Friday Stuff

David Doel tells us of Jeff Bezos appearing on CNBC with Andrew Ross Sorkin, with the Amazon plutocrat and “death by a thousand cuts” owner of the WaPo praising Cantaloupe Capone...and Bezos thinks #47 is “calmer”?? By wrecking this country and starting an unprovoked war with Iran? In what universe does THAT make sense? And boy, is Doel ever right about all kinds of business networks but NOT A SINGLE UNION OR WORKERS’ NETWORK...that graph from the Economic Policy Institute does indeed tell a sobering story...I have to admit that that utterly disgusting story about permanent tax audit immunity for Cheetoh Hitler and his failsons was something I just learned about, and coming on the heels of that $1.8 billion slush fund for the 1/6 insurrectionists...and oh yeah, we get that line from Bezos that “you can double the taxes I pay and it won’t help that teacher in Queens”...you wanna bet??...I don’t know that I’d go so far as to say that billionaires shouldn’t exist, but they sure as hell should be taxed on their wealth like we used to do in this country...Bezos raking in $18 billion but still claiming a tax loss to the point of qualifying for a 4K credit truly is galling...and I’m sure Tom Steyer is making nice noises because he’s running for governor in CA, but I still wouldn’t trust him to be honest...mildly NSFW/H...



...and in a somewhat related item, Brittany Page informs us that, according to some conservative douchebag, saying “tax the rich” is worse than saying the “N” word, supposedly...oh, and leave it to “Both Sides Smerky” to be all over it on CNN...“but I’m not sure that (some rich corporate grifter) is entirely wrong (about the phrase being a slur),” huh? That’s about on brand for Smerky...as Page says, this is in response to NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani saying he would indeed tax the rich, so OF COURSE King Elmo, “Zuck,” the aforementioned Bezos, etc. have to go crying to their corporate media cousins about it...awww, what a shame that these spoiled little brats have to pay a tax on their second homes worth $5 million or more (break out the crying towels)...sooo Steve Roth is going to take his business to Flori-DUUUH now? Good luck hiring skilled people from a whole other candidate pool...good for Page for digging into this Roth guy and finding out that he made bank by basically killing a lot of “mom and pop” businesses in neighborhoods to build strip malls, throwing a lot of people out of their jobs in the process (while wrapping himself in the “just world” hypothesis)...glad to hear Page point out that it’s likely extremely rare to find someone who is truly self-made and didn’t get to prosperity without some help or inflicting pain on someone else, either intentionally or not...



...and Farron Cousins lets us know that Congressional Dems are trying to figure out how much people paid to get pardons from Our Ochre Abomination...I’d be surprised if the Dems get much of a response from these nutzoids they sent letters to, asking them how much they paid off the Gropenfuhrer, but it’s certainly worth a try...pretty despicable that the law allows a lobbyist to get paid so they can pay off our crime boss-in-chief (allegedly!) to get that golden “Get Out Of Jail Free” card...kudos to Dem reps Dave Min and Raul Ruiz and Dem Senator Peter Welch...and that means that folks who were owed $2 BILLION in restitution won’t get paid now?? This is YET ANOTHER story that would have gotten the 24/7/365 treatment if it were ANYBODY ELSE (and CERTAINLY a DEM, which would be deserved actually), but since it involves Dementia J. Trump, it will likely be treated with a shrug by our fourth estate stenographers...I agree with Cousins that the Dems are smart to be doing the legwork on all of this staggering corruption now as opposed to later...



...and Kyle Kulinski informs us that it looks like the WHO has declared an Ebola outbreak in the Congo with 80-plus deaths so far...oh, and did I mention that Bobby Brainworms and his boss have taken this country out of the WHO?...also, as Kyle says, Apartheid Clyde and DOGE utterly wrecked the CDC and US AID, so there’s no response coming from those critically important agencies...I would say that Jeremy Konyndyk has summed this up pretty well in a pretty damn terrifying series of tweets, and how much do you want to bet that China finds a way into this mess since we stoo-pidly abandoned our responsibilities on the world stage, further diminishing our prestige? (NSFW/H)...



...and Stephen Colbert delivers his final “Late Show” monologue, with some cameos...it looks like our alleged Hantavirus response is being led by a penile implant specialist and vaccine skeptic; definitely don’t feel “warm and fuzzy” about that (tied to the prior clip a bit)...and a scandal involving a Rome “sexy priest calendar”? Feel free to insert your snark here...and it looks like some dancing Chinese robot is trying to “bust a move” but it didn’t quite work out (still making my way through all of the clips from the last show)... I’m sure whatever nonsense Byron Allen manages to come up with starting next week in Colbert’s slot will merely be a bad joke in response...



...and nothing like an upbeat newer number to take us into a holiday weekend, is there (and from a local band too).

Wednesday Stuff

Belle of the Ranch reminds us that the Tangerine Toddler has destroyed half of Canadian tourist visits with all of his “51st state” BS and “Governor Carney” garbage, losing revenue to the tune of $4 billion per year...looks like Myrtle Beach got hit the worst according to Belle, based partly on cell phone data...good point by Belle that, when our Canadian neighbors get used to a new travel routine away from this country, it’s not like you can just magically flick a switch and everyone will come back; trying to repair this damage in particular, along with EVERYTHING ELSE destroyed by this regime, is going to take time and work, and money...



...and sticking with our northern neighbors, this report from CBC News: The National lets us know that our spiteful, petulant egomaniac in An Oval Office just pulled this country out of a joint defense initiative with Canada – God only knows why (maybe because Daddy Vlad told him to??)...and I think John McKay’s analysis of “stupid foolishness” is about right...Canada has “failed to make credible progress on its defense commitments,” huh? And that’s even though PM Mark Carney said Canada had fulfilled its pledge to spend 2% on defense (as opposed to the insane amount that WE spend, as opposed to other vital needs?)...oh, and did I mention that this joint U.S./Canada initiative goes back to World War II?...



...returning to our shores, Jordan Chariton of Status Coup News reports on 3 NJ congressional representatives (Dems Rob Menendez, LaMonica McIver and Analilia Mejia) who visited an ICE prison in Delaney Hall, where we learn that those detained are being served food with live worms in it (also, green sausages and chunky milk)...oh, and apparently a pregnant woman was detained and she ended up losing the pregnancy in part at least because she wasn’t given medical treatment...also, let’s include a man with an untreated head wound in all of this and let HIM suffer without assistance also...oh, but GEO Group made $254 mil in profit, so it’s all good (all done in our name, people!)...



...and RIP Barney Frank...so many reasons to pay tribute to him IMO, mainly for the Dodd-Frank financial reforms passed in 2010 after the “banksters” blew up the “big casino” in 2008, and also because Frank took absolutely no mess, as shown in this clip during those beyond-ridiculous Teahadist town halls that spring up against the Affordable Care Act due to the efforts mainly of deep-pocketed donors like “Americans for Prosperity” (again, the timeframe on that was around 2009-2010)...



...and Rachel Maddow discusses the group “secret handshake,” which apparently is behind the Trump/Epstein statues on the National Mall and the “golden toilet”...well, now they came up with “Operation Epic Furious,” which definitely looks like an old school arcade game as Maddow says, stationed at the War Memorial...the group also made an online version of this game so you can indeed play at home as if you are #47 and you can wage war against Iran in the game (or burn more Epstein files if you wish)...as far as the group behind this is concerned, “long may they wave” indeed...



...and happy 80th birthday to Cher.

Tuesday Stuff

This clip from TYT Investigates brings us ER physician Dr. Megan L. Ranney, who is my latest heroine for presenting facts about gun violence, an issue she knows well, unfortunately...oh, and along comes “Cornpone” Kennedy, the Oxford senator pretending he’s from the South, trying to confront her over her logical arguments, including some snarky nonsense about fried foods...it’s actually quietly enraging to see Kennedy act like such a bumpkin – the idiots who sent him to the Senate in Louisiana probably have a total amount of functioning brain synapses that you can count on one hand and have fingers left over...yep, another “low turnout, Republican wins” election (damn fools, the lot of them...oh, and based on this, it looks like it’s time not to politicize gun violence again – I think you can still Google “John Oliver Song of the Summer,” by the way)...



...and oh yeah, I realize wingnuts like Kennedy just LOVE to mention gun violence in Chicago because that to them is an example of a place with strict gun laws but persistent high crime, even though a sizeable percentage of gun violence in Illinois is committed with weapons brought in from Wisconsin and Indiana, which have looser gun laws by comparison (about 6 in 10 guns as noted here).

...and Ben Meiselas of the Meidas Touch Network lets us know that Cheetoh Hitler apparently returned from his China trip with absolutely nothing, and now Putin will go to China and he and Xi may end up signing about 40 different agreements; looks like “President Deals,” and this country, got played yet again...China and Russia will apparently come up with some proclamation on a “multi-polar world”; we’ll see what comes of that of course...oh, and in another “win” for the Gropenfuhrer, it looks like Iran is going to institute something called the Persian Gulf Strait Authority, for managing the passage of ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz (and just remember, before all of this madness in Iran started, ships could proceed through the Strait unencumbered and world economies could operate without worrying about what would happen to their energy...so much winning!)...I know Meiselas has to acknowledge that social media post, but I don’t take one syllable of what Our Treasonous Orange Pustule says seriously (I’m surprised he didn’t end that rant with “Thank you for your attention to this matter.”)...I’d never heard of Barak Ravid before, but it does indeed look like he’s Pumpkin Pol Pot’s stenographer...and this Elbridge Colby character sounds like another Trumpist lickspittle; if anyone from this regime would actually pay attention to Canadian media, they would see how we’re getting laughed at by our “neighbor to the north” also...as Meiselas says, when #47 gets humiliated as he just did by Xi, Combover Caligula’s go-to move is to beat up comparatively smaller countries like Greenland...and oh yeah, inflation is back at about 5 percent...and Our Lunatic-In-Chief also wants to add a helipad to the White House lawn, which would destroy the area even more...the cherry on the icing of this sh*t sundae for yours truly, though, is this taxpayer-financed “lawfare” fund to reward the 1/6 insurrectionists, to the tune of 1 billion and 776 million dollars...any Republican politician want to criticize any of this, including this guy? Bueller???)...



Update 5/21/26: Concerning the "lawfare" fund, I'm glad to see this.

...and I don’t think I’ve included anything from one-time Capitol policeman Michael Fanone before (who was injured during the 1/6 insurrection as we know), but here, he comments on PA U.S. Senator John Fetterman getting bribed potentially paid off leaned on by Repug megadonors to get him to join the “R” team...Fanone is spot-on in saying that Fetterman should have told these characters to pound sand when they approached him, but noooo – Big John decides to try and lecture the rest of us instead...I thought this was a pretty thorough takedown on all of the Trumpian garbage going on; I realize it’s not possible to cover all of the ruin of this regime, but let’s not forget DOGE (tied to Project 2025 of course) and the destruction of US AID, which will ultimately kill over a million people in the developing world (mostly kids) and also screw over our farmers who would have shipped food to those places...also, I think this was recorded before Fetterman’s 50-49 vote in favor of the Iran war as noted here (the 7th time the Senate has tried to rein in Cantaloupe Capone on this)...



... and Ali Velshi informs us of state courts rebutting ICE practices...in addition to the fact that the Trumpist gulag mentality doesn’t work for the stated purpose of allegedly keeping us safer, it’s also extremely unpopular, as we’ve surmised by now but Velshi emphasizes here...11,600 lawsuits filed by detainees against ICE between last July and now according to an analysis by Kyle Cheney of Politico...looks like the Gropenfuhrer has only won about 1,200 of those cases, which is about 10 percent as we learn...good point by Velshi that this expanded detainment under Trumpist Todd Lyons was definitely NOT the way we had done things previously while an immigrant was awaiting a hearing on whether or not they could enter legally (and oh yeah, as Velshi and the courts tell us, NOBODY CAN JUST FREAKING MAKE UP NEW LAWS BECAUSE THEY FEEL LIKE IT!!! – that goes for Lyons and any other psychopath in our ruling regime)...I realize there really isn’t much in the way of new stuff here, except that someone has brought some numbers to this discussion of Trumpist cruelty to quantify things a bit (to say nothing of the ridiculous taxpayer expense for prosecuting all of these cases that got tossed)...



...and Mr. Newberger gives us a pretty spot-on IMO parody based on a story in the headlines (which I touched on previously)...gee, I guess only wingnut “humor” is allowed, since he’s been demonetized – what a joke, literally...mildly NSFW/H...



...and RIP Beverley Martyn, performing here with her one-time husband John, who sadly was an abusive jerk...despite her travails, she managed to etch out a notable career, though she didn’t break open like her peers including Judy Collins, Laura Nyro, etc., which is a shame I think.

Monday Stuff

Robert Reich discusses the fight against the media takeover by billionaires...and Don The Con just approved a merger in which one of these scumwad outfits, Nexstar, would control 80 percent of what we see and hear (these are the idiots who tried to get Jimmy Kimmel fired)...we also get more on the destruction at “The Tiffany Network” due to the Ellisons (and it looks like CNN may be next for the chopping block – at least Ted Turner won’t be around to see the destruction of his once-proud channel)...also, the Ellisons are ready to bring the proverbial hammer down on TikTok, which I'm sure will lead to decreased ICE surveillance among other negative impacts (kind of sad that 1 in 5 Americans get their “news” from TikTok, but that’s where we are unfortunately)...



...and Sam and Emma of The Majority Report discuss Repug U.S. Senator (for now) Bill Cassidy of Louisiana holding “Bobby Brainworms” to account, with our utter joke of an HHS secretary deciding to cherry pick data on upgraded sewer treatment plans supposedly providing better health outcomes than vaccines...suuuure...also, I have to admit that I’m not the biggest fan of math also, but dealing with it is part of living in the world of reality...and I also have to admit that the contrast in COVID fatalities between Taiwan and Flori-DUUH is pretty damn stunning (and by the way, heckuva job, all you methane dispensing biped life forms in Louisiana who just voted Cassidy out of office as noted here...I had problems with the guy for sure, but he voted for the Gropenfuhrer’s impeachment, and I guess that was the proverbial bridge too far for you Trumpist numbskulls...have fun watching your quality of life disintegrate even further by rewarding politicians who will do absolutely nothing for you)...



...and as a bit of a compare-and-contrast exercise between the Kennedy scion and someone who actually knows what’s going on in this country when it comes to medical issues generally, I give you Thom Hartmann speaking with epidemiologist Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding on the Hantavirus threat issued by the WHO (which the Tangerine Toddler pulled this country out of)...so, it looks like there is now a “person to person” mutation, which is this so-called Andes strain of the virus...also, it looks like you can be positive with the virus even before you show symptoms – oh, peachy...luckily, this seems to be confined to cruise ships, but hopefully that will continue to be the case...20K workers including scientists were canned at HHS/CDC to pay for more stinking billionaire tax cuts...oh, and by the way (as Dr. Feigl-Ding points out), Bobby Brainworms isn’t going to approve more COVID boosters, putting us all at risk even more...the Bird Flu stuff (the potential anyway) sounds pretty nightmarish also...nice work, all you assclowns who made sure in ’24 that we were stuck with these characters (the Trumpers I mean of course)...



...and for more news from “across the pond,” Jonathan Pie informs us that the “Labour bloodbath” is underway, with the possibility of Keir Starmer being replaced as PM by Wes Streeting (who?)...Pie calls this potential move going “from beige to opaque”...great stuff...typically spot-on knife comparison between the current ruling party and what “reform” would have in mind...”When you offer no solutions, people begin to believe the lies of the right” for sure...(NSFW/H)...



...and this “cold open” from Saturday Night Live gives us Will Ferrell as Jeffrey Epstein, with appropriate shots taken at Cantaloupe Capone, Crazy Eyes Ka$h Patel, SecDef Kegseth and “Dog Killer” Noem (and "Couch Boy" too)...



...and RIP Clarence Carter.

Saturday Stuff

(For those of you keeping score at home, it’s not your imagination – posting has been a little goofed up lately, and it may remain that way for a little while – I’ll let you know if and when that changes.)

To begin, Jesse Dollemore informs us that the AP reports that Crazy Eyes Kash Patel participated in some “VIP snorkeling” event around the U.S.S. Arizona at Pearl Harbor last year apparently, which, as Dollemore correctly points out, is hallowed ground...another ridiculous and insulting escapade from our ruling regime of grifters and bottom feeders...Patel should never have been confirmed to his position as FBI director, but short of that, he definitely should have been canned long ago, and that should happen PDQ as a result of this...not just Patel, but anyone else in a government position who participated in this disgusting event should be FIRED!!! (NSFW/H)...



...and David Shuster of Rebel HQ tells us about another Trumpist numbskull, and that would be Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who apparently had no idea that renewable energy could be stored in batteries, which is particularly STOO-PID since North Dakota, the state Burgum comes from, now generates about 40 percent of its energy from renewables... Burgum’s “come to Jesus” moment is brought to us courtesy of Dem U.S. House Reps Seth Magaziner of Rhode Island and Dave Min of California (and I believe the rep asking about that madness with the Lincoln Monument reflecting pool was Joe Neguse of Colorado) ...glad to hear Burgum getting hammered by his boss paying companies making wind farms a BILLION DOLLARS to stop a wind farm project already underway (and it sounds like Burgum was trying to blame Biden for supposedly not fixing water fountains in D.C., or some such nonsense)...oh, and when you’ve got Big Time Teahadist Rick Santelli railing against inflation on the Trump Business News Channel, then I would say that you have a problem...



...and Logical Leftist Jeff Waldorf tells us about rancher Mark Pieper of Hay Springs, Nebraska, who says, “I guess I’ll just die” because of the Big Beautiful Clusterf*ck passed by Congress (and signed by you-know-who) that cut about $900 billion for Medicaid over the next 10 years and ended up closing Pieper’s dialysis unit at Chadron Hospital where he sought treatment (cuts affect 41K Nebraskans)...hospital was 90 miles away and Pieper drove there 3x a week, but now, the alternative is 200 freaking miles away...oh, and only about 15 percent of some bogus “transition fund” set up in that wretched bill goes for patient care, and the amount is miniscule compared to what was removed for tax cuts for the stinking rich (typical for the “party of Lincoln”)...and as if all of this couldn’t get worse, somehow it does since Nebraska has now implemented Medicaid work requirements (80 hours per month, the first state in the country to do that)...oh, and leave it to this Brooke Rollins character to call 34 million Medicaid recipients “lazy”...”racism and hatred – they are expensive” indeed...446 hospitals in this country are at risk from Medicaid cuts, 83 in California alone as we learn in this clip...



...and with his time running down, Stephen Colbert (with the help of David Letterman) gives “The Late Show” the sendoff it deserves (the cake made a spectacular impact I think...I don’t know about you, but I could use a good laugh over wanton destruction that doesn’t affect anybody)...



...and Seth Meyers gives us “A Closer Look” – apparently, Chinese social media is having fun at Pumpkin Pol Pot’s expense given that #47 is in their country at the moment...and raking in $4 billion? I realize our corporate media isn’t going to be impolite enough to mention THE DAMN EMOLUMENTS CLAUSE OF THE CONSTITUTION, but it looks like, in terms of the reality-based community, that is definitely in play here for our ruling regime...well, at least there won’t be a Trump Tower in “the land down under” (kudos to the Aussies for that)...also, I can just imagine the BS excuse for allowing Eric to join the entourage overseas (and good point about the double standard if, say, “No Malarkey Joe” had brought along Hunter)...and man, I think Apartheid Clyde’s mind is out where the buses don’t run somewhere...also, I know I’ve said a million times already that we already had a freaking deal under Obama to keep Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, but I guess I’ll have to keep repeating that as long as life forms like Huckleberry Graham refuse to point that out...and I know #47 has no core convictions about anything except getting paid and keeping out of prison, so I take absolutely nothing that he says at face value...



...and here’s a newer number for the kids to enjoy this weekend, hopefully.

Thursday Stuff

Luke Beasley lets us know that it looks like that fossil Virginia Foxx got put in her place for writing a pretty damn snarky letter to a kid in elementary school (and by the way, the “shut up” moment from Foxx had to do with ABC’s Rachel Scott asking “MAGA Mike” Johnson about his efforts in trying overturn the results of the ’20 election...more here)...apparently, a 10-year-old commendably wrote a letter to Foxx asking her to reinstate the EV credit that Foxx and her party stoo-pidly got rid of (at the behest of the Tangerine Toddler) as a classroom assignment, and Foxx replied in a typically nasty way, even though “fourth grade” was marked on the return address (and of course Foxx cites Fix Noise and the Murdoch Street Journal in her response to the young man as “sources”...and Foxx attacks the kid’s teacher also?? Again, typical)...



Update 5/15/26: More here.

...and Jesse Dollemore talks about Pumpkin Pol Pot threatening to “map opponents at home” in some ridiculous “strategy document,” where his minions lump in “transgender ideology” with the legitimate threats to this country from ISIS and al Qaeda – what utter fools in our ruling regime...and yet again, they’re blaming Biden and “Democrat” administrations for allegedly allowing terrorist organizations or whatever to enter this country, and all without a single spec of legitimate proof...and oh yeah, they’re also blaming the killing of Charlie Kirk on an “extreme transgender ideology” (one response is here)...mildly NSFW/H...



...and don’t look now, but the WaPo committed an actual act of journalism recently and discovered that former DHS head Kristi “Dog Killer” Noem blocked FEMA funds to blue states last year, as you might expect (but OF COURSE red states got everything they were entitled to in that department)...basically, as Cousins points out, $91 million a month of FEMA assistance dropped down to about $3 million per month on average for blue states...I don’t know if there’s any legal recourse available, but at a minimum, they should decide not to send federal funds to Washington as a response; let some of these red states that take in more federal dough than they pay out try to live with the consequences...



...and Steve Harness of Really American tells us that, apparently, Trump pal and “reality TV” guy Kevin O’Leary (from “Shark Tank”) wants to build some mega data center in Utah, and to say the residents aren’t happy is an understatement...oh, but O’Leary accuses the protesting residents of being “Chinese operatives”? In freaking Utah??...also, I’m not sure of the legality here of “Mr. Wonderful” basically doxxing a couple of folks legitimately protesting another one of these water-draining, temperature-raising, environmentally destructive data centers (and O’Leary wearing flip-flops through all of this is pretty gonzo, I must say)...”behind every terrible man is a carboard cutout of that same man” is freaking hilarious!...and yes, I know that Utah overall is a pretty damn red state sadly, but that doesn’t mean we should discourage fine folks trying to do the right thing (more from Elevate Utah is here)...NSFW/H...



...and I would call this one of the more imaginative undertakings from Mr. Newberger – it’s been awhile since I saw that pic, but I would call this a pretty spot-on parody...



...and today would have been the 90th birthday of Bobby Darin.

Wednesday Stuff

John of The Damage Report tells us of the latest grift from our ruling regime of bottom feeders, and that’s this idiocy with the reflecting pool at the Lincoln Memorial...Dementia J. Trump wants to color it blue at an initial projected cost of $1.5 to $2 million (something exactly NO ONE has asked for), though the actual cost ended up being about $13 million, in part because the fraudsters in our executive branch bypassed the competitive bid process by declaring this job to be some kind of a national emergency...oh, but the Tangerine Toddler wants the pool to be blue by July 4th, huh, in time for the 250th? So of course WE THE PEOPLE end up paying for this mess (with Yasmin Khan...I think her “breakfast nook” example is apt, and if this damn pool is going to now be blue...and again, NOBODY asked for this...then the pool will no longer be “reflecting” anything as Khan says...more here)...



...and Rachel Maddow informs us that Louisiana Repug guv Jeff Landry is suddenly all “Hey, don’t blame lil’ ol’ me for trashing the primary election that’s underway – it’s all the fault of that danged Supreme Court for ruling the way they did in Callais!,” an explanation that will be believable at exactly half past FREAKING NEVER!...I know I’ve been beating the drum on this a lot lately, but I think it’s warranted...glad to see a Landry recall effort is underway; it will be hard sledding I know in that state, but it’s a battle worth fighting – zero percentage in lying down and taking this Repug garbage, and kudos to the brave folks in Alabama and Tennessee also...Maddow speaks with Kristen Clarke, general counsel for the NAACP (not a lot of tools in the toolbox, you might say, but whatever we have need to be used for sure, such as massive blue turnout as Clarke says, battling in the courts and the media, shaming these bad political actors on this wretched SCOTUS any way possible, etc.)...



...and Brittany Page tells us that it appears that the Philistines on the SCOTUS will let women have mail-order abortion pills (mifepristone) until tomorrow 5/14 – how generous of them (snark)...no problem with sending a gun through the mail, though...”proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free”...medication abortions now make up about 63 percent of the total, and I think it bears repeating that, if you ban medications used for abortion (which is wrong merely for that reason), you’re hurting the ability of women to access these medications for potential life-threatening reasons, such as managing miscarriages...speaking of life-threatening, we learn here that medication abortion is less deadly than childbirth, with higher rates for African Americans...also, it looks like misoprostol can be effective on its own, as we learn here, so OF COURSE Louisiana passed a bill stating that that was “a dangerous controlled substance” also (between this and the prior clip, I wonder if something is "in the water" in "The Pelican State"?)...



...and Kyle Kulinski says he believes that an alliance is taking place between liberals and leftists against Mango Mussolini and his minions; I hope Kyle is right, but I’m not going to concede that one way or the other...if I take out a policy position, I’m not going to care when Michelle Goldberg or Nicholas Kristof give me some “tut-tut, you loony leftist” screed on the pages of The Old Gray Lady, which is likely to happen (and that goes for this “ContraPoints” person too)...Kyle presents a clip of David Sirota interviewing Graham Platner, with the latter saying we should be done with neoliberalism...that policy worked during the presidency of Bill Clinton, allowing him to get back to the White House (and we hadn’t had a Dem there for 12 YEARS, people!), but those days are looooong gone...I think Platner is spot-on, to be honest, in saying that the Dems need to be all about populism and supporting labor to the maximum extent possible; also, there was a recent dustup with Platner saying we should lower or get rid of the gasoline tax and fix our infrastructure with a fund paid into by the rich – Platner is absolutely right that funding our infrastructure (to the extent that we actually do it) by a gas tax is regressive, and I think he’s correct on this also, though I’ll admit that the political reality is a whole other matter...also, the ascendancy of Pumpkin Pol Pot was more than anything else a “whitelash,” as Kyle aptly puts it, and Kyle is right also that we need to be as united as possible to go after the Trumpist life forms who would subjugate all of us (NSFW/H)...



...and Stephen Colbert of The Late Show lets us know that Combover Caligula’s war of choice in Iran has pushed inflation to its highest rate in three years (and the bit about #47 saying “I don’t think about anybody’s financial situation – I don’t think about anybody” should indeed be played on a continuous loop in EVERY CAMPAIGN COMMERCIAL BY ANY DEMOCRAT RUNNING FOR OFFICE ANYWHERE THIS YEAR)...well, at least Pumpkin Pol Pot has flown to China – would that he would leave this country for good (and can’t the Secret Service just take gramps’s cell phone away from him at a certain point? Posting 55 times in 3 hours when he should be freaking asleep)...oh, and I’d actually forgotten about “Trump Mobile,” but of course that turned out to be yet another scam (and the ranting of that pinhead who got rooked into ordering four of these alleged phones is pretty funny, I have to admit...and to be scammed by Uday and Qusay and not even the “big man”? Sad)...and this Hantavirus scare isn’t amusing in any way I realize, especially since Bobby Brainworms and his boss have pulled this country out of the WHO...



...and this song was released on this day 60 years ago...also, I believe that Bob Spitz is working on a bio of the group, which will likely be good – Spitz’s tome on Led Zeppelin is the definitive literary work on the band IMO.

Tuesday Stuff

Awww, it looks like John Roberts haz a sad over the response to the recently awful SCOTUS ruling in Callais invalidating Section 2 of the VRA, as Mike Figueredo tells us...gee, Judge “balls and strikes,” maybe nobody is buying your bullsh*t anymore because, as Figueredo correctly says, you’re coming up with BS arguments to blow up precedents, some of which have been set by YOUR OWN FREAKING HIGH COURT!!!...and I realize our wretched SCOTUS doesn’t have ethical guidelines to follow (one of the MANY aspects of this situation that needs to be remedied), but I would say that it’s the appearance of a conflict of interest at a minimum to have Neil Gorsuch appear on Fix Noise and other wingnut media hawking his kids’ book...I didn’t know that our awful High Court waived the 32-day requirement to let other parties petition for a rehearing in order to let Louisiana redraw its maps and stop a primary election already in progress – naaah, The Nine aren’t “political actors”...not freaking much (more here)...I didn’t know that Trumper Steve Wynn is trying to find a way to overturn New York Times v. Sullivan, which indeed is a landmark decision insuring First Amendment protections for journalists, raising the bar for a plaintiff to win a defamation charge against a media organization, as well as anybody else, actually (NSFW/H)...



...and one consequence of the awful Callais ruling is state legislatures rushing out racist gerrymandered maps as mentioned, trying to have them ready for congressional elections this fall, and in the case of Tennessee, that most definitely means erasing minority representation, as Jesse Dollemore puts it so accurately (and by the way, destroying the VRA is something John Roberts has been planning to do for decades since he worked as Associated Counsel under The Sainted Ronnie R)...sooo, Tennessee decides to get rid of the ONLY district in the state with African American representation, since one measly district is apparently too much in a state where blacks comprise about 17 percent of the population...great work by Garrison Hayes on this, as well as Justin Pearson...also, good work by Jesse to keep driving home the point that our utterly wretched SCOTUS can pretty much be broken up and put back together again to negate (to some degree anyway) its corruption at the hands of Leonard Leo and The Federalist Society...long overdue to institute ethics rules for “the nine” also (which, as Jesse says, should really be 13 at a minimum...mildly NSFW/H also)...



...and Kyle Kulinski brings us more numbers from CNN’s Harry Enten, who calls that damn ballroom “the shot heard ‘round the world,” and definitely not in a good way...I’m a little surprised that 56 percent disapproval number isn’t actually higher, but I guess we can write that off at least in part to suburban boomers who aren’t affected enough by this story to actually care (more fool them)...at least it’s nice to see that the whole WHCD almost-shooting thing didn’t move the needle on this one bit, but man, that damn ballroom is polling worse than ghosts or telepathy – ROFLMAO (NSFW/H as well)...



...and Logical Leftist Jeff Waldorf informs us that Cheetoh Benito just killed a $500 million federal credit for Nissan to build EVs, with the plant located in Canton, Mississippi, shifting instead now to building hybrids (which is OK I guess) and pickup trucks – so much for the future of the planet (here)...BTW, the Magnolia State voted for the Lyin’ King by 60 percent in ’24 of course...womp womp...glad to hear Waldorf mention the federal EV tax credit of $7500 that was part of the Build Back Better bill from “No Malarkey Joe,” which is ancient history now tragically...good job also by Waldorf to discuss the negative ripple impact of such a typically boneheaded decision by Cantaloupe Capone...



...and Troy Iwata of The Daily Show asks what we could put into a time capsule to preserve our nation’s 250th anniversary (or if it’s worth preserving at this point)...kind of laughing through clenched teeth a bit, I have to admit (another NSFW/H clip)...



...and happy belated 85th birthday to Eric Burdon (of The Animals and War of course).

Monday Stuff

Brian Tyler Cohen tells us about a gold statue of you-know-who unveiled at Mar-a-Lago...naah, #47 doesn’t see himself as some imagined deity ruling over us all, does he? Not much...and I apologize for inflicting Cheetoh Hitler’s lying verbal flatulence on you once more, especially about the Iran war (and I’m SO GLAD to hear Cohen remind everyone that WE HAVE A STINKING NUKE DEAL WITH IRAN ALREADY UNDER OBAMA THAT THE LYIN’ KING WALKED AWAY FROM!!!)...oh, and #47’s “all about the Gospel,” huh? Which one(s), I wonder? Saint Luke, Chapters 6, 16 and 19 maybe? The ones teaching that wealth can hinder faith, while the poor are often blessed? And nice job by Cohen to remind everyone at the end that worshipping false idols really isn’t too cool if you profess to living a life of faith (seem to recall that the “good book” has something to say about THAT for sure)...



...and Farron Cousins reminds us that #47 wants to “serve” a third term, which is prohibited by the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution...I agree with what Cousins is saying, but I heard that the Gropenfuhrer is planning to build a bunker under that stinking ballroom, which tells me that he’s going to have to get dragged kicking and screaming out of the White House when his reign is mercifully over at last...and this “100 percent tax write-off” for business is still more corruption from this stinking cesspool of a *presidency (and good point by Cousins about businesses not being able to apply the same write-off from this tax year in the future, so they are indeed “cutting off their nose to spite their face,” you might say)...



...and sticking with money matters, Belle of the Ranch lets us know about “Human Capital Stock” Kevin Hassett thinking it’s a sign of a growing economy when we’re piling on more credit card debt just to live our lives with basic necessities...this pea brain Hassett with his perpetual sh*t-eating grin basically admits that, yeah, everything costs more...and somehow that’s a GOOD thing? And I know Gavin Newsom, who’s pretty much the presumptive Dem presidential nominee as near I can see, has issues I know (mainly with LGBTQ folks), but good for him for jumping on Hassett’s BS, along with Bernie Sanders...



...and we now get more AI slop videos making fun of the Gropenfuhrer and his Not-So-Excellent Adventure in Iran...that first Lego video is pretty damn cool, and if that’s something else from Iran, then I have to say that they’re bringing their “A” game to this mess...the Flock of Seagulls parody isn’t bad either (Steve Harness of Really American tells us about it)...



...and speaking of humor, this “cold open” from SNL gives us Colin Jost as SecDef Kegseth, Aziz Ansari as Crazy Eyes Kash Patel, and Matt Damon as “I Like Beer” Brett Kavanaugh (great stuff)...



...and here’s a newer tune for “mellow music Monday” – hope you enjoy.

Friday Stuff

Thom Hartmann reminds us that the infamous “We Will Bury You” remark from former Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev is something that Vlad The Butcher is trying to enact for real...so the Tangerine Toddler talks to the Moscow munchkin and, next thing you know, #47 pulls out 5K troops from Germany, and that’s on top of removing sanctions on Russian oil while continuing to block US weapons to Ukraine as Thom says...Thom recounts the utter horror show of the cabinet appointees in this wretched administration...didn’t know that Kari Lake was at the Voice of America – only the very worst individuals...haven’t paid much attention to the utterly awful Chris Wright also at the DOE; only so much time in the day to catalogue this madness...I think Thom is spot-on to call this list of all of the malign Trumpist actors he goes over an “operational blueprint” to wreck our country...



...and speaking of some of the bottom feeders in our ruling cabal, David Pakman informs us that Trumpist lackey Lee Zeldin went on Fix Noise, got asked a tough question from Liz Claman about his agency allowing more natural gas flaring (which, in addition to looking nightmarish, is also utterly toxic), and Zeldin then went all “humuna humuna humana” as a result...sooo, Zeldin starts yammering about increasing water quality standards across the Delaware River basin (which I don’t believe) even though the damn question was about air quality, and then Zeldin starts running his mouth about environmental regs WHICH HIS BOSS IGNORES AND WANTS TO ABOLISH...



...and when it comes to bad actors running agencies under our ruling regime, you really need to include RFK Jr., who announces again here that he’s going after SSRIs (antidepressants, basically)...leave it to the clueless Kennedy scion to get this issue exactly wrong, though, as Page says, it’s not like we didn’t know that this was something he’d try to do...as she points out, all of this is pretty damn enraging all the same, with all of the cuts and layoffs at HHS affecting mental health services, including those provided for our veterans...so many attacks against us and the way we live our lives are laid out here, including deciding not to study food insecurity, which definitely contributes to mental health...also, I don’t give a damn about the heroin withdrawal experienced by “Bobby Brainworms”; he comes from a family that definitely can afford the very best care, which is not true of course for the vast majority of this country...good point by Page to brings up erectile dysfunction medications and the potential side effects and how that is glossed over by the ethically compromised individuals supposedly “calling the shots” for Our Clueless Orange Meat Sack of a *preznit...



...and Steve Harness and Nick Reynolds of Really American tell us about Mango Mussolini dumping a bunch of toxic soil (likely with lead and asbestos) from his stinking ballroom project on a public golf course...and oh yeah, it looks like Cheetoh Hitler bought the course recently kind of “on the QT” – the grift never ends with our ruling regime...didn’t know that golfers are prone to higher cancer rates; genuinely sorry to hear that...and once more, taxpayers are going to be on the hook for a billion over that ridiculous ballroom, courtesy of Sen. Chuck Grasshole of Iowa (vote out every POS responsible for this, people!)...NSFW/H...



...and Jimmy Kimmel lets us know that “Little Marco” was sent off to meet with Pope Leo at the Vatican, and I’m sure Rubio wore his Florsheim big boy shoes on the orders of Cantaloupe Capone...and of course the big topic was our *preznit’s Not-So-Excellent Adventure in Iran (“Operation Trust Me Bro”? Looks like Iran is winning the trolling war too)...and in true Putin-esque fashion, it’s not a “war” as far as Cheetoh Benito is concerned; it’s an “excursion”...in other news, FBI Director Ka$h Patel took a break from alcoholic binges (allegedly!) to sue The Atlantic for reports of his drinking (love the bottle joke also; audience Mother’s Day skit is clever too...interesting “person in the street getting interviewed” bit as well)...



...and happy 75th birthday to drummer Chris Frantz of Talking Heads and the Tom Tom Club.

Thursday Stuff

Chris Hayes talks about Dementia J. Trump’s war in Iran maybe creating an oil shock that COULD lead to a green future (about freaking time)...sounds like Combover Caligula’s Not-So-Excellent Adventure in Iran is going over like the proverbial lead balloon for about 59 percent (at least) of this country...oh, but ExxonMobil and Chevron are raking in the dough hand over fist, so it’s all good, right?...we get another reminder that the Tangerine Toddler is using hundreds of millions of our taxpayer dollars to cancel wind farm projects already in development...meanwhile, more EVs are sold in Europe than gas vehicles (I’ll have to look into the BYD vehicles, not that I automatically want to support China, but it looks like they’re on the cutting edge with this stuff - more here)...not too many people in the media beat the drum over environmental issues like Hayes does, to his credit, and EVERYONE ELSE should follow suit...Hayes speaks with writer Robinson Meyer...glad to hear Meyer mention the Inflation Reduction Act under Biden that could have put us on a better footing when it comes to renewables...”it’s totally insane to architect a world where you are reliant on (the Strait of Hormuz and other “choke points” to support dirty energy)” – absolutely for sure (more here)...



...and RIP Ted Turner...I know he has a bit of a complicated legacy you might say, but as far as I could tell, he worked his butt off to get where he ended up, and he sure was spot-on in discussing energy in this clip referencing what I believe was the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico...he also supported film preservation, which makes his aces in my book to be honest...also, any discussion of Turner's impact has to include the Goodwill Games and a passion for environmental preservation (and I wouldn't wish lewy body dementia on anybody)...



...and I’d like to do something I don’t do too often, and that’s include two clips on the same topic; the first is an Indiana local news station report on last Tuesday’s Republican primary...I’ll admit that I don’t know a damn thing about what transpired on the ground in that locality in terms of political campaigns, but I DO know that a bunch of state senators for the “R” team commendably opposed the off-cycle redistricting scam from Cheetoh Hitler, and apparently all but one was voted out of office for it...sounds like the gene pool in that state needs a lifeguard...



...and this Damage Report clip gives us a bit of a backstory on what took place (yep, those pissants at the Club for Growth figured in this too)...looks like reps in Tennessee also got the boot since #47 wants to redistrict there too, as noted here (and more on the thoroughly odious Jim Banks is here)...yep, breaking up a historically black voting district ISN’T ABOUT RACE, YOU DASTARDLY LIB! SHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUP!!!...and I don’t think it’s John’s imagination – this very definitely is the ongoing backlash to Reconstruction, hyper-charged by wingnut media and politicians (with Sharon Reed)...



...well, for everyone in the mood for something uplifting, Tennessee Brando informs us that The Onion has taken over Infowars, and it looks like they’ve truly turned it around in the best way...”Turn your piss into gold,” huh? Brilliant!...and yes, to be serious, don’t EVER think you can go too far ridiculing Alex Jones considering what he did to the parents and families of the Sandy Hook victims, who (and this can’t be mentioned enough IMO), were CHILDREN!!!...and I agree with Brando – I want to see EVERY CONSERVATIVE pundit and politician ruthlessly mocked instead of harmed in any way, despite what they want to do to us; as I’ve said before, the only person I ever advocated violence against at this site was Osama bin Laden, and I want to keep that intact...the person Brando mentioned who’d appear on Howard Stern’s show was Daniel Carver, by the way...



...and yesterday was the first day of National Nurse’s Week, and with that in mind, I present the following tune.

Wednesday Stuff

According to Rachel Maddow, the Tangerine Toddler is terrible at everything except this one thing...we’re reminded of the “ape memes” of the Obamas that our disgusting, flatulent orange meat sack of a *preznit posted at Truth Septic, along with #47’s “sh*thole countries” remarks...I give Maddow so much credit for facing the gut-churning racism of our ruling regime and not trying to “sane wash” it with some ridiculous language about this being the “new normal” or something, which it NEVER SHOULD BE...Maddow mentions the DOGE garbage from King Elon I’s merry band of incels and how the antics of this bunch in charge echoes the Woodrow Wilson administration, which definitely isn’t good when it comes to race...Maddow also mentions #47 rescinding EO #11246 Sec. 202 on his first full day in office, a move aimed right at people of color, along with removing the “Prohibition of Segregated Facilities”...oh, and the “Fair Housing Act”? Looks like that’s going the way of the dodo also because of this hateful bunch...black unemployment is spiking also because of course...all of this is put in the context of the High Court of Hangin’ Judge JR putting the last nail in the proverbial coffin of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which Roberts has been itching to do for decades...



...and as a bit of a companion piece to the Maddow segment, Brittany Page gives us the following...I guess, with all of the utter madness going on, it’s easy to overlook the fact that our corporate news orgs, for some perverse reason, are trying to rehabilitate the image of The Swanson TV Dinner Heir, trying to obfuscate the fact that “Tuckums” is indeed a gutter racist, as Page so correctly points out...”a clean-cut Nazi is still a Nazi” indeed...the thought of Carlson having ’28 aspirations, sadly, has a lunatic logic to it, and leave it to our fourth estate to go into unquestioning stenography mode on this as they do with any other Repug who gives them their precious “access” so these well-sinecured lickspittles can crank out their opinion pieces and on-air commentaries and then hob-knob with the “smart set” of the political/media/industrial complex...



...and switching to the graft and patronage by the coterie of hangers-on for #47, John of The Damage Report (definitely NOT him) lets us know that the private prison outfit GEO Group is giving $1 million to a Trump-aligned group for the midterms, after about $426 mil in new ICE contracts to that company were frozen – yet another shakedown by our criminal regime (and yet another reason why private prisons should be illegal)...weird that, as John points out, our ruling gaggle of idiots is apparently looking at GEO Group to cut costs to the taxpayer for some reason when they PLAINLY don’t care about anyone else doing that...oh, but GEO funneled the $$ to Bronzer Beelzebub through a subsidiary that didn’t collect any government dough, so that makes everything A-OK somehow...still stinks to high heaven...



...and David Shuster of Rebel HQ brings us the tale of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy getting hit for rising gas prices (I just spent about $52 to fill up the Honda Accord...thanks Trump!)...and we get faux concern on this by Stuart Varney of Fix Noise, who does his best to employ his English accent in the most studious way possible here...and PERFECT timing for all of this, with the summer travel season right around the corner...and are you assured by Duffy acting like it’s only a matter of time until the Strait of Hormuz is opened? Because I’m not (and “strong leadership” by #47? Looks like Duffy is trying to give Baghdad Bob a run for his money)...and that ABC/Ipsos/WaPo poll confirms for me that about 37 percent of this country is effectively brain dead...we’re reminded again of Spirit Airlines going belly up, and Duffy uses the same BS excuse for it that Scott Bessent used in the Majority Report clip; well, when the Spirit CEO blame high energy prices, I don’t know what kind of spin you can legitimately put on that (though I’m sure the Trumpers will keep trying)...and I know I’ll probably keep saying this maybe for the rest of my life (again, in response to Duffy, and this John Rose nematode), but once again, WE HAD A NUKE DEAL WITH IRAN UNDER OBAMA THAT PUMPKIN POL POT WADDLED AWAY FROM!!!...also, anyone with a brain knows about the ripple effects across our economy from higher energy prices, which are also now hitting agriculture and other food products, notably beef...oh, and when it comes to wildfires not just in rural America but everywhere, maybe somebody ought to try reading this to Brooke Rollins (in response to her ridiculing climate change, which is typical for this bunch I know...I have to admit, though, that the “screw worm” border excuse is a new one, for me anyway)...I also have to admit that I’m shocked that Joe Kernen of CNBC actually called out Steve Scalise for the latter’s lies on this subject...



...and Stephen Colbert of The Late Show (whose time is winding down, sadly) gives us the latest...I never got a kick out of Cinco de Mayo, BTW...also, if you can figure out what the hell is going on with the Strait of Hormuz, lemme know, OK?...on top of that, I think it should be a crime for Pumpkin Pol Pot to appear in ANY venue near kids given that he’s all over the place in those files that this outlaw regime doesn’t want to discuss...and “in hockey, they say ‘uncle’”...??? What – is that what happens before the shootout at the end of a regular season game, or does that happen if a team gets called for offsides too many times? What a mental patient...and “kamikaze dolphins?” I’ll tell you what – I’m going to go buy a bottle of Boone’s Farm Apple Wine and chug down a bunch of Valium, and assuming I make it through that, please wake me up when this nightmare is over...and I care less than nothing about the Met Gala to be honest (also didn't quite get the Delta Airlines joke, but that's OK)...



...and usually I’m pretty diligent about remembering the anniversary of the Kent State massacre, but for some reason I forgot this year – however, I’d like to make amends for that now.



And by the way, let's not forget the role played by the late but hardly lamented Roger Ailes in this tragedy, as Gabriel Sherman discusses 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.”

For the record, we’re coming up on the ninth anniversary of Ailes’s death on May 18th, and tragically, his influence still reigns at that trash network he founded, continuing to pollute informed discourse and utterly trashing well-reasoned opinions in favor of shameless propaganda, all in the service of a morally bankrupt corporate agenda that is doing all it can to drag this country backwards into the mire of xenophobia, racism and misogyny. And the harm that this has done to this country is something that I don’t think can ever be truly calculated, though I believe the weight of that burden will be carried for untold generations.... anybody who thinks that won’t affect the quality of the lives of the people of this country far into the future is truly living in a fantasy.

Tuesday Stuff

Ali Velshi points out that telling the truth about Cheetoh Hitler isn’t automatically an incitement to violence...I think we all know by now that any news account that Combover Caligula doesn’t like is automatically derided as “fake news,” but as Velshi points out, everyone in this sorry, disgusting cabal is now using that same tactic also pretty much, including Trumpette spokes-liar Karoline Leavitt...I’d actually forgotten about that actual thug Greg Gianforte assaulting the reporter from The Guardian, and of course Gianforte ended up getting elected as governor of Montana...same with the murders of those five reporters in Annapolis, MD...and I definitely have issues with former FBI Director James Comey for the whole Hillary Clinton Email thing a month before the vote in 2016, but the whole “86 47 alleged threat” seashell thing on the beach is utter nonsense...



...and with the Velshi clip in mind, I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” (more or less) from 5/3/17...this “Resistance” commentary from Keith Olbermann pertains to the words of Reince Priebus, the chief of staff during the first sorry reign of the Gropenfuhrer, and the threat of a Constitutional amendment to basically try and overturn the First Amendment in order to toughen our libel laws, all in the service of Dear Leader Mango Mussolini...as Olbermann puts it so directly, any such attempt to mess with our First Amendment freedoms would first and foremost be aimed at you and me, and in all likelihood, this humble blog would cease to exist (it’s been pretty well documented about all the ways our “fourth estate” is trying to curry favor with our disgusting ruling collection of bottom feeders)...revisiting Olbermann’s outrage is refreshing I have to admit; I don’t subscribe to his podcast, though I probably should to get more of this sort of thing I suppose...



...and Sam Seder, Emma Vigeland and the crew from The Majority Report bring us the tale of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent lying and blaming Biden/Elizabeth Warren/Pete Buttigieg for not allowing Jet Blue to merge with Spirit Airlines and using that as the excuse for Spirit going under (that merger was apparently disallowed by a Reagan-appointed judge as Sam says, and the increase in the price of jet fuel hammered Spirit also since they apparently had no operating margins to get back to profitability)...and leave it to that shrieking harpie Maria Bartiromo to just go “uh huuum” because, as Sam says, she knows what Bessent is saying is BS...sounds like both airlines were carrying so much goddamn debt that it didn’t matter who merged with who; at least one of them would have gone under...airline story ends at about 5:12 and then they look at farm bankruptcies; maybe I’m being unkind, but I pretty much have no sympathy for our farmers because, as a bloc, they voted for Bronzer Beelzebub because I guess they bought into the utter fiction that the Repugs are better for the economy...that bar graph at about 5:47 tells the pretty damning story (and as they note in the clip, the increased farm bankruptcies benefit “Big Ag” for sure)...also, we get that clip of Don The Con making those remarks about affordability at “The Villages” in Flori-DUUH (in front of the ”pay no price, bear no burden” one percent wannabes), which, indeed, should be played on a loop in an ad for every Dem candidate in existence...Emma also mentions the stupendous idiocy of Todd Blanche saying you need voter ID for a restaurant (I mean, unless Blanche’s idea of a “restaurant” is a place where ladies perform while you stack dollar bills on the bar – heh)....NSFW/H for the Gropenfuhrer’s potty mouth...



...and speaking of planes, Belle of the Ranch discusses Canada and Sweden making out when it comes to defense spending by the EU...interesting history IMO on AWACS radar planes supplied to NATO and how they’ve been built by Boeing since forever (the E7 Wedgetail), but because of the antics of Our Demented Orange Toddler of a *preznit cutting spending about a year ago, it looks like the Swedish “Global Eye” powered by SAAB is going to end up as the plane of choice for NATO on this instead (Swedish tech in a Canadian plane, basically, with the US losing out on about $600 million per unit, potentially $6 billion overall – are you tired of the winning yet?)...



...and Mr. Newberger gives Repug mouthpiece Scott Jennings the treatment he deserves here (based on this)...



...and I don’t know if she’s coming to this area in the fall (in Europe this summer), but I’ll definitely be on the lookout for tickets – I’ll get in a plug here if I learn more about that.