Friday Stuff

Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report talks about the SCOTUS of Hangin’ Judge JR hearing 2 cases that likely will end up gutting President Biden’s student debt forgiveness program...to paraphrase The Eternal George Carlin, the “R” party wants us to be smart enough to work the machines but too dumb to know anything else, and making college more affordable runs in opposition to that disgusting goal (mildly NSFW/H...and great point about the debt that Mango Mussolini cancelled without a word of protest...and I have a feeling Repugs would have sued even if Biden had used the ’65 Higher Education Act, as Figueredo says)...



...and keeping with the theme of education, Thom Hartmann informs us about #DeathSantis and his attempt to take over public schools in Flori-DUUUH! (yeah, basically you can teach the history of old, dead white guys and that’s about it, as Thom says...and I didn’t know about the “Constitutional Republic” word game played by the wingnuts, but I guess you learn something new every day)...



Update: So, supposedly, I might have to register somewhere in order to criticize "Meatball Ron"? Too funny (here).

...and David Doel found an interesting media nugget of sorts about Politico supporting rail industry propaganda by running ads in their content while this Adam Wren person of that media org criticized David Sirota and The Lever for trying to raise $$ for their journalism, which was perfectly legal the last I checked...and good job by Ro Khanna and Chris Deluzio to step up here with legislation in response...



...and Beau tells us about Eli Lilly capping insulin at $35 a month (and yeah, I think there’s a connection to Biden and the Inflation Reduction Act also...on the one hand, this is great, but on the other hand, what took so damn long?)...



...and in a similar story, Mike Papantonio and Farron Cousins discuss Moderna deciding not to raise the price of the COVID vaccine; this comes after Bernie Sanders said he wanted to bring in the CEO to testify before the Sanders committee about why the drug maker wants to gouge consumers on pricing...



...and Robert Reich asks if there is a worker shortage out there, and he argues that the answer is no; I would call it a shortage of workers who don’t want to be completely screwed over by employers...



...and I know this is a few days old, but Rachel Maddow spoke with Dem State Senator Machaela Cavanaugh of Nebraska, on her state and the country overall losing its damn mind over “drag queen story hour” and other stuff affecting LGBTQ individuals including kids; I wish Cavanaugh good luck in her quest to push back against all of this insanity...



...and RIP Wayne Shorter.

Wednesday Stuff

Awww, let’s shed some crocodile tears for poor widdle Marjorie Trailer Park Greene who just wants a safe space from a woman and her son who supposedly turned into demons (gee, projection much, Margie?) while the GA-14 rep was at a D.C. restaurant...yeah, what goes around comes around indeed (Ana and Cenk of TYT tell us more)...



...and in the latest example of Wingnuts In Disarray, Kyle Kulinski and David Pakman team up to tell us that it looks like CPAC is doing the big swirl in the hopper, as it were, which is fine with me because I thought that gathering of hominid missing links received far too much media attention as it is, but I’m inclined to agree with Kyle that the whole thing with Matt Schlapp grabbing the junk of a male at the conference (allegedly of course) is a bridge too far for people like Mayonnaise Mike Pence, among others (and when even Fix Noise runs for the hills, you’ve got a problem)...



...and speaking of The Roger Ailes BS Factory, Jesse Dollemore discusses Rupert The Pirate letting Wonder Boy Jared Kushner know about Biden ads and giving Combover Caligula talking points during the ’20 campaign; I think Dollemore is pretty spot-on, but I would only say that the GOP works for Fix Noise instead of the other way around...I’m definitely not the sharpest knife in the drawer, so to speak, but I was saying that network was the media wing of the Republican Party 20 years ago, for what it’s worth (not much I suppose)...



Update 3/3/23: Totally deserved (here).

...and Sam of The Majority Report discusses how Our Treasonous Ochre Abomination screwed Biden on the EPA by forcing out about 1,200 scientists, along with that ridiculous CRA bill (more here) which doesn’t help either...GREAT point by Sam about how voting for a person of a particular party is really a mandate to maintain the functions of government, or not in the case of the “R” party...as Sam says, we’ve lost about 3,000 EPA employees total since 2004 thanks to Dubya but mainly Generalissimo Trump, as well as employees at the DOJ and the IRS also...



...and I know I touched on Blackstone yesterday, but this clip from More Perfect Union and Second Thought tells us how insidious Stephen A. Schwarzman truly is, profiting off the misery of others (and it doesn’t matter how much you claim to support the arts and endowments if you’re a scurrilous, rapacious capitalist weasel at your core, as Schwarzman is...and the utterly awful legacy of Pete Peterson lives on in Schwarzman of course)...



...and in the latest news about Flori-DUUUH!, we find out about Sen. Blaise Ingoglia of the “Republic” Party who introduced a bill to ban the Democratic Party; as noted here, though, assuming his joke of a piece of legislation becomes law in Ron #DeathSantis-stan, it definitely could boomerang in a way Ingoglia did not intend...



...and Brian Tyler Cohen brings us the latest on Dem U.S. House Rep Jamie Raskin schooling the clueless mistake of Colorado’s third congressional district; I started this post with the nuttiness of Marjorie Traitor Greene, so I guess it’s only apropos to include “Bo-Bo Boebert” too (and as far as the whole “Democrat Party” thing goes...and kudos to Raskin for pushing back on that...it looks like I need to bring this back also)...



...and happy 65th birthday to Nik Kershaw.

Tuesday Stuff

Farron Cousins gives us the latest developments in Flor-DUUUH!, and that would be a typically unconscionable law making it easier for #DeathSantis to sue his critics for libel and defamation (with the help of this Alex Andrade wingnut as noted here)...and yeah, wouldn’t it be sweet to see this boneheaded stunt boomerang on Repug-friendly media the way Cousins describes?...



...and this clip from TYT Indisputable with Sharon Reed and Jeff Wiggins discusses the “Karen” in Hatboro near these parts who lost it over some kind of Spanish language thing at a pizza parlor; I guess they were watching soccer on TV, which was perfectly legal the last I checked (I don’t think the possibility that this outburst was premedicated should be discounted either, partly because of her claim about “I have so-and-so followers” – the curse of social media strikes again, and I’m removing my tongue from my cheek as I say that...well, everybody knows what type of person this woman is now...ugh!)...



...and John and Rayy Vana of The Damage Report tell us about Margaret Brennan of the “third eye” network trying to claim that, by legitimately criticizing journalists and their news coverage, Bernie Sanders is “targeting” them somehow – good push back by Bernie as usual... definitely NOT the same as the Gropenfuhrer and his caterwauling about “fake news,” and marking the fourth estate for violence...kudos to John for working in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs...



...and for the sake of idiot Ukraine war “truthers” out there such as noted here (I honestly didn’t know that was a thing, but I guess I should never underestimate this country’s ability to be totally stoo-pid), I give you this from the German network DW and correspondent Mathias Bolinger (more here)...



...and Emma V. tells us about horrific child labor conditions at a meat packing facility involving dangerous sanitation practices (some outfit called PSSI, bankrolled by the Blackstone private equity firm); great report for Julia Ainsley of NBC News...yeah, typical for these corporate criminals like Blackstone to leverage themselves with debt into oblivion, then use that as an excuse for “belt tightening” to the point where kids are hired for work like that described in the video...a shame that we don’t have enough “muckraking” journos like Upton Sinclair or Jacob Riis these days, who probably would be vilified 24/7 by Fix Noise, Newsmax and others (and no, I’m not giving “Dark Brandon” a pass on this either as opposed to Mango Mussolini)...



Update 3/1/23: Kudos to President Biden for this.

...and with the prior clip in mind, I should note that we recently observed the 75th anniversary of Wood Guthrie’s song “Deportee,” performed here by his son Arlo (more here).

Monday Stuff

I realize this story is a couple of days old at this point, but I think it needs to be mentioned again; Jesse Dollemore tells us of “Dilbert” cartoonist and Trumpist wingnut Scott Adams basically setting probably his most important revenue stream on fire (i.e., the syndication of his lame-ass comic) because he couldn’t keep his racist pie hole shut, and a slew of newspapers dropped Adams in response as noted here...as someone who works ostensibly in IT, I can tell you that there was a time when the whole “Dilbert” thing was a bit of an interesting novelty, but at this point, Adams’s work is pretty tired hackery making fun of lazy, “woke” workers more than anything else (maybe it was always that and I just realized it a bit late...que sera sera...NSFW/H)...



...also, it looks like “Senator Snowball” is going to hang it up because he’s dealing with long COVID as noted here – sorry to hear that, but I think this is a bit of karma for a guy who opposed COVID relief for others (and profiting off the pandemic too as noted here...and I don’t think Di-Fi should get a pass here either)...Inhofe appears at about 2:12 in this clip; somehow, I don’t think he’s making jokes about ‘Rona now...



...and Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report brings us this clip of residents of East Palestine, OH (Jim Stewart in particular, as well as others) confronting Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw on the destruction his company caused with the rail disaster that pretty much contaminated the town (and let’s not let guv Mike DeWine off the hook either; I believe it was his decision to do that burn of the leftover chemicals on the rail cars that completely fouled the air...personally, I’d like to know what the hell was supposedly so damn funny in that clip of DeWine ostensibly drinking the water...and yeah, the “Cult 45” homages to Our Treasonous Orange Pustule on display in that town are pretty sickening all right)...



...and the latest from Second Thought discusses American Fascism and the “groomer” panic (a very minor “nit” to pick...I wish he hadn’t included Mehdi Hasan in the beginning, since he definitely is not part of the crowd yelling about this, though maybe to refute it; another very small nit to pick is that I wish he’d found a way to go after Matt Walsh also, but he hits the major points for sure (including going after Chaya Raichik)...and I think it's correct to equate the “moral panic” over LGBTQ individuals with being left-handed, which was anathema for a time – and to me, the stuff at about 20:42 drawing a straight line between the “groomer” panic in this country and the Nazis was a real punch in the gut – kudos to J.T. Chapman for pointing that out in particular, and for doing his best to make these videos interesting and engaging...and I agree that signing up for Nebula is a great deal...all the best with the ways he’s trying to upgrade this content, though it stands pretty well on its own IMO)...



...and this Majority Report clip with Emma V. and Olayemi Olurin tells us about drag queens fighting back in Tennessee against ridiculous attempts in that state to put them out of business; I don’t know of a drag queen who every spread COVID or was responsible for a mass shooting (also NSFW/H...I have a creepy feeling that we can expect something like COINTELPRO 2 under a Republican government to go after African Americans, LGBTQ people, and anyone considered to be “woke,” whatever that means...these TMR videos go on a bit long at times, but usually that’s OK as far as I’m concerned)...



Update: I would call this an interesting bit of karma.

...and you can, in part, consider this clip my response to that racist idiot Scott Adams, and my contribution for Black History Month I guess; I always thought that was a stupid idea mainly because African Americans should be celebrated every month, along with everybody else.

Friday Stuff

Thom Hartmann asks if the “far right” has turned religion into an authoritarian cult; if you have to ask the question, I have a feeling you already know the answer (I'm not sure if Thom is referring to the Super Bowl “He gets us” ad or not, and he references David Green of Hobby Lobby...and I agree with Thom on Franklin vs. Billy Graham...and GREAT point by Thom that a lot of the states where these religious hustlers practice their con are also states that refuse to expand Medicaid, even though it’s basically free money...and not supporting Ukraine is more than a bit of a “tell” also from these charlatans as far as I’m concerned)...

...and John and Ana of TYT bring us Alaska state rep David Eastman – I have to admit that I didn’t have a Repug politician saying there’s an upside to child death on my Bingo card; more on this Eastman ghoul is here...and yeah, he’s a Trumper all right (related commentary from Thom H. is here)...



...and retired U.S. Army Major Richard Ojeda tells us about Marjorie Trailer Park ($700K) Greene saying that we need a “national divorce” (I can almost feel my brain cells dying when I listen to this horrible woman)...



...and turning to the East Palestine, OH rail spill, David Pakman tells us that...rut-row!...Norfolk Southern apparently eliminated a critical maintenance role that could have led to the accident...it sounds like something called the hot box detector was going off before the train derailed, but nobody could do anything about it – ugh!...



...and this is an absolutely terrific clip by More Perfect Union on the despicable con of “right to work” laws and the re-awakening (I would call it) of organized labor in this country in response...really important history of the labor movement presented in this video...



...and tomorrow marks what would have been the 80th birthday of George Harrison.

Thursday Stuff

John and Jayar of The Damage Report tell us about the latest right-wing grifter with too much time and/or money on his hands, and that would be Vivek Ramaswamy...and you guessed it; he’s running for preznit (three guesses from which party, and the first two don’t count)...



...and Brian Tyler Cohen, in collaboration with More Perfect Union, tell us why the Wisconsin Supreme Court election is so important and why Repug wingnut Dan Kelly needs to be defeated (to help Dem Janet Protasiewicz, click here)...



...and Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report tells us about FLA guv Ron #DeathSantis trying to get a nutty “free speech” bill passed, with all of the utterly horrible unintended consequences you can imagine; in part, the bill makes it easier to sue journalists and empower bigots (HB 991)...



...which definitely points to the larger issue of the “party of Lincoln” not giving a fig about democracy in any way...Lawrence O’Donnell gives us a reminder of how Dem Mike Mansfield of Montana served in the U.S. Senate as a moderating influence for his time, which leads into a discussion of Jon Tester deciding to run for another term, and I agree with O’Donnell that the Dems pretty much breathed a sigh of relief on that one...



...and staying out west, Farron Cousins tells us about two idiot Repugs in Idaho (State Senator Tammy Nichols and State Rep Judy Boyle) who want to make it illegal to administer an mRNA vaccine, which would include “the jab” for ‘Rona of course (more here)...



...and here’s an NSFW/H tune that goes out to a bunch of people in this post...I’m sure you can guess who they are.

Wednesday Stuff

Ana and Cenk of TYT discuss Marjorie Traitor ($700K) Greene calling for secession, forgetting that she represents what is, at the moment, a blue state – cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs indeed - more here...



...and Emma of The Majority Report mentions Dem U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio calling out corporate America in regard to the East Palestine, OH rail spill (a lot of good points in this discussion, but I think it goes off the rails a bit - no pun intended - when they criticize railroad privatization and Native American genocide; not saying that doesn’t matter, but I just think that’s another discussion...mildly NSFW/H)...



...and sticking with the East Palestine spill, Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report tells us that Repug Gov. Mike DeWine told the residents that the water was safe to drink based on a report from a consultant hired by Norfolk Southern; Mayor Pete gets dragged a bit here, and as someone said (David Doel I think), if you’re coming into office, why wouldn’t you make a point of looking at the screwups of the prior administration and try to fix them, including Trump’s overturning of the Obama rule about upgraded train breaks (and nice work from Dem PA guv Josh Shapiro here)...



...and Joy Reid tells us about Biden’s recent meeting with President Zelenskyy in Ukraine, with more of the back story, along with the pro-Putin apparatchiks in this country doing Russia’s dirty work (also interviewing Michael Beschloss and Ali Velshi on the ground in Kyiv...Ron Paul is so absolutely pathetic that he should be completely ignored, blaming the Federal Reserve for every damn thing on earth)...



....and John and Rayy Vana of The Damage Report discuss student loan borrowers planning to picket outside the SCOTUS to get the justices to look them in the eye before they make a ruling potentially gutting the relief Biden is providing on their loans...unfortunately, I think John is absolutely right about these six robed lunatics not caring, but I admire the effort, and I LOVE his fire on this!...



...and Beau discusses a very wise kid in a Texas elementary school who found a gun in a bathroom and contacted the teacher right away about it before a disaster took place...it’s the goddamn guns, people! However, if you’re reading this, I’m pretty sure you already know that...



...and I’m also sure I speak for millions when I say that President Carter, at this time, isn’t far from our thoughts...as he prepares to walk with Our Lord (that’s what I believe anyway), I think it’s apropos to include this clip of Rachel Maddow talking about Carter’s courage in trying to prevent a nuclear reactor disaster in 1952 while serving as an engineer in the U.S. Navy...fair winds and following seas...



...and RIP Huey “Piano” Smith - I now give you one of his signature tunes.

Monday Stuff

Mehdi Hasan tells us that Dominion Voting Systems is pretty much wiping the floor with Fix Noise based on the internal memos from the “news” personalities yelling about Sidney Powell and “America’s Mayor” ranting about alleged issues with Dominion and the web of lies that emerged from that network about the ’20 presidential election (this should spell the end of The Roger Ailes BS Factory, but it likely won’t until the humanoids viewing that channel finally decide that they’ve had enough of being lied to, and I’m not holding my breath on that - more here)...



...despite that, there was about 15 seconds of clarity from Steve Douchebag of the “fair and balanced” channel on Trump rolling back the Obama-era train regulations regarding breaking systems that (in all likelihood) played a major role in the East Palestine, OH spill – David Pakman tells us more...



...and Thom Hartmann asks, “Did the SCOTUS corrupt America by legalizing bribery?” Thom cites the ’78 decision by Justice Lewis Powell, saying corporations are people and money is the same thing as speech, so corporations have the right to bribe people (the FNB of Boston v. Bellotti case had to do with corporations contributing to ballot initiative campaigns)...Thom cites TWA fighting the recommendation of Al Gore to harden cockpit doors, though, as Thom says, both sides were truly guilty on this to one degree or another (it took 9/11 to finally get that to happen...SCOTUS decisions on corporations led to gutting public schools, privatizing public electric and water utilities, ending government subsidies for colleges, etc...and by the way, my sympathies to Thom and his family on his niece's passing - sorry to hear)...



...and Buckley v. Valeo, Bellotti and other rulings authored by Powell came subsequent to the justice’s infamous 1971 memo to Eugene Sydnor of the Chamber of Commerce; Robert Reich tells us more...



...and RIP Richard Belzer; I know he finally found fame on that cop show, and good for him – he was edgy and talented IMO and overcame a hell of a lot of hardship before he became successful...

>

...and every so often, I come across a tune or video that kind of takes me away from the typical news/political nonsense, and I think this qualifies, so here it is.

Friday Stuff

Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report tells us about a survivor of the Sandy Hook massacre who made a video since she also had to escape the recent mass shooting at MSU; she spent so much time crouching that she ended up with a disk fracture in her back...just chalk it up to Life In These United States (and when it comes to this, well, it's funny in a way that I’m hearing nothing but crickets from Cancun Cruz, Abbott, etc., though the TX senator is all over the place on the bird app calling out Biden, Buttigieg and the Dems for the East Palestine, OH rail disaster)...



...and speaking of the terrible chemical spill in Ohio, here is more from Ana and Cenk, who dole out blame to both sides in the deserved measure IMO; an EPA expert says that “we basically nuked” East Palestine, Ohio (referring to the controlled burn after the spill – more here...and this isn’t surprising, is it...Norfolk Southern are a bunch of damn cowards)...



...and on the Ohio rail disaster and pretty much everything else, Chris Hayes tells us that the “party of Lincoln” has really nothing to add in the way of an actual policy response except performative nonsense...



...additionally, Kyle Kulinski tells us about a Fortune Magazine article which tells us that 37 percent of workers polled by the magazine work more than one full time job – witness the miracle of our economy (removing my tongue from my cheek – mildly NSFW/H)...



...and I have a feeling that many of the employees for “the happiest place on earth” fall into the “working two jobs” category; this More Perfect Union video tells us about Disneyworld workers standing up for more money (“if we are the magic, we deserve to be paid” indeed)...



Update 2/22/23: As usual, Bernie is all over this (here).

...and I neglected to note the passing of Robbie Bachman of BTO last month; he would have been 70 on 2/18 – RIP.

Wednesday Stuff

John and Trae Crowder of The Damage Report discuss the latest Trumpian insanity about group firing squads and bringing back the guillotine, or whatever that madness was...wonder if Our Gelatinous Orange Treason-sickle of a former preznit realizes that the legal walls are closing in on him at loooong last and he’s losing what’s left of his mind...



...and I thought Rachel Maddow did us yet another service in this clip, linking authoritarianism in Israel under our “ally” Bibi (trying to overturn the courts) and that encouraged by Our Ochre Abomination; I wish she were on more than one night a week, but she’s definitely earned the right to call her shots in this manner...



Update 2/16/23: More here.

...and Farron Cousins tells us that the GOP “establishment” thinks they can fix their party by purging Orange You-Know-Who, and Cousins tells us why that metaphorical genie is definitely out of the bottle and not going back anytime soon, if ever (one of the best commentaries I’ve heard on the “Republic” Party in quite a while...and happy birthday to Cousins)...



...and while I don’t think we have to worry about Tommy Tuberville of Alabama trying to supplant Trump, #DeathSantis or anyone else in that party running for the oval office in ’24, he still needs to be called out when he spouts outrageous partisan BS as he does here on abortion of course (and as Alonzo Bodden points out, “abortion after birth” isn’t actually a thing - makes me recall this)...



...and yes, I know I’ve been beating the drum a bit about the “GOP” trying to gut Social Security and Medicare, and I’m going to keep doing that because these thoroughly cretinous lunatics are going to keep coming after them...with that in mind, I give you this from The Lincoln Project...



...and I probably should have included this yesterday, but better late than never I guess.

Tuesday Stuff

Jesse Dollemore tells us about Wyoming Republicans opposing a bill banning child marriage (more here)...yeah, tell me once more how we’re NOT supposed to think of Not Your Father’s Republican Party as the American Taliban...



...and I’ll admit that it’s hard for me to revisit the recent Super Bowl (I mean, the Chiefs won because they made more plays when they had to than the Birds, though the Philly team did have a great year and I don’t think anybody should forget that...and I DEFINITELY hope that officiating crew gets the treatment they deserve when they come to the Linc next year, and you KNOW that will happen)...that being said, this video from Rick Strom of TYT tells us about the “He Gets Us” ad that ran during the game and the RWNJs behind it, including this Jason Vanderground person, the president of something called HAVEN (more here, here and here)...



Update 2/16/23: Yeah, I think this is about right.

...and David Doel brings us a pretty detailed report on what led up to the East Palestine, Ohio chemical rail derailment...kudos to David Sirota for solid reporting (I question his punditry, but not his journalism)...and yeah, more BS with some mega-company (Norfolk Southern) laying off workers and instituting a stock buyback program, making billions in the process – and by the way, they also lobbied Republican politicians to gut an Obama safety rule about using a brake system that likely would have prevented this disaster, but yeah, to be fair, there’s more “Mayor Pete” needs to do here also (and stuff he and his boss should have done already, actually...definitely a bipartisan failure here, but as usual, the out-and-out corruption is from the “R” side, and the incompetence is from the “D” side)...



...and Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report tells us about the fight to restore Net Neutrality...sounds like we’re a vote away from restoring it, in the person of Gigi Sohn and her nomination to the FCC (NSFW/H), with the wingnuts linking Sohn to opposing FOSTA - SESTA and allegedly supporting human trafficking and sex trafficking, which is total BS as per usual (and you can tell Sohn has become a wingnut bete noire because she’s opposed by Cancun Cruz among others, as noted here)...



...and I have to admit that I always wondered about the origin of the whole “kitty litter in high schools” BS shoveled by RoJo among others, and in this clip I actually learned the true origin of all of the ridiculous screeching...it didn’t occur to me that, when school kids are trapped in an active shooter situation, they would need the means to relieve themselves if they had to and schools have prepared for that, which is smart...as usual, those complaining the loudest want to focus on this childish propaganda and NOT DO A DAMN THING ABOUT THE F*CKING GUNS! instead...Brett Erlich tells us about that as part of the “boomer mill” (along with that cretin Don Bolduc of New Hampshire, who lost his election thank God)...



...and I hope everybody managed to have a Happy Valentine's Day.

Monday Stuff

Ana of TYT tells us that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is trying to squelch an FTC rule banning non-compete agreements, with those agreements negatively impacting workers in all kinds of industries, especially when they have to re-enter the job market as many do now...and yeah, it’s more than a bit of a “tell” that our corporate media is siding with the COC (OF COUURRSE! as Cenk would say)...



...and John of The Damage Report speaks with Dave Levinthal of Raw Story on politicians running for election or re-election whose campaigns were raided by criminals, including Repug Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas, who lost almost $700 grand; Biden lost about $70K as well...not sure exactly if there’s a ”magic bullet” to solve a problem like that...



...and speaking of thievery, this More Perfect Union video discusses credit card late fees charged against about 42 million in this country, to the tune of billions (and Biden mentioned in the SOTU that he’s trying to bring the fee down from $31 to $8, and the video tells us how we can submit comments online to encourage that)...



...and when it comes to corporations pulling the puppet strings of their politicians, Farron Cousins mentions 40 Repug senators who filed an amicus brief to the SCOTUS to block Biden’s student loan forgiveness program...



...and Jeff Waldorf may not be the most charismatic individual out there, but I think he has some generally good commentaries, including this one about Elon The Great firing an engineer because Our Lord God King Guru of the bird app has falling engagement numbers (more here...and the “3AM Catturd call,” huh? Yeah, I believe it...mildly NSFW/H)...



...and speaking of birds, yeah, it totally sucks that the Eagles came up short in the Super Bowl (though you can’t blame Jalen Hurts as far as I’m concerned - 35 points should have been enough), and I don’t know what was going on with the defense in the second half, but you have to give credit to Patrick Mahomes and Kansas City for coming back...that imaginary holding call on James Bradberry towards the end was ridiculous, but the Eagles shouldn’t have been in a position where it mattered...oh well, I guess this tune will suffice for now (the Birds had a great year otherwise, though, and should be congratulated for that).

Saturday Stuff

Brian Tyler Cohen discusses Willard Mitt Romney speaking his mind on “George Santos”...I get it that The Mittster is from a more patrician, non-Trumpist wing of Not Your Father’s Republican Party where the corruption is treated more discretely without the ridiculous degree of self-promotion personified by Our Ochre Abomination, but Romney does make a bit of a good point here, I have to admit...



...and as a follow-up, David Pakman tells us that Dem U.S. House Rep Robert Garcia has introduced a resolution to expel Santos...interesting for Garcia to pursue this because, as he says, he’s similar to Santos in a lot of ways, without the lying of course...



Update: If there was ever a time when I wondered if "Santos" may actually be telling the truth, this would be it (not so much here, though).

...and I know I’ve already covered the whole thing with Biden pinning down the “loyal opposition” during the State of the Union on the GOP efforts to destroy Social Security and Medicare through various means, despite the howls of outrage (and again, I DEFY anybody to provide a similar example of the Dems acting like this under Dubya or Trump, though they easily could have), but I’m including this clip from Chris Hayes because he commendably “brings the receipts” versus Mike Lee, Lex Luthor Scott and RoJo The Clown...



Update 1 2/12/23: And in case anyone thinks the "party of Lincoln" is actually serious about deciding to leave Social Security and Medicare alone, I give you this.

...and Thom Hartmann says, yeah, not much to see here – just some actual Nazis in Ohio trying to home-school kids (article he cites is here – I know I said something about teachers walking away from the classroom for various reasons on Thursday, and you can add lunacy like this to the awful mix)...



Update 2 2/12/23: And speaking of school, kudos to the Alabama high school kids noted here.

...and this may not be the trendiest subject out there at the moment, but I don’t care; I thought this was a nice little video of the Star Ballroom dancers pledging to keep dancing even after the horrific attack that killed 11 people...good for them (more here)...



...and I now give you my final “green” tune – I think we’re about done with the ballyhoo concerning Super Bowl LVII and I’m sure both sides are nearly finished with their preparation...as the Bard once said, “the readiness is all” – with that in mind, GO BIRDS!!!

Friday Stuff

Farron Cousins tells us that, by all accounts, Sarah Huckabilly Sanders really dished out the wingnut umbrage in her response to the State of the Union address from President Biden, blaming of course the woke and “radical left” agenda, teaching kids to hate each other when in reality they just want to live in “freedom and peace,” because, as we know, President Biden is apparently trying to re-enact the “Prague Spring” in her state, or something...actually, she should pay a little attention to this instead of staging performative nonsense...



Update: Too damn funny (here).

...and David Shuster of Rebel HQ tells us about the reporter arrested in Ohio for...what? Reporting on a public event with malicious intent, or something? And I have issues with Mike DeWine for sure, but his response here is 100 percent correct...



Update 2/14/23: I was a little unclear in pointing out that this had to do with the toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio - apologies (more here and here).

..and Beau tells us that Chucky Koch and his fellow unholy minions are going to try and steer the Repug Party away from Mango Mussolini...Beau makes a great point about just how far Koch and his pals want to go with this; maybe they’ll try to anoint Nikki Haley as Beau thinks, but I don’t think we should rule out Mike Pompeo either...don’t get me wrong; any Republican is horrible, but Pompeo has pretty rock solid ties back to Kansas, if you know what I mean...



Update 2/24/23: And speaking of Pompeo...

...and Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report tells us about the recent social media inquisition in the U.S. House...kudos to Gerry Connolly for calling out Our Ochre Abomination who tried to get that tweet from Chrissy Teigen taken down, in a hearing ostensibly about...wait for it!...HUNTER BIDEN’S FREAKING LAPTOP!...oh, and for the “looney tune” perspective, we also have “Imeach Biden” Boebert and Clay “What Need Have We Of A Trial?” Higgins (mildly NSFW/H at end)...



...and I know I haven’t done this for a while, but I thought the time was right to bring back “This Day In Doomsy History” from 2/10/11...The Onion News Network, America’s Finest News Source, reports that Congress has forgotten how to pass a bill (which, to me, isn’t far off for the unruly children now running the U.S. House)...



...and here is my penultimate “green” tune in preparation to root for the Iggles in Super Bowl LVII...



...and I give you the following as a tribute to Burt Bacharach.

Thursday Stuff (updates)

This Now This clip tells us about a nationwide teacher shortage, focusing on Wisconsin...gee, I can’t possibly imagine how this has become a problem, what with teachers being called “groomers” by Repug party politicians and school districts waging war on LGBTQ and non-binary individuals affecting sports and bathrooms as well as conservatives telling teachers what books are and aren’t allowed in classrooms...and of course this is #sarcasm (more here, here and here...and focusing on Wisconsin, I give you RoJo The Clown here blaming “wokeness” for school shootings...and just as a reminder, RoJo won re-election by 27K votes, and as noted here, Wisconsin Repug election commissioner Robert Spindell said he suppressed 37K votes; you can do the math on that at least as well as I can)...



...and sticking with “culture war” stuff, Thom Hartmann tells us about the racist origins of the anti-abortion movement and how conservative godfather Paul Weyrich was a little late to the party, you might say...the evangelicals didn’t really care about abortion until the late ‘70s-1980 when they realized that they could use it to mobilize support, as Thom says...and boy, is Thom ever right about the Catholic Church...as I’ve said before, the Catholic Standard and Times ran nothing but pictures of fetuses in jars after Roe v. Wade was handed down (which, as it turns out, wasn't even a medically accurate representation of the typical aborted fetus...as I’ve also said, as far as I’m concerned, if someone could prove to me that Roe had actually increased the number of abortions, I might have opposed the ruling, but abortion will always happen regardless, even though the SCOTUS of “Strip Search Sammy” Alito and Hangin’ Judge JR gutted Roe in favor of Dobbs as we know)...



Update 4/12/23: Nail. Hammer. Head. (here - h/t Atrios).


...and David Pakman tells us that Baby Newton Leroy Gingrich went on Fix Noise to tell us that Biden is weak because he popped the damn balloon (should have used some kind of a balloon scooper apparently, as if that’s even a thing...yep, moving the damn goalposts again)...



Update 8/26/23: More pathetic lies on abortion from alleged "Christian" Newt are here - nooo, killing a baby up to 30 days after birth happens to be freaking murder!

Update 8/27/23: Gee, Baby Newton Leroy sure is on a roll of sorts, isn't he (here)?

...and once more, I know what The Lincoln Project is, but they keep making good ads like this one (which the beyond-useless national Democratic Party should do also, but good luck with that)...



...and RIP Burt Bacharach – I’ll feature some more of his tunes tomorrow also...good luck with narrowing down his list of timeless hits to select just one tune to include here...



...and I’m winding down my list of “green” tunes to get everyone ready to root for the Birds in Super Bowl LVII, but I didn't want to forget this number.

Wednesday Stuff

Beau of the Fifth Column gives us his take on President Biden’s State of the Union address last night...pretty much a case of the adult in the room doing his best to discipline the unruly children, and Marjorie Trailer Park Greene (here also) and “Imeach Biden” Boebert did pretty much what you would expect...I have to admit that I haven’t paid a lot of attention to the SOTU addresses because I know they’re heavy on theatrics...maybe not the best reason to blow them off, but I care about stuff that impacts real people as opposed to the window dressing idiocy...by the way, this marks (approximately) the 20th anniversary of Dubya’s SOTU in ’03, which was one of the most grotesque examples of wall-to-wall lies that I’ve ever seen, and that pretty much put me off the other SOTU addresses – again, maybe I need to rethink that, but that’s my story for now and I’m sticking with it (more here)...



Update 2/9/23: And let's not forget that Just Plain Folks Insurrectionist Marge's net worth is in the vicinity of $700 grand, as noted here.

...and Trae Crowder gives us take on the State of the State of the Union (mildly NSFW/H)...



...and don’t worry, nothing to see here, just an elected member of the U.S. House of Representatives calling for the death of Our Chief Executive (here)...this scheming bimbo deserves to get her metaphorical cage rattled by the Secret Service at a minimum...David Pakman tells us more...



...and when it comes to U.S. House Republican idiots, #DopeyMcForehead Matt Gaetz blames “couch potatoes” supposedly getting a cushy $216 a month in SNAP benefits as a rationale for including some kind of work requirement in order for these folks to get the pittance of help they actually DO get as things stand now...I may have touched on this earlier, but I think it needs to be mentioned again (Farron Cousins gives us the details)...



...and sticking with Flori-DUUUH!!, Ana and Cenk of TYT tell us that politicians in Ron #DeathSantis-stan want to know about the menstrual cycles of student athletes...just no bottom for these life forms (more here and here)...



...and moving north to above that Mason-Dixon line, Jayar and Jessica Burbank tell us about two neo-Nazis who wanted to take out the Baltimore power grid...this country is sick, and I lay that primarily at the feet of Our Treasonous Orange Pestilence, though the problem existed long before him, even though he weaponized it to achieve his foul political ends...



...turning to the economy, Sam and Emma of The Majority Report tell us about Biden economic advisor Jared Bernstein fact-checking this Fix Noise idiot Shannon Bream in real time (I think S&E provide a pretty decent financial analysis here, and I definitely don’t think Jerome Powell is doing Biden any favors – of course, leave it to this hairdo from The Roger Ailes BS Factory to act like living paycheck-to-paycheck is only a “thing” under Biden, when in reality that has been the case FOR AT LEAST THE LAST 20 FREAKING YEARS!!!)...



...and here is another "green" tune as we get ready to root for the Iggles in Super Bowl LVII.

Tuesday Stuff

OMIGOD! THE U.S. HAS GONE “WOKE”! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!

Yeah, this is the stuff of parody from The Daily Show, but unfortunately “gammy and pop pop” at home may believe it if it comes from that clean cut Tucker Carlson (and believe me when I tell you that I’d LOVE to be wrong...and in a related story, I guess this isn't a surprise either)...

...and I wish this item was a parody too, but unfortunately it isn’t...Hakeem Jeffries gives a nice speech about how ridiculous it is for the House under the control of Marjorie Traitor Greene and her fellow insurrectionists to be taking up a resolution about “socialism”...and then the majority of the Dem caucus proceeds to vote for the measure!

As a national political party, I realize the Democrats can’t find their own metaphorical butt with multiple sets of hands, and they also continue to bring a water pistol to a gun fight against The Treasonistas on the other side of the aisle, but how freaking pathetic is it to buy into the beyond ridiculous framing here of the “Republic” Party on an issue that actually resonates pretty well with younger voters?

People I respect online said that Jeffries as minority leader would be bad news for progressives (and honestly, Ro Khanna doesn’t look good here either). In response, I thought it best to take a “wait and see” attitude. Well, let’s just say that early returns aren’t looking promising (more here)...



...and in advance of Biden’s State of the Union address tonight, Chris Hayes tells us about the U.S. lifespan decreasing...and yes, COVID is a factor, especially when only 16 percent of the population has received the bivalent booster shot...pathetic doesn’t even begin to describe how bad that number is – and I think Hayes is absolutely right about a presidential blue ribbon panel to look into this; not sure what it would come up with, but it would be a heck of a good first step (and this is positive also)...



...and the “Second Thought” guy answers the question “Do We Live Under Capitalism?” in response to some commenters throwing around some other labels in response – “There is no version of capitalism that respects competition but not competition’s outcomes.” – uh, yep (and I think the practically unmitigated sway that capitalism holds on our lives is definitely a factor in the quality of life numbers Chris Hayes discussed in the prior clip)...



...and turning to milestones, RIP Charlie Thomas of The Drifters...



...and here is another green tune to get ready to root for the Birds in Super Bowl LVII.

Monday Stuff

(I was able to get a close-up pic of the Chinese spy balloon...heh.)

David Doel tells us about all of the wingnut caterwauling about the damn balloon, which is particularly stoo-pid given that three such balloons appeared over our airspace when Mango Mussolini occupied An Oval Office and he didn’t do anything about it (and certainly nobody screeched about it either)...also, as noted here, Biden played it right to shoot this down in a non-populated area because debris got spread out over nearly seven miles...



...and Jesse Dollemore (apparently sitting in for David Pakman) tells us about some national prayer thing with Kevin McCarthy and U.S. House Republicans...and boy, where’s Major Bowes’ hook when you need it for this goofball Randy Weber? “OH, BOO-HOO O LORD! BOO-HOO! THE BIDEN DEBT IS STEALING FROM OUR KIDS!!”

Yeah, well, as noted here, Weber voted for Our Ochre Abomination’s tax scam bill in December 2017, which added at least $4 trillion to the debt as noted here...



...and Cenk, Rayy Vana and Mondale Robinson of TYT discuss Idaho Repug State Rep Ron Mendive, who thinks kids should have to work for school lunches (great point by Robinson about how the original lunch program in this country was a response to what the Black Panthers did, as well as comping the farmers for not growing food vs. not taking care of the kids...and of course this Mendive nut also helped get rid of any mention of climate change in Idaho school curricula, and he also opposed a $6 million federal education grant for working families with kids 5 and under, saying the grant’s intent was to indoctrinate kids with CRT, which IS NOT A THING in elementary schools!)...



...and Beau joins More Perfect Union for another great “classroom” video about cattle rancher Coy Young, who almost took his life from pressure stemming from the beef industry...the clip covers all kinds of ground, and of course, Milton Friedman and his Chicago School of Economics henchmen ended up overturning the tables, you might say, for the benefit of the meat-packing conglomerates, and leave it to The Sainted Ronnie R (whose birthday it is today) to put the final nails in the metaphorical coffin for consumers on behalf of the “one percent,” in this industry like so many others...



...and last Saturday marked the 40th anniversary of the death of Karen Carpenter...



...and here is another “green” tune to get us ready to root for the Birds in Super Bowl LVII.