Wednesday Stuff

Farron Cousins of Ring of Fire tells us about MAGA “pastor” Joel Webbon (more here) who thinks Trump should arrest anybody who defies him and charge them with treason, because (as Cousins notes) one of the penalties for treason is execution...and I definitely see Cousins’s point that Trump Derangement Syndrome is real, but not in the way that has come to be accepted over the last 10 years or so (at a certain point, though, I don’t know how you can avoid the fact any longer that the Trumpers are just freaking nuts)...



...and Jesse Dollemore tells us that our “Secretary of War” “I’ll Drink To That” Hegseth gave some speech to some Northeast Military Group or something which, as you might expect, was chock full of red meat for his true audience, which is Fix Noise and the wingnutosphere (“toxic ideological garbage,” huh?)...I know our ruling Trumpist cabal wants to recreate 1939 Germany, which is vile enough, through their use of language and iconography, but for Hegseth to come right out in say that, is, among other things, a slap in the face aimed at our World War II vets, living and dead...but “hopefully a 1981 moment?” You mean, two years before this?...and concerning Hegseth’s particularly stoo-pid remarks about climate change, I offer this (and “clearing out debris” is about the language you can expect for this utterly entitled neophyte, who should have remained within the comfy confines of his Fix Noise studio...mildly NSFW/H)...



...and this report from CBC’s The National tells us about Canada’s Algoma Steel, and its CEO Mike Garcia, trying to make a go of it on their own without the US because of those stinking tariffs (which, last I heard, was 50% on Canadian steel, although with our ruling regime in D.C., you never really know)...this forces Algoma to try and capture more of the Canadian market, though their situation as a company is “dire,” unfortunately...others have said this already, and I’ll join the chorus; I don’t know if Cantaloupe Capone is truly “The Manchurian Candidate,” but even if he isn’t, I can’t see how he could be inflicting more damage than he is already (maybe I shouldn’t assume that, since he finds new ways every day to wreck things)...



...and this in-depth story from reporter Mae Ryan of More Perfect Union tells us about Wall Street betting that east Texas will run out of water in the person of this Kyle Bass cretin (and Bass’s lawyer Ed McCarthy), with Bass making about $500 million shorting the subprime mortgage market and now trying to buy up water rights (the James Bond movie “Quantum of Solace” with Daniel Craig was prescient about this issue)...and it does indeed sound like the so-called “rule of capture” needs to be modified, but good luck doing that in the state that The Eternal Molly Ivins called “the laboratory for bad government”...I honestly didn’t know that Texas was gaining about 1,500 people per day because of lower taxes (wonder how many are trying to get out?)...and yeah, this sounds like “disaster capitalism” to yours truly also (in typical lowdown fashion for these life forms, it looks like Bass has sized up this issue every way he can to get the outcome he wants...and I’m sure that the people affected don’t share my political point of view, but I still think they should be allowed to live on their property, especially since it looks like they’re all on a fixed income)...and San Antonio losing 20 billion gallons of water a year because of aging pipes? Sounds like something we should be looking at (i.e., fixing our damn infrastructure at LOOONG LAST) across this country...and private equity selling water rights in Arizona, to say nothing of the Resnicks in California owning a “water bank”? Truly the stuff of nightmares...



...and this “A Closer Look” segment from Seth Meyers tells us about MAGA supposedly moving on from the Jeffrey Epstein files (fat chance, even after Combover Caligula attacked Marjorie Train Wreck Greene and Thomas Massie)...oh, and the Tangerine Toddler had a hissy fit at Meyers, because of course (and over a trebuchet? As if #47 even knows what that is)...and oh yeah, getting an MRI is part of a routine physical...uh, no...and when the Gropenfuhrer says he doesn’t know what they were looking for in the MRI, I ALMOST believe him (and speaking of Greene, I give you this from Markos, who has been on fire lately with his posts)...



...and I hope you’re in the mood for a jaunty little number about the miracle of our capitalist economy (snark), because here it is.

Tuesday Stuff

Belle of the Ranch lets us know that 40 percent of women polled by Gallup (aged 15-44) want to leave the U.S. forever...Belle’s point that “correlation is not causation” is indeed spot-on, and as she says, I think that bump in single women wanting to leave when Biden was president is indeed tied to our wretched SCOTUS overturning Roe (of course, the numbers of married and single women wanting to leave has also spiked during the Gropenfuhrer’s sorry reign...more here and here)...



...and I’m not sure if I’ve ever included a video from this guy before, but now is probably as good a time as any to include this; Jerrod Zisser tells us about Fix Noise and other wingnut media culprits dialing up the misogyny to 11, you might say, calling women “scary,” “insane,” and my personal favorite (snark) “A problem that needs to be fixed”...and yep, “politics wearing a cross” is an apt way to put this (file this under the heading of “wingnuts losing what’s left of their minds because they have absolutely nothing to offer to about half the population of this country”)...



...and Farron Cousins reminds us that we could have ANOTHER shutdown in January, believe it or not, considering that Repugs on Capitol Hill STILL won’t pass an honest-to-goodness budget (with these knuckleheads in charge for three years as Cousins points out), aside from ANOTHER damn continuing resolution to fund the government for a fixed period of time (as I said last night, if you want this nonsense to end, then VOTE FOR FREAKING DEMOCRATS! And once more, I thought this was a really important post from Markos at Daily Kos)...



...and John and Yasmin Khan of The Damage Report inform us that recent polling shows how underwater Trump and his same-party pals are on the economy (at least a negative 26 according to CNN’s Harry Enten)...good point by Khan about corporations benefitting from the tariffs as opposed to the small businesses Repugs pretend to care about (with the latter dealing with startup costs in particular made worse by the hardship inflicted on these folks by Cheetoh Benito)...



...and I don’t know if anybody has noticed or not, but I’ll point this out anyway just in case...I’ve made a conscious effort to try and include clips in this space to hopefully give us a laugh or two because, especially in these times, I think we need our sense of humor, and hopefully you can file this under that category...there are all kinds of lies that our ruling regime tells on a daily basis, but this latest one from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is pretty “over the moon”...according to Bessent, the increase in beef prices is because illegal immigrants have somehow been herding cattle over our border to infect our wholesome, all-American herds with screwworm (which is a real thing affecting cattle)...yeah, I’m just picturing “Duke” and Monty Clift a la “Red River” driving a herd to the Dakotas or wherever and picturing Esteban, Manuel and their families trying to do something similar over the Rio Grande River...leave it to that shrieking harpie Maria Bartiromo to just sit quietly and let Bessent spew this bullpucky without any pushback (more here - NSFW/H)...



...and happy 75th birthday to Graham Parker.

Monday Stuff

Jen Psaki comments on a ProPublica report on the DHS corruption from Kristi (“Unsafe At Any Speed”) Noem, including all of the “Barbie dress up” nonsense she pulls at every opportunity, which she flaunts in TV ads (costing about $200 million, including $30K to run an ad to be viewed by the Gropenfuhrer at Mar-a-Lago, thanking him for supposedly securing our border)...also, there are Noem’s cosplay moments on Fix Noise that figure into this...oh, and it turns out that $143 million of the aforementioned $200 million went to a mysterious LLC formed in Delaware...also, there’s the 10/2 ad Noem made (during the shutdown, no less) with a company called Strategy Group, run by the husband of DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin, who runs the DHS Office of Public Affairs overseeing contract awards – how con-vee-nient...and this Strategy Group outfit is also tied to Noem’s administration as South Dakota governor, with a claim from an official in that state that the bidding process was rigged during Noem’s term as governor (more here)...



Update: Speaking of the shutdown, I thought this was a terrific post by Markos at Daily Kos. And on top of that, I'd like to point out something.

We’re about to enter the busiest travel season of the year, with people in planes all over the place. God willing, everything will go fine for all concerned. But if the shutdown were still going on, and you had air traffic controllers calling out sick, working shorthanded and/or working extra shifts, and somebody makes a mistake leading to a tragedy, do you REALLY think Republicans will be blamed?

No. Our corporate media ecosystem will, en mase, attack Democrats, with an occasional remark from maybe someone on MSNBC or CNN reminding everyone that the Republicans are in charge of the federal government. The “R” party will escape blame, regardless of the consequences.

To me, the answer is simple. STOP ELECTING GODDAMN REPUBLICANS!!!

...and this local TV news report tells us about this Zac Segal cretin who called ICE on some car wash employees who were doing not one thing wrong, unlike this entitled little puke Segal...didn’t know Segal basically emigrated here for an education, soooo, shouldn’t he get the same treatment? Oh, but I guess Segal has a lighter skin complexion, as it were, so it’s all good...and aww, what a shame for Segal as noted here (not really – more here)...and OF COURSE the College Republicans think Segal is a “hero”...



...and turning to Congress, Jesse Dollemore informs us of U.S. Senate Repugs sneaking a bribe scheme into the bill to reopen the government, allowing the “gang of 8” (here) to sue for $500K...apparently, the scheme is to pay off these “insurrectionist sympathizers,” as Hakeem Jeffries correctly puts it, for the allegedly cumbersome chore of dealing with their phone records being investigated, or at least that’s the pretense (including Huckleberry Graham of course)...f*cking criminals, the lot of them (the “R” party cretins in question I mean)...also, it appears that this would make it much harder to investigate anyone in “the world’s greatest deliberative body” should a FREAKING INSURRECTION ever take place again...oh, and the seven Dems and one independent (Angus King) in the Senate who enabled this should realize once more how they got utterly played by Not Your Father’s Republican Party (and I’m not prepared to give this Austin Scott character credit for a damn thing)...based on this, though, it looks like the House may overturn that odious provision (slightly NSFW/H)...



...and David Shuster of Rebel HQ brings us the story of Repug U.S. House Rep Virginia Foxx displaying a bit of bad temper when she was rightly called out by Dem House rep Yassamin Ansari over the shut down, which was tantamount to an 8-week paid vacation imposed by MAGA Mike Johnson to try and save the Gropenfuhrer’s bulbous butt over the Jeffrey Epstein discharge petition (with Ansari’s constituents facing the explosion of the cost of health care coverage as well as a loss of SNAP benefits, which Foxx would care about for her constituents also if she wasn’t a thoroughly compromised partisan hack...and I know I said something already about the “negative gas prices” thing from Fix Noise)...



...and it wouldn’t be a day with a “y” in it unless we paid some attention at least to the malfeasance of Generalissimo Trump, so I’ll let Mr. Newberger take care of that (and with a bit of swing too)...



...and apologies for just missing the chance to note his recent appearance at the Marian Anderson Theater in Philly last Saturday...I’m sure it was a good show.

Friday Stuff

David Shuster of Rebel HQ brings us the story of some Fix Noise “news” mannequin getting busted by her own onscreen graphic...gas prices are “negative”? By a whole, whopping total of $0.01? And $20 trillion coming into this country in “new investment” from tariffs? I guess that last, lonely functioning synapse in Combover Caligula’s noggin is starting to flicker out...and before we all go “WOO-HOO! 200 BILLION!,” let’s take a look at what has happened to tourism, as well as the “brain drain” of individuals doing research at our universities who are leaving, to say nothing of our soybean farmers and cattle ranchers...Shuster’s report runs down the list of countries we’re supposedly receiving trade revenue from including Qatar, and as long as we’re mentioning that nation, I think it needs to be pointed out that we recently struck a deal with them to put boots on the ground in case they’re invaded in the same manner as an Article V resolution for a NATO member country, and without congressional approval for Qatar; I learned that from this CBC article...”presented for an audience that mistakes enthusiasm for insight” indeed...and as much as I’d like to dump on “MAGA Mike” Johnson, I know Shuster’s last two minutes here are behind the news cycle a bit, though cutting and running the way Johnson did in response to reporters’ questions is par for the course with him...



...and I’ve been meaning to get to this from Glenn Kirschner all week, so I’d better do so now...I can’t think of a word to describe how pathetic it is that a judge needs to rule on White House press briefings requiring a sign language interpreter, which that supposedly stinky Joe Biden had no issue with, it should be pointed out, but that indeed is where we are (yep, the Gropenfuhrer does indeed manage to plummet to new depths every day)...a completely predictable update is here...



...and turning to “the heartland,” Kyle Kulinski tells us about Iowa farmers teeing off on Repug Iowa U.S. House rep Mariannette Miller-Meeks at a town hall when she tries to blame JOE FREAKING BIDEN for the runaway inflation under Mango Mussolini (and Kyle is dead right about coffee; I’ve seen a bag of ground for $14 which we used to buy for $6.99)...this shameless goofball can try and machine gun as many lies as she can, but if she seriously thinks she’s going to win over anybody with this pre-rehearsed steaming pile of bullsh*t, she is very much mistaken...here’s what I think is going on with our farmers – our ruling regime WANTS them to go under so Apartheid Clyde, Peter Thiel and company can buy up the land cheap and use minerals from Argentina to help build more stinking data centers for AI purposes (I think Kyle’s explanation is partly correct, but he doesn’t go far enough IMO)...more on our soybean farmers is here (apparently, there was some sort of an agreement with China to purchase soybeans, but it’s only a “promise” from China...pinky swear, I guess...to buy soybeans from our farmers again, but at reduced levels - NSFW/H)...



...and Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report lets us know about a lady named Nikalie Monroe who called the “church” of Joel Osteen and asked for formula for her (hypothetical) baby, and Monroe was told that it would take two days to weeks to get the formula, and that’s if the request was approved (Monroe was conducting a “social experiment,” it should be noted...and by the way, Osteen has a net worth of about $100 million as noted here)...Monroe called about 43 of these places with a request for formula, and 10 agreed to help, and that includes a Buddhist temple as well as an Islamic center and an African American church...not so much for Charlie Kirk’s parish also...oh, but Monroe is a “witch,” for making these calls? I must have been asleep during my elementary school religion classes when we were taught that that’s an acceptable response (snark)...and yeah, though I think the amount should be negligible, I think churches should pay taxes also...Figueredo is right about how the civil rights backlash helped to fuel more and more intolerant “religiosity”...and by the way, for Philly-area folks (including Bucks County), if you have a similar situation as Nikalie Monroe for real, go to the “Give or Get Help” section in the right-hand column of the page of this site and click the Aid for Friends link (or Catholic Charities USA if you’re outside of this area...NSFW/H also)...



...and Farron Cousins tells us that #47 haz a sad about air traffic controllers who wouldn’t work during the shutdown because they wouldn’t get paid...someone should try to communicate to Our Tiny-Handed Chief Executive that you can’t treat our air traffic controllers the same way you treat people contracted to do construction projects at Mar-a-Lago...and I agree with Cousins; Biden was slipping towards the end of his term to be sure, but at least #46 knows what verifiable truth and reality is, as opposed to the Tangerine Toddler...I have this creeping feeling in my gut that something truly awful is coming, and believe me when I tell you that I want to be wrong (I can see myself getting on a plane again, but not for a while yet)...



...and turning to local matters, Chris Hayes speaks with Bucks County Sheriff-elect Danny Ceisler on his contest with incumbent Fred Harran...there were road signs in strategic locations reminding everyone of Harran supporting ICE, in case anybody had forgotten that...Ceisler is right that Bucks kind of “swings” from one party to the other on municipal and presidential elections, but the Repug Party machine has a hammerlock when it comes to federal congressional representation, unfortunately, though we’ll keep doing our best to change that (including next year)...



...and The Onion gets particularly edgy at times, and I think they do so again here, though they make their point with humor as always...



...and tomorrow marks the 93rd birthday of Brit singing legend Petula Clark...in addition to that great run of hits in those swinging ‘60s (including the following), I always respected her for this also.

Thursday Stuff

(And for the record, the Tangerine Toddler said that the birthday card he allgedly sent to Jeffrey Epstein was "fake"...sure it was.)

Nicolle Wallace gives us the latest update with “the dog that hasn’t barked,” referring to the Gropenfuhrer of course, and the “hours” he supposedly spent with a victim of the Epstein scandal (based on emails dated from 2011), including Virginia Giuffre, who Epstein allegedly “stole” from Mar-a-Lago (and don’t waste my time with the response of this White House; I don’t take them seriously on anything, especially this)...glad to hear Michael Wolff not escaping accountability for his role in this mess also...I have a feeling that this is just the tip of the metaphorical iceberg, as it were...and yeah, I’m sure Ghislaine Maxwell is going to be looking over her shoulder (and funny in a way that, suddenly, you’re not hearing a peep out of all of the fundamentalist nut jobs out there who got played, thinking that #47 was some kind of a “godly” man)...Wallace speaks with Dem Congressman Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois (I’m not sure why Wallace is bringing up the Russia stuff here, unless she’s trying to argue a pattern of people coercing Cantaloupe Capone based on his bad behavior; she may have a point, but it’s a stretch IMO)...



...and Brian Tyler Cohen informs us of Utah Repugs’ attempt to redistrict their state’s voting map to give themselves an advantage (a la Texas), which was struck down by a judge, giving the Dems an extra seat in the U.S. House they’re likely to win next year...I’m sure Dem governors Wes Moore in Maryland and J.B. Pritzker in Illinois will do the right thing, but as far as Moore is concerned, I thought Maryland already had “fair maps” (just a little confused I guess, but I guess Moore and Pritzker need to be a little cagey about this)...important that Cohen mentioned that the 6 wingnut SCOTUS justices will likely jettison Section 2 of the VRA, which will enable MORE Repug-friendly seats, tragically...



...and lost a bit in all of this insanity is the news that Dem U.S. House Rep (and longtime speaker) Nancy Pelosi is stepping down...and I realize all of the people who want to be lied to will believe “MAGA Mike” Johnson about Pelosi supposedly being too far left for the neo-Marxists or whatever, but those in the reality-based community will see this as it is, which is Pelosi ringing down the curtain on decades of commendable service in public life and passing the torch to the next generation of leadership...and I hear what Brando is saying about Marjorie Train Wreck Greene; when we get ammo from these cretins whether it’s intentional or not, we should use it...I also agree with what Brando says about the “Democratic establishment,” embodied by this...and yep, I think Brando is also spot-on that Mango Mussolini CANNOT RESIST bragging about his damn ballroom and how rich he supposedly is, though that will NEVER be the “flex” that he thinks it is (slightly NSFW/H)...



...and Farron Cousins tells us that our *preznit said something recently about getting something like a $2K rebate check, but along comes Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to say Na-Ga-Ha-Pen...I know we’ve been in 25th Amendment territory for a good while yet, but as Cousins says, our economy is doing the big swirl in the hopper...”factories getting built”? “Inflation cooling off”? Ignoring layoffs? This truly is the stuff of madness...



...and Josh Johnson of The Daily Show gives us a bit of a comedic take on the pathetic financial mismanagement from Don The Con...oh, and by the way, AFFORDABILITY AFFORDABILITY AFFORDABILITY AFFORDABILITY AFFORDABILITY AFFORDABILITY AFFORDABILITY AFFORDABILITY...how’s that? And a 50-year mortgage? Great...so we’ll end up paying for our house TEN FREAKING TIMES INSTEAD OF FIVE!!!...and yeah, here comes the bait-and-switch on the tariff rebate again (with Grace Kuhlenschmidt)...



...and I don’t know if this newer number counts as a “relationship” tune or not, but in my quest to add some variation to the selections appearing here, I thought I’d add it anyway.

Wednesday Stuff

Richard Ojeda of Rebel HQ tells us about Repugs dragged down by polling data with the millstone of Pumpkin Pol Pot around their metaphorical necks (this clip predates the Dem “cave” by the “surrender caucus” on ACA health insurance credits, it should be noted)...and yeah, let’s actually take MAGA numbskull Chip Roy seriously about “leadership”; just keep playing that same old tune and see what happens a year from now...and I’d forgotten about cabinet members moving onto military bases, which is partly scary but also partly pretty damn funny in a way as far as I’m concerned...



...and Belle of the Ranch gives us an update on the pardons from our Tangerine Toddler...Ed Martin, who seems to be involved with just about every seamy, sordid legal maneuver from Combover Caligula, points out that 77 pardons have been issued by #47 since he was sworn in, with the latest aimed at anybody involved in the ’20 fake electors scheme...this of course is yet another legal gray area since a presidential pardon can only apply to someone convicted federally, and I’m pretty sure at least some of these are charges in particular states (do I have a suspicion that the High Court of Hangin’ Judge JR is going to get involved and throw yet another bone to Cheetoh Benito? Damn right I do...and sorry to steal Belle’s thunder a bit, but we’ve already gotten to the outrage over the surrender caucus, though I know we will revisit that)...



...and John and Jayar of The Damage Report inform us of a 1-year-old girl getting pepper sprayed by ICE on the way home from Sam’s Club with her family because I suppose a child poses a mortal threat to these useless soy Paul Blart knockoff rent-a-cops, to the point where a projectile spewing some type of gas needs to be fired into the family’s vehicle...oh, and there’s “infighting” at DHS between mush mouth Tom Homan and Kristi “Unsafe At Any Speed” Noem? How “on the nose” for Trumpers, amirite?...



...and turning to “the land of the yellow rose,” Farron Cousins lets us know that Repug guv Greg Abbott recently threatened to punish New Yorkers moving to Texas; what a cunning plan!...personally, I think this is a case of wingnuts getting high on their own supply, you might say; I think the prospects of anyone from a blue locale actually moving to the “lone star state” are grossly overinflated (and Abbott thinks he can impose a “tariff”? That’s almost way too damn funny)...I give Cousins credit for unpacking all of this lunacy, which is a more heroic feat than I could come up with on this, to be honest...

...and Seth Meyers gives us “A Closer Look”...yes, we need to revisit the retreat by the Senate “surrender caucus,” and ALL 8 OF THEM should be haunted by that until they leave office by one means or another...and it was great to see the Gropenfuhrer get the treatment at the Commanders/Lions football game that he so deserved, but it was also worth it to make “I’ll Drink To That” Hegseth endure all of that also...OH, PLEASE SCOWL HARDER, MR. “SECRETARY OF WAR”...HAHAHAHA!!!...also, if you’re going to name a construction project such as a domed football stadium after Cantaloupe Capone, you’d better make sure the contractors are paid in advance or he’ll try to stiff them and the work will never get completed...and I didn’t know RFK Jr. decided to do the “exit, stage left” move when the guy fainted in the Oval Office – not surprising...



...and happy 80th birthday to Neil Young.

Tuesday Stuff

Jesse Dollemore tells us that Our Very Stable Genius of a *preznit recently nodded off at an Oval Office meeting for 20 minutes (and yeah, the double standard between this and the “sleepy Joe Biden” BS speaks for itself)...oh, and the press asking about Bronzer Beelzebub dozing off was “inappropriate”? Yeah, I guess we’re North Korea now; I suppose the firing squad for journalists comes next (and yes, I hope I’m only joking)...



...and I know we really need to keep looking at the Democratic “cave” by the “surrender caucus” on the deal to end the shutdown...I thought this was a pretty clear-eyed analysis by Brian Tyler Cohen of what just took place; yes, it does indeed suck that the eight senators in the “coward caucus” caved on the ACA credits (and again, I have zero faith that the Repug-led Senate will even vote on those credits next month, let alone the outcome of that vote which is a foregone conclusion...and “MAGA Mike” Johnson wouldn’t even allow a vote in the House on the credits anyway), but funding SNAP and forcing Johnson to open up the House again (where he has no excuse any more to punt on swearing in Adelita Grijalva, meaning that the discharge petition on the Epstein files will go forward) are “silver linings” for sure...”if we want to purge our weak branding, we have to purge weak Democrats” indeed...great point by Cohen about not disengaging, since that never accomplishes anything positive (clip ends at about 6:49...and oh yeah, there is also this)...



...and Kyle Kulinski brings us the Dickensian tale of billionaires feasting while Americans starve from SNAP cuts...and of course, the High Court of Hangin’ Judge JR is just as culpable on making the hunger problem in this country worse because they granted that order allowing the Gropenfuhrer to get out of fully funding SNAP during the shutdown (the disgusting SCOTUS “shadow docket” strikes again)...oh, and our criminal regime also isn’t funding food banks as they are mandated to do, and as Kyle says, Pumpkin Pol Pot is also telling blue states to let people go hungry, while we fork over waaay too much damn money to that Trumpist idiot in Argentina...a related item on the economy is here (incredibly NSFW/H, but apropos IMO)...



...and Farron Cousins informs us that a federal judge just ruled that that our Tangerine Toddler and former Fix Noise personality Sean Duffy can’t withhold transportation funds from states like CA because these states weren’t helping the jackbooted thugs of ICE and their raids on people of another skin color; there’s absolutely NO STATUTE ANYWHERE that says that states must comply with the ICE garbage for transportation funding, and Duffy CANNOT arbitrarily withhold monies due to these states for that reason...



...and concerning the Dollemore clip, I thought this was an appropriate response from Mr. Newberger (very slightly NSFW/H)...



...and on this day in 1965, The Beatles completed “Rubber Soul,” including this tune.

Monday Stuff

Lawrence O’Donnell tells us about Cheetoh Benito looking away from a man who collapsed in An Oval Office during some weight loss drug event last week; I agree with O’Donnell that the pic in this post should indeed be the official White House portrait...looks like the Tangerine Toddler wants to get discounts for what #47 calls “the fat drug”...yeah, we know that Don The Con is a crook, but there also appears to be some serious medical stuff going on with this guy, and I know that has been pointed out already (and oh yeah, a person with a shred of conscience would have seen the man on the floor needing medical help and ensured that, at a minimum, 911 was called and an ambulance was on the way, but since we’re talking about Our Delusional Narcissistic Sociopath of a *preznit, he pretty much stood like a statue and did nothing)...and once again, HuffPo’s S.V. Date stands up like a journalist should in the face of Combover Caligula...and no, I’m not going to give Hangin’ Judge JR credit for a damn thing (i.e., saying something plainly obvious on tariffs) when he and the other wingnuts on the High Court have done somersaults to give Pumpkin Pol Pot everything he wants...also, we learn that the D.C. sandwich thrower Sean Dunn was acquitted (and no, the hoagie, as we call it in these parts, didn’t “explode” when it hit the vest of the ICE thug...more on that later)...

...and I know a lot more is going to be said about this, but despite the resounding victories in the elections about a week ago, it does indeed look like U.S. Senate Democrats are going to cave on the shutdown (here), and apparently the only thing they’re going to get is a promise from Senate Republicans to vote on extending ACA credits in December...and yeah, this is pretty much the same bunch, along with Manchin, that promised a vote on “Build Back Better” under Biden for climate initiatives, ACA credits, and other "social spending," and we know what happened on that one, right?



...and in response to Sen. Angus King of Maine (under the heading of what happens when you cave to Pumpkin Pol Pot and his lackeys), I offer the following (and I know PA’s John Fetterman is part of the “coward caucus”; I’m definitely not the biggest fan of Conor Lamb, but if he declared for Fetterman’s seat in ’28 right now, he’d get my support)...

...well, for the opposing point of view, Robert Reich tells us how Dems should be standing up to #47, basically, by REFUSING TO NORMALIZE ALL OF THIS GARBAGE; this can take the form of standing up to the never-ending torrent of misinformation including outright lies and calling for investigations into all of his self-enrichment dealings, including this crypto garbage (and of course, we need to take aim also at the “pay no price, bear no burden” bunch and all the havoc they’re creating at our expense)...and most definitely, demonstrating for a better future should be part of this as Reich says...



...and Kyle brings back the “Don’t Be A Sucker” ad from the War Department in 1943 (not sure if Schumer or anybody in the “coward caucus” has ever seen this; if not, they should...if “I’ll Drink To That” Hegseth made that film now, the crank on the street would be applauded by everyone and given a parade, likely with tiki torches...and oh yeah, I forgot about the TV episode of that western about the con man named Trump who wanted to build a wall – pretty damn spooky indeed...NSFW/H)...



...and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert has some fun with the recent acquittal of the D.C. sandwich guy (another glorious legal accomplishment from Judge Boxwine – more here)...



...and happy 50th birthday to Jim Adkins of the band Jimmy Eat World.

Friday Stuff

Farron Cousins gives us the gory details on the massive bribery scheme that is the whole White House ballroom mess; I guess we kind of knew it was some big pay-to-play grift to benefit Our Tangerine Toddler, but the AMOUNT is staggering...two-thirds of the 24 known donors having received $279 billion in federal contracts as the clip says...I’ve heard that this ridiculous testimony to greed by the one percent should be renamed for Barack Obama (nothing personal against #44 I wish to add), but turning it into a soup kitchen and/or a free clinic is a great idea also...



...and this video from More Perfect Union brings us the sordid tale of Norfolk Southern’s potential merger with Union Pacific, creating yet another monopoly, this time for railroads, rewarding stockholders and private equity and endangering the rest of us of course (and I hope you won’t be shocked to find out that Union Pacific donated to that ridiculous ballroom, to curry regulatory favor on the merger no doubt)...clip tells us about the Staggers Act signed into law by Jimmy Carter that deregulated railroads, which was the first big domino to fall – I supported Carter, but he made a few deregulatory moves like this that ended up hastening the electoral victory of The Sainted Ronnie R in 1980...Wall Street got into the game in the 2010 decade (whatever that’s called), with CSX taken over by some financial outfit called Mantle Ridge, though the report focuses on Union Pacific trying to merge with Norfolk Southern...we learn the Dem Robert Primus of the Surface Transportation Board that would approve the merger was fired by Cantaloupe Capone in favor of another Repug to make a 3-1 “R” majority on the board, making U P and Norfolk Southern merger approval just about inevitable; good for Primus for suing in response here...to contact your U.S. Senator or member of congress to try and halt this merger, click here...



...and echoing the prior two clips a bit, Thom Hartman tells us how billionaires built a welfare system for the rich and we barely got the scraps...looks like our one percent cretins figured out a way to get their grubby hands onto SNAP, TANF and Medicaid (terrific) partly by pushing for work requirements, even though 80 percent of the recipients already work, but those running these companies paying crap wages know their employees will likely qualify for these programs because the workers make so little...I’ll have to look into David Ricardo’s “Iron Law of Wages”...not to rain on anyone’s parade, but yeah, I’d also like to see Dems speaking out about how the three programs I just mentioned are basically subsidies to low-paying employers (though I support the programs of course, I should emphasize)...and by the way, Senate Repugs already killed the filibuster as noted here; as much as I’d like to see the filibuster killed for real, I don’t share Thom’s vision of how the Dems would rally in response to what the Repugs would do (passing all the garbage they could without enough of a Dem majority to fight it...I mean, I wish the “D” team would indeed respond the way Thom says, but Mr. and Mrs. Scar and company on MSNBC would probably say it’s a bad idea and that would likely stop them unfortunately)...



...and I've been meaning to get to this next clip all week, and I just want to make sure I do that now...this segment from the PBS Newshour informs us that 75% of researchers polled think they’ll leave the US b/c of funding cuts, including Terence Tao, called the “Mozart of math” (poll from the journal Nature)...Ph.D. student Daniella Fodera is also profiled; it appears that she may go to Europe to continue her research in uterine fibroids affecting a sizeable female population...Anna Darling is another individual contemplating leaving our shores, along with biochemist Stephen Jones (yeah, let’s just kill the dreams of these devoted, talented individuals just to dole out more stinking tax cuts to the “pay no price, bear no burden” bunch...what a cunning plan!)...and a 30 percent increase in applications out of our country overseas – I can’t blame these individuals (and I realize that conflicts a bit yesterday with what I said about Timothy Snyder – I’m definitely not omniscient, people)...and oh yeah, we also learn that, of the six U.S. Nobel Prize winners, half are immigrants (but let’s drive them all out of here because of “DEI” and the fact that they’re “woke”... tell me when we’ve made America great again, you Trumpist assclowns)...



...and Jordan Klepper of The Daily Show gives us a recap of last Tuesday’s victories...and woo-hoo, THE GEORGIA PUBLIC SAFETY COMMISSION, BITCHES!!! (and no, I don’t know what they do either)...and I love the guy cussing out Curtis Sliwa (typically New Yaawk, but it would be Philly too if the guy were standing in line at Geno’s)...and yeah, wingnuts; you want out of The Big Apple? Maybe I can contact somebody to set up a shuttle service for you...and I would say that Eric Adams has been “stuck on stoo-pid” for a good while already, as evidenced in that great clip (mildly NSFW/H)...



...and apparently, Warren Zevon will get long-overdue IMO recognition and will be introduced into the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame tomorrow (under the “musical influencer” category; nice touch to let David Letterman do that as noted here...hopefully Zevon will see that in the great beyond where I’m sure he resides).

Thursday Stuff

Kyle Kulinski tells us that the “crash out” for Combover Caligula has begun...man, what a psycho the Tangerine Toddler truly is, but we knew that of course (I’m not going to add much to what Kyle says here about Mango Mussolini since he pretty much nails everything I would add anyway...and Couch Boy has “the charisma of a dirty diaper” indeed)...I would only take issue with Kyle’s comment that we bombed Iran, though Israel acting as our proxy did that for sure, so I see his point a bit...also, I really don’t care about the wingnut “civil war,” but it is interesting I think to hear Kyle’s take on it IMO (incredibly NSFW/H)...



...and Brian Tyler Cohen tells us about more mania from Cheetoh Benito...as usual, we have more whining about “BIDEN PARDONS BIDEN PARDONS BIDEN PARDONS BIDEN PARDONS” (and I would ask that you keep this in mind as you read that)...and yeah, Cantaloupe Capone did indeed pardon the BINANCE crypto guy, with crypto being the preferred method of transacting financially by – oh, I dunno – BASICALLY FREAKING CRIMINALS ALL OVER THE GLOBE...and yeah, what a profile in Jello MAGA Mike “I don’t know what you’re talking about with the children” Johnson is, huh...(also NSFW/H)...



...and Farron Cousins emphasizes that the Repugs got humiliated on a national scale on Tuesday, from blue states to red states, from sea to shining sea you might say, including two seats in Georgia that the “R” party had held since the Carter Administration I believe...and yes, it wasn’t surprising that Zohran Mamdani won the NYC mayoral race, but the WAY he did with such a huge turnout was pretty breathtaking I would say...



...and Nicolle Wallace gives us her take on the election results...Prop 50 in CA (the redistricting in response to the nonsense from Texas) passed by nearly 30 points (wow)...good stuff from Gavin Newsom, who definitely met the moment for sure along with everyone involved in the California effort...as I watched this, I found myself thinking about people like Timothy Snyder, who left this country after Trump was elected; no personal disrespect to Snyder, but it would have helped if he had decided to stay and fight with the rest of us (with Jacob Soboroff, Alicia Menendez and John Heilemann; we hear from Soboroff in this clip...can’t say enough about the courage and determination of CA voters supporting Prop 50, and from different demographics also)...



...and NBC-10 in these parts offered an election recap with some close-to-home results here (every single Dem schoolboard candidate in Bucks County won, and I can NEVER remember that happening...and of course departing Repug sheriff Fred Harran would make it sound like lefty partisanship is an issue...for the reality perspective, I offer this)...



Update: More here.

...and I hope you're in the mood for a newer tune for this glorious occasion, because here it is.

Wednesday Stuff

David Shuster of Rebel HQ tells us about more Fix Noise propaganda with Harris Faulkner, who seems to be a recurring figure when it comes to misinformation like so many others on that trash network...I like Shuster’s line that “the difference between knowledge and noise is a mystery” for her...”Democrat Dan” makes a terrific comment on the pathway to citizenship being pretty much closed for anyone trying to emigrate here legally, and Amanda is correct to point out that the Dems are fighting for the ACA subsidies, while Harris prattles on about health care going up anyway, or something (like that’s the fault of the Dems somehow – the stoo-pidity is thick for sure on this one)...and OH MY F*CKING GOD, HEALTH CARE DOESN’T GO TO FREAKING ILLEGAL ALIENS, YOU DISGUSTING HARPIE!!! (and yes, I know Jay pointed that out to his credit, but hearing that still makes my blood boil)...



...but the big story on Action News, you might say, is last night’s election results...Mikie Sherrill wins in the NJ gubernatorial race (to be honest, I was a bit worried about this one because of the “machismo” factor Rachel Maddow mentions); Abigail Spanberger wins in Virginia over the utterly loathsome Winsome Earle-Sears, and of course that nutty commie socialist (joke) Zohran Mamdami won the NYC mayor’s contest over corporate centrist Cuomo and the beret guy (and I’m completely fine with a pork roll, egg and cheese sandwich for the record)...this is all great stuff of course, but we’re talking about basically blue areas (NYC and NJ, and VA definitely leans in that direction); the big test of course (to see if folks really are fed up with Don The Con and his “R” party flunkies) is coming next year...I wish the clip hadn’t cut off Chris Hayes because I would have liked to hear what he said...



Update: More good stuff is here.

...and Glenn Kirschner of Justice Matters discusses “a really bad 24 hours” for you-know-who (clip is almost a week old)...looks like the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals may take a shot at trying to keep Cheetoh Benito from militarizing the streets of Portland; also, some Senate Repugs actually joined Senate Dems to put a stop to #47’s idiotic Brazil tariff (we’re running a surplus with that country, but Bronzer Boy put a tariff in place to get back at the prosecution of Trump pal Bolsonaro); and finally, a Trump-serving attorney in CA (Bilal Essayli) was just disqualified in a matter that could affect the prosecutions of Letitia James and James Comey (I could care less about Comey to be honest, but if it makes Combover Caligula look bad, then it works for me...and apparently the Essayli case could impact Trumpette Lindsay Halligan, with the Comey and James cases mentioned potentially getting tossed...pass the popcorn)...



...and Farron Cousins reminds us of multiple humiliations for the Gropenfuhrer on his Asia trip, but none worse than the one he endured from Xi Jinping of China...yes, it was a statesman like response from Xi of course, but the intent was pretty clear; “President Deals” DID NOT allegedly end eight wars (sheesh)...



...and Seth Meyers gives us “A Closer Look” on Diaper Donnie renovating the White House bathroom while courts rule against him (this probably echoes some of the Glenn Kirschner stuff, but that’s OK)...and I know I mentioned the White House bathroom already also; well, since that represents such a “let them eat cake” moment, you can rest assured that I’ll be mentioning it again; the burning question to me is whether or not he’ll actually pay the contractors who did the work – my guess is that he won’t...and I suppose it definitely wouldn’t be a post about Cantaloupe Capone unless he was attacking a TV personality, and this time that would be Meyers himself (the methane dispensers who cast their ballots for Our Treasonous Orange Yam last year must be so proud of themselves)...oh, and the accordion hands are back for Don The Con because of course they are...

...and I suppose I’m catching up with a few items here, and I might as well do that also with this one – RIP Ace Frehley of KISS.

Tuesday Stuff

As all of us will do one day, it looks like “Deadeye Dick” has shed his mortal coil and gone onto whatever version of the afterlife awaits him...as I noted awhile back, I thought this Special Comment from Keith Olbermann was an appropriate response to this (maybe Big Time will get the chance to accidentally shoot someone in the face in Gehenna; I give Cheney credit for pushing back against Bronzer Beelzebub, which is more than Dubya did, but when it comes to Cheney’s good deeds, that’s the beginning and end of a very short list)...



...and Cenk Uygur of TYT gives us a commentary noting that Cheney was arguably the greatest fear of former President Eisenhower; Cheney spoke on that panel when #44 was president (oooh, scary black man wearing tan suit doesn’t defend us...GMAFB!)...



...and this shows Cheney’s neighbors toppling a makeshift statue of him in effigy near his home in Jackson Hole, Wyoming in August 2007 (a nod to this, with the crowd chanting “No More Iraq War” and “Impeach Cheney First”)...



Update: More here.

...and turning to the ruin from our current Republican presidential administration, Rachel Maddow discusses all kinds of negative polling for Cantaloupe Capone (including CNN, with a disapproval rating higher now than when it was in the aftermath of 1/6...also, most polled believe we’re losing our global standing; additionally, #47 has a 54 percent disapproval on the destruction of the east wing of the White House...also, according to an ABC/WaPo poll, the die-hards in favor of Don The Con are down to 20 percent, and #47 is also polling badly on Israel/Gaza, running the government overall and those stinking damn tariffs...also, ripping off the DOJ for $230 million is polling about as well as you would expect...also, I know it’s good that we have a higher polling number for No Kings than MAGA, but I’m a little stunned that that number isn’t higher than 43 percent (glad to hear Maddow cheering that on, though); I guess some people will just never learn...



...and speaking of our current ruling cabal, Trevor Hayes of More Perfect Union investigated hundreds of Trump donors to “follow the money”...oh, and of course, Couch Boy doesn’t tell us that the reason Mango Mussolini went after Google was because #47’s account was suspended after the 1/6 insurrection...looks like our tech behemoths all gave Don The Con at least a mil each for #47’s inauguration because there aren’t any rules apparently on that sort of thing (at some point, assuming we turn things around, we’re going to have to put up so many guardrails in our federal government over the Gropenfuhrer’s excesses that it will be beyond belief, and the “R” party will be kicking and screaming every step of the way of course)...and oh yeah, it looks like the CFPB has been neutered under Pumpkin Pol Pot, just to let you know...report tells us about all of the tech giants (Google, Apple, Meta, etc.) making out like bandits under our current regime, including Apple’s exemptions from those beyond ridiculous tariffs (“a bribe with extra steps” indeed)...1 in 3 lawsuits brought by the government against Big Tech have been dropped by the regime of Dementia J. Trump...all the dough that supposedly went into #47’s inauguration might collectively be the biggest slush fund of all time...and $2 million for Chevron to operate in Venezuela, huh? Nah, Don The Con isn’t blowing up all of those boats and killing people without accountability for oil, huh? Not much he isn’t...and Boeing got in on the action too of course, since they needed legal cover what with their 737s falling out of the sky, resulting in mass casualties...as Hayes notes, all of this is only the tip of the metaphorical iceberg; we’ll likely never know about all of the people and various entities who paid off Our Treasonous Orange Pustule to get what they want...



...and for anyone in the “garden state” reading this, today is the day to vote for Mikie Sherrill for governor (more here)...



...and Canada responds to the Gropenfuhrer’s tariff increase over the “Saint Reagan” ad, courtesy of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert...sorry about the Blue Jays also, and kudos to Boyertown’s Trey Yesavage – they had a hell of a run...



...and happy 85th birthday to Delbert McClinton.

Monday Stuff

Emma Vigeland of The Majority Report brings us a clip of working mothers discussing what the loss of SNAP benefits will do to them and their families...and as it turns out, there is a SNAP contingency fund that Cantaloupe Capone could tap into, which would partially cover the loss of SNAP, but of course #47 won’t do that because the cruelty is the point...and oh yeah, let’s not forget that the Repug-run U.S. House has been on an extended vacation FOR OVER A FREAKING MONTH because MAGA Mike Johnson won’t swear in Dem Rep Adelita Grijalva since she would be the 218th signature on the discharge petition to release the Epstein files (under the heading of part of the reason behind the shutdown, which happens ONLY WHEN REPUGS ARE IN CHARGE)...and for the bonkers point of view on this subject, I give you Repug guv Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma (oh, the “rainy day” fund in his state is only for a “state” problem and not a “federal” problem; somehow I don’t think the people in his state who will go hungry care about the difference)...NSFW/H because of a completely true comment by Matt Lech (the Capitol switchboard phone number is 202-224-3121, as mentioned)...

...and for another insane point of view related to doing without SNAP, I give you Repug U.S. House Rep Clay Higgins here (meanwhile, while Higgins yells about SNAP, Trump gets his golden ballroom and tries to shake down his own DOJ for $230 million...more on Higgins here and here).

Here's the Majority Report clip...



...and Tennessee Brando tells us about the ex-cop from that state who was jailed for posting an anti-Trump meme (which, basically, was a quote from #47 applied to the Charlie Kirk murder in which the Gropenfuhrer said “we have to get over it” concerning school shootings, which is typically awful from Cheetoh Benito)...and I’m sorry, but I think the whole “community anxiety” rationale for the cops to go after this guy was basically a pretense for “don’t you DARE criticize someone who’s a conservative hero to us (meaning Kirk)”...that being said, I think this Bushart guy should have taken down the post when he was asked to by the cops, even though he shouldn’t have had to do that; yeah, the whole notion of jailing someone over a meme is bonkers unless it’s a threat to harm someone, which this wasn’t of course...Brando is spot-on though IMO to say that this is pretty much all about MAGA wanting revenge on anybody they dislike...”the party of cancel culture” for sure...more here (slightly NSFW/H)...



...and Chris Hayes informs us that the whole MAGA “third term” fantasy is Trump faking strength...and it looks like “MAGA Mike” Johnson is suffering from the same mental delusions as his boss; yeah, Repugs are looking good over the shutdown mess (uh, no)...and leave it to meth head Bannon to give away the game on a third term for Bronzer Beelzebub in ’28; just keep running your mouth on that and see how that works for you (I’m sure our cattle ranchers and soybean farmers would like a word)...



...and under the heading of “getting over it” (concerning the Brando clip), I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” (more or less) from 11/4/16, in which that phrase is uttered by Trump-supporting women voters in response to sexual assault allegations against Cantaloupe Capone (with Cenk and Ana of TYT)...yep, Heaven forbid that Dear Orange Leader is questioned in any way, which has worked out exactly as an adult with a functioning brain synapse could have predicted (and yes, this Carol Robertson person is indeed a “deplorable”...I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; there is definitely “Obama hatred” in this country, as well as “Biden hatred,” but there is NO HATRED in this country like “Clinton hatred,” which is pretty much a religion for a hell of a lot of people)...definitely NSFW/H...



...and I thought this was a particularly timely take from Mr. Newberger on the shut down and those miscreants who are most responsible...



...and as long as we're in a bit of a blues idiom you might say, I thought I'd include this number to get the week started.