Wednesday Stuff

David Shuster of Rebel HQ lets us know that architects have warned that Trump’s ballroom is a national embarrassment, doubling the size of the main White House building (and still more lies from Combover Caligula about the existing architecture not being touched or whatever...and as far as this “first lady” is concerned, losing that office is likely NBD to her since she probably isn’t there much anyway)...and I think that 33 percent approval is too high, but I realize those are the Trumpist cult life forms on that one...and yes, Our Treasonous Orange Pestilence has violated yet another law, this time not clearing his wretched plans through the National Capital Planning Commission (I mean, they’d flag what #47 is doing anyway, which is likely the reason they’re being left out of this mess)...and if #47 says this cluster will cost $300 million, you can be sure the amount will actually be at least double (here are some of the other guilty parties)...oh, and some of that dough will supposedly come from the $230 million he expects from the DOJ (in essence, suing the U.S. taxpayer?) Typical gall from this flatulent meat sack...GREAT point by Shuster about Repug congressional silence, and that includes this guy...and Jessica Tarlov should get a medal at least for continuing to drop her truth bombs on those miscreants at The Roger Ailes BS Factory...



...and Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report tells us that hundreds of pro-Trump X accts are actually foreign bots...leave it to Apartheid Clyde to stumble into doing the right thing (rolling out the new feature to increase transparency, albeit to drive engagement and ad revenue as Figueredo says by posting ever-crazier stuff), and also step on a huge metaphorical rake in the process, finding out that “America First” accounts are originating in Russia (of course), India, Pakistan, Nigeria (!), Thailand and the UAE, among other places...didn’t know that bots now make up the majority of online traffic, but I suppose that tracks (you can be sure that I’m a flesh and blood human though, my fellow prisoners)...and sadly, I also believe this will get worse because of generative AI...and it’s pretty plain that Elmo is messing around with Grok also, something that actually does work the way it should, a bit anyway...and the “throat goat”? I think I need to be de-loused after hearing that...NSFW/H...



...and given that we’re in the busiest time of the year for folks on the move, I thought I’d include this CBC report on Canada travel to the US dipping sharply in October, marking the 9th month of declines, because of the Gropenfuhrer (about 24% for air travel and 30% for land travel, included in a 6.3% drop in international visits and about a 3% drop in tourism spending, adding up to a loss of about 5.7 billion over last year)... with CBC reporter Jennifer LaGrassa, Prof. Usha Haley and US restaurant general manager Bob DiMattia...of course, we’re hoping for folks to come for the FIFA World Cup and the 250th, but I think we’re “whistling in the dark” on that one...we’ll see...



..and Robert Reich informs us of what Pumpkin Pol Pot is doing to Thanksgiving, with more on #47’s price increases, with turkey up 40%, partly because he’s fired scientists and bird flu experts while the avian flu wreaks havoc; also, his CDC and Department of Agriculture cut off reporting to states on this outbreak, so there’s no coordination on fighting back...he also rolled back anti-monopoly policies intended to at least slow down mergers of food companies that exacerbates price gouging...also, those stinking tariffs adding what’s essentially an import tax worsens this mess also, particularly since we import so much of our food (and with respect, I don’t expect our “conservative relatives” to see ANYTHING on this...I know I mentioned the plight of our farmers earlier in that More Perfect Union clip from a day or so ago)...



..and Seth Meyers presents another “A Closer Look,” including Cantaloupe Capone’s weird turkey pardon...and dressing like a Swarthmore English Lit prof, huh?...it’s actually painful to watch this babbling idiot go on about Illinois Dem guv J.B. Pritzker and Hunter Biden (and as if Combover Caligula has the right to criticize ANYBODY for being overweight)...and oh yeah, we had gang members, drug dealers and rapists walking through our open borders, but all that’s been fixed now (treated once more to Dementia Donnie’s Greatest Hits, though I guess “grass beef and smoothies” is a newer number)...oh, and he’s still going after his political enemies of course even though their cases were thrown out, including “Leticia” James...and let’s also not forget Marjorie “Traitor” Brown – yep, that last lonely synapse in #47’s noggin is flickering again...and his name is the sound you make when you sit in a golf cart – good one...



...and this might be the last newer tune for a little while, but as with all things concerning this site, it’s up in the air – just in case, here it is.

Tuesday Stuff

Yasmin Khan of Rebel HQ tells us about Fix Noise trying to spin the Jeffey Epstein files story into a “Democrat hoax” and failing (once more, Jessica Tarlov brings the reality perspective to that gaggle of idiots on that propaganda network)...and as far as Hakeem Jeffries is concerned, he wouldn’t be in the role he’s in unless the donor class gave its seal of approval, which speaks volumes to me about how he is NOT the voice we need in the U.S. House (despite random moments when he shows a flash of leadership)...and of course, leave it to Kilmeade to come up with “Yeah, well, so-and-so mentioned Jeffries and that’s enough,” and Gutfeld joins in with the borderline “ad hom” because he has no other way to respond...also, Harry Enten brings the polling numbers which are pretty much indisputably bad on Epstein in particular for the Gropenfuhrer...and Lawrence Jones’s idiotic “let’s blame the people wanting the damn files released” take on this is pretty much DOA...



...and David Pakman discusses ABC’s Jonathan Karl holding Kevin (“Human Capital Stock”) Hassett to account on the economy, particularly over that ridiculous “Walmart’s Thanksgiving Prices Are Cheaper” nonsense line (you couldn’t pay me enough to actually eat food from Walmart, by the way)...and “The prices didn’t go up because of the tariffs, but they are going to go down because we’re removing the tariffs”...I’ll tell you what; if anybody out there can make sense of that, please let me know and I’ll turn this blog over to you and let you write these posts, OK? And I think this is a pretty good response to Hassett’s BS from CNN’s Daniel Dale...



...meanwhile, Ali Velshi of MS NOW gives us some reality on the economy, with numbers from September...the unemployment rate is 4.4% which is the highest in four years, though, as with everything else, the trends are what matter (and I don’t expect that they’ll be good)...not sure exactly why black women have been hit so hard in this economy (more than any other demographic), though I could guess I suppose, maybe because of the carnage this administration has wrought on the federal workforce and DEI initiatives...Velshi speaks with Justin Wolfers and Caleb Silver...”Uncertainty is kryptonite” indeed, for everybody...along with everybody else, I’m hearing that AI is driving our economy; I hope we’re prepared for that not being the case at a certain point, and I don’t see that we are...we’ve just experienced the weakest January through September in the US labor market in 15 years, with the exception of the ’20 COVID shutdown (and we know who was prez for that)...and Silver says “stagflation,” which confirms my worst fears that we would be looking at this in Q4...Wolfers in particular does a good job IMO in explaining how #47 drones on about “affordability” without having the remotest idea of what to do about it...I’m a little uncomfortable with Velshi’s phrase “the black economy,” but overall he’s a pretty straight shooter...”Manufacturing is what rich people think poor people should do” is likely correct; that said, it’s think it’s a good thing to see an increase in enrollment in trade schools...



...and Jesse Dollemore discusses the “big fat ‘L’” with the James Comey and Letitia James cases being dismissed because Lindsey Halligan was improperly named as prosecutor without Senate confirmation, according to the ruling (and yeah, Merrick Garland moving at a glacial pace on some of the prosecutions under Biden helped to bring us to this point)...I’m not a legal professional in any way whatsoever, but what does it tell you about our regime that they thought they could prosecute based on indictments that weren’t even presented to a full grand jury?...(mildly NSFW/H)...



...and harking back to the first clip a bit, Mr. Newberger gives us the “Epstein-O-Matic” (laughing through clenched teeth a bit on this one I realize)...



...and RIP Jimmy Cliff.

Monday Stuff

Leave it to our awful ruling regime under the guise of fake Education Secretary Linda McMahon to decertify nursing as a professional degree, limiting access to funding for those who want to pursue nursing as a college course of study...this report informs us of a student in rural Kentucky who commendably is trying to continue her education as a nurse practitioner in light of this boneheaded policy (more here and here...and this gaggle of idiots is likely coming for liberal arts also in 3,2,1)...



...also, Cheetoh Benito removed references to dead Native Americans getting kidnapped and murdered in a report that was mandated by Congress as part of a bill signed into law under the first awful Trump administration (and here’s a shocker – it truly was bipartisan legislation, supported by Senate Dem Catherine Cortez Masto and Repug Markwayne Mullin)...of course, Our Treasonous Orange Meat Sack claimed the report is “DEI,” so the report got sh*tcanned (Farron Cousins tells us about it)...



...and this report from Sam Black at More Perfect Union informs us that farm bankruptcies in Arkansas (especially soybeans, but also affecting cotton, corn and rice) have doubled, and to be fair, this is a problem that has been brewing since before Cantaloupe Capone 2.0 took over given that we’ve been importing so much of our food for a good while, and those damn mergers and acquisitions are part of the problem also, including Bayer and Monsanto which actually was completed in 2018 under Our Treasonous Orange Pestilence 1.0 (and $560 billion in farm debt this year? God almighty...our farmers need help with paying for materials to run their businesses as well as trying to level the market for them somehow)...there HAS TO BE A WAY for the dough promised by our politicians to get into the hands of our farmers instead of into the pockets of the people they owe...watching the gentleman driving through that gutted and deserted Arkansas town makes me realize how folks could give up hope and turn to a politician peddling easy answers to complex issues (losing 300k farms since 1997...just no words at a certain point, except to also blame those stinking “free” trade deals, and both of our political parties are culpable on that...I knew that Scott Bessent, a former hedge fund manager, owned a lot of farm land, though I would except that he has never picked a single crop in his life)...at a minimum, we need to repair our obviously broken supply management system, though of course “Big Ag” will fight that with all they have...

...and I guess I’m supposed to feel some sympathy for Marjorie Train Wreck Greene, now that she’s leaving the U.S. House after falling out of favor with the Tangerine Toddler...well, I don’t; this clip with Nina Turner from about two years ago brings us Greene pushing back against a battery plant in her district (more here...”we’re the Bible belt, not the battery belt”...OWWW, THE STOO-PID!!! IT BURNS US!)...and for all of those out there thinking, “oh, she’s so courageous to stand up to Mango Mussolini,” I would ask that you keep in mind the following: 1) Just wait until she resurfaces at some point on a podcast with The Swanson TV Dinner Heir and/or Nick Fuentes, and 2) This is more proof that the political violence in this country is coming from the right and not the left; does anyone seriously think Greene would do this if, say, Jasmine Crockett or Ilhan Omar had said something borderline threatening, which I don’t think they’d do anyway?...



...and I think Mr. Newberger has come up with another appropriate response here...



...and RIP drummer Gilson Lavis of Squeeze.

Friday Stuff

Mr. and Mrs. Scar bring us the story of Catholics forming a united front against detention and deportation of immigrants, and that includes Pope Leo commendably speaking out on their behalf, along with other faith leaders getting slammed to the ground by the ICE Gestapo in Chicago at this Broadview facility (with reporter Britt Miller, immigration advocate Dylan Corbett, Willie Geist, and Gabriel Sherman)...and I’m not one bit surprised to find out that almost three quarters of those detained are NOT criminals, since the fear and intimidation is the point (and OF COURSE clergy was refused the chance to administer Holy Communion)...and remind me again about which president the fundie nut jobs supported, the practicing Catholic or Our Treasonous Orange Pustule (from what I’ve seen, the Episcopalian Church has been pretty steadfast on social justice issues, which the Catholic Church has been kind of hit-and-miss on, especially under Pope Benny)...and if Couch Boy and Mush Mouth Tom Homan are alleged Catholics, then I’m a Chinese aviator...



...and to emphasize the importance of Pope Leo’s words, MS NOW’s Alicia Menendez brings us the story of Vicente Ventura Aguilar, who has been detained in ICE custody for at least 44 days; while in detention, he suffered what was called a “medical emergency” and now apparently has gone missing somehow, with Aguilar’s family believing him to be dead (in addition to being supremely evil, it’s plain that the Trumpers are also incompetent)...and to “work like Amazon Prime but for human beings”; I’m sure Pee Wee German heard that and felt what passes for a stir in his manhood...Menendez speaks with reporter David Noriega and Lindsey Toczylowski, President and CEO of Immigrant Defenders Law Center...



...and John and Sharon Reed of The Damage Report bring us the story of a Texas woman who died after being told she couldn’t get an abortion...another casualty from the SCOTUS destroying Roe, though I’m sure our six Philistines on the High Court won’t regard it as such...preeclampsia can be a deadly consequence of pregnancy, and tragically, that’s what happened here at 20 weeks...also, it’s definitely the case here that the woman was looked upon as pretty much an incubator of her fetus and not as a person with agency to make her own health care decisions...and 90 doctors were involved in her care, but nobody helped her to abort the pregnancy??!! Yeah, just keep telling me that we have the greatest health care system in the world...while I laugh in your face (as much as I give the Catholic Church credit for the prior story, I wish nothing but a pox on them for playing a role in leading us to this utterly barbaric moment)...



...and Jerrod Zisser of Ring of Fire lets us know about a massive THC ban tucked away in the government spending bill, affecting people needing medical cannabis and CBD products for all kinds of reasons, including sleep (saying products can contain no more than 0.4 percent of THC per container, which is basically nothing...this bill apparently also gets rid of a provision allowing VA doctors to prescribe medical cannabis)...fortunately, it looks like there’s a one-year ban before this takes effect, so we definitely have a chance to fix this...



...and Tennessee Brando tells us that Pumpkin Pol Pot has now gone on record on calling for the execution of Democratic lawmakers, and I realize that’s the logical result of the deterioration of what passes for our politics under this treasonous orange meat sack...you would think he and his lizard-brained followers would realize they need to tamp that stuff down after the Charlie Kirk killing, but no such luck...good point by Brando that amplifying that garbage, coming form the POTUS, is likely worse than if #47 had said that himself, though that would be awful too (and good for Brando for not giving “faith leaders” a pass on this stuff, like this Joel Webbon nut case I mentioned on Wednesday...mildly NSFW/H)...



...and Ali Velshi speaks with Dem U.S. House candidate Aftyn Behn, running for the TN-07 seat...affordability is a big-time issue up not just in Tennessee but everywhere, and addressing that starts with restoring the credits for the ACA which Trump and his minions destroyed as a result of the shutdown (and while the Senate may vote on the credits – maybe–MAGA Mike Johnson has no interest in doing that in the House)...oh, and gutting Medicaid also ended up shuttering rural hospitals and closing wards such as those for OB/GYN services and maternity care, as well as end-of-life care...so much to be done to rescue our economy from Cheetoh Benito, and it starts with booting every single goddamn Republican...



...and Stephen Colbert gives us a “Late Show” news update...fighting back “tooth and cankle” on the Epstein files – good one (is ANYONE going to just take away this orange nightmare’s cell phone at some point so he stops with these “War and Peace” rants on Truth Septic?)...and I wonder if we can just call her Pam “New Information” Bondi now? And good one about Kash “Terrified, Or The Edibles Just Kicked In” Patel – I mean, yeah, this is all pathetic, but as far as I’m concerned, we need to find a way to laugh at these cretins...oh, and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy thinks that all it takes to solve our flying woes is for everyone to dress up like it’s the 1950s and we’re visiting the doctor; God almighty, what a gaggle of idiots we have in charge of the federal government (and I hope Nancy Sinatra files a cease and desist order about that tune selection)...love the Fix Noise “poll”; watch that trash network actually use it now...



..and happy upcoming 75th birthday to Tina Weymouth of Talking Heads and the Tom-Tom Club.

Thursday Stuff

Robert Reich tells us about “Mickey D’s” seeing a double-digit dip in lower and middle-income customers over the first quarter of the year, which is definitely part of a disturbing trend of income consolidation between the wealthy and everyone else...I’m old enough to remember John Edwards talking about “two Americas” and how he was ridiculed for it, and here’s proof that he was right (and yes, I know he set his political career on fire over a highly transparent infidelity)...I’m also old enough to remember Bill Clinton talking about how this country is the biggest service economy in the world (not sure of that now) and how job growth is dependent across a variety of industries (retail, hospitality, entertainment, all the way up to white collar service jobs, unionized and non-unionized, etc.)...you would think both of our major political parties would get that, but as far as I can see, only one does...



...and speaking of income inequality, Tennessee Brando lets us know that the Tangerine Toddler wants McDonald’s workers to get paid less...you would think he’d be trying to cut those employees a break after this – and yes, I know that’s a bad joke (tied a bit to the Reich clip)...good point by Brando about prices only going in one direction, which NO PRESIDENT can affect one way or the other to be honest...important to emphasize (as Brando points out) that SNAP recipients ALREADY ARE WORKING, AND OFTEN MULTIPLE JOBS, and how it continues to be good sport I guess for selfish people to punch down at others perceived to be lazy or delinquent in some way and that’s why they’re in dire straits...”if we tax them, they’ll take our jobs”; yep, that’s how those one percent bastards hang onto power all right (NSFW/H)...



...and David Pakman tells us about Mango Mussolini’s “quiet, piggy” remark to reporter Catherine Lucey...with all of the “flood the zone” madness from this trash fire of a presidential administration, I realize there are other matters to address, but some, like this, are too odious to ignore...again, the entitlement is the point as far as I’m concerned...what Pumpkin Pol Pot manages to get away with is continually part of an absolutely sickening double standard (and I’m sure the Epstein files have been expurgated every way over Sunday by now...love to be wrong)...”Trump has broken the machinery of shame” indeed...



...and Rachel Maddow brings us the story of the town of Newport, Oregon pushing back against an ICE prison (and yes, I think Dungeness crabs are delicious)...oh, and leave it to Our Demented Orange Toddler to take away the town’s Coast Guard rescue helicopter that’s needed in case of an accident involving anyone fishing for crab (which is something anyone who has watched “The Deadliest Catch” would know about, to say nothing of doing that incredibly dangerous work for real)...sooo, apparently the Coast Guard facility is intended to be converted into an ICE prison (secretly, of course)...to the town’s credit, they protested and now the contractor has backed out (though, apparently, some secretive person or entity is STILL trying to build an ICE detention center in the area)...Maddow speaks with Oregon state rep David Gomberg...



...and Ronny Chieng of The Daily Show informs us of Marjorie Trailer Park Greene acting like a normal human being against Cantaloupe Capone (and as a reminder, that’s because family members need the ACA credits that just got sh*tcanned...if it weren’t affecting her personally, she definitely wouldn’t care)...and yeah, there’s more on those files (important as it is to keep that front and center in our media I know)...also, don’t expect an iota of sympathy from me when it comes to Larry Summers, who I always thought was out of his depth economically, and now morally too, or so it appears...and I’m not one bit surprised that Clay Higgins was the ONLY MEMBER OF CONGRESS to vote against releasing the damn files (including the Senate)...and OH MY FREAKING GOD, I CAN’T WITH THE DAMN ACCORDION HANDS!!!...and oh yeah, about Mohammed Bone Saw and Jamal Khashoggi, there is this – Josh Johnson also gives his take on this also (kind of hit and miss, but that’s OK...NSFW/H)...



...and this tune hit #1 on the Billboard chart on this day in 1955.

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.