away. (New York Times archive link / Washington Post archive link
In ape news, a study has found that “alpha males” don’t actually dominate most primate societies after all. Also, chimps have now evolved to the level of Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes: trying to impress each other by sticking stuff up their butts. (CBC / Science Alerts)
Finally, the better:
A federal judge in Los Angeles issued a pair of temporary restraining orders on Saturday limiting the ability of ICE to detain people just because of their skin color or job, and requiring that detainees be given access to legal counsel. Also another federal judge has told the LAPD to stop detaining/shooting at journalists. (CalMatters / New Republic)
The EU has transferred another $1.2 billion in seized Russian assets to Ukraine. (Kyiv Independent)
Oops, butterfingers, a Muskmobile hit an ICE truck.
Is La Marseillaise the most hardcore national anthem ever written?
Coming WONKMEETS!
Join Rebecca, Shy, the kids, and Dok in SEATTLE, Sunday, July 20, 3-6 p.m. at Lincoln Park near the North Play Area! Rebecca and family will be coming off a weeklong trip to Shy’s family cabin (built by his dad and his grandpa with their hands in the 1960s!) in the San Juans, so, potluck!
Join Thalia and Menotsure in ATLANTA, Saturday, July 26, 5-8 p.m. at Reformation Brewery for a lovely evening of brewing up good trouble! Reformation Brewery has both indoor and outdoor seating, has food available, and is both pet- and kid-friendly. Please email Thalia at realistic.caregiving@gmail.com to RSVP.
Do YOU want to host a Wonkmeet in your neck of the woods? Seize the means of Wonkmeet production, and email Rebecca at rebecca at wonkette dot com with the deets!
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Greetings from Paris. Your hed gif info: https://martiniambassador.substack.com/p/chillaxin-in-the-kelp
And meme chat: https://open.substack.com/chat/posts/aa69e435-e732-4b80-8284-f58beddbc16e?utm_source=share
The Epstein thing is causing such discontent in MAGA world because it was their moral high ground.
They don't see the violence and the deportations as bad. They don't see the spiteful refusal to grant federal emergency funds to blue states as bad. They think that's how you should govern, by harming people who criticise you. The Epstein thing was something they used to claim as their moral authority for everything else- they were the ones opposed to paedophilia by the elite, unlike the evil, Comet Ping Pong attending Democrats. That could be used to justify any other cruelty. No matter what they did, they were still better than the child molesters, and the proof those child molesters existed was that they hadn't been discovered, arrested, tried and convicted, unlike the reams of Republicans who have been for exactly that offence.
Trump took that away from them by expecting them to do what they always do and excuse his behaviour. He exposed them to themselves, because it was clear that he just assumed they'd roll over for him again, but this was the big thing. This was the justification for all their other shitness, for all their other sadism- we're not the ones covering up an elite paedophile cabal. Trump expected them to be that.
Eventually they will be.