I haven’t paid much attention to Beau of the Fifth Column over the week, though maybe I should – I thought this was a good commentary on the utterly disgusting “big game” hunt in Botswana by Wayne LaPierre of the NRA (more here)...
Update 5/1/21: It's all here; I haven't watched the clip, but apparently it's very disturbing.
...and John and Adrienne Lawrence tell us about the police statement in response to the shooting of Andrew Brown, Jr. (yeah, it sounds like the cops have learned to cover themselves every way over Sunday before they release any footage at all that’s even remotely controversial)...
...and the crew from “The Majority Report” tell us about a Republican idiot in Orange County, CA asking a doctor about a tracking device in the COVID vaccine (mildly NSFW/H... I never considered the anti-vaxxer nonsense to be tied to the “birther” stuff under Obama, but I will acknowledge Sam’s point – and yeah, this has more than a little in common with the furor over the HPV vaccine too as the panel admits)...
...and Kyle reminds us of what an utter fool Repug U.S. House Rep Glenn Grothman of Wisconsin is, going after Cardi B (I can assure you that I don’t watch ANYWHERE NEAR 30 hours of broadcast TV a week)...
...and David Doel tells us about the reaction from people around the globe to a New York Times video demonstrating how ridiculously expensive health care is in this country and the in-too-many-cases awful outcomes that result anyway ("U-S-A! U-S-A!")...
...and staying with “the great white north,” this CBC video talks about a smaller employer paying sick leave to its employees, an Ontario-based snack food company called Neal Brothers (and in terms of the U.S. perspective, I give you this)...
...and apparently, Amy Coney Island Baby Barrett won’t recuse herself from a case involving Chucky Koch because of course (hard to disagree with Cousins’ sentiment about the SCOTUS given the existing evidence)...
...and it so happens that April was Jazz Appreciation Month (and today is International Jazz Day), so that gives us a good excuse for this tune.
This report from Mrs. Greenspan tells us of the “mayor of 9/11” getting his apartment raided by the Feds, including cellphones and computers, as part of an ongoing probe into his business activities...hopefully we’ll see Rudy getting the “perp walk” treatment (wonder if he was hiding at Four Seasons Total Landscaping...with Michael Schmidt of the New York Times)...
...and I thought this was a nice clip from President Biden’s speech last night, which of course met with the typical conservative garbage in response (here also...“grow the economy from the bottom and the middle out” indeed)...
...and working off Biden’s theme about the IRS going after the usual suspects when it comes to owing tax revenue, I give you this from Ana and Wosny Lambre – I honestly don’t know how much the IRS’s funding was or wasn’t hurt by the sequester, but on the other hand, if most of our corporate media wasn’t busy chasing click bait and doing their jobs of ACTUAL REPORTING instead, then maybe we would know – and I know the answer, but I have to ask the question anyway...where the hell are all of these “fiscal conservatives” in this argument? You know...Republicans who normally are such penny pinchers if it doesn’t involve bloated military spending or tax cuts...I guess they’re just going to look the other way on what a great return on investment it is to fund the IRS so it can do the job it was intended to do...
...and Joy Reid gives us some important historical context on the recent anti-protesting legislation signed into law by FL Repug Guv Ron #DeathSantis (more here and here, along with comparisons to George Wallace and FL Sheriff Walter Headley – and “Don’t register to vote and vote the stupid way they did up north,” huh? Go feed in your trough, you pig)...and that ridiculous quote about systemic racism allegedly not existing came from Huckleberry Graham of course...
...and I now give you the latest installment of “The Day In Doomsy History” (more or less) from 4/28/17, in which Keith Olbermann told us about “the first 100 days” of the Gropenfuhrer’s ruinous reign (and as a compare-and-contrast exercise, I give you this)...
..and happy 74th brithday to the leader of Tommy James and the Shondells.
I think everyone in this country should review the events of 1/6 once a week, at a minimum, so it’s crystal clear who was responsible and we never, ever forget it, and I think this video is helpful for that purpose (“You do have hope,” huh? Yeah, well, WE have hope too...that you’ll spend the rest of your miserable, wretched life behind bars – related content is here and here)...
...and with Repug nonsense in mind, Rachel Maddow tells us about all of their made-up scandals, in lieu of actual governance and working with the Dems to improve this country for the vast majority of Americans (and Laura Italiano is a heroine in my book, especially for quitting in a profession that’s shedding jobs)...
...and when it comes to self-inflicted, made-up nonsense, it’s hard to top this from Alaska state senator Lora Reinbold, who was banned from flying because she wouldn’t wear a mask, which is a bit of an issue given how big that state is, and now Reinbold has some absolutely insane commuting to do (taking her cue from Tucker Carlson, no doubt)...
...and speaking of The Swanson TV Dinner Heir, David Pakman provides a pretty thorough rebuttal to Carlson’s latest nonsense (and “Tony” Fauci? Also, I KEEP A MASK HANDY WHEN I'M OUTSIDE and I’ve had both my shots – as to whether I’m a “zealot” or a “neurotic” – well, I’ll leave that up to you, dear reader :-)...
...and David Doel gives us another example of Cops Behaving Badly, this time, in the Kubrickian-titled city of Loveland, CO, laughing over arresting - and apparently injuring - at 73-year-old woman with dementia for not paying a $13 tab at Walmart (the date of this footage was last June – why on earth are we just finding out about it now? ”The issue is not training. The issue is the culture.”...I wish to God I could disagree with that, but I can’t see how)...
...and Thom Hartmann asks why can’t Americans have nice things? And yes, I agree with the vast majority of Thom’s commentary, but as much as I hate to admit, Bill Clinton is partly responsible for NAFTA too (and me as well, for a time – I guess I was a rube once also, because although my better judgment told me it was wrong, I went along with it too)...
...and Robert Reich reminds us that the window on passing the “For The People” act is closing, and it’s pretty damn plain it won’t get passed without nuking the filibuster, which of course Senator Hardball in West Virginia and Ms. F-Off Ring in Arizona apparently are not going to allow (leave it to the U.S. Senate Dems to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory)...
... and here’s a spacy and relatively new springtime tune – consider it a near-end-of-April meditation if you will.
David Pakman tells us of wingnut Repug Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey issuing an executive order against “vaccine passports,” which isn’t actually a thing in this country...yet (wait until he gets overruled by the feds, which I’m sure will result in idiotic lawsuits of course)...
...and with Arizona in mind (and the utterly stoo-pid vote recount going on in that state as noted here), I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” from 4/27/09, in which incumbent-at-the-time Repug U.S. Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota contested the election in which he lost to his Dem challenger Al Franken...more here; yes, Coleman had the legal right to do what he did, even though it proved to be pointless and just delayed the Dem U.S. Senate majority back then (which was probably the point more than anything else), but from that, we’re now at the point where the “Cyber Ninjas” guy is trying to reinstall Our Treasonous, Tiny-Handed Russian Operative of a former *president...
...and part of me wants to ignore the latest garbage from PA’s former U.S. Senatorial mistake, but some nonsense is too ridiculous to pass up; yeah, I think a “blank slate” is what Rick Santorum has between his ears as opposed to actual gray matter...I was pondering this as I drove home from the Neshaminy Mall and recalled my drive over Mashapaug Pond in Connecticut a few years back on my way to Martha’s Vineyard, where we bought artifacts from the Wampanoag who were scraping for tourist dollars before the end of the summer season (more here...also, Sean Morrow seriously needs to update that podcast promo)...
...and Jayar, Cenk and Julie Oliver have some fun here with the Disney customer who is apparently put off all of a sudden by the “wokeness” of the parks (great point about how the kids coming up now are WAY more progressive than their parents on average, and THAT is really what is really getting this guy’s shorts In a knot, you might say, which is just too damn bad)...
...and John and Francesca tell us about Biden recognizing the Armenian genocide, as opposed to other presidents blowing that off – I’m sure Erdogan of Turkey will come back and recognize what we did to Native Americans, and unfortunately he has a point about that (but ssshhh – don’t tell Little Ricky Santorum, or else he’ll give another idiotic speech)...
...and these next two clips have to do with more performative wingnut BS; first, Farron Cousins points out the incredibly obvious fact (to someone with a double-digit IQ at a minimum) that Biden isn’t trying to limit anybody’s red meat consumption (yeah, in lieu of actual governance, this is what the other side preoccupies itself with)...
...and second, I almost feel like I should apologize for this from “The Majority Report”; yes, as we know, the internet is so kind and forgiving and definitely did not ridicule Baby Ben Shapiro for days about his remarks on the subject of “wood” (and I’ll just leave it there, you might say)...
...and yesterday marked the 35th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, which inspired at least one truly awful movie (not trying to trivialize the human tragedy, I wish to emphasize)...here is a tune for the occasion.
Leave it to “Goober” Gohmert to lead the charge against Mondaire Jones in the U.S. House who quite rightly called out “militarize our cities” (and how quickly THAT got swept away in our news cycle, huh?) Tom Cotton with his preposterous BS argument about why the District of Columbia shouldn’t be its own state ...I guess Gohmert is worried again about “aspersions on his asparagus” or something (Cenk, Jayar and Julie Oliver tell us more...great wrapup by Cenk at the end about the racist history behind the filibuster)...
...and Gohmert is back again here (who owes his seat to beyond ridiculous gerrymandering in Texas) to talk about that utterly absurd recount going on in Arizona (the “party of Lincoln” is the biggest bunch of crybaby punks I’ve ever seen)...
...and speaking of crybaby punks, John and Brett Erlich tell us about The Swanson TV Dinner Heir and his association during his college days with something called the Dan White Society, with more information on why that’s particularly disgusting...
...and along with the killer of Harvey Milk and former San Francisco Mayor George Moscone, Carlson claimed some affinity with Jesse Helms; with that in mind, I’m bringing back this clip from the late, great Michael Brooks speaking with author Nick Martin about Helms (cut off a little at the end, but the interview makes good points about how Helms came to be so influential in the Republican Party, sadly)...
...and David Doel comes down as a “no” on the question of whether or not AOC should debate Marjorie Taylor Greene on the Green New Deal...I’m inclined to say no like Doel, but I admit that I’m going back and forth; AOC would be absolutely right on the facts of course, and Greene would just whine and try to “work the refs” like all wingnuts do – and God, how are we supposed to take these cretins seriously when they can’t even freaking spell??!!...
...and it looks like Tinsel Town goofed again during the Academy Awards last night by not giving the Best Actor Oscar to the late Chadwick Boseman, which would have been a nice way to pay tribute to his way-too-short but distinguished career (and Anthony Hopkins, the winner, tried to blunt that a bit with his own tribute in an Instagram post, which was a nice touch)...I have to admit that I’m pretty much clueless on new movies any more; the only shot I might have of knowing the pic would be if it was streaming on Netflix, and even that’s problematic...I guess this admittedly long-winded setup means it’s time for this tune.
I would call it a double standard at a minimum to allow “I Like Beer” Brett Kavanaugh to write the majority opinion in a case that overturns precedent once again, this time having to do with immature youthful behavior and its effect on potential lifetime incarceration, as Rachel Maddow explains (more here and here)...
...and Chris Hayes is absolutely right to basically consider it a travesty that, to date, there hasn’t been a public accounting of the treasonous events of 1/6, but that’s what happens when the voters of this country elect a dangerously delusional sociopath as president, to say nothing of being manifestly unqualified for the job; we do indeed need the equivalent of a 9/11 commission (and I would argue with subpoena power), but when the other side is going to be completely unserious, as House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is for claiming to include BLM and Antifa in such an investigation (and it should be noted that neither law enforcement or any kind of impartial journalistic or investigatory body of any kind HAS IDENTIFIED EITHER GROUP AS HAVING ANY INVOLVEMENT IN THE EVENTS OF 1/6)...well, let’s just say I’m not holding out much hope (and Hayes’s frustration at the end is completely called for IMO)...
...and I know I went after Dubya on Thursday over that dopey interview of his, but I thought this was a pretty good take on the comment from number 43 about lies online or whatever that mess was (though Kyle has to also rain on his own parade by acting like the stuff with Trump and Putin was just nbd as he always does, which is actually pretty damn infuriating)...
...and I have to admit that it’s been a looong time since I’ve done anything close to recreational biking (good exercise overall, but I have to listen to what my middle-aged body is telling me about that), but I have never in my life heard of a license requirement for a bike (though I also don’t plan to visit Perth Amboy any time soon, I hasten to add – hey, why not give these kids credit for getting some exercise outside as opposed to being shackled inside to a gaming controller all day?)...
...and this TYT clip from Adrienne Lawrence tells us about Colorado Judge Natalie Chase, who has stepped down basically for being racist AF (appointed to the bench by former Governor and now U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper - not sure why the segment leads off with that old clip of Cenk and Ana)...
...and speaking of racism, don’t look now, but here comes Brit Hume to tell us how it doesn’t exist any more (and Emma V. is exactly right – if Fix Noise existed in the ‘60s, Hume would be saying “Oh, there’s no such thing as systemic racism, it’s just a few bad apples...BUT LOOK OVER THERE AT THE NEW BLACK PANTHER PARTY THUGS IN PHILLY! THEY’RE THREATENING THAT ELDERLY WOMAN AT THE POLLING PLACE BY HOLDING THE DOOR OPEN FOR HER!”)...
...and I have to admit that this clip from Thom Hartmann is a little atypical, but I still thought it was important – I honestly believe that there are situations where self-medication under a doctor’s supervision of course is definitely called for, but I also think it’s good to discuss any possible way to effect lifestyle changes that could head off the need for medication depending on the circumstance – definitely not saying to toss all your meds right here and now, but certainly when it comes to learning particularly for kids, maybe we can pursue other strategies (kind of an open-ended comment I know)...
...and this is a cool combo I must say of Sir Mick Jagger and Dave Grohl performing a pretty kick-ass lockdown song – nice tune for a weekend too (and I wonder if someone will have the guts to tell Jagger that he doesn't have to worry about playing the guitar).
I love it when the Repugs gang up on each other; let them tear themselves to pieces – fine with me (and once more, The Lincoln Project keeps cranking out these great ads)...
...and I can’t think of a word to communicate my disgust with the anti-maskers for trying to harass kids, and I can’t say “oh, it’s a southern thing” since this is from CA...we shouldn’t do a damn thing for these lunatics if they end up in a COVID ward (and isn’t it ridiculous that there’s no anti-protest law against this, as opposed to that garbage anti-protest law that just passed in FLA?)...
...and the prior David Pakman clip mentioned overseas actors, if you will, using social media to influence opinion in this country against COVID immunization (bastards), and I thought that was an appropriate transition to this interesting clip from the BBC about how China is responding to COVID-19 with its own brand of propaganda; yeah, some of this is to be expected by a totalitarian regime, but some of it was egged on by our prior ruling cabal of grifters and lowlifes too...
...and back to dollars-and-cents stuff...David Doel is exactly right on how Bernie and the Dems started out on a lowball number on negotiating for the $15-an-hour minimum wage (and by the way, $15 an hour is hardly extravagant...that’s basically a below-poverty wage and doesn’t even remotely keep pace with productivity gains for comparable work over, say, the last 40 years – not slamming Bernie because he’s trying to do good, but the Dem U.S. Senate “leadership” instead...just assume the "party of Lincoln" will NEVER have a good idea and go on without them because that is probably EXACTLY how events will play out regardless of whatever bill you're talking about)...
...and echoing that, I give you this clip from Farron Cousins with Biden basically telling the other side to “put up or shut up” on funding the infrastructure bill...
...and Number 46 is featured prominently in this Ari Melber report on the 1994 crime bill; I’m glad Melber mentioned that it’s a sign of wisdom to understand that sometimes you need to change course since that’s 100 percent true, and I believe Biden understands that – and yes, there’s a lot we can take issue with in retrospect about “The Big Dog” and the whole “centrist Democrat” thing, but I also think we need to recall that Clinton found a way to win the White House for “Team D” after a 12-year absence, and in politics that is absolutely an eternity...as far as I’m concerned, we had a good run under Clinton, and yeah, there were some missteps, but there were a hell of a lot of gains too...
...and sticking with The Comcast Network, I give “Doc” Maddow a lot of credit for this segment on the Chevron oil company trying to protect its oil field in Myanmar and propping up a military junta at the same time (making our planet safe to manufacture panty hose, apparently – got it)...
...and I know I make some “U-turns” from time to time here with my musical selections, and here comes another one...today is the 60th anniversary of the Carnegie Hall performance by Judy Garland, a show which was truly stunning, including this timeless number.
Yeah, count me as somebody who’s pretty damn fed up with attempting to somehow normalize George W. Bush, for the reasons Ana and Francesca point out...and this POS is actually going to talk about “nativism”? What the hell do you call all of this “you’re either with us or against us” crap in the wake of 9/11? What do you call turning one of the most awful days this country has even seen into Republican hate porn like you, Cheney and your pals did for 8 miserable years? What do you call those garbage “purple heart band aids” your lizard-brained followers wore to ridicule John Kerry’s military service at that Hate Fest convention in 2004?
I’ll admit that there are some slight threads of decency in Dubya that are utterly buried beneath a mountain of hubris and arrogance, but he only looks reasonable to a tiny degree because 45 was an utter sociopath (and boy, does Francesca in particular nail it)...
...well, given the prior clip, I think we need to bring back this little number from the awful Bush/Cheney era (slightly NSFW/H)...
...and I know this clip from Chris Hayes is a few days old, but this is one of the best takedowns of right-wing garbage media and the COVID pandemic that I’ve seen in a while, and kudos to Hayes for laying this right at the feet of Lachlan Murdoch, who apparently is now the caretaker for The Roger Ailes BS Factory (and oh yeah, memo to The Swanson TV Dinner Heir...the point of masking after immunization is to MINIMIZE THE IMPACT OF THE F*CKING VARIANTS!!!!)...
...and I also know I touched on this recently with a clip from “The Majority Report,” but Rachel Maddow (speaking with Florida State Senator Shevrin Jones) gives us more detail on the completely disgusting 81 anti-protest bills sponsored by Republicans (and yeah, protecting the monuments to Confederate traitors is another “FU” in all of this)...
Update 4/23/21: And Oklahoma now joins the stupidity parade also (here).
...and I honestly wasn’t going to pay attention to that Missouri scumbag Josh Hawley, but I changed my mind after this most recent foul episode from this disgusting life form...
...and when asked, Dr. Fauci said “How can you say that gun violence isn’t a public health issue?” – Nail. Hammer. Head...
...and David Pakman tells us about a law passed in the House allowing banks to transact with pot dispensaries...not sold on federal legalization, but if states want to allow pot, then there should be no problem with dispensaries operating like a regular business, and of course it should be federally decriminalized...
Rachel Maddow tells us about the official police statement after George Floyd’s killing, which made no reference to what actually happened; if it weren’t for people taking cell phone footage including the one brave young lady in particular who testified at the trial, there might not even have been a trial at all, let alone a guilty verdict handed down to Derek Chauvin (oh, and yesterday also brought us this cringeworthy moment)...
...and in response, I have a feeling we can look forward (tongue in cheek) to a whole lot of garbage just like this, with this wingnut Florida sheriff trying to re-define and criminalize protest (...”but don’t register to vote and vote the way they did up north, or you’ll get what they got”...REALLY???!!! And “A gathering of three or more people can be labeled a riot”...terrific! – the land of Mickey Mouse indeed, all while Governor #DeathSantis looks on with approval)...
...and with the prior clip in mind, I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” from 4/21/14, reminding us that crazy Repug governors are a feature, not a bug – Jeb Bush and Bobby (“Don’t Call Me Piyush”) Jindal are discussed, creating the template for the insanity of #DeathSantis (the late, great Ed Schultz speaks with Pap and David Cay Johnston...yeah, the “vulture chart” pretty much says it, and this was 7 years ago – can only imagine what that’s like now)...
...and gosh, what a shame...it looks like the “New KKK Caucus” of Paul Gosar and Marjorie Taylor Greene in the U.S. House may not be a thing after all – I’m sure the Swanson TV Dinner Heir, among others, is crest fallen over it, as Ana and Francesca discuss (interesting note from Brett Erlich about our legal system traced to Islamic law)...
...and Brian Tyler Cohen tells us about Stacey Abrams giving it right back to Huckleberry Graham over his attempt at “gotcha” questions over Georgia’s BS new voting laws (and as usual, talking over and interrupting – I’d seriously like for someone to ask Graham how the hell he feels that he has the right to interfere in anything having to do with Georgia since he allegedly represents South Carolina)...
...and RIP Jim Steinman – yeah, we know what “Pig Loaf” would turn into, but “Bat Out of Hell” was still a great recording (including this tune), partly made so by the contribution of Todd Rundgren.
Thom Hartmann makes what I think is a convincing argument, sadly, that this country has turned into a fortress as opposed to a “shining city on a hill” based on this (and our insatiable lust for guns is a big part of that of course...many good points here, including blowing up all that “Oh yeah? Chicago has strict gun laws and look what’s going on.” BS)...
...and Cenk and Ana of TYT talk about Louisville, KY cops beating up a protestor – can you guess the skin color? And yeah, it’s a typical cop trick to yell “Stop resisting!” as they do it – the only “resisting” this guy is doing is breathing. The clip also discusses a FLA law basically making it legal to run down protestors (and Cenk is absolutely right when it comes to reporters and the first amendment, re, the protests, asking #DeathSantis if he supports it or not – if the fourth estate wasn’t preoccupied with “access,” then yeah, maybe they’d grow a spine and do what they should on this)...
...and oh look! It’s time for more utter performative nonsense from that U.S. senatorial mistake, Democrat Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, showing off her “F-off” ring (what a pitiable joke this woman is – John and Francesca provide commentary)...
...and once more (and for probably the 100th time I know), I know what The Lincoln Project is, but they keep cranking out good videos like this one, so here it is (though I'm not sure that America is the only country founded on an idea, but yeah, I guess that could be true)...
...and RIP former Minnesota U.S. Senator and VP (under Jimmy Carter) Walter Mondale; I’m sure others will come out with obits that will do much better justice to Mondale’s accomplishments in public life than I could do here, but I thought I’d present this one clip in his 1984 debate against The Sainted Ronnie R where Mondale wiped that big, dumb smile right off The Gipper’s face; yes, I realize that Mondale got creamed in that election, but fighting the good fight still counts, as well as naming Geraldine Ferraro as your running mate (trying to break the glass ceiling Kamala Harris shattered)...
...and I’m not encouraging that anybody “toke up” today, but if you do, please be careful and don’t operate any heavy machinery, including a car of course.
Update 1: THANK GOD! I honestly was wondering for a little while about this.
I have no clue as to whether or not this will be the beginning of the end of the cops and “open season” on African Americans, but now we know that there’s a line to be drawn SOMEWHERE.
They’d better send Chauvin to a “club Fed” for the rest of his life (which, again, is still a better deal than George Floyd got). If Chauvin ends up in a general prison population, he’ll be dead in 20 minutes.
Update 2: Aaaand we're back to what is apparently the sickening normality of American law enforcement (here) - I can only imagine how some of these pigs are going to respond to the Chauvin verdict (and an extra "FU" by the cops is here).
Joe Scar of “Morning Jo(ke)” shows his true wretched colors here with Dem U.S. House Rep Sean Maloney, with the MSNBC host parroting Repug talking points and having a hissy fit when Maloney calls him on it (I think the attack lines Scar mentioned caught the Dems off guard, but not because the attack lines weren’t absolutely ridiculous in the first place...AOC said the Dems need to do a MUCH BETTER job on social media to blunt this garbage, and she’s absolutely right – we need to replace their crappy messaging with our GOOD messaging, and as David Doel says, incumbent progressives won re-election in the House last year, though I realize the picture is complicated by other factors too)...
...and sticking with the subject of wingnut temper tantrums, there are all kinds of reasons why I rate Repug lunatic U.S. House Rep Gym Jordan as a lower life form than a garden slug (a shame you can’t pour a beer on Jordan and watch him disintegrate into a mass of sodium goo on a sidewalk), but for now I decided to punish myself (and, by extension, you dear viewer) and air this clip of his interaction with Dr. Fauci...to listen to this craven demagogue rant at someone who has more intellect in his little finger than Jordan does in his entire wretched self was just about too much to take, particularly when this asshole from Ohio talks about going to church (yep, performative garbage, as Brian Tyler Cohen correctly describes it)...
...and in a sane world, a life form like Jordan would inflict this treatment on the “Karen” who coughed on the woman who had brain cancer instead of Dr. Fauci, as Farron Cousins tells us (I swear, I may never visit Florida again after this...mildly NSFW)...
...of course, maybe all of the anti-maskers out there could try this product instead (hey, we have to find humor somehow)...
...and John, Cenk and Bridget Todd tell us about cops donating to a fund to help (accused, let’s not forget) Kenosha, WI shooter Kyle Rittenhouse – I know I said a couple of days ago that the Adam Toledo shooting (a kid all of 13...just a reminder) was more of a gray area because it was a dark alley and Ofc. Eric Stillman had less time to respond, which is true, but it’s still an undeniable fact that Toledo had his empty hands up and was shot fatally in the chest anyway...I can’t recall all of the clip at the moment, but I remember recently seeing the head of the Chicago police union I believe acting pretty indignant over the fact that Stillman is being questioned at all, and I thought, sure a-hole, go ahead and fan the flames, as it were...
...and damn, I’m pretty sure it was just a few weeks ago when I wished Rusty Young a happy birthday – RIP.
This brief clip from The Guardian provides the latest update on yet another mass shooting, this time in Indiana - yeah, it's a problem that we apparently can't resolve because there are so many in this country who just shrug and tell us to move on even though this doesn't happen to the same degree in any other country on earth (the tune at the bottom of this post is for the "shruggers")...
Update: And apparently, it's yet another white punk kid with a grievance (here).
...and this USA Today clip tells us about the other big gun story, and that is the shooting of 13-year-old Adam Toledo in Chicago (David Doel had an excellent video on this, but YouTube flagged it for some reason; I would encourage finding it and watching...apparently, this boy had a gun when he was chased and ditched it, but his hands were empty when he raised them before he was shot...ugh)...
Update: After I posted this, I watched the unedited video of the shooting. I most definitely am NOT going to post it here (trust me...you don’t want to see it. I felt like it was an invasion of sorts when I saw it).
This certainly isn’t George Floyd, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, or maybe a hundred other similar incidents. It appears (and I don’t want to say anything conclusively one way or the other to prejudice this legally) that Toledo discarded the gun as he put up his hands. In a situation with a dimly lit alley where an officer has fractions of a second to respond, that makes these events all the more problematic.
This is a terrible tragedy to Adam Toledo and his family, first and foremost. However, I can’t help but wonder what the hell he was doing in an alley in “Chi-raq” like that at 2-3AM in the morning (though that is NOT AN EXCUSE FOR WHAT HAPPENED, I hasten to emphasize). And I hope the individual who (again, allegedly) game him the gun is apprehended and sent to prison for a minimum of 20 years.
...and returning to more typical fare for this site (though I guess that varies), John and Ben Dixon tell us about the minimum wage “compromise” that the Dems who voted down $15 an hour are trying to come up with, including Curtsy Kyrsten of course (great point by John about how the “compromise” she supports is LESS than the minimum in her own state...”after years of trickle-down economics, you now get the Kyrsten squat”...sad but true, and anyone who thinks ANY REPUBLICAN would go along with it is truly delusional...and if this doesn't give away the game, I don't know what does)...
..and this segment from Brian Tyler Cohen tells us about White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki handling a reporter trying to parrot more Repug talking points – great analysis by Cohen on the whole “oh, we can’t raise taxes on high earners because our utility charges would increase” nonsense...
...and speaking of swatting down idiocy, Thom Hartmann handles an anti-vaccine caller exactly the way we all should; I understand that he can’t shut down too many callers or else he won’t have a show, but there’s absolutely no justification in giving a platform to liars, especially when it comes to our ongoing plague...
...and Robert Reich tells us once again about the economic scams from the usual suspects, as it were...
...and given today’s top stories, I couldn’t help but have this tune in mind; maybe one of my more cynical selections from a guy who knew a thing or two about protests, I’ll admit.
Yes, as others have pointed out, we have a crisis in policing in this country where, apparently, the cops are trained to escalate any confrontation immediately (that is, if you’re not white). But I also believe that we’re not going to have any kind of unilateral reform in this country on that issue. We need to get the cops to the table, as it were, and involve them in whatever discussions and/or policy recommendations hopefully come out of such meetings with all parties represented. We’re not going to have a prayer of coming up with any solutions to keep more people breathing unless we do that.
And as far as the Indianapolis shooting is concerned...yep, just another day in this country with a “Y” in it, unfortunately; there’s roughly about 30 percent or maybe more in this country who just aren't going to budge on that issue along with the other critical ones facing us (including rebuilding this country and addressing the climate crisis, immigration reform, common-sense taxation, etc.). If someone has some kind of a magical means to remedy that, please let me know, because I’ve got nuthin’ (and yeah, this tune goes out to the “30 percent”).
John and Jayar of The Damage Report tell us about the response from Dr. Anthony Fauci on CNN to the charge from The Swanson TV Dinner Heir that the COVID-19 vaccines allegedly aren’t any good (making it excruciatingly hard to actually get to a point where we can resume something approximating a normal routine – I’m beginning to wonder if we’ll EVER be rid of this plague...and as someone who gew up in Philly, maybe I shouldn't say this, but I love the fact that Fauci responds with his "New Yawwk" accent that he grew up with, as if to add an unspoken "FU" to Carlson)...
...and sticking with The Roger Ailes BS Factory...as much as I wish for Rupert The Pirate to get his comeuppance at long last, I just don’t see that happening in this world, though, like Limbaugh, Murdoch’s ultimate reckoning awaits...
...and this Now This clip tells us about Republicans from the Texas suburbs who were encouraged to be poll watchers against “fraud” in Houston – yep, only people with the right skin color should use the universal franchise once more as far as they’re concerned, and the whiter, the better I guess...
...and Farron Cousins tells us about the assclown governor of Mississippi, Tate Reeves, who apparently wants to designate April as Confederate History Month (yep, when Repugs refuse to face issues for real, they just retreat to their tribal culture wars BS)...
...and Sam and Emma of The Majority Report tell us about “Man Tan” Boehner’s attempt at image rebuilding to sell his book, with the help of the thoroughly unctuous Willie Geist of “Morning Jo(ke).”
As for yours truly, I’ll tell you exactly what my issue is with Boehner (and I’m a little surprised the video didn’t touch on this)...
Boehner played a pivotal role in the 2011 budget ceiling garbage and the sequestration deal that resulted from it (a totally manufactured “crisis”) with the Obama Administration. The thinking by the Obama folks was OF COURSE we’ll come up with some kind of an agreement over spending with Boehner, because nobody wanted the sequester to go into effect, arbitrarily slashing governmental spending across the board (except, quite rightly, for entitlements and the military, though apparently entitlements have been affected somewhat too). Well, it turned out that the Obama folks naively didn’t pick up on the fact that INITIATING THE SEQUESTER WAS THE WHOLE GODDAMN POINT!
And if you want to get an idea of how harmful the sequester has been, I offer this, this, and this (and I'll keep looking for more current information, but this is apparently yet another topic that our corporate media refuses to deal with)...
Update 4/21/21: And let's not forget this about Boehner also.
...and speaking of fails by the fourth estate, I honestly don’t know why this wasn’t included in the clip with Rachel Maddow speaking with Sherrilyn Ifill of the NAACP about all of the garbage voting bills in this country, as well as this and this (Maddow led into this segment by mentioning the full-page ads in the Times and the WaPo...and speaking once more of fourth-estate fails, I give you this)...
...and this video is about a year old I know, but it has to do with CEO Dan Price, who has been trumpeting how he commendably raised the salaries of his workers and managed to grow his business at the same time, contrary to right-wing BS economy orthodoxy of course (more here)...
...and as long as money seems to be a recurring theme in this post, I thought I’d present this timely number (I believe the filing deadline was extended to May 17th – we managed to do OK this year and we hope you do too).
This Now This clip provides some more detail from Igor Volsky (formerly of Think Progress) on the executive actions taken by President Biden related to common sense gun reform (of course, what we REALLY need is for Congress to act, but I’m not holding my breath given that nothing on the federal level happened after Sandy Hook...once more, love to be wrong)...
...and this Meidas Touch video (titled the “GOP Pedo Ring”) is kind of self-explanatory (and once more, if the Democrats knew anything at all about messaging – noted in another video in this post – they would make damn sure what’s presented here became ingrained in the minds of every voter in this country)...
..and David Pakman tells us that embattled GOP congressional lowlife Matt Gaetz is suspected in a “ghost” candidate scheme...I know I touched on this last Saturday, but apparently more metaphorical shoes have dropped on this story since, though apparently Gaetz is in deeper doo-doo on other stuff of course...as far as I’m concerned, Jill Stein was a “ghost” candidate in 2016 (and still, the only candidate of the “party of Lincoln” who has told Gaetz to GTFOH is Adam Kinzinger...still crickets from this guy)...
...and this TYT clip tells us about Fix and Fiends attacking Biden on Infrastructure (yes, Buttigieg was off with the numbers, sure, but take a look at the people throwing stones, and he’s also done a good job in other interviews despite what Ana says...I get a little tired of Cenk and Ana beating the anti-corporate Dem drum the way they do, though I definitely agree with them that the Dems SUCK at messaging and are still behind the proverbial 8-ball in using social media – why I will never truly know)...
...and a hat tip for this video goes out to Egberto Willies of Daily Kos (you can follow him on Twitter and subscribe to his YouTube channel also of course), with Mika B. talking with Steve Rattner about increased income inequality as a result of the pandemic (of course, Willie Geist and Randall Lane have to find a way to blunt this story somehow ...“hey, we had 483 new billionaires”...but fortunately, Rattner and the other political reporter at the end make sure we “keep our eye on the ball”)...
...and happy belated 75th birthday to Al Green (not the Dem TX U.S. congressman, I hasten to add, though he's a good dude too...any time I hear this song any more, all I can think of is a close-up of Bruce Willis's face listening to profane instructions from Ving Rhames based on this movie).
I would say that the era of “vaccine passports” has already arrived, in accordance with Keith Olbermann’s entirely correct IMO observations here; actually, given stories like this, we may get to the point in this country where people from one state/commonwealth may have to quarantine when they travel vs. people from other places who won’t have to – love to be wrong...
...and Cenk and Ana tell us about Caron Nazario, who was the officer pulled over in Virginia by police in that commonwealth (and by the way, I’m not disagreeing with what Cenk and Ana say here about the Democrats – Obama once had that “beer summit,” which was nothing but a stupid one-off of a photo op – but I would only point out how the Dems got absolutely clobbered over “defund the police” in 2020...blame cowardly politicians, but blame STOO-PID voters for validating bullshit right wing talking points too...and in response to this, I have one word: GOOD!)...
...and David Doel tells us about the shooting of Daunte Wright in Minnesota by a cop who apparently thought she had a taser instead of a gun (an update is here)...And I can tell you right now how the wingnuts are going to clap-back over this; they’re going to mention the state troopers in Texas and Iowa who were killed recently (apples and oranges, I know) and say...to paraphrase Cenk...”HOW DARE YOU EVEN MENTION DOING ANYTHING WHATSOEVER TO AFFECT THE COPS OVER THIS!! BACK THE BLUE!!! BLUE LIVES MATTER!!!” And their lemming-like viewers and listeners will lap it all up and use it to vote against Democrats, screwing themselves over yet again...see previous comment about BS talking points...
...and I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” (more or less) from 4/15/11...it’s not often that these selections are so topical in the news, but this is one such rare occasion; the following video from the “Rethink Afghanistan” series from Brave New Films gives us the “Afghan War Calculator,” which is timely given this announcement from the Biden Administration that we are leaving that country at long last, as noted here...
Update 4/14/21: The Afghanistan story made me recall this post, for what it's worth.
...and Brian Tyler Cohen tells us all about wingnut Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s selective outrage over the conditions at a migrant detention facility (and yeah, spare me this garbage of “under Trump it was federal and we didn’t have jurisdiction, but under Biden it’s a state matter, so we do”...you either care about kids separated from their families and forced to live in horrendous conditions of utter deprivation or you don’t)...
...and I honestly don’t have a clue as to what corporations in the aggregate, you might say, are going to do with the mid-term elections coming up, though, as Farron Cousins says, it’s interesting that they had a call over the weekend to figure out what to do in response to the awful voter suppression bills such as the one in Georgia and others making their way through legislatures across the country (in the end, Repugs fall in line, and I have a feeling they’ll do that again here, though I very much want to be wrong on that also)...
...and I was glad to come across this clip from Ali Velshi of MSNBC about the importance of immigrants to this country (should be obvious, but I guess it bears repeating from time to time)...
...and happy 77th birthday to bassist extraordinaire Jack Casady of Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna (and my bad for failing to mention the 80th birthday of Jorma Kaukonen last December).
John I. and Dr. Rashad Richey tell us about a Republican attack ad vs. Marjorie Taylor Greene in an anticipated primary...unfortunately, I think Richey’s analysis is spot-on, though I don’t mean that against him of course...only wish to say that, as Richey says, Greene’s base won’t care about this ad – might rally support for her as he says...
...and RIP former Lyndon Johnson Attorney General Ramsey Clark, who, in addition to serving as a Marine, fought for progressive causes and had a lot to do with the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Civil Rights Act of 1968 (here, he speaks with Amy Goodman of Democracy Now from 2013 about the effort to free attorney Lynne Stewart, who died in 2017)...
...and Cenk, Jayar and Ben Dixon tell us about Eric Bolling storming off the set of a BBC interview in response to Georgia’s horrible anti-voting law...good job to bring up all of Bolling’s prior garbage...and boy, does Jayar nail this at the end...
...and Sam and Emma of The Majority Report speak with a PA caller in support of a national infrastructure bank (you can read more about the group she discusses from here)...
...and you can consider this 1980 clip of conservative godfather Paul Weyrich, speaking out in favor of voting restrictions, to be a reminder of the impetus behind all of the garbage anti-voting laws the “party of Lincoln” is currently trying to pass in state legislatures across the country (more here)...
...and I guess I had this newer tune in mind for the first video in particular, though I know it can be applied to many others besides the GA-14 lunatic wingnut U.S. House rep.
OK, so let me get this straight – Joe Manchin apparently took as a lesson from the 1/6 insurrection that we need to work more with those poor, misunderstood wingnut Trumpers who tried to install Our Treasonous Tiny-Handed Former Dictator for another term (and who managed to get people killed, including Ofc. Brian Sicknick, as well as scores injured), instead of, y’know, quite rightly vilifying these life forms in the manner they deserve. WHAAAA????
Cenk says that’s just cover for Manchin sucking up to his donors and looking out for his own interests, and I think Cenk is right (with Ana in the TYT clip below...I think Cenk’s outrage is commendable, but I can easily see Manchin going over to the “R” side if he gets his shorts in enough of a knot, handing the Senate back to Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao, which makes Manchin even more disgusting of course)...
...and turning to the other half of that utterly useless Dem U.S. Senate duo, Kyrsten Sinema acknowledged that "the world's greatest deliberative body" is broken, but has now officially gone on record saying that she won’t do anything about it...figures (Farron Cousins explains)...
...and when it comes to media prognostications that very definitely didn’t age well, John and Dr. Rashad Richey of “The Damage Report” tell us that Fix Noise managed to summon forth the fossilized remains of Brit Hume in April ’20 so he could basically say that COVID-19 wasn’t going to be a big deal...as usual, wrongness is a badge of honor for media punditry, where there is almost no accountability (and on the subject of our ongoing plague, I swear, considering this story, we may get to the point where we'll need ID cards from every state, with people from some states not being allowed to enter others where a higher risk of infection is feared)...
...and speaking of our ongoing plague, Kyle tells us here about a rule that apparently Combover Caligula put into place allowing Big Pharma to charge whatever it wanted for a COVID vaccine (and I’ll admit Biden should get on this, but I think there’s only so much the guy can do given that he’s been on the job for only about 2 ½ months...I think Kyle is referring to this, by the way)...
Update 4/14/21: And when it comes to making the COVID vaccine prohibitively expensive, let’s not forget this person by the way.
...and Chris Hayes tells us about the differences between voting in Georgia, land of Jim Crow 2.0, and Colorado, which now will host the MLB All-Star Game and has, commendably, actually entered the 21st century in that department...
...and Rachel Maddow tells us how Matt Gaetz was apparently involved in a “fake candidate” scheme run by Florida Repugs (makes me recall when that was tried up here with a guy named Jay Russell who ended up in the Bucks County Commissioners contest that included Steve Santarsiero, as noted here)...
...and I really don’t have much to say in response to the news of the death of Prince Philip in Great Britain, but I would only add that we should look at the full context of his life of patriotic service and not just some alleged recent quotes about the skin color of Meghan Markle’s baby (a BBC tribute follows)...
...and on about this day in 1976, Frampton Comes Alive! made it to #1, on the Billboard chart I believe, including this tune.
