Tootfinder

"Roberts himself has been an opponent of the Voting Rights Act since he was a young lawyer working in the Reagan administration. In 2013 he led the court in overturning a section of the law that protected voters in areas with a long history of denying Black people the ability to exercise their right to vote. That unleashed a surge of voter suppression laws across the southern U.S."
God won’t save this Supreme Court: That job belongs to all of us
https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/supreme-court/5870011-supreme-court-failing-americans/

Following Hegseth and Hurst’s previous testimony two weeks ago, analyst Stephen Semler estimated that the U.S. government had spent
$71.8 billion over the first 60 days of the Iran war, or an average of $1.2 billion per day.
Aguilar also referred to similar estimates during his questioning, saying,
“Outside reporting estimates have indicated that the war costs could be a billion dollars a day.”
Later, as Hegseth began his opening speech at the Senate Subcommittee Hear…

Hegseth Won’t Say Whether Parents Should Forgo Childcare to Cover Defense Budget
The budget “will ensure the US continues to maintain the world’s most powerful and capable military,” he said.

Opponents of VA Redistricting Amendment Send Out Mailer/Text Falsely
-- and Offensively!
Claiming That Fighting Trump’s Assault on Our Democracy Is
“Just Like Jim Crow”
Note that many of the most prominent supporters of this amendment
- Barack Obama, Louise Lucas, Don Scott, etc.
- are African American

Opponents of VA Redistricting Amendment Send Out Mailer/Text Falsely (and Offensively!) Claiming That Fighting Trump's Assault on Our Democracy Is "Just Like Jim Crow" - Blue Virginia
See below for what’s hitting Virginia’s mailboxes and smartphones (via text) today; a group called “Democracy and Justice PAC” – nothing popping up in Google about it, but the mailing address is listed as 123 Bulifants Blvd in Williamsburg, VA (same address as “Campaign Compliance Center“) – sent out the following. The problems with these […]

The Trump administration ramps up its lawlessness on the seas (Max Boot/Washington Post)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/05/04/trump-boat-strikes-increase-after-lull-following-maduro-capture/?pwapi_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJyZWFzb24iOiJnaWZ0IiwibmJmIjoxNzc3ODY3MjAwLCJpc3MiOiJzdWJzY3JpcHRpb25zIiwiZXhwIjoxNzc5MjQ5NTk5LCJpYXQiOjE3Nzc4NjcyMDAsImp0aSI6Ijk3ZjcwNjE4LWUyZmMtNDNmOS1iODA0LWIyNjZmMTgzMmFiYyIsInVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS9vcGluaW9ucy8yMDI2LzA1LzA0L3RydW1wLWJvYXQtc3RyaWtlcy1pbmNyZWFzZS1hZnRlci1sdWxsLWZvbGxvd2luZy1tYWR1cm8tY2FwdHVyZS8ifQ.JYOA47UwIR-qTBvWAFtwhiga5njpHqjnarUoO4kd2Bg&itid=gfta
http://www.memeorandum.com/260504/p27#a260504p27

I have the impression that Trump or people around him, don't want a deal. Because saying "A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.", is not a good opening statement for talks... It only reinforces the feeling for Iran they are in an existential fight where no deals are possible. I also think Israel really wants to destroy Iran as much as possible so they clearly don't want a "deal".

The Trump administration ramps up its lawlessness on the seas

U.S. military strikes on suspected drug smugglers spike after a lull following Maduro’s capture.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/05/04/trump-bo…

The Trump administration ramps up its lawlessness on the seas
U.S. military strikes on suspected drug smugglers spike after a lull following Maduro's capture.

As salty as I am about it, there's also another way to think about this. For anyone who still has connections to folks on the right (which is perhaps unlikely for anyone on this server, I digress), the cult that has consumed them thrives on isolation and grievance.
The words "you were right" have the potential to cut through the programming and open up an opportunity for reconnection. The modern conspiratorial cult of the Right has been built partially around people who were told they were wrong or were crazy. In the vast majority of cases, they were wrong and even when they were right they completely misunderstood why, but we'll skip that for now. Liberals making fun of them (even the times when they definitely earned it) has pushed them further and further into their ideological hole.
The thing about those words, "you were right," in this context is that the way they offer reconnection also requires them to take one little step of betraying their ideology to accept them. So they must choose between maintaining allegiance to a pedophile or finally getting to feel superior after years of living in an illusion of persecution.
Under the ideology of the Right, admitting one is wrong is a weakness. It is admitting defeat. They have to "own the libs" by saying things, things that they know aren't true, in order to feel dominant. But these things are often so absurd that they end up being made fun of, feeling even more weak and pathetic, reinforcing their fear and alienation.
Offering what they're looking for can offer a way out, but only if they're willing to start to recognize the thing they've supported for what it is.
And they were right about some things. They were right that Bill Gates was a terrible person. I've had plenty of liberals defend him based on his philanthropy washing, but he's awful and always has been. The Epstein links make that blatant. They intuitively recognized him and didn't trust him, even if they were wildly off base about *how and why* he shouldn't be trusted... Even if their correct mistrust was leveraged into one of the most destructive conspiracy theories ever (vaccine denial and COVID vaccine avoidance).
They were right about Bill Clinton. He was always shady as fuck. Sure, the people who attacked him at the time turned out to be even more shady but that's not the point right now. He was connected to Epstein and that was always creepy as fuck.
And the Epstein thing was an open secret that liberals ignored for a long time. It was seen as some weird thing that right wing nutjobs believed about the Clintons. But it was true. Not all of it, and there has always been an antisemitic element to the right wing interpretation or Epstein stuff, but his whole pedophile conspiracy was always kind of real.
The whole "Illuminati"/deep state thing is a vast oversimplification, an attempt to make comprehensible an incredibly complex set of interlocking and emergent behaviors. But Epstein did very much want to remake the world, to create a new world order, and he absolutely played a part in it.
The Right wing nutjobs talked about global authoritarianism, Blackhawks flying over American cities, masked men with guns disarming and executing legal gun owners in the streets. That's all happening right now.
The "FEMA concentration camps" are not actually that far off. ICE and FEMA are sister agencies, both under DHS. I'd be more than happy to call that one "close enough" in order to hear some MAGA admit that ICE is, in fact, building concentration camps.
There was always a huge millennialist element to these things. They tended to be connected to "the antichrist." It was absurd, especially for me as someone who no longer identifies as a Christian. But I'll even acquiess that to a degree. The "the number of the Beast" is 666. That's just the sum of the Hebrew spelling of "Nero." Revelations focuses a lot on Nero coming back to life after his death. His death that involved a head wound, thus the line from Revelation 13:3:
> And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed. And all the world marveled and followed the beast.
The parallels between Trump and Nero are easy to draw, and Trump's ear wound feels pretty on-the-nose for this. I don't believe in "prophecy" in this way. I think that there are patterns, and useful patterns can become encoded in beleif systems. But I will, again, happily call this one "close enough" for anyone on that side willing to also acknowledge it. I'm happy to meet on that common ground, because anyone who accepts it must recognize that their duty is to fight against it.
A lot of these correct nuggets are embedded in a framework of religious extremism and antisemitism. The vast majority of the beliefs holding these together are wildly wrong and incredibly toxic. But by giving some room to feel validated, listened to, understood, can give some room to admit things that were wrong.
Cult de-programming starts with an opening. People have to talk through their own thoughts, hear their own inconsistencies. Guiding questions can help them untangle these things for themselves. And it all starts by having enough room to feel safe, to not feel cornered, to not feel stupid. Admitting mistakes means being vulnerable, and the MAGA cult is built on fear. It's built on exploiting vulnerability and locking it away.
De-programming takes a long time. It's not easy. It takes patience. But every person who comes out does so with a powerful perspective, a deep understanding, that can be turned back against it. The best people at getting people out of cults are former members. Some of the most dedicated antifa are former fascists who understood their mistakes and dedicate their lives to fixing them.

On Tuesday, former FBI director
James B. Comey was indicted
for allegedly threatening Trump
via an innocent social media post last May.

The administration’s efforts to use criminal law to attack political opponents keep failing,
but this attempt is even more ridiculous than usual.

The lowest-energy lawfare yet
James Comey is indicted again, now for an allegedly threatening Instagram post.

I don’t think Trump is unsophisticated in the way he wields language
— far from it.
He can load up the graphic detail through vivid, dynamic verbs when he wants to,
-- such as in one of the stories of bravery he told in his State of the Union address, perhaps with the help of his speechwriters:
“He absorbed four agonizing shots, shredding his leg into numerous pieces. … And even as he was gushing blood, which was flowing back down the aisle — helicopter lands at a s…

Opinion | What Trump Is Doing to the English Language
There is a morality to verbs, especially in political speech.

Countries meet to press Iran to reopen strait
In a televised address Wednesday night, Trump said countries that depend on oil flowing through the Strait of Hormuz “must grab it and cherish it”
— because the U.S. would not.
No country appears willing to try and open the strait by force while fighting rages and Iran can target vessels with anti-ship missiles, drones, attack craft and mines.
French President Emmanuel Macron said opening the strait by force is “unrealist…