Friday Stuff

Chris Hayes talks about all of the push back against MAGA overreach, including the indictment of “blow ‘em up” John Bolton (sounds to me as if this is yet another prosecution likely to get sh*tcanned legally, but we’ll see of course)...good that at least three top universities, including Penn, are telling Mango Mussolini what he can do with his proposed deal to keep these places of learning “more MAGA”...also good to hear about airports rejecting the call from Kristi (“Unsafe At Any Speed”) Noem to play that ridiculous video blaming Dems for the shutdown...Hayes also discusses the push back by Pentagon reporters on that also-ridiculous proclamation from “I’ll Drink To That” Hegseth that all reporting must be cleared by the Defense Department (of course, OAN was the only “news” organization to agree to Hegseth’s edict)...on top of that, grand juries (which, according to the famous quote, could indict a ham sandwich) are saying no to the legal nonsense from Our Ruling Regime...Hayes speaks with Ezra Levin of Indivisible and George Conway (for some reason, meaning Conway)...”courage is contagious” indeed...



...and Brian Tyler Cohen speaks with Marc Elias on Don The Con targeting tomorrow’s No Kings protests, (maybe) trying to invoke the Insurrection Act from 1807...once more, click here to read about the Posse Comitatus Act...I realize we’re “through the looking glass” here and even someone as versed in the law as Elias can’t say for certain what Our Treasonous Orange Pustule is likely to do, but I definitely think it matters anyway to look objectively at this...definitely concerned about wingnuts trying to instigate something, which is why we need to be particularly mindful of watching ourselves so that nothing goes wrong (and I definitely agree that our legacy media would rush to judgment in that event and yell, “See? Both sides! We told you!”)...



...and Leeja Miller talks about The High Court of Hangin’ Judge JR hearing a second round of oral arguments last Wednesday in the case of Louisiana v. Callais, which represents another attack on what’s left of the Voting Rights Act of 1965…and yep, this case has to do with a gerrymandered congressional district in Louisiana (one majority African American district of six, even though 1/3rd of the state’s population is African American)…a conservative U.S. District Court ruled that the map violated Section 2 of the VRA and redirected Louisiana to redraw its map, so they did so to protect Repugs “MAGA Mike” Johnson and Julia Letlow, creating 2 majority black districts, leading to white voters suing now on the grounds of supposedly violating the 14th and 15th Amendments because white people just don’t have enough privilege in this country (snark)…I hadn’t heard the terms “cracking and packing” before – learn something new every day, even if it is pretty seedy…Miller recounts Shelby County v. Holder which did away with the “preclearance” provision of the VRA (i.e., any state that had tried to disenfranchise black voters in the past had to have their voting maps “cleared” by the DOJ to make sure they didn’t discriminate; of course, the Roberts Court sh*tcanned that)…more on Thornburg v. GIngels (which gives guidance on how Section 2 of the VRA should be administered and how claimants challenging Section 2 are supposed to do that) is here…I hate to be a cynic actually, but I think we can count on Roberts and his pals coming up with some twisted rationale to get rid of the VRA altogether (love to be wrong of course)...



...and John and Yasmin Khan of The Damage Report bring us the sorry tale of a staffer for a GOP congressman who has a swastika in the middle of a U.S. flag on display in his office – the culprit works for Dave Taylor of Ohio (guilty party is a staffer named Angelo Elia)...oh, but Taylor apparently said it was a “ruse” targeting Repugs here (and I’m sure Antifa is responsible – snark...interesting that this Elia guy is somehow registered as a Dem, which begs the question, what the hell is he doing working in the office of a Repug congressman?)...I suppose it’s possible that this Taylor guy didn’t even realize what was hanging in the office of his staffer, but what does it tell you that that was allowed to take place to begin with? Nothing good as far as I’m concerned...oh, and J.D. Vance can take his “stoo-pid young boys” line about that sickening Repug group chat that I noted yesterday (in the Mike Figueredo clip) and stick that line where the sun don’t shine...



...and Jimmy Kimmel gives us a bit of a news wrapup...oh, and I’m suuure we’ll hear ALL ABOUT Cheetoh Hitler’s call with “Vlad Daddy”...uh huh...and oh yeah, Bronzer Beelzebub “ended eight wars” (if we had a press corps with any actual spine, they would call out to our *preznit and tell him to name them, but alas)...”A demented version of Cinderella where the pumpkin is in charge” – good one...interesting in a pathetic way that Our Sweaty Orange Boy can hawk watches and nobody thinks to ask about that pesky emoluments clause of the Constitution...and Pee Wee German (who would wet himself if he had to carry a weapon for this country) says Chicago is more dangerous than Baghdad – just no words at a certain point, but these may suffice...still beyond belief that this alleged grown man in An Oval Office even tries to pronounce poly-syllabic words that he has absolutely no earthly clue to say correctly...and along comes Mehmet “Under Baby” Oz for additional laughs I suppose...interesting mashup of “RFK Jr. “ with “Team America” at the end (I purposely won’t say much about it – heh)...



...and in addition to No Kings day, tomorrow is the 53rd anniversary of the implementation of the Clean Water Act into law (more here); I think this tune is appropriate for the occasion.

Thursday Stuff

Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report tells us about these young Republicans letting their wingnut “freak flags fly,” if you will, starting with this goofball trying to ban p*rn (good luck with that, you nematode)...now along comes this Daily Wire POS Craig Gleason charged with child molestation – they definitely don’t like that in the “big house,” from what I hear...on top of that, along come leaked messages of Repug staffers saying stuff like ”I love Hitler” and spouting sickeningly racist garbage, including Wiliam Hendrix, Bobby Walker and Peter Giunta...I agree with Figueredo in that the ”humor” from these wastes of protoplasm is an attempt at coping since they know how wrong they are, but of course they won’t admit it...also, this Joe Maligno character in New York wanted to “fix” the showers somehow; given his professed love of Nazis, I have no doubt that you can guess what he has in mind...all of this points out the foul, fetid corruption of one of our two major political parties in as probably as sickening a manner as we could ever see (oh, but I’m sure Smerky will show up on CNN to say “Both sides! Both sides!”...more here and here...NSFW/H)...



..and John Oliver gives Bari Weiss the treatment she deserves IMO...Oliver gets into the Paramount/Skydance merger (damn, that is one ugly looking goatee on Larry Ellison) and making Weiss editor-in-chief of news for what used to be called “the Tiffany Network,” which is beyond pathetic – worse is buying that pseudo news organization hilariously misnamed “The Free Press” for $150 million (must be nice to have waaay too much damn money)...and oh yeah, Weiss will report directly to Larry Ellison’s son David (and yeah, if the Gropenfuhrer likes that arrangement, then that is a big time blaring red siren IMO)...these clips do indeed give us a hint as to Weiss’s entitlement as opposed to, y’know, dumb stuff like – oh, I dunno – ACTUAL PROFESSIONAL ACCOMPLISHMENT! “Weapons grade whataboutism” indeed...and color me shocked (not really); when Weiss actually tries to report on something (namely, an NYT staff meeting about Tom Cotton’s infamous Op-Ed about militarizing our cities), she gets it completely and utterly wrong...I know I previously included that Young Turks video about Weiss leaving the Times over her hurt fee fees, so I won’t get into that again...fascinating that it takes a comedian to explain the difference between hard news reporting and editorializing (i.e., I do the latter at this dumb little blog and never have any illusions that I’m actually doing the former)...Weiss definitely has a history of promoting (and twisting) stories to appear that she’s looking out for transgender kids, though the opposite is in fact going on, as amplified in that “story” by Jamie Reed...and oh yeah, there was the imaginary crime wave in Austin, TX (pretty telling indeed when local news, which LOVES sensation, is telling Weiss to get a grip)...also, Weiss’s ridiculous misinterpretation of how bad starvation and famine truly is in Gaza...also, I didn’t know that Weiss co-founded her own university, no doubt to try and manufacture a whole other generation of glibertarians...and the Palantir guy AND Harlan Crow bankrolling her? Wow, what a wingnut rogues gallery behind Weiss’s fake unaccredited school (NSFW/H also)...



Update 11/4/25: I guess, if I were as despised as Weiss, I might need $10K daily for security also (here).

...and David Shuster of Rebel HQ discusses Robert De Niro making a video promoting the No Kings protests on Saturday, so OF COURSE “MAGA Mike” Johnson takes a break from watching p*rn with his son to say the “No Kings” protests are sponsored by Hamas and/or Antifa, which is a brazen lie as we know...also, polling is showing more and more people getting fed up with the ICE/immigration BS from Pumpkin Pol Pot...”it smells of ego and fear and false worship,” meaning #47’s cabinet meetings; kudos to Martin Sheen for that one, and welcome to the fight also, Ariana Grande, who asked Trump voters a bunch of damn pertinent questions (John Iadarola talks about the Trump regime attacking Grande, because of course)...glad to see Illinois judges going after those jackbooted ICE thugs for shooting a pastor in the head with a pepper ball and blocking those ICE goons from attacking journalists...



...and Farron Cousins tells us that the U.S. House Speaker is threatening to have the longest government shutdown in history, breaking the record set in Don The Con’s first term, also when Repugs were completely in charge...and once again, Repugs blame those dastardly Democrats who are fighting to protect health care for the majority of this country...good point by Cousins that, even if this gets resolved (hopefully), we’ll be looking at ANOTHER shutdown in November (memo to idiot voters in this country: will you EVER LEARN that THIS IS WHAT FREAKING HAPPENS EVERY TIME YOU PUT GODDAMN REPUGS IN CHARGE OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT???!!!)...good point by Cousins that all those stinking Repugs in the House do is pass a bunch of CRs to fund our government as opposed to, y’know, AN ACTUAL DAMN BUDGET, and that’s been the case for three years (and of course, our lapdog corporate media is all, “ssshhhh! Don’t upset Great White Father Trump.”)...



...and Jimmy Kimmel brings us Greetings from Hollywood...looks like Mel Gibson has a new pic on Jesus after the Resurrection (“Weekend at Bernie’s 2,” huh? Kind of edgy I’ll admit)...and it looks like Cantaloupe Capone is still trying to save us from the hellscape of dancing frogs and blow-up toys in Portland, Oregon...good job on the “Witch Hunt” matching signs joke...also liked the “Show Me Your Hellhole” clips, and yeah, “Meal Team 6” gets another well-deserved shot also...we also revisit “MAGA Mike” Johnson not seating Adelita Grijalva to protect our “pedo *prez”...and oh, it looks like Eric Trump had a book ghostwritten for him wrote a book which (I guess) is about how great his old man allegedly is (the “drag queen story hour” thing is a nice touch IMO)...



...and happy birthday to John Mayer - guess we'll just have to keep waiting.

Wednesday Stuff

Rachel Maddow speaks with Ezra Levin of Indivisible about the “No Kings” protest this Saturday 10/18, which could be bigger than the June 14th protest earlier this year (we should do what we can to make that happen)... yep, the trick will be not to get suckered in by wingnut troublemakers trying to say “See? I told you those dastardly libs want to blow up everything”...(“sustained opposition to the regime” indeed)...



...and John and Jayar of The Damage Report tells us that Bronzer Beelzebub just loves him some coal, doesn’t he?...yeah, that’s why he sold out the coal miners (opposing a safety regulation), which should surprise precisely no one, so much so that coal miners protested yesterday at the Labor Department (here...more power to them), arguing that Dementia J. Trump failed to protect them from black lung disease...um, I’m genuinely sorry for the miners, but as far as I’m concerned, that begs the following question: WHAT THE HELL ELSE DID YOU EXPECT FROM A LYING CONMAN?? And yes, we have Example #652 of Biden doing something for a particular voting bloc, but those people said, naaaaah, we want the failed businessman and reality TV host instead...didn’t know silica dust was 20x more toxic than coal dust, which IMO is yet another reason to leave behind this decrepit, dirty form of energy...and I agree with Jayar that it needs to be pointed out OVER AND OVER that this administration is screwing over yet another group of workers despite last year’s campaign promises (I hear there’s some national political party out there whose first name starts with a “D”; you think they’re EVER going to get the message to yell their heads off about stuff like this?? And John’s bit of sarcasm at the very end is about right also...more here and here)...



...and David Doel brings us another smart take IMO, this time on the Israeli “peace” deal...I realize this is behind the news cycle a bit, but I think this clip matters anyway...oh, and spoiler alert; the Republican Party isn’t going to “adjust” given the admittedly massive divide between elderly boomer conservatives supporting Israel and younger Republicans maybe not supporting Israel quite so much (respect to Harry Enten anyway, though)...I don’t think Doel is quite right when he says, “no Israelis have been killed since October 7th,” but I don’t have any data on that at the moment, though Doel is 150% right to say this isn’t some kind of military contest or whatever because only one side has a military here...oh, and memo to Ralph Nader; November 2000 is on the phone and it just told you to STFU...Doel is absolutely right to say that this struggle truly isn’t over until Palestinians have the right of self determination and ALL PARTIES responsible for this genocide (including Hamas) are standing in a docket in the Hague, and Doel is also right to call out the hostages held by Israel in this, including children – try explaining that one if you can...”Oh, they threw rocks and that’s enough”...bitch, please...also, there’s the whole other argument put out there by Israeli journalists that “Bibi” purposely built up Hamas because he didn’t want to deal with the more rational Fatah organization in Palestine because that would have forced Netanyahu to pursue a peace deal earlier than he did (here - the fact that this could have been done in September ’24 is more evidence to me that Netanyahu didn’t want Biden to be able to claim credit for it, so “Bibi” just said, “screw it - let’s just kill and maim more Palestinians to reward my pal Trump”...prove to me that I’m wrong on that)...



...and somewhat related to the Israeli incursion into Gaza (the latest one), Sam and Emma of The Majority Report tell us about that big, strong manly wingnut pundit Dave Rubin ridiculing 22-year-old Greta Thunberg, who risked her life to save Palestinians trying to flee the carnage in Gaza (you see, being a gay man, Rubin has to do SOMETHING to show she’s still “in” with the wingnut crowd)...oh, and Rubin screws up also when trying to define “Israeli” food; “schnitzel” is popular in central Europe (SMDH)...oh, and OF COURSE, we also have Pumpkin Pol Pot showing up for more of his BS take on this (I try to ignore pissants like Rubin, but occasionally attention must be paid I think...slightly NSFW/H)...



...and Stephen Colbert gives us his take on the Middle East peace deal (yeah, but what about reparations to all of the Palestinians killed and otherwise butchered? I don’t blame Stephen for that, though)...oh, but Time sure rushed out that unintentionally horrendous cover of the Gropehnfuhrer and his “neck mangina” (I didn’t come up with that, so tell ICE to beat down someone else’s door for that one)...of course, we’re treated to more moments with this tactless oaf of a *preznit, and of course, leave it to Repugs to say, “Oh, you bad Dems! Because of the shut down and your stubborn refusal to let us destroy people’s health care, we’re going to furlough all of those federal employees like we wanted to do anyway”...oh, and Kristi (“Unsafe At Any Speed”) Noem is trying to force airports to show a video blaming Dems for the shutdown...uh, no...and we’re graced with another pic of ICE’s “Meal Team 6” (still love that one) arriving in the Windy City...nice job to also plug “No Kings” at the end...



...and here’s some newer blues that hopefully will help us get through the “hump day.”

Tuesday Stuff

David Shuster of Rebel HQ says that it looks like the Trumpist prosecution of James Comey is going downhill fast...pass the popcorn (again, not a fan of Comey, but this is kind of an “enemy of my enemy is my friend” thing)...”Attorney” Lindsey Halligan was forced to admit in front of a judge that, out of 100 federal prosecutors, nobody would help with prosecuting Comey as Shuster points out, forcing Halligan to bring in outside counsel...and oh well, they couldn’t con the judge into a July trial, so Halligan et al have to try and get their sh*t together by January...we also learn more about Brave Sir “MAGA Mike” Johnson running away from reporters when asked why the $#@! he doesn’t swear in Adelita Grijalva as the newest House member, and that of course is because she would be the deciding signature on the petition to release the Epstein files...



...and Chris Hayes brings us more idiocy with the U.S. House Speaker, namely, Johnson’s “despicable lie” about the No Kings protests on 10/18, though it looks like these protests are already underway because enough people are fed up with the garbage from our ruling regime...yeah, just keep trying to propagate the BS that those peacefully protesting are “terrorists” and see how much bigger the protests actually get...it looks like “MAGA Mike” took another break from watching p*rn with his son to spread his bile as thick as possible on Fix Noise along with this Roger Marshall knucklehead on Newsmax, and also Steve Scalise and that other elderly mouth breather propagating his party’s nonsense...and oh yeah, these manly ICE men as just so powerful that it takes three of them to drag a woman news producer for WGN to the ground and cuff her...and I have to admit that I didn’t have Oklahoma Repug Governor Kevin Stitt standing up in favor of folks’ right to protest on my Bingo card, but credit where it’s due (and when it comes to who’s shutting down the House while the overall government shutdown proceeds, never forget this, which directly counters Johnson’s BS)...



...and Belle lets us know about Not Your Father’s Republican Party taking a holiday instead of paying troops, who they claim so much to support...looks like “hot grandpa” (not my words) John Thune of the Senate decided to blow off the deadline for paying our military after MAGA Mike Johnson (him again!) got dressed down by a military spouse; figures that this bunch of pissants would pretty much ignore those serving our country the first chance they got...this may be the most sarcastic take I’ve ever heard from Belle, and she’s definitely spot-on IMO...



...and Sarah Adams of More Perfect Union tells us about the real reason Cantaloupe Capone and Big Tech want AI in our schools (yep...to create another generation of zoned-out compliant consumers...”where’s my Chromebook?” indeed)...not surprised to hear about school grades declining since 2012 (though it doesn’t make me happy of course), ever since technology has invaded the classroom to a greater degree than ever before...and yep, “EdTech” has indeed taken off, if you will (juiced in part by the COVID shutdowns), leaving a generation of kids behind...also, there’s a hell of a lot of “data mining” going on that our technology companies will benefit from (being the pointy-headed lib that I am, I think there should be an age requirement on that)...I didn’t know how bad multitasking was for learning at younger ages, but it looks like the data on that is pretty settled; also didn’t know about the increased incidents of depression, but I can see that happening also when you try to rewire kids’ brains with this stuff...also not surprised to hear that the Swedes (from a country that actually invests in its people) are ahead of the curve on this stuff, and if anybody out there thinks that Dementia Donnie is going to do anything besides try to pad his bottom line on this or any issue, well, you just haven’t been paying attention...hard to truly quantify how wretched all of this stuff is to kids’ cognitive development as far as I’m concerned, and no, I’m not an expert in this area, but I AM a parent, and I see the good, but also the harm...



...and yesterday marked what would have been the 100th birthday of legendary comedian (and social critic of a sort, as well as U.S. Navy wartime veteran) Lenny Bruce; I realize this is definitely a not-PC clip full of dated references, but some of it may bring back some vague memories for people of a certain age, myself included (routine is based somewhat on this film)...



...and RIP bassist Danny Thompson...he rose to fame with Pentagle in the swinging ‘60s, but he also collaborated a lot with Richard Thompson (no relation), including on this tune.

Monday Stuff

Brian Tyler Cohen tells us that Our Big, Beefy, Sweaty Orange Boy haz a sad about not winning his precious Nobel Peace Prize...must really be tearing at him that he was beaten out by a vastly more deserving woman of color, and that would be Maria Corina Machado of Venezuela, who, ironically enough, is apparently ALSO working to oust that country’s president Nicolas Maduro, though she’s doing it legally and lawfully, as opposed to, y’know, blowing up fishing boats full of innocent people like #47 is doing...”the ocean of delusion that (Trump) swims in”; yep, I would say that that’s about right...and oh yeah, along comes this Buddy Carter jackaloon to introduce a petition to give Napoleon Donaparte his precious bauble despite the decision of the Nobel Committee to say “naaah,” anyway...and since I’m a human being capable of shame, I would be way beyond embarrassed if people thought they could “fluff” me the way these world leaders do to Don The Con, but not so for Our Treasonous Orange Pustule (slightly NSFW/H)...



...and Jimmy Kimmel amplifies Cohen a bit here, commenting on the “hellhole” of Portland, where apparently the biggest threat you can encounter (aside from ICE) is being accosted by a six-foot, frog-like dancing blow-up toy...Marjorie Traitor “Slave” Greene continues to sound shockingly logical on the Epstein stuff and trying to protest ACA subsidies (because the latter affects her own family of course)...and oh yeah, “MAGA Mike” Johnson thinks Lee Greenwood should do the Super Bowl halftime show – sure, just wheel Greenwood out there and have him warble some red state anthem or something...what a plan! Also, I wonder if Herschel Walker is going to put a gun to the heads of any Bahamian if they don’t do what his boss wants, like Walker did with at least one of his ex-wives (we also hear the latest from the “QAnon Shaman”)...



...and Sam and Emma of The Majority Report tells us about the recent exchange between Tomi Lahren (can’t imagine how she came up with this new look of hers, but that’s her business I guess...didn’t improve her functioning brain capacity sadly) and Krystal Ball, who politely dismissed Lahren’s BS on Bad Bunny (John Oliver also had a clip on this recently)... I didn’t realize how much Ball truly owned Lahren here, but as Sam says, leave to wingnut-ette Lahren to not address any of Ball’s terrific points...once more, I don’t know much about Bad Bunny, but I give him credit for not touring in this country to try and protect his fans from those ICE bastards (I realize this is a little behind the news cycle, as are the prior two videos I guess, but Ball’s ownage here is so exquisite that I have to include this clip anyway)...



...and leave it to Mr. Newberger to crank out another hit tune ripped right from the headlines...



...and RIP Diane Keaton – aside from her storied acting history, he did a lot for architectural conservation in Los Angeles (and once more, good luck trying to settle on just one clip for a tribute; I figured that you can't go wrong with her Oscar-winning performance in "Annie Hall")...



...also, RIP John Lodge of The Moody Blues.