Trumpers and magats. If you bought tiny's argument that prior court cases against him were rigged as a result of President Biden using the DOJ to go after his political opponents, how do you reconcile Judge Cannon throwing out the documents case?

Is she not a member of the same Judicial branch that trump has been dogging every day?

I don't know all the rules.

EA Sports College Football 25 game, the first college football video game since NCAA Football 14 11 years ago, is set to be released this summer. One of the covers for the game has been leaked now:



This came from the Sony Playstation Store, so it's probably a cover for the PS edition. Word is that there will be different covers for different systems, so the Xbox and Switch covers will likely look different...

I spy a Hawkeye flag in the background on that cover, though.

Good discussion on whether Biden should withdraw.

I think it's time I walk away from this place. I'm sure many will be happy.

To me, the worst part about this place is all the political hatred from both sides and it's just going to get worse.

I also spend too much damn time on here during work hours. LOL

Is your junior MAGAT.

…what should he try to achieve in his final months of presidency? Or should he just cruise and rest on the things he’s done?

Donald Trump’s fortunes in his effort to secure the 2024 Republican presidential nomination began to turn around in February 2023, when he visited the site of a train derailment in northeastern Ohio. After months of criticism for having hurt his party’s results in the midterm elections, the event gave Trump favorable headlines and offered a useful contrast with both President Biden and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), then running close to Trump in the presidential primary polls.


Cut through the 2024 election noise. Get The Campaign Moment newsletter.

Standing beside Trump in East Palestine was Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), who Trump had endorsed for the Republican nomination for Senate the previous April. Vance has been standing with Trump ever since — and will stand with Trump as the Republican Party vice-presidential nominee in November.
Skip to end of carousel

Sign up for the How to Read This Chart newsletter​

Subscribe to How to Read This Chart, a weekly dive into the data behind the news. Each Saturday, national columnist Philip Bump makes and breaks down charts explaining the latest in economics, pop culture, politics and more.

End of carousel
It’s easy to see why Trump tapped Vance (a pick he announced Monday afternoon). Vance’s past disparagements of Trump are water under the bridge, as Vance’s posture to the former president has shifted to breathless enthusiasm. Perhaps more importantly, though, Vance has passed the central test Trump posed to his last vice-presidential pick, former Indiana governor Mike Pence: If asked, Vance has said that he would have tried to throw the 2020 election to Trump.



You will recall Trump demanding that Pence on Jan. 6, 2021, refuse to accept electoral votes submitted by states the president had lost the previous November. Pence refused, triggering the fury of Trump and the mob of rioters who stormed the Capitol that afternoon. During an ABC News interview in February, Vance was asked what he would have done, had he been Trump’s vice president.
🏛️
Follow Politics
“If I had been vice president, I would have told the states, like Pennsylvania, Georgia and so many others, that we needed to have multiple slates of electors, and I think the U.S. Congress should have fought over it from there,” Vance said. “That is the legitimate way to deal with an election that a lot of folks, including me, think had a lot of problems in 2020.”
This is precisely what Trump said he wanted. It was also completely unwarranted, rooted in “problems” that were a post-hoc contrivance aimed at helping Trump retain power and dependent on an interpretation of the law that few observers believed held any credence.

Advertisement


But Vance isn't particularly worried about any tension emerging from the judiciary's efforts to hold the executive branch in check. Speaking to a reporter from Vanity Fair in 2022, Vance suggested that a reelected Trump should simply do what he wanted, challenging the Supreme Court to force compliance.
“When the courts stop you,” he suggested, Trump should “stand before the country, and say, 'The chief justice has made his ruling. Now let him enforce it.' ”
This was Andrew Jackson’s response to an 1834 court ruling that awarded possession of land in Georgia to a Native American tribe.
Vance has also expressed indifference about Pence's fate on Jan. 6. (An aside: The similarity of Vance's name to Pence's is going to lead to a lot of typos and some confusion.) In an interview with CNN in May, he shrugged at the idea that Pence was in any danger from the mob that day.



“Did a few people say some bad things? Sure,” Vance said. “But do we blame Donald Trump for every bad thing that’s ever been said by a participant in American democracy? I think that’s an absurd standard.”
You may recall Vance’s immediate response to the attempt to assassinate Trump over the weekend. It was the rhetoric of the Biden campaign, he said, that “led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.” (No motive for the shooting has been determined.)

There are myriad other ways in which Vance has echoed and supported Trump's rhetoric over the past two years, all of which we can expect to be elevated by the Biden campaign over the next few months. Earlier this month, for example, Vance endorsed Trump's promise to bring criminal charges against Joe Biden and his family.
Vance joins the Republican ticket slightly better known by Americans and Republicans than was Pence shortly before the 2016 announcement. Polling from YouGov in both years shows that Pence was unknown by about 6 in 10 Americans, while Vance is unknown by about half. Vance is also viewed very unfavorably by a fifth of Americans and very favorably by a quarter of Republicans.
Pence didn't inspire such a strong reaction, in part because his ascent to the ticket occurred in a very different context. He was the running mate to a relatively weak nominee, someone picked in large part because he could secure the support of religious conservatives. In 2024, Trump is hugely popular and powerful within the party. Vance demonstrated his fealty to Trump publicly — generating a strong response.



Pence was not selected this year, of course, because of his failure to acquiesce to Trump on Jan. 6, 2021.
How Vance views the role of the vice president in counting electoral votes will not matter in January 2025, since the vice president then will (barring a not-impossible disruption) be Kamala Harris. But it could be important in January 2029, when it’s quite possible that Vance himself would both be vice president and his party’s nominee.

@hexumhawk who are all these right wingers being blacklisted? You're aware there actually was an era where people who worked in the film industry were blacklisted for their political views and it wasn't conservatives. So who's getting that treatment now for being conservatives? Who has had their career ended for believing in tax cuts?

How difficult is it to do your own set up on an acoustic? i see people talking about shaving the saddle to lower the action - makes me nervous to do anything I can’t undo.

Thanks for any tips or tricks

Isn t that what they do down south? To me he's a hero. Should get the Purple Heart. Gave his life for Democracy.

Guilty verdict will likely not affect plans for intel briefings for Trump​

When he becomes the Republican nominee, he will still be briefed, despite his conviction in the hush money case and despite facing a trial on charges of mishandling classified info.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/na...affect-plans-intel-briefings-trump-rcna154876

Gonna get abandoned since he wouldn't quit and they aren't gonna risk another steal to save his or Kamala's sorry ass. File it under 'everything associated with Joe' (like Obama said) and focus on minimizing collateral damage. Trump or Vance, doesn't matter - Joe must go.

Was in South Lake Tahoe this weekend and hit a few of the casinos and wow, they were never great but now they're just sad. Each had maybe a dozen tables and the rest were just giant video games.

Wife and I used to hit Vegas a couple times a year when we lived in LA. Always enjoyed the old school vibes of some of the traditional casinos like Bally's. Lots of table games with all sorts of stakes. If they all look like the Tahoe casinos now I don't see spending any more time in them.

Obesity is it's own reward...

If MAGA Doug can compete on Black Jeopardy, then there's no reason that this divided nation can't come together.

Login to view embedded media

I want to see eye to eye on something. What's your favorite gym class game to teach?

Figured the board could use some joy today.

Login to view embedded media
White outfit, Black outfit.

You're an idiot.

Sincerely,
Anyone with eyes

Where is the prosciutto, Genoa salami, sopressata, ham, and other cured meats?

https://newrepublic.com/post/183660/project-2025-trump-ally-tom-homan-revenge-threat-deportation
A former director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement under Donald Trump has an ominous warning for a second Trump administration.
“Trump comes back in January, I’ll be on his heels coming back, and I will run the biggest deportation force this country has ever seen,” said Tom Homan at a panel on immigration policy at the National Conservatism conference (NatCon 4) Monday afternoon. “They ain’t seen shit yet. Wait until 2025.”
Homan’s words match what Trump is promising to do if he’s elected in November, which is enlist police officers in a massive immigration crackdown and give them immunity from prosecution and lawsuits. The more he says about it, the worse it gets. Trump has claimed that there are 20 million people who will have to be deported and repeatedly compared them to horror movie character Hannibal Lecter.

Heading to our first summer media availability tomorrow. Really excited to get some MBB content out.

Half of the guys will be available this time, then the rest will be available on the 15th. These are players that will be available:
Drew Thelwell, Brock Harding, Owen Freeman, Payton Sandfort, Ladji Dembele, Josh Dix

Particularly intrigued to hear how the backcourt is meshing with Thelwell and Brock. I know there was talk that Owen would be working out with Luka Garza and his dad this summer, too -- I'll follow up on that. Of course, will be asking Josh and Ladji how they plan to take their game to the next level this season, stuff like that.

Anything you're interested in hearing from this group?

The Strawberry Point Volunteer Fire Department announced on Facebook Thursday that it is going out of service, effective immediately, citing a lack of support from the Strawberry Point City Council.



The post states the lack of support has been detrimental to recruitment, morale, and retention of firefighters.


“Certain members of City Council have placed our department under tremendous strain, and it is imperative that the lack of support, failure to communicate and personal bias be addressed promptly. The safety of our citizens and the effectiveness of our emergency response team depend on it,” the post reads.






The department has contacted its nearby mutual aid partners to cover the area, and Strawberry Point City Administrator Deno Andrews assured in a statement Friday that resident safety remains a top priority for the city.


Fire emergency calls will be responded to as quickly as possible by other departments, and ambulance services will not be affected, according to the statement.


Andrews met with members of the fire department Friday afternoon and is working to understand their concerns in order to potentially restore the department’s operations.


“We are committed to finding a path forward that strengthens our community. We appreciate your patience and understanding during this time and encourage you to remain confident in the continued safety and security of Strawberry Point,” Andrews said in the statement.

Richard Simmons, the frizzy-haired fitness guru who championed positivity, exercise and healthy eating, and helped people lose millions of pounds through an idiosyncratic blend of earnestness and camp, died July 13 at his home in Los Angeles, a day after his 76th birthday.
His publicist, Tom Estey, confirmed the death but gave no other details.

Mr. Simmons, who retired to his Los Angeles home and abruptly left the public eye in 2014, revealed on social media in March that he had been successfully treated for skin cancer. The announcement came days after he published a startling post in which he declared that “every day we live we are getting closer to our death” and urged readers to “enjoy your life to the fullest.”
For more than 40 years, Mr. Simmons was a zany, irrepressible advocate for physical fitness and weight loss, wearing sparkling tank tops and striped Dolphin short shorts while exhorting Americans to get off the couch and get moving. “If your underwear isn’t wet,” he would shout, “you’re not working hard enough!”
Adopting playful titles like “The Pied Piper of Pounds” and “The Clown Prince of Fitness,” he led classes at his Beverly Hills exercise studio, Slimmons; published best-selling fitness guides, including the “Never-Say-Diet Book” (1980); promoted portion-control kits like Deal-a-Meal; and released hit workout videos including “Sweatin’ to the Oldies” (1988), in which he led aerobics routines to songs such as “Dancing in the Street” and “Great Balls of Fire,” backed by a live band in a gym setting meant to evoke a high school reunion.



A self-described “former fatty,” the 5-foot-7 Mr. Simmons “represented a much more accessible physical ideal” than svelte or muscle-bound peers like Jane Fonda and Jack LaLanne, said Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, a history professor at the New School in Manhattan and the author of “Fit Nation: The Gains and Pains of America’s Exercise Obsession.”
Recounting his story in books and exercise classes, Mr. Simmons said he had struggled with compulsive eating ever since he was a boy in New Orleans, entranced by opulent French Quarter restaurants and his parents’ home cooking. He “went directly from pablum to crêpes suzette,” weighed 268 pounds by the time he graduated from high school and became a plus-size model while studying in Italy as an exchange student, playing a dancing meatball, a bunch of grapes and an earthbound Peter Pan in commercials for food and underwear.
Mr. Simmons said he decided to transform his body after finding an anonymous note left under the windshield wiper of his car, which he had parked outside an Italian supermarket where he was autographing packages of gnocchi. “Fat people die young,” it read. “Please don’t die.”


Overcome with fear and anxiety, he turned to “pills, shots, massages, hypnosis, anything and everything” while trying to slim down in a hurry. For a time, he simply stopped eating. He lost 112 pounds in two and a half months, devastating his mind and body, before he checked himself into a hospital.
🌸
Follow D.C. region
Mr. Simmons underwent plastic surgeries for his chin, eyes, nose and hair. After moving to Los Angeles, he started his exercise studio in 1974, complete with an adjoining restaurant, Ruffage, that included one of the first free-standing salad bars independent of a steakhouse.
His workouts were part performance art, part burlesque show and part therapy session, in which he comforted students as they burst into tears. He donned wings, a tutu and other outrageous costumes, and maintained an almost theatrical intensity, shouting out compliments about pupils’ thighs and butts or chanting, “Fat, fat, go away, give it all to Doris Day!”
“Forget exercising: just speaking with him can raise your heart rate,” New York Times reporter Brooks Barnes wrote in 2013 after a visit to Slimmons. “He likes to stand about three inches from your face and stare at you. One minute he’s laughing maniacally. The next he is teetering on the verge of tears and what appears to be genuine sadness.”



Discussing the perils of junk food, Mr. Simmons could be solemn and grave, walking around his studio showing pictures of internal organs that belonged, he said, to the morbidly obese: “Do you see this heart? This heart is covered with cookies and pies and grease, and your heart may look like this, and you never know when it’s going to stop beating.”
But he also leavened his message with humor, including on episodes of “The Richard Simmons Show,” a syndicated series that ran for four years in the early 1980s. The show featured interviews and exercise lessons along with comedy sketches in which Mr. Simmons played characters like the Rev. Pounds, declaring, “Though I waddle through the valley of linguine and clams, I shall fear no evil.”
Mr. Simmons welcomed celebrities to his classes and salad bar — Dustin Hoffman, Diana Ross, Barbra Streisand and Joanne Woodward were all early customers — but catered more to ordinary people, mainly women, who said they had never felt comfortable at a gym before walking in to Slimmons.
Mr. Simmons leads an exercise class in 2004, at a nutrition conference hosted by California State University at Los Angeles. (Stephen Shugerman/Getty Images)
In a 2024 interview for this obituary, Petrzela said that Mr. Simmons was unique among his contemporaries in “welcoming and highlighting people who were not thin,” including by featuring them in his exercise videos.
She added that while he never discussed his sexuality, Mr. Simmons “brought a new, gender-bending aesthetic into mainstream America,” embodying “a kind of gender-line crossing flamboyance” that was more common to gay nightclubs than gyms. Cultural critic Rhonda Garelick, among others, described Mr. Simmons as “unmistakably camp,” writing in a 1995 article that his “elaborately constructed persona is part cheerleader, part father confessor, and part Broadway chorus boy.”
Outlasting fitness stars including Fonda, Mr. Simmons continued to preside over the studio’s classes into his mid-60s, and said he traveled 200 days a year while promoting exercise programs and meeting with fans whom he considered members of his extended family.



But in 2014, he made what Robert Thompson, a Syracuse University professor who studies television and popular culture, called an “almost J.D. Salinger-like, Thomas Pynchon-esque pivot” into seclusion, disappearing from view and then closing his gym in 2016.
His withdrawal spawned rumors and conspiracy theories that were amplified by a popular 2017 podcast, “Missing Richard Simmons,” which investigated tabloid speculation that the exercise guru might be held hostage in his home or transitioning from male to female.
Mr. Simmons rebuffed those reports in social media posts and phone interviews, insisting that he was simply living a more private life in the aftermath of a “very difficult” knee replacement. He had decided to make “a new beginning for myself,” he said, one that seemed to fulfill an earlier promise he made about doing what he loved.
“I work real hard to make people laugh and to make them think,” he told People magazine in 1981. “The day I don’t love any of this, I’ll walk away.”

MAGA was already a cult before the assassination attempt. Now the holy rollers are saying his near death experience is proof that God is working through him.

Behold, the Anointed One!