Wednesday Stuff

Jesse Dollemore discusses some of the “great unwashed” supporters for Our Ochre Abomination comparing #45 to Our Lord – yes, I’ll give the Email writer points for politeness, but that’s more than completely negated by her dunderheaded stupidity about Biden’s predecessor and the charges that likely will be brought by Alvin Bragg (any day now, any day now, as the song goes...I know this portrait is completely blasphemous, and I can't tell you how offensive it is to me as a Roman Catholic, but these crazies need to be held to account for this stuff)...



...and John and Jayar of The Damage Report tell us about more censorship of a social studies book in Flori-DUUH! where just about ANY information to identify Rossa Parks is removed from the text...basically, if you’re going to try and tell her story like that, why even mention Parks AT ALL...”some lady with a skin color rode a bus and did something that we remember the end” (and apparently, based on this, “Meatball Ron” doesn’t remember anything about 9/11; a terrific response to the oppression in that state is here)...



...and Mike Figueredo tells us that, under Utah’s beyond-ridiculous book banning law, someone is trying to get the Bible off of shelves in that state – more info is here...



...and Ana and Cenk of TYT tells us that, apparently, “Bibi” went too far in trying to get rid of Israel’s Supreme Court and ended up getting rid of his defense minister who stood up to him (but unfortunately, as Cenk says, it definitely looks like this isn’t over, despite the protests going on against Netanyahu).

(And by the way, speaking of TYT, I know about “the argument”...from what I saw, Cenk did indeed make a generalization when he said that “Republicans love criminals” or words to that effect, and Ana was right to initially criticize him over it. To me, Cenk apologized for that, but Ana kept harping...rather pointlessly, actually. Cenk was saying that Republicans don’t like us and many of us don’t like them...which to me is merely acknowledging reality...but can we at least come together on economic issues since the “one percent” uses their influence, including corporate media, to keep us divided over culture wars BS while they continue to steal us blind, WHICH IS ABSOLUTELY FREAKING RIGHT!!!, but Ana kept yelling anyway, which I couldn’t figure out. No, I didn’t see the entire 13 or 25-minute argument or whatever it was, since I have neither the time nor desire to wade through that stuff, but that’s my story and I’m sticking with it...if you want to watch a video where Kyle Kulinski discusses this some more, click here) – the Israel clip follows...



...and I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” (more or less)...with still more gun-related carnage in the news, I think it’s apropos to bring back this clip of Jim Carrey’s “Cold Dead Hand”...TYT commented on the video on 3/29/13, even though the “Funny or Die” clip dropped on about 3/14 (probably NSFW/H)...



...and the prior clip made an anti-gun point with some comedy in a tune, but this is completely serious from Tom Paxton; when all else fails, I guess we need some aging hippie dudes to lead the way :-).

Tuesday Stuff

John and Francesca of The Damage Report bring us the latest on the most recent gun carnage in this country in Nashville, Tennessee...oh, and let’s hear about all the wingnut clutching of pearls in response to White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre who “goes there” on this issue (here), as well she should (and let's not forget that Republican governor Bill Lee of Tennessee signed "permitless carry" legislation, over the objections of law enforcement as noted here)...



...and I didn’t want to let the latest Trumpian criminal insanity fall through the metaphorical cracks; I know it’s a little redundant to say “oh, he had another crazy rally of his,” but to do so in Waco, TX on the 30th anniversary of the Branch Davidian raid is truly a special kind of evil, as well as showing footage of 1/6 during the national anthem, as Jesse Dollemore explains (and here is a link to Kathleen Belew’s book; I’ll plan to follow up on that...mildly NSFW/H)...



...and in case anybody thinks that somehow the “party of Lincoln” has freed itself from the grip of Mango Mussolini, Farron Cousins tells us that U.S. House Republicans are trying to get a totally unconstitutional law passed preventing the states from investigating Our Treasonous Tiny-Handed Former Chief Executive...and OF COURSE Gym Jordan is involved (yep, fighting big government overreach yet again...removing my tongue from my cheek as I say that)...



...and this from More Perfect Union tells us that, apparently, King Elon I got everything he wanted for this new factory of his in Texas, including the right to dump 140K gallons of wastewater PER DAY into the Colorado River as noted here, along with abusing the hell out of his workers (a great argument for unionizing the shop IMO)...



...and Joy Reid bring us an NBC News report on the death of Irvo Otieno in a psychiatric hospital in Virginia (more here – definitely not a rush to judgment from yours truly...I try to be careful about criminal justice stuff overall, with guns as an exception as noted above, because of the presumption of innocence, all facts not being in, etc., but I’m including this clip because somebody needs to figure out just what the hell happened here)...



...and happy 75th birthday to keyboardist John Evan of Jethro Tull.

Monday Stuff

Farron Cousins tells us about the latest nonsense from “Curtsy Kyrsten” and the reason why she decided to skip these Democratic U.S. Senate lunches, or whatever they are...Sinema is truly nuts – also, here’s the thing...if she hopes to come back to Capitol Hill as a lobbyist (which is her end game I suppose), how effective is she going to be at currying favor after she’s gotten so many of her colleagues so PO’ed at her? And I’m sure that has occurred to the funders who would consider bringing her on board, as they have with "No Corporate Tax" Pat Toomey...



...and this “Now This” clip features AOC speaking out against this “parental bill of rights” nonsense that recently passed the U.S. House, with Bri-Fi’s willing collaboration as noted here (oh, but he wanted some kind of cost-benefit analysis for this insanity...what cowardly BS; as AOC says, this is an attempt to nationalize all of the local-level garbage going on with attacking trans youth and censoring books)...



...and Ana and Cenk of TYT tells us that an Idaho hospital says it will stop labor and delivery care for babies because of the state’s abortion ban...all kinds of aspects to this story, and they’re all terrible, but here’s another one; the next time I hear “Tuckums” or one of his pals yelling about birth rates in this country declining, try reminding them of this story, as well as the cost of paying off student debt, buying a car/home, etc. (and yeah, I know it won’t register anyway with those cretins, but we have to try at a minimum...and Cenk is right about the evangelicals on this issue – another reason why I detest those people – it should be noted, though, that the Catholic Church started railing against Roe from almost the moment it was handed down)...



...and Jayar and Jackson White of Rebel HQ bring us this clip of Dem U.S. House Reps Jamie Raskin and Cori Bush pointing out that 9 of the top 10 states with the highest gun deaths where there are weak gun laws are run by Republicans...



...and in keeping with that subject, Lawrence O’Donnell brings us a report from the Texas Tribune saying the cops were afraid of the AR-15, which confirms what we already suspected I know...this Bogdanski guy should be criminally prosecuted IMO for his cowardice, along with the rest of them (to say nothing of Dubya and the Republican congressional lickspittles who allowed the assault weapons ban to lapse in 2004 – O’Donnell’s quiet outrage is completely called for IMO and utterly commendable, and comparing this weapon of death to a machine gun is completely apt)...



...and happy belated 75th birthday to Steven Tyler of Aerosmith – maybe too easy of a choice here given the prior two videos, but here it is anyway.

Update 1: It looks like it's time not to politicize gun violence again (here).

Update 2: Yep. Ogles should be shamed at a minimum - of course, he REALLY should be voted out of office next year (here).

Friday Stuff

This is probably the longest Second Thought video I’ve seen yet, but it tells the story of the East Palestine, OH Norfolk Southern disaster better than anything I’ve seen to date...really getting into the back story as usual, this time about safety concerns barely getting addressed under Obama, wiped out under Mango Mussolini, and getting essentially ignored once again under Biden/Buttigieg...“when profit is the only thing that matters, safety is an unnecessary luxury” indeed, and he’s absolutely right about nationalizing the railroads...something I always wondered about was why, in 2010 when the “Tea Party” insanity took over Congress, one of the first things they did was to go after environmental regulations (targeting the EPA specifically), and as it turns out, that was right smack dab in the middle of the ’08-’14 period when train derailments started to increase by leaps and bounds...of course, that was also pretty big on the Koch Brothers wish list at that time...



...and Thom Hartmann talks about standing up to fascist bullies, and I think you can safely consider Norfolk Southern to be one of that bunch...I’m a little surprised to hear Thom imply that Dubya WASN’T a “bully,” especially since I’m sure he hasn’t forgotten the story of Don Siegelman (here), though to be fair, I guess Karl Rove and Alberto Gonzales were more to blame for that, to say nothing of Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame...



...and to take the whole “bully” thing a little further, I guess you can say that about this Lorna Roxanne Green lunatic who was arrested in Casper, Wyoming for (allegedly) attempting to set fire to the only abortion clinic in the state (John and Jessica Burbank provide commentary)...



...and as Thom says, the NRA is pretty high on the list of bullies, and kudos to Dem U.S. House Rep Max Frost for taking them on (Frost being one of the ever-shrinking number of federal government Democrats from Flori-DUUH!)...Max Burns of Rebel HQ tells us about it (more here and here)...



...and to try and lighten things up a bit, I thought I’d present this, which I thought was a clever bit of comedy from The Daily Show, though “Tuckums” can be unintentionally hilarious all by himself I know...



...and somehow I neglected to mention the passing of unheralded R&B singer Chuck Jackson last month, so please allow me to make amends for that now (Elvis, among others, covered this tune).

Thursday Stuff

Gee, maybe somebody ought to do something about this climate change thing, huh (John and Yasmin Khan give us the latest gory details...more here and here)...



...and Francesca, Maz Jobrani and Farron Cousins tell us that, in a recent survey, more Americans polled by Gallup support the Palestinians than Israel...and yeah, if Andrew Cuomo leads off with something, you can be sure that he’s on the wrong side...



...and Jesse Dollemore tells us about Van Jones taking a bit of a veiled swipe at Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, given the tick-tock of waiting for the latest legal machinations pertaining to Our Treasonous Orange Pustule of a former *president...really? Yep, I would agree that Jones has become a little too damn comfortable with the D.C. “club” of politicians, operatives and media sycophants...



...and turning to our ongoing plague, David Doel tells us about Bernie Sanders questioning Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel on fleecing the people of this country over the COVID vaccine (gee, they ONLY made over a billion dollars last quarter?)...and NAIL. HAMMER. FREAKING HEAD!!! by Doel on questioning EVERY DAMN THING about Operation Warp Speed! Do you have any idea how much that cost U.S. taxpayers? I sure as hell don’t (God forbid we ever see any actual reporting on this), and I have seen NO ACCOUNTABILITY WHATSOEVER for doling out our tax money to the drug companies for this...”oh, but Trump was responsible for O.W.S.”...so, I’m supposed to give him credit for that even though that was completely opaque to me, again, as a taxpayer?...



...and Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report tells us that Nebraska State Senator Machaela Cavanaugh is getting some help from her fellow Dems in standing up for the rights of trans people---shocking I have to admit, but good news for a change...and yeah, this is indeed how Dems are supposed to respond to conservative garbage, in this case from these characters Mike Moser and Steve Erdman...as Figueredo points out, young kids aren’t getting “bottom surgery,” but are getting puberty blockers to help with transition under medical supervision; the blockers are reversible in case they want to stick with their biological sex, but the surgery option isn’t available unless they’re essentially grown and have agency, despite what contemptible bottom feeders like Matt Walsh are spouting off about (and my guess is that Erdman listens to Walsh, which explains why he’s clueless...NSFW/H)...



...and I guess, given the first item, I’m feeling a little more aware of my own mortality than usual, just in time for this newer tune.

Wednesday Stuff

Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report tells us about some alleged “preacher” named Daniel Kuhtsar of the Sure Foundation Baptist Church who haz a sad over getting death threats since he called for the same thing against LGBTQ individuals – yeah, another entry for the “’f’ around and find out” file as far as I’m concerned...



...and Ana and Cenk of TYT discuss Idaho’s Lewis-Clark college censoring a pro-choice art show because it allegedly violates some state law; sound like that location is run by the most enlightened minds of the 13th century (and I thought this was a good discussion about wingnut hypocrisy when it comes to “free speech for me, but not for thee”...and I believe the lefty censorship Cenk notes is dis-inviting conservative speakers to public events – inviting them at first, then realizing how crazy they were and then cancelling the invitation – which I always thought was dumb; get them on the record and refute their nonsense WITH ACTUAL FACTS...and sorry if I’m being unkind, but I’ve never really bought the whole “canceling for campus security” argument as noted here...I’ve been to Middlebury a few times, and I definitely wouldn’t call it a place where cars are likely to be set alight and storefront windows get smashed up, not that I want that in any circumstance)...



...and David Shuster brings us the story of Ohio police in Walton Hills sued by a woman driver named Amanda Mills who tried to record them, and it sounds like they messed up her arm and caused other injuries as a result (named in the suit is some life form named C.J. Schmidt, who apparently is one of the roughhousing officers in question – he and his pals deserve what they get from this)...



...and in this clip, Thom Hartmann does a pretty good job IMO of drawing a line of Republican Party corruption from Richard Nixon to the Gropenfuhrer; Thom reminds us about this story from over the weekend about the effort from The Sainted Ronnie R and his minions – which was successful, as it turned out – to scuttle the Iran hostage negotiations under President Carter to help ensure Reagan’s election, leading to Iran/Contra and Dubya and the ’00 election along with the second Iraq war, up to the two Trump impeachments and 1/6 of course)...



Update 3/23/23: More from Greg Palast is here.

...and I would call this a pretty good summing up by Rachel Maddow of the varying levels of corruption and illegality of Mango Mussolini and his associates (again, mindful that at least one legal metaphorical shoe will drop soon concerning the leader of Cult 45)...



...and this tune was #1 on the Billboard chart for the week ending March 23, 1968...Otis Redding spent most of his career making those great, upbeat soulful tunes with his fellow Stax musicians, Carla Thomas and others, but apparently was motivated by the Beatles and the success of Sgt. Pepper earlier that year to change things up a bit and perform this selection, against the wishes of the estimable Steve Cropper and “Duck” Dunn...Redding died soon after he made this, and it was the first number one posthumous tune in Billboard history...amazing that he crammed all of his great work into only 26 years.

Tuesday Stuff

Brian Tyler Cohen and lawyer Glenn Kirschner give us their take on the latest legal machinations involving Our Treasonous Tiny Handed Former *President (and I thought this was more than a bit of a “tell” also, as in, preparing for a revolt of “the great unwashed”)...



...and Francesca, Maz Jobrani and Farron Cousins of TYT tell us about 2 more recent train derailments that could impact neighboring communities, though it doesn’t appear initially that the Arizona incident will cause anywhere near the calamity of what happened in East Palestine, OH, though the Puget Sound oil spill in Washington state will impact tribal lands unfortunately...as I and others smarter than myself have said before, most people hate government until they need it to do something, and in this case, the rail lines will apparently have to be compelled to upgrade their trains or face criminal sanctions – it will take federal action of some type because they sure as hell won’t do that on their own...



...and Sam and Emma of The Majority Report tell us about “right to work” laws getting overturned in Michigan (incredible that 40K jobs were lost in MI because of RTW...and Emma is talking about this, by the way...also, kudos to the Temple University grad students as noted here)...



...and Beau discusses the 21 percent of those polled who said they trusted Fix Noise less after the revelations about what Tuckums, Ingraham and Sean Inanity really thought about the ’20 election despite what they said on the air (which of course came from the Dominion lawsuit...this is combined with the 11 percent who didn’t believe the network anyway, and it sounds like about 1/3rd of their audience is wavering a bit – not an overwhelming number, but definitely a dent in the metaphorical wall)...



...and I’ll tell you at the outset that this item is difficult, but I believe it needs to be mentioned – last Thursday marked the 20th anniversary of the murder of Rachel Corrie, who ended up giving her life in protest of Israel bulldozing Palestinian homes that were alleged to shelter terrorists...the following is an interview with Corrie discussing her reason for protesting recorded two days before her death...this post contains more information on Corrie’s killing from a bulldozer, but some of the images could be triggering, I have to tell you...still, though, the tragedy of her death needs to be remembered in its utterly unvarnished horror (I also have to be careful about putting up content that Blogger finds to be “sensitive” because I’ve gotten dinged for that already)...



...and in searching for a tune to commemorate the latest legal difficulty for Our Ochre Abomination, I now present the following.

Monday Stuff (updates)

A much-young-looking Cenk Uygur tells us that Former President Highest Disapproval Rating In Gallup Poll History lied about 935 times in the runup to the Iraq War, which began 20 years ago today approximately (the second war that is...more here, here, and here)...



Update 1: And let's not forget about this too.

Update 2: More food for thought is here (from the "what's past is prologue" department).

Update 1 3/21/23: And for anyone who doubts this, I have a name for you - Ashleigh Banfield.

Update 2 3/21/23: Yeah, I think this about says it.

Update 3 3/21/23: Maybe the best take on this yet (here)...

...and God forbid Former Commander Codpiece would show a speck of the contrition former British Prime Minister Tony Blair feels in this CBC report, though that doesn’t bring back anyone from the dead or help anybody whose lives were destroyed...



...and Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! speaks with author Neta Crawford on the many costs of the war, which will only grow over time (our military, Iraqi civilians, regional disruption, and on and on...more on Operation Inherent Resolve is here)...



...and it appears that Dem U.S. Senator Tim Kaine and Repug U.S. Senator Todd Young have managed to put together a coalition to repeal the resolutions on both Iraq wars, which truly is the least “The world’s greatest deliberative body” can do (more here)...



Update 3/23/23: What an utter, unbelievable, pathetic f*cking joke! (here).

Votes like this tell you who our government really represents...the war machine and the investor class. Everyday people (the 99 percent, basically), not so damn much.

Update 3/29/23: OK, this is a little better.

Update 4/2/23: More here.

...and I know I’ve brought this clip back a few times, and I’m doing it again today because I think it truly captures the utterly insufferable arrogance of the foul, fetid Bush gang, on Iraq and a few other matters also, including Saddam Hussein’s alleged relationship with al Qaeda (mildly NSFW/H)...



...also, here is Keith Olbermann speaking with Jon Soltz of Vote Vets about "the surge" in October 2007 and what it did/didn't manage to accomplish (I can STILL remember the screaming at Dubya to get us the hell out of there during this timeframe in particular and his characteristically stubborn refusal to do so)...



...and I’m going to give the last non-musical comment on this to The Eternal Michael Brooks, who cut through all of the BS on this and called the war what it truly was five years ago...



Update 3/25/23: More here...and by the way, I know Bedbug Bret wrote some piffle at “the old gray lady” saying the war was a good thing – I think the best response to that nonsense is here...I would bother to reply if it was full of the typical triumphalist BS that came spewing forth from any of the war’s initial supporters, but since it doesn’t, I’ll keep my powder dry, as it were...Stephens is merely ridiculous with his tone of “well, this went wrong and that went wrong...but the war was still the right thing to do,” but at least he’s showing a molecule of self-reflection...that’s about all, though.

...and I can think of no more appropriate tune for this day than this one (and this too).

Friday Stuff

David Pakman brings us the latest idiocy from CO-03’s U.S. House mistake, Bo-Bo Boebert; here, she confronts Biden’s director of the OPM for something that (allegedly) happened under Our Ochre Abomination (just say “oops” and get out; in response, I give you this)...



...and Jesse Dollemore brings us a pretty powerful Vote Vets ad making the case to stop showing Fix Noise on our military bases (NSFW/H)...



...and John and Cenk of TYT tell us that new Repug guv Sarah Huckabilly Sanders of Arkansas has started rolling back child labor protections in her state...yeah, pretty much straight out of the playbook for these cretinous plutocrats like her (more here)...



...and Beau tells us that Russia apparently messed with/collided with a U.S. drone in international airspace (of course, Russia says it was in an airspace designated for their “special military operation” near Ukraine...yeah, as Beau says, it sounds like this will be something for the diplomats to scream about and that will likely be it)...



...and staying with the brutal Ukraine incursion waged by Vlad The Butcher in Russia, this DW report tells us about the battle over Bakhmut, and it looks like a counter-offensive will be staged with newly-acquired Western weapons (with correspondent Ralph Martin and analyst Frank Ledwidge)...



...and speaking of people laboring under deadly oppression, that unfortunately is an appropriate segue to this clip from More Perfect Union about what the residents of East Palestine, OH are dealing with from the Norfolk Southern catastrophe (NSFW/H – God bless these people, truly...and this could have happened anywhere – either Biden or the U.S. Senate, or maybe both, should try to put together some type of an independent commission to look into this, starting with who was responsible for overruling the Obama-era upgraded brake requirement for the trains, even though we know who was guilty on that one...forget about those wackadoodles running U.S. House doing any kind of oversight on this, unless it involves denying women abortions, trying to cancel drag queen story hour or anything to do with Hunter Biden’s laptop)...



...and Chris Hayes tells us that the “party of Lincoln” has decided that their propaganda on the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank is that the fall of that institution has to do with “wokeness”...Hayes quite rightly IMO draws a line from regulatory rollback crippling SVB to causing Norfolk Southern’s assault on East Palestine (more related idiocy from The Roger Ailes BS Factory is here)...



...and I hope everybody is having a nice St. Patrick’s Day and managing to stay out of trouble :-).

Thursday Stuff

Thom Hartmann tells us how the “party of Lincoln” has weaponized all kinds of antagonism against women, minorities, LGBTQ individuals, etc., along with the news that people of conscience out there are saying they don’t want any part of that and are leaving the “Republic” Party in response (kudos)...interesting take on fear turning into hate...



...and Mike Figueredo tells us about some wingnut author named Bethany Mandel who apparently wrote a book about How “Woke” Radicals Are Indoctrinating Your Children, even though she can’t explain what “woke” means...figures (NSFW/H)...



...and Ana and Rm Brown of TYT discuss some Republican clown in Oklahoma named Jim Olsen who thinks it’s OK to wail on special needs kids because the Old Testament says it’s fine...monstrous (and GREAT point by Ana on wondering where the hell the parents are when bills like this to actually protect their kids are introduced, instead of yelling about kids reading history that makes the parents uncomfortable...the anti-spanking bill apparently didn’t get enough votes for approval, though it will likely be reintroduced, as noted here)...



...and Alonzo Bodden of Rebel HQ brings us the story of Minnesota state senate Republican idiot Steve Drazkowski, who apparently has never encountered anyone suffering form hunger, particularly kids, which led him to oppose a bill providing relief to his constituents...so many damn examples of Repuli-can’ts opposing various measures to help others because they can’t conceive of the actual problems themselves – hard to find a word for the selfishness on display (more here)...



Update 3/23/23: This guy is in a hole, and he really should stop digging (here).

...and I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” (more or less) from 3/15/11, in which Sam Seder (in a segment that used to be called “That’s Bullsh*t”) discusses former Wisconsin Repug Governor Scott Walker’s attack on public sector unions (more here)...I think this is a timely reminder because the cretins behind Walker’s garbage versus working folks are now back to try and get wingnut Dan Kelly elected to the state supreme court, which could potentially be disastrous for the ’24 elections and other reasons (to support judge Janet Protasiewicz instead, click here...more here)...



Update 3/26/23: And this sure figures about Kelly, doesn't it?

...and I have to admit that this is kind of a tough musical selection given that Jim Gordon, legendary sessions drummer for The Wrecking Crew, was convicted of murdering his mother and was sentenced to life in prison, but before he came to pieces, he gave some truly memorable performances, including this one.

Wednesday Stuff

Farron Cousins tells us here that not only will Greg Abbott do NOTHING in “the land of the yellow rose” when it comes to his state’s failing energy grid, but he and his fellow Republican idiots are doing everything they can to sabotage renewable energy (figures)...



...and John of The Damage Report tells us about Walgreen’s deciding to cave on providing abortion pills in 20 states, including places where the pills are legal – and from the “screw around and find out” files, I give you this...



...and Ana and Cenk of TYT discuss even MORE linked Emails from Fix Noise from the Dominion lawsuit, with some Trumper named Raj Shah saying that “Rudy looks so F’ing crazy” while “America’s Mayor” yammered on about alleged fraud in the ’20 election...and yeah, I would say we have multiple smoking guns here from the producer for The Swanson TV Dinner Heir saying how stoo-pid he thinks Carlson’s audience truly is, but the people affected the most likely will continue not to care, unfortunately...



...and Sam and Emma of The Majority Report discuss the truly massive pro-democracy protests in Israel (about 200K)...and EVERY weekend? Wow (against what Israel is trying to do with limiting its supreme court)...



...and Rachel Maddow speaks with Guy Cecil, recently of Priorities USA, on what needs to happen to build a broad-based Democratic constituency across voting blocs/coalitions as opposed to “a confederacy of caricatures” which we have to some degree now...kind of wonky, nuts n’ bolts stuff I’ll admit, though its important of course...



...and here’s a tune for this day in the calendar; I guess the moral is to stay away from Roman knives for a little while.

Tuesday Stuff

John, Cenk and Jordan Uhl of TYT tell us about AOC speaking out on some U.S. House hearing on “wokeness” (GMAFB!) while some folks from East Palestine, OH wander the halls of Congress trying to get someone to help them...and yes, as far as I’m concerned (and others of course), you can draw a line between the Ohio train disaster and the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank when it comes to the cause, as David Sirota notes here (I question Sirota’s punditry, but definitely not his journalism)...



...and speaking of the SVB collapse (biggest since Washington Mutual), David Doel tells us how Bernie Sanders basically nailed it in his warning five years ago after Trump loosened restrictions for these institutions (and I remember Gary Peters haranguing the shit out of me for a campaign donation when he ran for re-election, and he ended up voting to deregulate these financial criminals along with 16 other “Democrats”)...



...and to put a little more emphasis on all of this, Farron Cousins discusses a report from Moody’s (hardly a bunch of tree huggers) which tells us how bad the “party of Lincoln” is at writing legislation and overseeing the economy (I think Cousins’ outrage is commendable)...



...and when it comes to idiotic distractions from the “Republic” Party, this DW report tells us that Huckleberry Graham wants Biden to send our military into Mexico to try and keep fentanyl out of this country – with correspondent Andalusia Knoll Soloff...good job to point out the role played in all of this by the Gropenfuhrer’s horrible “remain in Mexico” policy...



...and I think the DW clip is a good lead-in to this one from Jon Stewart, who considers The Real Cost of America’s War Machine (NSFW/H)...



...and happy belated 75th birthday to James Taylor, coming to the Mann Music Center in these parts on July 1st (here).

Monday Stuff

Chris Hayes tells us about women denied abortions in Texas who are suing...good! Amanda Zurawski’s story is incredibly heartbreaking, and kudos to her for her courage in talking about it...every fathead anti-abortion politician should hear what she has to say, but of course they won’t...



...and David Doel (echoing the Hayes clip a bit) tells us that, basically, the majority of voters in Flor-DUUH! have no damn idea of what the hell is going on (and when it comes to Guv #DeathSantis vs. “the Mouse”...well, I’d hate to be paying property taxes in that state – more on that is here)...



...and staying below that Mason-Dixon line, Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report tells us about Tennessee passing a law allowing that state to not issue marriage licenses to gay or interracial couples...and “interfaith” couples too? Who the hell is the state official who will be in charge of administering this garbage? The kid from “Deliverance”? (and yes, I know that has to do with Georgia...and heading up north a bit, it looks like Iowa has also issued its own ban on same-sex marriage)...



...and here is a periodic reminder that, yes, I do indeed point out Democratic Party idiocy when I believe it is warranted, and I think New York City’s nutty mayor Eric Adams deserves to be “called onto the carpet” for saying he doesn’t believe in the separation of church and state (and oh yeah, there is this choice item involving Adams also)...



...and I have to admit that I was amused by this item; Stephen Colbert was able to use AI to simulate The Swanson TV Dinner Heir telling us what he really thinks of Mango Mussolini (among other news items from a recent monologue)...



...and here is kind of a dreamy little number for the kids to help us usher in the new week (hope everyone remembered to set your clocks forward).

Friday Stuff

David Doel talks about “Tuckums” presenting his typically lying/slanted take on the 1/6 insurrection with doctored footage from what House Speaker Kevin McCarthy provided to him recently (which of course should be provided to ALL news orgs, but McCarthy won’t do that unless he’s compelled to of course, probably by legal action of some type)...



...well, to refresh our memories, I present the following clip of Chris Hayes speaking with filmmaker Evan Hill, who helped to put together that amazing 40-minute New York Times documentary of what took place, including the Rosanne Boyland stuff (and yes, it is awful)...



...and with the treasonous events of 1/6 fresh in our minds, Thom Hartmann asks “What Do GOP Seditionists Offer Other Than Tearing America Apart?” (good question, and definitely a good point by Thom to mention John C. Calhoun and his “nullification” BS and how that links to Marjorie Traitor Greene...and God, is Thomas Massie ever a cosplaying airhead and a coward...Hartmann gives us yet another important history lesson, this time with absolutely staggering numbers on the slaves brought to this country before 1840 and the economic effect on poor Southern whites, and you damn well better believe that there’s a parallel between that and the current day, exactly the sort of history the “party of Lincoln” is trying to make illegal...more related idiocy is here)...



...and if you’re looking for a plan to return the Dems to control in the “lower chamber,” Rachel Maddow speaks with Ezra Levin of Indivisible about targeting the 18 U.S. House Repugs representing districts won by Biden in ’20 (one target is GOP Rep Mike Lawler in NY...and I’m sure Bri-Fi in PA-01 is one of the reps mentioned also, but knocking him off, while not impossible, is going to be a heavy lift, and I don’t say that gladly, despite his ‘moderate’ cred even though he votes with his party at least 85 percent of the time)...



...and Farron Cousins tells us about the Gropenfuhrer’s short list of VP picks for ’24...interesting theory about Nikki Haley in particular; diabolical enough to completely make sense, unfortunately, and I don’t think Kristi (Unsafe At Any Speed) Noem is going to buy much either (have to admit that I didn’t know about the real estate license scandal)...we’re loooong past the point where Former President Fergus Laing needs to be wearing an orange jumpsuit (maybe at looong last?), which would make this whole discussion moot, even though it would pave the way for #MeatballRon, who is dangerous for a similar but different set of reasons...



...and I, among others, point out the insanity of what goes on in our spheres of news and politics to try and motivate all of us to positive action, but another consequence could be turning into oneself leading to depression, and I have to admit that I do feel a bit of responsibility on that score even though I honestly believe that I need to do this...you can consider presenting the following video as a form of outreach, especially towards Generation Z and Millennials (we learn that rural youth have twice the rate of suicide as urban youth, and isolation and access to guns are identified at likely causes...”research shows that suicide rates are lower in states with stricter gun safety laws” - telling stuff indeed)...



...and if there is ever a clip to present as we near the end of a week, it’s this one, with “The Governator” speaking for about 12 minutes or so against fascism – well done (more here)...



...and RIP Gary Rossington of Lynyrd Skynyrd – since he’s the last surviving member of the original band, and particularly since he’s featured on this tune, I believe I need to present it, which is probably a first for this site (and I’ll overlook that Confederate rag for the occasion).

Thursday Stuff

Brian Tyler Cohen presents this clip of a gay Missouri Republican criticizing another straight member of his party for an anti-LGBT bill in the state legislature prohibiting discussion of sexual orientation (more here)...and boy, is Cohen ever right about the Dems needing to get on board with a Spanish channel (NSFW/H)...



...and Sam of The Majority Report tells us about Georgia U.S. House idiot Mike Collins, who blames diversity and inclusion for train derailments (and once more, let’s not forget that the Obama rule for trains to use upgraded brakes was negated by Our Treasonous Orange Pestilence...mildly NSFW/H)...



...and John of The Damage Report tells us about Republicans pushing for a 6-week abortion ban, which is effectively a full ban, along with more bogus “investigations” by the U.S. House, including the “weaponization” of the government, by Gym Jordan...I know we touched on the investigations thing earlier, but it bears repeating IMO (with Jayar at the end..."Due date abortion?" "Gender-selection abortion?" Is Ronna Romney McDaniel smoking a blunt or something?)...



...and David Doel brings us the clip of the recent exchange between Teamsters President Sean O’Brien and Repug U.S. Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma...a lot of important context provided here by Doel, illustrating what an entitled tool Mullin truly is (to say nothing of the fact that Mullin likely broke U.S. House ethics rules by making $$ off his plumbing business while serving as an elected representative)...



...and this video from More Perfect Union provides more information on Cal-Maine Foods gouging consumers on the price of eggs, and how other egg producers possibly acted in collusion...gee, it sure is a shame that we don’t have a federal government that can, y’know, put together a commission with subpoena power to investigate this...OH, WAIT! WE DO!...



...and RIP David Lindley; this is another case where it’s hard to find a particular tune to highlight from his gargantuan body of work, but I always associate him with Jackson Browne for many memorable selections, including this one.

Wednesday Stuff

(A bit of housekeeping...I may be cutting back on posting about news/political stuff for a bit; I don’t completely know yet. I’ll keep you informed as best I can.)

I thought this was a typically spot-on commentary from Beau about the highest paying jobs when getting out of college (engineering – understandable IMO) and lowest paying (education – ummm, I agree with Beau; we have a problem here...”we do not value the thing we need the most” indeed)...



...and speaking of college, Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report tells us about Bernie Sanders educating Bill Maher in the matter of student debt...the only reason I’ve even acknowledging that lickspittle Maher at all (who, let’s not forget, achieved his fame and popularity with a hell of a lot of support from people with the ideological bent that he now chooses to piss all over) is because of how Sanders brings him around on the issue...and it turns out that the poll Maher cites was referenced by NBC News, but they didn’t conduct it, and the poll was basically conducted by an AI? Heckuva job...



...and sticking with education, this More Perfect Union video tells us about the billionaires funding the SCOTUS cases/attacks on Biden’s student debt relief, in particular the laughably misnamed “Job Creators Network” bankrolled by Bernie Marcus, The Mercers, Charles Koch & Philip Anschultz, the same cretins who want us stuck in dead-end jobs with lousy pay forever until we drop...



...and continuing with the theme of trying to improve your mind through diverse perspectives, John and Sabrina Rios of The Damage Report give us the latest polling on book bans – the numbers should be 100 percent opposed across the board of course, but we are where we are...and yeah, it figures that a majority of Repugs are on board, but not a majority of Dems and independents, thankfully...



...and I realize it’s “water wet, sky blue” stuff to point out what an utter joke of a supposed TV news network Fix Noise is, but Sam and Emma of TMR let us know about Howie Kurtz, the alleged media critic, commenting on how the Roger Ailes BS Factory chose to muzzle him over the revelations about his employer from the Dominion lawsuit; pretty solid analysis in particular from Sam IMO...



...and it looks like PA’s former U.S. Senatorial mistake ended up landing comfortably, as Cenk and Ana of TYT tell us, with “No Corporate Tax” Pat Toomey joining the board of a private equity firm (OF COOURRRSSE!)...and yes, it definitely deserves a dishonorable mention that Toomey, along with “Curtsy Kyrsten” of course, helped to scuttle legislation to close the carried interest loophole...



...and when it comes to Toomey’s replacement, Retired U.S. Army Major Richard Ojeda tells us about one of #45 fail sons name calling John Fetterman, who continues his courageous recovery from a stroke and depression (Fetterman I mean of course)...to me, it’s absolutely ridiculous to see the comparative media attention given to these lower life forms congregating at CPAC, but kudos to Ojeda for giving Ochre Abomination Jr. the upbraiding called for here...



...and by the way, happy International Women's Day.

Monday Stuff

Alex Wagner of MSNBC talks with Jelani Cobb of The New Yorker about that idiot Tennessee lawmaker, State Rep Paul Sherrell (and do you even have to ask which party?), who wanted to bring back lynching (more here – and yes, he apologized, which is what he should do at a minimum)...



...and continuing under the heading of Republicans Behaving Badly, I give you Brian Tyler Cohen discussing Jon Stewart’s interview with Oklahoma State Senator Nathan Dahm about guns (NSFW/H...I know I’m a little behind the news curve on these two items, but I feel like they need to be addressed - here)...



...and I know I linked to this story on Friday, but Jesse Dollemore did a good job IMO in commenting on it, namely, FLA guv #DeathSantis wanting bloggers criticizing him to register with the state, or something...apparently, the “line in the sand” is if those correctly pointing out what a fascist he truly is are generating income for their time and trouble...and I have to admit that I didn’t have “agreeing with Newt Gingrich” on my Bingo card (here)...



...and Alabama U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville is proving once more to be one of the most enlightened minds of the 13th century with his claim that the Dems want “one gender”...commentary by Cenk and Ana of TYT, and GREAT point by Cenk at the end about what snowflakes conservatives truly are, calling we lefties every name in the book, but when we hold a mirror up to them, WE allegedly become the bad guys...



...and it looks like all of the non-musical clips in this post will pertain to members of the “party of Lincoln” behaving in a particularly bad way, and here is another example...Farron Cousins discusses TX rep Nate Schatzline sponsoring an anti-drag bill, who was caught...wait for it!...IN DRAG! And GREAT point by Cousins about how subjective a judgment it is to consider something “sexualized”...and here is what I think is going on with all of this anti-trans BS from these knuckle-draggers; it’s all about persecuting “the other” to rally political support, whether or not the “other” is an African American, a woman, an Hispanic immigrant, a trans individual, or just a plain ol’ liberal – no bar is too low for these cretins (more here)...



...and Patsy Cline died in a plane crash 60 years ago yesterday.

A Word Or Two On "The French Mistake"

(To begin, I have an observation that is really “inside baseball” I know, but I have to say it. What I’ve done in the past was write longer-form posts at times over on the Wordpress site where I can tag and categorize my content more effectively than I typically do here at Blogger, and I usually just link to WP from my Blogger posts. However, Wordpress has done such an effective job of totally shitting up their UI and overall functionality that I may just say the hell with writing new posts there altogether and do everything here. That explains a bit what I’m about to say next.)

There was a time at this site when I did my best to critique/pick apart what I considered to be wingnut propaganda on a variety of fronts, and my hope was that I could “get the word out” (as much as my admittedly limited reach allowed) before the spin on the topic in question became enshrined to the point where it pretty much morphed into the dreaded “conventional wisdom” within our corporate media. This applied to a number of topics, such as Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction during the sorry Bush reign, the whole “birther” nonsense under Obama and, in the present moment, our alleged “open border” with Mexico (propagated by Our Treasonous Orange Pustule of a Former “President,” among others). To that end, I often spent more time than I would like otherwise at National Review, The Weekly Standard, AEI, Townhall.com, the Wall Street Journal and other right-wing propaganda outlets and would fill up posts critiquing, among others, Bret Stephens, Kurt Schlichter, Andrew Malcolm...the list went on an on.

I eventually ended up abandoning this exercise for at least two reasons: 1) I needed to preserve my sanity, and 2) I ran out of bandwidth to do that on a regular basis. Well, I’d like to return briefly to that here to take issue somewhat with a recent New York Times column by David French, formerly of The National Review (because, as the Times would no doubt tell us if they were directly asked, you can never have enough conservative columnists).

I have to admit that French these days is in the “never Trump” camp (see Rick Wilson, Steve Schmidt, Michael Steele, Nicolle Wallace, etc.) so he’s a little more enlightened than the typical Trumpist sycophant. It should be noted also that he served our country, which is commendable. However, that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t need to be called out on occasion, and I think his most recent piece in the Times is the opportunity to do exactly that (the subject is the “national divorce” insanity proposed by Repug U.S. House Rep Marjorie Trailer Park Greene, among others):

(Greene’s “national divorce” idea) is not a new concern for me. In 2020, I published a book arguing that political polarization had grown so extreme that it was time to be concerned about our national union. The second sentence stated the thesis: “At this moment in history, there is not a single important cultural, religious, political or social force that is pulling Americans together more than it is pushing us apart.”

That statement was true then, and it is true now. If anything, partisan anger has only grown. I finished the book before the spring riots that ripped through American cities in 2020 and before the insurrection of Jan. 6. Those wounds have not fully healed.

Did you catch that? French equated the protests in the wake of the death of George Floyd with the 1/6 insurrection against our government and the legal, lawful result of the 2020 presidential election.

One of these things is not like the other...

Well then, with this in mind, I think it’s only appropriate to revisit the following from French:

French once defended Kevin Williamson, who said those who’d received abortions should be hanged (here).

He also claimed that lifting the ban on transgender military service will result in “thought control” (here).

And in case anybody out there is still wondering how we could have arrived at a place in our political discourse where we’ve declared open season pretty much on LGBTQ individuals (to say nothing of women needing an abortion or related medical care), I give you a screed from French 8 years ago where he went on record saying that homosexuality is “sinful” here (I realize that’s pretty much straight from the Catholic playbook sadly, but that definitely helped to speed our intolerant path towards jackbooted authority and the ultimate death of democracy IMO...I mean, I hope to God that doesn't happen, but we'll see).

I realize the Times is going to allow French a platform to inject his doctrinaire musings into what passes for informed political dialogue in this country regardless of what I say or do, but as far as I’m concerned, that doesn’t mean that he should be allowed to do so with impunity. And I intend to call out French and his ilk for exactly that as long as I’m able to do it.

We didn’t get to this sorry state in this country by accident. A lot of people who knew better either contributed to our political and ideological misunderstandings by active participation or other than benign neglect, and continue in that exercise. And French is definitely responsible too. And I don’t care how comfortable a living he manages to eke out for doing so.

Update 3/26/23: More here.

Update 5/8/23: More here also.