William Slichter

Sculptor

[William Slichter @williamslichter]

@Popstonox @shaunking Yellavision at its finest

[The Lever @LeverNews]

Cheney spent decades building a lawless presidency, then died warning Trump was the greatest threat to the republic.

In the new episode of MASTER PLAN, we trace how Cheney clawed power away from Congress, concentrated it in the White House and helped create the system Trump would eventually inherit.

[Ruben Gallego @RubenGallego]

He is so fucking stupid.

[Leo @Leonajardinho]

My coworker pays $580 a month for his family’s health coverage. That’s nearly $7,000 a year coming straight out of his check before he ever sees a dime of it.

His youngest got a sprained wrist at soccer practice. Went to urgent care, got an X-ray, wrapped it in a splint, and left in 40 minutes.

Two weeks later, he gets a bill for $1,200.

Insurance covered $0 because he hasn't met his $6,000 family deductible yet.

You aren't paying for healthcare. You are paying a monthly subscription fee for the privilege of paying full price out-of-pocket when something actually goes wrong.

[Marco Foster @MarcoFoster_]

Jennifer Welch: “There’s a reason Israel wanted Donald Trump to be president. It’s because he’s weak, he has no principle, he doesn’t value human life, he’s so easy to manipulate. Donald Trump is a joke. Nobody takes him seriously. The Iranians don’t take him seriously, Israel doesn’t take him seriously, the American public doesn’t take him seriously, our allies do not take him seriously. He is a dementia duck fading to black”

[sarah @sahouraxo]

This is terrifying.

Israel has cut off Taybeh — an ancient Christian village in occupied Palestine, where Jesus once walked — from the outside world.

Journalists are banned from entering.

An entire Palestinian village. Shut off from the world.

[Cenk Uygur @cenkuygur]

I love @BernieSanders' suggestion to eliminate Super PACs from Democratic primaries. Actually, both parties have no excuse for allowing PACs working for foreign governments and multinational corporations to interfere in our selection process for best candidates to represent us.

[Elizabeth Warren @SenWarren]

Donald Trump lifted sanctions against Israeli settlers who are seizing homes in the West Bank.

Now, the violence is worse, and even more Palestinians—and four Americans—have been killed by settlers and security forces.

This is deeply wrong. These families deserve justice.

[Pramila Jayapal @PramilaJayapal]

Minnesota, are you ready to go out and vote for @peggyflanagan for Senate and @LittleCongress tomorrow?

I couldn’t be prouder to support these progressive champions. That’s why my Medicare for All PAC has invested over $200,000 on EACH of these critical races – because the future of our health care depends on electing leaders who will do whatever it takes to pass Medicare for All.

That’s Peggy and Matt.

I’m with them, and I hope you will be too. Find your polling place here: https://t.co/P7Tjra8KsX

[Sheldon Whitehouse @SenWhitehouse]

Vessels are supposed to monitor channel 16 at all times, for this exact purpose. Billionaires don’t follow that rule either?
https://t.co/jn94qqv7g9

[Peggy Flanagan @peggyflanagan]

I'm running for U.S. Senate to deliver big, bold change for Minnesotans – that includes Medicare for All.

[Elizabeth Warren @ewarren]

Minnesota, let's get a real fighter elected to the United States Senate. Vote for @peggyflanagan by tomorrow, August 11th.

[NOBUNAGA🇯🇵🏯_夏樹蒼依 @japan_nobunaga]

Dale said, "We're grilling Saturday. Swing by around three. Don't bring anything."

Don't bring anything. I have received many impossible orders in my life. This was the cruelest.

An empty hand at a feast is a blade in the host's back. I brought a melon. I wrapped it in cloth. I carried it with two hands through his gate at 2:58, dressed for a negotiation between clans.

Dale was in flip flops and an apron that said KISS THE COOK. He looked at the melon, said "Ooh, fancy," and placed it in a green cooler that says MARINA on the side, although no one here owns a boat.

My offering now rests among his provisions. Accepted. Equal among the beers.

He said, "Make yourself at home."

Four words. In my country, you can know a man forty years and never receive those four words. Dale issued me castle rights in the time it took him to flip a burger.

I sat in a lawn chair with the posture of a man guarding a border. The chair sank slowly to the left.

The chair yielded. I did not.

A woman I had never met asked if I wanted cheese on mine. I said yes with the gravity of a man accepting a field promotion. She said, "Good choice, sweetie."

Sweetie. I have been called many things. None were this dangerous to my composure.

Then came the melon.

A man named Craig attacked it with a dull knife, sawing like a prisoner going through a wall. The melon suffered. The table suffered. I could not watch.

I stood. I said, "Allow me."

I do not remember deciding to say it. My ancestors said it through me.

One breath. Twelve strokes. Twelve equal pieces, standing in formation.

Silence. Then a child whispered, "Do it again," which is not possible with the same melon, and I respected her for asking anyway.

Dale pointed at me with his spatula and yelled: "BLADE!"

The yard yelled it back. Fourteen adults, one word.

I had done nothing worthy of a war name. I received one anyway. Somewhere between the cooler and the fence, my old name quietly retired.

By July I had my own chair. No one announced it was mine. It faced the grill. It sank to the left. Anyone else who sat in it was told, "That's Blade's."

The neighbor across the fence, whom I have never formally met, raises his beer to me over the hedge. At the grocery store, a man I do not know nodded at the watermelons and said, "Big weekend, Blade?"

A title travels farther than the man. Mine now shops without me.

Eleven Saturdays. I learned nothing about football. I cut everything they put in front of me. Pineapple. Brisket. A birthday cake, once, which I divided into portions so equal that a woman took a photo "for her sister."

In late August, hard news came from home. The kind that empties a week. I missed a Saturday. I told no one why.

Sunday morning, my phone lit up. Dale.

"Labor Day. Three o'clock. Big one this year. Bring the knife."

No questions. Americans do not knock on the wound. They tell you what to carry and when to arrive.

I went. My chair was where it had always been, sinking, mine. The cooler still said MARINA. The child was taller.

On the table sat the largest melon I have ever seen. The yard went quiet the way a dojo goes quiet, if a dojo smelled like lighter fluid and had a dog in it.

Dale said, "You're up, Blade."

And I understood, in the way you understand a thing you will never say out loud, that no one in this yard had ever waited to see if I deserved the name, because that is not how it is done here, they hand you the name first, and the chair, and the knife, and then they spend the whole summer acting like you had them all along.

I rolled up my sleeves.

I drew the knife.

[Peggy Flanagan @peggyflanagan]

I'm so grateful to every volunteer on Team Peggy.

Minnesotans know that when we show up, look out for each other, and organize together, we can win.

[Cenk Uygur @cenkuygur]

Mike Rogers hasn't just talked to the Israeli lobby or campaigned with them, he's taken money from them. Isn't it strange that not one person from national media has asked if Rogers denounces Benjamin Netanyahu, a butcher who's killed 23,000 kids? Why are they protecting Rogers?

[Abier @abierkhatib]

U right, Nazis burn books

[Mia @MiaForTrump]

🚨 According to early polls, NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani is currently the favorite to be named Time’s Person of the Year 2026.

Thumbs up 👍 if you think he deserves it more than Trump.

[Political Polls @PpollingNumbers]

Barack Obama called Abdul El Sayed Friday for an encouraging discussion about uniting Democrats and winning Michigan’s Senate race in November

[China Times @ChinaTimesX]

🚨 BREAKING:

​Belgian Prime Minister: More than 15,000 people in Gaza need prosthetics due to limb loss. 10,000 of these victims are children... Where is human dignity in all of this?