I Didn't Say It ...

Stephen Colbert, on his first show back after CBS canceled his show as, perhaps, a favor and/or a bribe to The Felon:

“Folks, I’m gonna go ahead and say it: Cancel culture has gone too far. Over the weekend, it sunk in that they’re killing off our show. But they made one mistake: They left me alive. On Friday [The Felon] posted, ‘I absolutely love that Colbert got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings. I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert! Greg Gutfeld is better than all of them combined, including the Moron on NBC who ruined the once great Tonight Show.’ How dare you, sir? Would an untalented man be able to compose the following satirical witticism? Go fuck yourself.”

This is not a good look for CBS or Paramount, both who stand to lose a lot of money when advertisers bail their programming; Paramount+ is already losing subscribers.

And Colbert isn’t going anywhere; he still has a voice and can find a new platform anywhere to keep up his monologues about The Felon.

And we’ll be listening.

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Jon Stewart, railing against CBS for canceling Stephen Colbert's "Late Show."

“The fact that CBS didn’t try to save their number one-rated network late-night franchise that’s been on the air for over three decades is part of what’s making everybody wonder, was this purely financial? Or maybe the path of least resistance for your $8 billion merger was killing a show that you know rankled a fragile and vengeful president, so insecure, suffering terribly from a case of chronic penis insufficiency. Look, I understand the corporate fear. I understand the fear that you and your advertisers have with $8 billion at stake. But understand this, truly, the shows that you now seek to cancel, censor and control, a not insignificant portion of that $8 billion value came from those fucking shows ... This is not the moment to give in. I’m not giving in. I’m not going anywhere. I think."

Stewart has zero fucks to give and will also keep this story alive about a powerful media conglomerate trying to silence Free Speech.

And he, too, will survive.

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Sandra Oh, appearing this week on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert:

“Can I just start by saying something that I feel like probably everyone here and everyone who is so supportive outside wants to say—that I am so sorry and saddened and properly outraged for the cancellation of late night here. Not only for yourself and for this entire family who are here, but for what it means for what it is of where we are in our culture and what it means for free speech. So I just want to say sorry, and also if I can have your hand … [and] to CBS and Paramount, a plague on both of your houses.”

One day the tide will turn and CBS and Paramount will suffer for their goose-stepping along with a lunatic for some extra coins.

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Jasmine Crockett, Democrat Texas Representative, on the Texas GOP’s scheme to gerrymander the state and disenfranchise minority voters en masse:

"So first of all it hasn't quite been said, clearly that Texas has always been found to be intentionally discriminatory and so I want y'all to understand the makeup of my state. The state is a majority-minority state. And what this legislature historically has done is what they plan to do again, it's to dilute the voices of people of color in order to make sure that they can get to where they're trying to go. We saw this Department of Justice decided to put out a letter and what did they do? We only have four seats that are represented by Black folk where the vast majority of the people that get to decide who they have represent them are Black. They decided to attack three of the four seats that we have in this state. They decided to go after a Latina. They are specifically deciding to splinter the communities of common interest as well as just blatantly say, 'we are going to dilute minority voices.' So we know that the courts ever since we've had a Voting Rights Act have always found this state to be intentionally discriminatory. That is what they are going to do. So I need people of color to understand that this scheme of the Republicans has consistently been to make sure that they mute our voices so that they can go ahead and have an oversized say in this. So I fully anticipate that's exactly where they're going with this map. It's the only way to do it," she said. "We didn't understand how we got to the map that they gave us last time because that state was grown by 95% people of color. They went out of their way to make sure that we got zero new seats for people of color. So that's exactly what they're going to do this time."

Texas's MAGA Governor Greg Abbott has expanded the legislative agenda for an upcoming special session that begins on July 21st to ram through new redistricting. The seats are Democratically held and are largely Hispanic and Black but Texas Republicans want to break them up, redraw them, and dilute them so that they're more likely to swing red. Thankfully, Democrats aren't taking this fascist power grab lying down. On Friday, ten Democratic lawmakers introduced a bill in Texas called the "Anti-Rigging Act of 2025." It would end mid-decade redistricting unless such action is specifically mandated by a court order.

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Jack Schlossberg, hottie and JFK's only grandson, going after Republicans for trying to rename the Kennedy Center's Opera House after First Lady Nude Model Melanie:

"A nation reveals itself not only by the men it produces—but also by the men it honors, the men it remembers. JFK believed the arts made our country great and could be our most effective weapon in the fight for civil rights and against authoritarian governments around the world. He took political heat for it at the time—for inviting Black artists to the White House, like the Staples Singers. For supporting Black Americans like Harry Belafonte and James Baldwin on global tours to showcase the best of our society. Pablo Casals, a symbol of resistance to fascism, played for President Kennedy. Yo-yo Ma did too … when he was just 6 years old. Robert Frost performed at JFK’s inaugural. The Mona Lisa came and visited the White House. The [Felon] Administration stands for freedom of oppression, not expression. He uses his awesome powers to suppress free expression and instill fear. But this isn’t about the arts. [The Felon] is obsessed with being bigger than JFK, with minimizing the many heroes of our past, as if that elevates him. It doesn’t. But there’s hope—art lasts forever, and no one can change what JFK and our shared history stands for."

The effort to rename the opera house after the Slovenian Hooker is a blatant attempt on the part of the GOP to kiss some fat gelatinous ass. It's especially pathetic given the fact that Melanie, other than posing nekkid and lying flat on her back with her heels to the heavens while a serial predator, rapist and pedophile, schtupped her, has not a single real accomplishment to her name; she is just the cowardly, greedy woman who enabled her husband's fascism for a few coins and a New York penthouse.

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Meme Dump

I Didn't Say It ...

Charlie Angus, Canadian MP, speaking to The Felon:

“[The Felon], I’m going to say this once and I might never say it again, I want to thank you. I want to thank you for bringing Canada together. It took a malignant narcissistic slug like you to make us put aside all our differences, all our regional fights, all our concerns with one another, and realize we actually had to stand up for something better: standing up for the rule of law, for democracy, for decency. We know we’re on your border and it freaks you out because you and your incel gang are terrified of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Your DEI nightmare? Well, we are your DEI nightmare … we are your DEI nightmare … Canada will always be a country of diversity. We will always be a country of equity. We will always be a country of inclusion. And we will defend the rule of law.”

I guess that’s one way to look at the havoc The Felon spreads wherever he drags his fat ass.

Except while he's uniting Canada, he's dividing Americans, and America from the rest of the world.

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George Clooney, actor,  claps back at The Felon for calling him a "a second-rate movie star" and "failed political pundit" for daring to challenge his MAGA fascism:

"I don't care. I mean I've known [The Felon] for a long time. You know my job is not to please the President of the United States. My job is to try and tell the truth when I can and when I have the opportunity. And look I'm well aware of the idea that people will not like that, there will be people that criticize that, and there's certainly people... You know Elon Musk has, you know, weighed in every once in a while. That's their right to do it and it's my right to say the other side. When the other three estates fail, when the judiciary and the executive and the legislative branches fail us, the fourth estate has to succeed. ABC has just settled a lawsuit with the [The Felon] administration. And CBS News is in the process. We’re seeing this idea of using government to scare or fine or use corporations, to make journalists smaller."

Attack the press, control the press, control the narrative and so far ABC and CBS have caved to the regime.

Stand up for goddesses’ sake.

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Jasmine Crockett, Democrat Representative from Texas, on The Felon and hos GOP goose-steppers breaking the law:

“I’m glad the Supreme Court stepped in and stopped that plane from taking off last night. Because deporting folks with no criminal record and no due process isn’t justice—it’s cruelty. And let’s talk about the real kicker: The same Republicans pushing this mess are following a convicted felon like he’s the Second Coming. You can’t cream ‘law and order’ while breaking the law at every turn.”

As I heard someone say yesterday, if The Felon wants to prove he’s right about these deportations, or the human trafficking, then give them all due process and prove they are criminals and gang members.

But he can’t …

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Lisa Murkowski, Alaska GOP Senator, responding to a question about fear of the current regime:

“We are all afraid. It’s quite a statement. We’re in a time and place where—I don’t know, I certainly have not—I have not been here before. And I’ll tell you, I’m oftentimes very anxious myself about using my voice because retaliation is real. And that’s not right. But that’s what you’ve asked me to do and so I’m going to use my voice to the best of my ability.”

Hey Lisa? I got news for you … pull your head out of your chicken ass and work for the people who elected you, not the sociopath who mean Tweets.

Even if he primaries you, you’ll be fine with your pension and healthcare for life, but the people you represent will be utterly screwed so maybe do you f**king job and quit begging for sympathy. Don’t tell us you’re going to use for voice, do it.

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Elizabeth Warren, Democrat Senator from Massachusetts, on RFK Jr’s attack on autistic people:

“I won’t share RFK Jr.’s lies about autism. It’s disgusting and dangerous. If he had a shred of decency, he would apologize and resign. Autistic people contribute every day to our nation’s greatness. To every kid with autism, I’m in this fight all the way for you.”

Now RFK, heroin addict, wants an autism registry and for what end? The way Hitler wanted people with differences to be registered?

I say we register drug addicts and keep watch on them.

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Laurence Tribe, American legal scholar and former professor at Harvard Law School, om The Felon’s attacks on higher education:

“What we have discovered is that he is a combination of ineptitude, vindictiveness, lawlessness and bluster. The people who caved to him, the universities and the law firms, who thought that if they paid his ransom, they would be safe, have learned that they’re not safe. He comes back for more. That’s the way it works. But because of all these demands, the attempt to take over, essentially, a private educational institution to tell us what we can teach, to tell our students what they can say, what they can think, to tell law firms whom they can defend—those efforts are absolutely illegal. It’s not even a close question. Judges across the spectrum are going to rule against [The Felon]. We are going to prevail. And in doing, so we hope that we will give courage to others, because the only way to deal with a bully is to stand up to him, to stand up in solidarity and say, ‘No, you will not dictate all of us, you will not control our lives, you will not control our thoughts.”

I think The Felon is jealous that he couldn’t get into Harvard and so he wants to punish them.

I think The Felon is jealous that he’s an illiterate moron and Harvard pushes ideas and thoughts and progress and equality.

Keep saying No, Harvard, and I guarantee other colleges and universities will stand with you.

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Pete Buttigieg has a hopeful reminder to anyone upset by the current political climate:

“The head of our country’s government is in the early stages of consolidating total power. We must of course reject this, but that is not enough. We have to respond by creating a different and better kind of American politics than we have seen before … We are seeing right before our eyes what it looks like when the head of the government of the country we live in doesn’t think he has to obey the courts or the law. It’s an incredibly important and incredibly dangerous moment for the country. It’s a test of whether we’re actually a freedom-loving people, and I think it leaves a lot of Americans feeling powerless. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t believe that there are a lot of things we can do. Some of them seem old-fashioned—getting in touch with your member of Congress or joining a demonstration in the streets. Those are important, and we’re going to have to be creative about other means of making it known that this is a freedom-loving country, that wherever you come out of—left, right or center—I’m not going to stand for the head of the government of this country, continuing the process of taking on absolute power. Instead, we’re going to build something different and better, a vision where our politics and our economics respond to the needs of everyday people, one that leaves us more free, more prosperous than before, are very obviously less free, less prosperous than we were even a few months ago. This doesn’t have to be a one-way trip.”

I stand with Pete. Don’t get too bogged down by this criminal incompetent regime; use your anger to create change and make something better like, oh I don’t know, Pete in 2028.

PS Pete Beardigieg is hot.

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I Didn't Say It ...

David Archuleta, former American Idol contestant and out Mormon singer, on how trans people helped him come out:

“When I was still a shy 16 yr-old teenager living in Utah, entering the public view on American idol it was daunting because I didn’t know if people were going to see parts of me I was working so hard to bury deep down. I was just a scared queer kid that didn’t understand himself but still trying to do my best in a singing competition viewed by millions, to make my family, home state, faith community, and the idol audience proud. There were a lot of reasons I was nervous but one of the biggest was feeling so exposed when I still didn’t understand myself and feared being outed for something I didn’t know whether I was or not as gay or queer … Adore Delano [RuPaul’s Drag Race contestant] was on my same season of idol and just a year older than me. Even though I wasn’t out yet I felt safe with her. Whatever in me that I so despised and was ashamed [of] went away for a bit when I [was] hanging and laughing with her or having talks. She was the first person from the LGBTQIA+ community I ever had an open conversation with about someone in their queer experience and coming out. I was surprised to see someone openly figuring themselves out and not feeling ashamed or embarrassed or a need to hide. Even though I didn’t realize where I was on my journey, by knowing her and befriending her I became a little less afraid of myself. I’m so proud of her to see her continuing to blossom and continue in her journey being more fully herself in her transition … inspiring others the way she did with me and so many countless others … Happy International Transgender Day of Visibility] to you … and to all the rest of my Trans family who I love and am inspired by. The world is better with y’all in it.”

This just further proves how one of us coming out, as gay or bi or trans, paves the way for others to follow. Had Archuleta never met Adore, he may have just gone back to Utah and lived a closeted life, desperate to stay in the church as so many other gay Mormons have done.

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Mrs. Betty Bowers, AKA Deven Green, comedian and America’s Best Christian, on hypocrisy in the new regime:

“I learned this week that you can put your troops’ lives in danger, compromise our national security, and violate the Espionage Act, and the government will do nothing. But if you write an editorial for your school newspaper that [The Felon] doesn’t like, you we be abducted on the street and disappeared.”

Bowers is speaking of Tufts University student Rümeysa Öztürk who co-authored an op-ed about the university’s response to student demands for divestment from Israel. A week later, leaving her home, Öztürk was grabbed by a half-dozen masked agents of the Department of Homeland Security, cuffed, put in a car and driven away.

This is not America; this regime talks about how their side has all the rights to Free Speech, but attacks and disappears those who disagree with them.

Resist.

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Jasmine Crockett, Democrat Representative from Texas, Christian Nationalist Mike Johnson's hissy fit:

“So Speaker Johnson threw a tantrum today and cancelled votes for the rest of the week because he couldn’t wrangle enough support  to block new parents from voting [by proxy] in Congress. I guess when you don’t get your way, you just shut it down and go home? The American people didn’t elect us to pout.”

Nine of his own GOP members rebelled against Johnson’s Faux Christian move to tank a procedural vote on a measure that many considered anti-family … allowing new parents to vote by proxy rather than coming to Congress, which is something that was done during the pandemic.

The GOP is so out-of-touch with what people want.

Resist.

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Mark Carney, Canadian Prime Minister, on the lasting damage The Felon has inflicted on Canada:

"The old relationship we had with the United States based on deepening integration of our economies and tight security and military cooperation is over. What exactly the United States does next is unclear but what is clear—what is clear—is that we as Canadians have agency. We have power. We are masters in our own home. We can control our destiny. We can give ourselves much more than any foreign government including the United States can ever take away. We can deal with this crisis best by building our strength right here at home. It will take hard work. It will take steady and focused determination from governments, from businesses, from labor, from Canadians. We will need to dramatically reduce our reliance on the United States. We will need to pivot our trade relationships elsewhere and we will need to do things previously thought impossible at speeds we haven't seen in generations."

The bit about pivoting trade relationships "elsewhere" should concern every American. Thanks to The Felon’s idiotic tariffs, the US is no longer a stable partner to foreign nations and even countries like China and Russia are going to look like better options for many of our former allies.

The Felon promised his supporters a new "Golden Age" but he’s dragging us into an economic Dark Age.

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Ruben Gallego, Arizona Democrat Senator, announcing that he's putting a hold on [The Felon’s] nominees to run the Department of Veterans Affairs amidst cuts to that agency:

"Talking to veterans, people that I served with as well as seeing some of what’s happening in Arizona, I decided that whatever tool I have to fix the situation, I’m going to use it. And this is one of the few tools I have at this point."

The hold will complicate Richard Topping's nomination process and prevent the Senate from moving quickly to a vote, possibly tying up hours and even days of floor time. In the process, Gallego will be able to generate attention for the VA and highlight to the public exactly how terrible these nominees are.

Democrats need to fight and Ruben Gallego is showing us how you play hardball against MAGAts.

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Jonathan Groff, on how his late ex-BF Gavin Creel helped him come out:

“He changed my life. I had come out of the closet personally, but there had been no occasion for me to announce it publicly. We were dating and he was so out and doing ‘Hair‘ [on Broadway] at the time and he organized these buses [to the National Equality March]. I really remember the moment of looking over at him with literally a bullhorn and feeling like, ok am I going to like [come out]. It was such an essential moment because of who he was and how out and vocal and how brave and fearless and externalized he was and wanting to kind of try to be as brave as he was. But it was also the love that I was feeling for him. The need that I feel when I perform, the joy I feel when doing that. Feeling love like that for the first time mind-blowingly meant more to me [than performing]. Because at that time it was 2009, [and with] coming out of the closet it was sort of an unspoken thing that you were sacrificing something in your career if you were going to come out publicly. And I remember looking at him and feeling that I would rather feel this feeling than ever be on a TV show or do a movie. This is so much more meaningful to me. I owe him that and I am so grateful we got to talk about it many times even after we broke up. It’s such an unbelievable loss.”

This is just proof, again, that everyone who comes out paves the way for someone to follow.

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The Funny Papers

Sophie Labelle, Pedro X Molina, Clay Bennett, Randy Bish, Michael de Adder, Chris Britt, Dennis Goris, Truant, Ann Telnaes, Mike Luckovich, Matt Wuerker, Jesse Duquette, Nick Anderson, Adam Zyglis, Max Espinosa,