the phantom

some dude 24

[the phantom @SamRayburnDem]

My newest article on the 1876 election. How the nation almost descended into another Civil War when a candidate flirted with paramilitary groups who wanted to march on Washington.

[Matthew Chapman @fawfulfan]

Also, because the restaurant has now given me the run-around and isn't willing to refund me voluntarily like decent people who made an innocent mistake, I'm going to go ahead and stop protecting their identity from the internet: it's Rinconcito de Arandas in Chicago, IL.

[Lyndon Baines Johnson @lyndonbajohnson]

By far, though, John Husted takes the cake for most hilarious Republican ads of the cycle. Bro hoping no one notices that *he's* the incumbent. -OS

[the phantom @SamRayburnDem]

@LRSerling My only experience of the show is through tik tok

[the phantom @SamRayburnDem]

@RevAaronEColyer @ZaidJilani Jack ass we’re only gonna call someone a doctor if they work in the medical field. Telling the press to call her that in reporting is just entilment

[Knowing Better @KnowingBetterYT]

I don't like this version of the future. I want off this ride.

The victim's SISTER made an AI video of him forgiving his killer and played it at the sentencing.

The judge said "I loved that AI, thank you for that. ... I heard the forgiveness. I feel that that was genuine."

[the phantom @SamRayburnDem]

@SenatorLuma @rowanfornow Was it the green star ball level I hated that one

[the phantom @SamRayburnDem]

@Knight__dawg I feel like the clearest show on how reactionary the right has become is that totally ignore how anti Christian the Nazis and Mussolini were. The Nazis burned down churches during their terror campaigns on the eastern front and wanted culturally replace Christianity.

[the phantom @SamRayburnDem]

@SenatorLuma @plasmalogical I remember the black Luma and this luma but what was the other one

[Lyndon Baines Johnson @lyndonbajohnson]

The early attack on Talarico was that he was a closeted gay with a hot girlfriend he got from dipping the pen in company ink and he does Jesus wrong. Like, what? -OS

[the phantom @SamRayburnDem]

@dukakis88 Good luck

[Ben Southwood @bswud]

- 19yo with disorder that makes him prone to blood clots
- ⁠calls an ambulance with symptoms typical of a blood clot in the lungs
- ⁠blood test to rule out blood clot not performed
- ⁠discharged with antibiotics
- ⁠reattended A&E later same day coughing up blood (red flag for blood clot). Discharged again.
- ⁠saw GP a week later who sent to A&E as had obvious symptoms of blood clot
- ⁠discharged with no investigation for blood clots from A&E again as doctor “forgot” to refer to be admitted for tests
- ⁠attended later same day as symptoms worsening. WAS actually admitted but communication so poor and kept in waiting room on a chair after “admission” that he didn’t realise he’d been admitted and went home to sleep.
- ⁠died next day at home

His life would have been saved with a simple blood test at any of the FIVE separate encounters with medical professionals.

[the phantom @SamRayburnDem]

@dukakis88 No

[BetMGM 🦁 @BetMGM]

The Steelers haven't won a Thursday night road game against a divisional opponent since 1950 😭

[the phantom @SamRayburnDem]

@guhnomercy @yfcherries @kirakkat A sicle implies stick

[the phantom @SamRayburnDem]

@yfcherries @guhnomercy @kirakkat I rescind my statement and Stella is right

[the phantom @SamRayburnDem]

@Lexbianism @guhnomercy @yfcherries @kirakkat Elon hates me I take that as a badge of honor

[the phantom @SamRayburnDem]

@Lexbianism @guhnomercy @yfcherries @kirakkat Mercy is right about this one

[the phantom @SamRayburnDem]

@dukakis88 My day has been ruined I miss the deep blue

[Sridhar Ramesh @RadishHarmers]

Reading books is passive, like watching TikTok slop. Lazy and unproductive. Tweeting tweets is active, like being Shakespeare.

[Matthew Chapman @fawfulfan]

As insane as it sounds, this is very, very likely to be one of the next big hot-button culture wars the right focuses on: stopping children from estranging their parents.

Spend a little time trawling through Facebook and you'll find hundreds of "support groups" for estranged parents of adult children, who are fully convinced not only that they did nothing wrong to deserve the estrangement, but that there's some sort of "estrangement epidemic" going on in America and that the therapy industry is evil and brainwashed their children to do it. You're starting to see op-eds about this in places like the Wall Street Journal too.

This is total nonsense, obviously. There's no evidence of an epidemic of estrangement, reputable therapists do not advise patients for or against estranging anyone, and it usually takes an enormous amount of trauma or abuse to convince someone to cut off their own parents.

In truth, all that's really happening is that social media is letting estranged parents connect with each other and build their own information bubbles in a way they couldn't before.

But this sort of thing has real potential as a culture war issue for the GOP. A huge chunk of their base are aging Gen X and Boomers who are at the right age to lose access to grandkids if estranged. Studies show that ever since the rise of MAGA, liberals are more likely than conservatives to cut family members out of their lives. And something like 80-90% of mental health professionals — whom many of these parents blame for estrangement — identify as politically liberal.

All of the pieces are there for this issue to become a huge, center-stage grievance for the right. We could increasingly see Republicans push for new restrictions on therapy, or new laws to make it easier for grandparents to sue for visitation of their grandkids in estrangement cases.

And yes, keep an eye on Florida, the state all the country's wealthy conservative grandparents retire to, if you want to look for where this movement might really start gathering steam.