Thursday Stuff

John and Jayar of The Damage Report tell us about the response from Dr. Anthony Fauci on CNN to the charge from The Swanson TV Dinner Heir that the COVID-19 vaccines allegedly aren’t any good (making it excruciatingly hard to actually get to a point where we can resume something approximating a normal routine – I’m beginning to wonder if we’ll EVER be rid of this plague...and as someone who gew up in Philly, maybe I shouldn't say this, but I love the fact that Fauci responds with his "New Yawwk" accent that he grew up with, as if to add an unspoken "FU" to Carlson)...



...and sticking with The Roger Ailes BS Factory...as much as I wish for Rupert The Pirate to get his comeuppance at long last, I just don’t see that happening in this world, though, like Limbaugh, Murdoch’s ultimate reckoning awaits...



...and this Now This clip tells us about Republicans from the Texas suburbs who were encouraged to be poll watchers against “fraud” in Houston – yep, only people with the right skin color should use the universal franchise once more as far as they’re concerned, and the whiter, the better I guess...



...and Farron Cousins tells us about the assclown governor of Mississippi, Tate Reeves, who apparently wants to designate April as Confederate History Month (yep, when Repugs refuse to face issues for real, they just retreat to their tribal culture wars BS)...



...and Sam and Emma of The Majority Report tell us about “Man Tan” Boehner’s attempt at image rebuilding to sell his book, with the help of the thoroughly unctuous Willie Geist of “Morning Jo(ke).”

As for yours truly, I’ll tell you exactly what my issue is with Boehner (and I’m a little surprised the video didn’t touch on this)...

Boehner played a pivotal role in the 2011 budget ceiling garbage and the sequestration deal that resulted from it (a totally manufactured “crisis”) with the Obama Administration. The thinking by the Obama folks was OF COURSE we’ll come up with some kind of an agreement over spending with Boehner, because nobody wanted the sequester to go into effect, arbitrarily slashing governmental spending across the board (except, quite rightly, for entitlements and the military, though apparently entitlements have been affected somewhat too). Well, it turned out that the Obama folks naively didn’t pick up on the fact that INITIATING THE SEQUESTER WAS THE WHOLE GODDAMN POINT!

And if you want to get an idea of how harmful the sequester has been, I offer this, this, and this (and I'll keep looking for more current information, but this is apparently yet another topic that our corporate media refuses to deal with)...



Update 4/21/21: And let's not forget this about Boehner also.

...and speaking of fails by the fourth estate, I honestly don’t know why this wasn’t included in the clip with Rachel Maddow speaking with Sherrilyn Ifill of the NAACP about all of the garbage voting bills in this country, as well as this and this (Maddow led into this segment by mentioning the full-page ads in the Times and the WaPo...and speaking once more of fourth-estate fails, I give you this)...



...and this video is about a year old I know, but it has to do with CEO Dan Price, who has been trumpeting how he commendably raised the salaries of his workers and managed to grow his business at the same time, contrary to right-wing BS economy orthodoxy of course (more here)...



...and as long as money seems to be a recurring theme in this post, I thought I’d present this timely number (I believe the filing deadline was extended to May 17th – we managed to do OK this year and we hope you do too).

Wednesday Stuff

This Now This clip provides some more detail from Igor Volsky (formerly of Think Progress) on the executive actions taken by President Biden related to common sense gun reform (of course, what we REALLY need is for Congress to act, but I’m not holding my breath given that nothing on the federal level happened after Sandy Hook...once more, love to be wrong)...



...and this Meidas Touch video (titled the “GOP Pedo Ring”) is kind of self-explanatory (and once more, if the Democrats knew anything at all about messaging – noted in another video in this post – they would make damn sure what’s presented here became ingrained in the minds of every voter in this country)...



..and David Pakman tells us that embattled GOP congressional lowlife Matt Gaetz is suspected in a “ghost” candidate scheme...I know I touched on this last Saturday, but apparently more metaphorical shoes have dropped on this story since, though apparently Gaetz is in deeper doo-doo on other stuff of course...as far as I’m concerned, Jill Stein was a “ghost” candidate in 2016 (and still, the only candidate of the “party of Lincoln” who has told Gaetz to GTFOH is Adam Kinzinger...still crickets from this guy)...



...and this TYT clip tells us about Fix and Fiends attacking Biden on Infrastructure (yes, Buttigieg was off with the numbers, sure, but take a look at the people throwing stones, and he’s also done a good job in other interviews despite what Ana says...I get a little tired of Cenk and Ana beating the anti-corporate Dem drum the way they do, though I definitely agree with them that the Dems SUCK at messaging and are still behind the proverbial 8-ball in using social media – why I will never truly know)...



...and a hat tip for this video goes out to Egberto Willies of Daily Kos (you can follow him on Twitter and subscribe to his YouTube channel also of course), with Mika B. talking with Steve Rattner about increased income inequality as a result of the pandemic (of course, Willie Geist and Randall Lane have to find a way to blunt this story somehow ...“hey, we had 483 new billionaires”...but fortunately, Rattner and the other political reporter at the end make sure we “keep our eye on the ball”)...



...and happy belated 75th birthday to Al Green (not the Dem TX U.S. congressman, I hasten to add, though he's a good dude too...any time I hear this song any more, all I can think of is a close-up of Bruce Willis's face listening to profane instructions from Ving Rhames based on this movie).

Tuesday Stuff

I would say that the era of “vaccine passports” has already arrived, in accordance with Keith Olbermann’s entirely correct IMO observations here; actually, given stories like this, we may get to the point in this country where people from one state/commonwealth may have to quarantine when they travel vs. people from other places who won’t have to – love to be wrong...



...and Cenk and Ana tell us about Caron Nazario, who was the officer pulled over in Virginia by police in that commonwealth (and by the way, I’m not disagreeing with what Cenk and Ana say here about the Democrats – Obama once had that “beer summit,” which was nothing but a stupid one-off of a photo op – but I would only point out how the Dems got absolutely clobbered over “defund the police” in 2020...blame cowardly politicians, but blame STOO-PID voters for validating bullshit right wing talking points too...and in response to this, I have one word: GOOD!)...



...and David Doel tells us about the shooting of Daunte Wright in Minnesota by a cop who apparently thought she had a taser instead of a gun (an update is here)...And I can tell you right now how the wingnuts are going to clap-back over this; they’re going to mention the state troopers in Texas and Iowa who were killed recently (apples and oranges, I know) and say...to paraphrase Cenk...”HOW DARE YOU EVEN MENTION DOING ANYTHING WHATSOEVER TO AFFECT THE COPS OVER THIS!! BACK THE BLUE!!! BLUE LIVES MATTER!!!” And their lemming-like viewers and listeners will lap it all up and use it to vote against Democrats, screwing themselves over yet again...see previous comment about BS talking points...



...and I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” (more or less) from 4/15/11...it’s not often that these selections are so topical in the news, but this is one such rare occasion; the following video from the “Rethink Afghanistan” series from Brave New Films gives us the “Afghan War Calculator,” which is timely given this announcement from the Biden Administration that we are leaving that country at long last, as noted here...



Update 4/14/21: The Afghanistan story made me recall this post, for what it's worth.

...and Brian Tyler Cohen tells us all about wingnut Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s selective outrage over the conditions at a migrant detention facility (and yeah, spare me this garbage of “under Trump it was federal and we didn’t have jurisdiction, but under Biden it’s a state matter, so we do”...you either care about kids separated from their families and forced to live in horrendous conditions of utter deprivation or you don’t)...



...and I honestly don’t have a clue as to what corporations in the aggregate, you might say, are going to do with the mid-term elections coming up, though, as Farron Cousins says, it’s interesting that they had a call over the weekend to figure out what to do in response to the awful voter suppression bills such as the one in Georgia and others making their way through legislatures across the country (in the end, Repugs fall in line, and I have a feeling they’ll do that again here, though I very much want to be wrong on that also)...



...and I was glad to come across this clip from Ali Velshi of MSNBC about the importance of immigrants to this country (should be obvious, but I guess it bears repeating from time to time)...



...and happy 77th birthday to bassist extraordinaire Jack Casady of Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna (and my bad for failing to mention the 80th birthday of Jorma Kaukonen last December).

Monday Stuff

John I. and Dr. Rashad Richey tell us about a Republican attack ad vs. Marjorie Taylor Greene in an anticipated primary...unfortunately, I think Richey’s analysis is spot-on, though I don’t mean that against him of course...only wish to say that, as Richey says, Greene’s base won’t care about this ad – might rally support for her as he says...



...and RIP former Lyndon Johnson Attorney General Ramsey Clark, who, in addition to serving as a Marine, fought for progressive causes and had a lot to do with the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Civil Rights Act of 1968 (here, he speaks with Amy Goodman of Democracy Now from 2013 about the effort to free attorney Lynne Stewart, who died in 2017)...



...and Cenk, Jayar and Ben Dixon tell us about Eric Bolling storming off the set of a BBC interview in response to Georgia’s horrible anti-voting law...good job to bring up all of Bolling’s prior garbage...and boy, does Jayar nail this at the end...



...and Sam and Emma of The Majority Report speak with a PA caller in support of a national infrastructure bank (you can read more about the group she discusses from here)...



...and you can consider this 1980 clip of conservative godfather Paul Weyrich, speaking out in favor of voting restrictions, to be a reminder of the impetus behind all of the garbage anti-voting laws the “party of Lincoln” is currently trying to pass in state legislatures across the country (more here)...



...and I guess I had this newer tune in mind for the first video in particular, though I know it can be applied to many others besides the GA-14 lunatic wingnut U.S. House rep.

Saturday Stuff

OK, so let me get this straight – Joe Manchin apparently took as a lesson from the 1/6 insurrection that we need to work more with those poor, misunderstood wingnut Trumpers who tried to install Our Treasonous Tiny-Handed Former Dictator for another term (and who managed to get people killed, including Ofc. Brian Sicknick, as well as scores injured), instead of, y’know, quite rightly vilifying these life forms in the manner they deserve. WHAAAA????

Cenk says that’s just cover for Manchin sucking up to his donors and looking out for his own interests, and I think Cenk is right (with Ana in the TYT clip below...I think Cenk’s outrage is commendable, but I can easily see Manchin going over to the “R” side if he gets his shorts in enough of a knot, handing the Senate back to Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao, which makes Manchin even more disgusting of course)...

via GIPHY

...and turning to the other half of that utterly useless Dem U.S. Senate duo, Kyrsten Sinema acknowledged that "the world's greatest deliberative body" is broken, but has now officially gone on record saying that she won’t do anything about it...figures (Farron Cousins explains)...



...and when it comes to media prognostications that very definitely didn’t age well, John and Dr. Rashad Richey of “The Damage Report” tell us that Fix Noise managed to summon forth the fossilized remains of Brit Hume in April ’20 so he could basically say that COVID-19 wasn’t going to be a big deal...as usual, wrongness is a badge of honor for media punditry, where there is almost no accountability (and on the subject of our ongoing plague, I swear, considering this story, we may get to the point where we'll need ID cards from every state, with people from some states not being allowed to enter others where a higher risk of infection is feared)...



...and speaking of our ongoing plague, Kyle tells us here about a rule that apparently Combover Caligula put into place allowing Big Pharma to charge whatever it wanted for a COVID vaccine (and I’ll admit Biden should get on this, but I think there’s only so much the guy can do given that he’s been on the job for only about 2 ½ months...I think Kyle is referring to this, by the way)...



Update 4/14/21: And when it comes to making the COVID vaccine prohibitively expensive, let’s not forget this person by the way.

...and Chris Hayes tells us about the differences between voting in Georgia, land of Jim Crow 2.0, and Colorado, which now will host the MLB All-Star Game and has, commendably, actually entered the 21st century in that department...



...and Rachel Maddow tells us how Matt Gaetz was apparently involved in a “fake candidate” scheme run by Florida Repugs (makes me recall when that was tried up here with a guy named Jay Russell who ended up in the Bucks County Commissioners contest that included Steve Santarsiero, as noted here)...



...and I really don’t have much to say in response to the news of the death of Prince Philip in Great Britain, but I would only add that we should look at the full context of his life of patriotic service and not just some alleged recent quotes about the skin color of Meghan Markle’s baby (a BBC tribute follows)...



...and on about this day in 1976, Frampton Comes Alive! made it to #1, on the Billboard chart I believe, including this tune.

Friday Stuff

Robert Reich tells us how corporations tilt the metaphorical scales against the working class in this country (tax advantages in their favor, union membership declining especially in the private sector, crappy trade deals, ignoring infrastructure...yep, the usual laundry list of offenses I know, but it bears repeating)...



...and while we're on the subject, it looks like the vote to unionize Amazon workers in Alabama has failed unfortunately (here), but David Doel tells us how Jeff Bezos and his pals rigged the election against the employees, who hopefully can get a do-over, but we'll see...



...and sticking with the theme of why we should feel sorry for those poor, put-upon corporations (removing my tongue from my cheek), Ana and Francesca of TYT tell us about Neil Cavuto clutching pearls, if you will, over the portrayal of the CEO in the flick Godzilla v. Kong...love the snark...



...and speaking of corporations once more, Rachel Maddow tells us about their influence in getting Congress to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act in 2006 before it was gutted by the High Court of Hangin’ Judge JR 7 years later (once more with the quote from Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao telling corporations to “stay out of politics”)...



...and thanks once again to the U.S. Senate parliamentarian, the Dems can pass an infrastructure bill with zero Republican votes as Thom Hartmann tells us, even though I’m sure Manchin and/or Sinema will idiotically find a way to try and prevent it...



...and with all of this and the ruinous reign of Mango Mussolini and the January 6th insurrection, it looks like the number of voters who identify as Republicans has taken a nosedive, which is a terrific opportunity for Dems; hopefully they’ll know how to capitalize on it, but we’ll see...



...and I don’t suppose I can ignore any longer yet another attempt at conservative comedy; this time it’s the show “Gutfeld!” brought to us by Fix Noise of course, with commentary from The Majority Report (and yeah, Brian Williams sure blew it with the helicopter thing, but for the record, he actually apologized, and as noted, that’s years-old anyway; I think they had the opportunity to actually mine something somewhat amusing from that, but of course they blew it, and apparently the show has gotten progressively worse over succeeding nights...mildly NSFW)...



...in response (concerning actual humor for real), I should note that today is the 93rd birthday (God bless him) of the funniest math professor of all time...we can always use a laugh.

Wednesday Stuff

(I guess, to be precise, the cartoon should show a Texas Rangers jersey, but the Yankees jersey for historical accuracy of the reference is correct of course.)

John and Aida of The Damage Report tell us about baseball fans in “the Lone Star state” showing their love of the national pastime, to the likely detriment of their own health of course, as well as that of friends and family members...



...and Rachel Maddow tells us about the latest nonsense with the NRA trying to declare bankruptcy so they can re-incorporate from New York to Texas (speaking once more of “the national laboratory for bad government,” as The Eternal Molly Ivins once referred to her home state) in response to the lawsuit from NY AG Letitia James, with stuff coming to light such as Wayne LaPierre being afraid of those allegedly mean Sandy Hook moms who lost their kids to gun slaughter to the point where he had to hide on a 108-foot yacht...



...and this “Now This” clip tells us of businesses speaking out against Georgia’s restrictive anti-voting law...oh, and so NOW Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao wants businesses to “stay out of politics”? Does that mean all that sweet “dark money” that the Repugs count on every election cycle too? And no, I realize it doesn’t, but I have to ask the question anyway...



...and staying below that Mason-Dixon line, Ana and Ryan Grim tell us about Matt Gaetz opposing a revenge porn bill when Gaetz was in the Florida statehouse (and no, I don’t think any of this will hurt Gaetz in the panhandle either, unfortunately)...



...and as long as we’re in the Sunshine State, I give you Farron Cousins telling us about a study indicating that Republican-controlled states are worse for democracy than Democratic-controlled states...



...and happy 70th birthday to Janis Ian.

Tuesday Stuff

This Now This clip tells us about the “party of Lincoln” making it harder to vote but easier to get guns – surprised? And I don’t know what the hell that idiot Thomas Massie was saying at the end, and somehow I don’t think he does either.

It’s about taking away the damn AR-15’s, which overwhelmingly (but not totally) is the weapon of choice used by those intent on committing mass slaughter (how many goddamn times are we supposed to say that?). And I realize you can’t arbitrarily confiscate people’s property without cause, but we can institute a national buy-back program to try and keep us all safer (“If I ruled the world, every day would be the first day of spring...”)...



...and turning to our former ruling cabal of grifters and lowlifes, Rachel Maddow tells us about Combover Caligula sponging off people (some of whom were apparently dying, to add another level of sickening behavior) by using these auto-deduct checkboxes on online forms that were apparently hidden in plain sight of the donor somehow (kind of a weird edit at the end)...



...and Mehdi Hasan discusses the mainstreaming, if you will, of Stephen Miller as some alleged “thought leader” or something on immigration; Miller is nothing but a sick, twisted sadist, and for him to be treated as anything but that is monumentally insulting...



...and FL Repug Guv Ron #DeathSantis is apparently trying to imitate Our Treasonous Orange Pestilence with this new grift involving Publix stores and the COVID vaccine, as Ana and Francesca discuss...



...and with the theme of cruel, stupid Republican obstruction in mind, I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” (more or less) from 4/7/09, in which we learn that not a single U.S. congressional member of the “loyal opposition” voted in favor of former President Obama’s first budget (had this in mind a bit after that item on John Boehner yesterday)...



...and David Doel tells us that Arkansas was about to become the first state to block health care for transgender youth, with more on the way apparently (God almighty), but fortunately Repug Gov. Asa Hutchinson vetoed the bill (the fact that these bills exist at all is nauseating as far as I’m concerned)...



Update 4/7/21: Assholes.

...and I saw a blip or two on Twitter that Charles Barkley said something of a political nature, and I actually agree with a good bit of it (re, the people who want to divide us as a nation), and I also agree with Kyle’s clarification...I thought Barkley was about ¾’s of the way towards making a terrific point (as Kyle says, it’s not by any means equal between the “R” and “D” teams, but the latter is guilty of it too to a degree) – I remember when Barkley was a player here and he spoke his mind, and sometimes he put his foot in it, but usually he was right as he is once again here...



...and it looks like I’m overdue again for a new tune, and I hope this will suffice.

Monday Stuff

Kudos to Mehdi Hasan for setting the record straight on some attempted revisionist history from “Man Tan” Boehner over the latter’s role in fomenting the rebellion against the Obama Administration (timed for release of his book of course); I also thought Boehner has gotten a pass for far too long over his role in the ruinous “sequester”...



...and on the subject of Major League Baseball making the commendable decision to pull the All-Star Game from Atlanta over Georgia’s ridiculous new voting laws, Beau of the Fifth Column reminds us of how the “party of Lincoln” uses bigotry to motivate its beloved base...



...and John and Brett of The Damage Report tell us about some of the typical perception nonsense from the usual suspects, as it were, over Biden’s proposed infrastructure bill (and yeah, once more, the Dems start out with a low bid before the negotiations even begin)...



...and as long as we’re talking about the “I” word, I give you this from Emma V., Matt and the “Majority Report” crew over Repug S.D. Guv Kristi (Unsafe At Any Speed) Noem and her quote about not being able to support Biden’s infrastructure bill “because it goes into pipes” – just say “oops” and get out (and she’s supposed to be some kind of an up-and-comer in this bunch of charlatans and idiots)...



...and Farron Cousins reminds us that Dr. Deborah Birx has been saying that Mango Mussolini censored her when it came to discussing the COVID pandemic with the media...well then, she should have resigned in response, right?...



...and maybe you can consider this a gesture of support for MLB on its decision to remove the All-Star Game from the peach state, even though I really never need much of a reason to hear the Allman Brothers, especially during their ‘70s heyday.

Happy Easter 2021

I hope you all you all have a happy and blessed Easter. If you don't observe anything, may you have a happy and blessed long weekend (and sorry I forgot to wish everyone who observes it a Happy Passover - hope it was enjoyable.)

Friday Stuff

It appears that additional body cam footage was recently released in the trial of Ofc. Derek Chauvin concerning the death of George Floyd, which makes it look even more like Floyd was executed, but I don’t want to say anything prejudicial – innocent until proven guilty and all that; John I. discusses with some really good commentary from Charles F. Coleman Jr...



...and I was tempted to totally ignore this week’s death of Watergate criminal G. Gordon Liddy because I didn’t want to give him any more attention than he deserved, but then I came across this 2009 clip of Cenk Uygur talking about Liddy’s despicable reaction to this (forgot Liddy was a conservative media loudmouth for a time also)...



...and Ana and Aida R. of TYT discuss “vaccine passports,” so of course that utter loon Marjorie Taylor Greene lost what’s left of her mind over it (which the EU apparently uses also based on this)...



...and the prior clip alluded to Amazon’s abysmal work practices (and the next clip does too, truth be told), and this from David Doel is in a similar theme about Amazon using fake online accounts to talk about how allegedly wonderful they are (luckily, as smart as Jeff Bezos is about becoming a gazillionaire, he’s apparently pretty dumb when it comes to this stuff)...



...and Kyle Kulinski tells us about Stuart Varney wanting Bezos to conduct a smear campaign against Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren (figures...don’t often agree with Kyle a lot these days, but he’s right about the WaPo going after Bernie...not sure why Varney doesn’t get pilloried in quite the same way as Ingraham, Sean Inanity and The Swanson TV Dinner Heir; maybe it’s because he’s on TV earlier in the day and he has an English accent – mildly NSFW/H)...



...and speaking of plutocrats, Robert Reich tells us about all the ways we can tax the rich and begin to address the whole host of issues we face as a nation...



...and I know The Lincoln Project has gotten a lot of press along the lines of “oh, those people are typical Republicans except they oppose Trump...what can you expect them to be but grifters also?” and there may be more than a bit of truth there, but as I’ve said a few times, they keep making good ads, including this one about all the Repug voter suppression garbage out there, with a focus this time in Michigan (this is the best response)...



...and it looks like Paul Simon is now the latest member in the “I sold my catalog to a multinational entertainment corporation for a stupid amount of $$” club (here); not saying he doesn’t have the right to do that, but I can’t help but be a little disappointed (I hope he took care of Art Garfunkel).

Thursday Stuff

Ana and John I. talk about Trumpers “dunking” on Matt Gaetz given the recent legal issues of “Florida Man” Jr. (not surprising, since there is truly no honor among thieves and lowlifes...interesting to speculate whether or not there is actual substance to the dislike of Gaetz or it’s just a personality thing as Ana notes...and in case you think the pic is harsh, remember this)...



Update: Glub, glub, glub...

Update 4/2/21: What a pig - beyond disgusting (here).

...and Rachel Maddow speaks with the NAACP’s Sherrilyn Ifill on Coke and Delta speaking out against GA voting laws (and great idea to use that as leverage to try and get them to support the For The People Act)...



...and turning from the legislative to the judiciary, Lawrence O’Donnell interviews Dahlia Lithwick and Prof. Allison Harris of Yale about President Biden’s federal court nominees and the pressure on SCOTUS justice Stephen Breyer to step down (which probably would be a good idea as things stand now)...



...and Beau of the Fifth Column tells us about Trump getting sued by Capitol police officers for 1/6 (good advice to be mindful and continue watching all of the lunatics out there who, as Beau says, want to undermine what this country stands for...and yeah, not that I care a lot about messaging to other Republicans, but he’s also right that they need to watch out too)...



...and speaking of lawsuits, Farron Cousins tells us about Dominion and whether or not they decide to sue Mango Mussolini for the 1/6 insurrection (as Cousins says, it sounds pretty much like a slam dunk to me too – don’t know what else there is to think about)...



...and Marvin Gaye was shot to death 37 years ago today.

Wednesday Stuff

Normally I guess it’s wrong to take pleasure from someone else’s misfortune, but in the case of Repug U.S. House Rep (and big-headed white guy) Matt Gaetz, it is kind of amusing to see him flopping around like a carp in the sun freshly dumped into a fishing boat (yeah, try falling back on your presumed privilege when all else fails, you knucklehead – and I’m not trying to trivialize his alleged conduct with the underaged girl here, which of course is completely serious and should be treated as such...Ana and Aida R. tell us more)...



Update: Too funny.

...and Rachel Maddow brings us the recording of the Koch flunky explaining to his puppet masters that, gee, I’m sooo sorry, but it turns out that the people of this country DON’T WANT plutocrats like Chucky Koch laying waste to our government and way of life so he can get whatever the hell he wants (recording from Jane Mayer of The New Yorker...this has to do with the John Lewis “For The People” Act in the Senate)...

via GIPHY

...and gosh, color me shocked – it looks like Dem U.S. Senator Kyrsten Sinema’s approval rating has taken a total nose dive...I can’t imagine why (removing my tongue from my cheek...David Doel explains...and by the way, I know it’s taken as gospel, you might say, in some lefty circles that Biden/Harris didn’t push hard enough for the $15-an-hour minimum wage to get Sinema and Manchin to move on it, but as far as I can tell, that is all supposition at this point that has yet to be proven, and it may never be)...



...and Emma of The Majority Report tells us about idiot Repug U.S. House Rep John Joyce of our beloved commonwealth of PA going on Dana Perino’s Fix Noise show to unveil a law to protect Dr. Seuss, apparently; yeah, taxpayer dollars won’t go to states that ban books (I’m sure that somewhere, in the great beyond, Mr. Geisel is laughing his ass off over this...you can cut the stoo-pid here with a knife, just about).

Seriously, though – I’m trying to unpackage Joyce’s idiocy here (probably spending more time on this that it deserves)...sooo, he’s ostensibly opposing “cancel culture,” but by denying federal funds to libraries that make a decision to take books off the shelves for whatever reason, to say nothing of the Seuss estate and the publisher who also quite rightly have a hand in this, isn’t he “cancelling” the libraries too? NSFW/H (And I think the show they were trying to think of was “The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy” – and yeah, that show was pretty “woke” for a kids program, and don’t ask me how I know that.)...



...and Thom Hartmann tells us that, according to a study form The Brookings Institution, 400K Americans would still be alive if Trump had given a crap about COVID (and spare me about “Operation Warp Speed”...all good questions at the end by Thom, and I don’t have a clue as to an answer)...



...and yesterday marked what would have been the 71st birthday of guitarist Dave Ball of Procol Harum (never realized just how dark a song this was until I paid attention to the lyrics).

Tuesday Stuff

Farron Cousins tells us that the ARP was written in such a way that you can’t put $$ in the general fund of a state or commonwealth to cut taxes, so OF COURSE 21 Republican legislatures are SUING over it...as actor Bradley Whitford said forever ago about the Repugs, tax cuts are their Jesus...



...and speaking of idiotic Republican state legislatures, Rachel Maddow tells us how those culprits in Missouri are trying to block Medicaid expansion...



...and MSNBC’s Alex Wagner speaks with Jacob Soboroff on Dems and Repugs at our southwest border and who is trying to do some good and who is looking for photo-ops (yeah, I’m sure you know who’s who on that score, right?)...



...and speaking of illegal immigration, it looks like Repug Montana U.S. Senator Steve Daines recently lamented over homegrown meth, apparently, versus what is coming over the border (is Daines a subject matter expert here, I wonder? Mildly NSFW from David Doel – paging Walter White)...



...and I don’t know much about Dr. Naomi Wolf, but it looks like she got owned on Twitter by Ken Klippenstein for trying to spread some anti-COVID-vax nonsense (John I. and Francesca explain)...



...and today marks the 40th anniversary of the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan and the shooting of three others, including Press Secretary James Brady, by John Hinckley, Jr. (here - I realize Hinckley used a .22-caliber revolver and not a .38 which this tune is about, which is fortunate – sorry anyone was shot at all, but all four people probably would have been killed – but even though I know I’ve been overdoing it with the gun songs, I thought the occasion called for this one...and speaking of guns, there is this).

Saturday Stuff

Last Thursday marked the 110th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire (shop shown in pic), which took the lives of 146 people and led to labor reforms including the formation of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (John and Wosny Lambre draw a parallel between this and the fight for unionization of Amazon workers)...



...and Kyle K., echoing Wosny Lambre a bit, tells us why the Repugs have no ideas – I think this is a startlingly spot-on commentary for the most part, though I also think he dumps on the ARP in kind of a dumb way...yeah, it could ALWAYS be better, but look at the merits of it more seriously please...and I seem to recall Dems pushing back on the Dr. Seuss/Mr. Potato Head nonsense, contrary to Kyle’s claims (NSFW)...



...and Rachel Maddow tells us about some of the debate on the DC statehood push (yeah, no mines and car dealerships, huh, and that latter part isn’t even true as it turns out – God, the stoo-pidity)...



...and I'm looking for something a little mellow for the weekend (and I guess with the ILGWU in mind) - hope this will suffice.

Friday Stuff

Chris Hayes tells us about Georgia’s ridiculous new laws to curtail voting in that state, along with State Rep Park Cannon getting assaulted and carried off when she tried to witness the signing of the bill by that state’s illegitimate Governor Brian Kemp (here) – there should be all kinds of stuff in response, including destroying the U.S. Senate filibuster and passing the “For The People” act to overrule this...I also saw Charlie Pierce I believe make the excellent suggestion that Major League Baseball should move this year’s All Star Game from Atlanta - good call...



...and sticking with voting, I thought Beau of the Fifth Column was spot-on again here, on the subject of Dominion and their defamation lawsuit against Fix Noise for $1.6 billion (he may be right about more people getting sued at The Roger Ailes BS Factory)...



...and in keeping with the theme of Republican election nonsense, Rachel Maddow tells us about Aaron Van Langevelde in Michigan, the Republican vice chair of the that state’s Board of Canvassers, who sided with the rule of law in counting the votes in the ’20 election between Biden and Trump (yeah, he had to do what he did or he could have been sued also, but he gets kudos for standing up against what I’m sure was a tidal wave of BS from the Trumpsters not to certify the results)...



...and returning to the theme of the latest gun carnage, Joy Reid speaks with Dem U.S. House Rep (and U.S. Army vet of the 82nd Airborne) Jason Crow...and again, we’re returning to the theme of blowing up the filibuster, which desperately needs to happen...



...and related to the prior clip, this Now This video tells us of all of our U.S. Senators and U.S. House members bankrolled by the NRA...



...and speaking of pointless cruelty, Farron Cousins tells us about our “good friends” the Saudis bombing the crap out of Yemen, with a quarter of the casualties being children (15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers...)...



...and in an effort to be a bit hopeful here, I present this Meidas Touch clip on Attorney General Merrick Garland; yeah, wouldn’t it be ironic if Garland ended up making a bigger impact in this job than he would have as a Supreme Court justice, a role he was cheated out of by Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao?...



...and since what’s old is new again given the voting garbage going on in Georgia (and with the pic at the top of this post in mind), I present this tune from back in the day.

Thursday Stuff

In response to that thoroughly execrable POS #CancunCruz here, I present the following video of actual grieving human beings from our most recent gun carnage in Boulder, CO (“We have to be loud, not silent.” Indeed...and oh yeah, there's this too)...



...and sticking with Repug U.S. Senatorial asshats, David Pakman tells us that John N. Kennedy is concerned about “idiot control” instead of gun control (maybe he should start with himself)...



...and in response to Cruz and Kennedy, I present this clip of former Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger (who was hardly a lib, it should be noted) talking about, in essence, the utter fraud of the misinterpretation of the 2nd Amendment (and Burger mentions cars too)...



...and John and Jayar of The Damage Report tell us about all the moolah Cruela DeVos “earned” while taking up space as Trumpster Ed Secretary (pardon me while I puke)...



...and gee, did you know that Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao said the filibuster wasn’t racist? Uh, suuure – “just say ‘oops’ and get out” (and c’est dommage on this too, Sen. McTurtle... and yeah, “What indeed are the Democrats going to do about the filibuster?” That is indeed the question, but I guess they’d better ask “President” Manchin)...



...and it looks like U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Y’all-Qaeda) used our currency as an attempted excuse to attack Georgia’s “souls to the polls” Sunday voting initiative, trying to claim some “holier than thou” high ground (and call me a filthy unkempt liberal blogger, but what the hell is she doing commenting on voting in Georgia? Oh, and isn’t the “sabbath” from dusk Friday to dusk Saturday and not Sunday anyway? David Shuster explains)...



...and staying below that Mason-Dixon line, kudos once again to Rachel Maddow for connecting the dots on Texas Repug Sen. John Cornyn’s opposition to Vanita Gupta at the DOJ – more here (God almighty, how much of an idiot do you have to be to vote for these characters like all of the Repug senators in this post? Maybe it’s just as well that I don’t know)...



...and given what just happened in CO, I have to tell you that I'm not done with my gun songs (particularly in light of this treasonous numbskull from that state), so here's another one.

Wednesday Stuff

It makes me mad that the entire “A” block of The Rachel Maddow Show from last night is apparently unavailable by itself – at least, I can’t find it (re, our wretched history of trying to get common sense gun laws passed – I found out that the latest lunatic alleged to commit mass gun slaughter in Boulder a few days ago was born the year of the Columbine massacre, which is truly a pitiable, disgusting symmetry as far as I’m concerned)...I say that with the following excerpt in mind because the entire nearly-half-hour segment was positively epic (lots of talk on social media on how Maddow quite rightly pilloried Joe Manchin...and I’m tired of this ridiculous garbage of, oh, we’d better make Manchin happy or else he’ll become a Repug and Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao will be back in charge again – how much longer is the majority of this country going to allow itself to be held hostage because about 30 or so percent of it, from largely but not completely southern and western rural states, is certifiably insane?)...



...and I know I already linked to this, but David Doel reminds us about that vile NRA tweet about overturning the Boulder ordinance banning AR-15s and limiting magazine sizes shortly before the latest gun carnage in that city (hey, where was the “good guy with a gun” while people were being shot to pieces? And no, I’m not trying to trivialize the loss of life in any way)...



...so, if we’re not talking about common sense gun reforms, what IS the “party of Lincoln” focusing on instead? Do you even need to ask? Sam and Emma on TMR tell us (In a weird way I guess, it’s almost refreshingly honest to hear Asa Hutchinson say that that ridiculous Arkansas anti-abortion law was written in such a way that it would be challenged to the point where it would be appealed to the SCOTUS...their end game here is to criminalize abortion in all forms, and also prosecute women and their physicians and health care providers if one is performed, as well as criminalizing birth control; as far as the “pro-life” wingnuts are concerned, they’re both the same thing...actually, Sam offers a pretty sound analysis at the end of how the SCOTUS “sets up the tea leaves,” if you will, to be read by future plaintiffs so they’ll know what cases to bring before the High Court to overturn whatever precedent they want)...



...and with the prior clip in mind, I now give you the latest installment of “The Day In Doomsy History” from 3/24/11, in which the late, great Ed Schultz called out former U.S. House Speaker “Man Tan” Boehner on the latter’s alleged “focus on jobs, jobs, jobs,” when in reality (in typical Repug fashion), the majority party in the House at that time went after “values” B.S. related to abortion, Planned Parenthood, those scary Muslims, NPR, English only, “In God We Trust”...what a typical joke...



...and I would argue that the wingnut distraction machine is currently in overdrive on the situation Biden inherited on our southwest border, as reporter Brian Karem tells us (mildly NSFW/H)...



...with the Repugs yelling “OMIGOD THE SCARY BROWN PEOPLE ARE COMING TO RAPE AND KILL US!” partly because they don’t want people paying attention to the "For The People" Act, which is now in the U.S. Senate (and God only knows what will happen to that or ANY further legislation with the utterly wretched filibuster in place)...



...and gee, wasn’t Saint Ronnie Reagan once the hero of those nutsos at Fix Noise? You know, the “tear down this wall” guy? Oh, but now, Putin is the "man crush" for these methane dispensing bipeds, huh? Figures...



...and with all of the horrors in the news, I feel like I need a bit of a palate cleanser if you will, so I present the following in honor of the recent 90th birthday of Captain Kirk – glad he’s managed to “live long and prosper,” you might say :-).

Tuesday Stuff

I just don’t know what the hell else there is that's left to say at a certain point – an update from our most recent gun carnage, this time in Boulder, Colorado, is here...and to think we’ve been covering this same old tired, stupid ground on this for at least 12 years based on this (expired links and all), though much longer in actuality I know...and what great timing for this tweet...



Update 1: The NRA is absolutely the scum of the earth, but we knew that (here).

Update 2: And oh yeah, I almost forgot this.

...so, given that they’re blowing off the gun crisis in this country, what are Repugs (and their corporate media acolytes) focusing on instead? Why, the situation at our southwest border that was allowed to deteriorate under Our Traitorous Orange Pustule instead (though of course Biden is getting blamed for that now...K.O. introduces some reality here)...



...and as part of the whole, “Don’t pay attention to 10 people killed and 21 injured in a Colorado mass shooting – look over there instead!” nonsense, the “party of Lincoln” is complaining about gas prices which (and everyone sing along at home with me) always go down in the fall and winter and always go up in the spring and summer, as David Shuster explains...



...oh, and in “the sunshine state,” they’re also trying to criminalize civil disobedience (what country am I living in again?)...



...and I guess this constitutes little more than a bad joke at this point, but I feel like pointing it out anyway – apparently, that syphilitic orange sack of trans fats that allegedly served as our 45th president is going to try and launch his own social media platform, as Farron Cousins tells us...



...and given the headline story, I offer the following without further comment.

Monday Stuff

It appears as if Dem U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse wants a “redo” on “I Like Beer” Brett Kavanaugh’s alleged FBI investigation (John and Jayar of The Damage Report tell us more... I took what Jayar said at the end to mean that people would remember the theatrics of Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing, in particular with Huckleberry Graham, more than they would the actual facts and evidence, and unfortunately I think that’s correct)...



...and Sam and Emma tell us that Trumper Lee Zeldin got a little testy when asked whether or not Biden own the election last year...what a tool...just say the freaking words! (and of course, as noted, he was on this list)...



...and while I think there is something to be said about religious oppression contributing to the “incel” insanity, from institutionalized religion overall, at a certain point, it also comes down to individual choice...God knows the Catholic Church hasn’t budged for centuries on this subject, though it should, but I also don’t recall an “incel” movement over centuries either...sexual oppression isn’t a legitimate excuse IMHO to get a gun, go to some Atlanta massage parlors and kill 8 people (Thom Hartmann tells us more)...



...and I thought this was a good segment from Chris Hayes on the dustup in Tennessee over the bust of Confederate traitor and murderer Nathan Bedford Forest in the state capitol (Hayes speaks with state rep London Lamar...as usual, if the Repugs don’t like the outcome of the game, they want to pick up their ball and go home)...



...and speaking of games, David Doel tells us that Bobby Kotick of Activision Blizzard got a huge bonus after laying off a gang of employees (nice freaking guy – I’m definitely not a gamer, and I don’t intend to be especially after this...mildly NSFW)...



...in reality, though, I guess the title of this tune is emblematic of what I used to play at happy hour on Fridays many moons ago (that and Tetris of course...definitely assisted the experience to have a few belts before I popped my quarters, but please don't imitate this, I hasten to add).