I’m back to try and start things up again here – to begin, CNN’s Alisyn Camerota talks with rape survivor Sam Blakely about the horrible new anti-abortion law recently signed in her state of Alabama by Republican governor Kay Ivey (what I would call a pathetic update from "The Old Gray Lady" is here)…
…and speaking of southern A-holes, TYT tells us about Repug U.S. Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas advocating war with Iran (and despite his wormy bullshit, yeah, that’s exactly what he’s advocating…and Bernie Sanders is right as usual, and so is the rest of the panel, Jayar Jackson in particular – and sorry, Ana, but Tulsi Gabbard is a joke)…
…and Brian Tyler Cohen tells us about AOC’s recent speech to rev up “the faithful” on behalf of the Green New Deal…
…and I guess this is a bit too easy of a musical selection considering the first video, but here it is anyway (and sorry, no Lynyrd Skynyrd today).
Update 5/21/19: Still fighting "the homosexual agenda," I see - what a joke (here).
Probably won’t be posting for about a week for personal reasons – there are times when I just can’t work up the rage I feel like I need to comment on this stuff properly…why on earth anyone would be so cowed into voting for a politician that allows this evil status quo with guns to go on for another minute is something I will never, ever understand (and let us never forget this young man)…
…and I’m sticking with Now This for the following from Dem U.S. House Rep Jamie Raskin…
…and as if to illustrate further what Raskin said, I give you this from The Damage Report…
...and after watching these clips, I have to admit that I'm in the mood for a tune to properly communicate my disgust, so on behalf of Trump supporters everywhere, I'll offer this.
Yep, it’s “Nail. Hammer. Head.” time from Elizabeth Warren, as noted here…
…and Pap and Farron Cousins tell us that the FEC, on a party line vote, decided not to try and keep dark money out of our political campaigns – I definitely think they’re going too easy on Russia and dismissing all of the garbage from our former ol’ buddy Vlad Putin – why the hell should Russia spend a dime trying to influence our elections when they can just hack our infrastructure and do what they want (I’m including this primarily because of their criticism of Saudi Arabia, among other nation/state miscreants)…
…and speaking of Middle East matters, I’m afraid the Gropenfuhrer and his minions are about to enter a new, horrifying stage of this utter pestilence of a *presidency,* and believe me when I tell you that I want to be wrong – I think more than a little bit of a hint is Secretary of State Mike Pompeo apparently ratcheting up messes all over the world (with the all-too-willing help of “Blow ‘Em Up” Bolton), including with Iran as noted here, probably because it helps to keep their lizard-brained supporters perpetually scared and wanting to vote for team “R”…I believe the quote from the “Batman” movie was “some men just want to watch the world burn” (potentially starting a war for oil, and the kicker is that the damn oil wouldn’t even be coming here but to Asia instead…not trying to justify any of this lunacy in any way, I hasten to add)…
…and in somewhat of a related story (when it comes to oil anyway), I give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” (more or less) from 5/6/09…this is a musical selection, and I can’t recall the last time I did that, but I think it’s timely given this (with maybe a tour next year, apparently).
I don’t think Dem U.S. House Rep Tim Ryan has any business running for president, but I applaud him for raising hell in this video on behalf of the Lordstown, Ohio GM workers who will, in all likelihood unfortunately, lose their jobs, as Brian Tyler Cohen tells us (as always, the issue is wages, and as always, the answer for that is strong unions)…
…and I respect Alyssa Milano, but I think she’s wrong to buy into this stupid framing about choosing between Trump and choosing policy alternatives – we need to choose both (Kyle is absolutely right, but I’m not sure that Bernie is the answer; Kyle is dumping on Elizabeth Warren for her defense funding vote – that’s fair, though I think you need to make a judgment based on the totality of someone’s representation versus one single instance, and on that count I think Warren comes out ahead of Bernie)…
…and I think this is a profile in courage, you might say; Andy McKean, the longest serving Republican in the Iowa state legislature, is changing parties from Republican to Democratic because he’s fed up with the Gropenfuhrer – he’ll probably be “rewarded” for this by getting turned out of office in the next election since his district went so heavy for Adolf Twitler last election…he retired once before and my guess is that he’s just fed up with everything, and I can’t blame him, but he’s trying to do a good deed on his way out, so kudos to him…
…and hey, U.S. Senate Dems - how the hell are we supposed to take over “the world’s greatest deliberative body” next year when, apparently, NOBODY WANTS TO RUN??!!, as Farron Cousins tells us (maybe it would be helpful if we didn't have about 6 million party members, as well as Bernie, running for president)…
…and Robert Reich is back for a reminder that Medicare for All is the way to go to insure more people, provide better health care outcomes and save money – not sure what else there is to think about here, people…
...and speaking of health care, this is National Nurse Appreciation Week - here is a tune for the occasion.
As noted here, the U.S. Senate recently failed to pass a 2/3rds vote to overturn Generalissimo Trump’s veto of a bill to end our support of Saudi Arabia’s slaughter in Yemen.
The 2/3rds margin was needed to prevent a filibuster. And if that isn’t an argument for destroying the filibuster once and for all, I don’t know what is.
Seven Republicans broke with the White House and joined all Senate Democrats to override the veto, which ultimately failed on a 53-45 vote. The measure needed 67 votes to override the veto. Sens. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla) did not vote.
…
The resolution passed the Senate in March and the House in April. The Senate also passed the measure in the previous Congress after it gained momentum in the aftermath of the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Some lawmakers viewed the resolution as a way to punish the Saudi government for Khashoggi’s murder.
"The United States should not be supporting a catastrophic war led by a despotic regime," (Independent Vermont U.S. Senator Bernie) Sanders said on the Senate floor. "This war is clearly unconstitutional. I hear many of my Republican friends claim that they are strict constitutionalists. Well, if you are a strict constitutionalist, voting to override Trump's veto should be a no-brainer because this war has not been authorized by Congress."
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) emphasized prior to the vote that Congress had "the opportunity to override the veto in pursuit of justice, prudence and upholding the constitutionally mandated separation of powers," while (Dem U.S. CT Senator Chris) Murphy blasted the government of Saudi Arabia.
"The Saudis' behavior has gotten more outrageous, has crossed more human rights lines, has compromised the safety of more American citizens, and yet no response from the United States Congress," Murphy said.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., urged his colleagues to reject the override vote. Republican critics of the resolution have argued that it fails to address threats posed by Iran.
"Abandoning our Saudi partners and Yemini partners is hardly the way to give them the confidence to take the hard diplomatice (sic) steps that are necessary," McConnell said on the Senate floor prior to the vote. "An abrupt withdrawal would be good news for Iran, the Houthi rebels they support and for al-Qaida as well."
I know it’s not exactly headline news to point out that Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao is a liar. However, it’s a little dicey to try and explain an admittedly complicated situation like this (even for your humble narrator, admittedly not the sharpest knife in the proverbial drawer) and explain HOW and WHY he is lying, but I’ll endeavor to do so.
To begin, influence peddling, along with ample amounts of money and patronage positions, be they elected or appointed (and I’ll admit that it gets harder to tell the difference every day), is what makes Washington, D.C. (and the Beltway corporate/political/media establishment) run. And yes, I know that isn’t exactly “man bites dog” stuff.
Here is what is going on: Ro Khanna (who continues to stand tall as far as I’m concerned) introduced a U.S. House resolution to end our involvement in this slaughter. So the Saudis sent their lobbyists to work, saying that we had to support them in their incursion against the Houthi rebels in Yemen (and that includes working on team “D” as well as team “R,” I hasten to add).
Oh, and why are the rebels rebelling, as it were? Well, because they opposed the Saudi-installed ruler in that country. So the Saudis of course attacked, trying to bomb the country into the Stone Age to bend them to their will. And the “boogeyman” that the lobbyists used to keep the pols in line was to say that the Saudis were trying to keep Iran out of Yemen.
Well, there are a couple of problems with that explanation (as noted here)…
While political and military leaders in Iran have vocally supported the Houthi rebellion against Yemen’s government, critics challenge the extent to which the rebels rely on financial or military support from Iranian operatives as alleged by Saudi Arabia.
The Atlantic Council, which typically takes a relatively hawkish line on foreign policy, noted in a 2017 report that more “recent evidence from interviews with Houthis suggests that Iran does not enjoy command and control over them,” citing several instances in which Houthi leaders ignored demands from Iran. The think tank added that while Houthis “generally admitted to some limited Iranian backing,” alleged flights connecting the two countries to bring weapons and advisers to the region “never materialized as the war broke out in earnest, putting the airport out of action.”
Hodeidah, Yemen (CNN) – Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners have transferred American-made weapons to al Qaeda-linked fighters, hardline Salafi militias, and other factions waging war in Yemen, in violation of their agreements with the United States, a CNN investigation has found.
The weapons have also made their way into the hands of Iranian-backed rebels battling the coalition for control of the country, exposing some of America's sensitive military technology to Tehran and potentially endangering the lives of US troops in other conflict zones.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, its main partner in the war, have used the US-manufactured weapons as a form of currency to buy the loyalties of militias or tribes, bolster chosen armed actors, and influence the complex political landscape, according to local commanders on the ground and analysts who spoke to CNN.
By handing off this military equipment to third parties, the Saudi-led coalition is breaking the terms of its arms sales with the US, according to the Department of Defense. After CNN presented its findings, a US defense official confirmed there was an ongoing investigation into the issue.
The revelations raise fresh questions about whether the US has lost control over a key ally presiding over one of the most horrific wars of the past decade, and whether Saudi Arabia is responsible enough to be allowed to continue buying the sophisticated arms and fighting hardware. Previous CNN investigations established that US-made weapons were used in a series of deadly Saudi coalition attacks that killed dozens of civilians, many of them children.
Isn’t that just the limit? Our “dear friends” the Saudis, who we’re supposed to support in lockstep, are violating arms agreements with us by giving our weapons to terrorists who apparently have for-real links to Iran. So if anyone is doing their best to involve Iran in these horrors, it’s the Saudis themselves! Oh, and by the way, as the story tells us, this also endangers our military!
This whole story makes me angry. Angry at representatives of our government for totally abdicating anything approximating diplomacy or an attempt to act like adults and use whatever “soft power” we still have to get the primary combatants in all of this to the table and try to end this insanity (and once again, the reason Trump gutted the State Department almost as soon as he parked his ample butt in the executive chair in An Oval Office, on Putin’s orders of course, is because THAT is the way we can genuinely make a difference in these ordeals, and Putin knew that of course). Angry at our media (with notable exceptions at times) for utterly failing to try and explain this admittedly difficult story and not letting themselves be spoon fed by politicians about it as per usual. Angry at the faith community overall for not making more noise about this. Angry at other world leaders for not showing us up to be utterly clueless on this matter, though, to be fair, the world still looks to us for leadership on this stuff, though we have ceded a lot of that I realize by sloth and stupidity…this is a chance to reclaim a bit of that, though were failing of course because of the aforementioned graft and influence peddling from amenable (or so we think) foreign actors to keep our politicians in line. Angry at voters who elect politicians who are so easily compromised. And angry at myself for not saying more about this using my admittedly small online soapbox.
I agree with Mike Lee on virtually nothing, but he (and Bernie Sanders of course, along with Chris Murphy and the other Senate Dems) are to be applauded for trying to end our involvement in this almost Biblical degree of carnage (and I grudgingly have to give credit to the seven Republican senators who have tried to end our involvement also, though I’m sure all of them as well as Lee will gladly stab us in the back some other way tomorrow and from that time going forward).
This bill to end our participation in this utter disaster must be brought to a vote once more. And we must all do more to make our voices heard to end our involvement once and for all (all of which puts me in the mood to hear this tune)…
Update 10/25/21: I give you Corporate Media Cluelessness, Part The Infinity, as Charlie Pierce might say (here).
Amy Goodman of “Democracy Now” tells us about Jamie Davis Smith, who is only trying to obtain health coverage for her daughter to continue living but has to go to truly heroic measures to accomplish that task in a country with generally poor health care outcomes (the clip is about a month old, and a completely unsurprising update IMHO is here...and by the way, don’t think that, because I’m linking here, that I’m on board with Tulsi Gabbard in any way, shape or form, because I’m not…too many questions about her and the Assad regime in Syria and the Modi family in India, and this “Dem maverick” act of hers went out with grunge as far as I’m concerned) – more to the point, why anyone would trust a liar like Trump and a Republican Party that has tried over 60 times in Congress to repeal “Obamacare” without a replacement is something I’ll never understand – and to imagine getting a divorce to keep health care…what country am I living in again?…
…and speaking of health care, Cenk and John I. tell us about this Repug idiot Debbie Lasko saying that illegals should just die instead of getting medical treatment, even though they’re allowed to do so because The Sainted Ronnie R actually did something right, which the doctor tries to tell Lasko, but all she does in response is keep reading the script – people actually elect numbskulls like her (the hearing had to do with Medicare for All as noted here, and I guess we just need to keep saying over and over and over and over and over and over and over that, yes, it will be expensive, but it will be at least 2 trillion cheaper over the next decade than our unsustainable system of private coverage and M4A will ensure more people (here) – God almighty!)…
…and Ro Khanna continues to stand tall on this subject among others (more good work from Brian Tyler Cohen also)…
…and apparently, Americans are some of the most stressed-out people in the planet – proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free (by the way, I’m genuinely not trying to inflict stress on anyone by doing this; in my way, I’m endeavoring to inform…I hope I’m succeeding and not causing negativity, or at least not too much anyway)…
…and once more, Seth Meyers finds a way to weave comedy gold from still more dross from the Gropenfuhrer; I know this clip is a couple of days old (and with all due respect to dogs, I think the “greatest equipment” is a subpoena)…
…and I don’t know what’s up with all of these dudes standing in the shadows, but for an indie tune, I think this is pretty good.
In a related story, Brian Tyler Cohen shows how Dem U.S. Senator Kamala Harris of CA basically cornered Trump legal fixer Bill Barr into confirming that he didn’t go through the evidence presented in the Mueller Report, even though Barr said that he did (we need to keep fighting of course, but I’m beginning to wonder if the full report will ever see the light of day, unlike the results of the Ken Starr inquisition during the Clinton years, which was completely unredacted when it hit the bookstores – Republicans will keep abusing power until the day comes when they actually lose it, which, outside of a courtroom judgment, is the only penalty they will ever understand)…
…and TYT tells us about that numbskull Brian Kilmeade attacking the firefighters union head over its endorsement of Joe Biden (with Brett Erlich, Cenk and Hasan Piker…unfortunately, as nearly as I can determine, Erlich is right about HRC from ’16…and good points here by Piker about Biden, the Teamsters and Cozen O’Connor)…
…and Farron Cousins tells us of the increase of the price of consumer goods related to the Gropenfuhrer’s tariffs (such as washing machines and dryers just for kicks also apparently, among a lot of other stuff – and yeah, you would think this would make the price of these goods cheaper…you would think)…
…and happy belated 80th birthday (!) to Judy Collins.
I thought this was some pretty clear-eyed commentary from David Pakman about what we’re dealing with concerning our Lunatic-In-Chief at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (and yeah, on the matter of stonewalling and the impeachment question, I think he’s right to forget about waiting for the “constitutional conservatives”)…
…and there’s almost too much that is wrong about Stephen Moore to properly catalog here – it’s an understatement to say that this Koch-backed shill has no business in public life whatsoever, to say nothing of being grossly unqualified for a positon at the Federal Reserve Board, but this video pretty much puts the proverbial exclamation point of all of this awfulness (more Moore stuff is here)…
Update 5/2/19: Yeah, it's never a good sign when what you've said and written is being "reviewed" after your nomination has already been put forward, even for the Trumpsters - Moore can now go back to Fix Noise and bloviate with impunity again (here).
…and speaking of Trump sycophants, Repug Sen. Charles Grasshole of Iowa recently talked down to a constituent when she confronted him over his awful health care votes; I think this is the “Aggressive Progressives” crew – I’ll pay more attention to them now that Jimmy Dore is gone…
…and, apparently, even though the Dems managed to retake the U.S. House last fall, somehow this Repug fathead from Minnesota named Jim Hagedorn ended up getting elected – Hagedorn recently gave us this jewel of wingnuttery, which made me recall the following clip; let’s see what we can do about erasing this mistake next year…
…and RIP director John Singleton (of “Boyz N The Hood” of course)…
…and somehow I neglected to note that yesterday was the birthday of the one and only Willie Nelson – hope it was a great one.
This clip from NowThis tells us about the documentary film from Jen Senko about her dad being indoctrinated by Fix Noise and right wing talk radio – sounds like he made it out the other side, fortunately for him and his family (more here)…
…and of course the “Democrat” governor reference in this clip is the least awful thing that our Insane, Tiny Handed, Treasonous Lunatic In Chief has recently concocted, as Brian Tyler Cohen tells us…
Oh, and even though Trump is unleashing more of his typical BS, this time on the whole “born alive” garbage, you would think that the Catholic Church would realize that they’re a party to all of this and say, “hey, we want to get rid of Roe v. Wade, but this is all a bridge too far, as it were.” You know, on account of that whole “bearing false witness” thing.
I mean, that’s what you would think, right?
Well, as it turns out, you would be wrong. This is a link to the web site of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and do you know what they have to say about this?
Cue the sound of crickets…
That’s because the Catholic Church is perfectly happy to keep using ABORTION ABORTION ABORTION ABORTION ABORTION ABORTION ABORTION as a proverbial wedge issue regardless of the harm it does to individual families having to make painful decisions where support from faith leaders could provide some measure of healing, instead of, say, hectoring those same families. And this is to say nothing of harming communities, municipalities, states and (for that matter) the whole damn country (to say nothing of the entire world, since they support the political party that wants to do nothing while the world continues to boil...though, on the other hand)...
…and turning to more legal garbage from our Deatheater-In-Chief, as I watched this, I couldn’t help but get the sinking, despairing feeling that Comey, Rosenstein and now Mueller just turned out to be the same old Republicans falling in line like they’re supposed to, as Bill Maher tells us (NSFW)…
…and Sam Bee gives Number 45 the treatment he deserves for chickening out – again – on the White House Correspondents Dinner (NSFW again - more here)…
…and I think Farron Cousins is a little behind on the thing with Ollie North (here – and what kind of a scumbag do you have to be to be booted out of the NRA, I wonder?), but otherwise he’s spot-on about the Giffords Law Center trying to get the FEC to do its job…
…and this may be a bit of a “Nixon Goes to China” musical selection, but as far as President Fergus Laing is concerned, the title definitely fits.
I now give you the latest chapter of “This Day In Doomsy History” (more or less) from 4/25/17…just taking a comparatively short trip around the corner as it were to see everything that our Treasonous, Tiny-Handed Deatheater-in-Chief managed to NOT accomplish in his first 100 days…
President Trump promised A LOT for his first 100 days – and he accomplished none of it pic.twitter.com/RBA4dcP0pV
…and if you think I’m being a little too fatalistic conjuring up death references concerning the “party of Lincoln,” this clip from Cenk Uygur, John Iadarola and Jayar Jackson of The Young Turks tells us that Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao is doing that without any help or prompting whatsoever (and Cenk is sadly correct about the Dems and their messaging, as well as our utterly useless corporate "both sides" media)…
…and speaking of overly dramatic and corrupt Republicans, Steven Arnold King of the U.S House from Iowa compares his censure over white supremacy to the Crucifixion (here); still waiting for King to be flayed with a cat o’ ninetails and nailed to a tree (part of me wonders how he made sure his staff was made up of “solid, faithful people at every level”…gee, I wonder if their civil rights were violated somehow…wouldn’t surprise me)…
…and yeah, a lot of us got hosed on our taxes, which I intend to keep mentioning – and no, it wasn’t our imagination – and yeah, why in God’s name would you even consider voting for a Republican after this...
…and I suppose I should opine on the entire dustup over taking down the statue of Kate Smith in front of the WTF Center in South Philadelphia, with Smith identified as the singer of “God Bless America” for the uninitiated, which is frequently played in place of the national anthem before Flyers hockey games…I have no information whatsoever on the question of whether or not Smith was a racist in any way; I’m inclined to assume she wasn’t, and even if she was, she’s not here to defend herself – I have a feeling that a music publisher and/or a recording company told her to sing these two incredibly vile – but somehow acceptable – songs from long ago, “Pickaninny Heaven” and “That’s Why Darkies Were Born,” and she pretty much had to…now, as noted here, it turns out that she also gave a 1945 speech about tolerance, to her credit…in some ways this is a tough call, but given the age we live in, you have to respect people’s sensibilities – I think the fact that the New York Yankees also bailed on Smith (they had a similar relationship with her music apparently) hastened the Flyers’ decision since they didn’t want to be legally liable by themselves…and I had to laugh reading former Flyers VP Lou Schienfeld complaining that Smith was a victim of “political correctness”…want some cheese with your whine?...and if the mayor of “chicken wing beach” wants the statue, let him have it – except for the Crest, my shore memories of Wildwood are lousy anyway…the only part of this story that makes me side with the wingnuts is the part about covering up her statue, which was truly ridiculous…
...and here's another obligatory tune from yours truly, perhaps a bit elegiac for spring, but there you are.
It looks like the Repug tax scam of December 2017 (voted for by every U.S. congressional Repug, including Bri-Fi and “No Corporate Tax” Pat Toomey and signed into law by our Treasonous, Tiny-Handed Deatheater-In-Chief) did what it was supposed to do, which is to comfort the comfortable and stick it to everybody else, as Kyle K. reminds us…
…and Brian Tyler Cohen gives us Adam Schiff’s response to Chris Wallace of Fix Noise on the issue of the Gropenfuhrer and his ruling cabal in the matter of Russian collusion (and no, Uday Jr., stupidity isn’t a defense, despite what you demonstrate in ample quantities)…
…and militias are “helping” our U.S. customs and border patrol to detain immigrants at our southern border (here) – what could possibly go wrong, I wonder? And did anybody deputize these ammo-sexual lunatics? If so, who?...
…and I know I included a Bernie Sanders clip yesterday, so to be fair, I should highlight other candidates seeking the Democratic Party nomination for president, and I can think of no one more deserving than Elizabeth Warren, speaking here on our criminal justice system and the issue of for-profit prisons, which to me is an obscenity (Cenk, Ana and the TYT crew explain) - and what she calls for here works for me also…
…and AOC continues to fight the good fight against trying to privatize health care through the VA – yeah, she’s such a radical Marxist, isn’t she?...
…and I apologize for neglecting to mention that yesterday was Earth Day – hope it was a positive day, because our environment definitely needs it (here).
Given that today is the 65th anniversary of the beginning of the Army-McCarthy hearings, I think this is a timely video (also considering how perilously close we are to returning to those awful days given the influence of the Gropenfuhrer and his vile minions, with the thoroughly infamous Roy Cohn as a link between McCarthy and our Treasonous, Tiny Handed Deatheater-In-Chief)…
…and I don’t think it’s that big of a “get” here to apply the Nixon standard of impeachment, if you will, to the actions of Generalissimo Trump, but I still thought this was a good background segment hosted by Ari Melber with David Corn, Betsy Woodruff and Joyce Vance on a deeper dive into the Mueller Report (“Why does Bill Barr want to be Roy Cohn?” – good question...and I don't know how much the Democratic Party leadership gets it or not, but this is an opportunity to show the country what they would do with the reins of power; they'd better know what to do with it or it could blow up in their proverbial face)…
…and Farron Cousins tells us about this Repug lunatic in Washington state named Matt Shea, who apparently wants to carry out violent attacks against liberals – please explain to me how we’re supposed to make some kind of common cause with this insane biped life forms…
…and if you throw down the proverbial gauntlet in front of AOC, you’d better be prepared to pick it up, as Sam Seder and the TMR panel tell us (and yeah, that “glass of water” remark from Nancy Pelosi was pretty dumb, even though I think she was talking about a generic “D” and not necessarily AOC and the other freshman House Dems)…
…and I have to admit that I thought this was a terrific video from the Bernie Sanders campaign (here); THIS is what the election should be all about…as I watched this, I realize that there are a lot of Democrats and independents out there who have gone on record as saying that they won’t support him for the nomination, and yeah, the purist in me thinks the nominee of the Democratic Party for president should be an actual Democrat, but if he does indeed get the nomination, we’d better put all of that aside and do our best to help him since, if 2016 taught us anything, it should be to take ABSOLUTELY NOTHING for granted; that being said, I think the opposite definitely holds true, and the Sanders camp for sure needs to do something about this - more context is here)…
We interrupt our regularly scheduled treasonous insanity to give you this utterly demeaning and moronic idiocy from Washington State Senator Maureen Walsh about “nurses playing cards” (here – my hope is that Sen. Walsh needs a nurse one day; she’ll get expert care I'm sure, which definitely isn’t what she deserves…and sorry I haven’t included a pic of a Yemeni child again)…
…and speaking of stoo-pid, Farron Cousins tells us that the Repugs are arguing that wind is a national security threat and bad for the economy – sometimes there are no words, people…
…and for anyone who may not know, today is the 20th anniversary of the Columbine gun massacre…
...and I feel like bringing back this tune for the occasion.
(Yes, I know I’m going back on my promise from last time to show Yemen kids – I’ll try to do so again as soon as I can.)
Brian Tyler Cohen gives us his take on Shep Smith’s reporting on the utterly ridiculous whitewash press conference held by Attorney General William Barr yesterday pertaining to the Mueller Report (and the “illegal leaks” stuff from Barr is particularly stoo-pid)…
…and Lawrence O’Donnell gives us his take on the redacted Mueller Report also, including what may be the most memorable line of all; I think O’Donnell is absolutely right – at least I hope so – on how the Dems will follow up (even thought this is a particularly pathetic response from the party’s “leadership,” though this from AOC is typically spot-on...you can tell how much she hit a nerve by how rabid the trolls are in the comments, misspellings, typos and all) and the Repugs will try to bury everything…
Update: As far as I'm concerned, she's been leading the way on every issue that matters, so I'm not surprised she's ahead on this too (here).
…and Stephen Colbert weighs in also (didn’t see anything else from his show or from Sam Bee)…
…and I thought this was a precious little nugget from history; the Gropenfuhrer comments on the Bill Clinton/Monica Whatsername stuff from ’98 with Tweety…see if you can detect criticism aimed at Number 42 that now applies to our Russian Operative head of state – we’ll see what kind of “Teflon” remains from our current occupant of An Oval Office…
…and I have to admit that I got a kick out of this; if Fix Noise covered Our Treasonous, Tiny-Handed Deatheater-in-Chief the way they covered his predecessor, it would probably go something like this…
…and this Monday marks the 60th anniversary of the final session for “Kind of Blue” by Miles Davis, which (last I checked) was still the largest selling jazz recording of all time (I know the solos are by Davis and by John Coltrane, and I think the pianist was Wynton Kelly, but I’m not sure of the other musicians).
I know that, at this site as well as many others, we ridicule Republicans (quite rightly as far as I’m concerned) when we think they deserve it, which is just about (but not quite) all the time…sometimes they actually AREN’T horrible, such as the one time out of at least 10 (closer to 20) when Brian Fitzpatrick actually does the right thing. And of course that includes our Treasonous, Tiny Handed Orange Dictator, though I haven’t had a reason to give him credit for ANYTHING and I don’t expect that I ever will. And a lot of that has to do with the typical political/media/Beltway insider BS that passes for so much of our political dialogue.
However, it’s a very different story as far as I’m concerned when stuff in the news isn’t the typical idiotic fodder (such as our supposedly elite opinion-makers bloviating as usual), but matters pertaining to genuine human misery and actual life and death.
And yes, I’m talking about Trump’s veto of the honest-to-goodness bipartisan Congressional resolution (and truth be told, when does THAT happen anymore?) to end our involvement in the slaughter in Yemen (here).
It should be obvious to even the most casual observer what kind of a monster truly resides in An Oval Office these days (oh, and by the way, don’t think he’ll be a pushover with fundraising numbers like this unfortunately). And it is just as apparent that there are waaay too many life forms out there all too eager to let our Deatheater-In-Chief have his way (under the guise of religion, hatred of “the other,” whatever Fix Noise tells them…or any and all of the above). So for that reason, I’m planning to include pictures of the children Trump has sentenced to an all-too-short life of pain and misery with these posts as opposed to snarky cartoons and other memes.
John Iadarola and Alex Emmons of The Intercept give their commentary (and yes, unfortunately a lot of presidents might do this, but we know who is responsible)…
…and here’s further embarrassment from Number 45, this time on his typical idiocy about fighting the Notre Dame blaze with flying water tankers or something (oh, but he’s SO GODLY according to those evangelical sheep, waiting to be led to the proverbial slaughter)…
…well, maybe this is the version of Him who those supporting the Gropenfuhrer truly worship (and about the Vote part, let’s not forget the primaries in many locations next month, including our beloved commonwealth)…
…and yeah, leave it to the “land of the yellow rose” to come up with some wackadoodle who is so pro-life that he’ll kill people for it, as Kyle K. tells us (NSFW - more here)…
…and Seth Meyers somehow finds comedy from this and related nonsense concerning our Russian Operative chief of state…
…and I now give you what I would call a rather interesting piece of musical trivia; on this day in 1971, all four members of The Beatles had a single on the UK chart as solo artists…”It Don’t Come Easy” by Ringo, “My Sweet Lord” by George Harrison, “Another Day” by Sir Paul, and this tune (as true now as ever).
Update 2 4/16/19: And I think this is well said also.
…and because the “meat and potatoes,” if you will, of this site is political stuff and related news, I give you Brian Tyler Cohen on Chris Wallace and Shep Smith pushing back against Trump BS on immigration.
And by the way, I am SO FED UP with watching Democrats act absolutely flummoxed on the whole “sanctuary cities” thing…the term, like so much other garbage in our dialogue, came from a right-wing think tank…a “sanctuary” city or state obeys the rule of law; someone from ICE can’t just come up to you and say, “I don’t like you, and you fit my profile of someone breaking the law, so you’re coming with me”…bullshit! In a “sanctuary city,” someone purporting to arrest you has to produce a warrant and show cause.
This tells me, then, that conservatives favor “detention cities” where you can be strong-armed against your rights, in violation of anything approximating due process. BUT I NEVER SEE CHICKEN DEMOCRATS ACTUALLY MAKING THAT ARGUMENT!
Anyway, here is the BTC clip…
…and CNN’s Brian Stelter tells us here how the latest garbage about Dem U.S. House Rep Ilhan Omar got started (a little uncomfortable with fire references at the moment given the Notre Dame tragedy)…
…and I can’t think of too many other tunes to offer right now besides this one.
It looks like the wingnutosphere is all in a rage yet again over Dem U.S. House Rep Ilhan Omar – so, people lose their minds over her saying “some people did things” about 9/11 but the routinely offensive actual garbage from people like Generalissimo Trump, Louie Gohmert and Steve King draw yawns by comparison? Uh…yeah – I guess that’s where we’re at.
For the benefit of anyone who doesn’t get this by now (maybe one or two), please allow me to explain.
Fix Noise and the New York Post are probably the chief operators in what is (I would guess) about a billion-dollar outrage machine in this country. And as far as their “subscribers,” if you will, are concerned, hate is like oxygen to them. In point of fact, Omar could have given a news conference and said, “Gee, I woke up this morning and saw that the sky is blue,” and there are people out there who would still go nuts and say, “OMIGOD, IT WAS CLOUDY OUTSIDE THIS MORNING! SHE’S PART OF A GLOBALIST CONSPIRACY!!”
Well anyway, I thought this was a good response from Cenk and Ana (along with their sadly apropos commentary on the Democratic Party congressional “leadership”)…
Update 4/15/19: By the way, when it comes to Democrats Behaving Badly, I suggest that you follow Lee Fang on Twitter (here) who has been doing great work (along with some other folks) following the proverbial money between the Center for American Progress, the New America Foundation, and some truly strange bedfellows, as it were.
…and when it comes to Democrats with actual guts, I give you this about AOC giving it to the “banksters” in a recent congressional hearing, as Brian Tyler Cohen tells us (this is what actual representation in a democratically elected government looks like, by the way...and so is this)…
…and it looks like the Trumpsters found a way to weaponize the tax code, as CNN’s John Avlon explains here…yet another reason to hate this bunch of criminals; I can personally attest to this…we haven’t owed on our federal return in over 15 years, but we do now - and you voted for this, Bri-Fi)…
…and this is one hell of an argument for getting rid of the filibuster from Dem Sen. Elizabeth Warren…
…and I give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” from 4/13/14 (I know I haven’t done this for a little while)…the next time you see anything having to do with Dem Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, remember that her former fellow Dem Senator Al Franken, speaking out here against the proposed Comcast and Time-Warner merger (which eventually failed, by the way), who was accused of sexually related misconduct as we know, wanted a Senate ethics committee investigation in response but Gillibrand said no – Franken had to resign immediately…not condoning what Franken was accused of in anyway, but I think this video gives us an idea of just how much of an important voice we ended up losing…and in a related story as they say, Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao will NEVER allow a vote on Net Neutrality in the Senate, and I think this is the main reason why...also, here is more on McCutcheon which Franken referred to...Bri-Fi also voted against Net Neutrality, as noted here)…
…and exactly 50 years ago today, this song was Number One on the Billboard Top 40 chart (more here - and yes, this was yet another production with The Wrecking Crew).
Former Obama Secretary of State John Kerry recently appeared before the U.S. House on the climate crisis, and met with typical wingnut Repug idiocy, as Brian Tyler Cohen tells us (more here...and in a related story, this was a thing too as it turned out...good Lord)…
…and here is more proof WHY OUR STUPID CORPORATE MEDIA IS PATHETIC, Part The Infinity as Charlie Pierce might say (here) – it takes a COMEDIAN to tell the truth anymore, as usual, though I realize Stephen Colbert is pretty damn “woke” in his way (I could feel brain cells dying as I watched that pitiable orange meat sack)…
…and Farron Cousins tells us about the U.S. House Dems standing up to pharmaceutical executives; of course, Teahadists Mark Meadows and Gym Jordan are telling Big Pharma not to cooperate with the request from the party in power in the House, as you might expect…
..and I think they’re coming to the Mann Music Center in these parts in July – might pay StubHub a visit shortly.
Brooke Thomas and John Iadarola of The Damage Report tell us here about Dem U.S. House Rep Katherine Clark of MA squaring off with Cruella DeVos over the Ed Secretary’s citing of a propaganda screed disguised as serious research claiming that minority kids basically aren’t going to do anything in school but cause trouble – yeah, that’s about par for the miserable course for this regime of criminals, charlatans and fools (more here)…
…and I give you the latest Trumpster fire nominee for the Federal Reserve Board (more here)…
…and Farron Cousins tells us about the departure of DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen – don’t let the door hit you on the way out, lady (more here)…
…and I know I already said something about the Dems in the U.S. House (and some Repugs including Bri-Fi) voting to reauthorize the VAWA, but I wanted to note in particular the utter Neanderthal treatment given to Dem U.S. Rep Debbie Dingell, with a commentary from Brian Tyler Cohen…
…and Kyle of Secular Talk tells us about Stuart Varney and some other talking head-ette who are mad at Pope Frank for opposing the Gropenfuhrer and his stoo-pid wall (very mildly NSFW by Kyle’s standards)…
…and last Friday marked the 25th anniversary of the death of Kurt Cobain of Nirvana…not trying to sound like a Pollyanna, but try to stay away from the bad stuff and always reach out to try and get help if you think you need it or you know someone who does.
John I on The Damage Report tells us how our Treasonous, Tiny Handed Orange Dictator is deciding to face off somewhat with AOC – I largely try to ignore that misogynist methane dispenser taking up space in An Oval Office, but I guess sometimes I have to actually acknowledge his existence…
…and Dem U.S. Senator Michael Bennet stands tall again in the face of more garbage from Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao on blowing up the U.S. Senate, cutting the time for debating judicial nominees from 30 hours to 2 hours, as Brian Tyler Cohen tells us (and in a related story, I think Sen. Elizabeth Warren is on the right track here – let’s end this fairy tale that the U.S. Senate, the “world’s greatest deliberative body,” is some kind of collegial place where everybody gets along in a respectful manner…BS; Repugs have been doing everything they can to knee-cap the Dems for decades, and if getting rid of the filibuster helps to return that “favor,” then that works for me)…
…and Cenk and Ana of TYT tell us about the renewal of the Violence Against Women Act in the House, and the wall it is likely to run into when it reaches the Senate (related to the prior clip as far as I’m concerned…and to be honest, the actions of Dianne Feinstein here trying to play nice with Repug Joni Ernst are more worrisome to me IMHO than when she talked about the Green New Deal in her office in front of those school kids…and though I have a lot of issues with him aside from this, I have to be fair and note that our Repug house rep Brian Fitzpatrick voted in favor of VAWA renewal)…
…and I’m afraid that we may be looking at the beginning of the “Trump slump” on the economy (terrific), as Farron Cousins tells us…
…and Sam Seder and The Majority Report tell us about some idiot named Roger Williams in Texas (of course…not “born free,” I guess…sorry – a bit of an obscure joke) who asks “if you’re a capitalist or a socialist” and says “Yes or No answer” – uhhh, brainiac?You’re not asking a “yes” or “no” question…just say “oops” and get out…the subject is reauthorizing the national flood insurance program, apparently – oh so clever, this one is…
…and as a parent, I have to tell you that I’m not crazy about the drug references in this song, but otherwise I think this is a great tune for a Friday night.
