Pic is from DC, I believe (and Michael Moore and Ashley Judd really tore it up, by the way - I'll try to post video if I can find it...and Alicia Keys wasn't bad either - more here)...
Think she'll ever vote Republican?...
From Philly, at Eakins Oval...
In Austin, TX...
Paris (of course)...
Barcelona, Spain...
Berlin...
Closer to home, this was the scene in Doylestown, Pa…
London, at Trafalgar Square…
Amsterdam, The Netherlands…
St. Louis, Missouri, USA...
Park City, Utah…
Accra, Ghana…
Athens, Greece…
Santiago, Chile…
Wellington, New Zealand…
Nairobi, Kenya, the birthplace of President Obama (#joke)…
Lilongwe, Malawi…
Marseilles, France…
Antarctica (for real)...
Indianapolis, Indiana…
Los Angeles...
Boston…
Raleigh, North Carolina…
Mexico City...
Sioux Falls, South Dakota…
Sydney, Australia...
..and here is Gloria Steinem speaking at the rally in New York City…
…I think you get the idea – if I find pics for locations I haven’t already covered, I’ll add them here.
And I think this is an appropriate “nasty girl” tune.
I guess it’s time that we take as much of a look as we can stomach at the cabinet nominees of Generalissimo Trump, and Chris Hayes talks to Sen. Ben Cardin about HHS Secretary nominee Tom Price, Repug (of course) congressman from Georgia (I have a lot of issues with Price, particularly since he has advocated for the utter destruction of the Affordable Care Law, but this is the proverbial cherry on the icing of the crap cake as far as I’m concerned, namely, the whole “hip stock” thing)…
…and Kyle K. discusses Bernie Sanders’s questioning of Betsy DeVos, Education Secretary Nominee (NSFW – Kyle’s last 4 minutes here are particularly awesome IMHO)…
…and Sen. Elizabeth Warren speaks with a lady who got totally screwed over by Steve Mnuchin, Treasury Secretary Nominee, when Mnuchin was at OneWest Bank (and this is a minor point I know, but Mnuchin was also executive producer for “Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice”…I tried to watch it, but it was boring and incoherent, so I shut it off)…
…and Sam Bee talks with Masha Gessen about what we can do in response (besides drink ourselves into a stupor, of course)…
…and I would say that our transition into “Amerika” is already underway based on stories like this (and here is more on the human garbage associated with the bill in question)…
…and Thom Hartmann tells us about Obama’s final speech – typically hitting the right notes as you might expect…
…also, Rachel Maddow reports on Number 44’s accomplishments (and boy, is she right at the very end)…
…and I’ve had this tune in mind for what is yet to come, mainly for the title (this video was also the subject of one of the funniest episodes of Beavis and Butthead that I ever saw).
Update 1: I don’t know about you, but I’ve been hearing a lot of sunny optimism from people I work with and regularly interact with in my life along the lines of “let’s wish the new president luck” (and you can file my relative silence in response under the heading of not making waves with my employer, lest I be branded an “unfriendly” which could have an impact of my job and prospects for potential professional development).
These comments are coming from hard-working people who do a lot of commendable things in their lives I’m sure, and I’m grateful that a few of them are actually my friends. And I’d like to make sure it stays that way.
However, I don’t know exactly what it says about these individuals that they apparently think the prior political campaign for president was something approximating what you might consider to be normal.
I guess it’s fine with them that the eventual winner of the contest for president was openly supported by white supremacists, and his campaign rallies regularly featured incitements of violence (as well as actual incidents of violence), particularly against the Democratic opponent as well as anyone considered to be an “other” and not a member of the collective “hive” in support of President Donald Drumpf. And I guess it’s also fine with them that the eventual winner of this mess benefited to no small extent from Russian hacking, massive attacks on our voting process to invalidate the ballots of Democratic voters, subversion by a rogue FBI director and office in New York, sanitation of the thoroughly odious record of the Republican candidate by our completely compromised Beltway courtier media (featuring what likely translated into millions of dollars’ worth of free publicity), and what I would call the stupefying incompetence of the campaign of the Democratic candidate (as well as the mind-numbingly idiotic exercise on the part of the “Bernie or Bust” crowd on our side who, out of hand, discounted any move towards the “Democratic wing of the Democratic Party” as Dr. Dean once called it, by our party’s nominee for president).
Oh, and I guess it’s also fine with them that, if the roles were reversed and the Democrat had benefited from all of this at the expense of the Republican, the loser’s party would be rioting in the streets with their guns at this very moment.
In fewer words (and I know this is not an original observation), what we are seeing is not normal. It is wrong. It is NOT the way our political process is supposed to work – not even close. And if ANY ONE OF US act as if it is, then all we are doing is validating something that, if something approximating justice is eventually done, will surely one day lead to prison sentences or million-dollar fines against selected individuals at a minimum.
NO, this is not “normal” under even the loosest definition of the word. And anyone who acts as if it is somehow is either a mindless Pollyanna, a willful criminal or a craven liar.
Asked for his reaction to the address, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Trump’s remarks were “a continuation” of his campaign rhetoric. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) had a nearly identical reaction, saying the new president’s message was “very consistent” with Trump’s pre-election pitch.
There will be no pivot. The Donald J. Trump we saw riding down an escalator in New York 19 months ago is the same Donald J. Trump who’s on his way to the Oval Office. The nuances of his personality don’t really exist. What we saw is what we have and we’ll get.
The result was an inaugural address intended for Trump’s base – and no one else. Those waiting for an uplifting message were left wanting. The expected olive branches were set on fire.
The speech was, to be sure, deeply and unapologetically populist, which was only surprising because I thought everyone knew better by now. Sure, Trump exploited populist anger throughout his campaign, but during the transition period, the new president appointed billionaires and Washington insiders to help lead his administration, started selling access to megadonors, and moved forward with an agenda built on tax cuts for the wealthy elite.
Isn’t it a little late for faux-populism about “giving [power] back to you, the American people”? Are there still people who heard this address and believed it?
Yeah, I’d say this was prescient – from “A Face In The Crowd,” of course…
…and K.O. tells us what we all must do tomorrow (going out of order with his great “Resistance” clips again - NSFW)…
…and RIP Wayne Barrett (here), one of the finest investigative reporters of all time (and by the way, he spent years covering those in the orbit, you might say, of soon-to-be President-For-Real Fergus Laing, including Rudy 9iu11ani, as demonstrated in the clip)…
After President Obama was first elected to office, I can remember a headline from The Onion to the effect of “Nation Elects Black Man To Come In And Clean Up Mess Made By White Man.”
Gotta love The Onion…
Yeah, I’m old enough to remember how the horrid cabal of Former President Highest Disapproval Rating In Gallup Poll History left one Barack H. Obama with more of a ruinous mess than any president had ever left a successor in modern history. Yes, Herbert Hoover left FDR with probably the worst economic crisis of all time, but what Obama inherited was the second, and he had to figure out how to bring two wars to an end as well (yeah, I know he didn’t do it in Afghanistan, and he also didn’t close GITMO either, but you need a Congress that’s actually going to act like adults instead of partisan children to do this stuff). And I can also recall how the miscreants under Number 43 once acted like it wasn’t a question of whether this country would suffer another 9/11-type attack, but when.
So what did Number 44 end up doing? Here is a comprehensive (though, I would imagine, incomplete) list.
As far as I’m concerned, what President and Mrs. Obama accomplished (along with VP Joe Biden and the rest of the Obama Administration) was nothing short of miraculous.
So, with that in mind, I present the following video selections as a tribute, with my great, everlasting thanks…
You lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas (and some of those fleas have nicknames, apparently)...
...and the lady profiled in the story has my sympathies and I hope and pray all goes well for her, but seriously, what else did you expect Republicans to do, including President-Elect Twitter Tantrum Baby? (the video was cut a bit at the end before Dee Dee Ward said, “my side” – and yeah, that’s about what you can expect from that lying sack of shit Ron Johnson – heckuva job, all you voters who returned him, “No Corporate Tax” Pat Toomey, and the rest of that sorry lot last November)...
…and as his time winds down, sadly, President Obama reflects on what he considers his worst day, and it’s hard to argue with this - we all know the reason nothing happened and I'm not saying we shouldn't be outraged about it any more, but I'm only saying we should conserve our energy for the many battles on this and other issues that still will have to be fought unfortunately…
…and I always thought this was kind of a contemplative song, so here it is.
…and when the comparisons to Nixon have already started and President-Elect Big Orange Cheetoh hasn’t even been sworn in yet – yeah, that’s pretty ugly (and why is this not the least bit surprising - to be fair, Rachel Maddow doesn't provide the exact chronology of the quotes of how this started, though I defend Lewis of course)...
...but Chris Hayes does, talking with Dem Congressman Tim Waltz and Congresswoman Barbara Lee…
…and I had this tune in mind as a tribute to astronaut Gene Cernan, who just left us.
I’ve put up a portion of this video in the past, but I found the whole speech by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the Barratt School in Philadelphia on October 26, 1967, so I’m including this here (and this post from 11 years ago is still timely as far as I’m concerned)…
…and returning to the present day, I think it should be noted that Dr. King was very concerned about economic opportunity also (here)…
A courageous Carl's Jr. worker calls out Trump's nominee to head the Labor Dept. Tell your senators to oppose Andrew Puzder: 202-224-3121 pic.twitter.com/rtBK5iwNBL
Kudos to the U.S. Senate Democrats for standing firm against repeal of the ACA, which they should do anyway, but still credit where it’s due (and to say that Mike Enzi is a cretinous lying assh*le is the understatement of the new year – “responsible fiscal path”? “Out of control spending”? Mammoth national debt”? “Broken health care system”? Read this, you piece of shit – more here...and here).
And by the way, to learn more about rallies this weekend in support of the ACA, click here (and here)…
…and I know I’m way behind on the stuff with the Repugs trying to steamroll the governmental ethics oversight office (here), but well done by all of those who stood up in response (and why is this not the least bit surprising?)…
House Republicans tried to make ethics their first victim this session. Thank goodness people were paying attention! pic.twitter.com/6jMGbDelYg
...and I thought this was an interesting take by Thom Hartmann on congressional oversight of the Supreme Court, by the way (long but important warmup - gets to the meat of it at about 6:00, and Steve King of all people is behind it; you really have to worry about the "children of the corn" in King's district who keep sending him back to Washington every two years...and I hope Hartmann is right that it won't happen, but we didn't think "Fergus Laing" would actually win the election either, did we?)...
…and yeah, I understand the fact that some Dems facing re-election, including PA’s Bob Casey, made the calculation to oppose Bernie Sanders’s amendment to import cheaper drugs because they get some nice campaign contributions from the pharma bros (and that goes for Cory Booker and Tom Carper too), but their opposition still utterly stinks…
…and K.O. wonders what the hell President-Elect Big Orange Cheetoh will do about our epidemic of gun violence – do you really need to ask? And by the way, this is one of the best interpretations of the Second Amendment that I’ve ever heard...
…and you KNEW I wasn’t going to let go of this item from this week, didn’t you (yeah, isn't it a hoot to hear all of our Repug “friends” caterwauling about what could be fake news biting back at THEM, even though they had no problem sprinkling it, metaphorically speaking, all over HRC…? And NSFW by the way)...
…and 55 years ago today, comedian Ernie Kovacs was killed in an auto accident in Los Angeles – can’t tell you I was a huge fan, though he definitely was inventive and paved the way for others to follow…
…and I guess you could call this an almost obligatory tune for this day and date.
Just keep telling yourself that President-Elect Big Orange Cheetoh and his pal Exxon-Mobil chairman Rex Tillerson don’t have a financial incentive in sucking up to their buddy Vlad Putin – uh huh…
…and I’m actually going to take a bit of a break from all of the “Fergus Laing”-related crap and give you this item of Samantha Bee telling us about a high-profile white guy with hurt fee fees (GMAFB - somewhat NSFW)…
Gosh, I didn’t know Generalissimo Trump was a fan of water sports - heh (here – and Cenk and John of TYT tell us more revelations here…and when it comes to the truly stomach-turning stuff, soon-to-be Number 45 – ugh – said the charges were disgusting, which they are, but he didn’t say they weren’t true)…
…and Thom Hartmann brings us more analysis here…
…and K.O. does us a service here by trying to patch together all of the tweets from President-Elect Tiny Hands about Russia and the hacking – can’t imagine the effort he’s putting into all of the lying and trying to keep his various stories straight – truly delusional (not referring to Olbermann of course)…
…and Shep Smith stands tall once more in response to this idiocy…
…and President-Elect Big Orange Cheetoh is also proposing what I would consider disastrous cuts in funding for jobs in renewable energy, as Farron Cousins explains (both for our economy and, more importantly, the environment)...
…and I’m starting to wonder whether or not this should be the ringtone for “Donald Drumpf.”
So President-Elect Twitter Temper Tantrum Baby first says Mexico will pay for his precious stinking wall, but now he’ll try to get taxpayers to pay for it instead. Sad! (and yeah, cause MORE unrest in Mexico and turn the whole damn country into a failed narco state right on our border - GENIUS!! And an update is here.)...
...and once again, Sen. Elizabeth Warren lowers the boom on Repug congressional idiots trying to destroy the Affordable Care Law (here)…
...and Kyle K. tells us about Bernie Sanders trying to speak truth to stoo-pid (namely, to some Fix Noise humanoid) at a town hall; yeah, some specificity on those supposedly burdensome Obama taxes and regulations would be nice (NSFW)…
…and he’s good enough, he’s smart enough, and doggone it…OK, I’ll stop – Sen. Al Franken finds what you would call an inconsistency at the very least (an outright lie at the most) in the testimony of Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III during the hearing for Sessions’ nomination for Attorney General, a particularly ghastly one in the “cabinet of deplorables” from President-Elect Fergus Laing (here)…
...and K.O. brings us the necessary context on whether or not Generalissimo Trump will actually have a news conference tomorrow or not...
...and this is one of the very finest pieces of news reporting and commentary that I’ve yet heard on all of the stuff about Trump and his help from Putin to get elected, and I guess it isn’t surprising that it comes from Shep Smith; great, great work…
...and K.O. is out with #17, taking a calmer demeanor, though I'm fine with the outrage too (and I get the John Edwards thing, by the way, but try reading "Four Trials" first before you call me a rube, OK?)...
…and did somebody say “fake news”? That said, there is very definitely a scheme behind this utter madness, as Rachel Maddow explains…
…and yesterday marked what would have been the 70th birthday of David Bowie – yes, I know I’ve featured a lot of his music, which I think is completely deserved; I can’t think of any genre he worked in where he didn’t excel, and that includes covers like this one.
…and Kyle Kulinski tells us how Bernie Sanders called out PEOTUS Big Orange Cheetoh the way all Dems should (by the way, I don't think trivializing the Putin-related garbage is helpful, Kyle, especially in light of this, as well as this - NSFW)...
…and when I hear this tune, I think of President-Elect Fergus Laing, for what it’s worth.
I'm suddenly behind again on K.O.'s great GQ "Resistance" videos - here is #16, on what the spoiled brat about to ascend to power in this country supposedly knows, or THINKS he knows, about the Russian hacking...
...and Rachel Maddow weighs in on what we can do in response here (though I think the following needs to be pointed out also from here)...
...and at a certain point, I don't think this stuff is so funny anymore, but for now...
...and let's hear it for our friends up north, giving us more food for thought on the whole health care issue in this country...
...and as Cenk & co. tell us here, the U.S. House Repugs are apparently going to shed their phony deficit facade once and for all...
…and I know this is a few days late for the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” from 1/2/12, but given all of the recent electoral garbage involving fake news, I think we should never forget what entity is the “alpha and omega,” if you will, when it comes to that sort of thing - and boy, is that network going to have fun with the departure of "Maniac Megyn" Kelly (here) - now Bill Orally has to anchor the prime-time lineup with Tucker...HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
...and speaking of Billo the Clown, Sam Seder has some words on all the entertainers blowing off the Bund rally for President-Elect Big Orange Cheetoh (to "Falkland Islands" Bill, have another belt, go fall down in a corner somewhere and sleep it off, OK?)…
…and changing the mood again, remember that, in light of this latest gun-related tragedy (here), today is yet another day not to talk about gun control because Heaven forbid that we politicize that issue (here – related info here)…and yes, I’m removing my tongue from my cheek as I type this.
This clip is almost two years old now, but with all the Beltway prattling about “repeal(ing) and replac(ing)” the Affordable Care Law (here), I thought Dem U.S. House Rep John Yarmuth of Kentucky made a pretty damn convincing case for leaving well enough alone here (And I wonder what would happen if we updated his map? I’m sure there would be a lot more red-to-green-or-blue)…
…and Thom H. gives us his theory on who he claims was the last legitimately elected Republican president – Dwight Eisenhower – and yeah, you can argue that I’m biased on this, but it still sounds pretty damn plausible to me…
...and Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks tells us about Nick Smith from coal country…more smarts in his commentary than from all of these supposed Democratic Party Beltway geniuses; no wonder the Dems continue to lose at the polls…
...and I thought this was an interesting take on the whole "fake news" thing...
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper says that Russia was behind "fake news" in 2016.
(Apparently this recently appeared over the Rose Bowl parade - nice work.)
I know, if I were able, that I could probably post forever about the truly awful cabinet nominations of President-Elect Big Orange Cheetoh, but I’m not able to do that – however, I think I should take a moment and ask that you recall the following about former Indiana Repug U.S. Senator Dan Coats, who is apparently being floated for Director of National Intelligence (here).
Yeah, Dan Coats.
The senator who showed up at the wrong hearing (as shown in the following clip).
God help us…
...and kudos to Michael Mann for the ruling allowing him to sue these conservative assh*les for defaming him on the issue of climate science (and for attacking all of the fake news garbage, as Farron Cousins explains here)...
…and Ari Melber talks to Kelly Ward, interim executive director of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, about Democratic plans to correct the redistricting garbage that the Repugs inflicted in 2010 (and even if it means that the Dem U.S. House rep in Florida loses, so be it)…
…and I said I would link to some new music eventually, didn’t I?
This clip runs on a bit, but I think there’s a lot of good information here from Former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich about the rise of totalitarianism in this country…
...and Chris Hayes and media critic Bob Garfield try to dissect the lies of President-Elect Fergus Laing; here’s my idea – tell Big Orange Cheetoh that we don’t trust one goddamn word out of his mouth because he's nothing but a stinking liar (and by the way, if Trump actually cares about credibility - and I'm sure he doesn't - posing with Don King isn't such a good idea)…
…and sticking with press freedom, I’ll remember this item every time I hear about Joe and Mika and the rest of our Beltway political/media/industrial complex regurgitating talking points in truly stenographic fashion (try not to gag on the white wine and sweet and sour shrimp – NSFW)…
...and I thought this was a good report from the BBC about how our incoming Congress is now commendably diverse in terms of race, ethnicity and gender preference…just kidding – it’s still primarily a bunch of rich white guys…
…and speaking of those numbskulls (most of them anyway), I have an update to Rachel Maddow’s video (here) – and anyone who thinks the p*ssy-grabber-in-chief has something to do with it should read this…
…and I think we’re going to need a lot to keep up the fight, and that includes our sense of humor.
I guess this qualifies as an "oopsie" for those Fix Noise miscreants...
…and yeah, those kids trying not to be deported are so looking forward to the inauguration of “Donald Drumpf,” aren’t they (here)?...
…and Kyle and David Pakman both tell us that – whaddaya know? – increasing the federal minimum wage produced no downside…imagine that (NSFW - and more on Australia and the minimum wage is here)…
…and how’s this for an apropos tune to ring in 2017?
I know I mentioned that I would replay Jason Kander's GREAT ad, so I'd better do it before the year ends (he was the Dem running against Roy Blunt for the U.S. Senate from Missouri, a contest Blunt won but by a tighter margin than the so-called experts predicted)...
…and with the spirit of that ad in mind, Kyle K. tells us here that Bernie Sanders is telling all of us to stand up on January 15th to protect our health care (NSFW)….
...and Chris Hayes talks with Rick Perlstein, author of “Nixonland,” about parallels between Number 37 and the demented child-king about to take the reins of power on 1/20/17 (God help us – thanks once more, everyone who voted for this assclown, Jill Stein or Gary Johnson, and also to the “Bernie or Bust” crowd)…
…and kudos to Cenk and TYT for raising a half mil from their audience to stand up for actual quality journalism; excellent (and here is yet another example of corporate media stupidity)…
...and I also failed to note the passing earlier of Al Brodax, responsible for "Yellow Submarine"...
…and yeah, I think I’ll let John Oliver have the last non-musical video word here (incredibly NSFW – some good things happened for yours truly this year, and I’m grateful, but overwhelmingly I share these sentiments)…
…and did you know this year that almost an entire band died? That would be Keith Emerson and Greg Lake of EL&P (best wishes for a long and happy life to Carl Palmer)…
…and what else can you say about 2016, the year that (thank God!) is about to come to a close?
Remember the actual hope and optimism last summer, when we were talking about the better-than-even-money chance that the Dems had of taking back the Senate? Including the return of Russ Feingold in Wisconsin? I mean, they CAN’T POSSIBLY return that big stiff Ron Johnson for six more years, could they?
Well, they did, incredibly enough. And by the way, as a resident of the commonwealth of PA, I know I have no gloating rights whatsoever in that we had the chance to do the same thing to that corporatist fraud Pat Toomey, and he won another term also. In fact, the only Repug U.S. Senators who got sent packing (in what should have been a “change” election for real, since it was also a presidential election of course – and the less said about that, the better, I know) were Repugs Mark Kirk in Illinois and Kelly Ayotte in New Hampshire, hardly right-wing firebrands (Kirk went down in no small part because he made fun of the ancestry of Tammy Duckworth, a decorated veteran maimed in the Iraq war, and Ayotte’s political demise was aided by the presence of a third-party candidate and an incredibly popular Democrat and former governor in Maggie Hassan, who won).
Oh, and remember the fleeting moments when – what do you know? – the Dems, according to some statistical models, actually had a chance, however slim, of retaking the House depending on the margin of a projected Clinton presidential win? And we know what happened there also, particularly in PA-08, where the voters, in their utterly dunderheaded stupidity IMHO, refused to vote for a great progressive, Dem Steve Santarsiero, and instead chose to fill “Mikey The Beloved” Fitzpatrick’s vacant seat with his brother, who has no experience holding elected office (as opposed to Steve, who served for four years on the Lower Makefield Board of Supervisors and four years as a PA House Rep).
Yeah, it sure was ugly. The whole damn thing was drowned in dark money payoffs, voting machine malfunctions and other forms of suppression, a tidal wave of fake and orchestrated news against Hillary Clinton (to say nothing of negative ads, some of which were true and many of which were bogus), the supposed revelations from James Comey about alleged Clinton Email illegality based on Huma Abedin’s server that her then-husband Anthony Weiner used for porn (to say nothing of the supposed Clinton Foundation “scandals”), and dutiful stenography on the part of our utterly bought-and-paid-for political/media/industrial complex, the net effect of which was to thoroughly regurgitate all Republican-friendly talking points with hardly any push-back in response. And oh yeah, this was aided by the actual, documented, mind-numbing incompetence of the Hillary Clinton campaign. And all of this led to the voters making the most horribly uninformed electoral choices possible, including electing (again, notwithstanding voter suppression and actual fraud for real) Donald J. Trump as president.
Well, I’m going to have a good, stiff drink on New Year’s Eve, take some down time at some point, and then try to figure out how we’re going to attack this mess all over again. But before I do, I want to thank everyone who has spent any time whatsoever at this site over the last year and extend my wishes for all good things in 2017 (and never forget the words to this song - for the belated 70th birthday of Patti Smith).
(By the way, keep this image in mind as the Repugs do their best to privatize Social Security and Medicare and try to utterly destroy the Affordable Care Law - from here.)
While other Dems cower and lick their wounds, leave it to Sen. Elizabeth Warren to put down the right marker to the p*ssy grabber-in-chief here…
…and with that in mind, kudos to former Rockette Autumn Withers for speaking out against performing at the inauguration for President-Elect Big Orange Cheetoh here (as far as I’m concerned, Steve Kornacki is nothing but a corporate media hack)…
…and Kyle K. does another great job here IMHO, this time pointing out the idiocy of “Bibi” and his little temper tantrum over the U.S. abstention over the recent UN vote against Israel and those damn settlements (NSFW)…
…and today marks the 80th anniversary of the sit-down strike in Flint, MI in an effort to get recognition for the United Auto Workers union (here – the strike was successful, in no small part due to the sympathies of Michigan Gov. Frank Murphy; good luck trying to get that kind of support now from the individual who, as far as I’m concerned, had more to do with the poisoning of Flint’s water than anyone else – here…a cautionary lesson for us all on pretty much what it takes to win concessions for rank-and-file workers)...
…and there have been so many celebrity and/or musical passings this year that I know I’ve missed a few, and here is one, and that would be guitarist Rick Parfitt of Status Quo (this was a YUUGE hit back in the hippy, trippy ‘60s)…
…and call him Ziggy Stardust, The Think White Duke, or whatever, but I think the death of David Bowie this year was the biggest musical loss of them all.
Thom Hartmann tells us that Baby Newton Leroy is running his mouth against Obama again - typical...and by the way, here is more on the "Caucus Room Conspiracy"...
…and yes, Repug U.S. House Rep Mr.-Puppy-Dog-Eyes-With-The-Shiv really is that big of a dick, people…
…and I give you another installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” (more or less) from The Young Turks at 12/23/13 (that’s when I put up the video, which is actually closer to four years old as it turns out) – yeah, I know it’s another video about the importance of saving our climate (more here from that time also), as important as that is, but I think it’s important to revisit this story in light of this typically stupid development here from the pretender about to take the reins of power (ugh – yeah, try telling me how committed somebody like Rex Tillerson actually is to saving our planet - here), as well as this – no more “oh, other countries that are polluting as much as we are won’t do anything, so why should we?” excuses…
...and sticking with the climate, with the cold weather this time of year, I have a feeling you may hear this a time or two...
…and happy 80th birthday to boomer icon Mary Tyler Moore – with what’s been going on with celebrities from that era lately, we’d better cherish the ones we have left (the “It’s A Long Way To Tipperary” clip was the literal end of the series, for anyone who somehow doesn’t know that)…
…and speaking of milestones, we can’t let this year wind down without remembering Glenn Frey one more time – wish I could put up the awesome video, but this great tune on its own will do for now I’m sure.
Update 1 12/29/16: You know, I get really steamed when Bill Maher lectures lefties about political correctness, but then I read about something like this and I see that he’s getting more ammunition from our collective side.
How could anyone think that Steve Martin – Steve Martin, of all people! – could say something in response to the death of Carrie Fisher that would be anything but an endearing and heartfelt tribute??!!
Oh, for shame! He actually complimented her looks, as if that’s somehow sexist or something. Fetch the fainting couch!
Ridiculous (and why do I have a feeling that, were she still with us, Fisher would be laughing her ass off in response?)…
Update 2 12/29/16: Hat tip to Joe Conason on Twitter for this...
…and normally I wouldn’t pay a lot of attention to those zany Brit royals at this site, but I think Prince Charles is pretty spot-on here; I get it that people vote for their pocketbook as it were and are too busy living their lives to take the “long view” from time to time, but I think that’s exactly what we need to do here…
...and I give you Kyle Kulinski on corporate media stenographer Dana Bash and her notions of "bipartisanship" (very NSFW but right, what Kyle says I mean)…
…and in a year of what I guess you could call a more normal or typical amount of musicians who have left us, I think this would be a more notable milestone, but with all of the others who have gone in 2016, this might have been obscured somewhat, but I don’t think it should be – cutting to the chase, you can consider this to be a tribute to Paul Kantner.
Yeah, I think President-Elect Fergus Laing needs a little psychoanalysis at a minimum, and probably a straight jacket too while we’re at it…
...and dude, there’s nothing “satirical” about genocide, regardless of who you’re talking about – listen, I love free speech as much as anybody as long as no one is being physically hurt, but this comes fairly close to the “shouting fire in a crowded movie theater” test for my money…
…and yet again, it’s all about jobs! Jobs! Jobs! for Not Your Father’s Republican Party (NSFW)…
…and with the time left before the end of the year, I’d like to pay tribute to artists who left us in 2016, which was a particularly horrendous year on that front as well as others of course – I thought I’d kick things off with an homage to “the purple one.”
I know we have to try and finish off the post-mortems of the Hillary Clinton campaign, but I thought this was a particularly good one from Cenk Uygur…NSFW; basically, the Bernie Sanders people were trying to help her and were rebuffed…unbelievable; probably the most damning commentary I’ve heard yet on what happened, and I can’t imagine how it’s untrue in any way – yeah, the Comey stuff and the Putin leaks were awful (as well as the Kris Kobach garbage and all the other stuff that went on since the Voting Rights Act has basically been gutted), but the campaign was digging its own metaphorical grave leading up to that…again, I don’t personally blame Hillary Clinton, but her advisers did a horrible job – as Cenk explains, they COMPLETELY missed the boat on what this election was all about…
…and Seth Meyers brings us the following on Trump and climate change (I know he’s trying to make some serious points with humor, but I think it’s getting harder for him to do that given what we’ll be facing after 1/20/17, and I don’t blame Meyers one bit for it - here)…
...and Chris Hayes talks with Dem Secretary of State Jason Kander of Missouri about the nominees from President-Elect Fergus Laing, including climate change denier Scott Pruitt (noted in the Seth Meyers clip also) to head the EPA (Two things: 1) Kander is absolutely right at the end over the betrayal of soon-to-be #45…the Repugs of course are partying now, but that will come to an abrupt end, and sooner than they imagine and possibly for good, and 2) Kander ran what was easily the BEST POLITICAL AD of the abysmal 2016 election season, which I’ll put up again soon – it turned what was looking to be a snoozer of a U.S. Senate race against Roy Blunt into something hotly competitive, and Dems everywhere should use that as a template for any political campaign from now on)…
…and with this, I bring down the curtain, as it were, for the seasonal tunes - hope everyone's holidays are enjoyable.
