David Doel brings us an example of what was once called the “Clinton News Network” propagating right-wing talking points on the interminable story of the Dems trying to pass Biden’s “Build Back Better” plan in Congress; oh suuure, blame progressives, when in in reality, thanks to Manchin and “Curtsy Kyrsten,” the Dems are going to be hamstrung with messaging along the lines of “well, we said we would do this and that, but ooopsie, we didn’t have enough of a majority to negate these two idiots and do what we were supposed to” heading into the midterms...ugh!...
...and this ’18 clip from Lawrence O’Donnell tells us about Repug U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley and how he and Saint Orrin Hatch we’re OK with an FBI investigation into Anita Hill but not Dr. Christine Blasey Ford into her charges against “I Like Beer” Kavanaugh during the SCOTUS confirmation hearing (given Grassley’s announcement that he intends to seek another term in the U.S. Senate as noted here, which truly is unbelievable given that he’d be 94 if he gets re-elected and finishes his term)...
...and going back still further, I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” (more or less) from 9/26/14, in which a segment from what was once the Fair TV channel with Peter Hart tells us about a climate march with about 300,000 people that was almost completely ignored by our bought-and-paid-for corporate media, as well as more coverage of President Obama definitely tilted in the “pro-war” direction...
...and Farron Cousins tells us that Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao is trying to destroy the economy over the debt ceiling as usual...kind of a weak finish, but if Cousins’ point is that the Dems get lost in their own minutiae when it comes to legislating, then I reluctantly have to go along with that...
...and this Now This clip tells us about the Dem-run U.S. House passing a bill to protect abortions...and if you have to guess how Republicans voted, you’re not paying attention (as noted a couple of days ago, I’d like to see them pass a bill overriding anti-mask and anti-vax mandates to protect our kids, but I’m not holding my breath on that)...
...and this More Perfect Union clip tells us that water protectors at the L3 Pipeline are being arrested by some particularly sadistic rent-a-cops who are inflicting torture on the protestors to the point where they’re apparently suffering from Bell’s Palsy – I see one hell of a lawsuit coming over this; that SHOULD happen anyway...
...and Beau tells us about a student petition to bring back slavery in Missouri, and in response the parents and the other adults affiliated with the Park Hill School District are clutching their metaphorical pearls over it, wondering how their poor, darling kids could have done something so heinous, as noted here (gee, maybe you can find a clue about that here, with a protest over "critical race theory" which...wait for it!...ISN'T EVEN TAUGHT IN MISSOURI SCHOOLS!!!)...
Update 9/27?21: And this didn't happen in a vacuum either.
...and last Thursday marked what would have been the 95th birthday of legendary jazz saxophonist (and one-time Philly resident) John Coltrane.
Robert Reich reminds us that the U.S. Senate Dems have to get rid of the filibuster to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act (and whatever mess Manchin has come up with – ugh!...and if you want more ways to bug the crap out of "curtsy Kyrsten," click here)...
...and Francesca and Caroline Johnson of The Damage Report tell us about Mango Mussolini’s latest lawsuit, this time against Mary Trump and three New York Times reporters (usually I ignore this nonsense, but I guess you have to pay attention to it once in awhile...and concerning our former First Family, isn’t this just too precious?)...
...and Thom Hartmann speaks with Dem U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse about the FBI basically blowing off its investigation into “I Like Beer” Kavanaugh (lots of interesting stuff including Whitehouse’s discussion of Leonard Leo and The Federalist Society)...
...and Sam and Emma V. talk about the latest with former Dem U.S. House Rep Tulsi Gabbard, breathing life into “9/11, 9/11” again, timed for the anniversary I guess, when in reality, if you want to get to the source of the monsters behind that, you’d have to rattle your metaphorical saber at our “dear friends” the Saudis, and good luck with that...interesting to see Gabbard defending her pals Assad in Syria and Sisi in Egypt, and Modi in India of course, all noted here, when they all have skeletons in their closets too, you might say...the biggest factor that energizes the forces Gabbard cites as our enemies is our military presence in many of the countries in the Middle East and Asia, and as Gabbard basically says towards the end of the clip, she just wants MOOOAAAARRR WAAAAARRRRR (and great point by Emma that HRC supported much of the interventionist foreign policy Gabbard has supported, but DON’T YOU DARE say that in front of The Swanson TV Dinner Heir...cul de sacky??!!)...
...and David Shuster tells us about Kara Bell of Texas (of course), who apparently was triggered by a book passage that alluded to anal sex (and Bell is a repeat offender it seems... as far as I’m concerned, the bigger issue is book censorship, which of course is fine for “y’all Qaeda”)...
...and in yet another great Second Thought video, we learn how conservatives co-opted Christianity (a lot of good historical information, but you cannot truly calculate the impact of Roe v. Wade in splitting Catholicism between conservatives and progressives...not arguing against the ruling, but just stating the political reality)...
...and Ana and Cenk tell us about the U.S. House passing the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, but it looks like Senate Republicans are just going to kill it, with “qualified immunity” for the cops being the sticking point – with Cenk and Ana...and as far as I’m concerned, their outrage is completely called for (”ooh, those Republicans are going to run their attack ads saying we Dems are soft on crime!! We’re sooo scared!!!”...I hate to break the news to you “chicken littles,” but THEY’RE GOING TO DO THAT ANYWAY EVEN IF IT’S NOT TRUE!! And besides, the House has passed COVID relief and the ARP which included funding for public sector workers, and COPS are public sector workers...the bills passed with 0 Republican votes, so YOU tell ME who’s “defunding the police” and who isn’t!)...
Rachel Maddow speaks with attorney Joyce Vance on the practical effects of Texas’s beyond-cruel-and-ridiculous anti-abortion law, with Dr. Alan Braid performing the procedure, and now some goofball, out-of-state lawyer is suing over it as the law allows...I’m only a layman on this stuff, but how on earth can this nut job have standing in a case like this?...
...and yeah, don’t you just love it when “Christians” like that “Y’all Qaeda” loon MTG think they can inflict their version of spirituality onto others...
...and returning to our regularly scheduled plague, Farron Cousins tells us about kids in Washington state who partly blame The Swanson TV Dinner Heir for their father’s vaccine hesitancy that led to his death – more here...I commend Cousins here for putting out the suggestion of coming up with a law to prevent medical misinformation, but as much as I want to support something like that, I’ve seen too many cases of laws getting turned around somehow to attack the people trying to do good – the answer is for cable TV subscribers to make enough noise to get garbage channels like Fox, OANN and Newsmax off the air (the wingnuts would probably try something in response against, say, MSNBC, but I’m tired of these lunatics and their threats, so my response is “bring it”)...
...and Brian Tyler Cohen tells us about the 3 Dems in the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee (Scott Peters (D-Calif.), Kathleen Rice (D-N.Y.) and Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.)) who ALMOST sank the provision in the infrastructure bill to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices...more here (NSFW/H)...
...and Ana and Cenk of TYT tell us about the women who rage-quit on Wal-of-China Mart on their way out the door...don’t try this at home, kids, but I have to admit that it’s pretty damn cool...I hope they don’t need these Walmart cretins for a reference, though legally the company can only confirm dates of employment...good points by Cenk about “economic dignity”...
...and RIP Philly guy Leonard “Doc” Gibbs – used to watch “Emeril Live” back in the day, and he had a lot to do with making it a great show.
Among other things that we learn in this video form Chris Hayes is that Mississippi now has the highest rate of COVID deaths per capita in the country – I’m old enough to remember when life forms like Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao were crowing about how much those accursed blue states had mismanaged their COVID response, and we just collectively said “just you wait,” and look where we are now...
...and Beau gives us some important context on health care workers (not just nurses) in Indiana quitting because they allegedly refused to get the vaccine – 125 employees refused to provide information as to whether or not they were vaccinated, so apparently they were let go...
...and this Now This clip tells us about UN Secretary-General António Guterres slamming the billionaire space race and COVID-19 vaccine inequity... ‘We passed the science test, but we are getting an F in Ethics’ indeed...
...and John and Nina Turner of The Damage Report tell us about this special ed assistant named Lauren Pefferle who apparently was protesting a vaccine mandate for her state of Oregon (and apparently this Newburg, OR place has a problem with nutty, disgusting race behavior...can’t blame anybody below the Mason Dixon line for this...when the #@$! are people going to get it through their heads that WEARING BLACKFACE IS A PLAINLY TERRIBLE THING TO DO??!!!)...
...and Ari Melber talks about Dems needing to get angry against the unvaccinated, within certain parameters I realize (and not the biggest fan of Howard Stern, but he’s exactly right...I would argue that we’ve been coddling about 25-30 percent of this country, who continue to be utterly wrong on everything, for far too damn long, and look where we’ve ended up as a result )...
Update 9/22/21: I realize Congressional Dems are stuck in this whole sausage-making exercise when it comes to the infrastructure bill, but they would do well to pay attention to the main reason Gavin Newsom defeated the recall effort in California so handily. And that was because the people of his state overwhelmingly approved of his handling of the COVID pandemic.
Hey Dems, this is political gold! And here is how you use it.
Pass a bill in the House that federally overrules all local ordinances anywhere in the country against mask mandates and vaccinations. It likely won’t get through the Senate because it will probably need 60 votes (unless the Senate Dems find the fortitude to tell the parliamentarian to hit the bricks, like the Republicans once did). And it also probably won’t get a single Republican yes vote in the House either. And yes, the screaming and caterwauling in the wingnutosphere will be off the charts for sure. Too bad!
Draw the battle lines as starkly as you can on this issue...”The Dems want to protect your kids, and the Republicans don’t.” Try letting the other side deal with THAT heading into the midterms.
Try playing some goddamn offense for a change!
Update 9/23/21: And add this to the steaming pile of fail from the "party of Lincoln."
...and in non-COVID news, Farron Cousins discusses a Politico story telling us that FL Repugs knew their BS “voting fraud” nonsense was all about sticking it to the Democrats, which we also knew of course, but this just makes it official...
...and Thom Hartmann tells us about “white privilege” playing a role in the utterly awful story of Gabby Petito (not against her of course, but against women of other ancestry/ethnicity who might not get the same coverage...I’ve read some people online who have opined that the boyfriend will turn up dead somewhere, and I have a feeling that will turn out to be right...normally I try to stay away from stories like this because they’re a little “out of my lane,” and what matters is doing what we can to protect young women like Petito, though tragically it’s too late for her)...
...and this may be a little "out of my lane" too, but I'm taking a shot anyway...yesterday I included a musical selection with sports in mind (the Muhammad Ali doc by Ken Burns in particular), and I’d like to keep that theme once more. However, when it comes to pro sports, I intend to go from the sublime to the utterly ridiculous.
I’ve tried to steer clear of all of the stuff involving Ben Simmons and the Philadelphia 76ers because I was hoping Simmons would come to his senses as the team approached training camp, but it seems that he’s bound and determined to never play for the franchise again, the utterly stoo-pid millions of dollars he makes to play the game of professional basketball notwithstanding (here).
I guess “Baby Ben” got his fee fees hurt because he utterly disappeared in the NBA playoff series between the Sixers and the Atlanta Hawks earlier this year and was quite rightly blasted for it. This was the series the Sixers lost in seven games, with Joel Embiid basically dragging around a busted leg and trying to will the team to victory (with Embiid embodying all of the grit, courage and talent that the team was waiting for Simmons to show, along with this alleged, mythical three-point jump shot of his – it was actually a blessing that the Sixers lost because Milwaukee, the eventual NBA champions, would have destroyed them).
Here is what I hope the Sixers do about Simmons...absolutely nothing. As long as he’s under contract, let Simmons sit and stew and pout while his career passes him by. Even in the through-the-looking-glass world of pro sports salaries, I cannot imagine the entitlement of someone like Simmons, who apparently expects every aspect of perceived reality to revolve around him. And once more, for a guy who was under contract to get paid millions of dollars to put a ball through a hoop.
I’ve read comments comparing Simmons to Carson Wentz, formerly the Eagles quarterback. Yes, there was more than a little pouting by Wentz after he was benched for Jalen Hurts, but I think there are two important differences: 1) Injuries did play a factor with Wentz, though he totally lost control of the Eagles offense too, and 2) Wentz played a pivotal role in the Eagles’ incredible run that won them the Super Bowl in 2018, going 11-2 before suffering an ACL injury. So basically, Wentz helped deliver the championship, something Simmons can only dream of at this point. And while I don’t wish to see Wentz successful against the Eagles (and you KNOW, the way sports drama often plays out, that the two will face each other one day), I’m fine if Wentz does well against other teams (though apparently he has to get over another injury first).
So yeah, this song goes out to Simmons (and to think, the Sixers once had their “power trio” of Embiid, Simmons and Jimmy Butler and very nearly beat Toronto when the Raptors went on to win their own title, but the team didn’t renew Butler’s contract...heckuva job, Elton Brand!).
Update 10/11/21: Yeah, I guess missing too many paychecks would do the trick, wouldn't it? (here).
Update 2 10/20/21: At what point should we start blaming the Sixers for not knowing what was really up with this guy before they drafted him (here)?
Update 10/21/21: Words from a man who knows and who helped get it done in 2018 (here).
Update 11/24/21: OK, I’m seeing some stories online that Simmons is dealing with mental health issues. I would never try to make light of that or trivialize it. I hope he gets the help he needs; that of course is more important than sports.
But as far as I’m concerned, Simmons and just about every other pro athlete (and certainly when it comes to the NBA) make absolutely STOO-PID money, and part of the price for that is a visible public profile and the responsibility to perform your sport at the highest possible level when it counts the most. And Simmons failed to do that against Atlanta in the playoffs (again, while teammate Joel Embiid showed a ton of courage and fortitude playing through an injury), so Simmons had better expect a measure of scorn.
Yes, again, if Simmons needs professional help, I hope he gets it and takes whatever time he needs to straighten himself out. But he’d better not think all is forgiven either. And I’m sorry if that’s harsh, but as far as I’m concerned, that comes with his job.
Update 3/10/22: Incredibly late on this I know (there have been just a couple of other more important stories at the moment), but I think the Sixers played this whole mess pretty well the way they did to get James Harden, though, to be honest, I hated to see them get rid of Seth Curry, but at least they didn’t move Matisse Thybulle or Tyrese Maxey...Baby Ben returns to the WTF Center tonight, so we’ll see what happens (more here)...and of course, the Sixers ended up getting smoked and Simmons didn't even play.
Update 4/25/22: New team, same old "Baby Ben" (here).
...and David Doel tells us about border patrol using whips on Haitian immigrants, which is awful of course...I’m not going to gloss over the Biden Administration on this since this is happening on their watch, and it turns out that that Afghan drone strike got innocent people killed, but I will only say this...maybe if there was a hell of a lot more outrage focused on the Trump regime which initiated a lot of it, the cleanup wouldn’t be quite so difficult now under Biden – and gee, a 1944 statute, this so-called Title 42, that had never been used against immigrants until now...let me think real hard and venture a guess that Baby Goebbles had more than a little to do with that (here) – but of course, our essentially useless fourth estate chose to bloviate and hector our politicians about “migrant caravans” instead, which was always bullshit...NSFW/H...and I'm sorry, but I just have no respect for Schumer anyway but especially after this; I can't help but feel that he's trying to deflect from his own failure...
...and Jesse Dollemore tells us about the insane MTG ad (is there any other kind?) blowing up a vehicle with “socialism” on it (NSFW/H...and gee, isn’t this interesting to see how she, being a good Republican, only obeys the rules she screeches about when it suits her).
And by the way, after watching that prior idiocy, I want to “go meta” again on something, so please bear with me.
After a certain point, I have to admit that I get more than a little fed up with making it clear that Republicans are nothing but performative idiots trying to suck the oxygen, if you will, out of intelligent debate concerning any substantive issue with their ridiculous nonsense. After awhile, that kind of turns into “yes I know, water is wet, sky is blue, etc.”
I realize we’re obligated to point out that stuff, but do you want to know what REALLY matters? Planning for the 2022 midterms, which (and believe me when I tell you that I HATE to point this out) are going to be on us again before we know it. And I want to know what the hell the alleged geniuses at the DNC/DCCC/DSCC are going to do about maintaining our hold in Congress (I’m not going to be presumptuous enough at this point to talk about building on it, since, with the historical mid-term slump Dems usually have – which is inexcusable for Dem voters, by the way – along with all of the garbage redistricting/gerrymandering going on (along with the horrible voting bills), just keeping up the status quo would be a victory at this point).
In PA-01, nary a day goes by without seeing our ridiculous joke of a U.S. House rep cutting a ribbon somewhere to open a new business, talking at a senior center or giving an award to a Boy Scout/elderly war veteran (like this). And yeah, that’s corny and deflects from the issues that matter. But do you want to know what ELSE that does? It keeps Brian Fitzpatrick in his own manufactured spotlight and in the mind of the voters of this district, that’s what. And he knows that. And he also knows that voters (with the enthusiastic aid of gullible, conservative-friendly media, most infamously the Bucks County Courier Times) will remember that when the election comes around.
There are Dems who get this and maintain a pretty decent social media presence (AOC is one along with Ilhan Omar – who of course gets utterly trashed when she says anything, but commendably doesn’t back down – and Steve Santarsiero/Perry Warren in these parts do a respectable job with that too). But for the most part, the Democratic Party continues to utterly stink on messaging and social media engagement. And it doesn’t matter if the person in charge is Howard Dean/Tom Perez/Jaime Harrison/whoever...they NEVER seem to get that! Basically (as people far smarter than I have noted), if you’re a Dem candidate and you get to about 2-3 months until Election Day and realize, all of a sudden, that you have to develop a social media presence and put out messaging that engages your base and motivates them to work and vote for you, then IT’S PROBABLY TOO GODDAMN LATE FOR THAT! And don’t give me this stuff about how much YouTube videos cost (which is virtually nothing, truth be told)! If you can’t manufacture your own media like the other side does, then why are you bothering to play this game at all?
So yes, let’s laugh at Marjorie Taylor Greene for acting like the psycho she truly is. But also remember that, as ridiculous, childish and outright dangerous as her antics are, when she does all of this, she’s engaging her base (and I don’t want to imagine what kind of a troglodyte you have to be to actually want to vote for her, but these are the people we’re up against).
And with that admittedly boring pretext out of the way, I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” (more or less) from 9/20/17, in which Farron Cousins tells us about a U of P study pointing out how uninformed or misinformed we are overall as a country (and once more, this is not for me to say, “Oh, look how smart I am because I post about this stuff so much”...I’m just a guy with this dumb blog and I’m no better or worse than anyone else, but Cousins is right...we need to do something about the overall civic ignorance of too many people in this country, but I’ll admit that, unfortunately, I don’t have an answer on that)...
...and returning to more of the nuts-and-bolts stuff that affects the majority of our lives, what Biden says in this Now This clip about his “Build Back Better” plan should appear in ads and videos from EVERY DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE, regardless if you’re running for the U.S. Congress or municipal dog catcher (and by the way, all the debt ceiling stuff is more politically manufactured BS from the other side that ALWAYS comes up only when Dems are in charge – the answer is just to get rid of the damn debt ceiling)...
...and Sam and Emma of The Majority Report tells us about idiot Repug guv Brian Kemp of Georgia discussing the AIDS vaccine, which – and I know this is inconvenient to note – doesn’t actually exist; no word on whether or not the news anchor was up to the task of pointing that out...
...and this More Perfect Union video tells us about the janitor’s strike in California (more here)...
...and I came across this fairly recent tune after I watched more of the latest great Ken Burns documentary, this time on Muhammad Ali, and I thought it fit somewhat, so here it is.
Jayar, Cenk and Jackson White of TYT tell us about this crazy woman from Texas who came to NYC and assaulted a restaurant worker who asked for proof of vaccination...yeah, I’ve had enough of these clowns and their entitlement too (and boy, does Cenk nail this at the end)...
...and David Shuster of Rebel HQ tells us about this Bob Enyart character and the other right-wing radio idiots dying of COVID, along with some common sense remarks from Howard Stern (the “better angels” commentary from Shuster is good, though it does take a hell of a lot of patience dealing with these cretins...NSFW/H)...
...and in a related item, this Lincoln Project clip tells us about “Abbott’s Wall” (so much insanity with other Republican governors that it’s tempting to forget about what’s going on in “the land of the yellow rose”)...
...and Chris Hayes talks with Ro Khanna on climate hearings with oil companies the week of October 28th (including the snippet with that guttersnipe lobbyist Keith McCoy...background on Henry Waxman and ’94 hearings with those bastards in charge of the tobacco companies is here...)...
...and Jim Acosta reminds us that The Roger Ailes BS Factory is peddling lies for profit here (and Acosta mentions Republican U.S. House Rep Anthony Gonzalez, who decided not to seek another term because he’s had enough of the Trumpsist clowns threatening his family, pretty much)...
...and Joy Reid has her “Absolute Worst” here with Dan (“Democrat Party”) Patrick and Elise Stefanik, spouting the “Great Replacement” theory garbage from The Swanson TV Dinner Heir...
...and this Really American video reminds us once more of the treason of Repug U.S. House Rep Madison Cawthorn and the other performative clowns in his party...
...and like you I’m sure, I’ve seen performers destroy their guitars, but this is a first in that I’ve never seen anybody take out their aggression on a piano before.
(And by the way, happy recent 75th birthday to Tommy Lee Jones.)
Emma V. and the crew from The Majority Report tell us about this Grant Stinchfield character utterly losing it when one of our vets helping to get people out of Afghanistan shows the temerity to actually criticize Dear Leader Trump on this issue – God, is Stinchfield a snowflake or what ("lost his Stinch" - heh)...
...and maybe with Stinchfield and characters like him in mind, Beau gave us this great commentary on the media and people in entertainment (comedians mainly) voicing their opinions, with Beau pointing out that NOBODY is truly objective (“It’s hard to maintain objectivity and profitability” – damn straight!)...
...and this Now This clip tells us that the fencing has gone back up around the U.S. Capitol building in anticipation of another treasonous insurrection tomorrow (and one of these days, Mango Mussolini will be in jail for real I firmly believe, and that day can’t come soon enough, and this is one of a multitude of reasons why)...
...and Thom Hartmann brings us an interesting lesson on why health care isn’t a right in the U.S. and how that’s pretty much been “baked in,” if you will, since the 1940s (and leave it to the Germans to figure out why that’s wrong – I say that because the EU and Nordic countries overall pay more attention to quality-of-life stuff like this than we do in this country...the video is a little choppy...I’m pretty sure what Thom said was “12 former slave states refused to extend Medicaid”...more on Frederick Hoffman, who Thom discusses, is here, and this is a related topic)...
...and in a sane country, where people responsible for the deaths of thousands would be incarcerated, FL governor #DeathSantis might be housed somewhere with Combover Caligula while actual adults with brains would go about the business of fixing the COVID messes created by these two cretins, but alas, we are where we are...
...and in the latest Second Thought video, we learn more about how conservative our major political parties actually are (and the “ratchet effect”...not quite as despairing of the Dems as the narrator, and he doesn’t take into account the hold Trumpism now has on the ”party of Lincoln,” but he does make a lot of good points...I realize he’s coming at this as a Democratic socialist, which I think is fine, but as infuriating as the Dems are at times, they’re our best shot in this rigged political game)...
...and turning to sports, this More Perfect Union video tells us about minor league baseball players treated not much better than cattle – I’m sure the answer is a union, but good luck with that in our COVID-wracked economy...
Update 9/18/21: A related item is here (including our home team).
...and I’ve been hanging onto this selection since including it means that summer is all done for yours truly (sniff), but with the autumnal equinox coming up next week, I guess it’s time to move on until next year – c’est la vie.
I’m sure nobody really cares what former PA State Senator Scott “Stomp On Tom Wolf’s Face With Golf Cleats” Wagner (here) is up to, but it looks like he’s doing something typically pointless and stoo-pid as usual, with still more ridiculous billboards for drivers to have to cringe at while driving through Pennsyltucky (more here and here...he could have been our governor instead of Wolf, people, and we would have been in worse shape than Florida by now)...
...and speaking of “The Sunshine State,” Sam and Emma tell us that #DeathSantis stood by and said not a damn word as some FLA loon said the COVID vaccine changes your RNA...God, the idiocy never ends with these life forms...
...and Francesca and Jayar of The Damage Report give us their take on the stuff with Gen. Mark Milley from “Peril” by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa (unintentionally hilarious to hear people blaming Gen. Milley instead of all of the Repug sycophants like the U.S. senator here who chose to do NOTHING while our Insane Clown *President posed a threat to the whole damn world...surprised by Lt. Col. Vindman’s criticism here, to be honest)...
...and yeah, when it comes to the “party of Lincoln,” this damning video calls them out in unsparing terms which is totally deserved (timed a bit for this, and kudos to the brave women noted here)...
...also, RIP Norm MacDonald (I was hot and cold on him to be honest, but we need all the people who can make us laugh that we can get – sympathies to family and friends of course...and I realize I didn’t say anything about this legendary Philly funnyman who had a hard road at the end of his life too, but what a gift of laughter he gave to people as MacDonald did also)...
...and I like this newer tune, also dedicated to somebody who also departed too soon as noted here (sorry to be a bit maudlin...I'll try to be more upbeat next time).
(I know I was moving around videos a lot yesterday for anyone paying attention so I could get stuff featuring Larry Elder in CA, who we can now just call a failed Trumpist nut and nothing more as noted here – I’ll try not to move stuff around like that again in the future.)
Robert Reich tells us more about what’s going on with the $3.5 trillion infrastructure bill...so damn many reasons to “fight like hell” for this against the usual corporate criminals and their bought-and-paid-for politicians, as Reich correctly points out...
...and John and Benjamin Dixon tell us about the statue of Robert E. Lee coming down in Richmond, VA and the subsequent wingnut caterwauling that followed, with Mango Mussolini crowing that Lee would have led us to military victory in Afghanistan, aided by Laura Ingraham’s historical revisionism of course...
And as far as Lee’s postwar legacy is concerned, I give you the following from here...
After the war, Lee did advise defeated southerners not to rise up against the North. Lee might have become a rebel once more, and urged the South to resume fighting—as many of his former comrades wanted him to. But even in this task Grant, in 1866, regarded his former rival as falling short, saying that Lee was “setting an example of forced acquiescence so grudging and pernicious in its effects as to be hardly realized.”
Nor did Lee’s defeat lead to an embrace of racial egalitarianism. The war was not about slavery, Lee insisted later, but if it were about slavery, it was only out of Christian devotion that white southerners fought to keep black people enslaved. Lee told a New York Herald reporter, in the midst of arguing in favor of somehow removing black people from the South (“disposed of,” in his words), “that unless some humane course is adopted, based on wisdom and Christian principles, you do a gross wrong and injustice to the whole negro race in setting them free. And it is only this consideration that has led the wisdom, intelligence and Christianity of the South to support and defend the institution up to this time.”
...
Publicly, Lee argued against the enfranchisement of black Americans, and raged against Republican efforts to enforce racial equality in the South. Lee told Congress that black people lacked the intellectual capacity of white people and “could not vote intelligently,” and that granting them suffrage would “excite unfriendly feelings between the two races.” Lee explained that “the negroes have neither the intelligence nor the other qualifications which are necessary to make them safe depositories of political power.” To the extent that Lee believed in reconciliation, it was among white people, and only on the precondition that black people would be denied political power and therefore the ability to shape their own fate.
...and boy, did I have issues with this recent column from former Dem PA lieutenant governor Mark Singel saying that departing U.S. Senate Repug Pat Toomey from our beloved commonwealth of PA deserves respect from both sides of the aisle, as it were, presumably because Toomey voted to convict Trump in the latter's second impeachment...talk about setting the bar low...so many reasons to take issue with this (including this, where Toomey defended Trump during his first impeachment), as well as Singel saying that Repug U.S. House Rep Dan Mueser (sp?) was a “credible candidate,” even though, as noted here, Meuser once said that the “liberal left” is a greater threat than ISIS.
Oh, and there’s this too of course...
Update 9/26/21: I should ask Singel if Toomey deserves "respect" for this also (more lying BS about Toomey's beloved "tax cuts").
Update 9/30/21: Toomey is a thoroughly worthless worm, but we knew that already didn't we? (here).
...and David Pakman reminds us here about Dubya’s 9/11 speech over the weekend where Number 43 found the proverbial nut linking the 9/11 attackers to the 1/6 domestic terrorists...and finding the nut ONLY ON THAT...
...and yeah, it looks like the wingnuts were apoplectic over AOC’s “Tax the Rich” dress at the recent Met Gala (yeah, don't you hate it when high-profile women make political statements through their clothing?)...
I have only this to say in response...
...and guitarist Ed King (of Lynyrd Skynyrd and Strawberry Alarm Clock – now there’s a combo!) would have been 72 yesterday.
(And just as a reminder for anybody in CA, today is the day to Vote NO on the recall of Gov. Gavin Newsom...more here.)
Farron Cousins is here to give us the latest on the attempts to hide COVID data in FLA under Gov #DeathSantis, and quite rightly blaming the rest of Florida's utterly wretched Repug political contingent from that state – yeah, just don’t issue any updates when the news is particularly bad...
...and this Now This clip tells us about the Tennessee student testifying in favor of mandatory masking in schools...God, the adults are idiots, including that black-haired woman with the black-framed glasses who laughed when she heard the student mention that his grandmother had died from COVID...and believe me when I tell you that PA doesn’t have anything to brag about either...that guy yelling about child support was truly a wackadoodle too...
...and a lot of the reason why COVID is still raging out of control is because of total BS from wingnut media, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau quite rightly took them to task in his country here...
...and returning to our own homeland, as it were, Robert Reich explains how the U.S. Senate filibuster actually violates the Constitution...
...and returning to the CA recall, here’s Repug Larry Elder saying he would have voted against the 1964 Civil Rights Act...
...and here’s Elder pre-emptively complaining about voter fraud – yeah, it’s as pathetic as it sounds for the reasons David Shuster explains...
...and Chris Hayes speaks with Dahlia Lithwick and Elie Mystal on Amy Coney Island Baby Barrett’s no-video-cameras speech over the weekend at the McConnell Center (wink, wink) where she said the SCOTUS shouldn’t be too partisan (wink, wink...Mystal in particular is fire here)...
It looks like David Doel found the clip of U.S. Senate “Democrat” Joe Manchin claiming last January that he didn’t care about the price tag of the infrastructure bill Congress is trying to pass, but now (big surprise), suddenly he cares about it (and Manchin’s sucking up to departing U.S. Senate Repug Roy Blunt is pretty disgusting also...Mehdi Hasan found this clip first as Doel notes...mildly NSFW/H)...
...and Rachel Maddow speaks with Dem State Rep Ilana Rubel of Idaho, which is basically preforming health care rationing at this point (“crisis standards of care” does indeed sound pretty extreme...and they just appointed this Trumpster Ryan Cole as the senior health care officer in the state - "needle rape," huh?...any remaining doubts at this point that the GOP is nothing but a death cult?)...
...and Brian Tyler Cohen brings us a clip of Chris Wallace of Fix Noise telling Stephen Colbert how Wallace deals with lying idiots from the “party of Lincoln” (I think Wallace speaks a bit with a forked tongue, you might say, here, but when going over prior clips of his interviews, he has done a lot of good work to be fair...also mildly NSFW/H)...
...and I’m sure one of the people Wallace refers to in the prior clip (when it comes to not putting up with crap) is Josh Mandel, currently seeking the Repug nomination for the U.S. Senate seat Rob Portman is vacating from Ohio (with Brett Erlich, Cenk and Caroline Johnson...Biden’s “gestapo” showing up at your door, and “you know what to do,” huh? What a freaking loon!)...
...and given that yesterday was the first full day of the new NFL season (which I know technically started last Thursday), it looks like “Maniac Megyn” is back to complain about that league's attempt at social justice outreach – I guess you could call it that (and of course, her take is bogus – big surprise I know)...
...and I don't know is there's some kind of a "replicas" thing going on in this clip or not, but it's definitely a good tune (once again, very mildly NSFW/H).
I knew this day would come, of course. As we all knew. And I honestly had no idea what I was going to say, or if anything should even be said at all.
But then I saw Episode 3 of Spike Lee’s documentary NYC Epicenters, which dealt with the aftermath of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the events of September 11th, and a ton of memories and emotions came back to me (I know I’m hardly alone with that, and what I think and feel is no better or worse that what anyone else thinks and feels of course). In Lee’s fine documentary, we’re shown how 9/11/01 was truly a beautiful fall day in the east and in NYC in particular, and how people were living their lives as usual until about 8:46 AM. I remember listening to what transpired on my car radio while driving to my job in King of Prussia, and of course, not long after I got into the office, we were gathered into a conference room to make sure everyone could be accounted for (there were a few people traveling, but they made contact as soon as they found out what was happening, and their flights were grounded that day anyway of course). We were all told to go home shortly after that, and I remember driving east on the PA Turnpike and wondering If a plane was going to fall on me (as we found out later of course with Flight 93, it was on an easterly path parallel to where I was, likely heading for the Capitol).
Lee’s documentary is absolutely unsparing in its detail, showing all of the carnage, horror and trauma of individuals directly affected as well as family members and acquaintances. Being a first-class filmmaker, the bar should be set high anyway in terms of the level of storytelling (within the “guard rails,” if you will, of documentary filmmaking), and Lee clears that bar for sure as far as I’m concerned.
But as I watched the production, I couldn’t help but engage in a mental exercise of “what if.” Yes, there were untold stories of heroism and bravery performed by those who knew they faced certain death, in particular NYC firefighters, medics and police. Yes, there is much to be said about our resiliency as a country to rebuild and continually honor the sacrifices of all of those who died or had their lives irrevocably altered by the tragedies that have basically been burned into our consciousness.
The 9/11 cataclysm inspired all of that courage, and it probably would be impossible if any one of us were to spend the rest of our lives trying to somehow record all of it across individuals of all kinds of political orientations, races, ethnicities, gender identification and foreign ancestry (9/11 wasn’t just an attack on this country, though it was that first and foremost, but by virtue of all of the people impacted, we should never forget truly that it was an attack on the entire world).
But here is my problem, as I try to process all of this once more after all of these years; make no mistake that the 9/11 attacks also inspired a hell of a lot of fear (and the “what if” has to do with imagining a far different outcome, where, instead of what followed, we focused on THIS country instead and decided to curb our fevered dreams of “democracy building” and other overseas misadventures).
And that fear was cruelly exploited for the most crass political reasons imaginable. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again now; when George W. Bush stood on the rubble with that bullhorn, I thought to myself, “This guy shares absolutely none of my beliefs and comes from the complete wrong side of the political tracks, if you will, but could it be that somehow he could rise to this moment and make the right political decisions to lead us out of this mess?”
Well, for a time (after we went into Afghanistan), I thought, OK, we’ve driven out the Taliban (for now), even though I thought then as now that the right course was to get bin Laden, al Qaeda and that whole bunch of criminals, bring them to an international court, and then let that be it for the military part of this. Oh, and I would have given our “dear friends” the Saudis about 72 hours to turn over the entire rotten network of anyone who had anything to do whatsoever with 15 of the 19 hijackers, or else we would turn their whole country to glass. And I don’t give a shit about their oil or the geopolitical implications.
And after that, I would have done the most thorough internal forensic audit of sorts about how exactly the 9/11 hijackers were able to do what they did and take every imaginable precaution to make sure it NEVER, EVER happened again (Richard Clarke, the chief of counter terrorism who was held over from the Clinton Administration, was basically yelling his head off that an attack was coming, particularly after the infamous “bin Laden determined to strike in the U.S.” memo). PA Senator Arlen Specter once said that 9/11, first and foremost, was an intelligence failure, and I think that gets to the heart of all this.
Another thing (and I honestly don’t say this lightly): if the findings of the 9/11 Commission had honestly demonstrated negligence on the part of the Bush Administration, to say nothing of actual culpability, then Bush and Cheney should have resigned (or at least, an election would have been called for to elect new leadership, and preferably bipartisan to demonstrate the endurance of our political institutions).
But we know what happened. We were engulfed in 9/11 hero worship “porn,” if you will, leading up to the 2004 presidential election and 9/11 fetishism, culminating in the Republican National Convention, where the mere mention of that date was manufactured into an applause line. Of everything I despise that took place since the attacks, that may have been what enrages me the most. We lost 17 people from Bucks Country, PA....we don’t need any goddamn reminders from ANYBODY on how significant that is or how it affects the core of our being (something else I’ve said before and I’ll say again – I used to see Don Havlish in McCaffrey’s Supermarket, and he was one of the nicest people you’d ever meet...all they found was a femur).
And that political betrayal was used by the Republican Party to build on the fear generated by the attacks (and you wouldn’t be a human being if you didn’t have that emotion...the question is what do you do with it; do you do something courageous and positive, or do you wait to be led by someone into potentially the next calamity?). And that fear was supported and nurtured of course by media sympathetic to the Republican Party and refined into a weapon to be used against other opponents, including our first African American president, immigrants, those opposing the corporate criminals behind the 2008 Great Recession, “big government” intrusions (perceived as such anyway) into our health care decisions, LGBTQ individuals, women, minorities, and as we’ve seen over the last year, proven science against the worst pandemic this country has seen in over 100 years which has now killed well over 600,000 people. And now, that weapon has been so thoroughly refined that we, as a country, find ourselves in pitched battles with each other over issues that surely would have led to the defeat of this country in other crises we faced, in particularly the Civil War and World War II.
And yes, as far as I’m concerned, that was built on the fear generated by our vulnerability after the 9/11 attacks (on the 10th anniversary, I said that the bad guys won, and once more, this is what I was talking about...a related item is here).
As far as I’m concerned, individuals with a conscience would have known how to respond after the 9/11 attacks (yeah, maybe they still would have made mistakes, but they wouldn’t have made them out of hubris). But of course, we had the administration of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney instead (and all of the other cretins of that regime). And we may be living with the results of their awful decisions for the rest of our lives.
So let us pause, reflect and remember of course. That’s only right. But let us also resolve to use our courage, intellect and free will and the brains God gave us to act as responsible citizens in our democracy and hold our leaders to account when they don’t act in our interests, as well as those of our families and loved ones.
When people say, “remember 9/11,” it is my fervent hope that, one day, THAT is what they are actually talking about (and I thought this was a good commentary from Will Bunch...more important stuff is here).
This Now This clip shows Dem U.S. House Rep AOC speaking out against Repug Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and his monstrous anti-abortion law, which (as noted yesterday) is being challenged by the Biden DOJ and AG Merrick Garland (from the same fetid ideological pit of right-wing garbage as former Repug U.S. Senator from Missouri Todd Akin’s comments about “legitimate rape” here)...
...and I have to admit that I didn’t know that the Department of Education apparently has its own civil rights division, which is notifying some states that their prohibitions on masks are restricting access from students with disabilities (for public schools I believe)...Sam, Emma and Nomiki Konst of The Majority Report tell us more...
...and sticking with education, this More Perfect Union clip tells us about the effort to get rid of progressive school board members in Prince George County, MD (and no, I’m not letting the Dems off the hook for this one - more here)...
...and this clip from The Damage Report with John and Ben Dixon tells us that Kellyanne Conjob, Spicer and others from the Trump regime got kicked off some military advisory boards now overseen by the Biden Administration, and the subsequent whining and caterwauling from the usual suspects that followed – womp womp...
...and with the focus on the Texas garbage anti-abortion law, it’s a temptation I know to lose track of the Texas garbage anti-voting law, but fortunately, Rachel Maddow reports on that here and interviews attorney Marc Elias who is fighting this legislation and similar awfulness across the country...
...and this great Second Thought video explodes the mythology a bit when it comes to “the self-made billionaire”...
...and Thom Hartmann reminds us that yesterday was the 50th anniversary of the Attica prison riot, and he discusses our ongoing legacy of oppressing people of color and those in high crime neighborhoods as well as some in our corrections system – not saying they shouldn’t be punished as prescribed by a sentence handed down by a judge in a court of law, but just arguing for a little sanity for those who’ve done their time and want to/are able to make a good faith effort to start over...the ’71 riot was the subject of a great HBO movie called Against The Wall...
...and I know I’m overdue again for a new tune, and I hope this will suffice; hang around for the big finish, OK?
Chris Hayes tells us that U.S. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy isn’t going to be conducting a 1/6 investigation despite what he said to the contrary (yeah, I know – shocking!) and apparently today was a doc deadline request that may or may not have been met; I’m betting on the latter, but we’ll see (and of course, this tells us more about the antics McCarthy and his playmates have been up to)...
...and Biden AG Merrick Garland announced here that the DOJ is going to sue the “lone star state” over its Taliban-esque abortion ban, which is in clear violation of Planned Parenthood v. Casey (which Garland explains), as well as basic human decency (gee, you'd think that violation of precedent would have been noticed by Strip Search Sammy Alito, "I Like Beer" Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Island Baby Barrett)...
...and David Pakman tells us that the AZ life form who coughed on people while in a Nebraska supermarket has been fired from her job with SAP...good!...
...and Farron Cousins tells us that, according to the U.S. Treasury, the top 1% get out of paying about $163 billion every year in taxes, and apparently it’s legal (other estimates put the amount at about $1 trillion – Jesus wept)...
...and Beau tells us about our media’s alleged surprise over the Taliban taking over in Afghanistan (very tongue-in-cheek, I have to admit...note the “sarcasm” on his shirt)...
...and 65 years ago today (as noted here), Elvis Presley made his debut on the Ed Sullivan TV Show, though he didn't perform this number I'll admit.
Ben Carollo of Rebel HQ tells us that Fix Noise is leading the charge against Antifa and “fascism,” which (if they were being honest, which they’re not of course) are diametrically opposed, and the fact that the video with the schoolteacher came from those guttersnipes at Project Veritas confirms that those making the accusations are dealing from the very bottom of the intellectual barrel, if you will...
...and Ana and Cenk remind us that we “celebrated” Labor Day by cutting extended unemployment benefits (and of course, Fix Noise features this whining business owner who apparently had to be dragged kicking and screaming into paying workers a non-starvation wage)...
...and this Now This clip tells us more on the California recall election next Tuesday (critical that we get a big turnout to VOTE NO...more here)...
...and John and Francesca tell us about right-wing radio loudmouths dying of COVID after denying its existence (I’d have to be a ghoul to take pleasure in that, and I don’t, though it bothers me even more to think about those who foolishly listened to this idiots and got sick also)...
...and keeping somewhat with the theme of mortality, I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History,” and we’re taking another short trip back a year ago, to when Farron Cousins quite rightly took this Trump garbage life form named Francis Brennan to task for trying to ridicule then-presidential nominee Joe Biden over his visit to Brandywine Cemetery in Wilmington, DE, where Biden paid his respects to his first wife, son and daughter (very mildly NSFW/H but for a very good reason...truly no bottom to the evil of these life forms...and to give an example of how this garbage from characters like Brennan ends up seeping into the cycle of “legitimate” news organizations, I give you this from over the weekend by Peter Baker of “the old gray lady,” with Baker criticizing Biden for apparently grieving inappropriately, as if there’s an “appropriate” way to do that...if Baker were any kind of a legitimate news professional, to say anything of an actual human being capable of decency and compassion, he would have already apologized by now)...
...and while the “shadow docket” of the SCOTUS basically allows Roe v. Wade to be overturned by those troglodytes in Texas, the country on their southern border basically legalized abortion (Mexico enters the 21st century from a health care perspective while we continue our march to the dark ages)...
...and given the Texas garbage between harassing women and their health care decisions as well as restricting voting, I couldn't help but include this clip once more (from this great movie)...
...and I know this is another “oldie but goodie” that I’ve had on this site in the past, but I think it’s apropos to bring it back again for now...hope everybody has a happy #StarTrekDay.
And gee, you mean those aren't the real Dallas Cowboy cheerleader uniforms (here)? No duuuh!
That being said, I believe this hard-hitting Don Winslow video brings the appropriate level of outrage (and kudos to AG Merrick Garland for this)...
...and Jim Acosta tells us what Gohmert, MTG, Cawthorn and those other idiots (goaded on by The Swanson TV Dinner Heir) have been up to lately (yep, I think “human manure spreader” nails it...here)...
...and Joy Reid tells us that U.S. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has been threatening the telcos over cooperating with the commission looking into the 1/6 insurrection (more on his nonsensical behavior as well as that of his party is here)...
...and Thom Hartmann tells us that #DeathSantis is punishing 2 FL school districts by withholding funds for trying to enforce a mask mandate (and God, is this ever scary – in a sane country, he would have been removed from office by now, by force if necessary)...
...and just when you think the gun makers can’t possibly sink any lower, they find a way to do that, with Remington, which was sued by the parents of the kids murdered in Sandy Hook, looking into the school records of the dead kids...yeah, I guess some of them were disciplinary problems and deserved to be shot point blank in the face, huh?...
...and going back to the Don Winslow clip, I had this tune from Todd in mind after this item (good one by "the divine miss M").
