Baby giraffe… so cute.
Another baby giraffe in the “Secret Life of the Zoo”
Experience the endearing journey of a baby giraffe as it takes its first wobbly steps and learns the art of running, accompanied by the watchful eyes of attentive keepers from Chester Zoo From The Secret Life of the Zoo, Series 1 Episode 3, “Baby Giraffe”: Rothschild’s giraffe Orla gives birth to a male calf named Kidepo.
Playing at the San Diego Zoo:
The sweetest faces…
He thinks that the GOP can pick up 100 seats? If they have in person only voting and paper ballots?
That’s ridiculous, of course, in every way. Even more ridiculous,however, is his oft-expressed demand that all voted be hand-counted before midnight and any that aren’t must be thrown out. I think we can see how that would go.
Obviously, this isn’t going to happen. But I am convinced that the plan is not about stopping the voting, although they’ll do what they can. As I mentioned in my earlier post, it’s about contesting the vote after the fact. That’s Trump’s specialty. I could easily see the Supremes’ rocket docket reversing the vote count on an emergency basis to be decided sometime in 2033 when it finally makes it through the lower courts — at which point they’ll declare it moot.
I do love the fact that he’s predicting a 100 vote pick-up. MAGA’s going to be so sad.
For those of you who’ve been worried about the fact that the Republicans will likely gerrymander more states, even after California and other blue states do their thing, G. Elliot Morris provides some analysis that shows all is not lost anyway:
I’ve assembled a crack team of redistricting expert friends to ask what they think is going to happen in each state that has already or is likely to redraw its congressional lines before November 2026. According to them, the best case for Democrats is something that looks like the following changes in seat control in each state:
- Republicans gain 3 seats in TX
- Democrats gain 5 seats in CA
- R+1 in IN
- R+1 in OH
- R+3 in FL
- R+1 in MO
- Total R+4
And the worst-case scenario for Democrats looks maybe like this:
- R+5 in TX
- D+3 in CA
- R+1 in IN
- R+2 in OH
- R+3 in FL
- R+1 in MO
- Total R+9
These are just guesses since we don’t know what the maps in all these states look like, but I trust the judgment of my experts and the general neighborhood of their estimates. In terms of caveats, note that we are not accounting for any changes in maps that may come if the Supreme Court strikes down the section of the Voting Rights Act that mandates majority-minority districts in some states. If that happens, we could see a deluge of Democratic seats due to map redrawing all over the South, including seats like MO-01 and TN-09. “All bets are off” if that happens, I’m told.
But if you take these changes in seat totals and then plug them into a computer program that projects the number of seats Democrats would win under each map, given different margins in the House popular vote, you get the following figure. This tells you, for each of our 3 scenarios (2024, best-case Dem, and worst-case Dem), the number of seats Democrats would win if they increased or decreased their vote margins uniformly across all seats.
For example, under the 2024 map, Democrats would likely have won control of the House even while losing the national popular vote by 1.5 percentage points. That’s because Republicans won 3 seats by less than 1.1 percentage points, and they’d flip to Democrats if you decrease the Republican popular vote margin from +2.6 to +1.5.
But now, if you take 4 or 9 seats away from the Democrats, they have to win the popular vote in order to win control of Congress. In the worst-case simulation where Democrats lose 9 seats due to partisan gerrymandering across the country, they would not recover their current number of seats (215) until they won the popular vote by 0.3 points — a 2.9-point shift from 2024. And they’d need to win the popular vote by 1.3 points to win the majority of seats in the House.
In all three scenarios, Democrats are pretty likely to win the majority if they win by their current 3.3-point margin in the generic ballot, according to our average:
[…]
The bottom line is that while Republican gerrymandering efforts could make Democrats’ path to retaking the House more difficult in 2026, they’re not insurmountable. Even in the worst-case scenario where Democrats lose 9 seats to partisan redistricting, they would still have a realistic chance of winning the majority if they can maintain their current polling advantage or capitalize on potential anti-Trump sentiment in the midterms.
Keep the pressure on, people. Don’t let up. They are trying to cheat — and they will likely contest any election they lose — but if our democracy can hang on for two more cycles we might just get through this.
He’s the Commander in Chief of the military but no one has ever called the president the top law enforcement officer. It’s not true. In fact, for the last 50 years the country removed the president from any direct association with Justice Department matters except for his ultimate power to nominate or fire the top political appointees.
He said that he didn’t know about the Bolton raid and that’s simply not believable. Of course he did. Bondi and Patel are so far up his keister that they can’t eat lunch without informing Trump of what’s in their sandwich. He gave the order the minute he said “I am your retribution.”
And Patel has his own ax to grind:
Bolton made several appearances in Patel’s 2024 book The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy, including in an infamous appendix listing “Members of the Executive Branch Deep State.” In the book, Patel also blasted Bolton as an “arrogant control freak” and personally blamed Bolton for delaying Patel’s hiring in the first Trump administration.
The fact that they are apparently trying to get him for taking “classified documents” is just rich. Trump will no doubt rant about how terrible it is to do such a thing but everyone should laugh in his face when he does it. We’ve all seen the pictures of the boxes of top secret documents in the toilet at Mar-a-lago:
I do think there is a method to the madness here, though. This is a message to the Trump apostates and (rare) GOP opponents. The Bolton, Miles Taylor and Chris Krebs investigations are a shot across the bow at anyone who once worked for Trump and have spoken out against him. Republican officials are all on notice.
What is this lunacy all about? Well, Cracker Barrel changed its logo.
That’s what they’re upset about. You see, the new logo is “woke” because the person who runs the company is a woman:
In a statement to CBS News, Cracker Barrel said that the man portrayed in the logo, known as “Uncle Herschel,” will remain “front and center in our restaurants and on our menu.”
“Our values haven’t changed, and the heart and soul of Cracker Barrel haven’t changed,” the company said.
What the hell is wrong with these people? It’s a logo fergawdsakes and they’ve turned it into a culture war symbol out of nowhere.
This indicates to me that on some level these people are running out of gas. I know they cost the company a big loss in its share price and that does show some clout. But it’s even more ridiculous than the brouhaha over the lady M&M and Mr Potato Head. At least in those cases there was some very slight tangential relationship to culture issues. This is just a graphic design that has no meaning at all. It’s not woke. It’s not anything.
They’re desperate to keep the cult activated and they need to keep this “woke” thing going to do it. But doesn’t it feel awfully 2023?
Did you know that the Texas redistricting depends upon Hispanics voting GOP again?
While women in a border-town nail salon chatted in Spanish about a local economy the owner called worse than the pandemic, client Iris Martinez hung her head and hid her face.Then, she admitted whom she voted for in the last election: President Trump. “I thought he would help the economy—he’s a businessman,” she said. “I regret it.”
Martinez was among thousands of South Texas Hispanics who last year, after a lifetime of voting mostly Democratic, swung their votes to Trump, and the GOP is betting the shift is permanent.
At Trump’s instruction, Republican members of the Texas Legislature are moving forward on an unusual mid-decade redistricting effort to add five more GOP Texas congressional seats, four of which are majority Hispanic. The strategy hinges on newly-red voters continuing to vote Republican, especially in the Rio Grande Valley.
But there are signs Hispanic voters in Texas and nationally are souring on Trump, which makes the party’s redistricting strategy a risk ahead of the consequential midterm elections. The rightward shift in the region, which began in 2020, came largely in response to economic factors, especially the cost of food and goods. Now, voters say they are feeling the pinch of those things more than ever.
Their economic concerns are also colliding with Trump’s deportation agenda. Several small-business owners said they believe immigration raids are scaring away some clients and Trump’s rhetoric overall is keeping clients in nearby Mexican cities from driving across the border for shopping and other services. And tariffs have lessened import truck crossings in a region where many depend on trade.
An April poll by Unidos US, a nonpartisan Hispanic advocacy organization, measured the support of Trump’s first 100 days among Hispanic voters and found 61% of respondents in Texas and 59% nationally disapproved of his performance. The group overwhelmingly ranked cost of living and the economy as the most important issues, and a majority of Texas respondents said they believe current policies will make them worse off next year.
Nationally, a Reuters/Ipsos poll this week found 32% of Hispanic voters approve of Trump’s performance, the lowest approval rating this year. And some 21% of Hispanic Americans support his handling of immigration, compared with 35% of all Americans, a June Gallup poll found.
Wouldn’t it be something if those four new districts went for the Democrats? What poetic justice it would be.
So much depends on the state of the economy in November of 2026. But there is every reason to expect that it isn’t going to be any better than it is right now and it’s very likely to be worse. Combine that with the mass deportations and you have a recipe for Texas Latinos to stage a surprise.
Remember when wearing masks during the pandemic made you breathe your own carbon dioxide and infringed personal liberty? MAGA masking foes apparently suffered short-term memory loss.
@jo2media ICE agents in the City of Lynwood, California try to enter a Barbershop 08/21/25 #ICE #LosAngeles #California #Lynwood #Inmigracion ♬ original sound – Jo2Media
ICE try to break into barbershop when owner won’t open door without a warrant—threaten to go after his parents.
Agent: “I’m going to go get your dad—and I’m going to get your mom!”
Witness: “Y’all can’t tell him that, though. His mom?”
Agent: “Yes we can. That’s how we do.”
Lynwood, California
From the Presidential Barbershop website. Guess why ICE is there looking for the “worst of the worst”?
“Appointment only no walk ins,” quips one TikTok commenter.
* * * * *
Have you fought dicktatorship today?
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Attending a Protest Surveillance Self-Defense
Breaking News from The Bulwark:
Shortly before 7:00 am Friday morning, the FBI and Montgomery County police were seen at the Bethesda home of John Bolton, who served as national security advisor for part of Donald Trump’s first term. Montgomery County police sealed off the street on which Bolton lives while an unmarked black SUV parked in front of Bolton’s house.
Lawfare’s Ben Wittes was streaming live from the location as of the time I’m typing this.
>
Wittes believes this is an effort to beat a statute of limitations on whatever it is Trump’s FBI is doing there to exact retribution on Bolton. Upon retaking office, Donald Trump revoked his former national security advisers’s security clearance straight away. Trump had accused Bolton of revealing national security secrets in his book back in 2020.
The New York Post just reported, “Federal agents busted into John Bolton’s house in Bethesda, Md., at 7 a.m.” as part of “a high-profile national security probe.”
“NO ONE is above the law… @FBI agents on mission,” tweeted Kash Patel, Trump’s FBI director. No one that is except Lord Trump and his current courtiers.
The New York Times posted about 8:40 a.m. EDT:
The investigation into Mr. Bolton seeks to determine whether he illegally shared or possessed classified information, according to two people familiar with the case who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the thrust of the investigation. A lawyer for Bolton, who is now a frequent critic of the president, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
That’s rich. An FBI raid courtesy of Donald Trump, he of boxes of stolen secret documents stored in a golf resort ballroom and bathroom fame.
* * * * *
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You Have Power
Chop Wood, Carry Water
Thirty lonely but beautiful actions
Attending a Protest Surveillance Self-Defense
The Supremes made another emergency ruling today in a case in which NIH grant recipients had sued to reverse Trump’s rescission of research grants that he determined were “DEI.” (You know, the ones that had the word “woman” in them.) The majority found that they had filed the suit in the wrong court so they will have to start over. But a different majority (which included Roberts and Barrett) held that the directives are likely unlawful.
It will take forever to get through the courts and back up to the high court but it does appear that a majority is not ready to allow Trump to completely destroy bio-research based on stupid MAGA influencer garbage. For now anyway. Of course, by the time it wends its way back there all the research will be gone as will many of the researchers and scientists. But at least there’s some slight hope that they aren’t ready to officially turn the Mad King’s rally ramblings into a permanent imperial power.
I got that very slick mailer today in the mail. They haven’t even passed the legislation for the referendum yet and this is already being sent to Californians.
Who in the world is Charles Munger?
Charles Munger Jr., the megadonor backing Republicans’ effort to block Democrats from redrawing California’s congressional map, has primarily been known to the public as the bow-tie-wearing champion of good-government causes like independent redistricting and legislative transparency.
But there’s a lesser-known aspect of Munger’s financial giving that Democrats are preparing to torch him on.
Munger, a Palo Alto physicist, has contributed more than $158,000 to socially conservative causes over the last 25 years, according to federal tax filings — including to organizations that oppose abortion rights and promote so-called crisis pregnancy centers, and to Christian groups whose leaders have opposed LGBTQ+ rights.
Munger’s spending, via his charitable nonprofit, is providing fodder to abortion-rights advocates and LGBTQ+ leaders in their effort to build support for Gov. Gavin Newsom’s push to gerrymander California’s congressional districts in favor of Democrats — a gambit that Newsom says will neutralize President Donald Trump’s effort to nab five new Republican House seats in Texas.
[…]
Good-government reforms have dominated much of Munger’s civic spending. But IRS filings for his CNC Foundation, which he’s funded with Berkshire Hathaway stock, outline a host of conservative causes. He gave:
- $70,000 to First Resort (later renamed Third Box), which operated crisis pregnancy centers in San Francisco and the Bay Area. City leaders accused the centers of masquerading as women’s health clinics while promoting an anti-abortion agenda. San Francisco later passed an ordinance to prohibit such centers from engaging in misleading advertising.
- $3,400 to the Christian Legal Society, an association of lawyers who promote a host of conservative legal causes, including celebrating the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
- Nearly $83,000 to Campus Crusade for Christ, which promotes religious ministries on college and middle school and high school campuses. The organization teaches that same-sex attraction is “contrary to God’s design for human sexuality” and has promoted conversion therapy.
Jodi Hicks, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, is among those highlighting Munger’s support of conservative causes. She has been at the forefront of Democrats’ redistricting push and spoke at a news conference alongside Newsom last week.
“His contributions to those organizations speak to his values and the agenda he supports — an extreme agenda that hurts LGBTQ people, women and people of color,” Hicks said in a statement.
This is California and all that stuff matters here. It aligns him with the right which is toxic here. So, I hope they do what’s necessary to neutralize this guy.
He’s not alone. Schwarzenegger is going to try to help tank this referendum too and he has more clout. I’m sure that Trump is going to spend massive sums as well. It will be a battle. I don’t make predictions anymore about politics but I hope it will. I suspect that California is sick of being treated like a vassal state and resent the hell out of how he and the rest of these MAGA people talk about and treat the people of this state.
Trump has sicced masked thugs on California cities and we don’t like it. He treated us like dirt when we suffered from a freak firestorm and blamed us for it. I think most of us understand the stakes for us as Americans and Californians. I hope we heed the call and do what’s we can to stop this grotesque power grab.
This is Charles Munger, BTW:
