I know I discussed the departure of Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao from the U.S. Senate a couple of days ago, but I didn’t mention the episode noted by Rachel Maddow here, namely, about how Russia first sought to undermine our influence domestically and around the world, and I think it’s safe to say that their efforts have been successful, tragically...Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao shows up at about 8:08; clip argues that we needed a “bipartisan punch back” against Russian interference in our elections, but that death eater from Kentucky said “naaah”...and oh yeah, McConnell also blocked two bipartisan election security bills in response to Russia’s threat...Maddow’s segment also mentions Putin pal Oleg Deripaska and his connection to (senior Trump advisor at the time) Paul Manafort...and oh yeah, under the heading of “quid pro quo,” we found out about a Russian company linked to Deripaska that made a, shall we say, strategic investment in Kentucky at the time the sanctions against Russia were due to be passed, leading to McConnell forcing the sanctions against Deripaska’s firm to be cancelled (and a very interesting update from ’21 is here...clip ends at about 29:39 and loops into another one)...
...and Jen Psaki speaks with MSNBC Pentagon reporter Courtney Kube about the firing of the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (Gen. Charles Q. Brown) because he’s black (I don’t feel like dancing around this subject anymore – we have a *presidential administration of racists...period, full stop), along with two other women in senior management positions at the Navy and the Coase Guard respectively as well as a general who promoted DEI, which of course is the black spot of career death as far as Trumpers are concerned (let’s see...“unit cohesion” – might be something this accursed administration should look into)...
...and speaking of our wretched SecDef (who rubber stamped the moves noted in the prior video), Farron Cousins informs us that Pete Hegseth owes $33K in back taxes...sweet! – and I definitely agree with Cousins that the whole “witch hunt” metaphor falls apart if you actually find something, which appears to have happened in this case...Cousins is also right when he says that an audit is a bit of a multi-layered process and it doesn’t just turn out without warning that you owe a ton of dough to the taxman (and yeah, it’s not like Hegseth doesn’t have the scratch to pay it either...yeah, just be a WATB instead, huh?)...
...and concerning Hegseth’s boss, Jonathan Pie gives Bronzer Beelzebub the shellacking he deserves over #47’s utter betrayal of Ukraine...and of course, our utterly gutless PA-01 U.S. House Rep Bri-Fi found a way to criticize Our Ochre Abomination without mentioning his name (clip is incredibly NSFW/H but appropriate IMO...we think politics is “rough and tumble” on our shores; we’ve got nothing on the Brits when it comes to that stuff, folks)...
...and this video from The Lincoln Project lets us know that Republican senators in “the world’s greatest deliberative body” (spare me) continue to follow the example of their utterly awful former “leader” from Kentucky in completely ignoring the health care needs of families and kids in their confirmation of “brain worms” RFK Jr. to head the Department of Health and Human Services...of course, if we had an opposition party in this country that, collectively, could find its own metaphorical butt with multiple sets of hands, THEY would have created an ad like this when it might have mattered (and yes, the odds were long against preventing confirmation, I know)...
...and RIP Jerry ("Iceman") Butler...the following hit from Butler was recorded at Philly's Sigma Sound Studios.
