We need a picture of him with eyes open (without tape) and holding up the current day’s NYT and WaPo papers.

This whole thing just shows us what exactly what will happen if/when trump keels over. It will be covered up as long as possible. Just like Iran’s new Ayatollah, who has never been seen, even to show up for his father’s funeral.

You know we’ve gone full 1984 dystopia when the fucking Senate Majority Leader stands there with a straight face and claims he had a conversation with McConnell about national security of all things (as if you’d really expect them to discuss that), and all the reporters just parrot what he said as unquestioned fact. And no one will bat an eye or ever mention his blatant lying, when it comes out that McConnell was dead the whole time.

I’d say the downfall first started around the time 24-hour cable news came along (starting in 1980 but it didn’t happen right away) along with things like the abolishing of the fairness doctrine (1987). That and the need to fill 24 hours with “news” led to the shift to more op-ed content than news. More and more of these opinion news cable channels followed.

Then the deterioration really began to snowball with the internet and proliferation of “news” outlets tailored for specific audiences, culminating with the rise of social media (I mean, what hasn’t been negatively affected by the rise of social media/oligarch-owned web 2.0) and the purchasing of all media outlets, including newspapers, by corporations and later by the rising oligarchs.

All this meant the “news” became just another type of profit-driven enterprise, with a need to compete for ratings, that shifted it from hard news to entertainment and nothing more than parroting of press releases with no independent investigation. Ultimately leading to the demise of the last bastion of independence, print journalism.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t still some journalists doing good investigative work, just that they are pretty much on their own now. I don’t know much about Meidas Touch, but if they’re actually out there asking questions and reporting, instead of just sitting around spouting opinions and outrage like most political podcasts, that’s a good thing.

If we had a free independent press any more, all reputable news outlets would be writing about this every single day to apply pressure for proof of consciousness, so they can’t drag this out until the deadline.

They would demand that his office, which released a statement saying "The Senator continues to improve, and is working closely with his staff on Kentucky and Senate matters while the Senate is out of session”, prove that they weren’t outright LYING.

They would go around asking his spokespeople to answer questions on camera and hound them, “is McConnell conscious?”, “Will you release a photo of him with his eyes open?”, “Why did his wife go to Beijing?” etc etc.

But they won’t. Because we don’t have a free independent press any more. A few journalists will speculate. None will keep demanding answers until they get them. Just the talking heads speculating.

On Thursday, McConnell’s office told Newsweek via email, “Senator McConnell appreciates the outpouring of support he’s receiving while he continues his recovery in the hospital. The Senator continues to improve, and is working closely with his staff on Kentucky and Senate matters while the Senate is out of session.”

Translation:

On Thursday, McConnell’s office told Newsweek via email, “[We believe that] Senator McConnell [would, if he were conscious and aware,] appreciate the outpouring of support he’s receiving while he continues his recovery in the hospital. The Senator continues to improve [not be dead, technically], and is working closely with his [ICU medical] staff on Kentucky and Senate [respiration] matters while the Senate [brain] is out of session.”

I was really impressed by how Pritzker handled trump’s ice goon invasion of Chicago, he stood up and got trump to back off.

edit: OTOH, let’s keep watching and see what he will do about this: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/06/eff-gov-pritzker-veto-illinois-hb-5511

It would be much more effective if he “took over” Israel instead of Iran, since the “agreement” stipulates that it is dependent on Israel stopping its attacks on Lebanon.

“He’s not even a Democrat”

As they used to say when I was a kid: “Takes one to know one!”

The Dems are in the minority in the Senate. That’s the whole reason why Alito would retire before the midterms, while Repubs still have the majority and have the votes to confirm a replacement.

They must be worried Dems could win the majority in the midterms and would then take control in January and be able to stop a replacement if he waits until then to retire.

If only these people had figured it out after his first term. Oh wait, they weren’t harmed personally in his first term.

If someone said, “I was dumb, I didn’t know he was going to cut off aid to starving people, didn’t know he was going to send masked thugs into the streets to beat, kill, kidnap and disappear innocent people, didn’t know he was going to start wars, didn’t know he was going to betray all our allies and destroy any remaining drop of goodwill toward the US in the world, … etc”

Then I’d say, “yes, you were dumb, very fucking dumb, exceedingly dumb, but welcome to humanity. Some things are permanently ruined because you were so fucking dumb but now let’s start picking up the pieces and try to create a better system than the one that allowed someone like trump to gain so much power.”

But it’s never that. It’s always, “I didn’t know he was going to hurt MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!”

“It’s okay to be wrong. You made a mistake, it was a bad choice, but it’s not the end of the world."

Uhm about that …

Oh good grief. So some of them don’t like his Iran deal, that’s not ‘turning on him’. They would all still 100% vote for him and will vote for whoever he tells them to, as we’ve been seeing in the repub primaries. They’ll still fall for any scam he throws at them and are perfectly happy to have their taxpayer dollars go to billionaires and grifters while their own benefits are dismantled and their rights taken away.

Repubs will get rid of him but the plan was, and so far apparently still is, to wait until after January next year, after the midterms and so that Vance will take over with less than half the term remaining, allowing him to run twice more. Their hope was that keeping him around until the midterms would help them hold the majority in both Houses of Congress, more than Vance would be able to. But by now, some of them are regretting that, since he’s going off the deep end further and faster than they expected. They might lose both Houses anyway and now he’s started this catastrophic war. I’m sure some of them are arguing for getting rid of him sooner than planned at this point.

Chips A’Roy is crummy.

After his gaffe was brought to his attention, Bessent was shaken, not stirred.

Another clip making the rounds on X featured a MAGA hat ablaze on a barbecue grill.

They’re eating the hats …

Yes, IF it’s during business hours and the desk is open. But that’s another good thing for people to make sure and do if they decide to go ahead with a mail-in ballot.

And I do understand that the move to regional processing centers as their excuse for why things might no longer get postmarked the same day. But that’s what they’re saying and does not negate the fact that they can easily delay postmarking or delivery if they want to, and I don’t think they should be trusted not to want to (or be ordered to). My point is that we’re now at a moment where no government agency can be trusted to not act in a partisan way or to not interfere in our elections.

Yet another tactic to prevent “the wrong people” from voting. But a lot has already been happening even before this. States have been passing laws over the last several years that mail-in ballots can only be counted if they physically arrive at he Election office before Election Day.

It used to be with most states that a ballot would be counted if it arrived by X number of days after Election Day as long as it was postmarked by that day. And it used to be that your mail was postmarked the same day you mailed it, proving for example that you sent in your tax return on time. But not any more. The USPS is now saying that your item might not be postmarked for some time after you actually mail it, depending on when they get around to processing it.

Depending on where you live, relying on a postmark to prove you mailed your tax return, mail-in ballot, bill payment or any other time-sensitive document by a specific date may no longer work as you expect. As the U.S. Postal Service continues implementing operational changes in an effort to shore up its finances and modernize its infrastructure, the agency expects an increase in delays between when you mail something and when it is postmarked, according to a public notice in the Federal Register that took effect Dec. 24. A postmark shows the date your mail was processed, and historically has been applied the same day you mail an item. However, due to limiting pickups at many postal locations and mail now often traveling farther to regional processing centers where the postmark is applied, “the postmark date does not inherently or necessarily align with the date on which the Postal Service first accepted possession of the mailpiece,” the notice reads.

Mail-in ballots are clearly recognizable in their special envelopes (so they would get priority treatment). So it’s very easy for the Post Office to sort out those ballots from the other mail. And depending on the state, besides your signature it will have your name and return address they could scan and compare to a list, or at the very least they know where it was mailed from. So they could easily screen out ballots from people areas more likely to vote Democratic and simply delay postmarking them until past the deadline, or just hold up delivery to make sure they’re late.

I would say we should avoid voting by mail, or if you do, mail it well before the deadline AND consider driving to a post office in an affluent, white, or in general Republican-leaning area and mailing it from there. But really, at least for the next couple of federal election cycles or for as long as magats are in power, I recommend voting early and in person at the Election office if at all possible.

Looking at your comment history I see you work tirelessly to destroy morale of activists and discourage Americans from taking any action. The maga regime thanks you for your support.