(And in case you think I'm making that up, I give you this.)
This video from Don Winslow tells us why we should hold Mango Mussolini’s metaphorical feet to the fire also when it comes to our withdrawal from Afghanistan - more great stuff from Winslow (and of course, that goes for Mike Pompeo also...and oh yeah, there's this too)...
Update: The day will come when we'll never have to worry about hearing any more mutterings from this demented fool. And as far as I'm concerned, that day can't come soon enough (here).
...and Beau gives us a lesson on 20/20 hindsight when it comes to our exit from our latest war (didn't know how treacherous that road apparently is from Kabul to Bagram, but it's not surprising in the least)...
...and Jackson White of Rebel HQ brings us this clip of a Trumpette somewhere making noise about committing wholesale violence to try and reinstall Dear Leader; the difference this time is that an active duty member of our military shares her thoughts also...
...and Brian Tyler Cohen tells us about Dem Illinois Guv J.B. Pritzker giving it back to a wingnut reporter on dealing with COVID, mask mandates, etc. (apparently, this is the latest dustup in a long-running battle between Pritzker and some midwestern wingnut media types, and this Amy Jacobson knucklehead in particular, as noted here, here and here)...
...and I’m sure this will come as a shock (snark), but states that ended extended unemployment benefits didn’t see job creation as a result (Farron Cousins explains)...
...and sticking with the theme of money matters, Robert Reich gives us a lesson on socialism for the rich...
...and the High Court of Hangin' Judge J.R. has been throwing its weight around lately, you might say, and for bad reasons of course (including "I Like Beer" Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Island Baby Barrett); Chris Hayes tells us about that ridiculous decision to try and force Biden to restart a typically awful Trump policy on immigration (more here)...
...and speaking of legal stuff, gee, maybe if the person behind this ridiculous lawsuit had kept quiet, nobody would know they they're the baby in the swimming pool, amirite?
Thom Hartmann tells us how the “party of Lincoln” is basically trying to “burn it all down,” including the economy, prior to next year’s mid-terms since they believe that is their key to retaking Congress and ultimately the White House in ’24 (explains their wretched, cowardly votes yesterday here and here)...
...and this More Perfect Union video tells us about nurses striking across the country given that their employers raked it in financially hand over first during the pandemic and basically didn’t do diddly squat for nurses facing equipment shortages, long hours, ever-expanding case loads and having to take on multiple duties, including housekeeping (this is apparently taking place in our beloved commonwealth also)...
...and Cenk and Ana tell us about the 75 Florida doctors who staged a walkout because of those life forms in their state who refuse to get vaccinated – good! (with a great big middle-finger-raise-on-high at Gov. #DeathSantis)...
...and believe me when I tell you that it’s damn hard to find humor these days, but I have to admit that I got a kick out of this Lincoln Project video...
...and I call this damn good news for sure; looks like those gutter snipes Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman had the metaphorical book thrown at them by the FCC (here), which, as Rachel Maddow explains, pretty much agrees on nothing these days, but they sure came together to wallop these two clowns (can’t think of a word for the crass, laughable racism in that ridiculous robocall)...
...and we quite rightly commemorated the passing of Charlie Watts yesterday, but here’s another milestone (a day late, actually) involving another drummer, and that’s the 70th birthday of Michael Derosier of Heart.
David Doel discusses Mehdi Hasan calling out our corporate media on our withdrawal from Afghanistan under President Biden, and this includes (by association) MSNBC, Hasan's own network...
...and Emma and Matt of The Majority Report tell us of Rob O’Neill’s comment about that country (“just give me 9 guys and let me kill everybody” – terrific)...
...and Brian Tyler Cohen tells us how Fix Noise fourth-estate-weasel-in-training Peter Doocy tried to con Jen Psaki into another bullshit right-wing talking point about Biden allegedly leaving Americans "stranded" in Afghanistan...
...and Farron Cousins tells us that, apparently, the Cyber Ninjas fraud audit in AZ is going to be held up because of a COVID outbreak...I realize there’s nothing funny about our ongoing plague, but if I were to wish it on anybody, it would be them (and good luck to Cousins with his recent carpal tunnel surgery)...
...and John and Francesca of The Damage Report tell us about AOC shutting down The Swanson TV Dinner Heir over the latter trying trivialize the Dem U.S. House Rep’s concerns about sexual violence (no bar too low for the life forms of The Roger Ailes BS Factory)...
...and Cenk and Ana tell us about conserva-Dems caving a bit on the $3.5 trillion infrastructure bill (of course, “Curtsy Kyrsten” is set to kill it in the Senate...and yes, this is pretty amazing stuff, but before we do handstands and rejoice, let’s look at this with a bit of a wary eye for a little while longer as Cenk and Ana, and David Dayen, quite rightly point out)...
...and Thom Hartmann reminds us (in this 2011 recording) of The Powell Memo – we observed the 50th anniversary of this thoroughly scurrilous (IMO) document written by eventual Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell yesterday – so much to be said about this that it might take a month at least to post about all of it...
...and truly, a giant has left our midst - RIP Charlie Watts of The Rolling Stones.
Yeah, FL Guv Ron #DeathSantis sure doesn’t “want to hear a blip,” all right (about 'Rona and probably much of anything else)...
...and this Now This clip presents this Maine lunatic named Heidi Sampson comparing the COVID vaccine to the experiments of Josef Mengele in good ol’ Nazi Germany...and yes, I’m being tongue-in-cheek...
...meanwhile, for the sane point of view, David Shuster of Rebel HQ tells us about Tennessee dad Justin Kanew of Williamson County speaking in defense of his school-age daughter and masks and against idiots going off on critical race theory, which – wait for it! – isn’t even taught in that school district (kudos to Kanew for bringing much-needed sanity to this discussion on protection against COVID and TRYING TO GET US ALL FREAKING VACCINATED AND OVER THIS AT LONG LAST!!!)...
...and for more from the reality-based community, Ari Melber speaks with Dr. Rochelle Walensky (on COVID of course)...
...and Rachel Maddow tells us here that there are people taking a horse deworming medicine which supposedly will cure COVID – uh, no (and three guesses where THAT idea came from, and the first two don’t count; The Roger Ailes BS Factory should be sued into extinction at long last – more here and here...and speaking of Maddow, this is definitely welcome news)...
...and Emma and “Dan From The Internet” on TMR tell us more about the Gavin Newsom recall vote...so far, what’s frustrating to me about this is that I can’t figure out what bone, if you will, people have to pick with Newsom, unless it’s just the anti-mask and anti-vax idiots mad at Newsom for trying to govern in a sane manner during COVID (OK, there’s a little bit of info on that near 8:30-9:35 to be fair)...
...and good work here by Jim Acosta of CNN aimed at everyone supposedly concerned about the plight of Afghan refugees after pretty much ignoring that country for the better part of 20 years or so, most infamously Generalissimo Trump and his minions...
Second Thought brings us another great video, this time on the latest IPCC report and all of the wild weather going on, which of course are all symptoms of worsening climate change...gee, maybe our government ought to do something about it, huh?...
...and based on this report from Rachel Maddow and former Trump administration official Olivia Troye, who, commendably, came “back to the light” awhile ago (more here), I think Stephen Miller should be bound and gagged with duct tape, flown to Kabul and left there to fend for himself among the refugees whose visa applications he destroyed so he can beg for transport out of that country like everybody else trying to flee...
...and I should probably pay a little more attention to the recall effort going on in California, and Emma of TMR does that here (more here, and more BS on Larry Elder, the presumptive Republican candidate who seems to be out-polling everybody else, is here...yep, Elder’s another Trumpist right-wing radio loudmouth all right)...
...and Brian Tyler Cohen tells us here about Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick blowing his racist dog whistle in response to still more news on Republicans who refuse to take the COVID vaccine (yeah, that’s BS for all of the reasons noted in the clip - more here)...
...and on the subject of COVID, thoughts and prayers for Cardinal Raymond Burke (and yes, I’m being sarcastic)...
...and speaking of our regularly scheduled plague, this Really American clip tells us what Rand (Fake Ophthalmologist) Paul did in response as Kentucky’s plight worsened (one way to respond is here)...
...and staying with ”the world’s greatest deliberative body,” The Daily Show gives Huckleberry Graham the treatment he deserves here (would have been nice if this had come out last year during the election, but good job to get this out now anyway)...
I thought this was a great commentary from Lawrence O’Donnell on why the war in Afghanistan is only slightly comparable at best to Vietnam, with performative clown and U.S. Senate Repug Ben Sasse, who never encountered an issue he couldn’t try to exploit for personal gain without trying to accomplish anything of worth, linking what happened in ‘Nam to our most recent exploits (and blaming only Biden of course...more here and here)...
...and I thought this was yet another great commentary from Beau on the equipment we’re leaving behind as we say that “long goodbye” to our 20-year war in the wake of 9/11...
...and Rachel Maddow discusses yesterday’s loon who told D.C. police he wanted to blow up the Capitol (allegedly) and created a 5-hour-or-so standoff (she speaks with correspondent Ben Collins, who makes the interesting point that this guy had family health coverage issues it seems, but instead of embracing Medicare for All, he resorted to violence...and I think Collins makes another interesting point that these people don’t know what to do since their hero wasn’t reinstalled as preznit like he said he would be...”like WrestleMania for these people” indeed)...
...and Farron Cousins communicates an appropriate level of disgust IMO in this commentary about FL guv Ron #DeathSantis, pointing out that 50 kids a day are getting hospitalized in that state over COVID-19...
...and Cenk and Ana tell us about the maskless a-hole riding the NY subway who harassed an elderly woman who was wearing a mask (great point by Cenk about Washington getting the troops vaccinated during the Revolutionary War)...
...and usually I wouldn’t go near “info-tainment” stuff like this, but I couldn’t help but be amused by this story – also ridiculous that Martha’s Vineyard is referred to solely as a place where rich and famous people hang out...yes, that’s true to an extent, but there are also a ton of affordable rentals up there for the same $$ you would pay at the Jersey shore...and we’ve been to the Chilmark General Store more than a few times, which is a pretty “blue collar” place, if you will (if I were to run into him, I would be inclined not to even waste my energy on a life form like Dershowitz since I go there for a good time and don’t even want to deal with him, but yeah, this does sound like an episode of David’s show, I have to admit)...
Update 7/18/22: So many reasons to love Martha's Vineyard, and here is still another one.
...and this week marked the 85th birthday of Hollywood icon and environmentalist Robert Redford; here is a clip of Redford from “The Candidate” way back in the day...
...and I just happened to come across this pretty cool new seasonal tune – hope you like it also.
Brian Tyler Cohen gives us this video of Dem U.S. House Rep (and Afghan war vet) Matt Zeller giving Baby Goebbels the treatment he deserves on the question of getting the Afghans who helped us out of that country before the Taliban completely takes over (a “digital Dunkirk” indeed – mildly NSFW/H...more here and here)...
...and Cenk and Ana of TYT give us some “hot takes” on Afghanistan, including Pompeo of course (and Rick Scott wants to invoke the 25th Amendment? Google Rick Scott and Largest Medicare Fraud in U.S. History and let me know what you come back with, OK?)...
...and Sam and Emma of The Majority Report tells us that The Swanson TV Dinner Heir is blaming the Taliban victory on gender studies (might be the trashiest of all of the “trash” takes here, and that’s saying something)...
...and Mehdi Hasan doesn’t let Dubya and his pals off the hook for Afghanistan either...
...oh, and as it turns out, Dubya has some thoughts? Gee, maybe he’ll make more paintings of ALL OF THE GODDAMN AFGHAN REFUGEES WHO COULDN’T F*CKING ESCAPE FROM THE BUMBLEF*CKERY HE AND CHENEY CREATED AND ENDED UP FALLING OFF PLANES TO THEIR DEATHS WHEN THEY TRIED TO FLEE!!! (with John and Jordan Uhl of The Damage Report)...
...and David Shuster tells us that that Taliban is apparently trying to do some kind of an image makeover, with them trying to work out on exercise machines we left behind in our retreat – yeah, I’ll remember this when they start slaughtering people who they suspect of helping us in that country and throwing acid at women again...and please believe me when I say that I want to be wrong about that (to say the least, I’m skeptical)...
...and Thom Hartmann gives some historical context on the U.S. trying to occupy Afghanistan (and the virtues of “soft power,” which, as Thom says, China will probably try next and end up getting the minerals we tried to get by making the Afghans stare at the barrel of a gun...yeah, that sure worked out, didn’t it?)...
...and happy 70th birthday to bassist John Deacon of Queen - I know I had a tune by the band a few days ago...well, here's another one.
Ana and Cenk of TYT bring us the news that Mexico is suing U.S. gunmakers...good! (and I think Cenk makes a GREAT point to link this to over-prescribing opioids, and Ana makes an even better point at the end about the consequences of OUR actions)...
...and Beau shares more thoughts on our pullout from Afghanistan...I have to admit that I was a little surprised to hear him blame Obama on this – I mean, sure, this got bad on his watch too, but I distinctly recall that every time 44 said something even remotely controversial, the chorus of caterwauling idiots in the “R” party would start with “Oh, there he goes again, that community organizer who never ran his own business – how dare he try to tell us what to do”...I’m not saying you can’t blame Obama for some stuff, but it sure would have been nice if the other side had acted like actual adults, and maybe we could have had actual serious discussions about stuff like, y’know, stepping up the use of drones (here) and deciding to execute Americans who were wrongly doing the bidding of terrorists (here)...
...and Farron Cousins tells us about a petition to recall #DeathSantis which has 35K signatures, though, as Cousins notes, it apparently won’t lead to anything, even though the effort is commendable (and speaking of recalls, I haven’t said anything about what’s going on in California, as noted here, which to me is beyond a ridiculous joke)...
...and David Doel gives us more on that whack job Marjorie Taylor Greene and her BS about the vaccine (oh, and don’t give me this crap about how you don’t oppose the vaccine but you’re in favor of personal choice, or something... this loon needs to be arrested at this point because her garbage lies are getting people killed...the main reason why I'm even paying attention to her is because Doel does such a good job of pointing out just how truly nutty she is)...
...and Jesse Dollemore sitting in for David Pakman talks about Pelosi calling out McCarthy for going after Capitol police (and of course, God forbid that maniac Trump or any of his whacked-out followers would have anything to say about the Capitol officers who’ve killed themselves)...
...and I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History,” and we’re taking another short journey back to 8/17/20, with Sam, Jamie and Matt of The Majority Report discussing Tommy Tuberville talking to some loudmouth radio clown, both competing for a Darwin award it would seem...and yeah, isn’t it funny how now, as if by magic, we’re not hearing any of these southern loudmouthed idiots bitching about how blue states can’t manage themselves? Yeah, take a look at the damn COVID map, you asshats...we’re definitely not out of this mess yet either, but that’s primarily the fault of you knuckleheads below that Mason Dixon line (great analysis from Sam here in particular)...
...and this video from More Perfect Union tells us about how the expanded child tax credit under Biden will help 3 moms doing their best to make ends meet...
...and I just happened to come across this video about five minutes ago, so here it is now - I guess you just get lucky sometimes.
Now that Afghanistan, sadly, is about to be completely overrun by the Taliban as we depart that country at long last, a bunch of “armchair warriors” out there are apportioning blame for the fact that our efforts over nearly 20 years may be completely wiped out (along with anyone who helped us with intelligence or acted as a translator - and since we’re talking about the Taliban, that surely means their families and friends too...I don’t think a single word can connote how awful that truly is).
Do you want to blame Biden for not ensuring the safety of those in that country who helped us, allowing them to escape also (as just noted)? That’s fair I guess, since this is happening on his watch. Do you want to also blame Generalissimo Trump (and, by extension, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo) for coming up with the deadline for withdrawal in negotiation with the Taliban (as much as you can negotiate with them of course) that Biden claims has “tied his hands”? I definitely agree with that (more here).
Some on Twitter have said we should also blame The Sainted Ronnie R for deciding to arm the Mujahideen in Afghanistan against the former Soviet Union in the ‘80s, given that those weapons would eventually be used against us when that group turned into al Qaeda. Oh, I definitely think that that’s fair all right.
But more than anybody else, I think we should blame this guy.
Oh, and by extension (as Oliver Willis, among others, has pointed out on Twitter), that goes for anybody on the Lincoln Project or some MSNBC pundits (including this one) who was a cheerleader for Number 43.
I’m old enough to remember when Dubya, after 9/11, had the opportunity to say to the Taliban, “All right, listen. We know you guys are ruthless bastards, and we don’t like you and you don’t like us, but just turn over to us everyone associated with al Qaeda and we’ll leave. That’s all we want.” Hell, even Putin, of all people, was down with that! And, of course, we could have done more to sanction our dear friends the Saudis, since 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers came from Saudi Arabia.
But no, Dubya and Cheney didn’t do that. Former President Highest Disapproval Rating In Gallup Poll History gave that incredibly insulting (to the rest of the world) address to Congress, basically saying, “You’re with the terrists or you’re with us” (here - and of course, Dubya got a standing “O” for that) and basically declared war also on any country harboring terrorists, in addition to the terrorists themselves. Oh, and after a few months, the regime of #43 said, “OK, we’ve defeated the Taliban. Let’s leave a skeleton force in Afghanistan while we do the invasion we really want to do, which of course is Iraq.” And when the Taliban recovered and started making gains in that country again, what did Dubya do? He outsourced the Afghan war to Pakistan (remember all of those utterly pointless meetings with Musharraf, who was in charge of that country?). Apparently, the whole world (except the Bush gang, of course), KNEW Pakistan was continually giving al Qaeda and the Taliban safe haven (after all, what country was bin Laden in when we finally got him?), but we felt they were honest actors in this anyway!
So yeah, there’s plenty of blame for what has happened (and likely will happen) in Afghanistan. But as far as I’m concerned, when you’re in a hole and you want to get out, you should stop digging. And though what’s playing out is tragic, I’ll give Biden the tiniest bit of credit for realizing that (more here and here).
Anyway, here is a well-done commentary from Mehdi Hasan (and Biden said we wouldn't have a "fall of Saigon" moment - I respectfully disagree)...
With Afghanistan in crisis, lots of back and forth this weekend over 'Biden's to blame' vs 'Trump started it' and so I thought I'd open the @MehdiHasanShow on @MSNBC tonight by pointing out the U.S. president who actually kicked off this whole damn thing:pic.twitter.com/kqV4mT0UQN
Update 2: This is the only "take" on all of this I've found yet that's 100 percent correct.
Update 8/22/21: I skimmed over this New York Times Op-Ed by Ryan Crocker criticizing Biden and Trump on Afghanistan, where Crocker says that Bush went into Afghanistan because the Taliban wouldn’t hand over bin Lden to us. There’s some truth in that, but there’s also a hell of a lot of missing context.
As noted here, the Taliban offered to hand over bin Laden, but to a neutral country. And part of that has to do with the fact that we were already bombing Afghanistan at the time. We know what the Taliban is, but you truly would have to be as dumb and arrogant as Number 43 to expect ANYONE to work with us while we’re already dropping bombs on them!
...and returning to our regularly scheduled plague, David Shuster brings us another Rebel HQ video with a Mississippi spokesman talking pretty much about statewide hospital failure, and of course that loon MTG tries to rationalize this insanity by saying “we can’t live forever”...fine, bitch – you can go first...and by the way, I’m not hearing a word from "Caribou Barbie" about “death panels” now...
...and Sam and Emma of TMR bring us this guy making a Tick Tock video telling the anti-vaxxers to “stick to their f*cking guns,” though he definitely doesn’t mean it the way you might think (very NSFW/H but for a damn good reason - oh, and that goes for this guy too, turned-around-collar or not)...
...and Farron Cousins (who is based in FLA) brings us more on #DeathSantis and his state’s COVID outbreak...
...and sticking with The Sunshine State, John and Brett Erlich tell us more on the stuff with Matt Gaetz and Joel Greenberg...the stuff about MDMA is particularly sickening IMO...I was kind of wondering where Brett Erlich was going in some of his comments to John I., but I think Erlich is ultimately saying that Trump has lowered the bar of expectations so much for Republicans and their supporters that most go “meh” any more in response to Gaetz-related allegations, which I think is a pretty huge problem in and of itself...
...and Robert Reich tells us that there is no longer a “reasonable center” in our media coverage, which is assumed in the typically ridiculous “both sides” narrative that our esteemed fourth estate keeps trying to resuscitate (and speaking of ridiculous media moments, I give you this...Reich is correct, but I have to admit that I'm a little unnerved by his use of the term "mainstream media," since that's a creation of the wingnutosphere more than anyone else, but I should probably just get over myself and deal with it)...
STOP THE "MAGA" PARTY AND SIMON CAMPBELL FROM TAKING OVER PENNSBURY!
Eight years ago, voters kicked Simon Campbell and his extremist ideology off the Pennsbury School Board. Since then, the Democratic Board has accomplished much to strengthen Pennsbury, including:
Full-day kindergarten classes
Computers for middle and high school students
Renovated and improved school buildings
Hired two highly qualified and respected Superintendents
Recognized as a National School District of Character
No increase in school taxes during the 2020 Pandemic
Responsibly followed public health guidelines for the safety of all
Simon Campbell is not on the ballot, but he is behind the Republicans’ attempt to win back a majority on the Pennsbury School Board in the November 2nd Municipal Election.
Campbell has said the local Republican party “will do what I tell them, and my political judgment isn’t subject to anyone else’s oversight.”
Campbell and a group of residents, including Republican school board candidate Jennifer Spillane (Region 3), have attacked current board members and the school's diversity and equity policy at recent meetings.
Campbell uses divisive, fact-free, conspiracy-theory-based fearmongering about “critical race theory” to inject his personal partisan agenda into our schools. His tirades are making the rounds on Fox News, Newsmax, Glenn Beck, Laura Ingraham, and other radical right-wing media.
Here is the video of Ms. Spillane’s comments at the June 17th school board meeting:
To see the entire video of the June 17th public comments, including another rant by Simon Campbell, go here (Jennifer Spillane and other commenters start at video time 1:03:30).
Stop Simon Campbell and the radical GOP “MAGA” fanatics:VOTE to elect EACH AND EVERY DEMOCRAT for the Pennsbury School Board in your Region.
To win, we need every Democrat who voted in the Primary to also get at least 2 to 3 more voters to vote for the Democrats in November. A “split-ticket” vote for any Republican is a vote to help Simon Campbell's Trump ideology ruin our public schools.
There was a time at this site when I paid a lot of attention to local Bucks County, PA politics, but for a variety of reasons I’m really not able to do that as I’d like to any more. However, one person who I definitely thought posed a grave threat to responsible school board governance was Simon Campbell, a notorious loud mouth and grifter riding what was then the Tea Party wave to try and totally hamstring the Pennsbury School District in terms of budgeting, hiring, teacher staffing and imposing his utterly wrong-headed agenda onto school curricula. And as this post states, we got rid of him way back when (a post related to Campbell is here – I remember when Campbell published a book listing the salaries of every Pennsbury school district employee and had them mailed to the homes of everyone in the district).
Well, I don’t suppose that it should be surprising in any way that he’s back as a Trumpist, trying to ride that wave once more and caterwauling about “wokeness” and “critical race theory” (and to learn more about the Thomas W. Smith Foundation, the shadowy group using its millions to stoke that alleged controversy, click here). And of course, that means that Campbell poses the same threat again now as he did previously.
Well, we sent "Simple Simon" and his minions packing once before. Let’s do it again now!
Sam, Emma and Matt of The Majority Report tell us about Laura Ingraham and this Jon Taffer person (who must be for bars what Gordon Ramsey is for kitchens, namely someone who enjoys terrorizing people) basically equating workers with dogs (oh, but they mean metaphorical hunger and not, y’know, actual hunger...yeah, right...very mildly NSFW/H)...
...and this Teahadist loon from Colorado named Randy Corporon (making multiple references to the “Democrat” Party of course) thinks Team D should apologize for slavery, even though I don’t hear the “party of Lincoln” apologizing for Voter ID or supporting Supreme Court justices who gutted the Voting Rights Act, so no, I’m not going to apologize for a damn thing (though maybe Corporon should apologize for some of this stuff)...
...and Farron Cousins tells us how Generalissimo Trump had to refund $13 mil he scammed from supporters (and apparently the RNC did something similar also...figures)...
...and I think this is an appropriate tune for a Saturday night, and I don’t think any further explanation is necessary, really.
David Doel discusses Pat Robertson whining over the budget reconciliation bill with funding for Medicare expansion, along with universal pre-K and child care...”imagine paying people for not being productive”...yeah, sure, something to keep in mind in light of the ridiculous income inequality noted here...I guess “productivity” is in the proverbial eye of the beholder (mildly NSFW/H)...
...and I wasn’t sure if I would ever say this, but I have a feeling Louie (Exploding Bird Guts) Gohmert has lost what’s left of his damn mind...yes, flaming birds from solar panels are going to “bring the nation down”...from a sitting member of the U.S. Congress (as noted here - more here).
Texas must be so proud...
...and I’m going to take a bit of a dramatic U-turn here and include this video of a lady recovering from COVID (h/t to Rachel Maddow on Twitter) – yet another reason to get the damn shot(s), mask up and do the social distancing thing again, people...
...and with the prior clip in mind, I now give you this one which tells us about RoJo “making bank” on the pandemic...
...and turning now to Major League Baseball (for the second time this week)...this tells us about former Chicago Cub (and one-time Phillie) Jake Arrieta telling a reporter to take off his/her mask...and this is probably as close as I’ll get to sports radio (and Arrieta was released, partly because of the mask comment and partly because he sucks anymore, which happens to everybody eventually – I don’t totally blame him for basically stinking out the joint with the Phils b/c they were idiots to give him stupid $$ like they did...and BOY, do I get bored with the baseball statistical minutiae!)...
...and now turning to the only planet we have (despite some gazillionaires projecting themselves into outer space)...this tells us about the Line 3 pipeline protests in Minnesota I believe (with John I. and Benjamin Carollo)...
...and here’s yet another great Second Thought clip on dystopian fiction mirroring reality..
...and maybe this selection ties in a bit with the prior clip, but I’m putting it up here because of the calendar date (and I guess I should be boycotting any Clapton tunes, but that would eliminate a hell of a lot of good music).
As we’re reminded in this CBS This Morning clip (with an intro by Charlie Rose, before his own #MeToo moment), Heather Heyer was run down and killed by James Alex Fields 4 years ago today (more here)...
...and as usual, The Lincoln Project (and no, I haven’t forgotten who they are) doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to Republican governors who are culprits when it comes to COVID outbreaks...
And by the way, while we're on the subject of Repug governors and their COVID response (or lack thereof), let's not forget these people too...
Update 11/16/22: I keep trying to persuade stoo-pid voters not to cast their ballots for Republicans, but they keep doing it anyway, and stuf like this is the result.
...and on the subject of our regularly scheduled plague, Ari Melber adds a little more emphasis to the COVID clown show going on in FL with Guv #DeathSantis...
...and Ana and John of TYT tell us about those zany anti-vaxxing Brits who decided to protest the BBC, but showed up at the wrong building – womp womp...
...and Joy Reid decides to take some well-deserved shots at "Curtsy Kyrsten"...
...and the heat is particularly brutal today in these parts (should get relief by Saturday) – please stay hydrated and remember to look after kids, pets and elderly relatives, especially those with health conditions, and make sure they’re OK.
Jesse Dollemore sits in for David Pakman and gives The Swanson TV Dinner Heir what-for in light of Carlson’s speech in Hungary (he wants to live in a city full of bullet holes?? Really?? And “the American foreign policy establishment”? WTF is he talking about???)...
Oh, and we supposedly have “no idea how bad things can get”? Try checking out a COVID ward in any hospital, Tuckums (and the “greatest generation” that got through the Depression and WW II would like a word also when it comes to "how bad things can get")...
...and this Don Winslow film gives us more double-talk from Repug-simpatico media types on the vaccine when contrasted with “R” party politicians being dragged kicking and screaming into acknowledging reality...
...and Beau tells us about “Dr.” Rand Paul, who apparently didn’t “get the memo” from his Repug playmates on wearing masks (more here)...Beau reminds Paul of what “constitutionally protected speech” really means...
Update 8/12/21: OK, so in addition to being a liar, a propagandizing idiot and a fake doctor, he's also a crook (here) - got it.
...but now to turn to the big political news story over the last day or so, and that’s the long-overdue resignation of Dem Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York – and yeah, what Cuomo said in his announcement is ridiculous for the reasons noted here by David Doel (mildly NSFW/H)...
...and Medhi Hasan discusses Cuomo’s political downfall and contrasts what Team “D” does in response to this stuff (usually resignation) as opposed to Team “R” (practically nothing)...and yes, there was a time when I thought Cuomo might actually be a viable candidate for prez too – fortunately, we didn’t get to a point where this scandal would blow up in case Cuomo ended up being the standard bearer instead of Biden...
...and Farron Cousins tells us that a federal judge smacked Guv #DeathSantis of FL and let Norwegian Cruise Lines enforce vaccine passports (nice job by Cousins to link this to the wingnut baker who didn’t want to make a gay wedding cake as well as Citizens United)...
...and turning to sports, this happened 40 years ago yesterday – Pete Rose became the all-time National League leader in base hits, congratulated by former record holder Stan Musial of the St. Louis Cardinals among others (apropos since the Phils were playing St. Louis)...yeah, I know Rose bet on games and he shouldn’t have, but lots of other players and officials have done worse as far as I’m concerned...I’ll admit that I have a bit of a soft spot for Rose since the Phils would never have won the ’80 Series without him...
...and again, maybe I should be railing against "Slow Hand" for some of his anti-vax rhetoric, but I'm more disappointed than anything else and would rather choose to express my outrage over other stuff...with that in mind, though, kudos to Dr. Brian May for speaking out (here).
Brian Tyler Cohen gives us this clip of U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana talking with CNN’s Dana Bash – I have lots of disagreements with Cassidy, but he’s pretty lucid here IMO, and I think this is about the best you’re going to get from the Repug on this issue (and of course, God forbid that Cassidy should give a straight answer and compliment Dem Gov. John Bel Edwards on the mask mandate)...
...and on the subject of our regularly scheduled plague, John and Francesca give a reality check on the latest blatherings from Baby Ben Shapiro (who apparently got a dose of reality inflicted upon him by Malcolm Nance on Real Time with Bill Maher...if I gave a crap about Maher any more, I’d bother to watch, but since I don’t...)...
...and for the reality perspective, Alicia Menendez of MSNBC speaks with moms Veronica McClane and Ashley Simmons on trying to get Arkansas to overturn its ban on a mask mandate; fortunately, a judge ruled in the mom’s favor (but of course, it shouldn’t have had to come to that, right?)...
...and Joy Reid definitely brings the snark on the anti-vaxxers – good for her (w/ Dr. Lipi Roy and former Repug U.S. House Rep David Jolly)...
...and I know I included the video form Chris Hayes last week on Jeffrey Clark, that disgusting life form who tried to overturn our democracy in favor of reinstalling Generalissimo Trump, but Farron Cousins gives us a follow up on Jeffrey Rosen refusing Trump and Clark’s attempts to overturn the Georgia election results – yeah, Rosen definitely isn’t a saint by any means, but it’s a little scary to realize how close they came to pulling it off (and I think The Rude One sums this up well here)...
...and speaking of white privilege, David Shuster brings us a couple of pretty wretched examples, and it shouldn’t be a surprise I guess that they’re from Texas and South Carolina...
...but to be a little fair to the Lone Star State (more than they deserve collectively), I should include this clip of Dem State Rep James Talarico, who managed to get a bill passed in that state capping the cost of insulin (shocking he was able to get bipartisan support, which you need in R-friendly states like his, and credit where it’s due to him for getting it)...
..and I realize that I’ve put up a few covers of this song, but I don’t think I’ve ever done that for the original, so here it is.
