Today's Tweet

BREAKING: Scaramucci deserts wife & new born baby for the love of another man- @realDonaldTrump Don't tell @MikePenceVP pic.twitter.com/PDkGsOY5PS

— RichardNixonZombie (@RNixonZombie) July 30, 2017

Today's Mind Fuck

New Scientist - Joshua Sokol
Please welcome to the stage a master illusionist. An energy beam that stabs out of galaxy M87 like a toothpick in a cocktail olive is pulling off the ultimate magic trick: seeming to move faster than the speed of light.

Almost five times faster, in fact, as measured by the Hubble Space Telescope. This feat was first observed in 1995 in galaxy M87, and has been seen in many other galaxies since. It might have you questioning your entire reality. Nothing can break the cosmic speed limit, right? You can’t just flaunt the laws of physics… can you?

If you want to just enjoy the illusion from your seat in the audience, stop reading. Otherwise, I welcome you backstage for a look at how the trick works – and how it’s helping astronomers to understand the fate of entire galaxies.

Blobs faster than light?

We’ve known about the jet of plasma shooting from the core of M87 since 1918, when astronomer Heber Curtis saw a ray of light connected to the galaxy. To be visible from so far away, it had to be huge – about 6000 light years long.

As modern astronomers now know, pretty much all galaxies have a central black hole that periodically draws in stars and gas clouds. When gas begins to swirl down the drain, it heats up and magnetic fields focus some of it into jets of hot plasma. These jets shoot out at velocities near to – but not faster than – the speed of light.

Today's Pix

The GOP Steps Up?

Hard to imagine lately, but Repubs may be getting their chops back in shape, just in time to put 45* in the dumpster as another failed experiment of political evolution.

WaPo Editorial Board:

President Trump’s rise tests the American system because he was elected on the strength of radical protest against it — the claim that it’s all “rigged” — and because his party dominated Congress as well as the White House. The erratic disrupter-in-chief came to power with a political escort of enablers. And so any hope that checks and balances would work to constrain Mr. Trump’s worst impulses hinged, in part, on the willingness of Republicans in Congress to act in defense of values higher than short-term political advantage, or at least to interpret their short-term political interest as requiring them to counter Mr. Trump.

-and-

What GOP lawmakers’ first serious steps toward checking and balancing Mr. Trump showed this week, however, is that there is a middle ground, which members of his own party are no longer afraid to explore.

All together now - well it's about fuckin' time, you guys.

Today's Tweet

That one might leave a mark.

"No Mr @POTUS, you cannot have the Mango!" - Anthony Scara-Mango pic.twitter.com/oWeeurOdKH

— Pin Head (@PiercedSkull) July 24, 2017

Let's Review

Trump: Grab em by the pussy.

Scaramucci: Steve Bannon sucks his own cock.

Bannon: Paul Ryan is a limp dick. 

But we should stay good and pissed off at Hillary for calling these assholes Deplorables.

Today's Bonus Tweet

I get it - imminent demise tends to focus the mind. So it's like McCain suddenly noticed he'd been lost and wandering for a while, and he really really really needed a shot at redemption.

And what're "them gals" so very good at, John?  Yeah - forgiving; and being gracious and good-natured; or whatever it is that moves them so often to put the needs of others before their own.

Murkowski and Collins did the same job as McCain, facing twice the hostility for half the credit

— Charlotte Alter (@CharlotteAlter) July 28, 2017

And while I don't presume to speak for anyone but myself - and fake lord knows Collins and Murkowski don't need my help - here's a great big You're Welcome. Asshole

Today's Lesson

We are now a little less dumb - I am anyway.

When Will It Be Enough?

Another OpEd in another major paper, pointing out just how craven political power can make some folks.

Jennifer Rubin, WaPo, 7-28-17:

No group has been as blindly loyal to President Trump as Christian conservatives. They have not let religion or values get in the way of their support. Consider the “Access Hollywood” tape, the attack on a Gold Star family, a mass of inexplicable ties between Trump’s campaign and Russian officials (and the president’s open invitation to Russia to continue hacking), the firing of the FBI director, the humiliation of evangelical-favorite Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the politicization of the Boy Scouts, the threats to the special counsel and now an interview with Trump’s out-of-control, potty-mouthed communications director.

What about Trump, exactly, reflects their values? (Taking Medicaid away from millions and separating families to deport law-abiding immigrants?) The Trump administration is a clown show — but it’s the evangelicals who supplied the tent, the red noses and the floppy shoes. Each day presents a new insult to the office of the presidency and a repudiation of civilized behavior.

Sounds Mildly Important

As driftglass puts it: Isn't that what they call mutiny?

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley says, while holding a glass of wine, he too found out about Trump's transgender ban through the news pic.twitter.com/MKInvXsIRh

— Natalie Johnson (@nataliejohnsonn) July 27, 2017

Vox:

President Donald Trump said his decision to ban transgender people from serving in the military, announced via Twitter on Wednesday morning, came “after consultation with my generals and military experts.” It’s becoming clearer and clearer that he was lying.

Secretary of Defense James Mattis was on vacation when the decision was announced, and privately opposed the move. The Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine Gen. James Dunford, said Thursday that the military wouldn’t implement the ban absent a formal, non-tweeted order from the commander in chief. 

And then there were the remarkable remarks that Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley made during a luncheon at the National Press Club. 

During the lunch, Milley told reporters that he found out about the ban "the same way everybody else did — on the news." At the time, he was holding a glass of wine.

-and-

What’s more, it’s not even clear what the policy is. Would it bar openly trans people from joining the military going forward, or would it force the military to discharge trans people who are already serving? Would trans veterans — people who have already fought in wars — still be able to get health care through the VA?

These policy points are not details. Without answers to them, it’s literally impossible to figure out what Trump wants the military to do.

So - again - 45* acts like he thinks the military is his own personal tinker toy, and basically, he's right.  With a few exceptions, the CinC gets to do pretty much what he wants to do.  The Brass Hats at the Pentagon are trying to force him into some kind of normal protocol, but there's nothing that says a tweet isn't considered an official order.

And also too don't forget to remember - if it doesn't say specifically that he can't do it, then he'll probably try to do it. That's what he does; he's always looking for the loophole - the SmarmSpace.

BTW, there can't possibly be anyone anywhere who doesn't recognize this as 45* throwing more chaff in the air. He keeps looking for crazier-n-crazier shit he can pull as it gets harder to distract us from his Russia problem, and he can always do with a little help from the ChristoCons, so he "punched a queer" for them.

The guy has always benefited from creating chaos. Of course, now there's real potential for what he thinks is a little bit of his usual self-serving chaos to turn into a fullblown Constitutional Crisis all by itself.

The law of unintended consequences is a real thing.