Wednesday Stuff

Farron Cousins lets us know here that Dementia J. Trump recently screeched that criticizing him is a national security threat...I don’t have a clue as to what triggered that last, lonely, flickering synapse in Cantaloupe Capone’s pudding brain that would make him attack the New York Times, but as Cousins says, it doesn’t take much for those red hat life forms to resort to violence in response, in particular against the media (and I’d forgotten about Obama standing up to Billo The Clown, who was every bit as rude and obnoxious in that interview as you would expect; this interminable year has made me forget what it’s like to have a functioning adult in the White House)...



...and Erielle Reshef of MS NOW speaks with Cameron Hume, former U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria, about the fact that Our Demented Orange Meat Sack recently ordered 30 U.S. diplomats home for some reason... Hume notes that the huge number of diplomats affected is unusual, as well as the fact that there was no turnover on 1/20, when there should have been turnover (I mean, yeah, the ambassadors serve at the pleasure of the prez, if you will, but given that we’re talking about #47, how much do you want to bet that these people were canned just because Our Tangerine Toddler heard they were part of the Biden admin and that was it?)...



...and in case anybody thought that this madness was somehow not noticed...well, you don’t have to worry about that, because it definitely IS getting noticed...Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report informs us that PO’ed Americans are demanding revenge on #47 for his crimes...yeah, I think a lot of these memes are performative, but I agree with Figueredo that they indicate that something (whatever it is) is indeed going on...I honestly didn’t know that the anger had spread to grandmoms giving it back to performative wingnut(ette) Kaitlin Bennett, but there you are...and I WISH TO GOD that Democrats, as a party, truly understood the rage out there and the need to address it, but I’m not hopeful of that...”you can’t have a country where elites can violate the law with impunity” indeed (NSFW/H)...



...and we recently lost a true progressive champion, and that would be Howie Klein, who made his mark in the music biz and then turned to politics, creating a legacy of tireless work on behalf of candidates who truly sought to do the people’s business...way back in the “golden days of blogging,” I would leave comments at Klein’s great site Down With Tyranny and he responded in kind here, which definitely was appreciated...this post at Crooks and Liars in response to the Trump/Biden debate last year was typically spot-on (“Thinking Alfred is too old to care for the batcave is no reason to hire the Joker to replace him” indeed)...RIP...



...and just as I did on Monday, I’d like to pay tribute to three more figures in music who left us during the prior year; first is John Lodge of The Moody Blues...



...next is Mark Volman of The Turtles...



...and last is Mick Ralphs of Mott The Hoople and Bad Company...



...and as is my custom, I want to take a minute or two and thank everyone who has spent any time at this site over the prior year. I said this time a year ago that this year was going to be bad with our clueless ruling regime of grifters, lowlifes and bottom-feeders (probably didn’t take much brain power to come up with that given the evidence), but one thing I didn’t note (because I couldn’t have known) is the extent of the push-back to the ruinous excesses of Don The Con and his playmates. We definitely can take solace from our courts telling Cheetoh Hitler that they’re not going to go along with our descent into something approximating a corporate dictatorship, and that also goes for the “No Kings” rallies, everyday people fighting back against the ICE goons, voices of protest emerging forcefully and effectively against Trumpism in general, et cetera.

I’d like to step back and go “meta” a bit here. I’m in the middle of my 21st year of doing this mess, believe it or not, and as I’ve said before, this is definitely a day-to-day, seat-of-the-pants operation. In case it isn’t apparent already, I’d like to give you a bit of insight into how the “sausage gets made,” you might say. When I started this, seemingly forever ago, I would often get pretty verbose and include as many links as possible within posts (I don’t know if the abbreviation TL,DR sprung up as a result of my stuff or not, but I’m sure I contributed to it). For reasons that are too involved and boring to explain, this morphed from acting as a PR forum for Democrats in general, to something confronting wingnut BS primarily, to something else where I tried to include discussions of how politics in general and particular legislation affected people’s lives, reinforced by videos from creators I respect, along with news reports that I thought should be promoted somehow. And oh yeah, that also includes paying attention to right-wing idiocy to a certain degree. I definitely try to balance all of this in a way that I think is interesting and worthy of people’s time. I mean, if you’re looking for the very latest on the apparent infighting between Ben Shapiro/Tim Pool/The Swanson TV Dinner Heir, you probably need to go somewhere else (I mean, I MIGHT touch on that, but probably not). Likewise, I try to balance the madness from Our Treasonous Orange Pustule and his minions and not obsess over every single revolting development. Basically, if I have a choice between including a video of #47 going nuts on Truth Septic with 150 posts versus another fine clip from More Perfect Union about how the insane tariffs from our *preznit are destroying a rural farming community, I’m definitely going to include the latter (as far as I’m concerned, if the majority of our corporate media did reports with the quality of the More Perfect Union segments, there might not be a need for this blog to even exist at all).

Additionally, I’d like to say something about a particularly important story and why you likely aren’t going to find much about that here, and that has to do with the utterly awful case of Jeffrey Epstein. Like many of you I’m sure, I’m thoroughly appalled by the destruction this has wrought on the lives of so many women (including, tragically, Virginia Giuffre, who took her own life...her case is still under investigation, it should be noted). The reason I haven’t said much about this is because a lot of the coverage (as far as I’m concerned) is this ridiculous corporate media “fan dance” concerning whether or not Mango Mussolini will ever release unredacted files indicating that he’s truly guilty as sin (which will NEVER happen, people), and I absolutely DO NOT want to feed into that. Yes, I know that the Tangerine Toddler said that he would release the files when he was running last year...but he said A LOT OF THINGS when he was running last year that haven’t come to pass, and likely never will. If anyone out there truly thought that you-know-who would come clean on this in particular, then I think you’re as dumb as a bag of rocks. There are a lot of stories out there where #47 is deliberately “flooding the zone” with BS in the media to force out coverage he doesn’t like, and this is just another example. Another is our runup to a military conflict somewhere, likely in Venezuela, which is a whole other horror show. As far as I’m concerned, he’ll ramp this up more and more as the economic news gets worse (the AI bubble shows signs of bursting, high net worth people stop spending, another pandemic looms, etc.), and please believe me when I tell you that I want to be wrong.

Our salvation in all of this lies in depending on each other, folks. As I alluded to earlier, we have the courts, particularly heroic individuals in the media, and our ongoing protests and acts of resistance. And oh yeah, the midterm elections are coming, so we can get back at the “party of Lincoln” with our ballots also (and I honestly don’t know if the Dems, as a national party, understand the scope of what’s at stake, but they damn well better – if we need to get after them also, we should do so with all speed).

So in consideration of all of this, I’d like to present once more my Patti Smith clip that I almost always include at year end; let it serve as an inspiration for continued resistance in our ongoing struggle (and best wishes to one and all for a much better 2026).

Monday Stuff

John of The Damage Report tells us that the Repugs are in trouble as voters shift over the utterly failed policies of Don The Con (once more, Harry Enten of CNN leads off with some data painting a justifiably gloomy picture...a 27-point spread in the wrong direction, huh? Wonder if Dementia J. Trump is going to go on TV again and yell over that?)...John does a pretty good job IMO of listing all of the stuff from the ”party of Lincoln” that isn’t going to amount to squat when it comes to turning around our economy...and boy, do I share John’s exasperation at the end...



...and Chris Hayes speaks with Jason Johnson, a prof at Morgan State university, and Rolling Stone’s Nikki McCann Ramirez about the fact that DOGE was an utter failure (in terms of realizing any kind of savings, though it likely was a success as far as Project 2025 is concerned)...great point by Johnson that we really don’t know how King Elmo rigged the SSA and what data he harvested for God know whatever purpose...glad Hayes reminds us of the US AID shutdown, and just because there’s not much reporting on it doesn’t mean that it wasn’t catastrophic in destitute areas of the world that need that assistance...and boy, is Johnson in particular ever right about the Dems needing to have a plan to run on in the year that is coming up; if you just say “orange man bad” and then think things will be status quo, those people who you thought were going to be in your “blue wave” are just going to stay home on election day...



...and Tennessee Brando believes that MAGA truly thinks you’re this stupid (and I agree, about MAGA being stoo-pid that is), with “Human Capital Sock” Kevin Hassett, who definitely cherry picks data where he feels it’s con-vee-nient...he’s actually correct about 4.3% GDP growth as near as I can tell, but that “Biden increased mortgages by 14K” or whatever that mess was is definitely debatable, perhaps due to rising interest rates and home prices (which on balance is good)...Biden also signed a first-time home buyers credit of about $15K as noted here, which of course Hassett doesn’t want to mention (more context on how Cantaloupe Capons has screwed the metaphorical economic pooch is here and here)...the “golden age of the grift” indeed...mildly NSFW/H...



...and RIP Brigitte Bardot...not sure I should even try to do justice to her pictures with my feeble words (and kudos to her for supporting animal rights...she took the worldwide fame she garnered with her beauty and did something constructive with it...towards the end of her life, though, her politics took a lamentable rightward turn, though you can compare that a bit to people in this country also, including Frank Sinatra and Charlton Heston, along with The Sainted Ronnie R of course)...



...and since we’re in year-end mode a bit, I think it’s called for to remember some folks we lost over the year, and way up on that list for yours truly is Bill Moyers (who also departed at 91 along with Bardot)...this “Democracy Now” clip presents Moyers talking about a connection between corporate media and corporate power, and not in a good way, and infiltrating government also (“consensual seduction” is probably about right)...I’d actually forgotten about LBJ’s connection to public TV, and I’m glad Moyers reminds us of that here (re: the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967)...Moyers is right about funding PBS and NPR independently of the federal government (perhaps through a trust fund as he mentions), but good luck with that particularly in this day and age...



...and in the time we have left this year, I’d also like to recall some notable departures in music, starting with Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys...



...along with Ozzy Osbourne...



...and Tom Lehrer.

Friday Stuff

David Pakman lets us know that Jessica Tarlov once again brought the reality perspective on the economy to her Fix Noise cohorts...as Pakman says, we need about 100K jobs a month to break even, and that isn’t even close to happening (number is closer to 17K a month), with 700K people in this country out of work, including a youth unemployment rate of 10 percent...I thought this was a pretty solid analysis by Pakman of what’s going on, and not necessarily just because it’s all bad news for the Tangerine Toddler...



...and sticking with money matters and The Roger Ailes BS Factory, I give you Stuart (“The Weakness Is Attractive”) Varney on Fix Noise Business (regarding job creation and consumer sentiment on our wretched economy)...yet another reason to pretty much ignore the stock market if you’re trying to find out what’s really going on with the financial well-being of this country overall...



...and when it comes to financial obligations, Robert Reich explains here that the one percent in particular have a vested interest in keeping our debt high because they make money off interest payments against the debt, as opposed to, y’know, JUST PAYING THEIR DAMN TAXES LIKE THEY’RE SUPPOSED TO...



...and Jesse Dollemore talks about judicial nominees from Our Treasonous Orange Pustule refusing to say that the Capitol was attacked on 1/6/21...and no, they’re not being asked about pending litigation, as Sen. Richard Blumenthal notes, and they’re not even being asked to characterize what happened as an insurrection, which it plainly was...no, these judicial sycophants and lackeys are being asked to acknowledge fundamental reality as to what happened...I wouldn’t trust anyone from this regime of liars and frauds anyway, and especially this bunch (considered for lifetime judicial appointments, as Jesse notes)...Jesse is spot-on to say that NO DEMOCRAT should support ANYONE nominated from our ruling cabal FOR ANY GODDAMN REASON!...as Jesse notes, the Capitol switchboard number (for calling your senator and telling them to vote NO on these three clowns) is 202-224-3121...



...and turning to foreign affairs, Farron Cousins gives us the real reason the Gropenfuhrer wants to invade Venezuela...mainly, because that country is sitting on about $2 trillion in minerals (Our Treasonous Orange Yam is carrying on about Greenland for the same reason...more on that shortly)...and oh yeah, let’s not forget the oil also (sorry to inflict this so soon after the holiday, but it makes total sense unfortunately...link here)...



...and this DW report lets us know that Denmark recently summoned the U.S. ambassador and told this Trumper to respect Greenland’s sovereignty, in light of #47’s appointment of Louisiana guv Jeff Landry’s as a “special envoy” to Greenland for some reason (not hard to guess that it’s all about making off with the minerals, amirite?) – curious to find out if Landry has any actual qualification for such a post, though I suspect he’s in the role because he’s a sycophant for Combover Caligula and that’s about it...and the U.S. is listed as a national security threat by Denmark for the first time (are you tired of all the winning yet?)...



...and RIP Jerry Kasenetz, who co-wrote a bunch of "bubblegum" tunes in the '60s with Jeff Katz; this was their hit from that era...



...and with this tune, I ring down the curtain on the seasonal selections for another year – hope your holiday celebrations are all you ask for.

Merry Christmas 2025

I haven’t seen any updates from The Lincoln Project to this timeless clip from 2021, but if they do that, they’ll no doubt include footage from this year’s great “No Kings” protests – for now, though, this will more than suffice...



...and once more, I give you the holiday light show that I first included here on 12/23/10...



...and this report lets us know about the Salvation Army Christmas Distribution Day in Syracuse, NY...



...and we learn in this clip that 300 military families in Hampton Roads, VA are getting help for the holiday season, not just with toys but with meals (as others have said besides me, poverty in this country is a policy choice, which is inexcusable, and especially for the men and women who serve our country)...



...and all the best of the season from me, Nat and the gang.









Update: Truth!

Wednesday Stuff

Ali Velshi lets us know here that 67% of those polled are unhappy with Don The Con’s mismanagement of the economy (I’m a bit surprised that number isn’t higher, but about 30% of this country is just stone nuts as far as yours truly is concerned)...I also honestly think that Our Treasonous Orange Meat Sack boarded the crazy train long ago and basically checked out from reality; Velshi commendably points that out here with data...the poverty line number tells a lot of the story as far as yours truly is concerned (between about $130 and $150K for a family of 4 sounds about right)...the one trend in common with all of these graphs is how fast the reflected costs have skyrocketed over the past 40-50 years...

...and Tennessee Brando discusses James Talarico in Texas doing a good job once again of pointing out the hypocrisy of how “MAGA Mike” Johnson and other wingnuts in Talarico’s state (and across the nation, really) view Christianity (to me, this is one of those issues where, if you understand the problem, you don’t need much of an explanation, but if you don’t understand it, no explanation really is possible)...and I’m glad to hear Brando mention drag shows – God almighty, just leave the damn gays and trannies alone people, OK? They’re not hurting you (sorry if I’m “preaching to the choir” on this)...very mildly NSFW/H...



...and I know I alluded to that Senate hearing with Trumpian FCC Chair Brendan Carr earlier, and here is more on that from David Shuster of Rebel HQ; Dem Senator Ben Ray Lujan tried to get Carr and the other Trumpers in that hearing to agree that the FCC was an independent agency created by Congress, but of course Carr and company wouldn’t go for that, and they changed the language on the FCC’s website that stated that the agency was independent, but that language is gone now (bending the knee to Dear Leader yet again)...I don’t know why exactly Dem Amy Klobuchar is asking Carr about the Gropenfuhrer’s particularly demented tweet after the murder of Rob and Michele Reiner; I mean, yeah, FCC oversight includes social media, I get it, but does she really think Carr is going to throw his boss under the bus?...and I know I also included the clip earlier about ICE in Minnesota shooting pepper spray when their vehicle is pelted with snowballs...



...and ho, ho, ho – it looks like a certain white bearded individual with a red suit is looking to “get his freak on” before he does the whole thing with the sleigh and reindeer and dropping off gifts for the kids and everyone else 😉...



...and we only have a handful of seasonal selections left, but I think these deserve to be included also.

Tuesday Stuff (update)

Belle of the Ranch tells us about more smoke and mirrors from the Tangerine Toddler on the economy...looks like Kevin (“Human Capital Stock”) Hassett is trying to stick Congress now with this $1776 check business, which (as we likely know) was based on funding already approved for vet housing by our federal legislature (here)...oh, but Tim Burchett thinks we should be allowed to take a tax deduction for those stinking tariffs (which likely wouldn’t be much), and when Rojo The Clown actually makes sense on the numbers, you KNOW we’re “through the looking glass”...and one of the reasons why I don’t think we’ll see a “tariff rebate” is the very reason she states here; namely, because it would be a stimulus, which would be a de facto acknowledgment that our economy is screwed...



...and Brittany Page, sitting in for Jesse Dollemore, reacts to CBS “News” under Bari Weiss deciding to pull the CECOT report from “60 Minutes”... pretty damn plain that this is the new CBS ownership putting its thumb on the scale to make sure the Gropenfuhrer doesn’t look any worse than he does already (here)...Weiss is doing exactly what David Ellison put her in place to do, and that is to trash anything whatsoever that could possibly cast Cheetoh Hitler in a negative light (oh, and isn’t it just too precious that Weiss told the people involved with the CECOT report to call Pee Wee German for approval?)...



Update: Click here if you want to view the CECOT segment.

...and Farron Cousins brings us the story of Larry Bushart, a retired cop in Perry County, TN who was jailed for 37 days over a meme pertaining to the murder of Charlie Kirk – that in and of itself is ridiculous, but the $2 million bond is the cherry on the icing of this sh*t sundae...to be fair, if law enforcement told me to take down a post or not share a meme, I would have been PO’ed but I would have complied, and Bushart didn’t do that (here)...I'm glad Bushart sued, though, because I definitely think he has a case...



...well, despite it all, it isn’t too late to get into the holiday spirit, and hopefully this will help that along...



...and just to make sure, here are more seasonal selections as we wind our way down the list.

Monday Stuff

Katy Tur of MS NOW lets us know that we now have the “Trump/Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts,” huh? Along with a $1 coin and a “Trump pass” to our national parks? Gee, I wonder how THAT will help Americans afford the price of food, utilities and durable goods (interview with Susan Glasser and David French...don’t know a lot about Glasser, but French is basically a “Never Trumper” brand of wingnut, though he’s right about our ruling cabal wanting to glorify Dear Leader and troll those who oppose him, and Glaser is right of course about Cantaloupe Capone trying to stick his ugly mug into every damn area of our lives)...



...and Belle of the Ranch tells us that some big names are doubting Trump’s inflation numbers, and I do also of course...#47 says the consumer price index is 2.7%, but those who know what they’re talking about say it’s closer to 3.1%...Michael Hanson at J.P. Morgan believes that the numbers from the BLS will be reversed in the coming months, and not in a good way...the shutdown played into the inability of the BLS to forecast properly, to be fair...the economist at KPMG thinks the data is off also, as well as the econ guy at Barclays...



...and this CTV report informs us of Canadians held in ICE custody, about 200 this year, which is definitely an increase over last year...question for discussion is “is it safe to travel to the U.S.,” and as far as I’m concerned, it’s beyond pathetic that that question even needs to be asked, but sadly, it does (interview with Sharry Aiken of Queen’s University)...previously, Canadians would mainly just be sent back home, but now they’re being detained in greater numbers...to be fair, apparently we’ve detained foreign individuals at a greater rate versus other countries for a little while now, but as Aiken says, we’re seeing way higher numbers than before...I hate saying this, but I cannot possibly imagine why anyone would subject themselves to traveling to this country for the time being...



...OK, now that I’ve bummed everybody out with these clips, how about if I bring back a little Christmas cheer, courtesy of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (and Nick Offerman – nice to see Our Treasonous Orange Maniac get the holiday treatment he deserves)...



...and I've got a few more seasonal selections to go as we get ready for the big day.

Saturday Stuff

Robert Reich gives us a warning about the AI bubble potentially bursting, similar to other wild speculation in the past (the dot.com bubble in the ‘90s, the housing bubble in ’08, to say nothing of the Great Depression), and this time around, it definitely isn’t a guarantee that taxpayers will be left to clean up the mess, nor should we, I wish to emphasize...didn’t know affected companies were doing trillions of dollars in deals with each other, but sadly, that fits the awful pattern also...I mean, it wouldn’t be so potentially bad if the rest of our economy were doing well, but that definitely isn’t the case (AI accounting for 92% of GDP growth? Ugh)...we also learn that 37 states have granted tax exemptions for building those wretched AI data centers, which poses a whole other nightmare as far as the environment is concerned...



...and speaking of those damn data centers, I’m going to revisit TYT with Cenk and Ana even though I said I wouldn’t because they’re covering this important story also...we learn that there currently is a conflict with Virginia farmers in conflict with AI as they try to eke out a livelihood as our economy utterly tanks (and leave it to this Dagen McDowell person on Fix Noise to tell these farmers to SHUTUP SHUTUP SHUTUP SHUTUP AND GET WITH THE PROGRAM!!!...and once more, Bernie Sanders is on the correct side of an issue as he is here)...didn’t know data centers could consume 10% of power usage in the whole damn country...not sure exactly why they turned to Billo The Clown and his ridiculous “war on Christmas” stuff (yeah, corporations are distracting us through their media lickspittles to get us to fight each other), but I think this would have been a better segment if they’d done a little more research on exactly how these damn data centers are destroying communities...



...and shifting gears a bit, we learned recently that wingnut eminence grise Norman Podhoretz recently shed his mortal coil and now resides somewhere in the afterlife (here)...I guess I’m supposed to think of something good to say, but I really can’t...as you watch the clip of this warmongering old fart in ’07 calling for bombing Iran (awfully generous with the blood of other people’s kids), keep in mind that, years later, President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry negotiated a nuke treaty with that country (here)...as others would say about Podhoretz, rest in piss...



...and Jimmy Kimmel discusses the recent “liar side chat” with the Tangerine Toddler...we find out that Jack Smith presented his findings on Cantaloupe Capone trying to influence the 2020 election results behind a closed-door committee chaired by Gym Jordan, so OF COURSE everything was above-board (#joke)...and oh yeah, those ridiculous White House wall plaques are indeed like “Dickipedia” (and gee, wouldn’t it be nice to know how much THOSE cost)...and oh yeah, apparently because they can’t think of any other pressing business, the Repug-run U.S. Senate had a hearing with FCC chair Brendan Carr where Ted “Podcast!” Cruz could make a fool of himself yet again (well OK, I guess the hearing mattered to some degree...and good job poking fun at that “Melania” idiocy)...and nice work also by Mark Hamill to have a little fun with his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (not sure if I’ll catch the Spongebob Squarepants movie or not, to be honest)...



...and in case anybody was wondering if I was running out of seasonal stuff...well, don't worry - still a few items left :-).

Friday Stuff

Farron Cousins lets us know that economists are warning that we’re on the brink of a recession, and depending on what we know about the data (which likely is being rigged by our ruling cabal of sycophants and bottom feeders), we may in fact be in one already (and Justin Wolfers is definitely an economist I trust on this stuff)...and as far as this BS about no prices going up is concerned, let me ask you why a pound of bacon that use to cost $6 has risen by 50 percent, along with the fact that a bag of Dunkin’ Donuts ground roast coffee is now $14.99 when it used to cost about $7 (both prices at our local Giant supermarket...and once more, Ground News definitely is worth it)...

...and I guess, instead of an old man yelling at clouds, we were treated to a typically unhinged rant from Combover Caligula on Wednesday night about his supposedly wonderful economy...Jen Psaki brings the reality perspective (with Vaughn Hillyard and Catherine Rampell, who in particular really “brings the receipts”)...and oh yeah, that $1776 number supposedly appropriated by our failed steak and vodka salesman represents funds already appropriated by Congress (here), and economists believe those wretched tariffs have cost families about $1700 per year as noted...Hillyard mentions those typically ridiculous plaques at the White House for prior presidents designed to make Democrats look bad and Repugs look good, of course (once more, because there are no actual adults in this administration, except maybe for this Susie Wiles person, who I’m sure will have a book published soon)...I wondered why the hell Pumpkin Pol Pot decided to do this nonsense NOW, with Christmas around the corner (that awful speech I mean), and when Hillyard mentioned the season finale of “Survivor,” it suddenly makes sense that Cheetoh Hitler believed he would get the lion’s share of that audience, though I’m sure he didn’t...and I personally don’t think this SCOTUS will go against #47 on his tariff madness, but if they do (as someone else noted), companies are going to line up to try and recoup those costs, which will drive our economy further into recession – love to be wrong...



...and Trevor Hayes of More Perfect Union discusses the criminals who bought Cantaloupe Capone, including the three behind Bitcoin, the founder of the “dark web” (Ross Ulbricht) which trafficked in all manner of narcotics and illegal products and services, the guy behind Binance (Changpeng Zhao) who was sent to prison for money laundering and fined millions, and others (report by journalist Jacob Silverman)...report revisits $131 million in crypto used by the Gropenfuhrer for the ’24 presidential election (once more, love and kisses to the High Court of Hangin’ Judge JR for Citizens United), as well as the $40 million dumped into Bernie Moreno’s U.S. Senate campaign against Sherrod Brown...oh, and it looks like Don The Con is trying to clean up with this World Liberty Financial outfit, with Steve Witkoff’s help (Emoluments clause? What emoluments clause?); if the voters in this country ever decide to hand federal congressional power to Democrats, this in particular should be investigated non-stop...it looks like Binance created some kind of a crypto-currency (a “stablecoin”) used by this WLF outfit; and oh yeah, this Saudi prince sends $2 billion to WLF to be basically laundered and sent to Binance, getting $2 bil in USD stablecoins in return – ultimately, the Emirati government gets a $2 bil share in Binance, leading to an SEC case against Binance getting dropped and those stinking NVIDIA chips going to the UAE...and oh yeah, let’s not forget Justin Sun, this Tron blockchain guy whose product is used for money laundering; Sun spent $75 mil on a WLF token and his multibillion-dollar fraud case gets thrown out by Trump’s SEC...also, there’s this ultra-shadowy group called Aqua1 Financial in China that figures into this...and just remember that some of this WLF currency went to Chinese crime gangs and the Sinaloa cartel...if your head is spinning a bit after watching this, don’t worry, because mine was too...



...well, at least we have Mr. Newberger to give our clueless, flatulent meat sack the treatment he deserves...



...and here are more seasonal tunes (and RIP Raul Malo of The Mavericks).

Thursday Stuff

David Shuster of Rebel HQ tells us about ICE agents in Minneapolis getting taunted by protestors, some of whom threw snowballs at vehicles driven by these thugs...of course, these glorified, Paul Blart rent-a-cops with weapons respond by shooting pepper spray...oh, and they also ran into a protestor with their SUV, knocked this person down and had a good laugh...if you want to see alleged tough guys who are about as tough and rugged as a box of waffles, look no further...that bulbous, flatulent orange meat sack is actually right about this country being at a “tipping point,” but definitely not in the way he pretends to imagine (and my God, the f*cking accordion hands again!!...)...



...and Ali Velshi (sitting in for Lawrence O’Donnell) reminds us that Don The Con has no plan for you if you’re facing economic hardship...sounds like nearly half of this country is sinking, trying to afford the basics and dealing with an economy that is going straight to hell in the proverbial handbasket...oh, and it looks like Repug U.S. House Rep Rob Bresnahan from our beloved commonwealth has been feathering his own filthy nest with stock trades while stating publicly that he wants to ban stock activity (sounds like Bresnahan is a case study for why people get disgusted with politicians – here)...and oh yeah, it looks like PA’s Bresnahan, Ryan Mackenzie and Bri-Fi (along with Mike Lawler of New York) are siding with the Dems on a discharge petition in the House to reinstate the ACA credits as noted here, not because these three have any principles, but because they know how badly their party f*cked up in letting the credits expire in the Big, Obnoxious Garbage Bill that the Tangerine Toddler signed into law (and about the vote on the discharge petition, why am I not surprised by this?)...



...meanwhile, we get a dose of reality from Dem U.S. Congressman Jim McGovern on what the lapsing of ACA credits truly means...



...and Stephen Colbert reminds us that it’s not the holidays without Melania Trump (well, maybe in hell I suppose - here)...



...and if you guessed that it's time for more seaonal selections, then treat yourself to a Starbuck's Mistletoe Latte (I mean, I'm not offering to pay for it, but enjoy it anyway).

Wednesday Stuff

Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report tells us how the elites in this country pit us against each other to rob us blind...and OF COURSE, DHS tries blaming immigrants for this country’s many ills, which is straight out of the authoritarian playbook (and kudos once more to Pramila Jayapal for speaking truth to stoo-pid)...and as far as I’m concerned, if you’ve done something to get under the skin of Matt Yglesias, you’re on the right track...I don’t know much about this Peter Schiff guy, though I believe his take on the rich and our economy is utterly wrong...the Oxfam guy makes a pretty damn compelling IMO argument for a wealth tax at long freaking last...I didn’t know that 36 percent of billionaire wealth is derived from inheritance, but that does seem to fit...and oh yeah, Leon (“I Care”) Cooperman, the hedge fund manager, really is that big of a leech, fake emotionalism notwithstanding...important to note not just how these bottom feeders basically make us recoup what they don’t pay in taxes, but also how private equity buying up rental housing has put home ownership out of reach, in particular for those in their 20s and 30s looking to get started (and veterinary care too??? No bottom for these scumwaffles)...I’m glad Figueredo found a way to work in data centers, since I think they pose a huge threat to our quality of life also...didn’t know Mark Zuckerberg drove Hawaiians off their own freaking land so he could build a pleasure palace...this clip should be viewed by (among others) all of these conservative centrist boomers in bedroom communities in Bucks County (and elsewhere) in places such as Solebury, Buckingham, Perkasie, Quakertown, etc. who are conditioned to defer to the one percent in the way Figueredo describes (NSFW/H)...



...and Kyle Kulinski comments on the shooting at Brown University, with at least 2 dead and 9 injured (looks like it’s time not to politicize gun violence again...SMDH), and also the shooting on the beach at Sydney, Australia, which was a much worse mass casualty event unfortunately (and I’ll admit that one of these things is not like the other because Australia takes the mass proliferation of guns seriously)...Kyle’s video shows gunfire in real time though no one is hit in this segment (Update: Aside from the shooters I mean), just to warn you in advance...and I also don’t know how good Destiny would be at running the FBI, but his intellect is off the charts, so whatever he DID do would be pretty well grounded in reality (and I realize I haven’t done “Do-Gooders And Dregs” posts here for 10 years, for those of you keeping score at home, but if I did, Ahmad El Ahmad would be the Do-Gooder Of The Year for his bravery here)...and I couldn’t give a sh*t about anything Candace Owens or Laura Loomer have to say, or this Riley Gaines person “chasing clout” no doubt, and that rabbi blaming Palestinians for this should STFU (NSFW/H also)...



...and this New York Times clip discusses how U.S.-Somali citizens in Minnesota are protecting themselves against ICE raids; the nurse practitioner interviewed used to be proud of carrying her US passport, but now she does so to keep from getting hauled off to some black site where God knows what will happen to her...oh, and a gentleman who served in the Army National Guard for six years and also on his town’s city council is also interviewed (another American of Somali descent)...after watching this clip, I think anyone who voted for Dementia J. Trump should be made to wear a shirt with a “T” on it for the rest of their lives, forcing them to advertise what utter numbskulls they truly are (I could also think of worse punishments, but I don’t want to get flagged for bad language)...



...and I’m in the mood to try and lighten things up a bit here...this clip from The Daily Show takes a page out of “The Shop Around The Corner,” “You’ve Got Mail,” and all of those cloying info-mercial-like Hallmark programs that proliferate this time of year (the ending is absolutely spot-on IMO...mildly NSFW/H also)...



...and here are more tunes for the season.

Tuesday Stuff

Brian Tyler Cohen gives us Dear Orange Leader’s typical nonsense response to a reporter’s good question (for a change) about the fact that 24 million people will see their health insurance go through the roof without ACA subsidies...I honestly didn’t know that HSAs cannot legally be used to pay insurance premiums, but that figures when it comes to our utter joke of a health care system in this country (and here’s an admittedly nutty thought; if Dementia J. Trump allegedly doesn’t want insurance companies to be comped, then I guess that means he supports Medicare For All...???)...one of Cohen’s many great points is that ACA enrollees are largely in states that stoo-pidly voted for Combover Caligula, but anybody who thinks that #47 actually cares about helping the people who voted for him must also believe that Jesus wrote the Ten Commandments and rode a triceratops during the Stone Age; also, I think the “ACA death spiral” argument that Cohen mentions is very much a feature of this scam from Cheetoh Benito and not a bug...



...and correspondent Rosa Flores files the following report in this segment with Katy Tur of MS NOW on the Tyson plant closure in Lexington, Nebraska (3,200 jobs lost in a town of about 11K, and right in the middle of the holidays of course)...and by the way, I’m sure the chaotic trade nonsense from Our Treasonous Orange Pustule is in play here where it comes to the thinning cattle herd which affected this move, but I haven’t been able to track down any kind of a “cause and effect” from #47 – however, I’ll just operate under the same rules as the wingnuts who took Biden to task for the supposedly crippling inflation of 3 precent (at least what we have now) along with anything negative whatsoever that applies to our economy and blame Cheetoh Hitler anyway (here)...



...and Belle of the Ranch tells us how state senate Repugs in Indiana successfully pushed back on Cantaloupe Capone’s redistricting nonsense, with more Repugs voting against it than voting for it (and it looks like Don The Con’s threat to primary those who didn’t do his bidding didn’t land so well...c’est dommage...and oh yeah, maybe it’s not a good idea to launch “swatting” attacks in an effort to win hearts and minds, you orange numbskull; no wonder they told you to “kick rocks,” as Belle correctly puts it...”voters will remember who didn’t stand up to bad policy” indeed)...



...and I thought these were kind condolences from Seth Meyers over the horrific deaths of Rob and Michele Reiner...“We have to do everything we can to not make setting an example a lost art” indeed...



...and yep, you guessed it - time for more seasonal tunes.

Monday Stuff

John of The Damage Report tells us of Wonder Boy Jared Kushner’s (and Paramount’s) attempted hostile takeover of Warner Bros., with Don The Con pretending not to know anything (well, maybe he isn’t pretending)...John makes the GREAT point that the media double standard here is beyond ridiculous when compared with the Bidens (in terms of no follow up questions)...John is also incredibly right about the fact that all of this (even the Netflix offer) needs more goddamn oversight, but good luck with that when the ”party of Lincoln” is in charge, and he’s also on the money about needing some kind of a “truth and reconciliation” committee when these villainous cretins are no longer in charge (meaning the regime of Pumpkin Pol Pot)...



...also, Erielle Reshef on MS NOW informs us that the Gropenfuhrer's TSA wants to look at the social media history going back about 5 years for anyone arriving in this country (w/ Susan Page, Washington bureau chief for USA Today, and with former Hakeem Jeffries aide Michael Hardaway also)...I apologize for including a clip of that demented orange meat sack rating about Dem U.S. House Rep Ilhan Omar, but once more, I think attention must be paid on occasion to this madness...good point that the rhetoric from Our Demented Orange Toddler is driving people out of political life, which is a net negative as far as yours truly is concerned...and unfortunately, I think Spencer Cox is right (a bit) in that those people who view politics as some kind of a WWE contest need to take a look in the mirror, but I’m not hopeful that that will happen...



...and Thom Hartmann lets us know that the Senate just voted down a Dem bill to extend ACA subsidies for 3 years, along with a bill to provide $1500 to HSAs, the latter of which to me is utterly useless unless you’re already rich...oh, and the HSA increase couldn’t be used for abortions or gender affirming care because of course...I hope Thom is right about the discharge petition in the House that could extend ACA subsidies for three years, but I have no reason to be optimistic with these cretins in charge, sadly...



...and this is where I try to add a clip that is somewhat humorous, but I absolutely can’t do that today given the awful news of the horrific deaths of Rob Reiner and his wife...I’m not sure it’s possible to properly do justice to Reiner’s impact mainly as a film director, producer, and political activist – this clip barely scratches the surface on that, but I realize it was filmed when the news first broke...I’m sure more detailed commemorations will follow in the days and weeks ahead (and sympathies to family and friends of course)...



Update: Oh, OK...I guess the rule of “we must be ultra-reverential towards murdered celebrities” (which I’m basically OK with) that was more or less agreed upon after Charlie Kirk’s killing now gets sh*tcanned because Reiner was a lib...got it (here).

...and here are more seasonal numbers.

Saturday Stuff

I know I’ve mentioned this Joel Webbon character in the past, but I happened to come across this recent clip where he encourages the use of the term “faggot” (and I don’t mean a bundle of sticks, unfortunately)...I honestly try not to let this space get too crowded with wingnut prejudice, bigotry and general idiocy, but every once in awhile I think attention must be paid to these life forms (more on this guttersnipe is here)...



...and David Pakman brings us Jessica Tarlov presenting more reality for these numbskulls on “The Five”...to begin, Dana Perino asks a question that has virtually no basis in reality with all kinds of dishonest framing...”oh, Biden and inflation, Biden and inflation”; some pushback on that is here (and some truth when it comes to the Tangerine Toddler on this subject is here)...



...and Seth Meyers gives us more of a disconnect between Pumpkin Pol Pot and reality on what I guess you could call “money matters” (losing 32K jobs in November, with job losses in four of the last six months and 1.2 million since January, which is the largest number since 2020, and let me think real hard for a sec...who was president again for that??)...and oh yeah, prices have gone up by 3 percent over the year, as well as electricity, mainly because data centers are sucking up so much of it...and I’m not going to point out the utter madness of this delusional narcissist giving himself good grades on this completely wretched economy since that’s pretty much “baked in” with this guy (with the reality showing that he has only a 36 percent approval rating; actually, I’m surprised the number is even that high)...also, I would say that he needs to rethink the “I love miners” line given that he’s using his bulbous butt to sit on the Epstein files...and I guess Mr. “Human Capital Stock” Kevin Hassett wakes up in the morning, opens his eyes, climbs out of bed, stubs his toe, and blames Joe Biden, and the rest of his day from that point on is one big “blame Biden” -fest...



...and today is truly a special occasion; happy 100th birthday to the incomparable Dick Van Dyke...



...and I now present more seasonal tunes, including a number for everyone celebrating the "festival of lights" starting tomorrow.