Comment on New images show asteroids closely approaching Earth, and one has a tiny moon - CNN

Seriously, I can't imagine on what planet you would put Joe Biden under a microscope when there's a big honkin' elephant in the room. Via HuffPost: “Daily Show” correspondents Desi Lydic and Jordan Klepper spotted some wild claims by Donald Trump at his latest lie-filled rally. But one truly bizarre moment stood out even by Trump’s standards ― Lydic had to issue a disclaimer before playing it. “To be clear, we did not add this music,” she said before rolling the footage of Trump speaking about people dying of fentanyl as music swelled.

It seems to have occurred to the Times op-ed page that maybe this Trump guy is more of a danger to democracy than Joe Biden. Huh. Via the New York Times: Next week, for the third time in eight years, Donald Trump will be nominated as the Republican Party’s candidate for president of the United States.

I recently posted about Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse and Ron Wyden’s demand for a special counsel to criminally investigate the suspected millions of dollars worth of cash and gifts Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has hoovered up without bothering to disclose to the public. “This conduct likely violates the Ethics in Government Act,” the senators wrote in their 16-page letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland. It turns out that two of those suspected freebies involve trips to Russia.

I was happy to see a member of Congress give this sort of response to the Fox stalkers that they've sent out to shove microphones in their faces, concern trolling over whether President Biden is in "cognitive decline," which they've all been in full blown freakout mode over ever since Biden's poor debate performance which was aided and abetted by CNN. Here's Rep.

The Mahablog: Trying to move forward. Pharyngula: Matthew Walther gets a free pass at The New York Times. Thinking about: How to stop fascism. The Freedom Academy: The "bloodless coup" has started with the Supreme Court. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: The costs of the 2017 Trump tax law. This installment by Batocchio. E-mail tips to mbru AT crooksandliars DOT com. read more

My original title said something about Republicans lying about Medicare and Social Security. I probably could have just left the title at "Republicans are lying," since that's all they do. But this particular lie is baked into their "platform," an all-caps bullet list which conveniently omits any mention of abortion and promises to "fight for" Medicare and Social Security. Dedicating their all-caps manifesto to the "Forgotten Men and Women of America," most of the list is just a restatement of the culture wars, with promises to "seal the borders" and deport anyone who is Black or brown.