Friday Stuff

This is your periodic reminder that our PA-01 U.S. House Rep Brian Fitzpatrick still refuses to stick his head out of his shell and debate his Dem challenger Bob Harvie; I realize at this point that isn’t likely to change, but I also believe it’s important to keep reminding everyone about that.

David Shuster of Rebel HQ lets us know about another Trump voter (Ronald from West Virginia) apologizing on CSPAN, and it looks like a three-time Trump voter in MA, of all places (points for being contrarian I guess) also now has regrets...but oh, Spray Tan Satan is planning to give seniors 90 WHOLE DOLLARS to help with health insurance premium costs? What a guy! I guess that promise is about as reliable as his claim to give everybody $5K if the Repugs hang onto power next month (more here)...

...and I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” (more or less) from 10/10/18, with John Iadarola and Jayar Jackson talking about the FBI report on “I Like Beer” Brett Kavanaugh and how the “investigation” was rigged to not ask questions that would put the then-SCOTUS nominee in a negative light, as well as not bothering to investigate claims from Deborah Ramirez, one of the women who accused Kavanaugh of s*xual abuse (looks like “Disappointed” Collins got a nice payday for playing along as noted here, and to do something about her, click here)...



...and David Pakman informs us that the “party of Lincoln” collectively had a nightmare evening with recent candidate debates, including Susan Collins and Troy Jackson in Maine (yeah, as far as I know, a reduction in the cost of road salt won’t do a damn thing to help with health insurance coverage or the cost of groceries)...also, Dem Governor Wes Moore of Maryland apparently had a good night against his Repug opponent Dan Cox, specifically on the question of the SNAP error rate, as in incarcerated folks getting SNAP who should be disqualified (Moore is kind of a mixed bag for yours truly I’ll admit, but credit where it’s due)...additionally, we go to the Michigan governor’s race between Dem Jocelyn Benson and Repug John James...finally, we get Georgia Republican Rick (“Gas Stores”) Jackson flailing around in his gubernatorial debate versus Dem Keisha Lance Bottoms (and Jackson is a healthcare company CEO, by the way)...



...and Thom Hartmann speaks with Alex Lawson, Executive Director of Social Security Works, about the increasing popularity of Medicare for All (I may look into that book by Nancy Altman)...I would tend to agree with Lawson’s claim that the neoliberal experiment, if you will, has failed, and extracting whatever profit out of people for the sake of a few oligarchs is indeed the driver behind unaffordability...a study from Yale University tells us that M4A will save 100K lives (and $1 trillion) a year – works for me...I also agree with Thom about St. Jude Hospital as well as these stories about people starting Go Fund Me pages to pay for medical treatment – yes, those are heart-warming tales, but THE POINT IS THAT IT SHOULDN’T BE NECESSARY TO DO THAT!!!...health care in this country is indeed a “rich care” system...



...and Chris Hayes discusses Bronzer Beelzebub’s taxpayer funded PSAs – yeah, right (am I the only one who can whiff out yet another scam from Cantaloupe Capone? Somehow I don’t think so)...and these ads cost $10 million, huh? Figures (and again, the whole thing with the background noise forcing reporters to shout questions was a trick perfected by The Sainted Ronnie R)...Hayes speaks with Dem U.S. House Rep Jamie Raskin about the illegality of #47 coordinating with his Super PAC; I’ll grant you that our campaign finance law in this country is a joke, but at least there are SOME restraints at the moment, which Don The Con doesn’t care about of course...I’m glad to hear what Raskin is saying about red states including Flori-DUUH, but I definitely won’t count our chickens before they hatch, you might say...



...and since I try to keep the content as timely and relevant as possible here, I think it’s apropos to give us the latest from Lewis Black – don’t quite share his apparent desire to transcend to the afterlife, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t have a laugh over our mortality either...



...and I know I just included a tune from Jackson Browne, but since today is his birthday, I’ll add this as well...hope it’s a good one...



...and The Eternal John Lennon would have been 86 today.

Wednesday Stuff

Tennessee Brando points out here that Dementia J. Trump just spoke publicly about bombing Los Angeles and San Diego – I totally agree with Brando that that means that Cantaloupe Capone needs to be carted out of the White House and put in a cell a la CECOT or something comparable RIGHT FREAKING NOW (and I don’t know where the hell he uttered those vile words, but it looks like the “MAGA faithful” just pretended it was another day with a ‘y’ in it based on their reaction)...”a depraved bunch of lunatics being led by a lunatic” indeed (referring to those attending that Bund rally of course...and I think it’s also correct to say we’re being “governed” by an unhinged maniac and his death cult - NSFW/H)...



...and Robert Reich tells us How To Eat Healthy in Trump era, and apparently the answer is to barely eat anything at all since the FDA under our ruling cabal has been derelict in ensuring the safety of our food and medicines, with Bobby Brainworm deciding not to monitor cyclospora (explosive diarrhea) and other pathogens...and this Dr. Heidi Overton who has been nominated to run the agency looks like she’ll be another cipher for her boss – terrific...didn’t know that the Gropenfuhrer got $2 mil from Taylor Farms after delaying implementation of a traceability requirement that could have proactively taken care of the diarrhea outbreak before it struck (slightly NSFW/H)...



...and Brittany Page informs us of a Christian Nationalist audience cheering “Running Man” Josh Hawley’s call to restrict access to the mifepristone abortion pill...important to note the comparative safety of abortion pills versus other medications like Viagra as well as carrying a pregnancy to the full term (as I and others have said, if men got pregnant, there would be abortion rooms at every Lowe’s and Home Depot right next to the aisle selling power tools)...IMO, the “D” team is at fault on this issue for its failure to overturn the utterly wretched 1873 Comstock Act that provides the flimsiest of excuses to try and ban the distribution of abortion pills (which Hawley and his other anti-choice zealots are using as a rationale for their cruel position against women’s bodily autonomy)...and Tony Perkins is indeed a cretinous right-wing hack on the abortion issue as well as LGBTQ rights...Page also gives us more on Heidi Overton, who apparently thinks an IUD is used for abortions (Overton I mean of course...can’t think of a word to describe how pathetic it is that that belief is out there in this day and age, and by an alleged medical professional also)...NSFW/H also...



...and I’d like to mention a couple of milestones...first, today is the 20th anniversary of the murder of acclaimed Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who was one of the people from way back warning us of just how bad Vlad The Butcher truly was...I realize not many folks besides yours truly may think it’s worth it to keep reminding everyone about this, but I do because I believe it still matters...three people were convicted in 2014 for her murder, though the person who ordered the killing has to date not been identified (though I’m sure you can imagine what kind of speculation has been ongoing given this awful crime, considering what has happened also to Alexei Navalny and others opposing the Russian warmonger)...



...also, today is truly a date that could live in infamy, you might say, because it’s also the 30th anniversary of Fix Noise going on the air (here)...Carlos Maza discusses the impact of that accursed network...I could probably fill up this post with about a hundred examples at least of The Roger Ailes BS Factory choosing to manufacture a “scandal” that gets picked up by our beyond useless corporate media, but one example is how the Obama Administration and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton supposedly played a role in the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya (including Ambassador Christopher Stevens) while choosing to completely ignore this...and oh yeah, we’re also reminded about the outrage over Dem U.S. House Rep Ilhan Omar’s remark related to 9/11, saying “some people did something” as if Omar was trying to trivialize the attacks (she wasn’t of course)...NSFW/H as well...



...and I suppose this newer number is apropos given the prior clip in particular...hope you agree.

Tuesday Stuff

Ali Velshi of MS NOW takes a look at the impact of the Big Beautiful Clusterf*ck on Arizona’s 6th U.S. congressional district, where the Dem candidate (and U.S. Marine vet) Joanne Mendoza is trying to unseat Trumper Juan Ciscomani...apparently the district is more than a quarter Latino in terms of population; looks like, based on the Repug and Dem candidate votes, it’s a pretty “purple” district (R for U.S. House and prez and D for U.S. Senate)...Ciscomani’s vote for that legislative atrocity is getting called out by Mendoza (interviewed by Velshi), which is as it should be, since the SNAP cuts are particularly ruinous in this district apparently...and I realize wingnuts like Ciscomani will be blaming Former President Biden for whatever they can for at least the next couple of years and maybe longer (and I'll have something related to SecDef Kegseth shortly)



...also, it seems that s*xual predator (and former Repug U.S. House Speaker) Dennis Hastert recently died...this TYT segment from awhile back includes a discussion of what likely were payments from Hastert to at least one victim...I get the point here that investigating what were likely hush money payments sounds a bit illogical, though I don't think those payments should have escaped scrutiny either (clip also includes John Iadarola, Ben Mankiewicz, and the beyond ridiculous Jimmy Dore...NSFW/H)...



...and Sam Seder of The Majority Report talks about a local news station in Iowa calmly taking apart the typical propaganda from the Gropenfuhrer on a proposed $10 billion steel plant in that state...”they’ve already started building” – maybe in the fever dreams of Dementia Donnie, but not so much in the real world...no permits issued, no plans for surrounding infrastructure that would be needed, etc....I also hadn’t realized that Janet Mills in Maine has not endorsed Troy Jackson in the latter’s U.S. Senate contest against “Disappointed” Susan Collins; kind of wondering why the hell not...also, speaking of Maine, I keep waiting for charges to be filed against Graham Platner for those allegedly awful actions that forced him to leave the race; if that happens, I’ll acknowledge it of course...



...oh, and speaking of SecDef Kegseth, it seems that he’s trying to institute an Office of Religious Affairs at the Pentagon, something else that has not a damn thing to do with helping our military escape the Iran quagmire created by this awful regime (Mr. Newberger gives that the treatment it deserves IMO here)...



...for another take on matters tied to spirituality a bit, however, I give you this from Rachel Maddow on why protest matters...Maddow discusses the cumulative impact from a mass movement even when those protesting may be impacted to varying degrees, and I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that ties into a faith tradition since that also has to do with belief and a lack of empirical evidence...I have to admit that I’m not familiar with the latest protests in Ireland, so I can’t comment on that...also didn’t know about the protest march against ICE in California; props to them for that, nor did I know about the upcoming anti-ICE march in Seattle led by Japanese Americans and their descendants who were victimized during World War II, as well as a similar protest outside Tucson, Arizona against opening another ICE concentration camp...additionally, there was an anti-ICE protest in Williston, Vermont led by clergy trying to shut down an ICE surveillance center...anti-ICE protests are ongoing in Alexandria, Louisiana also as we learn...props also to the Interfaith Alliance, trying to register people to vote on moral grounds...there is also resistance to the Trumpist jackbooted tactics in Utah, where Repug Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson is getting pressured to turn over voting data to our criminal ruling cabal...there will be additional reminders here about the next “No Kings” protest on October 17th also FWIW...



...additionally, I should point out that yesterday marked the 40th anniversary of the beginning of the Iran-Contra scandal, with Eugene Hasenfus getting shot down in a plane carrying military supplies for the Contras fighting an insurrection against the Nicaraguan government under the Sandinistas, which was in violation of U.S. law (doing my best here to make sure that that appalling episode under The Sainted Ronnie R doesn’t get the “memory hole” treatment)...makes me recall this tune.

Monday Stuff

Here is another reminder that our PA-01 U.S. House Rep Bri-Fi still refuses to come out of hiding and debate his Dem challenger Bob Harvie, which fits the profile for the incumbent who still refuses to hold in-person town halls...



...also, last Friday marked the 20th anniversary of the Nickel Mines schoolhouse shooting in Lancaster Country, which killed 5 Amish girls (the gunman took his own life)...I can still remember how that crime pretty much shocked the conscience of our entire area as well as elsewhere in this country and the world...this is an unfortunate recent update (for the city of Lancaster, that is)...



...and Rachel Maddow, Symone Sanders Townsend and Eugene Daniels inform us that “Team D” needs to let everybody know what they plan to do if (crossing fingers and toes) they’re returned to power this fall (and saying nothing of the fact that we need to keep up our efforts to make that happen as much as possible)...I don’t think saying we’re going to need a “second Reconstruction” is hyperbole, but again, we need leaders on the blue side willing to meet that moment...also, I’m definitely OK with referring to what’s described here as a “spiritual” movement, since the notion of spirituality can be defined all kinds of ways IMO...



...and Tennessee Brando gives us his take on the awful Cornell story...I definitely give Brando credit for taking the time to process this tragic crime before saying anything; I generally try to hold back also until I opine on something as well, FWIW...I also totally believe his anecdote about listening to women’s horror stories in bars, which is disgusting and repugnant of course; no excuse for that kind of treatment from alleged men (and OF COURSE MAGA “influencers” are trying to find a way to justify this monstrosity)...NSFW/H...



...and usually I get a laugh or two out of these clips from Mr. Newberger, but that’s definitely not the case here, and for a good reason I believe (sorry to be such a downer with these clips)...



...and RIP Peter Byrne of the band Naked Eyes.