Monday Stuff

Chris Hayes gives us some interesting theories IMO on why Mango Mussolini had a top secret doc on Iran in his tiny, grubby little hands, one being that it could have been 45’s way of getting back at Gen. Mark Milley for the latter making sure that Our Treasonous Orange Pustule didn’t end up starting a war with Iran on his way out of the door from An Oval Office...



...and Farron Cousins tells us that the Gropenfuhrer remains massively unpopular according to a Fix Noise poll, and I realize that “No Malarkey Joe” certainly can’t rest on his laurels either (I can’t believe we’re dealing with 2024 polls already, but too many people make too much $ off this circus I know so that’s why it’s getting revved up now); I should add that I completely agree with Cousins that the trend lines are what matter the most...



...and Emma and the Majority Report crew tell us about the recent SCOTUS case ruling against unions...one other way to tell that the fix was in is that the High Court of Hangin’ Judge JR always hands down their most controversial rulings as they’re getting out of town at the end of the session...the case was Glacier v. Teamsters; as the panel notes, the fact that the High Court decided to hear this at all vs. letting the NLRB handle this was a pretty damn big signal as to the outcome, and as the panel points out, the only one on the SCOTUS who stood tall was KBJ...NSFW/H...and to say we need some kind of a liberal/progressive answer to ALEC, The Federalist Society, and other right-wing garbage organizations is a huge understatement...



...and Mike Figueredo gives us more insight on this alleged “grand bargain” from “Dark Brandon” on the whole debt ceiling mess; Figueredo is absolutely right about how this monstrosity could have been avoided, and there’s really no other conclusion to draw that the majority of U.S. House Dems were in league with “15 Votes for Speaker” McCarthy...and we know what Manchin and Sinema are, but from this point forward, I don’t want to hear one damn word from Jon Tester about “coastal elites” since he voted for the utterly pointless cruelty of inflicting massive student loan debt on borrowers, including retroactive payments (including interest) delayed because of COVID (also NSFW/H)...and yeah, we noted the Glacier decision and the betrayal of Kagan and Sotomayor in the Majority Report clip...I wish Figueredo luck in his fight against YouTube demonetization; if anything makes me say the hell with all of this one day, it would be something technical like that that stops me dead in my tracks (and by the way, don’t you know that Tester sent some Email fundraising spam to me? Maybe the fastest Email deletion I ever made)...



...and Jesse Dollemore tells us that, apparently, this wingnut “prophet” Lance Wallnau was saying that Dems would get killed in May, along with some Repugs, but – oopsie! – looks like it didn’t happen (and Jesse is definitely right about Right Wing Watch)...



...and RIP Cynthia Weil, who co-wrote a number of hits with spouse Barry Mann, including this one (another legendary songwriting duo, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, had a hand in this one also).

Friday Stuff

Leeja Miller brings us a report on U.S. housing segregation, going back to WWII and “white flight” in the ‘50s along with so-called housing “covenants” that were racist as hell (more on “peonage” is here, as well as the 1968 Fair Housing Act, and here is the case Miller is referring to...like many of you I’m sure, I heard relentlessly about the evils of “Section 8 housing” when I was growing up, so you can consider this clip to be a bit of a response)...



...and it looks like Repug U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville and Trump Jr. are engaged in a contest to find out who has the more limited brain capacity, as Kyle Kulinski tells us, with Tuberville blowing that racist “inner cities” dog whistle loud and clear as Kyle says...that state could have had Doug Jones in the Senate instead of this maroon (and kudos to Tuberville’s brother here)...



...and David Shuster of Rebel HQ brings us Tuberville’s knucklehead Senate partner Markwayne (“I Don’t Want Reality”) Mullin again, grilling educators on whether it’s better to love Jesus or teach tolerance, which to me are two variations of the same damn question...I wish the last person Mullin interrogated hadn’t said something like Jesus comes first – what if we’re talking about a Jewish or Muslim school kid? – but I get it that she was worn down by Mullin’s abusive tactics...



...and keeping with the subject of faith (or the perversion thereof), Sam and Emma speak with Will Sommer on how quickly the fundie nutjobs aligned themselves with QAnon...I think Sam in particular is trying to be careful here when talking about religion, but I don’t think it’s automatic that anyone with a belief system would automatically gravitate to these crazies, and I’m sure Sam’s not saying that to be fair (and there is a bit of a precedent for this insanity as noted here)...



...and moving on to corporate stuff, I have some actual GOOD news for a change; Cenk and Ana of TYT tell us about Costco doing the right thing by holding the line on prices and member fees (I wish to God there was a Costco near Le Manse Doomsy, though I’ll do more research into finding one...nearest I think is in Willow Grove, Pa.)...



...and the prior video mentions good corporate behavior, but this has to do with BAD behavior from UPS versus the Teamsters, courtesy of More Perfect Union...and I know this is a damn broken record, but working at UPS was a good job until – wait for it! – 1982 and the ruinous reign of The Sainted Ronnie R, and the first attempt at a two-tiered wage system, which was fought off, only to have it return, leading to an increase in hiring (and totally abusing) part time workers, doing about 8 hours’ worth of work in 3.5-4 hrs. and getting paid a lousy wage to boot...



...and Thom Hartmann gives us another informative history lesson, this time on the SCOTUS and Sandra Day O’Connor totally quashing part of a dissent from fellow Justice David Souter (nominated to the Court by GHWB), in which Souter alleged that the High Court was helping to create a “plutocracy” in Souter’s completely correct analysis...



...and I hope everyone is in the mood for a newer upbeat tune as we head into the first summer weekend...here goes.

Thursday Stuff

Willie Geist and others on “Morning Jo(ke)” speak with Sarah Kate Ellis of GLAAD about the removal of LGBTQ-themed merchandise from Target, as well as the typical nutty intolerant nonsense from the usual suspects against the LGBTQ community, timed for the first day of Pride Month, with Ellis telling us that 70 percent of those polled are fine with pride themes in advertising, along with other very favorable numbers overall – important to note but kind of pathetic that it needs to be pointed out...more here...



...and John and Francesca tell us about the glorious debt ceiling deal that our political/media/industrial complex just loves, and yeah, “not everyone gets what they want” is indeed Beltway code for “the poors get it in the neck again and the pay no price, bear no burden bunch skate once more” (I believe the House has signed off on this mess, but we’re still waiting on “the world’s greatest deliberative body”)...I’m not sure that Francesca is right about student debt relief going away, but there’s other stuff to cause unnecessary pain...and the bald-faced hypocrisy of this happening ONLY when a Dem is in the White House and the “party of Lincoln” controls at least one chamber of Congress is still enough to make me puke...



Update: OK, Francesca was right about the student debt thing, unfortunately...ugh (here).

...and Brian Tyler Cohen presents us with the latest word salad on abortion from Tim Scott, who apparently is still running for the Repug nomination for preznit next year...yeah, the misogyny here is barely contained...more here and here...



...and Farron Cousins tells us that this alleged genius Repug U.S. Senator Roger Marshall recently told Maria Bartiromo of Fix Noise that, gee, his party hasn’t been able to pin anything on Hunter Biden and/or the IRS and/or whatever alleged scandal du jour is raging because there just aren’t enough danged Republicans on Capitol Hill (more Marshall idiocy is here)...



...and I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” from 6/1/18, in which we learn from Kyle Kulinski (in an NSFW/H clip) about Virginia state senator Bill Carrico, who offered kind of a Dickensian response when asked why he didn’t support Medicaid expansion in his state, which is emblematic of his entire party of course – I believe Carrico is, mercifully, out of government now, but OF COURSE he’s now a lobbyist...



...and I think this is a pretty anthemic tune for the beginning of pride month; I haven’t had a lot to say about this in the past, thought maybe I should have, but I think it’s definitely important to make some kind of a statement of support on this now.



Update 6/5/23: And this from the supposedly liberal bastion of California (this too) - GMAFB!

Wednesday Stuff

Kyle Kulinski tells us that Lex Luthor Scott in Flori-DUUUH! is saying that “socialists” aren’t welcome in his state; fine with me, scumwad...I think this is a pretty spot-on take from Kyle on Scott’s idiocy and the whole “NAACP Travel Advisory” thing...just incredible to me that Scott, who was guilty of the largest Medicare fraud in history as Kyle notes, continues to “fall upward” politically with his nonsense...of course, in that state, the shadow of Castro looms large, though it shouldn’t really, but that’s the status quo because the Dems as a party have never been able to figure out a way to respond (NSFW/H at end)...



...and I thought this was a pretty interesting discussion on The Majority Report with a caller talking about how the High Court of Hangin’ Judge JR took a metaphorical pickaxe to the Clean Water Act again (and yeah, the wingnuts have after been after government agencies, particularly the EPA, and their rule-making capacity for years...more here)...



...and well well, it looks like Maria Bartiromo and Fix Noise made up another “story” to attack Biden...this one is about homeless vets supposedly being kicked out of a shelter to make room for those dastardly, dirty migrants (tongue in-cheek here...David Pakman gives us the details)...and by the way, if you want another example of Fix Noise and the wingnutosphere losing their damn minds over something before they bothered to, y’know, ACTUALLY FACT-CHECK WHAT THEY WERE SAYING, I give you this from the New York Times, in which we learn about someone who was run over with a car, and the usual suspects started spouting off with, “oh, he was killed because he’s a Republican, right after Biden made that speech criticizing MAGA,” which was immediately quashed by law enforcement; they couldn’t determine any kind of a political motive behind this terrible accident...actually, both parties involved in this awful story were intoxicated and it’s hard to get through the fog on this, if you will, thought I’m sure there will be more to come (fine reporting in particular by Charles Homans and also Ken Bensinger)...



...and I thought this was another spot-on clip from The Lincoln Project (maybe in my lifetime, I’ll actually see the “D” party do stuff like this...click here to contact the Senate, which is full of its own brand of craven pretenders I know, and click here to contact the Dems and those other lunatics in the U.S. House)...



...and sometimes the only thing you can do is laugh, and with that in mind, I give you this story of the two kids who got thrown out of a #DeathSantis fundraiser for eating pudding with their fingers...David Doel explains (mildly NSFW/H)...



...and this caught my eye in the Times also (along with the story of the guy who got run over), and that was an obit for Dem Ohio U.S. House Rep Tom Sawyer, who challenged the 1990 census under Poppy Bush for undercounting African Americans as well as voters in cities overall, mainly in the Northeast but also in the Rust Belt...Sawyer also protested the work requirements in Bill Clinton’s welfare “reform” bill, though he defended Clinton during the impeachment fiasco and opposed the 2003 deployment of U.S. forces to Iraq...this tune is probably a bit tangential here, but it’s my attempt at a tribute to someone who fought the good fight and served the way a public official is supposed to, as opposed to the gaggle of idiots who take up positions in public life now.

Tuesday Stuff

Sam and Emma of The Majority Report tell us about U.S. House Repugs voting to overturn Biden’s student debt relief, including Bri-Fi and two alleged “Democrats,” along with Repug Burgess Owens of Utah...yeah, as Emma sez, Repugs have been attacking a college education for freaking decades...and I’m not 100 percent sure about this, but I have a feeling that a lot of this discussion has to do with education IRAs that are tax free, and yeah, they’re tailored for the wealthy primarily, unless you have the foresight to set one up and the ability to hide away enough $$ to take advantage of it...as The Eternal George Carlin said, Republicans want you smart enough to work the machines, but too dumb to know much of anything else, and cutting off the means to get a college education unless you’re “to the manor born” is one way to ensure that...GREAT point at the end by Sam about having to take a crappy job to pay off student debt (and based on this, I think U.S. House Repug Burgess Owens is the LAST person who should be trying to give advice on anything related to finance or money management)...



...and Jesse Dollemore tells us that Repug guv Ron #DeathSantis of Flori-DUUH! said he would look at potentially pardoning the Gropenfuhrer and the other January 6th culprits...#DeathSantis kept using the phrase “weaponization of government” which is obviously wingnut code for, yeah, pardoning everyone involved with 1/6 (and I had to get a kick out of that nonsense about charges against grandma, or whatever that mess was)...



...and Rayyvana and Francesca Fiorentini of The Damage Report tell us about the push-back in Nebraska against not only a ridiculous abortion ban, but also an anti-trans bill as noted here (hard to keep all of this insanity straight sometimes I’ll admit)...



...and as long as we’re talking about “values” nonsense, Farron Cousins brings us this “Moms for Liberty” nutball Darcy Schoening (and I know I had a video with her earlier) saying that her group has “moles” that have infiltrated liberal groups, with Schoening alleging there is some kind of “gay agenda” out there to support Dems in a CNN interview, and true to awful form, “The most trusted name in news” barely pushes back...



...which kind of put me in a frame of mind to watch this old SNL clip, back when we used to be able to just laugh at this nonsense...



...and RIP Cream lyricist Pete Brown...kind of ironic to me that he apparently came to the band in answer to an invitation from drummer Ginger Baker, when Brown ended up forming a musical partnership with bassist Jack Bruce instead...I think the first Brown collaboration with the band was “Wrapping Paper,” and from that point on, Brown’s spacey and poetic lyrics would become a mainstay of their most famous hits, including this one.

Monday Stuff

Brian Tyler Cohen and Glenn Kirschner give us the latest developments on Combover Caligula and the classified documents mess at Mar-a-Lago, with strong evidence pointing to the possibility that there was a willful effort to conceal those docs form the FBI...just throw this criminal’s ass in jail already!...



Update 5/31/23: I'm going to tie a load on big time on the day that this criminal's ass is finally in stir (here).

...and Beau gives us his take on what appears to be a deal to raise the debt ceiling, which – again – is more ridiculous Washington kabuki for the benefit of our political/media/industrial complex...a few ways that all of these idiotic theatrics could have been avoided...I share Beau’s concerns about SNAP and Medicaid I believe, though as Beau says, we’ll have to wait and find out about the details...and yeah, they absolutely wanted $$ taken out of the IRS budget to let their donors get out of paying taxes; I guess that was the metaphorical hill the Repugs would die on in this cruelty...now watch “15 Votes for Speaker” McCarthy try to get those MAGA lunatics in line to pass it...



Update: More here.

...and Ana and Cenk of TYT tell us that the “party of Lincoln” in the House, now that they’ve got this preliminary debt ceiling deal worked out, is going to try and railroad another tax cut bill, to the tune of about $3.5 trillion, providing still more evidence that they don’t give a damn about the debt and just want to reward their donors and stick it to everyone else...I was wondering how long it would take for one of these two to blame Dems somehow, and Ana does that at about 9:20...yes, the Dems should be yelling about this; let’s see what happens, OK?...and Cenk is also wrong not to give Obama credit for cutting taxes, and yes, #44 could have done a better job of getting the word out on that, I know (more here) – still not happy with Cenk over that Article V business, to be honest...



...and I honestly didn’t know that Ed Ames was still alive, though he just passed; well, he made it to 95, God bless him (a fine singer and entertainer, though this may be what he’ll be remembered for more than anything else...after Carson makes the “Jewish” remark, he says, “Welcome to Frontier Briss.”...probably couldn’t get away with this stuff now)...



...and I thought this was a well-done Lincoln Project video with today’s holiday in mind...



...and I think this is an apropos tune for today’s observance; it’s more of a throwback to the accursed Bushco/Iraq War years when they wouldn’t photograph the coffins of our dead service members returning from that wretched conflict, but I think the tune is also a cautionary tale in the awful event that some other wannabe strongman tries to do the same thing in the future.



Update: And speaking of the failed reign of Commander Codpiece, I give you this (and apologies for failing to note the 20th anniversary of this in a similar vein).

Saturday Stuff

There are so many people of character IMO who didn’t make it to the century mark, but to me, it is an obscenity that “Dr.” Henry Kissinger has apparently managed to get there...this “Democracy Now!” report from Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez includes interviews with authors Nick Turse and Greg Grandin, with Turse focusing on Kissinger’s legacy in Cambodia and how our bombing helped to create a vacuum that was filled by the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot…I honestly didn’t know Kissinger recorded phone calls during his days with Nixon, but it doesn’t surprise me…kudos to Turse for putting human faces on the Biblical level of suffering authorized by Kissinger (and I felt like putting my fist through the monitor when I saw Kissinger swat away that question about being a war criminal, which he plainly is)…good point by Grandin about how we really don’t know what the hell he's done while running “Kissinger Associates”…and I always respected the late Anthony Bourdain, but I DEFINITELY did even more after hearing that quote (and in case you want to get MORE infuriated with Kissinger, this links to his “salted peanuts” remark to Dubya about drawing down and ending the utterly awful Iraq War II)….and there’s more on Reagan later in this post BTW…



Update: More from David Corn here...

...and returning to our current debt ceiling crisis (and leave it to those crazies running the U.S. House to just pack up and leave right in the middle of it), Chris Hayes tells us about the Repugs and their utterly deranged debt plan, including cutting development for COVID vaccines to combat what are likely to be future variants, as well as knee-capping funding for vax distribution around the world (and yeah, I know King Elon I and #DeathSantis pooped the metaphorical bed over the latter’s campaign kickoff for prez, but I’m not going to devote time and energy on that...sorry)...



...and I thought this was an instructive clip from Kyle Kulinski about how exactly the debt ceiling crisis is being reported, and as you can imagine, our corporate media is doing everything they can to give cover to the “R” party, because, as far as they’re concerned, the very worst thing you can do is piss off a conservative, and this is just another example...

...and by the way, I heard something the other day that I thought was merely a bad joke, but after doing some investigating, I found out that it was actually true, and that is that Wolf-Pac is trying to align itself with ALEC for a so-called Article V Convention to rewrite the Constitution, as noted here (I have a feeling I’m a little late to the party on this, since I also found an article about this from last August after doing some investigating over the last day or so). I should also point out that, to be fair, I don’t see Cenk Uygur’s name listed as a member of Wolf-Pac, so it’s possible that he isn’t involved in the group any more (though he has spoken out in favor of an Article V convention).

However, I should still add that this is utter madness. How many damn times does it need to be pointed out that WINGNUTS ONLY WANT TO PLAY US AND ARE NOT SERIOUS ACTORS WHEN IT COMES TO POLICY OR LEGISLATION??!! Uygur of all people should know that!...

...and I stumbled across this video form Leeja Miller, who gives us a fairly comprehensive history lesson on The Sainted Ronnie R (NSFW/H)...good job to tell the TRUE story of Linda Taylor, the “welfare queen” Reagan kept referring to; Taylor actually scammed about $8K instead of $150 per year as Miller points out...so many reasons to detest Reagan, one of which being the fact that, though he played an amiable dunce on TV, he was also a willful stupendous liar about government entitlements and a whole range of other subjects...one of my more infamous Reagan memories (there are many) is what happened to the Philadelphia State Hospital at Byberry for the mentally ill (just referred to as Byberry for short, named for a road near the facility)...as if by magic, the place closed and a whole bunch of people needing treatment ended up on the street, and yes, this happened during Reagan’s term in 1987 (it was officially closed by 1990...more here...I’ll have to keep an eye out for more content from Miller)...



...and I’m probably overloading everybody with policy stuff with these clips, but maybe you can pass the time watching them on (hopefully) the beach or if you’re able to get some much-needed-for-us-all down time elsewhere over the next few days...here is another long but important video from Second Thought aptly titled “The Myth of Capitalist Peace” (“Violence doesn’t just go away with free trade; it turns inward” indeed)...



...and for a bit of humor (arguably I guess), The Daily Show asks “When Was America Last Great?” (kind of sad and telling that we have to think about the answer, truth be told)...



...and I can think of absolutely no other reason to include this except for Kissinger’s birthday...



(And by the way, speaking of song parodies, I think the following should be remembered here.)

...and as luck would have it, Kissinger’s birthday falls on the same day that we fete this guy also, who I’m sure couldn’t be more diametrically opposed politically...I can only think of this tune above all others from his library when I consider the shameful legacy of “the good doctor” (a cartoon image of Kissinger shows up for a second).

Thursday Stuff

Chris Hayes speaks with Peter Rogell of Flori-DUUUH! on the “torture” (Rogell’s word, not mine or Hayes’s as he notes) that Ron #DeathSantis inflicted on his family, forcing Deborah Dorbert (who I believe is Rogell’s daughter) to give birth to a baby who could not breathe and had no chance of survival...and as if that isn’t horrible enough, we learn about more anti-LBGTQ BS in that state, which is becoming more awful by the minute...



...and sticking with more “values” nonsense, David Doel tells us about Nikki Haley’s own version of anti-trans BS, which went over like a thud at this “eggs and politics” breakfast in New Hampshire (as if she actually has a shot at winning her party’s nomination)...so yes, there are some slivers of sanity form that bunch...and once more, it figures that Haley and her same-party pals went to New Hampshire – this may help Haley slightly in a primary, but it won’t do a lick of good in the general election, which she won’t get to anyway...this is a pretty comprehensive report from Doel with a lot of data points, and I admire his honesty at the end – I absolutely know how he feels (mildly NSFW/H)...



...and stories like this would get me, Doel, and other reasonably sane people discouraged also, and that is wingnuts losing their sh*t over pride clothing at Target...the planet is melting, we’re drowning in guns (mainly assault weapons), women are losing their health care, our life expectancy in this country is decreasing, the rich are getting richer at our expense, and THIS is the idiocy these life forms choose to preoccupy themselves with (as John and Jayar tell us – some serious drip going on with Jayar’s cap)...



...well, if you want an example of how our side can use power effectively for its constituents, Sam and Emma of The Majority Report give us the Minnesota Farm Labor Party at work...the clip also includes Uber drivers winning a wage increase – LOVE that clip of the workers chanting “Yes we can”....”When you get the power, you use it” indeed (and don’t get me started on how the D.C. Dems, notably Biden and the thoroughly useless Chuck Schumer, don’t fight on similar issues and, for the 1000th time, manage to lose control of the narrative because of lousy messaging...that doesn’t stop Team D from HECTORING ME RELENTLESSLY MULTIPLE TIMES EVERY DAMN DAY for money with phone calls, Emails and texts...I can’t believe you guys are losing out to these troglodytes running the U.S. House...please find a damn spine somehow!)...



...and moving a little further south geographically, Jesse Dollemore tells us about actor Jon Hamm making an ad for Dem Lucas Kunce of Missouri, running against incumbent Repug U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (with “running” being literal in Hawley’s case of course)...Hawley’s screeds about masculinity are an utter joke, particularly against a Marine vet like Kunce...



...and my anger at Biden that I noted earlier has to do with this debt ceiling nonsense, which could end up hosing the economy of the world and not just us...I don’t want to hear any of this “10 dimensional chess, smartest guy in the room” BS about #46 – it was plainly obvious that the other side was just going to engage in more and more hostage taking and refuse to be serious about negotiations, and “Dark Brandon” should have acted accordingly and minted the damn coin, invoked the 14th amendment, made sure the Gephardt Rule was reinstated before the Dems lost the House, etc...

...and another musical icon has departed...RIP Tina Turner (I went back and forth on choosing which of these tunes to add, but I finally said the hell with it and went with both).

Wednesday Stuff

Gee, it looks like South Carolina Repug guv Henry McMaster is trying to moonlight as a comedian or something, since he recently spoke at a Repug Party fundraiser over the weekend and said he looks forward to the day when Dems are so rare that they can be hunted like dogs, or words to that effect...funnier still to me (well, not really) is the response from his spokesman that “oh, the governor makes this joke all the time...Dems need to lighten up,” as if somehow that makes everything all right (more here and here).

This tells us that South Carolina is one of the worst states in this country to raise a family. And yes, I get it that the link is from 2019, but somehow I don’t think things have changed that much. However, just to make sure, this from 2022 (a little more recent) says that “the Palmetto state” ranks 43rd in education, this tells us that the state is the 8th worst in the nation for health care, and this tells us that an absolutely staggering number of kids (300K) in South Carolina live in poverty.

Try laughing at that, you asshats...



...and returning to our regularly scheduled idiocy over the debt ceiling (which, as a reminder, is a fight TO PAY FOR FUNDS THAT HAVE ALREADY BEEN ALLOCATED BY THOSE IDIOTS IN THE U.S. HOUSE, PARTICULARLY FOR #45’s HORRIBLE DECEMBER 2017 TAX CUTS!), John and Brett Erlich of The Damage Report bring us some well-reasoned commentary from Dem Jamie Raskin (and good job by Brett in particular to point out how this utterly ridiculous nonsense helps China, a country Repugs claim to despise...more here from David Cay Johnston, one of the few people left on the "bird app" who actually has a brain)...



...and speaking of how we’re looked at internationally (considering China from the prior clip), David Pakman speaks with caller Ben in France who thinks that other countries think we’re bonkers over all of this “culture war” madness, and it’s hard to argue with that sadly (not totally sold on UBI, but if we can afford trillions in tax cuts for billionaires, then I think it’s a topic worth exploring at least)...



...and as a bit of a follow-up to the Pakman clip, Sam and Emma of The Majority Report bring us this Darcy Schoening goofball of Moms for Liberty...this woman is a few fries short of a happy meal, but tragically, a lot of her fellow travelers are taking her seriously...she does give away the game a bit, though, as Emma notes, because the whole thing about the Dems supposedly trying to indoctrinate our kids is ultimately a conspiracy as far as they’re concerned to make their kids vote for Dems (and to demonize teachers of course, trying to hurt their union and its political influence)...somehow I have a feeling the kids may very well vote for Dems anyway regardless of what their parents say or do, to say nothing of teachers, who wouldn’t be involved in that decision anyways despite what these crazies believe...and for a taste of this madness a little closer to home, I give you this...



....and David Doel brings us a clip of Discovery CEO David Zaslav facing a chant of “pay your writers” while giving the commencement address at Boston University...the plane flying the banner overhead was a nice touch also...any way these plutocrats can be lawfully humiliated is fine with me...of course, that assumes they understand the concept of shame, which is problematic I realize (and kudos to Adam Conover of course)...



...and they’re coming to the Anchor Rock Club in Atlantic City, NJ on June 10th and the Mann in Philly on June 29th as noted here, and I’m sure this selection will be included on both dates.

Tuesday Stuff

(Posting may get a little iffy as we approach the holiday...I’m not sure yet.)

Joy Reid and Ali Velshi give us a history lesson of sorts on the “party of Lincoln” and demonizing poor people, going back to Reagan, Rudy! and that alleged Christian Newt...on SNAP and Medicaid, timed for all this debt ceiling nonsense of course (and I thought this was timely information also)...



...and John, Cenk and Max Burns tell us about this J’Den McAdory nut in Maryland strolling around a school bus stop with an AK-47, protesting a gun law signed by Dem governor Wes Moore...this lunatic should be strapped to a chair and made to look at photos of the dead kids in Uvalde and elsewhere (I’m picturing something like “Clockwork Orange” with his eyelids pulled open; I don’t say that lightly, but I for one am getting fed up with these life forms, and I’m sure I have a lot of company)...



...and I know I got into that ridiculous RFK Jr. interview yesterday ("argle bargle, free market, argle bargle"), but here is more from the crew of The Majority Report, including Emma V. and Matt Binder (taking another look at Jr.’s vanity run for prez in ’24, the “winner of the gene pool” as Mike Figueredo put it yesterday...Jr. is also pretty lowdown for his lawsuit against Daily Kos...NSFW/H...and it was indeed Teddy Kennedy, God rest him, who tried to put the brakes on Cape Wind because it would block his view from the MA coastline; I think Cape Wind had other negative issues, truth be told, but I also don’t think the Kennedy thing by itself was a reason to shoot it down, which I think happened in 2017)...



...and kudos to Chris Hayes for going after turncoat-former-Dem Tricia Cotham, the North Carolina state rep, who helped the Repugs get a supermajority with that move...so OF COURSE they immediately instituted a 12-week abortion ban, overriding Dem governor Roy Cooper’s veto... somehow Cotham sleeps at night I suppose, though I can’t imagine how...



...and Hayes discussed yesterday the planetary danger of going over 1.5 degrees Celsius, and Beau echoes that again here...can’t say that enough, and to say we need a “whole of government” approach to this (to say nothing of our glorious private sector) is a huge understatement...part of me wishes Biden could pull a “Wag the Dog” or “Capricorn One” thing to convince everybody that the planet is heating because of a terrorist Islamist death ray or something, and then the money spigot would open and never shut off...



...so what is the outrage du jour for the Repug party instead of an issue that actually matters (as previously noted)? Well, Farron Cousins tells us here that Texas guv Greg Abbott is big mad at Dominion Voting Systems for getting The Swanson TV Dinner Heir fired...Abbott should be happy anyway that, despite it all, Dominion may go out of business as noted here...



...and Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report discusses Marjorie Trailer Park Greene and her boyfriend (right-wing broadcaster Brian Glenn) in drag – after she said drag queens were domestic terrorists...well, that’s about par for the nutty course with this disgusting harpie (mildly NSFW/H)...



...and happy belated 75th birthday to Leo Sayer.

Monday Stuff

The Lincoln Project calls out “TNN” for that beyond-ridiculous “town hall” with the Gropenfuhrer (and I would say that Christiane Amanpour should be in charge of that network instead of that wingnut Chris Licht also based on this...I know this is a little old for the news cycle, but I think it bears repeating)...



...and Brian Tyler Cohen tells us about Dem U.S. House Rep Jasmine Crockett clapping back against (I believe) wingnut Anna Paulina Luna on the issue of D.C. crime related to the rest of this country, particularly red states (mildly NSFW/H)...



...and John and Brett Erlich of The Damage Report tell us that, apparently, Governor Bully is going to declare again for preznit on the Repug side... yeah, that figures...still amazes me how this guy was able to skate over the G.W. bridge stuff and killing the Hudson River tunnel project, along with his relentless attacks against teachers of course...



...and Ali Velshi discusses a Missouri father of a trans kid speaking out against another anti-LGBTQ bill being sponsored in that state (utter hatred on display here against these kids...didn’t see Velshi speaking with Jasmine Crockett later...he also interviews Rabbi Daniel Bogard and Debi Jackson, both parents of trans kids)...



...and Mike Figueredo brings us a a pretty long clip of Krystal Ball interviewing RFK Jr., who, as far as I’m concerned, diminishes himself every time he opens his mouth...the ’24 “candidate” says we should have “single payer private insurance” which shoots down any alleged argument...he goes on and on restating the problem of chronic disease and lousy health outcomes WITHOUT OFFERING A DAMN SOLUTION! And that answer about climate change, Davos and “totalitarianism” is straight out of la la land, and of course the anti-vax stuff is wackadoodle time also...”make it make sense” indeed – NSFW/H)...



...additionally, Chris Hayes reminds us that climate change has completely disappeared from Repug Party talking points, particularly for presidential candidates emerging for ’24 (OF COOUUURRRSE! as Cenk sez)...



...oh, and Farron Cousins informs us that 5 Repugs who once yelled about earmarks in ’21 now are lining up for them, including Marjorie Traitor Greene, Bo-Bo Boebert (who wrote a column saying they were bad), etc...Cousins is right about earmarks – you can’t judge if they’re good or bad unless you know what they’re for...if they’re for projects in your district putting people to work and/or adding economically to your district, then they’re OK...



...and RIP bassist Andy Rourke of The Smiths.

Friday Stuff

John and Miranda Scholl of The Damage Report tell us about the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals (maybe) banning the abortion drug mifepristone, and the specious reasoning behind such a potentially wrongheaded and catastrophic ruling...telling to me that the wingnuts have in some cases used the Comstock Act from 1873 as a supposed justification for such an attack on women’s health care – and that IS what we’re talking about here, truth be told...



...and the issue of abortion and African American women came up at a recent U.S. House hearing with that utter numbskull Marjorie Trailer Park Greene and Amy Spitalnick, a senior adviser on extremism at Human Rights First, as David Shuster tells us; the hearing was ostensibly about right-wing violence in this country, with that clueless meat sack Greene trying to allege that those peacefully protesting in the rotunda were engaged in something akin to the January 6th insurrection (more here...and when it comes to black women and abortion, I believe this should be considered by sentient individuals with some degree of brain matter, which excludes Greene I know)...



...and if Greene and her pals want to see an example of violence for real (and yeah, I know all of their nonsense is posturing and that’s about it), Jesse Dollemore brings us this clip of former cop (and now Louisiana Repug U.S. House Rep) Clay Higgins, who apparently hasn’t left behind violent tactics despite the fact that dunderheaded voters in his district saw fit to reward Higgins with a job in the federal government...



...and sticking with legal stuff aside from abortion, Thom Hartmann gives us some interesting history on the SCOTUS and Earl Warren in particular, and the reason why that unscrupulous pissant Leonard Leo and the Federalist Society (to say nothing of Chucky Koch and his pals) keep grooming these life forms like “I Like Beer” Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Island Baby Barrett and “Strip Search Sammy” Alito to do the bidding of the one percent at the expense of the rest of us...



...and in case you thought I was done with Ron #DeathSantis...well, don’t worry, because I’m not; Chris Hayes discusses “Mr. Pudding Fingers” turning Flori-DUUH! into his own little authoritarian kingdom, with the proverbial last straw for Hayes (commendably) being #DeathSantis’s decision to block gender affirming care for all minors...and as Hayes correctly points out, this is from the same bunch yelling about “parental rights” during the pandemic...



...and Brain Tyler Cohen tells us that, in #DeathSantis’s own backyard, Dem Donna Deegan won the mayoral election in Jacksonville, Flori-DUUH! (and aside from Daniel Davis who lost, another #DeathSantis-endorsed candidate apparently went belly up in a recent primary)...



...and this More Perfect Union clip tells us about the campaign for school lunches across the country, focusing on New Mexico, with some commendable good news in that state...really vile IMO to consider that kids would have to be burdened with meal debt when all they’re trying to do is learn in what is allegedly the greatest country on earth, one that somehow can’t do anything about gun violence, protect women’s health care or ensure a reasonable, non-completely-monetized quality of life for those of us who are K-12, to say nothing of the rest of us...



...and here’s an upbeat little number to help usher in the weekend – hope it’s a good one for everybody.

Thursday Stuff

I don’t recall hearing anything about this group DeSantis Watch last year when Ron #DeathSantis, governor of Flori-DUUUH!, was running for re-election, but better late than never I guess...this “DeSantis Watch” video tells us about the kickbacks campaign donations he’s taken from real estate developers and the insurance industry (and when it comes to #DeathSantis and elections, I remember all the fuss made over alleged illegality from the Dem candidate for governor Andrew Gillum..well then, isn’t this con-vee-nient, and done well after the media has moved on I’m sure)...



...and Ana, Cenk and Emma Vigeland tell us about the issue the Repug governor of “the sunshine state” has with his facial expressions, which to me indicates that he’s freaking nuts...I’ll remember this the next time I hear a male politician say that women either in office or staging a campaign are too emotional...



Update: More here (God, is #DeathSantis a nitwit!).

...and retired Army Major Richard Ojeda of Rebel HQ brings us the recent discussion between Mehdi Hasan and Ayman Mohyeldin of MSNBC about the wingnuts embracing Daniel Penny, the guy who choked Jordan Neely on the New York City subway, leading to Neely’s death - yeah, at a minimum, those claiming that Penny was the "good Samaritan" need to reacquaint themselves with "the good book"...



...and this clip from More Perfect Union discusses the attempt to hold the railroads’ “feet to the fire” to improve safety of the trains for workers, and cutting down on derailments (or trying to anyway, with Sherrod Brown typically leading the way against a whole bunch of resistance from corporate bad actors...more here, and I don’t trust J.D. Vance or his same-party pals Rubio and Hawley as far as I can pee, on this or anything else...and it’s no surprise whatsoever to me that Alan Shaw of Norfolk Southern is a lying sack of shit when it comes to two-person train crews, which should be the law)...



Update 6/14/23: I goddamn knew it about fake populist Vance! (here)

...and this video from Beau discusses some numbers on the question of people leaving organized religion, which is always a shame IMO even though people should be free to do what they want of course, but we’re finding out now that it’s because of “hating teh gay”...interesting (but maybe not that surprising...”it’s cheaper to be a good person” indeed)...



...and I haven't been able to figure out what #DeathSantis has against Pink Floyd, but as long as they're included in the pic above, I thought I'd add this tune.

Wednesday Stuff

Farron Cousins tells us about the charges filed against “America’s Mayor” by a staffer who alleges that he abused her...all kinds of totally gross stuff alleged here pertaining to sex and alcohol...and yeah, this is all a legal matter so it’s innocent until proven guilty of course, but would it REALLY be that surprising if it were true?...



...and Jesse Dollemore tells us that the ratings for “The Most Trusted Name In News” have taken a hit after that ridiculous “town hall” with you-know-who (losing out to Newsmax, believe it or not)...and boy, is Jesse ever right about supporting independent media (mildly NSFW/H)...



Update: More here.

...and Mike Figueredo discusses Ron #DeathSantis going after a teacher in Flori-DUUH! for “indoctrinating” students with a Disney cartoon, and what makes this even more idiotic is that the teacher got approvals from the parents to show it, and it ties into her curriculum (and yeah, “Moms for Liberty” is in the middle of this mess, as you might expect...also NSFW/H)...



...and Ana and Cenk of TYT tell us about corporations buying up doctors’ networks and primary care physicians (more reasons why Medicare Advantage is awful...from $15 million to $16 billion from 2010 to 2021 – and United Healthcare is particularly heartless also...a pretty fair and open assessment of Biden and company here IMO...nicely done)...



...and don’t look now, but the wretched SCOTUS of Hangin’ Judge JR just took up a case that could potentially dismantle democracy...more here (good job by Thom Hartmann to bring up Anne Gorsuch and her ruinous run at the EPA under Reagan...this awful collection of legal “deplorables” needs to be reined in somehow as far as I’m concerned, but the only way to do that is through the “60 votes” Senate, and good luck with that, and don’t even get me started on that freak show in charge of the U.S. House)...



...and as noted here, JT is coming to the Mann Music Center in these parts on July 1st; I’m sure good seats are still available.

Tuesday Stuff

Jesse Dollemore tells us here about the recent Patriot Front rally in D.C., with conservatives lying to cover up for these cretins...and I didn’t know anything about this Thomas Rousseau guttersnipe until this clip, but yeah, it looks like the crazy switch flicked on for this life form awhile back...he’ll get what’s coming to him I’m sure (more here)...



...and turning to media stuff, Jeff Wiggins of Rebel HQ presents the real Kaitlan Collins as far as I’m concerned in light of that awful “town hall”...I linked to this last Thursday, but again, this shows us how the media game is rigged in favor of the wingnuts (and Peter Baker of “the old gray lady” is pretty much a GOP apologist as far as I’m concerned, and Anderson Cooper should wash down his ladle full of condescension with a steaming hot glass of STFU...don’t get the “my architect know Japanese” thing at the end)...



...and when it comes to Rupert The Pirate's trash network, a guest recently said we should have a plan ”to kill everyone we meet”...how charming (John and Francesca explain...and it’s also hard to argue with the statement that the most “religious” states have the most gun violence, though I wish I could)...



...and speaking of violence, Ana and Cenk of TYT tell us about the nut who (allegedly) attacked the staffers of Dem U.S. House Rep Gerry Connolly with a metal baseball bat (here)...yes, this is a developing story and there’s a lot we don’t know yet, but we’ll see, and hopefully the 2 workers will be OK...



...and Beau tells us that – ooopsie! – the “star witness” in the alleged Biden crime hearing or whatever has gone missing, as Repug U.S. House Rep James Comer informs us...waaay too damn funny (and yeah, oversight is included as part of the legislative branch, so I think doing some “closed door” investigation of family members of people in the federal government from all 3 branches makes sense...maybe 2 Dems, 2 Repugs and someone from the IRS and/or DOJ as Beau says at the end...more here)...



...and when it comes to violence, here is an example of a brave Afghan man who made the tortuous journey with his family to this country through Mexico to our border, as the New York Times tells us – I wish there was a way he and his family could be brought into this country and he could testify to those Repug meatheads mainly in the U.S. House about this...it wouldn’t affect the politicians I guess, but maybe it would “move the needle” a bit on public opinion in this country...yeah, I know – I can dream I suppose...



...and here is some actual GOOD news...Kyle Kulinski tells us that medical debt (which is brutal in this country) is being erased for about 73,000 residents in Cook County (including Chicago) in Illinois...anybody who believes that government is incapable of doing anything should pay heed (as opposed to our allegedly glorious private sector, at least when it comes to stuff like this..well, maybe we're talking about a partnership here...and hey Kyle, how do you forget this guy?)...



...and this isn’t exactly my state of mind I wish to emphasize, but I still thought it was a neat newer tune, so here it is.

Monday Stuff

Brian Tyler Cohen brings us this thoughtful response from Dem Texas state house rep James Talarico, making a well-reasoned speech versus yet another ridiculous bill in that state loosening gun restrictions, not long after the Allen massacre of course...and I think that nutball preacher was Greg Locke, and his rantings are par for the execrable course with him (mildly NSFW/H)...



...well, while Talarico tries to appeal to “the better angels of our nature” you might say, this video gives us three campaign ads with Republicans glorifying shooting political opponents (including that Tate Reeves ad with commentary from John, and I didn’t know about this Jim Lamon a-hole and his “tough guy” ad...yeah, including Mark Kelly whose wife was damn near murdered by a gun-wielding lunatic, and the “Crazyface Pelosi” misogyny – no bottom to this barrel indeed...and an ad with Marjorie Trailer Park Greene is included also...with Ana and Cenk on the latter two clips)...



...and I thought this was a pretty intelligent summary of our economy under Biden from David Pakman, including some factors that no president can really completely control to be honest...the most recent job numbers are pretty good considering that 15-votes McCarthy and his clown car caucus in the U.S. House keep yammering on about how everything is supposedly so bad under #46 (including African American unemployment, which seems to have rebounded), but Heaven forbid that Gym Jordan and his pals have constructive alternatives...

via GIPHY

...and don’t look now, but “Curtsy Kyrsten” is baaack, this time to “both sides” the question of election integrity (yeah, because there’s so much dough on “the left”...I’m just rolling in it – can’t everybody tell?...sometimes it’s hard to gauge how awful Sinema truly is, I’ll admit – mildly NSFW/H)...



...and Robert Reich tells us about the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, under which states that are part of the compact would award their electoral votes to the popular vote winner in presidential elections, which sounds like a great idea, but I’m not in favor unless EVERY state joins...and yeah, I can just picture all the ways that Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao, among others, would fight this, but we shouldn’t let that deter us of course...



...and yesterday marked the 25th anniversary of the passing of Frank Sinatra.