Friday Stuff

I know I’m still playing catch-up on some stuff, but I didn’t want some of these items to fall under the radar...Hunter Avallone of Occupy Democrats brings us more on the commencement address at Wake Forest by Scott Pelley of "60 Minutes," calling out Our Ochre Abomination in what I would call the required manner (oh, and by the way, I wonder how Comcast and Brian Roberts feel now about donating $1 million to Pumpkin Pol Pot’s inaugural committee as noted here?)...



...and Farron Cousins tells us that Cantaloupe Capone’s corruption is so bad at this point that one-on-one face time has grown from $1 million to $5 million (as reported by Rolling Stone), and that’s assuming those meeting with him will catch Our Treasonous Orange Pustule on a good day as Cousins points out...um, is anybody on the “D” team besides Sheldon Whitehouse and Chris Murphy (and maybe AOC, Jamie Raskin or Jim McGovern) prepared to make any noise about this? (slightly NSFW/H)...



...and based on what Thom Hartmann says in the following clip, apparently Bronzer Beelzebub leaned on Qatar for that $400 billion plane; I mean, that’s what Qatar is saying now (which is believable as far as yours truly is concerned)...and why the $#@! is the plane parked in Dallas, which apparently was the case pending the sale? And kudos once again to Dem U.S. Senator Chris Murphy for telling our “dear friends” the Saudis to stop paying off our thoroughly bought-and-paid-for *preznit...



...and this More Perfect Union clip features a man named Darrell Chapman who works at a federal prison in Ashland, Kentucky, who supported #47 last year...I know this is true of millions of other voters also, but for the life of me, I do not understand why this man turned out to be easy prey for a cheap grifter and con man like Mango Mussolini, but that’s what happened, and of course, the first chance #47 gets, he tries to destroy collective bargaining rights and union organizing as well as existing union contracts, which anybody with a brain should have foreseen (sorry, but at a certain point, I lose patience with people like Mr. Chapman...clip also features Brandy Moore White, President of the American Federation of Government Employees )...



...but if there’s one thing you can count on from this wretched administration, it is trying to carry out more illegal deportments, and this New York Times video mentions traffic stops turning into immigration arrests (with state troopers and ICE agents working in tandem to arrest people they’re profiling, shown in Nashville, TN....sooo, ICE can’t pull people over, but the troopers can, and after the troopers do their thing, that leaves these people as fair game for ICE’s jackbooted, masked thugs, and I have no doubt that ICE will do everything they can to expand this to all 50 states, as well as D.C. and the territories...what country am I living in again?)...



...and echoing the Occupy Democrats clip, Tennessee Brando informs us that NPR is standing up to Our Treasonous Wannabe Dictator by suing over #47’s cut in federal funding...and doesn’t it figure that the attack on public media began under The Sainted Ronnie R...of course, the “party of Lincoln” would just LOVE to see a media landscape dominated by wingnut entities such as Sinclair, where news people have to literally read from prepared scripts...and yeah, if God forbid our ruling regime somehow finds a way to basically abolish the First Amendment, what makes anybody think they’d be satisfied with that and NOT go after the Second as Brando says (slightly NSFW/H)...



...and RIP Rick Derringer...



...and if I'm going to include this tune for the month, I'd better hurry up.

Wednesday Stuff

(Pic is a reference to the online game Minecraft for the uninitiated...)

Lawrence O’Donnell opines on Our Ochre Abomination, calling him straight up the stupidest and most cowardly president who always chickens out, according to the Financial Times of London, which introduces the acronym TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out)...sounds like they figured out #47, which isn’t hard I’ll admit...we get more background on the Gropenfuhrer’s typically idiotic war with Harvard...and it’s darkly humorous I’ll admit to see wealth managers and other knowledgeable people in other countries realizing that Cantaloupe Capone is going to cave on his tariff nonsense and basically factoring that into their decision making...not sure why July 9th was decided as the day when Our Treasonous Orange Pustule decided to (maybe) reinstitute his beyond ridiculous EU tariffs, but we are where we are, you might say...and why am I not surprised to see Kevin (“Human Capital Stock”) Hassett with his sh*t-eating grin trying to justify this madness? And kudos in particular to O’Donnell for connecting this job-killing tariff bedlam and the U.S. House Repug budget that steals health care from workers who may end up losing their jobs (hopefully not)...also, GREAT example of the Bivo water bottle company getting it in the neck over this tariff clusterf*ck (I mean, I’m sorry for the company, but it’s an illustrative lesson)...



Update: HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

...and this Rebel HQ clip with Ben Gleib and Daria Rose tells us about Pete Buttigieg talking about how Dems need to reconnect with voters on policy and why voters’ circumstances would be markedly improved economically if they supported Dems (and good for Pete for doing this “bro podcast” thing...he may be the best Dem of the lot when it comes to going to hostile spaces and constructively making good points, though Ro Khanna is right up there too)...



...and David Pakman brings us a clip of Dem U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts going right after this Billy Long guy, nominated to be head of the IRS under Pumpkin Pol Pot...yeah, Long tries his “good ol’ boy” schtick here, but Warren quite rightly IMO expects Long to say that it’s illegal for our *preznit to use the IRS as a weapon to go after people and entities he doesn’t like (and revoking non-profit status), which Long won’t do of course because he knows that his boss will start flinging ketchup all over the room if #47 sees something on the TV he doesn’t like...and I have absolutely no information on the Justice Department looking into Andrew Cuomo, but yeah, a targeted political persecution would be right out of the playbook for off-brand Erdogan (and other presidents too, to be honest)...



...and RIP longtime Dem U.S. House Rep Charlie Rangel...admittedly, he was a difficult figure to pigeonhole from another political era, though unlike too many people in government now, he did serve our country as an Army staff sergeant...in the following clip, I seem to recall that the resolution he spoke in support of was to try and get Dubya to draw down from “the surge” as part of #43’s No-So-Excellent Adventure in Iraq...



...and Ben Meiselas of the Meidas Touch Network discuses King Chuck from “across the pond” journeying to our northern neighbor to restate that which is obvious to any sentient life form (discounting you-know-who of course) and that is the fact that Canada is a free, sovereign nation – pathetic that we’re at a point where that needs to be restated I know...and of course, leave it to a leader on the world stage who’s actually competent to talk about climate health and sustainability and respecting indigenous people...definitely a crafty move by Chuck and Canada, and I’d do the same thing if I were in their shoes...in our epochal, dunderheaded stoo-pidity, we let Bronzer Boy run amok, leaving us wide open to something like this...



...and happy 80th birthday to John Fogerty.

Tuesday Stuff

(I'm not sure about posting for the rest of the week, just to let you know.)

Here comes another item where I’ll admit that I’m behind the news cycle a bit – apologies...Chris Hayes tells us about the recent crypto dinner with Cantaloupe Capone, a “Met Gala of presidential pay-to-play” for largely foreign donors...I wonder what the reaction would have been if, say, President Biden had attended a fundraising event for his son Hunter to defer legal costs, but the elder Biden said, “Oh, I’m just attending this in a personal capacity and not as president”; any idea how many heads would have exploded on Fix Noise?...and gosh, isn’t it con-vee-nient that, after Justin Sun purchased Trump’s meme coin, the case against Sun was dropped shortly after #47 was sworn in, huh?...and how emasculated do you have to be to be taunted as “little Marco” by Our Treasonous Orange Pestilence, but then end up as a job working for him anyway (more here and here)...



...and with the prior clip in mind a bit, John and Brett Erlich of The Damage Report bring us “the state of the haves and the have-nots”...apparently, the top 10 wealthiest Americans have earned a billion dollars a day over the last year...John gives us more gory details on the recent tax scam bill passed by the House, with $135 billion (at a minimum) drained from US tax receipts; as the clip states, according to Oxfam, a measly 3 percent tax increase on these bastards would cover food and housing assistance for over 22 million people...



...and David Shuster tells us about Our Ochre Abomination recently sinking global markets again, this time by calling for a 50 percent tariff on goods from Europe (from last Friday)...I realize Our Orange Imbecile doesn’t understand and/or care about the consequences of his actions, but as I’ve said before (and there are plenty of people smarter than I am on this), messing with stocks is one bad thing, but you REALLY can’t do that to the bond market since it reflects the good faith and credit of this country...and oh yeah, let’s not forget (as Shuster says) that Moody’s downgraded the U.S. credit rating over that beyond-ridiculous bill the House just passed which constitutes the largest redistribution of wealth in this country’s history...and oh yeah, this Scott Bessent character makes a snarky remark about the CBO, and without proof of wrongdoing of course since he knows that pretend journalist Bill Hemmer won’t actually call him on that claim, and it’s also cowardly of Bessent to drag Janet Yellen into this mess...



...and Ben Meiselas of the Meidas Touch Network speaks with Dem U.S. House member Jared Moskowitz, who worked with FEMA in the past...clip also shows us rural Trump voters on FEMA being MIA across areas in the south devastated by tornadoes (I believe assistance was denied to Tennessee and Arkansas, but I’m not 100 percent positive on that...yeah, politically those states are basically nuts, but I would never argue that they should be denied relief for that reason)...according to Moskowitz, dog killer Kristi (“Unsafe At Any Speed”) Noem is “going to turn FEMA into the Newark airport”...and FEMA has lost 30 percent of its workforce? I shouldn’t be surprised, but I am...and yeah, these “blanket pauses” on funding sure sound illegal according to Moskowitz, and knowing our ruling regime, I’m sure they’ll get challenged in court over it, lose, but just keep engaging in this bad behavior and dare anyone to try and stop them...



...and here’s another item I meant to get to previously; Brian Tyler Cohen lets us know that a Dem recently won a statewide special election in New York in a district Trump won by 55 points...story leads into a report on the Trump backlash dragging down conservative candidates all over the world, particularly in Australia, Romania and, of course, Canada...and I’m sorry to throw cold water and I hope I end up being wrong, but overall, Hakeem Jeffries isn’t meeting the moment with the required urgency as nearly as I can tell, though he’s definitely spot-on about pretend “moderate” Repugs, like Bri-Fi...



...and Brittany Page brings us the tale of San Jose, CA Mayor Matt Mahan threatening to arrest the homeless if they refuse shelter...and echoing Page’s fine point, what the $#@! exactly is a “quality of life” crime? And yeah, as someone who regularly interacts with the city of Philadelphia, I get it that homelessness can be a nuisance for someone dropping in from the ‘burbs for one reason or another (and I’m not trying to say that any urban policy should be constructed around my personal convenience, for the record), but there HAS TO BE A BETTER SOLUTION than to arrest these people...and don’t think I’m going to take it easy on this Mahan guy because he’s a Dem...



...and I thought this was a nice, heartfelt little ditty from our neighbors to the north...



...and as long as I’m in a Canadian frame of mind (go Oilers!), allow me to wish a happy 80th birthday to Bruce Cockburn (performing with Richard Margison).

Monday Stuff

(To contact the U.S. Senate, click here.)

Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report tells us that it looks like Repug U.S. House Rep Virginia Foxx has appointed herself the head of the “civility police” when it comes to that nasty, dark language about the “Big, Beautiful Act”...if anything, that language isn’t harsh enough...as Figueredo and others have pointed out, this cruel monstrosity facilitates “the largest transfer of wealth upward in American history” (not my words)...and boy, is this Marianette Miller-Meeks a sweetheart (apropos first name for a puppet)...not! And that chart at about 5:45 has a lot of important info...8.7 million people will lose health insurance over the next 10 years as a result of this bill (if it passes in its current form), to say nothing of the fact that hundreds more rural hospitals will be forced to close if this wretched garbage is enacted...and OF COURSE there is an anti-trans provision stuck in this ghastly mess of legislation not allowing Medicaid and CHIP to reimburse for gender-affirming care...and funding for #47’s “gold dome”?? WHAAA???? And by the way, spare me with this “no taxes on tips” BS...what really matters is RAISING THE SUB-MINIMUM WAGE (which varies by state) SO TIPS ARE FREAKING UNNECESSARY!! And GREAT point by Figueredo that the extra tipped income someone would declare as non-taxable would also bump up their taxable income to the point where they would likely no longer qualify for other deductions...and more related cruelty is here (NSFW/H)...



...and Tennessee Brando chimes in with his take on this abominable piece of legislation...yeah, the “peanut butter sandwich” analogy works for me...didn’t know that U.S. House Dems introduced 500 amendments over 24 hours to try and hold up this mess; nice work...and God almighty, they’re bringing back the tanning bed tax deduction again – typical for these lowlifes...also, I think I incorrectly said this would add $3.8 trillion to the debt, which is wrong (I wish it were ONLY that)...that figure is the addition to the yearly deficit; the debt number could be closer to $20 trillion (the debt is compiled over multiple years)...(NSFW/H also)...



...and Robert Reich discusses what we probably already knew at this point, and that is the fact that Our Ochre Abomination is trying to drag us back to The Gilded Age of the 1890s...does this clueless orange meat sack want to see an economic crisis that will stimulate the drive for union membership and empower workers in this country? Maybe he does, to the extent that his gnat brain on meth can comprehend anything whatsoever (more is here)...



...and related to more alleged cost savings in this trash fire of a presidential administration, Farron Cousins tells us about 60,000 metric tons of food rotting in this country and overseas because it’s not getting delivered due to cuts to US AID from King Elon I and Bronzer Beelzebub, leading to the deaths of many more in underdeveloped nations relying on this assistance, mainly kids (once more, Cousins’s outrage is commendable)...



...and Ronny Chieng of The Daily Show tells us that DHS Secretary Kristi (“Unsafe At Any Speed”) Noem recently floated the idea of a citizenship “Hunger Games” TV show...and oh yeah, there’s more of “Kash and Bongo” (sounds like the name of a bad cop/buddy movie), along with Sean Duffy being a total imbecile while our planes keep crashing...ugh...and yes, I know that’s really Jordan Klepper (NSFW/H as well)...

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



...and I realize that, with the passage of time and the foul, fetid Bushco years receding in the rear view mirror a bit, it’s easy to forget the significance of this tune for the holiday, but I don’t think it should get the ”memory hole” treatment, so here it is again (more here)...



...and here is another selection for our annual observance.

Friday Stuff

I’m going to ask that you take a bit of a trip down memory lane with me...it’s now December 2020, and both Dem U.S. Senators Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock won their special elections in Georgia, giving Senate control to the Democrats. After that, we were treated to years of the antics of now-departed Dem Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema (and yes, I know Sinema became an independent at the end), and their biggest priority was the preservation of the God-almighty filibuster, meaning that 60 votes were needed for passage for any bill not going through the reconciliation process (here). Around that time, I said something along the lines of “if the Dems ever lose the Senate, the Repugs will sh*tcan the filibuster, and our corporate media, aside from coming down with a case of the vapors if Dems did that, will just act like it’s another day with a “y” in it since it was done by the "R" party.”

Well, with that in mind, I give you this.

Now, to get to the videos...Brian Tyler Cohen tells us about U.S. House Repugs taking a victory lap over passing the Gropenfuhrer’s “Big, Beautiful Act” (it is called literally that in the Congressional record, BTW) in the dead of night, despite what that idiot from Missouri says...and by the way, this monstrosity blows up Medicaid and Medicare and steals from SNAP for kids, among its myriad other faults...oh, but it includes funding for crypto (which benefits criminals more than anyone else) and a tax break for gun silencers, believe it or not (NSFW/H)...



...and Thom Hartmann tells us about United Healthcare managers reportedly pressing nurse practitioners to change resuscitation orders of Medicare Advantage patients to DNR (as in “do not resuscitate”) to pad bonuses to nursing homes for refusing care...gee, I’m old enough to remember a certain half-term governor of Alaska screeching about “death panels” during the whole runup to passing the ACA; wonder what Caribou Barbie has to say about this? (reported by The Guardian)...and oh yeah, U.S. taxpayers were apparently overbilled for M.A. plans by $185 billion as Thom says...again, what Luigi Mangione did (allegedly!) was wrong, but I understand why he did it...



...and I know I’m a little behind on the news cycle on this, but I didn’t want to overlook it...Sam and Emma of The Majority Report discuss kids’ TV host Miss Rachel expressing support for children in Gaza, and earning wingnut wrath as a result of course, from “Canary Mission” and similar assclowns (Miss Rachel is interviewed by Mehdi Hasan on his Zeteo program)...they start B.S.-ing around 3:20, but that’s OK; didn’t know Emma had a connection to Lehigh Valley...



...and John Oliver had a recent segment on Cantaloupe Capone and the media...aside from the typical toddler tirades from our *preznit, the clip also looks at Bezos and Patrick Soon-Shiong of the LA Times letting #47 have his way with them...in addition to the toadies and sycophants now taking up space in the White House press room (including the woman posing as a reporter who is “overwhelmed by how well everything is going”), we also hear FCC head Brendan Carr saying straight up that he’s going to be a mouthpiece for Our Ochre Abomination, period full stop, along with the fact that this garbage administration plans to hold up media mergers and acquisitions for any network that’s not Fix Noise...I knew Pumpkin Pol Pot’s hissy fit with CBS was nonsense (more here), but the segment does a good job of pointing that out (particularly concerning #47’s typically ridiculous tirade against “60 Minutes” over the Kamala Harris interview), as well as the double standard when Bronzer Beelzebub is asked about Jeffrey Epstein...and I hadn’t paid much attention to Shari Redstone either, but it looks like she deserves her own concentric circle of hell as well...kudos to Oliver for looking at the ridiculous fights the FCC is picking with local news outlets also (NSFW/H)...



...and once again, The Lincoln Project makes a clip that those squeamish election losers at the @DNC refuse to make themselves (i.e., standing up to Bully #47, a lying, bitter old man who wants power and financial reward for himself and absolutely nothing for anyone else)...



...and here is a recent tune to get the holiday weekend going; for the record, I ask myself this question not quite every day, but close.

Thursday Stuff

Kyle Kulinski tells us that it looks like King Elon was tinkering with Grok on Nazi Xitter to promote “white genocide” in South Africa, and oh yeah, Holocaust denial too...pardon me while I retch; I know there are folks out there happy about Musk’s apparently diminished role in this utter cluster of a White House, but as far as I’m concerned, Elmo has already gotten the government contracts he wanted (here), which he should lose at a minimum...and oh yeah, there is also this (NSFW/H)...



...and oh, would you look at this...as I noted Tuesday, ”Pam Blondi” removes the oversight role DOJ played against bringing politically motivated prosecutions, so guess what comes next? Yep, a politically motivated prosecution (from NJ Trump attorney Alina Habba) against Dem U.S. House Rep LaMonica McIver for trying to conduct oversight into an ICE detention facility in Newark...Rachel Maddow tells us more...



...and I realize I’m late on some stuff (sorry), and this is one of those stories...Jesse Dollemore has a clip of shrieking harpie Maria Bartiromo setting up Kash Patel and Dan Bongino with one hell of a softball interview to make it look like the FBI falsified records related to the insurrection on 1/6/21...as Jesse says, first their story was “oh, it was basically a right-wing ‘love-in’ more or less for Dear Leader Trump,” but now the story is, “it was really the fastest National Guard mobilization since WWII” – totally lost in their own BS (it’s a miracle if we still have ANY dedicated law enforcement professionals working for the FBI at all by now, assuming anyone skilled in that agency hasn’t quit out of utter disgust)...and Bongo wants us to know the difference between “agents” and “assets,” huh? I think Jesse goes a little far criticizing Bongo’s appearance; the latter’s brainless behavior is plainly evident, and I think we can leave it at that, and when it comes to the National Guard response on that awful day, I give you this, and also, there is this (NSFW/H also)...



...also, RIP Gerry Connolly, going off here about five years ago over #47’s botched handling of the COVID pandemic, including dismantling the global biodefense desk at the NSC...yes, the gerontocracy of the Democratic “leadership” betrayed us, Nancy Pelosi in particular, in subverting AOC’s bid to be ranking Dem member on the Oversight Committee, but wrong as that was, it doesn’t detract from Connolly’s years of solid work in the House IMO...and one more thing: just as a reminder, the latest stats on COVID in this country are here (somehow that “15 and shrinking” number ended up at about 1.2 million...that by itself should have been enough to defeat Our Treasonous Orange Pustule last year)...



...and when it comes to our beyond useless corporate media, I give Jon Stewart credit for going after Jake Tapper and CNN for pretty much getting in our face about promoting Tapper’s book...yep, the word “but” sure is working overtime here indeed, and I’m also old enough to recall a time when news people ACTUALLY REPORTED NEWS IN REAL TIME...I mean, there are a lot of worse practitioners when it comes to withholding important info for their books besides Tapper to be sure (e.g., Woodward and Maggot Haberman), but that doesn’t mean Tapper should follow their lead either (and I’ve heard Trey Gowdy called a lot of stuff, and all deserved, but “a nodule on my prostate” is a new one I’ll admit)...oh, and I wish “the usual suspects” would please stop tripping over themselves to congratulate Our Ochre Abomination for showing A SLIVER OF HUMANITY in response to Biden’s cancer diagnosis (also, “stage 9 cancer” isn’t actually a thing...and great point by Stewart that their hyperbole is the indictment when it comes to covering up)...



...and today would have been the 95th birthday of British jazz man Kenny Ball, who hit it big with this number back in 1961...I’m just in the mood for a change of pace, that’s all.

Wednesday Stuff (update)

Farron Cousins tells us that, apparently, Our Treasonous Orange Pustule doesn’t have any actual trade details...surprised?...and oh yeah, there was the recent hissy fit with Wal-of-China-Mart for posting price increases due to these beyond insane tariffs...and 50 tariff agreements in 120 days? #47 needs to undergo a mental competency hearing viewed by everyone in this country...



...and sticking with financial stuff, Lawrence O’Donnell informs us that the “big, beautiful” budget bill is creating a “suicide pact” with U.S. House Republicans...yep, it tells you something that Our Ochre Abomination actually went to Capitol Hill to try and strong-arm the weaklings in his party to go along with this monstrous piece of legislation, which, as O’Donnell points out, could gut Medicaid and destroy health insurance for 13 million people...glad to see O’Donnell hold that execrable Chip Roy’s feet to the fire, though you could also do that for a hell of a lot of other House Repugs...Lawrence generally treats our Beltway courtier media the way they should be treated (particularly in dealing with Bronzer Beelzebub), and that’s with contempt, and he does so again here...also, good for O’Donnell to point out the importance of deducting state and local taxes on homes, which doesn’t just apply to the “one percent,” I’ll tell you right now; typical for our shyster cheap con artist of a *preznit to say he’d fix this mess he created last year, but now – oopsie! – it looks like he won’t fix it after all, as per usual...



Update 5/22/25: Every Republican who voted for this has blood on his or her hands, including Bri-Fi (here and here); to do something about it, click here.

...and RIP George Wendt...not much to say about him except for his portrayal of Norm on “Cheers” of course; what follows is a montage of his best entrances (didn't know Wendt was the uncle of Jason Sudeikis...learn something new every day)...



...oh, and Michael Ledeen also died (mentioned at about 12:44 in the clip below about the Iran-Contra fiasco...Ledeen, among his other misdeeds, was allegedly an intermediary for this guy as noted in the video)...



...and speaking of right-wing scumbags, I think that’s an appropriate lead-in to this latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” from 5/21/11...with all of the “flood the zone” Trumpian insanity raging, it kind of got lost in the news a bit that Charles Koch emerged from his crypt a few weeks ago to lament the direction the country was heading (here)...ummmm, YOU and your late brother had A HELL OF A LOT TO DO with making sure this country does as little as possible for the “99 percent” while also seeing to it that you and your rich pals ABSOLUTELY SKATED over the rest of us...well, with that in mind, I offer the following from 14 years ago...



...and this tune was released on this day in 1970...apologies for neglecting to note the 55th anniversary of Kent State on 5/4.

Tuesday Stuff

Chris Hayes lets us know that the High Court of Hangin’ Judge JR is looking at a case involving birthright citizenship; the 14th Amendment is pretty damn clear on that...interesting segment IMO with the Trumpist lawyer and the SCOTUS justices in oral argument...yep, as Hayes says, the lower courts keep telling the Gropenfuhrer that he’s full of BS on this one, so #47 scrambles to the High Court for relief because he thinks the 3 justices he got confirmed last time will give him what he wants...as far as I’m concerned, what’s driving this, as usual, is spite over an Obama-era policy, this one having to do with DACA and providing temporary deferred status to immigrants...Hayes speaks with Jamal Greene of the Biden Administration, a Constitutional law scholar, and Maya Wiley, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights (and I think Wiley in particular is correct that this is another way that the Trumpists want to pretty much “slice and dice” who they think deserves citizenship and who doesn’t...of course, even when the wingnuts lose in the courts, they still look for openings in rulings to find ways to refile suits later; God knows they have enough $$ to do it - more here)...



...and speaking of the High Court, it looks like “Torture Yoo” (who used to be a clerk for Almost Silent Clarence Thomas) thinks #47 threatening to suspend habeas corpus is impeachable...Brian Tyler Cohen tells us more (and BTW, the folks working for SCOTUS justices wield a lot of clout, frequently doing a bunch of research for members of “the nine” to support their rulings)...and good point that “Baby Goebbels” isn’t a lawyer...really important history lesson from Marc Elias going back to the country’s founding (and just a reminder, based also on yesterday’s clip with Repug Senator John Barrasso, that suspending habeas corpus is a legislative branch function, not an executive branch function)...



..and Francis Maxwell of the Meidas Touch Network discusses that typically weird Trump press briefing where Combover Caligula discusses Vlad The Butcher liking Melania better than him I guess (probably not a joke), while rural state Americans deal with massive losses as a result of tornadoes – this is also mixed in with clips featuring Dem U.S. House Rep Dan Goldman in particular pointing out that FEMA isn’t asking for more money for disaster preparedness, particularly with the onset of hurricane season coming up, though there always seems to be enough dough to pay for the Gropenfuhrer’s golf outings...video also does a great “compare and contrast” between this regime and the administration of President Biden and how #46 handled disasters such as the recent tornadoes in the Midwest...



...and I give you the following with this item in mind (NSFW/H)...



...and Rachel Maddow asks what are the sources of the protests against Pumpkin Pol Pot; there are probably a million reasons, many of which she lists here, including effectively legalizing machine guns...the dystopian nightmare truly never ends...



...and after all of the rain in these parts, it’s a welcome respite to enjoy the nicer weather, and I think this newer tune is good for lifting our spirits up also.

Monday Stuff

To begin, best wishes to former President Biden in his cancer battle (here). It sounds like he’s looking at a tough fight, and we’ll send thoughts and prayers for real on his behalf.

And leave it to Uday Jr. to keep it classy as usual (Jill Biden received her doctorate in education, something at least one of #47’s failsons obviously knows nothing about)....

Update 1: No bottom too low for the wingnuts...and by the way, I refuse to give credit to Bronzer Beelzebub for actually striking a note of human decency for a change (here).

Next, David Pakman brings us the story of the utterly pathetic Repug U.S. Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming completely bailing THREE SEPARATE TIMES when he’s asked by Kristen Welker if he would vote to let Cantaloupe Capone suspend habeas corpus; as Pakman points out, Barrasso is basically saying that he’s going to give up on the whole “advice and consent” thing even though that’s part and parcel of what “the world’s greatest deliberative body” (spare me) is supposed to be doing...



...and turning to the other chamber in which the voters of this country stoo-pidly gave control to the “party of Lincoln,” John and Brett Erlich of The Damage Report tell us about the House threatening to gut Medicaid to hand off still more tax cuts to the “one percent” from that “big, beautiful bill” that so far has gone down in flames...good point by Brett about the “forced narrative” over all these years about the Dems only being elitists; I know I’m a broken record on this, but when you don’t constantly sell your good work to people, they forget and fall easy prey to Repug messaging BS...



Update 2: Apparently their terrible bill passed out of a House committee in the dead of night - typical for a bunch of thieves (here).

...and Tennessee Brando brings us the utterly awful story of the brain-dead Georgia woman kept alive for incubating her fetus...1) what kind of quality of life is this kid going to have assuming he’s born at 32 weeks under these circumstances? and 2) Georgia is apparently going to make the family of this woman pay the cost for keeping her technically alive despite the fact that she’s effectively brain dead, and if that’s so, the family should sue the state for millions in compensatory and punitive damages...I know I’ve said in the past that we’re turning into a third world nation on issues like this, but when it comes to abortion and women’s healthcare, we’re WORSE than a third-world nation (here)...



...oh, so what are Trumpist lunatics doing instead of ensuring women’s bodily autonomy and providing the highest level of health care available? Why, they’re proposing $5K “baby bonuses” (and wingnuts are surprised that women are telling them what they can do with that? Figures)...Cousins is typically spot-on about the costs of raising a child in our end stage capitalist economy, to say nothing of the fact that our ruling regime does everything in their power to make childbirth as dangerous as possible...



...and one of the Trumpist nuts out there telling women to have kids is VP “Hillbilly Elegy,” who apparently got to meet Pope Leo anyway...the Pontiff better get a full physical right away (trying to work in some humor again to keep our sanity)...



...and I know I’m a little later here, but RIP Joe Louis Walker.

Friday Stuff

Xanderhal brings us the story of Our Treasonous Orange Pestilence trying to stage a birthday parade with about 6,600 or 7,000 soldiers, and that depends on the estimate, as well as all kinds of armaments, probably including tanks, missile launchers, etc., ”the most dictator-y thing ever” indeed...good point about how the parade in France is for the storming of the Bastille, and Bronzer Boy definitely doesn’t get that history I know (and wouldn’t appreciate it even if he did)...I didn’t notice how the red hat is a tipoff to Trump maintaining that he still won the election in ’20...and I’ll make a note in case Combover Caligula does indeed start talking about a “fourth term,” and if that happens I’ll give Xan credit for it...as I watched this clip, I found it impossible to NOT think of the parade at the end of “National Lampoon’s Animal House” (NSFW/H)...



Update 5/18/25: Good one by Jack Ohman here.

...and speaking of graft to benefit Dear Orange Leader (were we?), Thom Hartmann informs us of a Chinese company on TikTok with no revenue that just bragged about paying off Bronzer Beelzebub, claiming they were going to spend about $300 mil on “Dollar Trump” coins, which I believe is a “meme” coin, though I admit that I’m not an expert on this stuff...and OF COURSE, that beyond ridiculous tariff on China magically drops from 145 percent to 30 percent...didn’t we used to fight wars with countries over extortion like this?...



...and Sam and Emma of The Majority Report inform us that Our Ochre Abomination just removed temporary protected status for Afghanistan refugees (people who risked their lives to help us during that forever war)...remember that this August when Repugs start screeching again about the anniversary of Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan in which 13 of our service people died (Trump basically tied Biden’s hands on the deal as noted here)...oh, but let’s give protected status to white South African farmers who are supposedly being persecuted and having their land taken from them (I know you’ll be absolutely shocked to hear that Pumpkin Pol Pot is LYING ONCE AGAIN – the reality perspective is here)...



...and I realize I’m a little behind on this, but I didn’t want to let it slip by...Kyle Kulinski tells us about “Bobby Brainworms” swimming in toxic sewage with his grand kids in Rock Creek in D.C. (I hope to God those kids don’t develop tumors later, but if that happens, remember this idiocy)..a minor point I know, but who the $#@! would name their kids Bobcat, Kick and Cassius? And I have to admit that I’ve never heard of “methylene blue”...also, good point about the anti-vaxxers taking other drug treatments that they’re apparently OK with...just a tad bit inconsistent on that one...and in a related story, kudos to Dem U.S. Senator Angela Alsobrooks for this (NSFW/H also)...



...and I thought this was a particularly good segment from John Oliver on the Alliance Defending Freedom...and why should we be surprised that a charter school in Oklahoma wants to teach religion and take public dough...and gee, you’d think the ADF and their fellow travelers would be taking a victory lap over Dobbs, but out of nowhere comes this spokesperson off-camera saying that, no, we’re not allowed to comment...what cowards (but “winsome” cowards for sure)...and I think “Christian love, Christian love, kill, kill, kill” is the best way to sum up these whited sepulchers of the ADF...and this clip tells me how the phrase “the homosexual agenda” originated, which I always wondered about, actually (cue the eye roll...)...didn’t know there were links from the ADF to “MAGA Mike” Johnson and Amy Coney Island Baby Barrett, but it fits the profile...and Kristen Waggoner is just Anita Bryant 2.0 without the orange juice...clip also gives us the story on the cake maker in Colorado who wouldn’t make a gay cake, as if that’s really that big of a thing, and the fact that his case made its way to the SCOTUS is way beyond pathetic, along with the woman who was supposedly asked to make a gay web site (spoiler alert: she wasn’t, but the SCOTUS took up her case anyway)...more on the American College of Pediatricians is here (NSFW/H as well...hope you have your head phones)...



...and Farron Cousins gives us more gory details on the ridiculous and pointless trade war from Cantaloupe Capone...we learn about Morgan McGarvey (the only Dem in the U.S. delegation from Kentucky) who is telling everyone his state/commonwealth will lose “tens of millions” with Canada over bourbon...and yes, Rand Paul made noises about trying to end the tariff war, but that was all (more is here)...



...and staying below that Mason-Dixon line, Tennessee Brando tells us about Repugs deciding to buckle down on town halls after the backlash they’ve quite rightly gotten...looks like Knox County, TN is going to have a Repug-only town hall (and I believe it already took place); I’d like to look down my nose at those folks over that, but in good conscience I can’t since, even though that’s an idiotic idea, that at least isn’t as bad as chicken Bri-Fi in PA-01 who won’t even come out of his hidey hole to meet his constituents in person...and I’ve heard nothing but good things about Gloria Johnson also...and yeah, I think we’re all sick of the “Dollar General Hillbilly Trumps” for sure (still another NSFW/H clip)...



...and I’m overdue for a newer tune, so let’s kick-start the weekend with this one, OK?

Thursday Stuff

Yasmin Khan of Rebel HQ discusses the Tesla brand of King Elon I going down the tubes...pretty hilarious IMO that owners of those godawful Tesla trucks can’t even trade in those wretched vehicles...and Elmo hiding inventory because people aren’t supporting his thoroughly toxic brand anymore? Color me (not) shocked...



...and Ben Meiselas of the Meidas Touch Network discusses Dem John Ewing Jr. winning the Omaha, Nebraska mayor’s race, defeating incumbent MAGA Repug mayor Jean Stothert, the longest serving incumbent Repug mayor in the country; this represents a 20-point swing, for those keeping score (shockingly classy concession speech by Stothert, I have to admit, even though she draped her campaign in trans bathroom nonsense, trying to protect girls’ sports, supposedly, etc. – that stuff isn’t going to play when people are losing their savings and their health care)...I think I included a clip of that knucklehead Mike Flood at a town hall once before acting like taxing the rich is anathema to Repugs (which we knew already)...and “Sainted Ronnie R” hagiography notwithstanding, I find myself in agreement with Repug Rep Don Bacon (though he’ll NEVER call out Diaper Donnie, amirite?)...(NSFW/H)...



...and sticking with the theme of the fake populism of Our Ochre Abomination, Robert Reich tells us about RFK, Jr. saying that #47 actually isn’t an oligarch...I think that brain worm Jr. has is working overtime...



...and if you’re going to talk about economic populism for real, then Vermont U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders needs to be part of that discussion, and he speaks with Chris Hayes here about how Repugs on Capitol Hill plan to reward the “one percent”...about $715 billion in cuts to Medicaid, meaning 13 million people could lose their health insurance as Sanders says, along with a $35 co-payment for doctor’s visits, which is a non-starter if you’re making $16K a year...and I knew it was a high number, but I honestly didn’t know that 75K people die without health insurance...good point about Medicaid funding nursing homes and visits to community health centers...and “Running Man” Brave Sir Josh Hawley and Rojo The Clown come down on this about in the way you’d expect (I’m also glad Hayes and Sanders mentioned the rallies; I mean, they’re great, but they should be used as a springboard for policy proposals...again, if the Dems as a party had a clue about messaging, that’s how they would follow up on the Bernie/AOC momentum).

(Oh, and by the way, when it comes to Medicaid and work requirements, as noted here, 92% of Medicaid enrollees already work or are unable to do so for reasons that qualified as exemptions under the prior Trump administration’s policies, such as having caregiving responsibilities, illness or disability, and attending school.)...



...and Brian Tyler Cohen tells us about the recent exchange between Dem U.S. House Rep Tom Suozzi and Thomas Barthold, the chief of staff on the Joint Committee of Taxation...it seems that #47 promised no taxes on tips or overtime as well as removing taxes on Social Security benefits, but – oopsie! – it looks like that didn’t make its way into the “big, beautiful bill” for Bronzer Beelzebub...and Pumpkin Pol Pot oversaw a net loss of 178K manufacturing jobs in his prior term – just another example IMO of the stupendous incompetence of the @DNC that they couldn’t capitalize on that in the election last year...



...and kudos to Bruce Springsteen for this.



Update 5/17/25: Yeah, I think this says it...

And by the way, you won’t find tunes here by Taylor Swift only because I personally don’t care for her music. That doesn’t mean that I’m trying to diminish her success as a musician and a performer in any way (and an activist also, to her credit). And yes, I wish nothing but the best for her and Travis Kelce, though maybe a little more privately I’ll admit.

Wednesday Stuff

Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report informs us that Our Ochre Abomination staged a confrontation with Dem Maine Governor Janet Mills some time ago (as a reminder) over #47’s discriminatory anti-trans sports ban in schools, as Mike Figueredo tells us...sooo, Our Treasonous Orange Pustule wanted to let 170K Maine kids go hungry in order to punish TWO trans athletes? Yeah, that sounds about right for this regime...and OF COOUUURRSE, Mr. “Art Of The Deal” blinked and Gov. Mills will get the USDA funding for school kids that Mills and her state are legally entitled to (NSFW/H)...



Update: I pretty much don't bother anymore with the Op-Ed page of the New York Times, but probably the only writer I read at this point is Jamelle Bouie; he hit it out of the park today with this.

...and John of The Damage Report lets us know that, more Trumpist BS notwithstanding, yeah, “MAGA Mike” Johnson and his fellow bootlickers in the U.S. House, including Bri-Fi, are indeed going to have to cut Medicaid to pay for more stinking tax cuts, which of course that nitwit Brian Kilmeade con-vee-niently forgets to mention, about the stinking tax cuts I mean (and Medicaid was expanded under the ACA - shocking that Kilmeade is actually right for a change - but that was pretty much paid for by the Feds, though red states largely refused the ACA expansion anyway)...good point by John to basically lay out the strategy from the “party of Lincoln,” which is to just cut Medicaid and dole out tax cuts as soon as possible to help deflect people from getting POed about it at town halls...not that people will be fooled, but that’s typical for these “R” cretins in power, to tell people to just shut up and get on board with our rotten policies...GREAT point by John and Luke Beasley that MAGA and the rest of the wingnuts will truly be turning the culture wars garbage “up to 11” next year to get people to vote against their own self-interest...look for a gay trans athlete leading a pro-Palestinian boycott illegally subscribed to Medicaid who, as it turns out, will be an “anchor baby” who was a DACA arrival to this country and was also a fentanyl mule with heart tattoos linked by #47 to Tren de Aragua and also charged in the abduction of a white female college student (a la Laken Riley), and every single MAGA YouTuber and social media influencer, to say nothing of Fix Noise, will be talking/posting about this person 24/7/365 (and no, I don’t want to see white female college students abducted and/or harmed in any way)...



...and Mehdi Hasan speaks with Democracy Now! on the first anniversary of starting his news site Zeteo, and also talking about Gaza...one of Hasan’s great points is how Palestinian voices are “iced out” from our oh-so-august-in-their-imaginations corporate media, including those Sunday morning programs that haven’t mentioned any of the starvation in that region...Hasan also talks about the torture (and yes, that’s what it is, as Hasan says) of imprisoned foreign students such as Rumeysa Ozturk (and just as a reminder, Ozturk was released pending a hearing, but she should never have been snatched and flown off to Louisiana without due process in the first place)...



...and Jesse Dollemore tells us about Repug U.S. House rep Michael McCaul of Texas (of course) who says something pretty darn racist about his colleagues in the U.S. House...the starting point for McCaul’s disgusting words is Newark, NJ mayor Ras Baraka’s arrest and detainment by masked federal immigration police when he joined three Democratic congressmembers set to tour a newly reopened 1,000-bed Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility run by Geo Group (advocates say the facility lacks proper permits)...as always, a Repug NEVER EVER thinks the racism is about THEM...as Jesse says, the issue wasn’t “peacefully protesting”; the issue was (and is) the fact that sitting Congress people HAVE THE CONSTITUTIONALLY PROTECTED RIGHT TO CONDUCT OVERSIGHT, and for McCaul to use the phrase “gang violence” in that ridiculous statement of his tells us what kind of a mental defective he truly is...and Tricia McLaughlin, quite simply, is a f*cking liar from a regime of liars and I don’t know what else needs to be said about that (NSFW/H also)...



...and I apologize for failing to note earlier that May 11th was National Twilight Zone Day...and yes, that’s really a thing; I present the following clip from this episode as a tribute...



...and that also gives me an excuse for this tune.

Tuesday Stuff

Today marks the 40th anniversary, believe it or not, of the bombing of the MOVE compound on 6221 Osage Avenue in West Philadelphia; a video interview with Philadelphia Inquirer reporters Craig McCoy and Kitty Caparella is here...like lots of others, I lived in Philadelphia at the time this happened...video has to do with the group’s first appearance in 1978 in Philadelphia leading to the confrontation in which Officer James Ramp was shot and killed...after the trial for what happened in the first confrontation, they moved to Osage Avenue...a lot of the clips I’ve found about the bombing feature Ramona Africa basically describing herself and the group as political prisoners, which is utter bullsh*t and I refuse to do anything to perpetuate that lie...MOVE did its best (worst?) to basically hold an entire neighborhood in West Philadelphia hostage, and all the people in that neighborhood were trying to do is live their lives...that being said, don’t think for a second that I’m trying to excuse the stupendous incompetence of the administration of Philadelphia Mayor Wilson Goode; I know that the building trades in this area offered to rebuild the homes destroyed in the ’85 fire gratis, but Goode said no and doled out the work to some of his campaign donors who utterly botched the job...there’s a lot more to say about this episode I know, and I got into some of that here (I wish I could embed the video at this site, but YouTube has decided that it’s age restricted for some reason, so...I'll be honest; if I ever decide to throw in the towel around here, it will likely be because of nonsense like that).

Turning to the typical news/political stuff, Belle of the Ranch tells us that Yambo is cutting veterans and rural programs under the guise of “DEI” (and that acronym does include programs for homeless vets, of course)...#47 got into a typical snit about the Digital Equity Act of 2021, which, as Belle says, is designed to increase internet use among “covered populations,” including vets, seniors, and those living in rural areas, including remote tele-health appointments for vets, and kids also of course trying to access courses online...and kudos to Dem U.S. Senator Patty Murray for writing the legislation the Act is based on and calling out the Gropenfuhrer for his typical idiocy on this subject...



...and sticking with more ridiculous nonsense from our ruling regime of grifters, liars and frauds, Rachel Maddow tells us that Pumpkin Pol Pot just fired the 3 Dem commissioners on the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which is INCREDIBLY FREAKING ILLEGAL...I mean, it’s not like a pesky little detail like THAT ever stopped Bronzer Beelzebub before, I realize...and kudos to Dem commissioner Mary Boyle in particular for speaking out...



...and I realize that, given our thoroughly corrupt ruling cabal, we have to consider degrees of illegality...the prior clip discussed something that, while bad, doesn’t call the Constitution into question, but Jesse Dollemore tells us about something WAY worse from #47’s “Goebbels mini-me,” which is the threat to suspend habeas corpus, and of course, being the execrable pissant he is, Stephen Miller sneaks in another lie about Biden flying illegals into the country....



...and Farron Cousins tells us that Cantaloupe Capone’s trade war has caused our deficit to explode, up to 11.2%...and Belle also pointed out that this administration of liars, grifters and frauds doesn’t understand the difference between a trade deficit and a budget deficit (she didn’t say that in today’s clip, but in a prior one)...



...and Tennessee Brando echoes the part a bit about our ruling regime trying to dispense with due process, and of course they also want to keep oppressing women, including this Dusty Deevers character in Oklahoma (of course) who wants to prosecute women who take abortion pills...don’t know if this will make a difference in trying to keep this Bryan Logan nut case out of the Oklahoma house, but I’ll take a shot anyway (and this guttersnipe wants to enforce an abortion ban from 1910??)...NSFW/H...



...and happy 75th birthday to Stevie Wonder; even though it was written for Tricky Dick, this tune has been on my mind lately for obvious reasons I guess.

Monday Stuff

Brian Tyler Cohen talks about Mango Mussolini getting a a luxury 747 jumbo jet from Qatar for about $400 mil...I know I’ve said this before and I apologize for repeating myself, but I think it matters; we’re just not even going to bother with acknowledging the emoluments clause and just go straight to the full-blown graft and corruption, huh? And of course, if spokes-liar Karoline Leavitt actually told the truth, she would either disintegrate before our eyes or turn into a pillar of salt...and oh yeah, I temporarily forgot about the crypto currency scam from Off Brand Erdogan – more impeachment evidence as far as yours truly is concerned...oh, but the jet is pretty much going to be “laundered” through the Air Force first? Typical for a criminal enterprise (here)...



...and Belle of the Ranch informs us that #47’s tariff tantrum apparently will now extend to Hollywood (a particularly good call on the T-shirt)...lots of good common-sense questions about how the $#@! you would apply a tariff to a movie playing in a theater in this country that was made overseas...a ton of movies are made offshore because of lower production costs; that’s not an endorsement, but a statement of economic reality, which plainly evades the Gropenfuhrer and his cabal of grifters and lowlifes (and yep, it does indeed look like our ruling “Turd Reich” thinks a trade deficit is the same thing as a budget deficit)...



...and sticking with movies, Richard Ojeda of Rebel HQ tells us about the Rev. Caleb Lines, who gave a sermon about our ruling regime (timed for 5/4 and all the “May The Fourth Be With You” business), drawing an actually correct analogy between “Star Wars” with Emperor Palpatine and what’s going on now...Ojeda also draws a parallel to Julius Caesar and how he consolidated power in ancient Rome, which is spot-on also IMO...”If Caesar was the blueprint, Donald Trump is the remix” indeed...



...and Chris Hayes gives us an update on Tufts university student Rümeysa Öztürk (judge ruled that she should be returned to Vermont for a hearing – she was released on bail, fortunately) as well as Trumpers going after other legitimate protests such as the one at Columbia University and NYU, along with UT-Austin (with Trumpist guttersnipe Eric Adams trying to intervene on behalf of our ruling regime)...Hayes says this is the closest thing he’s seen to McCarthyism in his lifetime, and I would agree (and I hope Ozturk and other detainees sue Bronzer Beelzebub’s sorry ass)...



...oh, and this just in – apparently, Cantaloupe Capone had a recent call with Pope Leo XIV (hey, we have to try and find humor somehow, right?)...



...and this song was recorded by Wilson Pickett along with Steve Cropper, “Duck” Dunn and Al Jackson 60 years ago today at the Lorraine Motel, where MLK would be assassinated not quite three years later.