Sir John of Oliver

I think I understand the impulse to "keep a civil tongue in your head".  Taking steps to prevent rhetorical violence turning into physical violence is an important part of the foundation of American Democracy.

But when a legitimate news item has that violent rhetoric at its core, I think I'd prefer to hear it straight out.

That's why we're better served when the "news" is presented to us by John Oliver and Samantha Bee and Bill Maher, et al.

And that's why I bitch about having to rely on half-hour comedy shows to get something approaching the real story.

C'mon, Press Poodles - dial it up a little.

Keith

By the time I get a blog post ready to go, the "news" I'm posting about has already gone outa date.  Glad to know it's happening to somebody else too.

Chelsea

Chelsea Handler

Today's GIF

There's always a dark and sinister side to populism, but as long as we have people who can stand off and make fun of it all, we'll have the best of checks-n-balances.

And when it comes to the issues of Net Neutrality, that's kinda the whole fuckin' point. Fight for it.

Because "Checks and Balances" is a metaphor, not a mechanism. It doesn't work if we don't work it.

Demand Progress

Check in with the ACLU

Today's Tweet

Almost exactly 9 hours apart. pic.twitter.com/O2MyQSSvwA

— Conrad Close (@conradclose) July 31, 2017

Today's GIF

This modern world. It's a wonderment.

Res Ipsa Loquitor

"The occurrence of an accident implies neglect"

When something shitty happens - terrorists or a hurricane or whatever - remember that Cult45 has been awfully slow about getting people in place who oughta be working hard so we'll be ready for the shit when the shit happens.

It's not at all certain that we're being set up to accept Daddy State rule, but how do we dismiss the probability given our current "leadership"?

hat tip = Foreign Policy (pay wall)

Today's Deep Thoughts

Facts:

• Liberals love them because they make you smarter.
• Conservatives hate them because they make you liberal.

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