Monday Stuff

You can tell President Biden really hit a nerve with all of the butt-hurt Republicans out there in his Philadelphia speech by merely telling the truth; with that in mind, I thought this was a well-done commentary from Texas Paul at Meidas Touch (NSFW/H)...



....and Trae Crowder has a similar NSFW/H take, with a VPN commercial in the middle of his commentary...hey, we all have to pay the bills somehow...



...and with the prior two clips in mind, I thought Beau made a great point (echoed also here by David Frum)...basically, the best thing for Repug electoral prospects is to having nothing whatsoever to do with Former President Fergus Laing so they can keep prattling on about “Oh, Biden socialism, gas prices, inflation, blah blah blah,” but guess what? Now, with his latest hate-filled soiree in Wilkes-Barre, we have all been reminded all over again that THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IS WHOLLY AND ALTOGETHER OWNED BY DONALD J. TRUMP...



...and just when you thought Mehmet (“CALL ME DOCTOR, DAMMIT!”) Oz couldn’t sink any lower, he goes and maligns two men wrongfully convicted in a murder case who John Fetterman worked tirelessly to clear...if Oz had a speck of integrity, he would realize what an utter fool he has made out of himself in this campaign and drop out, but of course, since our form of politics in this country is more of a steel cage match than an episode of “The West Wing,” he won’t (Chris Hayes brings us the details)...



...and as far as I’m concerned, if you want to get to the root of the problem of how this country has become so cartoonish in our electoral contests, a lot of that has to do with the ascendancy of The Sainted Ronnie R and his demonization of government; Repugs want to destroy this country via tax cuts and the Dems want to rebuild – time to believe in government again, as Thom Hartmann says...



...and I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” (more or less) from 9/4/14...with all of the unseasonably hot weather out there, let’s not forget one of the biggest culprits standing in the way of the fight against climate change (here)...

....and here’s a reminder of the importance of the holiday, as well as the labor movement overall (more here , here, here, here, and a true relic is here)…



...and here is a tune for the occasion.

Sunday Stuff

This is Johnny Walker. His Linkedin profile describes him as “Cultural advisor, author, film-maker, entrepreneur and U.S. Navy Seal Trident recipient.”

He posted the following on Linkedin recently (and the middle finger is aimed at Biden of course):

A MESSAGE to our President:

With all due respect, when you call us Republicans "THE enemy of democracy" I can understand that this is part of the political game or your party's political agenda. That's cool. But the problem I'm facing right now is how can I explain to my kids that I am a Republican and not a terrorist as you claim.

This is not the spirit upon which our great nation was built.

This does not promote the same picture of the land of freedom that my brothers in arms offered to me when I fought terrorists by their side.

This is not a helpful way to unite our country - by disparaging 70 million of your fellow citizens.

I AM NOT ISIS, AL QAIDA, IRANIAN MILITIA, OR A MEMBER OF A CARTEL. I AM A PROUD AMERICAN CITIZEN. SO PLEASE DON'T EVER CALL ME THAT AGAIN. I HAVE EARNED MY CITIZENSHIP WITH BLOOD AND SACRIFICE.

I AM J WALKER.

If you agree please share it.

(By the way, I’m answering here because Linkedin isn’t – or shouldn’t be, anyway, as far as I’m concerned – a place for news or political commentary. And yes, to be fair, I have no desire to engage in some pointless back-and-forth braying with commentors, many of whom merely want to burnish their alleged “tough guy” bona fides.)

To begin, I searched a transcript of Biden’s Philadelphia speech, and I couldn’t find him using the phase “the enemy of democracy” anywhere. I also couldn’t find the word “terrorist.” So I honestly don’t know what speech Walker is referring to.

(I mean, if Walker is looking for inflammatory rhetoric, he could look to the leader of his party, who called Biden “an enemy of the state” in his Bund rally in Wilkes-Barre, PA last night here. Combover Caligula also recently accused Dem PA U.S. Senate candidate John Fetterman of taking cocaine, heroin, crystal meth and fentanyl here, which 1) Is a laughably ridiculous lie even for Cult 45...and Fetterman should sue over it IMO, even though of course, being the world class grifter Trump is, I’m sure Fetterman won’t get the satisfaction he deserves, and 2) would be quite a neat trick...ingesting all of those drugs and managing to actually stay alive, and with a serious health condition no less.)

Here is what Biden actually DID say in Philadelphia a few nights ago...

...we must be honest with each other and with ourselves.

Too much of what’s happening in our country today is not normal. Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our Republic.

Now, I want to be very clear, very clear up front. Not every Republican, not even the majority of Republicans, are MAGA Republicans. Not every Republican embraces their extreme ideology. I know, because I’ve been able to work with these mainstream Republicans.

But there’s no question that the Republican Party today is dominated, driven and intimidated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans. And that is a threat to this country.

And despite Walker’s braying in opposition, President Biden happens to be absolutely right (if anything, he understates the problem).

So then, by default, Walker is defending the MAGA election deniers...and actually, worse than that, those practicing sabotage of our most important duty as citizens by undermining our ability to conduct free and fair elections across this country with ridiculous election “audits,” onerous anti-voting laws making it harder for younger voters, as well as people of color and other ethnicity, to exercise their franchise, and other foul means. Among other locations, this is talking place in Arizona, Texas, Wisconsin, Florida...and potentially the “Keystone state” of PA if Trumper and insurrection supporter Doug Mastriano, by some catastrophe, manages to win election as governor this fall (here).

And since Walker has nothing to say about the 1/6 attack on the Capitol, which of course was also an attack on the very foundation of our government (here), I assume he approves of that also.

This, to me, is supporting fascism. In big, bold, 72-point type. On the front page of the New York Freaking Times and the Washington Post (I won’t include the Philadelphia Inquirer since I know they’d find a way to try and “both sides” this incredibly important issue, though to be honest, those other two papers might do the same thing).

And without impugning Walker’s service (for which he should be commended and we should all be grateful), I can tell you definitively that my father served in Europe fighting World War II, opposing fascism FOR REAL. So, if he were still alive (and if I were to guess), I can imagine that he would see the “cult of personality” threat from Our Treasonous Tiny Handed Former Chief Executive (who is still very much “on the hook” for this among his myriad other offenses, let’s not forget) along with his democracy-hating minions (who now love a European dictator as evidenced here) and call it out for what it is.

If Walker opposes Democrats for some personal or philosophical reason, that’s his right of course. But for someone who courageously took on the duty of carrying a weapon for this country to NOT see the homegrown, nativist threat posed by our twice-impeached, popular-election-vote-losing *president as well as those he represents who seek to destroy the foundations of our democracy, then I cannot call that anything less than dereliction of duty, which I reluctantly say with the greatest of reservations.

Update: About Wilkes-Barre...yeah, I think it was more meaningful in the original German (here).

Friday Stuff

I watched President Biden’s speech yesterday (live streamed by David Pakman), and though he fumbled a few times in his trademark way, I also thought he made a hell of a lot of good points...I give anybody credit who can make that type of a coherent speech for 20-25 minutes or longer; I would guess there was a teleprompter somewhere, but I’m sure he was talking off the cuff for a lot of it also (Biden knows how to “answer the bell” on this stuff for sure)...I know he has to talk about “mainstream Republicans” and “MAGA Republicans,” but to me, that’s a distinction without a difference anymore – he’s got to extend an “olive branch” I know, even though we also know that the other side will only grab it and stomp on it to pieces (here and here)...I would have liked to have seen Biden note the election recount scheme in Arizona (here) and the fake electors scheme that has also extended from that state to Wisconsin (here), and also to call out MAGA-related threats of violence in Michigan (here), and of course the “give me 11,780” votes garbage from Our Treasonous Orange Pestilence in Georgia (here), but again, I thought the speech was good enough for what it was...I also give Biden credit for coming up with his vision of where he wants to lead the country, which is what presidents are supposed to do (the “curing cancer” thing is a bit of a reach I guess, but it’s probably true that a commentator somewhere also said that about the phrase “We choose to go to the Moon” once spoken by another Democratic president)...I thought it best to present the whole speech in the following clip (and OF COURSE Biden was heckled - he was giving the speech in Philly after all...:-)...more important context IMO is here, here, and here)...



Update: More here, here and here.

...and nice work also by Lawrence O’Donnell to hold Huckleberry Graham’s feet to the fire on his recent “riots in the streets” remark about Biden and the FBI going after Our Ochre Abomination and his trashing of top secret docs at Mar-a-Lago...



Update 9/4/22: I think it's an instructive lesson in biology to examine a human being without an actual spine, as evidenced by Graham (here).

...and Emma Vigeland tells us about Sarah Palin losing in the special U.S. House election to Dem Mary Peltola (to fill the seat that was held by Repug Don Young before he passed away – Young held the seat forever...they also talk about Dem incumbent Mondaire Jones losing in the recent NY-10 U.S. House election...I’ll admit I wasn’t paying a lot of attention there, but I don’t understand why more of the progressives in the primary couldn’t have just gotten the hell out and consolidated around Jones, despite what Emma says, but we are where we are...very mildly NSFW/H...more here)...



...and turning to world news, I thought this Sky News report was a pretty good summary of where Russia and Vlad The Butcher stand with their war of choice in Ukraine, though the prognosis, if you will, at the end is pretty damn grim, acknowledging that the conflict could potentially be on-again, off-again for 50, 60 or 70 years – dear God...



...and returning to the U.S., this collaboration between Second Thought and More Perfect Union tells us about the evils of Cargill, the biggest privately owned company in the U.S., and all of the predatory market practices that have enabled the company’s success for over 100 years...



...but when all else fails, we’ll always have the “culture wars” BS I guess, and David Doel tells us that a Missouri school district is apparently bringing back spanking (with approval of dumb parents); if any of these idiots had decided to lay a hand on the young one, they’d have broken fingers (and of course, Fix Noise turns out to be completely bonkers on this issue, which shouldn’t be surprising I know)...



...and Jayar and David Shuster of Rebel HQ tell us about anti-trans activists in Texas getting a taste of their own wingnut medicine when armed individuals protect some kind of a drag exhibition...nothing like turning the tables on some of these assclowns...to be honest, would this have been an activity we would have attended with our son when he was growing up? Probably not, but I’m not going to get exercised about it either, unlike all of the anti-trans wingnuts out there – lots more important issues to focus on IMO...



...and it’s hard to believe that this is the first recognition of “Friday with Frank” since the one and only Sid Mark has left us, but I think there’s a lot to be said for upholding traditions such as this as we head into Labor Day weekend.

Wednesday Stuff

Apparently the wingnuts are trying to spin the classified documents story as some kind of FBI frameup, with Bob Cesca quite rightly calling out Monica Crowley here (from the people who LOVED the FBI when James Comey was running all the “BUT HER EMAILS” nonsense with HRC), but I think Beau’s great commentary here cuts right to the heart of the matter as usual (more here)...



...and Ana and Cenk tell us about the latest disgusting stunt from FLA guv Ron #DeathSantis, and that is to parade 20 people (some in their underwear...no bottom to #DeathSantis and his pals) with criminal records who were basically entrapped into thinking they could vote; of course, this gives the “party of Lincoln” the opportunity to blame minority voters instead of the well-off Repugs in “The Villages” who (as noted in the clip) performed voter fraud FOR REAL...and Cenk is right that Charlie Crist should be running with this story until the proverbial cows come home, along with Val Demings, and I’ll be watching to see if this develops any further, but I have a feeling Cenk is right, sadly...aside from basic human decency, Democrats should be calling this out because it will indeed have a chilling effect on a voting constituency they will sorely need if they have any shot at all of winning in a state which is gradually becoming DeSantis’s little version of Viktor Orban’s Hungary, which is definitely by design - more here...



Update 9/1/22: More here.

...and heading west by a few degrees of longitude, Chris Hayes tells us that Jackson, Mississippi apparently doesn’t have running water now, a triumph of Repug “governance” and their assclown governor Tate Reeves (and it’s cold comfort I know that the Repug lawmakers who utterly and cravenly failed on this have to use the same port-o-potties as everyone else)...



...and Mike Papantonio and Farron Cousins tell us that the “Kids for Cash” judges were recently ordered to pay $200 million I believe in restitution as noted here...no amount of money is too high for these two criminals as far as I’m concerned (this was a huge story in our beloved commonwealth for reasons that should be obvious I know...the 2013 documentary got into this horrible, heart-breaking scandal – at least one of these kids committed suicide I believe)...



...and I recently put up a Damage Report clip of YouTuber Tim Pool’s attempt at singing and noted how ridiculous it was...that was actually amusing, but now Steven Crowder is back with some kind of a “Saving Private Ryan” alleged parody about wingnuts whose free speech is supposedly threatened or something (or Crowder being temporarily banned from YouTube for typical wingnut BS), and as someone whose father served in Europe in WWII, I can assure you that I most definitely do NOT find this funny – the entitlement of Crowder and his ilk is cowardly and sickening (Sam and Emma of The Majority Report tell us more)...



...and yesterday marked what would have been the 78th birthday of The Eternal Molly Ivins – I think what she and David Letterman are referring to in the beginning are the SCOTUS confirmation hearings for Clarence Thomas (pretty sure this clip is from ’91-‘92...God knows that her incisive wit and literary expertise is still very much needed)...



...and on the subject of milestones, RIP former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev...yes, he had a mixed legacy in that, as nearly as I could determine, he never really renounced Communism, and his peace overtures were out of his country’s self-interest, but to be fair, you can say that every world leader acts out of self interest, and I think he should be regarded as a visionary for seeking to curb nuclear proliferation and for this, which hastened the breakup of the empire Putin, catastrophically, is trying to reassemble by brute force...



...and once more, on the subject of milestones, I should note that Princess Diana died 25 years ago today...I recently saw this great documentary on her on HBO On Demand; here is a tune for the occasion.

Tuesday Stuff

I know the Second Thought clip yesterday had a lot to do with climate change, and here is more on the ruin we’re facing as a civilization...might as well get the catastrophic news out of the way, as John and Jordan Uhl of The Damage Report tell us...what a shame that sea mammals can’t manufacture green paper to hire lobbyists and support foundations spreading lies about the destruction of this planet from greed and selfishness - and yeah, I think this says it unfortunately...



...and this DW report with Adrian Kriesch talks about world water shortages, focusing on South Africa (timed for World Water Week, which apparently was a few days ago)...discussed with correspondents Lan Wang Erlandsson and Minka Curr...the Daniel Craig/James Bond movie “Quantum of Solace” had a plot line that was absolutely spot-on about this subject IMO...



...and Ana and Cenk of TYT tell us about Huckleberry Graham threatening violence if Our Ochre Abomination is arrested, which should have happened long ago (the arrest I mean...I have a bit of an issue with Cenk’s stuff about “crying” Hillary Clinton - yes, the problems of her campaign have already been pointed out as far as I’m concerned, but she was right about the Comey garbage in 2016...look at everything she was allegedly “crying” about in hindsight and ask yourself honestly if she was wrong...I think she was off base in criticizing Bernie Sanders on Howard Stern, but aside from that...)...



...and Rayy Vana of Rebel HQ tells us about this idiot Georgia private school administrator named Nancy Gordeuk, who blamed “the devil” for her absurdly racist comments at a 2015 commencement...the real twist on this for me comes at the end, when we find out that she wasn’t fired, but was merely demoted until she was allowed to retire recently...yeah, there isn’t “two Americas” – not much there isn’t...



...and Thom Hartmann gives us more on the history of student debt and how it exploded starting with the ruinous reign of The Sainted Ronnie R (and once more, I give you this terrific post on the subject)...



...and I’ve got a few more summer tunes left, and I absolutely want to include this too.

Monday Stuff

David Doel tells us about “Dark Brandon” and his most recent campaign rally in Arizona last week (hey, if the wingnuts are going to come up with this “Let’s Go Brandon” BS, then let’s find a way to give it back to ‘em...and GREAT JOB on the PPP stuff from the Twitter feed)...yeah, to say that this is long overdue is an understatement, but kudos to Biden for hitting all of the right notes and tying it back to the fall elections; now, we’ll have to follow through on campaign work with the goal of policy and legislation that actually makes sense...we’ll see (and when it comes to playing nice with the other side, I give you this)...



...and when it comes to issues that matter, the climate has to be paramount above all others, and this latest from Second Thought tells us how capitalism is destroying the world (“You can’t make money when something’s abundant. It’s only when it’s scarce that the big bucks come in,” indeed...that’s focused on our dirty energy criminals, but it really applies to the world economy writ large)...



...and Emma of The Majority Report tells us how frantically Blake Masters, Repug U.S. Senate candidate in Arizona, is trying to scrub as much anti-abortion BS from his web site as he can; well, unfortunately for Masters, the evidence is here (to help his opponent, Dem incumbent Mark Kelly, click here...and by the way, I know there were people who were mad about Kelly recently saying something about working with Republicans...I’m willing to trust Kelly’s judgment on this since I think he knows AZ voters better than I do and Kelly has a great track record of supporting Dem legislation, unlike that other wretched alleged Democrat from Kelly’s state in the U.S. Senate)...



Update: And speaking of "Curtsy Kyrsten" (here)...

...and Ana and Cenk tell us about a guy who’s pranking Texas Repugs in the best way possible IMO, and that is to create “In God We Trust” posters for “the land of the yellow rose” in Arabic...hey assclowns, it’s not OUR fault that you didn’t think about that when you came up with this bogus law of yours...



...and John and Brett Erlich of The Damage Report tell us how YouTuber Tim Pool is apparently trying to venture into music (speaking of assclowns...God, this was funny)...



...and when it comes to musicians for real, RIP jazz organ virtuoso and trumpeter Joey DeFrancesco (from Springfield PA – here...they’re still “dropping like flies” in August sadly).

Friday Stuff

Ana and John of TYT discuss the Fix Noise reaction to Biden’s student loan debt forgiveness...rut-row – it looks like Judge Winebox just admitted that her parents gave her a free ride for college, even though of course she lambastes those trying to pay off their student loans (and by the way, what about all of the PPP grifters who bailed on repaying THEIR loans? How come we’re not hearing any bitching from Pirro and her pals about THAT??!! Ana is good in this segment, but John kills it...Ana mentions the classified documents thing and Trump, which is important but not directly relevant to this topic actually)...



...and comparing student loan debt forgiveness to heroin addiction, as this life form named Will Cain does, is pretty damn loopy even for The Roger Ailes BS Factory – Richard Ojeda tells us more (and yeah, you can thank The Sainted Ronnie R, among many others, for our wretched status quo on student college debt, as noted here)...



Update: I thought this was some important context, and this is a terrific related post.

Update 8/31/22: A little repetitive I know, but I think this is worth adding to the discussion.

...and turning to political campaigns, The Lincoln Project puts Trumpette Kari Lake of Arizona under the spotlight, and it sure as hell isn’t pretty (to help Lake’s competitor for AZ governor, Dem Katie Hobbs, click here)...



...so let's look at a gubernatorial contest on the other side of the country, OK? With that in mind, I thought this was a great opening ad for Charlie Crist, the Dem running against incumbent Ron #DeathSantis in Florida...



...and sticking with The Sunshine State, Farron Cousins tells us that the DOJ is absolutely still going after Matt Gaetz, but the problem (for Gaetz) is that there’s so damn much he could be guilty of that it’s taking awhile to sort things out – hope Gaetz will enjoy the rest of his life in the gray bar hotel...



...and Emma of The Majority Report tells us about this Repug U.S. House Rep Andy Barr of Kentucky totally blowing off Chuck Todd’s question about fighting inflation and instead going right to the wingnut talking points – yep, never a constructive solution from the “party of Lincoln,” only more bombast and pointless distraction (and apparently, Kentucky shares a border with Mexico based on what Barr is screeching about, which is indeed news to me)...



...and this video from More Perfect Union tells us about Becky Ley, a Delta Airlines flight attendant who has gone over to the pro-union side, but definitely not because she seeks to disparage the airline at all...



...and RIP longtime jazz producer Creed Taylor (here), who collaborated with George Benson, Herbie Hancock, Wes Montgomery, Stanley Turrentine and many others, as well as Stan Getz and João Gilberto on this timeless tune.

Thursday Stuff

Brian Tyler Cohen and More Perfect Union do a pretty deep dive into Mehmet (“CALL ME DOCTOR, DAMMIT!”) Oz and all the scammy “miracle cure” stuff as well as links to his shadowy donors and anti-worker policies; when it comes to grifters, yep, Oz and his benefactors are all birds of a shady feather, you might say...Oz has indeed made a fortune abusing people’s trust as a TV pitch man – gee, I can’t imagine who that reminds me of...in response, to help John Fetterman, click here (and by the way, there is also this and this)...



...and Trae Crowder gives his NSFW/H commentary on Biden forgiving student loan debt...



...and this DW report analyzes the Russian war on Ukraine on the 6-month anniversary (with Mathias Bolonger, Roman Goncharenko, William Glucroft and Mike Martin; don’t know who the broadcaster is...God, 7 million displaced inside Ukraine thanks to Vlad The Butcher)...



...well, at least 1 Russian soldier is brave enough to speak out against the war, and that would be Pavel Filatyev, who is featured in this Now This clip...



...and the person sitting in for David Pakman tells us about Brian Stelter being forced out of his job at CNN by cancellation of his show “Reliable Sources” – and yeah, it looks like this nut job John Malone will push the network even further to the right...yeah, just what the world needs – more wingnut BS...I was OK with Stelter on balance, and I hope things work out for him...



...and here comes another seasonal selection.

Wednesday Stuff

Lawrence O’Donnell discusses Generalissimo Trump and more than 300 documents at Mar-a-Lago, with some having the highest levels of security apparently, and 45 “went through the boxes himself,” according to a report in the New York Times...and I would agree that Evan Corcoran and Christina Bobb are likely in deep legal doo-doo also...



...and no, the preznit can’t just unilaterally declassify documents (especially when he’s out of office), as Leon Panetta points out, rightly noting that Mango Mussolini’s claim that he can arbitrarily do this is BS (again, don’t know who this guy is who’s sitting in, but he’s pretty good)...



Update: Interesting...

Update 8/27/22: This (and this)...

...and I’m bringing back a clip by Chris Hayes from last May on Trumper Doug Mastriano, the Repug party nominee for governor in our beloved commonwealth of PA, for a couple of reasons: 1) It contains a hell of a lot of important background on this lunatic, and 2) It’s a bit of a prologue to a recent terrific report in the Bucks County Beacon (which has emerged as a powerful progressive voice) by Jennifer Cohn which gets into the scary linkages between Mastriano, Trumpers, insurrectionists and “Christian” nationalists (here)...the best way to combat this is to do whatever you can to support Dem Josh Shapiro for PA governor (here)...



Update: I forgot Mastriano was coming to Delco, which is a natural spot for his political ilk unfortunately (here).

So he wants to make PA the "Florida of the north," huh? Anybody have any more questions?

Update 9/2/22: And it probably should come as no surprise to learn that Mastriano thinks he's above the law (here).

...and kudos to Adrienne Quinn Martin, the Dem chair of Hood County, TX who spoke before a local school board on banning books (Ben Meiselas from Meidas Touch tells us more)...



...and part of me really wanted to ignore this clip, but I decided to say something about it (from David Doel)...I have a feeling the phrase “OK, boomer” was invented for Bill Maher...wow, must be a nice life where the biggest “problem” you have is bitching and whining about NOT BEING ABLE TO SEE A GODDAMN MOVIE....and I don’t have a clue who Harry Styles is, and I can assure you that I don’t care...I can’t believe there was actually a time when I paid attention to Maher (here...before I discovered comment moderation :-), and to be fair, there was a time when he was really “on the beam” and actually living in the reality-based community, but boy, are those days ever long gone (NSFW/H)...



...and it’s probably too late today to hit LBI today (about an hour from Le Manse Doomsy), but I definitely feel like it after watching this clip (maybe tomorrow...).

Tuesday Stuff

Ana and Cenk of TYT tell us about Repug U.S. Senate Mistake RoJo saying he was involved in Wisocnsin’s fake electors scheme for “a couple of seconds”...and yeah, as Cenk says, if this were the primary, Johnson would be crowing about participating in this legally actionable fraud, but since we’re now in the general election, RoJo has to try and sound like a “moderate,” when of course he is anything but as noted here (and I caught that cheeky little bit of snark from Cenk, by the way...to do something about Johnson, click here)...



...and when it comes to Repugs running for election to the U.S. Senate, I’m not sure how you could do worse than Herschel Walker in Georgia, running against Raphael Warnock...God, is Walker a train wreck! Yeah, God forbid he strays from the script with Kristi (“Unsafe At Any Speed”) Noem and actually, y’know, ANSWERS THE GODDAMN QUESTION about Roe v. Wade (as well as that “good air in U.S., bad air in China” mess of word salad in criticizing the Green New Deal, to say nothing of also mixing up the days for the proposed debate with Rev. Warnock......as I’ve said before, for the “party of Lincoln” to think that Walker is competent at this point to do anything whatsoever in public life is an enormous “F.U.” to Georgia voters...to help Rev. Warnock, click here)...



Update 8/26?22: I wonder if Walker is now going to tell us that he’s “bigger than Jesus” based on this? If he does, the wingnuts will grit their teeth and not say a damn word in reproach.

...and Farron Cousins tells us about the New York Times report that Our Treasonous Orange Pestilence and Mark Meadows wanted to give redacted classified data to wingnut journalists (related to giving up the info on “Crossfire Hurricane”...and yeah, I buy the theory that they didn’t release the docs b/c they knew they would boomerang on them) – mildly NSFW/H...



...and speaking of “the old gray lady,” Chris Hayes talks with Times journalist Ken Vogel about Leonard Leo and the $1.6 billion dark money donation from this Barre Seid guy for current and future wingnut political campaigns, as noted here (once more, the foul, fetid legacy of Citizens United lives on)...



...and Francesca and Dan Evans of The Damage Report tell us about a far-right Russian propagandist’s daughter (Darya Dugina) who was killed in a car explosion – yeah, Our Former Ol’ Buddy Vlad Putin is quick to blame Ukraine, without any actual proof of course...



...and under the category of those who have departed, RIP Jerry Allison of Buddy Holly and the Crickets.

Monday Stuff

(I also posted here about our PA-01 U.S. House rep.)

It looks like Florida guv Ron #DeathSantis wants to create “desirable citizens” in The Sunshine State (and I’m sure they won’t teach Brown v. Board also)...I know I touched on this earlier in that Alex Wagner clip, but here’s another important commentary on it IMO from Farron Cousins – more here and here...



...and given that the prior clip has to do with telling people what to think and keeping them in the dark when it comes to the con game that is being played on them, I thought that was a good reason to replay this clip from The Eternal George Carlin, including the quote I include in the header for this site (NSFW/H)...



...and now, let’s go west by a state or two to Mississippi, where idiot Repug gov Tate Reeves ended a rental assistance program in Mississippi that was funded by the feds apparently because it encouraged dependency or something, or so he thought – and yeah, I wish Johnny Harris of the New York Times would say something about how rentals continue to go through the roof while people who are ALREADY WORKING lose RAMP assistance, but I’m sure we won’t hear a word from him since he can’t “own the libs” with this story...



...and God almighty, when the hell are Dems EVER going to learn that you can’t say or do ANYTHING to please these frothing wingnuts like this nematode Jesse Watters and those other rich cackling idiots on “The Five” and other programs on that abattoir of a TV network (Biden tried to say that communism and socialism – however you define that – are “failed systems,” but Biden got pilloried anyway)...a clip was added at the end with Watters taking a victory lap over battles he would NEVER EVER fight having to do with all of the land we basically took from Native Americans...and yes, I know that’s a complicated topic (John of The Damage Report hosts with Brett Erlich and Francesca Fiorentini)...



...and I know I included a clip of a comedian earlier (albeit a legendary one), and here is another one, with Chelsea Handler hosting for Jimmy Kimmel and taking Lauren Boebert to task (also NSFW/H), as Brian Tyler Cohen explains (I don't want to even imagine the life forms that would actually vote for Boebert)...



...and I’m continuing to work my way down the list of summer selections with this number.

Friday Stuff

I want to digress from the way I usually start these posts with the videos and point out something (or someone, actually).

The individual pictured above is Arthur J. Finkelstein. I never knew anything about this person until I read this article in The New Yorker by Andrew Marantz about Viktor Orban of Hungary, which tells us the following (on how Orban rose to power)...

(Orban) enlisted (Finkelstein), a political consultant from Brooklyn who had worked to elect Jesse Helms, Strom Thurmond, and Ronald Reagan, among others. “Try to polarize the election around that issue which cuts best in your direction, i.e., drugs, crime, race,” Finkelstein wrote in a 1970 memo to the Nixon White House. In 1996, Finkelstein put this principle to work on behalf of Benjamin Netanyahu, a candidate for Prime Minister of Israel who was then about twenty points down in the polls, and who started alleging that his opponent, Shimon Peres, planned to divide Jerusalem. This was a lie, but it stuck, and Netanyahu won. In 2008, Netanyahu introduced Finkelstein to his friend Orbán; Finkelstein became so indispensable that Orbán reportedly came to refer to him, dotingly, as “Finkie.” One of Finkelstein’s protégés later told the Swiss journalist Hannes Grassegger, “Arthur always said that you did not fight against the Nazis but against Adolf Hitler.” Orbán had been running against globalism, multiculturalism, bureaucracy in Brussels. These were abstractions. By 2013, Finkelstein had an epiphany: the face of the enemy should be George Soros.

So, if you’re looking for a link from the confrontational Republican party garbage of Tricky Dick all the way to the present moment of Trumpist insanity, Finkelstein might be the connection you’re looking for (another reason why I’m drawing attention to Finkelstein now is that yesterday marked the 5th anniversary of his death).

Modern movement conservatism IMO is built of equal parts stealth, deception, bombast, and every possible degradation of their opponents. And when it comes to the “stealth” part, it can only be beneficial as far as I’m concerned to take those responsible for the darkest deeds of this malign enterprise and drag them any legal way possible into the cold light of day. You can consider this my small attempt to do that in Finkelstein's case.

And as an example of what Finkelstein has wrought (along with many others to be fair), I give you that Trumpist loon Kari Lake, the Repug Party gubernatorial candidate in Arizona, talking about “BDE” (from the party that seeks to ban books all over the place because of alleged indecency)...Sam Seder of The Majority Report tells us more...



...and when it comes to crazy Republicans, I guess there really is no way to have a discussion like that without Marjorie Taylor Greene, who shows her tiny brain once more on the Green New Deal (concerning solar panels and wind turbines) and allegedly not being able to store renewable energy (Ana and Cenk of TYT tell us about it)...



...and as long as we’re near Georgia, let’s go a little further south into the land of Ron #DeathSantis, as Alex Wagner commendably does, speaking with a Florida teacher who recently was forced to take part in some ridiculous indoctrination scheme...in addition to the wingnuttery, this orientation they talk about is based on a lie (not surprising), since the First Amendment to the Constitution contains the Establishment Clause which quite literally says that the government shall not establish a national religion...



...and I’m not sure who this individual is who’s sitting in for David Pakman, but it looks like Madison Cawthorn’s replacement for the NC-13 congressional district (somebody named Bo Hines) is a chip off the old awful Repug block as it were, since he apparently doesn’t know what a banana republic is...not the most important issue out there I’ll grant you, but I think it’s telling all the same (and of course this numbskull MAKES it an issue when he tried to attack President Biden for allegedly not knowing what’s going on)...



Update 9/1/22: And speaking of Hines, this doesn't sound surprising at all.

...and apparently the entire police force of the town of Vincent in Shelby County, Alabama was suspended over texts mocking slavery were released – how many ways of “DUUUHHH!” are involved here I wonder (from Leah Cover of Rebel HQ)...



...and I’m not sure how I missed this the first time around, but somehow I did – sticking with Alabama, the Lawrence County Repug Party put up a Facebook post with what definitely appears to be 3 hooded KKK figures in the GOP logo, and of course the post has since been taken down...yeah, let me know when BLM or Antifa do something as inflammatory as this, OK...God almighty (Dr. Rashad Richey breaks it down with Yasmin Khan)...



...and I know we’ve had some fun this week with Mehmet (“CALL ME DOCTOR, DAMMIT!”) Oz and the Crudite/Veggie tray thing, but this is a serious look at food waste from Second Thought...and yeah, if you guessed that it has to do with the profit motive and what you would call second-hand food, then you win a free gift certificate good for any “Wegner’s” supermarket :-).

(“individual action isn’t the problem. The drive to always increase profits is,” indeed, and why am I not surprised that the IMF and the World Bank play into this? And by the way, I’m not including last week’s Second Thought video because it’s age-restricted on YouTube for some reason.)...



Update 8/24/22: Oz continues to be nothing but a clown (here).

...and it’s been awhile since I rocked out with a newer tune, so let’s give this a shot, OK?

Thursday Stuff

Hey, don’t look now, but The Bible was one of the 41 books banned in the Keller, Texas school district (as noted here, and as we find out about in this clip), to coincide with kids coming back to classrooms, where – God willing and NRA/Mitch McConnell permitting – they WON’T have to face an actual shooter (oh, and another banned book is “The Diary of Anne Frank,” because of course we can’t let some woke dead Jewish refugee hiding in a house attic provide an example of courage in the face of one of the worst governments of an industrialized nation in human history...and as noted here, the issue of banning books in school libraries hits close to home for yours truly)...



...oh, and speaking of kids returning to school, I think this is a pretty “on the nose” ad, unfortunately, when it comes to The Land Of The Yellow Rose in particular (to help Beto O’Rourke against the thoroughly execrable Greg Abbott, click here...more here)...



...and under the category of Stupid Voting Tricks, I give you Repug Secretary of State candidate in Minnesota Kim Crockett bragging apparently about voter suppression...“which raises the question, should (disabled people or those of other ethnicity) be voting,” and the RWNJ radio host snickers of course, though of course one of her spokespeople was quick to deny it...it’s been a long time since Katherine Harris came to mind – ugh...Sam and Emma of The Majority Report explain...



...and tied somewhat to the prior clip discussing Republican voting nonsense, Thom Hartmann asks the apocalyptic (but timely, sadly) question “Will Trump Supporters End Democracy” (and the clip talks about Trumpsters going nuts in Texas, a state Trump and the Repugs won! And Thom also discusses Trump-related antics in other swing states)...



...and when it comes to Repugs trying to control women’s bodily autonomy, Ana tells us about South Carolina state rep Neal Collins, who (shockingly) voiced some regret over his vote on another ridiculous anti-abortion bill (more here)...and Ana discusses the terrible case of the woman in Louisiana who will apparently be forced to carry a headless fetus to term (here)...what country am I living in again?...



...and in a similar vein, Farron Cousins discusses a three-judge panel in FLA that said a teenager was not “sufficiently mature” enough to get an abortion, even though she met their ridiculous requirements every other way (here)...once more, if men got pregnant, there would be so many morning-after pills and so many abortion providers you wouldn’t be able to keep track of them all (mildly NSFW/H)...



...and switching topics a bit, Robert Reich gives more information on how exactly the “party of Lincoln” is LYING when it comes to claiming that the infrastructure reconciliation bill that just passed and Biden signed (I guess that’s what it’s being called) is going to provide this army of IRS agents to go after middle class taxpayers...

...and I’m REALLY going to switch the mood here with this item...yesterday marked the 65th anniversary of an obscure bit of baseball lore; long-time-great Phillies centerfielder (and announcer) Richie Ashburn (pictured) hit a woman spectator twice in the same at-bat with two different foul balls into the stands (more here)...she was married to someone working for the organization, and their son became a Phillies batboy...you truly can’t make up this stuff, people...I think this tune is appropriate for the occcasion.

Wednesday Stuff

Apparently, Mehmet (“CALL ME DOCTOR, DAMMIT!”) Oz got a little weird in the supermarket produce aisle recently while he tried to complete a veggie tray for the missus, as David Doel tells us (very mildly NSFW/H...and yes, I can verify the fact that there indeed is a Redner’s or a Wegman’s... a few, actually...but definitely NOT a Wegner’s, and who the hell goes shopping without a basket or a cart, as somebody on Twitter correctly pointed out...to help John Fetterman, click here)...



...but the big story yesterday on Action News, you might say, was President Biden signing into law the infrastructure reconciliation bill – I’m presenting Biden’s words on this from CNN (rightfully calling out the Repugs...and yeah, a lot was made over Biden giving the pen to Manchin that he used to sign the law, which I interpret as an “FU, we got this done anyway in spite of you” gesture).

(I started to watch the TYT clip on this, but I turned it off...there are plenty of other reasons to bitch about Biden and corporate Democrats and plenty of other occasions for that which are justified...but as far as I’m concerned, not today. Yes, this bill falls short in a lot of ways, but IT ALSO DOES A HELL OF A LOT TOWARDS INVESTING IN RENEWABLE ENERGY AND OTHER GOALS! And let's not forget that, if ONE U.S. SENATE SEAT had gone to the Repugs instead, there is no way any of this would have happened)...

Also (In a totally predictable development), Liz Cheney lost her U.S. House seat in a Wyoming primary congressional election yesterday (meaning that she’ll serve out her term and that will be it of course). And yes, Cheney stood up against Our Ochre Abomination and deserves credit for that, but she was a wackadoodle Repug IN EVERY OTHER WAY. And what does it tell you about what a bunch of gun-humping Trumpist maniacs her party is now that EVEN SHE was no longer crazy enough for them?

...and returning to the “party of Lincoln” and CNN once more, Brianna Keilar interviews Repug U.S. House Rep Mike Turner about AG Merrick Garland’s investigation into Combover Caligula’s abuse of secret documents (probably related to nukes) by sneaking them off to Mar-a-Lago (and yeah, as always, the deflection and obfuscation is the point, and I say that with all of the “BUT HER EMAILS!” BS in mind...Brian Tyler Cohen gives us his well-founded analysis)...



...and don’t look now, but It seems that Lauren Boebert’s husband ran over the mailbox of his neighbor...family values – riiiight! (and yeah, good point about how every little thing Paul Pelosi, Speaker Nancy’s husband of course, allegedly did or didn’t do should now be under a microscope, but Boebert’s nematode husband gets to keep this “on the QT” somehow, except for this video of course...John and Francesca of The Damage Report tell us more)...



...and I’m not sure who this caller is on The Majority Report, but she makes a lot of sense on the issue of the wingnuts on the SCOTUS overturning Roe and why their foot soldiers are so quiet about it (with Sam and Emma)...I detest these people (the zealots behind overturning Roe I mean), but they know how to play “the long game,” and our side needs to learn that too (and I feel like I need to communicate this utterly sickening related development)...



...and I'm in the mood for a summer tune for yet another sunny day in these parts - this should suffice.

Tuesday Stuff

Jim Acosta talks with longtime ABC reporter Sam Donaldson about the Trump Mar-a-Lago raid in search of (in all probability) nuclear-related docs, with a comparison to what Tricky Dick faced at the end of his presidency over Watergate with Barry Goldwater, Hugh Scott, etc. and the prospect of not surviving an impeachment vote in the Senate...if Fix Noise were around back then, Nixon might not have been impeached, and I shudder as I say that...



...and David Pakman gives us the clip of Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo searching desperately for bad news over the GREAT July jobs report from the Biden Administration (and by the way, when it comes to the July inflation rate, I give you this)...



...and Farron Cousins tells us that Senate Repugs think they’ll get crushed in the midterms...but we can’t take anything for granted, people...wait until all of the dark money negative attack ads starts pouring over the airwaves after Labor Day – like you I’m sure, I’ve heard this song before, but we still have to work for the victories we can get...



...and Thom Hartmann asks if any democratic republic has survived without a free press (great question, and truly interesting history on Alexis de Tocqueville IMO...great job to try and promote media literacy...as The Eternal George Carlin once said, though, our “owners” want us to be just smart enough to know how to work the machines but too dumb to know much of anything else)...



...and this clip from More Perfect Union tells us about baristas at coffee houses leading the labor movement in Boston (“Every worker deserves a union.”...damn right!)...



...and considering all of the musical luminaries who left us last week, I missed the 75th birthday of Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull – hope it was a good one.

Monday Stuff

Gee, did I miss anything?...yep – apparently the leader of Cult 45 was (allegedly) hanging onto secret nuclear documents possibly revealing launch codes and/or other highly classified stuff (and possibly destroying them too?)...eventually this sorry POS will find himself habited at a federal detention facility...Ana and Cenk begin our “team coverage,” you might say (more here and here)...



...and John and Brett Erlich of The Damage Report have more, including the thing with Wonder Boy Jared Kushner getting $2 billion from our dear friends the Saudis in exchange for...what exactly? (and gee, haven’t Jared and Ivanka been pretty damn quiet for a few days now since this broke)...



...and Brian Tyler Cohen tells us that the right-wing outrage machine is working overtime to spin this story like crazy (and leave it to Ari Ari Bobari to resurrect another ridiculous Republican zombie lie, this one about Sandy Berger allegedly stealing documents from the national archives...more here)...



...and of course, it wouldn’t truly be a story about Our Treasonous Orange Pestilence unless there was some kind of a grift involved, with our former *president trying to fundraise off of all of this...Lawrence O’Donnell gives us his take here (this segment aired before we found out that he was, in all likelihood, trying to peddle nuclear docs – and yeah, I thought this was a particularly brainless piece of pundit piffle on this whole mess, and I mean David Brooks, not Laurence Tribe)...



...and when it comes to some kind of a public response to this - well, I guess you can consider the source below (and with bad spelling as ususal as noted here, though this was far more serious of course tragically)...

...and speaking of The Roger Ailes BS Factory, it looks like Tulsi Gabbard may have finally realized her dream of grabbing her own show, with The Swanson TV Dinner Heir setting her up with a guest spot – David Doel gives us the details (I forgot about Gabbard voting “Present” on Trump’s impeachment...the first one I mean...mildly NSFW/H)...



...and RIP longtime session musician Bill Pitman of The Wrecking Crew...his expertise is featured on this tune as well as many, many others.