Wednesday Stuff

David Doel reminds us of what is plainly obvious to anyone with a brain (excluding the MAGA life forms by saying that I know), and that is the fact that Our Treasonous Orange Pustule of a Former *President plans to go full dictator in 2025 (if he, God forbid, gets the chance), spending money as he sees fit and firing anyone in the federal government that he wants...darkly funny to me to hear this narcissistic psycho claim to respect the Constitution, though last I checked, that founding document has something to say about Congress wielding “the power of the purse”...yeah, we know who’s running the House, but they still have final say on how funds are spent...oh, and I don’t believe the Constitution has one damn thing to say about the FEC, FCC or any other governmental agency...and great point by Doel that these ideas would be recommended to ANY Repug preznit besides Combover Caligula...and yeah, on the topic of “What 45 has planned in private,” at a minimum, I see a federal effort to purge state voting rolls of Democrats – and yes, I know the states still have authority on that, fortunately, but I believe various Repug bottom feeders, like this John Eastman character, would come up with some utter nonsense legal doctrine like that “independent legislative theory” BS that would end up ultimately being enshrined by the High Court of Hangin’ Judge JR (the “shadow docket” SCOTUS shot it down already I know, but we should NEVER assume that they’ll keep doing that...more here...and don't you just love the totally bland, milquetoast framing of this madness by "The old gray lady"?)...

...and oh yeah, apparently “Governor Bully” is getting a bit of a bump in the polls...as I and others have pointed out, who was the one who scuttled the Hudson River commuter tunnel project even though it would have been bankrolled primarily by the Feds? Who was it who closed the GW Bridge for political payback (and don’t even imagine telling me that Christie didn’t know about that)? Who was it who routinely demonized teachers, and likely still will do that given the chance? Oh, and who was it who came up with the brilliant idea for #45 to interrupt Biden like crazy during the first ’20 presidential debate (though I guess we really should thank Christie for such a boneheaded move that ended up helping Biden)?

Update 1 7/19/23: Uh huh.

Here's the David Doel clip...



...and John and River Butcher of The Damage Report tell us that an Italian judge recently ruled that a “grope” has to last for at least 10 seconds for it to be considered a criminal offense, apparently, which is a callous bit of specious legal reasoning at a minimum, I would say...



...and Jessica Burbank with More Perfect Union bring us the story of an abortion protection measure in Ohio, which apparently has broad support...so what does the “party of Lincoln” want to do about that? Well, since they love democracy so much (snark), they want to make it harder for ballot measures to show up when Ohioans go to vote in November, by raising the percentage of signatures required from 50 to 60 via a special election next month (this is tied to that condom ad on Monday, in case you’re wondering)...and OF COOUURRSSE this is bankrolled by megadonors like this scumbag Richard Uihlein and this Mike Gonidakis character...the wingnuts obviously learned how to try and gum up the works based on the opposition to their forced birth policies in other states, and this appears to be their latest move...



...and the latest from Second Thought tells us This Is Why You’re Poor (NSFW/H)...no, it basically isn’t because of a “character defect” or you didn’t get the “right” degree in college...structural inequality is pretty much baked into the metaphorical economic pie...”Poverty is a necessary byproduct of consistent profit” and “you can’t outrun rent hikes by working harder” indeed...

...and David Pakman tells us that Adam Frisch recently posted some terrific fundraising numbers in his race to unseat Bo-Bo Boebert in CO-03 next year – to help Frisch, click here...



Update 2 7/19/23: If at all possible, I never intend to stop reminding Boebert about her latest monstrous act (here),

...and yesterday was the fifth anniversary of Billy Joel Day in New York, which is a bit apropos; I try not to think of that shrieking incumbent Repug harpie in the U.S. House noted in the prior clip, but when I’m forced to do so, this is one of the tunes that comes to mind.

Tuesday Stuff

Yes, the wild weather we’ve been dealing with in this country is pretty dramatic, including the truly awful story of the lives lost due to flooding at Washington’s Crossing in these parts (here), but John and Jessica Burbank of The Damage Report tell us about mass flooding and heat in Europe, resulting in the deaths of about 61,000 people...we’re long past the point where the climate measures commendably enacted by Biden and congressional Democrats need to be strengthened, and if that means that the MAGA lunatics on Capitol Hill need to have yet another meltdown like the spoiled, coddled children that they are, all the better...



...and David Pakman brings us that clip of RFK Jr. that everyone is quite rightly losing their minds about...yes, it’s bad form to record something off the record like this, but I would argue that, when the remarks are this crazy, that outweighs any claim to proprietary communication...the alleged Democratic candidate for preznit said in the video that COVID was “ethnically targeted” to spare Jews and Chinese...I would worry about this loon screwing up the general election, but hopefully he’ll electorally hang himself before then with insanity like this (until I saw this clip, I hadn’t seen that remark about Ukraine collecting Russian DNA, which is at least as nutty as the other stuff...and the “furin dockin cleave”...WHAAA????)...



...and in the prior clip, we saw RFK Jr. trying to stir up a conspiracy for no good reason, and in the following commentary from Jesse Dollemore, we learn about conservatives saying kids aren’t being taught Cursive so they won’t read the Constitution, which of course is a totally ridiculous argument BUT SPOUTED OFF WITH GREAT AUTHORITAH!!! - NSFW/H...sooo, this wingnuts in these TikTok videos (and is there anybody in creation who DOESN’T have a Tik Tok video at this point?) draw a line from kids not being taught cursive to liberals not having a f*cking backbone, or something – and by the way, in my admittedly limited experience, the whole “Cursive” thing is a parochial school matter as opposed to public schools, and I’m not sure why, but I can tell you that it’s NOT because public school teachers don’t want kids to understand and appreciate our country’s founding documents...



...and speaking of wingnut lunacy, Ana and Cenk (not them) tell us about Megan McArdle of the WaPo saying that higher wages create homelessness, which, as Cenk says, is a right-wing argument that is merely wrong (largely) as opposed to being certifiably insane for the reasons the TYT hosts point out...the clip gets into all kinds of reasons for homelessness, and yes, McArdle does have a bit of a point about housing in LA (though I would argue that that’s a problem nationwide, albeit to varying degrees), but another factor not mentioned is that blocks of real estate have been bought up by private equity firms, and they’re partly to blame for exorbitant rents also (here).

...actually, I did a little research into McArdle, and she’s pretty bonkers, based on the following:

She said here that kids should be trained to run at an active shooter if one finds his way into a classroom...what a freaking ghoul.

Given her apparent love of guns, she also has a problem with an assault weapons ban of course (here).

She also would have had had no problem if Obama had been shot during one of those fascistic rallies protesting the Affordable Care Act (which is actually a law of course now) back in ’09 (here).

There’s much more lunacy here (hard to catalog all of the nuttiness in this post...I guess she’s a more strident, female version of David Brooks...nice work if you can get it and still stand to look at yourself in the mirror, I guess).

Oh, and I almost forgot this from one of my "betters."

Anyway, here's the TYT video...



...and I realize that Marjorie Traitor Greene is way too stoo-pid to know that she just handed Dark Brandon one hell of a campaign ad, but that’s what she just did, as The Lincoln Project points out (and the White House response is here on the bird app)...



...and here’s a pretty nice summer tune to try and lighten things up a bit.

Monday Stuff

Brian Tyler Cohen discusses Biden Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg dropping a few “truth bombs” on Joe Kernen of CNBC over inflation...I was already familiar with a lot of the numbers Cohen cites here, but I didn’t know about the IRS response times, which are great, and yeah, OF COOUURRRSE the “party of Lincoln” wants to sabotage that too – CNBC is nothing but corporate media propaganda anyway...mildly NSFW/H...



...and I’m sure this ad is bound to get everyone’s attention, as well it should (more here)...



...and David Pakman speaks with a woman who apparently works in a sports bar in our beloved commonwealth of PA, and she relates to us that MAGA “men” don’t tip, and of course get all in her face about voting for Mango Mussolini...best wishes to her on her cosmetology career...



...and it looks like “15 Votes For Speaker” Kevin McCarthy and the ruling MAGA clown car caucus in the U.S. House think they should give themselves raises for staging conspiracies, including obsessing over Hunter Biden’s genitalia and other idiocy (Francesca, Cenk and Jayar of TYT tell us more)...



...and Farron Cousins reminds us that the usual suspects are doing everything they can to undermine our efforts in this country to transition to a clean energy economy while 90% of the nation is under excessive heat warnings...there are MANY issues where the national Democrats are completely falling down on messaging (not trying to malign most individuals candidates doing the right thing, and yes, this is a recording...and that includes the topic of the prior clip), but this is the worst example as far as I’m concerned, with women’s health care a very close second...



...and John and Jayar of The Damage Report bring us the news that the FBI is concerned about “deep fake” pics and videos, or at least they communicated concern about that five years ago...good that they’re checking on this, but it's a little spooky that they’re not taking the lead on this, apparently...that’s one of my biggest concerns about the elections next year, to be honest, and I don’t see any evidence that we’re prepared for this stuff (love to be wrong)...



...and Leeja Miller brings us a pretty sorry tale of how suburban and rural sprawl has taken over this country; this is basically an important history lesson on the growth of suburbs at the expense of cities, and why pretty much almost the whole damn country any more is a collection of highways, overpasses/offramps, and strip malls without end; she does indeed end the clip on a bit of a positive note, though trying to re-architect this country with an eye towards sustainability and not totally screwing over minorities, particularly in cities, is an uphill battle for sure (NSFW/H also)...



...and RIP Andre Watts, a truly incomparable pianist.

Saturday Stuff

This “Against All Enemies” segment from Meidas Touch goes after “Moms for Liberty”; Ken Harbaugh interviews Air Force vet Amanda Weinstein, who is also co-host of the Suburban Women Problem podcast (didn’t know these MFL lunatics were tied to the Oathkeepers and the Proud Boys, but no, that doesn’t surprise me either...more here)...



...and when it comes to threats against American democracy, one of the biggest we face right now IMO is that Republican U.S. Senate idiot Tommy Tuberville, who is the reason why no one is currently in charge of the Marine Corps for the first time in 164 years...



...and turning to a more commercial domestic enemy (less dramatic I’ll admit, but an enemy all the same), it turns out that “Skank of America” was forced to pay $250 million for violating Consumer Financial Protection Bureau law since 2012 by tricking consumers into paying for accounts that they didn’t authorize...and yeah, that amount is chump change compared to what they rake in overall...goes to show once more why the CFPB is an absolutely tremendous federal watchdog agency, largely the brainchild of Elizabeth Warren as Ana and Cenk tell us (Richard Cordray deserves credit as well), and it also shows why the wingnuts absolutely hate the agency so fiercely for looking out for consumers...



...and in this “rogues gallery” post where I end up call out a bunch of bad actors, Mike Figueredo (not him) tells us about the Michigan hairdresser who won’t serve trannies now because of that horrible SCOTUS ruling...I’m tempted to ask when this nonsense will ever end, but I’m not sure it will now...if Monty Python were still around (all the members anyway), they’d probably do a bit with a store owner (in a “creative business” of course) who only serves gay men on every third Tuesday, lesbians on Thursdays if it’s raining, trannies on Mondays at the end of the month in a leap year, Muslims on a Friday if the Thursday before is a full moon, etc...that seems to be where we’re headed with this madness (mildly NSFW/H)...and a bit of karma is here...



...and when it comes to SCOTUS corruption, Jesse Dollemore tells us that just because Sonia Sotomayor is on Team “D,” that doesn’t mean that she should get a pass either; apparently, her staff pressured colleges and universities to buy her books, including one for kids I believe...no, this doesn’t rise to Alito or Thomas levels of malfeasance, but as Jesse says, bad is bad, regardless of who we’re talking about...



...and Thom Hartmann gives us a wretched COVID history lesson, with The Lancet saying that 500K people in this country died unnecessarily (Combover Caligula and Wonder Boy Jared thought it would be an effective political strategy to force black and brown people back to work and blame blue states for it of course)...



...and I’m not sure that it gets more ridiculous than it does with this story about the Trump-themed burger restaurant in Texas of course, as Ben Gleib tells us...because early onset diabetes and a cholesterol count through the ceiling is what freedumb is all about, you godless commie lib!...



...and here’s another summer tune to ease us into the weekend...please be careful in the heat.

Thursday Stuff (updates)

David Shuster of Rebel HQ tells us that Bo-Bo Boebert of the CO-03 district in the U.S. House believes that she’s doing God’s work, or some such nonsense, with a camera filter to try and accentuate her teeth and skin tone, as if that could somehow hide the “Helter Skelter” look in her eyes (a timely ref I guess in light of this)...more idiocy from the allegedly “godly” Boebert is here, claiming that “No Malarkey Joe” was prez in March ’20 (uh, no), as well as her fixation on public urination in DC here; Boebert alleged that DC city councilman Charles Allen approved it as a non-criminal offense...not a big surprise I know to point out that Boebert was, as usual, utterly wrong...Boebert also lied about missing her vote on raising the debt ceiling as noted here – I seem to recall that the Bible has something to say about bearing false witness (and to do something about Boebert, click here)...



Update 7/18/23: Stay classy, Bo-Bo (here).

...and Jesse Dollemore tells us that Mike Lindell’s company My Pillow is undergoing a restructuring or reorganization or whatever (but don’t you DARE say liquidation, you godless lib), and of course Lindell is STILL railing about 2020 election fraud, which I guess he’ll be doing into infinity (more here)...



...and Mike Papantonio and Farron Cousins tell us that somebody is suing Red Roof Inn for allowing human trafficking to occur at their property, allegedly of course (the “we’ll leave the light on for you” place, and I’m sure they did in this instance), and apparently there are PFAS chemicals in freshwater fish...oh, jolly – ugh...there aren’t too many stories that make me just want to go back to bed, crawl up into a ball and basically do nothing, but this is one of them I have to admit...



...and Sam and Emma of The Majority Report tell us that it looks like UPS and the Teamsters may be getting ready to strike, along with maybe a SAG actor’s work stoppage (and good point by Emma about how, if we just paid workers higher wages, it would save the government $$ in terms of fewer workers needing assistance...so yeah, if conservatives actually cared about fiscal prudence instead of just punching down and punishing people who aren’t campaign contributors, they would realize that – fat chance with that one, I know)...



...and gee, it looks like poor, misunderstood Almost Silent Clarence Thomas of the SCOTUS just wants to be rich, dontcha know, as Lawrence O’Donnell tells us; why can’t the media and those snotty libs just leave Thomas alone while he continues to labor under the apparently unbearable burden of his Yale law degree...snark mode off (and I’ve heard of Christmas in July, but this is ridiculous)...



Update 8/6/23: I think, at this point, it may be a matter of trying to figure out which megadonor HASN’T paid off Thomas (here).

Update 8/10/23: Nothing but a goddamn crook (here).

...and I’m chastising myself a bit because I’m pretty late with acknowledging the passing of Peter Nero of the Philly Pops, who (as the obits have reminded us) often played the piano with one hand and conducted the orchestra with the other...truly another legend has left us.

Wednesday Stuff

Farron Cousins tells us in this clip about the revelation from former Trumper John Kelly that Our Treasonous Orange Pustule tried to use the IRS to target this enemies, because of course (GREAT point by Cousins about how only a mobbed-up *president like the Gropenfuhrer would think that the IRS investigating you is the worst possible fate for your alleged misdeeds)...



...and I know the stuff with Alabama U.S. Senatorial mistake Tommy Tuberville is a little past the news cycle, but I thought Beau made a good point here, namely that, by bailing on the whole “advise and consent” thing, the ex-football coach who quit on his team (going from Mississippi to Auburn) is handing more power to the executive branch...anybody who voted for this intellectual termite over Doug Jones should be made to wear ashes and sack cloth for an indeterminate period of time...and more (believe it or not) is here...



...and Ana and Cenk of TYT discuss goofball Dem Mayor Eric Adams of NYC comparing a tenants’ rights activist to a plantation owner (and the woman Adams attacked is a Holocaust survivor...just say “oops” and get out, and when I say that, I mean GET OUT OF BEING THE DAMN MAYOR!)...



...and John and Jayar bring us this Oklahoma superintendent named Ryan Walters, who proceeds to faceplant over the Tulsa race massacre, creating some utterly ridiculous straw man argument that, because we’re talking about a race riot, we’re allegedly telling white kids that they’re guilty merely because of the color of their skin, which, as John sez, ISN’T ACTUALLY A THING!...yeah Walters sure is trying to build up a national Repug Party profile, probably for a run at federal office (more Walters idiocy is here and here)...



...well, for an example of government working the right way, Chris Hayes tells us about Wisconsin Dem guv Tony Evers, who managed to secure public school funding in his state for the next 400 years, and PA’s own Dem guv Josh Shapiro, who used a line item veto to get rid of public funding for charter schools (Shapiro was initially wrong to support that I’ll admit, though it might have been a gambit to get the budget through; either way, I hope those who initially dumped on him over the charter schools will give him credit for doing the right thing now)...



...and I don’t know if I’m running out of time or not, but I DO know that this is a cool new video.

Tuesday Stuff

When it comes to “BIdenomics,” I would say that the verdict is in, as The Lincoln Project reminds us (and more from Professor Krugman on the Biden job boom is here)...



...and as a bit of a “compare and contrast” exercise, Brian Tyler Cohen tells us that the Repug Party in a few state organizations – whoopsie! – appears to be running out of money, mainly because wealthy donors won’t fork over any dough given that the party still has the “Trump taint,” if you will...and I LOVE the fact that, in all of Cohen’s videos apparently, he rightly proclaims all of the good stuff the Dems have accomplished under Biden...if the national Dem party could find their metaphorical butt with one set of metaphorical hands, THEY WOULD BE DOING THAT TOO!!! And it’s pretty sad when Mike “I Can’t Be Alone In A Room With A Woman Who Isn’t My Wife” Pence is actually the voice of reason on preserving our elections; yeah, in that event, you’re pretty far off the deep end...



...and I would argue that another reason for the money problems with the “party of Lincoln” have to do with those funds instead going to Dems by default given the utterly awful work by our “shadow docket” SCOTUS (but the Dems can’t take that for granted either)...though, to be honest (and I hate to point this out), the other side always ends up getting their dark money from their sugar daddies when they need it (with that bribery made legal by our corporatist theocrats in robes)...more here...



...and Beau gives us another typically good commentary on the U.S. sending cluster munitions to Ukraine...as usual, he cuts through the BS on this (very unlikely that these will be used against civilians) – still, I found myself thinking “why the $#@! doesn’t he just come out and say how objectively awful these things are?,” and then he did that very thing at the end of the clip...



...and Ana and Cenk of TYT tell us about a North Carolina real estate developer who is trying to mandate patriotism on the part of all homeowners in his project...yes, I’d like to see the American flag fly more often in front of homes on holidays, but it’s wrong to try and impose that sort of thing IMO (and I have to admit that Ana is 100% right about HOAs – given some of the recent background noise with these two, I’m going to keep them on a short metaphorical leash for now, but I thought this was a good commentary...more here)...



...and I'm in a bit of a mood for another summer tune, so here it is.

Monday Stuff

David Pakman brings us the video of the loony bitch in South Carolina who sez Biden should be “taken to the train station,” and she is just chortling over that apparently, along with these other mental defectives in the Trump cult including that 11-year-old girl...yeah, I don’t like saying that about a kid either, but what other conclusion is there?...



...and David Doel tells us about Ron #DeathSantis of Flori-DUUH! and his “war on woke” tanking, along with the latest anti-trans TYT nonsense, with Ana and Cenk getting PO’ed at “trans activists” for supposedly doing their part in losing elections, when in fact, as Doel points out, attacking trans people most definitely was NOT a winning strategy for the “party of Lincoln” based on last year’s midterms...I didn’t see the whole TYT clip, I must confess...sad to see that platform building such a great brand and now apparently burning it all down, though I may have some videos from them in the future, but not if they’re going to find ways to work in BS propaganda (and GREAT advice by Doel on why the utterly clueless national Dems should focus on Gen-Z voters, instead of these mythical boomer unicorn Repug-leaning disillusioned Trumpsters in an Ohio diner somewhere)...



...and Mike Figueredo discusses gay conservatives who feel betrayed by #DeathSantis...and why the #@$! would a gay person support this guy to begin with, I ask myself (a little lost in the back-and-forth between all of the groups noted in this clip, I have to add) – to me, this is yet another issue where the national Democratic Party should show a freaking spine and say, “You know what? We’re against ANY group of people being oppressed for ANY made-up reason, and we unequivocally support LGBTQ rights for that reason.” – and yes, I know individual pols like Tammy Baldwin are commendably doing that (also, I can think of no group that has a more apropos acronym than GAG, as Figueredo sez)...OK, I’ll stop beat up Dems in this post now...NSFW/H...



...and Jesse Dollemore brings us a great example of pushing back on BS wingnut talking points from Abby Phillip of CNN against this John Pierce character, who apparently represented a 1/6 miscreant named Kenneth Thomas who (as the clip tells us) was found guilty for his criminal antics...



...and I’ll admit that Lawrence O’Donnell is a bit ponderous here in his clip on the fall of our criminal SCOTUS, citing a "crisis of faith," but I think he makes some truly important points and provides vital historical context (and Elena Kagan, in particular, pulled no punches in her dissent on the student debt relief ruling, nor should she of course)...



...and it looks like there’s a bit of legal difficulty involved in settling the estate of the “queen of soul” based on this – hope it gets worked out for all concerned.

Friday Stuff

Thom Hartmann tells us about meeting a friend in Portugal who put forward the idea of basically an “underground railroad” for journalists in this country if, God forbid, another Repug seizes control of An Oval Office...almost too surreal to contemplate, but when basically about 30-35 percent of this country has gone Stone Freaking Nuts, we have to prepare for all kinds of eventualities we’ve never imagined...can’t think of a hell hot enough for people who willfully propagate lies for gullible idiots, which has a lot to do with bringing us to this sorry state (here)...



...and I would argue that a big reason for the rot in this country masquerading as informed discourse has to do the wingnutosphere (though our corporate media would just tut-tut over it and blame Both Sides), and their latest collective freakout apparently has to do with cocaine found in the White House (and of course the new “king of late night” is right in the middle of it, along with Marjorie Trailer Park Greene...and though we all know what Greene is, David Shuster should be careful here with even veiled implications that Greene is indulging in some kind of a substance; we have no proof, and we shouldn’t imitate the typical smears from the other side)...



...and when it comes to un-informing people, you’d have to go a looong way IMO to find a bigger example of that than what we just lived through with all of the noise out there on the COVID plague, including the “lab leak” propaganda, which is considered to be a “low confidence” theory by government medical experts...Sam and Emma of The Majority Report tell us about it...NSFW/H...



Update 7/8/23: Lather, rinse, repeat (here)...

...and speaking of mass stupidity, Kyle Kulinksi (not him) tells us about our wretched SCOTUS, which is apparently going to rule on violent criminals having guns...gee, what ELSE could possibly go wrong with this bunch, I wonder? And why am I not surprised that this latest potential legal disaster originated from the Fifth Circuit, which would be the most wretched federal bench by default if it weren’t for our utterly horrible High Court of Hangin’ Judge JR?...



...and I would say that Watergate was a big milestone in our history which showed the power of the press to unearth the facts to topple a presidency (though I seriously wonder if it would have happened if Fix Noise had been around then, which makes me shudder a bit), but just about from that point on, news orgs had to be profit centers, which made ads, click bait and page views more important than unearthing the truth and educating people...Leeja Miller brings us a pretty comprehensive video on the original "gate" scandal here, and ties it back to all of the ruin of the beyond-wretched Trump Administration, which hopefully we won’t ever have to endure again, though it will be a fight to prevent that I know (as well as making sure any other Repug is kept out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue)...



...and I have to admit that I don’t have a “Plan B’ either...just full steam ahead with what you see here, for better or worse – take it or leave it.

Thursday Stuff

John and Francesca of The Damage Report tell us here how “Apartheid Clyde” messed up the bird app again, trying to set a limit on the number of “reads” and maybe charging for it...just stick the last nails in the metaphorical coffin already, especially in consideration of this...



...and with the recent holiday in mind, Robert Reich takes a hard look at the Repug Party’s claim that “they love America”...tell me another one...



...which is particularly ludicrous given that the overwhelming majority of non-boomers out there aren’t proud of their country, if the poll Kyle Kulinski brings to us is to be believed, and I think it is; Gallup is pretty reliable on this stuff...and yeah, I’m surprised by that 42 percent number among 18-34 Repugs – I also thought that would be higher...and I’d never heard the term “steel man” an argument before, but I guess that’s a thing...



...and Thom Hartmann tells us that “no malarkey Joe” nominated Elliott Abrams, of all people, for some “public diplomacy commission” (unbelievable...and why am I not surprised that Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao is somehow involved in this “cluster”?)...



...and Emma of The Majority Report discusses some state rep in South Dakota named Joe Donnell, who goes on the podcast for this evangelical, Dr. Meri Crouley...ok, so I’m going to try and unpackage this, even though my head hurts already – sooo, Mount Rushmore is a demonic portal, and when the Gropenfuhrer was due to arrive as part of the July 4th festivities (because Kristi “Unsafe At Any Speed” Noem allowed fireworks even though the state, like much of the country, is in the grip of a devastating heat wave and it would be easy for a stray spark to touch some dry tinder and set off a devastating blaze that could torch the whole damn state and beyond)...well, #45 was going to do something in accordance with the Constitution against communism, even though that founding document has not one damn thing to say about it...I swear, I should just try making up my own religion and saying any sh*t I want – I know I’d get followers, but I’d be pretty freaked out about what awaited me in the next life, I should add...mildly NSFW/H...



...and RIP Paul Justman, who made numerous videos (including “Centerfold” and “Freeze Frame” for the J. Geils Band, which include his keyboardist brother Seth) as well as “Standing In The Shadows of Motown,” which is one of the truly great music documentaries IMO...Justman also made this famous video of course.

Wednesday Stuff

Rayy Vana, Cenk and Mondale Robinson discuss the latest Trumpist grift, this time from Melania, who was apparently trying to sell some 1776-themed NFTs to still more gullible idiots (timed for the just-concluded holiday weekend)...and the cherry on the icing on this sh*t sundae is her claiming to give whatever $$ she makes to charity, again...



...and it looks like Bud Light has caved to the wingnuts over this Dylan Mulvaney stuff...and their beer sucks too (NSFW/H)...as Mike Figueredo sez, it’s all about virtue signaling when it comes to social justice causes (such as “rainbow capitalism”) as far as corporations are concerned, including “greenwashing” on the environment...



...and John and Sharon Reed of The Damage Report discuss Daniel Penny’s statements on the death of Jordan Neely...yeah, more white guy entitlement...I have to admit that there were times in my life when I rode the “El” (as in “elevated train”) a lot to get to downtown Philly and I saw some goofball behaviors in the process, but there are all kinds of things I did aside from sneaking up behind a person to try and choke them...move to another car on the train, avert your eyes, read a newspaper (or cell phone now), etc. – a lot of times, transit cops also rode the trains, so you could seek out one of them too if need be....



...and I try to pay attention to world stuff at times also on this site, so I now give you this CBC clip on the rioting in Paris, which may be starting to dissipate, fortunately, based on this...



...and Alex Wagner tells us about Texas Repugs playing games while people in their state die of the heat (and whaddaya know? It looks like solar power may end up saving the day for Greg Abbott and his same-party knuckleheads – of course, as Wagner reminds us, Abbott erroneously blamed “green energy” for the failure of his state’s energy grid last winter...Wagner speaks with Dem state rep James Talarico and David Wallace-Wells of the NYT)...



...and with this idiocy in mind, the latest from Second Thought asks Why Is There So Much Right-Wing Media (good question...knew all about the Kochs of course, but not so much about the Wilkses...I honestly didn’t know about the huge audience for The Daily Wire, which is genuinely scary IMO; no wonder so many people out there are genuinely stoo-pid when it comes to news and politics...also didn’t know how much Chucky Koch has funded The Daily Caller, founded by The Swanson TV Dinner Heir of course, but I guess I shouldn’t be surprised...I also didn’t know about this Koch-group FIRE and how The Atlantic had been infiltrated by right-wing BS...and when it comes to groups in the “Kochtopus,” let’s not forget the Commonwealth Foundation in PA, who have heavily bankrolled this character...and I have Ground News downloaded also, and yes, it is invaluable and we should support it as best we can)...



...and in keeping with the theme of garbage wingnut media, I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” (more or less) from 7/7/09, in which Mike Papantonio describes the rise of right-wing hate radio “getting out of control” (and as bad as it was 14 years ago...well, we don’t have to imagine how bad it is now, because we live with that reality every day...more here)...



...and here is today's regional weather forecast (with the Texas clip in mind also).

Tuesday Stuff

I give David Pakman credit here for a pretty comprehensive look at RFK Jr., spending more time on the Kennedy scion than I would have to be honest and giving him some credit for halfway decent policy positions, but also noting how utterly gonzo Jr. is when it comes to vaccines, Russia/Ukraine, and supposedly some race-based bioweapon that China is creating...yeah, tell me when the freaking spaceship lands, dude (and also, to say nothing of Jr.’s flirtation with Bannon, Roger Stone, etc.)...



Update 1 7/13/23: And it looks like Jr. "flipped the crazy switch" here also.

Update 2 7/13/23: Uh huh.

...and Emma and the crew from The Majority Report tell us that Moscow Marsha is at it with more wingnuttery, this time with a tweet about how the story of the Titan submersible disaster was meant to distract from the latest nonsense against Hunter Biden and the IRS, or something...what a maroon – and I’ve got absolutely no comment on the NBA, by the way...



...and I’m sure our dark-robed theocratic corporatist overlords on the SCOTUS (the bunch who make up rulings out of less than whole cloth, as we just saw with that ridiculous gay website business) are busy relaxing with their sugar daddies at this moment (well, for most of them anyway), but Trae Crowder reminds us once again of their egregious behavior, which they’re going to hear about now and for the rest of their days...



...and as I’ve said before, I’m a little disappointed with how “Mayor Pete” and Biden handled the East Palestine, OH rail disaster (maybe there’s stuff I don’t know, but at a minimum, they should have imposed that upgraded break rule on ALL trains, and apparently they haven’t done that), but I give Buttigieg credit for responding to CNN’s Dana Bash on the matter of the latest idiocy from the other side, namely, Guv #DeathSantis and his borderline homoerotic campaign ad (Brian Tyler Cohen explains...mildly NSFW/H)...



...and last June 10th marked the 60th anniversary of the so-called “peace speech” by President Kennedy at American University – I neglected to note that at the time unfortunately, so on this most patriotic of holidays, I’d like to bring us the following...

...and Happy July 4th, everybody.

Monday Stuff

So I just want to make sure that I have this right...this Lorie Smith person didn’t actually violate the Colorado anti-discrimination law to begin with, and now it turns out that the person she alleges came to her with a request for a gay wedding website actually did no such thing (and isn't even gay)? And this nonsense actually made it all the way to the SCOTUS and Smith received a favorable ruling because Neil Gorsuch believed there would be some kind of theoretical harm or something because it would violate Smith’s religious beliefs if she were forced to say no to creating a gay wedding website, and potentially violate Colorado law?

If the fact that this case was even heard at all, let alone ruled the way it was, isn’t a reason to expand the Court and impose term limits, among other potential remedies, I don’t know what is (Mike Figueredo tells us more, including reminding us about this robed bunch of theocrats getting rid of Biden's student debt relief...NSFW/H – more here and here)...



...and Ari Melber gives us his take on all of this SCOTUS garbage...I take Melber’s reporting on this a little more seriously since he’s also a lawyer...



...and Chris Hayes and Joy Reid discuss the affirmative action SCOTUS atrocity (what a ballsy commentary by Reid about people of her own race on the question of getting Almost Silent Clarence Thomas installed on the High Court, a commentary which she is more than qualified to make IMO)...



...and I’m presenting this video to give everybody an idea of just how crazy the Supremos have become, on everything really but affirmative action in this instance...this clip has to do with the Bakke case, which ended up putting us on the road to the recent awful ruling on affirmative action; back in 1978, the High Court’s issue was with racial quotas (lower courts had an issue with that also), though they didn’t disagree in principle with using race as a consideration for college admission...of course, since we have no racism anymore and everyone is equal, that’s why our awful SCOTUS of the present day ruled as they did (removing my tongue from my cheek)...



...and returning to our current time, this Rebel HQ clip with Rayy Vana tells us about “Governor Bully” going after Our Ochre Abomination...people are liking Christie since he’s standing up to Our Treasonous Orange Pestilence, but I can recall that the NJ loudmouth former governor screwed over commuters by cancelling the Hudson River tunnel project and routinely demonized teachers, and don’t give me this nonsense about how he didn’t know about shutting down the GW Bridge also...



....and based on this awful development, it looks like it’s time not to politicize gun violence again – here is a tune with this story in mind.



Update 7/4/23: I pray to God that, one day, enough of the voters of this country will love their kids, families, friends and neighborhoods enough to do something about this scourge more than they hate Democrats...and I’m sure I’ll be praying on this for awhile yet (here and here).

Friday Stuff

Kyle Kulinski tells us about that utter U.S. Senate embarrassment, Repug Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, taking credit for broadband expansion in his state WHICH HE VOTED AGAINST (more here)...and from the party that allegedly supports the troops, I give you this bit of madness...yeah, nice to leave our country without Marine leadership, you asshat...



...and speaking of our military, I thought this was a GREAT Votevets ad against Our Treasonous Orange Pestilence...



...and when it comes to Repugs Behaving Badly, Part The Infinity as Charlie Pierce might say, I give you half-human-half-lizard Trumper Stephen Miller, who (allegedly) wanted to bomb refugees seeking asylum (here)...yeah, I know this is unproven, but if it turns out that the claim is corroborated later, would you really be surprised?...



...and on the subject of the great unwashed followers of the Gropenfuhrer, John and Brett Erlich tell us about this coin scam that apparently has rooked in more gullible rubes; the clip ends with some recent lies from “George Santos” (speaking of grifting lowlifes)...



...and on the subject of Why Do Conservatives Fall For Fake News (making them easy marks for #45 and his associated bottom feeders), lawyer Leeja Miller gives us a pretty comprehensive report (didn’t know about the Catholic derivation of the word “propaganda,” I have to say...as I’ve said before, I’m just trying to present the best information here that I can; if someone has a constructive criticism or wishes to express a differing viewpoint, that’s fine – I’m certainly not omniscient...mildly NSFW/H)...



...and Ana of TYT tells us about a Massachusetts woman who was trying to confirm her pregnancy and made the mistake of going to a “crisis pregnancy center,” which is just some place that promulgates pro-life propaganda and really doesn’t do much of anything else to clinically help the patient...well, the MA woman had an ectopic pregnancy which was misdiagnosed and she ended up losing a fallopian tube over it, leading to the entirely-called-for-IMO lawsuit (here)...can’t tell you how depressing it is to see our beloved commonwealth of PA getting the second-highest amount of funding for these awful centers, but that’s a testimony to the iron grip the Catholic Church has in this locality...



...and I missed this recent Humanist Report clip that could be titled “When Orcas Attack!”...wonder if these sea mammals are trying to seize the means of production? (also NSFW/H)...



...and here’s a bit of a newer tune to help us usher in the holiday weekend – hope it’s a welcome break for everybody.

Thursday Stuff

(The cartoon has to do with this story, let us not forget.)

I know some of us were actually feeling not too badly about the contemptible SCOTUS of Hangin’ Judge JR given the Moore v. Harper moment of sanity...well, don’t you know that we were just being set up for this utterly awful development – namely, getting rid of race-based college admissions, as David Doel discusses...I realize this was signaled by the questions from our wingnut legal overlords during oral arguments awhile back, but the racism couldn’t be more bald-faced...and it’s more than a bit of a tell that ONLY race-based admissions were affected...and it’s also a typically repugnant strategy on the part of this Edward Blum lickspittle to lump in whites AND Asians...as I and others have said in the past, the other side keeps sending up legal “trial balloons” to see if one of them makes it, and putting those two categories of people together seemed to do the trick...disgusting (and the Elie Mystal piece is here)...



Update 6/30/23: Looks like the plutocrats in robes have struck again, this time on student debt relief (here...and yeah, this too).

...and Jesse Dollemore tells us about our renegade SCOTUS also allowing threats from Trumpsters, saying a conviction for online incitement violated the First Amendment...and there are plenty of times when I’ve gotten mad at Cenk Uygur, but he made the point that, aside from KBJ, Kagan and Sotomayor were really corporate attorneys with a liberal bent on some issues (with Sotomayor apparently giving a fine dissent to the previously-cited legal awfulness), which explains why both of them have gone along with the terrible wingnut majority on way too many rulings, and Uygur was absolutely right to point that out (and you KNOW that we’re waay off the deep end when Almost Silent Clarence Thomas and Amy Coney Island Baby Barrett actually are on the right side here)...



...and as long as we’re discussing our legal overlords on the High Court, I should probably note this item (speaking of Cenk, he appears with John on this) where we find out that the wife of “Strip Search Sammy” Alito is caught up in corruption this time, proving that such entitlement indeed runs in the family...seems she was holding positions in companies that were impacted by her hubby’s SCOTUS rulings...and to think that the “R” party drove Abe Fortas completely off the Court for reasons that are laughable now, all so they could establish their wingnut majority, which they’ve never relinquished in about 50 years...



...and as far as I’m concerned, this all ties into the “R” party strategy to utterly squelch the truth in ways that Thom Hartmann points out here (more on that is here)...

via GIPHY

...oh, and did you hear that “Curtsy Kyrsten” wants LESS training for airline pilots...of course, she took a hefty campaign contribution from the airline industry before she made that idiotic pronouncement and earned the commendable wrath of Democratic U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (more here)...



...and speaking of fake Democrats (definitely NOT Duckworth...and yes, I know Sinema is "independent"), the more I hear from RFK Jr., the more I wish he would take a slow boat back to Hyannis...Rayy Vana gives us the latest...



...and Mike Figueredo tells us that some Utah state rep named Kev Ivory haz a sad about the Bible getting banned under another one of these idiotic laws that try to tell people what they can and can’t read...hey, sometimes reality is a real bitch, dude (NSFW/H)...



...and I'm in the mood for another summer tune - I hope you are also.

Wednesday Stuff

Even by lowball Trumpist standards (for lack of a better way to put it), it appears that Our Treasonous Orange Pestilence has put his foot in it as noted here; we’re reminded of this by The Lincoln Project since apparently the @DNC, @DSCC, or @DCCC are too goddamn timid to do it themselves (more here)...



...and David Shuster tells us that it looks like Gym Jordan’s worst dream has come true, and that is the fact that about 230 lawsuits from former Ohio State wrestlers (from the days when Jordan was an OSU wrestling coach) will be allowed to proceed...c’est dommage, scumbag...



...and with temperatures rising in parts of the country, Beau tells us about the importance of allowing time to get ourselves acclimated before we venture out and risk exposing ourselves to what could be awful health risks (and speaking of excessive heat, isn’t this typical for that cowardly weasel Greg Abbott in “the land of the yellow rose”?)...



...and Mike Figueredo brings us the news that Bill Maher is big mad about the media’s accurate portrayal of wackadoodle RFK Jr. (NSFW/H)...yeah, look at some of the ADD/ADHD drugs and the use of cellphones when it comes to cognitive development in teens and early twenty-somethings or whatever if you’re looking at the root causes of shootings, but overwhelmingly IT’S THE DAMN GUNS!!! And don’t get me started on Jr.’s vaccine lunacy...



...and with the last clip having to do with the media (albeit someone who has endured waaay past his expiration date IMO), I thought that was a halfway decent transition to this More Perfect Union segment about why actors are shutting down Hollywood...I’m really out of the loop when it comes to the latest movies and TV shows, including those on the streaming services, so I’m not aware of a lot of the people interviewed in this segment, but I give them credit of course for fighting the good fight...



...and Ana and Cenk of TYT tell us that the SCOTUS of Hangin’ Judge JR did the right thing on the thoroughly awful Moore v. Harper case (which they never should have heard, truth be told)...I’m sure they ruled as they did because they didn’t want to hand over power from federal courts to state legislatures, so even though their motive may not have been exactly pure, it was the right call since it would have been catastrophic had it gone the other way as Cenk and Ana tell us...tells you what kind of shape we’re in that our democracy is under attack from the people who initiated this case, and we can’t rest on our laurels because, if we know anything about the other side, it’s the fact that they’re relentless about trying to implement their utterly awful ideas or notions of governance upon us – additional stuff on this is here..

via GIPHY

...and Farron Cousins tells us that Repug U.S. Senator Lex Luthor Scott of Flori-DUUH! said recently that “socialist and Communists” aren’t welcome...as if we would have anything to do with your lame ass state anyway...



...and this is a bit of a summer tune to help us mellow out and get over the “hump day,” hopefully.