“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”
Attribution: Artemis mission watches Epic Fury parade by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Ontario, Canada
[Graeme MacKay born in Ontario, Canada, his worked as staff editorial cartoonist for The Hamilton Spectator since 1997, earning multiple national awards and nominations, including citations from the United Nations and the Association of Canadian Cartoonists.]
NASA officials all smiles after successful Artemis II mission
NASA officials were all smiles in their post-splashdown news conference Friday night from Houston, with exploration ground systems program manager Shawn Quinn describing Artemis II’s successful return to Earth as an “an incredible end to an incredible mission.”
“It’s good to be NASA, it’s good to be an American today,” Quinn said.
Howard Hu, Orion program manager, told reporters: “We’re going to learn from this mission, we’re going to look at the data, and we’re going to move forward. This is the start of a new era of space exploration.”
Attribution: THE END OF AMERICAN CIVILIZATION by Marian Kamensky, Austria
Marian Kamensky is the editorial cartoonist for the Swiss satirical montly magazine Nebelspalter and Germany’s satirical magazine Eulenspiegel and Playboy magazine. He is currently living in Vienna. You can visit his website at http://www.humor-kamensky.sk
Trump is killing a whole civilization — our own | Horsey cartoon
Words mean nothing to the president, nor do promises or treaties or trade deals.
Bill gives an update on the fragile ceasefire between the United States and Iran in his Real Time monologue.
‘Just the beginning’: Artemis II crew splashes down after record-breaking moon flyby
The Artemis II, and the four astronauts aboard the Orion space capsule, splashed down into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego on Friday night, with all four astronauts in good health.
[…]
The spacecraft touched down at 5.07pm (1.07am BST) making the journey around the moon and back officially 9 days 1hr and 32min. The Orion spacecraft traveled 694,481 miles (1,117,659km), Nasa said. Despite barely passing a ninth day, it will be recorded officially as a 10-day mission because blast-off day was treated as “flight day one”.
[…]
As the Orion capsule descended below 17,000 miles from the planet’s surface, Wiseman gave a description of the Earth as it came into view. “There’s a great blue hue to it. It’s beautiful,” he said.
Sean Quinn, Nasa’s exploration ground systems manager, said he had taken a phone call from Wiseman as he awaited the start of Friday night’s briefing: “It was so great to hear his voice and tell us that all the crew is OK, and we could say that we did our mission. We accomplished what we set out to do.” [continues]
The conservative pundit took serious issue with the president’s conflict in the Middle East in a series of social media posts over the weekend.
— HuffPo
i vote Regé-Jean Page as the next James Bond
preserving democracy
trump’s last act first term was assassinating an Iranian general
these post-neocon trump enablers are real
dumb if they didn’t think he had war on his agenda
Jack proposes a botanical defense strategy against the alley pigeons: an herb garden. Blue In Dallas advocates pin wheels, “laundry basket” potatoes. Winterlinde pushes sweet potatoes and pumpkins.
From yesterday’s Digital Diner menu 🍽️
Swalwell’s reponse denies assault but acknowledges “mistakes in judgement” that are “between me and my wife”…
SAing someone who can’t consent is not between ~him and his wife~ unless he also did it to his wife. (Just look at the creeper in France who sold his wife’s unconscious body to men.) This is why we choose the bear, cover our drinks alcoholic or otherwise, and prefer the longterm companionship of cats and dogs.
Trump’s proposed cuts to NASA are an insult to astronauts like the Artemis crew
Office of Management and Budget is proposing budget cuts that will all but dismantle much of NASA. It’s surprising, illogical and very troubling.
The proposed cuts would terminate 53 NASA Science missions, throwing away more than $13 billion in taxpayer investment.
The proposed cuts would terminate 53 NASA Science missions, throwing away more than $13 billion in taxpayer investment and halting the development of nearly every future NASA Science mission.
*It’s like 45 was a failed mission, but 47 burned up on reentry.
Today’s Diner menu… Just in time for the Derby
🐴2028 Dems at the starting line. Who’s in?
KY Gov. Andy Beshear Live at 11am ET
It was the worst of times, and then it was the it got worser of times, followed by the “Oy! Vorser STILL!” of times.
Don’t forgive dem, Lard, cause Dey DO know what Dey do.
European voters do not like foreign meddling. Vance’s over the top campaigning might have triggered that aversion. This graph is just the betting markets, but I’ll wager voter reaction is similar.
Okay – how do Dems blowup their careers? There must have been some ripples in the continuum warning the world that a Dem did something stupid and is about to be ripped about in the far right media killing zone. We should have heard something. I know way back when, usually around presidential or senatorial campaign time whether someone had a zipper problem, and they would disappear before getting too far.
If a fly goes down three inches –
There was a fly dancing three inches above the water.
A fish saw it and thought, “If that fly drops three inches, I can get the fly and eat it!”
By the shore is a bear. The bear sees the fly and the fish and thinks to himself that if the fly drops three inches, the fish will swim closer to get the fly and I can get the fish!”
A hunter sits up on the hill and sees the bear, the fish, and the fly. He thinks to himself, “If that fly drops three inches, The fish will get the fly, the bear will dive to get the fish and while it’s distracted, I can shoot the bear!”
A mouse sits under a bush by the hunter. Noticing the hunters gaze, he looks at the lake and thinks, “If the fly drops three inches, the fish will get the fly, the bear will get the fish, the hunter will shoot the bear, and while he’s down with the bear, I can steal his lunch!”
A cat lays on a rock and takes in the scene in front of it, smiling to itself. “If that fly drops three inches, the fish will get the fly, the bear will get the fish, the hunter will get the bear, the mouse will get the lunch, and I can eat the mouse!”
Well, the fly dropped three inches. The fish swam to get the fly and was immediately caught by the bear. The hunter shot the bear as it killed the fish and he went down to get it. The mouse ran over to the hunters lunch box and as the cat went to pounce on the mouse-
But it lost its footing and tumbled down the hill into the water.
Moral of the story: if a fly drops three inches, a pussy will get wet.
BlueB, I too am really puzzled how Swalwell got this far without these charges surfacing. What I’ve seen and heard of the accusations sound credible, and his “denial” only rejected “assault” claims, seemed to admit the rest.
Jamie -LoL
Swalwell seems to be admitting to rampant infidelity, but claiming he never forced anyone. That excuse hasn’t worked since Clinton was seduced by Lewinsky plucking the string on her thong. A married man doesn’t get a pass just because a subordinate might be willing.
“Everything that happens once can never happen again. But everything that happens twice will surely happen a third time.”
Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
*There’s nary a woman on Earth who hasn’t been groped or worse, and you’d be shocked at how young it starts…unless you’re a woman.
Passed out drunk isn’t willing, either. Wonder if she actually drank that much or if she didn’t cover her drink?
Dems need to not let this cause chaos and suck the energy out of the room. Move on.
List of Democratic Candidates
Xavier Becerra: Former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary and former California Attorney General.
Matt Mahan: Mayor of San Jose.
Katie Porter: Former U.S. Representative from Orange County.
Tom Steyer: Billionaire entrepreneur and former presidential candidate.
Eric Swalwell: U.S. Representative from the Bay Area.
Tony Thurmond: State Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Antonio Villaraigosa: Former Mayor of Los Angeles and former Assembly Speaker.
Betty Yee: Former State Controller.
today’s meme…
meme #2…
#3….
i don’t think the goopers will cooperate
could cost Dems midterms
when he said “between me and my wife” i wanted to throw a drink at the phone
the bad news is that he had some name recognition
the good news is not that much
Has Gillibrand weighed in yet?
lol poor guy
Sometimes a cigar is NOT just a cigar?
depends on what the definition of is is
“Everything that happens once can never happen again. But everything that happens twice will surely happen a third time.”
Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
*Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey…
It’s all just pattern recognition. That’s all Ai does; pattern recognition for surveillance and monetization for the systems and the Epstein class that owns them…but I don’t use 5 million gallons of water a day.
Today in the Diner:
We Rate The Democratic 2028 Field
2028 Democratic contenders are already auditioning at Al Sharpton’s convention. We grade Kelly, Pritzker, Shapiro, and Buttigieg’s early pitches.
The 2028 Democratic primary has officially kicked off while nobody was looking, with every ambitious suit dragging their carefully tested talking points to Al Sharpton’s National Action Network convention. We fire up the Mystery Science Theater treatment to evaluate the early tryouts. From Mark Kelly trying to convince labor unions he actually likes them, to JB Pritzker attempting to buy off the populist wing with his billionaire charm, the desperation is already palpable.
Meanwhile, Gavin Newsom has suspiciously gone dark after taking heat over Israel, and Pete Buttigieg is desperately hoping a new beard will make voters forget the absolute state of commercial air travel under his watch. Toss in a side of election rigging theories involving Elon Musk, some imported European outrage over foreign meddling, and the eternal, exhausting debate over whether Democrats should actually support Medicare for All or just invent another hopelessly complicated public option.
https://trailmix.cc/chat
https://trailmix.cc
https://trailmix.cc/alerts
00:00 Intro
00:41 Mark Kelly and the 2028 Dem Field
05:54 Elon Musk and Election Meddling Theories
09:04 The Kamala Harris Double Standard
11:24 Andy Beshear’s Southern Strategy
26:24 Melania Trump Deportation Drama
31:21 JB Pritzker and the Billionaire Problem
37:46 Josh Shapiro Channels Obama
42:45 Pete Buttigieg’s Transportation Record
49:00 The Medicare for All Debate
Elon Musk treated the Pennsylvania voter rolls like a beta test for X. We dive into the phantom counties and vanishing ballots that the legacy media absolutely refuses to touch.
From today’s Digital Diner menu 🍽️
The meaning of is…..he flat-out Arkansas flummoxed ‘em with that one…..
I saw that one on the tee vee
JD Vance exported his heavy eyeliner and MAGA circus routine to Europe. History lesson: Eastern Europeans absolutely despise American politicians treating their elections like swing states.
From today’s Digital Diner menu 🍽️
Lets see.
She knew he was her boss, that was married, yet she chose to do an evening of drunken debauchery anyway.
He knew she was an employee and he was married, yet he chose to do an evening of drunken debauchery
Then bad things happened, no shit Sherlock, They were sober when they went out the door, so no excuses for either one of them. They both behaved badly.
That is basically all I need to know to decide this one. This is Wilber Mills and Fanny Fox in the fountain basic. Time for Swalwell to move on, we have enough stupid politician to take his place.
Jack
WE RATE THE FIELD
Here’s our Digital Diner breakdown of Democratic presidential contenders today:
Mark Kelly has the perfect resume for a general election, provided he can actually survive a Democratic primary. We dissect his spooky stare and his massive, impending war with labor union leadership.
[00:01:52]
Andy Beshear dragged his southern Baptist charm to Al Sharpton’s convention. We evaluate whether the Kentucky governor can actually translate his folksy Good Samaritan routine into a national coalition.
[00:11:24]
Kamala Harris dropped the most non-committal “I might” in political history regarding 2028. We break down her Sharpton appearance and the exhausting double standards that still dictate her every move.
[00:22:48]
JB Pritzker is noticeably shrinking thanks to the weight-loss shots, but his bank account remains massive. We debate whether the Democrats will actually let a billionaire buy his way through the populist wing.
[00:31:21]
Josh Shapiro is aggressively trolling Trump while mimicking Barack Obama’s cadence. It is a very specific Philadelphia hustle, and we dissect whether the rest of the country is buying the performance.
[00:37:46]
Pete Buttigieg grew a beard to look more like a Republican and hopes you forget he was in charge of commercial air travel during the Biden years. We grade his latest attempt to court black voters.
[00:42:45]
da fuck is your robot saying
unfortunately, you’re not every left of center voter in California
Gen Z are the new Puritans, dude’s toast
or he could go Republican
there is too much daylight culturally between old libs and young progs
i don’t know how ya herd those cats
obviously neither do Dems
The Digital Diner crew is gearing up for 2028. Who’s In?
Collins is heading into a competitive re-election race, with potential challengers including Janet Mills and progressive candidate Graham Platner. Ethics concerns, even minor ones, can quickly become amplified in such contests — especially when they appear to contradict a lawmaker’s own record.
For more than a decade, Susan Collins positioned herself as a defender of transparency in Washington — a supporter of efforts to crack down on insider trading by members of Congress.
Now, she finds herself on the other side of that very law.
Collins failed to disclose a financial transaction involving her husband within the legally required window, violating the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act — better known as the STOCK Act.
The transaction in question involved Collins’ husband, Thomas Daffron, who purchased a corporate bond from Pfizer valued between $15,001 and $50,000 on February 3. Under the law, members of Congress must disclose such trades within 45 days. Collins’ office filed the disclosure five days past that deadline.
The penalty for such a violation is typically modest — a $200 fine — and often waived altogether for relatively minor delays. But the broader issue is less about the amount and more about the pattern.
More broadly, the incident adds fuel to a growing bipartisan push to ban members of Congress — and their families — from trading individual stocks altogether. Despite repeated proposals, such reforms have yet to gain enough traction to pass.
Flew a dozen times when Buttigieg was Secretary of Transportation.
Will not get in a plane now.
https://www.newsbytesapp.com/news/world/us-denies-agreeing-to-unfreeze-iranian-assets/story
White House denies agreeing to unfreeze Iranian assets
According to Reuters, a senior Iranian official had claimed that the US agreed to release Iran’s frozen assets held in Qatar and other foreign banks.
The same source said the proposed unfreezing of assets was “directly linked to ensuring safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz.”
The funds in question are $6 billion, which were first frozen in 2018 after the US reimposed sanctions on Iran. The sanctions were imposed during Donald Trump’s presidency when he withdrew from the nuclear deal with Tehran. The money was originally from Iranian oil sales to South Korea and was kept in South Korean banks. In 2023, as part of a prisoner swap deal mediated by Doha, the funds were transferred to bank accounts in Qatar.
Susan should be concerned.
Graham Platner is stomping on her big donor mailings
Tomorrow’s starter topics… Hungarian elections and Iran peace talks
https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/mexico-is-moving-toward-universal-healthcare-by-2027-here-s-what-it-means-and-why-it-matters-beyond-its-borders/ar-AA20Bx77
When announcing the initiative, Sheinbaum described the reform as “a historic step” toward a system where all Mexicans can receive care across public institutions, signaling both the scale and urgency of the shift.
But her messaging has gone further than broad ambition. She has repeatedly emphasized a very specific outcome:
“The objective is that any citizen can attend any health institution and be guaranteed full and free coverage.”
That line captures the structural change at the center of the 2027 plan—not just expanding coverage, but eliminating the fragmentation that has historically defined Mexico’s system.
They are REALLY getting desperate
Pope Leo XIV will travel July 4 to the southern Mediterranean island of Lampedusa, a major migrant landing point that has become a symbol of Europe’s migration emergency as tens of thousands of migrants arrive there each year after perilous sea crossings.
*So, the smack down between Cardinal Pierre and Undersecretary of War Crimes, Colby, happened in January. In February, it was announced that Pope Leo, the first US Pope, would be spending July 4th someone not here.
Nobody trusts tRUMPsky’s promises. Besides, doesn’t he have every tax dollar earmarked for the US. war machine?
America First!
Be Best!
Going Out of Business!
https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/commodities/articles/france-pulls-15b-gold-us-171300099.html
France pulls $15B of gold out of US vaults, and more EU member states may follow.
France just pulled off a financial maneuver that turned old gold into billions.
Since mid-2025, France’s central bank has sold 129 tonnes of gold it had stored in New York and replaced it with newer, high-quality bullion held in Paris. The result? A roughly €13 billion, or $15.1 billion, profit (1).
In Germany, economists and politicians have recently called for the return of more than 1,200 tonnes of gold held in New York, citing concerns about the Iranian conflict and U.S. policy unpredictability.
For decades, the U.S. has been the world’s financial anchor — a place where countries store reserves, settle trade and rely on institutions like the Federal Reserve for stability.
But the repatriation of gold, at its core, is a signal. One that suggests that some governments are becoming less comfortable leaving strategic assets under U.S. control.
https://www.cnn.com/2026/04/11/politics/us-intelligence-iran-china-weapons?cid=external-feeds_iluminar_msn
US intelligence indicates that China is preparing to deliver new air defense systems to Iran within the next few weeks, according to three people familiar with recent intelligence assessments.
The systems Beijing is preparing to transfer are shoulder-fired anti-air missile systems known as MANPADs, the sources said, which posed an asymmetric threat to low-flying US military aircraft throughout the course of the five-week war and could again if the ceasefire falls apart.
Two of the sources told CNN there are indications that Beijing is working to route the shipments through third countries to mask their true origin.
A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington said, “China has never provided weapons to any party to the conflict; the information in question is untrue.”
https://www.votebeat.org/texas/2026/04/10/department-homeland-security-subpoenas-texas-counties-voter-records/
At least three Texas counties this week either received or were told they would soon receive administrative subpoenas from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The department is seeking detailed records about some individual voters, including their registration applications and voter history, though counties don’t yet know which ones.
The subpoenas appear to be linked to a series of efforts by the Trump administration to verify the citizenship of registered voters. In December, Texas turned over the state’s voter roll to the Justice Department. The transfer included voters’ identifiable information such as dates of birth, driver’s license numbers, and partial Social Security numbers. It did not include, however, voters’ registration applications or signatures — the state does not have access to that information, which is kept by county voter registrars.
In January, Zach Witkoff sat down at a table in Islamabad and signed a deal with Pakistan’s finance minister. Witkoff is the young CEO of Donald Trump’s crypto finance firm, World Liberty Financial, and the arrangement he struck that day would allow WLF’s stablecoin to be used for Pakistan’s cross-border transactions.
It was a hugely consequential moment for World Liberty. Despite Trump’s association and the involvement of his sons, this firm hasn’t exactly lit the blockchain world on fire. The value of the company’s token has plummetted from 31 cents to just 8 cents in recent months. World Liberty could use a deal like this—a government vouching for and endorsing the use of its coin. And the deal was being consummated, standing behind Witkoff was General Asim Munir, the top officer in Pakistan’s army.
The presence of a military leader during this financial meeting was odd. But three months later, Munir is connected to another Witkoff family effort: the ongoing negotiations to settle the war in Iran.
Munir has been a frequent visitor to the Trump White House and is a chief architect of Pakistani efforts to mediate an end to the Iran war.
Last month, Bloomberg profiled self-described “crypto bro” Bilal Bin Saqib—one of the key architects of both the deal between World Liberty Financial and the Pakistani government and the newly warmed relationship between Islamabad and the Washington.
The Trump family already has earned about $1 billion from their arrangement with World Liberty Financial.
Trump is mixing his personal financial interests and US national security interests by intertwining his family business with the Pakistani government, while collaborating with Pakistan in this diplomatic initiative. At the negotiating table this weekend, his financial prospects—and those of his envoy’s son—could be difficult to separate from the fate of the Iran war.
15+ hours of peace talks “led” by JDouchée. GMAFB. WTF does he know about diplomacy? Asking for a friend.
JDurr sounded nonsensical in clips of his remarks that they played on pod save
worth a listen if you like being dumbed down, word salad shit
JD VANCE:
“They have chosen not to accept our terms.”
“We’ve been at it for 21 HOURS. We’ve had substantive discussions…bad news is, we have not reached an agreement.”
“That’s bad news for Iran much more than bad news for the USA.”
https://x.com/EricLDaugh/status/2043140757079429556?s=20
We made it!
WaPo
Excerpt From
“Direct U.S.-Iran talks fail to reach resolution after lengthy negotiation”
Now who could have predicted that JDouchée would fuck this up? Where TF is Marco? At least he has SOME experience in foreign affairs. I’m guessing at $5.00 regular gas within the next 2 weeks, inflation rising to 5%, and who TF knows what else? Dead soldiers? Wonder how that will play on whatever the fuck news sources Americans watch and read (that read part’s a joke BTW)
he’s no Holbrooke huh
who could have guessed
you only send Fredo if you want him to fuck up
So how do you quietly ship weapons from China to Iran? Remember our discussion about China’s belt and road initiative and the Silk road? One of the stops on the old silk road was Tehran.
Overland through countries that don’t fear or like us.
Jack
Jack, I’d guess that quiet delivery of weapons isn’t a huge consideration for China.
i’d say trump FAFO’d but he doesn’t care about consequences, he’s doing fine by his standard
NEW THREAD by our trail friend Jack