Friday Stuff

Jesse Dollemore tells us that a humongous weapons cache, including machine guns and grenade launchers, allegedly belonging to a neo-Nazi in Washington state was just uncovered and seized by authorities (bringing this video on the 81st anniversary of D-Day, of course); apparently this was tied to an attack at a nearby Army base (and I agree with Jesse on guns 100 percent; it would be incredibly disturbing to publish pictures of those who were shot with an AR-15 with those enormous rounds, but if we did that, I guarantee you that that would be the end of the discussion about not allowing military-grade assault rifles for civilians, meaning those weapons of death would be banned)...as a side note, it looks like “I’ll drink to that” Hegseth ALSO wants to rename the U.S.S. Harvey Milk (in addition to renaming the ships named after Thurgood Marshall and Medgar Evers) because we have to make sure to “hate teh gay” as long as we’re also being racist...I should also point out that normally I wouldn’t call out someone who has a problem with alcohol since that’s an easy trap for anyone to fall into, and maybe this is a shortcoming on my part, but I’m just about done with extending normal rules of civility to anyone in our ruling regime...



...and I have to admit more than a little disgust with our fourth-estate feeding frenzy over the Trump-Musk rift; I think our corporate media cousins should instead take a page from Kyle Kulinski here, who tells us about Lawrence O’Donnell commendably getting a little choked up over King Elon I basically killing a 5-year-old orphan (and just as a reminder, PEPFAR was passed under Dubya’s term in office; at first, I actually opposed PEPFAR because I wanted this country to work through the UN instead of “going it alone,” but I came to realize that the program ended up doing a lot of good)...and I don’t want to imagine the deal with the devil “Little Marco” Rubio made, but he’ll now never get rid of his Trump stench either...Rubio should join those other two in the slam (and some of this repeats a bit from yesterday’s clip with Kyle I know, but it’s important and SHOULD be repeated IMO)...



...and I’m not exactly sure of the date of this Rebel HQ clip with John Iadarola, but I believe it has to do with the markup of a “Dismantle DEI” bill, and of course Repug U.S. House Rep Clay Higgins goes “WAAAH! I’M A VETERAN AND YOU’RE TRYING TO DENY MY SPEECH!” (umm...no one is trying to do that)...fortunately, Ayanna Pressley and Jasmine Crockett effectively pushed back against Higgins, and Jared Moskowitz offered some important clarification also...

...and Farron Cousins lets us know that Dems recently scored a win in a state house contest in South Carolina, with Keishan Scott beating Repug Bill Odin...and yes, I realize this was a blue seat that Scott was likely to win anyway, but I believe the story here is the 40-point margin of victory, which is more than double the percentage by which Kamala Harris won that district last year; as Cousins notes, when you add that to the series of recent Dem electoral wins, that should give our side some momentum to build upon for this year and the next...



...and this breaking story from the Onion News Network, America’s Finest News Source, brings us the human tragedy of the return of J.D. Vance’s “inner hillbilly”...oh, the humanity...just when you were no doubt wondering what the almost-forgotten veep was up to, along comes this setback...yep, who among us is immune from falling prey to this deadly affliction requiring, at a minimum, a “banjo-ectomy” (heh)...



Update 6/7/25: Once more from America's Finest News Source (here).

...and it’s been a little while since I rocked out around here, so how about if I make amends with this newer tune?

Thursday Stuff

Rachel Maddow brings us the tale of Apartheid Clyde’s attempt to utterly destroy the U.S. Institute of Peace...Elmo forced out the staff of the organization, then was told he couldn’t do that (org was created by Congress, not the executive branch...Musk/Trump couldn’t take either the building or the org’s endowment), and then the staff returned to find their building infested with water damage, rats and roaches, and oh yeah, a hell of a lot of cannabis too (oddly apropos IMO, though it’s crappy of course that the USIP employees, who did NOT ONE DAMN THING WRONG, had to deal with that...and BTW, I heard the person who clocked Musk was Scott Bessent...hard to root for a winner in that episode)...



Update 6/7/25: Told ya' (here).

...and Jesse Dollemore informs us that the new head of FEMA, David Richardson, apparently didn’t know that hurricane season in the Atlantic was an actual thing...oh, but not to worry, because Richardson will “run right over you” if you do anything contrary to the intent of Our Ochre Abomination...slightly NSFW/H...



...and in a related vein, Kyle Kulinski gives us a clip of Florida climatologist John Morales basically giving us a warning that hurricane forecasting isn’t going to be worth much because of NOAA destruction from King Elon I...and Kyle is 150 percent correct that Musk needs to go to the gray bar hotel for all of his illegal DOGE wreckage (his boss should have been there already of course...and oh yeah, the hurricane season that FEMA head David Richardson didn’t know about is about to hit...NSFW/H also)...



...and concerning the “Big Beautiful Act” (and yes, once more, it is literally called that), Robert Reich blows up more lies about work requirements in Medicaid; the “party of Lincoln” on Capitol Hill wants to make such a requirement a federal condition, if you will, when it already is ruinous on the state level and actually works against people trying to find employment, as Reich explains (in the end, though, it’s all a scam anyway to kick people who need it off Medicaid to pay for more stinking tax cuts)...



...and since we have to take humor where we can get it IMO, “The Daily Show” tells us about “White Flight” racial support pilots, along with firefighters, boat captains and surgeons (laughing through clenched teeth I guess, somewhat)...



...and I'm just trying to keep up a halfway decent seasonal frame of mind with this tune.

Wednesday Stuff

Sam and Emma of The Majority Report discuss people in a San Diego neighborhood who are fed up with getting terrorized by ICE goons, looking to give these jackbooted thugs the treatment they deserve, including getting in their faces...it didn’t occur to me at first about how the post-9/11 environment put us on a glide path to an authoritarian fascist takeover, but yeah, I think that makes sense unfortunately...normally I wouldn’t advocate shaming law enforcement, but for something like this, yeah, I’m down with it...a related item is here (slightly NSFW/H)...



Update: More here.

...and Belle gives us more on “Russia’s Pearl Harbor,” with well-orchestrated drone attacks taking out Russia’s bombers...and apparently, Zelenskyy very wisely didn’t tell Our Treasonous Orange Pustule that it was coming...lots of “fog of war” stuff going on here, but it looks like this was a wide-ranging and significant attack, and yes, the fallout from this may likely have a strategic impact affecting every country, though don’t expect the U.S., with its gaggle of clueless sycophants in charge, to know exactly how to respond (love to be wrong)...



...and Farron Cousins tells us that Wired reported that TV producers are sucking up to Cantaloupe Capone by coming up with more wingnut TV shows...one day, the book on this whole sorry era will be written, so to speak, and it will duly note those who utterly caved to Bronzer Beelzebub, as well as those who resisted #47 and his same-party playmates...Cousins is absolutely right of course about people having more diverse choices for whatever content they choose to view, which goes WAAY beyond the traditional channels which I guess you would call “basic cable” at this point, beyond to subscription or streaming services, as well as YouTube and social media (hopefully some people are using that time to read my dumb little musings too...I can dream, can’t I?)...



...and Yasmin Khan and Jayar Jackson discuss the recent violence against those protesting to free Israelis held hostage by Hamas from the 10/7 attacks (8 were injured in Boulder, CO)...no excuse for violence against anyone peacefully protesting no matter what the cause...sooo, it appears the “perp” here got a temporary visa that expired a few months ago, so of course here comes Baby Goebbels to blame Biden somehow (leave it to a wingnut to take an exceptional case like this and try and turn it into a rule)...Jayar is right about “home grown,” if you will, violence being more frequent than attacks such as this, bad as this attack is...



...and speaking of pointless violence, Kyle Kulinski tells us about an LGBTQ woman beaten for using a bathroom...anyone convicted of a crime like that should face 20 years in prison...and OF COOURRSE Texas is trying to pass a bill making it a crime to identify as transgender, punishable by jail time...I wish I could agree with the sentiment that the moral arc of history is long, but it bends towards justice, but if these dark days have proven anything IMO, it is that that noble sentiment doesn’t apply any more, tragically (I mean, I’m not giving up, I hasten to add, but I’m only saying that a just society isn’t inevitable unless we fight for it, as Kyle says – NSFW/H also)...



...and the weather in these parts is just too nice to not include something upbeat for the season, so here it is.

Tuesday Stuff

This clip of Sam Black with More Perfect Union tells us how King Elon I is poisoning Memphis, TN, where, for some reason, Apartheid Clyde decided to build the world’s largest supercomputer, and OF COURSE he managed to do this by skirting environmental permits...KeShaun Pearson of the group Memphis Community Against Pollution is interviewed, along with Patrick Anderson of the Southern Environmental Law Center and Joseph Goffman, formerly of the EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation (looks like mobile gas turbines are wreaking havoc with the environment – figures for a judgment-impaired ketamine addict like Musk...and oh yeah, it also appears that there are more cases of COPD also; just add this to Elon’s body count along with those in the third world who are dying from Musk abolishing US AID)...and shocker I know to find out that Musk was lying about how many gas turbines were actually working at the Memphis plant...and oh yeah, Lee Zeldin is just another toady from a regime of liars and sycophants, but we knew that of course...



...and Leeja Miller asks if America’s food system Is safe under Trump? Yep, if you have to ask the question, I think you know the answer, and this is yet another story that ties back to HHS Secretary “Bobby Brainworms”...also, Elmo and his merry bank of fellow idiot DOGE incels have slashed the food safety budget – really, it’s a matter of “pick your poison” anymore, whether it’s our airspace which has become more unsafe, our environment which has become more polluted, our air and water that has become more toxic, our food that has become more dangerous to consume, and on and on...for example, did you know we had an e coli outbreak last year that sickened 90 people across 15 states, including a young boy who went into kidney failure? And of course, there are more lies from our regime of frauds about food safety inspectors who were in fact forced out of their jobs, despite the BS from Our Ochre Abomination...and of course, leave it to this Brooke Rollins character to do the bidding of Pumpkin Pol Pot, turning over a pittance of funding to the states to supposedly pick up the slack for ensuring food safety...and I think Miller also takes a pretty clear-eyed look at the “wellness” industry here; yes, some of the intentions are good I know, but when they’re priced beyond the reach of most folks, what good are they?...Miller is also spot-on about washing fruits and vegetables to prevent food borne illness, especially lettuce (NSFW/H)...



...and David Pakman tells us that Repugs in Congress have introduced a bill to strip all federal funding from any U.S. medical school that acknowledges systemic racism or DEI in any way (HR 3518)...yes, they are indeed trying to legislate ideological conformity in the medical field...this garbage, among many other negative consequences, is going to speed up the “brain drain” of those who formerly came to this country to study, but now will look elsewhere instead because of this utter madness...it will likely take decades to undo the insanity of this ruinous reign of #47 and his playmates...movement conservatism as a whole is about redefining reality as they see it, and this is just another front on that ongoing battle...



...and Jesse Dollemore tells us about our “stable genius” *preznit reposting stuff on Truth Septic about Biden supposedly being dead and replaced by a clone/robot (and yeah, I think “feckless dipsh*t” says it, though I’m not sure that it applies only to the person who originally concocted this drivel...slightly NSFW/H)...



(And by the way, speaking of #46, I just want to comment on this...no, there isn’t some crisis in the Democratic Party about the way the issue of Biden’s age was handled, and I have to admit that I’m getting pretty sick of hearing about it. Yes, he should have stepped down earlier, but BIDEN IS NOW A PRIVATE CITIZEN! Do you want to know who does care about this? Repugs and a bunch of independents, who likely hated everything Biden did anyway. That being said, if you want to argue that the Dems are slow in working in “new blood,” particularly AOC, then I’ll have to grant you that point, sadly.)

...and Glenn Kirschner of “Justice Matters” discusses Trump’s pardon of tax cheat Paul Walczak, a nursing home executive who stole millions in employee payroll taxes, after Trump got a $1 million donation from Walczak’s mom; there’s plenty of other putrid stuff related to #47’s pardons (more here), but we can focus on this one for now...Kirschner emphasizes the dough that Walczak stole from the feds, which means you, me, and everyone in this country who pays taxes...I’m old enough to remember the wingnuts absolutely losing what’s left of their minds when Bill Clinton pardoned Marc Rich when Clinton was on his way out the door...somehow I don’t think we’ll hear a fraction of the outrage over Walczak, though we should, as well as the other hooligans Our Ochre Abomination pardoned...one of Kirschner’s great points is that the pardon means that Walczak doesn’t have to repay what he admitted that he stole in Social Security dough...



...and with all of this madness going on, I personally am having a harder time with abiding by the sentiment of this newer tune, though I do know that we need to locate our own little oasis of calm amidst this hellscape wherever we can find it.

Monday Stuff

Brian Tyler Cohen gives us the latest on Iowa Repug Senator Joni (“We All Are Going To Die”) Ernst after that episode of talking down to her constituents at a town hall; it looks like, now, she filmed some TikTok clip or something with her apparently at a cemetery, mentioning “the tooth fairy” and telling people to embrace Our Lord...God almighty, what planet does this woman live on?? (here). And I continue to be impressed by James Talarico every time I see him speak (NSFW/H)...



Update: Cause, meet effect (here).

...and David Shuster of Rebel HQ informs us that the markets win when Mango Mussolini loses, in this case with the federal court ruling Trump’s tariffs are “contrary to law”...so OF COURSE Cantaloupe Capone goes running to the SCOTUS to get what he wants...and oh yeah, Our Treasonous Orange Pustule is costing American tourism at least $12 billion, and I have a feeling that’s a low-ball estimate...



...oh, and speaking of Cantaloupe Capone and the courts, it looks like there’s a bit of a wingnut “food fight” going on with Bronzer Beelzebub and Leonard Leo (here)...hard to root for a winner in that contest; I’d love to see each of them take the other down somehow...



...and I realize there are so many ways the utterly ruinous reign of this *preznit is making us less safe and our lives more dangerous and it’s really difficult to cover them all (which is completely by design for this bunch), but on the public health front, it looks like “Bobby Brainworms” is playing the role you would expect in undermining public health, citing made-up “sources” in some “MAHA” report (ugh), as Brittany Page explains here (one of her great points is the fact that Jr.’s garbage about not covering the COVID vaccine for some groups, after Jr. lied in his confirmation hearing about that of course, now creates an opening for insurance company bastards to weasel their way out of covering certain groups for the vax...oh, and Jr. is going to stop publishing in the New England Journal of Medicine and The Lancet because “they’re all corrupt”? And where exactly did Jr. get HIS medical degree again? And as you might expect, Jr. is coming after mifepristone...hope everyone who wanted Pumpkin Pol Pot to win last year is happy about this)...



...and RIP Loretta Swit, who of course played Maj. Margaret Houlihan on the M.A.S.H TV show...she basically took a character used for gags from Robert Altman’s great movie and gave her a hell of a lot of humanity; I honestly didn’t know she won two Emmys for playing Margaret, but I’m not surprised...



...and happy 85th birthday to drummer Earl Young of the Trammps; their big hit of course was “Disco Inferno,” but Young also played on some timeless Philly International recordings, including this one.