Farron Cousins tells us that, based on our current trajectory, If we don’t meet Paris Climate Accord goals by 2060, we won’t be able to stop Arctic melting (but we shouldn’t just say the hell with it...need to keep working on trying to fix this, as Cousins notes)...
...and with the prior clip in mind, I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” (more or less) from 5/13/16, in which we learn that Germany powered itself completely from renewable energy for at least one day...
...and John and Ana tell us about the new wind project approved for 12 miles off Martha’s Vineyard, which hits close to home for your truly; I originally opposed Cape Wind, but I’ve definitely reconsidered that (and of course, Our Treasonous Orange Pustule of a former *president opposes the project, which automatically counts in its favor)...
...and speaking of #45...gee, it turns out that former Reagan deputy national security adviser John Poindexter has emerged as a Trumper (here); wish I could say that I’m surprised, but given the following clip (about Poindexter and Ollie North each “taking the fifth” during congressional testimony on Iran-Contra from back in the day), yeah, it really does fit the profile (more here)...
...and Chris Hayes speaks with former Repug U.S. House Rep Mickey Edwards and Sam Seder about a potential 3rd party made up of disaffected people from the “party of Lincoln” (Sam is exactly right about drawing a line back for 20 years at least, and while I applaud Edwards’s efforts, he’s hopelessly naïve if he can’t see the line that Seder is talking about, though I think he admitted it a bit towards the end playing off Sam’s remark about the John Dean book)...
...and I know I included some videos on what’s going on with the Israelis vs. the Palestinians yesterday, but David Doel brings us this well-done clip featuring the late, great Michael Brooks on the overall conflict...
...and I didn’t want to let the week come to an end without noting the passing of Norman Lloyd at 106, a legendary actor, producer and director, and apparently, a pretty self-effacing guy by all accounts...
...and I’m glad to hear that the East Coast pipeline hack has apparently been resolved (here); I had this tune in mind for a few days but didn’t get around to it for various reasons, so I might as well do so now.
David Shuster of “Rebel HQ” tells us that, apparently, the anti-vaxxers put on their own version of “Burning Man” recently...what a bunch of asshats...
...and my bad for not acknowledging the current situation that has boiled over between the Israelis and the Palestinians; I thought this was a pretty good BBC report (sounds like an unholy cauldron, if you will, made up of political opportunism, religious intolerance and an oppressive occupation, made worse by an apparent split between Hamas and Fatah, which has a lot to do with this, and as usual, primarily innocent people end up as collateral damage)...
...and John I. and Dan Evans of “The Damage Report” weigh in also...
...and David Pakman tells us that Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, recently called out Fix Noise’s BS in front of news mannequin Martha MacCallum (didn’t see the Newsmax clip, but I’m sure it pertained to this – to be honest, I thought that was kind of a dick move by David Litt...probably partly deserved though...but having a conversation premised on Elon Musk hosting SNL is even more ridiculous as far as I’m concerned)...
...and Chris Hayes reminds us that the garbage Repug voting bills that statewide legislatures are trying to pass across this country would not even be possible without the High Court of Hangin’ Judge JR having utterly gutted the Voting Rights Act (the remedy is the John Lewis For The People Act, which looks less and less likely to pass with Manchin and Sinema in the way and making sure the filibuster doesn’t go anywhere – more on that is here)...
...and Brian Tyler Cohen tells us about Dem U.S. House Rep Ro Khanna ripping into Trump acting SecDef Chris Miller about the alleged 36-minute delay in sending troops to the Capitol (and Stephen Lynch quite properly IMHO piled on also - mildly NSFW/H...more here)...
...oh, and this clueless meat sack from Georgia named Andrew Clyde said those trying to violently attack our democracy and re-install the Gropenfuhrer for another term were “tourists” – I wish I were joking...
Update 5/14/21: Yeah, I think this says it.
...and congrats to Upper Darby’s Todd Rundgren for FINALLY being named to the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame (here).
This clip tells us that the less-than-useless Repug governor of Mississippi, Tate Reeves, is saying no to extended unemployment benefits for those who are jobless (as usual, the only thing the “party of Lincoln” knows how to do is to “punch down” on those who need help...more here, and in a related story, this is noteworthy too)...
...and staying below that Mason-Dixon line in Tennessee, it looks like they just passed a garbage bill allowing motorists to run over protestors with impunity (and it looks like the governor of that state is imitating Reeves in Mississippi with this idiocy; for the reality perspective, I give you this)...
Update 5/17/21: And if we're talking about Republican stupidity, you just KNOW Greg Abbott has to be part of that discussion (here).
...and an Amazon worker in Bessemer, AL was found dead in a bathroom; yeah, I realize you can’t directly call this “Death by Jeff Bezos,” but for a company that spies on its workers as relentlessly as Amazon does, it’s pretty damn implausible to claim that they couldn’t have helped this guy (Cenk and Ana tell us more)...
...and echoing Paul Krugman a bit (from the Tennessee clip), I give you this from Beau of the Fifth Column (workers allegedly making more on unemployment versus going back to their jobs)...
...and I guess this is as direct as Chris Cillizza of CNN is going to get when it comes to cowardly Republicans and Our Traitorous Orange Pustule (and ex-President)...and when it comes to the political dustup du jour, I give you this...
...and Thom Hartmann gives us another valuable history lesson, this time of the Repugs and voter suppression (mentioning Paul Weyrich in 1980...really excellent analysis by Thom of the garbage voting bills proposed by Repugs and how it would turn over administration of elections to Repug legislatures, which indeed is truly evil stuff...to contact your U.S. Senators, click here)...
...and Robert Reich tells us that the political window of opportunity for Dems, particularly in the Senate, could close at any time...
...and happy belated 80th birthday to Eric Burdon (of the Animals and War of course).
Cenk, Jayar and Trae Crowder of TYT discuss the Missouri “lege” passing a bill to proclaim Rush Limbaugh Day; terrific – I guess that means that everyone in the state will get all jazzed on “hillbilly heroin” and head to the Dominican Republic for hookers, right? (more here and here)...
...and sticking with the “show me state,” CNN’s Brianna Keilar calls out that scumbag Josh Hawley for complaining about allegedly being censored (and I take particular offense over this garbage person’s claim about something allegedly being wrong with the vote in PA...as Keilar points out, Hawley has opposed EVERYTHING from the Biden Administration...and yeah, it appears that whining about "cancel culture" is now the go-to move for every entitled prick in this country who believes that they're not getting their way)...
...and as regards our corporate media, it seems that “Foxitis” could be a variation of the “Twinkie Defense” once used by Dan White on trial for murdering Harvey Milk and George Moscone in San Francisco (Alicia Menendez of MSNBC speaks to Jill Wine-Banks, a former Watergate prosecutor...interesting questions about using this as a defense in front of a jury, which is kind of pathetic actually...and with all due respect to J W-B, I don’t see anything happening from any legislature in this country in a “bipartisan” way when it comes to a 9/11-style commission, though it should of course, and though the gaggle of Trumpsters mentioned here including Barr and Giuliani SHOULD be disbarred, if I had to bet, I would say that that’s unlikely, though again, it would be totally deserved)...
...and turning to another network that is the direct political opposite of The Roger Ailes BS Factory (from Rachel Maddow), allow me to present the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” (more or less) from 5/10/20 (just a short trip back today), when we had only about 76K in COVID casualties and Combover Caligula got “lava level mad” when he felt he was exposed to ‘rona (notwithstanding this of course...an update is here)...
...and kudos to Mehdi Hasan for doing a state-by-state breakdown of GOP voter suppression efforts – kicking butt and taking names in my book here...
...and Bill Maher is fading in relevance by the day; this time, he attacks Twitch users (yeah, it’s definitely not my first choice of online information or entertainment, but at a certain point, I think you need to ask yourself if you’re just a cranky old fart for complaining, and I think Maher reached that point awhile ago, as John and Francesca explain)...
Update 5/13/21: Please understand; I don't wish ill on Maher of course despite his idiocy, but I think it's concerning that he's supposedly fully vaccinated but tested positive anyway (here).
...and I thought this was a neat ad by Public Citizen on behalf of the John Lewis For The People Act (yep, when life forms like Barrasso, Mike Lee and Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao are all complaining, then you’re heading in the right direction)...
Rachel Maddow gives us a bit of a history lesson here on the “purity of the ballot box” language that found its way into the voting-related statutes in southern states, Texas in particular (no surprise I realize) and has re-emerged in the new, restrictive, Democracy-defying voting bills spreading across Republican legislatures (I realize I should never advocate violence at this site, but if I did, it would be to encourage the ass-kicking of that pusillanimous little creep trying to defend this garbage bill - more here)...
...and one way to defeat this insanity is to support the John Lewis “For The People” Act, which of course is one of the pieces of legislation that is currently blocked by Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema in the U.S. Senate, with Manchin getting called out by Chris Cuomo; the latter makes the excellent point about the Repugs knowing what to do with power when they get it, as opposed to weak, vacillating pols like the “Democrat” from West Virginia...
...oh, and since it’s a day of the week with a “y” in it, then it looks like there’s another mass shooting in this country, this time in Colorado Springs (here), which makes this “Now This” clip timely once more, unfortunately...
...and John and Yasmin Khan discuss AOC’s response to a tweet from bankster Jamie Dimon of J.P. Morgan Chase on the issue of President Biden wanting to raise taxes on anyone making more than $400K (apparently Dimon wanted an itemized list of how the tax $$ would be spent by the federal government) – sometimes the greed takes your breath away a bit...
...and David Pakman tells us about the soldier in the Wisconsin National Guard who was charged in the 1/6 insurrection; it may take years to totally unwind what led up to that as well as figuring out who all of the life forms were who participated and how exactly they were radicalized, including our military (I still say we’ll need what basically amounts to an ongoing “truth and reconciliation” commission with the ability to refer charges for some of these cretins)...
...and RIP actress Tawny Kitaen; she was up front about her fight against substance addiction and apparently she also helped women in abusive relationships, so kudos to her for doing good work (and I guess it’s trite to include this video, but how could I not, really?).
Adrienne Lawrence of Rebel HQ tells us about the 1/6 insurrectionist who basically claimed that he was brainwashed by Fix Noise and blamed the Gropenfuhrer for leading him on – the stoo-pid is strong with this one, I see (and that goes for his lawyer too)...
...and apparently, the whole “Russian bounties” story on our soldiers targeted in Afghanistan really was a thing after all, and of course it leads back to Putin’s GRU...big surprise I know – and of course, Mango Mussolini did nothing about it...
...and Dem U.S. House Rep Katie Porter wants to raise the fees charged to Big Oil who are developing on public lands...sure glad there was a robust public debate on THIS story (the businesses getting the land I mean, and yes I’m being sarcastic...kudos to Porter, and Louie Gohmert dumbs everything down as usual)...
Like you I’m sure, I’ve heard of outlier cases of people getting very sick from the COVID vaccine, but those are most definitely exceptions; there’s some humor in this clip which is definitely called for IMO, but the underlying message couldn’t be more serious (and yes, for the record, I had both Moderna shots...had some chills and fatigue and a low-grade temp briefly after the second one and arm soreness after each shot, but they both passed)...
...and there’s nothing amusing whatsoever about that garbage human being Andy Biggs and his role in the 1/6 insurrection...
...and some of our lower life forms from the “R” party and their media acolytes have decided that they can’t exploit the situation at our southwest border any more, presumably because the Biden Administration is doing its best to turn around that calamity, but of course far be it for these contemptible frauds serving in Congress to give the “D” team any credit for it, as Chris Hayes tells us (didn’t see the interview with Alejandro Mayorkas)...
...and Rachel Maddow tells us more on Repugs taking credit for stuff they opposed in the American Rescue Plan...I know I’ve included videos on this subject before, and I plan to keep doing that lest people forget about this...
...and of course, since we’re the greatest country in the world (or at least we like to think that), it seems that South Carolina will now use execution by firing squad to murder people, joining 3 other states who also use that means of extermination (Cenk and Ana of TYT tell us more – cannot help but recall the case of Troy Anthony Davis as I watch this clip...7 of 9 witnesses at his trial recanted, but Georgia took his life anyway)...
...and Sam and Emma V. of The Majority Report tell us that, apparently, Austin, TX wants to criminalize homelessness...I thought that city was a little more progressive – shows what I know I guess; it looks like we’re just going to round up more people ultimately for the private prison/industrial complex when they can’t pay the fines...I’d like to know more about the “dark money” behind the advertising on this initiative – we’re either going to get serious about this problem and figure out how and where we’re going to house these people and help the ones we CAN help or we’re going to round up and incarcerate them, which may lead to more COVID deaths also, which will also likely keep us from getting to herd immunity...I think The Rude One is spot-on again here, and as noted here (first bullet), after the 2010 midterms (won by Republicans), Matt Mackowiak gloated “isn’t it funny how the losers (Dems) always want bipartisanship?”
Yeah, it’s really freaking hilarious, you insufferable meat sack...
...and as I probably mentioned earlier, I knew absolutely nothing about any of the Academy Award nominees, but Thom Hartmann tells us a little more about “Nomadland” and how that reflects on this country (e.g., The Grapes of Wrath for our era...Thom mentions taxing Social Security benefits under Reagan and wonders why there’s no help for people if the proverbial bottom falls out – good point...kind of ties into the prior clip about Austin and housing)...
...and I thought this was a nice tune that’s a bit quieter than usual to mellow out the end of the week a bit.
Leave it to Brian Kilmeade of Fix Noise to (apparently) invent some kind of new game show called “Are You Smarter Than a Sixth Grader?,” so of course the Fix Noise sycophant automatically disqualified himself, as Brian Tyler Cohen explains; good thing the call was all remote, or I’m sure Kilmeade would have tried to steal the kid’s lunch money for complimenting President Biden...
...and speaking of The Roger Ailes BS Factory, apparently staffers are trying to get the Murdochs to fire the Swanson TV Dinner Heir, which will NEVER happen for the reasons Farron Cousins explains (to do something about this, click here)...
...and (sticking with our beloved corporate media), as David Doel explains, Jake Tapper has apparently recently discovered that Repug lawmakers are liars...uh, yeah – and by the way, I’m fed up with these arguments about how we supposedly need a strong Republican Party...I have NEVER IN MY LIFE heard ANYBODY say, “Oh, we need a strong Democratic Party” when REPUBLICANS were totally in charge and running the table with their insane tax cuts and putting the cost of two wars under Bushco essentially on a credit card with the price tag to be paid by future generations, to say nothing of letting the housing/cheap credit bubble expand until it burst and nearly wrecked the global economy...I GUARANTEE YOU that, about a year or so from now, the airwaves are going to be FILLED with garbage “issue” ads to try and favor Republicans along with fawning media coverage of the same, so save your crocodile tears for the “party of Lincoln,” OK?...
...and I probably should have said something about this much earlier, but at least I’m getting to it now; Rachel Maddow talks about the soft sentence for a Trump illegal voter in Delco vs. Crystal Mason in TX (she voted illegally but apparently was unaware that she broke the law, and I believe her)...and good job by John Fetterman to keep after that lickspittle Dan Patrick in Texas over “voter fraud” for real (also, there is this)...
...and yeah, I think this is pretty damn funny; it looks like Combover Caligula just announced his brand-spanking-new “platform,” which apparently is pretty close to something like you’re reading at this very moment, with a “Contribute” link of course (David Pakman tells us more – unfortunately, though, I have to disagree with Pakman when it comes to the right and their presence online – from what I can determine, they're kicking the asses of “team D” when it comes to social media engagement)...
...and Happy Nurse’s Day (starting Nurse’s Week – the title of this song isn’t 100 percent accurate, but it’s close).
Cenk and Ana of TYT tell us about Repug lawmakers in Missouri basically saying “FU” to their constituents on Medicaid expansion (pretty damn arrogant indeed, even for a Republican; I’d forgotten that anecdote about Claire McCaskill and a minimum hourly wage in her U.S. Senate election, but yeah, it’s pretty unbelievable)...
...and Rachel Maddow tells us of FL Guv Ron #DeathSantis (speaking of stoo-pid Republicans) getting ready to sign another awful voting bill in FL which, apparently, will hurt Repug voters too – womp womp (Maddow speaks with reporter Amy Gardner of the WaPo)...
...and Farron Cousins tells us more on the Repugs who took credit for this restaurant revitalization fund (or whatever it’s officially called) in the American Rescue Plan even though they voted against it (a follow-up to the earlier Maddow clip featuring Elise Stefanik)...
...and I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” from 5/5/11, in which Minnesota state Rep Steve Simon criticized a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage in his state (backgrounder is here...something to think about particularly with all of the garbage anti-trans bills out there as noted here)...
...and based on this Lincoln Project ad, it looks like it’s Mango Mussolini vs. Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao competing for the coveted title of “king of the swamp”...pass the popcorn (and speaking of that death-eater from Kentucky, I give you this)...
...and John and Francesca talk about those Newsmax idiots criticizing President Biden for giving Dr. Jill a dandelion...and yes, I’m serious (I know there’s an effort out there to #UnfoxMyCableBox, but I think we should have the same thing for these clowns as well as OANN)...
...and happy upcoming 90th birthday to the one and only Willie Mays (clip is of Mays’ legendary catch in the 1954 World Series against Vic Wertz)...
...and RIP noted recording engineer Al Schmidt, who worked with a few different artists, including the Jefferson Airplane on their sessions for what turned into “After Bathing At Baxter’s,” including this number.
I think it’s safe to say that Jim Acosta of CNN has had enough (NSFW/H, but for a good reason)...
...and as a follow-up, this may be Joy Reid’s finest moment, going after The Swanson TV Dinner Heir – sweet! (makes up for the Bernie Sanders body language expert)...
...and sticking with the Roger Ailes conservative propaganda channel, John and Jayar tell us about “Fix and Fiends” getting all bent out of shape about “free” college (yeah, we’re already paying our tax dollars, so just allocate it for public colleges a little more fairly instead of doling out still more tax cuts and stock buybacks for people who don’t need it, as Jayar points out)...
...and I know I’m a little late on some stuff in this post including this item; Repug state rep Ray Garofalo of Louisiana mentions the “good part” of slavery – he would have been better off if he’d said, “yeah, there was a financial benefit to slavery for the slave owners, even though the practice was utterly disgusting and reprehensible for so many reasons”...I’m not sure Garofalo honestly meant for his remark to be as stoo-pid as it was since he backtracked immediately, but I guess that’s because he was called on it right away...I just think it’s ridiculous for legislators of ANY political party to be wasting their time holding hearings or discussing content in history books, mainly since the people taking offense are doing so because they want THEIR version of history recorded for the record as opposed to anyone else’s (yeah...what’s really going on here is that some good ol’ boys are butt hurt over “critical race theory”...and of course, since FL Guv Ron #DeathSantis is trying to be Trump 2.0, he’s involved in this idiotic discussion too – more here)...
Update 1 5/4/21: God almighty, what’s next? A “both sides” opinion commentary on lynching (here)??!!
Update 2 5/4/21: Still digging that hole I see (here).
Update 5/6/21: I think this is what happens when we neglect civics and social studies in our schools.
Update 5/7/21: I'm starting to wonder if these updates will ever end (here).
...and David Doel tells us about a Miami private school that is banning vaccinated teachers, which is part of the reason why we apparently aren’t going to get to “herd immunity” as noted here (mildly NSFW/H also)...
...in addition, I think David Shuster is doing a really good job with these “Rebel HQ” videos, this one having to do with the death of insurrectionist Ashli Babbitt, and of course Babbitt’s family are suing Capitol police for $10 mil in response (obligatory eye-roll)...
...and speaking of those who have departed us, RIP Olympia Dukakis (great dinner scene in Moonstruck with the also-departed John Mahoney)...
...and speaking of milestones, since it’s May 4th, we cannot ever forget this.
And speaking of The TV Network Where Truth And Reality Goes To Die (as noted at the top of this post), I’ll bet you didn’t know that its founder may have had an indirect contribution to what happened at Kent State. Well, you can argue that he did, as Gabriel Sherman does in The Loudest Voice In The Room, pgs. 69-70:
(From Ailes’ days as a political consultant):
In the spring of 1970, Ailes was in the middle of another contentious GOP primary race for an open Senate seat in Ohio, one that would have spillover effects for (the Richard Nixon presidency) and the country. Ailes was advising the Ohio congressman Robert Taft Jr. against the “law and order” candidate, Governor James Rhodes, who had been considered as a possible Nixon running mate in 1968. The race was pushing Rhodes even further to the right.
When Taft debated Rhodes in Akron in late April, Ailes walked onstage thirty seconds before airtime and handed Taft a note with one word written on it: “Kill.”
“Rhodes got shook up,” Ailes bragged afterward to a Boston Globe reporter. “I gave Taft the note, partly facetious, partly for a laugh – just to try to get Bob to be a little tougher in his answers.”
The gambit worked: the Toledo Blade noted that “the usually placid Mr. Taft accused the governor of lying about his record and told him he should be ashamed of himself.” A few days after the debate, Rhodes flew to Kent State University, which was engulfed in student unrest. At a press conference on the morning of May 3rd, Rhodes lashed into protestors who had burned the ROTC building the previous night and declaimed that the demonstrators were “worst than the Brown Shirts and the Communist element.”
Rhodes’s inflammatory speech intensified the conflict at Kent. In the chaos, National Guardsmen fired into a group of marchers. The volley of more than 60 shots in 13 seconds left four dead and nine wounded. Kent State, (Nixon Chief of Staff) Bob Haldeman later wrote in his book The Ends of Power, “marked a turning point for Nixon, a beginning of his downward slide towards Watergate.”
Joy Reid tells us more about the “cyber ninja” guy trying to conduct a recount of votes in Arizona from the 2020 election; I can’t think of a word to describe how pathetic it is that this is still going on and hasn’t been stopped yet (Reid didn’t mention in the clip, by the way, that the use of ultraviolet lights in the procedure is likely to damage ballots, as noted here...and I never expected to give Cindy McCain credit for anything, but she deserves it for this)...
...and Thom Hartmann discusses how Charles Koch and his greed head pals are trying to get that Article V convention going to rewrite the Constitution...truly a BFD (referencing Paul Krugman - more here)...
...and Ana and Cenk of TYT tell us how no Repug clapped (including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy) when Biden talked about replacing lead pipes in his recent address to Congress (and I agree with a lot of what Cenk and Ana say about the Democrats not having the killer instinct, in particular, on clean water? Are you freaking kidding me??!!), but to be fair, Biden told the “R” party to “put up or shut up” when complaining about how Biden wanted to pay for his infrastructure plan, and this is the laughable alternative they came up with (and good job by Cenk to provide the important context on Solyndra – and I think Ana is being a little tough on Laura Italiano of the Murdoch NY Post rag because Italiano admitted that she did wrong, but I’m not going to go nuts over it...)...
...and in keeping with the theme of timid Dems, Rachel Maddow discusses Republicans taking credit for the American Rescue Plan even though they voted against it, including this guy (voting against it I mean); this clip actually started with Greg Pence and runs for almost 10 minutes, but for some reason MSNBC hacked the crap out of it...didn’t want to offend their Comcast overlords I’m sure (a running list of these characters should be available on the DNC web site, in big, bold type, but of course we’re stuck with the Dems we have who are too busy trying to get everybody to sing “kumbaya” and beg for $$ while not daring offend the other side I guess, though apparently Nancy Pelosi has used “Voted No, Took the Dough” in some tweets, so I suppose that counts as progress)...
...and John I. and Brett Erlich tell us how Matt Gaetz is sinking; couldn’t happen to a more deserving POS (Gaetz’s pal Joel Greenberg said the 2 of them paid for sex multiple times, including with an underage girl...womp womp, and yes I know that’s a serious issue...great snarky comment by Brett to lead off...an update is here)...
...and happy upcoming 55th birthday to Anders Osborne (the title of this song is a question I ask myself every single day).
Today marks the 10th anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden, who, as we know, was the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks (here and here...I hope this day is recalled by most of us with credit given to those responsible, most notably Seal Team 6, though that also includes former President Obama and his team, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates...I'm pretty sure I said once that I would never include a pic of bin Laden here until after he was dead, so I'm just keeping with my word)...
...and on the subject of extremism, I thought this was a particularly good new ad from Meidas Touch...
...and this clip of Rachel Maddow speaking with historian Michael Beschloss compares President Biden to LBJ a bit in the sense that they were moderates as senators, though they’ve ended up pursuing more progressive and socially conscious policy goals, to their credit...
...and this song was #1 on the pop charts 60 years ago today.
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).
