Wednesday Stuff

David Doel tells us that it looks like Hunter Biden is going to get a plea dela from a Trump-appointed attorney in Delaware (though that of course won’t stop one bit of wingnut screeching I realize)...and yeah, the genuinely scary stuff is about the Himalayan ice caps melting, but I guess that story’s a snooze fest, tragically, for way too many people...



...and the latest from Second Thought asks, “if clean energy is cheaper, why aren’t we using it?”...and if you guessed that this has a lot to do with Blackrock, State Street and Vanguard saying “well, we have Environmental and Social Governance (or ESG) funds while we continue to invest in dirty energy...what more do you tree-hugging libs want??!!” and then not doing much of anything else with renewables, then you get to enter the lottery to predict the day and time that the very last starving polar bear on an ice floe will finally kick it (God forbid we don’t have an 8-12 percent return on investment for these bloodsuckers)...”under capitalism, production is always initiated on the basis of prospective profit” and “there is no capitalist path to climate justice” indeed...



...and Mike Figueredo tells us that some Repug pol named Kevin Sabella, Sr. from Long Island apparently showed his junk in public and has done so repeatedly...good one, schumck (and yeah, some of the news orgs had “fun” with this story...suppose a little kid saw this POS do this?)...



...and Jayar Jackson, Adrienne Lawrence and Maz Jobrani tell us about Oregon state senate Republicans grounding hundreds of bills to a halt in a fight against a bill to protect abortions and gender-affirming care...as always, it’s Jobs! Jobs! Jobs! for Not Your Father’s Republican Party (maybe some dated snark at this point, I have to admit)...



...and Kyle Kulinski informs us that it sounds like the student loan case to the SCOUTS may be imploding – cool! (or at least, this loan servicer named in the suit is saying "WTF? How are WE getting harmed by Biden’s student debt relief?")...and I have to admit that I didn’t know that “court stripping” was a thing – sounds like this wingnut Missouri AG is pulling some kind of garbage on this...



...and happy first day of summer, everybody.

Tuesday Stuff

Jesse Dollemore brings us the news that an LGBTQ group in Canada (Egale Canada) is trying to get Fix Noise taken off that country’s airwaves for promoting hate and “abusive content”; I wish the group luck in that endeavor, but it’s a longshot of course...more here (and we learn more on that lunatic yelling about a 9-year-old girl with short hair for allegedly being “trans,” which she isn’t of course)...



...and John and Bennie Carollo of The Damage Report let us know about Marjorie Traitor Greene getting big mad at a woman not wearing pants at a pride parade...and oh yeah, Pornhub too (of course, Greene could perform actual constituent service since that’s the job she was elected to do, but perish the thought)...



...and apparently, Spotify isn’t even bothering to fact-check Joe Rogan on his stuff against getting vaxxed to fight COVID any more, as David Doel tells us (video has to do with that loon RFK Jr. and Prof. Peter Hotez trying to inject some sanity into the former’s anti-vax idiocy...that anecdote about “wrestling with a pig” has a lot to do with why I try to mention Fix Noise as little as possible...mildly NSFW/H)...



...and even though I just said that I want to avoid The Roger Ailes BS Factory, here is a clip from The Lincoln Project about CA guv Gavin Newsom doing a great job in that interview with Sean Inanity... I really haven’t said much about it not because of Newsom, but because I don’t want to give that millionaire Fix Noise propagandist any daylight at all to spread his right-wing vitriol...



...and Farron Cousins tells us that wingnut James Comer in the U.S. House is blaming “low IQ” MSNBC viewers for his utterly failed “investigation” into the latest Biden “scandal”...speaking of "right-wing vitriol" (what a joke)...



...and it's time for me to get into another summer selection, so here it is.

Monday Stuff

Alex Wagner tells us about the Gropenfuhrer stiffing more gullible idiots who somehow still support him, thinking that Mango Mussolini would actually make good on his promise of "free food for everyone" (dear God, the stoo-pidity), and attorney Joyce Vance discusses the latest issues that #45 is dealing with when it comes to legal representation (with all of his misery totally self-inflicted of course)...



...and RIP Daniel Ellsberg, who brought down political and media hellfire by making public the “Pentagon Papers” about our prosecution of the Vietnam War way back when...maybe the most notable of a long line of whistleblowers who courageously tried to keep our country from descending into something approximating corporate fascism (here and here...CBS news with Cronkite is from ’71, with a bit of snark from correspondent Bruce Morton, which I think is fine)...



...and speaking of snark, Emma along with the TMR crew tells us that Glenn Grothman is at it again, sounding off about the alleged commie liberal socialist plot against gas stoves (and “limousine liberals”? That’s at least a 30-year-old catchphrase, dude...you need to seriously update your wingnut-ese...and OF COOUURRRSE Grothman has to attack those “low income” poors also, and gets in the typical white boomer suburban dig at Section 8 housing...and yeah, what Emma sez; NSFW/H)...



...and David Doel tells us that the UK’s Daily Mail has apparently outdone itself with this BS about the supposed negative effects of WFH...yeah, the problems of “Anna” have more to do with our overall lifestyle than whether or not you’re actually in a physical office (sitting in traffic, burning gas that turns into CO2 into our atmosphere contributing to climate change, etc.)...



...and this gives us more background on the origins of today’s Juneteenth holiday...



...and in his quest to avoid anything whatsoever that has to do with passing actual legislation that makes a difference in people’s lives, apparently “Cancun” Cruz has picked a fight with Pat Benatar as noted here – how typically ridiculous.



Update 6/21/23: To do something about Cruz AT LONG FREAKING LAST, click here.

Friday Stuff

I failed to mention last Saturday about the 60th anniversary of JFK’s commencement speech at American University about peace, which, to me, contains wisdom for the ages; fortunately, Thom Hartmann remembered...I always thought that the dark forces that brought us 11/22/63 started going to work in response to Kennedy’s wise words, though of course I’ll never be able to prove that...also, just because another Kennedy is currently in the public eye is no reason to make the awful mistake of thinking he has any intention at all to carry on the legacy of either his father or our 35th president...



..and Mike Figueredo tells us about some goofball guy yelling at short-haired little girls saying they’re trans...ugh (first minute or so of this is a “cis” woman with the alleged crime of having short hair who wanted to go to the bathroom discussing how some elderly lady harassed her when the “cis” woman was merely trying to pee...God almighty, I’m so done with this BS!...and yeah, “trans-vestigating” and “trans-panic” are things, unfortunately – and I can’t imagine how Kentucky Republicans sleep at night, having persecuted apparently the only trans girl in the state who just wanted to play hockey...NSFW/H)...



...and in a related vein, John and Brett Erlich tells us about on the wingnuts losing it over – what? – a tranny covering the nips on boobs at a White House pride event? Really??!! (and here is more on this Todd Starnes character)...



...and as a bit of a follow-up to the Mike Figueredo clip, Leeja Miller asks Why Are Wingnuts So Obsessed With Trans Kids...and with all due respect to Miller, the “culture wars” stuff goes back earlier than Anita Bryant, at least to Roe v. Wade in ’73 (on the part of the Catholic Church, anyway...didn’t really think here about the overlap between the fundie nut jobs and the white power zealots, but I can see that that indeed is a “thing”...NSFW/H)...



...and Kyle Kulinski tells us about that Fix Noise guttersnipe Jesse Watters demonizing the homeless, again (oh, and people are homeless because they’re failures? I ABSOLUTELY DARE Watters to say something like that to our homeless veterans who have served this country...more here)...



...and from “across the pond” comes news of the passing of British MP and legendary actress Glenda Jackson, who in her political life stands tall IMO for this singular moment (oh, and if you think we do “rough and tumble” politics in THIS country, get a load of how Great Britain does it, as shown in this clip)...



Update 6/18/23: I think the Hogarth reference in Jackson’s fine speech has to do with this; that is, the poverty from “Thatcherism” was so extreme that it recalled a centuries-old era when William Hogarth depicted “moral subjects” in his paintings.

...and returning to our shores, Jesse Dollemore brings us Dem U.S. House Rep Dan Goldman, who apparently nails the metaphorical coffin shut on idiot James Comer’s alleged Biden investigation (though, given the propensity of the “party of Lincoln” to tell zombie lies, I’m sure this won’t be the end of this nonsense unfortunately)...



...and when I think of the current U.S. House “leadership” as noted in the Goldman clip, I cannot help but think of this tune.

Wednesday Stuff

I thought Rachel Maddow did a pretty good job here of describing the real-life, practical impact of what Our Tiny-Handed Orange Pestilence has done with not just our intel, but that of our allies...and really, it tells you, among other things, how flat-out dumb #45 was, which in the Kubrickian scheme of things was probably good...if he had been clever and/or systematic enough to, say, copy every single piece of classified intel and return it when he was asked, since what he’s accused of is only hanging onto the docs for too long (though that by itself is bad enough), it’s possible he could have gotten away with this scot-free, which is terrifying...at some point, a whole gang of laws and statutes will have to be announced/passed/signed into law based on stuff that, previously, was just “understood” among presidents, before the leader of Cult 45 came along and blew all of those understandings to smithereens, because whoever comes after Our Ochre Abomination will be smart enough not to make the same mistakes (and after reading this chyron, I don’t want to hear Ro Khanna or anybody else on our side say, “Oh, Dems need to appear on Fix Noise”...putting aside the “wannabe dictator” BS, it is a brazen, disgusting lie to say that Biden had one damn thing to do with the multiple count indictment against Our Treasonous Orange Pestilence...it was a grand jury of everyday people in this country who did their commendable duty)...



Update: Yeah, I think this says it.

Update 6/19/23: God, this MUST have been bad for someone to actually get canned from that trash network (here).

...and David Doel discusses the truly historic youth climate trial beginning in Montana...yeah, it’s definitely a long shot, but the other side keeps playing this game of sending one legal “trial balloon” after another that gets shot down until one gets through, and there’s no reason why our side can’t do the same thing, especially when it comes to the freaking climate...



...and Jeff Waldorf lets us know that Republicans in 38 states have introduced bills to subvert local and national elections (including that Texas BS having to do with Harris County, which is the largest county in the state which usually votes for Dems...gee, just a coincidence, huh? And as usual for Mango Mussolini, every accusation is a confession...also, not to be snippy, but I think he needs to add some production values to these videos)...



...and Ana of TYT tells us that the 7 largest insurance CEOs made $335 mil, a lot of which was tied to Medicare Advantage plans and stock buybacks, which are a couple of the biggest scams going on as far as I’m concerned...remember this the next time you’re denied coverage or a full copay reimbursement (and speaking of inflation...)...



...and Thom Hartmann tells us about a new UN report about misogyny across the globe, and to be fair, this looks at both the developed and undeveloped countries across the world (not that we should rest on our laurels here either of course since we still have work to do...good news about the Gen Z-ers I guess saying enough of all of this BS, though)...



...and I know I’m a little late with this, but RIP Italian PM “Bunga Bunga” (here)...there was a time when I paid attention to the exploits of Silvio Berlusconi at this site (here), though I gave up when I had to change the direction of this dumb little blog for several reasons...the VICE News clip gives us more of a backgrounder from a few years ago...he proved to be tragically, catastrophically wrong about Vlad The Butcher, but you could also say that about just about every politician in this country also...however, I also thought Berlusconi was surprisingly spot-on in his analysis in a few ways, though make no mistake; I believe he would have morphed into the same “strongman” type as Putin of course, Orban of Hungary, Erdogan of Turkey, Lukashenko of Belarus, etc...



...and LA Unified school board member Jackie Goldberg is my new heroine for this (here)...



...and here is a tune timed for today’s commemoration.

Tuesday Stuff

John and Trae Crowder tell us that the Gropenfuhrer says he can’t recall if he was told he’d be indicted...no human being should ever trust a single utterance out of his mouth ever again, not that we should have in the first place (and apparently #45 will be arraigned today; he should be forced to surrender his passport, thought that likely won’t happen...I totally get John’s hypothetical here, but it is a bit edgy, I have to say)...



...and Kyle K. tells us that the usual culprits on the right are acting like they want to start “stacking bodies” or something, which is more typical bluster, even though there’s likely one goofball in that bunch who might try to make good on that threat... and the DNC is clueless as always about not bothering to come up with a single attack ad over this – just imagine what the other side would do if the roles were reversed (and I think Kyle is a little glib about HRC, who, as far as I could see, wasn’t guilty of a damn thing except political hubris)...



...and David Shuster of Rebel HQ is the one actual reporter in all of these videos who has not only ready the indictment, but has also reported on other indictments against high-up government officials, so he can legitimately do a “compare and contrast,” and when you put the indictment of Our Ochre Abomination in that context, yeah, it does indeed look worse (and "lawrs"?)...



...and The Lincoln Project tells us that Our Treasonous Orange Pestilence joins a truly sorry list of those indicted under The Espionage Act (again, the Dems should be running ads like this, but I guess they’d get a case of the willies at the thought of doing something to piss off those unicorn suburban boomer independent voters who, in the aggregate, will never support them anyway)...



Update 6/16/23: As usual, The Rude Pundit completely gets it here...The D party once more completely caves on the messaging and lets the other side fill up the vacuum with their total BS, though that won’t stop the political party to which I share an allegiance from BADGERING THE LIVING SH*T OUT OF ME for money...when you start acting like you deserve a contribution, THEN I’ll help you out!

...and Beau comments on this country supposedly having a two-tiered justice system...as he sez, the wingnuts are right, but in a completely opposite way as opposed to verifiable truth and reality (i.e., the kid gloves extended to Combover Caligula of course...sorry to feature #45 in all of these videos, but I think we all know that this stuff with this narcissistic sociopath is important)...



...and RIP Windham Hill pianist George Winston.

Monday Stuff

David Shuster brings us this clip of Trumpster Mandy Gunasekara (who helped pull the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Accords, apparently) now attacking trans health care (God, are we STILL doing this??!!) and getting her metaphorical head handed to her by Dem U.S. House Rep Becca Balint of Vermont (another reason to love The Green Mountain State as far as I’m concerned)...



...and as long as we’re dealing with intolerance, here is Leeja Miller (not her) discussing why Book Bans Are Fascist...so much important history here, including what led to the so-called Comstock Act (NSFW/H)...“With all progress comes the backlash by those who benefit from the stalling of progress.” indeed...



...and Thom Hartmann tells us more about the Repugs’ “forever war” against “hippies,” African Americans, and basically anyone who wasn’t a campaign supporter (don’t have to be rich, but it certainly helps...I honestly didn’t know about that quote from Reagan prior to Kent State, but it fits his wretched profile for sure)...and how yelling about “woke” (which is originally a term used among African Americans to each other) is just the latest version of their long-running garbage (kind of broke the video at a weird place, but I think the point was made)...



...and in a bit of truly unexpected good news, Mike Figueredo brings us the story of the Voting Rights Act (Section 2 in particular) being saved for now by the highly unlikely combination of Hangin’ Judge JR and “I Like Beer” Kavanaugh (case is Allen v. Milligan I believe)...



...and this latest (I think) video from Second Thought tells us more about How Capitalism Creates Loneliness...”Social cohesion is harder to come by in this zero-sum competition that decides if you get to eat this month” and “The built-in competitive element of labor under capitalism puts a strain on (interpersonal) relationships, and that's the problem. The way our economy is organized runs against our natural drive and physical need to socialize. It doesn’t make it impossible, but it sure as hell doesn’t help”...uh, yep (and to echo what J.T. Chapman says here, please reach out for help if you think you need it or if you can help someone else)...



...and I believe we’re going to get some much-needed precipitation in these parts today, which brings to mind this tune.

Saturday Stuff (updates)

Brian Tyler Cohen tells us about the unsealed multiple count indictment against Our Ochre Abomination for his mishandling (to put it mildly at this point) of classified docs (God almighty, in bathrooms, storage closets, and on and on)..and yeah, when you’ve lost Jonathan Turley, who emerged as a Trump apologist, then when it comes to legal punditry, you’re pretty much toast...



Update 1: Et tu, Rachel? (here).

Update 2: Actually, in a weird way, the Gropenfuhrer is right here, but the tears were from laughter over what a big, dumb, traitorous lummox he is.

Update 3: Yeah, I think this says it.

Update 6/11/23: At this point, I'm tempted to ask what need we have of a trial (here).

...and Thom Hartmann tells us more on the same subject, including the fact that #45 admitted on one of his stinking golf courses that he had classified intel, despite his claim that he thought he declassified the docs, which he can’t do anyway (a claim he made during that Sean Inanity interview included in the Cohen clip)... and I’m not surprised that our energy criminals knew the dangers to the climate in 1949, but it is still shocking...



Update 6/13/23: Actually, I think Thom was wrong about the year; according to this, it was 1959.

...and speaking of climate matters, David Doel discusses Marjorie Trailer Park Greene, who strikes again on the Canadian wildfires, blaming “climate cult Canada” which wants to extract 173 billion barrels of oil according to Justin Trudeau, since that country is so “green” on energy of course, though we don’t have room to be snippy on that subject either (and I know the GW Bridge footage is a couple of days old)...mildly NSFW/H...



...and sticking with that train wreck from Georgia, Sam and Emma of The Majority Report tell us that the GA-14 rep also doesn’t know about Glass Steagall, which (as Sam points out) was a Depression-era law separating commercial and investment banks, and it also created the FDIC (more is here on how Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin led the repeal of the law in 1998 and was rewarded with a plumb job at Citigroup, through there were multiple attempts to kill G-S, including plenty from the other side of the aisle..oh, and I guess Greene doesn’t know about a whole bunch of stuff that happened in this country before 1974, then, including this...mildly NSFW/H also)...



...and when it comes to know-nothing Repugs, we really can’t leave Bo-Bo Boebert out of the discussion, now can we...Jesse Dollemore tells us how Vote Vets is commendably going after her (to help Boebert’s opponent next year, Adam Frisch, who almost knocked her off last year, click here)...



Update 6/11/23: More here.

...and Ana and Cenk of TYT tell us that it looks like Merck’s CEO is butt hurt over Medicare being able to negotiate prices for some prescription drugs as of 2026...I have a feeling that part of the reason for the wingnut outrage here is that our side is taking a page from their playbook and trying to push open the pro-consumer, anti-capitalist “door,” if you will, only slightly, but the corporatist stooges at Merck and their fellow travelers expect that we’ll do what they always do when they get a bit of a break, and that is to indeed make a whole lot of somethin’ based on a tiny bit of “not much” (kicking that slightly ajar door wide open, to overwork the metaphor I guess)...as I watched this, I found myself wondering once more how much goddamn taxpayer $$$ went into “Operation Warp Speed” over COVID under Mango Mussolini and gritting my teeth again over our beyond-paid-off corporate media not doing a damn thing to find that out - and yes, on that subject, CNBC is pretty much pro-corporatist trash and not much else...



...and Kyle Kulinski tells us that, apparently, this Doug Burgum person (who seems to be the governor of North Dakota) is running for the Repug nomination for preznit (and yeah, the guy does indeed act like an “AI,” and he also has roughly the same shot at the job as Tim Scott, Nikki Haley, etc. – and of course, he has to make that throwaway remark about “woke,” as if that will actually help him to get 2-3 percent of the vote...way too damn funny)...



...and RIP Chicago jazzman “Redd” Holt; his band proved to be a one-hit wonder way back when with this tune.

Thursday Stuff

As it must for all of us one day, apparently Pat Robertson has now been called to some other plane that we can only speculate about; like you I’m sure, I believe in justice and tolerance in the afterlife for doing good works, so I have no idea what that means for Robertson...in this TYT clip, we get a particularly bonkers take from Robertson on Putin and Ukraine, and how this “man of God” and his ilk see all of this as a way to hasten the “end times”...



Update: And here is someone else who apparently just passed who definitely will not be lamented (didn't know James Watt still drew breath actually...a shame he probably wasn't made to ingest the air today at the George Washington Bridge).

Update 6/17/23: I forgot about Robertson and the "gays caused 911" garbage (here).

...and in news of a less extreme but still dramatic departure, wunderkind Chris Licht is OUTTA HERE at “The Most Trusted Name In News”...interesting revelations in the Tim Alberta piece about the degree of Licht’s megalomania, including the “can Jeff Zucker do this?” thing with the weightlifting...I think it was just a case of Licht sucking up to network boss John Malone at the expense of the people who really made the network’s basically good name, all snark aside...I mean, they could actually “read the room” and see that the media future is progressive since that’s where the “Gen Z” dollars will go, (what $$ they DO have that is), but I just run this dumb little blog, so what the hell do I know?...

...but the big story on Action News, you might say, is the announcement that a certain Treasonous Tiny- Handed Former Preznit was indicted on charges related to his mishandling of those pesky, top secret, classified docs at Mar-a-Lago (here); Beau tells us more about it...



...and Farron Cousins tells us that a Texas sheriff is investigating the first migrant flights from Governor Pudding Fingers, acting as a halfway point from “the land of the yellow rose” to Martha's Vineyard and other points north I believe, to see if laws were broken so he can issue an arrest warrant to Flori-DUUH! guv Ron #DeathSantis (who, as things stand now, remains the runner-up to Combover Caligula for the Repug prez nod next year)...as nice as that would be (to see #DeathSantis do a "perp walk"), I’m not going to get my hopes up, but you never know...



...and Sam and Emma of The Majority Report give us a bit of a follow-up to the Alex Wagner clip from yesterday...sounds like immigrants are leaving Flori-DUUH! because of #DeathSantis and these idiot state reps supporting SB-1718, a pointlessly cruel anti-immigration measure...these Repug poobahs are apparently now backpedaling, probably because they’re getting heat from agribusinesses and other corporations over losing cheap labor (not that they actually give a damn about the migrants of course...and I know this observation is a bit tangential, and Brian Tyler Cohen is trying to address it, but it tells you something about the incompetence of the national Democratic Party that the Repugs have no problem sending out bilingual messages advertising their garbage like this, but the national Dems seem to constantly slip on metaphorical banana peels when they have to do the same thing...and yes, I understand that the Cuban Latino mindset in that state is entirely different from what you would call the more generic Latino mindset which is a hell of a lot more tolerant...mildly NSFW/H)...



...and there’s a few more minutes left in this time zone for World Oceans Day (impacted by climate change, the Canada fires and the smoky skies of course), so please allow me to present the following tune with that in mind (posting is an issue on Thursdays for a variety of reasons, some of which I may discuss one day).

Wednesday Stuff

Alex Wagner of MSNBC tells us about more #DeathSantis cruelty, this time about a bill criminalizing the transport of undocumented immigrants, which will lead to jobs going unfilled in Flori-DUUUH!, and requiring hospitals to check the immigration status of patients in that state (State Rep. Anna Eskamani is pretty much “on the beam” here IMO...more pointless #DeathSantis garbage is here; and some long-awaited push-back is here)...

via GIPHY

...and sticking with the state of #DeathSantis-stan, Ana and Cenk of TYT discuss “Mr. Pudding Fingers” signing some law exploiting renters by having them pay recurring “junk fees” if they can’t pay the first month’s rent and the security deposit up front, and the recurring fees aren’t refundable at the end of the lease of course, unlike the security deposit...yep, once more, the cruelty is the point...



...and Jayar and Jessica Burbank of Rebel HQ tell us about Andy Hartzler’s video of his mom getting some guy to try and exorcize demons from Hartzler’s room (or something) that were allegedly making Hartzler gay (Hartzler’s aunt Vicki gave that crying speech in the U.S. House about gays getting married...last minute or so of this in particular is Nail. Hammer. Head time)...



...and Sam and Emma talk about how a Biden ruling could help unions (and boy, do we ever know about the mess with Hahnemann University Hospital)...looks like the SEIU has filed an antitrust complaint with the DOJ against the hospital network that Hahnemann was part of – the UPMC network I believe...I honestly didn’t know what a “monopsony” was until I watched this clip...and a “Do Not Hire” blacklist, huh? Nice (and good job by “No Malarkey Joe” to change antitrust enforcement, if that indeed is going to transpire...and I think they may have stumbled onto something with that board game idea)...



...and turning to labor news, this video from More Perfect Union tells us why Barnes & Noble workers are standing up for their rights...



...and we’re currently under a big, smoky cloud cover in these parts due to wildfires burning in Canada (more here and here)...maybe we ought to do something about this climate change thing, huh?

Tuesday Stuff

(Pic comes from this, by the way.)

Jesse Dollemore tells us about Bo-Bo Boebert missing the debt ceiling vote and then trying to spin it as some idiotic revolt against Washington spending, or something; of course, as is usually the case for these cretins, they end up BUSTED by the evidence that, once more, they’re totally unconscionable liars...



...and David Doel brings us this clip of Nikki Haley recycling the typical anti-trans BS from her party, with “The Most Trusted Name in News” hurrying up to provide a platform for this week’s Republican presidential nominee – I guess “G.W. Bridge beach chair guy” Christie is next...and by the way, though I’ve never raised a daughter, I know others who have, and the reason thoughts of “snuffing it” come into their heads is because of trying to live up to some idealized image of how young women are supposed to look and act, with these messages coming from our culture overall including mass entertainment and faith groups, and also the pernicious influence of social media in this regard...it has not one damn thing to do with whether or not a “tranny” is in the girls bathroom (mildly NSFW/H)...



Update: Simply vile stuff on guns from this idiot here...

Update 6/7/23: Yeah, this guy would know, wouldn't he?

...and speaking of Repug presidential wannabes, John and Brett Erlich of The Damage Report tell us about Flori-DUUH! guv Ron #DeathSantis, who recorded a video in ’20 praising Dr. Fauci, which is actually a decent, humane thing to do, though that may be disqualifying now for a Repug presidential primary as far as “the great unwashed” are concerned...



...and Mike Figueredo tells us about companies not cashing in on “rainbow capitalism” (NSFW/H also)...the goal of life forms like Matt Walsh is to make LGBTQ tolerance toxic, and unfortunately, as Figueredo says, they’ve been successful, and also unfortunately this lunacy has gone “across the pond” to the UK, where they’re getting their shorts all in a knot over a fish, which is apparently a real “playah”...uh, yep...



...and turning to actual policy from the “party of Lincoln” (though I didn’t say it was actual GOOD policy), it looks like “15 Votes for Speaker” Kevin McCarthy is basically going to bring back another “cat food commission” to cut Social Security and Medicare, on the heels of trying to expand the wretched December 2017 Trump tax cuts for the rich, as Farron Cousins tells us...



...and I can't remember the last time I included an instrumental tune here, and I thought this was kind of a dreamy summer number, so I thought this was as good a time as any to include it (it kicks up a bit at about 4:30, just to let you know).

Monday Stuff

Chris Hayes gives us some interesting theories IMO on why Mango Mussolini had a top secret doc on Iran in his tiny, grubby little hands, one being that it could have been 45’s way of getting back at Gen. Mark Milley for the latter making sure that Our Treasonous Orange Pustule didn’t end up starting a war with Iran on his way out of the door from An Oval Office...



...and Farron Cousins tells us that the Gropenfuhrer remains massively unpopular according to a Fix Noise poll, and I realize that “No Malarkey Joe” certainly can’t rest on his laurels either (I can’t believe we’re dealing with 2024 polls already, but too many people make too much $ off this circus I know so that’s why it’s getting revved up now); I should add that I completely agree with Cousins that the trend lines are what matter the most...



...and Emma and the Majority Report crew tell us about the recent SCOTUS case ruling against unions...one other way to tell that the fix was in is that the High Court of Hangin’ Judge JR always hands down their most controversial rulings as they’re getting out of town at the end of the session...the case was Glacier v. Teamsters; as the panel notes, the fact that the High Court decided to hear this at all vs. letting the NLRB handle this was a pretty damn big signal as to the outcome, and as the panel points out, the only one on the SCOTUS who stood tall was KBJ...NSFW/H...and to say we need some kind of a liberal/progressive answer to ALEC, The Federalist Society, and other right-wing garbage organizations is a huge understatement...



...and Mike Figueredo gives us more insight on this alleged “grand bargain” from “Dark Brandon” on the whole debt ceiling mess; Figueredo is absolutely right about how this monstrosity could have been avoided, and there’s really no other conclusion to draw that the majority of U.S. House Dems were in league with “15 Votes for Speaker” McCarthy...and we know what Manchin and Sinema are, but from this point forward, I don’t want to hear one damn word from Jon Tester about “coastal elites” since he voted for the utterly pointless cruelty of inflicting massive student loan debt on borrowers, including retroactive payments (including interest) delayed because of COVID (also NSFW/H)...and yeah, we noted the Glacier decision and the betrayal of Kagan and Sotomayor in the Majority Report clip...I wish Figueredo luck in his fight against YouTube demonetization; if anything makes me say the hell with all of this one day, it would be something technical like that that stops me dead in my tracks (and by the way, don’t you know that Tester sent some Email fundraising spam to me? Maybe the fastest Email deletion I ever made)...



...and Jesse Dollemore tells us that, apparently, this wingnut “prophet” Lance Wallnau was saying that Dems would get killed in May, along with some Repugs, but – oopsie! – looks like it didn’t happen (and Jesse is definitely right about Right Wing Watch)...



...and RIP Cynthia Weil, who co-wrote a number of hits with spouse Barry Mann, including this one (another legendary songwriting duo, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, had a hand in this one also).

Friday Stuff

Leeja Miller brings us a report on U.S. housing segregation, going back to WWII and “white flight” in the ‘50s along with so-called housing “covenants” that were racist as hell (more on “peonage” is here, as well as the 1968 Fair Housing Act, and here is the case Miller is referring to...like many of you I’m sure, I heard relentlessly about the evils of “Section 8 housing” when I was growing up, so you can consider this clip to be a bit of a response)...



...and it looks like Repug U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville and Trump Jr. are engaged in a contest to find out who has the more limited brain capacity, as Kyle Kulinski tells us, with Tuberville blowing that racist “inner cities” dog whistle loud and clear as Kyle says...that state could have had Doug Jones in the Senate instead of this maroon (and kudos to Tuberville’s brother here)...



...and David Shuster of Rebel HQ brings us Tuberville’s knucklehead Senate partner Markwayne (“I Don’t Want Reality”) Mullin again, grilling educators on whether it’s better to love Jesus or teach tolerance, which to me are two variations of the same damn question...I wish the last person Mullin interrogated hadn’t said something like Jesus comes first – what if we’re talking about a Jewish or Muslim school kid? – but I get it that she was worn down by Mullin’s abusive tactics...



...and keeping with the subject of faith (or the perversion thereof), Sam and Emma speak with Will Sommer on how quickly the fundie nutjobs aligned themselves with QAnon...I think Sam in particular is trying to be careful here when talking about religion, but I don’t think it’s automatic that anyone with a belief system would automatically gravitate to these crazies, and I’m sure Sam’s not saying that to be fair (and there is a bit of a precedent for this insanity as noted here)...



...and moving on to corporate stuff, I have some actual GOOD news for a change; Cenk and Ana of TYT tell us about Costco doing the right thing by holding the line on prices and member fees (I wish to God there was a Costco near Le Manse Doomsy, though I’ll do more research into finding one...nearest I think is in Willow Grove, Pa.)...



...and the prior video mentions good corporate behavior, but this has to do with BAD behavior from UPS versus the Teamsters, courtesy of More Perfect Union...and I know this is a damn broken record, but working at UPS was a good job until – wait for it! – 1982 and the ruinous reign of The Sainted Ronnie R, and the first attempt at a two-tiered wage system, which was fought off, only to have it return, leading to an increase in hiring (and totally abusing) part time workers, doing about 8 hours’ worth of work in 3.5-4 hrs. and getting paid a lousy wage to boot...



...and Thom Hartmann gives us another informative history lesson, this time on the SCOTUS and Sandra Day O’Connor totally quashing part of a dissent from fellow Justice David Souter (nominated to the Court by GHWB), in which Souter alleged that the High Court was helping to create a “plutocracy” in Souter’s completely correct analysis...



...and I hope everyone is in the mood for a newer upbeat tune as we head into the first summer weekend...here goes.

Thursday Stuff

Willie Geist and others on “Morning Jo(ke)” speak with Sarah Kate Ellis of GLAAD about the removal of LGBTQ-themed merchandise from Target, as well as the typical nutty intolerant nonsense from the usual suspects against the LGBTQ community, timed for the first day of Pride Month, with Ellis telling us that 70 percent of those polled are fine with pride themes in advertising, along with other very favorable numbers overall – important to note but kind of pathetic that it needs to be pointed out...more here...



...and John and Francesca tell us about the glorious debt ceiling deal that our political/media/industrial complex just loves, and yeah, “not everyone gets what they want” is indeed Beltway code for “the poors get it in the neck again and the pay no price, bear no burden bunch skate once more” (I believe the House has signed off on this mess, but we’re still waiting on “the world’s greatest deliberative body”)...I’m not sure that Francesca is right about student debt relief going away, but there’s other stuff to cause unnecessary pain...and the bald-faced hypocrisy of this happening ONLY when a Dem is in the White House and the “party of Lincoln” controls at least one chamber of Congress is still enough to make me puke...



Update: OK, Francesca was right about the student debt thing, unfortunately...ugh (here).

...and Brian Tyler Cohen presents us with the latest word salad on abortion from Tim Scott, who apparently is still running for the Repug nomination for preznit next year...yeah, the misogyny here is barely contained...more here and here...



...and Farron Cousins tells us that this alleged genius Repug U.S. Senator Roger Marshall recently told Maria Bartiromo of Fix Noise that, gee, his party hasn’t been able to pin anything on Hunter Biden and/or the IRS and/or whatever alleged scandal du jour is raging because there just aren’t enough danged Republicans on Capitol Hill (more Marshall idiocy is here)...



...and I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” from 6/1/18, in which we learn from Kyle Kulinski (in an NSFW/H clip) about Virginia state senator Bill Carrico, who offered kind of a Dickensian response when asked why he didn’t support Medicaid expansion in his state, which is emblematic of his entire party of course – I believe Carrico is, mercifully, out of government now, but OF COURSE he’s now a lobbyist...



...and I think this is a pretty anthemic tune for the beginning of pride month; I haven’t had a lot to say about this in the past, thought maybe I should have, but I think it’s definitely important to make some kind of a statement of support on this now.



Update 6/5/23: And this from the supposedly liberal bastion of California (this too) - GMAFB!

Wednesday Stuff

Kyle Kulinski tells us that Lex Luthor Scott in Flori-DUUUH! is saying that “socialists” aren’t welcome in his state; fine with me, scumwad...I think this is a pretty spot-on take from Kyle on Scott’s idiocy and the whole “NAACP Travel Advisory” thing...just incredible to me that Scott, who was guilty of the largest Medicare fraud in history as Kyle notes, continues to “fall upward” politically with his nonsense...of course, in that state, the shadow of Castro looms large, though it shouldn’t really, but that’s the status quo because the Dems as a party have never been able to figure out a way to respond (NSFW/H at end)...



...and I thought this was a pretty interesting discussion on The Majority Report with a caller talking about how the High Court of Hangin’ Judge JR took a metaphorical pickaxe to the Clean Water Act again (and yeah, the wingnuts have after been after government agencies, particularly the EPA, and their rule-making capacity for years...more here)...



...and well well, it looks like Maria Bartiromo and Fix Noise made up another “story” to attack Biden...this one is about homeless vets supposedly being kicked out of a shelter to make room for those dastardly, dirty migrants (tongue in-cheek here...David Pakman gives us the details)...and by the way, if you want another example of Fix Noise and the wingnutosphere losing their damn minds over something before they bothered to, y’know, ACTUALLY FACT-CHECK WHAT THEY WERE SAYING, I give you this from the New York Times, in which we learn about someone who was run over with a car, and the usual suspects started spouting off with, “oh, he was killed because he’s a Republican, right after Biden made that speech criticizing MAGA,” which was immediately quashed by law enforcement; they couldn’t determine any kind of a political motive behind this terrible accident...actually, both parties involved in this awful story were intoxicated and it’s hard to get through the fog on this, if you will, thought I’m sure there will be more to come (fine reporting in particular by Charles Homans and also Ken Bensinger)...



...and I thought this was another spot-on clip from The Lincoln Project (maybe in my lifetime, I’ll actually see the “D” party do stuff like this...click here to contact the Senate, which is full of its own brand of craven pretenders I know, and click here to contact the Dems and those other lunatics in the U.S. House)...



...and sometimes the only thing you can do is laugh, and with that in mind, I give you this story of the two kids who got thrown out of a #DeathSantis fundraiser for eating pudding with their fingers...David Doel explains (mildly NSFW/H)...



...and this caught my eye in the Times also (along with the story of the guy who got run over), and that was an obit for Dem Ohio U.S. House Rep Tom Sawyer, who challenged the 1990 census under Poppy Bush for undercounting African Americans as well as voters in cities overall, mainly in the Northeast but also in the Rust Belt...Sawyer also protested the work requirements in Bill Clinton’s welfare “reform” bill, though he defended Clinton during the impeachment fiasco and opposed the 2003 deployment of U.S. forces to Iraq...this tune is probably a bit tangential here, but it’s my attempt at a tribute to someone who fought the good fight and served the way a public official is supposed to, as opposed to the gaggle of idiots who take up positions in public life now.

Tuesday Stuff

Sam and Emma of The Majority Report tell us about U.S. House Repugs voting to overturn Biden’s student debt relief, including Bri-Fi and two alleged “Democrats,” along with Repug Burgess Owens of Utah...yeah, as Emma sez, Repugs have been attacking a college education for freaking decades...and I’m not 100 percent sure about this, but I have a feeling that a lot of this discussion has to do with education IRAs that are tax free, and yeah, they’re tailored for the wealthy primarily, unless you have the foresight to set one up and the ability to hide away enough $$ to take advantage of it...as The Eternal George Carlin said, Republicans want you smart enough to work the machines, but too dumb to know much of anything else, and cutting off the means to get a college education unless you’re “to the manor born” is one way to ensure that...GREAT point at the end by Sam about having to take a crappy job to pay off student debt (and based on this, I think U.S. House Repug Burgess Owens is the LAST person who should be trying to give advice on anything related to finance or money management)...



...and Jesse Dollemore tells us that Repug guv Ron #DeathSantis of Flori-DUUH! said he would look at potentially pardoning the Gropenfuhrer and the other January 6th culprits...#DeathSantis kept using the phrase “weaponization of government” which is obviously wingnut code for, yeah, pardoning everyone involved with 1/6 (and I had to get a kick out of that nonsense about charges against grandma, or whatever that mess was)...



...and Rayyvana and Francesca Fiorentini of The Damage Report tell us about the push-back in Nebraska against not only a ridiculous abortion ban, but also an anti-trans bill as noted here (hard to keep all of this insanity straight sometimes I’ll admit)...



...and as long as we’re talking about “values” nonsense, Farron Cousins brings us this “Moms for Liberty” nutball Darcy Schoening (and I know I had a video with her earlier) saying that her group has “moles” that have infiltrated liberal groups, with Schoening alleging there is some kind of “gay agenda” out there to support Dems in a CNN interview, and true to awful form, “The most trusted name in news” barely pushes back...



...which kind of put me in a frame of mind to watch this old SNL clip, back when we used to be able to just laugh at this nonsense...



...and RIP Cream lyricist Pete Brown...kind of ironic to me that he apparently came to the band in answer to an invitation from drummer Ginger Baker, when Brown ended up forming a musical partnership with bassist Jack Bruce instead...I think the first Brown collaboration with the band was “Wrapping Paper,” and from that point on, Brown’s spacey and poetic lyrics would become a mainstay of their most famous hits, including this one.

Monday Stuff

Brian Tyler Cohen and Glenn Kirschner give us the latest developments on Combover Caligula and the classified documents mess at Mar-a-Lago, with strong evidence pointing to the possibility that there was a willful effort to conceal those docs form the FBI...just throw this criminal’s ass in jail already!...



Update 5/31/23: I'm going to tie a load on big time on the day that this criminal's ass is finally in stir (here).

...and Beau gives us his take on what appears to be a deal to raise the debt ceiling, which – again – is more ridiculous Washington kabuki for the benefit of our political/media/industrial complex...a few ways that all of these idiotic theatrics could have been avoided...I share Beau’s concerns about SNAP and Medicaid I believe, though as Beau says, we’ll have to wait and find out about the details...and yeah, they absolutely wanted $$ taken out of the IRS budget to let their donors get out of paying taxes; I guess that was the metaphorical hill the Repugs would die on in this cruelty...now watch “15 Votes for Speaker” McCarthy try to get those MAGA lunatics in line to pass it...



Update: More here.

...and Ana and Cenk of TYT tell us that the “party of Lincoln” in the House, now that they’ve got this preliminary debt ceiling deal worked out, is going to try and railroad another tax cut bill, to the tune of about $3.5 trillion, providing still more evidence that they don’t give a damn about the debt and just want to reward their donors and stick it to everyone else...I was wondering how long it would take for one of these two to blame Dems somehow, and Ana does that at about 9:20...yes, the Dems should be yelling about this; let’s see what happens, OK?...and Cenk is also wrong not to give Obama credit for cutting taxes, and yes, #44 could have done a better job of getting the word out on that, I know (more here) – still not happy with Cenk over that Article V business, to be honest...



...and I honestly didn’t know that Ed Ames was still alive, though he just passed; well, he made it to 95, God bless him (a fine singer and entertainer, though this may be what he’ll be remembered for more than anything else...after Carson makes the “Jewish” remark, he says, “Welcome to Frontier Briss.”...probably couldn’t get away with this stuff now)...



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



...and I think this is an apropos tune for today’s observance; it’s more of a throwback to the accursed Bushco/Iraq War years when they wouldn’t photograph the coffins of our dead service members returning from that wretched conflict, but I think the tune is also a cautionary tale in the awful event that some other wannabe strongman tries to do the same thing in the future.



Update: And speaking of the failed reign of Commander Codpiece, I give you this (and apologies for failing to note the 20th anniversary of this in a similar vein).