Friday Stuff

(I previously posted about the JFK Assassination here from a year ago, in case you want to revisit that topic.)

To begin, Thom Hartmann tells us about a Texas (of course) Repug state legislator who introduced a bill that would force ISPs in that God-forsaken state to block any websites dealing with abortion or abortion medication, basically saying anybody can sue (kind of mirroring the bill where people in “the land of the yellow rose” can rat out others who are involved in transporting a pregnant person for an abortion and get $10K for doing so)...and this lunacy actually extends to Iowa, Idaho and Tennessee, and Alabama too of course (trying to prosecute abortion providers under the RICO Act, which is used to go after organized crime of course, and when Repugs take over the federal government in January, I think we can rest assured that they’ll try to pass something like this on the national level...heckuva job, all you idiots who voted for this madness - and boy, is Thom right about these characters and "1984")...



...and when it comes to our slow-motion stroll directly into fascism, Rachel Maddow informs us of the bill Trump would use to shut down any organization he doesn’t like (H.R. 9495, which I commented on last week I know)...and OF COURSE, despite the fact that this garbage bill to help Combover Caligula be even more of a dictator was shot down at first, leave it to the “party of Lincoln” to try and breathe life back into this monstrosity (and as noted here, this horror was indeed reintroduced in the House and passed, and Bri-Fi, being the utter coward that he is, voted Yes once more...this garbage will be stalled in the Senate...for now...also, it looks like Comcast is “spinning off” NBC and MSNBC, so the future of the latter in particular may be in jeopardy, but hopefully not – wish that cable behemoth would do that for The Flyers)...



...and Anthony Vincent Gallo of Occupy Democrats brings us the tale of wingnut Repug U.S. House Rep Nancy Mace introducing a bill mandating that members use bathrooms associated with biological sex from birth (here), which is aimed right at the first transgender person in that body, Sarah McBride (who was just elected from Delaware)...and great point by AOC to mention Mace fundraising off this...and yeah, inspecting women and girls’ to check their genitals before they go into bathroom? What freaking country am I living in again?...



...and Jesse Dollemore gives us a rather gut-churning update on the police report from Trump Defense Secretary candidate Pete Hegseth, who has allegedly abused women in a truly gross and likely illegal manner (just like Jesus would do – snark mode off)...even with the redactions, it looks like Hegseth can be credibly accused of r*pe...I’ll keep an eye out in case this video gets age-restricted by YouTube...apparently, acting like a caveman this way is required to serve in Trump’s cabinet...

...and Mike Figueredo discusses Chris Van Hollen (interviewed by Mehdi Hasan) quite rightly calling out Biden for allowing our “ally” Bibi to walk all over him...eventually, the story of why Harris/Walz lost will be told, and I believe it will have NOTHING to do with embracing Mango Mussolini, but instead will be based on Netanyahu’s latest incursion into Gaza, the RELENTLESS drumbeat against Biden on the economy from the wingnuts and “centrist dipsh*ts” as Atrios quite rightly calls them, and also, Dems’ complete and utter failure to compete with Repugs on messaging...heckuva job, DNC! (as either Barron’s or The Economist noted, Biden had a lot to do with giving the U.S. the best-performing post-COVID economy in the world)...about Van Hollen – I believe he’s basically right, but he’s from a deep blue state of Maryland (a terrific place), and while politics shouldn’t take precedence over human lives, I think Biden has had much more of a difficult political task here (representing the whole nation) than Van Hollen has (probably more to say about that, but I’ll leave it there for now...and yes, I know human suffering here is the primary issue and not “keeping score” between the parties)...it does appear that there is no good end to this tragedy...I wouldn’t go as far as Figueredo does here in calling Biden a war criminal (especially since Figueredo makes no mention of what started all of this on October 7th), but I understand his point (NSFW/H at the very end)...



...and I guess I’m overdue for a newer tune and video dealing with what appears to be twenty-something angst...hope this will suffice.

Wednesday Stuff

(And before you cry out, "Oh, how dare you, you dastardly dumb lib! That's blasphemous!," you should recall that 45 once said the Holy Eucharist was "my little cracker," OK?)

To begin, Farron Cousins informs us that a 29-year-old MAGA church leader was recently charged with sexually assaulting children...can’t think of a hell hot enough for life forms who do this stuff (yeah, maybe all the wingnuts screaming about the trannies and drag queens should realize that kids feel a hell of a lot safer around them than they do with leaders of established religions, tragically, but those culprits brought this on themselves)...



...and as you watch this NSFW/H clip, please allow me to emphasize that I don't feel morally superior to anyone (I got into this awhile back here), though this man makes some terrific points IMO...

Worth the 6 minutes.
Just listen.

This man spoke perfectly for every single person who voted against MAGA.

He spoke for everyone who voted against Trump. pic.twitter.com/VmcodSnMZx

— Travis Matthew (@Matthewtravis08) November 17, 2024

...and Brittany Page, sitting in for Jesse Dollemore, lets us know that Kristen Welker of NBC played a clip of Oklahoma U.S. Sen. Markwayne Mullin calling out Big Stupid Head Matt Gaetz, the guy with the truly weird looking eyebrow liner, while Welker interviewed Mullin...still pretty tame stuff from Welker, but she did the right thing here...and oh yeah, it looks like the alleged underage sex trafficker (Gaetz of course) may end up heading the DOJ (hope you 78 million numbskulls who voted for 45 are ready for an out-of-control ride on the most dangerous rollercoaster you can ever imagine, because it’s coming thanks to you, you knot-heads!)...



Update 11/22/24: OK, it looks like Gaetz is out - can't imagine how horrific that House committee report is.

...and this clip from Leeja Miller brings us the story of How Right Wing Media Took Over America...and I didn’t know that The Daily Signal was owned by the Heritage Foundation either, but it makes sense, sadly...as Miller says, this does indeed go back to the ‘50s with some fragmented attempts from ex-New Dealers who were mad at FDR to get their own channel of sorts going, as well as John Birch Society goofballs and a burgeoning conservative movement led by William F. Buckley, among others (all of which is discussed in this great book), but yeah, Nixon indeed helped whip all of this into overdrive...familiar but important history on the demise of the Fairness Doctrine and the rise of wingnut AM radio, led by Flush Limbore; I actually met Sandra Fluke while phone banking for Hillary Clinton in 2016 (she was utterly trashed by Limbore for trying to get the ACA to cover contraception, with Limbore predictably calling her a slut), and she was almost embarrassed when I told her how much I respected her courage for putting up with all of the predictable wingnut attacks that ensued...and oh yeah, this story includes the rise of Fix Noise starting in 1996...Miller also mentions the wingnut nematodes like Tim Pool who were busted for taking compensation from Russia for pushing pro-Putin BS; I think anyone doing that should be charged and, if convicted, should do serious time for it, but that’s just me I guess...good to call out The Epoch Times for doing their best to infect the media bloodstream also...and oh yeah, Sinclair Broadcasting has pretty much taken over local news unfortunately...also mentioned is Philip Anschutz of the Washington Examiner, and the Wilks brothers’ affiliation with PragerU, as well as Dick Uihlein and the Donors Trust Fund (and yes, the Powell Memo does indeed figure infamously in all of this)...



...and Sam and Emma of The Majority Report tell us that Mr. and Mrs. Scar recently went to Mar-a-Lago to “bend the knee” before Our Treasonous Orange Pestilence, and in response, Sam “brings the receipts”...Scar made his bones as probably the most rabid hater of the Clintons anybody has ever seen, and when he “served” in the U.S. House he was one of the most doctrinaire Repugs in existence, so this doesn’t surprise me actually...and let’s not forget that Scar once represented Michael Griffin, accused and later convicted in the murder of abortionist Dr. David Gunn (and no, I don’t give a damn that Griffin’s father was a friend of Scarborough’s in-laws)...I wish I could disagree with the stuff that Emma V. says at about 9:00 or so (about Biden and the toxic plague of DC “centrism” from our political/media/industrial complex), but I really can’t (lots of snark in this clip, which is appropriate IMO)...



...and today is the 41st anniversary of the tragic death of Tom Evans of Badfinger, who took his own life (one of the most star-crossed bands of all time).

Monday Stuff

Kyle Kulinski tells us about a voter in Scranton, Pa (allegedly some middle-of-the-road guy) who voted for #45 even though he thinks he’s like Hitler...yeah, I don’t know what to do with this kind of lunacy either...this is the product of at least 30 years of right-wing media BS and failure in teaching civics and social studies, but IMO, it’s also the failure of Dems to try to engage with folks like this guy...it shouldn’t be up to people like Michael Shure going to rallies to try and explain reality to these nematodes (no disrespect to Shure of course)...NSFW/H...



And by the way, I thought this was a tweet with good advice from the daughter of MLK and Coretta Scott King...

I am definitely all for this movement pic.twitter.com/Q2hBW0UCHs

— Scott Smith, MSW #BLM 🇺🇲🦅🇺🇦🏳️‍🌈🌈🟦🟧 (@Canaansdad1987) November 16, 2024

...and speaking of cultish behavior, it looks like “Rocky” has taken one too many blows to the head, introducing 45 at the “America First” policy institute and comparing him to Jesus and George Washington...Jesse Dollemore gives us the story...



...and Francis Maxwell of the Meidas Touch Network informs us that world leaders are positioning themselves in response to what will likely be a catastrophic trade war with Mango Mussolini and his beyond-ridiculous tariffs, especially Emmanuel Macron of France (these people aren’t stupid...the world leaders I mean of course), and that information on MSNBC presented by Steven Rattner I believe spells out the economic ruin that is likely to ensue (also, credit to women leaders around the globe for standing tall)...heckuva job, all you U.S. imbeciles who voted to give the convicted felon another shot at tanking our country...



...and Thom Hartmann talks about Vlad The Butcher dumping nudes of Melania on Russian TV, along with the unveiled threat from Moscow to Trump himself...can’t imagine what kind of kompromat Putin has on 45, but it must be awful...



...and Brian Tyler Cohen and Marc Elias give us a bit of an election post mortem...if Elias says that the ’24 election was free and fair, then I believe him; I still say what will emerge over time is information on all of the ways that the Harris vote was suppressed, but again, not by anything illegal to my knowledge (though the bomb threats from Moscow were a factor also)...I’m not going to go off on Dems and messaging all over again; as much as I SINCERELY HATE TO SAY THIS, the Trump party did a better job of driving turnout than the Harris campaign did (and the DNC, DSCC and other affiliated orgs proved themselves to be utterly clueless once again)...GREAT question by Cohen about why down-ballot progressive measures won even though Dems on that ballot lost, and it’s utterly depressing to point out that Trump won the popular vote, albeit not by much (so fine folks like Thom Hartmann won’t be able to keep pointing out how Repugs lost on that score); FWIW, I think the result proves that the economy absolutely held sway over every other issue including abortion, and writ large, it also goes to the overall declining quality of life in this country, a matter in which Dems have some proposed solutions that are OK but don’t address systemic issues, and the Repugs have no solutions at all (a lesson this country will relearn in short order...and speaking of Elias)...



...and happy 74th birthday to Graham Parker.