Pic is from DC, I believe (and Michael Moore and Ashley Judd really tore it up, by the way - I'll try to post video if I can find it...and Alicia Keys wasn't bad either - more here)...
Think she'll ever vote Republican?...
From Philly, at Eakins Oval...
In Austin, TX...
Paris (of course)...
Barcelona, Spain...
Berlin...
Closer to home, this was the scene in Doylestown, Pa…
London, at Trafalgar Square…
Amsterdam, The Netherlands…
St. Louis, Missouri, USA...
Park City, Utah…
Accra, Ghana…
Athens, Greece…
Santiago, Chile…
Wellington, New Zealand…
Nairobi, Kenya, the birthplace of President Obama (#joke)…
Lilongwe, Malawi…
Marseilles, France…
Antarctica (for real)...
Indianapolis, Indiana…
Los Angeles...
Boston…
Raleigh, North Carolina…
Mexico City...
Sioux Falls, South Dakota…
Sydney, Australia...
..and here is Gloria Steinem speaking at the rally in New York City…
…I think you get the idea – if I find pics for locations I haven’t already covered, I’ll add them here.
And I think this is an appropriate “nasty girl” tune.
I guess it’s time that we take as much of a look as we can stomach at the cabinet nominees of Generalissimo Trump, and Chris Hayes talks to Sen. Ben Cardin about HHS Secretary nominee Tom Price, Repug (of course) congressman from Georgia (I have a lot of issues with Price, particularly since he has advocated for the utter destruction of the Affordable Care Law, but this is the proverbial cherry on the icing of the crap cake as far as I’m concerned, namely, the whole “hip stock” thing)…
…and Kyle K. discusses Bernie Sanders’s questioning of Betsy DeVos, Education Secretary Nominee (NSFW – Kyle’s last 4 minutes here are particularly awesome IMHO)…
…and Sen. Elizabeth Warren speaks with a lady who got totally screwed over by Steve Mnuchin, Treasury Secretary Nominee, when Mnuchin was at OneWest Bank (and this is a minor point I know, but Mnuchin was also executive producer for “Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice”…I tried to watch it, but it was boring and incoherent, so I shut it off)…
…and Sam Bee talks with Masha Gessen about what we can do in response (besides drink ourselves into a stupor, of course)…
…and I would say that our transition into “Amerika” is already underway based on stories like this (and here is more on the human garbage associated with the bill in question)…
…and Thom Hartmann tells us about Obama’s final speech – typically hitting the right notes as you might expect…
…also, Rachel Maddow reports on Number 44’s accomplishments (and boy, is she right at the very end)…
…and I’ve had this tune in mind for what is yet to come, mainly for the title (this video was also the subject of one of the funniest episodes of Beavis and Butthead that I ever saw).
Update 1: I don’t know about you, but I’ve been hearing a lot of sunny optimism from people I work with and regularly interact with in my life along the lines of “let’s wish the new president luck” (and you can file my relative silence in response under the heading of not making waves with my employer, lest I be branded an “unfriendly” which could have an impact of my job and prospects for potential professional development).
These comments are coming from hard-working people who do a lot of commendable things in their lives I’m sure, and I’m grateful that a few of them are actually my friends. And I’d like to make sure it stays that way.
However, I don’t know exactly what it says about these individuals that they apparently think the prior political campaign for president was something approximating what you might consider to be normal.
I guess it’s fine with them that the eventual winner of the contest for president was openly supported by white supremacists, and his campaign rallies regularly featured incitements of violence (as well as actual incidents of violence), particularly against the Democratic opponent as well as anyone considered to be an “other” and not a member of the collective “hive” in support of President Donald Drumpf. And I guess it’s also fine with them that the eventual winner of this mess benefited to no small extent from Russian hacking, massive attacks on our voting process to invalidate the ballots of Democratic voters, subversion by a rogue FBI director and office in New York, sanitation of the thoroughly odious record of the Republican candidate by our completely compromised Beltway courtier media (featuring what likely translated into millions of dollars’ worth of free publicity), and what I would call the stupefying incompetence of the campaign of the Democratic candidate (as well as the mind-numbingly idiotic exercise on the part of the “Bernie or Bust” crowd on our side who, out of hand, discounted any move towards the “Democratic wing of the Democratic Party” as Dr. Dean once called it, by our party’s nominee for president).
Oh, and I guess it’s also fine with them that, if the roles were reversed and the Democrat had benefited from all of this at the expense of the Republican, the loser’s party would be rioting in the streets with their guns at this very moment.
In fewer words (and I know this is not an original observation), what we are seeing is not normal. It is wrong. It is NOT the way our political process is supposed to work – not even close. And if ANY ONE OF US act as if it is, then all we are doing is validating something that, if something approximating justice is eventually done, will surely one day lead to prison sentences or million-dollar fines against selected individuals at a minimum.
NO, this is not “normal” under even the loosest definition of the word. And anyone who acts as if it is somehow is either a mindless Pollyanna, a willful criminal or a craven liar.
Asked for his reaction to the address, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Trump’s remarks were “a continuation” of his campaign rhetoric. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) had a nearly identical reaction, saying the new president’s message was “very consistent” with Trump’s pre-election pitch.
There will be no pivot. The Donald J. Trump we saw riding down an escalator in New York 19 months ago is the same Donald J. Trump who’s on his way to the Oval Office. The nuances of his personality don’t really exist. What we saw is what we have and we’ll get.
The result was an inaugural address intended for Trump’s base – and no one else. Those waiting for an uplifting message were left wanting. The expected olive branches were set on fire.
The speech was, to be sure, deeply and unapologetically populist, which was only surprising because I thought everyone knew better by now. Sure, Trump exploited populist anger throughout his campaign, but during the transition period, the new president appointed billionaires and Washington insiders to help lead his administration, started selling access to megadonors, and moved forward with an agenda built on tax cuts for the wealthy elite.
Isn’t it a little late for faux-populism about “giving [power] back to you, the American people”? Are there still people who heard this address and believed it?
Yeah, I’d say this was prescient – from “A Face In The Crowd,” of course…
…and K.O. tells us what we all must do tomorrow (going out of order with his great “Resistance” clips again - NSFW)…
…and RIP Wayne Barrett (here), one of the finest investigative reporters of all time (and by the way, he spent years covering those in the orbit, you might say, of soon-to-be President-For-Real Fergus Laing, including Rudy 9iu11ani, as demonstrated in the clip)…
After President Obama was first elected to office, I can remember a headline from The Onion to the effect of “Nation Elects Black Man To Come In And Clean Up Mess Made By White Man.”
Gotta love The Onion…
Yeah, I’m old enough to remember how the horrid cabal of Former President Highest Disapproval Rating In Gallup Poll History left one Barack H. Obama with more of a ruinous mess than any president had ever left a successor in modern history. Yes, Herbert Hoover left FDR with probably the worst economic crisis of all time, but what Obama inherited was the second, and he had to figure out how to bring two wars to an end as well (yeah, I know he didn’t do it in Afghanistan, and he also didn’t close GITMO either, but you need a Congress that’s actually going to act like adults instead of partisan children to do this stuff). And I can also recall how the miscreants under Number 43 once acted like it wasn’t a question of whether this country would suffer another 9/11-type attack, but when.
So what did Number 44 end up doing? Here is a comprehensive (though, I would imagine, incomplete) list.
As far as I’m concerned, what President and Mrs. Obama accomplished (along with VP Joe Biden and the rest of the Obama Administration) was nothing short of miraculous.
So, with that in mind, I present the following video selections as a tribute, with my great, everlasting thanks…
You lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas (and some of those fleas have nicknames, apparently)...
...and the lady profiled in the story has my sympathies and I hope and pray all goes well for her, but seriously, what else did you expect Republicans to do, including President-Elect Twitter Tantrum Baby? (the video was cut a bit at the end before Dee Dee Ward said, “my side” – and yeah, that’s about what you can expect from that lying sack of shit Ron Johnson – heckuva job, all you voters who returned him, “No Corporate Tax” Pat Toomey, and the rest of that sorry lot last November)...
…and as his time winds down, sadly, President Obama reflects on what he considers his worst day, and it’s hard to argue with this - we all know the reason nothing happened and I'm not saying we shouldn't be outraged about it any more, but I'm only saying we should conserve our energy for the many battles on this and other issues that still will have to be fought unfortunately…
…and I always thought this was kind of a contemplative song, so here it is.
…and when the comparisons to Nixon have already started and President-Elect Big Orange Cheetoh hasn’t even been sworn in yet – yeah, that’s pretty ugly (and why is this not the least bit surprising - to be fair, Rachel Maddow doesn't provide the exact chronology of the quotes of how this started, though I defend Lewis of course)...
...but Chris Hayes does, talking with Dem Congressman Tim Waltz and Congresswoman Barbara Lee…
…and I had this tune in mind as a tribute to astronaut Gene Cernan, who just left us.
I’ve put up a portion of this video in the past, but I found the whole speech by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the Barratt School in Philadelphia on October 26, 1967, so I’m including this here (and this post from 11 years ago is still timely as far as I’m concerned)…
…and returning to the present day, I think it should be noted that Dr. King was very concerned about economic opportunity also (here)…
A courageous Carl's Jr. worker calls out Trump's nominee to head the Labor Dept. Tell your senators to oppose Andrew Puzder: 202-224-3121 pic.twitter.com/rtBK5iwNBL
Kudos to the U.S. Senate Democrats for standing firm against repeal of the ACA, which they should do anyway, but still credit where it’s due (and to say that Mike Enzi is a cretinous lying assh*le is the understatement of the new year – “responsible fiscal path”? “Out of control spending”? Mammoth national debt”? “Broken health care system”? Read this, you piece of shit – more here...and here).
And by the way, to learn more about rallies this weekend in support of the ACA, click here (and here)…
…and I know I’m way behind on the stuff with the Repugs trying to steamroll the governmental ethics oversight office (here), but well done by all of those who stood up in response (and why is this not the least bit surprising?)…
House Republicans tried to make ethics their first victim this session. Thank goodness people were paying attention! pic.twitter.com/6jMGbDelYg
...and I thought this was an interesting take by Thom Hartmann on congressional oversight of the Supreme Court, by the way (long but important warmup - gets to the meat of it at about 6:00, and Steve King of all people is behind it; you really have to worry about the "children of the corn" in King's district who keep sending him back to Washington every two years...and I hope Hartmann is right that it won't happen, but we didn't think "Fergus Laing" would actually win the election either, did we?)...
…and yeah, I understand the fact that some Dems facing re-election, including PA’s Bob Casey, made the calculation to oppose Bernie Sanders’s amendment to import cheaper drugs because they get some nice campaign contributions from the pharma bros (and that goes for Cory Booker and Tom Carper too), but their opposition still utterly stinks…
…and K.O. wonders what the hell President-Elect Big Orange Cheetoh will do about our epidemic of gun violence – do you really need to ask? And by the way, this is one of the best interpretations of the Second Amendment that I’ve ever heard...
…and you KNEW I wasn’t going to let go of this item from this week, didn’t you (yeah, isn't it a hoot to hear all of our Repug “friends” caterwauling about what could be fake news biting back at THEM, even though they had no problem sprinkling it, metaphorically speaking, all over HRC…? And NSFW by the way)...
…and 55 years ago today, comedian Ernie Kovacs was killed in an auto accident in Los Angeles – can’t tell you I was a huge fan, though he definitely was inventive and paved the way for others to follow…
…and I guess you could call this an almost obligatory tune for this day and date.
Just keep telling yourself that President-Elect Big Orange Cheetoh and his pal Exxon-Mobil chairman Rex Tillerson don’t have a financial incentive in sucking up to their buddy Vlad Putin – uh huh…
…and I’m actually going to take a bit of a break from all of the “Fergus Laing”-related crap and give you this item of Samantha Bee telling us about a high-profile white guy with hurt fee fees (GMAFB - somewhat NSFW)…
Gosh, I didn’t know Generalissimo Trump was a fan of water sports - heh (here – and Cenk and John of TYT tell us more revelations here…and when it comes to the truly stomach-turning stuff, soon-to-be Number 45 – ugh – said the charges were disgusting, which they are, but he didn’t say they weren’t true)…
…and Thom Hartmann brings us more analysis here…
…and K.O. does us a service here by trying to patch together all of the tweets from President-Elect Tiny Hands about Russia and the hacking – can’t imagine the effort he’s putting into all of the lying and trying to keep his various stories straight – truly delusional (not referring to Olbermann of course)…
…and Shep Smith stands tall once more in response to this idiocy…
…and President-Elect Big Orange Cheetoh is also proposing what I would consider disastrous cuts in funding for jobs in renewable energy, as Farron Cousins explains (both for our economy and, more importantly, the environment)...
…and I’m starting to wonder whether or not this should be the ringtone for “Donald Drumpf.”
So President-Elect Twitter Temper Tantrum Baby first says Mexico will pay for his precious stinking wall, but now he’ll try to get taxpayers to pay for it instead. Sad! (and yeah, cause MORE unrest in Mexico and turn the whole damn country into a failed narco state right on our border - GENIUS!! And an update is here.)...
...and once again, Sen. Elizabeth Warren lowers the boom on Repug congressional idiots trying to destroy the Affordable Care Law (here)…
...and Kyle K. tells us about Bernie Sanders trying to speak truth to stoo-pid (namely, to some Fix Noise humanoid) at a town hall; yeah, some specificity on those supposedly burdensome Obama taxes and regulations would be nice (NSFW)…
…and he’s good enough, he’s smart enough, and doggone it…OK, I’ll stop – Sen. Al Franken finds what you would call an inconsistency at the very least (an outright lie at the most) in the testimony of Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III during the hearing for Sessions’ nomination for Attorney General, a particularly ghastly one in the “cabinet of deplorables” from President-Elect Fergus Laing (here)…
...and K.O. brings us the necessary context on whether or not Generalissimo Trump will actually have a news conference tomorrow or not...
...and this is one of the very finest pieces of news reporting and commentary that I’ve yet heard on all of the stuff about Trump and his help from Putin to get elected, and I guess it isn’t surprising that it comes from Shep Smith; great, great work…
...and K.O. is out with #17, taking a calmer demeanor, though I'm fine with the outrage too (and I get the John Edwards thing, by the way, but try reading "Four Trials" first before you call me a rube, OK?)...
…and did somebody say “fake news”? That said, there is very definitely a scheme behind this utter madness, as Rachel Maddow explains…
…and yesterday marked what would have been the 70th birthday of David Bowie – yes, I know I’ve featured a lot of his music, which I think is completely deserved; I can’t think of any genre he worked in where he didn’t excel, and that includes covers like this one.
…and Kyle Kulinski tells us how Bernie Sanders called out PEOTUS Big Orange Cheetoh the way all Dems should (by the way, I don't think trivializing the Putin-related garbage is helpful, Kyle, especially in light of this, as well as this - NSFW)...
…and when I hear this tune, I think of President-Elect Fergus Laing, for what it’s worth.
I'm suddenly behind again on K.O.'s great GQ "Resistance" videos - here is #16, on what the spoiled brat about to ascend to power in this country supposedly knows, or THINKS he knows, about the Russian hacking...
...and Rachel Maddow weighs in on what we can do in response here (though I think the following needs to be pointed out also from here)...
...and at a certain point, I don't think this stuff is so funny anymore, but for now...
...and let's hear it for our friends up north, giving us more food for thought on the whole health care issue in this country...
...and as Cenk & co. tell us here, the U.S. House Repugs are apparently going to shed their phony deficit facade once and for all...
…and I know this is a few days late for the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” from 1/2/12, but given all of the recent electoral garbage involving fake news, I think we should never forget what entity is the “alpha and omega,” if you will, when it comes to that sort of thing - and boy, is that network going to have fun with the departure of "Maniac Megyn" Kelly (here) - now Bill Orally has to anchor the prime-time lineup with Tucker...HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
...and speaking of Billo the Clown, Sam Seder has some words on all the entertainers blowing off the Bund rally for President-Elect Big Orange Cheetoh (to "Falkland Islands" Bill, have another belt, go fall down in a corner somewhere and sleep it off, OK?)…
…and changing the mood again, remember that, in light of this latest gun-related tragedy (here), today is yet another day not to talk about gun control because Heaven forbid that we politicize that issue (here – related info here)…and yes, I’m removing my tongue from my cheek as I type this.
This clip is almost two years old now, but with all the Beltway prattling about “repeal(ing) and replac(ing)” the Affordable Care Law (here), I thought Dem U.S. House Rep John Yarmuth of Kentucky made a pretty damn convincing case for leaving well enough alone here (And I wonder what would happen if we updated his map? I’m sure there would be a lot more red-to-green-or-blue)…
…and Thom H. gives us his theory on who he claims was the last legitimately elected Republican president – Dwight Eisenhower – and yeah, you can argue that I’m biased on this, but it still sounds pretty damn plausible to me…
...and Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks tells us about Nick Smith from coal country…more smarts in his commentary than from all of these supposed Democratic Party Beltway geniuses; no wonder the Dems continue to lose at the polls…
...and I thought this was an interesting take on the whole "fake news" thing...
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper says that Russia was behind "fake news" in 2016.
(Apparently this recently appeared over the Rose Bowl parade - nice work.)
I know, if I were able, that I could probably post forever about the truly awful cabinet nominations of President-Elect Big Orange Cheetoh, but I’m not able to do that – however, I think I should take a moment and ask that you recall the following about former Indiana Repug U.S. Senator Dan Coats, who is apparently being floated for Director of National Intelligence (here).
Yeah, Dan Coats.
The senator who showed up at the wrong hearing (as shown in the following clip).
God help us…
...and kudos to Michael Mann for the ruling allowing him to sue these conservative assh*les for defaming him on the issue of climate science (and for attacking all of the fake news garbage, as Farron Cousins explains here)...
…and Ari Melber talks to Kelly Ward, interim executive director of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, about Democratic plans to correct the redistricting garbage that the Repugs inflicted in 2010 (and even if it means that the Dem U.S. House rep in Florida loses, so be it)…
…and I said I would link to some new music eventually, didn’t I?
This clip runs on a bit, but I think there’s a lot of good information here from Former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich about the rise of totalitarianism in this country…
...and Chris Hayes and media critic Bob Garfield try to dissect the lies of President-Elect Fergus Laing; here’s my idea – tell Big Orange Cheetoh that we don’t trust one goddamn word out of his mouth because he's nothing but a stinking liar (and by the way, if Trump actually cares about credibility - and I'm sure he doesn't - posing with Don King isn't such a good idea)…
…and sticking with press freedom, I’ll remember this item every time I hear about Joe and Mika and the rest of our Beltway political/media/industrial complex regurgitating talking points in truly stenographic fashion (try not to gag on the white wine and sweet and sour shrimp – NSFW)…
...and I thought this was a good report from the BBC about how our incoming Congress is now commendably diverse in terms of race, ethnicity and gender preference…just kidding – it’s still primarily a bunch of rich white guys…
…and speaking of those numbskulls (most of them anyway), I have an update to Rachel Maddow’s video (here) – and anyone who thinks the p*ssy-grabber-in-chief has something to do with it should read this…
…and I think we’re going to need a lot to keep up the fight, and that includes our sense of humor.
I guess this qualifies as an "oopsie" for those Fix Noise miscreants...
…and yeah, those kids trying not to be deported are so looking forward to the inauguration of “Donald Drumpf,” aren’t they (here)?...
…and Kyle and David Pakman both tell us that – whaddaya know? – increasing the federal minimum wage produced no downside…imagine that (NSFW - and more on Australia and the minimum wage is here)…
…and how’s this for an apropos tune to ring in 2017?
