Reciprocity

Other Countries can't fight Uncle Sam on many things, but visa requirements reciprocity is one common response.

If it's ever difficult for you to get a travel visa to go somewhere, check what the US requires of them!

Schism

There's an opening for Pope Vance or Pope Douthat.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican responded aggressively Thursday to a traditionalist group that consecrated bishops without the pope’s consent, declaring the Society of St. Pius X had formally broken with the Catholic Church. It also excommunicated its bishops and priests, and warned its faithful that they too face the harshest sanctions in the church.

Best 4th Ever

Our big beautiful sweaty president is going to stroke out on stage while giving a speech in 100 degree weather, as fireworks choke DC with toxic pollution and then burn down the city.

Fireworks on Mall likely to cause hazardous air pollution, documents show

Internal National Park Service modeling for the July Fourth show predicts dangerous pollution around the Mall and “very unhealthy” conditions across central D.C.

Can't wait!

Wear a mask to signal you are woke and to avoid lung cancer:

Levels of up to 1,200 micrograms per cubic meter match what have been recorded with other fireworks events but are nevertheless reason to take precautions, said George Thurston, a professor of medicine and population health at New York University. He added that the worst-case scenario would exceed anything he has seen previously recorded from pyrotechnic displays.

“People should use the precautionary principle, which is to minimize exposures,” Thurston said. “An N95 mask would be a good idea.”

America's Worst Governor

Jared Polis

Morning

Thick Thursday.

Happy Hour

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Remarkable Lack Of Curioisity

We all know what our press behaves like when there's an issue that really makes them mad, one they can't let go. Quite often those are stupid things! They can ask once and never ask again, or have Jake Tapper have a nightly hour dedicated to The Unanswered Trump Health questions.

oh my goodness -- it looks like the rot on Trump's hand is now rotting 😳 (Andrew Harnik/Getty)

[image or embed]

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) July 1, 2026 at 5:32 PM

Normally the (lack of) health of the president is a big concern! Suddenly not.

If I Could Turn Back Time

I'd go back and advise all my academic friends to get fired for saying true things about Charlie Kirk.

The University of Tennessee System Board of Trustees approved a settlement with former assistant professor Tamar Shirinian, agreeing to pay the fired faculty member $1.9 million.

Shirinian will not be reinstated at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. State officials, including the attorney general and Gov. Bill Lee, need to approve the settlement.

At 5% return, not a bad little lifelong income base.

The Moderates!

Moderate Dems believe, or pretend to believe, that left wing politicians in very left wing areas should be fought against because their existence makes it impossible to win Suburban Ohio, or wherever.

All it takes is one "crazy" Democrat and they are doomed!

I do not think the notionally left wing party should be governed by the median voter in the median House district.

The imagined median voter, of course. Not even a real one. A fake one who somehow agrees with "former" Republican Joe Scarborough every time. Let's also call him Joe. Joe Bailey.

15 Terms

30 years in Congress and Genette managed to be Chief Deputy Whip, a somewhat fake job. Never a committee Chair.

Maybe she didn’t want to be, which is fine! I don’t think everyone does or should want to have real leadership positions.

But plenty of them do stand in line for decades to the Dem official and official deference to seniority.

Exceptions, of course, but for various reasons, after 30 years of waiting you don't necessarily have the juice once you do get the gavel. And maybe you lose before you get it.

Again, maybe this isn't her story, but it is for many .

That's A Lot Of Terms

15 terms for Degette, to be precise. 

The democratic socialist Melat Kiros unseated the long-serving US representative Diana DeGette in Colorado’s primary elections held on Tuesday, the latest in a string of high-profile victories for the party’s insurgent left.

The Associated Press reported that Kiros had defeated DeGette for the Democratic nomination in the deep-blue first congressional district centered on Denver. Kiros’s triumph came a week after New York voters unseated two Democratic congressional incumbents and replaced a third who was retiring with candidates who had campaigned on standing up to Israel amid accusations that it was carrying out a genocide in Gaza.

Her success in the solidly Democratic first district all but ensures her election in November.

Kiros, 29, was born in Ethiopia in 1997 – the year DeGette arrived in Congress – and graduated from law school at the University of Notre Dame in 2022. The following year, she wrote a blogpost rejecting accusations that law students who protested against Israel’s counterattack after 7 October were antisemitic. The New York law firm where Kiros was working fired her after she refused to take the post down, and she then went into politics.

Explains So Much

Groveling shitty journalism.

Morning

Late start

Mommy Milky

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Seems Bad

Eliminationist rhetoric about Jews is always a right wing thing, even though everyone in The Discourse pretends antisemitism is solely a left wing issue.

Depression

That was why Tom Kean says he was away and hospitalized for 4 months. Good he found the help he needed, though I bet we'll be treated to about 5 days of people praising his bravery and discussing mental illness as if it's an actual real and bad thing, who will then go back to talking about it being a fake thing if suffered by people who can't take 4 months off.

I suspect the legislative record of Tom Kean (R) on related issues is exactly what you would expect, but really even if not, the (R) says enough.

4 Of 9 Justices Can't Read

5-4 on the constitutional question of birthright citizenship, 6-3 on the law.

A bunch of people are going to pretend to be confused by this, as many thought it would be 8-1 at worst.

I don't waste my beautiful mind parsing their decisions anymore, but I am sure you can find more serious analysis elsewhere.

NPR briefly posted, and removed, a story saying Alito was retiring. Hilarious stuff. Good job, Nina.

Unclear whether they just accidentally published a standard pre-write or accidentally published the news before it was real. In any case, I hope he has much more time to watch Fox News.

Did He Find The Lost Ark

Better be good!

Westfield, New Jersey — One day before Republican Rep. Tom Kean Jr. planned to return to Washington, the long-missing congressman sat on the steps of his tidy Tudor-style home in North Jersey, sifting through mail beside his wife.

Kean, wearing a gray polo, offered a casual wave and headed inside when he noticed a reporter from CNN on his street. Then, he dispatched a spokesperson for his campaign to deliver a message that his own GOP colleagues have been eager to hear for months.

The 57-year-old congressman will be “fully transparent” about his nearly four-month absence when he returns to Washington on Tuesday, spokesperson Harrison Neely told CNN.

"Strong Borders"

You (and they) can argue if they were in charge that their tough on immigration stance would be different than Trump's. I can even believe that's true! But in the middle of (looks around at all this), this brands you as nothing other than "Trump lite" when people either want anti-Trump or The Full Trump.

Those Liz Cheney Republicans will vote for us next time, bro, I promise, and when we get enough of them we'll never have to hear the pig squealings of The Left again.