I know there’s at least one video out there (from Lawrence O’Donnell, I think) where he and some panelists are having a good time laughing about some of the political nonsense over the past year. I happen to think humor should be left in the hands of the professionals, unless it’s snarky to make a larger point as opposed to snark all by itself.
In case anyone hasn’t picked up on this by now, I happen to think these issues are serious. I honestly don’t understand people who just say, “oh, what difference does it make, nothing will change, and my life won’t be affected regardless of who’s in charge.”
Really? I repeat – really?
Even when Democrats act in a cowardly fashion (all too frequent of an occurrence, I realize), they’ll still manage to act in the interests of the majority of this country more than the party of the Teahadists ever will. And the fact that there are people out there who still don’t get that, with everything that’s going on and has occurred already, is truly epochal ignorance as far as I’m concerned.
So, with that boring pretext out of the way, I give you some moments of humor over the prior year as recalled by Jon Stewart (a little too much bleeped out in one segment, but I can more or less get it)…
…and I’m not sure what tune I should feature as we bring the year to a close, so I’m just going to go with this; thanks to anyone and everyone who has spent any time whatsoever at this blog over the prior year – I’ll try to add as much content as I can as permitted by my for-profit activities and other responsibilities; best wishes to all for a happy and safe year of 2013.
If I were still doing Do-Gooders and Dregs, this guy would be really high on my Do-Gooders list for this (maybe next year, but I’m not promising anything)…
…and we have all kinds of phony-baloney congressional investigations, but for what it’s worth, I demand that one take place for this (there should be FBI monitoring of the Teahadists, then – anybody who denies that we live in a corpocracy after watching this should continue to adjust their pillows and hit the snooze alarm once more...wonder if my support of OWS makes yours truly an "anarchist"?)…
…and we know what happily-soon-to-be-ex U.S. House Rep Allen West is, but I wonder if Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s blood clot is just a symptom of the “Benghazi Flu”…West is such a nitwit…
…and it takes about a minute to get this going, but it’s worth it.
Did you hear the one about “No Corporate Tax” Pat Toomey wanting “offsets” for disaster relief funding on behalf of victims of Hurricane Sandy (here).
Oh, sorry – it’s no joke, though he is…
…and public TV station WHYY in these parts used to air programs called “Things That Aren’t There Anymore” devoted mainly to local area landmarks; after watching this, don’t be surprised if they produce another one highlighting the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution (and the Democrats actually wonder why the “professional left” gets upset with them)…
…and what a service Piers Morgan is doing to entertain the crazy point of view here…smart for him to just sit back and let the Nugent train wreck happen on its own)…
For centuries, Switzerland has had a citizen’s militia instead of a standing army, much like that envisioned by Jefferson and many of the other Founders for America. Every able-bodied male spends a bit of time in the militia and, so the story goes, has a gun in his home.
But the story is wrong, says (gun control researcher Dr. Janet) Rosenbaum. Instead of keeping guns in people’s homes, she told Klein, in Switzerland, “They’ve been moving to keeping the guns in depots. That means they’re not in the household, which makes sense because the literature shows us that if the gun is in the household, the risk goes up for everyone in the household.”
And, interestingly, they’re doing the same thing in Israel. As Rosenbaum told Klein, “In Israel, it used to be that all soldiers would take the guns home with them. Now they have to leave them on base. Over the years they’ve done this—it began, I think, in 2006—there’s been a 60 percent decrease in suicide on weekends among IDS [Israeli] soldiers.”
That’s because there’s a clear correlation between having a gun in the house and the risk of suicide, because suicidal impulses come and go, but if they come when guns are around they’re a lot easier to carry out. And, as in the case in Newtown and most of our mass shootings, to carry out in a way that is made very, very high-profile by being able to kill a bunch of other people at the same time.
We have our priorities totally wrong in the United States.
Uh, yep…
Update: Besides, wasn't Nugent supposed to be dead or in jail or something (here)?
…and there are some tunes I heard that I liked but I wasn’t able to get to while I was featuring the Christmas stuff, and this is one of them.
Happy Boxing Day, all you non-Canadians (and Canadians too), eh?...
…and I’m not going to pretend that I understand all of the ramifications of Congress’s passage (and Obama’s signing into law) of The Magnitsky Act, but I think our elected officials should have, at the very least, recognized what kind of a tit-for-tat would ensue, and unfortunately, it looks like Americans trying to adopt Russian children will be punished (more here)…
…and while I was busy with the Christmas stuff, I forgot to acknowledge the passing of Ravi Shankar a couple of weeks ago – my bad (gee, that guy with the beard sure got around, didn't he?)…
…also, RIP acclaimed character actor Charles Durning (what a heroic wartime story, by the way...lots of great roles, including Big Ed Healey in "Captains and the Kings")…
…and South Philadelphia’s Jack Klugman (I’d forgotten that he’d used “Quincy” as a vehicle to promote social causes)…
…and I suppose the story of Lester Chambers, as told here, is a bit of a cause as well, with social media and online folks giving him a well-deserved hand; with that in mind, here is the legendary hit of his band referred to in the news story.
So let me guess –we’re all still here, aren’t we :-)…
…and maybe I’m in the minority here, but I think Joe Scar took it too easy on this idiot Tim Huelskamp – somehow I have a feeling this numbskull would be singing a different tune if one of his kids had been murdered in Newtown (and once again, heckuva job, Kansas voters, for electing this clueless meat sack)…
…and I think The Eternal George Carlin nailed Wayne LaPierre here based on this (borderline language of course, but funny stuff)…
…and turning to the seasonal items, I think ol’ Pearl was onto something here…
…and I present the following because I don’t feature nearly as much jazz here as I should…
I read a really good Guest Opinion today in the Bucks County Courier Times (and how often can I say that?) about the importance of the Production Tax Credit for funding renewable energy, particularly wind power, here; one of the things you learn is that the U.S. House Repugs haven’t renewed the PTC (big surprise, I know) and what kind of an impact that could have on jobs (potentially killing 37,000 nationally…the next time you hear Boehner, Cantor or Mikey the Beloved whine about the supposed job-killing regulations of the Obama Administration, tell them to make sure their own glass house is polished before they start throwing stones…P.S., that Texas Teahadist nematode Blake Farenthold was re-elected; to contact these clowns and tell them to renew the credit, click here)…
…and I just have three words for Rachel Maddow’s commentary on the ATF – Nail. Hammer. Head (here)…
Let’s not mourn the loss of Robert Bork as far as I’m concerned, for the reasons Jeffrey Toobin of The New Yorker articulates here; basically, by his behavior during the “Saturday Night Massacre” of the Watergate era, he ended up furthering a vision of supreme executive power and lawlessness, which The Sainted Ronnie R and Number 43 dutifully expanded on every way that they could (and as Toobin points out, Ted Kennedy was actually being kind in his remarks during Bork’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing – as far as I’m concerned, the fact that Bork stepped down from the federal bench soon afterwards is telling - this is interesting, though)…
…and gee Dems, way to utterly suck the life out of your base, as David Cay Johnston notes here (even Number 40 knew this was a bad idea, as noted here – and by the way, in a related story, President Hopey Changey ought to give this a read…interesting and a bit disturbing also…if the Repugs had managed to field a somewhat astute individual instead of Willard Mitt – a stretch for that bunch, I know – we’d be getting ready to swear in Number 45 instead)…
Bill Moyers recorded this after the shootings at the premiere of “The Dark Knight Rises” over the summer, but he might as well be talking about today.
And by the way, what do I see when I drive south on Route 1 in Trevose, PA today after getting off the PA Turnpike? A huge yellow billboard with black letters advertising a gun show at the Philadelphia Expo Center.
As Martin Bashir says, lather, rinse, repeat…
…and RIP Sen. Daniel Inouye of Hawaii; I knew absolutely nothing about him until the Watergate hearings (and yes, I’m dating myself, I know) – his bravery should be remembered, but also his keen mind and his legendary service on behalf of a nation that, for a time, treated him as an enemy…
…and here’s a seasonal number as a bit of a tribute…
Godspeed to Eddie Weingart – a bit of an eerie coincidence in that I have relatives in Silver Spring, MD (here)…
…and is Martin Bashir ever spot-on, talking about the gun carnage that preceded the Newtown, CT massacre (literally impossible to keep track of them all without a score card)…
…and I’m going to go out on a bit of a limb here…I’m going back to the more funny and upbeat Christmas stuff, though I know the sorrow is still too overwhelming at times; not ashamed to admit that I’ve been sobbing a bit too, but I need a laugh from time to time to stay sane – I can assure you that the nature of this most recent slaughter from a nut with an automatic weapon will preclude me from ever forgetting about it…ever…but for now, let’s try to smile a bit, OK?
I gave up on this show a long time ago, but I have to admit that this was a nice touch (I have trouble with videos from Hulu - just refresh please if it doesn't appear right away)…
…and we know what the top story is, and as long as it has occurred it should be so, but let’s not forget about this too…
As noted here, all 31 pro-NRA U.S. Senators refused invitations to appear with Dancin’ Dave on “Meet The Press” today (I don’t have a confirmation, but I strongly suspect that “No Corporate Tax” Pat Toomey of PA is one of them). And as noted here, the NRA’s Facebook page disappeared also (and I believe their Twitter feed went down as well).
Wow, for a bunch of supposed heroes, they sure are acting like a bunch of stinking cowards. Wouldn’t now, of all times, be the opportunity for them to try and defend their thoroughly indefensible positions?
This reminds me of the global warming denialists who are nowhere to be found on 100-degree summer days or during a period of prolonged wildfires due to excessive heat.
In a related story, as they say, J.D. Mullane, the head carnival barker for the fourth-estate freak show that is the Bucks County Courier Times, typically blames “the culture” and says that we have a “fake debate” about gun control in this country here (what else can you expect from a newspaper that routinely accepts advertising from the gun industry?).
One final thought (and yes, I guess this is a bit of a nod to the conservative point of view)…I keep hearing about how the mother of the shooter stupidly went out and bought an automatic weapon for some reason and taught her disturbed son to aim and fire; he subsequently killed her that way along with his other victims, including the children (who apparently were shot so many times in the face that they needed to be identified from photos).
Any word whatsoever on what became of the father?
(Also, here is more on the victims - the next time I read anyone in the Courier Times complaining about how teachers supposedly have it so easy...well, those cement heads would do well to recall the heroism of the teachers during the shootings, as noted here.)
Update 1: By the way, I know I mentioned Toomey earlier, and thus far I’ve found no comment from him on the shootings. Maybe this is why.
Update 2: This is a message to anyone who owns an automatic gun of any type (unless you are in law enforcement and have a good reason to do so).
Update 3: By the way, I’ve seen a lot of comments out there basically saying that we need more funding for mental health services and access and support of other types for those services. I wholeheartedly agree. But good luck getting that type of funding with the Teahadists in charge of the U.S. House, with Mikey the Beloved as a member of course; these people want “offsets” for hurricane and disaster relief – good luck trying to get dollars for the type of services that would help to fend off the next lunatic with a gun.
Update 4: Interesting article in the New York Times here – I haven’t made it all the way through yet, but it looks like all of the “Fast and Furious” nonsense from Darrell Issa and his House Oversight Committee ended up sucking all the oxygen out of an effort by the Justice Department “to expand the background check system in order to reduce the risk of guns falling into the hands of mentally ill people.”
Heckuva job, U.S. House Repugs.
Update 12/17/12: Dana Milbank recently whined about how no one is taking Joe (“Short Ride”) Lieberman seriously now that he’s just marking time until he’s finally gone (and why isn’t he gone by now, actually?). Maybe this is why (taking a page from Mullane – I don’t recall anyone ever dying from playing a video game – duuuh!).
(By the way, with everything going on in the news, I forgot to mention that I also posted here.)
I have to admit that I never paid much attention to Piers Morgan up until now, but kudos to him for this (and by the way, John Lott, apologist for Murder, Inc., tried to ask something about how many innocent bystanders were shot by a law-abiding gunman; Lott’s supposed statistical data has been disproven as utter garbage anyway, but if he were actually interested in another point of view – and I know he isn’t really – then he should read the story of Joe Zamudio from here, who was in Tucson during that horrific attack and very nearly shot an innocent bystander)…
…and Rachel Maddow provides international context (and I know it’s absolutely shocking to read what the wingnuts continually deny, and that is that gun…control…laws…work)…
…and I have a bit of a confession; I’m not really interested in hearing Christmas music at the moment, but it may be therapeutic to put up these videos, so here they are.
At least Dem U.S. House Rep Jerrold Nadler gets it, among a very select few others (here)...
Update 1 12/14/12: By the way, if you want to tell this asshat Larry Pratt exactly what you think of him for this, you can try clicking here (such a hero – he didn’t even post any personal contact information here including an Email address).
Update 2 12/14/12: And what else can you expect from Huckabee I guess (here)?
Update 3 12/14/12: To host a vigil to end gun violence for tomorrow, click here.
Update 4 12/14/12: And I wish I had a nickel for every time I heard a gun owner come back with the supposed argument of “we should just enforce the laws we have”; that and other pro-gun myths are exploded here.
Update 12/15/12: Among other links out there, this tells us why we need action now!
Update 12/17/12: And somehow I have a feeling that, if Pratt faced the ATF for real, he'd wet his pants and run away crying like a little bitch (here).
So let me get this straight – as far as Huckleberry Graham and the U.S. Senate Repugs are concerned, this Rice isn’t any good, but this Rice is (noted in the vid…and God, is it gut-churning to watch this again)?
Besides, all the now-withdrawn candidate for Secretary of State is guilty of is propagating the talking points of St.-Petraeus-Who-Couldn’t-Keep-His-Pants-On…
Update 12/14/12: The first two paragraphs from Charles Pierce here are the true "takeaways" on Susan Rice (h/t Daily Kos).
…and Rachel Maddow tells us how the Repugs use gerrymandering to further their nefarious ends (“crossing a Rubicon” indeed)…
Kudos to Tom Harkin for speaking truth to stoo-pidhere...
…and based on this, it looks like PA’s governor Tom “Space Cadet” Corbett isn’t going to help set up the health care exchanges mandated by health care reform and will rely on the Feds to do it instead, just like every other Repug governor (don’t know of any exceptions), even though he said he would do so in November last year, as noted here.
(By the way, let this whole episode over the health care law be a lesson, now and forever and always, to NEVER EVER EVER work with a Repug on an issue of governance that affects a large percent of this country. I say that because the Affordable Care Act was patterned after Willard Mitt Romney’s health care law in Massachusetts, which came ultimately from the uber-conservative Heritage Foundation – and yes, I know I’ve already said this stuff many, many times. Conversely, Obama could have ended up with “Medicare For All” instead which probably would have had a much easier chance of passing Congress, and it would have relied on a model that already worked. But no, Number 44 tried to work with the opposition – a laudable instinct, but the other side will never play fair, particularly on “big ticket” issues like this, unless it means $$ for their benefactors, of course.)
Getting back to Corbett, as noted here, he has some pretty bizarre notions of what constitutes good health care anyway (a lot of what he says here actually makes sense, shockingly enough, though the real garbage starts at about 3:00 - if Corbett didn't know that the ultrasound bill mandated that a woman be forced to watch, then he's a bigger idiot than I thought...wish I could find that clip of Keith Olbermann talking to Patrick Murphy about this awhile back - I'll keep looking)…
…turning to the seasonal stuff, this is just a reminder to hold your liquor well and try not to hurt yourself as you stumble home…
…and on Mr. S.’s birthday, I give you this.
Update 12/13/12: Sorry for the weird spacing on the Harkin thing - had to make an accommodation for Google Chrome...looks different in IE, I now realize.
Rachel Maddow takes another look at some of the recent high-profile conservative corporate media spats, and the subsequent scamming of the wingnuts who let themselves get suckered – too funny (here)…
…and congratulations to Rush for being an inductee into the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame, as noted here (here they are making the world safe for Gap-ad-looking kids everywhere)…
…and here’s another seasonal favorite…
…and it’s not Christmas without this tune as far as I’m concerned (part of a select group, I’ll admit).
So Huckleberry Graham says Obama needs to “man up” and cut Medicare (here)? Really? Gee, that sounds like some of the crying that the U.S. House Repugs did in this clip over a year and a half ago.
Sounds like Graham needs a history lesson (and by the way, if you want to know why Karl Rove and his pals spent $9 million to try and defeat Sherrod Brown this year, I think this tells you why)…
…and speaking of Republican U.S. Senate idiocy – well, you have to go a long way to top this from Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao (here...and to help put an end to McConnell and his nonsense, click here)…
I’ll keep putting up videos like this making the same point over and over (I know) as long as I have to, and I expect that that will be the case for a good while yet (Dem Rep Raul Grijalva speaks truth to stoo-pidhere...and one again, people have paid into Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security for years already)...
…and here’s another seasonal number – please disregard the typo at end.
And oh yes, Mikey the Beloved is on the list that you can view from here...
...and let’s have no illusions about why Jim DeMint is actually leaving the U.S. Senate, OK?...
...and I apologize for being a bit behind on my commemorations – I didn’t note the anniversary of JFK’s assassination a couple of weeks ago, and I didn’t say anything about the 71st anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack yesterday...
...and speaking of commemorations, I always put up this video on this day, so here it is again.
Gosh, what a shame that Teahadist hero Jim DeMint is leaving public life (here), depriving us of moments like this, in which he ultimately disagrees with – himself?…
…and yes, my fellow prisoners, Medicare is an earned entitlement, and that needs to be repeated over and over (and gee, I wonder what Mikey the Beloved and his pals will do with their time off while this country lurches towards the OMIGOD FISCAL CLIFF FISCAL CLIFF FISCAL CLIFF FISCAL CLIFF!!! – tongue-in-cheek here, I assure you)…
To me, this is the very definition of the word “fail” – Lawrence O’Donnell explains why (hard to find the words to truly communicate my disgust; the Teahadists must be so proud, including those supporting “No Corporate Tax” Pat Toomey who, quite unsurprisingly, was one of the infamous 38 O’Donnell discusses)…
…and RIP Dave Brubeck, a true legend of jazz who understood the sacrifices made by African Americans to help develop an original and uniquely American art form (including commentary by jazz critic and occasional wingnut Nat Hentoff)…
So instead of devoting their time and attention to an actual issue of actual consequence (such as what Rachel Maddow describes), what are the Repugs exercised about instead? This and this…
Just a reminder that the whole “fiscal cliff” kabuki is nothing but a scheme to try and use the debt as an excuse to continue taking from those who can afford it the least, so that the “pay no price, bear no burden” crowd can continue to skate (and Erin Burnett is definitely a spokesperson on their behalf)…
…fortunately, Robert Reich provides the reality point of view here (God, I hope Obama and the Dems are actually listening to this)…
…and in a related story, former Reaganite Bruce Bartlett is my first new hero for this (and FDR’s great words ring truer now than ever…big surprise that Veronique de Rugy collects a paycheck from George Mason University, the same bunch of “gilbertarian” fools and frauds that brought us Tyler Cowen…just a mere dotted line to the tentacles of the Koch Brothers)…
…which brings to mind this tune for yours truly considering this in response (h/t Atrios) – I always fall back to this question; why the hell don’t we enact gun laws that make it less life-threatening for the cops?...
…and speaking of law enforcement, I give you this (trying to bring up the seasonal mood).
Yeah, I’m trying to put off the whole “chestnuts roasting on an open fire” bit for a little while longer, but Martin Bashir puts the whole Fix Noise “War on Christmas” thing in perspective here…
…and yeah I know – FISCAL CLIFF FISCAL CLIFF FISCAL CLIFF FISCAL CLIFF FISCAL CLIFF!!! But I still liked this from Jon Stewart anyway (for what it’s worth, just go over the damn “cliff” already and pass tax cuts for all but the rich next year)…
…and yeah, can you say “Mississippi health care disaster” (here)…
…and I haven’t put up an indie video for a little while (hung up on the “Boomer” stuff a bit I know), so let me put that right here.
After watching this from Stephen Colbert, I guess I should have included last night’s Elvis Costello video tonight instead (I give you the Fix Noise mentality, or what passes for one, on display…men are supposed to “trust our leaders,” and thus surrender, and women are supposed to surrender to men who do – ah, life inside the bubble)…
…and I’m sure he rocked it at the “big joint” tonight, as Pierre Robert likes to call it (heh).
At this moment, I can’t think of another seven-minutes-and-a-few-seconds out there that does a better job of of laying utter waste to any pretense of Beltway media objectivity than this clip (here)...
...and I find myself utterly numb as I watch this (here) – maybe adding this link can help in some small measure...
...changing the mood in a big way, this week marks the 70th anniversary of the debut of “Casablanca”...I’ll leave it up to you if you want to find the clip of the climactic airport scene...
...and on this day in 1967 (well, yesterday actually), TV viewers turned on "The Ed Sullivan Show" and saw this.
Time to stand some of that dreaded “conventional wisdom” right on its pointed little head (here...soooo, instead of all of this Beltway jabbering about austerity, how about some seed funding to help fund the “pipeline” noted in this story?)...
...and I have to admit that I got a kick out of this (oh, and speaking of the High Court of Hangin’ Judge JR...well, as noted here, you really didn’t think they were going to consider the Affordable Care Act to be “settled law,” did you?).
And speaking of the Stones, this is a great production.
